Ken Raggio

JOHN: Most important writer of all time?

2011-12-16T01:13:00.001-08:00

(This won't take long. I hope you will read it to the end.)

I have just finished writing point-by-point, step-by-step lessons through the entire Bible (almost 5000 lessons).

I am compelled to tell you how impressed I have been with the writings of John. And I want to share a very important conclusion at the end.

I believe that the Apostle John may be the most powerful, influential and pivotal writer of all time.

Yes. I believe that.

Anyone who reads the entire New Testament cannot deny the overwhelming influence of the Apostle Paul and his so-called "Pauline Epistles." After all, Paul did write the very largest portion of the entire New Testament, and I do not discount his writings by one iota.

But John wrote the Gospel according to John, the First, Second and Third Epistles of John, AND the Book of the Revelation. Those are five very amazing books. But they are not just five books.

John's Gospel is profoundly different in style and content from the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, or Luke, and contains some of the most doctrinally-intense writings anywhere in the Bible. John narrated the life of Jesus Christ in a way that was quite unique from that of Matthew, Mark and Luke. His insights are crucial to every man's understanding of Christ.

John's three small epistles contain what is essentially the definitive treatise on the nature and identity of the spirit of antichrist. As such, John deals head-on with things that are almost never mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.

And there is no book anywhere else in the world that can compare to John's Book of Revelation. Although the Book of Genesis is one of the largest and most informative books of the Bible, the Book of Revelation contains almost three times as much proprietary information as just about any book in sacred canon.

NO OTHER BOOK more clearly reveals the divine destiny of mankind. That is very significant.

It is important to remember that John was one of the three closest confidants of Jesus Christ. Peter, James and John were the most intimate of all Jesus' apostles or disciples. It was John who leaned on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper, and John who apparently followed the LORD all the way from Gethsemane to Golgotha.

John, I believe, knew and understood who Jesus Christ was better than any man who ever lived. I believe that John was more deeply affected in his heart and mind by the true identity and mission of Jesus Christ than any person on record. He knew and believed profoundly that Jesus was God, our invisible Creator wearing a human body.

John, a fisherman by trade, was originally a disciple of John the Baptist, so he had an amazing primary initiation into the significance of the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Then John began to follow Christ. For three years, John had the very closest access to Jesus. He walked beside Him daily, heard virtually everything Jesus ever said, and saw virtually everything He did during His adult ministry. They called him, "John, the Beloved." No man had more intimate fellowship with Christ than John.

John is the one who explained to us, perhaps better than anyone else, that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh, and that Jesus is actually God. "The world was made by Him," John insisted. Do not underestimate that statement!

That was a radical declaration. Almost nobody in Jesus' day realized Who He was better than John.

John taught us that anybody who denies that God is incarnated in Jesus is an "antichrist." John understood the incarnation better than anybody before him.

John saw Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration conversing with Moses and Elijah. John witnessed first-hand Jesus riding through Jerusalem, as people cheered Him as the King of Israel. John watched in horror as Jesus was dragged from Gethsemane, prosecuted and sentenced to death. John watched Jesus die on Golgotha. John saw Jesus after He rose from the dead and watched the clouds carry Him into Heaven. John was in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost, where he received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, and spoke in unknown tongues.

John preached for many years and was heavily persecuted for his preaching. He was boiled in oil but did not die. He was exiled to the Isle of Patmos and left there to die.

On Patmos, John had visions of Christ and His angels, and revelations of things to come - of the end of the age and of the Eternal Things of God. John saw Christ on the Throne of God. John saw visions of Jesus coming with His Heavenly Army of Saints to wage the great and final Battle of Armageddon.

Finally, John saw the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of a New Heaven, descending to a New Earth after the old heaven and earth had passed away.

Without John, we would scarcely know Christ. With John's writings alone, we could know more about Jesus Christ than from any other solitary writer in history.

But John was also an ICONIC PROPHET. Almost nobody in the Bible (excepting perhaps Daniel, Ezekiel and Isaiah), had such a significant understanding about God's plan for the future. John saw more of the future plan of God than any man who ever lived.

John recorded more proprietary prophecies for the Last Days, including:

The Seven Churches
The Seven Spirits of God
The Throne of God
The Four Heavenly Beasts
The 24 Elders
The City of Heaven
The Seven Golden Candlesticks
The White Stones
The Saints in White Raiment
The Emerald Rainbow
The Angelic Choir
The Sea of Glass
The Seven Seals
The Four Horsemen
The Four Winds
The Heavenly Temple
The Great Tribulation
The Seven Trumpets
The Little Book
The Seven Thunders
The Two Witnesses
The Woman With Twelve Stars
The Manchild
The Great Red Dragon
The Seven-Headed Beast from out of the Sea
The False Prophet
The Mark of the Beast
The Image to the Beast
The 144,000 Virgins Sealed by God
Mystery Babylon
The Harvest of the Earth
The Harvest of Grapes of Wrath in the Winepress of God
The Lake which burns with Fire and Brimstone
The Scarlet-Colored Beast
The Great Whore
The Harlot Daughters
The Seven Vials of the Wrath of God (Seven Last Plagues)
The Tabernacle of the Testimony
The Battle of Armageddon
The Fall of Babylon
The Destruction of the Great Whore, The Mother of Harlots
The First Resurrection and Rapture of the Church
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ
The Army of Heaven
The Vesture Dipped In Blood
The Sword of His Mouth
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
The Millennial Kingdom of Christ
The Beast and the False Prophet Cast Into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone
The Supper of the Great God
Satan's Doom
The Second Resurrection
The White Throne Judgment
The Book of Life
The Second Death
Sinners Cast Into Hell
The New Heaven
The New Earth
The Holy City, New Jerusalem
The Bride, The Lamb's Wife
And many other landmark, watershed topics.

With all these insights in mind, I will make my conclusion.

This man, John, DAILY walked side-by-side with Jesus Christ for more than three years, heard everything He preached, and saw everything He did. John saw Jesus ascend into Heaven.

I am extremely impressed with the LEVEL OF CONVICTION that John had about Jesus Christ.

If Jesus had been an impostor (as many say He is), John would have known it. But John lived to be a very old man on the Isle of Patmos. He had every opportunity to renounce or abandon his faith in Christ.

But he NEVER did!

JOHN PROFOUNDLY BELIEVED that the man he had been a close friend to when he was a young man was TRULY GOD INCARNATE.

John believed that Jesus would come back to earth, and at Armageddon, destroy all the enemies of Israel and set up a glorious 1000-year Kingdom on earth. John also believed that all the demonic antichrist spirits on earth would be brought to judgment, and that every sinner would be cast into Hell.

John believed that the present heavens and earth will someday pass away, and that Jesus Christ will create a New Heaven and New Earth. John believed that there will be a New Jerusalem where all the saints of all the ages will live with Christ forever.

I am impressed by the integrity and believability of John's testimony. There are no words to adequately depict John's heart-felt belief that Jesus was really GOD on earth.

If John believed that Jesus is God, and that He is coming back, then I do too. I do not believe that there is a MORE CREDIBLE WITNESS OF JESUS CHRIST ANYWHERE than John.

I cannot describe how excited I am about Jesus' soon return.

John's writings deeply inspire me. I urge you to read them all.

Here are my notes on John's BOOKS:

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF JOHN
THE THIRD EPISTLE OF JOHN
THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST

I hope you will study them. They will greatly inspire you!

Thanks for reading!
God bless you.
Ken Raggio

I Have A Weapon, And I Use It

2011-11-28T14:23:00.000-08:00

I do not need Rick Warren, Joel Osteen or Andy Stanley to tell me about God. I have a BIBLE.

I do not have to defend myself with my denomination's doctrinal statement. I have a BIBLE.

I don't need a Seminary-educated agnostic with a PhD to tell me how to have Church. I have a BIBLE.

I have read and studied my Bible dozens of times from cover to cover. I know what is in it, and I know what it means. I am not afraid or reluctant to live according to what I know is in this book. I long-ago stopped expecting people to understand my actions, especially since most people do not study the Bible, do not genuinely know what it says or means, and thereby have no accurate point-of-reference by which to judge.

As I see it, the biggest problem in so-called Christianity today is that almost nobody really knows the Bible or uses it anymore.

Rarely does a preacher in this generation have a mature comprehension of the contents of the Bible, or live a holy, Holy Ghost-filled, fire-baptized lifestyle that is in agreement and compliance with its teachings.

One of the reasons we now have so many mega-churches is because a handful of "great communicators" have tapped into the near-universal mindset in this generation that the Bible and traditional Christianity are full of draconian rules and regulations that they simply do not want to hear or have any part with.

The great "communicators" have offered this generation an alternative to "regimented" Christianity. "COME AS YOU ARE!" religion - which as I have observed, ultimately means "DO AS YOU PLEASE" religion.

They don't want the King James Bible. It is too inflexible and oppressive. The new versions of the Bible give them ammunition to contradict their forefathers.

They don't want pulpits or pews. They have reinvented the wheel. It is a sin to use furniture that reminds them of the old-time religion. They simply will not go to a church that has pews. That makes them feel that they are consenting to something that is from the past, and that would be too un-hip.

They behave as if the former generations were stupid and did not know or understand God as clearly as they do. The arrogance of this generation is suffocating. Their despite for their forefathers is wicked. They have almost completely shut out the voices of their elders. Their Churches have almost no elders, if any.

They don't want to dress up for Church. Nobody is going to tell them how to dress. Dignity is so 80s. Dress down. Grunge. They don't want to sing any song that smacks of old-fashioned, life-changing consecration. They don't want to go to Church twice on Sunday. They don't want a preacher who tells them they can't do this or they can't do that.

They don't want CHURCH that FEELS like CHURCH. They want Church that either feels like a ROLLING STONES CONCERT or a POSITIVE THINKING SEMINAR. Almost nobody carries a Bible anymore.

They want rock-and-roll religion. They want to dress like they are going to the beach. They want McDonald's PlayPlace in the Church foyer. They want Starbucks before class, not prayer meetings. They want corporate trainers to help them reach their ambitious wealth goals. They want family trainers to help them with their tax-planning and soccer leagues.

People want feel-good religion. Positivity. Anything negative, and they are OUT THE DOOR.

