{"id":10738,"date":"2023-04-25T10:11:08","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T16:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theclarion.org\/?p=10738"},"modified":"2023-04-25T10:11:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T16:11:08","slug":"thoughts-from-the-bible-114","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/?p=10738","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts from The Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Farewell, Dear Readers<\/strong><br \/>\nOn July 3. 2013 I began this wonderful venture of writing \u201cThoughts From The Bible.\u201d My thoughts have been Bible-Centered, and so my farewell article should be the same. Bear with me first with an expression of gratitude to the owners and editors of the Clarion for allowing me the privilege to share those thoughts with the whole of Jackson County. Thank you also reader friends. I began my desire to be a Gospel preacher at a very young age of 10 years old. <!--more-->Following my dad\u2019s sermons, when all the adults had left the auditorium, I remember going behind the pulpit and \u201cpreaching\u201d to myself what little I could remember of Dad\u2019s sermon. By age 13 he allowed me with the church\u2019s permission to preach my first public sermon. By age 20, God blessed me with the opportunity to become the resident minister of a congregation in the suburbs of Oklahoma City. Now 54 years and 6 months later I\u2019m retiring from full-time local ministry, and I hope to spend the rest of my life preaching around the country in revivals, interim guest preaching, or as a fill-in for some local minister during his temporary absence.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past 65 years, many great men of God, who knew, loved and proclaimed the WORD of God inspired me to search the Scriptures and to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. The Apostle Paul declared in Ephesians 3:8 (KJV) 8 \u201cUnto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;\u201d What a wonderful privilege God has allowed that I could spend my life preaching the Gospel of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Those who accept the challenge to preach the Gospel must be students of God\u2019s Word, ever searching for God\u2019s Truths and not our opinions. Actually, that obligation is for everyone who would be a follower of Jesus. Acts 17:10-11 (KJV) 10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.\u201d That, my friends, has been my sole desire in writing the hundreds of weekly articles in the Clarion. I hoped to motivate our readers to search the scriptures \u2013 to seek God\u2019s truths, and to obey them.<\/p>\n<p>Man\u2019s acute need today is the saving Word of God. James 1:21 (NKJV) \u201cTherefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.\u201d Furthermore, man is in need of the purifying, incorruptible seed which is the Word of God. 1 Peter 1:22-23 \u201cSeeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mankind deserves to be instructed by the Word which will serve as a measuring stick for his judgment \u2013<\/p>\n<p>John 12:48 (KJV) \u201cHe that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.\u201d Thus, we see the need for sound words!! The Apostle Paul wrote the words of God\u2019s Holy Spirit that men would \u201cturn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables\u201d if \u201csound doctrine\u201d is not preached (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Furthermore, he wrote that men will give ear to fables, deceits, and false teachings (Titus 1:9-14).<\/p>\n<p>He warned that grievous wolves \u201cshall enter in among you, not sparing the flock:\u201d (Acts 20:28-30). It\u2019s True!! It has come to pass that there are even many preachers who, in the face of so much worldliness, will not take a strong, unyielding stand against the \u201cworks of the flesh\u201d of Gal. 5:19-21 \u2013 nor for the fundamental truths that ALL men must accept to be saved. May God bless you, dear reader, in your search for His Truths that set us free (John 8:32).<\/p>\n<p>The author can be reached for comments at 256-574-2489.<\/p>\n<p>-Terry Broome<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Farewell, Dear Readers On July 3. 2013 I began this wonderful venture of writing \u201cThoughts From The Bible.\u201d My thoughts have been Bible-Centered, and so my farewell article should be the same. Bear with me first with an expression of gratitude to the owners and editors of the Clarion for allowing me the privilege to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10739,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10738\/revisions\/10739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}