CHILDREN ARE LIKE ARROWS

I’ve had many scrapes, cuts, and bruises over the years, and they all hurt. Many of them left scars, so it’s not hard to remember them. There were a few incidents that were kind of related, at least to a certain part of my body; A very sensitive part that causes severe pain when damaged. I’ve been hurt there many times over the years, but I’m only going to tell you about three of them today. I’ll say this, and I sincerely mean it; As many times as I’ve been hurt there, I’m surprised I was able to have children.

When I was about 12 years old, we lived directly behind one of the neighborhood stores in the small town of Theo, Mississippi. The store owner’s son was one of my friends. Sometimes he would get off the bus at the store, and stay there with his dad until closing. Many times he would come and stay at my house until just before his dad got ready to lock up. One of those times, as he was leaving, it was just before dark. I was outside talking with him as he walked backward toward the store. For some reason, he decided to throw a rock in my direction. We had been playing with the basketball, and I was about to take it into the house with me. As he threw another rock, I ran to where it was headed and let it bounce off the ball. He threw a few more a bit higher, and I intercepted each of them with the ball to see how far I could bounce them.

Then it happened. I missed the rock, but the rock didn’t miss me. It hit me right in the midsection. I dropped the ball and hobbled into the house crying so hard I could barely see. I crawled onto my grandmother’s bed and curled up in agony. I was in a lot of pain. I lay there for what seemed like forever, then I guess I finally went to sleep. When I woke up, I was a little better, but I was still hurting the next day. For a long time after that, I would have sporadic pains there that would remind me of that day. Needless to say, I never tried that again.

A few years earlier, a girl at school kicked me there for no reason. I guess she had a reason but it was nothing I did. Our teacher saw what happened and asked her why she would do that. She said she meant to kick me on the thigh, but she never said why she wanted to kick me in the first place. The teacher made her apologize, but that didn’t stop the pain.

When I was 23, I was working at a pallet factory. I was running the notcher, which is a machine that puts the holes in the 2x4s for the forklift tines or a pallet jack to slide in and lift the pallet from the side. The process involved placing three 2x4s in the machine, pushing them back into position against the fence, flipping a switch to bring the top part down to clamp the wood, and holding it in the machine while the notching head came down with a million teeth spinning at a very high speed. The operator controls how fast the head moves downward, so the faster you bring the head down, the more 2x4s you can notch, and the more 2x4s you notch, the faster you can finish the job, so I was going as fast as possible.

Then, the cutter head hit a knot and shattered all three 2x4s. the end of one of them flew out and hit me there very hard. It hurt very, very bad, and made a bruise there, and on the inside of my thigh that took more than a week to go away, and there was severe swelling in my privates.

When I was young, my grandmother and my aunt told me that I may not be able to have children if I kept damaging myself there, and I believed them, but God took care of me, and I now have three wonderful children and three grandchildren. I love them all very, much. I’m truly blessed.

In many places in the Bible, we are told that children are a blessing. Psalm 127 says that children are a heritage of the Lord and a reward. They’re like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, and a man who has his quiver full of them is happy.

People don’t always see children as a blessing though. I know I didn’t always. That’s because humans are selfish. Too many children are being neglected and mistreated in our world today. It’s sad that so many people see children as an inconvenience. So much so that they will kill them before they are born and many want to be able to lawfully kill them even after they are born. God has always condemned the nations that killed children and he’s not going to stand by and let our nation keep killing babies without judgment.

I pray that the people of our world will begin to see life as something to be cherished, protected, and preserved instead of something meaningless and worthless. We need to love and protect children and see them as God does. After all, children are the future of our world.

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YOU THINK IT'S IN THE BIBLE BUT IT'S NOT

I’ve always found it frustrating when people miss-quote the Bible, but it's even worse when people “quote the Bible” and what they are quoting isn’t even in the Bible. I've always tried not to be critical when letting them know their quote isn’t there, but I was thinking, “They must not read the Bible much at all.”

The Bible is a big book and I’m sure not many people can quote the entire thing word for word, no matter how often they read it. I know I sure can’t, but I’ve made it a goal of mine to read it every day and study it as often as I can, so I think I know it better than some, but certainly not as well as others.

That being said, something interesting happened to me a few years ago. I was writing an article for my blog and was planning to end it with a certain “Bible quote” that I’ve heard all my life. But, I was surprised when I couldn’t find the scripture I was looking for. I was sure it was there, but where? Maybe I wasn’t quoting it exactly right. I searched for it using e-sword, my favorite Bible study program on my computer but still couldn’t find it. Then I searched for it on the internet and soon found the quote, but it wasn’t from the Bible at all. The quote is said to be from a preacher who lived in the 1500s named John Bradford.

“There, but for the grace of God, go I” — John Bradford

I guess we know what we know, and we don’t know, what we don’t know. That may sound confusing or it may seem oversimplified. There’s a song that says, “Them that don’t know, don’t know they don’t know.” We know what we know, and the things we don’t know, we have no idea that we don’t know them. People are people and that fact will never change. “After all, we’re only human.” No matter who we are, we forget things we once knew, and we don’t always remember everything correctly.

