General Articles

It’s MY Place! :: By Don Twobears

Published on: by RR7

Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

Sometimes the Lord will work in you long before you’re aware of it. This thing happened to me; please allow me to explain. This may indeed help others, as it has definitely helped me!

I believe I have always had a small room in my Heart (Mind) that I am able to go to during whatever was going on. Let me take you to my Room.

It’s sort of odd, the room is huge, and yet it feels small and personable. I look around and see the walls are covered in very old yet beautiful, heavy lumber. There is a wall or two that is covered with curtains, beautiful blue, thick and heavy. The room is not bright, more subdued if you will, lit with huge and very old cones with fire (providing light). There is always a very big fireplace with a roaring fire. Again, it is very odd to walk on huge stones (Like a Castle), yet my feet are never cold. The single door is like a Castle as well, very big and heavy. Come on y’all…this is MY room, My head.

There is a huge and heavy table in my room with matching big chairs, soft yet comfortable. This huge table is covered with papers, sometimes neatly stacked, and at other times, papers strewn everywhere. Many years ago, the Lord was there, yet HE never said anything, I simply knew HE was there. Nowadays I go to my room very often, and I look for HIM there. This is where I meet the Lord and deal with whatever life is handing me, absolutely everything.

Last year, October, the 22nd to be exact, I had a Total Left-knee replacement surgery. So, I was busy mending as well as working to be able to walk and move about. October the 27th, my Grandson Donovan died in a car accident…truly a bad day for me! Within an hour to an hour and a half, my wife and our Kids were packed and in the car, heading to Texas for the Funeral. I was left all alone in a big empty house, and only my Friend would come and visit every day, and our Pets.

When I first heard of my Grandson’s death, all I could think was, Lord, please give me Peace! I wanted to cry so bad, yet the tears never came that day. As soon as everyone was gone, I went out onto our patio and Prayed that the Kids and my Wife would have HIS Peace and be safe as they drove. And once again, I went into MY Room to be with the Lord.

I went there and threw a huge tantrum, threw furniture and the table all over, papers flying everywhere! I screamed and cried; I hollered…and hollered! I didn’t know what else to do, then I sat down and cried and cried and cried even more. “My Boy…I want my Boy Donovan!” was all I could mumble. Then I noticed the Hand of MY Lord and Savior…resting on my Head. I never once felt the need to ask HIM why HE took my Donovan! I kept asking for HIS Peace…. HE gave me that Peace!

Has it become easier for me? Yes, to a degree, yet I still miss my Donovan. Now…I am able to go to my room, and on occasion, I am able to feel my Donovan touch my arm and say, “Hi Papa, I Love you!” It suddenly becomes enough for me, and I do not feel that gnawing sensation of loss!

In my room, I am able to go to it and look at a page on my table. Typically, the page is very simple and to the point about a concern. I then hear My Lord ask me, “So…what do you want to do about that?” It does not matter if there is one page or a stack of pages, I simply think about the concern and then I drop the pages at HIS feet. Instantly, the pages are gone! And so are the feelings about that concern. No more perplexity or confusion, no anger or hostility. The Lord says, “I got this!” and that is the end to it.

As of late, I find that I spend a great deal of time…in MY room! This is where the Lord and I meet and talk with each other about many, many things. It is where I am able to bare my Soul and Spirit with HIM, where I can Love and Praise HIM for HIS Love and HIS blessings to me. It is where I can feel HIS touch, where HE soothes my Soul, if you will. I Praise and thank HIM for HIS beatings and for HIS Crucifixion for me and for others. It is also where I feel HIS Cross, where I am able to leave my Sin and ask HIS Forgiveness! MY room is the most personal and private place that I could ever know of, but most of all, where I meet with MY Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

People have told me many times that I have a very vivid imagination, which I will admit, I do! And yet, for this, my room…it is NOT imagination…it IS REAL! Anything worth happening happens in MY Room! The pages are left at HIS feet, and suddenly they disappear, as does my anxiety and worry! This life has grown many Grey hairs on my head, but…my Life is happy, and I am content because of MY Lord…and my little room!

I would have to guess – or maybe wonder would be a better word – if YOU have a little room for yourself? Do you have a spot where you and the Lord meet on a continual basis? I wonder as well if this small article and my description of MY ROOM could help you in your walk in Life?! I believe everyone needs someplace to go to bare their Soul and find Peace as well. Let me ask you this, how can this hurt?

This is from one believer to another, or even to one unbeliever – what can it hurt…right?! Maybe, it could be a place to find your refuge from this crazy world! You never know, you may meet MY Lord and Savior Jesus Christ there!

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

All Passages of Scripture come from the King James Version of the Bible.

All Emphasis is mine

twobears44@gmail.com

 

Romans Lesson 27: The Love of Christ Constrains Me :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR7

Chapter 9:1-5

“1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.” 

My family and I took a much-needed break last week. We visited the city of Kingston since we could not go to church camp in the US. We were not able to cross the border and see our brothers and sisters in the US. There is a lot of turmoil in the world today and a lot of lies. A lot of Christians and pseudo-Christians have gotten caught up in the Social Justice movement, and a lot of pastors have succumbed to the pressure to be relevant and not truthful. The Bible is misused as a springboard into the sermons that justify what they feel as opposed to what the Bible teaches. One of the things that gets missing in the whole political arena is that of the Gospel of Jesus.

