“God is in control” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this phrase. How about this one; “Why did God allow this to happen to me” or maybe; “Why do bad things happen to good people”. I watched a man the other day interviewing a boy of about 10 years old and obviously very sick. The man in his interview asked the boy why does he think God made him sick because “nothing happens unless God approves it. So, basically God gave the boy cancer. This young boy probably as sincere as anyone says; “God chose me” When the boy was asked why God chose to make him sick, he said, so my sisters would not have to go through all this pain. Now the sincerity of this boy is quite emotional and would bring a tear to even hardened hearts, but the doctrine in both the questions and answers could not be more wrong. How unbelievable that this boy thinks God gave him cancer. This false Calvinistic teaching that God is controlling every thing that happens in our lives is a hideous and horrible contrivance of man. The truth is this; only a grace believer and right divider of scripture can answer why. Only someone Pauline in doctrine as we are instructed to be can answer these questions. Only a right divider can answer the question of UNANSWERED PRAYER. A real grace believer understands we are living in a present evil world full of sickness and disease and there are NO scriptures in Pauline doctrine promising freedom from this. A real grace believer understands that we are in the “bondage of corruption” the “sufferings of this present time” according to Romans chapter 8. A real grace believer understands that trials, troubles, persecutions, and other Christians calling us names is par for the course for being a Bible believer in this dispensation. Paul does not teach you that being a Christian gives you any physical blessings above a lost person. Paul does not teach you that being a Christian saves you from hurt and pain, and he actually tells you to EXPECT IF it you will live Godly. (2 Tim 3:12) Preachers today have NO ANSWER to the question of unanswered prayer. They preach ISRAEL’S prayer promises to their people and then have no answer when these promises don’t pan out. God is NOT controlling your life! YOU ARE. YOU are making decisions every day to control your life. Stop blaming God for things he had nothing to do with. God did not give this boy cancer and shame of this man and this boy’s parents for lying to him. Let me help you understand something. You are closer to God’s will after death than before. The ultimate purpose for the body of Christ is in heavenly places.
2Co 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
Read it again. Our short sightedness blinds us from God’s ultimate purpose for us. If this boy were to die, they would once again blame God for taking him. Then some preacher would lie to those at the funeral and say dumb things like “God decided to bring him home” God did no such thing, this present evil world did. I hope you understand the food you eat is what is killing you, not God. I am being quite straight forward in this blog because Christians spend their entire lives believing and teaching others these things. There is no promise of physical healing and prosperity in this age. God is building a spiritual body in this age. God is not controlling the world, Satan is. Soon enough Jesus will set all this straight. Soon enough Jesus will restore all things both in heaven and in earth. God’s healing program for this age is the new body we will receive someday. Till then we groan and travail waiting for it. Rom 8:23, 2 Cor 5:2-4.   
 

One of the many things you learn when you start to become a Bible believer is that many words you have become accustomed to applying to yourself are actually stolen. What I usually call “church language” is one of the primary causes of stolen words. Another cause of stolen words is that hymnal sitting in the church pew in front of you. There is a whole lot more of your belief system grounded in hymns than you are willing to admit. Let me help you understand with an example. We are currently studying through Israel’s kingdom program found throughout the entire Bible. The kingdom program that virtually every church today allegorizes to some extent. I grew up singing “We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion, Were marching onward to Zion the beautiful city of God.” It’s a catchy song that I really wish I could sing. We don’t sing this song at AGBF. Actually, we don’t sing LOTS of songs found in lots of church hymnals. This song steals words from Israel’s kingdom program and falsely applies them to the body of Christ today. If you are saved today, you are NOT marching to Zion. Zion is primarily defined in scripture as the “city of David”. There are 153 uses of Zion in the OT and only 7 in the NT (Sion). Paul uses the word twice and only to quote an OT reference. These 2 references are in Romans chapters 9-11 where he is talking about Israel’s position dispensationally. So, you are NOT marching to Zion. Zion is in Canaan, or the Promised Land, and that land is not promised to you, it is promised to Israel. God himself guarantees on his Holy name that this land will indeed be occupied by Israel. The church language that we have grown up hearing and repeating and popular hymns that we grew up singing are replete with false teaching and bad doctrine. These days when you point out these obvious problems you are quickly wrote off as crazy. I’m not whining about this, just sad in general that dozens of stolen words flow out of the mouths of preachers and song leaders every Sunday and the people in the pews eat it up as truth. A fairly simple word study like this can be completed in one evening with a slight bit of effort. Truth is not so easy to hear these days. Truth however is not far from your reach. Stealing from Israel is commonplace today. Do you have the guts to seek the truth? I dare you. Do a study on every use of the phrase “for ever” in the OT. Maybe a study of every time God says “I will” in the OT in relation to Israel. Your eyes will be opened I promise you. Is the truth worth one evening? YES! 

