His name, Theron. Once a strong believer when he was a young man. But he got into a marriage with an unsaved girl and was unevenly yoked. He thought he could change her from casual drinking and from drugs. Instead he was the one who in a time of weakness changed. First it was to drink with her. Then did pills with her. His flesh got out of control. This is what sin does.
The power of sin overcomes the spiritual nature. Of course he backslid. He never went back to God. When he could no longer afford his wife's drugs she left him and took up with other men. He was broken hearted. For several years he was in and out of prison. He broke into cars. He robbed houses when no one was home. He stole checkbooks and wrote bad checks. He stole credit cards and used them. He spent several years in jail. He repented several times. He cried to the Lord over and over. He regretted his first marriage which he could see was a bad mistake. His love for someone evil overcame his love of Christ.
Out of prison again, he was living in the woods in a tent. He was homeless and broke. He tried to get work but no one would hire him because of his prison record. So he pan-handled and would fly on a street corner. Walking to a store to buy another bottle of loco, he went by a dumpster and there was a table and some chairs someone had dumped. On the table a Bible. But he walked on by. He got his beer and went back to his camp in the woods. He drank it and then laid down to sleep on his blankets. At 2am in the morning he woke up. He could not go back to sleep. A picture of the table and the Bible seemed to remain in his mind. Something in him compelled him to go back and get the Bible. He walked back to the dumpster and the table and chairs were gone. He then looked into the dumpster and there on some trash was the Bible.
Who ever took the table and chairs did not want it. The people who put this Bible there on the table did not have the guts or maybe a cold heart to throw God's Word in the trash. Theron climbed into the dumpster and got the Bible and climbed back out. He did not open it. He took it back to his camp. For the first time in years, the Bible laid next to him. Sweetness came over him and he fell back asleep. It was about 4am. He awoke the next morning and got up. He saw the Bible laying there and picked it up. He then noticed the little blue ribbon page marker. He opened up to the page and there underlined on the page were these words:
"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place" (Rev 2:4-5).
His heart was smitten.
He laid down the Bible and walked to the nearby supermarket to pan-handle for something to eat. There he saw a young Black woman with a little boy. He passed them and said "God bless you, have a good day." The woman nodded in recognition of his words. The little boy turned and looked at him as he kept walking with his mother to their car. He turned around again toward them. The woman looked back at the same time. Again he said: "God bless you, have a good day." The little boy jerked free from his mother's hand and ran back to Theron, falling at his feet, looking up into his face said: "sir Jesus loves you." And Theron fell to his knees in the supermarket parking lot and hugged the little boy and cried.
Theron testified that this was the moment God removed the callus from his heart. After crying and releasing the child, the little boy ran back to his mother and they drove away.
The words kept coming into his mind: "THOU HAST LEFT THY FIRST LOVE."
Theron is now visiting Jesus House. He said he wants to get back with God where he was before he met his first wife and went astray from God.
When I listened to the history of his life: a life of good and then 19 years of shame, sorrow, hurt, addictions, abuse, prison, and sin; I also remembered some words from the Bible:
"Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth" (Gal 5:7).
There is a lot in that one verse of Scripture:
Ye did run well.
Apparently all running had ceased.
Who did hinder you?
The who here can be others or even ourselves.
Hinder here literally means obstruct or get in the way where the person does not continue running.
I remember some runners in a race and people were stationed in different places on the ten mile course. Some had water and stuff to give him to encourage him on. Others had nothing but a hand clap. And still others passed to him a beer instead of water. Several did this, and he sucked them all down. By the time he was at the 8 mile marker he was not running any more. He was jogging but he was no longer in the same starting condition. He never made it to the 10 mile maker. He never crossed the finished line. Somewhere between marker 8 and 9 he quit, sat down, and never got back up. There was a lot of laughing as someone handed him another beer. What did hinder him? Who did hinder him?
When a soul is hindered from their first love of salvation, this can become such a bad spiritual injury the person may never come back to God.
