The Miraculous
Genetics of the Messiah
12-25-07
by Tad Lindley
But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman... (Galatians 4:4)
On my dad’s side I inherited a receding hairline, my last name, and my chin. On my mother’s side I get my eye color, my mitochondrial DNA, and my crooked pinkies.
About two thousand ten years ago a baby was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a stone feeding trough in a cave in Bethlehem. This baby had a mother and a father also. We don’t know the day the birth happened. There is even debate about what year he was born. In fact there is a 99.7% chance that it took place on some day other than December 25th, and it probably took place B.C. In spite of what we are not sure of, there are some very certain facts about Jesus Christ.
This infant was like no other before or after. Mary’s later children would be conceived naturally, but Jesus was conceived supernaturally. He was born of a virgin. She became pregnant when the Holy Ghost overshadowed her. So the child that she bore is called the Son of God.
On His Father’s side
We also know that Jesus was not a lesser God, a junior God, nor one-third of God. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 2:9) II Corinthians 5:19 tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. We know also from I Timothy that there is no controversy about the mystery of who Jesus was: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (3:16)
On His mother’s side
Jesus was the Son of Man. He possessed in his body all the human frailty that you and I do. He was born, was the eldest son to Mary and stepson to Joseph, lived as a man, and died in about 29 AD at the age of 33 years.
He was fully God and fully man
On his mother’s side, After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. (Matthew 4:2)
On his Father’s side, he would feed 5,000 people from five loaves and two fish and there would be twelve baskets full of leftovers. (Matthew 14:13-21)
On his mother’s side, Jesus would weep at the death of his close friend Lazarus. (John 11:35)
On his Father’s side, Jesus would stand outside the tomb of his decomposing friend and cry with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth”. (John 11:43)
On his mother’s side, Jesus would know grief.
On his Father’s side, he would become “the resurrection and the life”. (John 11:25)
On his mother’s side, Jesus would be tempted. (Matthew 4) In fact, would be in all ways tempted, just as we are. (Hebrews 4:15)
On his Father’s side, would overcome temptation and remain sinless.
On his mother’s side, Jesus would be the only begotten son of the Father. (John 3:16)
On his Father’s side, he would be the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8)
On his mother’s side, he would be seriously injured to the point of death on the cross.
On his Father’s side, he would heal the sick, and open deaf ears, blind eyes, and dumb tongues.
On his mother’s side he would give up the ghost as he hung on a wooden cross. (John 19:30)
On his Father’s side, he is the Holy Ghost. (Acts 3:20)
On his mother’s side he was perceived as the lowly illegitimate son of Joseph the carpenter. (John 8:41)
On his Father’s side it is written, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
There has never been another like Jesus. One of the most beautiful passages of scripture describes the events surrounding the placing of almighty God in human flesh. It is found in John 1:14: And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. On his mother’s side, fully man. On his Father’s side, fully God. It is the miraculous genetics of Jesus.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
Are you Smoking Flax?
12-12-07
by Tad Lindley
A long time ago the Yup’iks used seal oil lamps. They looked like little bowls or saucers. They would pour a pool of seal oil into the saucer and then make a wick out of moss or some other fiber. The wick would soak up oil and when exposed to fire would produce light and heat. In the land of Israel, they also used oil lamps, except instead of seal oil, they used olive oil.
With oil lamps, unless properly tended, the flames eventually die down and the wick begins to smolder, making lots of smoke but no light and little heat. You may have seen candles do this. When I was growing up, we liked to lick our thumb and first finger and squeeze the wick of a lit candle. This extinguished the flame and kept the wick from smoking. When you put out a wick that way, you are “quenching” it completely. Absolutely no heat remains.
Jesus referred to this phenomenon of smoldering wicks. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench; till he sends forth justice to victory (Matthew 12:20 NKJV). The smoking flax that Jesus is talking about is the wick of an oil lamp. It is a beautiful picture of Jesus’ love for us. Even if we have fallen, and the light has gone out of our lives, he will not extinguish the smoldering wick. Instead, he wants to reignite our smoking flax. (At least until the Day of Judgment comes. Then all people that are not burning bright will perish.)
Light is life
The Lord’s second creative act in scripture was to bring forth light. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth, and the earth was without form and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (Genesis 1:1-3). John’s gospel reveals even more. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without him was nothing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men (John 1:1-4).
Take a look at what happened in the beginning
Out of the mouth of God came the words “Let there be light.” And when those words hit the emptiness and desolation of darkness, they brought forth light. When the word of God hit the earth, it brought forth the atmosphere and water, then land and seas. When the word of God hit the barren ground it brought forth plants, and then he spoke out into space and when the breath of God hit space, space began to bring forth the stars and the sun and the moon. And when the word of God hits the smoking flax, it brings forth light!
God ignites the smoking flax
If you don’t believe me, why don’t you ask the widow of Zarephath (I Kings 17:16). The word of God hit her flour bin and her oil bottle, and they never ran out.
Ask the woman caught in adultery. The word of God hit the stain of her sin, “Then neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more,” and she walked away forgiven (John 8:11).
Go ask Naaman. He submitted himself to the word of God. The seventh time he was under water, the word of God made contact with his body and he rose up healed from leprosy (II King 5)!
Go ask the woman with an issue of blood. All of her money wasted on physicians, but the word of God came right out of the mouth of Jesus and touched her body, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Luke 8:48). Immediately the flow of blood was stopped!
How about blind Bartimaeus? The people tried to quench him. They told him to quit yelling. To them he was just a smoking flax, a nuisance in their nostrils. But he cried out even louder, “Jesus, thou son of David have mercy on me.” The people wanted to quench Bartimaeus, but Jesus wanted to turn on the lights. The very word of Jesus Christ opened up the lenses, retinas, and optic nerves, and Blind Bartimaeus wasn’t blind any more! (Mark 10:46-52)
Are you smoking flax?
If you do not have joy in your life, you are smoking flax. You may have known true joy at some time in the past, but the fire has died down and now all you have left is smoking flax, a smoldering wick. It may be that people have tried to quench you. They have written you off as hopeless. You may even have given up hope. There is one who still believes in you. When Jesus sees the smoking flax in your life, he does not want to crush you. He does not want to squeeze the life out of your wick. Jesus wants to speak to your situation. These are the words that he wants to say: “Let there be light.”
Jesus will not force you to have victory. He is waiting for your call. Blind Bartimaeus knew his situation was desperate. Out of his desperation, he cried out, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.” And Jesus said, “Let there be light.”
Jesus knows right where you are. Turn to him, and he will give you light and life.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
If Peter was your Pastor
12-4-07
by Tad Lindley
He was a rough man. By modern standards, he probably never finished high school or earned a GED. He was rash and quick tempered. He even turned his back on Jesus during Jesus’ darkest hour.
Then on the day of Pentecost in about 29 A.D. Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:4). He came out of his old life and into the new. This uneducated and unmannered fisherman stepped onto the world scene and became a powerful fisher of men. The first time that Peter preached, the response was tremendous. Three thousand people repented and were baptized! (2:14-41)
What if Peter was your pastor?
How would things be different if Peter was your pastor? Assume that Peter spoke English or Yup’ik (which as far as we know he didn’t), and took the pastor’s position at your church. Across time, the teachings of many churches has become polluted with philosophy, and watered down with comfort. Peter would need to do some serious house cleaning.
Peter’s credential
There may be some skeptics out there who are telling themselves, “Peter was just a man, and I don’t follow men, I follow God”. Well, if you follow God, then you would have to concede that Peter was chosen by Jesus to be the spokesman for the church. Jesus gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19). He possessed the salvation message that would open up the kingdom of heaven to all men.
The salvation message
We live in a day where preachers often tell people that they are saved simply by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart. You will not find Peter preaching this anywhere in the New Testament. Peter’s salvation message went something like this: Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38). You’ll find it again in Acts 3: Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you (3:19-20).
On baptism
Today there are many preachers that will call a person saved or converted when they raise their hand and admit that they have accepted Jesus into their heart. Not Peter. Peter taught that we should obey the gospel (I Peter 4:17). This means there is much more than simply believing, it means action on the part of the believer.
In Apostle Peter’s church, baptism is essential, and it is done by immersing people in water, never by sprinkling or pouring. Believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the first step, but it is not the endpoint. On the day of Pentecost 3,000 people repented and were baptized in Jesus’ name after Peter finished preaching (Acts 2:41). At Cornelius’ house, even after the people had believed the message concerning Jesus and been filled with the Holy Ghost, Peter commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord (Acts 10:48).
Peter also intended for you and I to be baptized as well. Peter considered Jesus’ name baptism to be so important for our salvation, that he likened it to Noah’s ark which saved the species of man. …In the days of Noah, while the ark was being built, in which eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth now also save us… (I Peter 20).
On the Holy Ghost
Today people are receiving the Holy Ghost just like in the book of Acts. It is happening in many denominations across the planet. While some preachers still white knuckle it and deny the power of godliness that Jesus promised (see Acts 1:8), most at least admit that God is still baptizing people with his Spirit.
Rare is the preacher that will take the same stand that Peter did. You see Peter felt it was essential for believers to receive the Holy Ghost. Take a look in your Bible (Acts 8). Phillip had experienced tremendous revival in Samaria. People were healed, demons were cast out, and there was great joy in the city. The people believed on Jesus Christ and they were baptized in Jesus name, but they had not received the Holy Ghost. Most modern preachers would be content to call them saved. When the church in Jerusalem heard about it they apparently were concerned that the Samarians had not yet experienced the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Peter and John hightailed it up to Samaria. Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. (Acts 8:15-17)
If Peter was your pastor
He would command everybody that believes and has repented to be baptized in Jesus’ name. Furthermore, he would be very concerned if the people in the church had not received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I realize that Peter is as human as the rest of us, but he preached a message that he received straight from Jesus and in Peter’s own words, We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29)
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
Boss Won’t Give You a Raise?
Give Yourself a Raise, Tithe
11-26-07
by Tad Lindley
Very few people feel like they get paid enough. Such was the case with a young couple I know. They approached the administration of a large church in a Western city. They were inquiring about joining that particular assembly. It seems that to be eligible to be a member, they would have to pay 3% of their income to the church as a sort of membership dues. This seemed like such an exorbitant amount to the young couple, that they sought a second opinion.
My advice: get away from that church in a hurry. If the church doesn’t preach and teach 10% of your income plus offerings, you ought to be running out the door as fast as you can, because they are probably going to shortchange you in other areas as well.
What is tithing?
It is common to hear people say, “I give a 2% tithe every month.” What they are really saying is, “I make a huge sacrifice and give about 2% of my pay after subtracting income taxes and babysitting expenses and a 35¢ per mile driving allowance.” Unfortunately, this is a real misunderstanding of the concept of tithing.
Tithe literally means tenth, or 10%. In particular, tithing refers to the Biblical teaching to give the first 10% of your increase to support the work of God. Therefore people who give less than 10% are not tithing at all. They might be twenty-thing (giving 5%), or dozen-thing (giving 8.33%), but they are not tithing. In fact, they are stealing from God: “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.”But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ Look at God’s response. “In tithes and offerings”. (Malachi 3:8 NIV) When we withhold tithes and offerings, according to the Bible, we are robbing God of what is rightfully his.
Let me go even further and state this. The tithes are to go into the storehouse to support your local pastor and church (if the local leader is an ungodly man or engaged in drunkenness and other immoral behavior or false doctrine, give your tithes to the church that feeds you when you travel). Tithes do not go to traveling evangelists, missionaries, or televangelists. Any giving to evangelists or missionaries is above and beyond the tithe. It is what the Bible refers to as an offering. As for televangelists, I recommend throwing your TV in the dumpster and reading your Bible instead.
The strange mathematics of Jesus
A quick overview of the income and expenses reveals to us that pulling out 10% only leaves us with 90%, which means we might have to work a second job, or move into a cheaper apartment to live the way we want to. What we don’t realize is that God is the provider of all things, and that when a human being makes up his mind to give to God, he will be entering a new realm of mathematics.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it”. (Malachi 3:10 NIV). The baffling part about the Lord is that a tither with less than 90% of his gross pay will feel much more financially secure than a non-tither with 100% of his gross pay.
Time to testify
Don’t confuse me with a televangelist. I do not serve God because I see it as a pathway to getting rich. I serve God because of his excellent greatness, because when I was perishing in sin he pulled me out of darkness into his marvelous light. But the fact remains that God seems to enjoy blessing those who bless him.
Before moving to the AVCP region I had never been exposed to tithing. It was a strange new concept to me. Upon getting married I had a talk with God. It went something like this: “Lord, I’m going to start tithing, but I’m doing it with the understanding that you will take care of me. Especially Lord, I want two things. I want to be able to go back home once a year to see my family, and I don’t want to go hungry.”
God has met me on my two requests, and blessed me in many others. It is truly amazing. I hadn’t even been baptized in Jesus’ name, hadn’t received the gift of the Holy Spirit, but I had faith that if I would be obedient to God that he would bless me. There was enough of an understanding in my heart that Jesus doesn’t do his mathematics on a number line, and I acted upon it. When I obeyed it enabled Jesus to open up the windows of heaven.
Now, about that raise you been looking for
If you are a skeptic, ask someone who tithes and their testimony will be, “I am blessed by it.” There are even those who can testify to great financial blessings because they were tithing and didn’t even attend church: loans repaid early, cars that ran forever, freezers that always stayed full, unexpected checks in the mail. If you aren’t making enough at your job and your employer won’t give you a raise, give yourself a raise, tithe. It won’t make sense, but it will happen. It’s the mathematics of Jesus.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
When a Man
Misses the Right Turn
11-23-07
by Tad Lindley
It is hard for a man to admit that he is wrong. A sure way for a wife to get her husband upset is to tell him that he is lost. It only exacerbates the situation. He is frustrated at not knowing where he is, but then to have someone volunteer the truth can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
The wife, trying to be helpful, might calmly suggest that her husband pull in to a gas station to ask directions, but that is not how he hears it. For a bull-headed man, she might as well have, “Admit it, you are a failure as a man. Pull in to that gas station over there and slink up to the clerk and tell them that you are a loser who can’t find his way from here to there.” Often times, a man has to get very desperate to overcome his pride and admit that he needs help.
Strange events at Ephesus
What follows is almost unbelievable. A stranger showed up in town. He saw a group of about twelve men. He walked up to them and told them they were wrong. Without any excuses, arguments, or name calling, every single man there immediately admitted that he didn’t know everything there was to know!
Here’s exactly what happened
The Apostle Paul had just arrived in Ephesus. He ran into a group of about twelve men who followed the teaching of John the Baptist (John had been dead over twenty years by this time). He said unto them, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
And they said unto him, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.”
And [Paul] said unto them, “Unto what then were ye baptized?”
And they said, “Unto John’s baptism.”
Then said Paul, “John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.”
When they heard this, they said, “Paul, what I experienced is good enough for me.” No, that’s not it.
When they heard this, they said, “Paul, I felt goose bumps go all up and down my back, thanks for your concern, but I know I’m saved, because I feel saved”. No, that’s not it.
When they heard this, they said, “Paul, my parents and my whole family were baptized with John’s baptism. There’s only one God, it’s just that there are many ways to get to him”. No, that’s not it.
They did not make any excuses. They did not try to justify or rationalize. They saw the truth, and they submitted to it. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. (Acts 19:1-6)
They missed their turnoff about 21 years back there
This group of John the Baptist believers were supposed to have become Christians after the day of Pentecost 21 years prior. Unfortunately, they had somehow missed their turn. They continued on preaching and teaching as John had. The Apostle Paul within the space of three verses told them that they had not been baptized correctly and they had not received the Holy Ghost. Most folks would have walked away angry. Not these men. They wanted to see God. Their desire for God was greater than their pride. As soon as they saw that there was more to living for God than what they had yet experienced, they wanted it.
Have you missed your turn?
I was sure I was saved. I had quit most of my bad habits. I was a good provider. I “tithed” (after taxes of course). I went to church about three times a month. I felt saved. I had even begun to believe in Jesus. I might even have been “saved” according to the standards of many churches. The truth of the matter is I had missed the turn. I was just as lost as these men in Ephesus that Paul confronted maybe more so, because I didn’t want to admit that I had not obeyed the word of God.
I had to decide whether I was going to have faith in the teachings of the Presbyterian Church that sprinkled water on my head as an infant using the words “in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”, or if I was going to have faith in the word of God. I chose to trust in God rather than in men.
The right turn
If you are more interested in following a religious tradition than in following the Bible, stop reading here. Turn the page and read the Guilty in the Courts column.
Reader that has stayed on, if you are hungry for Jesus and have repented of your sins, God wants to bless you even more. The Bible teaches us that when we have repented, we need to be baptized (completely immersed in water) in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). You may have been sprinkled on the head as an infant in the titles Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. That is the pattern of religion. It is not the pattern of scripture (Mark 16:16, Luke 24:47, Acts 2:38, 4:12, 8:16, 19:5, 22:16, Romans 6:4, Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:5, I Peter 3:21). Just like these men at Ephesus who saw the truth and grabbed hold of it, you too will receive the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues. This is a promise from the word of God …and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call (Acts 2:38-39).
God is calling. Turn here.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Are you too good for God?
11-13-07
by Tad Lindley
“Don’t you ever talk to black people!” the mother screamed at her toddler as she scooped him up from the steps by the sidewalk. (“Black people” is nicer than the actual word she used). My friend, Shondo Green, was shocked. The young boy was sitting out on the step by himself. Shondo was on his way to my house and had stopped to talk to this handsome toddler pretending to be grown up. The little boy’s mother came running out of the house. She snatched the child up with out directly acknowledging Shondo. She left my friend standing on the cold stone sidewalk humiliated and degraded, her words echoing across his soul.
Can a “Christian” be too good for God?
If you grew up in the neighborhood I did, you would understand that this woman took her children to church every Sunday. She and her husband could have sent their kids to public school for free. Instead they paid extra to send them to a church school where they could have a “Christian” education. In spite of their diligence concerning religion, they were destined for hell. Simply put, they were too good for God.
Jesus gave us a picture of the end of the racist. In Matthew 25 he is about to toss a group of folks into the lake of fire. Jesus is explaining to them why they are lost. I was hungry and you gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked and you clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and you visited me not (Matthew 25:42-43). The folks that are about to enter everlasting punishment will start arguing with Jesus. It will go something like this: “Wait a second Jesus, you can’t do that. We never saw you hungry, or thirsty. If we did, we would have fed you. If we had known that you were in our town sick or in the jail here, we would have been the first to come visit you.” Jesus will look out from the great white throne, he will answer them, “In as much as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” (Matthew 25:45)
But we love to help people, right?
We can break our arm patting ourselves on the back when we help people. If our sibling ends up in the clink with a DWI we go down and visit them. If a distant cousin in another community is on their deathbed, we will even miss work to say good bye. Really we are doing exactly what any reasonable person would do. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? (Matthew 5:46-47) The fact of the matter is that molesters, bootleggers, and abortionists all would do the same thing for their loved ones.
Separating the saved from the lost
The thing that separates the saved from the lost is whether we will step out of our comfortable little square in order to help the “least of these”. If you didn’t catch it from reading your Bible, when we help someone who is least, we are actually helping Jesus. When we give to someone who cannot give back, we are giving straight to Jesus. When we go ahead and love someone who will not love us back. Go back and reread that last sentence slowly. Jesus was talking about helping the people who might even be rude to us in return. When we help them, we are doing it to Jesus.
Getting over least-of-these-ism
Christianity is color-blind. If a person’s skin color causes us to treat them differently or to love them less, we are on thin ice with the fire of hell underneath. That should come as no surprise. Most of us are big enough to get down on our knees and ask Jesus to change us if we struggle with racism. But what about the guys that hang out on the porch at our local grocery stores? I have seen folks weave through the porch like a star player coming in for a lay up, all to avoid shaking the hand of someone that they were too good to touch. Christian love is blind to a person’s lifestyle. Does the porch posse get the same warm smile and a handshake that we give to our pastor? Jesus came to tell us that they better.
The racist at the top of this column felt that she was too good to help the 80% of the planet with skin darker than hers. Most of us are much more accepting than that, and yet there are those whom we would rather not deal with. Until we do, we will not have touched the heart of Jesus. This week, go out of your way to find “the least of these” and treat them like you would Jesus.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Lulled to Sleep
by Lucifer’s Lullaby
11-6-07
by Tad Lindley
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. (Matthew 13:24-28 NIV)
In the explanation of the parable, Jesus identifies the sower of the weeds as the devil. This parable is about the judgment at the end of time, but notice a key phrase in Jesus parable: while men were sleeping. Reading between the lines, the devil waited until everyone on the farm had gone to sleep. Then he snuck into the field and sowed weeds among the wheat.
While King David was sleeping
It was the time when David should have been out advancing the kingdom of Israel. Instead, he had been lulled into a spiritual complacency. It is telling that just prior to David’s adultery he had been taking an after dinner nap in Jerusalem when he should have been out in a tent somewhere advancing his kingdom. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” (2 Samuel 11:2-3 NIV)
David had fallen into such a deep spiritual sleep, that he committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his friends. He would later go on to have her husband, Uriah, killed to cover up the adultery. For about six months David continued in this spiritual slumber. The devil had David right where he wanted him.
Preaching so loud it woke him up
It took the man of God, Nathan, getting in David’s face to wake him up. Nathan came to David with a short message. It was about a rich man who had stolen a sheep from a poor man. When David declared that the rich man deserved to die, Nathan finished his message, “David, you are the man! You had Uriah murdered and then took his wife away from him”. Until then David did not realize how far he had backslid. He had fallen asleep in the spirit and the devil had ruined his life with sin.
America, you are getting very sleepy
There is a lullaby that is playing in your life and mine. The devil would love more than anything to get you to fall asleep spiritually. As a nation we have fallen asleep. When I was a kid, we had pong, asteroids, and space invaders. Now there are video games where children steal automobiles and pick up prostitutes (Grand Theft Auto). It was quite controversial when Blue Oyster Cult released Don’t Fear the Reaper a song urging teens to commit suicide, now KYUK uses it as the backdrop for one of their top of the hour station IDs. I don’t endorse Hollywood in any way, shape, or form, but there was a day when movies and television sometimes had positive moral lessons. Now, a movie could have a parent trading sexual favors with a school principal in order to get her son accepted, and people don’t even bat an eye (Forrest Gump).
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
The Most Important Church Service You’ll Ever Miss
10-31-07
by Tad Lindley
“There’s certain services during the year that if you miss them, you’ll go to hell”, Neil said. “My mom knows them all. They’re on the calendar here”, he said, pointing to a church calendar on the kitchen wall. “You can miss other services, but if you miss these certain ones, you’ll go to hell.”
It was a surprising thing for me to hear. I had judged the book by its cover. You see, Neil’s generation had no external evidences of being Christian. They were hard drinking Irishmen who hated black African Americans passionately. But they never missed these certain church services, because that would cause a person to go to hell.
Before we go any further let me make this clear: we are not saved because we graced God with our presence in a pew. We are saved by his grace. If we want to stay saved though, we need to be in church, because it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe (I Corinthians 1:21).
What is the most important church service of the year?
Is it Christmas? After all, attendance seems to be largest at those times. The village church that runs 5 in church on Sunday morning most of the year will be standing room only at the Christmas Eve program. From a numbers standpoint, it makes the Christmas Eve service a strong contender. Unfortunately, Christmas is a holiday that was established by men. You will not find the Christian church celebrating Christmas anywhere in the Bible. Christmas is not the most important church service of the year.
Is it Easter then? It must run a close second to Christmas. Being in the morning, it’s a little bit harder for some folks to wake up and attend. For many casual Christians though, there is a sense of obligation to show up on Easter service. So those who are too busy the rest of the year make that sacrifice to give up one Sunday and warm a church pew. But Easter is not the most important church service of the year.
The most important church service of my life
Maybe it was the night that God filled me with the Holy Ghost and I began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance just like in the book of Acts. On the other hand, God has filled people with the Holy Ghost many places besides church. He could easily have done so in my life.
The most important service for me not to miss was the night Leo Kottke came to Bethel.
That name might not mean anything to you. Let me explain. Leo Kottke, although not very famous, is one of the greatest guitar players in the history of mankind. His concert was scheduled for Sunday night. I had recently received the baptism of the Holy Ghost and was very excited about living for God, but we have church at least three times a week. That’s 156 times a year. This would be the only time that Leo Kottke would ever come to Bethel. Surely it would not hurt to miss one church service on account of the concert.
All week I wrestled with it. Go to the concert, or go to church? Sunday morning service came and went. About 5:45 Sunday afternoon I made up my mind. Joshua told the people, “Choose this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). I went to church.
Your most important service of the year
Every service is important. The Bible teaches us never to skip church. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as you see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25). Each time we attend church, it encourages the rest of the body. Every time we skip church we are telling the pastor, “I think you should have cancelled this service”.
The most important church service for you is the one you are most tempted to miss. It could be that Halloween night service (if your church has service on Wednesday night) is the most important church service for you this year. It takes a true Christian parent to say, “Kids, Candy did not die on the cross for you, Jesus did. Grab your Bibles, we’re going to church”.
If you are a football fanatic, Super Bowl Sunday might be the most important service of the year. You see, to stay at home is to tell everyone, “Football is greater than Jesus!” If you play city league basketball, the most important service for you may coincide with the championship game of a tournament. There’s 156 church services a year and only a few tournaments, but who do you love more, basketball, or Jesus? If you love sleep, Sunday morning may be the most important service for you to get to. Every time you sleep in and skip church, you might as well walk up to the pastor and tell him, “My own comfort is so much more important than Jesus. I know that Jesus let men spit on his face and tear his beard out so that I could be delivered from sin. I know that Jesus let the Roman soldiers hang him up naked on a cross, but Sunday is my day, and I deserve to reward myself with extra sleep.”
