William Richardson

Whenever I see questions about this subject, my mind goes to the following warning from Jesus, For I say to you, that unless your righteousneess exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Matt 5:20 We absolutely MUST maintain our humility in the picture of righteousness when we think of ourselves, remembering... But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. Isa 64:6 Before we can hope to get God's Blessing of Righteousness in the same picture with ourselves, I'm convinced, we MUST grow up and realize we have absolute NOTHING on our own and rely completely on Jesus' Blood covering our sins. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 After we accomplish this task above which isn't easy for some of us (from personal experience), then we can move on to... Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; Prov 3:5

Legalism is exactly what got all those Sects in the Jewish world into so much trouble, so much that Jesus calls them a "brood of vipers." One of the greatest slams ever leveled against a human being but it just slid off of them like rain on a duck's back. In extreme contrast, we see Jesus time after time, mete out fountains of compassion and forgiveness, even to the Samaritan woman with 5 husbands, and the woman caught in the very act of adultery. He had so much compassion on the people of His day that He almost totally exhausted His Human body. It was my sad experience to watch my father go through the passing of my mom and then live a total of 95 years of age. Toward the end, he was showing more and more symptoms of dementia and extreme irritability, so much so we had to put him up in an assisted living facility, which really broke his heart. Most of his problems centered around his pride. I'm convinced we can conquer "the **** of the eye and **** of the flesh" with old age but that "pride of life" is incredibly tough and very difficult to overcome. It starts early in a person's life, especially here in America with the business world molding their winners of agression and negotiating. The world preaches and is very proud of its stance on "Tolerance" all except when one wants to live the Rules and Principles set in the NT. What a shame, how tragic. God Bless you all.

This is another tough area, at least for me, as all of us have such a long history of hidinig our inner-most secrets and weaknesses, thinking somehow God won't find out about them. We must learn to NOT put God in a box with pre-conceived ideas putting limitations on His Abilities. And that kind of learning can only come from studying our Bible to know all those Omni-Qualities about God. We see His Tremendous Graciousness and Patience with His family of Jews and those in conflict with those Jews, ie. Caananites. It does us good to study those tough concepts like Atonement, Propitiation and Redemption, especially their meaning in the Jewish world of the first century. God Bless all those who do study His Word.

As a young boy, I often wondered why my parents would make me do something (a chore or some such) they knew I hated to do, like making up my bed when I going to sleep in the same bed later that night. Then I finally grew up old enough to father my own kids and I told them the same thing. Why? I finally figured it out. We and our God must act like parents and often times, we must think of our kids' future. When our children display an early tendency to be lazy and "good for nuttin," then it's time for us parents to come to their rescue and assign more chores. God does this quite often to humble us or teach us whatever it is we need to learn most. In our story, I'm thinking God gave this job to Ananias so he would learn a new level of evangelizing his world. Then there's the great possibility he just needed to trust His God more as God was communicating directly to him, something NOT done in today's world. I'm also thinking Ananias argued with God in the same way Moses argued and that reminds me. I'm also thinking these stories from the Bible aren't in here for just the Jews' benefit but for the whole world since that timeframe so we could learn from their mistakes. On the issue on courage, I'm reminded of what that cowboy, John Wayne said to another younger cowboy, when asked about the same subject. We shouldn't be afraid to admit when we're scared of some item or feature about life (like obedience). The big question for us is: In spite of the fear that may even be gripping our soul to its core, the real mettle of a man is whether or not he gets back into the game and approaches that opportunity, that's the most important thing for which our Lord is Looking. Will we dig up the faith in Him from deep inside our soul and move forward to do what we know we should and MUST do to keep maturing on a spiritual level with our eye of faith focused on God, our Father. Ananias must have been guided by the HS to say a wise but simple words, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 9:17 As Pastor Wilso mentioned, Ananias calls him, "Brother Saul" as he is a fellow Jew but still it must have been courageous on his part to humble himself and win Saul over to the Lord's Way of life, to preach to the Gentiles. As far as my life as a christian, my life has been dominated by the military so I've a couple of run-ins with some tough individuals but I never measured up to the task until I had to face my own sinful life. Now with my forgiving wife at my side, I can face my difficulties with considerably more courage and humility and of course courage and confidence from God. God Bless you all.

Heb. malmad, only in Judges 3: : 31 ), an instrument used by ploughmen for guiding their oxen. Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad. "The goad is a formidable weapon. It is sometimes ten feet long, and has a sharp point. We could now see that the feat of Shamgar was not so very wonderful as some have been accustomed to think." from BibleStudyTools.com In the NT Story, Jesus is asking Paul this question about "kicking against the goads," like an animal would upon feeling those sharp jabs in their ribs or hind quarters. Basically, this translates for all us humans as to why we all tend to fight againist God's Image-like conscience within our minds when we knowingly and willfully choose to sin, so much so we become addicted. And I speak from experience as I was addicted to sexually related sins for almost all my life, starting with *********** and on and on, until it jepordized my marriage. I'm thinking Paul suffered the same kind of goading while he was being trained by his highly paid Jewish teachers against the "dogs" of the world aka Gentiles. It's no wonder there was no love lost on either side, the Jews or Geniles. The great lesson here from God is for us NOT to be prejudiced against those of another race, financial or educational status or any other of mankinds' ways of distinguishing us into our "pigeon holes." When we become christians, we must learn to discard those feelings and/or tendencies, which usually come from our family or environment like school when we're young & impressionable. Instead, we (this includes me, most especially as I have to work hard at this) must pick up a new habit as described by Paul, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Rom 12:2 from BibleGateway.com There's ONLY one single way to do this, we MUST pray constantly (being proned to a prayerful mood even while driving and pray a 15 second prayer while at a traffic light). Then we MUST study (and do this dilligently with the full intent of learning something new) God's Word to get the answers to our prayers and do this, at least daily. Again I know as a 65 year young man, we humans are habit (read addiction) prone to our own secret sin or whatever worldly way (read weakness) of ignoring God in favor of getting ahead is for you. Well at this point, I better hush my preaching but please for your soul's sake, think about the few words, I beg you and God Bless you all.

As christians, we MUST realize it's a Blessing to be in God's Family and look forward to that "Mansion in His Home" where He's the Host. BUT that Blessing from God comes with a requirement that we be a blessing to others by sharing that Gospel story so they too may become our brothers and sisters in the Lord's family. Without our fulfilling that responsibility, we might just jepordize our own Blessing from God, and find ourselves in the "Smoking Section" instead. Remember, we MUST be the salt of the world, a light set on a hill and shine God's Light through our deeds and our words. God Bless you all.

Clearly, the implication is that we entered the tunnel (as in a car/truck) when it's fairly dark but we most certainly did NOT see the end of the tunnel until we approached the half-way point or more and of course we're all relieved when we see that daylight at end point of the tunnel. The point is we all enter a kind of "mental tunnel" when we start a new project, a new relationship or some kind of adventure with our family, we do so with a small grain of faith, maybe at least half the size of a "mustard seed." We need to apply this same kind of thinking to ALL of our endeavors, new and other-wise with our faith in God, knowing that "all things work together for good to those who love God." After all, the air we breathe, the food we eat and liquid we drink, we do so with much less faith. Also remember, Paul encourages us with these words, And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Col 3:17