Posts in Devotionals

by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1316 The Devolution of Democracy

Msg #1316 The Devolution of Democracy

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

Of thirteen judges in the Scripture's book of Judges only Abimelech was chosen by the people in a democratic process. In a society where people do what is right in their own eyes this sheds a curious light on a democratic failure; not pretty. Judges 9 records an Abimelech who is overpaid, overtly ruthless, and power mongering. He killed 70 of his own brothers to further secure his position. Rather than judge or deliver the people, like all the other judges, Abimelech reigns over them making himself a king instead of a judge. He considers his election a mandate to do whatever he wants no matter what the law of the land says. In Washington and in Albany our leadership think they are the omniscient elected public servants who can legislate the all-knowing rightful path. They are furious when our representatives and actual legislatures prevent them getting their own way. In every venue of a society, power corrupts. Our constitutional balance of powers is essential to our existence. The Holy Bible is awesome literature; it has a perfect author. It is interesting that there are only two fables written in the whole of God's Word. A fable is a moral story where animals or inanimate objects do the talking. In Judges 9:8-15 one of the two is used to prophecy the ironic destruction of the demented, elected leader, Abimelech. The moral of the longest chapter of Judges is this, while God chooses and empowers nobodies to be superb judges and deliverers, man, especially those who have thrown off their Creator's rulebook, cannot choose leadership well. Here we are 3,419 years after Abimelech, and instead of learning and applying God's recorded lessons, we have scoffed them to our children and banned them from our schools. That is the devolution of man.
 

An Essay for week #16 Sun, Apr 21, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 
 
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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1317 Judges, the Main Thing

 

Dear Friends and Editors,

Please read then  freely print this weeks Penny Pulpit Column in your papers, bulletins, emails, bloggs and twitters .  Thank you for this consideration.
Pastor Ed Rice,  Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY 14441

These Baptist Penny Pulpits are an asset to many.  Please add someone useing  the FORWARD below.

 

Msg #1317 Judges, the Main Thing

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

Simon says, Take four steps back. That game is meant to teach careful obedience to only one master. Taking four steps backward through the book of Judges is meant to teach the same. We started at the end where a depraved society would have no God to reign over them, and every depraved man did what was right in their own eyes. We back stepped through the God selected judge, Jephthah, and found him and his vow a portrayal of what God was feeling and yet promising. A step back found us analyzing Abimelech, the leader chosen by majority vote and mimicking our own dilemma wherein it is said, In the voting machine we trust. One more step back puts us at the beginning of this book called Judges, and the ugly plight of mankind is portrayed in God's words. The people of God, fresh settled into the promised land, flowing with milk and honey, forsook the LORD God of their fathers and served other gods and bowed to them (2:12). They moved the LORD to anger, he delivered them into the hands of spoilers (vr 14), and yet he saved and delivered time and again with his judges. “And it came to pass when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them.” Sounds like the Big Bang worshiping, humans came from monkeys reasoning, secular-humanist people I have been called to preach the gospel to! Indeed the book of Judges is a mirror, a mirror that shadows the face of the USA we are called to reach for Christ. Wow, … discouraged but not in despair, keep the main thing the main thing in these last of the last days.

 

An Essay for week #17 Sun, Apr 28, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 

 
 
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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1315 Jephthah's Awful Vow .. NOT Awful

Msg #1315 Jephthah's Awful Vow .. NOT Awful

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

In Judges chapter 11, Jephthah, the Gileadite, walks across the pages of God's Holy Word to reveal to us truths that God would have us know for certain. It is shallow to dismiss truths because some scholar has improperly analyzed them, and given them a label. Jephthah's awful vow is not awful, nor is it just Jephthah's vow that is in view here. Consider that Jephthah, because of his lowly birth, was rejected of his brethren: rejected and driven out into the land of Tob. There he remained, forgotten, until his people had a great need because the children of Ammon rose up against them. Now they called for Jephthah to come and deliver them. I contend that Jephthah's walk across a page of His-Story, is intended to reveal to us His Heart. One chapter previous, in context, we read: “Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, ... And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, ... And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the ... the Amorites..., and from the Philistines?... Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. It is no small coincidence that God chose the rejected and exiled Gileadite to deliver his people. So what of Jephthah's 'awful vow'? Consider that in Numbers there is command “offer the Levites before the LORD for an offering unto the LORD.” Consider that there is only one human sacrifice that is themed in this whole book. Now consider that Jephthah's vow was not awful, but a revelation of God's vow. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

An Essay for week #15 Sun, Apr 14, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 

 

 

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1325 A.S.K. Really?

