My favorite preacher is Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001). He was born to his mother when she was 39 years old. Children with older parents are usually more mature, which I believe is the case with Jack Hyles. He was very mature for his age as a young man. His mother's name is Coystal Mattie (Frasure) Hyles (1887-1984). I never had the opportunity to see or meet her at the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. I enrolled into Hyles-Anderson College in 1985, but Brother Hyles Mom had passed away the year before in 1984.
Brother Hyles said that his mother's favorite Bible verse was Psalms 103:14, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” I love that Scripture passage too! Here is more of the surrounding text, so you can get a clearer idea of the text. I cannot think of a more precious, beautiful and comforting passage from God's Word...
Psalms 103:10-16, He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.”
There are a dozen precious truths found in the preceding passage of Scripture. Our Creator is a merciful God. Micah 7:18, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” What a wonderful passage. We serve a loving, compassionate, faithful, fair and good God. Psalms 97:1, “The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.”
In the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, He never browbeat people for past sins. Jesus always said to them: “Go, and sin no more” (John 5:14, 8:11). Delilah removed Samson's hair, BUT Delilah couldn't stop it from growing again. If you live with deep regrets over past sins, there is hope my friend. Cheer up. Just by God's grace don't repeat the same mistakes. God is not concerned about your past failures, He is concerned about right now and moving ahead.
The Reason Why I Don't Make Vows To God
Someone recently asked me what to do if you've broken a vow to God. Dear reader, if that is you also, humbly confess your broken vow to God and tell Him you won't be so careless in the future with your vows. God just wants us all to do better moving forward. I heard Pastor Jack Hyles teach that in a sermon. I sure wish I could remember which sermon it was, but I cannot. God is not an ogre in Heaven that shows no mercy.
1st Corinthians 2:16b, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” The Bible says as saints that we have Christ's mind, so that we can judge righteously in matters. Sometimes people make a vow to God that they later realize they either cannot or don't want to keep. The Bible says that you should pay that which you have vowed. Making a vow is a serious matter. If you break a vow to God, he will hold you fully accountable. Ecclesiastes 5:4-5, “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.”
Only a fool breaks a promise to God. However, I do not believe that God is a thug who expects you to keep a promise that will wreak havoc in your life. If a bad situation has arisen, such as losing your job after promising God to give your local church a certain amount of money each month, I humbly believe that God allows for extenuating circumstances. God is not unjust and unreasonable to force you to keep a vow that you can no longer keep; not without causing undue stress, loss and hardship for your family. The Lord understands, He really does friend.
The Lord fully knows that we are made of mere dust. Isaiah 64:8, “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” This Scripture passage proves that abortion is the sin of murder. God forms every child in its mother's womb. We are the work of our Creator's omnipotent loving hands.
As human beings, we are comprised of the elements (clay) from the earth. Ecclesiastes 3:20, “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” When we ultimately die someday, our body returns into the earth from which it came. Ecclesiastes 12:13, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
God bless you dear reader, hang in there. The Lord desires to fellowship with you (James 4:8). As I mentioned, Pastor Jack Hyles' mother's favorite Bible verse was Psalms 103:14, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” God knows that we are made from the dust of the earth—mortal creatures prone to weakness and failure.
When a woman was caught in the very act of adultery in John chapter 8, the hypocritical Pharisees dragged her out of bed, dumping her on the ground at Jesus' feet. As a testimony against them for selectively condemning people, they didn't bother to bring the man. That is very interesting! No one knows what Jesus wrote on the ground with His finger, but I have always speculated that perhaps He wrote: “Where's the man?” Whatever Jesus wrote, it convicted the crowd.
The inspired Holy Bible says that from the oldest to the youngest, they put their stones down and walked away. In this true story, we learn that we are all guilty sinners as humans (Romans 3:10-23). No one has a right to condemn others for their sins (Matthew 7:1). The legal system holds people accountable for their poor behavior, but on an individual basis we do not have a right to become the judge, jury and executioner. The Bible says if you condemn me for my sins, it just reveals that your sins are much greater (Matthew 7:1-5).
God understands that we are all sinners by birth (nature) and by choice. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Never trust a man who trusts himself! The inspired Word of God teaches and warns not to trust the human heart, because it is desperately wicked and deceitful ABOVE ALL ELSE! This is why the humble shepherd boy turned king, David, said in Psalms 19:12, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.” Since the human heart is wicked and deceptive, we all tend to overlook our own sins but are quick to see other's sins. I am guilty of doing it sometimes and so are you.
