The Bible and Life

Friday, June 6, 2025

William Carey

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

God of All Peoples - WILLIAM CAREY

When God issues a call on a man or woman’s heart, it might come in the roar of a thunderstorm or in the quiet of the night, but he or she hears His voice distinctly.

William Carey (Google Commons)

William had a growing conviction that God wanted to send Christian missionaries into a hopeless world. As he walked the English countryside in prayer, God brought Isaiah 54 to your remembrance: “Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations....thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD has called thee...” (Isaiah 54:2, 5–6 KJV).

The Redeemer was not just the God of England or the God of Europe! He was “the God of the whole earth,” and Carey was determined to proclaim this missionary truth! Because of Zinzendorf’s earlier missionary success, at a meeting with a small group of Baptist pastors in Kettering, England, William Carey threw down copies of the Moravian newsletter Periodical Accounts before the men and declared, “See what the Moravians have done! Can’t we Baptists at least attempt something in fealty to the same Lord?”

Yet, every time he broached the subject with Christian leaders, the reaction was always the same. “You are a miserable enthusiast,” he was rebuked. “If God wanted the heathen of the world to be saved, He would take care of it Himself. There are enough unsaved people in our own midst.”

Carey responded, “Surely God means what He says. Surely He means for us who know Him to carry the message of redemption to all men everywhere!”

William Carey (Google Commons)

In spite of the church’s objections, William sat down to write out his missionary vision. His writings grew into a booklet that he entitled, "An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens." It became known simply as "The Enquiry." In it, William asserted, “If it be the duty of all men, when the gospel comes, to believe unto salvation, then it is the duty of those who are entrusted with the gospel to endeavor to make it known among all nations for the obedience of faith!”

Carey skillfully presented his argument for world missions in five powerful sections. It was an astounding proclamation of God’s call to reach the lost.

Section One of The Enquiry focused on Jesus’ Great Commission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them...” (Matthew 28:19 KJV). Carey insisted Jesus’ command to evangelize could not be restricted to the early apostles, or else baptizing believers should be restricted as well. “No!” Carey declared. As long as the majority of the world was covered in “heathen darkness,” Christians had an obligation to bring them the message of Christ’s salvation.

“If the English have been blessed to know and live in the grace of God’s salvation for a long while,” he argued, “how could they withhold such a great salvation from those in foreign lands who died without the knowledge of God’s saving grace?”

William Carey (Google Commons)

Section Two of The Enquiry retold the powerful move of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, as thousands of Christians were added to the church daily. (See Acts 2:47.) Carey reminded his readers that it was the missionaries of the first and second centuries who had spread Christianity to England, Germany, Spain, France, Egypt, and Libya.

Section Three, entitled “A Survey of the Present State of the World,” was a comprehensive account of the populations, religious beliefs, and locations of all the people of the known world, based on Carey’s eight years of study. British scholars were astounded at its detail; nothing like it had been written before!

Most importantly, Carey pointed out that most countries had “no written language and consequently no Bible, and were only led by the most childish customs and traditions.” With his gift for languages, Carey’s heart burned to provide written Bibles to the lost. Even the most cynical opponents of foreign missions were convicted by the fervor of Carey’s call.

Sections Four and Five of The Enquiry were practical applications of missionary work: the transportation of missionaries to their destinations, survival in foreign lands, and financial provision. He challenged his Christian brothers, “I question whether we are justified in staying here, while so many are perishing without means of grace in other lands!”

William Carey (Google Commons)

In describing the role of the missionary, Carey actually described himself:

The missionary must take every opportunity of doing them [the lost] good, and laboring, and travelling, night and day, they must instruct, exhort, and rebuke, with all longsuffering and anxious desire for them, and above all, must be instant in prayer for the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon the people of their charge.

Carey ended the booklet with a stirring challenge: “Surely it is worthwhile to lay ourselves out with all our might, in promoting the cause and kingdom of Christ!”

- God’s Generals' ( The Missionaries )

(Google Commons)

William James Roop

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Tribulation In The Will Of God

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

BEING IN THE WILL OF GOD DOESN’T GUARANTEE EASY CIRCUMSTANCES.

