OUT OF THE BOX

In light of the current rise in the influence of new age and eastern religion in our nation and in the church, I plan to write a series on "Deception." There is serious error entering both evangelical and charismatic churches that undermines two basic foundational truths: The person and work of Christ and the Bible as the true word of God. I am beginning this series by re-posting this article I previously included in a series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You can read that whole series by visiting my other blog "God's Presence With Us."       -Billy Long    Common errors in approaching spiritual gifts There are three common errors in how churches approach the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Evangelical churches tend to either dismiss them (ignoring them altogether) or naturalize them (doing away with the supernatural aspect). Pentecostal denominations which claim acceptance of the gifts have often quenched them throu...

“Then the men…took two milk cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. And they set the ark of the Lord on the cart, and the chest with the golden rats and the images of their hemorrhoids. Then the cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh (back to Israel), and went along the highway lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or the left. 1 Samuel 6: 10-12   “Pulling the cart” The Philistines had captured Israel’s Ark of the Covenant and were passing it from city to city placing it on display as they gloated in their victory in a recent battle with Israel. However, the sneering did not last long, for every city where they set the ark experienced a plague of rats and hemorrhoids. The Philistines finally had enough of these plagues and decided to send the ark back to Israel. They placed it on a cart, along with a special gift of golden mice and golden hemorrhoids sent as trespass offerings to acknowledge the hand of God in t...

This particular article is an excerpt from a series of teachings on "Facing Conflict." Other chapters deal with mercy and forgiveness, which are a necessary accompaniment to this post and help the believer walk in faith, a balanced approach, and with godly attitudes during relational difficulties. While the believer must forgive and return good for evil, he still needs to be aware of the lessons taught in the following paragraphs--- that God is the Righteous Judge.      -Billy Long God is the Righteous Judge. Christians often have difficulty with the fact that God seems to delay in punishing those who hurt and offend us. We are glad for Him to be patient and merciful with us, but want Him to be severe and quick in rebuking others. We often refuse to forgive offenses because we feel God is too slow in administering justice. We fail to really believe He is the Righteous Judge. We think God is allowing us to suffer while our oppressors get...

We Knew It Was For Our Good When I was a kid there was discipline and order in the classroom. Teachers could actually teach, and kids could actually learn. We had a healthy fear of punishment, and we knew it would certainly come if we deserved it.   A ll of us kids instinctively knew it was not abuse, but a justified response to misbehavior and rebellion, or an attempt to prevent us from doing things that were dangerous or harmful. We knew our parents and teachers (generally speaking) loved us and were trying to educate us and train us to be mature and responsible. Mrs. Parker's Electric Paddle In my third year of elementary school, we moved from the old, white, wooden schoolhouse into a new brick facility.   When I stepped off the bus onto the new school grounds, the word was going around that our principal, Mrs. Parker, had an electric paddle installed in her new modern office. None of us wanted to face that mysterious and unknown instrument. Whe...

I see I have many visitors from South Korea. Thanks for reading my blog. If these articles have been helpful to you, please consider sending me an email and introducing yourself.  My address is  blong8@sccoast.net Thank you, God bless you, Billy Long

“If a cat sits on a hot stove, he will never sit on a hot stove again. But by the same token, he will never sit on a cold one either.” –Mark Twain   We fail to see the beauty and good purpose of a thing when blinded by prejudice, bias, and misinformation. Bad experiences often cause us to avoid even the good ones. Therefore, I am reaching out to those who have never done a biblical study of the Holy Spirit’s work and to those who have been “turned-off” by bad examples. I would encourage the reader to take another look at the subject from a biblical perspective rather than taking cues from negative experiences that often hinder our ability to see the pattern and examples given us by the first Christians in the book of Acts. To remove common misconceptions we should look at the many clear and obvious Biblical examples of the Holy Spirit at work. When we stand before God, we will not be able to use other people’s actions as excuse for our inaction. The Lord will say, “You had My wo...

FRAGRANCE My mom wanted me to drive her to the store to do some shopping. So I splashed some cologne on my face and went on ahead of her to the car and took my seat. She soon came out of the house and sat in the front seat on the passenger’s side and immediately began sniffing the air. I watched as she leaned forward and started checking the bottoms of her shoes. Turning to me she said, “Billy, check the bottom of your feet and see if you stepped in any dog poop before you got into this car.” I went through the motions of checking my shoes, but I knew it was the cologne. I never used that particular brand again. Smells range from pleasing fragrance to repulsive odor. The sense of smell can strengthen our romantic attraction to someone we love or wonderfully enhance the pleasantness of a room. The sense of smell is vital to our enjoyment of good food, but also senses decay and corruption and warns us to discard that which is unfit for consumption. A bad smell can be repulsive to t...