The Sword of the LORD

Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her. Matthew 26:13 Two days before the Jewish Passover, Jesus and His disciples came to Bethany where Lazarus and his two sisters lived. It was Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Jesus was invited to dine at the house of a man named Simon, who was a leper. While there, a woman entered the room carrying an alabaster box that was filled with a very expensive ointment. The box itself was very beautiful. Alabaster was similar to onyx in appearance and must have been fashioned into a very attractive container to house such a precious ointment. The cost of the ointment was equivalent to about $50.00 in today’s currency. This would be an expensive possession today, but at that time it was a very valuable treasure. It was certainly this woman’s greatest possession and something that she had guarded and cherished. It is co...

I remember well as a young man growing up in church, I wanted to do well and make right choices; but I found that, despite my best intentions, I still did things that I was not proud of. Afterwards, I would resolve to do better, only to fall to the same weaknesses a short time later. Unfortunately, the church that I grew up in could not offer me the answers to the conflict I was feeling. The Pastor himself admitted openly that he didn’t believe much of the Bible, and so substituted a social gospel that was devoid of any true power to change lives. For this reason, I thought I had seen religion and found that it had nothing to offer me, so I turned my back on Christianity. I wandered for a number of years in confusion, and gave myself over to a lot of hurtful pursuits until one day God called me to Himself. I was amazed one day when I discovered a passage in scripture that exactly described the dilemma that I faced as a teenager. I read in Romans 7, “For I know that in me (that is, in...

“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the right­eous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25) During my first year of Christianity, I felt inspired to write a small tract entitled God Is No Pauper . It was a simple treatise on trusting the Lord for His provision of our daily needs and the needs of the ministry. It exposed the notion of having to appeal to man to supply one's needs rather than trusting in the promises of God. One section of that message is as follows: "If the earth and all the fullness thereof is the Lord’s, then surely He is capable of carrying out His work without His saints having to beg and yahoo for funds to support that work. Neither is it easy to imagine God’s holy apostles and prophets “passing the plate” to procure wages to support the work that God had given them to do. Why, therefore, should it be any different for any of His other ministers? "The apostle Paul worked with his hands as a tentmaker to support h...