As I drive through my neighborhood, hahaha if you can call cows, fields and woods a neighborhood, I regularly see a man sitting on his front porch enjoying his retirement. I have talked to this man a time or two, so I know that is what he is doing. Most days you drive down the street he can be seen rocking the time away relaxing. Now, I am not trying to be too critical here. I tell you this just to make a point. We CHOOSE how we spend our time. We CHOOSE what we do with our lives. We CHOOSE what to invest in and WHOM to invest in. All of us have made some bad choices in our lives, and hopefully we have all made some good ones too. I made a conscious decision at one point in my life that I was not satisfied with where I was in my Bible knowledge. At that point I decided I was not satisfied with just believing what other men said, and that I needed to learn some things for myself. I have not stopped working towards this goal ever since. If you have never made this decision, I challenge you to step up to the plate. I am nowhere where I need to be, but I am glad that I started this process many years ago. I made a conscious decision many years ago that I did not want to live a boring Christian life. You might wonder what in the world this means. Here is what it means. Take some chances. Take some risks. Step out in faith. Don’t be scared to look stupid. Don’t be worried about what others will think. Do something. Don’t just sit on the porch! Don’t just waste your precious time relaxing. I hope you understand that HERE is where your opportunity to get some work done for God is. Here is where you can jump at the chance to accomplish something for the Lord. Here is where the Spirit leads you to accomplish great things for God. I understand that there is work to do in heavenly places also. But God has given you a choice now. That choice is to either sit on the porch and relax, or to lead an exciting Christian life. One that has experienced getting out of your comfort zone from time to time. My dad is 80 years old and still does things many 50-year-olds could not do. Rides his street bike every chance he gets. This is the attitude we need to put into our spiritual walk and work. The never quit attitude. The “I’m never retired” attitude. I am fully aware that most all preachers would look at my church after 7 years and say that I have failed miserably. I am fully aware that if I had labeled myself Baptist instead of Bible Believer that I would probably be looking for a bigger building by now. Terry McLean well said that success in measured in the doctrine taught and not the numbers in the pews. Trust me that I’m glad I took this advise to heart. Plenty of resistance has come from without and even from within. But the only other option is to sit on the porch. Sounds pretty boring to me.        

I don’t have much time to watch TV. I do like to watch YouTube on occasion. Usually it’s fishing, hunting, shooting, dirt bikes, construction, wood working, guitar, Bible study or something mechanical in nature. There are few shows my wife and I watch together regularly. The Voice happens to be one show we do like to watch together. If you’re not familiar, it’s a singing competition. I do enjoy playing guitar and writing music, but I was not born with a voice that is going to win any competitions. I’d like you to read the first half of Proverbs 18:21. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue:” I have always been intrigued with this verse. I feel like the implications of this verse are beyond our grasp. This short phrase should make us stop and pause under the weight of its instruction. Yes, this is an old-testament verse written under the law by a Jewish king. This verse however holds a spiritual truth I believe carries throughout all the dispensations. Paul says it in a different way in the second half of I Corinthians 1:21. “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Like it or not, you have the responsibility to preach. Like it or not, YOU and I have the power of death and life in our tongue. You and I have the opportunity to share Christ many times during each month and sometimes each week. WE DECIDE to hold our tongue or to quench the Spirit each time these opportunities arise. The famous magician Penn Jillette of the duo Penn and Teller, and proclaimed Atheist, is quoted as saying that he has no respect for anyone that claims to be a Christian but does not evangelize. He said he doesn’t understand how much you would have to hate someone to believe that they are headed to Hell and then never try to win them to Christ. (not an exact quote) I hope you clearly see the validity of this man’s opinion. Jesus was confrontational in his witness. The disciples were confrontational in their witness. Stephen was confrontational in his witness. Paul was confrontational in his witness. YOU and I must be confrontational in our witness. All I mean by this is we must use our voice. We must share Jesus with our voice. We must share the mystery with our voice. Some of us are just plain chicken. Some of us are just flat out scared to look stupid. Some of us hold the love of Christ so tightly that we hate those around us. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Read it again: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue:” Read it again: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue:” What power does your tongue display? Death or life. God would have all men saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Those of us that rightly divide know without a shadow of a doubt that most of our Christian friends stuck in denominational churches will never come to the complete truth. God’s plan for your life and my life is to help others accomplish these 2 things in their lives. I need to do better. You? 

