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 July, 2004 - There is Much Rubbish
There is Much Rubbish By Billie Marie Zal Back in the Old Testament, when Nehemiah began to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem which had been broken down, Judah commented, “There is much rubbish” (Neh. 4:10). According to our modern day prophets and preachers and teachers we, as the Body of Jesus Christ, are experiencing a tremendous restoration of the Church. I do not agree. There is much rubbish. We live in a rural area and have never been able to get Cable TV, so we purchased a satellite dish. None of the popular TV ministries came in on our TV set, but we were delighted to discover that through our satellite hookup our home was flooded with religious ministries. At first I was so thankful to hear the Word of God that I did not notice the many discrepancies that are going out to the entire world. My first reaction to false truths was, “Well, I will just take the part that is God’s Word in truth and leave the rest of it out of my mind.” This worked for awhile, but things got worse. That’s when I began to see all the rubbish. This rubbish consists of frantic appeals for money, money, and more money. I must admit that I fell for it. I jumped to the aid of my Christian brethren who felt called to save babies from being aborted so I sent a large sum (at least it was a large sum to me) to build a fantastic girls’ home where the girls could have their babies instead of aborting them. It was furnished as though for a queen.........velvet bedspreads, luxuries that surpass what most people enjoy. I had a thought. Why couldn’t they have just built a nice, dormitory with bunk beds? Then I felt guilty for thinking such a thought. Now I believe I was right. Girls who intend either to give up their babies or keep them can do very well with a simple environment instead of a castle, especially when the public pays for the structure. The rubbish especially consists of the tons of mail that is sent out with every kind of appeal for help. I am tired of it. I do not believe it is based on the Word of God nor the leading of God’s Holy Spirit. And I am going to be finished with it. I can speak from a personal history with God. When I was born again I wanted immediately to “go out and lead others to Jesus.” It was not long before I realized, by reading my Bible, that novices are in no spiritual condition to help anybody else. First, they must be cleansed day by day of habitual sin and they must have a thorough knowledge of God’s Word. The Holy Spirit cannot teach others through us what we have not learned from Him ourselves. Then, when God did call me to minister to Him (which is the Church’s primary function - to minister to God and to other members of the Body of Christ) - I was aware of His Authority - which I found in His Word. As far as I am concerned (and I believe that I have the mind of Christ in this matter), the Body of Christ does not express the Authority of the Head, who is Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. For example, I am offended in spirit when a popular evangelist struts back and forth across the stage and publicly runs down the ministry of a priest in the Catholic Church. It is his contention that we need not go to any person in order to confess our sins, that we can go directly to Jesus Christ. If this is true, then why does this minister discuss a person’s sins and direct that person to the Lord? If he really insists that a priest has no business listening to confessions, then he himself should never listen to a confession. The Catholics at least have some type of discipline and authority in the body of believers. The fundamentalists obviously do as they please. The confession of a Catholic is no doubt intended to keep that believer in line with obedience to the Lord. If the average protestant knew that he must confess his sins weekly to someone in authority, you can be sure that there would be less fornication, stealing, lying, and cheating within the body of believers who label themselves as “evangelicals” and “fundamentalists.” Another doctrine that is being preached more and more today is the fact that until a believer is baptized in the Holy Ghost and speaks in tongues (as evidence of baptism), then that particular believer is lacking in the glorious reality of a life of victory over sin. Yet the very ministers who preach this Truth (and who obviously must have been baptized in the Holy Ghost and have spoken in tongues) are getting up on national TV and announcing that they lived in adultery. My question is, where did the baptism in the Holy Ghost go when the man fell into sin? It doesn’t make much sense to me. Again, I speak from personal experience when I say that from the day that god revealed to me, by His Spirit, that when Jesus Christ died on that cross I died IN HIM - and when He arose, I, too, arose IN HIM. And when He ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father, I, too, ascended......from the very day that this truth was revealed to me not by man but by revelation of the Holy Spirit.........I never wanted to go out and defy the authority of God anymore. My life down here didn’t matter so much. If I was dead and my life was hid in Christ with God, then why should I bother with looking back over my shoulder at the idols of the old life? And why should I strive to compete? Why should I strive to “be a winner?” Why should I become concerned with what I wore, or where I lived? The disciples of Jesus Christ didn’t have it easy......nor