Give us BANDS! Give us SPORTS! Give us world-class ENTERTAINMENT! Give us SOCIAL NETWORKING! Or we won't go to your Church. And don't dare "Preach" at us. "Preaching" is anathema. No clear-cut black-or-white stuff. Just smoke machines and spinning lights. They want a Church that makes them feel like they are watching the Disney Channel or ESPN.

An entire generation of new preachers and pastors preaches a Zero-Calorie "Gospel Light."

At best, they pick up the hottest new sermon from the hottest new books at the Christian bookstore, or from a famous football coach or some internationally acclaimed corporate trainer. They really are not interested in the specific details of what God wants. They consider rules a nuisance.

They want to find the lowest common denominator with the world.

They are trying to build a successful Christian empire as fast and as profitably as they possibly can. They are trying to pull in the largest crowds possible, and it makes no difference what they have to do to get them. If they can get a thousand people to come out to their "worship" concerts, that is good enough. They don't care what kind of lives the people live or if they are genuinely born-again by a scriptural process. Just get the crowds in, collect the cash, and build the empire.

THIS IS NOT NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY.

This does not even remotely resemble the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost where everyone in the building had fasted and prayed for seven days, and had made agonizing choices to separate themselves from the local citizens who had just crucified Jesus, and in many cases, to utterly forsake family and friends in order to become a Disciple of Jesus.

This "new" Christianity does not resemble Biblical Christianity. It knows little or nothing of genuine sacrifice, of self-abasement, of suffering for the cause of Christ. No more book burnings. No more renouncing and forsaking the world. No more tears of remorse for wrong living. No more confessing of sins. The altar of repentance and personal sacrifice has been moved out to make room for "the dancing generation."

You can and should believe this:

The WORD OF GOD is a sharp, two-edged sword against such carnal, worldly thinking.

The Word of God is GOD'S weapon against worldliness, carnality, sin and Satan. The Word of God assaults and destroys everything that is of the world, the flesh and the Devil.

Paul said, "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," Hebrews 4:12.

Paul described the Christian's armor. All but one piece of the Christian armor was DEFENSIVE. (Helmet, shield, shoes, etc.)

But the Word of God is a piercing sword. It is an immortal weapon.

A soldier without a WEAPON is not a soldier. A soldier who will not FIGHT is not a soldier. A soldier who patronizes the enemy is not a soldier. A soldier who will not DRIVE BACK HIS ADVERSARY is not a true soldier.

The ONLY WEAPON that a Christian has is "the SWORD of the Spirit, which is the word of God," Ephesians 6:17.

If the modern "Church" has one, it does not wield it. It will not lift the Sword against its adversaries. It quotes humanistic sources when it should be quoting the TRUTH of God's infallible holy writ. It refuses to attack sin and Satan. It compromises when it should confront and contend.

In the face of diabolical forces, the modern Church retreats. In the face of lies, it cowers. In the face of worldliness, it relents. In the face of carnality, it accommodates.

But when unbelievers hurl their arguments, I take up and wield the Sword of the Lord. When the world attacks, I quote the Bible. When carnally-minded people verbally assault, I answer with the Bible. When Satan comes accusing, we should quote the Bible.

The Bible is my God-given WEAPON. It is the SWORD of the LORD.

It is the divine WEAPON that enables me to withstand every foe. It is my ultimate protection. It is the only weapon that God gave me.

God gave me HIS weapon to resist evil.

And I use it.

I am determined to drive back and drive out every lie with that Sword. I will aggressively refute every false doctrine with that Sword. I will defy every heresy and heretic with that Sword. I will assault every adversary of Truth, Righteousness and Holiness with my Sword.

It is time for the Church to lift the Sword.

Put a PREACHER in the Pulpit, and let him preach the WORD!

Drive out Lucifer, Apollyon, Jezebel, and every demon prince with its minions. The RAW, UNADULTERATED WORD OF GOD is the most "relative" thing that can be offered to this generation.

One thing I know. If the Word of God does not protect and preserve me, nothing else will. It is my God-given protection. It is my God-given offense.

Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword," Matthew 10:34.

I have a weapon, and I use it.

- Ken Raggio -

Do The Right Thing

2011-11-15T04:47:00.000-08:00

There is no more prominent theme in the entire Bible than that of the perpetual WAR between SIN and RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Into the very Paradise of God, Satan walked with his lies. It is impossible to comprehend the devastation that was thrust upon the entire universe as Eve sank her teeth into that forbidden fruit.

Satan achieved the most diabolical victory ever in that one supremely simple feat of tempting Eve to do the wrong thing.

I have often tried to convey to others the dramatic effect of EXPONENTIAL POTENTIAL - that is, the long-term, even eternal effect of ONE SIMPLE ACT.

We rarely contemplate the eternal consequences of each and every choice we make.

EVERY ACT and EVERY CHOICE, no matter how small, has a long-term, even eternal effect on your life AND the life of others.

One GOOD act, one GOOD choice has immeasurable potential for good.
One BAD act, one BAD choice has unimaginable potential for evil.

That is why we must carefully and thoughtfully make certain that EVERY STEP WE TAKE is the very best we can possibly take.

Let me illustrate.

One kernel of corn, when planted, will produce a corn stalk. That corn stalk will produce in one season several ears of corn. One ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.

But that is not the end of the matter. In fact, it is scarcely the beginning. If every kernel of corn on every ear of corn from just ONE STALK were re-planted, it would yield an entire crop of corn.

Each pound of corn contains 1,300 kernels.
One bushel of corn contains about 56 pounds of kernels.
One acre of land produces an average of 182 bushels of corn.
One acre of land produces over THIRTEEN MILLION kernels of corn.

Look at it from a larger perspective.

One single farmer can produce enough food for 129 people. And not just for people. Corn is a primary food in the production of beef, pork, catfish and chicken. Corn is in taco shells, corn chips, corn syrup (in thousands of products), candies, and more. Corn is also converted to ethanol which has become a major source of fuel.

In fact, corn is now found in more than 4,000 NON-FOOD products around the world, including such unlikely things as wallpaper glue, pillows and comforters, industrial filters, gypsum wallboard and even corn-based plastics.

Here is an amazing fact that few people know about corn.

The first known corn crops were found in Mexico, many centuries ago. Originally, however, they were very small plants, and the ears of corn were very small by comparison to today's corn.

Why is that significant to this topic?

Because EVERYTHING in our lives starts small. It is through CAREFUL CULTIVATION and MANAGEMENT of each kernel that the entire world is fed.

Now, let me get to the SPIRITUAL POINT:

Every single step you take - every choice you make - has exponential potential.

One choice to pull up stakes and move to another city will change not only your life, but also the lives of everyone who is near and dear to you - FOREVER!

EVERY CHOICE you make has EXPONENTIAL potential - either for good, or for bad.

One night of drinking in a bar can result in a head-on automobile crash that can send you into eternity without God.

One choice. One seed. One kernel.

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL PREMISE

In the Spiritual War between SIN and RIGHTEOUSNESS, it is supremely important that we ALWAYS stand for right.

The Apostle Paul told the Romans:

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore CAST OFF THE WORKS OF DARKNESS, and let us put on the armour of light.

Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

But PUT YE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, and MAKE NOT PROVISION FOR THE FLESH, to fulfil the lusts thereof."

Romans 13:12-14

Make NO PROVISION for the flesh to do the wrong thing.

CAST OFF all works of darkness.

Every work of the flesh has exponential potential.
Every work of darkness has exponential potential.

ONE SIN has all the potential of one kernel of corn.
ONE SIN can produce a bushel, an acre, even a world full of sin.

ONE FALSE DOCTRINE can produce a world full of error.

Some people do not understand the evil potential of allowing one error, one false doctrine into their belief system. Only by carefully studying the Word of God and making certain of what it teaches can you be assured that the end result of your life will be as it should.

ONE SINFUL ACT can produce a world full of tragedy.
We simply cannot be too careful.

Just like ONE KERNEL OF CORN can lead to a world full of corn, ONE SIN, ONE ERROR can lead to a world full of tragedy.

But by the very same Law of Exponential Potential, ONE ACT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, OBEDIENCE, or TRUTHFULNESS can lead to a world full of godliness.

We should make every effort to do the right thing.

EVERY - SINGLE - TIME.

The Heresification Of Pentecostalism

2011-09-30T01:38:00.001-07:00

The Pentecostal movement is experiencing accelerated heresification due to the introduction of non-Pentecostal influences, both in the pulpit, in its leadership positions, and in its general membership.

(Heresification: the permeation of heresy into a belief-system.)

Christianity is being defined today, not by Holy Ghost-filled men of God, but by "Christian" corporate trainers and leadership gurus who do not believe in or practice the Pentecostal experience. The larger part of them actually refute Pentecostal doctrines. That cannot possibly be good for Pentecostalism.

The pulpits and platforms of Pentecostal Churches are being hijacked by messages and methods that were not hewn out of the Word of God, but which were easily cut-and-pasted from non-Pentecostal resources. We have become self-indicting suckers for sound-and-light shows, high-tech multi-media, and state-of-the-art gadgets and methods. NONE of these things can possibly improve upon the supernatural power and presence of Almighty God. It is a great delusion and a great deception, and despite my passionate desire to prevent people from being seduced into it, what I say here is unlikely to stop anyone from being destroyed by it - unless they have a very sensitive heart that genuinely does not want to be deceived.

We also kid ourselves to believe that ANYTHING produced by the carnal mind can help God save the world.

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63.

THE FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING!

In the Early Church, even the DEACONS had to be men "full of the Holy Ghost," (Acts 6:3). NOW, we have national and international leaders in the Church who do NOT have the Holy Ghost, and many who actually refute the Baptism of the Holy Ghost!

If you want to see God work majestic things in a Church, then focus on attaining to a majestic relationship with God through prayer, fasting and study of the Word of God. Do NOT turn to the beggarly elements of the world in an effort to improve the Church. It simply does not and cannot work that way.

Any time you incorporate the world, the flesh, and the devil into the work of God, it can only be counterproductive, no matter how stunning the visual and aural effects are. Fabulous music and award-winning oratory can never replace the authentic anointing and blessing of God upon the uncompromised preaching of His Holy Word.

It is high time for Apostolic Pentecostal Holiness preachers and believers to slam the door in the face of non-Pentecostal, non-Holiness influences that are with lightning-speed taking over the forums and venues of Pentecostalism - and DISPLACING authentic Pentecostal preaching as it does.

Unless we shut out the non-Pentecostal voices with haste, the Pentecostal Church as we know it will soon be a much larger NON-Pentecostal Church.

If Pentecostalism cannot survive on its own merits, it certainly will be no more pleasing to God by introducing non-Pentecostal elements to put it on life-support.

We have been duped into believing that we need a catalyst from the outside to accelerate our growth. The more the Church depends on non-Pentecostal methods and messages, the less influence the Pentecostal message has. It is only a matter of time before the Pentecostal Church will think it has no need at all for true Apostolic doctrine, the Pentecostal experience or Holiness living.

The so-called catalyst is actually not a catalyst. It is a deadly poison.

The Pentecostal Church of the Book of Acts was entirely supported by the preaching of the Word of God with the power and anointing of the Holy Ghost. It is unthinkable that God would, in these last days, abandon anointed preaching and supernatural ministry for academic, corporate, or institutional processes. The Church is only legitimate when its message is pure, holy and doctrinally correct. God consigns NO MANDATE for wrong doctrine, false doctrine or doctrine-less preaching.

We do not need smoke and mirrors. We do not need executive-run Churches. We do not need more highly-trained leaders who are ignorant of God's Word, who do not have a divine call into ministry, or who do not live with conviction holy, godly lives. We need spiritual ministry that only comes from God.

I KNOW I am not wrong about this. I have, in my 45+ years of ministry, run the entire gamut of religious fads and fashions, and have consequently witnessed the complete transformation of Christianity from something that was holy, sacred and supernatural into something that is industrial, mechanical and entertaining.

It is time right now to stop the heresification of Pentecostalism.

Go back to the Bible. Get back on your knees. Fast and pray for a fresh visitation of the supernatural power of God. It will come.

...

The Boy Who Put His Finger In The Dike

2011-08-30T23:46:00.001-07:00

In 1865, Mary Mapes Dodge wrote a popular fictional tale about some children who lived in the Netherlands in the Old Days. You may have read it in your schooldays: "Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates."

Apart from the main story-line was a short segment that took on a life of its own and made its way permanently into American culture. It is called:

"The Hero of Haarlem," or,
"The Boy Who Put His Finger in The Dike"

Here is the story that Mrs. Dodge told (abridged):

"Many years ago, there lived in Haarlem, one of the principal cities of Holland, a sunny-haired boy of gentle disposition. His father was a sluicer, that is, a man whose business it was to open and close the sluices, or large oaken gates, that are placed at regular distances across the entrances of the canals, to regulate the amount of water that shall flow into them. The sluicer raises the gates more or less according to the quantity of water required, and closes them carefully at night, in order to avoid all possible danger of an oversupply running into the canal, or the water would soon overflow it and inundate the surrounding country.

As a great portion of Holland is lower than the level of the sea, the waters are kept from flooding the land only by means of strong dikes, or barriers, and by means of these sluices, which are often strained to the utmost by the pressure of the rising tides. Even the little children in Holland know that constant watchfulness is required to keep the rivers and ocean from overwhelming the country, and that a moment's neglect of the sluicer's duty may bring ruin and death to all.

One lovely autumn afternoon, when the boy was about eight years old, he obtained his parents' consent to carry some cakes to a blind man who lived out in the country, on the other side of the dike. The little fellow started on his errand with a light heart, and having spent an hour with his grateful old friend, he bade him farewell and started on his homeward walk.

Trudging stoutly along the canal, he noticed how the autumn rains had swollen the waters. Even while humming his careless, childish song, he thought of his father's brave old gates and felt glad of their strength, for, thought he, 'If they gave way, where would Father and Mother be? These pretty fields would all be covered with the angry waters - Father always calls them the angry waters. I suppose he thinks they are mad at him for keeping them out so long.'

And with these thoughts just flitting across his brain, the little fellow stooped to pick the pretty flowers that grew along his way. Suddenly the boy looked around him in dismay. He had not noticed that the sun was setting. Now he saw that his long shadow on the grass had vanished. It was growing dark, he was still some distance from home, and in a lonely ravine, where even the blue flowers had turned to gray. He quickened his footsteps and, with a beating heart recalled many a nursery tale of children belated in dreary forests.

Just as he was bracing himself for a run, he was startled by the sound of trickling water. Whence did it come? He looked up and saw a small hole in the dike through which a tiny stream was flowing. Any child in Holland will shudder at the thought of a leak in the dike! The boy understood the danger at a glance. That little hole, if the water were allowed to trickle through, would soon be a large one, and a terrible inundation would be the result.

Quick as a flash, he saw his duty. Throwing away his flowers, the boy clambered up the heights until he reached the hole. His chubby little finger was thrust in, almost before he knew it. The flowing was stopped! Ah! he thought, with a chuckle of boyish delight, the angry waters must stay back now!

"Haarlem shall not be drowned while I am here! "

This was all very well at first, but the night was falling rapidly. Chill vapors filled the air. Our little hero began to tremble with cold and dread. He shouted loudly; he screamed, 'Come here! come here!' but no one came. The cold grew more intense, a numbness, commencing in the tired little finger, crept over his hand and arm, and soon his whole body was filled with pain. He shouted again, 'Will no one come? Mother! Mother!'

Alas, his mother, good, practical soul, had already locked the doors and had fully resolved to scold him on the morrow for spending the night with blind Jansen without her permission. He tried to whistle. Perhaps some straggling boy might heed the signal, but his teeth chattered so, it was impossible.

Then he called on God for help. And the answer came, through a holy resolution: 'I will stay here till morning.' The midnight moon looked down upon that small, solitary form, sitting upon a stone, halfway up the dike. His head was bent but he was not asleep, for every now and then one restless hand rubbed feebly the outstretched arm that seemed fastened to the dike - and often the pale, tearful face turned quickly at some real or fancied sounds.

How can we know the sufferings of that long and fearful watch - what falterings of purpose, what childish terrors came over the boy as he thought of the warm little bed at home, of his parents, his brothers and sisters, then looked into the cold, dreary night! If he drew away that tiny finger, the angry waters, grown angrier still, would rush forth, and never stop until they had swept over the town. No, he would hold it there till daylight - if he lived!

He was not very sure of living. What did this strange buzzing mean? And then the knives that seemed pricking and piercing him from head to foot? He was not certain now that he could draw his finger away, even if he wished to.

At daybreak a clergyman, returning from the bedside of a sick parishioner, thought he heard groans as he walked along on the top of the dike. Bending, he saw, far down on the side, a child apparently writhing with pain. 'In the name of wonder, boy,' he exclaimed, 'what are you doing there?' 'I am keeping the water from running out,' was the simple answer of the little hero. 'Tell them to come quick.'

It is needless to add that they did come quickly.

I find myself standing where our young hero stood - looking at a treacherous breach in the dike. Everything that once kept the world out of the Church of the Living God has been breached.

Christianity has been compromised. Evil men and seducers have infiltrated the Holy Places in the Church and have brought teachings and spirits that are intended to destroy the very levies that hold the world out.

The modern Church's sacred legacy of holiness preaching, spanning the last five centuries, is being methodically dismantled by men who demand that there is nothing wrong with bringing the world into the Church.

The angry waters are mad at the Church for keeping them out for so long.

The doctrine of separation is being discredited and held in contempt by many of the most prominent and influential of all "Christian" voices in this generation.

But make no mistake about it. If the world floods the Church with its movies, its music, its sports, its entertainment, its comedy, its dances, its liquors and habits, its sacrilege and mockery, its...

There will be no Church remaining if it is left only to the devices of these arrogant, self-serving impostors who bill themselves as ministers of the Gospel.

I may never be able to single-handedly stop the breach in the levy, but one thing I know.

"Haarlem shall not be drowned while I am here!"

I will pursue every breach with the loudest declaration of the Word of God that I can muster.

I will preach holiness and separation from the world until my dying breath.

I will hold up the Word of God and everything I can find in it as the ultimate standard for living. Let God be true and every man a liar.

The Apostle Paul said, “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, But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him," 2 Corinthians 11:2-4.

Paul fought against all odds to protect and preserve the Church's virginity.

May Almighty God raise up an army of mighty men today who will "make up the hedge, and stand in the gap" before the Lord that He will not allow the Church to be destroyed.

Oh, there WILL be a Church when Jesus comes. But it will not be so without a fight.

If a teen-age boy named David could stand in the gap for all of Israel and destroy the terrifying Giant Goliath, then maybe, just maybe, you and I can stand in the gap for our generation.

"Haarlem shall not be drowned while I am here!"

The Swift River Current

2011-08-09T04:01:00.001-07:00

Years ago, I had a very disturbing dream.

In the dream, I was standing along a great river that was at flood stage. It was a perilous river, and I was standing in a small jut in the embankment. The waters where I stood were only a few inches deep and there was only a slight swirl in the waters. But if I had only stepped forward a few steps, I would have quickly been swept away into the fierce, deep, treacherous current and drowned. There is no way I could have resisted the destructive force of the swift river current.

More important than the sight of the river was the sense that I was being warned by God against getting caught in the currents of popular religious trends. I had no doubts whatever that the dangerous river represented the popular but unbiblical and undoctrinal practices that were sweeping away Christians by multitudes. I knew that if I got caught in the current of popular religious trends, I would not survive. I would lose my bearings and be lost forever.

I know of only one way to interpret the dream.

STAY OUT OF THE RIVER OF POPULAR RELIGIOUS TRENDS.

They are deadly. They are overcharged with carnality, worldliness and Satan's most sophisticated spiritual deceptions. Once you get caught in the heavy current of popular trends, it will be as if you have no control over yourself. Do not risk your eternal soul by being swept away by unscriptural, unholy teachings of men and women who do not even know the great Truths of the Bible.

The story of my life is one of spiritual warfare - trying to survive and rise above the countless errors of religion. If you are indiscriminate about your religion - if you do not put your religion to the rigorous test of true Bible doctrine - then it is almost 100% certain that you will be lost.

You cannot afford to measure your Church by its popularity, by the popularity of the Preacher, by the size of the crowd, by the amount of money that is coming into it, NOT EVEN by the signs, wonders and miracles that may be performed. (The Bible is exceedingly clear that there will be FALSE workers in the last days who are able to imitate and emulate all the signs, wonders and miracles of true believers).

“Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses [also turning their rods into snakes], so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith,” 2 Timothy 3:8.

So, miracles do not prove that a Church is on the right track. Beware, and be prepared to abandon ship.

