The Bible and Life

Friday, November 21, 2025

Sunday Is Coming

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is the poem "Sunday is Coming," by Phil Wickham.

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He received 39 stripes because 40 was known to kill a man. They wanted him alive.

They held handfuls of his beard, and hair and pulled it out by the roots. They wanted him alive.

They kicked, punched, and spit on him for hours. Until there wasn't a single spot on his body not covered in blood. They wanted him alive.

They shoved a crown of thorns down on his head so harshly it stuck in his skin. They wanted him alive.

After hours of being beaten, mocked, whipped, flogged, and tortured they made him walk with a cross. They made him carry it. A rough piece of wood with splinters digging into fresh wounds. They wanted him alive.

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They wanted him to feel every ounce of pain they could bring. He had to feel it in order to heal us. Crucifixion was historically one of the cruelest most tortured deaths a human could face. Hours upon hours of torture. Torture most of us can not mentally think of because the cruelty isn't normal. It isn't something our minds can comprehend. We celebrate Easter with pastel colors, happy children hunting eggs, and chocolate. Truth is there was absolutely nothing happy about the day Jesus died. It was cruel, bloody, and nasty.

He could have stopped all of it. He could have called every angel in heaven to demolish every person standing and shouting "Crucify Him!" He didn't. He knew in order to have a Sunday you have to have a Friday. He knew in order to have joy you have to carry your cross. He felt everything that day. He felt how your heart broke wide open when you had to watch your baby die. He felt how heavy your life was when you were staring down the barrel of a gun wondering if the man you called husband was going to shoot you. He carried the weight of the burden you have felt since your spouse died and life just doesn't seem right since. On that cross he held the rapist and murderers, the sinner and the saint. He leveled every playing field and said ALL of you are worth it. He knew he had to carry the cross. He never promised the cross you carry in this life would not be heavy. His wasn't. His promise is that Sunday is coming.

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No matter how heavy Friday is. Financially, emotionally, mentally, or physically. Friday is heavy. That cross is weighing you down and you are about to crumble under its weight. His promise was simply this. He won't make you carry it alone. What kind of king would step down from his throne for this?

Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God did. For you.

He did every bit of it for you and me. Oh yes it is heavy. So heavy sometimes you do not think you can take one more step. But look up and call of the name of Jesus!

"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15:12-14).

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Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Art Thou The King Of The Jews?

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

This information was taken from Eusebius' book, The History of the Church.

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John 18:33: "Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?"

Pontus Pilate asked that question as if he knew the answer already. Did Pilate know something? Did he overhear something? He worked closely with the priests. Were they talking about Jesus?

Why did he make such a statement?

But what a minute, Herod was the King of the Jews! Or was he!

When Herod, the first ruler of foreign blood, became King, the prophecy of Moses received its fulfillment: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes." Genesis 49:10.

Shiloh is a Hebrew word meaning "Peaceful One," or "Gift from God." Jesus was both.

Herod, the first foreigner, was given the Kingdom of the Jews by the Romans. As Josephus relates, he was an Edomite on his father's side and an Arabian on his mother's.

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But Africanus, a famous writer, he was a son of Antipater, and that the latter was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called servants of the temple of Apollo. This Antipater, having been taken prisoner while a boy by Edomite robbers, lived with them, because his father, being a poor man, was unable to pay the ransom for him. Growing up with them, he was afterwards befriended by Hyrcanus, the high priests of the Jews. A son of his, was that Herod who lived in the times of Jesus.

When Pompey, the Roman general, took Jerusalem by force in 63 BC, and defiled the holy places by entering the very innermost sanctuary of the temple, Aristobulus, who, by the right had been king and high priest, he sent with his children in chains to Rome; and gave to Hyrcanus, brother of Aristobulus, the high priesthood, while the whole nation of the Jews was made a tributary to the Romans from that time.

But Hyrcanus, who was the last of the regular line of high priests, was very soon afterwards taken prisoner by the Parthians, and Herod, the first foreigner, was made King of the Jewish nation by the Roman Senate and by Augustus.

Under him Christ appeared in bodily shape!

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Friday, November 14, 2025

What It Means To Be Full Of The Holy Ghost

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is a good article about what it means to be full of the Holy Spirit. Enjoy.

