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Always Write Articles
By Dr. James R. Adams, D.D.
Terrorism. Gay Marriage. War for oil. Mistreatment of prisoners. Death and destruction. Hate. Wiretapping. Freedoms downgraded and erased.
Well, the list could be endless when we look at the mess the current administration has made of the nation.
We have become the nation of humiliation and shame.
If these are not the latter days, then we are in much trouble. I would that God would end it all now before the man who Satan placed in office - no, I do NOT believe God put Bush there - ruins us completely. He is a laughing stock and a disappointment to us all.
But, the end time must play out.
The administration will continue on the one hand to pretend Biblical adherence and, on he other hand, shout with the pagans "Peace, peace." If once Bush actually picked up a Bible, he would KNOW there will be no peace no matter how many of our soldiers he sends to be slaughtered and to slaughter others.
To say we live in perilous times is a gross under statement. But, they are times that undoubtedly MUST come and remain for a season. The anti-Christ must be ushered in. Satan is raising his ugly head.
A fall from a bicycle is nothing. Choking on a pretzel is nothing. Inability to string two sentences together is nil. There awaits a much larger "prize" for the one who leads God's people down this path.
May God help us see where we are in prophecy and what a mess the world is in.
Because a man screams that he is a Christian does not mean He follows our Lord.
Be warned.
God is not mocked.
Our nation is under siege from within it's own walls...the Oval office walls.
May God have mercy. If we do not correct this in 2008, we will see more death, more war, more cruelty and more war.
-30-
THE KILLING OF AMERICA
By James R. Adams, D.D.
I love America, don't get me wrong. So, forget telling me to leave it.
But, the truth be told, we are sinking to new lows of late.
Looks at us:
(1) We have allowed a warmongering illiterate to purchase the oval office and then do as he pleases, flaunting his arrogance before a scoffing world, most of whom want to kill him before he kills them.
(2) Because of that, we are in a war that this un-president says was over two years ago as our soldiers are murdered every single day now.
(3) We have a government that takes from the poor and gives to the rich - and actually puffs it as "progress."
(4) We brag about killing homosexuals like Matthew Shepherd, and then attempt to pass a law that a man can actually marry - and legally have sex with - another man! In addition, one of our major denominations heralds a gay female "pastor" and okays her lifestyle!
(5) We elevate an openly gay man to the post of bishop in one of the world's most powerful "religions" and then stand amazed that the church is splitting over it.
(6) We now have a supreme court actually looking at whether we should allow "In God" to remain in our country's pledge of allegiance!
(7) Even the Christian cannot decide which Bible to make use of to tell the story in a "new" way more palatable to the world.
There are so many more foolish things for which we need God's forgiveness, but I will stop at God's prefect number... seven.
Wake up, Christian. The world won't.
America is the laughing stock of the world... were some not crying for us.
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OH, PREACHER BOY!
By James R. Adams, D.D,
Oh, how we in the church - and specifically in the pulpit - need a knee-bending, tear streaming revival of the heart for the lost!
In 2007, allow me to echo Leonard Ravenhill as far back as 1950:
"Preachers who have homes and cottages by the lake, a boat on that lake, and a big bank balance, still beg for more. With such extortionists and unjust men, can God entrust Holy Ghost revival? These dear, doll-like preacher-boys no longer change their suits once a day, but two or three times a day. They preach the Jesus of the stable, but themselves live in swank hotels. For their own lusts they bleed the audience financially in the Name of the One who had to borrow a penny to illustrate His sermon. They wear expensive, Hollywood suits in honor of the One who wore a peasant's robe. They feast on three-dollar steaks in remembrance of the One who fasted alone in the desert. Today as evangelist is not only worthy of his hire (so he thinks), but of compound interest. How fearful will all this be in the judgment morning!"
With the exception of the three buck steak, this could have been written this morning.
We have fewer and fewer folks saved today because of the cheap commercialization of the Gospel!
Listen to a watered down sermon long enough, listen to the TV hawkers of easy-believism long enough, listen to the boogie-woogie beat gospel long enough -- and the world perishes in the midst of it all.