ONLY the Bible and true Bible doctrine can legitimize a Church, a Preacher or a Saint.

If your doctrine is wrong, you had better get it right. And fast. Time is running out. We are fast approaching the end of the age.

I am watching entire movements fall into the abyss of false doctrines and heresies. I am watching Pentecostal people turn away from Pentecostalism and embrace non-Pentecostal beliefs. That is the ultimate slam against the Book of the Acts of the Apostles - and a grand slap in God's face.

I see multitudes walking away from holiness and separation from the world in cold-blooded denial of Paul's admonition that without holiness, "NO MAN shall see the Lord," (Hebrews 12:13).

I even see, for the first time in the history of the world, Christians embracing and approving of homosexuality - which for thousands of years has been known as an abomination in the eyes of God.

Too many religious leaders have created a FALSE DEFENSE of doing what they do in the name of evangelism and winning the lost. They have deceived themselves into thinking that God cares more about larger numbers than in obeying His commandments and doing His will. They use a phony, pretentious assault on "legalism" to sear their consciences of any convictions against worldliness and carnality.

There is a ghastly error there.

When the Church ceases to stand firm for TRUTH, RIGHTEOUSNESS, and HOLINESS, it has completely lost its mandate from God.

You cannot save the lost with false doctrine, lies, carnality and worldliness.

You cannot make a Church better by adding football, dramas, concerts, high-tech websites or any such peripherals. For all practical purposes, you make it worse, because you begin to rely on carnal activities and manifestations rather than spiritual.

If we can't produce a revival with the preaching of Truth, then we will just have to forgo the revival, because a LIE cannot and will not ever produce a real revival.

Carnally-minded leaders cannot lead men to a godly spiritual destination.

Disobedient men cannot be trusted to teach obedience.

Men who are in error cannot be trusted to be vendors of Truth.

God sends His ministers to preach TRUTH. But He also sends seducers and deceivers to stumble every man and woman who does not love Truth, but has pleasure in unrighteousness.

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness," 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12.

Any time you discover that the minister is not adhering to sound Bible doctrines, it is time to abandon that minister and that Church - regardless of how many ties you may have or how long you have been associated with it. (That of course requires that you KNOW what the Bible says. If you do not know what the Bible says, it is nearly impossible that you will not be taken in by every whim of false doctrine and deception.)

Paul taught Timothy that many are caught in "the snare of the devil," and are "taken captive by him AT HIS WILL," 2 Timothy 2:26. If you are not well-versed in the true Word of God, you are Satan's easy prey. Deliver yourself from his snare before you fall into it.

It is better to live for God FRIENDLESS than to maintain a friendship with someone who will certainly lead you to hell. In my sixty years, I have had to walk away from many friends and associates on several occasions because of my concern for my eternal soul. AND... I will do it again and again, if and when it ever becomes necessary.

I owe no allegiance to anybody who will lead me to Hell.

ONLY the Bible is infallible. We read too many non-Biblical books and listen to too many neo-Christian and pseudo-Christian voices. If we spent as much time reading the Bible, praying, and living a holy life as we spend reading other points of view, and listening to non-Biblical voices, we would soon discover just how deceived we have been.

Do NOT take your cues from "contemporary" leaders with fancy methods and messages.

Popular movements are not holy. Holy movements are not popular.

There is no reason for a man of God to take his cues from pseudo-Christian or neo-Christian voices. There is more than enough Gospel to preach – STRAIGHT FROM THE PAGES OF THE BIBLE!

The best place for a man of God to get his message and his ministry is on his knees with his Bible open.

A man of God must know the Word of God, and PREACH the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth.

Stand on solid ground.

Stay out of the swift river current!

The Lost Lessons of Pinocchio

2011-08-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

Do you remember seeing Disney's 1940 movie "Pinocchio" when you were a kid? It was only the second full-length animated movie that Walt Disney ever produced. When I first saw it on "The Wonderful World of Disney" on TV one Sunday evening in the 1950s, I was fascinated, mesmerized and horrified.

The story was about a puppet-maker named Geppetto who created a wooden puppet he named Pinocchio. One night, on the way to bed, Geppetto saw a falling star and made a wish that his puppet, Pinocchio, would become a real, live boy. After Geppetto fell asleep, a Blue Fairy came and brought Pinocchio to life. She gave him a conscience to tell him right from wrong in the form of a little side-kick named Jiminy Cricket. If Pinocchio proved to be brave, truthful and unselfish, he would be transformed into a real boy.

Geppetto was beside himself with joy when he awoke in the night to find that Pinocchio was alive. The next morning, he sent Pinocchio off to school to get his education. But on the way to school, Pinocchio was met by two villainous characters who, when they realized that he was alive, tricked him into working for Stromboli, a puppeteer. They lured him with the promise that he would be rich and famous.

The Lure and The Trap

Surely enough, Pinocchio's performance with Stromboli was wildly successful and they made a lot of money, so the two went to dinner to celebrate. But Stromboli turned out to be an evil fellow, and locked Pinocchio in a cage to make sure that he continued performing for him. In the nick of time, Jiminy and the Blue Fairy came on the scene.

The Blue Fairy scolded Pinocchio for his bad choices, and Pinocchio began to tell lies to cover up his error. His nose began to grow longer with each lie. Jiminy pleaded with the Blue Fairy to help Pinocchio escape, which she did, warning Pinocchio that she could only do that once.

But before he could arrive home at Geppetto's, Pinocchio's tricksters, Honest John and Gideon, intercepted him again. The old villains convinced Pinocchio that he was sick and needed a vacation to Pleasure Island. In no time, Pinocchio found himself in a coach full of other boys being transported out to Pleasure Island. He did not know that Pleasure Island was a cursed place where boys were finally sold into slavery and forced to work in the salt mines and circuses.

The Consequence

Pinocchio got caught up in the maddening crowd of raucous, mischievous boys who utterly desecrated the whole place. Before he realized what was happening, Pinocchio found himself and his friend Lampwick smoking and drinking in a dungy old pool hall in the dark of night. Jiminy, trying to be a good conscience, confronted the two boys for their bad behavior. But it was to no avail, so Jiminy finally stormed out in exasperation.

While playing pool, Lampwick was suddenly transformed into a braying donkey, a not-so-subtle lesson in how mischievous boys make fools of themselves. Pinocchio looked on in horror as his friend was transformed, but even more so, when he began to grow donkey's ears and found himself braying.

There was much more to the story, and many more frightening episodes before Pinocchio came to his senses and showed himself to be brave and unselfish, and was turned into a real boy.

A Generation takes the Lure

But the lessons of Disney's Pinocchio have been lost on this generation. In fact, there are few entities on earth who have worked more feverishly than Disney to turn an entire generation of young people into fools. With the very same promises of riches and fame, Disney has lured millions of young people into dancing and laughing their lives away. The deeply moral lessons cameoed in the story of Pinocchio seem to have been the last time Disney ever visited morality.

And so we now have a generation of young people who are taken to Pleasure Island every day of their lives via television, theaters, iPods, websites, and every conceivable venue of entertainment, music, song and dance. Even in our Churches, now, kids seem unable to sit and listen to a man of God preach the Gospel anymore. They only want to be entertained with more song and dance. It is a treacherous descent into spiritual, moral and mental slavery.

Nobody seems to remember anymore that “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death,” Proverbs 16:25.

I will never again trust Disney – or ANY of their kind. They have perfected the art of turning our kids into donkeys.

Just look at how all their child stars have turned out.

We Must Deliver Ourselves

That is why we must ABANDON the practices of allowing Hollywood to teach our children. That is the job of godly preachers and godly parents.

We need to turn off our televisions, stay out of the movie theaters, and go to a Church where true men of God teach the unadulterated Word of God. Then, and only then, can we have real confidence that our children are going to learn the ways of God.

Hollywood cannot be trusted to teach anything right.

Just like Stromboli, Honest John and Gideon, Satan walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Satan and his minions will use any and every trick in the trade to lure you into the slavery of sin.

Resist him in Jesus' name.

If you truly want to survive...

You simply MUST get back to the Bible.

My "Problem" Is That I Take The Bible Too Seriously

2011-05-11T00:24:00.000-07:00

I am not the only preacher on earth who clearly sees that Christianity is going to hell in a hand basket. I am watching Christianity completely re-define itself, and the changes are illegitimate, pernicious and out-of-context of the holy scriptures. The new Christianity has an entirely new vocabulary of neo-Christian ideals, but in very large part, without Biblical precedent. A huge component of modern Christianity is derived from success-prosperity, positive-thinking, self-actualization, or humanist roots - NOT the Bible. Only a very few Bible verses are being interspersed, and mostly with a diabolical twist.

It is DEEPLY DISTURBING to see "liberal-progressive"-minded men pastoring many of the largest and most visible Churches, and dominating the Christian media. They are not men of God, but teachers of very unbiblical doctrines which are leading multitudes of unsuspecting followers headlong into hell. In many cases, the new Christians arrogantly condemn traditional and historical Christian values, as if theirs is the first generation to "do it right."

I am not a novice, and my observations are not unstudied or impulsive. I began preaching in 1966, and have preached in Churches of just about every fundamental evangelical denomination and persuasion (dozens of denominations). I am now a dyed-in-the-wool Pentecostal of the old school. I have ministered for more than 40 years in just about every kind of venue - from small country Churches, to big city Churches, singing and preaching to crowds in crusades, conferences, camp meetings or concerts in civic centers, coliseums, hotel ballrooms, auditoriums, jails, maximum security prisons, etc., on radio and television, and in forty states and six countries, in a thousand different settings.

For at least fifteen years, now, I have had a significant presence on the Internet, and have communicated by email with tens of thousands of my Bible-study subscribers in at least 211 nations.

Because of the enormous amount of personal feedback that I receive every single day from my Internet ministry, I have a pretty good feel for what is going on in religion around the world.

I have never seen anything worse than what I see nowadays.

Go to Facebook, if you want, and click around on the personal favorites of professing Christians. Take note of the Favorite Movies, Favorite Music, Favorite Celebrities, Favorite TV Shows of professing Christians. Look at their favorite link, "Let's have a Jesus Revival!" right next to their "True Blood" favorite.

It is utterly shocking and appalling to see the liberal, amoral, anything-goes, "I'm OK, You're OK," psyche of multitudes who call themselves Christians. BIBLICAL Christianity has almost no influence whatsoever on the minds of this generation.

