Almighty God Tabernacle church

It's always something isn't it? It seems like always, something is changing, something old, something new, something challenging us, something unexpected. That's the thing about life, it is full of the unexpected "somethings" isn't it? One of the problems I see is that rarely do we credit God for the unexpected somethings in our lives.

I ran across a wonderful story that illustrates this point very well. There's a store-front church which is called Almighty God Tabernacle. One Saturday evening, the preacher of this church was working late, and decided to call his wife before he left for home. It was about 10 PM, but his wife did not answer the phone. The preacher let it ring about two dozen times but she didn't answer. He thought it was a little odd, but decided to finish up a few things and try a few minutes later.

When he tried again, she answered right away. He asked her why she hadn't answered before, and she said that the phone hadn't rung at their house. They brushed it off as a fluke and went on their merry ways.

The following Monday, the preacher received a call at the church office, which was the phone that he'd used that Saturday night. The man that he spoke with wanted to know why he'd called on Saturday night. The preacher couldn't figure out what the guy was talking about. Then the guy said, "It rang and rang and rang, but I didn't answer."

The preacher then remembered the mishap and apologized for disturbing him, explaining that he'd tried to call his wife. The man said, "That's okay. Let me tell you my story. You see, I was planning to commit suicide on Saturday night, but before I did, I prayed, 'God if you're there, and you don't want me to do this, give me a sign now.' At that point my phone started to ring. I looked at the caller ID, and it said, 'Almighty God'. I was afraid to answer!"

Does God work through the unexpected? Surely he does! Most of the time I don't think we have any idea he may be involved with the unexpected something in our life, but what if he is, what if God is trying to change our lives, trying to teach us something "Life Changing"?

In Luke 5:1-11Jesus comes to his apostles who had gone back to fishing. He asks them about their success and they tell him they had fished all night and caught nothing. He tells them to try one more time and they caught enough fish to sink the boats. The unexpected had life changing results. We are told, "So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him."


I wonder what God is trying to show us when the unexpected happens in our lives?

--Russ Lawson

The will of God

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”—John 8:32

As I survey the realm of religion today, I am impressed to learn that there does exist a vast number of people who claim to believe in and follow the true and living God. At the same time I am amazed at all of the conflicting doctrines being taught, believed and practiced by that vast number of people. I suppose that there are a lot of people who want to be a disciple of Jesus but few of them have come to the knowledge that in order to do so they must be willing to do his will in all things, not their own (John 14:15, 15:14, Heb. 5:8-9, Matt. 7:20-23, 2 Thess. 1:7-9, 2 John 9). It is the truth of God that will free man from the bondage of sin. His truth will free man from the false philosophies, theories and doctrines that permeate the realm of religion. The doctrines of men do nothing more than entangle a man in a vicious web of deceit that will one day have disastrous results (Gal. 3:1, 1 John 4:1). We will never have the unity among believers that Jesus prayed for (John 17:20-23) and that Paul pled for (1 Cor. 1:10) until men are willing to submit without reservation to the will of God in all things letting him mold their thoughts, fill their hearts and guide their lives. It is then, and only then, that his truth will set men free.

My friends we must also consider our own selves in this matter. I am sure that each of you could name any number of issues that confront the church today. No doubt Islam would be mentioned along with atheism as well as the false teachings of denominationalism. Certainly, those are issues that should concern us but from my heart I believe the greatest danger faced by the church today comes not from any of those things but rather from those of us who occupy the pew Sunday after Sunday. We are witnessing many departures from God’s truth today. This is based in part on the desire to be like other people, to be like the world around us. We don’t want to be left out so we will say and do things contrary to his truths. God’s people cannot be like others, like the world (James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-17, 1 Peter 2:9-10). If we are not different, then we are the same as. The desire to cater to the ways of this world is one of the strongest temptations we will encounter each day of our lives. It is this desire that so often leads to compromising the truth of God’s word. Sacrificing the truth on the altar of public opinion will eternally condemn us. The truth will set us free but in order to remain free we must stand firm on that truth until the day we die.