The most important church service you will ever attend is the one that you do not want to. If you can learn to go when you do not want to, you will never miss church.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Praise the Lord!
10-23-07
by Tad Lindley
***
Our National Guardsmen are back on American soil. Be sure that you find time today to give God the glory. Since 9/11 over one million American soldiers have been deployed in combat zones, endeavoring to beat back the rising tide of terrorism. Of that million, close to 1 in 20 has been wounded or injured. Thank you for all who prayed and fasted during the past year for the safety of our National Guardsmen stationed in Kuwait running convoys up into Iraq. Their chief officer stated in a radio interview that there was no serious injury, nor any loss of life. Every family is receiving their soldiers back home alive! Our prayers have been answered. Jesus, we thank you for your hand of protection over our war heroes, bringing to pass the scripture No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper (Isaiah 54:17).
***
The Words of a Dying Soldier
The old soldier knew that her days were numbered. Age had won battle after battle in recent years. The old soldier, shrunken now compared to her former glory, reached across the back seat of the car and took hold of my grandmother’s hand. She had made her peace with death, but one thing horrified her: that after she died, there would be nobody left to pray for her family. Knowing that my grandmother had longer to live, the old soldier began to speak. The words went something like this: “Martha, when I am gone will you do this one thing for me? When I die, there will be no one left to pray for my children and my children’s children, nor their children. When they throw the dirt on me, if you don’t pray for them day by day, no one will. The little great-grandchildren will tumble into bed night after night never clasping their hands, never knowing the name of Jesus. Will you do this one thing for me?”
Before they released hands my grandmother promised the dying prayer warrior that she would sound the battle cry for her generations every day. The lady that made this last request has gone on to her reward, but my grandmother has taken up the torch for her.
Would you die for your kids?
Most parents would immediately say yes. Fortunately, I am not going to ask you to die for your children. I am going to ask you to do something much easier than that: pray for them every day. It is a tragedy when a large family has only the very old generation to pray for it. We need young parents who are willing to get alone with Jesus and pray all around their children’s lives.
Jesus needs a few good men (and women)
Just like the men and women across our nation who willingly travel far from home to stem the rising tide of terrorism, we need prayer soldiers. There is a far greater threat to our children than radical Islam. Our kids are being attacked on every front. We need men who would get alone in their maqivik and wage a spiritual warfare against the onslaught of drugs and alcohol. We need women who would send the kids off to school, throw their television in the dumpster, and get down on the living room floor and cry out to God to protect our young people from shooting drugs, shooting dice, and shooting themselves.
Increase our faith
When the guardsmen left, the people of the AVCP region surrounded them with prayer. The Lord gave his angels charge over them to protect them (Psalm 91:11-12). Even in the face of very dangerous work, Jesus placed a hedge of protection around them. In the same way, our children are constantly being bombarded by the enemy of our souls. The music that they may hear in many cases is like liquid pornography. It was recently revealed that one of the main characters, a male witch, in the popular children’s book series Harry Potter is homosexual. There are so many voices in the world today that are bent on leading our young people right into the snares of hell. They need the protective armor of prayer.
The same God that protected our Guardsmen wants to protect our children as well. And he will, but Jesus, being as great as he is, still needs us to help him. The Bible tells us, You have not, because you ask not (James 4:2). When we get serious about it, God will move. Look at what happened in Egypt. The people got sick enough of Pharoah killing their babies, that they started crying out to the One True God. He heard their cry and delivered them. The devil is preying on our kids, but who will pray for them?
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
If she was my wife, I would treat her better than that
10-17-07
by Tad Lindley
In my mid twenties, I began to realize that life was passing me by. I needed to get married. Although I had been studying marriages all my life, I began to study them more intently. Lots of men (remember, I’m speaking with the voice of a very young man with little experience) I noticed had beautiful wives, but they did not treat them very well. Often times I would watch a married couple and think, “Boy, if she was my wife, I would treat her a whole lot better than he does”. Not that I had any adulterous designs, I was just noticing a sad fact: a lot of married men take their wives for granted.
The million dollar wife
Once I visited Joe’s house. I was still single, cutting all my own fish, plucking my own birds, doing all the cooking, cleaning, and laundry for myself. Joe was married, and his wife was there. He commenced to talk about her in front of her face like I had never heard a man talk about his wife before. I was shocked. I was kind of embarrassed, as if I had stepped in on a private and intimate conversation.
Joe (his real name), began to brag on his wife. He praised her. “I’ve got a million dollar wife,” he said to us. He paused and a smile started in the middle of his face and spread outward toward each ear. “I don’t know how I ended up with such a great wife, but I did.” Joe went on and on about her beauty and her endearing qualities. Since I had never heard a man publicly praise his wife like that it was almost uncomfortable for me to hear it. You see in the neighborhood I grew up in, I never heard a man praise his wife. I heard plenty of complaining, but never did I hear a man stop all other conversation and begin to tell how great his wife was.
Let’s get Biblical with it
Some of you may have read about the Proverbs 31 wife. She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life. She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands… She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family… She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy… When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. She makes coverings for her bed… She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.” (Proverbs 31:10-29 NIV)
When I was looking for a wife, I didn’t know anything about Proverbs 31, but that is the kind of woman that I was looking for. In time, the Lord crossed my path with a woman who worked hard, and thought of the elderly and the needy. I found a woman who was beautiful outwardly, and inwardly, had a heart for the Lord: a true Proverbs 31 woman.
Since I married her, I have never had to cut a fish for drying, and I rarely ever touch a washing machine or fold clothes. The other day, I went to get a bed ready for my father-in-law to stay with us. I realized that it had been so long since I had made a fresh bed that I didn’t even know where the sheets were. I have a Proverbs 31 wife. I wish I could tell you that my wife has a Proverbs 31 husband.
Are you a Proverbs 31 husband?
It didn’t take too long being married before I began to take my wife for granted. A bad habit that is easy to slip into. The Lord tapped me on the shoulder. “Remember when you were single and you used to look at men with beautiful wives and think, ‘If she was my wife I’d treat her better than that’? Now you have a beautiful wife, but you aren’t treating her any better than they treated their wives”. Ouch.
Too many of us men are laying around the house thinking, “If I had a Proverbs 31 wife, then I’d treat her better, but, Brother Lindley, my wife isn’t like that. She won’t cook my breakfast, she doesn’t keep the house clean, blah, blah, blah, and blah”. I realize that there may be a few women out who are slovenly, but it is not your wife. Could it be that your wife, after cleaning up after her husband, and changing diapers, plucking birds, doing laundry, whipping akutaq, running to the store, cutting fish and meat, all the while listening to you complaining from the couch about the things that she isn’t doing right, is too warn out to be the perfect Proverbs 31 wife?
The key to having a Proverbs 31 wife
As husbands we can look at Proverbs 31 and begin to say, my wife does not look like verse 10. Verse 11? Nope. Verse 12, no. It could be that the reason she doesn’t look like verses 10-27, is because her husband does not look like the man in verse 28. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her (NKJV). As far as the man is concerned, Proverbs 31 starts in verse 28: praise your wife and the other verses will follow. When we concentrate on the good qualities in our wife, they seem to expand and multiply. Just like praise opens up a room for the Spirit of God to operate in our midst, the husband who praises his wife opens up an environment for her to blossom into the Proverbs 31 wife.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
The 7 Year 3 1/2 Year Great Tribulation
10-9-07
by Tad Lindley
It will be a time when the anti-Christ has revealed himself. The mark of the beast will be implemented. Any who do not worship the image of the beast will be unable to buy or sell in the open market (Revelation 13:16). Christians will either revert to a subsistence lifestyle without gasoline, or starve to death. Many who survive will later lose their heads to the one world government of the anti-Christ (20:4). It will be a most terrible time for those who hold steadfast in their faith in the one true God of the Bible.
The Tribulation Kickoff Party
This is also known as the “abomination of desolation”. According to the Bible, at a precise moment in time, the anti-Christ will be revealed. First of all, understand that there is no Jewish temple on the holy mount in Jerusalem at this time. In order for the events that the Bible prophecies to occur, the nation of Israel will have to rebuild a Temple on the Temple Mount (present location of the Islamic Dome of the Rock). When the Temple is built, the stage will be set for the abomination of desolation.
Two things will happen. First of all, the Orthodox Jews will have resumed Old Testament animal sacrifice in the rebuilt Temple. The anti-Christ will cause these animal sacrifices to cease (Daniel 11:31). Then he will step into the holy place in the temple and proclaim himself to be God (II Thessalonians 2:4).
The start of the Great Tribulation
Jesus spoke about this time in the 24th chapter of Matthew. Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to get the things out that are in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days! But pray that your flight may not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath; for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. (Matthew 24:15-21 NASB)
When will all of this happen?
We know the abomination of desolation has not happened yet, because Jesus identifies it as a time of tribulation worse than any that has ever happened or ever will happen. Therefore it is in our future. It could not happen today, because there is no temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. As this age comes to a close, the temple will be rebuilt. A sequence of events will be set in motion that will culminate in the return of Jesus Christ.
Daniel’s 70th week
The prophet Daniel had a vision of seventy weeks. The seventieth week represents the last seven years before Jesus returns and sets up his kingdom of everlasting righteousness (9:24). Here is a detailed description of that last seven years: And he [the anti-Christ] will make a firm covenant [a peace accord?] with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate. (Daniel 9:27 NASB) Half way through the “week”, the abomination of desolation occurs. Half way through a week is three and a half days, or in this case, three and one half years.
You do the math
Daniel actually spelled out for us the very number of days that would transpire after the abomination of desolation. And from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. (Daniel 12:11 NASB) If you divide 1,290 by 365, you should get three and one half year plus two and a half days. There is no “7” year tribulation
Folks often talk about the “seven years of Great Tribulation”. At least I used to hear that quite a bit. I am not sure where the idea of seven years of tribulation came from, but it couldn’t have been the Bible. Jesus was quite clear about it when he spoke from the Mount of Olives. This tribulation will happen only after the anti-Christ steps into the temple (the abomination of desolation). Careful reading of Daniel’s vision shows without a doubt, that the abomination of desolation happens about three and one half years before the return of the Lord and the reign of peace. And of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end… (Isaiah 9:7)
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Preaching on Fornication is like Chewing an Ibuprofen Tablet
10-2-07
by Tad Lindley
Most medicines taste gross. If you don’t believe me, trying chewing an ibuprofen tablet. That is why they mix children’s medicines with a lot of sweet syrup. Otherwise kids would spit it right out. I wish they would make adult medicine and vitamins with a lot of sweetness, but they don’t. They expect us put on our big boy pants and swallow it whole.
It is that way with preaching too. The Bible can be hard to swallow. In attempting to create a sermon that would be covered with sugar and easily swallowed by all people, preacher after preacher has found that there is no way to sugar coat a sermon on fornication.
The result is that many have simply quit preaching against fornication. After all, preaching that isn’t sweet to the ears might cause people to get mad and start attending a church where they won’t get their feelings hurt. In churches where the preacher is controlled by a board of elders the pastor is often told what he can and cannot serve up on Sunday mornings. In some tragic situations, even elders and board members within the church are openly living in the sin of fornication. It takes a preacher who cares more for the souls of the people than the tithes and offerings to step into such a pulpit and confront sin.
What is fornication?
Simply put, fornication is sex before marriage. The God of the Bible does not approve of it. Check out Matthew 15:19-20 in your Bible. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man… Fornication is lumped in with some other serious sins.
Most commonly we use terms like “living together”, “my significant other”, or “my honey” to cover up what is really going on. Regardless of what we call it, having sex with someone before you are married to them is a sin.
Why would God make fornication so much fun?
God made sex for marriage. He intended it to be joyful. God’s plan is for a man to leave his parents and join with his wife (Genesis 2:24). Some have taught that sex was designed simply for having children and no other purpose. They have not done their homework. God wants it to be something shared between husband and wife throughout their years of marriage. His word even points out that couples should not deny each other except during times of fasting (I Corinthians 7:5).
In spite of God’s plan for us to have pleasure, he has also drawn a line that we are not to cross. Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. (Hebrews 13:4) Sex is to be reserved for marriage, and once married we are to be monogamous.
But we have prayed about it and it feels…
…like God wants us to be together and we are planning to get married eventually. Listen, if you are an unmarried person and you have prayed about it and that is the answer that you got, you did not hear from the God of the Bible. In times of temptation, our own lusts can mimic the voice of God very well. You don’t need to pray about what God’s will is concerning your sexual behavior. He already answered your question long ago in your Bible.
Get ready to swallow the pill
Unless they repent and get married or end the relationship, fornicators will bust hell wide open. It cannot be sugar coated. I don’t care how often you go to church or how many Bible verses you have memorized, or who your parents are. Should death come unexpectedly upon you, if you are living a sexually immoral lifestyle the Bible says you are lost. The preaching at the funeral and the memories that people share will not be enough to change your course. It will be too late; the tree lies where it falls (Ecclesiastes 11:3). The Lord gives us this message very clearly in I Corinthians 6:9-10: fornicators will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Are we beyond hope then?
The good news is this: that we can be saved regardless of our present lifestyle. If we will repent and turn to Jesus we can have our sin washed away in his name (see Acts 2:38). Repentance is not shedding a few tears and then going back to our old life. Repentance is a man taking his “honey” down to the courthouse and making her his wife. Repentance is a lady setting his belongings out on the porch and telling him, “You are moving out and we are going to do this thing the right way”.
Now is the time to obey God’s word. There may not be a tomorrow. Obeying God’s word may seem like a bitter pill to swallow, but in the long term you will reap the blessings.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
How a Real Man
straightens out his wife
9-25-07
by Tad Lindley
“Maybe you should get her away from the kids and slap her around a little bit.” It was advice from one married man with more experience than me. I was newly married, and I was very quickly realizing that marriage wasn’t going to be all about me and what I want. It was a bit of a shock.
I failed to realize this central truth about marriage: In marriage, the two become one, and the one is not me. The Bible tells us the same thing, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 NIV) To the young person thinking only about the hugs and kisses, that sounds like a great thing: the two will become one flesh. But when you find out that her flesh likes salt in the seal oil and yours doesn’t, or her family always used Miracle Whip®, and yours thought it was low class and used only Best Foods® mayonnaise, things can begin to fall apart. The marriage that seemed like it was going to be so heavenly suddenly isn’t.
Is beating your wife the best way to fix it?
If a man and a wife are spiritually speaking “one flesh”, the answer is an absolute no. After all, when a person hits their own body, or cuts on themselves, we declare them mentally ill. We seek help for them through prayer, fasting, and counseling. The Lord drives this point even deeper in the book of Ephesians. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. (5:28)
Imagine a man with a knee injury from too much basketball. He begins to beat his knee with a hammer in hopes that it will get better. We would declare him a fool. Yet, when a man’s wife is not feeling well, often he will begin to beat her down with words, and in some cases, fists. Jesus’ command is for us to do exactly the opposite. Treat our wife as if she was our own body. When she is not up to par, love her even more. When she is like that bad knee, massage the knee, don’t pound on it, and don’t ignore it.
That’s easy for Jesus to say, He’s God
Sometimes we get the picture that Jesus is up there in the clouds and he is not really in touch with what it is like to be us. After all, Jesus was never married. Some readers might be thinking, “If he had been married to a back talking, lazy spouse like mine, then he would have told us different”.
Would it surprise you if I told you that the Lord was married? He was. Look at this for a moment: Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. (Jeremiah 3:14) Unfortunately, most of the people that made up his wife were not faithful to him. Only a small remnant, one per city, or two per family really honored this marriage relationship that Israel had with the Lord. Finally in the book of Malachi, the Lord throws up his hands and watches the wife walk out on him. ... for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. (2:11)
How the Lord dealt with his wife
When the fullness of time had come, God was manifest in flesh. God became a man, (this is what we refer to as the Son of God, or the Messiah). Now in the days of Noah, it seems that God just wiped out the whole bunch except for Noah and his family. So we might think that if God came as a man, he might be here to clear out the earth again. No, he came to minister to his people. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. (II Corinthians 5:19) The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10) Instead of beating up the wife, Jesus took the wife’s pain and shame upon himself. He paid his wife’s way back. As horrible and inconvenient as the humiliation and death on the cross were, Jesus took that upon himself for the joy of a successful marriage.
How a good husband straightens out his bride
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and he gave himself for it. (Ephesians 5:25)
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
The Abusive Wife
9-18-07
by Tad Lindley
She had an East Coast accent. The crowd of weary travelers was waiting for a bus to take us to a hotel. Our flight had been rerouted to St. Louis and all were to go to a hotel for the night. The lady began to loudly berate her husband. In many words she made a complete fool out of him. It hurt me to see him humiliated in public like that.
If you search your acquaintances you probably know somebody who lives with an abusive wife. These are men who live under a reign of terror. The marriage relationship has become so twisted, that the abusive wife has forbidden the husband to have contact with children from a previous marriage. In other homes he cannot go to open gym without dishes being thrown against the wall when he gets home. In extreme cases, the man gives in. Fearful of the verbal abuse he simply becomes a recluse in his own home. In some marriages the abuse turns physical. Some men have been brutalized to the point of hospitalization. It is not the type of thing a man would talk about with his buddies in the steam bath, but it happens. If you doubt me I suggest that you ask any police officer or minister. Domestic violence is a two way street.
The Lord sees your situation
There are some men who will be reading this article who are painfully familiar with what I am talking about. Women have asked me to write about the abusive husband and I have, but you will not ask me, abused husband, because of the deep shame in letting someone know about your situation. I want you to know, that God knows exactly where you are.
It is a desperate one
Nearly 3,000 years ago God saw your situation when he gave Solomon the Proverbs. It is better for a man to dwell on the corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house (21:9). Again, It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and angry woman (21:19). Even a woman’s physical beauty is not enough to overcome an abusive spirit. Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion (11:22 NIV).
If you are a man in an abusive marriage you may long ago have given up hope. You could have written this proverb: A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand (27:15-16). Men have placed dams across some of the mightiest rivers on the earth. They have even walked on the moon. They have made mechanical hearts and exceeded the speed of sound, but man has never restrained the wind.
The only hope for an abused husband
King Solomon leaves a very hopeless feeling in the heart of the man married to an abusive wife. Restraining her is like restraining the wind. There is no restraining the wind. Or is there?
In Mark 4 the disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? (Mark 4:37-40)
Husband, he can calm your storm
It may seem to you that Jesus has been asleep in your life. And as the great storm has arisen, you have come to live in fear, frustration, and anger. You have tried everything you can think of: fighting back, not fighting back; talking about your feelings, giving the silent treatment; medicating with drugs and alcohol, living clean and sober. Nothing seems to work. It is time to wake up Jesus. You will notice in the scripture you just read, Jesus didn’t do anything about the storm until the disciples had exhausted their own resources and came to him. It was then that he rebuked the wind and the waves, and peace came. If you will seek Jesus and wake him up with prayer and fasting, he will bring you through the storm and out of it. Husband, he knows right where you are. He is waiting for you to wake him.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, AK.
A Great Mystery: The Salvation of Israel Romans 11:25
9-11-07
by Tad Lindley
In a previous column I referenced Romans 11:25. A group of readers have been studying the scripture and requested more on it. Here it is.
For I do not desire, brethren, that you be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in (NKJV). Let us break the verse down piece by piece.
You think you’re big, just because you’re Christian
Nearly 2,000 years after this was written, there are still “Christians” who think themselves better than the Jewish people. This Bible verse was written to people in Rome who were puffed up in their own minds. The apostle, Paul, was writing to these “Christians” to pop the bubble of their ignorance. Another translation puts it this way: I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited… (NIV)
What is the mystery?
The mystery is this: Christians are not the only ones who will be saved. Read it for yourself: that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved … (NKJV 11:25-26) The reason this is a mystery is that Jesus himself taught that he was the way the truth and the life and that no man could come to the Father except through him.
For ten years after Calvary, every single person in the church without exception was a Jewish person who had realized that Jesus was the Messiah. There was much disagreement between those Jews who were following Jesus and those who followed the Law of Moses. Over time Gentiles began to be baptized in Jesus’ name and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost starting with Cornelius in Acts 10. It is to this mixed group of Jewish Christians and Gentiles in Rome that Paul sent his message: Don’t think that you are better than the Jewish people, they will be saved too.
When will Israel be saved?
This is such a beautiful scripture illustrating the love of God for Israel. Israel it shows will experience blindness in part. This refers to the fact that many Jewish people do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of prophecy. As such they are temporarily blinded. The Bible also shows us that there will come a time when this blindness will be lifted. That time will happen after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
The fullness of the Gentiles
There will come a time when the door of salvation to the Gentiles will close. At that time, no more Gentiles will be saved. The fullness of the Gentiles will have come in. This does not refer to a specific number of Gentiles being saved. So for instance, the Bible is not saying that after the 3,497,893rd Gentile is born again then no one else can be saved. Salvation is open to all people. If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink (John 7:37).
The fullness of the Gentiles is referring to a point in time where the multitude will have been gathered in. It is marked by the coming of the Lord. At that time, the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:16-17). Gentiles who are not caught up in the air will find themselves on the wrong side of the wrath of God.
Then the salvation of Israel
(Space does not permit me to cover every aspect of the time table here. Realize I am leaving some pieces out.) The Lord will return with the saved to take over the earth. Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all… (Jude 14-15). The Lord will land upon the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4). At this point in time, the blindness will be lifted and Israel will be saved. Then the prophecy will come to pass, they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
Without compromising the scripture which teaches that Jesus is the only way to salvation, the descendants of Israel will be saved. The Gentiles will be gathered to God and (according to the Hebrew prophets) as He stands upon the earth in the latter day, there will be an awesome revelation among the Israelites who remain that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
The Phlebotomy of Jesus
9-5-07
by Tad Lindley
It is uncontested. The most powerful stain remover in the world is the blood of Jesus. It has the ability to get inside of a person and reach the places that the shower and the steam bath cannot reach.
There is a certain dirty feeling that we get when we live in this world. It is the result of sin. For some it is an overpowering stain that makes it hard to go on with life. Alcohol, marijuana, oxycotin, and other medications become the only way to make it from one day to the next. For other folks, it is simply a nagging feeling that things are not right, that they have missed out on something in life.
The blood of Jesus has the power to completely remove the unclean feeling. It gets inside and removes shame, regret, emotional pain, discouragement, and defeat. Through the blood of Jesus we have remission of sin. Even before he gave himself up to the Jewish council and the Roman soldiers, Jesus told his disciples, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sin (Matthew 26:28).
What’s up with the whole blood thing?
For the Jewish people of Jesus day, this meant more than it does to us. You see, starting with Adam and Eve God had permitted animals to be killed as a substitute for guilty man. Cain wasn’t keen on the blood sacrifice, so he tried a vegetarian sacrifice. God did not accept it. Only blood would do. In fact the Lord required healthy animals without defect for sacrifice. So a fellow couldn’t just bring in a crippled animal that was going to die anyway. The sinner brought his animal, and its blood was shed instead of the man’s.
When Jesus spoke to his disciples at the last supper, he was telling them that instead of a ram, or a lamb, or a goat, or a dove, his own blood would be shed for many people. He was getting ready to do away with the old order of business and set up a new testament. This is why there is no animal sacrifice among Christians. What could be greater than the sacrifice of Jehovah of the Old Testament becoming a man, and then purchasing our salvation with his own blood (Acts 20:28)?
But the blood all evaporated and dried up didn’t it?
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the physical blood of Jesus ran down his body into the soil. There it dried out and turned brown. And yet we act like somewhere there is a vast reservoir of Jesus’ blood that we can dip into. There is not. You cannot mail order the blood of Jesus. No church has a little test tube full of the blood of Jesus. And yet the power associated with the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made still goes on. The remission of sin is still happening.
How do we get the blood of Jesus then?
Remember, Jesus shed his blood on the cross and in the hours leading up to the cross. We cannot reach our finger back into time and wipe some of that blood off of the ground. But the blood of Jesus goes much deeper than the actual plasma, platelets, and hemoglobin. There is a spiritual side to the blood of Jesus. In the realm of the spirit the blood is still flowing as powerful as ever.
We get in touch with the blood of Jesus when we repent and are baptized. Remember, the blood was shed for many for the remission of sins. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). That’s exactly what the disciples did. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost he gave this appeal to the people: Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin (Acts 2:38). When we are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, we experience the full sin stain removing power of the blood of Jesus Christ. The dirt that is on the inside is floated away in the waters of baptism. There is no greater stain remover than the blood of Jesus!
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Jesus was Buff
8-28-07
by Tad Lindley
I am so sick of seeing these limp-wristed pantywaist Jesus paintings and drawings. Jesus was buff. Instead, a lot of artists have presented an effeminate Jesus. Far from the rough, tanned hands of a carpenter, they portray a Jesus who looks as if he has been hanging around a dark house giving his slender fingers a manicure. Instead of a traditional Jewish dreadlock (where only the hair above the sideburn is long and uncut), they offer us a Jesus who looks like he came out of the dope house, long hair hanging at shameful lengths (see I Corinthians 11:14).
It is time for artists and movie makers to face the fact: Jesus could work many twenty-first century men into the ground.