If you call yourself a Christian, yet entertain yourself nightly with the likes of HBO, Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, SNL, et al, you are totally deceiving yourself.

If Jesus dared to take a whip and scourge and drive the dove-sellers out of the Holy Temple, I have no doubt whatsoever that He would throw a chair right through the television screen today.

You are not offended by those things? You laugh and roll in the floor while they hurl the vilest obscenities and profanities at Churches, Christians, preachers, marriage, the Bible, and GOD HIMSELF???!!! You should be ashamed of yourself.

You should throw the chair through the television yourself! Instead, you call the cable franchise and order more channels and more pay-per-view, thereby paying the bills of these God-haters.

The only thing worse than the utter degeneracy of modern Christians is the degeneracy of the Pastors of these Christians.

They are wolves in sheep clothing.

Jesus warned: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," Matthew 10:16.

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves," Matthew 7:15.

"I send you forth as lambs among wolves," Luke 10:3.

Paul said, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock," Acts 20:29.

Sometimes, the wolves are in the pulpit. Sometimes, the wolves are in the pew. Whoever they are, they are malignant and toxic. Be on your best guard.

They are evil men (or women). They are seducers. They make merchandise of you. They laugh into their shirt-sleeves at your naivety and gullibility. They know in their hearts that they are as carnal and worldly and lustful as you are, and yet they are passing themselves off as your spiritual mentors, and making a handsome living while they lead you to hell. The blind leading the blind.

No wonder that teenagers are jumping ship. No wonder that children have no idea who Jesus is, or what the Gospel is all about. No wonder that Justin Bieber can pass himself off as a Christian. Who really cares? The Devil himself could probably muster a 49% approval rating in a poll asking if he is a Christian.

The "problem" with me is that I take the Bible way too seriously.

I believe every verse in the Bible. I believe every thing it says. I don't use fourteen different versions of the Bible trying to find a version that doesn't say what I don't want to hear. I read the 400-year-old, tried and proven King James Version that tells me everything I need to know about God, in the King's English. And I will never buy the false claims that there is a better, more accurate English version out there, because there is not.

The Bible tells me that God called the children of Israel, and told them, "Ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have SEVERED YOU from other people, that ye should be mine," Leviticus 20:26.

If you will take about two minutes to consider everything you can quickly remember about the nation of Israel, you will realize that for the past 3500 years, Israel has been hated by the world because God placed an exclusive claim on them and called them to be different from all the other nations of the earth.

But God did a similar thing with the Church - with every Christian. God had told Israel, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you," Leviticus 20:7-8.

Peter said that the SAME ORDER stands for the New Testament Church!

"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy," 1 Peter 1:15-16.

Unless and until you get a grip on what it means for a Christian to "come out" and "be separate" from the world, the flesh, and the devil, you really don't have the first clue about what being a Christian really is.

It is time for everybody to take the Bible seriously. Very seriously. That book is going to judge you in the end. So, are you going to sit and watch another flesh-exalting episode of 'American Idol,' while your Bible sits unopened, unstudied, unknown, unbelieved and unlived for another week?

You Need A Place To Pray

2011-04-26T02:46:00.000-07:00

You need a quiet, solitary place to pray.

Once or twice each week, I go to Church, and into the Prayer Room, to spend time alone with God. Sometimes, I stay there for an hour. At other times, I may stay for three or four hours. It may be during the day time, or it may be at night, even in the wee hours. When I go to the Prayer Room, it is because I want to conduct serious business with God. That is one of my most valuable and intense prayer times.

In my fifty-nine years, I have spent literally thousands of sacred hours alone in Church houses - praying, reading my Bible, and seeking the will of God. And I will confide to you that the Prayer Room is the most luxurious amenity in my life. There is no place on earth more comforting or more sacred than the place where I get alone with God in prayer. I would rather have a Prayer Room than a luxury car, an RV, a yacht, or anything else I can think of.

Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah when He said,

"Mine house shall be a house of prayer for all people."

A Church is not supposed to be merely an assembly hall where lectures are given. One large Church where I served on staff as a young man had as its motto, "Where People Meet God." If people do not meet God at Church, then what is Church for?

Simeon and Anna were in the Temple the day that Joseph and Mary brought baby Jesus to be dedicated. But that was no coincidence. Simeon and Anna were regulars in the Temple. Anna "was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day," Luke 2:37.

If you make a habit of seeking God regularly, it is certain that the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His Temple.

King David also had a deep love for the house of God. He said, "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand [elsewhere]." Psalms 84:10. In the great crises of his life, David ran to the house of God for refuge.

In the beginning, Churches were not Rock-and-Roll Concert venues. They were not Drama Theaters. They were not basketball courts. They were not community centers, soup kitchens, or recreation centers.

The house of God was, and should be, a holy, sacred, sanctified, consecrated house where people can always go to pray. Today's Churches are often multi-purpose, multi-cultural activity centers. In many cases, they are used more as gymnasiums for youth to hang out, or cafeterias for seniors to have pot-luck dinners, or sound stages for musicians to jam in, than for sacred purposes.

The sad reality is that many Churches are so much like Grand Central Station with activities, that it would be almost impossible to find a quiet, undisturbed place to pray. Why do we feel that it is so important to conduct our social activities in the Church building, yet we seldom think to use it for the far-more-important, divinely-ordained purpose for the house of God?

From the beginning, the Church was NOT such a recreational center. People came to the house of God to spend holy, consecrated time in the presence of God. Today, if you go to a typical Church house to pray, you may find that there is no privacy or no sanctity whatsoever. The Church house has been hijacked for secular purposes. We have forgotten that the most important furnishings in any Church are the ALTAR and the PULPIT.

That kind of invasion of the holy place was the cause of Jesus' outrage in John 2:14-16:

"And when he had made a scourge of small cords,
he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep,
and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money,
and overthrew the tables; And said unto them
that sold doves, Take these things hence;
make not my Father's house an house of merchandise."

More details of that scenario are recorded in Matthew 21:12-14:

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them
that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables
of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
And said unto them, It is written,
My house shall be called the house of prayer;
but ye have made it a den of thieves.
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple;
and he healed them."

The Church must be first and foremostly a house of prayer.

Prayer has always been the precedent and prelude to every spiritual revival throughout the ages. When the Holy Ghost first began to fall in America, in 1901, it began at a small Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, organized by Charles Parham. For days, his students met together in Chapel for intercessory prayer, until on New Year's Eve, 1901, the Spirit came upon them, and several began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave the utterance.

When the epic revival began in Los Angeles, at the Azusa Street Mission, pastored by William Seymour - that sweeping revival was preceded by weeks and months of intense prayer meetings by the people of that community. That revival in 1906 radically affected not only Los Angeles, but has also, since that time, spread literally to every nation on earth.

Revival does not come by basketball tournaments, or outdoor concerts, or free hot dogs. Revival comes by prayer. And that is true of both personal revival and Church-wide revival.

When we restore the priority of prayer in our lives, miracles will begin happening. Your life has never been so rich as when you regularly and habitually enter into the house of God to pray.

"They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint," Isaiah 40:31.

The next time you sense your need to get alone with God, go to the house of God, and pray.

You may find that it is your most cherished time of all. You may find that you want to make a habit of it.

The Church Has No Common Textbook Anymore!

2011-04-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

(The Irrational Abandonment Of The KJV Bible)

The King James Version has been supplanted, to the tragic detriment of the Kingdom of God. Christianity no longer has a universally-acclaimed textbook! This is a SERIOUS problem!

By Ken Raggio

Rick Warren did as much as anybody to distract us from the King James Version of the Bible, when he consistently used a variety of versions in his "Purpose Driven" books.

Now, fewer and fewer people can actually quote scriptures. I am not blaming Warren alone, but the irrational abandonment of the King James Bible has cost Christianity more than can be measured.

I know - people say that the King James Version is too hard to understand.

Well, that is arguable. I first read the entire New Testament when I was about 10 years old. It never occurred to me that it was too difficult to read. I seemed to understand it very well. I could easily follow the stories of Jesus in the Gospels. I was excited to read the stories in the Acts of the Apostles. I read the Epistles, and even the Book of Revelation. At eleven years old, there were a lot of things that I did not understand, but it wasn't because of its readability. It was because those things required an adult mind to fully appreciate.

All of my life, I listened to preachers preach from the King James Version of the Bible. The KJV never discouraged me from trying to understand every story I heard or read.

Then, at about the age of 15, as a member of a Bible Quiz team, I memorized the majority of the Epistles of 1 and 2 Corinthians. Again, I was able to understand amazingly well all the things that were being taught in those pages.

I preached my first sermon at the age of 14, using a KJV Thompson Chain Reference Bible as my textbook. By the time I graduated from High School I had already preached about 100 sermons. Every sermon I prepared in those days was dug out almost solely from the King James Version of the Bible. I did not preach other people's sermons.

I prepared my own sermons directly from the Bible. I searched the entire Bible on various Bible topics. I learned how to find scores of verses on just about any subject that I wanted to develop. I was never hindered by "Thee" or "Thou" or the "Shalt" and "Shalt not." It doesn't take rocket science to know that Thee or Thou means you, or Shalt means shall.

By the time I was 21 years old, I could quote hundreds of scripture verses from all over the Bible. I could tell scores of detailed Bible stories and understand the underlying messages. The KJV never handicapped me. In those days, it was used almost universally.

But nowadays, you can scarcely find a King James Bible being used.

People who read the other versions almost never memorize verses. Even if they do memorize verses, nobody recognizes them, because there are so many versions out there.

And tragically, many people are not using other versions, but actual PARAPHRASES. No paraphrase deserves the appellation, "Bible." (How would you like for your love-letters to your spouse to be paraphrased by two dozen total strangers? You would certainly find many of their word-substitutes unacceptable.)

When it comes to scriptural ACCURACY - "THE MESSAGE" is almost entirely worthless. I have spent over fifty years studying the Bible from cover to cover, and I can tell you that if your primary Bible is THE MESSAGE - you won't have a clue what the Bible says. You may like the way it speaks to you - but that cannot justify its pernicious, inaccurate representation of TRUTH. In my book, an inaccurate TRUTH is a lie.

In my strong opinion, the biggest single reason why Christianity should cleave to the KJV is for the purpose of maintaining a universal standard in the English language. We have utterly shot ourselves in the foot. Almost nobody can quote scriptures any more. Almost nobody can recognize where a verse comes from. That is much more serious - even tragic - than anyone is admitting.