What happened here? Paul asked the important question:
"That ye should not obey the truth."
Like Theron and many others, they got carried away in their own lusts and forgot their first love. When this happened TRUTH does not matter any more. Personal opinions matter now. And any TRUTH that runs counter to a person's opinion will be rejected. The only thing that can restore a person to their proper place in God is to turn back to their first love when the Word of God in its simple TRUTH was a treasure.
First Love:
Having departed from sin and a sinful life, our first love is to be in Church, to feel the presence of God, to worship and surrender to his will. To give up everything that was not holy. To clean out the house, the car, and our personal possessions and remove all ungodly things, including clothing that was not holy. We loved Jesus so much we were willing to let him mold and make us after his image. We asked for this. We prayed for it. We changed our whole way of thinking. We had a mind toward God. We forsook all sin and evil. We refused to partake in anything that even had the appearance of evil. We were sold out to God. There was nothing in our hearts but love and honor for God. We fasted and prayed often for ourselves and for others. We were altar workers praying with those repenting and seeking for the Holy Ghost. We were eager to sing and play music. We wanted to be useful to God in the Church. And when it came to jobs and Church, we would not take a job that interfered with going to Church. We would not miss Church for anything. We would not even take vacations where we could not be in Church. When we came to Christ, we received the love that was in his heart for souls. No where did Jesus use his love for others to entice them to sin. No where did he allow himself to be the one responsible for someone sinning. This is the first heart of love we have when we become born again the Acts 2:38 way. This is our first love.
But many have been hindered.
They did run well.
Now where are they? I think the statistics one preacher quoted was that over the past 50 years nearly 80% of those who were Acts 2:38 saved are no longer in Church (moms, dads, children, grandchildren). These have been replaced by newer converts coming into the Oneness ranks in many cases into liberal and backslid churches. These have no clue about or knowledge of the old fashion Apostolic Pentecostal holiness life. They were hindered from the get go. Modern Oneness Pentecostalism reminds me of the Pharisees as Jesus accused them: compassing land and sea to make a convert and then make them two-fold more a child of hell.
Whole churches no longer run well.
Many pastors and preachers among the Oneness Pentecostals no longer run well.
This results in many members who do not run well.
What has happened?
It is about TRUTH. Paul asked: "that ye should not obey the truth."
In these endtimes, there will be some men and women, and some young men and women who will not turn to the right or to the left and follow after that which will weaken them spiritually. They will not allow their flesh to take authority over the Spirit. And they will not allow their opinions to rule over TRUTH.
Like Theron, many spend years in their own deceptions. They fall from God and many never make it back home. Many never even return to their first love. And these of course will have the final judgment:
I will remove thy candlestick.
I cannot think of what this means, except that total darkness will sweep over that soul and they will never again come back to God.
I can see now how you that really love God, who have surrendered. Who have not left your first love. How you will pray that this darkness never take over your soul. You will pray for the light of TRUTH and love it. You will love those Men of God who are dedicated to holiness and a separated Christ like life. You will encourage other Brothers and Sisters to continue in their faith. And you will not give or endorse anything whereby thy friends will stumble and fall.
How many have had their candlestick removed? We can only tell when we see their lives and read or hear their words, as the things of darkness are made manifest. They cannot hide this. They can fake being born again. They can fake it and claim to be Apostolic Pentecostal. But it will all come down to the darkness or the light that is within them.
You did run well.
Bishop Reckart
A Man God Loves
_______________________________
Pray for Theron and many others like him. He is really struggling to overcome 19 years of self abuse and running from God. Will he make it? I do not know. But you know Pastor Reckart will do everything he can to love him back into the sheepfold.
The power of sin overcomes the spiritual nature. Of course he backslid. He never went back to God. When he could no longer afford his wife's drugs she left him and took up with other men. He was broken hearted. For several years he was in and out of prison. He broke into cars. He robbed houses when no one was home. He stole checkbooks and wrote bad checks. He stole credit cards and used them. He spent several years in jail. He repented several times. He cried to the Lord over and over. He regretted his first marriage which he could see was a bad mistake. His love for someone evil overcame his love of Christ.
