Posts in Devotionals

Msg#1639 Angels All Around Me

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Christians tend to fuss and fret when politicians, circumstances, and/or friends turn against them. A stand for righteousness does that. In similar circumstances Elisha's servant cried out, “Alas, my master! How shall we do?” (2Kings 6:15). At IBPF Pastor Calibretta pointed out that the servant needed to know, and we need reminded, that, “They that be with us are more than they that be with them” (Vr. 16). There is an army of Satan around us. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, and Satan's “got the whole world in his hand.” He hates what God loves: Israel, marriage, children (they call them embryos), law and order, Christians, and whatsoever things are honest. He is the enemy of God, and born-again believers are the servants of God. Roll-play the servant. A servant is one who works to make another a success. Just as Gehazi, Elisha's previous servant was sent to tell commander Naaman how to be healed of leprosy, Christ's servants are sent to be ministers of reconciliation (2Cor 5:17-19). The normal progression is believer, to disciple, to servant, to friend of God, but the foremost roll is that of a servant. So that his servant would recognize their advantage, Elisha asked God to open his eyes. So that the enemy would do his beck and call, Elisha asked God to close theirs. If you, as his servant are going to see the angels all around you, you must turn to 2Kings 6; he wrote it down for our learning. It would behoove all of us to fret and stew about our circumstances a little less and recall that we have his enemies out numbered and out gunned. They are indeed in blindness and confusion of face. There has never been a better time to be a minster of reconciliation.

An Essay for week #39 Sep 25, 2016

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs160925.mp3

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Msg#1638 An Ark in the House

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Striving to do the right thing in the wrong way kindles the anger of the LORD. Praise the Lord we are under grace. Christians have a mediator who is our propitiation and we are not appointed to wrath. Just the same, doing things God's way ought to occupy more of our attention. In the throws of David moving the Ark of God to the City of God he obtained a proper fear of God, and “So David brought not the ark home to himself in the city of David, but carried it aside into the house of Obededom the Gittite” (1Chron13:12-13). At the Northeast Summit Pastor Shirley showed why we should be diligent students of Obededom. When the ark came to Obededom's house that day everything changed. It took David three months to put in order the whole house of Levi. In Scripture they were the ones charged with ministering before the ark. David set in order the Levitical priesthood and it was was followed until the coming of Christ. It is laborious to read all the Hebrew names that Ezra records in the Chronicles, but worth the effort when we follow the family name Obededom. When David took the Ark of the Covenant from Obededom's house, Obededom went with it. In those three months Obed signed up for harp lessons. God put a new song in this heart and he became both an ark porter, and a harp player (1Chron 15:18-21). Obededom also became a door keeper for the ark (vr. 25). It seems he, his eight sons, and sixty-eight of his kin volunteered for every position available (16:38, 26:4). They became door keepers, recorders, thanks givers and the ark praise team (16:5, 26:13-15). I should be doing more because in 1958 the Ark came to my dad's house.

An Essay for week #38 Sep 18, 2016

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs160918.mp3

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ElectionMsg#160924 How to Pray for America Tip#5

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amos chapter one through four is God's notice of pending judgment and notification that it had already begun. “Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel” (Amos 4:11b-12). God's lamentation and woe occupy the next two chapters but in chapter seven Amos prays, “O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small.... O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small” (7:2,5). From sending the grasshopper to devour, and then sending a consuming fire, the Bible records God's response to Amos' prayer, “The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.... The LORD repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord GOD” (7:3,6). Dare we pray any less? In America disease, famine, and pestilence have begun, drought, fire, and flood are in the news. She thinks it's because we are burning coal! And the whole of our leadership are reprobate and come to confusion.

O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall America arise? for he is small.... O Lord GOD, cease, I beseech thee: by whom shall America arise? for he is small.

Awake America writes: (http://www.awakeamericaonline.org) :

“What Is a Constitutional Republic? This is a form of government in which a country's people and their chosen representatives are bound by the tenets of their constitution. The concept of our republic and our representative government is based upon Exodus 18:21, 25.... Our government, a republic in standing, chose to allow citizen voters to elect legislators to represent them.”

