These brief messages were created by Rev. Duane Maxey, who I consider to be my main mentor after Rev. J. Herbert Norton.
Brief Messages For Time-Limited Readers 06
PEOPLE NEED THESE BREAKS
"Give ME a BREAK!" -- an expression that is sometimes heard today which often voices the the speaker's frustration or displeasure with something that has just been said or done. Perhaps most of the time this expression is one that it had been best not to say.
However there ARE " BREAKS" which millions of people really DO need today. I shall mention only 3 of them. They are "SPIRITUAL BREAKS" which are important to our Eternal Welfare. Interested? Read on.
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01 -- BREAK OFF -- YOUR SINS AND INIQUITIES!
"BREAK OFF THY SINS by righteousness, and THINE INIQUITIES by shewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity" (Daniel 4:27).
"By righteousness" a true penitent seeker of Christ's Salvation "BREAKS OFF" ALL SINS AND INIQUITIES instantly. God does not permit piece-meal repentance of one or two sins now, a few more later, etc., until finally all sins are given up. All sins must be "broken off" NOW! -- leaving none which continue to be committed, and with the intention and determination that not one sin shall ever be committed again throughout the remainder of one's life.
James 1:21 calls sin a "superfluity of naughtiness" -- if you please, like a wicked appendage attached to one's life that ought not to be there. Suppose there was a truck about to pass through a narrow, one-way concrete tunnel which was 10 feet wide. A sign warns the driver: -- "Maximum Width 10 Feet" -- but the driver had loaded across the front of the truck-bed a wooden closet-rod 1Ω inches thick and 14 feet long, extending 2 feet beyond the maximum width of that tunnel on each side. It is packed in so tightly it cannot be removed, and isn't worth saving. So, the driver presses down on the foot-feed, and when the the front end of that truck bed reaches the tunnel, 2 feet of the "excessive width" of that closet-rod on each side of the truck bed is instantly "broken off" -- and the driver keeps right on heading through the tunnel and down the road.
Even so, SIN IS A "SUPERFLUITY OF NAUGHTINESS" too wide for the "Strait Gate" leading unto Life Eternal, and must be "broken off" to pass through! In Righteousness, plow right on through the "Strait Gate"! Let sin's superfluous attachment to your soul be instantly "broken off" as you go through! HALLELUJAH! Don't bother going back to pick it up and throw it out of the Highway to Heaven, for GOD HIMSELF shall have already taken every bit of that "superfluity of naughtiness" and cast it into the Sea of His Forgetfulness forever! GLORY!
Sinner friend, even thus "BREAK OFF THY SINS AND INIQUITIES by righteousness, and it SHALL BE "a lengthening of thy tranquillity" -- a lengthening that NEVER ENDS throughout Eternity in Heaven! (Daniel 4:27). I SAY HALLELUJAH! Do it NOW! You'll never regret it!
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02 -- BREAK DOWN -- EVERY IDOL!
Before their carrying away into Babylon, ancient Israel repeatedly set up idols and worshipped THEM instead of our Living God. 2 Chronicles 34:7 tells how righteous king Josiah set forth to BREAK DOWN ISRAEL'S IDOLS and "when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem."
Today, every impenitent sinner is "idolatrous" -- worshipping something other than God -- and, whether that thing be shaped materially like the idols of old or not, it is, in fact, AN IDOL. In order to receive God's "one and only Salvation" through Christ Jesus, He demands that we do as the songwriter wrote:
"Break down every idol,
Cast out every foe!"
We are told in the history of India, that Mahmoud -- who conquered a great portion of India hundreds of years ago destroyed all the idols in every town to which he came. In time he laid siege to the great city of Guzurat. Forcing for himself an entrance into the costliest shrine of the Brahmins, there rose before him the figure of a gigantic idol, fifteen feet high. He instantly ordered it to be destroyed. The Brahmins of the temple prostrated themselves at his feet, and said: "Great Mahmoud, spare our god, for the fortunes of this city depend upon him."