Every English-speaking person should be able to recognize the Word of God and quote it in a common version. Otherwise, the practice of scripture memorization will be almost entirely lost.

I do not intend to make this article a comparison of Bible versions, but it is not difficult at all for you to GOOGLE "what's wrong with other versions of the Bible" to discover how many critical Bible passages have been tampered with or completely eliminated from most of the alternate versions of the Bible. I have a HUGE problem with that. NIV, RV, Amplified, Duoay, and others - while having a limited usefulness - are NOT reliable versions of the Bible.

Great and primary doctrines of the Bible have been mishandled in the alternate versions. Several of the most essential doctrines have been almost completely eliminated in some versions, including the doctrine of the Blood of Jesus, the Virgin Birth, God's Plan of Redemption and others.

At the risk of sounding like a radical (anybody with firm convictions is now a radical), I declare that Christians everywhere need to own a quality King James Version of the Bible. The biggest single reason why you won't like it is an unfounded or irrational mental block.

I am warning you... if you do not learn the Word of God from the KJV, you are at grave risk for being deceived or misled by errant and inaccurate versions. READABILITY is NOT the most important issue. TRUTH is the issue.

Yes, I know that many people argue that we have a better understanding of the ancient Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic languages than the King James translators had. That is also arguable. Many of the modern translations have a definite agenda behind them. NOBODY needs a translation that is done by scholars working with an agenda. The Word of God must be PURE and untainted by men's opinions or profit motives.

The King James Version was the world-wide standard for centuries. That alone leads me to believe that Almighty God ordained it to be the primary English version of the Bible. Call me narrow-minded if you want to, but I am telling you anyway, that if we want the Church to be strong in this hostile generation, we need a COMMON TEXTBOOK.

No other English version of the Bible deserves to be the universal textbook than the King James Version.

The Pied Piper in the Church

2011-04-05T00:22:00.000-07:00

In Hamelin, Germany, every Sunday during the summer, local villagers act out the folk tale of "The Pied Piper," which dates back to 1284.

Nobody knows with any certainty how the story began, but it is presumed that the old city suffered in those days from a rat infestation. As the story goes, a man dressed in red and yellow clothing presented himself to the townsmen, offering to rid the city of its rats. The men of the city gladly promised to pay him a large sum of money for his service.

The Pied Piper played an enchanting melody on his pipe, and immediately all the rats in town began to follow him. He led them out to the edge of town and into a river, where they all drowned.

When the Pied Piper came to the townsmen to collect, they felt that his task had been far too easy, and that they should not have to pay him the large sum they had promised.

In anger, the Pied Piper promised to punish them for reneging on their promise.

He went into the streets and began again to play his enchanting pipe. This time, the children of the town began to follow him. He led them far outside the town, and into a mysterious cave, where they were never seen again.

Because of the Pied Piper, the town's children were lost.

Of course, the fable is not true, but there are certain valuable morals in this story.

From that story, a famous idiom eventually came into being, namely,

"You'll have to pay the Piper someday."

There is a price to pay for enchantments, for quick fixes.

In the Church today, a similar story is unfolding.

As the Townsmen of Hamelin recruited the services of the Pied Piper, so now have the Preachers of the Gospel solicited the services of the Singers.

In Churches across America and around the world, an infestation of unbelief, atheism, agnosticism and cynicism plagued the Church. The Preachers no longer preached the pure word of God that could have rid the people of the scourge of unbelief. But instead, they called in the Singers and Musicians to fascinate and enchant their congregations.

The people were happy to be entertained by the Singers and the Musicians, so much so that they lost their appetites for the Preaching. Instead of following the Preacher, the people began to follow the Singers and the Musicians.

The Singers demanded handsome fees for their services, and eventually discovered that they could earn more money OUTSIDE the Church. They would sing for anybody who would pay them, in just about any kind of venue, and never mention pure doctrine. In their exodus, they lured the people of the Church away from the Preacher.

Now, multitudes who were once in the Church, following the Preacher, have been lured away from the Church, and their pseudo-religion is being led by the Singers and the Musicians. The Singers have no doctrine, so the Church is perishing.

Preacher, Pastor. God called you and anointed you to preach the Gospel. Your job is to preach the pure, unadulterated Word of God to the people. This is not a job for the Pied Piper.

The Pied Piper has no doctrine. He has not been called to do your job. The Pied Piper cannot and will not save the people. The Pied Piper will lure the people away from the Truth, away from the pure Gospel, and back into the world, where they will finally be lost.
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The Blackbird and the French fry

2011-03-05T00:34:00.000-08:00

I was sitting in my car on a restaurant parking lot, waiting to meet up with some friends for lunch.

Several blackbirds were hopping around the parking lot, looking for something to eat. One of them found something that actually looked like a cigarette butt, but he grabbed it up, and quickly ran underneath an automobile to evaluate his find.

The other birds nearby suddenly noticed that their buddy had found something, and, thinking it was real food, they came running after him, unabashedly intending to steal it away from him.

I moralized about that scene as I watched.

The first blackbird must have instinctively known that if and when he did find some food, he had better quickly get away from everybody else, lest they take it away from him.

"Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved," Luke 8:12.

That is when it dawned on me how deliberately he had run underneath the automobile. He knew what the others would do. His was an act of self-preservation, and an act to keep what he thought was food.

Then, I surmised that there is so much hunger among blackbirds, and such a scarcity of food, that one morsel of ANYTHING could immediately become a commodity worth fighting for.

That little scene made quite an impression on me at the moment, but it was not until a few weeks later that I learned an even more important lesson from the blackbirds.

I came out of Walmart one day, and got into my car. I saw that in front of me, a blackbird had found a French fry. Immediately, I remembered the previous scene from weeks before. I thought to myself, "He had better get out of sight fast with that French fry, or another bird will steal it away from him."

Before I finished my thought, that exact thing happened. Several other blackbirds swooped down as from out of nowhere, and launched a hungry assault on the guy with the French fry. He ran a few steps, and then flew off as fast as he could with his French fry - all of his buddies in hot pursuit.

The aerial combat only lasted a few seconds, but the biggest part of the French fry was torn from his beak, and only a small portion remained for him to eat. Seconds later, the stolen piece was again severed in combat. In the end, three birds had their share of that French fry.

Since I am forever trying to learn everything I can about life, I again moralized, "The guy with the French fry is always going to be hunted down."

That is actually good news to a preacher of truth, or to any true Christian believer.

In a world where TRUTH (i.e., a French fry) has fallen in the streets, and where LIES (i.e., cigarette butts) seemingly rule the day, sooner or later, people are going to get tired of chasing cigarette butts, and chase furiously after a French fry.

Actually, I believe that most men ARE hungry for truth, but truth is being trampled on the right, and on the left. Nevertheless, if YOU are the guy who holds the truth in your mouth, men will eventually come looking for you.

If you have sacred, divine TRUTH, the day will come when men will fight over themselves to get what you have.

You may not believe what I am saying, but you just wait and see. As this world grows darker and darker and darker, the day is going to soon come that men will risk their lives for one morsel of truth.

Men who make lies their commodity will eventually try to kill the guys who hold the truth.

But men who will tenaciously seek after and cling to the truth about God, the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, are soon going to become the most sought-after men on earth.

Just remember what I am saying.

You can learn the very same lesson when you watch bugs swarm around a night light. Bugs are not the only creatures who are attracted to a light. Men are attracted to a light. Drive through ANY community late at night and see where people congregate. Watch the kids congregate under the lights on the grocery store parking lot.

If YOU have LIGHT in you, men will eventually be drawn to you. As the world gets darker and darker, the light you possess will have even more appeal to those who are in darkness.

Men are attracted to food. Men are attracted to light.

When the world tires of chasing cigarette butts, they are going to increasingly pursue any guy with a French fry.

Herein is a tragedy. Most men cannot initially tell the difference between a cigarette butt and a French fry. That is why so much phony religion is thriving right now. People are buying into phony religion because they cannot find the real thing. But the day will come - mark my word - when people are going to revolt against cigarette butts, because they will still be empty and hungry. Right now, people will follow anybody who can sing a song, or put on a nice show. But the day will come when somebody is going to scream, “PREACH THE WORD!”

THEN, a guy with a French fry is going to be the most-wanted guy in town.

This all reminds me of Jesus' parable about the ten virgins. The five who were WISE took oil in their vessels for their lamps. The five who were foolish "took no oil with them." At midnight, the call came for them to go out and meet the bridegroom, but those who were foolish had no oil in their lamps.

"And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut." Matthew 25:8-10.

If you find a French fry, hold on to it - tightly. You may be the only bird in town who has something to eat when things get tough.

The Magnificent Obsession

2011-01-24T14:07:00.000-08:00

I confess to you that I am obsessed with being a Christian. CM Ward once called it, "The Magnificent Obsession."

At 59 years old, I have lived to see Christianity devolve in my lifetime from something that was sacred and powerful to something that is now so watered-down that it is tasteless, powerless, and unrecognizable, especially when compared to the awesome Apostolic Church seen in the Book of Acts.

The true Church is far more wonderful and glorious than most of what claims to be the Church today. I will make it my business to publish and declare the Word of God that great Churches were always built upon in days before.

As AW Tozer said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference."

I am only one person, but I am one. As long as I am able to stand for true Christianity, I will. I will never buy into the compromised, profane version of Christianity that now seems to own the market.

I began over four years ago to write a complete verse-by-verse Commentary of the Bible. I will soon be finished with that, as well as six other books I have been writing. On the surface, my public reasoning for tackling such a massive project is to teach and preach the Gospel to as many people as thoroughly as I can.

But the more important reason I have spent so much time in the Word was so that I could personally strengthen my own roots in the timeless truth of God's Word. I do not want to succumb to the popular revisionist versions of Christianity. I want the Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, so help me, God!

I post a lot of one-liners on my Twitter account - http://twitter.com/kenraggiocom - which also post to FB. I try to communicate as much truth as can be written in 140 characters. The ancient Chinese proverb said, "It is better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness."

I intend to shine as much light as I can while I live. To me, at least, nothing else deserves my days. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36.

I mean no harm to anybody, but I have learned that virtually everything offends somebody, somewhere, eventually, so if you weary of my posts, you are welcome to "unfriend" me on Facebook or Twitter. You won't be the first or the last. I only want to deal my bread to the hungry (Isaiah 58:7).