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WHAT MEANS TO BE FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST.

Acts 6. In the days when the number of disciples began to be multiplied there developed a situation which caused the twelve to make a definite decision not to occupy themselves with serving tables, but to give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. How important it is for all God’s ministers to be continually in prayer, and constantly feeding on the Scriptures of Truth. I often offer a reward to anyone who can catch me anywhere without my Bible or my Testament.

None of you can be strong in God unless you are diligently and consistently hearkening to what God has to say to you through His Word. You cannot know the power and the nature of God unless you partake of His breathed Word. Read it at morn and at night, and at every opportunity you get. After every meal, instead of indulging in unprofitable conversation round the table, read a chapter from the Word and then have a season of prayer. I endeavour to make a point of doing this no matter where or with whom I am staying.

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The Psalmist said that he had hid God’s Word in his heart, that he might not sin against Him; and you will find that the more of God’s Word you hide in your heart, the easier it is to live a holy life. He also testified that God’s Word lead quickened him; and, as you receive God’s Word into your being, your whole physical being will be quickened and you will be made strong. As you receive with meekness the Word, you will find faith upspringing within. And you will have life through the Word.

The twelve told the rest to look out seven men to look after the business end of things. They were to be men of honest report and filled with the Holy Ghost. These were just ordinary men who were chosen, but they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and this infilling always lifts a man to a plane above the ordinary. It does not take a cultured or a learned man to fill a position in God’s church; what God requires is a yielded, consecrated, holy life, and He can make of such a flame of fire. Baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire!

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The multitude chose out seven men to serve tables. They were doubtless faithful in their appointed tasks, but we see that God soon had a better choice for two of them. Philip was so full of the Holy Ghost that he could have a revival wherever God put him down. Man chose him to serve tables, but God chose him to win souls. O, if I could only stir you up to see that as you are faithful in performing the humblest office, God can fill you with His Spirit and make you a chosen vessel for Himself, and promote you to a place of mighty ministry in the salvation of souls and in the healing of the sick. There is nothing impossible to a man filled with the Holy Ghost. It is beyond all human comprehension. When you are filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, God will wonderfully work wherever you go.

When you are filled with the Spirit you will know the voice of God. I want to give you illustration of this. When I was going out to Australia recently, our boat stopped at Aden and at Bombay. In the first place the people came round the ship selling their wares, beautiful carpets and all sorts of oriental things. There was one man selling some ostrich feathers. As I was looking over the side of the ship watching the trading, a gentleman said to me, “Would you go shares with me in buying that bunch of feathers?” What did I want with feathers? I had no use for such things and no room for them either. But the gentleman put the question to me again, “Will you go shares with me in buying that bunch?” The Spirit of God said to me, “Do it.”

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The feathers were sold to us for three pounds, and the gentleman said, “I have no money on me, but if you will pay the man for them, I will send the cash down to you by the purser.” I paid for the feathers and gave the gentleman his share. He was travelling first, and I was travelling second class. I said to him, “No, please don’t give that money to the purser, I want you to bring it to me personally to my cabin.” I said to the Lord, “What about these feathers?” He showed me that He had a purpose in my purchasing them.

At about 10 o’clock the gentleman came to my cabin and said, “I’ve brought the money.” I said to him, “It is not your money that I want, it is your soul that I am seeking for God.” Right there he opened up the whole plan of his life and began to seek God; and that morning he wept his way through to God’s salvation.

You have no conception what God can do through you when you are filled with His Spirit. Every day and every hour you can have the divine leading of God. To be filled with the Holy Ghost means much in every way. I have seen some who have been suffering for years, and when they have been filled with the Holy Ghost everything of their sickness has passed away. The Spirit of God has made real to them the life of Jesus and they have been completely liberated of every sickness and infirmity.

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Look at Stephen. He was just an ordinary man chosen to serve tables. But the Holy Ghost was in him and he was full of faith and power, and did great wonders and miracles among the people. There was no resisting the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. How important it is that every man shall be filled with the Holy Spirit.