did the man to whom God revealed the Mystery of the Church, the Apostle Paul. He was a brilliant man of noble letters. He was a religious snob whom Christ met on the Damascus Road when Paul was going on a trip to persecute and kill Christians. But He was given the truth........that he no longer lived in himself, but that he lived in Christ and so his life expressed this truth and he pleaded with those whom he had nurtured in the faith not to walk any longer according to their former lusts........not to seek to be somebody in this world........not to embrace the world system. And what happened to Paul for declaring the Truth? He was imprisoned and finally beheaded. And as far as we know, only a handful of believers stood by him. Paul never taught us (and He was given all the revelation of the Body of Christ on earth) that we had to be baptized in the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues. He listed tongues as a lesser gift. And he stressed holiness. Why did he stress holiness? Because in order to see God, WE MUST HAVE IT. Holiness is a character that acknowledges the Authority of God as its one and only Authority. Holiness is character. It is loving when we are not loved back. It is forgiving seventy times seventy or one thousand times one thousand. It is giving when there is no hope of getting anything in return. It is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. It is praying for someone when you know that they hate you; and it is praying for those who despitefully use you. It is all these things. It is not a once-for -all experience because it takes the human heart a long time to sort out good from evil, light from darkness, truth from lies. And in order to acquire holiness we must suffer. There is no other way. If there had been any other way, why would Jesus have gone to Calvary, have tasted death for every man, have gone to hell, and then come back? Another bit of rubbish that is lying about, consists of the untruths that the ministers are telling forth about sickness and pain and death. I heard a minister say the other day that God can never want us to be sick....or for us to go to hell, but some of us are going. And in a world that has gone through a steady deterioration since the day that Eve denied the Authority of God we cannot expect God to wave a magic wand and clear the air of all pollutants and disease that we--in our greed to succeed and make more money than anyone else--put there. I have been sick--very, very sick--and I believe it most certainly was God’s will. I learned lessons of faith through those illnesses that I could never have learned had I been on a religious merry go round of fun and frolic. Preachers tell us that it is never God’s will that we be poor. That is rubbish. Jesus Himself said that we would always have the poor with us. And how do you imagine some sweet, lovely Christian feels when he or she hears such a word, that God never intended that they be poor? Especially if that believer does not have enough money to meet the coming everyday expenses? We live in a religious society where believers love their money as much as the people of the world love theirs. And because they love it they hoard it and do not give it away unless there is a return. This is called good business sense. But, Christianity is not a business. It is the Lord Himself, and He never hoarded or laid up or had any place to lay His Head. It is rubbish when some bedecked minister points his finger into the camera and tells believers that they should not be poor. What if God knows that a poor believer needs the discipline? Once a man said to me, sensing that I was not exactly a “well to do” Christian, “My dear, there is no virtue in poverty.” No, there is no virtue in poverty. But neither is there any virtue in wealth. There is more rubbish in the teaching that if we do not lead souls to Christ, then we are not “bearing fruit.” People are not fruit. If God so wills, He can save people through the ministry of angelic beings. Sammy Morris was saved when a great light shone in the jungle and his bonds were immediately loosed and he ran away and found a mission where he heard the Name of Jesus and was saved. God didn’t have to have somebody in the jungle. He used His ministering angels to send this young man on his way to salvation. But, we are made to feel guilty if we don’t go out and lead people to Christ. Evangelists make continual tours all over the world, and add thousands to their lists of how many they reached. And who knows if those people ever really get to know God? I am afraid, from seeing how many failed to go with Jesus during my own years with the Lord, there are not many. God the Holy Spirit must witness to a person’s heart. God must give the gift of repentance. And God must save. I am amazed that He has put up with all the distorted Truths this long. And I doubt seriously that he will not one day “begin His judgment at house God.....” The Church was not formed to evangelize the world. The Church, according to the New Covenant ministry revealed by the Apostle Paul, was formed to be a LIGHT in the world, and to minister to the Lord. The Church was to meet with a members only rule. This is God’s teaching. If there were to be unbelievers present, then there should be no speaking in tongues unless one who had the gift of interpretation of tongues was present, or else the unbelievers would think them crazy. The Holy Communion was never to be given to anyone but Body members. If this is true--and it cannot be untrue for God does not lie--then