I understand clearly that I am not a very traditional minister. I do some strange things from time to time. I tell our church not to believe me just because I said something, but to check it out for themselves. I tell our church you ought not to be tithing. I refrain from the church language you are so accustomed to from spiritual leaders that you believe them when they tell you that God saved them a parking spot right in the front of Wal-Mart’s parking lot. One strange thing I do is race dirt bikes. Now I’m no spring chicken but let me tell you I can put a whopping on a lot of youngsters with a dirt bike. This old dog can teach the kids a thing or two about racing through the woods. There’s the old adage that you can’t teach an “old dog new tricks.” Oh, how I wish you could. My heart breaks over the people I have tried to help learn the mystery and the simplicity there is in Christ. I’m told that when you hear a lie told enough times it becomes the truth. Actually, a lie never becomes the truth, but millions of Christians have heard church tradition taught to them as fact for so many years that they refuse to objectively listen to anything other than what they think they know. Another old adage is: “you don’t know what you don’t know” Let me tell you this, I teach things every Sunday that Christians of 50, 60, or more years have NEVER UNDERSTOOD. It’s not because I am smarter than them, or even studied more then them. I am willing to be corrected by scripture. I am willing to believe the WORDS over the preacher. This does not make me special, just rare. I am willing to be an old dog learning new tricks. We were so blinded by growing up in church that we don’t even know the right questions much less the answers. I just started a new series of lessons on the kingdom. Most preachers have no idea about the clear and obvious differences between the kingdom and heaven. In fact, most preachers read kingdom verses in the gospels and then relate these verses to heaven every Sunday. The “kingdom of heaven” as used by Matthew is God’s rule and reign coming from heaven to earth to reestablish dominion on earth. This is God’s purpose for Israel, not you. You are to reestablish dominion he heavenly places that was lost when Satan convinced angels to follow his rebellion. Why is it that I could get many experienced dirt bike riders to take a little advice from me but the same men would have no interest is discussing spiritual things? I’ll tell you why, we were conditioned by our environment of church tradition to NEVER LISTEN to anyone but our group. This eliminated the possibility of the Holy Spirit being able to teach us anything more from then on. Our “teacher” was our tradition, NOT scripture. I’m 55, so I guess I’m not that old, I’m still chasing and even beating a whole lot of young whipper snappers around the cross-country track. However, I am willing to be corrected by scripture written TO ME. This is a trait you should make a conscience effort to let the Holy Spirit know you have. I tell God regularly that I am willing to change any stance at any time if scripture directs me. You?

One way I enjoy studying scripture is to read a word or phrase in scripture that peaks my interest and then search for all the other occurrences of it. This, by the way, is the best Bible dictionary there is. Your King James Bible will define words for you all the time if you will take the time to find all the other uses of a word throughout scripture. Actually, most times the Bible will define the word in the same verse by repeating the hard word with other words. I started studying Romans 12 tonight and in verse one Paul uses the phrase “I beseech you” Just by reading the previous use of this phrase by Paul in Acts 26:2 you see the Bible helping define the meaning for you by Paul saying “I beseech thee to hear me patiently” when talking to Agrippa. So, it is obvious that Paul means to speak something quite important to Agrippa and is imploring him to listen and understand the gravity of the words. It looks like Paul uses the word beseech about 22 times but I’d like to point your attention to the use in I Cor 1:10.