- Smith Wigglesworth ( Ever Increase Faith )

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Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Love And Betrayal

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

LOVE AND BETRAYAL

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William Seymour’s thoughts turned to marriage. Jennie Evans Moore, a faithful member of his ministry in Los Angeles, became his wife. She was known for her beauty, musical talents, and spiritual sensitivity. She was a very gentle woman and was always faithful to stand beside brother Seymour. It was Jennie who felt the Lord would have them marry, and Seymour agreed. The couple married on May 13, 1908. After the ceremony, William and Jennie moved into a modest apartment upstairs in the Azusa Mission.

But the news of their marriage angered a small yet very influential group at the Mission. One of the main antagonists was Clara Lum, the mission’s secretary responsible for the newspaper’s publication. After learning of Seymour’s marriage, she abruptly decided that it was time to leave the mission.

A few believers at Azusa had some very odd ideas about marriage. Lum’s group believed marriage in the last days to be a disgrace because of the coming return of Christ, and they severely denounced Seymour for his decision.

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It may have been that Clara Lum was secretly in love with Seymour and that she left because of her jealousy. Whatever the reason, she relocated to Portland, Oregon, to join the mission headed by a former Azusa associate, Florence Crawford. When she did, she took the entire national and international mailing lists with her!

This unthinkable action crippled Seymour’s worldwide publication outreach. His entire national and international lists of over fifty thousand names had been stolen, leaving him with only the Los Angeles list. Then, when the May 1908 Apostolic Faith was sent out, the cover looked the same, but inside was a column announcing its new address in Portland for contributions and mail!

The thousands who eagerly read and sent contributions to the newspaper now started sending them to Portland without questioning the change. By the June issue, no article by Seymour appeared at all. Finally, by midsummer of 1908, all references to Los Angeles were omitted entirely. When it became clear that Lum wouldn’t be returning, the Seymours traveled to Portland to confront Lum and ask for the lists. But the lists were never returned.

Without this vital information, it was impossible for Seymour to continue the publication, and an era of Azusa was brought to a dramatic end!

-Roberts Liardon

God’s Generals ( William J. Seymour)

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A GIFT, NOT AN ACHIEVEMENT.

Friday, November 7, 2025

It's A Gift

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

Here is a better understanding that the Gift of the Holy Spirit, is just that, it's a gift.

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The Baptism in the Spirit is a gift, not an achievement. Nobody is superior to anybody else just because God baptises them with the Spirit. There is no room to talk about two classes of Christians, those who have been baptised in the Spirit and those who have not. The gift is for everyone, even if they have not yet collected it. “ God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). No matter how many sons a rich man has they all sit equally as his sons at the table.

However, we are exhorted to take advantage of what is available. Jesus said we should ask, seek and knock to obtain the Holy Spirit (Matthew 7:7), while Paul encouraged us to “ be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). I like what I see in Acts 1: Jesus told the apostles (v.2) to “wait for the gift the Father promised” (v.4). But by the time we get to 1:15, there are 120 believers who have come together and are filled with the Spirit. They all wanted to get in on the act! Peter didn’t object like Joshua, who objected when some received the Spirit in Moses’ camp. Instead, he said, “ The promise (that is, the Holy Spirit) is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39).

- Reinhard Bonnke ( Baptism In The Holy Spirit )

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

The Old Battery

Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!

THE OLD BATTERY.

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It does not matter how cold you are spiritually or how far you have wandered from the faith. Like an old battery, there is always a residual charge–once empowered by the Spirit, always empowered. You just must clean up with the Blood of Jesus, and you will be like brand new.

A FRIEND OF MINE WAS CLEANING OUT HIS GARAGE and tossed a piece of metal aside into what appeared to be a pile of garbage. It caused vivid and audible sparking. Investigation revealed an old car battery. The steel bar had shorted across its terminals. The cells still held some charge, so he brought it out for possible future use. For some, that might be a parable—you’ve given up, and think the power has gone. It never goes. Clear the rubbish out of the way and you will find that the Holy Spirit is not so easily switched off. After ministering under a strong prophetic unction for years, Elisha died, but the anointing remained on his bones. When a young man died and was accidentally thrown into Elisha’s tomb, he came back to life (2 Kings 13:21). There is hope for you yet.

~ Reinhard Bonnke

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