Recently, there was a writer who made the claim that Jesus was pushed on the Africans by the White man. But the truth is that the Gospel of Jesus was brought by Black men to their people from the Jews (recall Acts 8). Simon the Cyrene was a black man who carried the Gospel to Africa. We can go on and on; Jesus is for everyone. It is certain that Jesus was not the white, tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed man that is often portrayed. He was and is a Jew. He would not have had a goatee; he would have had a full beard much like one sees on some Jewish groups, Muslim men, or the Amish men. He would have been the average height as He often got lost in the crowded areas of Jerusalem, and it took a kiss from Judas to identify him to the mob who arrested him. Jesus looked like a normal Jewish man.

In Isaiah 53:2, we are told that the Messiah Jesus would have not form of beauty that we would be drawn to Him. Jesus was not a good-looking man as far as good-looking men of that day. Often, he is shown in movies as what we call today handsome, but whatever he looked like in that day, he was not physically appealing.

In the passage above, I want to simply observe something that convicts me and maybe should convict you as well. Paul loved his fellow Israelites so much that he was willing to give up heaven so that they could get there. Did you see that? Verse 3 – I wish that I were accursed from Christ for my brethren. Is there anyone that you would choose to go to hell for? Is there someone that you love so much that if it were possible, then you would vacate your spot in Heaven for them?

We need to understand that in the vast majority of cases where Paul was persecuted, it was at the hands of the Jews. His own countrymen were his worst enemies, yet he had such great love and compassion for them that if it were possible that he, Paul, could switch places with them, he would take their place in Hell. Do you and I love even our loved ones this much, furthermore our enemies? I dare say I don’t, and if you were to be honest, neither do you.

About 4 years ago or so, maybe a bit less, I was led by the Lord to preach through the love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 at the church I pastor. It challenged me and hit me in the heart. It took a while, but I began to realize that this was how God loved me. He loved me like 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and he expected me to love others the same way. It began to hit me; my son and I had been at loggerheads for a long time, and I was not being very loving. Now, loving does not mean condoning or being a party to evil. But it does mean forgiving; it means holding one’s tongue; it means giving chances and more chances like God gives us. It means not holding a grudge, and it means always looking for the best for the people that hurt you. Man, it hit me that I was not loving this way, and I began to ask the Lord to change me. He has and He is; trust me, it was a God-sized job to move me, but He was up to the task.

In the Bible we see men being great examples of this kind of love. Stephen in Acts 7 asked God to forgive the men who killed him. Paul preached Jesus to the man who ordered him to be brutally beaten in Acts 16. And, of course, Jesus asked God the Father to forgive the men that killed Him. In Genesis 50:20, Joseph comforted his brothers who feared his wrath once their father had died. Joseph promises them that he had no evil towards them, that what they had done for evil, God has used for good. Joseph was a man at peace.

In John 13:34-35, we are called to love each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord; and in this kind of love, we will be able to exhibit our Christianity. But in Matthew 5: 10-12, we are called to love our enemies. If one is truly following the current events, you will see that there is a deliberate effort against conservative Christianity. In some states is illegal for churches to meet, yet one can protest side by side. In many states, it is illegal to attend church, but the liquor stores and abortion clinics remain open. In many places, it has become so that people cannot attend weddings or funerals for a loved one, yet we can attend all kinds of rallies and protests for evil.

The Bible is hated, truth is hated, and even Black conservative men and women are seen as traitors because they tell the truth. Truth is the enemy of the current situation. We have seen many instances where social media have edited or flat-out banned a person’s post because it is the truth, but it did not fit the present narrative. Truth is the enemy of all lies, and the more accepted a lie becomes, the more hated the truth-tellers will be. That is us – you and I who hold that the Bible is the absolute truth. It says exactly what God wanted it to say and means exactly what God wanted it to mean.

Paul was a truth-teller. Paul taught that Jesus was the only way to be saved; Paul taught that women should not be permitted to teach men; Paul taught that a pastor called an elder should not drink alcohol, and on and on we can go. He taught that homosexuality was wrong, but so was gossip, backbiting, and bigotry. He taught that a repentant brother or sister should be accepted back with loving arms. Yet he was hated for teaching the truth; and if you teach the truth, so you will be hated as well. Look at the modern preachers that are accepted by the masses, and you will find the ones who are loose with the truth of the Bible. On the other hand, the ones who deal fair and straight with the truth are hated.

Yet Paul loved his fellow Jews and wished that, if possible, he would give up heaven for them. Do we love each other this way, furthermore our enemies? I tell you; we will soon begin to get the chance. Our enemies will surround us, and we will be called to make radical choices for the name of Jesus. I pray that the Holy Spirit in me will help me to stand when my flesh is weak. I pray that the Holy Spirit in me will help me to love the very men who may kill me, my wife, or my kids and to ask God not to hold it against them.

Do you love as Paul did? Do you love as Jesus did? Oh, that we would, this world would be a better place, and we would have a greater understanding of the cross. There, Jesus died for us, we who were his enemies at the time. Yet He loved us and gave His life for us.

What a loving, gracious and kind God we serve. Oh, that I/we were more like Him.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca