From 1 Corinthians 14:6-9, 19; “Now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you, unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or harp do not give distinctive notes, how will anyone know what is played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking in the air.”

Then verse 19 sums it all up; “Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.” (all emphasis mine)

Going back to my earliest years attending church, and up to the time I called out for Jesus to forgive me and be my Savior at about age 40, there were many messages from various pastors of different denominations that left me either confused or just bewildered. I realize that many were very devoted to the Lord, and they tried to present God’s word to the congregation. However, in some cases, it appeared as if they tried to show off their extensive vocabulary, and they left a bunch of people in the dark.

In one of my earliest college Socialism classes, the professor entered the room on our first day, dressed in a Japanese Kimono. For the next 15 minutes, he spoke to us in what we believed was Japanese, and no one could understand a word he said. This left a big impression on me for future events.

When the Father put it on my heart to be a messenger for the Lord, my first thought was that everyone needs an understanding of the true gospel, or good news, and I pledged I would do my best to present His words for all to benefit from, and in a way everyone can understand. He allowed me to complete a seminary course and to become an ordained pastor. All accolades for anything I have been able to accomplish belongs completely to the Heavenly Father.

He is my Creator, Redeemer, Savior, and absolute best friend. I rest assured that Jesus indeed died so that my sins can be forgiven, and that He did rise from the dead three days later and ascended back into Heaven, and that He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in me until I go to Him, either through death or by the Rapture.

Now for the best news of all; He did this for everyone who will receive and accept His gift. God does not look at our human status as other people do. He sees each and every one of us as an individual that has the right to call on Jesus and be saved (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13). Consider Acts 10:34-35; “So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him.”

Going to Romans 2:9-11; “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.” It should be noted that when Paul referred to the “Greek,” that would be everyone who was not Jewish. Jesus made this plain in John 10:16; “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one Shepherd.”

Through this last verse, Jesus assured us “other sheep” that we have the same privilege as God’s chosen Jewish people to choose to be saved and have eternal life with Him. When we are told that God is no respecter of persons, that applies to the Jewish people as well. Yes, through God’s covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12), they are His chosen, but they must receive and accept Jesus (Yeshua) as their Messiah, or they will not be with Him in Paradise. As stated, all who call on Jesus will be saved. All who reject Him will have chosen for themselves to be cast into the lake of fire forever (Revelation 20:11-15).

During His ministry on earth, Jesus could have overwhelmed everyone with eloquent speech and high-level messages that would have turned most people of His day away from Him. Instead, as He explained to His disciples, He spoke in “parables” using illustrations that the “common” people could understand and relate to.

Speaking of God’s word, we have different translations of His true words available. Some may understand and be comfortable with the King James Version, but others may be intimidated by language used in 1611. There are versions of the New King James, the American Standard, New International Version, English Standard Version, and some others that are true to the original texts but in today’s language. Rather than have an interpretation that will only sit on a table and collect dust, my suggestion would be to look into different true-to-the-word translations and pick one that you will read regularly.

One illustration I have used is that you have just been given a precious gift. You take the gift and place it on a table and walk by it every day but never open it. It’s been received but never actually accepted. You never have the benefit from what’s inside.

On the other hand, you are given a gift, and you open it and enjoy the contents. Once you have God’s word, it should be opened regularly to receive the true covenant from the Father. For someone who has never actually read a Bible, I would suggest starting with the book of John, and then go to Romans. If you will read just a chapter or two each day, you will have the formation of a good habit. As time progresses, it will become a lifestyle, and you won’t feel right if you skip even one day.

One other suggestion: whatever translation you select, get it in a study Bible format. A lot of good questions can be answered by looking through the study notes for each chapter.

So, how are we saved? Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that it’s by grace through faith, and not by works. Romans 10-9-13 gives the straightforward ABCs, which are:

Accept Jesus as your Savior, and confess to Him you cannot be saved except through Him.