1Co 1:10 ¶ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Although all 22 uses are important, personally I feel this use is especially pertinent for us today. Paul is imploring us to do 4 things all of which ARE POSSIBLE. Personally, I don’t think many Christians would agree with this statement. Can we ALL speak the same thing, with no divisions, be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment? YES! However, many Christians would say; “sure if you all join my church and believe what my pastor teaches” The Bible position would be; If you would all believe every verse literally, to whom it is addressed, in the age it is intended to be applied. A very simplified version of this principle is to read and apply scripture as Paul instructs by believing that scripture applies to “time past”, “but now”, and the “ages to come” (See Ephesians chapter 2) The false teaching that the Old Testament belongs to Israel and the New Testament belongs to the church is just one of the causes of the myriad of denominations and divisions today. Paul beseeches us to ALL speak the same thing. Only Paul instructs us as to how this is possible. We must rightly divide the scriptures by applying scripture as the Bible instructs and not how the vast majority of popular Bible teachers tell you to. We are to trust the Holy Spirit MORE THAN your favorite commentator. The Holy Spirit penned these words for you:
1Co 4:15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.
Yes, this is your Apostle Paul, beseeching YOU to follow HIM. This is not because Paul is arrogant or a narcissist. This is because the mystery information Jesus revealed to Paul was not known prior to these revelations. Our doctrine must be based on the mystery revealed to Paul. If you refuse this plain and clear teaching you are rejecting the direct and clear teaching of the Holy Spirit. I am beseeching you to follow your Apostle so you can be pleasing to your Savior Jesus. There is no other way. 

​I recently watched a series on TV called Alone. This series is about people dropped off in the wilderness with no food or water. They get some survival items supplied by the show and then 10 items of their choice with some limitations. They only get to survive with a bow, trapping and fishing although they don’t get a fishing rod. I don’t watch reality TV, but I gave this one a shot since someone said it was pretty good. I’m pretty familiar with this type of thing and I would say this show was pretty realistic. This show reminded me of being a right divider of scripture in a few ways. It can feel lonely at times believing your Bible literally and as written. You might feel like your out in the wilderness on your own trying to survive at times. Sometimes there’s an elephant in the room and you’re the cause. If you understand right division, then you understand exactly what I’m talking about. I must admit it was pretty easy to sit in a denominational church and fall in line. It was not survival to sit in a pew and ignore all my questions and wonder why no one teaches all the hard verses and stays clear of hundreds of topics I wondered about. It’s not survival to stick your head in the sand and pretend that you did not see so many things that did not make sense. Becoming a real Bible believer can make you feel alone at times. All I can tell you is this; It’s worth it. Understanding God’s programs is worth it. Understanding God’s purposes is worth it. Understanding God’s will is worth it. Understanding my actual ministry is worth it. Understanding the clear gospel is worth it. Is it hard when your friends are not interested? Yes. It is hard when family does not share your enthusiasm. Yes. Let me encourage you as best as I can. There is no feeling that compares to reading the Bible and having a clear understanding of what is happening and why. There is no feeling like reading portions of scripture that always puzzled you before and now they seem so clear and understandable. There is no feeling like having the confidence, boldness, and utterance to explain proper doctrine to people. There is no feeling like being stablished in proper doctrine. Sometimes it feels a little like survival. Sometimes you can feel like your out in the wilderness alone surviving on squirrels. No remnant had it easy in scripture. Jesus’s ministry ended with 120 in a room. Paul’s ministry ended with entire regions of churches falling back under bondage. I remind you of this; trusting the Bible above anything else is the answer your Christian friends need. Trusting you Bible above anything else is the answer that your unsaved friends and family need. Jesus told his followers that whoever lost his life for his sake would actually find it. There is sacrifice in this dispensation also. We should be willing to lose some things also. We might be few, but were not alone.  God had to remind Elijah of this same principle while he was alone trying to survive. Sometimes we need the same reminder. 

