Scripture
After all that has happened to us because of our evil deeds and terrible guilt — though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have allowed us to survive — should we break Your commands again.
~ Ezra 9:13 (CSB)
Quote
When life’s burden grow so heavy that you can stand, try kneeling.
~Image Quotes
I have to be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of Ezra. I have always pictured him as being self-righteous and unyielding but in reading through Ezra this week, I have come to realize that I was wrong in judging him as such. I really like Ezra Purpose Statement: Ezra determined in his heart to study the word of God, obey it and teach it to Israel. {Ezra 7:10} I can really identify with Ezra’s prayer which begins like this: “My God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face toward You because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt is as high as the heavens.” Ezra’s prayer expresses my feeling exactly. Note the end the prayer as well: “Here we are before YOU with our guilt, though no one can stand in Your presence because of this {Guilt}.” You’ve heard me say many times that God, is His infinite wisdom, does not reveal all our sins to us at one time. If He did, we would be crushed by the enormous guilt. So, I do not know all my sins so I do not know how guilty I am. I do know enough about my sin to feel shame, embarrassment and guilt. I pray that God will never show me all my sin or the depth of my depravity because the little I know makes me sick. I sin but not because I want to; I sin because I am a sinner. Sin is rooted deep in my flesh and I do things instinctively that I hate. Then after doing them, I feel the guilt and shame.
I got to thinking about that last line in Ezra’s prayer…“Here we are before YOU with our guilt, though no one can stand in Your presence because of this.” Have you ever imagined what you would look like standing in the very presence of Jesus? I’m not talking about a physical comparison but standing beside him with your heart and motives exposed. I think it was my last year in Seminary [1973] that Bro. Inman ask me to do a YOUTH REVIVAL at Marks, Mississippi. It was a rural church located in the heart of the Mississippi delta. I preached Wednesday night through Sunday night. Bro. Inman had retained a young man to lead the music. He was a son of one of those wealthy delta cotton farmers. The boy did not work in the fields. I found out later that he worked part time at a men’s clothing store. Up till that Revival, I had not been conscience of my attire 
or appearance. I knew what a mirror was but I just didn’t pay that much attention. On the very first night of the meeting, I noticed how sharp this guy dressed. His tie cost more than my entire outfit. I thought to myself, this turkey wore his Sunday morning outfit, but I was wrong. The next night he was all decked out in something brand new; even a different pair of shoes. They were patent leather; you could see your reflection in his shoes. Friday night came and another new outfit with another pair of shoes. He never wore the same thing twice and that included shoes. The shoe thing was beginning to bother me. I had one pair that I wore everywhere, to the barn or the church. They were two tones: camel tan and navy blue–no, I am not kidding. They looked horrible. They were scuffed, marred and no shiny at all. I asked Bro. Inman if he had any shoe polish but these type shoes had to be polished with a neutral wax and all he had was black. As I was digging through his shoe shine box; I saw some black dye. So I dyed the shoes black and then polished them with his black shoe polish. The results were horrible. The shoes looked even worse, making me more self-conscience.
Later it dawned on me, “Jesus is the patent leather shoes, perfect, shiny, glowing and I was the old dirty two-toned shoes that were unattractive, dull and beyond fixing.” The more I tried to fix those old shoes, the worse it got. Here is the moral: Some folks think they are good, other think they are pretty good but once you stand side beside Jesus, you will see that you are not good, not even pretty good. You will begin to see your sin and you wish for a place to hide.
- If you are like me, you will be glad when the election is over. I realize a lot is at stake and I hope we win but I am really tired of the slanderous political ads the demos are putting out. Remember we told you some weeks back that three billionaire Jews are paying for these ads: Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and Tom Steyers. All three are Ciaphas type Jews [filthy rich and power hungry] and they are hypocrites. Steyer made his fortune in coal and yet claims to be a proponent of global warming. Their ultimate goal is to impeach Trump; their immediate goal is to take the house and senate. If they succeed, Trump will be impeached. I know it is a sensitive subject for some but my advice is vote straight republican. No democrat on this planet is going to support Trump. Don’t forget, Jones promised he would and then didn’t. If you don’t believe what I said about Bloomberg, Soros and Steyer–do your own research. Get the facts for yourself.
- Praise the LORD for November and the rain. I love November because it gives us THANKSGIVING and I love THANKSGIVING.
- Roger has been battling a colon infection. It is better but they plan to move him to Health South Rehab and I don’t think he able to rehab. Please pray for Roger and Dot. Roger is very weak: He is not doing good.