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Remember, Paul and Silas weren’t in Philippi on a vacation. They were there to do the Lord’s work. They weren’t out of the will of God. Sometimes when things don’t go right, people think, Well, I must be out of the will of God!

I’ve had people say to me, “What awful sin have I committed to cause God to put this on me?” I tell them that God didn’t send the test or trial they are facing; the devil sent it: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy . . .” (John 10:10). It wasn’t God who whipped Paul and Silas. It was ungodly men who did it. God didn’t stir up these ungodly fellows. It was the devil who stirred them up. Some say, “Well, God permitted it. What awful sin have I committed to cause God to permit this to happen to me?”

But if you think you’re going to determine whether you are in the will of God by whether or not everything runs smoothly in your life, then you are mistaken. A life of ease, with no rough or difficult places to endure and no sacrifices to make, does not indicate whether or not a person is in God’s will. If it did, then Paul never did get in the will of God in his entire ministry! He missed it from beginning to end. No, you can’t judge being in the will of God by whether or not you have tests and trials in life and obstacles to overcome.

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I was on the field as an evangelist for many years, and I would sometimes get amused at pastors. I have had them tell me, “I tell you one thing! If I can just get my Sunday school attendance back up where it was at its highest point, I am leaving!” Some pastors were upset because the Sunday school was down and things weren’t going right. Well, you don’t judge whether or not you’re in the will of God just because the Sunday school isn’t what you think it should be. That kind of thinking would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

I have also had pastors say to me, “If I can just get the finances of this church to the place they were when I came here, then I’m going to resign and leave.” They felt that because the finances had fallen off it indicated they weren’t in the will of God. But a church is made up of individual people, and just as individual people go through phases in their lives, so do churches. A pastor can’t determine that he is out of the will of God just because his church is experiencing some difficult circumstances.

When I pastored, I never did try to ascertain whether I was in the will of God by whether or not things ran smoothly. I would determine the will of God by listening to my own spirit, and by doing just what they did in Acts 13:2. I would wait upon the Lord and minister to Him until I knew in my spirit what God wanted me to do.

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I only missed it one time, as far as pastoring the right church was concerned. I missed God concerning this particular church because I put out a fleece. You see, I hadn’t been in Pentecostal circles very long. It had only been about three years since I’d received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and had become Pentecostal.

I never had heard anything about fleeces before then. I had never heard anyone in my former church say anything about putting out a fleece. But I began to hear certain preachers and others talk about putting out a fleece, so I decided to put out a fleece too. I decided

maybe I’d like to change churches and pastor another church. So I put out a fleece about whether or not I should take another church.

A certain church opened up, and I was invited to preach, so I went. Before I left, I put out a fleece. I told the Lord if a certain “sign” occurred, I would accept it as His confirmation that I should accept this new pastorate. And according to my fleece or “sign” I had asked for, I was to change churches. I did, and I got fleeced!

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When I was finally able to leave that church, I was never so glad to get away from a place in all my life as I was that place! I should have left that church a long time before I did, but sometimes when you miss it, it’s hard to get back on the right track again. And yet, I went back there afterwards to hold a revival meeting and had one of the greatest meetings they had ever had in the history of the church. But I went that time in the will of God, when God said, “Go.” I missed it

previously even when I followed the fleece instead of following God, waiting on God, and ministering to Him, until I knew what to do.

However, as I said, just because I was in the will of God pastoring those other churches doesn’t mean everything always ran smoothly. It doesn’t mean we broke the Sunday school record every Sunday. And it doesn’t mean the finances topped out every Sunday above anything that we had ever received before.Yet in pastoring those churches, I knew in my spirit, in my heart, that it was the right thing to do because I had taken time to minister to the Lord and to wait upon Him.

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I knew that was where He wanted me to be. At different times I’d say to the Lord, “Lord, things are not running just right, but I’m not going to worry about it. I’m going to trust You to work it out.” The devil will just try to aggravate you to death with circumstances, if you’ll listen to him. But if you’ll learn how to deal with the devil, you’ll be alright. And if you don’t, then the circumstances of life will overwhelm you.

