Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

In a Laodicean church a good praise and worship team can raise the dead, make the spirit of man feel ever-so alive, cause the slumbering one to clap their hands and the lame to dance. But when your praise and worship team is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit dwelling in your soul, your team will slay that resurrected spirit and teach you to die daily. God teaches, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom6:11). The Laodicean team uses their powerful, sensuous, repetitive pounding music to awaken and energize the spirit. The Trinity Team uses the quick and powerful two edged sword to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart… for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body ye shall live (Heb4:12, Rom8:13). The worship team you follow is a matter of life and death. The Laodicean team readily admits that their copyright bible is a Not Inspired Version (NIV). They suppose that only the autographs were inspired and nobody has an inspired, infallible, inerrant Bible from God. But God, in his inspired Word calls them wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. He counsels them to buy his gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve (Rev3:17-18). Don’t be settled into the Laodicean church with their rock bands. They have a different Word, a different Way, a different Truth, and a different Life. Be honest, they have a different Christ. The Word said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John14:6). Worship in Spirit and Truth.

An Essay for week #9 Feb 26, 2017

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Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Ephesians is the first of the Apostle Paul’s prison Epistles, written after two years of his silent reckoning. The Holy Spirit of God aptly inserts a depth in his communication. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone…. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (2:19-20, 3:10). In this boldness every christian should be under a pastor, a shepherd and teacher, for the perfecting of the saints, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine (4:8-16). Hebrews 13:7 and 17 (mark them in your Bible) stating that your pastor should have “the rule over you.” Every christian should also be active in the body of Christ (Eph 4:4-7). Not a denomination, with their catholic church, but an independent, autonomous, Bible believing, solid, local, Baptist one. Every christian should be effectually working their vocation, i.e. calling (4:1,4, Php3:14, 1Cor 1:26, 7:20). Don’t be deceived by Presbyterians and Calvinists, your calling and election are not to salvation but to service. Effectiveness comes from dedication to the work, dedication to prayer, humility of heart but authority in purpose. And every christian needs to be exercised in the Word. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night… Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly… but his delight is in the law of the LORD” (Josh1:8, Ps1). This I say, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk.

An Essay for week #8 Feb 19, 2017

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Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.” The most challenging construct in a blissful marriage is a husband who knows how to hold on to his wife’s heart. It cannot be done with force or manipulation, in fact holding her heart must be an ongoing, thoughtful, tender, deliberate art. God held Abraham’s but lost Israel’s, held King David’s but lost King Solomon’s, held Daniel’s but lost Belshazzer’s. If you will do it successfully it will require selfless love. Immature love is selfish and most do not go much past that. Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Giving your time, priority, attention, even your wallet are less than your life, but many falter there. Your wife also knows when you make her the most significant person in your life… or not. Selfless love will lead to one’s genuine significance. She will feel significant physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Don’t leave out the latter, God says that if a wife is to learn spiritual truths, let her ask her husband at home. Husbands better open their Bible and teach spiritual truths in the home. Take the lead here or loose her heart. The third aspect of holding on to her heart is giving her security. A wife needs to know that this arrangement is “till death do us part.” Our Saviour and Lord said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” A husband must learn to pass on God’s selfless love, his genuine showing of significance, and heart felt security. All three must be physical, emotional, and spiritual. Use these to cradle her heart in strong gentleness. Hold it gently, and marriage is a taste of Paradise. Happy Valentines.

An Essay for week #7 Feb 12, 2017

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What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Happy Valentines Day comes in February like a carrot on a string. It is meant to entice us to press through the cold, dark, frigid throws of winter, remembering the love of life, and push towards the rejuvenating breath of spring time and love. This essay focuses on ten building blocks of blissful matrimony, while you focus on this question, “Why in the world did I marry this woman?” (or gender specific?) List item 1) get your life priorities right, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That includes a weekly tithe of all that He has blessed you with. The physical and emotional will take care of themselves when we get this one right, God said so. 2) Love and be faithful to your local independent, Bible believing, Baptist Church, it is His most important resource in the maintenance of your life and home. 3) Regularly share your salvation testimony, with a when, where, and HOW. The latter should include so much Roman’s Road that anyone could do what you did. It should be your most told story, in that your wife, children, and grandchildren could recite it from memory. These three are building blocks for life as well as blissful marriage. 4) Marriage is a spiritual union, put your main emphasis there; remember Christ’s illustrations of the lily and the song-bird. 5) An intimate, personal, passionate relationship with your spouse only comes from one you have with Christ. 6) Learn to communicate well, it is a learned behavior. 7) Children are motivated only by feelings, don’t be childish. 8) Use the two golden phrases often (but not together), “I am sorry,” and “I love you.” 9) Control your thought life, casting down imaginations (2Cor10:5). 10) Come back for this one next week.

