If you are ever driving around in the Florida panhandle in an area just south of the Alabama line and you are lost and you see a hand printed sign that is advertising the annual rattlesnake rodeo in Opp, Alabama, make sure you stay in Florida, just south of Opp. The state line is not well marked and you really don’t want to be in Opp during the rodeo. However, you will be pretty close to the first church I ever pastored. Just about the only way you can find that church is to be lost. I understand that now the road running by it is paved, sort of, but you still have to be lost.

Sandy Creek Baptist Church. The church was started in 1823 and is currently on its third building. The first building just rotted away. They built a second building and it lasted almost a hundred years. It needed replaced badly, but the people were attached to the old barn and didn’t want to tear it down. So, one night it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. The third building was built, and that was the one they were in when our one year old son and Marsha and I arrived. The oldest graves in the cemetery went back to the 18 teens, so there had to have been a place of worship somewhere, but the church was officially started in 1823.

I love history and I would walk around the cemetery every morning and look at the headstones and try to imagine what those people were like. It was actually a fairly large cemetery. Marsha didn’t like it because the only place to park next to the parsonage was in a narrow strip between the parsonage and the cemetery. You actually had to step into the cemetery to get into the car. Absolutely would freak her out. Anytime it was storming during the night she would have her face pressed against the bedroom window and when lightning would flash, she would call out, “I saw one!” When she was a young teenager, she saw “Night of the Living Dead” several times and she was convinced that our cemetery was giving up its dead.

Anyway, I am drifting. The minutes of all the meetings of the church were kept in several volumes in a special place. Somehow, they had survived the fire. The very first entries were from the very first day of the church. The notes were all written in a very precise hand. The handwriting changed every twenty years or so, but it was always meticulous. The language changed, as well, but it was always easy to read. I would read something that struck me as interesting and I would jot down the names and then, on my cemetery walks, I would look for the people involved. I had great times in that cemetery.

For about the first ten years of the church it was a quarter-time church. Then, for maybe the next hundred years, it was a half-time church. What that meant was that one man would pastor four churches, going to a different church every week. Hence, quarter-time. This was common all over the country in those days. In fact, the Christmas song that goes ‘….we can make a snowman, and pretend he is parson Brown. He’ll say are you married and we’ll say no, man! But you can do the job when you’re in town!’ directly references that practice. The distances between the four churches (and later when it was just two churches, thus half time) were often quite impressive for the day. The pastor would leave one church on Monday morning and arrive at the next one by Wednesday or Thursday and then have a Bible study that night and church on Sunday. And boy, would they have church! The preacher would preach two hours and the singing would go on for an hour and then they would break for lunch and then come back for more. But there was always one notation that I didn’t understand. For decades it said, “Mr. Ezra Haughton brought the study.” In time, after Ezra, it changed to someone else, and that gentleman ‘brought the study’ for a few more decades.

We had an eighty year old Reese Haughton in the church and one day I asked him about Ezra. Turned out that Ezra had been Reese’s great grandfather. As Reese explained it to me, the church was quarter time as far as the pastor was concerned, but they still gathered every Sunday at the church for ‘divine services.’ Old Ezra was a deacon, and he would bring a Bible study every Sunday during the service, whether the preacher was there or not. The Bible study was the important thing. The preaching was just extra. In that church it was still that way when I was there.

That was as it was back then. Not just in the Florida panhandle, either. Anywhere there was country and country folk, they went to church on Sunday. The emphasis was not on the ‘worship,’ but on the teaching. Just one example from the Yoke, back in the 1800s the ladies organized a group that would eventually become the Women’s Guild. It was created just for Bible study. No food, no refreshments, no merriment. Just study. People were serious about the Word of God back in the day, and our churches were stronger.