But just be sure to send in that dollar.
Tears for the lost?
Surely you jest, preacher boy.
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GOD LOVES YOU!
By James R. Adams, D.D.
1 Corinthians 13:13
"God loves you ... and so do I!"
You've heard it said; you have formed an opinion of the statement and no one will change that opinion and that is not what this post is about... changing your attitude toward it.
God loves you. It is just fact.
I do, too. It is just fact.
Taken separately, they are two of the most awesome and precious phrases in the human language. Together they form the most life-transforming products of joy!
The first (God loves you) is just basic fact to the Christian - we believe and therefore affirm that God LOVES everyone with an awesome, sacrificial love... we are His creation and it is natural that He loves us all and seeks
our best. Thus, He freely gave of Himself (Jesus) to pay for the sin which is mankind's under the fall. It matters not what we THINK of the why's and wherefore's of that fall (i.e. why did God allow sin to be a part of it all?);
it remains that it IS there (rebellion) and He made provision to escape the consequences by sending the best that heaven had... His Son Jesus Christ.
Yes, God loves you.
The second part (...and I do, too!) is the real sparkler. Some have recently decided that, because a Christian chooses to stand on the complete Word (i.e. love, joy, compassion AND God's detesting of sin and the coming judgement of and on sin), that we (I) do not therefore show "love".
Some maintain that love must be "tolerant" to the point of allowing any and all "dogma", "isms" and "beliefs" to filter out the truth of the Word of God. I disagree and therefore stand on the Word, rather than the "thoughts" of man. For the born-again, there is NO OTHER need than the precious Word of God - we do not seek nor believe nor pretend to receive any "other gospel". There IS none; thus we minister it and it alone. Since we have that knowledge, some (I) get headstrong and, at times, downright bullish about it. We (I) believe it that strongly.
Now: To say "I love you" is TELLING love (we can all do that and should) and it is so easily and readily received because it costs nothing. Yet -- to really love is to care enough to warn of the precipice ahead and the ditch awaiting when we see it and others do not or will not. That is CARING love. Both are good, but the latter (for me anyway) is the ultimate.
When I started out (goodness, almost two years now?), I was filled to capacity and overflowing with that TELLING love. I shared and others joined in and it was exciting. When a question arose from a lost person, it was sincere and the Word was received and grew as evidenced by much kind and exciting E-mail received. It was a real ministry of love - caring love and telling love.
What the various subs have become today, however, are a far cry from that kind of ministry. Where Christians shared and witnessed, now pagans and wiccas subvert the subs and do so ONLY to cause strife and arguments (which they get because ALL Christians do not sit down for such, nor should they). It is a plan well carried out; but still - IF we love these people with a CARING love we will NOT allow them to go to hell without our expounding the facts of God's Word. God never told us to expound only to those who would be open to it, but to "the world" ... and then, when they receive, rejoice; when they reject, dust the feet and go on.
Do I love the wicca and pagan? My, yes; it is a CARING love that says "you are in gross error - turn now while there is time - while the blood of Jesus is still made available to you -- while there is room at the cross -- you are in error and headed toward a massive ditch ... turn."
I do not apologize for this kind of love. It may be misunderstood; but it is necessary. If the pagan, wiccan or any other "ism" (which is, to the Christian, part of the anti-Christ spirit) wants tolerance, I will gladly
"tolerate" them listening to God's Word and coming to Him through the blood of Jesus as we ALL must ere Jesus returns...to be saved by the wonderful grace of God through FAITH in Him.
The true Christian MUST stand up and be counted for Christ if the lost are ever going to be won -- they may scream "intolerance!" let me be me and die and go to hell if I want to"; but we cannot, MUST not let them do that without planting the seed of God's Word. For indeed the Word is true when it tells us that that person's blood will be required at OUR hands.
I have been called names and all such silliness, which amounts to naught; but I would rather be called His Slave and all that than to have that person stand before Christ and say "Accept Jesus Christ? Repent of sin and turn to God? He never told me it was this way!"
Listen, God loves you.
So do I.
