What You Think You Need Is Not What You Need

John 17:15-17, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

I have a web visitor who has exchanged fifty emails with me over the past year. I love the man in Christ and have tried to help him with his problems. Like so many people who contact me for spiritual help, he prefers to email me whenever he is down, depressed and angry at life, but he refuses to do any of the helpful things that I have suggested he do (i.e., study and listen to the inspired King James Bible, listen to fundamentalist Bible preaching online, and attend a Bible-believing local church). He won't do it. Instead, he chooses to keep coming to me to coddle him when he is tormented in his soul. He speaks of being oppressed by demons and tells me of his failures to overcome the temptations and sin in his miserable life.

That man got angry at me the other day, wrongly accusing me in an email of not caring about him. He accused me of not understanding what he is suffering through, asking me if I even know what it truly means to suffer. He said some nasty horrible untrue things in his anger to me. Do you know what I said that made him so angry? I told him the truth!

The man wrote to me this week. I won't share his email in this blog, because I protect the privacy of all the people who email me. They trust me with their personal information and I honor that. However, I can say that he shared his wounded soul, miseries, abuse as a child, confusion, broken relationship with his biological father, et cetera. He accused me of lacking sympathy for his problems, because I didn't hold his hand and pamper him as if he were a small child. Folks, I am not a babysitter!

The problem is that he has shared the same miseries with me umpteen times since July of 2024, in which time we have exchanged fifty ministry emails. He only contacts me when he needs someone to dump on, to vent. Dear reader, I am here by God's grace to help others, and if you want to email me a hundred times to vent, I am willing to listen to be a friend at midnight. By God's grace, I humbly am a servant of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here was my kind response to the man, which pissed him off and compelled him to accuse me of not caring about him (you be the judge)...

The best advice I can give you my friend is to saturate your mind and heart with the inspired Word of God, that is, the King James Bible. I listened to Genesis yesterday... 

https://youtu.be/OgFT_IxwJJY?si=gOedUqyPdEGIQzj_

I recommend listening to Bible preaching daily. One of my favorite preachers is Pastor Steven Anderson. I know that he is controversial, but he is right on 99% of the things he preaches on...

https://www.faithfulwordbaptist.org/page5.html

Also, I listen regularly to Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)...

https://www.jesus-is-savior.com/playlist_preaching.htm

You need to renew your mind, replacing the wrong thinking with biblical thinking. Bible preaching helps us to think and live right. There is no other substitute for spending time hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Jesus said in John 17:17 that we are sanctified by the Word of God.

I encourage you to read The Strand Study Bible, which will help you immensely to understand the Holy Bible. Here is a free online copy...

https://user-rcpeu3.cld.bz/The-Strand-Study-Bible

Pastor Brad Strand in Texas spent 33 years and 30,000 hours putting together his study Bible, which is invaluable for the Bible student. Amazon sells new hard copies for about $125.

I hope that helps my friend.

That was my loving reply to the man that angered him, compelling him to degrade me and wrongly accuse me of not caring about him. Unreal. So, here was my follow-up email to him...

Kindly my friend, you have written to me numerous times before, and I have often expressed sympathy for your pain. I perceive that you are hurting and your anger is not toward me, but toward life itself. You wrote in your previous email that if I don't have the answers, to say so. Well, I did, a couple emails ago. I said:

I wish I had a magic answer my friend, but I don't. However, I have shared with you how I have made it over the years through the valley of the shadow of death in my own life. My faith in God has sustained me. In Mark 11:22 Jesus said, "Have faith in God." And of course, Jesus is almighty God (John 10:33), and the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16).

As I said before, I'll say again, I don't have a magic answer for you! I have been through decades of traumatic emotional pain, inexplicable pain, and an unwanted divorce in 2006, losing everything near and dear to me in the years that followed, et cetera. I have told you all of this before. I don't know where you got the wrong idea that I don't care or have never suffered. With God as my witness, I think I have more than shown that I do care, based on our many previous email exchanges my friend.

I have suffered much in my life. As Rocky Balboa says to his son (his real son played in the movie, who died years later of a drug overdose in real life) in Rocky part 5... "Life will beat you to your knees and keep you there if you let it; it's not how hard you can hit that matters, but how hard you can get hit and keep going." I never forgot that fatherly advice. Life will beat us to our knees! The Bible says when we are WEAK, we are STRONG, because our weakness allows Jesus to be strong in our life (2nd Corinthians 12:10). You need God's help all the time, and so do I, and everyone else too; but most people are too proud to submit to God.

I do care about you ______. I am being your best friend by encouraging you to listen to Bible preaching and saturate your mind with the inspired Word of God, and to go to church. I am a wretched sinner, and so are you (Romans 3:10-23). Our minds are all broken to some extent. There is no such thing as a "good Christian." We are all struggling horrible sinners. 

