The Bible and Life

Friday, February 14, 2025

Divorce?

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is an article by an unknown author.

Do you remember the story of Aron Ralston from last year? Aron Ralston loves the outdoors, hiking and trekking in the mountains. Last May he was hiking alone when a boulder fell and pinned him by the arm. For five days he waited for rescue. Then, facing dehydration and death, he took an incredible decision. He took a pocketknife and slowly amputated his own arm, freeing him and allowing him to hike out to safety.

Google creative commons

What would it take to come to a decision like that? How desperate would you have to be to cut off a member of your own body? Would you turn to that solution quickly, or would you first explore every other possibility? Only when faced with death would a man do such a thing. So should be divorce. It is a desperate act, a self-mutilation. It is the amputation of a part of our selves. We should resort to it only in extreme circumstances.

When you take a course in wilderness survival, they rarely teach you how to cut off your own arm. Why? Because it is assumed that you won’t ever reach that state of desperation. What if our teaching on divorce was similar? What if we could go back to a time when divorce was a rarity among us and not the norm?

Scriptures: Genesis 2:24-25, Matthew 19:5-6

William James Roop

Author Page

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Holy Ghost Meetings

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

“Azusa Street Holy Ghost Meetings” by Frank Bartleman.

Google commons

Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoe boxes, one on top of the other. He usually kept his head inside the top one during the meeting, in prayer. There was no pride there. The services ran almost continuously.

Seeking souls could be found under the power almost any hour, night and day. The place was never closed nor empty. The people came to meet God. He was always there. Hence a continuous meeting. The meeting did not depend on the human leader. God’s presence became more and more wonderful.

In that old building, with its low rafters and bare floors, God took strong men and women to pieces, and put them together again, for His glory. It was a tremendous overhauling process: Pride and self-assertion, self importance and self-esteem, could not survive there. The religious ego preached its own funeral sermon quickly.

Google commons

No subjects or sermons were announced ahead of time, and no special speakers for such an hour. No one knew what might be coming, what God would do. All was spontaneous, ordered of the Spirit. We wanted to hear from God, through whoever He might speak. We had no “respect of persons.” The rich and educated were the same as the poor and ignorant, and found a much harder death to die. We only recognized God: All were equal. No flesh might glory in His presence.

He could not use the self-opinionated. Those were Holy Ghost meetings, led of the Lord. It had to start in poor surroundings, to keep out the selfish, human element. All came down in humility together, at His feet.

They all looked alike, and had all things in common in that sense at least.

Frank Bartleman in “How Pentecost Came to Los Angeles (1925)

Google commons

William James Roop

Friday, February 7, 2025

The End Is Near!

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is a fun joke about the end times.

A priest and a rabbi from local parishes were standing by the side of the road holding up signs. The rabbi’s read, "The End is Near!" The priest, on the other side of the road, held up a sign which read, "Turn before it’s too late!" They planned to hold up their signs to each passing car.

Google creative commons

"Get a job." The first driver yelled. The second, immediately behind the first, yelled, "Leave us alone you religious freaks"! Shortly, from around the curve, they heard screeching tires and a splash followed by more screeching tires and another splash. The rabbi looked over at his companion and said, "Do you think we should try a different sign"? The other man responded, "Perhaps, ’Bridge Out’ might be better"?

Scriptures: Matthew 24:4-13

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Demons In Certain Regions

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is an interesting article about spiritual warfare.

Google commons

DEMONS IN CERTAIN REGIONS.

Demons and evil spirits want to possess man so they can find the widest range of expression in this world. If they can't find embodiment in man, they'll take embodiment in animals as a second choice. The spirits in the fifth chapter of Mark said they wanted to go into the swine so they wouldn't have to go out of the country. Jesus gave them permission and they went into the swine.

MARK 5:9-12

"And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered,

saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

And he besought him much that he would not send them

away out of the country.

Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great

herd of swine feeding.

And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into

the swine, that we may enter into them."

Google commons

We see from this Scripture that demons do like to gang up in certain parts of the world or certain countries. In traveling, it has been easy for me to discern what kinds of spirits are in a locality. I can drive through a city and know what spirits predominate there. Sometimes there are immoral or occult spirits, or spirits promoting foreign religions. Small towns — not just large cities — can have spirits ruling over them, too.

Spirits in the Church

My wife and I were in a town visiting her relatives one time, and the pastor of the church there said he wanted me to preach. I was on the field in evangelism, and he kept asking me. Finally I told him I wasn't going to do it.

He asked me if there were something wrong with him and his wife. I told him there wasn't. But I explained I didn't want to preach in that town unless God definitely told me to. I told him the town was full of reserved, conservative people, motivated by stingy devils and demons. I told him these demons had gotten into his church and that the people wouldn't support me if I went there.

His eyes got big and his mouth fell open, and he asked me if anyone had been talking to me. I told him no one but the Lord.

Google commons

Whatever kinds of spirits are in a city will get into the church, because there will be someone who will let them in. For instance, look at the Church at Corinth. Corinth was one of the most immoral cities of the East. This immoral devil got into the church. There was a man cohabiting with his father's wife. It had to be dealt with!

First Corinthians 5:1 tells us, "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife."

Whatever spirits are predominant in a city will get into the church unless individuals and the church as a whole learn to stand against them. This minister decided to tell me some things. He said he had taken that church without promise of any set salary. Whatever came in as tithes and offerings on Sunday morning was to be his. The Sunday night and Wednesday night offerings would go for payments on the church building and utilities.

- Kenneth E Hagin ( The Origin and Operation of Demons )

Google commons

William James Roop

Friday, January 31, 2025

Half A Christian?

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Text: Matthew 5:16; Acts 1:8

Spurgeon (1) wrote, " I think I may say to every person whom I am addressing,-If you are yourself saved, the work is but half done until you are employed to bring others to Christ. You are as yet but half formed in the image of your Lord. You have not attained to the full development of the Christ-life in you unless you have commenced in some feeble way to tell others of the grace of God; and I trust that you will find no rest to the sole of your foot till you have been the means of leading many to that blessed Saviour who is your confidence and your hope?

Google creative commons

Let us ask Him to give us grace to go a-fishing, and so to cast our nets that we may take a great multitude of fishes. Oh, that the Holy Ghost may raise up from among us some master-fishers, who shall sail their boats in many a sea, and surround great shoals of fish!"

--------------------------------------------------

1. Spurgeon, Charles " Instruction In Soul Winning "

William James Roop

Author Page

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

The Power Of A Testimony

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is a true story about the power of a testimony. Enjoy.

Google commons

He Preached Some Of His Best Sermons Through The Lips Of Other Men

STAUNCH WILLIAM BOOTH was about his doctrine, he was just the opposite when it came to his methods. Given his aim of saving the lost, there were few things he wasn’t willing to try. In one meeting at which the crowd seemed to have little interest in his preaching, he decided to turn the floor over to a Gypsy hawker who had recently been saved. Almost as soon as this man started to give his testimony, the crowd was transformed and seemed to hang on his every word. From that day forward, testimonies from new converts were given at almost every meeting.

William also started to delegate responsibility to new converts at each meeting. He found their enthusiasm to be contagious, and as they served at each gathering, prospective converts became even more receptive to the gospel message. It later became a saying in the Army that William preached some of his best sermons through the lips of other men. “He never monopolized the meetings. He made others help him—they were as much theirs, as his. This helped to make them attractive as well as effective.”

- God’s Generals ( The Revivalists )

Google commons

William James Roop