This Sunday we are switching things up a little. Sunday School will start at 9:00 AM and end at 9:45. Church will start at 10:00 AM and it will be over when I am done preaching, somewhere between 11:00 and 11:15. The reason for this is to give Sunday School its just due. As it is now, church is over and everyone stands around and visits, then they go to Sunday School and Sunday School has about twenty minutes. If we have a meal or maybe a meeting after church, Sunday School is eliminated. This way, the most important part of Sunday morning will be given its very own place. If you go to Sunday School on a regular basis anyway, you will wind up getting out of services a little earlier than normal.

I know some of you don’t like this new schedule. Church has been first for a very long time here. It is a tradition, and we do like our traditions. For others, you like to get out of church and either get home early or get to The Fried Egg or Bob Evans before the other church folk. Like if you don’t get there early all the food will be gone. But remember, this is not being done to mess your Sunday up. This is being done to provide Sunday School with the time it needs to do the really important work that it does. Almost every church around (if they still have Sunday School) does it this way, and for the same reason.

Think about why you don’t like this idea. Now does your reason for not liking this serve God, or does it serve you.

This idea doesn’t come from me. However, I completely agree with it. I know you folks know I love you all. I also know that you know I would never back something that would be detrimental to you or the church. This is a good thing.  

          Do you realize that the population of the United States is in the neighborhood of 331,002,000. Wow. That is 4,940 Lucas Oil Stadiums filled to the very top row, or 2,206,680 churches of our size all filled up. And the world population is 7,900,000,000! We can’t even imagine that many people, especially when you look around at our open fields. And yet, there it is, almost 8 billion folks. Here you sit, reading this, surrounded by humanity in unbelievable numbers. You are barely a speck in the sea of civilization.

         I was talking to someone the other night in another state. She described what was going on and she asked me to pray about the situation. “OK, I can do that. Would you like me to put this out on our church’s prayer chain? It is something we do well. I won’t go into specifics, just be general.” There was a moment’s worth of hesitation, and then, no, that’s OK. Your people there have more important things to do. I put people on the chain only if they agree to it. Some folks feel that it is too private a matter. But this woman is in another state. She has no connection to this church. Why would you turn prayer down for a common and normal, if very sad, problem?

         Because we feel insignificant. I am not sure if this lady was actually calling me for prayer or if it was a pretext to talk to someone she could bare her soul too, but she was overwhelmed.

         It is easy to feel insignificant when you are only one of 8 billion people. How can we be important? Sure, the Bible says we are. Every hair is numbered. Jesus died for us. OK, God can pick out the little speck I am, but other people don’t want to be bothered.

         In seminary one of our professors challenged us to a bit of homework. It is easy to crumble in seminary. You go to the school feeling pretty good because God has called you to ministry. And then, you see that there is nothing special about you that sets you apart. Just one of the herd. Most of us were working, going to school, balancing our family life and most serving churches in some fashion. The professor talked about that and then he told us to sit down and write down all our titles. Things like being a son or daughter, a husband or wife, a janitor, a mechanic…anything that people knew you as or, if they are deceased, knew you.

         That was eye opening. I was feeling like I was insignificant. No one would miss me if I died. But, I began to see something. I was a son, a brother, a nephew, a grandchild, a husband, a father, an uncle…..it went on and on. I was a child of God, a brother to Christ, a Youth leader. It was amazing all the things I was to various people.

Now, you might say, “That is just silly!” Maybe it is, but there are a lot of silly things we do. This little exercise will make you think. With all these things we are, we have obligations. But we also have the joy and pleasure that these positions bring. Hey, I am a grandfather! Obligation and joy. I am a pastor! Obligation and joy. I am a steady and dependable friend to some! Obligation and joy. Seven years ago a young man in Ohio committed suicide. I sat down with his parents and I counseled with them. From time to time that Mom calls me. I am under no obligation to her, but she reaches out to me because I can help.

And that is the thing. All of us are important to somebody. Really important. They need us, whether it is for a particular need or because they simply love us. We have great value.

And that is just people. You are vital to your dog or cat. Your dog knows this and loves you intensely. You cat does not know its real need because cats think they are the top of the world, but that little thing does need you. And of course, you are so important to God that He sent His Son to die for you.