I have battled depression my entire adult life. I understand your frustrations, I really do. If all I had to look at was my prayer life I'd become an atheist, because as far as I can tell God has never answered a single prayer in my life. The many times when my prayers seemed to be answered, it could also have been mere coincidence. Yet, our good God has always taken care of me, and that I cannot deny. I refuse to put God on trial as the heathen world does all the time. Job said though God might kill him, he would still trust the Lord (Job 13:15). I feel the same! I have food on the table, a roof over my head, a mostly healthy body and all the comforts of our modern civilization. I have no complaints to the Lord. Best of all, my name is written in Heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life (Luke 10:20). God is faithful (1st Corinthians 1:9).

I recommended listening to Pastors' Steven Anderson and Jack Hyles because their preaching has helped me tremendously. Dr. Hyles dedicated every Sunday morning sermon to comforting broken hearts in his church congregation, where he was the senior pastor for 42 years at the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. Dr. Hyles was a pastor for 55 years, pastoring multiple different churches. He counseled thousands of hurting families during those 55 years, since age 19. He went to Heaven at age 74 in 2001. You would be wise to listen to his sermons. I once heard Dr. Hyles say that out of 135 counseling sessions with church members, 128 of them could have been avoided if people would just listen to his sermons. That is amazing!

This is why I encourage you to listen regularly to Dr. Hyles' Bible preaching, because it will renew your mind, give you wisdom and help you grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's like the true old adage: "If you give a man a fish, you will have fed him for a day; but if you teach a man to fish, you will have fed him for a lifetime." Kindly said, I can encourage you whenever you're feeling down, feeling oppressed by demons and you're upset, but we'll be doing this for the rest of your life. I'd much rather help you to grow closer to God by encouraging you to walk with wise men. Proverbs 13:20, "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed."

One of my favorite sermons is by Dr. Jack Hyles titled, "IF THOU SHOULD MARK INIQUITIES, WHO COULD STAND?"

Over the decades I have amassed a coveted collection of 3,336 sermons and Bible studies by Pastor Jack Hyles. I shared this with you because there is a wealth of wisdom and help my friend...

https://www.jesus-is-savior.com/playlist_preaching.htm

Trust me when I say that saturating your life with THE TRUTH will help you. You may not feel like it is helping, but I assure you over time that it will. God's Holy Spirit works through BIBLE PREACHING. Titus 1:2-4, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour; 

To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour."

What saith the Scripture? Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Colossians 3:10-11, "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." When I am down and discouraged, the indwelling Holy Spirit reminds me of Scripture passages that I have memorized and learned, to comfort, rebuke, guide and encourage me. David said in Psalms 119:9-11 that he hid God's Word in his heart that he might not sin against God. That is not just good advice, it is the only way to live the Christian life! Even Jesus quoted the Scriptures all three times He was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4:1-11).

I intentionally listen to Bible preaching in good weather, that is, when things are going well in my life. I do this to prepare and lay up truths for when the dark storm clouds of life arise. You're down in the valley right now, and I can only do so much to try to help you my friend. I just checked and we have exchanged 50 emails since July of 2024. I have numerous ministry visitors who regularly write to me when they are down and at their wit's end, wanting me to encourage them. By God's grace I am glad to do it, but I always try to encourage them to listen to Bible preaching, listen to the King James Bible, and saturate their life with THE TRUTH. 

Also, every believer should attend a local Bible believing church. I went to a local Baptist church this morning and received a blessing from the sermon. I have attended the same church since 2021. I encourage you to attend a local Baptist church, if you're not already. We all need Christian fellowship with other saints, and they also need our fellowship, help and comfort. If we don't pray and help each other as Christians, God knows that the world certainly won't.

I have umpteen people, professed Christians, writing to me about all their miseries and problems, but hardly any of them will listen to my godly advice to saturate their life with Bible preaching and the Holy Scripture. Those same worldly believers gladly sit around watching hellish television all week, but refuse to read the King James Bible, and then they wonder why they're so messed up. I am not saying this is you _____, because I don't know your situation, but I am saying to all my web visitors that if the shoe fits, wear it! You know how much Tv you watch, or don't watch. You know how much time you spend abiding in God's Word, or not. I get tired of professed Christians expecting me to fix their broken life, when they refuse to listen to sound Bible preaching and the inspired Word of God, which nothing can substitute for.

I made a choice a long, long, time ago to start listening to Bible preaching from fundamentalist Bible preachers (not hellbound clowns like Joel Osteen, Paul Washer, Ray Comfort, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn, Todd Friel, Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Kenneth Copeland, and other lowlife bastards of the faith). Pastor Steven Anderson is not perfect, far from it, but he is 100% correct on the Bible and the Gospel, and I love listening to the guy preach. He has a backbone and is not afraid to offend the heathens.