An Essay for week #6 Feb 5, 2017

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What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it” (Jer6:19). In Jeremiah the prophet’s day, God had a grievance with his chosen people, Israel. In our day God has the same grievance with America. A preacher of righteousness will not be popular. Jesus tells us that the world will hate those who abide in him, and gives love and hate in stark contrast (John 15). There is no room for straddling the fence. He pleads that you continue in his love, assuring that we have the ability to step out of it. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love” (15:10). Christ’s plea to abide in his love is followed by three sobering realities. First we will be his friend, not his servant. He has intimately shared everything with us in the Holy Bible; all of his plans and wishes are written down for us We can be a friend of God, like Abraham, Moses or Daniel. Second is that the world is going to hate God’s friends. It is not about you, it is about Christ. He has uncovered the sins of the world, and they are not going to like your candle. Thirdly, his friends have a Comforter and Spirit of truth dwelling in them and are commissioned to bear witness, as they bring forth fruit. There is a tremendous promise associated with these three sobering realities. “That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (15:16). Two things, the promise is only for those abiding, as witnesses, with fruit, and the word “may” is different than the legal term “shall.” Abide in him.

An Essay for week #5 Jan 29, 2017

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Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

I attended the “woman’s rights” march on the Saturday after Donald Trump’s inauguration; he is our new president. In Seneca Falls they considered it their right to flood the crosswalks on every green light, so I stayed longer than I wanted. Nobody knew exactly why they were marching, so I took a survey of their signs to see what all the hubbub was about. I saw five planks. The first was the right to be amoral in every way. Every sexual perversion never asked about paraded on the crosswalks. Being incensed about the Y chromosome and insisting it does not matter is not very scientific, but it was the main battle cry of “woman’s rights.” The right to abort a human life and throw it in the trash was also claimed as their amoral right but it took a back seat to sodomy and the Y chromosome denial. They devised the term “transgender” and cram it down our throats, as if Y chromosomes present or lacking, don’t really matter in their artificial world. The reality is that Jehovah God, man’s Creator, made Y-chromosomed and not-Y-chromosomed, and he has the say for our moral right and wrong. There is no transgender and He has declared who should have sex with whom. He also clarified when a new soul is conceived and takes on his image and likeness. Amoral rights are wrong, God’s rights are supreme.

The second plank they marched across during green lights is that black-lives matter more than blue-lives matter, and way more than white-lives matter. It is kind of their affirmative action of who should matter more. Reality is that blue-lives, being commissioned to stand between the good and evil of society, matter more. Green-lives, commissioned to stand between the good and evil of nations, are right up there as well, but black-lives are not more deserving of rights because of race or color. Saying otherwise is actually racism.

The third plank I saw on the crosswalk was that carbon dioxide, simple CO₂, was going to end the world as we know it. The brain-washing ability of the liberal progressive is displayed in earnest by their calling CO₂ the most dangerous pollutant in our world. The reality is that it is a perfectly natural ingredient in God’s green earth. We exhale it daily. Real science knows that ocean temperatures rise, algae populations quadruple, and all the CO₂, that we could every feed them is devoured, turned into the O₂, that we inhale. Algae’s photosynthesis produces over half of our oxygen and consumes CO₂ to do it. They grossly exaggerate what rain forests do for us. Liberals look at one tiny piece of God’s impressive, self-regulating, cyclic system, i.e increasing CO₂ levels, and suppose the world is coming to an end unless they step in and save it. The progressive demagogues call that “science,” and have pulled blinders across the eyes of three generations. They have fossil-fuel-phobia because of the hoax. Carbon dioxide labeled as a dangerous pollutant, give me a break, where is the “logic and reason” Barrack boasted about.

The illegal cross walkers also supposed that the Muslim religion has more religious rights than those who pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God. It was affirmative action for Islam and Shari’a law. Ignore the Islamic invasions of the past, the 17^th century of Spain, the Islamic State called for in Muhammad’s ‘Qur’an’, the sociology-economic-political-militant-religious-system and pretend it to be a peace loving religion. There is nothing peaceful about suicide-bombers and terrorist truck drivers. It is mass delusion that they be given more rights in our public schools than the teacher who would read a Holy Bible, and pray in Jesus’ name. The Islamic invasion, not CO₂ levels, is what will change the world as we know it. “Woman’s rights” march indeed; these are planks of the progressive liberal’s agenda!

Lastly, the plank that “woman’s rights” marchers paraded in my windshield was to take Jerusalem away from God’s chosen people, Israel, and force them to make a two state solution. They would label Israel as “occupiers of Palestinian land,” and force them to share God’s ancient “city of peace” with the terrorists that have vowed to “wipe Israel and Judaism off the face of the earth.” That is nothing but diabolical. Satan and the powers of hell were jubilant at Saturdays march and his minions are eager that all five planks get nailed down. Pray that our new president will have the wherewithal to rip up every one of these progressive planks. It is a formidable task for a minority group. Obama had a pen and a phone, but we have a Book and an Almighty God.