Believe He died for our sins and was raised by God to conquer sin and death once and for all. No other sacrifice will ever do.

Call on Jesus to be your Savior, and you will be saved.

Don’t worry about any fancy entertaining words that false prophets may try. They are trying to lead you away from the true Savior of all mankind that will receive and accept Him.

Follow the simple true words given by our Savior, and you will not be led astray. He wants you to be with Him forever. Today would not be too early to call on Him, as He may come to call for His flock to rise up to meet Him in the clouds at any time. You will be eternally glad that you did.

Maranatha – Come, Lord Jesus!

huebshman46@gmail.com

Summary: The preaching of the Word of God does not go out or return void, despite what we might witness or think otherwise. The Sacred Word continues to convict the heart and give new life to all who are dead in iniquity.

Fellow under-shepherd, I’ve been there. I know the frustration you feel when it seems that you preached your heart out this past Sunday, feeding your flock the food of the Word and proclaiming the message God placed upon you. I know what it means to study for long hours, to pray, to compose the right words, to allow the Holy Spirit to give you the right words to say once you are behind the pulpit, and to use you as a chosen vessel of service to care for the people whom God has graciously given you — whether it is in a church, mission, prison, hospital, battlefield, or other place where some angels fear to tread.

You’ve looked out at the crowd to whom you are preaching, and it seems as if most of them are either looking at their phones, or their watch, or the bulletin, or staring into space, and some have taken the opportunity to catch a few winks before heading off to the nearest restaurant for lunch.

You have given these people time, tears, preparation, and the Scriptures, yet it seems for a moment that it has all been for naught. You feel within you a mix of sadness, anger, frustration, and are tempted for a moment to walk away from it all and go do something else, which a lot of your peers have done at a rapid rate in these last days. Read on, be refreshed, reassured, challenged, and comforted in knowing that God is with you, is still on the throne, still the victor over sin, hell, death, and the grave, and is always ready and able to equip and strengthen you to fight the good fight of faith as have those before you and among you today.

If you have been faithful to Jesus Christ and the inerrancy and full sufficiency of the Bible, rest assured that what you have presented will not return without some kind of result. You have continually held out your hand to pull the drowning people into the lifeboat of salvation by the power of God, and many have taken it in gratitude and thanksgiving. Some stubbornly continued to founder in the waves, seeing if they can stay buoyant or hold their breath long enough until things get better, only to go under into an eternal place of terror and torment where rescue of any kind is wishful thinking.

Our Lord Jesus preached the Word to thousands in Judea and the surrounding areas, yet at the Day of Pentecost, He had only 120 faithful followers. This was certainly not failure on His part but was an object lesson in showing His elect that not everyone will accept the message of the Gospel, but once they have heard it, they are without excuse before God on the Day of Judgment.

If you have been faithful and stalwart in declaring the truth of the Gospel, the results are not yours to count. You must leave them in the hands of the Holy Spirit to wake the sleepers and open the ears of the indifferent, and to warm the heart of the skeptic in order for all of them to see that the Scriptures are the only reality and truth in this sin-soaked world in which we live, and the authentic source of real life and peace found in Jesus Christ alone (John 14;6; Acts 4:12, 16:31; Romans 5:6-11, 10:9-10).

We also need to remember that we have not just apathetic and hostile sinners with which to contend, but also their father, the devil (Matt.13:38; John 8: 38, 44; Acts 13:10; 1 John 3:10). Satan knows he has a short time to fulfill his wicked yet futile goals, so he will do and say anything he can to silence the message and messenger in order to drag as many souls as he can with him to the Lake of Fire (Matt.25:41; Rev. 20:10-15). He is a defeated foe but still fights like a fanatic with nothing to lose. Our job is to get his victims to the safety of the cross and the healing arms of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus called on all who would listen to Him to “repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). By repentance, I do not mean a half-hearted mumbling of “I’m sorry” to Almighty God, hoping He will look the other way the next time we sin. Repentance according to God’s standards means that He makes us look in His mirror at our reflection, darkened with wickedness and wretchedness, and it is something we do not want to face but must in order to see that we can do absolutely NOTHING to remedy the problem in our own strength or method (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Preacher, now is the time to gird up your loins, sharpen your sword, fasten your armor, and hit your people with the power of the Word and Spirit, and hit them three ways: hard, fast, and continually. Their souls are at stake, and as these days draw to a conclusion, the time to come to the cross is NOW (2 Cor.6:2).

