Evangelist and Philanthropist Franklin Graham on Operation Christmas – a chance to provide joy and happiness to children around the world during the holiday season – via Newsmax TV’s ‘Spicer & Co.’
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Christmas won’t be smothered by phony governors, Christians won’t allow them.
Samaritan’s Purse is a great organization, they provide for impoverished people around the world, and Operation Shoebox is a special part of what they do around Christmas time.
Prison Fellowship also does great work working with prisoner’s and their children so they can have gifts for Christmas and find Jesus. 🕊️❤️🙏🎄
…I like Franklin Graham.
I’ve filled shoeboxes for Franklin Graham.
My wife donates to Franklin Graham.
But I always get a little nervous about ANY ministry that puts the minister’s name on the church and not the Lord’s.
…maybe it’s just me, the wife says it is, but I came up in the Catholic Church around the time when abusive preiest scandals abounded. I also was lost and drifing after that, basically in a Comparative Religions 101 mode looking for a meaning in life (wanna know about the Mabinogin? Frazer’s Golden Bough? The cult of Sol Invicus? I did a DEEP dive into all SORTS of things, and I could still cast a tarot deck to this day if I wasn’t fully aware that it was useless, stupid, and evil, but that’s how searching I was), and just about in this time in my life…along come the Protestant preacher scandals. Theft, prostitutes, wild living, adulterous secretary sex, it was ALL out there, ALL in ministries with the preacher’s name on them that were raking in MILLIONS from their betrayed flocks, so much so that some could even build amusement parks with the proceeds and live the high life with private jets and such.
This was because they are men.
And men are corruptable. Preachers DOUBLY so, because the devil LOVES to make them fall to dispirit others.
Like it did ME.
…you see, I still look askance at ANYONE who wants to tell me of a “holy man”, because men are NOT holy. We can STRIVE for holiness and we SHOULD, we can reach OUT for the Lord to help us TOWARDS holiness, but as long as we’re in the flesh, we CAN stumble and fall.
Even Jesus felt His weakness while on Earth. Even Jesus did not consider HIMSELF “Good” while in the flesh.
Mind BLOWN? Don’t BELIEVE me?
Ask HIM.
“16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’
Matthew 19:16-17
…if the Lord Himself does NOT consider himself good in the Incarnation, then what MAN can hold himself above the LORD?
None.
No, not one.
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”
Romans 3:10
…because of this, I personally have a problem with following ANY minister who puts HIS name on the door, becuase to ME that’s a set-up to make himself a stumbling block, even if it’s just through media lies. Not knocking anyone who DOES, just like I’m not knocking Catholics or anyone ELSE, we all must walk in the light as we see the light, but for ME, if it’s a MAN’S name or ANY but the Lord, it’s NOT what I’ve come to worship.
…if “GOD” or “Christ”, “THE WORD” or “THE HOLY SPIRIT” is the name on the church, at least it is naming the Sponsor.
If it’s REVEREND BUMPHEADS CHURCH, well, I’m not ABOUT to worship Reverend Bumphead, nor am I going to worship a Vineyard, a First Baptist, A Hillview, Hillside, or Morningview either. These are all nice, peaceful names, but it is NOT the ONE name that I seek. I prefer to see HIS name on the door, and not even those of His apostles will do for me, because they were all just men, even his favorite, as THEY themselves have told us, even down to denying Him three times on the day of His crucifixion.
Again, this is just me. Don’t get mad at me if you feel differently or worship Him in a church with ANY name on it. As long as YOU center your worship on Him, it’s all good from HIS point of view, which is the ONLY one that matters. I ain’t nobody, just a guy with a preference.
But He DOES tell us about stumbling blocks.
“Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.”
Romans 14:13
Ministers are called by the Lord, but this also gets them stalked by the devil. The devil knows if he can make one fall, it causes his FLOCK to question the Lord, and many to fall away for GOOD.
I know whereof I speak. As I said, I was cripped in my early walk towards the Lord by just such stumbling blocks, and I almost gave up the search myself, until He humbled me and then called me to His altar at my lowest point, for which I prase and thank Him.
But this was in a church in which the minister had God’s name on the door.