Evidence from the missing years
Mary and Joseph found Jesus visiting the rabbis in the temple when he was twelve years old. From that time until he began his public ministry at about the age of 30, scripture is silent. Some refer to this time as “the missing years”. We can infer several things about this period of time. One of them is this: Jesus would have trained as a carpenter in his step-father’s carpentry shop. Mark 6:3 tells us that Jesus was a carpenter. This was before sawmills and lumber yards. Carpenters could not simply go own to the lumber yard and buy 2 X 4’s. Everything they used had to be either hewn or sawn by hand. His physical strength must have been tremendous compared with the men of today.
You try fasting for forty days
The gospel accounts of the life of Jesus Christ reveal a man who was a powerhouse. Jesus’ comes onto the scene at one of John the Baptist’s revival meetings. There he is baptized to fulfill all righteousness. When he comes out of the water he heads into the wilderness. There he goes on a forty day fast (Matthew 4). At the end of forty days of fasting (this was not Pharisee style fasting during the day and eating at night, he did not eat anything for forty days), Jesus took the devil face on and won.
And you thought you were a nukalpiaq
Jesus brought home the brisket. We can get excited when we bring in a boatload of fish or birds. What man among us doesn’t feel a tinge of pride when he pulls into town or the village with a sled load of meat? Try feeding 4,000 people with your own hands. Jesus did it (Matthew 15:32-39). In Matthew 14, he broke bread with his hands until 5,000 people had eaten (13-21). These are not the hands of a sissy.
Jesus broke up the Jerusalem stock exchange
Jews traveling from far away to sacrifice at the temple were permitted to bring money to Jerusalem and purchase an animal for sacrifice instead of trying to bring a lamb or a dove all that distance. Businessmen found that there was much money to be made in selling livestock to be sacrificed. Often they sold imperfect animals for sacrifice. This was an abomination to God. They had even begun to set up a market in the temple. On at least one occasion Jesus went into the temple and turned over the tables and threw the money changers out (Matthew 21, Mark 11, John 2). John adds the details that he poured out their money and used a whip to drive them. This is not the work of a slump shouldered man with muscles atrophied from surfing the internet. Jesus was a strapping man.
Beaten beyond recognition
When Jesus was arrested he was beaten. The prophet Isaiah described the scene before it ever happened: I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting (50:6). The spit of men ran down Jesus’ face, and mingled with his blood where they had torn out the hair of his beard. Their fists rained down upon him. The whip of the Roman soldier tore through Jesus’ rib and back muscles. The blood would have flowed freely down his body onto the ground. By modern standards we would say, “He was beaten beyond recognition”. An average man would have gone into shock and died simply from these preliminaries to Calvary. And yet Jesus in his exceptional physical strength was able to walk up the hill of Golgotha (there is no place in the Bible where he stumbled or fell), permit them to drive spikes through his hands and feet, and then live through six hours of the cruelest torture. Throughout his ordeal he never once struck back or spoke out in anger, instead as he gasped for air on the cross of Calvary he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Perhaps buff is too weak of a word for Jesus. He was the strongest man that ever lived.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Return to Sender Part II
8-21-07
by Tad Lindley
Last week we looked at a gift that God wants to give all people, the gift of the Holy Ghost (also referred to in scripture as the baptism of the Holy Ghost). In case you missed last week’s paper, here are the main points and the scriptures that they are taken from. 1) Jesus had a gift for the early church: John 14:18, Luke 24:49, and Acts 1:8. 2) In the Bible when people received the gift of the Holy Ghost, they spoke in other languages as God moved on them: Acts 2:4, 10:44-46, and 19:6. 3) The gift is available to us today: Luke 11:13, John 7:37-39, and Acts 2:38-39. When we reject the gift of God, it is like writing “Return to Sender” on a package and dropping it back in the mail.
Do I have to have the gift of the Holy Ghost?
No, you do not have to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. You do not have to eat. You do not have to repent. You do not have to get baptized in Jesus’ name. That is the point of God’s mercy and grace, it is available to everyone, but we have the right to refuse it. Jesus will not shove salvation down anybody’s throat. As human beings we have the power of choice in who we serve.
According to your Bible, you have to have the Holy Ghost only if you want to be saved. Jesus told Nicodemus, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John3:5). The apostles taught that in order to experience the resurrection of our dead bodies we needed the Holy Ghost. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Romans 8:11). Finally, read Romans 6:23, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we want to be saved, then we absolutely need the gift of the Holy Ghost.
They all had it
The baptism of the Holy Ghost was commonplace in the Bible. For by one Spirit were we all baptized into body… (I Corinthians 12:13). In fact the church in Jerusalem was so concerned that the Jews in Samaria had not yet received the Holy Ghost (they had only been baptized in Jesus’ name) that they sent Peter and John to Samaria with the express purpose of laying hands on them so that they might received the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 8). The gift of the Holy Ghost evidenced by speaking in other tongues was the standard whereby the church recognized that the Lord had saved somebody. Today it is so watered down that folks call you saved if you walk up to the front of the church and cry. Listen to the words of the apostle, Peter: So if God gave them the same gift [the baptism of the Holy Ghost] as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?” When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” (Acts 11:17-18 NIV) The apostolic church in Jerusalem knew that the Gentiles were saved not because they came forward and cried, not because they felt the presence of God. They knew that God had granted them salvation because they had received the gift of the Holy Ghost speaking in other tongues as God fell on them.
What would the Jerusalem church think about us?
Nearly 2,000 years later “Christianity” has changed. Some pastors even step into their pulpits and teach the people that the gift of the Holy Ghost no longer occurs. Others teach that it is satanic. Still others have confused it with the gift of diverse tongues and interpretation of tongues and taught that since it is a gift it is optional. In doing so they are teaching people to write “Return to Sender” on the gift of God.
Across the planet people from all walks of life and all religious backgrounds are receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If you have not received the gift of the Holy Ghost, do not delay. Jesus has your address and he wants to give it to you. His word gives the promise that if we will obey the gospel, we will receive the gift. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. (Acts 2:38-39)
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Return to Sender
8-14-07
by Tad Lindley
It is your birthday. You go to the post office. A yellow slip is waiting for you in your box. “Surely a birthday present from a distant family member,” you think as you hand the yellow slip across the counter. They disappear into the back. By the time they return, you have convinced yourself that somebody has sent you a gift.
Yikes!
As they set the package down on the counter, you are drawn to the strange foreign postage stamps stuck to the brown wrapping paper. It is addressed to you, but the handwriting is unfamiliar. Who is it from? To the upper left from your name you read the following return address:
Al Qaeda
Pyrotechnics Camp #32
Tir Pol, Afghanistan
It is then that you notice a ticking sound emanating from the box. At this point I recommend that you borrow a Sharpie™ from the postmaster, write “Return to Sender” across the front of the package, and slide it back across the counter. There are some gifts that you are better off not having.
What if Jesus had a gift for you?
What if instead of Al Qaeda being the sender, the sender was Jesus? Would you take the package, or write “Return to Sender” on it? It’s a silly question. Jesus would never send you a gift by mail.
Jesus does have a gift for you. It is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Jesus told his disciples that he would be sending them this gift when he said, I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you (John 14:18). Referring to the gift of the Holy Ghost, Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49), and You will receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you (Acts 1:8).
Here’s what the gift looks like
These three passages of scripture are your Bible’s record of what happens when people received this gift. 1. And they [120 disciples on the day of Pentecost] were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4 NKJV). 2. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word…For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God (10:44,46 NKJV). 3. And when Paul laid his on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied (19:6 NKJV). In all three cases when people received the gift of the Holy Ghost, they spoke in other languages as the Spirit of God moved upon them.
Is this gift available for me?
Let’s see what your Bible says. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? (Luke 11:13) Wait, there’s more. Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive….) (John 7:37-39) Check this out: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. (Acts 2:38-39) These three scriptures, which are right out of your Bible, prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus intends the gift of the Holy Ghost to be available to all people.
Do I have to have it?
When somebody asks this question, they are grabbing for the Sharpie™ getting ready to write “Return to Sender” on the gift of God. The correct question should be, “Am I, a mere human being, actually able to receive a gift from Jesus Christ himself?” The gift of the Holy Ghost is the very power source that sparked the great Jerusalem revival that spread Christianity across the Roman Empire. It is the power that brings victory and overcoming power to the human soul. The Great God of heaven and earth wants to touch us with this gift. Please don’t write “Return to Sender”.
To be continued next week
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Armageddon:
Israel Will Be Victorious
Part 2
8-9-07
by Tad Lindley
Last week we looked at the failed attempts of Haman and Hitler to destroy the Jewish people. We compared it to the current attempts of Hamas to wipe the nation of Israel off of the map. Many other names could be added to the list: men and nations of power who attempted to exterminate the descendents of Israel, and failed. The Lord forecasted this long ago when he told Abraham “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Some of the highest unemployment rates in the world occur in the very nations that are attempting to curse Israel.
What does the future hold for Israel?
History has shown the people of Israel to rise up from certain defeat again and again. Until the return of the Lord, the pattern will continue. The Battle of Armageddon will take place in the land of Israel, and then this persecution will cease.
Let us look at the three and one half years leading up to the Battle of Armageddon first. At the beginning of that period, Satan will lose access to heaven. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child (Revelation 12:13 NKJV). The woman is the nation of Israel; the child that Israel gave birth to is Jesus Christ (read the beginning of chapter 12 in your Bible and you will see this).
United States to the rescue?
But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, from the presence of the serpent (12:14 NKJV). If we are in the time of the end right now, then this scripture is likely referring to the United States in some way shielding Israel from the wrath of the devil and the anti-Christ. The expression “time, times, and half a time” represents three and a half years (read Daniel 7:25 and Rev. 13:5 to prove this).
Unable to destroy Israel, the fury of Satan will be turned toward those who are still upholding the name of Jesus. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went out to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 13:17 NKJV). This is the time period when we will be subjected to the mark of the beast, and tremendous persecution will come against the church. Many will lose their lives for the name of Jesus Christ.
Armageddon
Keep in mind that the devil will be using his agents, the anti-Christ and the false prophet to oversee all of this. For those who serve the Lord it will be a chaotic time. Into the midst of this, world armies will amass themselves on the borders of Israel. It may happen much as it did recently when United Nations Peacekeeping Forces were deployed to intervene between Israel and Hamas.
Then the sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And they gathered them together to a place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. (16:12, 16)
As the world armies are gathering in against Israel, there will be a trumpet blast that is heard around the world. The sign of the coming of the Son of man will appear (Matt. 24:27). The elect will be gathered from the earth. All people will look upon the Lord and wail, the Israelites will also begin to recognize that Jesus Christ was and is their Messiah (Revelation 1:7). The saints of God, united with Jesus will then return to earth (Jude 14). He will overthrow the armies of the world at Armageddon. The anti-Christ and the false prophet will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20).
Israel’s final victory
According to the Hebrew scripture two thirds of Israel will perish (Zechariah 13:8). As the smoke of the battle is clearing one rabbi will approach this One in blazing white who has delivered Israel from certain defeat and pose this question, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends (Zechariah 13:6). If the New Testament and Old Testament are inspired by God, then it will come to pass that there will be no more opposition to Israel. The One who came to defeat evil, Jesus, will rule the earth for a thousand years. The words of the prophet will come to pass, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day that shall be one Lord, and his name one (Zechariah 14:9).
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, AK.
Haman, Hitler, and Hamas:
Israel Will Be Victorious
Part 1
7-31-07
by Tad Lindley
For thousand of years now, there have been men who hated the Jews. They have dedicated their lives to destroying the Hebrew people. For almost 2,000 years the Jews had no nation of their own. Their population spread out across the planet. They lived, and continue to do so today, among many nations, and yet through the grace of God, maintained their own identity and culture.
Haman hated the Jews
One Jewish man named Mordecai hurt his feelings and Haman set out to destroy the entire Jewish population of Persia. Haman was a man of immense power, second only to the king. He manipulated the king into signing into law a bill that called for the death of every Jewish man, woman, and child in Persia. His plan would have succeeded except for one woman. The Lord had placed a Jewish woman named Esther into the palace. She had risen from obscurity to become the Queen of Persia. She had hidden her Jewish background from even her husband. Through a tremendous turn of events, the Lord protected the Jewish people. Not only did he deliver them from the hands of Haman, but there was actually a mass conversion to Judaism (Esther 8:17). Read the whole book of Esther in your Bible tonight (it should take you less than an hour). It is an awesome testimony to God’s saving power.
You should have read your Bible, Haman
Long before Haman came forth from the womb, God visited an old man who had no children. The old man’s name was Abram (later changed to Abraham). Abram’s wife was unable to have children. She had long passed menopause, and Abraham himself was an old man. In the face of this failure to raise up children, the Lord spoke, “Thou shalt be a father of many nations…and I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee” (Genesis 17:4, 6). Seems like an odd promise to a man in his eighties and his wife not far behind, but when the Lord makes a promise, you can bank on it. When Abraham was 100 years old, his 90 year old wife gave birth to a boy named Isaac.
But the promise goes even deeper. Not only would kings come from his descendants, but all people would be blessed. In your Bible the Lord promised Abraham, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). This is an obvious reference to the fact that the Messiah would come out of the descendants of Abraham. If Haman had understood this, he never would have risen up against the Jewish people. In cursing them, he cursed himself and his children (his sons all died by impalement).
Hitler flunked history
In the 1930s Adolph Hitler rose to power in Germany. He took the frustration and discouragement of the German people and turned it against the Jewish people of Europe. A casual look at the holocaust might give us cause to think that Hitler defeated the Jewish people. But as the Jews were crying out, “Shema Israel, Adonai elohenu, Adonai ichod!” (Deuteronomy 6:4), while they collapsed in the gas chambers and starved to death in the concentration camps, the Lord heard their cries. Not only did Hitler’s empire completely collapse, but out of the ashes of the holocaust the nation of Israel was reborn. In 1948 Israel became a nation once again, and Jewish people from all over the world began to return to the land that God gave them (Genesis 17:8).
Hamas: history repeating itself
Since 1948 the nation of Israel has been under nearly constant siege by the nations around it. This is no surprise. Revelation 12:13-17 shows us that the dragon will be in hot pursuit of Israel at the end of time, but he will not be victorious. In fact any people who choose to rise up against Israel will not be successful in the end. The God of Abraham settled that a long time ago with this prophetic promise I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee… (Genesis 12:3). No nation, political group, or individual can rise up against the people of Israel and expect to be blessed.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, AK.
The Power of Fasting
7-25-07
by Tad Lindley
Editor’s note: You may have noticed that the article entitled Six Ways to Spice Up Your Romance ran two weeks in a row. This was unintentional on our part. The Lord must have had somebody out there that he really wanted to get the message to.
If you are a Christian, you fast.
There is no way around it. Jesus told his disciples, When ye fast… (Matthew 6:16). Notice he did not say, “If you fast”. Christians fast. On top of that, Jesus taught that our righteousness should exceed that of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). The Pharisees fasted twice in a week for twelve hours at a time (they fasted on Tuesdays and Thursdays from sun up to sun down). It therefore follows that a disciple of Jesus fasts more than twenty-four hours per week.
What exactly is fasting?
In the case of the Pharisees, a fast was refusing food and water from sun up until sundown. Since Israel is closer to the equator than Bethel, there day length is much closer to 12 hours throughout the year. After sundown they would break their fast by eating and drinking. At specified times during the year the Pharisees would fast for a period of 24 hours.
In the book of Daniel, we read that Daniel denied himself pleasurable food for a period of 21 days. I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over (Daniel 10:3 NIV). In other words, he ate very bland food, like oatmeal without sugar or raisins, and drank nothing but water for three weeks. For those who are unable to go without eating, pregnant women, diabetics, and others, this type of fasting can be effective (check with a doctor first).
Fasting gets results
Across scripture people fasted and God moved. In Daniel’s case, after 21 days came a breakthrough resulting in a powerful vision of the end of time. In fact as soon as Daniel set himself to prayer and fasting, the answer to his need was released from heaven. It took 21 days to get there. During those 21 days, Daniel was praying and eating oatmeal on earth, and in the spiritual realm, the angel was fighting against the satanic powers that ruled over Persia (Daniel 12-13).
When the prophet, Jonah, preached to the people of Nineveh and told them they would be destroyed by God in forty days, they fasted. From the king to the lowest of Ninevites they fasted. Even their animals went without food and water (Jonah 3:5-9). And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not (Jonah 3:10).
When Ezra was leading the people back to Jerusalem out of captivity they traveled through dangerous lands. He thought to ask the king for soldiers to protect them, but instead they called upon the Lord. So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer (Ezra 8:23 NIV). They came through safely, without soldiers.
Surrounded by an overwhelming enemy Judah faced certain defeat. And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah (II Chronicles 20:3). Without ever swinging a sword or shooting an arrow, the Israelites won the battle. The Lord sent ambushments against the enemy and the people were saved.
If you are not fasting, you have no right to complain
When things don’t go our way, and our prayers seem to be unanswered, maybe we are not fasting enough. Remember fasting is not an optional activity for the Christian. God may be waiting for us to work along side of him in the answering of our need. When we fast, we open up new avenues of victory. Fasting brings forth the loosening of the bands of wickedness, it lifts heavy burdens, it lets the oppressed go free, and it breaks yokes that keep people bound to sin (Isaiah 58:6).
If we have lost loved ones and we haven’t been fasting, then we need to get to work. If you are struggling with sin in your own life like tobacco, pornography, or gambling, prayer and fasting can bring victory over those yokes. There is tremendous power when people go beyond prayer and begin to fulfill the scriptural teaching to fast.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, AK.
“Six Tips to
Spice up Your Romance”
7-19-07
by Tad Lindley
At least that’s what they used to read. Nowadays it seems like a lot of them have replaced the word “romance” with the words “sex life”. If you’ve never seen them, they are near the checkout of most big grocery stores. I have always thought of them as women’s magazines, but by the models on the cover, you might think they were trying to sell them to men.
An article like that really doesn’t interest me. I’ve got a book at home that I think has scooped all of these lonely housewife gossip type magazines. Here are a few tips that I have gleaned from my Book.
Tip Number One: Get Married
A lot of readers are living together unmarried. That is completely against God’s plan for you. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24) The very first couple was married. In the New Testament we are commanded to flee fornication (sex outside of marriage). (I Corinthians 6:18) In fact, unless we repent of it, we cannot make it to heaven. (I Corinthians 6:9-10)
Tip Number Two: Men, Don’t Live With Mom
God has asked men to leave their home of birth, and live with their wife. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife… Psychologists may disagree with me on this, but it is usually easier for a woman to get along with her mother than with her mother-in-law. Men tend to be less particular about such things. But regardless of the reason, the Biblical model is for the man to leave his parents.
Tip Number Three: Have Sex
Perhaps people have confused religion with the Bible. Some religions have taught that sex was a forbidden or dirty thing. Others have forbidden people to marry. They were not preaching from the same book I am. The Lord wants married couples to have sex, and not just for the sake of having children. Read this with me: Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer… (I Corinthians 7:5 NIV)
Tip Number Four: One Man and One Woman
The Bible is extremely clear about this fact. The marriage bed is not to be defiled. (Hebrews 13:4) There is no such thing as an “open marriage” in the kingdom of God. If you want to improve your romance, flirting must only be done with your spouse. Men, never discuss your marital problems with another woman and vice versa.
Tip Number Five: Wives, submit…,
Men don’t even read this if you aren’t going to follow tip number six. I present this carefully. Some men may wish to completely control their wives. When the Bible tells us: Wives submit yourselves to your husbands, as unto the Lord (Ephesians 5:22), it means that the man has been chosen as the leader in the family. The husband’s decisions are final. If he is a good leader he will seek to make sure he has his wife’s support in decision making. If a woman has wisely chosen her husband, this should not be a problem. The scripture is not telling women to be a punching bag for a drunken boxer. If you are in a dangerous situation like that, get help now.
Tip Number Six: Husbands, Love Your Wives…
A man must go out of his way to love his wife. Simply eating the food she puts before you and then grunting is not enough. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies… (Ephesians 5:25, 28) If you want to spice up your marriage, start loving your wife even when it is inconvenient. Instead of rushing off to basketball after dinner, make yourself sit down and visit with her. Purposely put off things that she knows you enjoy, to spend time with her instead. Then when you are too old to play ball, she will still be there for you.
Reader, you may feel that it is impossible that you will ever have a joyful marriage. Try the Biblical suggestions I have outlined above. The Lord gave them for our own benefit. The Bible says these words. When all else fails, tie a knot in this scripture and hang on, God will bless you: Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. (Mark 9:23)
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel. This article originally ran in the October 17, 2005 issue of the Delta Discovery.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Is the Fourth of July in the Bible?
Part I
6-19-07
by Tad Lindley
Grab your Bible and turn to Daniel chapter 7. The time of the writing is about 553 B.C. Daniel is in Babylon. As a young man he was taken captive in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon (modern day Iraq). Now he is older. He has invested his life in becoming a man of God. In turn the Lord has revealed many things to Daniel concerning the future.
In case you do not have a Bible handy, I will provide the scripture for you. Daniel spoke saying, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings. I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
“And suddenly another beast, a second, like a bear…After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.
“After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth; it was devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the residue with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I was considering the horns, and there was another horn, a little one, coming up among them, before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots. And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking pompous words.” (Daniel 7:2-8 NKJV)
Let’s run through it quickly. Daniel had a vision at night. In his vision he saw four beasts. 1. A lion with eagle’s wings.
2. A bear.
3. A four-headed leopard with four bird wings on its back.
4. A beast with iron teeth. It had ten horns. An eleventh horn rose up on it and plucked out three of the other horns. This eleventh horn had human eyes and a mouth that spoke. (This little horn is the antichrist. I will show you that in a few weeks).
What are the four beasts?
Fortunately the Bible tells us what these beasts represent. They are either kings: These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth (Daniel 7:17), or they are kingdoms: thus he said, “the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces” (Daniel 7:23). We do not need to read Bible commentaries or look at what various preachers think about this issue, the Bible clearly states that these beasts represent world leaders (kings) and nations (kingdoms).
When do these for kings/kingdoms arise?
The Bible also tells us when these nations will be on the earth. They will all be on the earth at the second coming of Jesus Christ. I watched till the thrones were put in place and the Ancient of Days was seated; his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool… (Daniel 7:9 NKJV) Daniel literally saw Jesus returning to earth! I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn [on the fourth beast] was speaking; I watched till the beast was slain [see Rev. 19:20], and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time (7:11-12 NKJV).
If we are to determine which nations these beasts represent, we must understand when they will be on earth. Many have taught that they occur one after another. That the lion came first, and was taken over by the bear, which was later in history destroyed and replaced by the leopard. The Bible clearly shows that all of these nations will be prominent at the second coming of the Lord. This means that they are on the earth at the same time. These nations will have their power taken away when Jesus comes again, but they will continue to exist for “a season and a time”. This means that these beasts are either nations that are on the earth right now or soon will be.
Watch next week for part two of Is the Fourth of July in the Bible?
King Return is Late
6-19-07
by Tad Lindley
“What day is it,” the old man asked.
“The thirteenth,” I answered.
Concern spread over his face. The drying rack was empty, and we had been fishing hard.
I have to confess that in my own mind I was wondering if the kings just weren’t coming. Most everyone I talked to was coming up short or empty. Some suggested I hang up my eight inch net and fish with chum gear. To me that would have been conceding defeat: I was not ready to do that.
Nevertheless, worst case scenarios began to roll through my mind. Perhaps they had gotten scooped up by trawlers, or were already in Asian markets having been caught by illegal high seas drift netters. By the time doubt had worked its way through my mind I was ready to declare the 2007 Kuskokwim River king return a disaster. Good thing I kept my mouth shut. The next night, we began to catch fish.
King salmon do not live by the same calendar that men do. While we were out there scraping the sandbars and plumbing the deep channels, wondering where the fish were, they were living by things that we do not understand completely: water temperature, tide cycles, and winds. On our calendar they are late, but to their minds, they are right on time.
The King is coming
Jesus will return. This fact is stated many places in scripture. As the disciples stood looking toward heaven after Jesus had ascended, the angels came and reminded them of this: You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven shall come again in the same way in which you have seen him go to heaven (Acts 1:11). Even Job understood this. About 4,000 years ago he spoke these words, For I know that my redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth (Job 19:25). Jesus himself foretold of his return. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).
Where is he then?
The early church believed that Jesus’ return was so imminent that they would live to see it. (Notice in Acts how the saints in Jerusalem sold everything and gave it all to the church, later needing to depend on welfare from the other churches). In fact people began to be discouraged when Jesus did not return immediately. For this reason the apostle, Peter, taught them not to be discouraged if the coming of the Lord seems delayed. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9). It is the mercy of God that has restrained his return. This extension of grace will come to a complete stop some day. The Bible teaches that at some point in time the fullness of the Gentiles will be gathered into the kingdom of God. At that time the door will shut, and only Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25). Until then he is waiting and reaching for our souls.
God’s timetable
We cannot completely understand the Lord’s timetable. One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (II Peter 3:8). Jesus described the return of the King as an event that would take many people off guard, like a thief coming in the night. (Matthew 24:42-44). Yet at the same time, he lays out the events that will precede his return (Matthew 24).
Are you ready?
The blue tarp is probably up on your drying rack by now. Nets are mended. Money has been set aside to pay for gas. Fish camp has been cleaned up and weed whacked. If you have made preparations, you will eat fish this winter.