 

Msg #1325 A.S.K. Really?

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

“Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: ...” It could be that the three-strikes-and-you're-out rule for baseball came from Amos, who rehearsed this theme from God eight times in his first two written chapters. In the seventh chapter, however, when all their strikes were tallied and the promised punishment was begun, Amos said, “O Lord GOD forgive, I beseech thee:...” Both times this happened God records this dumbfounding response, “The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.” Prayer changes things. Not only does it change 'things', it changes God. This concept and these verses don't set well with theologians grasping at Reformed Theology, but they are a tremendous asset to the Bible believer that needs a God who responds to their prayer and supplications. We have one. Amos never had the promise “whatsoever ye ask in my name, I will do it.” That promise came under a new covenant. We have that promise from our Lord, and Savior. Scripture says “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” If the prayer of Amos, God's prophet, can turn away the fierceness of God's wrath when it was well overdue, how much more can the prayer of a saint, who is under a new covenant, with better promises, refine the heart of God concerning a lost loved one, a neighbor, a state or a country. A. S. K. and it shall be given you.

 

An Essay for week #25 Sun, Jun 23, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at ;

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1339 Alexandrian Doctrine, Alexandrian Bibles

Msg #1339 Alexandrian Doctrine, Alexandrian Bibles

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Even while some of Evangelical Christendom refuses the covenant theology which came out of Alexandria Egypt, a theology which denies the Millennial Reign of Christ as a dispensation, they still cling to an ecumenical bible that comes from Alexandria. Roman Catholic Saint Clement's disciple, Saint Origen of Alexandria (185-232 A.D.), is called both the Father of Textual Criticism, and the Father of the Allegorical Method. He used both 'toolboxes' to disembowel God's promise of a Millennial Reign of Christ from Jerusalem's Mount Zion; predicating his reign in a catholic church. instead. Today both 'toolboxes' are used by Bible critics, and the scholars-so-called who trust them, to predicate that there is no verbally inspired, infallible, inerrant Holy Bible in existence. Ergo they think nothing of throwing twenty whole verses into their trash can. What's worse, the allegorical method insists that Scriptures are so obscure that only a Catholic Church Clergy can uncover their true meaning. A hundred years later, when Rome took over the Catholic Church, they killed commoners that would dare read a Bible without them. They still use the allegorical method to poo-poo the Millennial Reign of Christ, the Pre-Millennial, Pre-Tribulation rapture of the Church, and to abscond with all the promises made to God's chosen people Israel; as do Protestants. I say Evangelicals use Alexandrian ecumenical bibles because every modernist English bible is based on two manuscripts from Alexandria Egypt, the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus Manuscripts. Critics and translators incorporated these into their copyright works with no regard for verbal-inspiration, inerrancy or infallibility, doctrines that they have rejected. Evangelicals think these compromised bibles read much easier than the 15th century English and they discard the inspired, infallible, inerrant Holy Bible and pick up an RSV, NIV, ASV, NASV, NEV, et. al. Its a dangerous world for a Bible believer.

An Essay for week #39 Sun, Sep 29, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at ;

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1326 Believing IN the Christ.


Msg #1326 Believing IN the Christ.

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

In John10 Jesus spoke of thieves, shepherds, sheepfolds and doors, “but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.” It is accurately recorded but one thousand and eighty years latter we can barely get our mind around all that Jesus taught in this chapter. It is, however, paramount that one comprehend his declaration “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, ... Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (vr.11, 17, 18) The “whosoever believeth in him” of John3:16, cannot be separated from the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor his being the “Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world”, nor his resurrection to be one's only living Redeemer, only Mediator, and only High Priest. “While we were yet sinners Christ died FOR us.” The “whosoever” must believe and ask and receive that substitutionary death of Christ for themselves. The gospel message is that Christ died, was buried, and that he rose again on the third day. (1Cor15) Conversion is this truth believed, and accepted, i.e. repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:20) If he is not one's Prophet, Priest and King, i.e. Saviour, Mediator, and Lord, they have not yet believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and are on a broad road that leadeth to destruction. In this day of compromise one needs to clearly hear and clearly preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. John3:16 has great depth; and so does John10.