Had it been his OWN, I would NEVER have set foot in it, and would NEVER have gotten the gift the Lord had for me inside.
But that’s just me.
…That man retired honorably and his replacement is strong in the Lord, and I want to share with you one thing that I really like about him. No, his name is not on the door either, but that’s not it.
He starts every service and preachment with a prayer to the Lord for his preaching, asking the Lord to “Hide me behind the Cross so that none see me, but see only You and Your message tonight”.
THAT is what I personally go to church for.
The Lord and no man.
But that’s just me.
That is all of my point, though.
Frankin Graham does wonderful things. He gives a good message, seems to be strong in the Lord, and is a towering man of the cloth.
But still, he is only a man.
And I do not worship men.
Only the Lord.
…but that’s just me…
SNS: “But still, he is only a man.
And I do not worship men.
Only the Lord.”
…that’s me, also…
SNS: as a retired pastor I agree with many of your points. Sadly many pastors adopt the attitude of “I’ll teach people to help themselves during times of trouble because I ain’t getting up at 1am to come the er for you.”
It’s a humbling profession of faith where you never feel you did enough especially during times of tragedy or personal failure.
I always felt between two places – “I don’t want to be a pastor for another second” or “I wish I could do this for a hundred more years…”
Anyone can learn the skill set to be a pastor but few can actually be a good one.
I always loved funerals and hated weddings.
The greatest gift I always received was being able to assist a family in mourning – because the gift of eternal life and the Grace of Jesus Christ.
I always told people I had a boss with branch offices all over the world.
Hans
NOVEMBER 22, 2020 AT 9:31 AM
“…Sadly many pastors adopt the attitude of “I’ll teach people to help themselves during times of trouble because I ain’t getting up at 1am to come the er for you.””
Hans, thank you for your service to the Lord. It seems a difficult calling, and some reject it outright as Jonah and Moses tried to do, but we are grateful for those like you who heed the Lord. Thank you and bless you.
…as you may have noticed, I’ve spent more time around hospitals in many different roles, way more than I like to think about, so this resonates with me.
There’ve been bad examples, like the Catholic priest who was offering Communion to a young and brash me who was in a Catholic hospital with cat scratch fever (yes, that’s a REAL thing and, Ted Nugent aside, it SUCKS) where I was registered as a Catholic at the time just because that’s the last church I was in, and when I responded flippantly and disrespectfully with “What the hell”, he was RIGHT to not give me the Eucharist in that state, but WRONG to gather his things in disgust, stomp out without another word, and never come back the whole time I was there. See, I’ve always used flippancy to mask uncertainty and fear, often to my detriment, but I WAS in a vulnerable state at the time and, had he tried, he very likely could have reached me, and dedicated myself to the Lord then and there.
But he didn’t try. He didn’t show me the Lord, just disgust, and I’ve never forgotten that.
But there was good too. There was the minister that, on my first day at the hospital as a EMT in training, rushed into the ER to succor a woman who was absolutely beside herself on her husband’s sudden death that was so painful the pain literally drove him insane and he died snapping and foaming. I had NO idea what to do with this hysterical woman and the hardened medical staff wasn’t getting anywhere, but this minister rushed in with the Lord and was able to give her peace and strength with the Word to carry on.
I also was at a hospital where my sister-in-law lay dying of pneumonia. She was not saved and not a member of our church, but at my wife’s frantic call he dropped everything and had a deacon lead prayers for her and us at our church while he rushed in and got there before she died. She was tubed and in distress as her lungs filled to the last, but as he spoke to her and prayed with her, I belive the Lord reached her as she finally called for him in her very death throes, and was saved even at the end by a merciful God whos servant brought her the Word at a critical time without hesitation or reservation.
Then there was the time I was in the hospital not that long ago with my son, when the hospital tried very hard to kill him and only the training that God had led me to decades earlier and desperate prayers to the Lord allowed me to save his life. The institution of Man in the person of the hospital, supposedly the BEST hospital of its kind IN THE WORLD failed me mightily then, but the Lord did not.
But my minister…kinda DID.