God’s mirror shows us that we are not the center of the universe. The foolish and self-centered thinking that corrodes our senses has made far too many of us believe that we are indispensable, important, and that our well-being takes precedence over everything and everyone else. We have bought into the idea that we need to be “Number one.” Time for a trip to Reality City, everyone. Let God show us where we stand before Him. Nobody owes us one blessed thing in this world or the next, and neither does God. Why do I say that? We broke His laws, we disobey Him, we mock Him, we question Him, we think we know better than Him, we may even deny Him and foolishly demand that He provide us with answers to our questions, as if we have the authority to tell Him what to do.

Let me pour water on that campfire. God Almighty does not have to explain Himself, defend Himself, or answer to any of us. The book of Genesis tells us that God created us out of the DUST of the ground. We are animated dirt that had the unmitigated gall to disobey and rebel against our Creator. Who do we think we are anyway? If you think for one minute that you are the glue that holds everything together, go take a trip to the local cemetery, and you will find graves and tombs of people who once thought the same thing, now oblivious and forgotten after a generation or less, and all are in eternity somewhere either in glory or agony.

Here is another salient comment that neither the grinning “Colgate Boys” in the TV megachurches and far too many contemporary pastors won’t say to their people, preferring to be trendy and popular than Scripturally right. We have to stop throwing pity parties for ourselves every time something does not go our way, because the people around you are sick and tired of getting the invitations in the mail. This present generation, for the most part, has picked up a bad habit of not GROWING UP!! We have too many adults acting like spoiled children, afraid of being “offended” or being “triggered” by an upcoming situation or comment from someone who has the nerve not to agree with them on everything.

We are as an “unclean thing” and a “filthy rag” in the sight of God if we think we’re “all that and a bag of chips” (Isaiah 64:6). I will be a bit more graphic in what the prophet is describing in terms of our own self-righteousness. It is like bringing a bloody menstrual rag (tampon) before God and saying to Him that a saturated, stinking piece of cloth used to stop the flow of a monthly period is sufficient enough to grant us entry into heaven and His presence. Are we that arrogant? Yes. Keep looking in God’s mirror.

We cannot do or say ONE THING IN OUR OWN POWER, STRENGTH, OR WORDS to ever make us right before God. DEAL WITH IT!! Do not blame Him if your plans fell apart or nothing went right.

Too many of us have decided that we can do everything short of walking water and can get on without God, only to fall flat on our behinds and land in a mess of our own making. Perhaps that is when God will gently impress upon you this thought: “Now that I have your attention….” You are not an island in terms of suffering, sadness, and sin. Your friends and family have had their share of troubles, and all of you are in trouble if you do not come down from your pedestal, abdicate your throne and title of “King Me,” and humble yourself before the great and wondrous God who is ready to offer you mercy, grace, love, and forgiveness if you will but kneel at the cross of Christ and give your life to Him this day (Matt.11:28-30; John 10:28-30, 14:6).

We deserve eternal hell for the way we have treated God and rebelled against His decrees, but He is ready and willing to embrace you and make you one of His true sons or daughters this day. The Lord Jesus Christ who preached repentance then gives the same message to you now. Pastor, chaplain, and all servants of God charged with spreading the Gospel; this is the message the pulpits of America and the world need to hear, now more than ever.

Be strong and of good courage, brethren. Our God still saves, delivers, and heals. Preach the Word. Jesus expects nothing less.

donaldwhitchard@gmail.com

www.realitycityreverend.com