let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Heb.10:25
Keep up the encouragement.
Jesus soon!
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Bill Gehm retweeted
Imagine LeBron James retiring at 27 at the peak of his career and giving all of it up to serve Jesus Christ.
That's essentially the story of C.T. Studd.
When someone asked him why he did it, he gave a response that still hangs on my wall today 🔥
Bill Gehm retweeted
On #preaching: “The listener will always know when a man believes intensely in what he says, and even if the listener does not agree, even if he thinks the speaker is misguided, he respects the accent of conviction.” – William Barclay, Autobiography, p. 76
Bill Gehm retweeted
The sound of Northern Nigerian Christian’s worshiping Jesus through the murderous persecution.
Bill Gehm retweeted
Why did God create evil? The answer struck me to the core of my soul!
A professor at the university asked his students the following question:
Everything that exists was created by God?
One student bravely answered:
Yes, created by God.
Did God create everything? - a professor asked.
"Yes, sir," replied the student.
The professor asked:
If God created everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And according to the principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.
The student became silent after hearing such an answer. The professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to students for proving once again that faith in God is a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said:
Can I ask you a question, professor?
"Of course," replied the professor.
A student got up and asked:
Professor, is cold a thing?
What kind of question? Of course it exists. Have you ever been cold?
Students laughed at the young man's question. The young man answered:
Actually, sir, cold doesn't exist.
According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied on whether it has or transmits energy.
Absolute zero (-460 degrees
Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature.
Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.
A student continued:
Professor, does darkness exist?
— Of course it exists.
You're wrong again, sir. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness.
We can use Newton's prism to spread white light across multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can't measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a certain space is? You measure how much light is presented. Isn't it so? Darkness is a term man uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.
In the end, the young man asked the professor:
Sir. does evil exist?
This time it was uncertain, the professor answered:
Of course, as I said before. We see him every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes and violence throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.
To this, the student answered:
Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light and warmth. Evil is the result of the absence of Divine love in the human heart. It's the kind of cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of darkness that comes when there's no light.
The student's name was Albert Einstein.
Bill Gehm retweeted
I used to think Halloween came straight out of hell.
I had charts. I had printouts. I could trace a demon family tree back to Samhain.
Then a man asked me one question in his kitchen, and I had no answer.
I grew up an Army brat on bases worldwide, and Halloween was one of the best nights of my year. My brother and I put together costumes from the thrift store, and my mom walked us through the neighborhoods. Sometimes my dad came too, when he wasn't deployed. He was an Army Ranger, and he was overseas a lot.
October meant school parties, friends, and Disney Channel marathons. Later it meant The Worst Witch and Hocus Pocus on repeat.
Then I met some Christians who told me Halloween came straight from the pit.
Satan himself might ride down your street on Pee-wee Herman's red bicycle and snatch your kids. You might accidentally sell your soul while handing out candy. Or worse, your youth group would shun you, and you'd turn into Marilyn Manson.
I was young in the faith and insecure, so I went all the way down the rabbit hole. Full Alex Jones on Halloween. Celtic paganism, druid sacrifices, the occult taking over America. I was convinced.
Then we got to know a family near us. Homeschoolers like us. Soul-winners. They'd been at it longer than we had, and we respected them.
One October day I gave the husband my whole presentation. He let me finish. Then he asked me one thing.
"Adam, what other time of the year do lost people come to our house?"
I stopped.
He said You get Jehovah's Witnesses. Mormon kids. A church canvasser once in a while. But when do the lost walk up to your door and ask you for something?
I had nothing.
So he invited us over for Halloween.
It felt like getting ready for the Super Bowl. Tables covered in candy. Five-gallon Menards buckets lined up on the floor. Stacks of gospel tracts. We sat around the kitchen table with a full house of people and wrapped a tract around every piece of candy until the buckets were full.
Then we opened the blinds, turned on the porch light, and waited.
Great Pumpkins came up the walk. Snoopy. Ninja Turtles. A few Minions.
Each one left with candy and the gospel. A tract, sometimes a New Testament, sometimes the book of John. We gave out hundreds that night.
The parents stopped on the porch to talk about church and God. A lot of them seemed surprised a Christian house had the light on at all.
The next morning my wife and his wife hit Walmart for half-price candy and costumes for the kids' dress-up boxes.
I walked into that house with a binder full of druids. I walked out wondering why I ever kept my porch light off.
The Pharisees had the same complaint about Jesus that I had about Halloween.
"And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." (Luke 15:2)
He kept doing it anyway.
"And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:31-32)
You don't have to celebrate Halloween. Paul left room for conscience about days.
"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." (Romans 14:5)
But one night a year your neighbors walk up to your door and hold out their hands.
Halloween is Saturday. Get the tracts. Turn on the porch light