Because if Satan can get the least edge on you, he’ll just hound you and try to worry you to death. But believers don’t need to be easy prey for the devil. Rather, we need to spend our time ministering to the Lord.

Kenneth E. Hagin

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William James Roop

Friday, May 30, 2025

The Life Of Prayer

THE LIFE OF PRAYER

I decided years ago that we could not take the revival we are now experiencing in Korea for granted. Having studied church history, I realize that revivals must not only be prayed for to begin, but they must also be prayed for so that they may be maintained.

Throughout the revivals the Western world has experienced, after several years, people begin to take the revival for granted. The way this happens is that they forget about the very thing that birthed the revival: prayer. Once continuous and fervent prayer is forgotten, the impetus of the revival is lost, and all that is left is the momentum of the past.

What do I mean by the impetus and momentum of a revival? Driving an automobile is a perfect example of how these two principles work. Impetus is the force that is generated in a car when you step on the gas pedal. By applying this force, the car will stay in motion. However, if you take your foot off the gas pedal, the impetus, or the force, will no longer operate; yet, the car still keeps moving. What causes the movement of the auto without the force? The movement is generated by momentum. The movement of a car under momentum is different than under impetus. The momentum of the car does not maintain movement, so eventually the car will come to a halt.

When the Holy Spirit brings revival as an answer to prayer, the impetus of the revival must be maintained for there to be a continuation of that revival. If prayer is ever forgotten, the revival will move from impetus to momentum. Eventually, the special visitation of God will end up as a monument to the past.

- Dr David Yonggi Cho ( Prayer That Brings Revival)

William James Roop

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Love Never Fails

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

IF YOU WALK IN LOVE YOU WILL NOT FAIL.

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Love never fails!

We are interested in spiritual gifts and we ought to be. But we ought to be interested in Love first. Prophecies will fail. Tongues shall cease. Knowledge shall vanish away. But, thank God, Love never fails.

Oh yes, I believe in prophecy and prophesying.

I believe in tongues. Thank God for it. But you can exercise these things outside of Love and they become as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. The thing about it is: Let's have prophecy. Let's have tongues. Let's have faith. Let's have knowledge. But let's have Love with it. Let's put Love first because we are in the family of Love and have become acquainted with our Heavenly Father who is a God of Love.

We ought to want to learn. We ought to want to grow. We ought to want to grow in Love until we are made perfect in Love. I haven't been made perfect in love yet, have you? But did you know the Bible says we can? Not in the next world, but in this world. I believe some of us are going to make it. I'm not going to quit just because I haven't made it yet. I'm going to keep after it. Thank God for His Word! Thank God for His Love!

- Kenneth E. Hagin

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William James Roop

Friday, May 23, 2025

Lillian Hunt Trasher

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is an excerpt from a book about a wonderful Christian lady who founded an orphanage in Egypt.

LILLIAN HUNT TRASHER -

The Great Mother of the Nile (1887-1961)

Lillian was not a preacher, although at one time in her life, she pastored a successful Pentecostal church in the United States. She was a smart businesswoman, and clever. She had to be to feed her charges. Food was cooked twenty-four hours a day to keep all of the children and widows fed.

She was a woman of such courage that it did not matter who you were. When it came time for her to get money to feed her children, you had to cough it up, because she was going to have it. I like that kind of person. They are very exciting to me. From the king on down, when she came in the door angry, they knew to get their pocketbooks ready.

Lillian Trasher knew how to handle people whether they were Americans, Britishers, or Egyptians. She was very bold in her approach. When she could not get any money from America to feed her children, she went to the wealthy Egyptian people.

If she needed something, she would go knock on the door of a rich man who would say, "Come in and have some food with us." She would say, "Not until I get money, I won't. My children are hungry. Give me the money to feed my children. I want to buy a thousand pounds of rice."

People gave her money, because she literally demanded it. After they gave her the money, she would say, "Now I will eat with you."

When the presidents and prime ministers held banquets, Lillian Trasher was always invited. As she was escorted into these formal events, she would come in spreading sunshine, and the whole court would applaud. The master of ceremonies would introduce her this way: "Ladies and gentlemen, the great Lillian Trasher, the Nile mother."