Otherwise, I invite you to visit my major website at http://kenraggio.com/ and study it as much as you have time. There are Bible lessons there on virtually every topic you can imagine. You can subscribe to my free Daily Bible Study by E-Mail that is now being sent every day to thousands of people in nearly every nation and island on earth - 210 at last count.

Please pray for me, that God will help me to be exactly what He wants me to be. I will pray the same for you. God bless you.

Sincerely,
Ken Raggio

Angels and Holy Smoke

2010-08-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

A Modern Tale of Signs, Wonders and Miracles

By Ken Raggio

In 1984, my young family and I moved to a little town in Central Texas to assume the pastorate of a small church congregation of about 50 people. It was a cowboy community, as ranching was the primary industry. The county was inhabited by 4,000 people, 5,000 head of cattle, and 10,000 hogs. The two largest employers were a feed mill and a manufacturer of western-style leather belts.

We worked hard and long for the first year or two, trying to win the hearts of the people, and begin an outreach into the community. I confess that I was a city-slicker far out of my element. I knew nothing of riding horses, hunting deer, running herds of angora goats, milk dairies or hog farms.

My only specialty was having church. I could preach and teach and sing and make music. We prayed and asked God to help us reach lost souls and build a church.

I purchased a weekly time-slot on the local AM radio station so I could broadcast a thirty minute program every Sunday morning. Since there was only one radio station in the county, I had a captive audience. The radio station scheduled my Pentecostal preaching right before the local Church of Christ minister. After several weeks on the air, I happened to leave the radio on one morning after my program concluded. I discovered that the Church of Christ minister was using his thirty minutes every Sunday to attempt to refute everything I had just said on my earlier time-slot. It became a real challenge to prepare the most convincing program I could each week that could not be effectively refuted.

One Saturday night, I went into the church alone to record the thirty-minute program for the next morning's broadcast. It was almost midnight when I cued up the tape to record that program. I said a prayer, made some announcements, played a recorded song, and then preached a twenty-minute sermon. Every week, when I finished the task, I would get in my car and drive a few blocks over to the radio station and drop off the tape-recorded program for the next morning's broadcast.

But that night, something very unusual happened. Since it was late, and I was in the building alone, I only turned on one row of lights, which only dimly lit the auditorium. My work-station was at the audio-recording equipment located in the sound booth in the back corner of the auditorium.

As I preached the sermon onto the tape, I felt the inspiration and Presence of the Lord as I spoke. When I finished the thirty-minute program, I stopped the tape and pressed the rewind button.

I looked up toward the pulpit and the platform. When I did, I saw movement. There was a door to the outside located on the left side of the stage. I saw a row of angels walk through the unopened door and walk across the front of the auditorium and stand as if they were soldiers at attention. They were in a shadowy, spirit-form. I watched as one of the angels walked back toward the door, then turned up the aisle along the wall. He came to the third-from-the-last pew on that row and stopped. He stood at the end of that pew for what seemed like a few minutes. Then he and all the other angels vanished.

I sat in the sound booth dumbfounded. I did not know what I had just witnessed. I could not imagine why they had come, or what they were doing. I prayed and asked God to tell me what I should think about what I had just seen.

After a while, I took the tape recording out of the machine, went to my car, drove to the radio station and dropped it off in the front office.

As I drove home, I questioned the meaning of the angelic visitors. I decided that I would pay particular attention on Sunday morning to whoever sat in the pew where the angel had stood. That place on the pew was not normally occupied, so I was curious to see who, if anyone, would sit there the next morning in the church service.

The Sunday morning schedule consisted of two segments. The first hour was for Sunday School. All ages were divided into classes, and I taught the Adult Bible Class in the auditorium. At the end of the first hour, all the classes were dismissed, and everyone came into the auditorium for a worship service of singing and preaching.

During the Sunday School Class in the first hour, nobody sat on the special pew. I felt a little anxious about that. But when people began to come into the auditorium from their classes, the church pianist sat down on the end of that pew. She had never sit there before during a service. As the morning worship service began, I spoke to her from the pulpit. "Sister Neita, I want to tell you that I have been waiting all morning to see who would sit in that pew today, because last night, I saw the angel of the Lord standing at the end of that pew. I do not know for certain what it means, but I believe that he left a blessing for whoever sat in that pew. We will just wait and see what happens." With that, we opened the service with praise and worship.

That night, in the Sunday evening service, Sister Neita's 76-year-old father came to church. That was really big news, because for her entire lifetime, she had been trying to get her father to come to church with her, and he had refused. She and her mother had been faithful to God for all those years without the support of her father. He never did like church, and would never come.

But that night, he sat on the back pew, and lifted his hands in worship when the rest of the congregation worshipped. He listened carefully to the sermon as it was preached. At the end of the service, when the invitation was given to come to the altar and pray, Horice walked down the aisle, knelt at the altar, and wept bitterly as he repented of his sins and gave his heart to God. Suddenly, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave him the utterance.

When that happened, the entire congregation "went wild" praising and worshipping God, for indeed a notable miracle had just happened before their eyes. Sister Neita and her mother wept and praised God when they saw him born of the Spirit that night. The very next Sunday, he was back in Church again. This time, he presented himself for water baptism. After praying for more than forty years for God to save him, his wife and daughter stood and watched as I baptized him in the name of Jesus for the remission of his sins. He came up out of the water, again speaking in tongues, worshipping God and weeping for joy. That was one of the most exciting conversions that little church had ever seen.

The news of Horice's conversion traveled all over town. Nobody could believe that old Horice had gotten religion. He seemed the most unlikely person. But God knew his heart, and the angel of the Lord came to minister to that family that year. In the months following, I saw both him and his wife receive miraculous healing of acute heart ailments, as prayer was made in their home. He had been at the point of death on several occasions, but was strengthened, and enjoyed several more years of good health. Horice became a faithful saint, and often testified about how thankful he was that God had mercy on him and saved his soul.

Horice's conversion seemed to be only the beginning of the greatest revival that church had ever seen in its 50-year history.

I received a phone call from my Pastor, John Harrell. He told me that there was a man in his congregation who was having much success teaching home Bible studies to new prospects. A high percentage of his prospects were coming to church and being born again. He suggested that I should invite him to come to our church and instruct my congregation in how to conduct effective home Bible studies. I eagerly accepted his suggestion, and made the phone call to schedule a three-day seminar to begin the very next Sunday.

I spent several days that week in fasting and prayer for the success of those meetings. On Sunday afternoon, the guest minister arrived, and we prepared for the Sunday evening service to begin at 6 PM.

Before the service began that night, one of the saints came to me with a special request for prayer. Her husband's brother and family were visiting in the service that night. She told me that their 10-year-old daughter had gone blind, and asked that we have special prayer for her if we thought it was appropriate. I told her that we would.

During the first part of the service, I led the congregation in singing and worship. When the time came to introduce the speaker, I whispered to him that we had a special request for prayer. I quickly told him the details, and gave him the names of the girl and her parents.

As soon as he stepped to the pulpit to speak to us, he went directly to the matter of praying for the little girl. "Arthur and Rosa, would you like to bring your little daughter forward so we can pray for her tonight?" Rosa stepped out into the aisle with her blind daughter, and they began to walk to the front of the building.

Suddenly, one of the saints began to deliver a message in tongues, (as the Apostle Paul taught about in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11; 14:22). After the message in tongues was given, another saint interpreted the message. The Spirit said, "I am Jehovah Rapha of the Old Testament - the Lord that Healeth. I am Jesus Christ of the New (Testament). I took thirty-nine stripes for your healing, and tonight I will heal you."

The little girl screamed out, "I CAN SEE!! I can see!"

Before prayer was even made, God performed an amazing miracle of healing for 10-year-old Lori. Spontaneous praise rose up in the congregation. The people lifted their hands and their voices and wept as they worshipped God for the notable miracle they had just seen.

The minister walked down the aisle toward the child and her mother. He laid his hands on the mother's head, and she began to speak in other tongues as God filled her with the Holy Ghost. Shortly, he turned and saw the father standing with his hands in the air, weeping and worshiping God. He walked over and laid his hand on the young dad's head and he also began to speak in other tongues as God filled him with the Holy Ghost.

That night was the beginning of a great wave of blessings that swept over that city for more than a year.

The next day, on Monday, they took the little girl to the doctor and confirmed that she had indeed received a miraculous healing. Her best eye had 20-20 vision. Her acute glaucoma had disappeared. The twitching that she had had for so long had stopped. She could see perfectly, and could even read again. She did not even need glasses.

The word spread quickly among her family and friends.

We never did finish that seminar. Instead of having a seminar, we began to have evangelistic services. Relatives of the "miracle girl" came to church Monday night, and six adult members of that family came forward to repent of their sins and give their lives to God. All six were filled with the Holy Ghost that night and spoke in tongues as the Spirit of the Lord came upon them.

Several teenage boys were sitting on the front row that night. As he preached his sermon, the minister suddenly discerned, without having been told, that one of them had been suffering for some time with a leg injury. He walked over to the teenager and said, "When you go to the doctor this week to have it examined, your leg is going to be perfectly well."

The minister had no other way of knowing, except by the Spirit, what he had just said. But the facts were that the young man had been seriously injured on his shin in a sporting accident. His leg had been severely infected for several months. He had been going to a wound clinic for treatments, and the treatments were not working very well. His lower leg had been in bandages for months, and he was scheduled to go back to the doctor the very next morning to have another treatment.

However, when he went to the doctor the next day, they found as they removed the bandages, that his leg was perfectly healed without even a scar. The news of that miracle quickly spread through his family and around town. That night, several more new faces were in the congregation.

One young couple came with their baby, who was less than a year old. For months, their infant had suffered with a horrible skin disease that looked like the chicken pox. The poor child looked awful, and the parents were obviously stressed from the ordeal. The baby had spent days in the local hospital without any improvement. Then she was taken to a regional hospital, where more tests and treatments were performed, still with no improvement. Finally, the child was taken to a large hospital in Fort Worth, where even more tests and more treatments were done.

The baby's grandmother came with the parents and stood for prayer. We anointed the child with oil, in the name of the Lord, and prayed (according to James 5:14-15). The entire congregation prayed the prayer of faith that night.