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THE CHURCH OF APPEASE
By James R. Adams, D.D.
There appears to be only three types of people in the world today: those who are afraid, those who do not know enough to be afraid, and those who know their Bibles.
Sodom was a country with no churches, no prayer meetings, no preachers, no gospel tracts, no TV evangelists - and it perished!
How then shall we who live in America with all our scores of side by side churches and mounting "preachers", and new "Bibles" coming out almost every day, fare? We have it all, and yet we appease sin.
A major problem is that men build churches and do not enter them. They build churches which now appease - not oppose sin.
Look at us this very day as you read this.
The world is divided as to the gross sin of homosexuality. Even many "churches" and "christians" are screaming that gay marriage is just fine "because times have changed." The fact is they are right, times have changed. However, God has NOT changed and never will. Sin remains sin.
We appease, not oppose.
Churches sit empty on Wednesday night for the most part. Visitation programs are nil and void. We have no time for witnessing to the lost. The cry is "live and let live."
We appease, not oppose.
We are in a war which we picked ourselves and divided over the daily deaths of our soldiers. We have become a warmonger, arrogant country bent on controlling the world in a Hitler-like government. We are called upon to love and cherish one another and we strike out - whether struck AT or not.
We appease, not oppose.
Every form of spurious religious cult has moved across our soils, and we cower and leave them alone lest we become seen as intolerant bigots. Where are the Elijah's who mock Baal and accost him in his nest?
We appease - not oppose.
And the list goes on.
Decide today. We need to stop seeking scapegoats for the FACT that God hates sin. We need to stop blaming TV or radio...or McDonalds and Wendy's. The blame for the fat decline and decay of morality in our country lies securely at the door of the church.
The church is no longer a thorn in the side of the world. People laugh us to scorn when we do finally speak up, and depict us as silly giddy womanizers on television and in the "movies".
Church, we cannot afford any longer to believe that we are presenting the New Testament standard to mankind while living such a substandard of Christian life. We have done so for so long now that the world finds us no more than a redbug bite which can be neutralized with alcohol!
Samuel Chadwick said it best many centuries ago:
"The sign of Christianity is NOT a cross, but a tongue of fire!"
But, we have spit out the fire and replaced it with a massive soft marshmallow!
We are now the Church of Appease.
What will God do with the lukewarm church?
God, help us stand up against sin again!
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IT HAPPENED THAT WAY
By James R. Adams, D.D.
Okay, world, it happened.
Try. We will never get over it.
The film, THE PASSION OF CHRIST, will begin its showing tomorrow.
The "world" is griping because the 12 hours of horror are exactly that. The Jews are throwing a maxi-fit because their heritage is in question.
Get over it?
Mel Gibson tells it like it was.
It was not a golden cross glittering in the white washed halls of a fancy yancy church edifice. It was an old, rugged, splintery, heavy and blood-soaked log.
Jesus was not sitting there with his fingers crossed and a gentle smile on his rouged face.
He was being literally - not figuratively - slaughtered.
It was MEANT to be a slaughter. He was, after all, paying the going price for MY sin.
Today, I am so sorry that my sin is so great that Jesus had to endure all that horror. But, I cannot change that by denying it.
The Jewish community will not change history by denying it either. But, wait, neither will the Gentiles.
The One who "put" Jesus through all that was not the Jew nor the Gentile not Pilate.
It was His Father. It was the plan.
There was a whipping that cut the blood and scattered bits of flesh. There was a crudely fashioned crown of ripping thorns which caused excruciating pain and loss of blood. There was a hammer and rusty nails that split flesh and gouged bloody holes in His hands and feet. There was a spear that ripped open His heart valve. There was spitting and hitting and shouts and grit and grime.
The price was being paid. For me.
I could not have stood up under it all.
According to scripture, the price HAD to be paid.
The cost was tremendous.
The world does not want to think about it, let alone SEE it. Mel Gibson makes (or allows) us to see it anyway.
I applaud him.
But, more than that, I applaud God, the Father.
He allowed it all to happen for one reason.
Because He loved me.