The Greek orator, Demosthenes said it so well, “The easiest thing in the world is self-deceit; for every man believes what he wishes, though the reality is often different”. The moment we supplant God’s will with our beliefs, our desires, we will find our selves on dangerous ground (Heb. 2:1, 3:12-13) We must take heed lest by our manner of life and speech we bring reproach upon the Lord, His church or His word (Judges 17:6, Isa. 5:20, Col. 3:17). Yes, the truth can and will set you and I free but only if we learn it and live by it.

Charles Hicks

How Christians should start the new year

"The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.”  (Prov. 16:17)

Well, here we go with another new year, to wit: 2015.  If you’re reading this you’ve survived 2014.  Hopefully, you count that as a blessing as we know that many did not.   Yes, many of our fellow man had their soul return to God this past year and we can only hope that it was in a saved condition when it did so. 

The underlying reason for the writing of my weekly editorial lessons is to assist the readers of them to recognize the importance of keeping their souls in a condition that when it returns to its Maker (and all will) that they will be “acceptable in His sight.”   I should add that it is the underlying reason to myself for writing them - to help keep my soul acceptable to God.

So, we’re into a new year and I trust all of you have made your New Year’s resolutions.  I simply kept the same one I’ve resolved to do for the past several years and that is, I resolve to get up at least once a day.  So far I’ve been able to keep it and I pray that the Lord will allow me to keep it for the rest of this year. 

The subject I’ve chosen for today’s lesson hopefully will remind us of our soul’s condition and the importance of keeping it acceptable to the Lord.  For lack of a better title we’ll just call it “good intentions.”   And, since we’re talking about the “way” of preserving our souls, I’m of the opinion that many of man’s “good intentions” are found on the “broad way that leads to destruction.”  (Matt. 7:13)

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  Now before you get out your concordance and try to find that quote, let me save you some trouble.  It’s not in the Bible.  It was stated by the novelist George Bernard Shaw.  Another well-known novelist by the name of Oscar Wilde said something closely related.  He said, “It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.”

I can truly only speak for myself, but I’m also quite sure that most of you can relate to  what I’m about to tell you.  And that is, I have done a lot of things in my life with all “good intentions” that, well let’s just say, didn’t have the positive results I expected.  It’s a wonder that I have survived some of them to even be able to enter into this new year.  But, rest assured, at the time, I intended to do a good thing.

How about we look at a couple of Bible characters that can serve to help teach this lesson today about intending to do something good and the end result was very costly to them.  And, we’ll see that both of their “intentions” revolve around the same affair.  If you open your Bibles to the 6th chapter of 2 Samuel you’ll be able to read the entire account, and also check my narrative of the event and verify what I’m writing is true.

Our first character, David, set forth on a mission to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem from the house of Abinadab where it had been residing since the Philistines had sent it back to Israel 20 years earlier.  You can read all about that occasion in 1Samuel, chapters 5&6 and I think you’ll find that episode interesting also.

Now David had devised this grand parade comprised of 30,000 “chosen men of Israel” accompanied by numerous musicians and a brand new ox-cart to carry the Ark back home to Jerusalem where it rightly belonged.  So, they all proceeded over to Abinadab’s, got the Ark,  placed it on the cart and started home.  What a great spectacle this must have been.

One of Abinadab’s sons, a man by the name of Uzzah, accompanied the procession and apparently was walking next to the cart when the “oxen shook it” and Uzzah reached out his hand and “took hold” of the Ark, apparently to steady it.  I’m sure that all of us would agree that Uzzah’s intentions were good.  That he was just protecting the Ark from possible damage but, he was immediately struck dead by God.

The death of Uzzah had an immediate effect on David as it woke him up to the fact that it was his “good intentions” that brought about the death of Uzzah.  How so?  God had given Israel specific instructions as to how His Ark of the Covenant was to be transported and who was allowed to touch it.  (You can read these instructions in the 4th chapter of Numbers.)  Suffice it to say, hauling it around on an ox-cart was not in those instructions.