At 8 o'clock the next morning, the doorbell rang at the parsonage. I answered the door to see the same grandmother, mother, and baby standing there. The baby looked like a brand-new child. The horrible splotches had completely disappeared overnight, and the baby's skin was perfectly healed from head to toe. It was an amazing sight to behold. Both the grandmother and the mother laughed and cried as they rejoiced over what God had done.

What began as a three-night seminar, became instead a six-week series of revival services. FORTY-THREE MEMBERS of the little blind girl's extended family came to church, repented of their sins, received the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, and were baptized in water in Jesus' name for the remission of their sins.

It was a glorious time. During that time, I walked into the church one Sunday morning to prepare the building for the morning services. As I unlocked the doors and turned on the lights, I saw that the auditorium was filled with smoke. I was alarmed to see it, and wondered what was going wrong. It appeared that something was on fire. I quickly went through the entire building looking for the source of the smoke. At last, the only cause I could imagine was that the air conditioning system must be pumping smoke into the auditorium.

But I checked all the air conditioning systems, and there was no problem anywhere with the air conditioning. Suddenly, it occurred to me that there was no odor, and no physical source of the smoke.

That is when I realized that the presence of the Lord was in the place. This, I thought, must be the Shekinah - the glory cloud, like Moses saw in the Tabernacle.

The miracles and healings and conversions continued unabated. Over the next few months, over one hundred and twenty people were baptized and were filled with the Holy Ghost in that little church. The congregation grew from 50 to 125 in attendance. The stories of the miracles we saw could fill a book.

I was attending a ministers' conference a few years later, and listened with amazement to a minister from a large Pentecostal church on the East Coast tell a story that sounded amazingly similar to ours.

He told about being alone in his church auditorium on a Saturday night as he walked the aisles and prayed for God's blessings on the Sunday services. As he stood in the low lights of an empty auditorium, he saw a line of angels enter the front of the building and walk around the entire building. He stood in silence as they moved for several minutes, then suddenly disappeared.

"God! What am I seeing?" he asked. "Those are the angels of revival," came the answer.

In the year following that occurrence, that congregation experienced the greatest influx of new souls in its entire history. Over 800 people were baptized in Jesus' name and received the gift of the Holy Ghost that year.

So the days of miracles are over?

Don't you believe it.

I've seen angels and holy smoke.

Preach The Gospel To Every Creature

2010-07-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned," Mark 16:15-16.

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come," Matthew 24:14.

I got my first taste of mass-media Ministry at the age of 18. While attending Bible College, I was a singer and soloist in the "Revivaltime" Choir - which sang weekly on 650 radio stations around the world on the ABC Radio Network. I sat behind the legendary C.M. Ward during that year of college, as he preached to an audience of many millions, live every Sunday night. Having personal contact with the "Revivaltime" staff, I was privy to the thousands of letters that came in the mail each week from listeners all over the world. That was both an exciting and a sobering experience to see the hunger in the souls of men and women from every walk of life, asking for more of God.

Returning to Beaumont, Texas in 1971, I joined the staff of a church with a national radio and television ministry. I became the editor of a Christian magazine with a circulation of 35,000 per month, and I traveled around the United States holding gospel crusades with my Pastor, B.H. Clendennen, as the crusade pianist and soloist, meeting with our television viewers in major cities from Spokane, Washington to Rochester, New York, and scores of other cities in between.

I made the connection between the media and the people. I saw, at that young age, the vast potential of the media - print and broadcasting - for delivering the gospel message to the masses.

For more than forty years since then, I have been engaged in the ministry - the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As an Evangelist and as a Pastor, I have ministered in hundreds of Churches in about forty states in the US, and in several countries. As a writer, I have been the editor of three Christian magazines, and written hundreds of articles for several major publications. As a broadcaster, I have produced hundreds of live and recorded radio programs, and dozens of television and video programs.

But today, the potential for ministry via the Internet surpasses anything I have ever experienced. Whereas print and broadcast media require vast outlays of cash, and are generally labor intensive, the Internet levels the playing field, and opens the door for virtually anyone with a computer to enter into world-wide Missionary Evangelism.

I published my first Christian website in 1996, and for several years, most of my articles had first-page listings on Yahoo on a wide variety of Biblical keywords. Literally many millions of people have visited my website and a multi-generational ministry has followed. Articles that began as a Sunday morning sermon have circled the globe, and in many cases, been translated into other languages and republished in the form of tracts, Bible Study handouts, and articles in newspapers and magazines in dozens of languages.

What began as a (very) part-time endeavor is now the heart and soul of my ministry. My Daily Bible Studies (four mini-lessons per day) now circulate to subscribers in at least 211 nations. The letters I receive by email each day are more than I can answer.

At the present time, I am in the fourth year of a self-imposed Sabbatical, having returned to my home church in Texas and to my Pastor since 1983, Rev. John W. Harrell. The death of my wife, Dixie, to cancer in 2003 precipitated several major changes in my direction. I am currently writing six books, and producing a 26-week video teaching series that will constitute a complete Pentecostal Bible curriculum - teaching the entire Bible, with special emphasis on Prayer, Doctrine, Holiness and Bible Prophecies about the Last Days. I am also working on a musical project to record an album of songs I have written.

All these, with God's help, will go to every nook and cranny in the world. I have prayed since my youth that God would enable me to produce a comprehensive Bible curriculum that will be used by Pastors, Evangelists and Missionaries in every nation on earth.

My biggest enemy is time. Jesus is coming, and time is running out. I know of no other endeavor that is more needful than the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God never told me to save the world. But He did tell me to preach to the whole world. What THEY do with what they hear is between them and God.

"For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel," 1 Corinthians 9:16-18.

"Not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved," 1 Corinthians 10:33.

Preach the Word!

And, please. Would you pray for me and this ministry?
Thank You. God bless you.

Sincerely,
Ken Raggio

PS: Be sure to visit my main website and subscribe to the free Daily Bible Studies.
http://kenraggio.com

Does The Church Have The Holy Ghost?

2010-07-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Rev. B. H. Clendennen died in December, 2009, at the age of 86, after having spent the last 16 years of his life circling the globe, preaching and establishing his "School of Christ International" in more than 130 nations.

I was profoundly influenced by him from the age of 19, following my Bible College days. A close, personal friend introduced me to him in May of 1971, and Pastor Clendennen hired me on the spot to work with him in the ministry. We were kindred spirits. He and I were traveling companions in the ministry for almost three years, until after I married and entered into full-time preaching ministry of my own.

When I first went to work for Pastor Clendennen, he was pastoring a Pentecostal congregation of about 500 people in Beaumont, Texas. He needed a singer/musician to travel with him in crusades around America. He also gave me the task of being the Editor of his monthly magazine, which circulated to about 35,000 households. I was the Church pianist and the choir director. I produced scores of radio programs, and participated in the weekly television broadcasts. After a while, he made me his Associate Pastor, and I filled the pulpit in his absence, and helped tend to the care of the Church members.

In those days before Christian television networks existed, he expanded his ministry into about 30 radio markets and 150 television markets. We traveled 2-4 days every week, on average, to hold gospel crusades in cities across America. Every month, I personally edited and proof-read his articles for the magazine. I also edited literally hundreds of his recorded messages for publication.

Pastor Clendennen's preaching was heavily influenced by the writings of T. Austin Sparks. Sparks was a minister from England and Scotland who wrote prolifically in the early 20th century. Among his recurring themes was the subject of the enmity between the old man and the new man - the carnal mind versus the mind of Christ.

To this day, because of that teaching, virtually everything I know and believe about Christian living is challenged by the question, "Is this carnally-minded, or is this the mind of Christ?"

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his," Romans 8:5-9.

I was convinced, early on, that God has no use whatsoever for the carnal mind. Pastor Clendennen convinced me in those days (as does the Bible) that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is absolutely necessary to the ability to do the will of God.

Without the Spirit of God dwelling in a man, it is impossible to please God. Therefore, every believer must be filled with the Spirit. Pastor Clendennen preached that without the Holy Ghost to quicken your mortal bodies, you would not go up in the rapture. I believed that then, and I believe that now.

I have lived to see Christianity supplant that vital truth. A huge percentage of the most influential leaders in Christianity today utterly deny the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

The classical non-Pentecostals like Billy Graham, W.A. Criswell, and Jerry Falwell were shameless to disassociate themselves from speaking in tongues. Today, Rick Warren, Charles and Andy Stanley, John McArthur and an endless list of highly influential Christian leaders have effectively re-written New Testament Church WITHOUT the baptism of the Holy Ghost and its evidence of speaking in other tongues.

I say, "Whoa!" Is there really a Church without the baptism of the Holy Ghost? Wasn't the early Church BORN on the day of Pentecost? Didn't the entire early Church speak in tongues? Yes, they did! Jesus said, "Ye shall speak with new tongues," (Mark 16:17).

Where is THAT message in contemporary Christianity? How is it that tens of millions of professing Christians are either completely illiterate about the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or they have been programmed to believe that it is either "of the devil" or is the behavior of lunatics?

Jesus commanded His disciples, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," (John 20:22). Now, at that particular time, "the Holy Ghost was not yet given," (John 7:39). But Jesus explained, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth," (Acts 1:8).

That was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, fifty days after Jesus died on Passover (and subsequently resurrected).

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance," Acts 2:1-4.

The true Church is Pentecostal. The true Church is filled with the Holy Ghost and speaks in other tongues as the Spirit of God gives the utterance. The infilling of the believer with the Holy Ghost corresponds doctrinally to Jesus' resurrection from the dead. To receive the Holy Ghost is to receive eternal life.

Nowadays, we have hours of music, ten minutes of preaching, and nobody receives the Holy Ghost.

Imagine that Jesus, instead of commanding His disciples to "receive the Holy Ghost," had said (as does the largest association of Churches in Australia) that Churches should focus on having:

enjoyable, superbly run meetings that people enjoy and want to come back to, and which create ‘transcendence’ through music and the arts;
preaching that is relevant, practical and inspirational—that connects with my daily life and needs and struggles, and helps me to flourish;
a culture of activism, volunteer service, social action and community involvement.

I will not carry this any further for now. I will just land this plane by saying that it's time for Christianity to re-discover what Christianity really is, and what it really is supposed to be and do. Unless and until the modern Church receives the Holy Ghost - it's not the Church at all.

So, how does one receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost?

Peter answered that question in Acts 2:38-39.

"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

Receive YE the Holy Ghost.

Ken

See related article at kenraggio.com