In the same way, the Bible teaches us that the saint of God will not be caught off guard by the return of the King. But you, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief (I Thessalonians 5:4). The King is returning. When he does, will you be caught, or left behind?
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
The Lady at the
Bedford Bible Bookstore
6-12-07
by Tad Lindley
When I was a kid, you could get beaten up if your underwear showed at school. The teasing that would come down on a child would be so great, that boys with poor emotional control might start throwing punches. My schoolmates and I made all effort to make sure that our briefs had not hitched up above our beltlines. The public display of men’s underwear was something that was relegated only to the realm of the plumber. In high school, if a girl’s bra strap were to slip into view, her friends would in hushed whispers bring it to her attention and she would discretely fix the problem.
You may have noticed today, that this has all changed. Apparently it is fashionable for persons of both genders to show off their undergarments. I used to have nightmares that I got to the playground at school and looked down only to realize that I was still in my pajamas. It was unconceivable to me that I would ever see the day when people wore pajamas in public on purpose. If it was just teenagers, I could write it off to rebellion, but the scary thing is that there are folks older than me that are walking around like this.
I said all of that to say this…
In a world where immodesty has become the rule, modestly dressed people tend to stick out. They have a certain look about them. So when I walked out of the hot Indiana summer into the air-conditioned bookstore, I noticed the proprietress right away. She appeared to be an everyday woman, making no attempts to “improve” upon the image that God had made her in. She wore no paint or jewelry (I Timothy 2:9). Her hair appeared to be long and uncut (I Corinthians 11:6, 15). She wore a long-sleeved dress that hung nearly to the floor (Deuteronomy 22:5). Please understand that I was already married at this time, and my observation of this woman was based solely on her modest appearance.
I wondered if she was an Apostolic Christian. “What church do you attend,” I asked her.
“We attend an independent church outside of town,” she answered.
“What type of church is it,” I asked.
“Oh, we’re similar to Baptist.”
“Ma’am, I thought maybe you were Apostolic, because of your long hair and lack of jewelry.”
What she said next stunned me. It was so profound. It was an entire sermon packed into a single sentence.
“I look this way, because my husband likes me to.”
The message she preached
Her answer spoke to me. While most of her peers were focusing on makeovers and hairdos and keeping up with the latest attire, she was willing to be called “old-fashioned” so that she might please her husband. Men would never drop their sunglasses to eye her. She would never get whistled at in public. Her appearance would never get her preferential treatment from mechanics, clerks, bank tellers, or public employees. None of that mattered to her. What mattered to her was pleasing her husband. She was more in love with her husband than she was with the world.
This is exactly the attitude that we ought to have concerning Jesus. We ought to love him more than our own comfort. When the preacher preaches that not giving a tenth of our income to support the church is the same as robbing from God we are faced with a decision. If we are really in love with Jesus, we read Malachi chapter 3 and verify what was preached, and then we start returning the first tenth. If we love money more than Jesus, we find a different church to go to, or else quit church all together.
But what has Jesus done for me lately?
For a marriage to work, the husband must consider his wife before himself. The wife must also consider her husband before herself. Aside from giving us breath and a heartbeat today, Jesus has preferred us above himself. Even when we were still dwelling in pride, committing abortions, getting drunk, living lies, and loving the world, Jesus quietly took the weight of all of our sin upon him self and nailed it to the cross.
In the Revelation we find out that Jesus is the husband of the church, and that there will be a wedding of the church and the Lord (19:7-9). Unfortunately, it takes more than simply “liking” Jesus or confessing that he is Lord. We must reject the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him (I John 2:15). Like the lady in the Bedford Bible Bookstore, we must stand up and say, “I live this way because this is the way my husband (Jesus) wants me to live”.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Jesus in the Old Testament
by Tad Lindley
Why do Christians need the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament? Isn’t the Old Testament just for the Jews? Not according to the New testament which boldly declares that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (II Timothy 3:16). To the child of God, the two Testaments are deeply woven together. The word of God is spoken to the Hebrews in the Old Testament and then revealed to all humanity in the New Testament.
Most importantly, the Old Testament is rich with prophecy. We could even say that it is about Jesus. After all, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). Without the Old Testament it becomes possible for people to write Jesus off as just a man who worked miracles. Without the Old Testament we have no root for the revelation of God in the New Testament. Please compare the awesome claims and attributes of the LORD in the Old Testament with the words and the reality of Jesus in the New Testament. One thing becomes clear: Jesus is God.
In the OT the LORD is…
First and last:…I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6)
The good shepherd: The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1)
The Creator: In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
The redeemer: As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 47:4)
The Great I AM: And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM… (Exodus 3:14)
The conqueror over death: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction… (Hosea 13:14)
The coming God: And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed… (Daniel 2:44)
The King: And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord and his name the only name. (Zechariah 14:9)
Visible to all: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. (Job19:26)
The judge of all: Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the Heathen round about. (Joel 3:12)
In the NT Jesus is…
First and last: And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last. (Revelation 1:17)
The good shepherd: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)
The creator: All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:3)
The savior: For our citizenship is in heaven from whence also we look for the saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phillipians 3:20)
The Great I AM: Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58)
The conqueror over death: I am the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25)
…he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. (John 11:43)
The coming God: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God… (I Thessalonians 4:16)
The King: And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:16)
Visible to all: …for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible… (I Corinthians 15:52)
The judge of all: When the Son of man shall come in his glory…, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another… (Matthew 25:31-32)
The more we study the exclusive claims of the LORD of the Old Testament and the words Jesus used to describe himself in the New Testament, the more we know that Jesus is the Great God of heaven and earth, the Holy One Israel.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Lake of Fire:
When Hell Goes to Hell
5-31-07
by Tad Lindley
Recently in a home Bible study someone asked, “Hell and the lake of fire, they’re the same thing right?” Let us look at what the Bible teaches. Stay with me, because I will do a little groundwork first before I answer the question.
Where do we go when we die?
There are a couple of men in human history that did not die. Their names are Enoch and Elijah. Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him (Genesis 5:24). …Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven (I Kings2:11). Everyone else who lived before us died.
Obviously the body stays in the ground. In permafrost it stays intact, in warmer climates it decays. In the case of cremation, the ashes stay in an urn, or blow around wherever they are spread.
The soul departs the body. From that point there are only two destinations: heaven and hell. Jesus gave a very vivid picture of this in Luke 16. It is the record of an unnamed rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame (22-24).
Hell
Notice three things about hell. 1) It is a place of extreme thirst. 2) There is extreme heat and fire there. 3) In hell people can see heaven and the joy that they could have had. A fourth fact concerning hell is the presence of maggots that do not die (Mark 9:44). Hell is like a garbage dump where the wicked dead are the garbage that is being consumed by fire and maggots and yet somehow the torment of it is unending.
Heaven
In heaven there is righteousness, peace, and joy. After a life of sorrow, Lazarus was rested and refreshed. He had come into his reward.
When the apostle John saw heaven, he saw heaven in the future when it had a great multitude of Christian dead. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and all kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands (Revelation 7:9). Read your Bible, and you will see that they are worshipping the Lord night and day.
The first ones into the lake of fire will be…
In a time that may be soon upon us, Jesus will return in the flesh. He will come with ten thousands of his saints (Jude 14). At that point those who are “saved” and remain alive will rise up in the air to meet him. (I’m simplifying this somewhat). Then at the Battle of Armageddon the Lord will defeat the armies of the ungodly. The antichrist and the false prophet will at this time be thrown into the lake of fire (not hell). They will be the first ones to dip their feet into the lake of fire. The devil will be chained in the bottomless pit. For one thousand years Jesus Christ will reign peacefully on earth (Revelation 19:4).
When hell goes to hell
At the end of the thousand years the devil will get out on probation. He will break probation, and rise up against God one more time. At his final defeat, Satan will be cast into the lake of fire. After that, there will the second resurrection. At this time all who have ever lived will be judged by the Lord. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:13-15).
The lake of fire is the eternal existence for the fallen angels, death, hell, and those that are unsaved. It is worse than hell. God does not want you to end up there. In fact he has delayed his return to give you and me a chance to get things right with him (II Peter 3:9). The day will soon be upon us when it is too late to repent and be baptized in Jesus’ name. Do it today.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Home Improvement Syndrome
5-23-07
by Tad Lindley
Sometimes folks build a house small. They put down a good foundation and build what they can afford. As time goes by, they get more children and more things. Sometimes they put an addition on the house to make more room. It is difficult to get an addition to look like it was part of the original house. The roofing will be a shade darker the paint may not quite match. A skilled builder, though, can do a nice job, making the addition look natural.
Next time you are driving around Bethel, study the houses. Houses with an addition will be obvious. No matter how closely the paint and the roofing match, the foundation will give it away. The ground under the original house will move differently than the ground under the addition. When it was first added on, rooflines matched, but without constant tinkering, they will get out of square.
The house that God built
Jesus started building a house way back at Mount Sinai. He gave Moses the 613 commandments. It was direction for the people of God. These commandments were designed to carry the people through until the Lord would come and dwell among us in human flesh.
If you have read the Bible you know that right away the people started remodeling the house that God built. They wanted to make the commandments of God more comfortable. They knocked out some of the walls; tore down some parts of the building altogether. In other places they built additions onto the house that God built.
The best foundation for Bethel
In Bethel, there are a variety of foundations. The absolute worst is to build straight on the ground. The best is debatable. It would probably be creosote or steel piling. The foundation that the Lord chose for his building is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). Without controversy, this is the best spiritual foundation.
Addition built on sinking sand
The additions that people began to make to the commandments that God gave Moses were not built on a solid foundation. They were built on sinking sand. When Jesus Christ showed up 1500 years later, the building was a mess. What had happened is that men had begun to substitute religion for the word of God. By “religion”, I mean the teachings of men as opposed to the word of God.
Jesus described the situation like this: This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men (Matthew 15:8-9). The scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees had added so much onto the word of God until they had created their own religion. It was built on the foundation of men instead of the word of God.
Jesus addresses the religion of the Jewish leaders in a number of places. An example of this is found in Matthew 15:2. The scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. The Pharisees had built an addition onto the word of God. They taught that a person was unclean if they ate without washing their hands. You can search the Old Testament from stem to stern, and you will never find a command to wash your hands before eating. It is good advice, but it has no bearing on our salvation. Jesus was not against washing the hands. He is against people teaching their own ideas as His word.
Check your foundation
Over 1900 years have passed since John set down his pen from writing the Revelation. During that time, many religious teachers have come and gone. Some have built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Others have built on philosophy and theology, with themselves as the chief cornerstone. A simple way to check your foundation is to read the Bible. In particular, the Book of Acts gives a clear picture of early Christianity.
There are certain things in modern Christianity that you will not find in the Bible. Examples of these include: Lent, sprinkling infants with water and calling it baptism, salvation by “accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior”, making a “decision for Christ”, making people wait to be baptized, and lighting advent candles at Christmas. Before you get mad at me for saying that your house is crooked, get underneath and take a look. Is it anchored on the bedrock of the Bible, or is it resting on the sinking sand of religious thinkers? If we teach those things as the command of God, we are deceiving people, and, like the Pharisees, worshipping god in vain.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Preacher claims,
“I Never Exhaled”
5-16-07
by Tad Lindley
During the presidential race it came out that former Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, had smoked marijuana as a younger man. He downplayed the illegal drug use claiming that he had never inhaled the smoke of the marijuana. Presumably he swirled the smoke in his mouth and then blew it out without breathing it in. You have heard of the President that never inhaled. This is about the preacher who never exhaled.
A cigarette smoking preacher?
The man of God is called to watch our over the souls of his flock. As such, the preacher must walk a tighter line than his people. His preaching must be geared toward drawing his people away from sin and toward Jesus. He must take a stand on the things in this life that destroy souls and lives. Tobacco kills people. A preacher who does not take a stand against it is not watching for the souls of his flock.
Knowing all of this, it was with great surprise that I heard of a preacher in another state stepping out front of the church to have a smoke after service. “Oh yeah, they don’t preach against it”, my friend said.
“How could they not”, I asked.
“Well you know that the Lord told the people, Not that which goeth into the mouth that defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man (Matthew 15:11).”
It always frustrates me when folks use the Bible to justify bad behavior. What could I say?
“I guess they never exhale”, my friend said.
Was Jesus giving us permission to smoke?
No sane person claims that tobacco is good for you. It kills people. Yet it might seem that the Bible gives the nod to cigarette smoking. After all, it is not what goes into your mouth that corrupts you, but what comes out. The only catch is, when you put smoke into your body, smoke comes out, unless the smoker never exhales. In fact this secondhand smoke has been responsible for killing non-smoking spouses and children.
Is snuff the answer?
If you have ever accidentally drunken out of a spit can, you would be hard pressed to tell me snuff spit is a pleasant thing. If you haven’t, trust me, it is an experience your throat will never forget. I realize that some people swallow their snuff spit. Please don’t do that. Stomach cancer kills so fast, you might not get a chance to say good bye to folks before you die. Either way we slice it, if we put tobacco into our mouths, poison comes out.
Doesn’t the Bible say we will drink poison and not be hurt?
Yes it does. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them… (Mark 16:18) Is this a loophole for us to use tobacco or even alcohol? Think about how Jesus handled the temptation of the devil. Satan had come to the Lord and said, “If you are the son of God, throw yourself off of the temple and let the angels catch you (Matthew 4:6)”. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, THOU SHALT NOT TEMPT THE LORD THY GOD (4:7). The promise of God’s protection does not give us a license to make foolish choices hoping to cash in on the word of God.
Before the patch we had…
The last time I quit tobacco, there was no such thing as the patch. There was candy, gum, and prayer. The power of prayer is more powerful than the patch. I was not even a Christian at the time, but I was sick. I had bronchitis and yet the power of the addiction was so great that I continued to smoke on top of the bronchitis. The cigarettes tasted like wet cardboard, but I could not stop.
An old man took me for a ride in his car. I didn’t want to be sick, but I wasn’t thinking about quitting smoking. He started talking. I listened. He began to tell me how he quit smoking. “Every time that craving to smoke came to me, I would pray and ask the Lord to help me. I didn’t smoke. When the craving came again, I prayed again. No candy, no gum, I simply prayed every time I wanted to smoke”. He dropped me off at home. I smoked the last cigarette of my life that night about 20 years ago.
At first I felt like I would wear the Lord out praying, but it turns out that it was the easiest time I ever quit. Jesus would not ask us to take care of our bodies without making a way for us to cast off our addictions. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13).
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
The Number Two Reason that your children might end up lost
5-9-07
by Tad Lindley
Without a map, people have found themselves in extreme situations. Far from safety and confused, they have even hidden from the search party. The drowning have pushed away the reaching arms of their rescuers. The hypothermic have mistakenly believed that they were completely in control and refused help. Starting with a good set of directions in many cases prevents the traveler from staying lost for long.
We’re either lost now or have been
In the spirit, all men have sinned and ended up lost (Romans 3:23). For the past 2,000 years Jesus has been on a rescue mission, striving to reach the lost. Tragically, like the drowning, the hypothermic, and the oxygen deprived, people tend to reject the hand of the rescuer. So we march on across time, some recognizing the reaching arm of God, but many feeling that they are quite alright in their lost condition.
If you have grabbed a hold of the hand of God and entered the ark of safety, then you long to see other people saved. If you are a parent, you no doubt hunger to see the salvation of your children. In this life, if you are rich, your children are rich. If you speak English your children will speak English. If you have freckles, your children probably do too. If you are tall, your children probably will be as well. I wish that I could say, “If you are saved, then your children will be saved”. Painfully that is not the case. The Lord has children, but he has no grandchildren. Two born again parents will give birth to sinful children.
The number one reason that your children might end up lost
You could probably think of a number of people who had God-fearing parents and yet live like the devil. Children growing up in the Godliest homes have died drunk, far from the ark of safety. Everything their parents did to teach them about serving God and loving people could not save them. Yes, they never missed Sunday school class. Yes, they were buried with Jesus Christ in the waters of baptism (Romans 6:4). But somewhere along the way, they got lost. The things of the world became more attractive than the love of Jesus. It was nobody’s fault but the child’s. The parents gave the child a map that clearly showed the way to Jesus. Somewhere along the way the child set the map down, thinking they would do fine trusting their own sense of direction. The number one reason children will be lost, is because they choose to live their life outside of the refuge of God.
The number two reason is you
This is not a message I enjoy delivering, but it needs to be heard. Parents, you are the number two reason that your children might end up lost. God has chosen you to teach your children about him. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children… (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). When parents do not teach their children about Jesus, they are sending them into life without a roadmap for salvation. Yes, even people from the most abusive and depraved families have been rescued by Jesus. Glory to God for that, but the fact remains that it is harder to stay lost when you have a good map to guide you.
What kind of map are you drawing for your kids?
It takes more than simply telling your kids to pray to Jesus before they go to bed. They need you to pray beside them Dad. It takes more than sending them to Sunday school by themselves while you recover from a late night of TV watching at home, Mother. Kids need a mom and dad, who will show them, not just tell them. Our children need to see more dads who will skip city league when the game is scheduled during church time. They need to see us reading the Bible, praying, and helping those who will not pay us back. Most schools do not teach these things. Hollywood does not teach these things. The music industry does not teach these things. Moms and dads, if we don’t, there may be nobody else to do it.
Be the number two reason that your kids are saved
The number one reason anybody is saved is Jesus. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). The number two reason is that somebody came to them to tell them about Jesus. My friend Billy Strickland said, in response to Hilary Clinton’s book, “It does not take a village to raise a child, it takes two parents”. Moms and dads, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 4:6). It’s a whole lot harder to stay lost when you have a good map to follow.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
White: Sin color, not skin color
5-1-07
by Tad Lindley
The story goes like this: a church in an American city had a sign. They changed it weekly. One day someone called the church. “That sign you put up is racist,” the caller said. That’s a serious allegation, so the church quickly changed the sign to something less offensive. It was winter time, everything was covered with snow. Even the ground around the dirtier parts of town was covered and beautiful. An old hymn had come to the sign keeper’s mind. He thought, “I’ll put that on the sign at the church”. The song which is sung in many languages by people of all colors around the world contains the following verse: Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow? There’s power in the blood, power in the blood. Sin stains are lost in its life giving flow. There’s wonderful power in the blood.
From that wintry day, came forth the offensive sign. It went something like this:
WOULD YOU BE WHITER, MUCH
WHITER THAN SNOW?
Most driving by would have recognized the reference to the Bible and understood that the sign was referring to sin color. A few, perhaps unfamiliar with scripture, thought that the sign was talking about skin color.
What’s up with the white thing anyway?
Across the pages of the Bible, white is used to represent cleanliness, holiness, and righteousness. The only time that white is ever used as a skin color is in the case of King Solomon. Solomon is described as being “white and ruddy” (Song of Solomon 5:10). Other than that white is never talked about as a skin color, except in the case of leprosy (23 times in scripture leprosy is described as a whitening of the skin).
In particular, the prophet Isaiah used the word “white” to describe the condition of the soul. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool (Isaiah 1:18). King David penned these words, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (Psalm 51:7). Sin is like a bright red stain on the cloth of our souls. It is impossible for us to get the sin stain out of our souls.
Rubber boots in the steam bath stove
In times past I have felt that I might erase my regrets and my shame by taking a really hot steam. Getting as hot a fire as I could (maybe using an old rubber boot and pallet wood for extra kick) I would pour water again and again. My skin would be screaming for me to leave, but I would pour more. Surely this heroic act of cleansing would lift the stain of sin.
Unfortunately, we cannot steam clean our souls. There is no soap that can scrub it away, no steam bath hot enough, no scrubber scrubby enough. A healthier diet won’t heal it. Exercise won’t exorcise it. Meditation won’t make it go away. Clinical therapy cannot cleanse it. Alcohol can’t assuage it. Dope can’t dissolve it. There is only one thing that can reach inside of our being and remove the stain of sin: the blood of Jesus.
Beauty of the blood
The night before Jesus was crucified, he held up the cup and said, This is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sin (Matthew 26:28). Just as new fallen snow can make even the muddiest, trashiest part of town appear beautiful; the blood of Jesus can take the ugliest life and make it beautiful. Though our name may have been in the newspaper and everybody has known of our guilt, Jesus can make us whole again. Half the town may have seen us stumbling around drunk in our former life, but when the power of Jesus Christ operates in our life people will forget how we once lived.
Even the secret stains
As a teacher I have seen many young people wear the same shirt over and over until it is stained. Then they turn the shirt inside out hide the stains. We do the same thing in our lives. Many of us have been abused or molested. We have been humiliated and felt ugly all the days of our lives. Jesus can heal that. Even if the stains of our past rise up in front of our face every night as we try to go to sleep, the promise of God remains: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Would you be whiter, much whiter than snow?
The same Israelites who had called for Jesus to be crucified realized that there shame had risen up as a stench before God. The stain of their sin had permeated their lives. Wanting to be made white (sin color, not skin color), they asked the apostles what they should do. Peter told them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38). That sin stain can be removed form our lives when we are buried with Jesus in baptism. Then will come to pass in our lives the scripture, If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed (John 8:36).
Why did Jesus get baptized?
4-24-07
by Tad Lindley
John the Baptist knew that Jesus would become much greater than him. When they asked John if he was the Christ, he told them, “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8 NIV). When Jesus showed up the very next day, John told the people gathered there, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). John understood perfectly where he stood. His job was to announce Jesus. After that John’s ministry would fade and Jesus’ ministry would take off.
A surprise request
Therefore it was a great surprise to John when Jesus stepped up to him and asked to be baptized. Imagine your doctor walking into the exam room, shaking your hand, and asking you for advice on his own health. Or perhaps the president calling and asking you for some pointers on leading the nation. Here Jesus, who is God manifest in the flesh, is asking for a sinful human to baptize him. John said, “No sir, if anything, I need you to baptize me. Why are you coming to me asking me to baptize you?” (Matthew 3:14)
Where does baptism come from?
The Old Testament counterpart to baptism is ceremonial washing. Before entering into the Holy place the priests were commanded to bathe. By the time of Christ, Jewish tradition taught the need for the common person to wash. You will recall that the Pharisees criticized Jesus and his disciples for not washing their hands before eating (Mark 7:1-5). Interestingly in Mark 7:4 the Greek word for wash is baptizo, which means to immerse in water. So when the Pharisees came in from the market place, they did not just sprinkle water on their hands, they immersed them in water. In like manner people were expected to wash their bodies for ritual cleansing.
Christians did not invent baptism
Archaeologists have uncovered a number of Jewish immersion pools in Jerusalem, Jericho, and other places in Israel. Many such pools have been found to the south and to the west of where the temple stood. In their approach to the house of God, worshippers would wash away their impurity by being immersed in water. The tubs that people washed in are called miqvaot. Rabbinical law required a miqveh to hold at least sixty gallons of water in order for the person to be completely covered by water. It would have been these miqvaot in which 3,000 people were baptized on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). In addition to Jews being immersed in miqvaot for ceremonial cleansing, even to this day, when a Gentile converts to Judaism, they are baptized in a miqveh.
John’s baptism was special
When John baptized people, he was baptizing them for repentance. In other words, people were deciding to live for God, letting go of the sinful things in their hearts. They confessed their sins in the water (Matthew 3:6). In John’s baptism people found remission of sin (Mark 1:4).
So why was Jesus baptized?
Jesus had no sin to be forgiven (Hebrews 4:15). He had no need for repentance. John understood this and that is why he told Jesus, “The table should be turned. You should be baptizing me.” Here is the response that Jesus gave John the Baptist: “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. (Matthew 3:15 NIV) Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness.
Why are Christians baptized?
Jesus taught the people seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33). By his example he showed us that baptism is part of seeking his righteousness. (Not to mention that a person who is old enough to understand the gospel must be baptized to be saved. See Mark 15:15, John 3:3-5, and I Peter 3:21). When we go down beneath the waters of baptism, we are following the example that our God laid down before us. If our life is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, we will not fall.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Preacher sends message from prison
4-18-07
by Tad Lindley
He had literally poured his life into his ministry. At the peak of his preaching life, he was arrested and thrown in jail. So much had transpired in a short time. He had preached to huge crowds. His preaching was harsh. He never sugar coated sin. In spite of that fact, people kept coming. Every day he had been baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins. Roman soldiers had come. Tax collectors had come. Ordinary citizens had come. They had all repented of their sin and been dunked beneath the waters of the Jordan River.
Jailed for “hate speech”
Then the preacher preached his last sermon. He pointed his finger at the King, because of his adultery. (Herod had divorced his wife, and married his brother’s wife). He used the scriptures to show how God hates adultery. It cut King Herod to his heart. Instead of repenting though, he threw the preacher, John the Baptist, into the dungeon.
Depression strikes
In prison John began to wonder. He understood that his purpose was to announce the coming of the Messiah, but things seemed to be going wrong. Hadn’t he lived a separated life in the desert, eating locusts and wild honey? Hadn’t he denied himself the pleasures and comforts of life in Jerusalem in order to serve God? Had all of this been a mistake? He had baptized Jesus, and seen signs from heaven and heard the voice from heaven (Mark 1:9-11), but now it felt like God had completely abandoned him. Had it been mental illness and not the voice of God that led him? John was in the pit of depression.
What is going on here?
Out of the dark storm of doubt that overcame John the Baptist, he sent a message to Jesus. Although he had been so sure that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh, doubt had worn away that conviction. So the messenger carried these words to Jesus: Are you he that should come, or should we look for another? (Matthew 11:3) John was so discouraged that asked the Lord, “Are you really real”.