You have great worth. When it feels like you are just taking up space, know that you are loved and you are important.

Take a little time and write a list of who you are.

Day Forty

Esther 4:12-16

         Most of us are familiar with the Book of Esther, a book of the captivity. Esther, a Jewish woman who was also queen of the Persian Empire, is faced with going to the King to seek deliverance for her people. The King didn’t know she was a Jew and had allowed Haman, basically the prime minister, to pass a law that would see all the Jews killed throughout the kingdom. Esther was told by the man who had raised her after the death of her parents, Mordecai, that she needed to go to the King and appeal to him. Esther was fearful of doing this because the law was that anyone who went to the King uncalled for could be put to death. Anyone, including the queen. So she sends word back to Mordecai that this would not be a good idea. This is where this passage picks up.

¹² And they told Mordecai what Esther had said.

¹³ Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king's palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.

¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  

¹⁵ Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai,

¹⁶ “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”

         Just imagine that you had been born in 1847 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chattanooga was primarily known for two things in 1847. First, it was the railroad hub for the whole South. Almost anything that went by rail passed through the city. Everything from cotton to cattle to people. Geographically, it was ideally positioned. Secondly, Chattanooga was known for the abundance of its churches. The people were dedicated Christians, true followers of Christ. That was still true in the mid-1970s when I lived there for college, although now it is some different. But in 1847, as soon as your mother could get around following your birth, you would have been in church. You would grow up in church. You would meet your true love in church and get married in church and then you would take your own children to church. It was easy to be a Christian in Chattanooga.

         Now, however, it is the 21^st century. This area of Indiana is still a pretty easy place to be a Christian, but much of the rest of the country is such that you have to be a warrior to get by as a dedicated Christian. We see the sewer that is sin spreading and choking off Godliness on every hand. We see it in movies and TV and books and music and politics and the schools and, yes, even in the churches. No longer are there places where it is easier to be a saint than a sinner. These are dark times.

         So, what is this doing to Christianity? The attacks on Christianity, both out in the open and the more subtle attacks, are tearing denominations and churches down. People are trying to appease man at the expense of God. But is this a bad thing?

         I don’t think so. Even back in 1847 in Chattanooga there were lots of ‘religious’ people. Folks who went to church and did all the churchy things but were far from being committed Christians. They did the church thing because if they didn’t it would wreck their businesses or hurt them politically. They blended in to the church scene. Now, however, they don’t have to pretend. They can be as openly evil as they want. For the real Christian, though, it is easier to see the dedicated Christian because they live a dedicated life.

         So it was for the Jews in captivity. Some Jews stood firm for God while other Jews went along to get along. It took great courage to live as a Jew when all the Jews were slated for death.

         Verse sixteen above ends with “if I perish I perish.” Esther had agreed to put her life on the line for the Jews. Would you do that? Would you put your life on the line to save other Christians? True courage on Esther’s part. And it all worked out.

         But something that Mordecai said always stays with me. Verse fourteen; For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  That last sentence burns in me. Any of us could have been born in 1847 and been able to coast through our lives as Christians, but WE WERE BORN FOR NOW! The Lord has a special job for us in these dark times. And if He has a special job for us, He will equip us for that job. The equipping/training phase begins with prayer, which is what the last forty days have been about.

         Today’s prayer is to thank God for putting you right here, right now. It is difficult and it will get more difficult. But prayer and the reading of the Scripture will set you on your way to being ready.

         Blessings!

 Day Thirty Nine

1 Peter 5:1-11

5:1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed:

² shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly;

³ not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.

⁴ And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.

