OUT OF THE BOX

Below is a wonderful testimony of deliverance and healing. My friend Autumn sent this to me. I think you will be blessed and encouraged by reading it. It will renew your faith in the power of God over evil spirits. Billy Long Mr. Long, I wanted to update you on what has been happening to my family during covid season. Attached is a copy of a letter I composed to send to My husband’s family and to anyone who is interested in what has happened to me. We are super excited here and want to see God glorified Love you, Autumn     Dear Family, Joel and I have some very exciting news we would like to share with you. You all know I have suffered from celiac disease for some time and I've also been dealing with some other health issues on and off for the past few years. July and August hit us particularly hard because I got a mystery infection that required several rounds of antibiotics and a lot of rest. After we left my childhood home church in early January the Lord met me...

    Tharon Hardee was my maternal grandfather. The grandchildren called him Pa Pa. He loved to play the banjo and was well-known for playing at square-dances all around the area. The photo below was taken sometime around 1950. Below is an article that I posted last year. I think it will be beneficial to those of you who are new visitors to my blog. -Billy Long THE PRETENDING In 1964 Pa Pa was in his seventies and a member of the church, but living a life inconsistent with his Christian testimony. I was 15 years old at the time, and remember sitting in Pa Pa’s family room and listening intently as my mother, her sisters, and brother expressed to him their concerns about his eternal soul. “Daddy,” they told him, “we are worried about you and are concerned that you are not walking with the Lord as you know you should.” “Why, Jesus is my all in all,” he responded emphatically, and acted surprised that they would question his behavior. He was not ready to admit the truth about wher...

Truth must be accompanied by compassion, godly character, and integrity. This principle applies to any aspect of our relationship with the Lord and His Word whether it be Bible study, preaching, personal counsel, exhortation, or prophecy. Complications arise when the “carnal” man—rather than the spiritual man—handles the Word of God. The lack of compassion causes it to be used as a legalistic hammer to condemn and hurt people. The lack of character and holiness brings deception, mixture, and contamination. The lack of integrity causes men to “use” people and act with wrong and selfish motives. When we think of spiritual gifts, we think of God’s power. But God’s power must not be divorced from godly character and God’s holiness. Good character and integrity are the things that prevent prophecy and the other gifts from being “flash” and glitter. Character is the foundation for the anointing and a ministry that has purity and durability.  A person’s bad character can destroy what hi...

To my readers.  I welcome comments and would greatly appreciate any comments or thoughts you might want to share.  And feel free to introduce yourself and let us know how you found this blog. Thanks and God bless you, Billy Long

  Steve was a homeless fellow at Myrtle Beach when one of the hurricanes came through a few years ago. Huddled in a corner alone and frightened he cried out to the Lord for mercy and said, "Oh God, if you will bring me through this thing safely, I will get rid of my cigarettes and my false teeth!” Then having made it safely through the storm, he got rid of his false teeth and went around toothless, but hung on to his actual sins, such as profanity and whoremongering. When I asked him about his logic in the matter, he told me that it is a sin to wear false teeth because the Bible warns us about things that are false. He told one of his friends, “You don’t want to be wearing false teeth when Jesus comes back. But then again, you just as well go ahead and smile and look pretty because it will be too late then.” This story is true, and we smile at the strange logic involved. However, the world often sees the church in this light. We often "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel...

  Religious people often substitute rituals and ceremony for real relationship with the Lord Himself. People who are short on intimacy with the Lord seem to find security in the outward forms. An organization can do the same. It is interesting that God gave Israel a portable tabernacle long before He gave them a stone temple. In Israel’s journeys across the wilderness, they had to follow the cloud of God’s presence that rested above the tabernacle. When the cloud of His presence moved, they moved. When the cloud rested, they remained still. The cloud did not rise or rest according to any rigid schedule. The Israelites could not prepare for movement by “watching the clock,” the sun, or the date. They had to observe and follow the cloud (Exodus 40: 34-38). In the same way, Jesus Christ desires that the church would know Him intimately and be genuinely led by the Spirit in its development. God’s people, however, tend to become sidetracked and to fall back on religious routine and ...

The book of Revelation refers to the apostate church as a harlot when she beds herself with the world system and false religions of the world, and when she compromises the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ in order not to offend the world and its ungodly values. The prophet Ezekiel said that Israel’s idolatry with the gods of foreign nations was spiritual harlotry. “You offered yourself to everyone who passed by and multiplied your acts of harlotry” Ezekiel 16:25. In their commentary on Ezekiel 16, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown said, “The wanton advances were all on Israel’s part; the idolatrous nations yielded to her nothing in return. She had yielded so much that, like a worn-out prostitute, her tempters became weary of her. When the church lowers her standards and lowers her testimony for God to the carnal tastes of the world, with a view to conciliation (with the world), she loses everything and gains nothing.” A church with a compromised message is useless to the purpo...