It was ugly. It was sickening. It was horrifying. It was grotesque. It was bloody. It was egregious. It was disturbing.
It happened that way.
Try.
You'll never get over it.
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CHURCH - WAKE UP!
By James R. Adams, D.D.
Church....awaken!
It is far passed time for the church (the born-again, baptized, sanctified, Holy Ghost-filled, fervent servant of God) to be militant again!
She was at one time in history, praise God ... people knew that the church meant business for God. The lost knew that, to face a Christian was to face DEATH ... death to sin, death to self, death to sickness and disease, death to doubt and unbelief...and they trembled before her... and got saved in the process. We were militant for Jesus, the anointed of God!
We were a powerful army marching across this land and there are thousands, yea, millions who are glad we were.BUT, we have let down our defenses in the face of the folly of satan who began to scream "intolerance" and "let live" and "anyway is okay as long it all leads to being kind one to another", etc ad nauseum! God forbid! We are not even PROTESTants anymore...just non-Catholics! We PROTEST nothing anymore in our churches and in our lives as Christians ...We say "Oh, I have a VISION..."
Why, not even ol' Gideon got in any trouble for having his vision! It is ACTION that stirs hell and its demon forces and gets them whipped! GO...DO.. those are the marching orders of the church!I am a FAITH preacher, you better believe that! BUT, while power is good, miracles are real and precious, healing is ours today as yesterday for He changes not, the gifts are real and wonderful and powerful...all these we MAY have as Christians (they are God's to give us and He does!)...but what we MUST have is a MESSAGE! (That message is the good news..the GOSPEL of life, death, burial and resurrection of our Lord as preached in 1 Corinthians 15).
Not popular preaching in the 2000's? SO?
"We want to keep harmony in the church, home and in business, etc...and that stuff is not my business!" Well, what IS your business, church? People are dying and splitting hell wide open every day because we are not militant (fervent) anymore as we once were!
We WILL answer before the just God one day, church...CHRISTIAN!!!!To KNOW they are lost and yet neglect to share because we are afraid they will think we are not "tolerant" is damning to us ... and, most of all, to them! It is a shame to us as a people...God's people! We scream that we are a Christian nation when we get slandered... but we have stopped being MILITANT and FERVENT... and do not think the world does not know it!
Know this: The Bible still says without repentance..." How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?" Escape what? The wrath of God against sin.Well, Brother Jim, we are not militant because we are not at war!NOT at WAR? My God, how plain can God make it for us... how PLAIN can satan make it for us? We are constantly in spiritual warfare... we have been TOLD to get up every single day and put on the FULL armor of God that we might be able to resist satan and his silly imps...fiery darts come our way daily (just get on these subs and see what silly little darts are thrown! In fact, watch for the darts which come from BOTH sides of the army at this post!)
It shows how FAR we are removed from the militancy we once had as THE church of God!Paul got busy and we should, too! Paul was a city-wide shaker, glory to God!When he preached, he ransacked Asia Minor! He messed up markets! He stirred synagogues! He flamboozled the Pharisees!
Hallelujah! After his revival in Macedonia, they were NEVER the same!
Anywhere the Gospel is preached with fervency and militant Christians take up the banner of the cross, it SHAKES hell and it shakes people!The church today has become like the sons of Sceva in Acts 19... trying to cast out demons in someone else's name (cults abound, new ages, wiccy wacky, maryism, Buddhism, anything-but-truthism, etc) ... and the world is saying "Jesus I know, and Paul I know...but WHO are YOU!?"Who are you, church? Are you known in hell today? It's time to establish our name (in Jesus!) again church... stand up! STAND UP!!!!
I want satan to wake up every morning screaming "Oh noooooooooooooooo....Bro Jim is up again!" And I want that for the church of the living God!
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EVEN BETTER... JUST AHEAD
By James R. Adams, D.D.
Here in North Carolina where I am privileged to reside, we recently lost the oldest living veteran in our country. He was African American Robert Hodges of Pamlico County.