⁵ Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you,

⁷ casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

⁸ Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

⁹ Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

¹⁰ And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

¹¹ To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

         A couple of things jump out at me, one of which is not even in this passage. If you read down through verse fourteen, you see Peter give his final thoughts. In verse thirteen he mentions Mark as being with him and sending greetings. He even calls Mark his son, likely in the same way that Paul refers to Timothy as his son. A son in the faith. There is some discussion as to whether this Mark is the same as the Mark who traveled with Paul and wrote the Book of Mark, or that this Mark is the actual son of Peter. Early church tradition says that it is the Mark of the Gospel of Mark, but early church tradition was largely influenced by the Roman Catholic Church. They claim Peter was the first Pope, so he wouldn’t have any children since he would have had to have been celibate. We are told that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, but that is ignored. So, it is a toss-up. But let’s look at early church tradition. In the Book of Mark in the scene when Jesus is taken, there is a brief telling of a young boy watching. A guard grabs him by his cloak and he wiggles out of it and runs off, naked. Church tradition says that this was Mark. It is only recorded in the Book of Mark, as if Mark had information the other three Gospel writers did not have. He didn’t identify himself because it was embarrassing. Also, early tradition says that the upper room where the Last Supper was eaten was in the home of Mark’s father and Mark was a servant at the meal. Early church history is always suspect since it is not Scripture, but let’s say that it is correct in the story of Mark. Mark was there for the Last Supper, Mark was at the betrayal, Scripture tells us that Mark traveled with Paul and Barnabas on a missionary trip, and, when Paul didn’t want Mark on the second trip, he and Barnabas had a falling out over Mark. But, Mark later travel with Paul and served him well. And now he is with Peter. Pretty remarkable young man. We could use more men who are more anxious to serve than anything else.

         The second thing I see that gets my attention is the change in Peter. Boastful and arrogant, Peter was headstrong and bossy. Occasionally he would do something that hinted at the man he would become. He was the only one who got out of the boat and walked on water and he was the one who proclaimed Jesus as the Christ. But it wasn’t until he boasted that he would never leave Jesus alone to be taken and Jesus told him he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed three times, that Peter first felt the humbling of the Spirit. By the time of 1 Peter, this apostle was a changed man. Verses five and six from above reads; Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you,

         What a change! The word ‘humble’ or ‘humility’ is used three times in two verses. Peter now understands that it is not the ability to pull a sword to defend Jesus, but it is the humble attitude that causes us to love others and to see our own faults. And yet, if you were to ask Peter how he had become so humble, he would likely tell you that he was so far from humility, he would never reach it.

         Humbleness. The prayer for today is to ask the Lord to make you humble, to point out the boast and become a true servant.  

  

 

 Day 38

Mark 8:31-38

³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And He said this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

³⁴ And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. ³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? ³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

 

         Oh my! There are some interesting things here that all Christians need to see. We Christians live in a careless world. By that I mean we have gotten careless in the way of the Scripture and how it pertains to us personally. I want to do what I did yesterday and have the Scripture in Italics and then my thoughts in regular.

         This immediately follows Peter’s open confession that Jesus is the Christ.

³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. This was not what His followers wanted to hear. They were so locked into the traditional (but wrong, as traditional things often are) Jewish thinking that the Christ would over throw the Roman government, that this would have been confusing.

³² And He said this plainly. No parables, no word puzzles. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. Now this is a great visual. Peter, the uneducated fisherman from Galilee, Someone who was, essentially, a new believer, takes Jesus aside and says something like, “Hey! Come on, Jesus! This is crazy talk! And you are confusing these folks! Ease back a bit!” Believe me, I have nothing against professional fisherman. And I have nothing against those who have no formal education in the things of God. But anyone who would take Jesus aside and rebuke HIM! Blows the mind. And, even though Peter was a friend, Jesus was having none of it.

³³ But turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” This is a direct reference to too the Jewish thinking of Christ as a warrior and savior of the nation, rather than the Savior of the world. They had been together for a while. Traveled together, eaten together, talked at length together. Jesus had explained His mission. And they still didn’t get it.

³⁴ And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.  

³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. These two verses, thirty four and thirty five,  Gives a foreshadowing of the extent of His sacrifice and He tells them that they needed to sacrifice their lives for Him. Does this mean we actually die for Jesus, as He did for us? No, our sacrifice is to live for Him and die to the world. And that is really hard. To live a life of true sacrifice for fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years…wow. Who does that? Yet, it is what we are to do.