Wait a second. This is John the Baptist. He buried Jesus in the waters of the Jordan and then brought him back up again. This is the same John the Baptist that leapt in his mother’s womb when she came into the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary. He had seen tremendous moves of God. Hardened sinners had wept tears of repentance and come up out of the water forgiven. And yet in the pit of prison, he began to doubt.
Proof in the pudding
Jesus did not send back a “yes” or a “no”. He told the messenger, “Go and show John again the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who shall not be offended in me” (Matthew 11:4-6). Jesus was asking John to go beyond his present feeling of doubt and to look at the facts. Jesus still heals, Jesus still cares, he still moves in people’s lives, and he will bless those who do not turn from him.
Prayers fall to the ground
We don’t need to send a messenger to Jesus; we can go straight to him in prayer. But let’s face the facts, sometimes our prayers seem to go up as far as the ceiling and then fall on the floor around us, unheard and unanswered. We begin to wonder if God notices us anymore. Even the memory of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost fails to uplift us. We are having a “John in jail” moment.
He is still on the throne
In the midst of our “John in jail” moments, God truly does care. The Psalmist asked the question, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4). The Lord is involved with our every move. Sometimes he permits us to go through the valley and not around it or over it, but he is still beside us.
Do not look for another
John asked the question of Jesus, “Art thou he or do we look for another”. Jesus is the Lord; we do not need to look for another. Many have backslidden, because when they didn’t feel Jesus, they looked for another source of security. They looked in relationships, parties, and money, they tried moving to a different place, switching jobs, switching husbands, etc. only finding temporary peace followed by returning disappointment. In the midst of a “John in jail” moment when we cannot feel God and our faith is flimsy, if we just hang on, it will pass, and we will see the power of God again revealed in our lives.
He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 24:13).
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
The preacher who ate
insects and bee vomit
4-10-07
by Tad Lindley
His food was locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:4). I’m amenable to the honey, but locusts do not make me hungry. During times of long distance fasting, I have imagined myself eating many things, but never insects. Some foods have just not caught on big in America yet. Nevertheless, in many parts of the world people do eat insects. The Old Testament dietary laws permitted the Hebrews to eat certain insects. In particular, grasshoppers, locusts, katydids, and crickets. And so it was that the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist, was an insect eater. Whether John chose this diet for health reasons or financial reasons is not certain.
John might have remained in Jerusalem and followed in the priestly line of his father, Zechariah. It would have been a comfortable life. Instead John chose to live in the desert. He wore a camel hair garment held up by a leather belt. His food became grasshoppers and bee miryaq.
Voice in the wilderness
In the 15th year of the reign of Roman emperor Tiberius Caesar, John was called to preach (Luke 3:1-2). The word of God came to him and he began to travel among the communities around the Jordan River. In doing so, he became the fulfillment of the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah: The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord…all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:4-6). John became that voice. When Jesus came to be baptized by John, John became the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
Some of the hottest preaching they ever heard
When John preached, he didn’t play up to the crowd. He didn’t talk about how nice the locusts tasted in that part of the country. Nor did he start out with a joke or two to put people at ease. No, John the Baptist came out with both barrels. A typical sermon went something like this: You are all snakes and devils. You think that you are big just because of who you are. You think God needs you? God doesn’t need you. He can raise up stones to replace you. The axe is getting to fall and you will all burn in hell! (based on Luke 3:7-9)
Amazing response
Nowadays that kind of preaching is liable to make folks pick up their tithes and go home. The Jews and Romans that heard him preach could have said, “This guy’s full of beeswax. He’s a narrow-minded bigot. He dresses funny, and besides a loving God wouldn’t throw people into hell anyways.” Amazingly, many people responded to John’s preaching differently. They asked him, “What shall we do then?” (Luke 3:10) “You need to repent,” John told them. Then as people repented of their sin, they would enter into the Jordan River and John would baptize them for the forgiveness of their sins (Mark 1:4).
John’s ministry takes off
John baptized Jesus at Bethany beyond Jordan. People began coming daily to hear John preach and to be baptized. He moved his headquarters to Aenon near the village of Salim on the Jordan River (John 3:23). There was a lot of water there, which is necessary when you have people constantly being baptized. During this same time period Jesus ministry increased and his disciples began baptizing people as well (John 3:26, 4:2). People came to John and warned him that Jesus’ ministry was competing with his own. In complete submission to Jesus, John spoke these words: He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).
The tragic end of John’s life
John continued to preach boldly against sin. He even went so far as to preach against King Herod for committing adultery (he had taken and married his own brother’s wife, Herodias). This confrontation landed John in jail. In the midst of a feast, King Herod offered his stepdaughter anything she wanted, up to half the kingdom. Spurred on by Herodias, the stepdaughter asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter (Mark 6:14-29). Jesus summed up the life of John the Baptist: Among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he [John] (Luke 7:28). John announced the kingdom, but we get to participate in it!
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Easter: How a good husband straightens out his bride
4-5-07
by Tad Lindley
“Maybe you should get her away from the kids and slap her around a little bit.” It was advice from one married man with more experience than me. I was newly married, and I was very quickly realizing that marriage wasn’t going to be all about me and what I want. It was a bit of a shock.
I failed to realize this central truth about marriage: In marriage, the two become one, and the one is not me. The Bible tells us the same thing, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24 NIV) To the young person thinking only about the hugs and kisses, that sounds like a great thing: the two will become one flesh. But when you find out that her flesh likes salt in the seal oil and yours doesn’t, or her family always used Miracle Whip®, and yours thought it was low class and used only Best Foods® mayonnaise, things can begin to fall apart. The marriage that seemed like it was going to be so heavenly suddenly isn’t.
Is beating your wife the best way to fix it?
If a man and a wife are spiritually speaking “one flesh”, the answer is an absolute no. After all, when a person hits their own body, or cuts on themselves, we declare them mentally ill. We seek help for them through prayer, fasting, and counseling. The Lord drives this point even deeper in the book of Ephesians. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. (5:28)
Imagine a man with a knee injury from too much basketball. He begins to beat his knee with a hammer in hopes that it will get better. We would declare him a fool. Yet, when a man’s wife is not feeling well, often he will begin to beat her down with words, and in some cases, fists. Jesus’ command is for us to do exactly the opposite. Treat our wife as if she was our own body. When she is not up to par, love her even more. When she is like that bad knee, massage the knee, don’t pound on it, and don’t ignore it.
That’s easy for Jesus to say, He’s God
Sometimes we get the picture that Jesus is up there in the clouds and he is not really in touch with what it is like to be us. After all, Jesus was never married. Some readers might be thinking, “If he had been married to a back talking, lazy spouse like mine, then he would have told us different”.
Would it surprise you if I told you that the Lord was married? He was. Look at this for a moment: Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. (Jeremiah 3:14) Unfortunately, most of the people that made up his wife were not faithful to him. Only a small remnant, one per city, or two per family really honored this marriage relationship that Israel had with the Lord. Finally in the book of Malachi, the Lord throws up his hands and watches the wife walk out on him. ... for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. (2:11)
How the Lord dealt with his wife
When the fullness of time had come, God was manifest in flesh. God became a man, (this is what we refer to as the Son of God, or the Messiah). Now in the days of Noah, it seems that God just wiped out the whole bunch except for Noah and his family. So we might think that if God came as a man, he might be here to clear out the earth again. No, he came to minister to his people. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. (II Corinthians 5:19) The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10) Instead of beating up the wife, Jesus took the wife’s pain and shame upon himself. He paid his wife’s way back. As horrible and inconvenient as the humiliation and death on the cross were, Jesus took that upon himself for the joy of a successful marriage.
How a good husband straightens out his bride
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and he gave himself for it. (Ephesians 5:25)
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Take your hands off their throat please
3-27-07
by Tad Lindley
I wish that he had said, “homeless alcoholic”, but he didn’t. Instead, as our children played in their Anchorage living room, and my wife and I visited with he and his wife, he said something else. Describing the neighborhood in which he worked, he said, “Every time you look out the back window you see a ‘drunk Native guy’ peeing against the wall”. His wife was horrified at the racial slur (my wife and children being Yup’ik). A blind man could have described the look on his wife’s face as she softly but sternly called his name in rebuke. Apparently he missed her correction as he talked right on through the awkward moment.
When a brother offends you
We had been closest of friends at one time. When we were young and liberal we had been roommates. Something had changed. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh (Luke 6:45). His mouth had betrayed what was really in his heart. I was hurt. I was embarrassed that my kids would be exposed to racism in what should have been a safe environment. I am not the type of person to be dominated by my feelings, so we finished our visit without retaliation, but the hurt has been slow to leave.
Fight back with forgiveness
If we want to be Christians, we have to forgive. When Peter questioned Jesus about forgiveness Jesus responded with a teaching that most of us ignore. Follow along with the Bible: Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV) That is 490 times that we are expected to forgive a person.
Why 490 times?
Actually that is the wrong question. The right question is, “Why did Peter say, ‘when my brother sins against me’?” When a stranger sins against us, it is easy to get them out of our lives. There is not much chance of them running up the score of 490 sins to our 0. The people that are more likely to sin against us are those that are close to us. Because they are close, it means that they are likely to offend us again in the future. Over the course of a lifetime, a friendship, or a marriage, the score may approach 490. Jesus was telling Peter, there is never a time when it becomes acceptable for us to withhold forgiveness.
You might as well be choking them to death
Jesus went on to teach Peter about forgiveness (Matthew 18:23-35). He told of a man who owed billions of dollars and could not pay it. The king he owed the money to asked for it to be repaid. The man could not. The king ordered the man, his wife, and their children to be sold as slaves to pay off some of the debt. The poor man fell before the king pleading with him for more time. “Lord, have patience with me and I will pay thee all”, the man said. The king was moved with compassion. “Forget about the money, consider the debt paid in full”, said the king.
One would think that the forgiven man would be forever changed by this. Unfortunately, we find out that right away he went to a man who owed him a small amount of money. The forgiven man literally grabbed his friend by the throat and began to choke him. “Pay up deadbeat!” In fact he had the friend thrown in prison.
The king found out about this episode. He was displeased. Soon the unforgiving man found himself in prison being tortured. He had failed to show the same measure of forgiveness that he had been shown.
Get your hands off of their neck please
Jesus was doing more than teaching Peter. He was crying out to us to forgive those who have hurt us. Jesus took the weight of our sin and bore it on the cross. He took every hangover morning, the tormenting shame of the sexually perverted, the confusion of the drug addict, the Monday morning wake up of the clinically depressed, the rage of the wife beater, the explosive pressure of the dish throwing wife, the repulsiveness of bitterness, the violence of victimhood, I could go on and on. Jesus took all of our sin and consequences upon himself.
As soon as I get mad at my friend for a racist remark, I am no longer rejoicing in what Jesus did for me. I am back in myself putting my hands on somebody’s neck (in the spirit) and saying, “That guy owes me and he had better pay”. Perhaps you have been deeply wounded. You may have been severely betrayed and abused as a child. It was so much more than a passing racist remark. It has tormented you all of your life. Listen to me. The only way to lift that torment from off of you is to forgive. The only way out of victimhood is victory in Jesus. If it is hard to forgive, pray for the one the hurt you. Ask Jesus to help you find forgiveness, he wants you to be made whole again! If you earnestly seek him, he will.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
The Jimi Hendrix Principle
and the Roman Centurion
3-22-07
by Tad Lindley
Jimi Hendrix spoke the following words in his song Third Stone from the Sun: “I’m the one that’s got to die when it’s time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to”. Many of us have tried to live according to the Hendrix principle. We have rejected the advice of our parents and elders. We have turned our back on Jesus, even making fun of those who would follow him. As a result, we have paid a high price. In case you are unfamiliar with Mr. Hendrix’s story, he paid the ultimate price, suffocating to death on his own vomit in the back of an ambulance. It was a tragic end to a young life.
Hendrix Principle nothing new
The Hendrix Principle has never been shown to bring joy. Nevertheless, people have been trying it ever since the Garden of Eden. Cain tried bringing his own sacrifice to God. Lamech murdered a young man. Abraham lied about his wife. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of beans. Samson fornicated with Delilah, ending up blind and bound. The Israelites murmured against Moses. The ten spies brought a wicked report. Achan kept the gold and silver hidden in his tent. The Pharisees rejected Jesus. Human history is full of the failures and atrocities that resulted when men leaned upon their own wisdom and not the wisdom of God. The prophet Jeremiah summed it up like this: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
Let me live my life the way I want to
The old saying goes, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past”. Let me adjust that a little bit. Those who do not know Jesus are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. We can study all of the history we want and people will still make the same mistakes over and over. The raw material that we are working with, the human heart is unreliable. We will lie ourselves. It is human nature. The word of God puts it like this: In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6) Until we understand that if we trust in our own thoughts and ideas, we will be doomed to repeat the mistakes that millions have made before us.
Hendrix discharged, Roman soldier promoted
Tradition tells us that Mr. Hendrix was discharged from the Army for an injury sustained in a parachute jump. However, records show that Hendrix feigned homosexuality and was then discharged (Charles L. Cross, Room Full of Mirrors). To a young man devoted to the Hendrix Principle, Army life must have seemed a poor fit. After all, the purposes and mission of the US Army seldom overlap with what the enlisted man would prefer to do.
Contrast Private Hendrix with one of the most famous soldiers in all of history: the Roman centurion. This man had a servant whom he loved very much. The servant was near death. The soldier went to Jesus believing that Jesus could heal his servant. Little did he know, that before the sun set, his servant would be healed, and he would receive the Lord’s Medal of Faith.
The secret to winning the Medal Great of Faith
This Roman soldier had rejected his right to live his life the way he wanted to. Just as Jimi Hendrix had placed him self in the position to die a horrible death, the Roman Centurion placed himself in the position to be blessed by Jesus. Look at the words that he spoke when he approached Jesus, “For I also am a man set under authority, and I say to one, ‘Go’, and he goes; and to another ‘Come’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this’, and he does it”. When Jesus heard these things he marveled at him, and turned him about, and said to the people that followed him, I say unto you, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel”. (Luke 7:8-9)
Not only was this soldier willing to place himself under authority to those who were above him, but he recognized that Jesus himself had the authority to heal his dying servant. Because of his selflessness, Jesus conferred upon him the Medal of Great Faith. What amazed Jesus is that this soldier was not even a Jew. He was not of the chosen people of Israel, and yet his faith exceeded that of the Jews.
Pleasing God starts at an altar of repentance when we shake off the Hendrix Principle and place ourselves under the authority of Jesus. The choice is ours: repeat the mistakes of those who have gone before us, or surrender our lives to Jesus and be blessed.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Thief walks away with Elder’s
dinner even though he has food at home
3-14-07
by Tad Lindley
There is nothing worse than a strong young person robbing an elder. The young man, too lazy to work, swears and threatens his grandparents to get money to buy marijuana. A middle aged man comes by night and steals wood from beside an old man’s qasgiq. Many of our elderly people live on the edge; they are dependent on their fixed income to make it from month to month. Often they are not as strong and alert as they once were. They become easy targets for thieves. In case the gift of the obvious has not kicked in, elder abuse is sin. When Jesus condemned the Pharisees in Matthew 23, the second sin he brings to their attention is that they devoured widows’ houses and then went to church and played religious (Matthew 23:14).
Has an elder gone hungry while you ate their food?
Unfortunately, elders and the poor in general are being taking advantage of in many of our communities every day. If you have ever won at bingo, you probably took bread off a widow’s table. If you have ever won at pull tabs, some of those $20 bills that you put into your billfold came from elderly folks who went hungry at the end of the month. In a card game, the money that the winner walks away with comes from the other players at the table. At the bingo hall, the prize money comes from the people who bought the bingo cards to play. I realize that at the bingo halls that you go to, all the other players are rich doctors and lawyers. Unfortunately at most gambling events, there are both gambling addicts and people living in poverty who put their money into the pot. That same $50 bill you won and spent on steak may have come from an old couple who later in the month will be starving themselves while they try to stretch ten pieces of pilot bread until the first of the month comes. The $20 you won may have come from someone who sold their last gallon of salmonberries to support a gambling habit.
It’s not my fault they are foolish with their money
If somebody leaves their snow machine unlocked with the key in it at a basketball tournament in Bethel that is foolish. Does that make it right for us to steal it? If we were to take that snow machine and then get arrested for it, we would be just as guilty as if we had taken a snow machine that was locked up without the key. If a gambler is greedy enough to spend their children’s dividends on 4-5-6 (a dice game popular with men in Bethel), it does not make it right for us to walk away with it.
But the Bible does not say “Thou shalt not gamble”
True, the Bible does not list which games are acceptable in the sight of God and which are not. The Bible does not say for instance that Scrabble™ is okay, but dollar ante poker isn’t. Neither does the Bible instruct us to not smoke crack. Instead, the Bible gives us some general principles concerning taking money from others:
• Never take money from a gambling addict. Don’t exploit the helpless, because they are helpless (Proverbs 22:22 Complete Jewish Bible).
• Never gamble with poor people (if you win, you are keeping them down). The oppressor of the poor insults his maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him (Proverbs 14:31 CJB).
How does Jesus feel about gambling?
Here are some answers straight from the Word.
• Those whose goal is to be rich fall into temptation; they get trapped in many foolish and hurtful ambitions which plunge people to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all the evils; because of this craving, some people have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves to the heart with many pains. (I Timothy 6:9-10 CJB)
• No one should be looking out for his own interests, but for those of his fellows (I Corinthians 10:24 CJB). When we gamble, we are literally hoping that everyone else will lose so that we might win.
• So are the ways of those who are greedy for gain- it takes the lives of those who get it (Proverbs 1:19 CJB).
But some of the gambling money goes to a good cause
I realize that some village police departments depend on bingo revenues for their support. In Bethel some sports teams raise money by holding 50/50 raffles. A portion of the money that a gambler spends on pull tabs goes to charity. The raffle ticket you buy may go to support a local search and rescue outfit. How can a person be helpful without gambling? If you really want to help out the local sports team, give them money. In a 50/50 raffle only 50% of your money goes to the team. Why not let 100% of it go to the team? In bingo, only a fraction of the money you spend goes to support the police department. If it really is the police department you want to help and you are not after the thrill of gambling, just skip bingo and make an offering to the police department. All of what you give will go to support the police. On top of that, you will know that the money that is in your pocket came from honest gain and not from the table of needy.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
The sin that could swim
3-7-07
by Tad Lindley
Jonah heard a word from God. Perhaps you know the story. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance or destruction. Jonah went to the ATM, got some money out, and bought himself a ticket. He was headed as far as he could in the opposite direction. No matter how we might try to make excuses for Jonah, this one fact is apparent: he was deep in sin. When a man or woman knows what God wants them to do and they do the opposite, it is sin.
Jonah in a nutshell
In case you’re new to the Bible, I’ll give the details. A storm came up on the sea as Jonah was sailing in the exact opposite direction of Nineveh. The sailors had to throw everything overboard. Finally Jonah told them that it was his disobedience to God that was causing the storm. “Throw me overboard,” he told the sailors. When they finally did, a great fish swallowed Jonah, and three days later spit him out on the beach. Meanwhile Jonah had repented. When he hit the beach, he headed straight for Nineveh where he preached to the people. From the King of Nineveh on down, even the animals, the nation fasted in response to Jonah’s message. God saw the repentance of their hearts and the people were saved.
Did he smell like fish vomit, or a rose?
Think about Jonah’s story for a moment. God saved him out of the pit of sin, and he came out smelling like a rose. Jonah completely rejects the Lord, and does a quick repentance and comes out of it like a champion. The crusade he preached in Nineveh resulted in the salvation of as many as a half million people (120,000 children, plus adults see Jonah 4:11).
Jonah’s sin sank
When Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the fish, the Lord heard and delivered him. Not only that, he bore no price for his sin. His sin sank to the bottom of the sea. Our God’s mercy is so awesome. Scripture teaches us that God will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19) What an awesome hope for sinful people like us.
David’s sin swam
In I Kings 15:5 we read a very interesting scripture: David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. At first it appears that perhaps the writer made a mistake. Didn’t David lie to the priest Ahimelech (I Samuel 21:2)? And didn’t the entire city of Nob pay with their lives for David’s lie? Didn’t David take a census of Israel, playing right into the hand of Satan (I Chronicles 21:1)? And didn’t 70,000 Israelites die as a result? Space does not permit me to add to this list, although we certainly could.
Why does the Bible say that David only sinned against the Lord once? Knowing that the Bible must be in agreement, it appears that the Lord forgave and forgot all of David’s other sins. They sank into the depths of the sea of forgetfulness. There was just this one sin that would not sink. David committed adultery with the wife of a friend, and then had the friend murdered and married his widow (II Samuel 11).
Yes, David repented of his sin. And yes, the Bible indicates that David will walk on the street of gold some day, but this horrible sin would not sink even after he got right with God. The Lord’s word to David upon David’s repentance: Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife (II Samuel 12:10). David would live to see three of his sons die. His daughter, Tamar, was violently raped by her half-brother. David’s son Absalom committed adultery with David’s wives in a public ceremony. Unlike Jonah, David did not come out a champion. He came out broken, and although he continues to serve God with all of his might, he never recovering to his former glory.
Your next sin: will it sink or swim?
Reader I want you to think long and hard about this. Too many times we skate through sin like Jonah. Some folks spend a night on Fourth Avenue in Anchorage and the next weekend they will be singing in the choir. We get into the habit of thinking I will just go through life like Jonah. It is a lie from the gates of hell.
Based on the numbers alone, some of you reading this will drink alcohol thinking it is a Jonah kind of evening, but Saturday morning you will wake up like David, one of your party guests having molested one of your own children. Based on statistics alone, some reader will find himself at the bingo parlor. It feels like a Jonah night. Until that niece or nephew shows up to visit your neglected children and give them their first bong hits of marijuana while you stamp the bingo cards and come home a David.
God will forgive you (I John 1:9), but the consequences may not.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda:
Is he the Anti-Christ?
2-28-07
by Tad Lindley
In case you are unfamiliar with the story, let me give the details. A preacher in Doral, Florida recently revealed a “666” tattooed on his forearm, and announced to his people that he is the Anti-Christ. According to Newsweek magazine, in 1998 this same preacher proclaimed himself the reincarnation of the Apostle Paul. Two years ago, Reverend Miranda announced to his national convention that he is Jesus Christ. He describes himself as “the second coming of Jesus Christ”. Miranda claims to have 100,000 followers in twelve different nations.
How do we know if this guy is real or not?
If you are familiar with the concept of the Anti-Christ, then it might be a spooky thought. If the Anti-Christ has just revealed himself on the world scene, then the Tribulation cannot be far off. For those unfamiliar with the Anti-Christ, he is a man who will receive power from Satan and rise to world political power during the time of the end. He will attempt to destroy the people of Israel and will bring great persecution to bear upon the church. We can know from scripture whether or not the claims of Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda are in fact true.
Reincarnation of the Apostle Paul
Let us clear something up: reincarnation is a creation of the imagination of men. The tree lies where it falls (Ecclesiastes 11:3). When we die we will be lost, or we will be saved. There is no chance to come back and try it over again. There is a resurrection, in fact there are two resurrections coming (see Revelation 20:4-5, 12-13). But in that time, the Apostle Paul will come back as the Apostle Paul and you will come back as you.
Is Rev. Miranda the Second Coming?
From the Bible we know that the following events will happen at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And then shall appear the sign of the coming of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to another (Matthew 24:30-31). The Revelation describes it like this: Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him (1:7). When Jesus comes again, scripture is clear on this fact: everyone will know it. Reverend Miranda does not to fulfill this prophecy in any way. It appears then that he has placed himself in the fulfillment of another prophecy. Jesus speaking to his followers on the Mount of Olives said Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many (Matthew 24:4-5).
Does this make him the Anti-Christ then?
Here are some facts about the Anti-Christ. The Anti-Christ will be a man who is an agent of Satan. He will be a world political leader (Daniel 7:17). We know from Daniel 7 that the Anti-Christ will arise from a group of ten kings or presidents. The Bible shows that he will subdue three kings in his rise to power (Daniel 7:24). It is for these same reasons that we can also be fairly sure that the Anti-Christ will not be a pope as some have suggested. In his rise to power the Anti-Christ will probably bring on a time of peace (11:21). He will be a part of a seven year peace agreement that will pave the way for the Jewish people to rebuild the temple and resume animal sacrifice there (Daniel 9:27). Up to this point he may not be identifiable as the Anti-Christ. When he steps into the temple and exalts himself above God (II Thessalonians 2:4) there will be little doubt as to who the Anti-Christ is.
It takes more than a “666” tattooed on your arm to become the Anti-Christ. If Mr. Miranda would become the world leader of the end time he will have to turn in his minister’s license and get into politics. Until that happens, he is not even close to being the Anti-Christ.
* * * * *
Mistake in previous column
In the column from February 14th, Want to Keep a Secret? Hide it in Acts 2:38, I made a mistake. Thanks to Ben Barnes for pointing out that I incorrectly referenced the Rheims-Douay Bible as that used in Catholic churches. The official version used in the United States is the New American Bible (NAB). In the NAB Acts 2:38 reads: Peter (said) to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit”.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Brother Lindley unveils plan to boost High School Graduation Rate to 100%
2-20-07
by Tad Lindley
It is heartbreaking. Every fall an army of kindergartners starts in LKSD schools. It would follow that in thirteen years there would be an army of seniors graduating high school. Unfortunately this is not happening. Instead a kindergarten crop of 100 might produce 40 or 50 graduates. This is uncalled for.
