Early one summer morning two young brothers were invited by their father aboard a small row boat.
The father eased the boat into the calm glass surface of the water and began to gently row as the boys sat side by side smiling on the forward plank. The only sound was the dipping and dripping of the oars as they slipped in and out of the lake and the occasional giggling of the brothers, excited to be sharing this unplanned journey.

Soon they had glided to the center of the lake where the father lifted the oars and let the boat coast to a silent stop.

Suddenly, the father grabbed either side of the boat and rocked it violently from side to side. The startled boys grabbed onto one another and screamed, begging their father to stop. Just as suddenly, he stopped.

“Were you boys scared?” he asked his children.

“Yes, yes, father” was the immediate reply in unison.

“Were you boys afraid?”

“Yes.”

“No. You were not afraid,” said the father. “And now I want you to listen carefully.”

The boys, somewhat calm again, listened.

“Being scared is a natural reaction to the unexpected. If you walked down a street and someone jumped out from behind a tree and yelled “Boo” you would be scared. You would re-act. When I suddenly began rocking the boat, neither of you expected it and you became scared.”

“But you were not afraid. Fear lives in the past or the future. If you were truly afraid, neither of you would have gotten into the boat to begin with. And if you were afraid now, you would be still bracing yourselves for fear that it might happen again. So always know that it’s ok to be “scared” but being “afraid lives in worry and regret, anticipation and remorse, yesterday and tomorrow. Be fearless today , now and always.”



2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Who’s Your Teacher?

Who’s Your Teacher?

At times when I have tried to show someone why and how we need to rightly divide the word of truth the question is asked “Who is teaching you this?”  They are looking for an answer that names someone famous.  For example the Mormons have Joseph Smith, the Catholics have the Pope,  the Muslims have Mohammad,  the Christian Scientists have Mary Baker Eddie, Family Radio has Herald Camping, Rick Warren with his Mega Churches, and the list goes on. Most if not all of these people claim to have had divine revelation from God.  Some with new information and some with information clarified to be understood better. 

Let me tell you a little bit about the guy who has been teaching me what some call heresy and others call just plain craziness. 

He is a little guy that would wear glasses if he could afford them.  He doesn’t have a lot of money because he requires no tithe to keep his small assembles running.  He has a regular job on top of preaching and teaching.  He travels a lot to speak to these small groups he has taught. I haven’t actually got to see him in person yet, but someday soon I will get to meet him and the other founders that started this movement. 

This leader of the movement has had attempts on his life due to what he is preaching.  The religious groups don’t like what he is saying.  He has had messages form the Lord Jesus Christ several times.  Unlike some of the previously mentioned movement leaders who have hundreds if not thousands of books, my leader has only written about 80 to 90 pages depending on which volume of his writings you get.

It has been reported that he brought a dead guy back to life and has healed many.  He spoke in tongues several times when needed.  He has been on several missionary trips to give the gospel to the heathen and barbarians in the remote parts of the world. 

My teacher is Paul of Tarsus, the Apostle to the gentiles.  He wrote Romans thru Philemon in your Bible.  The Lord Jesus Christ came to him on the road to Damascus and gave him information that was hid in God before the foundation of the world not spoken of by the prophets of old.  Paul is our foundation that we are to build on.  Part of this mystery that was revealed to Paul was the purpose of the cross.  Since we are sinners and have no way of paying the debt, Christ paid it for us by dying on the cross taking our sins on Himself.  He (Christ) had faith that God would raise him from the dead.  By God raising Christ from the dead it showed that God was satisfied with the payment for our sins and we are now reconciled.  Believe this was done for you and you will meet the Lord in the air to go to heavenly places.

Grace and Peace

Jack Milholm

Chart

History of Bibles

BLINDNESS BY OMMISSION

This was posted on Facebook by a friend.  I don’t know if he wrote it or not.

BLINDNESS BY OMMISSION

Quite a few years ago, I was attending a psychology class and took part in an amazing experiment about perception.

There were about 20 students in the class. We all sat down and the teacher dimmed the lights. An overhead projector sent a very blurry image to the screen at the front of the room.

The teacher had placed a questionnaire on each of our desks. As we all looked at the image, the teacher said that we were looking at a picture of familiar objects out of focus. He instructed us to pick from the multiple choice answers on the top page of our questionnaire which read like this:

What are you looking at?

A. Crayons and an eraser
B. A bus at a bus stop
C. A barn with bails of hay
D. Different color balloons

Each student checked off their choice based on the limited visual evidence presented.

The teacher then turned the focus dial on the projector ever so slightly and asked the class to turn to the next page of the questionnaire, which gave us the exact same four choices. He said if anyone wanted to change their answer to do so now, based on a "clearer" picture.

With the image still very blurry, he had us push our desks together in groups of four.
"You will now discuss your choices, and within each of your groups, decide on one answer," he said.
He reached for the focus and turned it a tiny bit again. My group was torn between answer C and answer D, but after a little bickering we opted for the barn and hay.

After a couple more slow twists of the focal lens, the teacher announced we would now discuss which of the four answers was correct as an entire class.

Most had concluded it was the barn with hay bails in the foreground while one group was holding out for the balloons. As the teacher continued to methodically turn the focus, the balloon hold-outs finally agreed with us barners.

"Good job", the teacher said once we all agreed. "Now let's bring it into focus completely."

He turned the dial to full focus. A small burst of applause came from the class as we had confirmation finally that we were right. There it was a square red barn with a black roofed silo and odd shaped oblong bails of hay in the foreground. We could finally see and confirm the image.

While the room was still darkened, the teacher walked over to the classroom door and opened it. Students were walking in the hall. He called one into the room at random.
"What do you see on the screen?", he asked a somewhat confused co-ed.

"It's a red lunch box, with a thermos next to it and some Twinkies in the foreground," she said.

The room burst out in laughter. Could she be that blind?!!! What a dummy!!!

We had just spent the last twenty minutes confirming it was the barn, silo and hay. The laughter slowly turned to individual gasps as the realization that it was in fact a lunch box, thermos and Twinkies began to sink in. How were we so easily fooled? How is it our own vision was tricked?

The teacher thanked and excused the hall student, turned the light on an explained what had just happened.

"Two things played a key role in why none of you were able to see what was actually projected on the screen," he said. "First of all, you were not given the actual choice of the correct answer, Because you assumed that one of the choices was correct you were blinded. The peer pressure to come up with the "right" answer compounded the blindness."

Many years later, I recalled this classroom experiment. It played a big part in why I had not seen in the bible what was clearly there to see all along. I had not realized that the world does not give you the choice of "right division". It's not part of the "big" world picture. And the peer pressure to either choose a faith that I could not give 100 per cent, compromise the bible, or just be a "good" person and hope for the best seemed to be the only resting place.

Don't be fooled by man's choices.

God says, 1 Timothy 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Trust that once you are saved the holy Spirit will teach you through the word of God. You will be the student passing by in the hallway with a clear capacity to discern what the bible is saying to you personally. Let your only choices come from God Himself.