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms writes: “The House of Representatives is composed of 247 Republicans and 186 Democrats, with two seats vacant. Members of the House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms. All 435 seats will be filled this fall, and the Republican Party is expected to retain control of the House.”

It is not to late for America. Pray for God's mercy.

Pastor Ed Rice GSBaptistChurch.com

ElectionMsg#160917 How to Pray for America Tip#4

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Msg#1637 Day 9-11 and Peace of Jerusalem, What The Bible Says, puts prayer tip#4 very succinctly:

And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the LORD” (1Sam 7:5). In June 2014 the 221^st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA considered banning the word “Israel” from its prayers. Instead they settled on promoting an antisemitic divide between the ancient land and the modern state. Their despise of God's chosen people, Israel, stems from their deep seated Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology, which originated in the Roman Church and resonates in every Protestant denomination, contends that God replaced the Jewish people with the church. They contend that NOW Christians, not Jews, not Hebrews, not the twelve tribes of Israel, are the chosen and elect people. They suppose that Jews rejected Messiah, and thus God rejected Jews. Bible believers need to take particular note that John Calvin's misrepresentation of election is more diabolical than ripping the “whosoevers” out of the Bible, it is intent on ripping God's chosen and elect people, Israel, out of the world. The propensity of our leaders to turn their backs on Israel, to call them occupiers, to side with antisemitic movements, and to support a Palestinian state, comes from 240 years of church pulpits sounding out their diabolical Replacement Theology. The Protestant churches still use the Roman's allegorical methods to deny the millennial reign of Christ, deny a seven year tribulation, deny Jerusalem as God's holy city and Zion as the place we are marching to, deny the pre-tribulational rapture, and to call the Revelation of Jesus Christ “Allegorical Literature.” Bible believers need to know God's dispensational teachings and sway their friends and relatives from the apostate Protestant Denominations, and then “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.... Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem” (Psalm 122).

An Essay for week #37 Sep 11, 2016

An important part of praying for America is praying that God would wake up congregations of women led apostate Protestant Churches. Let's pray as if her life depends on it.

Msg#1637 Day 9-11 and Peace of Jerusalem

And

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the LORD” (1Sam 7:5). In June 2014 the 221^st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA considered banning the word “Israel” from its prayers. Instead they settled on promoting an antisemitic divide between the ancient land and the modern state. Their despise of God's chosen people, Israel, stems from their deep seated Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology, which originated in the Roman Church and resonates in every Protestant denomination, contends that God replaced the Jewish people with the church. They contend that NOW Christians, not Jews, not Hebrews, not the twelve tribes of Israel, are the chosen and elect people. They suppose that Jews rejected Messiah, and thus God rejected Jews. Bible believers need to take particular note that John Calvin's misrepresentation of election is more diabolical than ripping the “whosoevers” out of the Bible, it is intent on ripping God's chosen and elect people, Israel, out of the world. The propensity of our leaders to turn their backs on Israel, to call them occupiers, to side with antisemitic movements, and to support a Palestinian state, comes from 240 years of church pulpits sounding out their diabolical Replacement Theology. The Protestant churches still use the Roman's allegorical methods to deny the millennial reign of Christ, deny a seven year tribulation, deny Jerusalem as God's holy city and Zion as the place we are marching to, deny the pre-tribulational rapture, and to call the Revelation of Jesus Christ “Allegorical Literature.” Bible believers need to know God's dispensational teachings and sway their friends and relatives from the apostate Protestant Denominations, and then “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.... Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem” (Psalm 122).

An Essay for week #37 Sep 11, 2016

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs160911.mp3

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ElectionMsg#160910 How to Pray for America Tip#3

Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When Ezra the ready scribe who came out of Israel's Babylonian captivity, saw that “the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands, yea, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this trespass” (9:2), he rent his garment, plucked off hair, and sat down astonied. In the USA Christians have seen our leaders and media promote sodomites, transvestites, and now transsexuals to give them a revered place in our society! Ezra arose up from his heaviness, fell upon his knees and spread his hands unto the LORD his God and said, “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens” (vr. 6). Apostate churches, having installed woman pastors in rebellion to God's word, are now installing these sexual deviants and boasting of their diversity. Bible believers are a remnant, not a majority: marching on a capital or into voting booths will not remedy our sin. We need to sit astonied until the evening sacrifice and then fall on our knees and spread out our hands unto the LORD our God. “He only is my rock and my salvation.”

