But By The Grace Of God I Am What I Am

1st Corinthians 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

I thank God for using my humble labors online, since 2002, to reach others for Jesus Christ. At the Salvation Army, my Christian parents dedicated me to the Lord at age 1, to be used of God. I was saved at age 13 in an old-fashioned Independent Fundamental Baptist Church. My parents wisely enrolled me into the church's Christian school, for which I am forever grateful. I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world! At age 15, I was called to preach, as I sat in a church pew and felt the conviction of God upon my soul to surrender my life to serve Jesus Christ as a preacher. I THANK GOD for making use of a humble unworthy sinner like me! 

I have made some unwise decisions during my lifetime. I didn't always do the right thing. I made some big mistakes. I missed out on some great opportunities. I have many regrets! Albeit, looking back now in hindsight, I see God's omnipotent hand at work in my life. I see how the Lord took my failures and used them for His glory! As only God can do, He took the LEMONS in my life and made LEMONADE! I now see what I couldn't see back then. God only knows the things that would have happened, if the things that happened, hadn't happened! GOD IS ALWAYS GOOD!!! 

Psalms 119:67 and 71, “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. ...It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” King David penned those words, with which I can fully relate. A wise person learns from the sins and mistakes in their life. Sometimes we have to fall in order to learn how to get back up! God is a God of second chances! I love Jonah 3:1a, “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time...” God gave Jonah a SECOND CHANCE to obey Him! God could have went and found another man, but God chose Jonah to go preach to Nineveh. Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

“Failing is not a disgrace unless you make it the last chapter of your book.” —Pastor Jack Hyles

I have suffered in constant neck pain since 2004. It gets me down daily, being in chronic physical pain all the time, and neck tension; but God uses these afflictions to keep me humble, so He can mightily use my online ministry for His glory. 2nd Corinthians 12:9, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Jesus Christ said that HIS STRENGTH is made perfect (or complete) in human weakness. God has had many children too strong to make use of, but He never had one that was TOO WEAK!!! 

Rejected By My Own Dear Baptist Brethren

I am just a redeemed sinner saved by God's grace. I am a misfit. I often humbly wonder to myself, “Why would God love somebody like me?” I am just a clump of clay from the earth. I am just a sinner. There is nothing good about me except Jesus, Whose Holy Spirit lives in me (Romans 8:9). My chronic neck pain makes me irritable oftentimes. I feel like nobody wants to be around me. I fail so often at being what I think God desires for me to be. I am a nobody. I have been a social misfit my entire life. In any group I always end up being all alone, the loner. 

Sadly, the biggest local independent Baptist church on Guam (just 5 minutes from me) has rejected me since 2014, like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, refusing to let me play in any of their reindeer games. I speak that to their shame at Harvest. I love them in the Lord but they don't love me. That is what happens when a faithful believer grows in God's grace, to where other less spiritual believers can no longer reciprocate our love. It gets lonely! 

THANK GOD THAT HE USES MISFITS LIKE ME!!! 

Like Rudolph the reindeer with his bright glowing nose, whose peers mocked and made fun of him for being different, I know the pain of soul caused by being “despised and rejected” by the local Harvest Baptist Church on Guam (i.e., the Bob Jones University crowd) for my bright King James Bible only position, and I'm not allowed to play in any of their reindeer games (church activities and weekly services). Jesus knows the pain and loneliness that I am going through, for He endured the same rejection from his peers. Isaiah 53:3, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Jesus' own biological half-brothers didn't believe that He was the Savior. John 7:5, “For neither did his brethren believe in him.” Of course, Jesus had no earthly father, for God Himself in Heaven is Jesus' biological Father! Joseph at a later time, after Christ was miraculously virgin born, became Jesus' Dad who raised Him.

I sure feel like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (you can freely watch the full classic 1966 film here), which was one of my favorite movies as a boy. I cannot hide my inspired King James Bible only nose, and don't want to! Nearly everyone today merely goes along to get along with the apostate evangelical crowd. I am decidedly different, I buck the trend. I am the monkey wrench in the gears of ecumenism. I am the loner. I am a modern-day John the Baptist (my middle name “John” is named after John the Baptist). Matthew 11:11 says that John was the greatest born among women. Perhaps I am the lowest born among women. Who knows...lol! To God be the glory!!! 

God Uses Misfits Like Me

No doubt my many critics and enemies would agree! I don't want to conform to the accepted “norms” of new-evangelicalism. I don't want to be like everybody else, who are indifferent, ungrateful, snobby, cliquish, cultish and cold-hearted. I am an open-hearted loving person. I don't hold grudges. I am generous and like to give to help others who are in need. What would Jesus do? I don't want to go along with a dozen different Bible versions being promoted in the churches. God only authored ONE INSPIRED SACRED BOOK!

“Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death; but if you don't, you're gonna feed your doubts, and your faith will starve to death!” —Pastor Ralph “Yankee” Arnold, “1st John Made Simple”

God knows that I love more today than I ever have. Suffering in life either makes us more sweeter, or more bitter. I choose by faith to become more sweeter in Christ! I just want to be a blessing to others for Jesus Christ...