Humans Hurt Each Other's Feelings
To be transparent, sometimes certain people at church get on my nerves. I've actually skipped church at times, when I felt tension because of inconsiderate people who were rude, Smart Alecs or ran their big mouth. I take pain medications to cope with my constant chronic neck pain. The last thing I need is for someone at church giving me a hard time. Sometimes people don't mean any harm, they're just foolish and immature, blind to how horrible they can be. God remembers that we are made of dust. Psalms 103:14, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” I try to be like my dear Savior, by letting hurt feelings go and remembering that people are just made of clay. Albeit, that is difficult to do for me sometimes. I am a caring person, and the flipside of having a caring heart is that I have sensitive feelings.
I have been praying for God to help me let things go, and not to be so upset when people are ungrateful, rude and make fun of me; but that is easier said than done. I have noticed that people who don't care are much better able to handle mean people. To the same degree that you are a caring and loving person, you will get your feelings hurt by others. Pastor Lee Roberson (1909-2007) used to say that you cannot hurt or offend a dead man. So he taught his church congregation to DIE TO SELF. I like that truth.
In the story of the Ten Lepers that Jesus healed, only one bothered to return to thank Him. That hurt Jesus' feelings. Luke 17:17, “And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” I love this Bible account, because it reveals that our wonderful Lord and Savior got His feelings hurt, just like us. I have had my feelings trampled upon and wounded thousands of times throughout my life. I could tell you a hundred stories about times when people have deeply wounded my feelings, and they couldn't have cared less. People can be so cruel. One web visitor emailed me a long time ago and said: PEOPLE EQUAL PAIN! Yes, my friend, people often do equal pain. That is what Jeremiah 17:9 teaches—that the human heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all else.
Therefore, I have painfully learned to just love the hell out of people, pray for them, and be kind to everyone regardless of how they treat me. I cannot control what others say or do, but I CAN control my own thoughts, words and behavior. I have had a few pastors reject THE TRUTH when I placed it into their hands, and then ban me from attending their churches in sinful pride.
False Prophets Easily Deceive People
When I attended the shameful Harvest Baptist Church on Guam in 2014, their incompetent senior pastor, Marty Herron, preached the Devil's lie of LORDSHIP SALVATION. I befriended him with the truth that Lordship Salvation is a perversion of the Gospel of grace. I also exposed their multiple counterfeit Bible revisions. I also exposed their false idea that repentance means to forsake a lifestyle of sinning to get to Heaven, which is a falsehood.
I also heard Pastor Jack Hyles teach that if he could teach his people one thing next to the plan of salvation, it would to: GET OUT OF THE SELF LIFE. I couldn't agree more. I desire to grow in my Christian faith to the point, where inconsiderate people can no longer bother me. I don't know if that is even possible, but I am trying. You might now be thinking about a popular passage of Scripture from Psalms 119:165, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” This passage has nothing to do with being offended by others. It means that if you abide in the inspired Scriptures, you won't stumble. The Hebrew word for “offend” here means “to stumble.” Put another way, the man is not falling apart whose Bible is!
Because we are made of dust, we are easily deceived by False Prophets. People are like sheep. If you know anything about sheep, they are defenseless animals. Sheep have no sharp teeth or claws like bears do. Wolves have sharp teeth to grip, tear and fight with. But sheep are essentially lamb chops waiting to be devoured by wolves, bears and other predators. Sheep cannot defend themselves, which is why they desperately need a good shepherd to herd and protect them.
We are as sheep the Bible says in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:15 about ravening wolves who come disguised as sheep. Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Wolves are cunning, shrewd and dangerous, even eating humans. I could show you hundreds of tragic wolf stories, but here is a story that I randomly found. This one is from India, where 9 children and 1 adult were carried off by a pack of wolves and eaten alive! Wolves can be deadly enemies to all land creatures. There is strength in numbers. Wolves learn quickly that in large numbers they are invincible and can take down even the largest of creatures to kill and eat. The same is true with false prophets!
Psalms 103:14, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Our great God is merciful to them who fear and obey Him. The Lord understands that we are just dust, and He invites every human being to reason with Him (Isaiah 1:18). Jesus is precious!!!
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