The requirements obviously don’t work
My friend pointed out to me recently, that we could easily increase our graduation rate. If we made 40% passing, then a lot more kids would pass. The State of Alaska has made it too difficult to get a diploma. Why not get rid of a lot of the requirements? For instance the state requires 2.0 credits in mathematics (LKSD requires 3). If we would lower the hurdle, more people could get over it.
Putting a diploma in every child’s hands
I thought about just requiring kids to attend school all the way through the age of eighteen and then giving them a diploma. There is a gaping flaw in that though: many kids drop out in grades 6-8. We want to get them graduated also. I want to see the headline in the Anchorage paper; Lower Kuskokwim Schools Have Highest Graduation Rate in Nation! We can’t reach the goal without a safety net for these childhood dropouts. After all, if we are 100%, nobody could top us.
My proposal
We need to completely rewrite the graduation policy. Here is my suggestion: Any person eighteen years of age having demonstrated that they attended school in an LKSD school for at least one day shall be awarded a high school diploma on the first May 15th after their 18th birthday. It would be virtually impossible for a student not to graduate! It is ingenious.
Oops, there’s one thing I forgot
Yes, there is one little piece of red tape preventing this plan from becoming a reality. The State of Alaska will not permit it. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has the final say on whether or not our diplomas are legitimate. Until the law changes, we cannot graduate kids with less than the law requires. Sure they can go above and beyond, but unless they meet the bare minimum, there is no hope of a diploma. Period.
God wants a 100% salvation rate
Now you may find that the above example is a bit ridiculous. Obviously we would be graduating people who could not read, write, or identify shapes and colors. The church faces the same dilemma, but something far greater hangs in the balance: the souls of men and women. The Lord is not willing that any should perish (II Peter 3:9); he wants everyone to be saved.
Let’s make it easier to be saved
What some preachers have done is to lower the standard, so they can call more people saved. These days in a big town like Bethel or Anchorage, people can shop around to find a church that fits there lifestyle. If you like getting drunk, you can probably find a church that won’t preach against it. In fact they might even put you on the deacon board and consider you “saved”. Are you having a sexual relationship with someone you are not married to? You should be able to find a church that will count you “saved” in spite of it. Are you a gambling addict? Where I grew up there were churches and synagogues that actually had bingo. Go there, be “saved”, and never have to change it is almost as easy as my new diploma plan.
I want my diploma to mean something
I want to be in a church where the preacher knows what I need to do to be saved. There is no shortcut to salvation. We are saved by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. And if we have experienced that, our lives will show it. Even if I show up at the white throne judgment (Revelation 20:11-15) with a piece of paper from my church saying I am “saved”, it won’t mean a thing. The Lord will open the books (presumably of the Bible) and the Lamb’s book of life. He will ask me to give account for my life (Romans 14:12). At that point it will become extremely important whether or not I have experienced the full standard of Bible salvation. Was Jesus my Lord or just a friend in times of need? Did I repent (Luke 13:3)? Have I been born of water (Mark 16:16) and of the spirit (John 3:5)? Did I visit the sick, feed the hungry, go to the incarcerated (Matthew 25:31-46), and forgive those that hurt me (18:21-34)? Did I visit the widow and the orphan in their affliction (James 1:27)? I’m going to quit there, because it’s making me uncomfortable.
There is more to being saved than a lot of preachers will let on. Don’t take my word for it, check the book.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Want to keep a secret?
Hide it in Acts 2:38
2-13-07
by Tad Lindley
Acts 2:38 is a foundational scripture for Christianity. The very people who heaped sin upon themselves when they called for Jesus to be crucified were saved when they obeyed Acts 2:38. Acts 2:38 was the closing cry of the apostle Peter at the end of the very first sermon ever preached. Peter was teaching the people what they should do to receive the promise of the Holy Ghost as he had. Acts 2:38 teaches us how to respond to the preaching of the gospel. In one verse Acts 2:38 reveals how Christians were born again nearly two thousand years ago. Yet in our day many people have never heard of Acts 2:38.
Acts 2:38 never left the Bible…
… but it left the pulpit. Today you could not preach Acts 2:38 most places. Sure the preacher could read it from the pulpit, but he could not preach it. In fact in most churches if a preacher began to teach his people to obey Acts 2:38, he would soon be asked to resign his position. For this reason, it is largely ignored. It disagrees with what many churches teach. Instead of changing the church doctrines to match the Bible, people just blacklisted Acts 2:38. If you want to keep a secret, turn in the church’s big Bible to Acts chapter 2. Write your secret down in the margin next to verse 38. The chances are excellent that no one will ever find it.
Four versions of Acts 2:38
First let’s look at what Acts 2:38 says (I’ll give you three versions):
1) Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (King James Version, widely used in Protestant churches)
2) But Peter said to them: Do penance, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Rheims-Douay, widely used in the Catholic Church)
3) Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (New International Version)
4) Now you go get your Bible and see what it says.
Two commands and a promise
Regardless of the version, Acts 2:38 tells us to repent. Repentance means turning from sin and turning toward God. We cannot be saved without repentance. Jesus said, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3,5). That still preaches in a lot of churches. The second command is to be baptized in Jesus’ name for the remission of sin. Simply put, many churches don’t play that.
The real problem with Acts 2:38
Baptism is messy. It gets water on the floor. Folks have to change their clothes. Getting water can be hard work in villages without piped water. Let me say this though. If we are doing it to obey God, we need to do it right. Let me say that again, if we are doing it to obey God, we need to do it right. I realize that it is more convenient to sprinkle people, but that is a human tradition. Sprinkling is not what Peter meant when he preached Acts 2:38. He very specifically meant for us to be immersed in water. Jesus very specifically meant for us to be immersed in water when he taught, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned (Mark 16:16).
A lot of preachers have decided that Peter was wrong when he preached Acts 2:38. Notice that Peter was commanding them to be baptized in Jesus’ name. About a week earlier Jesus had told Peter and the other apostles, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). Apparently Peter understood the Lord to be telling them to baptize in the name of Jesus. Of the 10 other disciples not a one contradicted Peter when he preached it this way. Not only that, but there is no record in scripture of a person ever being baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
When nothing else works, receive the promise
Read the end of Acts 2:38 out loud with me. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the promise from God that if we will repent of sin and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin from our lives, we will rise up in victory. Somebody is reading this who is at the end of their rope. You have tried everything you can think of to do. Counselors can’t fix it, claiming to a Christian hasn’t done it. You are sure that there must be something more, but what is it? It is Acts 2:38. If your marriage is crumbling: Acts 2:38. If you can’t heal from hurts in the past: Acts 2:38. You say grace at every meal and go to church every Sunday, but still end up drinking: Acts 2:38.
Brother Tad that’s oversimplifying things
Not really. Jesus said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33). You can never go wrong by obeying the word of God. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). When we obey the word of God, we will live the abundant life!
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
What is the least
I can do and still be saved?
2-6-07
by Tad Lindley
The wealthy young man approached Jesus, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”
Jesus responded to him, “…if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments”. (Matthew 19:16-17)
That should have settled the question right there. The Hebrew scriptures plainly lay out 613 commandments. They represent the law that was given to Moses and the Israelites at Mt. Sinai. No doubt the young man interviewing Jesus was intimately familiar with the 613 commandments. His clothing was hemmed with blue fringe into which had been tied 613 knots to help him remember this.
The normal response at this point would have been for the young man to thank Jesus and go about trying to obey all of the commandments. That is not what happened. Instead he asked Jesus which commandments are important for gaining eternal life. Apparently this young man was looking for the easiest way to be saved: he wanted Jesus to narrow the requirements down for him. In effect he was saying, “Jesus, that is a lot of work. What is the absolute least I can get by on and still make it to heaven?”
Jesus said, “Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother: and, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (19:18-19)
At this the young man began to pat himself on the back, for he had managed not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, not to lie about others, to honor his parents, and to love his neighbors. It appeared that he was on his way to heaven. “I’ve done all that since I was kid”, he told Jesus. “Is that all there is?”
Jesus said unto him, “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me”. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. (19:21-22)
Looking for the easier, softer way
Two thousand years later people are still trying to get by on the bare minimum. We all want to be saved; we just don’t want to be inconvenienced in the process. When you look at the whole Bible, there are a lot of things in there that require people to change their lives. It would be so much easier if we could find a way around it. In legal jargon it is referred to as a “loophole”.
The Philippian loophole
What some have done is look for scriptures that would get people off on a technicality. One that you will hear people refer to at times is Acts 16:30-31. At this point in the Book of Acts, Paul and Silas have been beaten and arrested. An earthquake shakes the city of Philippi. The jailor is about to commit suicide. Paul and Silas stop him. He then asks them this famous question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The apostles answer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”. Many people have grabbed hold of this verse of scripture and said, “Aha, all I need to do to be saved is believe that Jesus is real!”
Closing the loophole
The truth of the matter is that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). We are saved because the Lord bore our sin on the cross. We could not work hard enough or act righteous enough to save ourselves. When we have faith in God, we open the door for him to save us. This entails much more than believing that Jesus existed. The devils believe in Jesus, but they are not saved (James 2:19). Belief is the starting point, but if we really believe that Jesus is Lord, we will want to obey him. We will want to be immersed in water, because Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…” (Mark 16:16). Also, “Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Once we have experienced water baptism and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we cannot be saved unless we turn away from our old life (see I Corinthians 6:9-11, Galatians 5:19-21, and Revelation 21:8).
Instead of asking Jesus to narrow down the requirements for salvation, the young man should have asked Jesus, “Tell me everything I need to do to be saved. Don’t leave anything out!” Eternity is too long to be wrong. We should never try to see how close we can get to the edge of the cliff without falling off. Instead, we should stand upon the safety and protection of God’s word.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Church at risk
of lawsuit for false advertising
1-31-07
by Tad Lindley
Have you ever been to a church meeting that was advertised as a “Worship Service”? As my friend Lance Appleton pointed out to me, such churches are often at risk for lawsuits. The sign promises an exciting experience, yet on the inside, the church is bogged down in Habakkuk 2:20, The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him. One goes in expecting to find people worshipping Jesus, but instead they find a mass outbreak of manikinism. The only assurance that they are indeed alive being the yawns and coughs and the robotic stand during the last stanza of the song.
Worship is an action
Every time we read the word “worship” in the Bible we should envision bowing down before the Lord. More precisely the worshippers are face down before God. If anybody tried to follow the scriptural command to Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy (Psalm 99:5), they would literally be laid out on the floor talking, singing, or shouting about how great God is. In some modern churches this would cause the ushers to escort the worshipper out of the building for disrupting the flow of the service.
Get your shabach on!
The Jews got loud in their praise. When the Bible says, Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise [shabach] thee (Psalm 63:3), it means “my lips shall get loud about your loving kindness. There is a satanic spirit that doesn’t want you to get your shabach on. When Jesus was riding in to Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey, the people had there shabach on: they were praising God with a loud voice! Then the Pharisees stepped up to Jesus and said, “Master, rebuke your disciples”, in other words tell them to quit being so loud. And Jesus answered and said unto them, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).
But I’ll look foolish if I praise Jesus
You are supposed to. Don’t people dance around and do foolish things when their team wins by one at the final buzzer? Doesn’t the alcoholic do foolish things for his god? When someone wins big at bingo do they keep quiet about it? How much more ought a blood bought child of the One true God praise him? The Hebrew word halal describes behavior such as boasting about the greatness of God, celebrating foolishly, and shining. There is nothing secret about this kind of praise. Psalm 147:12 tells the Israelites to Praise [shabach] the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise [halal] thy God, O Zion.
But Brother Lindley, God sees my heart
I know that God sees our hearts. I also know this: our mouths will tell on our hearts. It is in the Bible. In Matthew 12:34 Jesus tells us, “…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh”. If our heart is full of praise and worship, it will overcome the shyness of our mind, and we will boast about God. We will be loud about the Lord. It will not be a show for people; it will be a show for Jesus.
God does not dwell in the First Church of Manikinville
In the Psalms we learn that the Lord dwells in praise. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel (Psalm 22:3). If we lock our lips and hold back praise, we end up with dead church. The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence (Psalm 115:17). On the other hand, when at least two or three people begin to lift up praise to God, something wonderful happens.
They’ll look me funny
If you are part of a worship-less, praise-less congregation, I urge you to step out. Your pastor is probably praying for someone like you to break the deadness with praise. Some people may look at you strangely, but you see, among many of the other manikins there is a deep desire to openly and unashamedly worship the creator of heaven and earth. When you step out and worship Jesus, they will follow.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Football Worship: Is it wrong?
1-24-07
by Tad Lindley
82,000 seat sanctuary
It was a mega-church. They packed them in. Eighty-two thousand could gather there to worship. Just like any church, there were many more people who claimed to be members than ever showed up on a given Sunday. If everybody had shown up there wouldn’t have been room enough for them.
Never missed a service
We didn’t have the means to make it to church every service, because you see it wasn’t free. I checked recently and saw that in order to get into the Amen section a family of four would have to pay about $2,000 up front. As a result, I had to settle for watching the services on television. I never missed. If for some reason the services were not televised, I would listen to them on the radio. I was so into this thing, that sometimes I had the radio and the TV going at the same time.
It was an addiction
If I told you that service often went three hours or longer, you might think I was a fanatic for putting up with it. Wait, it gets worse. When my church was done, I would scan the channels looking for another service. Those were the days I would take in six hours of service on a Sunday. Then on Monday I would talk about the service with other members, going on joyfully about every high moment of the service. Often, I would read about it in the paper. I couldn’t get enough of it. I planned my schedule so as not to miss a service. If I missed a service, I could become quite angry and irritable. If the service did not go well for me, I could be depressed even into the next week.
Confessions of a backslider
Eventually I quit watching football. I left home and didn’t have a TV. Even if I had, the Fairbanks station didn’t carry the Cleveland Browns. At first it hurt, but gradually I reached a point where I found other things to fill my Sundays. In fact I shudder when I realize that for many years I spent 6 hours every Sunday during NFL season glued to the TV or radio.
Football worship: Is it wrong?
I was a worshipper of football. I gave generously of my time, my mind, and my emotions to it. I realize that some folks can take it or leave it. In my case it was an idolatry. Had I died in those years, I would have had to one day give account to Jesus of my life. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12) Without the aid of a defense attorney I would have had to answer some tough questions. Why did I devote so much time to the Cleveland Browns, and yet never spend more than five minutes a day in prayer (often much less)? Why was it that I could name every team in the NFL and tell you whether they were AFC or NFC and in many cases who their quarterback was, but ask me what the books of the Bible were and all I could name was Genesis, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
Worship is where the heart is
Jesus spoke these words: This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. (Matthew 15:8) Certainly many Americans would claim with our mouths to be Christian. What are we claiming with our hearts?
Here are a few ways that we can gauge our hearts: 1. Where are we spending our time (more on football or more on Jesus)? 2. Where are we devoting our thoughts (more about football or more about Jesus)? 3. Where are we focusing our conversation (more on football or more on Jesus)? 4. Which do we love to do more, set down to watch football, or worship Jesus? 5. Do other people realize that we worship Jesus, or do they know us more as a sports fan? If our hearts are closer to football, or any other worldly thing, we are on extremely thin ice.
In order make the Kingdom of God, we must put Jesus first. “But I couldn’t stand sitting in church and missing the Super Bowl, Brother Lindley”. The old hymn puts it like this: Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. When we worship Jesus we no longer miss the things we used to worship.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Why your children
don’t need help learning to lie
1-17-07
by Tad Lindley
If you have children you can witness to this truth: kids lie without ever having been taught how. Yes there are certain depraved cases where parents teach their children to shoplift or to tell the person calling on the phone that they are not at home. In these cases the parent is teaching behaviors that will destroy the child. But long before the age where children can be taught the steps necessary to conceal merchandise or tell your boss that you are not home when you really are, they are able to lie straight to your face.
Head start not needed for lying
We have pre-schools and head start to help kids learn colors, numbers, and letters. Unless a child is taught those things, they will grow up illiterate. Unfortunately a child seems to learn to sin all by themselves. Without ever having seen an adult lie or steal, a child will do both. In fact you can aggressively teach a child not to do those things, and they will do them anyway.
Long before a child has been exposed to cage fighting, Eminem, or violent video games, they begin to sin. It doesn’t matter if their parent is a preacher or a prostitute, they begin to sin and they do not need role models to copy: it comes from within.
Sin runs in the family
The fact of the matter is that sin is like bedwetting. Every young child does it. The difference is that they outgrow bedwetting. Without help, they will never outgrow sin. Sin runs in the family. You began to tell lies or steal. It probably happened before your earliest memories began. Your parents did the same before you. Your grandparents did it before them. If we go back far enough, we will find the beginning of the problem.
They taught your babies to lie
The sin problem began at the foot of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). The man and woman that God had created had been instructed not to eat from the tree. One day they found themselves standing before it. The serpent was standing there on all four legs (snakes had legs in the Garden of Eden, see 3:14). He began to encourage the woman to disobey the Lord. She gave in.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:6) Immediately things fell apart. Before they sinned they knew only good. Now they knew both good and evil. Sin had entered into humanity.
From that one act of disobedience to God, we have been left with an explosion of sin. We have inherited from Adam and Eve addictions, perversions, violent acts, witchcraft, rebelliousness, and every other form of sin. Every Assault IV ever committed can be traced back to Adam and Eve. Every unnecessary death, every man that refuses to provide for his family, every mother that loves bingo more than her children, every Adolph Hitler, and every Andrew Jackson (the man on your $20 bill was responsible for government policies to exterminate Native Americans) stem from that one act of disobedience to God.
Is it Adam’s fault or Eve’s?
When the Lord asked the man and the woman why they had that guilty look, Adam answered first and blamed the woman, “The woman that thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” (3:12) The woman turned around and blamed the serpent.
The woman ate the fruit first. That makes her the first human to sin. The word of God however firmly lays the blame on Adam: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12). The reason that our children innately know how to lie and steal can be traced all the way back to Adam.
Liberated from lying
One look at CNN.com will reveal that the world is in the midst of desperate problems. Every one can be traced to human sin. Out of this madness, there is hope: For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous (Romans 5:19). Wherever sin has wrought pain and destruction, Jesus died on the cross to heal and bring forth victory. God came manifest in the flesh to reverse the curse brought on by Adam. When we turn away from sin and seek God, we have repented. When we are buried with Jesus Christ in water immersion (Romans 6:4), our sins are washed away (Acts 2:38), and we are liberated from lying!
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Genesis:
Big Mouth or a Little Marble?
1-10-07
by Tad Lindley
In the beginning, something happened. The Universe came from somewhere. All of the stars, the planets, the air we breathe, and the water we drink came from somewhere. Did they come from the Big Mouth, or the Little Marble? Either way, it takes faith to believe.
The cherry bomb
When I was a boy, there was a firework we called a cherry bomb. It was slightly smaller than a golf ball. When the fuse was lit, it would explode. Bits of paper and cherry bomb shell went every direction. The smell of gunpowder in our noses and the ringing in our ears completed the event.
Faith in the little marble
Many people believe that all of the matter in the Universe was once bound up tight like that cherry bomb. That means that all the atoms in my body, and all the atoms in your body (before they became atoms) and all of the atoms in the newspaper you are holding, and all of the atoms in a mosquito, a dog, the sun, Jupiter, etc. were all packed tightly into a ball that some say may have been as small a marble.
According to the Big Bang Theory this object blew apart. As the matter that made it flew away from the center it began to form protons, neutrons, and electrons. Elements formed. Stars and planets formed. Billions of years later life on earth formed from chemicals, and so on until we have you reading a newspaper in 2007. It takes a great deal of faith to believe this.
In the beginning
The Bible teaches us that Jesus made everything. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made (John 1:3). For by him were all things created, both visible and invisible (Colossians 1:16). He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not (John 1:10).
Out of the mouth of God
When the Lord made everything, it came out of his mouth. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and God said, "Let there be light": and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-3) That was the first day. Look at what else came out of the mouth of Jesus:
- Day 2- Sky, oceans, and the water that used to be up above the sky before the flood. (1:6-8)
- Day 3- Continents and plants. (1:9-13)
- Day 4- The sun, the moon, and the stars. (1:14-19)
- Day 5- Fish and other marine life, and birds. (1:20-23)
- Day 6- Land animals and the first human. (1:24-31, 2:7)
As the words rolled out of the mouth of God, they lit up, took flight, swam into the seas, and grew wings and flew. It also takes a great deal of faith to believe this.
Don't be ridiculous
Perhaps you say, "The Bible is so backward and narrow-minded. Everyone knows that plants (Day 3) could not have survived before the sun (Day 4). Hasn't science proved that whales (Day 5) evolved from cow-like animals (Day 6)?" If you are skeptical about this let me ask you some questions.
Jesus' mouth has power
Why is nobody going to the Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center to talk to the inmates about the Big Bang Theory? Why has no heroin addict ever laid down his tourniquet and syringe after hearing about the Big Bang? Why are no physicists going to the Anchorage Rescue Mission to witness to the homeless about the wonders of the Big Bang?
You can call the Book of Genesis "old-fashioned, close-minded, out-of-touch, and ancient". One thing you cannot call it is "powerless". Just as the words came forth from the mouth of Jesus in the beginning to create what we see and feel, the spoken word of God has the power to change lives and to save souls today.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Priest cleans out closet, finds incredible treasure
1-4-07
by Tad Lindley
A critical part of the Bible almost disappeared forever. Things were so lax around the house of God that nobody even knew where the Bibles were anymore. It was before the printing press was invented. Books were copied by hand. It would cost a year's income or more to buy a copy of a Bible.
The priests were cleaning out the Temple and fixing it up (II Chronicles 34:14-33). It had been so long since they had taught sound doctrine that they didn't even know it was missing! Realize that a book (actually their books were long scrolls that they rolled up) was worth perhaps $50,000. So as they were straightening around the house of God they found this scroll. The value alone would have stirred up some excitement.
They took the scroll directly to King Josiah. He asked the messenger to read it to him. King Josiah began to realize as the words fell upon his ears that this was the word of God recorded by Moses. He and his people were living in direct conflict with what God wanted them to do. They didn't know. The priests were even teaching their own ideas and traditions, not knowing what the Bible said. King Josiah's heart was breaking within in him. He tore his clothing in distress.
When people hear the word of God for the first time, it forces them to make a choice. Josiah chose to believe the Bible and change his life and the lives of his people to match it. That is where the Lord wants us to be. Too many times people compare their life and their religion with the Bible and tell themselves, "I know better than the Bible". Which type of person are you?
Open the treasure chest
When we open the Bible and read it, we are tapping into a treasure. The King James Version contains 3,471,629 characters, 821,921 words, 31,102 verses, 1,189 chapters divided into 66 books. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Over 40 men were used to author it. The writings of some of the greatest kings that ever lived, David, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4) stand alongside the writings of a prisoner, a fisherman, shepherds, a tax collector, a doctor, and many prophets, named and unnamed. They wrote over a period of 1500 years. Geographically, the Bible was written on three different continents. Each man wrote as the spirit of God moved upon them to record God's word: For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (II Peter 1:21). The early writers wrote to point people toward Jesus, the later to lead people to Jesus, that we might all have life and have it more abundantly.
Someone wants to keep you poor
Say, "No", to poverty. Your religion may even teach you not to read your Bible, telling you that you are too ignorant to understand. If that is the case, your religion is not based on the word of God which tells us: These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart (Deuteronomy 6:6). The Psalmist wrote, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalm 119:11). You can't hide it in your heart if you don't know what it says.
Hosea wrote this: My people perish for lack of knowledge (4:6). If you want to have knowledge, read. The Jews in Berea read their shared Bible and the word of God gives them an A+. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the [preached] word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:11). If you aren't searching the scriptures daily, let me plead with you to do it. The Lord wants you to.
Do something great in 2007
Starting with this issue, The Delta Discovery will have Bible reading schedule on the Lamp Unto My Feet page. If you read the Bible chapters on the checklist every day, by the end of the year you will have read the entire Bible! If you read at an average pace, this should take you 15-20 minutes a day. If you want the scripture to come alive in your life, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Psalm 119:105), then open it up the word and let the light shine. Hidden treasure awaits you!
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
What are you giving your
kids for Christmas?
How about seeds?
12-20-06
by Tad Lindley
When we were little, we used to go through the Sears catalog in preparation for Christmas. We would circle everything that we wanted. Now my kids do the same, circling toys as if I have an oil well to pay for them. The few circled toys that I got satisfied me for about half of Christmas vacation then I would grow tired of them. The best presents I have ever gotten are not found in catalogs.
Best present runner up
Somehow Mom and Daddy kept it secret from us. We never heard a hammer swing. When we woke up Christmas morning there was a play storefront in the basement made from 2 x 2s. Back then we had books instead of gameboys. Kids had to use their imagination if they wanted to have fun. We spent many hours over the next few years playing in that store. While electric train sets and hot wheels cars wore out, our store continued on. But there was one present that has reached across many more years to continually bring me joy.
The best present ever
My grandmother had come for Christmas. We call her Grano. She lived far away, so we didn't see her very often. We sat on the old green carpet and Grano opened a Bible and read to my brother, sister, and I. She read to us about the birth of Jesus from Matthew and Luke. It was at that time that she also instructed us to pray in Jesus' name. We were not exposed to church much growing up. That little bit of Christian education planted a seed in my heart that would never leave me.
I wish I could tell you that I always walked straight and spit white, but it would not be true. In fact to look at some parts of my life you would doubt I had ever heard of Jesus. Even when I had long hair and was burning sage and praying to the four directions, I would always end my prayers, "In Jesus name", because that seed had been planted in my heart.