 

An Essay for week #26 Sun, Jun 30, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1337 Key Hebrew Holy Days

Msg #1337 Key Hebrew Holy Days

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Yom-Kippur was observed Friday last week. God given Hebrew Holy-Days that commemorated the past, more-so prophesied the future. God given feasts and holy days were to be observed “throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.” The Christian need not observe these Hebrew holy days because they daily live them. The Passover lamb slain on the fourteenth of Abib was our Passover Lamb, the Only Begotten Son of God, who died on Golgotha in that selfsame hour. The Feast of Unleavened Bread represents the sinless life our Saviour lived. The Day of Firstfruits, Pentecost, wherein Sinai Law initiated the Old Covenant, for Christians, the Holy Spirit initiated the New Covenant. Three Hebrew Holy-Days indicated three crucial events of God's redemptive calendar. The next three are no less important. The Day of Blowing the Trumpets finds Christians looking to the clouds and listening for the trumpet that will report “Come up hither,” and Hebrews for the Trumpet that will completely regather their whole nation in the Holy Land; each will sound soon. Yom-Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the day to afflict the soul, when Israel's citizens “stand before God in silence and contemplation, removed from the frenzy of the world,” marks the redeemed life of the atoned for saint, but in an equal foreshadowing it marks the Day of the Lord when Israel “shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” Christians living out these Holy Days will not prevent their complete fulfillment for God's Chosen and Elect Nation, Israel. Christ will come for his saints, then with his saints, and will literally reign from Zion.

An Essay for week #37 Sun, Sep 15, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1336 Dual Trumpets


Msg #1336 Dual Trumpets

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

This year Yom Kippur, on the 10th day of the month Tishri (called Ethanim in 1Kins8:2) will be on Friday the 13th. That made last Wednesday the first day of the Hebrew seventh month and the Holy Bible says “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work therein...” (Lev23:24-25) Every Christian should know better, but one said this week was “filled with stupid Jewish Holidays.” I was ashamed and prayed that God would forgive our vain ignorance of His holy days. The feast trumpet is revelation. “Make the two trumpets of silver; of a whole peace shalt thou make them: that thous mayest use them for the calling of the assembly...” (Num10:1-2) The Sabbath day, the blowing of trumpets and the holy convocation observed on the first day of the old Hebrew's seventh month is prophetic of their regathering, (Isa18:3, 27:13, 58) ergo it is also prophetic of Christs gathering of His Church as well. (Ithes4:16-18) Be careful not to go all Roman and allegorical here, there are indeed two literal gatherings portrayed in this feast of trumpets. Christians are ever looking up and listening for one trumpet, a trumpet that will call together his Church into one called out and gathered together body of believers. Consider anew Revelations 4, “After this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither...” There will be a trumpet which calls to regather all Israel, but abut seven years prior there will be one that raptures the Church. These Hebrew holy days are important to Christians.

 

An Essay for week #36 Sun, Sep 8, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1335 Coming for His Church

Dear Friends and Editors,

Please read then  freely print this weeks Penny Pulpit Column in your papers, bulletins, emails, bloggs and twitters .  Thank you for this consideration.
Pastor Ed Rice,  Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY 14441

These Baptist Penny Pulpits are an asset to many.  Please add someone useing  the FORWARD below.

