Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 7:21.
Not all who profess to be workers for Christ are true disciples. Among those who bear His name, and who are even numbered with His workers, are some who do not represent Him in character…. Till the end of time there will be tares among the wheat….
In His mercy and long-suffering, God bears patiently with the perverse and even the falsehearted. Among Christ’s chosen apostles was Judas the traitor. Should it then be a cause of surprise or discouragement that there are falsehearted ones among His workers today? If He who reads the heart could bear with him who He knew was to be His betrayer, with what patience should we bear with those at fault.
And not all, even of those who appear most faulty, are like Judas. Peter, impetuous, hasty, and self-confident, often appeared to far greater disadvantage than Judas did. He was oftener reproved by the Saviour. But what a life of service and sacrifice was his! What a testimony does it bear to the power of God’s grace!
Christ connected Judas and impulsive Peter with Himself, not because Judas was covetous and Peter passionate, but that they might learn of Him, their great Teacher, and become, like Him, unselfish, meek, and lowly of heart. He saw good material in both these men. Judas possessed financial ability and would have been of value to the church had he taken home to his heart the lessons which Christ was giving by rebuking all selfishness, fraud, and avarice, even in the little matters of life.
The world has no right to doubt the truth of Christianity because there are unworthy members in the church, nor should Christians become disheartened because of these false brethren. How was it with the early church? Ananias and Sapphira joined themselves to the disciples. Simon Magus was baptized…. Judas Iscariot was numbered with the apostles. The Redeemer does not want to lose one soul; His experience with Judas is recorded to show His long patience with perverse human nature; and He bids us bear with it as He has borne.
Conflict and Courage p. 318
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Prayer Requests
—–Please pray for a very dear friend of mine. . . she is caretaker for her parents . . . Art, her dad, who is 91 fell on the 13th and has a broken hip but the DR. refuses to operate on him because of his age. and she is trying to get him into his Dr. after ER wanted to put him in a nursing home . . . but she needs to wait until the 20th for his appointment. She is trying to get home Health to come in an help her. she has had two back surgeries and a rod in her back . still lives in a lot of pain herself. M
—–Please pray for friends of ours. .who breed Staffordshire dogs they have 4 beautiful male ones they need a home for soon. please pray that they can sell them. they are pure Breeds. MC
—–I ask for prayers for Don. He has been recently been diagnosed with Leukemia… melanoma cancer, and has come down with double pneumonia! So they cannot do chemo. They are giving him two to three weeks to live. Indy
—–I need prayers for my 3 sons that they come to know Jesus and come back into my life. It’s been too many years that they haven’t wanted anything to do with me and it really hurts. They all have children who I cannot watch grow up. Lynne
—–I am requesting prayers for Patty and she is critically ill and on life support. She needs lots of prayers for the next few days for healing. Her family needs prayers for strength. Donna
—–update—Uncle Art is home and doing well. Thank you for your prayers. Mike
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Dear Friends,
After years away from the Lord, my mother began to feel her need and started going back to church. Her faith in God was shaky, but at least she was heading in the right direction. At church, she renewed an old friendship with Luella whose nickname was Wally. A year or two later, Wally’s husband died leaving her with two teenage children to raise. That summer, the children begged their mother to go camping like they had done when their father was alive. At last Wally consented. She asked my mother to go with her. My mother is strictly a city girl, but to please Wally, she went.
They drove out of the city and to a nice camping spot by a lake. The children were excited and my mother was resigned to her fate of spending a whole weekend in the fresh air with spiders, mosquitoes and snakes. The very thought made my mother wish she had brought her own car, so she could “escape” if need be.
At last they got to the campground and picked out a site to their liking. Wally had taken their pop-up camper, so camping had nearly all the conveniences of home. She was hard at work setting the camper up, when, suddenly, the tongue of the camper slipped and pinned her hand beneath it. Wally let out a yell. Immediately mother saw her predicament. Looking around, she realized that they were alone. There was no strong man to help. The children had run off to explore their new surroundings. My mother prayed for strength to help her friend. Now, my mother has never been a very strong person, but she lifted that camper off from Wally’s hand. She felt as if an angel lifted it for her. She was amazed and thrilled and very grateful to God. This incident made a deep impression on her. Spiders and lizards and snakes were all forgotten. All weekend long, she reveled in the manifestation of God’s power and love. Now she knew that angels attended her. Now she knew that God was “a very present help in trouble.” Ps 46:1
The next week, my mother went to church full of excitement, sharing with the people there what God had done for her. However, instead of praises to God for His goodness, she was met with explanations of how adrenaline works on the body. She was disappointed and frustrated. She had felt God’s presence helping her, and no one would believe her. The evil one took advantage of the situation and pressed upon her the thought that perhaps the people were right: it was only an adrenaline rush. Suddenly, her shaky faith returned and became even shakier.
Just as the unbelief of those churchgoers, ruined a beautiful experience that God had given my mother to draw her closer to Himself, so what we say can strengthen the faith of those around us, or it can cause them to turn away from their Only Helper. We never know the impression our words will have on someone. James tells us, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.” “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” James 1:26, 3:2-8
May we pray as did David, “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips.” “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Ps 141:3, 19:14 May we be guided by His Spirit, that we may be used to strengthen the faith of others in our Glorious Redeemer, that when He comes, both we and they will exclaim, “Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isa 25:9
Rose
A Chance for All