Don't give up on your lost children
Often times my grandmother and I would talk. She did not condone the life I was living and let me know it, but I never felt that she loved me any less. She often asked me, "Are you going to church anywhere?" It hurt to me to tell her, "No", because I knew how deeply it grieved her. She has never failed to pray for me. I wonder how she staved off despair all those years. Every letter she ever wrote me until vision loss prevented her from writing closed with the following inscription, "Psalm 91:11-12". For many fruitless years she prayed and encouraged me. Then when I was twenty-eight years old I gave up trying to do it my way. I began to read my Bible. One night I showed up to church with a towel and a change of clothes. I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). The answer to 28 years of prayer, encouragement, and love burst forth in a short period of time.
The best present you can give
If you have young children or young grandchildren, the time to teach them about Jesus is today. While the world is celebrating Christmas, why not sit down with them and show them the truth. The scriptures that teach about Jesus' birth are found in Matthew (1:18-2:15), and Luke (2:1-20). They may want a Play Station 3. Why not give them John chapter 3 instead. It tells them what they must do to enter the kingdom of God (3:1-7). If a new snow machine is out of your budget, why not pray for them every day instead. They may not realize what a great gift it is, but you know, and the Lord knows. Plane tickets to Anchorage might be too steep, how about taking them to church instead. These are the gifts that will keep our children when everything else falls apart.
It's the present you have to give
In fact the Bible commands us to share the truth with our children: And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children... (Deuteronomy 6:5-6). A plant cannot grow without a seed being planted first. Faith cannot grow without hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17). Let them hear it from you. It is the greatest gift you can give.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
We Three Kings of Orient Aren't
12-14-06
by Tad Lindley
Warning: Do not read this article unless you have someone nearby who can give you immediate emotional support. This may be worse than the terrible sense of deception you experienced when you first learned that there was no Santa Claus. I offer this article with great hesitance. My fear is that YKHC's mental health workers will be inundated with calls from people of all ages struggling to overcome their feelings of having been cheated for so many years. If you are easily upset, I urge you not to read any further.
In 1857 John H. Hopkins wrote this famous song. Apparently he referred to folk tales rather than scripture. The story upon which his song is based is traced back to Armenia in the 600's. Reverend Hopkins' song has entrenched this myth into American minds. Today most people if confronted with the scriptural account would be inclined to think that Matthew had made several mistakes. Here is where Hopkins went wrong:
There weren't three.
The scripture is silent on the number of men that came. Here is all the scripture says about their identity: Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. (Matthew 2:1) The number of three is based on the fact that the men that came bearing three gifts. Early folk lore accounts number the men at anywhere from two to twelve. It is possible that there were three, but we must be careful not preach or teach this as anything more than the opinion of people who wrote 600 years after the fact.
They weren't kings.
This falsehood is easy to debunk. The Bible says, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem (Matthew 2:1). The words "wise men" or "magi" come from the Greek word magos. Magos means magician, sorcerer, or wise man.
They weren't from the Orient.
Although the men were from the East, and the Orient is east from Jerusalem, there is no indication in scripture that they came from that far. Magi were priests of the ancient Zoroastrian religion. This religion had its center in Persia.
This is all pretty heavy information, but it gets even worse.
They never saw Jesus in the manger.
I had to duck when I wrote that. Some readers might be getting high blood pressure right about now and saying, "What do you mean they never saw Jesus in the manger? My Christmas nativity set has three wise men right in there with the shepherds and the cattle and the sheep." Others, "Brother Tad, you've really gone off the deep end now. I've seen the church Christmas pageant for 45 years and every year the three wise men show up right there in the manger. I've seen it with my own eyes!"
Let's see what the Bible says. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshipped him...(Matthew 2:11). When the wise men got to Bethlehem, the family was no longer in the stable, but they were in a house. No shepherds, no animals. Furthermore, the Bible describes Jesus at this point as a young child. A clue to his age is given in verse 16. After the wise men depart back to the East, Herod has every male child in Bethlehem that is two years and younger killed. So Jesus was at least an infant, but possibly as old as two by the time the magi came to visit him.
Now that the hoax is exposed, what should we do?
I am advising all Delta Discovery readers to handle this situation as follows: 1. Read the Bible account in Matthew 2:1-16 and make sure that what I have written is correct, 2. In the event that your church actually has this song in its song books, and the song leader didn't have time to read Matthew 2:1-16, I am urging our readers when it gets to the first verse where the words are, "We three kings of orient are", to loudly sing instead, "We unknown number of Zoroastrian priests from the land of Persia are, bearing gifts we travel afar". I know it will take some fine tuning to make the words fit, so spend a few hours in front of the mirror when nobody else is in the house belting it out, 3. When all else fails, keep studying your Bible to show yourself approved, God's word will guide us to His perfect light.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, AK. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
Border Crossing:
Checkpoint Israel
12-6-06
by Tad Lindley
They knew Jesus was coming. His people were watching and waiting. They were expecting him to ride in with trumpets blaring. It had been prophesied from way back that the Messiah would come and save his people. They thought that he would walk right up to the Roman governor's mansion, kick down the door, put his foot on the neck of the governor and say, "I'm the Messiah. I've come to have revival. Now pack up your putrid pig-eating Gentile army and get out of my country!" That never happened.
Instead hardly anyone noticed
It's time that we face the fact. When Jesus came the first time it was by stealth. Sure the shepherds told a lot of folks about it, but it really couldn't have been taken seriously. Otherwise King Herod would have killed every male baby for miles. What we learn later in John 8:41 is that people instead viewed this baby born in a stable as an illegitimate child. The only people beside Joseph and Mary that fully understood what had transpired were the handful of shepherds, an old man, Simeon (Luke 2:25-35), and an old prophetess, Anna (Luke 2:36-38). By the time the wise men got there, about two years had passed. Jesus was a young child living in a house (Matthew 2:1-12).
Richness disguised in rags
When we think about the God of heaven becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1:14), it seems odd that almost nobody noticed. Think about it for a moment: the very one who spoke the words, "Let there be light", drew his first human breath in a stable. The one out of whose mouth came the sun, moon, and stars, gave his first human utterances as he lay in a feeding trough. By him all things were created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him (Colossians 1:16). The greatness of Almighty God crossed the border from majesty to humanity, and the world just kept right on going for the next thirty years as if nothing had happened. Then in three years, the Lord completed his mission and slipped back into glory.
Nobody will miss the second coming
The first time the Messiah crossed the border it was hush-hush. This time there will be no place on earth that does not know about it. It is the moment that the whole creation groans and travails for (Romans 8:22). To be unaware the second coming of the Lord a person would have to be unable to see, be unable to hear, and be unable to be saved. It will be awesome. For the Lord himself shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:16-17). Jesus painted this picture for us: For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be...And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matthew 24:27, 30-31). As the angels gather the elect, shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left (Matthew 24:40-41). The ones that are taken will be caught up with Jesus.
When the saints come marching in
Then Jesus will continue his descent on a white horse (Revelation 19:11-14). He will be followed by ten thousands of his saints (Jude 14). His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4). The border patrol will be gathered together against Jerusalem in that day as the armies of the Anti-Christ attempt to prevent Jesus from crossing from heaven to earth (14:2). When the smoke clears Jesus will rise up and rule the earth for 1,000 years of peace.
When Jesus crosses the border again everybody on earth will see it and hear it. Will you be ready for it?
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
Suicide Part II:
"I Want to See My Dad"
11-29-06
by Tad Lindley
Note: What follows is based on an actual conversation with a young man. It shocked me. Nobody had ever taken the time to teach him what the Bible teaches about the afterlife. I know this is a painful topic, but there may be others who believe this same lie. It is my prayer that this paper will find its way into the hands of someone who may have been led to believe that suicide is a way to find peace. It is not.
* * * *
"I want to kill myself so I can go see my dad," he told me. The young man was angry at God. His dad had died tragically. "He was a good man," he told me between sobs. The tears coming down his face looked hot. Obviously he had thought his plan over many times. What he failed to see is that his plan was a lie from the very gates of hell. Let us look at it.
Where do we go when we die?
In the big picture, there are only two options: paradise (also referred to as Abraham's bosom) and hell. Jesus described the life and death of a beggar named Lazarus and an unnamed rich man. And in hell [the rich man] lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented (Luke 16:23-25).
Are there keg parties in hell?
"When I get to hell, I'm going to turn it into one eternal party," a heavy drinker once said. Some folks envision hell as a place where sinners gather together and continue on in celebration. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hell is a place of misery. The rich man was tormented by thirst. Although there were others in hell with them, he could not see them. All the rich man could see was what he could have had in paradise. Jesus described hell as outer darkness (Matthew 8:12). He painted a picture of people burning and the fire never stopping, of bodies being forever eaten by maggots yet never being completely consumed (Mark 9:44). This is why when a Christian preaches about hell, tears spill from his eyes. In hell, they will never touch another human being ever again.
A few minutes with Dad, or eternity, you pick
Suicide is a sin. It is murder. It is man rebelling against God. Suicide is not a shortcut to seeing departed loved ones. Assuming they are in paradise, suicide will not get us there. Trying to shortcut God, we fall through the devil's trap door and wind up in the place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The quickest way to see lost loved ones is to live for God and wait for His return.
At the end of time every human being who has ever lived will rise up again and stand before God at the great white throne (see Revelation 20:4-6). If we have cut the Lord off from our life there will be no more chance for mercy. It is possible that we might see our loved ones here for a few moments before we are swept away into the lake of fire and them to heaven. The worst part about it is that we will know that it was one bad decision that placed us beyond hope. Had we chosen life, we could have spent eternity with them in glory.
Jesus: Please pick eternity
The Lord described human salvation like this: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10). We always do better to trust in Jesus. Regardless of how deep our grief, Jesus promises us healing from it. When Israel might have given up for grief, the Lord spoke this word to them: To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isaiah 61:3). Live for Jesus now, and live with your deceased loved ones forever.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
Thanksgiving: The only
modern holiday in the Bible
11-22-06
by Tad Lindley
Christmas is not in the Bible. Easter is not in the Bible. Actually the word Easter appears in the King James Version of the Bible (Acts 12:4), but that is a translator error. It should have been translated as "Passover". The same Greek word is translated every other place as "Passover". I am not advocating getting rid of Christmas or Easter. We simply need to realize that the New Testament church had never heard of them, let alone celebrated them. Celebrate them if you desire (Romans 14:5).
The history of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving on the other hand has been celebrated for thousands of years. Although existing since earliest times, Thanksgiving was officially instituted in Leviticus chapter 7. In the book of Nehemiah the Jews which returned to Jerusalem and were rebuilding the walls celebrated it (11:17). In fact they had special ministers whose job was to oversee Thanksgiving (12:8). Eight of the 150 songs in the Hebrew songbook specifically mention thanksgiving. Sixty-three of them praise God for his greatness. One of the most famous being Psalm 100:4, Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
Looks the same
This Thursday in the United States people will be celebrating Thanksgiving. If you could step into many homes and not hear what they were saying, it might appear that they were celebrating in Biblical fashion. People will be leaping around their living rooms. There will be loud shouts of acclamation. They will be celebrating with food.
But it sounds different
Psalm 107:22 gives us this picture of Thanksgiving: And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing. It is just like modern Thanksgiving, except instead of declaring the Lord's works with rejoicing, people will be declaring the college quarterback's works with rejoicing. Times have changed.
Not just once a year
In the Hebrew scriptures we read about frequent Thanksgiving. Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and the fat portions thereof (Genesis 4:4). Noah built an altar to God as soon as he beached the Ark (Genesis 8:20). In the face of his destruction Job somehow managed to recognize God's excellent greatness (Job 1:20). Across time we see God's people recognizing that he is the source of every blessing. Thanksgiving could be celebrated at any time.
It was about Him, not them
In the Bible, Thanksgiving was always about Jesus or Jehovah (in the Old Testament). Nowadays, Thanksgiving seems to be more about us. Many of us will be more concerned with gorging ourselves with food than about recognizing the Lord. In the Bible Thanksgiving was about man entertaining the Lord with praise. Now it seems to be more about man entertaining himself with bowl games, beer, and turkey.
Fight back against modern Thanksgiving
What if every home in Bethel and every village in the AVCP region were to turn off the television on Thursday for one hour? Then spend that hour as a family thanking the Lord for the many blessings that he has given us. For one day, that would make us the prayingest place on the planet! There would be about 20,000 people having an old time Thanksgiving. If we threw in a few gospel songs and read some Bible, we would be getting even closer to a Biblical Thanksgiving. Not quite sure how to do it? Here are some instructions:
Psalm 150
Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. [2] Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. [3] Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. [4] Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. [5] Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. [6] Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel. He can be reaced at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
Giving God
the middle finger to His Face
11-16-06
by Tad Lindley
This is in no way written to condemn lost love ones, or to stir up old hurts (although it may do that). Instead it is written as a cry to some lonely and desperate reader who is thinking about giving up.
You have either thought of suicide yourself, had someone you love attempt it, or lost family members to it. It is the most selfish thing a person can do. When a person kills himself, he leaves a powerless and hurting circle of people behind. Worse than that, in their last act of this life, they are giving Jesus the finger.
Three guys who had a reason to kill themselves
In one day Job buried seven sons and three daughters. Everything he owned was taken from him. Only his wife was left. When she looked at his maggot-eaten, boil riddled body, she not very lovingly told him, "Job, curse God and die!" (Job 1-2) Job had a lot of pressure on him to quit, but he chose life instead.
Joseph (Genesis 37, 39-50) was kidnapped by his older brothers. At first they planned to kill him. Instead they sold him as a slave. In Egypt he was falsely accused of rape and spent years in prison. A fellow prisoner with power promised to get him released, but promptly forgot him. He had a lot of reasons to throw in the towel, but he chose life instead.
King David's father-in-law attempted to murder him. David lied to a priest, and this lie caused all of the men, women, and children in the city of Nob to be killed. Eventually he forced David to flee Israel and feign insanity. He took some men with him, but even they turned on him and were going to kill him by stoning (I Samuel 30:6). He had a friend murdered so he could have his friend's wife (II Samuel 11). One of his children died because of this. His life was a mess. He had so much guilt on him he might have just ended it all, but he chose life instead.
The reason they didn't
When everything was ripped right out of Job's hands, he didn't grab his shotgun or a bottle of Tylenol. Not Job. Even though other men might have given up, in the face of his nightmare we read that Job did this: he arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshipped (Job 1:20).
When Joseph was struck down by circumstance time after time some might wonder why he didn't just end it all. Instead he kept serving God, and the Lord blessed him mightily.
When David had the weight of innocent people on his shoulders and even his friends were picking up rocks to kill him, he could have fallen on his spear and escaped the situation. Instead, David encouraged himself in the Lord (I Samuel 30:6). Instead of focusing on his own weakness and failure, David focused on the limitless power of God to deliver men out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Are you calling God a liar?
When we as human beings take our life into our own hands we deny the power of God. Instead of turning to God to deliver us, we turn to ourselves to deliver us from some present pain. I wish I could show up in your living room and preach to you right now. I'd tell you that Jesus is bigger than your depression. Jesus has a better wife or a better husband waiting for you than the one that just dumped you. Jesus' love is bigger than mental illness. He is greater than your addiction. He has enough mercy to cover every failure you have ever made. Not only that, he can take every second of abuse that you have endured, every sleepless shame-filled night and heal you, and he can turn it all into something beautiful. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are the called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). When we contemplate suicide, we are literally saying, "God's word is not true, and only I know how to fix my situation."
Friend, Jesus loves you. If you will cry out to him, he will move heaven and earth to help you. You have not sunk too low for Jesus to reach you. ...him that cometh to me, I will in now way cast out (John 6:37). Don't give him the finger; give him the pieces of your broken heart and life.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
Was Noah an alcoholic?
11-7-06
by Tad Lindley
Noah was a hero of the faith. He even shows up in the Bible's Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11. By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household...(Hebrews 11:7 NKJV). He looked like a fool for at least a hundred years while he preached and built the ark. Faith enabled him to keep going when absolutely nobody could see the coming rain! But because he listened to the voice of God, when the rains did come and the fountains of the deep broke up, he was saved!
The skeleton in Noah's closet
When Noah got off the ark after the flood subsided, the first thing he did was worship God. He set up an altar and made a sacrifice (Genesis 8:20). Then God laid out some rules for Noah at that altar, we would do good to read and follow them. After this a period of time passes. Scripture picks up the story of Noah at grape picking time. Noah has made some wine, and is drunk off of the wine. We don't hear it preached very much, but it is in the Bible.
In fact it gets worse than that. While Noah was lying in his tent drunk, one of his sons, Ham, came in and abused him in some sort of sexual way (Genesis 9:20-23). It feels almost irreverent to bring up Noah's failing, but the Bible teaches us that the history in the Old Testament is an example for us today (I Corinthians 10:11). We have something to learn from Noah's failure.
Was Noah an alcoholic?
Scripture reveals no other drinking binge on Noah's part. Nonetheless, this one episode is such a horrible scar on an otherwise beautiful life, we may wonder, was Noah an alcoholic? Today people are labeled as "alcoholics". The common definition of an alcoholic is "someone whose drinking problem is worse than your own". If you have never been sexually humiliated while drinking, then perhaps Noah fits your definition of an alcoholic. Many of us have paid a much higher price to continue drinking. We have traded marriages and jobs. Some have even traded their children to the state in order to continue drinking. For those in that situation, Noah is not an alcoholic, because he wasn't really that bad. An alcoholic is the homeless guy drinking hairspray.
Deep answer to the question
The answer to the question "Was Noah an alcoholic?" is this: it doesn't matter. We can put any kind of label on it that we want. The bottom line is that drunkenness is a sin. Whether it happens once a year on December 31, only on Friday nights, or whenever the opportunity arises, drunkenness is sin. If the Sunday school teacher drinks a six pack on Saturday that is no less sinful than the man that has converted his puyurcivik into a homebrew factory: drunkenness is a sin. Unless we repent of it, we will perish. The Bible plainly states it: Be not deceived: neither fornicators...nor drunkards...shall inherit the kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:9-10).
Dumb question: Are you an alcoholic?
Answer: it doesn't matter what you call yourself. It is about whether the Lord calls you at his second coming (II Thessalonians 4:13-17). It is not about the label you have, it is about the lifestyle you lead. If you drink to the point of talking loud or saying or doing things that you wouldn't do while sober, you are drunken. That is a sin. Whether you are considered an "alcoholic" or not doesn't matter. The label will not keep you from heaven, the drunkenness will.
The end of Noah
In the end of time we will find out what happens to Noah. Noah lived for 350 years after the flood. He had plenty of time to repent. We will not live 350 years. The time for us to repent is now. If we turn away from our sin, the sin can be remitted from our life through baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus (see Acts 2:38). The Lord has indicated to us that when he comes again, it will be just like the days of Noah (Matthew 24:36-44) when many were caught off guard and had not repented. Be ready, repent.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel.
Noah
11-1-06
by Tad Lindley
Things had gotten so bad that God was wishing that he hadn't even made men. People were doing whatever they felt like doing, even if it was wicked. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)
The DefenderTM strategy
When I was a boy there was a video game called DefenderTM. In the game you were flying through space and alien ships would attack you. The longer you played the more aliens there were trying to destroy you. DefenderTM had a special feature. If you got too overwhelmed, you could press the Smart Bomb button, and all of the bad guys would get blown up, but somehow, your spacecraft would survive.
God almost Smart Bombed them
And it repented God that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. (Genesis 6:6-7) The outlook for life on earth was pretty grim. The Lord was ready to wipe the slate clean. There was to be no living things left, not even a worm or a mosquito. As the hand of God was reaching for the button, he suddenly stopped. Pangs of conviction hit God. "What about Noah?" Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:8)
7 Converts in 100 years
At this time the Lord came to Noah with his plan. God waited patiently while Noah built the ark. It was extreme patience, because it took Noah one hundred years or more to build the ark. During that time Noah preached and built (see II Peter 2:5). Not only was the ark slow in building, but Noah's church was too. At the end of the hundred or hundred and twenty years, Noah had managed to convert seven people. One of them was his wife. Three were his sons, and the rest were his sons' wives. Everyone else who heard Noah preach rejected his message. That did not stop him from preaching, and it did not stop him from building.
Everyone else believes
At some point after the Lord led the animals onto the ark and the doors closed, those people that scoffed at Noah became believers. As rain drops began to come out of the sky, and the fountains of the deep broke up, they began to understand that Noah had been preaching the truth. Perhaps those who lived nearby came to pound on the door of the ark, finally trying to claw their way through, but it was too late. The multitude perished. At the end of forty days, the storm abated and only eight people were left. The descendents of these eight people would eventually repopulate the planet.
The first steak
As the people and the animals got off of the ark, God changed the playing field. No longer would animals be comfortable around humans, but they would have a fear. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb, I have given you all things. (Genesis 9:2-3) From this time forth, people would no longer be strictly vegetarian, but would begin to eat animals as well.
The last of the old timers
I don't know if it was the meat, or a change in the atmosphere, but Noah was the last of the old timers. He lived 350 years after the flood (Genesis 9:29). After that we see human life spans getting shorter and shorter, until they approach what we see today. For the complete story on Noah, see Genesis 6-9. It tells everything we know about this amazing hero of the faith who brought humanity through the flood.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
When you fast
10-24-06
by Tad Lindley
Thank you to everyone who fasted and prayed on Friday. We had hoped also to print names of all of the National Guardsmen being deployed so that you would have a ready made prayer list. For security reasons we were not able to do this. No doubt you are still offering daily prayer on behalf of our soldiers, and our military leaders. If you can, continue on a weekly fasting schedule as well.
Look like you like it
Jesus taught us that fasting would be a part of our Christian walk. In instructing people he used the phrase "when ye fast". Notice he did not say "if ye fast", but "when ye fast". He taught that when we fast, we should not make a big deal out of it. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. (Matthew 6:16) Apparently there were folks in Jesus time who would fast to show off. Your fast is not blown if somebody finds out, but don"t let people know that you are weak or hungry or tired, just carry on as if it were any other day.
But I hate fasting
That"s the whole point. When we fast, we are really putting effort into it. You do not get big muscles sitting on the couch playing X-Box, you have to get off the couch and put some effort in. If we want a spiritual payoff, we need to work for it.
The payoff
If you can fast for a day or three or four, it makes it a whole lot easier to serve God. When we develop the discipline of denying ourselves what we need, it becomes easier for us to deny ourselves the things we want. These things might include tobacco, adultery, marijuana, swearing, depression, etc. Fasting also helps to clear our minds. It becomes easier to study the Bible and get direction from the Lord.
Dealing with the hunger
The first time I fasted was in college. I was not living for God. I just wanted to see what it was like to go without eating for a day, since a lot of people in the world experience it not by their own choice. The whole day all I could think about was food. My mind toured up and down the produce aisles at Fred Meyer. I thought of foods I had not eaten in a long time. I planned to eat them all the next day.
Since then, I have learned to avoid that kind of thinking. Instead when I catch myself sliding up to the counter at a mental McDonald's, I try to turn my thoughts to the focus of my fast. If I am fasting for someone to be delivered from alcoholism, I quit thinking about food and pray for that person.
Don"t quit early
Many times while fasting I have driven through a haze of hamburger smoke emanating from a local restaurant. At these times a voice within me that sounded very much like the Lord seemed to be telling me that I should break my fast. Those times where I have given in, I always wished I had not.
A few pointers
1. You can still cook for your family while fasting.
2. You can attend feasts and not eat. If the hostess presses you, quietly let them know that you are not eating.
3. If you get a headache while fasting do not take ibuprofen. It is caustic and can eat a hole in your stomach lining. That is why they tell you to take it with food.
4. Drink lots of water. And brush your teeth (fasting can give you bad breath).
5. If you are fasting for many days, do not gorge yourself with food when you break your fast. This is hard on your body.
6. Do not fast to lose weight. You may fast to gain victory over a food addiction, but do not use fasting to lose weight. It does not work.
7. If you are pregnant or have diabetes or some other medical condition, check with a doctor about fasting. In scripture Daniel went for a three week period where he ate no meat or other good tasting food. He also didn"t bathe during that period (not recommended). (Daniel 10:2-3) Some people with blood sugar issues will set aside all food that they like and eat only some simple staple like plain, unbuttered Pilot Bread for a period of time.
God bless you when you fast.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church. You can email him at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
Friday, October 20th Soldiers need your help
10-18-06
by Tad Lindley
The men and women of our armed services need your help. On or about October 19th National Guard forces from our region will be sent over to the Middle East. As you well know, many of our people have been killed or injured. The situation is serious. The enemy is cowardly and invisible. There is probably no family in the AVCP region that does not have some relative being deployed. We need to band together to support our soldiers.
Nobody died, and nobody got hurt
Against impossible odds, the Israelites won a battle. It seemed that they would most certainly be destroyed. Then their King came up with an unusual way to fight a battle: prayer and fasting! King Jehoshaphat called for the entire nation to fast (II Chronicles 20:3). Then they prayed. Then they fell on the ground and worshipped the Lord. When the day for the battle came, they sent the choir out in front of the soldiers singing praises to the Lord. When they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir which were come against Judah...(20:22). Not a single drop of Israelite blood was shed.
Can this happen in 2006?
A friend of mine out of Fort Huachuca, AZ served two tours in Iraq. I knew that much prayer had gone up for him from our church in Bethel, and the church in Arizona. When I spoke with him after his return he described his time over there as "boring". "I was the only guy in my unit that never got fired at!" he told me. God still is working miracles even in this day.