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” ―John Wesley

Some of the worst believers are those who have never gone into what is often regarded as “deep sin.” They have never been diagnosed with an incurable disease or ailment, as I have (Cervical Degenerative Disk Disease in my neck). I have stenosis and radiculopathy in my neck. Although I live in constant pain of body and soul, I have peace and joy in the Lord. God uses my afflictions to keep me humble. I think about this poor girl, Katie Stubblefield, who tried to commit suicide at age 18, shooting herself in the face. She survived, but she will suffer horribly the rest of her life. She is an encouragement to me to keep going in life. If she can make it, so can you and I. We all have so much to be thankful to God for!!! 

There is a sweet humble spirit that often exists in a person who has hit rock bottom in life. Luke 7:47, “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” There is a direct correlation between one's level of love for God and man, and one's perception of how big of a sinner we are! Since I feel like the BIGGEST SINNER, I don't condemn anybody for their sins. There but for the grace of God, go you and I! 

2nd Corinthians 12:9, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” My life is such a mess. My marriage is gone. My home is gone. My health is afflicted. My life is upside down like the 2006 'Poseidon' movie starring one of my favorite Hollywood actors, Richard Dreyfus. But the Lord says to me—“MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS”! My weakness is Christ's strength in my life! 

Therefore, I rejoice for my burdens, health afflictions, loneliness, heartache, and messed-up life's situation, so that God's power can rest upon me as He promised. My life is as a vapour that will be here today and gone tomorrow. Psalms 144:3-4, “LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.” Most people don't know what it is like to be humbled and broken in life, to lose everything, but I do. 

I know what it feels like to have everything go wrong in life, and nothing ever returns to normal, with no light at the end of the tunnel. I know the hurt, emotional trauma and inexplicable pain of soul—from betrayal, divorce, family turmoil, losing my home, poor health, constant chronic neck pain, being alone as a man without a wife. Yet, I say without hesitation—GOOD IS ALWAYS GOOD!!! Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him..”

Some Of The Sweetest Christians Have The Least Sunshine

I ordered a book by Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) from Amazon.com titled, “BROKEN THINGS: WHY WE SUFFER.” I want to share with you a wonderful quote by Dr. DeHaan from page 59:

“The greatest sermons I have ever heard were not preached from pulpits but from sickbeds. The greatest, deepest truths of God's Word have often been revealed, not by those who preached as a result of their seminary preparation and education, but by those humble souls who have gone through the seminary of affliction and have learned experientially the deep things of the ways of God

The most cheerful people I have met, with few exceptions, have been those who had the least sunshine and the most pain and suffering in their lives. The most grateful people I have met were not those who traveled a pathway of roses all their lives through, but those who were confined, because of circumstances, to their homes—often to their beds. They had learned to depend upon God as only such Christians know how to do.” —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, “BROKEN THINGS: WHY WE SUFFER,” page 59; Barbour Publishing, Inc., 1948

Pastor DeHaan goes on to explain the flip-side of the equation, concerning complainers...

“The 'gripers' on the other hand, are usually those who enjoy excellent health. The complainers are those who have the least to complain about. But those dear saints of God who have refreshed my heart again and again and again as they preached from sickbed-pulpits have been the men and women who have been the most cheerful and the most graceful for the blessings of almighty God.

The Bible tells us distinctly that there is a special reward and a special crown which the Lord has prepared and laid up for those who suffer patiently. This principle is suggested by the incident recorded in I Samuel 30. 

David, along with 400 strong, healthy men, had gone out to seek the enemy. Two hundreds, however, had remained behind because they were weary and faint, probably because of some physical infirmity. These David had left behind to guard the camp and the equipment of those who went into the heat of the battle. After the victory had been won, the four hundred who had been active participants in the battle refused to share with those who had remained behind and said, 'We'll give them just a little bit, but we're going to take the spoils.

At this point, David stated the eternal principle in the words of 1 Samuel 30:24, 'As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike.'

Those of you who remain by the stuff are not overlooked or forgotten by God: there is a very definite and special reward laid up for God's patient sufferers.

If you, child of God, are upon a bed of illness, if you are being troubled by pain or discouragement, remember that God will always use our suffering for His purposes. Our suffering silences Satan, our suffering enables us to glorify God, our suffering makes us more like Christ, our suffering makes us appreciative, and, ultimately, our suffering teaches us to depend on God.” —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, “BROKEN THINGS: WHY WE SUFFER,” page 60; Barbour Publishing, Inc., 1948

I've been at the bottom of life, when there is absolutely NO WHERE TO LOOK EXCEPT UP TO GOD! Brother Lester Roloff was absolutely right, who wisely said:

“A test of a Christian's character is what he does after he comes to the blockade in the road and what his attitude is after everything has left him except Jesus. You will never know down here that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have left. You will never be able to tell the world for sure that He will do in a crisis unless you learn how to live in a crisis.” —Evangelist Lester Roloff (1914-1982), a quote from the sermon, “How To Go On When You Can't”

“When you get dissed by men—the whole reason God allowed you to be dissed—is because He didn't want you to fit in! He don't want you to fit in with the world. He don't want you to fit in with the rest of the group! He don't want you to be just like them! 'Cause there is something special about you! There's an assignment for you. There's a call for you. There's an anointing for your life. God does not want you to fit in!” —Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr.; a quote from the sermon titled: Being Dissed | MP3