Al's Devotional

Beloved, we are at crunch time.  The darkness is nearing, and will soon overwhelm.  We need quality oil in our lamps, and I mean to touch down on each aspect of this in the coming lessons ahead.  These lessons are to stir you up, spiritually.  If there is anyone you know that may profit from these lessons, please, pass them on or send me their email addresses. As ever, God's Blessings, and fear not, greater is He that is within you then he that is in the world. This is an excerpt from the book, The Night He Was Betrayed , by R.E.O. White.  It is out of print, but you can still access it on some sites online.  This excerpt is from chapter two, The Right Approach .  It is a preparatory chapter to get us thinking about the teaching to come, and stands alone in itself. He is writing here about the upper room, and John 13-17. ~Al   …It is evident, from comparing John with the other Gospels, that chapters 13-17 are more than simple devotional passages...

Dear All,  I discovered yet another spiritual preacher.   Mark Guy Pearse  (3 January 1842 – 1 January 1930) was a Cornish Methodist preacher, lecturer and author who, during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first of the 20th, was a household name throughout Britain and beyond.   I am currently reading about Naaman the leper, and I found a quote by him that was truly worthwhile contemplating.  In the course of that, I accessed one of his books and came across this gem.  "If He would uplift the world, the first thing is to make life sacred, the very beginning of it. Infanticide was scarcely a crime at His coming anywhere but in Palestine, and even there without any ado or great horror, Herod, to quiet his uneasy fear, can send out his soldiers and slay all the young children through the coasts. Here, then, is the problem, —How shall He make childhood sacred? How uplift and hallow the world's opinion of the litt...

Dear All, This is wonderful.  So without further comment, ~Al Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.  And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy . 2Ki 5:1 -3       Naaman the Syrian   1 . There is not a man or woman living, however happy or prosperous, in whose description sooner or later we do not come to a " but ." There is always some drawback here, some drop in every cup that needs extraction, some thorn in every path to be removed. And even though this " but " were not in our health and circumstances, it is always ...

This is worth the contemplation.  Imagine, to have everything by the Word of God Himself, and to turn away and exploit that bounty to one's own destruction.   ~Al After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.  And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.  1Ki 13:33 -34     Jeroboam had decidedly a fine start with a flattering prospect of success, a rare opportunity for excelling both temporally and spiritually. There was the promotion of the king, and by God the conditional promise of kingship, together with His guiding, protecting, and counselling presence. Permanent kinghood for himself and his children after him. Hence, having God to begin with, and God's unfailing promise to res...

Scourge /skûrj/ noun       1.        A source of widespread dreadful affliction and devastation such as that caused by pestilence or war. 2.       A means of inflicting severe suffering, vengeance, or punishment. 3.       A small whip used to inflict punishment   Thus spoke Isaiah to the rulers of Jerusalem:   Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall ...

Prayer is what it is all about.  " My house shall be a house of prayer ." Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.  The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.   Isa 56:7-8  ~Al And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.  So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,  And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.  And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little ...

These are brief, but sound words to think about. ~Al And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.   Ki 18:21    Who was Baal? Whence did he come? Where did he get his power? How did he rule? There was no such being. He never lived, never blessed a servant, or crushed a foe. When the priests cried, there was no answer, because there was no one to hear. Yet the name had a fiendish personality in the history of Israel, as a most alluring and ruinous force. An actual Baal never lived, possibly the ideal Baal has never died. Baal-worship was popular because it was gay, festal, splendid, while the Mosaic ritual was calm, earnest, self-controlled, chaste. Under the first, men could do what they liked best, and yet pass for religious. It dignified self-indulgence, and deified strength and lust. Love of God is t...