³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Another thing that went against Jewish thought. If a man was rich, he was blessed. But Jesus says no, Certainly, a rich man can live his life for the Lord, but his wealth is not the measuring stick that indicates his Godliness.

³⁷ For what can a man give in return for his soul?

³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Oh no! Oh yes. Have you ever had that moment in a restaurant when you knew you should thanks for the meal but you did not because you were afraid others would think you strange? Have you ever had that moment when you came in contact with someone and the Holy Spirit was urging you to speak to them but you didn’t because….for some reason? If so, or any number of ways you have backed down from sharing the good news, you have brought shame on the Son.

         The prayer for today is to ask the Lord to lead you into the path of Godliness. It doesn’t mean you will wind up in a pulpit or on a mission. It just means you will be doing His will, however that manifests in your life.

 Day Thirty Seven

Philemon

          I want to do this differently from all the other Days of Prayer. This book is only one chapter long and it is near and dear to me. A bit of background; there are events in the Bible that are explained more fully through historical references. For instance, Pharaoh lifted Joseph, son of Jacob, to a high position. Then, Joseph brought his family over from the land of Canaan to escape famine. The next thing we know, some time has passed and there is a different Pharaoh and the Hebrews are enslaved. How this came to be is not really important to the story, so it is not in the Bible. However, historically we know that the Egyptians were defeated in war and a new people came in and took over. They adopted the Egyptian culture in order to better rule the people. It was the Pharaoh from this group that hated the Hebrews. They hated all of the original Egyptians, but they really hated the Hebrews. As I say, this is not really necessary in the telling of the events in the Bible, but it is a documented historical fact and it explains the background.  We know how the disciples died from historical record. We know how Paul died. From historical record we even know that a man named Jesus died on a cross and then rose again three days later and was seen by hundreds. Which brings me to my old friends, Philemon and Onesimus.

          Onesimus went on to become a great leader in the early church. He wrote down his story.

          As a young man, he was a slave. His master was a man named Philemon, a man of wealth and prestige. Philemon was a good master and a Christian. Before you get upset and say that slavery and Christianity do not mix, the fact is that slavery is not condemned in the Word. However, for Christians there is instruction for both the slave and the master. If carried out to its logical end, the slave would eventually not be a slave. Onesimus was more of a servant and treated very well, but he despised his master. He had met Paul when Paul had stayed at the home on his travels, but he wasn’t very interested in what Paul had to say.

          Philemon had come to trust his servant and Onesimus had started to steal from him a little bit at a time. Finally, Onesimus had stolen a large sum of money and had fled. In the Empire, a slave who stole from the master would be put to death with or without the master’s agreement. Onesimus was smart and figured that the one place he could go and be safe was the seat of power itself; Rome. He would blend into the crowd. Paul was in Rome in prison, but as a Roman citizen he was allowed to live in a house. He couldn’t leave the house, but people could come to him. For whatever reason, Onesimus went to see him one day. He confessed to Paul what he had done and Paul showed him to Christ, whom Onesimus accepted. Then Paul sent him back. Imagine, the knock on the door and Philemon answers, only to see an escaped slave and a thief standing there, clutching a letter.

          This is where we pick up. What we have here is an individual letter to just one man. In it we see humor and we see Paul’s logical thinking. We will have the whole book. The Scripture will be in Italics and my thoughts will be in regular print.

 

¹ Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, At this point, Timothy was with Paul in Rome. To Philemon our beloved fellow worker ² and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: Apphia and Archippus were wife and husband who had started a church in their home. This was where Philemon attended.

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, ⁵ because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, ⁶ and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ^{] 7} For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Apparently, Philemon was a pretty good guy. Paul goes through all this to remind Philemon just how good of a Christian he has become. Of course, he will be angry with Onesimus.