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms writes,

Both Houses of Congress are controlled by the Republican Party. The United States Senate is currently composed of 54 Republicans, 44 Democrats, and two independents who caucus with the Democrats. U.S. Senators are elected to six-year terms. In each even-numbered year, elections to roughly one-third of the 100 Senate seats are held. This year, elections will be held for 24 Republican-held Senate seats and 10 Democrat-held seats. The fight for control of the Senate is expected to be hotly contested, and high-profile races are occurring in three nearby states. In Ohio, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) is being challenged by Democratic former Gov. Ted Strickland; in Pennsylvania, first-term Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) faces Democratic operative Kati McGinty; and in New Hampshire, first-term Sen. Kelly Ayotte faces incumbent Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan.

We may not be able to vote on these but we can certainly pray about each one of them. Let us fall on our knees and spread out our hands unto the LORD our God.
Pastor Ed Rice

www.GSBaptistChurch.com

Msg#1644 The New Heaven, The New Earth

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

It is not yet given that man could understand God's eternity past, but in an intimate gesture of his great love for man he has revealed his eternity future. For those who would pursue it, for those who would believe it, it begins, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” and it ends, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” Getting to that end requires only that one be saved from the eternal death that God, our Creator and righteous judge, has assigned to all that sin. “Once in the end of the world hath Christ (the Only Begotten Son of God) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many (Heb 9:26, 28). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Religionists have mucked up the simplicity of that message but for the saved there is a place where we will spend eternity with God. There “the street of the city is pure gold, as it were transparent glass” (Rev 21:21), and since “the former things are passed away,” there will be no more 1) tears, 2) death, 3) sorrow, 4) crying, 5) pain, 6) night and 7) no more sin or curse (Rev 21:4, 8,25). In eternity future there is a special place for those who believe every word between “In the beginning God...” and “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Many are deceived by clergy, or the world, so one should “study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Tim 2:15).

An Essay for week #44 Oct 30, 2016

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs161030.mp3

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Copyright © 2016 Good Samaritan Baptist Church, All Public Domain
A weekly 300 word essay- The Penny Pulpit

Our mailing address is:
Good Samaritan Baptist Church

54 Main St. Box 99

Dresden, NY 14441

Msg#1614 In Remnants Not Mega-Majorities

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Gideon was likely concerned about facing off against the Midianites with only 32,000 soldiers; they would be outnumbered by more than three-to-one. Sometimes one wonders if the LORD God really knows what we are up against down here. The hosts of the Midianites filled the whole valley by the hill Moreh, “and the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many” (Jud 7:2a). Like Israel, Christians might tend to “vaunt themselves against (God), saying, Mine own hand hath saved me” (7:2b). The LORD God does his best work when we are at our whit's end. God whittled Gideon's army down to only 300 nobodies before delivering his miraculous victory over the Midianites. He uses the same tactic today. God is in the remnant, not the mega or the majority. Be leery of church growth that comes from a charismatic leader, or entertainment program. God does not work through a majority vote. That vote might “trump” a queen Athalia who wants in power but either way we get an egotistical incompetent, and this rebellious nation, sinking into moral depravity, deserves no less. Then there is the Islamic invasion launched from Obama's endorsed Arab Spring. America is overwhelmed in evil and one can learn a lot from God's dealings with Gideon and his three-hundred. God does his most miraculous work when it is certain that we won't be taking any of his glory. A nobody telling everybody about somebody who can save anybody, is not for glory seekers. True believers are outnumbered and outgunned in this world. Whether it be church politics, world politics or a doctor's waiting room, God shines the brightest when the odds are against us. “O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” (Psalm 84:12).