He was a man and had some issues of his own at the time, so I understand and reconciled and forgave, but the whole time we where there after that first, desperate phone call, he never came or called or anything except for a few minutes the day we finally checked out, when it could have benefitted my son’s soul mightily if he HAD, not to mention the demons I was fighting the whole time I was there. See, my background in street medicine means I know a LOT about what goes on behind the medical curtain, that I spend a LOT of time thinking about worst-case scenarios because that was my JOB for the longest, that I KNEW what COULD go wrong, what DID go wrong, and just how close to the edge my son actually came, all without being able to share it with my wife and having to keep my game face on in front of my own son, because fright would have made HIS case worse if he’d seen it on ME, so I had to maintain instead of running and screaming like I WANTED to do. I don’t get to turn this stuff OFF, I’ve seen so much go wrong that I KNOW what can happen, and that sometimes wars with my faith 8n God.
Anyway, I was not able to reach out to my minister then, but the Lord had put me in private contact with our own Anymouse before this, and while HE doesn’t remember it as anything special, I spent many nights in darkness draped over hospital furniture that he helped me through, and I’m grateful that the Lord put him in my way and that he helped. I can’t tell you AMs story because I don’t want to breach any confidence, but he had some background where he could help me, and some reasons to reject that background and leave it at that, but I thank the Lord he was there to help me.
But my own minister mostly wasn’t.
He’s not a bad man.
But he’s a man.
And men will fail you.
I fail at many things all the time, so I’m not saying I’m better. I even put the Lord in a bad light when I cuss and carry on on one thread after praising him on another. I’m just a weak man.
But these weaknesses get noticed on a preacher a WHOLE lot more.
I could go on all day, but this is plenty. God bless you, my pastor, Franklin Graham, and all those that heed the call to serve the Lord. You are all necessary and vital and an asset to the Lord that leads you, and this world would be much worse with no shepherds to guide any to the Lord’s side. I can thank you without reservation.
But I still praise only Him.
And HE has never failed me.
And never WILL.
God Bless,
SNS
SNS. In general you’re comments about the aspects of man’s fallen state are on target.
However, you may have miss interpreted the Lord’s statement concerning righteousness;
“…and he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.’
First some background. The rich young ruler was a groupee. He saw the Lord as a rock star, because The Lord’s ministry was becoming effective and popular. The Lord was getting attention and the young ruler didn’t want to miss out on the being associated with “fame” – as he understood it.
All the ruler saw and responded to was the Lord in the flesh. The Lord knew this and sarcastically responded, reflecting the young rulers superficial, insincere devotion.
This was all done to get the young ruler to see his own heart and true intentions – which he did. The result was the young ruler really had no desire to commit to what the Lord, as God required.
The Lord was not sayiing He himself was not righteous. He IS God. The Lord’s statement was a rebuke to men, like the young ruler who thought his status could be equal to that of God and gain popularity -fame.
THIS is what the Lord meant by “no not one”. Men, as you stated are not righteous. God alone is righteous, yet he does through salvation apply his righteous nature to those who do accept his call of salvation and submit completely to Him.
This is necessary because God cannot tolerate anything unholy/unrighteous in His presence.
God in the flesh was never intended to be adequate enough for man’s redemption or connection with God, and the rich young ruler could not accept that.
^^^Something else key to the rich young ruler’s view of the Lord – He did not recognnize the Lord as God. He only saw The Lord as a popular rabbi/pastor.
When the young ruler realized The Lord wasn’t the televangelist type of pastor, he lost interest.
This speaks a lot about how mega churches, SJW ministries attract so many lukewarm, stomach turning “Christians”.
Christians in name only won’t completely surrender self to the Lord. It requires, for them too much sacrifice. Giving away all your have and following the Lord, has no appeal.
SNS:
Thanks but as you say I have never been perfect and there are some who would dispute my ministry as well. But I learned that Jesus was the only authority I held to.
For me I lived on the principle that I always tried to get the Christ in me recognized by the Christ in them.
My favorite ministry “place” was/is the Rescue Mission – for the 50 % trying to scam their next fix/drunk you encounter the others who truly seek the Lord and want to change and become responsible for themselves to Almighty God the Father.
They don’t have pews to defend, church family history to protect, or need to say the 7 deadly words (We’ve never done it that way before).
Bless you and continue to open yourself to His Blessings (they are the only things in life that are free for the asking).