I knew it! With a name like this I knew you could not help but read this blog. Let me explain. I am a hunter. I started hunting because I love the woods. I don’t hunt anything I don’t eat. Well, other than a random pest or two. When you start cooking wild game you find out that you must prepare and cook wild game a bit differently than beef or chicken. One of my favorite ways to prepare deer is to can the meat. Yeah, I already see your nose curling up. Please bear with me in my folly. This is not like homemade Spam. When you can your own meat, it is cooked at high temperature for 75 minutes if your doing pints in glass canning jars. This is by far one of the best ways to eat deer meat. Super tender and it's just sitting on a shelf, no freezer needed for whenever you need a quick meal. You might be thinking it time for me to get to the point. OK, point number one. I would dare say 97% of people I tell about canned deer meat instantly think it sounds disgusting. Did you? I can guarantee close to 97% of the same people I could get to try my canned deer meat would think it’s a great way to eat deer and is delicious. Point number 2 is, it is very hard to get people beyond that initial reaction of “that sounds gross.” If I can get them to try it, I can pretty much guarantee they will not think it’s gross and will probably think it’s great. Still you’re asking; what’s the point? The point is that I sometimes must describe how great canned deer meat is before someone will try it. Our job as ambassadors is very similar. When you first explain to someone that God actually intends for them to be able to understand scripture themselves without running to commentaries and study Bibles, they many times are very skeptical. They were taught that they need highly educated men to explain the Bible to them. They were taught indirectly that they should just believe the preacher and stop asking all the questions. As a minister of the mystery, I must with patience and love explain how awesome it is to understand what God is doing. I must do my best to get people to get beyond the initial thought that they will never completely understand scripture. I need to take the time to help them see the value of becoming a Bible believer. I need to use examples and show them the clarity that scripture can have in their life. Much like explaining to people how great canned deer meat is regardless of their initial reaction to this gourmet delicacy. As a right divider, are you prepared to help people see the benefits of proper Bible study? Can you help people see what they are missing? Think about how you would describe something you know to be great, but others might not be privy to. I don’t mean to be manipulative, but to be able to describe the joy and excitement of truly understanding the Bible. Enthusiasm is contagious because it shows them you are truly excited share. God would have all men saved and then come to the knowledge of the truth. Christians will never come to a knowledge of the truth without understanding the mystery. Are you prepared to share the mystery with enthusiasm and excitement? Can you describe the joy and awe scripture can give when properly understood? If not, learn. If so, go get someone to try canned deer meat. It’s good stuff.   

Paul uses an interesting word four times in scripture that we rarely utter. This word is “utterance”. Some might consider this word outdated or archaic. I call it a Bible word. When you read words in scripture that you don’t understand or use, read all the uses in scripture and let the Bible define the words for you. Paul uses this word twice in reference to praying for his ability to share information about two specific things. In Colossians 4:3 Paul ask for prayers for utterance that he might speak the “mystery of Christ”. In Ephesians 6:19 Paul is asking for prayer for utterance to “make known the mystery of the gospel”. Enquiring minds would want to know, why does Paul think Christ was a mystery (secret)? Jesus himself taught for 3 years and his disciples continued preaching about him. Secondly, Jesus himself taught a gospel and his disciples also continued this message. Yet Paul was asking those around him to pray he might make known the mystery of the gospel and the mystery of Christ. How about you? Do you have an enquiring mind? If you don’t rightly divide, you just read past these statements with no thought to them at all. Maybe you were not taught to pay close attention to every word. Maybe you were taught to look for the general thought or meaning and have never considered WHY Paul thinks Christ and the gospel are a mystery. For those of us that understand right division and understand every word matters, Paul say exactly what he says for a reason because words matter. The mystery information Paul reveals to us about Christ was not taught during Christ’s earthly ministry. The information Paul reveals to us about the mystery gospel of grace was not taught during Jesus’s earthly ministry. This is EXACTLY why Paul calls these a mystery. Paul also understands the weight and importance of the ministry that was entrusted to him. Therefore, he is asking for prayer for open doors and utterance to speak these unsearchable things. Why are we talking about this? I want you to understand that if you understand the mystery, then you cannot be silent about it. You are holding the key to a door that your Christian friends and family CANNOT open without you. They are not being taught the mystery in their churches. You MUST share the mystery regardless of the outcome. The few that will actually study and learn the truth will be eternally grateful. I want you to understand that if you understand the clear gospel of grace that only Paul teaches in scripture, then you MUST share it with your Christian friends and family. They are not hearing a clear gospel in their churches. YOU must be the one with the utterance to share the clear gospel with the confused Christians around you. The few that will compare scripture with scripture will be eternally grateful. Looks to me like there are 135 people that follow our Facebook page. I am praying for 135 people to have the guts to share the mystery with someone. I am praying for 135 people to share the clear gospel with someone. I am praying for your utterance! Go stir the pot a little.