Out of prison again, he was living in the woods in a tent. He was homeless and broke. He tried to get work but no one would hire him because of his prison record. So he pan-handled and would fly on a street corner. Walking to a store to buy another bottle of loco, he went by a dumpster and there was a table and some chairs someone had dumped. On the table a Bible. But he walked on by. He got his beer and went back to his camp in the woods. He drank it and then laid down to sleep on his blankets. At 2am in the morning he woke up. He could not go back to sleep. A picture of the table and the Bible seemed to remain in his mind. Something in him compelled him to go back and get the Bible. He walked back to the dumpster and the table and chairs were gone. He then looked into the dumpster and there on some trash was the Bible.
Who ever took the table and chairs did not want it. The people who put this Bible there on the table did not have the guts or maybe a cold heart to throw God's Word in the trash. Theron climbed into the dumpster and got the Bible and climbed back out. He did not open it. He took it back to his camp. For the first time in years, the Bible laid next to him. Sweetness came over him and he fell back asleep. It was about 4am. He awoke the next morning and got up. He saw the Bible laying there and picked it up. He then noticed the little blue ribbon page marker. He opened up to the page and there underlined on the page were these words:
"Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place" (Rev 2:4-5).
His heart was smitten.
He laid down the Bible and walked to the nearby supermarket to pan-handle for something to eat. There he saw a young Black woman with a little boy. He passed them and said "God bless you, have a good day." The woman nodded in recognition of his words. The little boy turned and looked at him as he kept walking with his mother to their car. He turned around again toward them. The woman looked back at the same time. Again he said: "God bless you, have a good day." The little boy jerked free from his mother's hand and ran back to Theron, falling at his feet, looking up into his face said: "sir Jesus loves you." And Theron fell to his knees in the supermarket parking lot and hugged the little boy and cried.
Theron testified that this was the moment God removed the callus from his heart. After crying and releasing the child, the little boy ran back to his mother and they drove away.
The words kept coming into his mind: "THOU HAST LEFT THY FIRST LOVE."
Theron is now visiting Jesus House. He said he wants to get back with God where he was before he met his first wife and went astray from God.
When I listened to the history of his life: a life of good and then 19 years of shame, sorrow, hurt, addictions, abuse, prison, and sin; I also remembered some words from the Bible:
"Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth" (Gal 5:7).
There is a lot in that one verse of Scripture:
Ye did run well.
Apparently all running had ceased.
Who did hinder you?
The who here can be others or even ourselves.
Hinder here literally means obstruct or get in the way where the person does not continue running.
I remember some runners in a race and people were stationed in different places on the ten mile course. Some had water and stuff to give him to encourage him on. Others had nothing but a hand clap. And still others passed to him a beer instead of water. Several did this, and he sucked them all down. By the time he was at the 8 mile marker he was not running any more. He was jogging but he was no longer in the same starting condition. He never made it to the 10 mile maker. He never crossed the finished line. Somewhere between marker 8 and 9 he quit, sat down, and never got back up. There was a lot of laughing as someone handed him another beer. What did hinder him? Who did hinder him?
When a soul is hindered from their first love of salvation, this can become such a bad spiritual injury the person may never come back to God.
What happened here? Paul asked the important question:
"That ye should not obey the truth."
Like Theron and many others, they got carried away in their own lusts and forgot their first love. When this happened TRUTH does not matter any more. Personal opinions matter now. And any TRUTH that runs counter to a person's opinion will be rejected. The only thing that can restore a person to their proper place in God is to turn back to their first love when the Word of God in its simple TRUTH was a treasure.