But Mahmoud, after a moment's pause, said he would rather be known as the breaker than the seller of idols, and struck the image with his battle-axe. His soldiers followed, and in an instant the idol was broken to pieces. It proved to be hollow, and had been used as a receptacle for thousands of precious gems, which, as the image was shattered, fell at the conqueror's feet. From its shattered side came pearls and diamonds, showers of gold; more than all the proffered ransom, more than all a hundred fold."
Likewise, every idol which a penitent sinner has worshipped must be "broken down" but when this is done, all the riches of Christ and His Salvation pour forth into that one's soul! And "OH, THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES IN CHRIST!" BREAK DOWN EVERY IDOL, CAST OUT EVERY FOE, seeking sinner, and yours shall be the Eternal Riches of Christ, "WEALTH THAT CAN NEVER BE TOLD"!
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03 -- BREAK UP -- YOUR FALLOW GROUND!
Twice, we find this command in God's Word:
First, it is found in Jeremiah 4:3 -- "For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, BREAK UP YOUR FALLOW GROUND, and sow not among thorns."
Dr. Adam Clarke commented thus upon "BREAK UP YOUR FALLOW GROUND" -- Fallow ground is either that which, having been once tilled, has lain long uncultivated . . . Ye have been long uncultivated in righteousness; let true repentance BREAK UP YOUR FRUITLESS AND HARDENED HEARTS; and when the seed of the Word of Life is sown in them, take heed that worldly cares and concerns do not arise, and, like thorns, choke the good seed."
Next, it is found in Hosea 10:12 -- "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; BREAK UP YOUR FALLOW GROUND: for it is time to seek the Lord, TILL HE COME AND RAIN RIGHTEOUSNESS UPON YOU."
It is clear from these two Divine commands that spiritually "Fallow Ground" is a) like hardened, impenitent hearts which need to be broken open before the good seed of God's Word can be sown, and b) before God will "RAIN DOWN RIGHTEOUSNESS" to cause His Word to take root and grow in one's soul.
OH, the arid, parched, and dryness spiritually which is found in many professed Christian church services today! The water found in them is nothing more than a Satanic mirage.
As a boy, I recall hearing Bob Nolan and the "Sons of the Pioneers" sing over the radio a song titled "Cool Water". I take the song tells of a desert-dwelling prospector with his donkey or mule, Dan, trying to make it across the barren, desert waste, when they were both desperately thirsty:
"All day I faced the barren waste
Without the taste of water--
Cool water! Clear water, water.
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
And souls that cry for water--
Cool water! Clear water, water.
Then, the old prospector sees what appears to be a stream of Cool Water flowing in the distance:
"Oh, Dan can't you see that big green tree
Where the waters runnin' free
And it's waiting there for you and me.
Cool water, Clear water, water!"
But, upon arriving at the spot where that Cool, Flowing Stream seemed to be, the old prospector discovers that it was nothing but a desert mirage! -- and says to Old Dan,
"Keep a movin' Dan, don't you listen to him Dan,
He's a devil not a man, and he spreads the burnin' sand
With water, Cool water, Clear water, water!"
Around this deceived and spiritually arid world today are millions who have never tasted "The Water of Life"! In the "barren waste" of their congregations they have never found anything but a Satanic Mirage! How many of them, I wonder, are even now DESPERATELY THIRSTY FOR THAT TRUE WATER OF LIFE!!? Christian Intercessors: -- Pray that God will move upon them to "break up their fallow ground" so that He CAN, and WILL, RAIN DOWN RIGHTEOUSNESS UPON THEIR DRY GROUND, cause His Word to take root in their souls, and His Spirit to QUENCH THEIR DESPERATE THIRST for the Water of Life!
ìI will pour water on him that is thirsty,
I will pour floods upon the dry ground;
Open your hearts for the gifts I am bringing;
While ye are seeking Me, I will be found.î
-- Lucy J. Meyer (1849-1922)
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