Our soldiers need your help
Please pray and fast on October 20th. Prayer is talking to God. Fasting is going without food or nourishment, drinking only water. As many readers as will, please go without eating on Friday October 20th. If you are pregnant or have diabetes, I recommend continuing to eat, and putting extra time into prayer. Set aside some time where you can pray for our soldiers. Be direct and specific in your prayers. There is power in them.
Ways that we can pray
I offer these as a suggestion only. Prayer should come out of our heart, use mine if you are not sure how to pray.
- Jesus, we pray that you would protect our men and women in Middle East. We ask that there would be no loss of life among them. That every one would live to see their family again.
- Lord, give your angels charge over them to lift them up in all of their ways (Psalm 91:11-12). Let your everlasting arms thrust out the enemy from before them (Deuteronomy 33:27).
- Lord let there be no harm to our soldiers. As it is written in your word let no weapon that is formed against them prosper (Isaiah 54:17). Instead, Lord, let them come out unscathed.
- As you took the Hebrew men through the fiery furnace (Daniel 3), let our men come through the fiery furnace without the stink of battle upon them. Let their hands not be called upon to shed innocent blood, instead let them minister compassion (Matthew 25:35-40) to hurting comrades and civilians.
- Let our men walk and not be afraid. Help each one to turn to you as his shepherd. Though they may walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23) be their strength and their song (Isaiah 12).
- Lastly we ask Lord that you would swiftly bring an end to their involvement overseas. We are asking for a shortening of the deployment time, and an end to this war.
The greatest thanks you can give a soldier
...is your prayer and fasting. It may seem like we are asking for some impossible things, but with God nothing is impossible. I realize that it is impossible that none of our men would be injured. That is why we are turning to God. Man's impossibility is what is required for the working of God's miracle.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
$110.70
Part II: Will paying tithes save me?
10-11-06
by Tad Lindley
The two preachers were laying their hands on people and praying for them. As they did so, the people were filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. It was something even more powerful than physical healing, more powerful than deliverance, more powerful than great joy. The Spirit of God came upon them and they began to speak in other tongues (if their experience was the same as the apostles). A wizard was watching all of this. It was greater than any demonic miracle or trick he had ever performed. He whipped out his billfold and waved some cash at the preachers. "Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit." (Acts 8:19 NKJV)
Not for sale
One of the preachers said to the wizard, "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity." (8:20-21) that is a pretty strong response. The gift of God cannot be purchased with money.
The gift of God is the Holy Ghost
The Bible defines the gift of God in two ways. First Jesus defined the gift of God as the Holy Ghost. In John 4 Jesus met a woman at a well. He told her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you 'Give me a drink', you would have asked him and he would have given you living water". (4:10 NKJV) A moment later he defined the gift of God as the living or flowing water. "Whosoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." (4:13-14) Now look at John 7:38-39. He that believes on me as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spoke Jesus concerning the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive. When we make the connections here, the gift of God is this flowing water that satisfies our thirst. When it wells up out of us, we are receiving the Holy Ghost, and we will speak in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance (Acts 2:4).
The gift of God is salvation
Perhaps you have heard this scripture: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23) So the gift of God is the Holy Ghost which they received in the book of Acts, and people are receiving across the planet even today. The gift of God is also eternal life. This indicates that the Holy Ghost experience is essential to eternal life.
Tithing won't save you
When the wizard named Simon tried to buy the power to give people the Holy Ghost he was stiff-armed by the apostles. Salvation is not for sale. There is no amount of giving that can erase our sin. Returning 10% of our income (a tithe) to the house of God won't do. Even giving 100% of our income to the Lord will not reverse our sin. We are foolish to think that way. It is a broken and repentant heart that makes a way for God to work. Our sins are remitted in water baptism (Acts 2:38). The Bible promises that when we bring that repentant heart to him and are baptized in Jesus' name for the remission of sin, that we will receive the gift of God. It is a promise. The Bible even uses the word "promise" (see Acts2:39).
However, not tithing = serious heart problems
The Lord loves a cheerful giver (II Corinthians 9:7). If you are not supporting the work of God through tithes and offerings, this is often an outward sign of very serious heart trouble. It is a symptom of a person who does not trust the plan of God that goes back to Abraham and Melchizedek. It is a sign of stinginess towards the one who let people spit in his face and mutilate his body so that we might be saved. Speaking to the Jews, the Lord posed this question: Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, "How have we robbed you?" In tithes and offerings. (Malachi 3:8).
We cannot buy our way into heaven, but we can steal our way out.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church. He can be reaced at tad@deltadiscovery.com
The quickest way to lose weight:
Hebrews Weight Loss Plan
9-27-06
by Tad Lindley
When they see me for the first time in a long time, many people will tell me, "You look like you've lost weight". Being sensitive about being skinny, it used to bother me a lot. Then one day it hit me: people are spending billions of dollars a year to look like I do for free! In 2005 Americans spent 7 billion dollars at weight loss centers. When you add to that all of the "diet" foods, books, and exercise equipment purchased, it is astounding. If you are endeavoring to lose weight, let me help you save money. When it comes down to it, the only way to lose weight is to eat less than you burn up. That will never change, and it is free advice.
Spiritual obesity
Even skinny guys like me need to worry about obesity. Apparently this is nothing new. The Bible deals with this concept of spiritual obesity in the book of Hebrews. The basic message is lose weight or lose the race. Wherefore seeing that we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).
America's obesity epidemic
We can become spiritually obese when we let sin creep into our lives. In our nation today, we are experiencing an obesity epidemic. Sin is everywhere. Much of the modern music glorifies it. If you haven't looked at the song titles and lyrics of the music your children listen to, put the newspaper down and do it now. Exposure to Hollywood has lead to a softening of morals and spiritual obesity until it is hard for us to get off the couch and run the race toward heaven.
You wouldn't run a race with dumbbells
The Bible also warns us to beware of weights. These are things that are not necessarily sin, but may come between us and God. For instance exercise is not sinful, but if I find myself skipping church to play sports then it is coming between me and Jesus. In that case it has become a weight. If a person manages to play their gameboy two hours a day, but can only muster up five minutes of prayer they are in failing spiritual health. At that point it is time to get rid of the excess weight.
Fasting: the quickest way to lose weight
Most every diet plan will warn you that fasting is not a good way to lose body fat. That is true. But if we want to cast off spiritual weight and sin in our lives, fasting is the way to go. Is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6)
When we are willing to subject our bodies to going without food which we need, it becomes easier to say no to sin and other things that we don't need. You may have been on Copenhagen for fifty years. With prayer and fasting, God can and will deliver you in a day!
Fast forward, not backwards
There is a teaching out there that we must punish ourselves for past sins. This is not a Biblical teaching. It is God's privilege to forgive sin. This is not something that we can earn by extra prayer, fasting or giving. Fasting is for the future. It is a way to build up spiritual muscle and burn off spiritual fat so that we can avoid sin in the future. The only way to take care of past sin is through repentance and baptism in Jesus' name (see Acts 2:37-38).
Keeping the weight off
Sometimes a born again believer stumbles. John wrote to believers that had their sins forgiven in water baptism. He taught them, "If you gain the weight back get rid of it". And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 2:1, 1:9) Remember the Lord wants you to finish the race. As long as you keep the weight off (and he will help you), you can make it.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com
9-19-06
by Tad Lindley
By now most of you have been exposed to this strange new pilot bread. The gaping holes permitting jelly, honey, and fish juice to rain down on the hand and clothing of the eater. A person's only hope is to plug the holes with butter or CriscoTM. As you remember, there was some speculation that perhaps these were counterfeit crackers. Meanwhile, contact has been made with a representative of the Interbake Corporation, the manufacturers of Pilot Bread. We have learned that the company is in fact using a new die to press out the crackers. The dough remains the same, only the outside is different. Kristina DeLe Pena, Demand Coordinator for InterBake Foods, indicated that the new mold will tend to "make the cookies look more perfect".
-You aren't using it for sheetrock
When it comes down to it, it does not matter how Pilot Bread looks on the outside. It could be shaped like a dog biscuit and it wouldn't affect the taste. True, it would be difficult to heap akutaq or canned salmon on to a bone shaped cracker, but it would still be Pilot Bread. Unless you are planning to tile your kitchen walls with Pilot Bread, I guess the exterior doesn't matter.
Cracker Religion
Pilot People
InterBake Foods is concerned with the outward appearance of the cracker. Thus they have switched to a mold that will produce a more perfect "cookie". True, the Lord made man in his own image, but the mold is far from perfect. You've probably noticed that Jesus has turned out people in all shapes, sizes, skin colors, and hair colors. Fortunately for us, it is not the shape or size that is important to God.
When the Lord looks at people, he sees the inside. Yes, the Lord is concerned with our appearance (see Deuteronomy 22:5, I Corinthians 11:1-16, I Peter 3:1-6), but he is even more concerned with the condition of our heart.
Cracker religion
Perhaps you have heard people refer to Christianity as "White Man's Religion". Certainly there were those preachers in the past who tried to use scripture to justify slavery in the United States. It would be difficult to consider such a person a true Christian. Others with white power teachings have attempted to couch it in Christianity. Such doctrines are straight from the gates of hell.
The Lord speaks out on racism
The Lord deals with the race issue solidly in Galatians 3:26-28. For you are all children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Jesus is not about sorting out people into skin colors. He does not categorize people by the type of work they do. God does not see us as male or female, he sees every baptized believer as his child.
Heaven will be multi-racial
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands (Revelation 7:9). John, the writer of the Revelation, knew these people were different, because they didn't look like him. He was giving us a picture of heaven: people of all races worshipping the Lord.
Fighting racism at home
If we are uncomfortable with certain groups of people here on earth, then maybe heaven won't be a good match for us. That being the case, we need to repent. If we have been in the habit of telling our kids, "Get dressed for school or else the guy with a different skin color will get you", we need to stop. If we find ourselves thinking, "That person just acts that way because of their skin color", we need to stop. If we have a hard time reaching out to someone whose appearance is different than ours, we need to start. A true Christian will lay aside racism and follow in the example of Jesus Christ, seeing others not as white, black, or brown, but as precious children of God.
Tad Lindley is the Youth Pastor at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel. You can contact him at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
A deeper look at Matthew 28:19
9-12-06
by Tad Lindley
Reverend Shoup would have held my infant body and put his hand in a bowl of water. Then he must have held that dripping hand over my head, letting the water drip down on me. Three times he would have done this, saying, "In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Ghost". I have absolutely no memory of this. I can only base it on similar ceremonies I have witnessed many times since.
Matthew 28:19
Jesus told his disciples that all power had been give to him in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Then he instructed them, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (28:19). Many refer to this and several other scriptures as The Great Commission. It was Jesus instructions to Peter and the others for building up the religious movement that would eventually be called Christianity.
Was my experience Biblical?
Let us look deeper into Matthew 28:19. In the original New Testament, the word that is translated as baptizing in English is baptizo. In Greek this means to fully cover with water. Had Jesus taught the disciples to sprinkle people, he would have used the term rhantizo (as used in Hebrews 9:19). The Yup'ik translation for baptizo is angllurcelluki. The root word, angllur- means to submerge. Whether we consider it in English, Yup'ik, or Greek, Jesus was telling them to put people under water. There is no place in the Bible where anybody was sprinkled or had water poured over them under the guise of baptism. My experience was not consistent with the Bible. In fact, although the preacher called it a "baptism", I had never been baptized. Reader, have you been baptized?
Atranun wall' atratnun
As I began to read scriptures as an adult something else began to become painfully obvious to me. At my sprinkling, the preacher had not used the same name that they used in the Bible. Apparently he had misunderstood Matthew 28:19 to read "baptizing them in the names". He took those names to be Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Bible that you have will show you that Jesus was talking about putting people under water in one name, not multiple names. If you have a Yup'ik Bible, you will see that in Matthew 28:19 Jesus plainly told his disciples atranun (in his name, or in a name), not atratnun (in their names). Clearly Jesus is telling his disciples that there is one name that is the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
What is that name?
About a week after Jesus told Peter and the others to baptize people in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, they began to do it. Remember, we are looking to see whether the apostles used one name or many names, and which name(s) they used. Here are all scriptures where the name(s) used in baptism are stated: 1) Acts 2:38 ...be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ..., 2) Acts 8:16 ...they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, 3) Acts 10:48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord..., 4) Acts 19:5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus., and 5) Acts 22:16 ...wash away thy sins calling upon the name of the Lord. When Peter and the Apostles baptized, they always did it using one name. That name is Jesus Christ. Reader, have you been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ?
Am I withholding evidence?
Even from early times, I am told that writings such as the Didache record people sprinkling or pouring instead of baptizing. Am I hiding those things? No. All they do is tell me that as the church spread, some people deviated from the Biblical example. Even in the time of Jude this was going on, causing him to write ye should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
Obeying Matthew 28:19
Some might think, "I haven't been put under water in the name of Jesus Christ, but God knows my heart". Red flags should be going up. If our heart is truly set on the things of God, then we will do everything we can to make our life match the scripture. As an adult I had to admit to myself that I had never been put underwater in Jesus' name. I wrestled with it. Finally my desire to follow in the footsteps of scripture caused me to swallow my pride.
Friend, I urge you to search the scriptures thoroughly. Will you be able to stand before God and say, "Lord, I did everything I could to make my life match your word"?
Tad Lindley is Youth Pastor at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church. He can be reached at tad@deltadiscovery.com.
Never put anything in
your ear except your elbow
9-6-06
by Tad Lindley
These days a person has to be careful. There are some folks out there who are looking to retire quickly with a personal injury law suit. When the Unilever Corporation (manufacturer of Q-tip cotton swabs) came out with an advertising campaign that had this slogan, "Never put anything in your ear, except for your elbow", I knew they were worried about the personal injury angle. The fact remains though, that for many Americans, the ear is the most natural place for a Q-tip. I must admit that in times past, a rebellious heart has overtaken me, and I have wantonly ignored the warning on the Q-tip box. Carefully bracing myself against the bathroom wall (or in a doorway if I am in earthquake country), lest I fall and puncture my ear drum, I have soothed an irritating itch and removed much wax.
If you ever run out of Q-tips
The Bible tells us that there will come a day when people will find another solution for itching ears. Instead of using Q-tips, they will use preachers. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap to themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. (II Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV)
In other words, the time will come when people will not be interested in truth. Instead they will look for preachers and teachers to tell them what they want to hear.
What is the least I can do and still be saved?
As people, we tend to look for the easier, softer way. We might even look for a church where the pastor will scratch our itching ears with gentle preaching that will make us feel saved. As descendants of Adam, we look for a church that is a good match for our lifestyle. We want to put ourselves out as little as possible. I hope that you see that this is a terrible mistake.
If we are living with someone and not married to them, we can find a church where that will never be addressed as sin. If we do not want to be delivered from addictions in our life, we can find a preacher that is himself addicted. There are preachers and teachers out there of every philosophy. They will tell us what we want to hear.
The word of God tells us that this is a terrible place to be. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15) That kind of teaching doesn't soothe our itching ears; it hurts.
Elbow preachers
Not every preacher is good for itching ears. Some preachers have the nerve to stand up before the congregation and tell them what the Bible says. People sometimes get offended. They may even walk out never to return. The Bible says that this will happen: they will not endure sound doctrine.
The elbow preacher is the preacher who watches for the souls of his flock. He is the man who spends hours in prayer and preparation. When he steps before the people, he preaches from the Bible. He does not shrink from preaching, even when it is uncomfortable. His thought is for the souls of those that the Lord has entrusted to him.
What kind of preacher do you want?
If we are genuinely concerned about our salvation, we will want a preacher who is not afraid to hurt our feelings if we are not living right. Do we want a preacher that preaches a God who fits our lifestyle or do we want a preacher that preaches who God really is? Another way of looking at it is do we want a preacher who excuses sin in our lives or a preacher that sets a standard God approves of.
Good preachers are hard to find
You may live in a one church village. Perhaps you are blessed with a wonderful pastor, not every village is. The leader of the church may show up to service drunk. I realize that there have been some horrible situations in our region. Short of moving your family, I recommend confronting the situation, and crying out to the Lord in prayer for a true man of God to come to your town. We do not have to spend much time in the Bible before we realize that Jesus hears the voice of the desperate. If you ask, he will raise up a laborer for your harvest field. Not one who wants to scratch people's ears, but one who wants to rightly divide the word of truth and lead the congregation straight into the kingdom of God.
Tad Lindley is the Youth Pastor at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Developing the negative
8-29-06
by Tad Lindley
The Negative
In the old days when you got film developed, they would send the film back with the pictures. The film was called "negative", because it was the opposite image of the picture. Places where the picture was black would be white on the negative, green would be red, blue would be orange, etc. If you looked hard enough at the negatives, you could begin to see what it might turn out to be when turned in to the picture. As kids we would often look at the pictures first and then go back to the negatives and match them up.
Negative people
With human beings often times we do not have the benefit of seeing the picture first. All we see is the negative. Their lives appear to be a jumbled mess that doesn't make a lot of sense to us. Fortunately God can look at the negative and see the picture that will result. This is why Jesus told Peter, But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren (Luke 22:32). The world saw Peter, this proud, arrogant fisherman, who within hours would turn his back and deny Jesus three times. Jesus saw the picture. The world was seeing the negative, but Jesus saw Peter stepping up before the crowd and preaching the first Christian sermon ever preached!
Paul described himself as worst of sinners (I Timothy 1:15). You can read his dark testimony in the book of Acts. The Christians feared him. When Jesus called Ananias to go minister to Paul, Ananias told God, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem (Acts 9:13). All that Ananias could see was the negative. But when Jesus looked at the negative, he saw the picture instead! Jesus told Ananias, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel (Acts 9:15).
Develop the negative
Both Peter and Paul were negatives. Their lives were on the wrong track, but when God got a hold of them they were developed. Peter was developed in an upper room on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost fell (Acts 2). Paul was baptized in Jesus' name and filled with the Holy Ghost at Damascus (Acts 9:17-18, 22:16). When the negative was developed, they burst on to the scene a picture of apostolic power.
Apostolic darkroom
The book of Acts records the spread of the message of Jesus Christ throughout the Mediterranean region. Time and again, people brought their negative life to the apostolic darkroom. They repented, were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and they received the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38). People from all walks of life were converted, from priests (Acts 6:7) to prostitutes (I Corinthians 6:9-11). When they came out of hands of the master developer, they were forever changed.
When Jesus looks at you
When Jesus looks at you he sees the picture. True, the people around you may see the mistakes, the name in the newspaper, the broken marriages, the gossip, and the rumors. The world may see you stumbling around drunk, but the Lord sees what can be if you will choose to develop the negative. He can take a heroin addict and turn her into a Holy Ghost heroine. He can take a man with a string of assault IVs and develop him into a marriage counselor. Jesus can take a bingo addict and turn her into a tithe paying prayer warrior. Our God can take a bruised, bitter, and broken life and develop it into something beautiful.
I am writing to the reader out there who feels small and insignificant. You think that the Lord has passed you by. He hasn't. Jesus sees your negative, but more than that, he sees the picture that can be developed from your negative. When you get in the same darkroom that the apostolic church in the book of Acts went through, you can have the same overcoming power in your life. There is no end to what Jesus can do with your negative when you let him develop it.
Brother Tad Lindley is Youth Pastor at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church
Jesus: King of the
Politically Incorrect (Part II)
8-22-06
by Tad Lindley
What if Jesus himself planned to make a surprise appearance in between the first and second coming? Would he be able to preach in our churches? He doesn't candy coat anything. Picture Jesus stepping to the pulpit of your church and saying, "Woe to you Sunday school teachers and preachers, you hypocrites. You are all lost." (Matthew 23) He wouldn't get too many preaching engagements would he?
Jesus Interviewed Live on National Public Radio
Imagine Jesus then doing a live interview on radio. It might go something like this:
NPR: So tell me Jesus, is it really true that you claim to be the only way that people can be saved?
Jesus: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me (John 14:6).
NPR: Jesus, that seems to be rather self-centered don't you think? You seem to be implying that without you people have no hope. Most people today would argue that as long as a person believes in some sort of god, they will be saved.
Jesus: God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
NPR: And since you claim to be the truth, I suppose that you decide who is saved and who isn't. Let me play devil's advocate here. In today's politically correct environment, people are going to call you narrow minded. If you decide who gets in and who doesn't, then that really flies in the face of modern thinking.
Jesus: That's right. Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 NIV)
NPR: There is no getting you to change your mind is there? Don't you think that people will reject your teaching because of its politically incorrect nature?
Jesus: Many already have (John 6:66), and tragically many will (II Thessalonians 2:11). What they fail to see is that my kingdom actually is the only politically correct kingdom on earth. It is colorblind (Acts 8:27). It is no respecter of social status (Acts 10:34). I embrace people from every walk of life (Colossians 3:11). My kingdom was the first to champion women's rights (Galatians 3:28).
NPR: You are painting a picture of a kind and gentle you. What about the Jesus that stood up in public and called the scribes and the Pharisees "hypocrites" (Matthew 23)? Some sources even describe you as a violent man who went into the temple and started breaking up the furniture (John 2:15).
Jesus: Americans attempt to ignore people's problems and disabilities hoping that they will go away. I give people the power to overcome them. For that reason, my word is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12 NIV). I would rather tell the truth and hurt feelings now, than sugar coat my word and see people lost forever.
NPR: One more question. Which church will be the church of your coming kingdom?
Jesus: Church actually means "called out ones". My kingdom will be made up of called out individuals, not groups. It is not enough to simply call yourself a Christian. The first cut is being born again. No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the spirit (John 3:5 NIV, also read Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38). Beyond that, the true church will be made up of people who follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).
NPR: Thank you, Jesus. Ladies and gentlemen, we have just been talking with Jesus Christ. For those listeners who want to know more, his book, the Bible, is available at a bookstore near you.
Tad Lindley is the Youth Pastor at the Bethel United Pentecostal Church.
Possible counterfeit Pilot Bread hits Bethel area
8-15-06
by Tad Lindley
Praise the Lord reader. The account I am about to relay to you is real. Its impact on me was very strong for two reasons. First of all "Sugg'alirtuqatartua" was one of the first Yup'ik sentences I ever learned. Secondly, it had been nearly a month since I had eaten pilot bread.
You see, we had been traveling in the lower forty-eight, and they don't sell it down there. When I saw a large tray of pilot bread on the table at the feast, I passed by many other dishes to get to it. On my way to the drinks table, I raised that hard disk off of my plate toward my mouth. Before it ever got to my mouth, I noticed that there was something wrong. I froze. My eyes swam in a sea of denial; I did not want to believe it. Although it looked very similar to the product we have all grown to love, it was different. The holes were approximately one millimeter in diameter larger, and instead of sloping inward, they appeared to have been punched out of the dough.
I thought perhaps this was an isolated case, but when I purchased a box out of a freshly opened case at the local retailer, I was confronted with this same strange situation. Most American citizens would be unable to detect the counterfeit, but when you have literally handled thousands of pieces of pilot bread as we have, you discern the counterfeit immediately. By the time this paper hits your hands you may have already experienced this strange new pilot bread.
International conspiracy?
I have run through several possible scenarios in my mind. Perhaps corporate espionage: foreign nations desiring to siphon off some of the $2.5 million a year Alaskan pilot bread market have flooded us with bootleg crackers. Wholesalers have snapped up the cheaper product not realizing their ruse would immediately be uncovered. Or possibly, the manufacturer has made slightly larger holes to reduce the amount of flour they use and the shipping costs while still charging the same price. I suppose it is possible that the bakers have simply started using new equipment to stamp the crackers out of the dough. If that was the case though, one would expect the boxes to be labeled "New and Improved Pilot Bread, Even Bigger Holes!"
E-mail has been sent to the Interbake Corporation, makers of Sailor Boy TM pilot bread. I hope to have the issue resolved by next week's paper. In the interest of assessing how widespread this phenomenon is, I am asking all readers who have come across this unusual hole pattern to e-mail me in care of realnews@deltadiscovery.com with the name of the town you live in and the approximate date you first noticed these strange new crackers.
The trick to detecting counterfeits
We in the Calista region are among the highest per capita consumers of pilot bread in the entire nation! For this reason we will immediately know if pilot bread is real or not. This same principle can be used by bankers and treasury department workers in locating counterfeit money. Long term exposure to the real thing makes the first counterfeit bill they handle stick out like a sore thumb. Not because they have ever seen counterfeit money, but because they have seen a lot of the real thing.
Pilot bread and religion
This is why it is essential that we read the Bible. It is God's letters to human beings. Readers, there are counterfeit teachings out there. If we don't read our Bible daily, when we run across counterfeit preaching, we will be fooled. Counterfeit Christianity has been around for almost 2,000 years now. This is why Jude pleaded with people to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). Jude was referring to that the fact that there is only one faith that saves. According to the Bible there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). Which Lord is it? Which faith is it? Which baptism is it? I could tell you what I think, but what if I were a counterfeiter? You deserve to know the real thing. Read the Bible.
My preacher doesn't want me to read the Bible
If that is the case, red flags should be going up. A man who is preaching the word of God and not the traditions of men should not fear you knowing whether he is correct or not. Not only that, Jesus wants you to know the truth. Blessed is the man...who delights in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2) Whether it is pilot bread or religion, handle the real thing daily, so you will not be tricked by the counterfeit.
Tad Lindley is the Youth Pastor at the United Pentecostal Church.