no religious Church service (where a body of believers are present to worship God in spirit and in truth) should be broadcast on a national network. It should be a private service. Then, if unbelievers are wanting to come to a service, it should be noted that the reason for the ministry is to witness to the unsaved who are outside the Body of Jesus Christ. Everything is so mixed up....the world, and the flesh....and the spirit and the world. There is total confusion. And it seems to me that God’s people love to have it so. Pull down the barriers....let anything go, as long as numbers can be added to the rosters. I suppose the last sordid bit of rubbish that lies about is the entrance of ”reason” into the minds of believers. It was reason that ruined the entire human race. Reason tells us what is good or bad; whether a thing is pleasant or not; and whether a thing is sin or not. And reason leads us to hell. Not until the Spirit of the living God enters our spirits can we even begin to understand the mind of Jesus Christ. Then and then only can we make Him our only Authority. No man will have to tell us that we are sinners. No minister will have to urge us to give up sin. God will tell us. And if we love Him, we will be through with what HE says is sin. Reason is probably why the Church has finally succumbed to methods of the world and turned the meetings into a Hollywood type production. The music, the glamour, the lights, the jewelry, the gowns....all of it smell of the world. And I am afraid that the stench of it is going up into the nostrils of our God. It seems to me that the Church today is in much the same condition as Israel during the time of Ezekiel the prophet. The nation of Israel had forsaken the Authority of God and had made gods unto themselves. They had disregarded the warnings that came from time to time concerning their sad decline in spirituality. They had heaped unto themselves prophets who would speak good words unto them...who would give them what they wanted. And so, God warned the nation through Ezekiel and he said, “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy and say unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord God; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own sprit, and have seen nothing! O Israel, thy prophets are like foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word....Because ye have spoken vanity....I am against you, saith the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 13:2-8) In the light of these truths, God needs people who will stand in the gap. I intend to be one of them. Do you? Billie Marie Zal - from the April, 1985 Wingspread Vol.XIX No.4   Prayer Requests for July, 2004
Prayer Requests for July, 2004: Continue to pray for our Shirley; her Bursitis or Arthritis continues in her hands. Also, pray for our Margaret. She has glaucoma. Pray that the test results will continue to be positive. Sharon Franzen and Terry Franzen, Brian’s brother and sister-in-law, who live in Florida, need your prayers. She has lung cancer. Pray for Dorothy Weese, for Judy, and Steve, and all her family. Dorothy just lost her husband, David, in a tragic accident just last week. Francis Nolan Holland’s aunt Wilma is terminally ill with cancer. Pray her suffering is not long. Pray for her family, as well. Nolan is at Tucker, Arkansas. Pray for Willie Scott, at Pine Bluff, Arkansas..........for his freedom! For Adam Wayne Tate’s sister. Anthony Grayson of Fallsburg, New York ask us to pray that his “legal issues will become legal miracles.” Ken Hogan’s son is Missing in Action - Afghanistan. Pray for his safe return. Ken is on death row at McAlester, Oklahoma. Johnnie Dunnum at Lexington, Oklahoma asks us to pray for his friend, Jimmy Lenair who is in an Arkansas prison. For Sister Ann and all the nuns at Carmel. For Tommy Hayes and everyone at the Robertson unit at Abilene, Texas. Continue to pray for Robert Hefffernan, at Grady, Arkansas, that his test results (for his heart) will be good. Isaac Douglas, at Canton, Illinois, as us to pray for the warden and administration there. Pray for George Hurst and his daughter Sandra Wilson at DeQueen, Arkansas. She has third phase stomach cancer. Pray for Joaqiun Donato of Staten Island, New York, who has severe arthritis. For Richard Taylor, at Boley, Oklahoma, that his ulcer doesn’t get any worse. Pray for all our brothers on death row. And pray for all of us at Wingspread. I haven’t been writing any news notes for Wingspread, and so consequently a lot of you are not getting reports on what all is going on here. But that is your fault, because those that have expressed interest receive the news from here by way of letters or “general letters.” So for the time being I don’t intend to waste any space in Wingspread. Those who are interested are receiving the news in a different format. There is Much Rubbish was written by Billie for the April, 1985 Wingspread - just prior to her going into the prison ministry. There is another message which follows up on what she says here, and we will be publishing that next month. I would urge you all to closely read the message. Rodney | January, 2004 Wingspread | February, 2004 Wingspread | March, 2004 Wingspread | April, 2004 Wingspread | May, 2004 Wingspread | June, 2004 Wingspread | July, 2004 Wingspread | August, 2004 Wingspread | September, 2004 Wingspread | October, 2004 Wingspread | November, 2004 Wingspread | December, 2004 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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