People get all bent out of shape, down and depressed simply because they are focusing on the wrong things in their life. Hebrews 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." The wicked lost world look to Washington D.C., the state government, welfare, education, the media, pharmaceuticals, sexual immorality, psychology and other worldly things to solve their problems and meet their needs, but they refuse to seek their help from almighty God, their Creator. The Bible says that without FAITH it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

So, kindly said, I wasn't brushing you off my friend by directing you to saturate your life with the Holy Bible and fundamentalist Bible preaching. It's just that after a year of ping-ponging 50 emails back and forth, addressing the same lingering issues, I am trying to help you help yourself. Don't get me wrong, I am a servant to my ministry visitors and am glad to help you when you need my encouragement in the Lord, but I am giving you the exact same advice that I give all of my web visitors, to LOOK TO JESUS, who is the Author and Finisher of our Christian faith. Hebrews 1:2 teaches that God the Father speaks to us today through His only begotten Son, that is, The Word of God according to John 1:1-3, 14 and Revelation 19:13.

I receive several thousand ministry emails each year, for all of which I am grateful. But there's always a handful of people who clamour for my attention more than others, who are always discouraged and struggling with demons in their life. Yet, they won't take my sound advice to saturate their life with the truth of God's Word. They refuse to go to church. They refuse to read the Christian books that I send them online, nor will they read or listen to the Bible sermons that I share with them. They just want me to hold their hand while they ignore God's will in their life.

I encourage you friend to listen every week to the Old Testament book of Proverbs, which takes 1 hour and 38 minutes to complete. There's 168 hours in a week. It's not asking too much that we would spend less than a couple hours each week listening to the Proverbs for wisdom...

https://youtu.be/lMLCM9ULM14

Less than 1% of my web visitors care about listening to Alexander Scourby read the King James Bible, or listening to Bible preachers who are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. It is sad and the root of people's problems. We don't need any more Christian radio, Christian magazines, Christian books or Christian seminars, we need to get back to the inspired KING JAMES BIBLE.

I just prayed for you ______, for God to work in your life.

Kindest regards and God bless.

One man from India kept writing to me every time his OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) afflicted him. We exchanged 150 emails over a period of one year. He would ask me if it mattered which of Jesus' hands, left or right, was nailed to the cross first. I honestly thought he was mocking and messing with me, and I almost blocked him out on a few occasions, but one thought captivated my mind—I figured if the guy was willing to take the time to write long legible emails to me, I should at least give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is sincere. So that is what I did.

That being said, after exchanging so many emails and him delving into the same questions repeatedly, I kindly told him truthfully that we were just going in circles, and I could not help him find the assurance of his salvation, because he has OCD. I can help someone who is ignorant of God's Word. I can help such a person settle the matter of knowing they are saved, by teaching them God's simple plan of salvation. However, I am not a psychiatrist and cannot help someone who refuses to believe the truths that I share with them. People who suffer from OCD refuse to rest in the promises of God, because their fears control them.

That poor man from India told me repeatedly that he often felt like his chair would swallow him into Hell. At one point he became ridiculous, asking me if it mattered if the cross was made of wood or plastic. I truly thought he was either insane or messing with me, but his emails were detailed and well written, so I did my best to help him. I shared every sermon, book and article I could find on salvation to help him, but his OCD fears overpowered all his sense of reason. Ultimately, I shared some Christian websites that I found to help people with OCD, but I honestly told the man that I don't know if they are good websites.

Dear read, I wrote this blog to help you! If you want to email me with your problems, anger and emotional wounds to vent, I'll be glad to listen; but at some point (likely much sooner than later), I will definitely encourage you to attend to a local church, read or listen to the inspired King James Bible, and listen regularly to Bible preaching by fundamentalist pastors and evangelists. Bible preaching helps us to think and live right!

Sad but true, the last thing that hurting people want to hear is that they need to listen to the inspired Holy Bible, attend a local church, and hear preaching at home and in their car. Listening to Bible preaching online has become a way of life for me, and I need and love it! And by the way, so do you, whoever you may be! We all need hard Bible preaching!!!

People think they need someone to coddle them, but you need to live in God's inspired Word! People think they need someone to burp, baby and change their diaper, but you need to have the hell preached out of you! People think they need someone to say nice things to encourage them, but you need to be offended by THE TRUTH! You need to attend a local church regularly.

Lately, I'm increasingly receiving emails from distraught Christians who are down on life, and they expect some magic pill from me to make everything right, but it doesn't exist. Suffering is a part of the Christian life, as much as salvation itself.

Kindly said, if you'd rather sit around watching worldly television, playing worldly videos games, walking with worldly friends, and hanging out on toxic worldly social media, then don't get upset when you come whining to me about your miserable life and I encourage you to study the King James Bible, listen to hard preaching and go to church next Sunday. I am being your best friend by telling you THE TRUTH. 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.”