First Love:
Having departed from sin and a sinful life, our first love is to be in Church, to feel the presence of God, to worship and surrender to his will. To give up everything that was not holy. To clean out the house, the car, and our personal possessions and remove all ungodly things, including clothing that was not holy. We loved Jesus so much we were willing to let him mold and make us after his image. We asked for this. We prayed for it. We changed our whole way of thinking. We had a mind toward God. We forsook all sin and evil. We refused to partake in anything that even had the appearance of evil. We were sold out to God. There was nothing in our hearts but love and honor for God. We fasted and prayed often for ourselves and for others. We were altar workers praying with those repenting and seeking for the Holy Ghost. We were eager to sing and play music. We wanted to be useful to God in the Church. And when it came to jobs and Church, we would not take a job that interfered with going to Church. We would not miss Church for anything. We would not even take vacations where we could not be in Church. When we came to Christ, we received the love that was in his heart for souls. No where did Jesus use his love for others to entice them to sin. No where did he allow himself to be the one responsible for someone sinning. This is the first heart of love we have when we become born again the Acts 2:38 way. This is our first love.
But many have been hindered.
They did run well.
Now where are they? I think the statistics one preacher quoted was that over the past 50 years nearly 80% of those who were Acts 2:38 saved are no longer in Church (moms, dads, children, grandchildren). These have been replaced by newer converts coming into the Oneness ranks in many cases into liberal and backslid churches. These have no clue about or knowledge of the old fashion Apostolic Pentecostal holiness life. They were hindered from the get go. Modern Oneness Pentecostalism reminds me of the Pharisees as Jesus accused them: compassing land and sea to make a convert and then make them two-fold more a child of hell.
Whole churches no longer run well.
Many pastors and preachers among the Oneness Pentecostals no longer run well.
This results in many members who do not run well.
What has happened?
It is about TRUTH. Paul asked: "that ye should not obey the truth."
In these endtimes, there will be some men and women, and some young men and women who will not turn to the right or to the left and follow after that which will weaken them spiritually. They will not allow their flesh to take authority over the Spirit. And they will not allow their opinions to rule over TRUTH.
Like Theron, many spend years in their own deceptions. They fall from God and many never make it back home. Many never even return to their first love. And these of course will have the final judgment:
I will remove thy candlestick.
I cannot think of what this means, except that total darkness will sweep over that soul and they will never again come back to God.
I can see now how you that really love God, who have surrendered. Who have not left your first love. How you will pray that this darkness never take over your soul. You will pray for the light of TRUTH and love it. You will love those Men of God who are dedicated to holiness and a separated Christ like life. You will encourage other Brothers and Sisters to continue in their faith. And you will not give or endorse anything whereby thy friends will stumble and fall.
How many have had their candlestick removed? We can only tell when we see their lives and read or hear their words, as the things of darkness are made manifest. They cannot hide this. They can fake being born again. They can fake it and claim to be Apostolic Pentecostal. But it will all come down to the darkness or the light that is within them.
You did run well.
Bishop Reckart
A Man God Loves
_______________________________
Pray for Theron and many others like him. He is really struggling to overcome 19 years of self abuse and running from God. Will he make it? I do not know. But you know Pastor Reckart will do everything he can to love him back into the sheepfold.
Truly the heart of a pastor. Bless you for working with this young man and working with him. That is truly grace at work.
ReplyDeleteGreat study Bishop.
ReplyDeleteI have seen over the years a great dearth of truth. Bishops, pastors, ministers, and even these modern apostles so called have totally departed from the Truth. Truth is no longer a treasured pearl worth protecting. Many have moved away from and thereby devalued our apostolic heritage, where we have an HEAP of guys who are not apostolic contenders, but apostolic men who perverts the right ways of Jesus.
I saw it, and cried and I believed Isaiah was crying when he wrote this text
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment (Isaiah 59:13-15)
There are many today who were saved by the word of truth, but have now turned their backs on it. They no longer see God’s word as absolute. Jesus help us.
I have been meditating of God’s word and the absoluteness of it and I saw that men who pervert the word of God and those work walk away from them by counting them good for nothing have a serious judgment coming. Hebrews stand out profound especially Hebrews 2:1-4. Jesus help us.