For a while now, I’ve been planning to write an article about things people think are in the Bible but are not. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I have a list I’ve been collecting, and I was planning to put them all in one article but, I think I’ll tackle some of them separately. Since I’ve joined the ranks of people who have thought something was in the Bible that wasn’t, maybe I can write the articles without being too critical, or judgmental.  

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I'M GONNA DO WHAT I WANNA DO

“I’m Gonna Do What I Wanna Do!” Ever heard anyone say that? I have. Many times. I’ve probably said it myself. I remember saying something similar to that several times as a teenager. When I wasn’t allowed to do something I wanted to, I would say, “I’ll be glad when I’m 18 so I can do what I want to.” I left home when I was 16 and after a few years of “doing what I wanted to,” I realized what a big mess I had gotten myself into. There are always rules and guidelines we have to follow, no matter where we are and no matter what age we are. There are man’s laws, and there are God’s laws, and there are consequences for breaking any of them.

I recently told someone that if we don’t obey God, we won’t make it to heaven. They basically said, “I’m Gonna Do What I Wanna Do.”

That’s so sad, and it breaks my heart to see someone have that attitude because I know where it took me and what a terrible condition I was in when I finally woke up. It’s an even worse situation these days, knowing how close we are to the end of this world. Instead of doing what WE want to, we need to obey God. Peter and the other Apostles said, “We should obey God rather than People” (Acts 5:29). That would include anything we tell ourselves. Anything we want to do.

We all need to have the attitude that Jesus had in the garden of Gethsemane when he was contemplating the horrible death and mistreatment he was about to endure for us. Talking to the Father, he said, “Not my will, but you will be done” (Luke 22:42). Not what I want, but what you want, Father.

God only wants what’s good for us, so if we would all do what he wants us to do, and not whatever WE want, we would be much better off. We need to submit our will to the will of God and instead of saying, “I’m Gonna Do What I Wanna Do,” we should ask God, “What Do YOU Want Me To Do, Lord?”

In today’s world, everybody wants to feel good about their life and the choices they make. They don’t want to be told what they are doing is WRONG. Sadly, many preachers are giving them what they want by only preaching the positive side of God. He is a loving God and he does want what’s best for us, and there are so many blessings that come with following him. But here’s something many people are not telling others today. He is also a just God who cannot and will not tolerate sin. Disobeying God and doing “What We Want To Do” instead is sin.

If we reject God’s way and refuse to follow him and obey him, then we have a much worse fate to look forward to; Judgment and condemnation, and ultimately, death in hell fire. If we allow God to lead us, though, we are promised eternal life, and we will be filled with purpose and happiness here on earth. That’s what I want in my life. How about you?

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GETTING OLD? HERE'S WHAT TO DO

Sometimes it seems like only yesterday that I was a teenager, but sometimes it seems like a million years ago. The older we get the farther we have to look back, and the more we have to remember; If we CAN remember. There are many things from my younger years that I’ve forgotten, but once in a while, someone will say, Remember when…” and it brings back one of those memories. Sometimes, something I see or hear, or even smell will trigger a memory of something I haven’t thought about in years.

I’d like to think the reason I don’t always remember everything is because there are so many years of information in there that my mind is only keeping track of so many things at once. Like a computer. It’s all still there, but it’s not all right there on the surface. Some of it is buried deep. At times, my brain has to do a search to find a certain memory.

But the sad truth is that, just like a computer, some of the stored data gets corrupted, never to be retrieved again. Sometimes we have terrible things happen to us that our minds don’t know how to deal with and, as a defense mechanism, it puts those memories in a vault where they remain until we are able to deal with them. That time may never arrive, but if it does, that’s when those memories resurface. So not being able to remember every single event in one’s life may not always be a bad thing.

As we grow old, our bodies, as well as our minds, deteriorate like an old farmhouse where no one has been living for years. Our eyesight fades, our limbs grow weak, our skin wrinkles, and our minds start slipping. For most men, our hair starts slipping, too; Right off our heads.

Time can be cruel to the human body. With all the chemicals in our food and water, and in the air we breathe, and the ill effects of the sun, we really don’t stand a chance. We can postpone the inevitable, by living a healthier lifestyle and avoiding all the harmful things we possibly can, but sooner or later, at some point, death comes for us all.

The Bible says, we only live a short time and our lives are full of trouble (Job 14:1). It also says that life is like a mist that appears for a little while and then fades away (James 4:14).

In other words, life is short. We will all die someday, and then what? With all the different religions in the world, I’m sure there are hundreds of different answers to that question, but the word of God, says, “it is appointed for men to die once but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). God’s Judgment.

The Bible says he is a righteous Judge (2 Timothy 4:8). It also says Jesus is our lawyer (1 John 1:9-10; 2:1-2). He Died for us and conquered death by rising again, and now he’s pleading our case in heaven. Wow! If we die lost it’s completely our own fault. What else could he have done?