An Essay for week #14 Apr 3, 16

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs160403.mp3

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Question on Msg#1613's 3 Days and 3 Nights

On 3/30/2016 [email protected] wrote:

Thank you Pastor Rice for today's Penny Pulpit on 3 days and 3 nights. I agree with you, but I am unsure how best to respond to the assertion that "any part of a day is considered a day according to Jewish tradition" argument. I am not sure where they get that teaching from or started that thought -- just like the folded napkin story. Could you give me a suggestion?

Dear Pastor

Thanks for writing. Remember what I said about traditions; they will often twist your Bible understandings.

I had not heard of any partial day considerations in Jewish traditions. I do know that they take their Genesis account very literally and when God said the evening and the morning were the first day, they have been counting their days that way ever since; whereas we traditionally use a mid-night starting of our day. Both traditions are insignificant when considering Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.

From my studies Christ was crucified on:

1) Passover, he was the passover lamb that taketh away the sin of the world (1Cor 5:7),

2) the preparation for the feast of unleavened bread, (Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14)

3) the 14th day of the month of Abib (Exod 12:6, 13:4, 23:15, 34:18, Deu 16:1) (the name was revised to "Nisan" after Babylonians messed with it),

4) the exact time they killed the passover lambs (1Cor5:7),

5) six days after the feast at Bethany (John 12:1), which feast was not on a Sabbath Day, ergo it was on a Friday,

6) three days before the Sunday which found the disciples on the Emaus road (Luke 24:13, 18), and

7) a Thursday because it falls six days after Friday (#5 above) and three days before a Sunday (#6 above).

Also noted previous, Palm Sunday falling on Sunday and on the 10th of Abib (Exod 12:3) causes the 14th to be on a Thursday, AND the Bible dictation of all that happened after his triumphal entry and before his crucifixion accounts for a Monday, a Tuesday and a Wednesday, three full days, resulting in a Thursday crucifixion.

All this Bible evidence necessitates a day count which includes Thursday day (he died in the 9th hour of the day, i.e. 3pm, no matter when Joseph and Nick got his body into the tomb his soul was in the heart of the earth on that Thursday), Thursday night, Friday day, Friday night, Saturday day, Saturday night. That is three days and three nights as specifically called out in Matthew 12:40.

All this settles it for me; that Wednesday night was his last supper with the disciples, and Thursday was the day of his crucifixion. I enjoy debate with Baptists who hold to a Wednesday crucifixion, they insist on three twenty-four hour days spent in the tomb. I'll not debate with someone who holds to a Roman Good Friday, they do not have a leg to stand on.

Thanks for asking. God bless your studies.

Pastor Rice

Msg#1612 Palm Sunday and the Tenth of Abib

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

The relationship between Palm Sunday and the Tenth of Abib was shrouded in Baptist ignorance during my childhood. Indeed it was not uncovered in my enrollment in three Bible Colleges and two Bible Institutes. Baptists are ofttimes paranoid about “religious holidays” because they drip with the vile heresy that spews from the apostate Roman Church. Mardi Gras, Lent, Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Bunnies are all swollen with the leaven of that apostasy. It is only on God's calendar that one finds the importance and connection between the Tenth of Abib, the Fourteenth of Abib, and the First Day of the Week. Exodus twelve requires that the Hebrew's passover lamb be separated from the flock on the tenth day of the month Abib. It was kept separate and examined for four days; there was to be no spot or blemish in the passover lamb. On the fourteenth day of the month the holy passover lamb was to be slain; the next day, the fifteenth was a Sabbath Day, a High Sabbath Day, as it came to be called. Even if the fifteenth was on a Friday, it was called a Sabbath Day. The Roman religionists and the concurring Protestant clergy, are balefully ignorant of the Old Testament. On Palm Sunday on the streets of Jerusalem the crowds cried out “Hosanna, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” They didn't know, but on the tenth day of Abib they separated The Passover Lamb from the rest of the flock, and on the fourteenth day hey crucified the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. God's calendar was fulfilled very meticulously: Christ, chosen and slain as our Passover Lamb. The Bible student dare not remain ignorant of these things.

An Essay for week #12 Mar 20, 16

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs160320.mp3

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