I look at King Saul’s rejection and when I observe Saul I see in him many modern preachers and Teachers, so I cried Lord Jesus help us.
I look at Jeremiah’s conflict with false teachers and I could easily see a striking similarity.
What’s the point here?
We need more men who will commit their time, energy, talent, and their money in to defending and spreading this apostolic message of total Truth so that weak brothers will not quit standing for the truth, but will be strengthened in the fight in these closing days.
Many have run and are running, but they have not done it well, because they do not have the truth, while others cause it to slip to the ground. Is there some Samuel out there who will hold on to Jesus truth and refused to let it fall to the ground? I am in, do you?
Bishop I love the high standards you maintain. You have my support Bishop
We love you lots and pray that you live long
Jesus Son
Bishop, it has taken me a long time to say what I am about to state. In all my dealings and railings against you in the past, not one time did you waiver. even in cutting me off as you had to, you did so in a courteous and godly manner. I say this openly, that you had one of the most godly spirits I had ever experienced when we met face to face. And this continues to this day in your work in restoring backsliders and feeding the homeless. May the Lord Jesus, our Great God and Savior, bless you abundantly more and more in your continued work for His Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteAnd, let me state this to one all who come by this blog. I know what I have said about Bishop in the past. There is no excuse for what I did. But, in these times where I have almost lost everything, just so Jesus could bring me back, when you get down to nothing, you realize your sins, not mistakes, but sins. Bishop is a man of God, and worthy of double honor for the work he does. If you can, support him in prayer and financially.
It has been said: an error becomes a mistake when it is not corrected. An intentional error is not a mistake, it is a choice of the mind. It is my doctrine that an error that is a perversion of the Truth produces reprobates and a reprobate cannot be corrected. I will do my best to warn men who pervert the Truth and if they reject my admonitions, my then rebukes, I will cut them off from fellowship until they repent. And if they cross the line of reprobation I will not fellowship them again ever. Men who recover themselves out of the snare of the devil can be restored. Men who go deeper into the garden of nuts, will never come out, so they will always remain perverters and reprobates. See that you do not pervert and then become a reprobate. After this, it is God who condemns and saves and forgives. That is why he is the judge. When a man apologizes to me for his sins against the Truth and Doctrine I preach, I will forgive. If he will not line up with all the Truth I will just leave him alone to work out his own salvation. I cannot be worried or concerned about the hundreds of people who have perverted the Truth, who have opposed me, who have called me names, and who have tried to destroy me. I keep pressing on and Jesus keeps blessing me in heavenly places. For this I am so very proud.
ReplyDeleteIn standing for the Truth, I need not answer any man in his folly. Many have perverted the Word of God but they would condemn you. They who are your judges justify themselves, thinking because they did not flip flop "as much" as you, that they remain holy and you cursed.
I have no power to put people in hell. I have no authority to say a person cannot repent and come back to God. I "can" say, that if you go astray into false doctrine and do not recover youself, you will not be saved. I "can" say also to all those novice perverters who make themselves somewhat, that their reprobations of the Word of God are more worst evils than your going astray so many times. So, I will let you work out your own soul salvation. And if God will take you back that is his business.
As for the Ministry, the qualifications stipulate "good report" and also that a man know how to keep his own house, and he of that house first. When I cut off a man it is because as far as I can see, that person is worthless to the Kingdom of God in their fall away condition. I do not pleasure in this. It always grieves me. But I will not allow the Truth to be dragged through the mud and made a mockery by novices and reprobates trying to make a name for themselves.
When I do not fellowship with a man or a church, it is because they are so far off I see no value of them to the overall Kingdom of God.
I fellowship quality Men of God. I will not fellowship those men or churches who pervert the Truth and who are a doctrinal mess.
I pray all men repent and do their first works over. And that all men stop their foolishness and become real Men of God.
Bishop Reckart
A Man God Loves