An Essay for week #4 Jan 22, 2017 (a 785 word oped)

Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8). Much fruit is God’s goal for every believer. “The branch in me that beareth not fruit,” Jesus said, “The Father taketh away” (vrs.2). The wayside, stony, and thorny soil bear no fruit (Matt13). When a professed believer bears no fruit, recall what Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt 7). Eternity does not depend on our knowing, so at the funeral give them the benefit of the doubt. In the mean time plead and pray for loved ones as lost souls. The fruitless are taken away and the fruitful are purged to bring more fruit. God’s goal is much fruit. In Galatians the Apostle Paul gives eighteen WORKS of the flesh, and nine FRUITS of the Spirit. Consider these nine fruits, consider if they are for your consumption or for others to consume. The fruit “love” that comes from you is for others, but joy and peace are fruits that you enjoy for yourself. Your longsuffering, gentleness, and goodness, others enjoy, while your faith, meekness, and temperance are fruit feasts for everyone to enjoy. The first fruit mentioned, love, is first on purpose. The Apostle John, who mentions us to abiding in Christ to bear fruit, writes his first epistle as a dissertation on love. Love is the first fruit that needs to be tender and plentiful in our lives. John’s dissertation contends that love’s absence is God’s absence. The well purged vineyards around our church bear much fruit when branches are overflowing with sap. It is the presence of the sap that pushes out much fruit. No sap, no fruit! Abide in Christ, keep your mind stayed on him, and bear fruit.

An Essay for week #3 Jan 15, 2017

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What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

There are things one can do to improve relationships this year. Lines of communication need to be improved. Showing affections and feelings needs some practice. Making effort to spend more time together is always commendable. The latter, the time together thing, would be called abiding together, and Jesus commanded it of us. “I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman…. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine” (John 15:1,4). In the military, with frequent TDYs that took me from family weeks at a time, abiding together took on a new urgency. Ninety-five percent of marriages broke during remote tours. But abiding is bigger than living together, or even being together. Jesus stressed “Abide IN me, and I IN you.” When born-again, one is baptized into Christ (wholly immersed into), and indwelt by the Only Begotten Son of God. It is a permanent arrangement. He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” It is, however, possible that a born-again one might step out on Christ, to not abide with him, to, as it were, excuse themselves from his presence while they go out on their Ranger Bass boat, or their white-tail deer hunting trip. We need to make it a practice to consciously ask His permission before we step out. “Excuse me Lord, I am going on this drunken binge and I will be back in a few days.” See how that works out for you. No… abiding in him means we keep our mind stayed on him. That is why God directed, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee:because he trusteth in thee.” Don’t step out on the Lord Jesus Christ, abide in him.

An Essay for week #2 Jan 8, 2017

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Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

The very best relationship cannot continue when the lines of communication are cut off. It is headed for trouble when those lines are strained or broken. Any married couple knows the importance of keeping communications in good working order, and have, at one time, tasted the joy of having a right relationship. A relationship with the Lord is the most important one in life. Others will not do well if this one is not right. Lines of communication to our Lord are prayer and Scripture. In this new year spending more time in both can enhance an intimate, personal, gratifying relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. I need that. The Apostle John, the beloved disciple, had it, and said, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full” (1John 1:3-4). Jesus had told John, “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:15). The fellowship that can make your joy full is friendship with God. That is a relationship worth pursuing. Prayer, talking with your friend, and Scripture, hearing from a friend, are more important than anything else in this new year. All of our relationships could be improved, this one first and foremost. When this one is right, all the others fall into proper place. Read your Bible, Genesis to Revelation of Jesus Christ, this year. It will improve your life more than the greatest diet known to man.

An Essay for week #1 Jan 1, 2017

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What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan’s Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

In the lambing season, while shepherds watched their flock by night, there came to some in Judea the announcement that the Lamb of God was born. Shepherds were the news network of the day, their travels from town to town and market to market caused this Noel to be broadcast. “Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass.” The angel of the Lord had given them two signs to look for, but the announcement of the birth of their Saviour, which is Christ the Lord is what caused them to leave their flocks in the middle of the night and trek to the city of David. The Bible does not say the shepherds came to worship; they came to see and announce. They became the news network, “and all they that heard it wondered.” When I was saved as a young lad I had an angel of the Lord come to me, and their were a host of heavenly hosts praising God. The angel was a Baptist Preacher named Cecil Palm; the praising hosts were my mom and dad and the Gang Mills Baptist Chapel. Under-shepherds are still God’s good news network. “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:14-15). We need uncompromised preachers of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in every corner of God’s green earth. It is white unto harvest, and very soon the harvest will be passed.

An Essay for week #52 Dec 25, 2016

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