 

 

Msg #1335 Coming for His Church

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 
The sufficiency found in Christ is present in the promise of His 2nd coming, the purpose of His 2nd coming, and the plan for His 2nd coming. “ I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go... I will come again... that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John14) The affirmation he left in this promise is powerful, “ if it were not so, I would have told you!” The analogy throughout is as a groom coming back to take his bride, and his Church, Greek Ecclesia, i.e. a called out, gathered together body of believers, behaves as the chaste kept virgin looking for that day. “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” (2Cor 11:2) Those who have “thee/thou” in their Bible, note the use of “you” here, and know the relevance He will not jilt his Church at the alter. In the mean time that “chaste virgin,” His called out, gathered together body, is likened to stewards with certain talents to be used for their soon returning lord. One cannot miss this analogy in the Holy Scriptures, particularly in the teachings of Christ. Observe that no man knowing the time or his return is in his purpose for his Ecclesia. Keep striving for the increase of His Kingdom and keep looking up. Observe also that his Ecclesia is not a “universal-catholic” body, it is a local assembled body, independent and autonomous. The former errant idea is purely Roman in conception. Stepping away from Rome will also cause one to understand the plan in his coming; first coming FOR his saints (1Thes4:14-18) then, after a wedding, coming WITH his saints. (Rev19) Keep looking up.

 

An Essay for week #35 Sun, Sep 1, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 

 

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1334 Moved With Compassion

 


Msg #1334 Moved With Compassion

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

“It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” Get your Bible and look up Lamentations 3:22, if your Bible doesn't have God's mercy keeping you from being consumed, you have a corrupted, ecumenical, modernist Bible. Put it in the trash and get an uncorrupted King James Bible. Compassion is the theme of this essay, corrupted Bibles is just a sidebar. Christ is all sufficient in salvation 4-me, 2-me and through-me. Christ is all sufficient in prayer 4-me, 2-me and through-me. Christ is all sufficient in compassion 4-me, 2-me and through-me. If Lam3:22 is in your Bible correctly it says we are not consumed because of his compassions; that is sufficient! His salvation is his grace, is his mercy, is because of his compassions. His compassions are displayed in Psalm 73:38, 86:15, 111:4, 112:4, and 145:8 where God is “full of compassion.” They are manifest in Christ in Matt14:14, 15:32, 20:34, Mark1:41, 5:19, 6:34, 8:2, and 9:22 where he was “moved with compassion.” Could one call themselves Christian without his compassion indwelling them? “And be ye kind one to another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (Eph4:32) Again, “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion on of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous.” (1Pet3:8) Certainly we are compelled to have compassion on other believers and to love the brethren, but the love of Christ constrains us to have compassion on the lost, compassion on your enemies, and compassion on the most despicable of all humanity; but for His grace, and compassion, “there go I”. No matter what they pierced, no matter what they tattooed, no matter how reprobate your self righteousness paints them, his righteousness indwelling in you will move you with compassion.
 

An Essay for week #34 Sun, Aug 25, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 

 

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by Bob Hoffman
May 10, 2024

Msg #1333 A-Ask, S-seek, K-knock, ASK Him

 

 

Msg #1333 A-Ask, S-seek, K-knock, ASK Him

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ's opening message to humanity, he gives an English acronym “A” for ask, “S” for seek, and “K” for knock. In a closing message, days before his crucifixion, he declares, “Whatsoever ye ask in my name, I shall do it.” Prayer is a vital ingredient of a believers life, and Christ's sufficiency in prayer is in his perfecting of it, his promise for it, and his purpose in it. When God set aside infiniteness and took on the form of finite man, every thing that Jesus did, every miracle, every compassion, every teaching, was thoroughly baptized in prayer. Jesus often spent all night in prayer, and if the Only Begotten Son of God needed that, how much more do we? When a unit is surrounded and pinned down in enemy territory, now-a-days, they pick up the radio and call in a barrage of bombs and fire-power that saves their lives and frees them for more maneuvers. When you read Jesus Christ's promise, “Whatsoever you ask in my name,” it would be better that that comes to your mind, rather than anything said by “name it and claim it”, “blab it and grab it”, TV evangelists. Jesus never prayed for a softer pillow or larger house. Thrice he prayed that a cup pass form him, but even there he prayed, “Not my will but thine.” The disciples, James and John used his very words to petition him with the desire of their hearts, and he told them, “No, you cannot sit on my right hand.” Recall that Paul too was told not to his request. To pray in Jesus' name is to make his purpose our purpose, his cause our cause, hid compassion our compassion. True disciples still pray, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

 

An Essay for week #33 Sun, Aug 18, 13

Published at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/ppulpit/biblesays13.pdf

In paperback at http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

 


 
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