⁸ Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, ⁹ yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— ¹⁰ I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Paul is referring to being a Spiritual father to Onesimus as he was to Timothy. This puts Onesimus in powerful company. Philemon would know this. ¹¹ (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) ¹² I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. ¹³ I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, ¹⁴ but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. Paul is spreading it on, but he is not saying anything wrong. Back in verse eight he says he could command Philemon to do right. Paul had that kind of authority, but he rarely, rarely used it. ¹⁵ For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, ¹⁶ no longer as a bond servant but more than a bond servant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Paul is suggesting full forgiveness, just as Christ forgives. In fact, in the Book of Romans Paul says that we are joint heirs with Christ, which means we are brothers with the Lord.

¹⁷ So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. ¹⁸ If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I see Paul writing this with a little smile. He had brought salvation to Philemon. Philemon could never repay that. Both men knew that, as well. ¹⁹ I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. Paul usually used an amanuensis, or a secretary, to write his letters. In a few places he will say something profound and then emphasize it by saying he is writing this with his own hand. It is believed he had severe vision problems and as he grew older, arthritis. His writing the letter with his own hand told Philemon how important this was and how surely he would pay him back for the thievery of Onesimus. ²⁰ Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

²¹ Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. ²² At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you. Paul would never make that visit.

²³ Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, This man Epaphras, sometimes served as Paul’s amanuensis, who traveled more with Paul than anyone. ²⁴ and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. If you look these men up, their stories are amazing. They are not prisoners, but they are staying with Paul for a bit.

²⁵ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

          The prayer for today is to have a forgiving spirit. Holding grudges is not of Christ. The Lord can do great things with us, but first He needs us to be holy.

 Day Thirty Six

Deuteronomy 4:5–8 

⁵ See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

⁶ Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

⁷ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him?

⁸ And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

         Moses is giving instruction and laws to the people. There were far more laws than just the ten commandments. Throughout the Old Testament there are 613 laws given from God to the Israelites. When some hear that they will say that God is way too restrictive. Yet, here in the USA we have thousands of laws other than just the Constitution. In fact, our representatives are called ‘lawmakers.’ The Jewish nation was thousands of years along when Jesus was born. We aren’t even to 250 years. Comparatively speaking, God practically left them alone. We are far more restricted than the Jews were.

         So Moses is giving instruction. And then he stops and tells them just how important the laws are. He says the laws will cause other nations to respect Israel. And the laws for Israel would be righteous laws. Verse eight from above says; And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? People were going to be impressed to the point of amazement by the laws. The laws were wise and they would lift up the nation.

         However, Israel suffered defeats and enslavements when they moved away from God. They would start by ignoring the small laws that were easy to get away from, and no harm was done. Then they left bigger laws and then bigger until God brought judgment.

         The legal system in the United States was originally based on English law, which was, in turn, based on the Old Testament Scripture. The Founding Fathers were creating a new country. They could have based the legal system on the Grecian system or the Roman system. After all, there was no great love for the English in the beginning. But they choose to build on a system that used and exalted Biblical law.

         Where have we gone and how have we gotten here? There are laws now, or interpretations of laws, that intentionally stifle Christians. Our faith is ridiculed, our denominations are leaving the Lord, our intelligence is mocked. What has happened?

         Satan can make his lie look so convincing, so attractive. He can pull people in without trying. We fume and rant and get angry, but nothing will change until the Lord intervenes. And the Lord will not intervene until we Christians get our act together and begin to follow the Lord with all of our hearts and minds.

         Our nation will be punished. You cannot try and separate yourself from God and expect to get away with it. Unfortunately, we Christians will be in the line of fire.

         Our prayer today is two fold. First, make a commitment to draw nearer and nearer to the Lord. There is a great old song, although it is theologically wrong, that goes, “Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer precious Lord, to thy precious bleeding side.” We don’t let the Lord draw us nearer. He has already done everything for us. It is up to us to draw nearer to Him.

         The second part of our prayer today is to pray for our country. Pray for our leaders even if you don’t like them. Pray for one another. Pray that we will have the Spiritual strength to reach out to the lost and love them to Jesus.