Just one day short of veteran`s day, he died at Craven Regional Medical Center in New Bern, NC. Hodges served in the army in World War I. Officials say there is some question as to Hodges` exact age, but the most reliable records showed him to be close to 114-years-old.
We who have lived even half that time cannot begin to imagine what his eyes had seen come to pass.
I remember the Blair (Oklahoma) Enterprise newspaper back in the 60's.
At the Enterprise, I was a young newspaperman who was alternately editor, sportswriter, and ad salesman. It also fell my lot to arrive at work at 4:30 a.m. to light the furnaces which would melt blocks of metal for the day so we could print a newspaper later in the day! The metal was used for both typesetting and for pictures. Back then, we thought that was the ultimate in publishing genius.
For sure, at the close of each week, we had earned our $75 check, for we were technological geniuses!
Now, by God's infinite grace, I have lived long enough to enjoy and be amazed by the computer age (and even that has moved forward by leaps and bounds from its inception).
If the Bible is true and I believe it is, then we cannot even begin to conceive of all that God has for us. Allowing even for the small story above, consider both testaments:
Isaiah 64:4
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waited for him.
(Whole Chapter: Isaiah 64 In context: Isaiah 64:3-5)
1 Corinthians 2:9
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
So many of you who read this could tell such quips as I have. Whatever our age, we have been given the gift of life and along with that came this amazing Technicolor sport called progress. I see it as one of God's greatest gifts.
Just when we feel we have come to the ultimate in life, design, technology, etc., God surprises us with even more knowledge and insight. How marvelous are His ways of siphoning off just enough to make us thrill in our hearts at how wise we surely must be. Then, His time passes and suddenly we arrive at something even better.
Believe me, that's what I am counting on.
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THE PALM TREE LESSON
By James R. Adams, D.D.
There is a tremendous lesson for me in the palm tree. I have ministered on the palm for many years, using it as lesson for we who have reached the “mature” years of our lives.
For one, the palm tree fruit, once it has ripened, falls to the ground and turns to sugar!
What a tremendous lesson that is for this elder generation! We need to become sweeter as the years go by, not bitter.
Yet, as I sat beneath the ,my willow tree, Holy Spirit preached the passage to me in a very new way for the purpose of this article.
He reminded me that there is but one thing that is a sure killer of the palm tree.
Mind you, the palm can withstand intense drought, hurricane force winds, sloppy pruning, etc. It will simply bend and stay strong at the root and withstand it all.
But, the palm tree cannot withstand the cold. The cold will bring certain death.
The same holds true with us as Christian men and women. If we become haughty, then what follows is that we become cold. We look down our collective noses at those who do not believe as we do or those who seemingly do not know what we “know”.
Immediately - oftimes in a single word or look - we lose our testimony. We abolish forever our good report. What integrity might have been ours is suddenly, most often irreversibly, lost to the very person we desired to touch.
To become cold is to die. To allow our love, our faith, our compassion, praise, worship or witness to get cold and unfeeling...we die.
Am I advocating that we not be a witness of our faith?
Absolutely not. I am advocating simply that our witness be a loving, sharing, kind exchange of thought. I am advocating the type of witnessing which leaves both sides feeling that they want to know more and anxious to be together again for such an exchange.
Somehow, with God alive in our hearts, I believe it can be done. After all, His word assures us that we "shall flourish like the palm tree." (Psalm 92:12-15)
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Thank you for reading and sharing ALWAYS WRITE. We pray to be a blessing to you. If you liked this article, we offer more here:
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Dr. James R. Adams is a retired career newspaper editor, minister and author of nine inspirational books. He currently resides with his wife, Patricia, in Pink Hill, NC where he continues to write books. The theme ALWAYS WRITE refers to his writing and is not a declaration of anything more than his offering of loaves and fishes to a hungry world. Adams is director of Sheer Joy! Ministries. His articles and books have been a blessing to many worldwide.
Please encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe or, with their permission, subscribe for them. Please feel free to print, copy, forward, and/or share these articles unaltered for any non-commercial purpose.
Unless otherwise noted Sheer Joy! Press, or the author hold the copyright on all material appearing in this letter.
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