She was more than six feet tall and weighed more than two hundred pounds, and she would enter those formal rooms with all the dignity of a queen, dressed beautifully. She never dressed poor.

Sometimes she would be the only person to receive applause out of all of the dignitaries present at the festivities. Although Lillian Trasher lived with the poor in a little room on campus, she also knew what it meant to go neck and neck and face to face with the millionaires of Egypt.

When I first saw Lillian's operation in Egypt, I asked, "Has anyone ever written a story about you?" When she said, "No," I promised to write a book about her. I was on my way around the world, but when I got back to America, a stack of her monthly letters and all kinds of papers were there to greet me. From these materials, I wrote her story, Lillian Trasher, Nile Mother.

Dr. Lester Sumrall ( The Pioneers Of Faith )

William James Roop

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

What About Manifestations?

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

What about Manifestations?

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"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." -1 Corinthians 12:7.

We must never transgress because of liberty. What I mean is this: it would be wrong for me to take opportunities just because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. But it would be perfectly justifiable if I clearly allow the Spirit of the Lord to have its liberty with me. However, we are not to behave inappropriately in our liberty, for the flesh is more extravagant than the Spirit.

The Spirit's extravagances are always for edification, strengthening character, and bringing us all more into conformity with the life of Christ. But fleshly extravagances always mar these things and bring the saints into a place of trial for the moment. As the Spirit of the Lord takes further hold of a person, we may get liberty in it, but we are tried through the manifestations of it.

I believe we have come to a liberty of the Spirit that is so pure it will never bring a frown of distraction over another person's mind. I have seen many people who were in the power of the Spirit, but they exhibited a manifestation that was not foundational or even helpful. I have seen people under the mighty power of the Holy Spirit who have waved their hands wildly and moved on the floor and gone on in such a state that no one could say the body was not under the power. However, there was more natural power than spiritual power there, and the natural condition of the person, along with the spiritual condition, caused the manifestation. Though we know the Spirit of the Lord was there, the manifestation was not something that would elevate or please the people or grant them a desire for more of that. It wasn't an edification of the Spirit.

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If there are any here who have those manifestations, I want to help you. I don't want to hurt you. It is good that you should have the Spirit upon you; people need to be filled with the Spirit. But you never have a right to say you couldn't help doing this, that, or the other manifestation.

No manifestation of the body ever glorifies the Lord except the tongue. If you seek to be free in the operation of the Spirit through the mouth, then the tongue, which may be under a kind of subconscious control by the Spirit, brings out the glory of the Lord, and that will always bring edification, consolation, and comfort.

No other manifestation will do this. Still, I believe that it is necessary to have all these other manifestations when someone is filled with the Spirit for the first time. When the Spirit is there, the flesh must find some way out, and so, through past experience, we allow all these things at the beginning. But I believe the Holy Spirit brings a sound condition of mind, and the first thing must pass away so that the divine position may remain.

And so there are various manifestations, including kicking and waving, that take place at the incoming of the Holy Spirit, when the flesh and the Spirit are in conflict. One must decrease and die, and the other must increase and multiply. Consequently, when you come to understand this, you are in a place of sound judgment and know that now the Holy Spirit has come to take you on with God.

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When the Holy Spirit is allowed full reign over the operation of human life, It always works out of divine wisdom. And when it gets perfect control of a life, the divine source flows through so that all the people may receive edification in the Spirit. If you act foolishly after you have had wisdom taught you, nobody will give you much leeway.

"We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak" (Rom. 15:1 KJV). Some who come to church services know nothing about the power of the Holy Spirit. They get saved and are quickened, and after the Spirit comes upon them, you will see all these manifestations. In love and grace, you should bear with them as newborn babes in the Spirit and rejoice with them because that is only a beginning to an end. The Lord wouldn't want us to be any[1]thing but "strong in the Lord and in the power of His might" (Eph. 6:10) to help everyone around us.

-Read Smith wigglesworth ( other Works).

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William James Roop