If we want to be saved, all we have to do is turn away from sin, and turn to Jesus. It’s so simple. Why do we make it so complicated? We are born sinners. We are going to die. We’ll all be judged for the sins we have committed and we’ll all pay the price for our sins, which is death (Romans 6:23) unless we allow Jesus to substitute his sinless life for our sinful one. He wants to save us, but he needs our permission. We need to trust him and accept his free gift so he can give us victory over sin and make us fit for heaven. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 says God will not allow us to be tempted with more than we can handle. That verse also says that God will always provide a way for us to escape temptation without sinning. Jude 1:24 says he is able to keep us from sinning. Again, it’s simple. If you haven’t done that yet, I urge you to do it right now, without delay. Jesus IS coming back soon so we all need to be ready.

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FIRST AND SECOND DEATH, FIRST AND SECOND RESURRECTION

“If you’ve been born twice you’ll only die once, but if you’ve been born only once, you will die twice.” Have you ever heard that expression? The Bible mentions two deaths and two resurrections. Everyone is born once, to a mother, when we enter this world as a baby. This is the FIRST BIRTH. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are born again. This is the SECOND BIRTH. In Revelation 20:14, we read about the SECOND DEATH. John tells us here that the SECOND DEATH is hell fire. So what about the FIRST DEATH? There are differences of opinion on this subject, so what’s the answer? The Bible doesn’t mention the FIRST DEATH by those exact words, so how can we know, without speculating, what the FIRST DEATH really is? There’s only one way. Let’s see what God says it is.

Romans 5:8 
8. But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Corinthians 5:14
14. For the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all were dead:

Ephesians 2:5
5. Even when we were dead in sins, God has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)

We were ALL DEAD. Dead in sin. Many say, “When Adam sinned in the garden of Eden, he didn’t die that day like God said he would.” Yes, he did. He died spiritually. Adam was made in the sinless image of God. Then he sinned, and his son, Cain was born in the sinful image of Adam. He was born spiritually dead, and that condition has been passed down to all of Adam’s descendants. Since then, every person who is born on planet earth is born spiritually dead. This is the First Death. Keep reading.

Romans 5:12 
12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men because all have sinned:

1 Corinthians 15:22 
22. For as in Adam ALL DIE, even so, in Christ all will be made alive.

Like Adam, everyone dies physically when the body wears out or is damaged beyond repair, but the Bible refers to this as sleep. But, this verse is not referring to physical death, because the contrast is, being MADE ALIVE IN CHRIST. This death is SPIRITUAL DEATH. We are all born with a sinful nature. We are all born Spiritually Dead, and we need the sacrifice of Jesus to make us alive again. (See Ephesians 2:1-13)

What we call death, the bible refers to as sleep. That’s why Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me will never die.” (John 11:26) 
When Lazarus died Jesus said, he was asleep. (John 11:11)

When they told Jairus, the synagogue ruler, that his daughter was dead, Jesus said, “she is not dead, she is sleeping.” (Matthew 9:24, Mark 5:39, Luke 8:52)
Now, look at these verses.

Psalm 13:3 
3. Consider and hear me, O LORD my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I SLEEP the SLEEP of death;

1 Corinthians 15:51 
51. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all SLEEP, but we shall all be changed,

1 Thessalonians 4:14 
14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, those also who SLEEP in Jesus will God bring with him.

So God’s word says that we are all DEAD in sin because of Adam. This is the FIRST DEATH. We are born again when we accept Jesus as our Savior. This is the SECOND BIRTH.

1st BIRTH ---- Born into the world.
2nd BIRTH --- Born into Christ. (Born again)
1st DEATH --- Dead in sin (Because of Adam)
2nd DEATH -- Hell Fire

Now The Resurrection

Ephesians 2:5-6 
5. Even when we were dead in sins, [God] has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) 
6. And has RAISED US UP together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Romans 6:4 
Therefore we are BURIED with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in NEWNESS OF LIFE.

Colossians 2:12 
BURIED with him in baptism, wherein also you have RISEN with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath RAISED him from the dead.

Colossians 2:13 
And being DEAD in your sins and the uncircumcised of your flesh, he has MADE YOU ALIVE together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

2 Corinthians 5:17 
Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new.

John 11:25 
Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet he shall live,

John 11:26 
And whoever lives and believes in me will never die…

Again, we are all DEAD in sin before we meet Jesus. When we are converted and baptized, we are BURIED with him, then RAISED UP or RESURRECTED as a new person. Spiritual Resurrection from Spiritual Death. This is the FIRST RESURRECTION.

DEAD, BURIED, AND RESURRECTED.

1st BIRTH --- Physical Birth (Born to a mother)
2nd BIRTH -- Spiritual Birth (Resurrection from Spiritual Death)
1st DEATH -- Spiritual Death (Born dead in sin, because of Adam)
2nd DEATH-- Physical Death (Hell Fire) Revelation 21:8

For more on 2nd death read Eternal Life Or Eternal Death

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© 2015 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

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