I think that we can tell by all the grandeur and preparations made by David that his “intentions” were good in bringing home the Ark.  And likewise, Uzzah’s “intentions” were good when he reached out and “took hold” of the Ark to steady it.  There was only one thing wrong with this scenario.  It was THEIR “intentions” as to how to do something - not GOD’S.

Sometime back I happened on a quotation that I thought worthy of saving for future use someday.  The quote: “Good intentions do not justify bad actions.”   Obviously “someday” is today and if it doesn’t apply to David and Uzzah I don’t know what does.

And, we still see examples that reflect that quote all the time, don’t we?  How about the protests we see on the news almost every day lately?  Various groups of people, supposedly protesting something they consider to be bad behavior and then themselves burning and looting stores and businesses.

And this especially applies to those who are teaching false doctrines.  And I’m going to opine further on this and say that I’m sure that many of them don’t know or think that they’re spreading falsehood in the doctrines they preach.  Just as David’s “good intentions” led Uzzah to do something that cost him his life, the purveyors of doctrines different from what God specifically gave us in the Gospel, will cost many their eternal souls.

In closing, I think there is one resolution that all of us should make and that is, that we make sure that our “intentions” match what God says is “good” and not what we or any other person decides is “good.”  If we do this, it’ll just be one more way of helping us to “preserve” our souls.

I offer all reading this my best wishes for this coming year and hope that all of us are successful in “keeping our souls.”

Ron Covey

Wheat and Weeds Growing Side By Side!

       I once read about a church treasurer who found a receipt from a local paint store signed by someone named “Christian.” The treasurer, unaware of any member of the congregation buying paint or any church member by that name, called the store manager to point out the mistake. The treasurer told the manager, “You must be mistaken, because there are no Christians here at our congregation.” How about at yours?!

    There are Christians in every congregation of God’s true people, of course, and Jesus knows who they are! When Christ sent word to His church at first century Sardis, He told them, “you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” That’s pretty straight talk about a very sad situation –a dead church. Not a sick church. Not a tired church. Not a sleepy church. A dead church. Pronounced dead not by some disgruntled church member or by a preacher with an axe to grind, but by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,  the same One who purchased the church with the shedding of His own blood (Acts 20:28).  In love and longsuffering He went on and called on them to repent, but warned them He would move to judge them if they didn’t. And then He spoke these surprising words – “You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy” (Revelation 3:1-ff). So there you have it, and from no less an authority than Jesus Christ Himself – even in a dead church there can be (and almost always are) a few names who are worthy of being called “Christian.” Again, the most important point to remember here is that it was Jesus who diagnosed their spiritual condition as terminal. He, and He alone, possesses complete and accurate knowledge of the true spiritual condition of every person and congregation of His people. Thus He alone is qualified to judge.

    Jesus’ parable about the tares and wheat (in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) reminds us of the need for restraint in setting ourselves up as judge over other people’s eternal destiny. In that parable Jesus said wheat and weeds (“tares”) were growing side by side. Servants who noticed the presence of the weeds were alarmed, and after some discussion asked the farmer, “Do you want us to go and gather them [that is, the weeds] up?” His answer was direct - “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.” The owner explained that at harvest time, when the wheat matured, the weeds would be separated from the wheat. The weeds would be bound and burned, and the wheat would be “barn-ed” (“gather the wheat into my barn” [vs 30]). The Lord explained this all pointed to the final judgment over which He will personally preside “at the end of this age” (verses 36-43). One lesson we learn from the parable is that the church lives in a weedy world. The devil is determined to sow weeds among the Lord’s wheat (13:28, 38-39). There will never be a nation, community or congregation so wholly Christian that there are no weeds amongst the wheat! No matter where we look in our world we see tares – in families, in churches, in politics and in pulpits, and even in our own hearts at times – tares and weeds growing right alongside the wheat.

Another lesson to learn from this parable is that we ought to work at least as hard at being good wheat as we do at whacking weeds! And when we do take a whack at a weed, we must do so with care lest we harm the wheat in the process. As usual, Jesus gives us a lot to think about. Will you?

      by Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN