What The Bible Says

A new year should be started with some self examination and character evaluation. We have three valuable tools for this task. The Psalmist says “Judge me, O LORD; For I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in they LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD and prove me; try my reins and my heart.” (Psalm 26:1-2) He says “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”(Psalm 139:23-24) First, let Jehovah God of the Bible do a search of your soul. As your designer-creator He is most qualified. If you do not believe in God, Romans chapter 1 informs us that God does not believe in atheists and you are without excuse before him. And if you are breaking his 1^st commandment by having another god before you, whether it be the selfish god of materialism or the Arabic moon god, Allah; or if you are breaking his 2^nd commandment and bowing and praying before images, statues or idols as the pagan Romans did, then you can let the examination begin with His basic ten commandments. Communists and Americans have kicked those 10 out of their schools but you can still find them in Exodus 20 of a Holy Bible.

“O how love I thy law: it is my meditation all the day.”(Psalm 119:97) The Psalmist gives us our second tool of focusing on the Word of God as our authority and meditation. “Where with all shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed there to according to thy word…. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.”(Psalm 119:9,11) All that makes us Christian is found in the book, the Holy Bible. Don’t trust someone else to read it for you, let God’s written testimonies “be thy delight and thy counselors. (vr 24)

A self conscious makes humans differ from all animals, and we use it as our 3^rd tool to do self examination. A noted Evangelist said a good test of your integrity and character can be had by setting yourself down and asking yourself, “What do I think about when I am not thinking? … What would I do if nobody would ever find out? … and What is it in life that makes me mad? “ What insightful questions about your integrity and character. Lets start this new year with some self examination. Let Jehovah God search your soul, let His word cleanse your life, and stop and ask yourself the hard questions of what you are made of. May God bless your honesty in this quest. May he give you a Happy New Year.
Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
465 Words For Week #1, Jan 05, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#602 For Week #2, Jan 12, 2006

Starting a new year makes for a good time to review ones life's priorities. The Bible has many insights to such prioritizing. The book of Hebrews is written to the Hebrews to show that Jesus is better than what they had. There is no more need for a human priest, (Levitical or Roman). Christ is the only priest a Christian needs. In this awesome replacement of the old with the new there is ample encouragement to leave what is old and press on to the new. Chapter 4 begins an outline with 4 encouragements to 'Let us.' “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” The first priority of life should pertain to the soul. Jesus taught “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt 16:26) Hebrews had already stated “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;” (Heb 2:3) First look down the barrel of your mortality and ask where your soul will spend eternity. Contrary to popular modernist teaching, we are not all God's children. You are not God's child until you accept his Son. Accepting his son gives your soul eternal life. Prioritize for your soul.

“Let us labour therefore to enter into the rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (4:11) What do you labor for with your life? The religious leaders said to Jesus “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:28-29) Jesus gave no sacraments, no mortal or venial sin list, no work your way into heaven recipe; just believe in him. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. “ Let us labor on believing. I work a job, often two, but I labor on the word of God, I labor on my relationship with Him. Lastly we should prioritize being real not fake, not hypocrites. “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.” (4:14) Your soul, your labor, your profession, this year let's get them prioritized. If you do there is a forth 'Let us' in this chapter that gives us great power with God. May God be able to bless your priorities this year.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
490 Words For Week #2, Jan 12, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#603 For Week #3, Jan 19, 2006

The Authority of a Baptist is the WORD. “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God.” (John 1) “The WORDS of the Lord are pure WORDS;” (Psalm 12:6) Any religion has at it's basis an authority. Religion is the entity in mankind that strives to answer the questions “Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? And How do I get there?” All religions have their root and authority. The Authority of the Roman Catholic is a pope in Rome, he dictates the celibate priests and the cost of penance. The authority of an Episcopalian is an archbishop in Canterbury, he dictates their sacraments and their sprinklings. The authority of a Lutheran is the doctrines of Martin Luther, he dictates their principles and procedures. The authority of a Presbyterian is the doctrines of John Calvin he dictates their predestination and TULIPs. The authority of a Methodist is the Wesley brothers, they determine their methods and measures.

Non Christian religions have their authorities as well. The authority of the JW's is Charles Taze Russell and 'Judge' Rutherford's corporation, they dictated the abandoning of the Christian doctrine of the trinity and said Jehovah would return in 1914, then 1921! The authority of the Mormon is a teenage 'prophet' from Palmyra NY, who dictates that God is flesh and blood and tangible like us and we could be gods too, if we marry enough women. The authority of the Muslim Islamic is their prophet Muhammad born in 570 AD and unifying Arabic peoples to worship Allah the moon god and authorizing them to kill the infidel Christians and annihilate the Jews.

Of coarse most religions will say they have evolved away from their authority and 'don't believe that anymore.' A fundamentalist is one who goes back to the fundamentals of their authority. A fundamentalist Muslim goes back to Muhammad's instruction to annihilate the Jews. A fundamentalist Methodist would call themselves Wesleyan Methodist, and a fundamental Christian would go back to his authority, the Holy Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ the righteous; all of them and only them. However modernist Christians and Muslims both put their faith in some cleric to determine what parts of their authority they should really trust. They rip out portions of their books and say 'that was then but this is now.' Who are you trusting as your authority? Baptists trust only the Holy Bible. (and not in Jerome's catholic Latin, nor an ecumenical international version!) We like it like that. He requires it.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
422 Words For Week #3, Jan 19, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#604 For Week #4, Jan 26, 2006

The second epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote was one of great encouragement for new believers. Encouragement to pursue the right things with their new found life in Christ. Paul's first epistle went to Galatia as a powerful rebuke for compromising the gospel by faith with a strange salvation by works (or sacraments.) But here, in the book of I Thessalonians, Paul encourages and is encouraged by the use of the power of the gospel of Christ among them. This power demonstrated itself in two ways.(1:8-9) First, in the great changes that came into their lives, how they had left the gentile Roman idols to serve the living God. Second, they were now preaching this powerful life changing gospel to others. Paul says that they were 'elect' to do this work of preaching the gospel to others. They were elect to this work because they were saved believers. They were not elect for salvation so they could work; that is all backwards. They were elect to work because they were saved. Nowhere in the Bible is an individual elect to receive salvation despite Augustinian and John Calvin's doctrine. (Jews were, Gentiles were, but nowhere was an individual elect for salvation, don't mix the two.) But once you, as a 'whosoever will', call on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you (Rom 10:9-10), i.e. once you are saved from your sin debt (Rom 10:13), once you believe that Jesus was God in the flesh for you (John 3:16), now as one born again (John 3:3-7) and a recipient of eternal life (John 3:36) you are elect and commissioned to go out and tell someone else the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is to be your new pursuit in life. When the saints of Thessalonica undertook their pursuit they were jailed, beaten, and killed. In America (after 1791) all they can do by law is call you names like intolerant, narrow minded, and anti-pluralist. You are not really intolerant, just because you oppose something (i.e. immorality, idolatry or unbelief) you are intolerant when you prohibit something (i.e. Bible reading in School, prayer at a football game.) And you are not anti-pluralist until you forcibly prohibit another belief like Catholics and Protestants did, and Islamic Muslims and Atheistic Humanists do (i.e. by law prohibiting Bible and prayer, pledge and 10 commandments.) Consider too that Jesus was narrow minded and divisive. (Mat 7:13-14, Joh 14:6; Luk 12:51, Joh 7:43) Should his witnesses be less?

If the Bible is true, and you are a born again Christian you will realize the power of the gospel and pursue evangelism as much as the saints of Thessalonica did. Evangelism is converting others to Christ with persuasion not with a sword. May God bless you in your pursuits.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
477 Words For Week #4, Jan 26, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#605 For Week #5, Feb 2, 2006

The Bible says “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” Please don't be ignorant about the religion of atheism taught in your school district.

One could say, “I don't believe there is any gold in China.” And we would say they are entitled to their opinion and tolerate them. But when they start a movement and infiltrate some national teachers association and mandate that it be taught exclusively in all public schools, come on! When they insist that references of gold brought from China to America be removed from every text, pledge, and class and that teachers not be allowed to say 'gold' and 'China' in the same sentence one might see how ludicrous this is. Not the secular humanist; they can't see it at all. 'No gold in China' is a statement of faith until you have overturned every rock in China. Every rock to a considerable depth! Now if this country were founded on the gold that came from China, you might understand why those who know and love the heritage of this free country would be upset. If you found this movement using some of that gold to finance their faith based conjecture into the public square every one should get upset. The secular humanist has made a faith based conjecture that there is no god in the universe. Without turning over a single stone to substantiate this conjecture they have forced it into our public schooling and will not tolerate any other teaching. They have used the gold in the statement “Separation of Church and State” to cause a people, ignorant of it's meaning, to enforce their edict of separation of god and country and especially separation of Jehovah God and country. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of this Jehovah God (a by faith conjecture), is the sole founder of this thing called a Church (a by historical fact conjecture.) Its separation from state has to do with Baptists vs the Roman Empires Imperial Catholic Church and her daughters, not religion and not the public square. Do not ignorantly allow a religion of atheism make it mean separation of God and country. I have been told by the intolerably ignorant, that I could not take our Baptist Sunday School class into a village owned public square because of 'Separation of Church and State!' Atheistic Humanists are now using this faulty logic to force all public school teachers and staff to behave themselves as if they were atheistic in religion and thus prevent every other free exercise of religion in the public school. In the story line all it took was one child to stand and say “The Emperor has no clothes.” In America that child is mocked and scorned by NPR, hated by the NEA, sued by the ACLU and locked up by judicial decree. Could it be more obvious “The Emperor has no clothes!” and there could still be gold in China!

This is an excerpt from “Articles on Secular Humanism From a Baptist Preacher.” You should read the entire article at www.gsbaptistchurch.com/ humanism You may be blocked from this site on your schools computer because it contains information about God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ which is not allowed in your school because of 'Separation of Church and State.' Go figure. Go learn. Check out the Emperor. Do something.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
532 Words For Week #5, Feb 2, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#606 For Week #6, 2006

February is for love. So is life, and like so many things in our universe love is three dimensional. Created in the image of God man is body, soul and spirit, God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and so too love, has it's three dimensions. The frigid winter months give way to longer days and glimmers of spring as Valentines day approaches and we consider something special for a 'significant other,' if you have heard that term. Imagine going through life without ever having significance or giving significance to someone else. Imagine if every relationship was only temporal and of short life expectancy. Love should show unselfish charity, demonstrate altruistic significance, and sustain unending security. We marry for love, significance and security; both to give and to receive all three, even 'till death do us part' security. All three of these have dimension in the physical, the emotional and the spiritual planes of our being. Jesus died on a cross on calvary to show his love, to provide your significance and to give you eternal security. The Bible says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) It is not coincidence that God uses his great love for us for the model for how husbands are supposed to love their wives. That perfect love could be such an unselfish love that one would give his very life for another. That perfect love could have such a depth as to give another's life all significance. That perfect love could be so binding as to give physical, emotional and spiritual security to another. His love for you is all of that, does all of that and can be all of that for you if you don't walk away, spurning His love. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:17-18) Two questions for you today, “What will you do with Jesus and His Love for you?” and “How does your love measure up to the model?” Don't spurn His love, and Happy Valentines. Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
402 Words For Week #6, Feb 5-11, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#607 For Week #7, Feb 12-18, 2006

If love is three dimensional encompassing charity, significance and security, and each dimension has the three human aspects of body (physical), soul (emotional) and spirit (spiritual) there would be 9 measurable attributes of God's love for you and of your love to your spouse. God's great love for us is best viewed through the lens of John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” All 9 attributes are therein visible. What lens would you use to examine the 9 attributes of love in your home this week?

With such a lens, and despite the extremities of the feminist movement, we would first observe that there is a difference between men and women. The Bible says God created them different, because he had different roles for each to fulfill (ref 1 Tim 2, 1 Cor 11). Men are found to have brains swollen toward the physical aspect of love, significance and security, while women have an enlarged heart for the emotional. If the Bible is true and Jesus didn't lie to us, there was a man, Adam, and a women, Eve, in this world before death and rebellion were present here. When they fell into disobedience death entered the world and a rebelliousness entered into human lives. We have been rebellious toward God and toward the roles that he made us for ever since.

When a preacher of the gospel says something Biblical like, 'Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church', or 'wives submit to your own husbands, reverence and obey them', this rebellion in mankind becomes quite visible and the refusal for the roles of men and women becomes quite evident. Overcoming this rebellion in our marriages and submitting to God's plan for our homes is very necessary for a successful happy marriage. A marriage should be a taste of God's paradise here on earth. How is yours? Does it have the measurable 9 attributes? Is there a spiritual plane to your home? Good Samaritan offers free Biblical counsel for your marriage. If you don't have a taste of paradise with your Valentine this year, find out how the Bible is your best counsel, and the Lord Jesus Christ is your best counselor. Dust off your Bible and give me a call, I promise it will help.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
385 Words For Week #7, Feb 12-18, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#608 For Week #8, Feb 19-25, 2006

Todays pervasive ignorance toward the purpose of Old Testament Scriptures is most evident when we examine the 5 types of offerings. These offerings were made by law for 15 hundred years prior to Christ's offering of himself as our perfect offering. Modern Christians are now 2000 years removed from the practice of sacrificial slayings. Modernist Christians, as if they might be Christian at all without the blood, do not like to speak of the blood that Jesus shed as our offering. Leviticus 1 describes the burnt offering, 2 the meat or meal offering, 3 the peace offering, 4 the sin offering, and 5 the trespass offering. Differentiating the purpose and uses of these 5 can give a real Christian a more focused picture of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The ignorance is even more pervasive when we examine the laws of the Old Testament Scriptures. Despite the humanist's hatred for the top ten, a short reading of the Pentateuch reveals that there are a lot more than 10 commandments. These many laws have to do with keeping God's chosen nation, Israel, separate from the other nations, and pure from their sins for the 2000 years of their existence prior to their called purpose. That purpose is to bring into this world the pure and holy Messiah, Jesus Christ the righteous. Thus the laws are clear and the punishments meant to put sin away from this people. The severity of the laws and their punishments is scorned and mocked by Ted Kopple and other 'progressive thinkers' because it required adulterers and sodomites to be stoned to death. In America's mere 300 years of existence how far have we departed from God's commandments that were our founding? Israel was a chosen nation that would not be allowed to so stray from God's law. Should we then stone to death the adulterer today? A Christian knows what Jesus said about stoning the sinner, but also knows that the sin is no less a sin against God, and not easily dismissed. There will need to be 'wages' for sin.

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8) “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 6:23) Any sin can find forgiveness and cleansing in the offering made by Jesus Christ the righteous. “That is the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. [or stoned!]... For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom 10:8-13) Be saved from your sin. Call.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
498 Words For Week #8, Feb 19-25, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#609 For Week #9, Feb 26-4th, 2006

The Bible says in John 13:33-35. “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” When Jesus told his disciples that they would be known for their love it was to apply as much today as then. There are many who, today, claim to be Christians, but exhibit none of the characteristics of Christ, especially lacking his supreme love for others. The 'Christians' who left charred bodies tied to stakes and came to this country killing the more were not Christians, but did mar the name, even to this day. So to the 'Christians' that go to our churches to fight and elbow their way to the top rung of things are not Christians, but do mar the name every Sunday. When you become a Christian, for real, you don't play around at an organization called Church, but a love of the brethren in Christ causes you to “forsake not the gathering of your selves together.” A born again Christian goes to Church on the first day of the week, the Lord's resurrection day, because of the new Love that is found in his life. That change causes them to love and gather with others who have had their lives changed by the Christ. If going to Church is a drudgery or unpleasant there could be one of three problems. First, perhaps you have not had your life changed by Christ; your not born again as He described it. Second, perhaps your holding onto some rebellious sin that has broken your fellowship with Christ, and thereby making fellowship with other believers uncomfortable for you. Thirdly, perhaps the church where you are trying to fellowship does not have a critical mass of true believers, it is kind of a civic club that does not preach or believe the Bible. Anyone of these discrepancies in your Sunday worship are easily remedied. You should re-read John 3 and Romans 10, examine your salvation need, and call on the Lord Jesus Christ to save your soul. If that has been experientially done, examine the sin that has broken your fellowship with your Lord, confess it, forsake it, and get down to the church house and let folks know you'll be back in fellowship. We have lots of christian club churches that don't even believe the Bible and have not preached it in decades. If you have been attending one of them, get into a church that teaches, preaches, and believes the whole counsel of God. It is easy to loose your first love in a shallow modernist country club church. It is that love that let's you, and all men know that you are His disciple. This aint a religion, it's a relationship.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
510 Words For Week #9, Feb 26-4th, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#610 For Week #10, Mar 5 -11, 2006

The most marvelous and most envied characteristic of being Christian is the knowing that you know. The apostle John said it best “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (1John 5:13) What, an awful shame that some man made and so called Christian religions make it a cardinal sin to know that you have this eternal life and to know that your on your way to heaven. The Bible says “ Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. “(1John 4:13) and “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: “ (Rom 8:16) We have already examined the new love that comes into a Christian and that is also clear evidence that we can know. “ We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. “ We should state out loud here that a Rev Phelps who preaches hate from Westboro Baptist in Topeka is abiding in death no matter that his Church sign unfortunately says Baptist, and he is on the front page of the news. A Christian will have an abiding love because he has an abiding Christ. Again the Bible clarifies that this is something new for us when we receive Christ as our saviour. . “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. “ (2Cor 5:17) This great change brings a new 'love' and passes away the old 'hate.' It brings a new 'joy' and looses 'despair.' It brings 'peace' and eliminates 'trouble' and 'fear of evil.' It brings 'longsuffering', eliminates the 'short fuse.' It brings 'goodness' and eliminates 'rottenness.' Brings 'gentleness' and passes away 'gruffness.' Brings 'faith' and drives off 'doubt' and 'unbelief.' It brings 'meekness', eliminates the 'loud, prideful and brash'. Being in Christ, i.e. being a Christian, brings 'temperance,' the ability to tell your flesh and old nature no!, and it eliminates the 'short temper' and the out of control body and spirit. So, are you a Christian? Do you know that you know that you know? It is not a cardinal sin, it is a great comfort and peace in a world careening toward destruction. There are some things you just want to know for sure. The salvation of your soul is one of them. I am going to live forever. Are you? Would you like to? Call us to know more.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
459 Words For week #10, Mar 5 -11, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice TOC
What The Bible Says
Msg#611 For Week #11, Mar 12 -18, 2006

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John begins his gospel with a clear statement of doctrine about who the Lord Jesus Christ was and concludes it with a clear statement about what you are to do with him. “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” When it comes to clarity, there is no better book in the Bible. A Christian believes the Bible. If it says that “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”, and it says that Jesus Christ was the God who made all things, we believe it. To reject it is to be an unbeliever and thus not be a 'Christian.' Today we have to many that like the name but reject the Bible teachings of the Christ. Last month several 'scholars' from the 'Vatican city' rejected intelligent design and heralded evolution as their creator; out loud, in a news release! They reasoned that it was the only 'scientific' answer acceptable to the humanist's natural science. These 'Vatican scholars', thus, publicly denied the Gospel of Saint John to appease a bunch of humanists who believe in spontaneous generation of life from dirt! That is not Christian. A Christian believes Christ when he says he created all things; he created a garden of Eden, he created Adam and Eve; and male and female created he them. The Bible is not slack in this doctrine. If there was no fall of man in the garden that first brought death into this world, then there is no need of Christ, the redeemer of mankind. When the modernists are scratching things out of their bibles and the Vatican city is denying an intelligent designer, people under their brazen control need to re-examine what it means to be Christian. A Christian by definition is one who professes belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and follows His teachings with their life to become 'Christ-like.' Jesus Christ, our Lord and creator is a jealous God, I'd be careful calling him non-intelligent, or saying life first sprang out of the dirt of 'mother earth', no matter which way you wear your collar. The Bible says 'Choose you this day who you will serve', and “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;”. Be a Christian, only believe.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
504 Words For week #11, Mar 12 -18, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice TOC
What The Bible Says
Msg#612 For Week #12, Mar 19-25, 2006

“In (Jesus) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” (John 1) A perfect prologue to a book would introduce every principle that is presented in the book. So to a perfect epilogue would conclude each. The Apostle John writes both for his Gospel. Opening with Jesus personified as 'the Word' and the creator, John illustrates Christ's presence in the world as a light in the darkness. There is no measure of darkness except we measure the absence of light. At night you cannot open your shade and flood your room with darkness. Darkness cannot flood a room, ... but light can. A small light in a dark world is visible for miles. These are features ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ's presence in this world. He lives today in believers and such a presence floods my life each day. Yours? Such a presence changes the life of a believer. The light of Christ in our life enables us to do three things. To see into the dark and know what is there. To walk in the darkness and not stumble or fall. And to shine onto others and show them the Light of Life.

Some have said they can't understand the Bible, they can't understand their circumstance, or they cannot understand this world's mess today. The light shining on these enables us to see into darkness and know what is there. It don't take a modernist's version, a psychologist or political analyst; it takes the light of the world. The Bible says “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105) Peter introduces his 2^nd epistle with 7 things to add to your faith followed by this marvelous truth: ”But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. ... (but) if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:“ (2Pet 1) The Light will keep you from stumbling in your Christian walk. Jesus said of His light that is now in a Christian, “Ye are the light of the world. ... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.“ (Matt 5) And concerning the soon coming return of the Lord Jesus Christ it says: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. ... For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1Thes 5) It is good to have a light in these dark days. Come on out to Church and get one, or get your old dead batteries recharged.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
501 Words For week #12, Mar 19-25, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#613 For Week #13, Mar 26, 2006

Apostle John's perfect prologue introduces a perfect witness to the perfect Light with this sentence “There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” I said previous that a prologue introduces every principle to be addressed in a book. Here the witness of man is introduced and 2000 years after John the Baptist did his witness, Christians are still to “bear witness of that Light.” “The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.” John's purpose, your purpose and my purpose as a believer is to be such a witness. The Roman religion made an artificial separation between 'clergy' and 'laity.' Such a status of 'clergy' is not Christian, i.e. it is found nowhere in the New Testament Scriptures. But Protestants wear priestly garb, backwards collars and pretend to be your intercessor just like a catholic priest! That is not Christian or Christlike. In fact God hates it. (Rev 2:2,6,15) ... No, there is no 'clergy' to witness and 'laity' to pew-set, we, as believers, are all called to 'bear witness of the Light.” The Apostle records of John the Baptist, “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” John was the best Baptist preacher in the world, and he said,”He must increase, but I must decrease.” A year before going to jail for lying a TV evangelist said “I am more important than just being a sinner saved by grace.” Pride came before his fall. Christians don't exalt themselves, toot their own horn, demand their rights, or become 'clergy' to rule over 'laity.' No, all Christians are to witness of the light that changed their life and say with John the Baptist, “I am not worthy to loose his shoe latch” and “He must increase and I must decrease.” Are you a Christian? There is a witness given “that all men through him might believe.” If you do not believe, you need someone that will bear witness of the Light. You need to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If your a Christian your commissioned to be a witness to the lost unbeliever; to exalt and talk about the Christ that saved your soul. John the Baptist was sent (commissioned) from God to be a witness that all men through him might believe. The world won't like it, they killed John the Baptists. Be a witness just the same.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
412 Words For week #13, Mar 26, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#614 For Week #14, Apr 2 , 2006

The Apostle John wrote in the Gospel according to John about the WORD that came into the world that He had created and an enlightening and disturbing revelation is made in the prologue. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” It is enlightening because it reveals that every human is enlightened about the Only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ being the God and creator. It is disturbing because it reveals the worlds rejection of Him as their Lord. I have read much of the debate about Intelligent Design needing to be taught in our science classes. The humanist's atheist religion that has now barred itself into our schools and is holding our children hostage is not just pitted against enlightened scientists, it is pitted against John 1:9. They pretend there is no creator. They insist that our science teachers pretend the same. They forbid that thinking students say out loud that they are marvelously designed, but the Bible says that they know in their heart. Clinging to ludicrous big bangs, spontanious generation of life from a rock hit by lightning, and a natural evolution of an orangutan from a banana seed is not even natural, but it accomplishes their priority of denying the supernatural. After three generations of such foolishness crammed into the school curriculum they have convinced the world that evolution is scientific. Not me. Any Christian who sends his kids to the government schools teaching that there is no creator will loose the heart of his child to the atheists. Three generations now taught in school to reject the Bible and its Messiah. Those atheists holding our children hostage in the science classes have been very effective. When will the tyranny end? Inteligent Design might kick out a leg or two and has my vote, but the Bible still says “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” ... “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” What a sad commentary. I wonder if you comprehend the Light that shined into this world. I wonder if your children will. There are always a few, but very few.(Matt 7:13-14)

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
393 Words For week #14, Apr 2 , 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#615 For Week #15, Apr 09, 2006

Despite their name Baptists talk much about receiving Christ as your saviour and little about baptism. When asked “Are you saved?” many report when and where they were baptized. The Roman Church, who used to call us 'ana-baptists', taught that you get into their Church and thus into heaven by being baptized, even if you were infant. In the Bible salvation and baptism are two distinct entities. The Apostle John wrote of Christ in the prologue of his gospel “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” All one has to do to become a son of God is believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are counting on water of baptism to wash away your sin, it won't. If you have been told that your infant baptism washed away original sin, it's not found in the Bible. Baptism is something done after receipt of eternal life, as a testimony that you are a saved believer, it will not get you in, nor wash away a sin.

Now look at John's examination of this belief in Christ which makes one born again. “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” We are born again by God not by water or any other physical works, flesh or blood, but by God alone. It is not even because we will it, it is because He wills it. When He came unto his own, it is not just talking about his coming to the Jews; the emphasis here is that He came into his own creation, and mankind received him not. Such rejection is amply illustrated when a local Head Start program refused me the privilege to sing “Jesus Loves Me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Jesus Christ the righteous creator of this world is rejected by our atheistic government schooling system. He is rejected by the masses. He is rejected by the majority and by the religionists. 'But' is an interesting conjunction in the Bible. One preacher said we should get our 'buts' out of the Bible, (now don't read that wrong). This one says that you could be different from the world, you could receive Him and be born into His kingdom. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” Won't you receive him? Three generations of our school children have been taught to reject him, i.e. K-12 (now even Head Start- 12) If you will receive him you will buck the whole world, ... but save your own soul. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:” (The Apostle John's Gospel 3:36)

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
490 Words For week #15, Apr 09, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#616 For Week #16, Apr 16 , 2006

“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. “ (John 21) The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the culminating proof that all that he said and taught about himself is true. He was the only begotten son of God. He did come as the lamb that takes away the sin of the world. He did completely pay for the sin debt of man and rose victorious over death, i.e. the penalty for your sin. Now he declares that if you believe that, if you believe in him, you can call on him and make him your saviour, today. If you will not believe you stand in condemnation for your sin. (John 3:18) Christianity, yea, Salvation, is not as complicated as Churches have tried to make it with mortal and venial sins; penance and purgatories; lent and litany; sacraments and ceremony, none of which are in the Bible. The Bible says of Jesus “But as many as receive Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

We celebrate the Resurrection of Christ every Sunday, the first day of the week that we call the Lord's day. On the Sunday after passover, the 14^th day of the Hebrew's first month (Exod 12) we have a special recognition of that event. On the 10^th day of that month, when the passover lamb was selected from the flocks, the Lord Jesus Christ was given his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and selected as the passover lamb that taketh away the sin of the world. For 3 days the lamb is kept apart to assure it was without spot or blemish. So to was He was daily in the temple teaching. On the 14^th day the passover lamb was to be slain during the preparation. So, Jesus was slain and shed his blood on the cross of Calvary from the 6^th till the 9^th hour during this preparation time. (Matt 27:45, John 19:14) He was laid in a borrowed tomb, on that preparation day, and was there for 3 days and 3 nights, as he said. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the tomb was empty, the Christ had risen victorious over death. So the timing of Jesus' death coincided exactly with the selection and the slaying of the Jewish passover lamb, wherein it was said by God, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” In Exodus 12 the blood was a token. In Jesus Christ, the blood washes away your sin and makes you white as snow. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us a Saviour victorious over death, who can give eternal life to whom he will. Do you have this eternal life? “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36)

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
515 Words For week #16, Apr 16, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#617 For Week #17, Apr 23 , 2006

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”(John1:14) Three marvelous Christian truths are emphasized in this closing to the Apostle John's prologue. Jehovah God was made flesh and blood. There is no other religion named among men wherein the creator of all the universe would step down from glory and take part in humanity. Man's religions would have man attain some level of godliness but for a Christian Jesus the Christ of Nazareth is worshiped as Jehovah God in the flesh. Even the popular Christianity of Rome lifts up man in Mary, and asks you to pray to her as your intercessor, or pray to other's that they deem to be saints, ergo it too goes the path of false religions. No, Christianity alone worships a man as their God, and bows unashamedly before the man Christ Jesus and calls him Lord & Saviour of their soul; doing otherwise is un-Christian. The Word, that was God, became flesh; don't miss it, and don't miss why from John 3:16.

Second it is emphasized that John was an eye witness. An unbelieving critic of the Bible named Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976) popularized the modernist idea that the apostles did not write the Bible. He robed his unbelief in form and source criticism of the Bible and the scholars of our day love to attack what they call the synoptic gospels and the general gospel of John. My disdain for this practice heightened this week when I heard a supposed Baptist preacher let Rudolf guide his sleigh with such balderdash. There are no synoptic gospels. Matthew did write the Gospel according to Matthew, Mark wrote Mark, and Luke wrote Luke. John here attests to Bible believers that he saw and he wrote! To believe otherwise is to dis-believe the Bible. Shame on any Baptist who would so disbelieve the Word of God that says “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? ” (Heb 2:3-4) Rudolf and the synoptic crowd are unbelievers, and a Bible believer has nothing but despise for their foolish gangling.

Lastly John emphasizes the undeservedness of mankind for such marvelous truths. Jesus said “I am the way the TRUTH and the life, NO man cometh to the Father, but by me.” That is not pluralism, that is Bible truth, that is God full of grace and truth. Don't believe like Rudolf, accept God's grace and truth today.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
473 Words For week #17, Apr 23, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#618 For Week #18, April 30, 2006

The media was all astir because they think they have found three major sources to shake the Christians faith in the Bible. The infidel Gnostics finally got their Essenian gospel of Judas published after 1700 years! Surprise surprise, Gnostics don't believe the apostles who wrote the Bible. That is not news. It is amazing that they would paste together a crumbled codex to learn what Gnostics thought of Judas, but there is no Gospel of Judas, just as there is no illegal domestic spying. Those are labels they use to sway your opinions and their polls their way. There is a Gospel of Jesus Christ according to the Apostle Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke, and according to the Apostle John. We should put that much effort into reading what they say.

Professor Doron Nof, a Florida university professor, believes Jesus walked on Galilean ice instead of water, and ABC wanted you to know what this infidel thinks about my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Why? To continue the attack on Christianity and mock the writings of the Bible. Modernists try to find natural explanations for every Bible miracle. They are uncomfortable calling the Bible a bold faced lie but they will not believe that Jesus calmed the sea, healed the sick, and arose from the dead, so they twiddle with Galilean ice. Even when Hollywood tried to re-portray Moses, they stayed as far away from Exodus 33:11 as they could get. If you want to know what God says about His only begotten son calming the sea and walking on water, or about His servant bringing water from a rock, you had best read it from a non-modernist Bible and not let Prof Nof nor ABC sway you from the truth.

Neil Shubin, a biologist at the University of Chicago revealed the fossil of a Canadian crocodile supposed to be 400 million years old. He supposed it was surely a missing link between land animal and fish. Surprise surprise. Darwinians really did need this find and wild speculation. Their last such missing link extinct for 400 million years was found completely unevolved and swimming around in 300 feet of ocean; Seymouria, their amphibian to reptile missing link turned out to be an unevolved plain old amphibian, Archaeopteryx, their missing link between a lizard and a bird, (after all they both lay eggs and have scales!) was found to be just a bird; Eohippus, their missing link between a dog and a horse was found to have 18 ribs belonging to different family and genius. Darwinian's deceitful speculations cannot even account for speciation! They should let alone genius-iation, family-iation or order-iation, no matter that public school, ACLU, NEA, NPR and now ABC are helping them out all they can. Evolutionary theory is bankrupt of missing links, transitional forms and facts. The Bible says God created in 6 days and rested the 7^th. I'd sooner believe that than believe life spontaneously generated itself from two hormonal rocks in a storm ridden primeval sea. You?

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
506 Words For week #18, April 30, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#619 For Week #20, May 07, 2006

The gospel according to Luke records two disciples leaving Jerusalem on resurrection Sunday. As they walked to Emmaus on that excitement filled day they explained to the resurrected Lord that 'today is the third since the crucifixion'. When Luke and John both clarify in the Holy Scriptures that Jesus was crucified on a Thursday, which was the preparation of the passover and that the high holy day, not the crucifixion, was on the Friday, I tend to believe the Bible. The Roman inventions of Lent, Ash Wednesday, and Good Friday are not supported by Scriptures and I am amazed to see protestantism forgo their protesting and flock back to their Roman mother on such things. Jesus rebukes the two: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:” A justified rebuke for today as Bible Believers are a scarce and parse remnant of Christianity. Jesus went on and said “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” Three gems are found in this short accounting of the disciples on the Emmaus road. The first is what Jesus taught. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” If in heaven we get to review all the events of that day on a big screen reviewer, I will replay this long walk Bile seminar several times. During the sixty years of Bible preaching that followed the seminar the apostles recorded enough of it in their 27 books to keep us students for life, but I would have liked to hear it from the mouth of the Christ himself. The seminar would cover how Christ was the seed of woman in the Genesis 3 account, and the seed of Abraham in Genesis 12, and how he made death only a shadow for King David, how victory over death would fulfill a promise made to Isaiah and how the keys of death and hell would be issued to the Saviour as Hosea promised. These truths are expounded in the 27 books of the New Testament open before me this day. A second gem in the Emmaus road account is how Christ was made known to the disciples in the breaking of the bread. And a third when they said :Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” These three, gems are recreated regularly in a Bible Believing Bible Preaching Church. You should be there, it could warm your heart till the words of Scripture burn within you. Burn as a light, a light to the world.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
442 Words For week #19, May 07, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#620 For Week #20, May 14 , 2006

Spring time brings spring cleaning and garage sales as it is time to get the junk out of our houses. Consider that it is time to get the junk out of our homes and our lives as well. There was a time when every gospel preaching church in the county had revivals in the spring time. I think they still do but spring revival services are very rare here. Jesus instructs us to “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.“ (James 4:8) We need to have spiritual spring cleaning. We need to realize that God still hates sin and calls it that. Modernists who won't call sin a sin may call it an alternative life style. God's Word still calls it sin, even calls it abomination, and calls those who commit it 'sinners'. I am one of these. So are you if Romans chapter3 is true. But I am a sinner saved by grace, perhaps you are too. That's a good thing to be, but in the spring time we should have revival. Revival where things once made alive within us are brought back to life or revived. We should do some spiritual spring cleaning.

There is a cute commercial where an ugly gramataphite goes in under a toe nail and moves in. It can't be removed by surface treatments. That is like sin in your life. It cannot be removed by surface treatments. It is going to take blood work. The Bible says that “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, ... the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (I John 1:7) And goes on to say “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (vr.9) Now these instructions are written to born again believers, sinners saved by grace. If you have not yet put your faith and trust in Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you need more than a spiritual spring cleaning, you need a complete overhaul wherein you are quickened, or made alive spiritually. That's more like a resurrection than a spring cleaning, but both are attained the same way, by coming to Christ, confessing your a sinner, trusting in his cleansing blood and receiving his forgiveness. Whether you need spring cleaning or complete overhaul, this would be a good week to seek it out. You are either alive spiritually through the new birth or dead spiritually through your natural birth. If dead you can be made alive in Christ alone. If alive there are things that need revived in your life. Either one will take blood work. The work is all done, Jesus said “It is finished” and now it only needs applied to your life for a cleansing that will make you whiter than snow. Let's get the spring cleaning done.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
487 Words For week #20, May 14, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#621 For Week #21, May 21 , 2006

For most of us the 'M' in Mothers Day stands for memories. Remembering a mom and grandmother who did things the old fashioned way can make us long for the old fashioned. The Bible says that the womans place is in the home. (Titus 2:4-5) That is old fashioned, but it worked for our grandmothers. As our modern society is in rebellion against all of God precepts, this one draws vehement disgust, but it is the role that God has established and mans rebellion has not changed God's plan for mankind, nor his roles for men and women. Proverbs 31 is 3,000 year old motherly advice about life and marriage and wives. It closes King Solomon's collection of wisdom literature with stately heir. It boldly declares that a good mother will first be a good wife. Mankind's rebellion against marriage in our society almost rivals that shown against the role of women and our modernist role reversals in the home, church and government. But the Bible is clear that one man and one woman for one lifetime in a patriarchal not matriarchal home is God's intent for the stable environment where children are to be raised. It is filled with examples of failures. Solomon, who kept and guarded this advice of King Lemuel's mother as inspired Scripture, was a leading failure of her advice.

When you ignore or rebel against the Godly role of mothers as portrayed in the Bible your headed for failure too. When society dictates undisciplined children, a godless education, marriage as a flexible alternative, role reversals with matriarchal homes and matriarchal religion, the rebellion against God's precepts will cause your failure as well. I don't need to be a prophet to say that, Solomon said it very succinctly. God's wisdom cries out in Proverbs 1, “How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold I pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.”

Being old fashioned is not very popular in our twisted progressive society. But following God's 3,000 year old advice for your life and for your home promises to bring his blessing. Following our societies rebellion against it promises your eternal ruin. In the aftermath of mothers day read a moms advice in Proverbs 31 and choose God's role for your life. Choose wisely.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
471 Words For week #21, May 21, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#622 For Week #22, May 28-, 2006

The Apostle Matthew wrote a dense pack of truth when he accounts the resurrection of Christ in the last chapter of his Gospel of Jesus Christ. It reminds me of Joe Friday who cuts to the quick by saying “Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts.” He records here Christ's consoling first message to his disciples “Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.” When we are at the appointed place we know the PRESENCE of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrected Lord spent 40 days with the disciples before he had to physically leave them again but he made us this promise “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” He said “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” in the closing instruction to the Hebrews, and his presence in a Christian's life through every task, every trial, every problem and every shadow is promised and assured. When we are at the appointed place we know the POWER of the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew records “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. “ This marks a new covenant in authority, a new dispensation in dealing with man, a new arrangement of power and authority for our lives. Now all things go through the Christ. The only begotten Son is now in charge of all things, and whatsoever ye ask “in my name” he records “I will do it.” “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; ” (Col 1:19) When at the appointed place all that power is made available to us in the tasks that He gives us to do. Also in that place we have all the PROVISION of God. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:19) This assurance comes to those preoccupied with the work of Christ, those who “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God... and all these things shall be added unto you.” as Jesus taught in the sermon on the mount. When you are at the appointed place you'll find the PROTECTION of God. After giving the disciples their commission to preach the gospel he assures them “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt 28:20) When you are at the appointed place with Christ you have his presence, his power, his provision and his protection. The question that begs asked is 'Are you at the appointed place?' Christ, in his word appoints you a place where you will see him, hear him and know him. Don't wander through life without finding your appointed place in Christ.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
477 Words For Week #22, May 28-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#622 For Week #22, May 28-, 2006

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
461 Words For Week #22, May 28-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#623 For Week #23, Jun 4-, 2006

Like the 11 disciples in Matthew 28, when we get to the appointed place we find the presence, the power, the provision and the protection of Christ. What a marvelous place to be in. But now that we are in it what should we be doing? Jesus commissioned the 11 with a task. Yeah, he has commissioned each believer with the same tasking. To first preach the gospel to every creature. To make known the saving grace that is available through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ to every living human. Those who would believe, repent and receive the new birth in Christ are to be added to the Church by the outward testimony of being baptized by immersion in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The Church is then charged by Christ to teach believers “to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you” So your appointed place, as a believer is in a Bible believing, Bible preaching, Bible baptizing local Church. When you are in that appointed place what are you to be doing? I like to say you should watch your mouth. You should have a mouth that is PRAYING, PREACHING and PRAISING while POSESSING your vessel in sanctification and honor. That's quite a mouthful, but the assigned task for every believer.

When I retired I didn't. In 1995 I retired from the USAF to Pastor a non-Baptist Church in Dundee, ugly fights ensued. In 1998 I took the pastorate at a genuine Baptist Church Psalms 133:1: says “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Although we have had a joyous 8 years in that pastorate there has been zero growth and I have preach to about 12 people each week for a long time. We will have our 8^th annual spring revival meetings this coming month. We expect there are a few families in Yates/Schuyler county who need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and find a new life in Him. We labor because we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (II Cor 5:10) We labor because we know the terror of the Lord, and strive to persuade men. (II Cor 5:11) We labor because the love of Christ constraineth us (II Cor 5:14) A lot of people, including family have not much understood what we are doing nor why. I have set aside an exceptional and lucrative engineering career to do what we are doing. We see the world rejecting God and God's Word and getting worse and worse. Life is so much more when you go by the book. Life is so terminal when you don't. Perhaps you need to visit during these revival services; you could find out what an independent fundamental Baptist is all about.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
480 Words For Week #23, Jun 4-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#624 For Week #24, Jun 11-, 2006

When a society is so depraved of moral value that it strives for a constitutional amendment stating that sodomy is not for procreation nor rearing of children we need to re-emphasize Fathers day this year. The Bible pronounces woe on a society so twisted that they call good evil and evil good. (Isaiah 5) Mocking our creator and exalting the god of evolution has become so commonplace and effective in our schools that the homosexual lobby is in pursuit of their foot hold there. The Southern Baptist are finally pursuing the abandonment of public education because of its Godlessness. Independents promoted it's abandonment for a Christian education for years now. Yet the Episcopalian and Church of Christ 'religions' are openly promoting the sodomite agenda (AP 6/3/06) The Bible is undaunting when it comes to how we got here, and how we procreate in marriage. The Bible is clear that God created Man and Women on the sixth day of His creation work (Gen 1:26) and that a man committing sodomy with a man is an abomination (Lev 18:22, Gen 13:13, 19:4-5, Deut 29:21-25, 1 King 14:22-23, 15:11-12, 22:43,46, 2Kings 23:7 etc) Kleptomaniacs are made that way too, but they are forced to conform to moral right. Fathers day is to honor a sacred institution, the home. It, and the role of Godly fathers, who are loving and responsible husbands, leaders in the home and in our society, need to be so honored, exulted and emphasized this year. But that won't change the direction of our society.

As our society sinks deeper into moral depravity, calling good evil, and evil good, Christians should remember that moral activism is not the answer. Christ is the answer. When I was a boy, that was the sign on the hillside outside of Corning. The sign is gone, but the answer is the same. Father's, if you need your home transformed, Christ is the answer. When we need our society transformed, and we surely do, Christ is the answer. Getting individuals to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, as their saviour, creator and God is the only hope for our Godlessness. Christ doesn't reform you, he transforms you, he doesn't change your mind he renews your mind. If you have been transformed, you should tell your neighbor, he needs transformed as well. Happy Fathers day, phone your dad with thanks.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
411 Words For Week #24, Jun 11-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#625 For Week #25, Jun 18-, 2006

School's not out, it is just starting. Final exams seem so final but they are not. They are the first of a series of exams that asks us “Did you get it?” When we fail a final exam we have to repeat the year of course work. When we fail one of life's exam we are destined to repeat the year without growth or advancement. Did you get it? Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth, acronymed as BIBLE, is going to have a final exam when we will all stand before our God and creator and answer for what we did with his only begotten Son that he sent to pay your sin debt for you. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” God states it very clearly in Isaiah 45:23 where he says “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Paul repeats it emphatically in Romans 14:11 “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” And more inclusively in Philipians 2:10 “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;” There is coming a day when you will take life's final exam, and answer for what you learned and believed about God's only begotten Son. John 3:36 sayd “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” We need to study for our final exam, we don't know for certain when it's scheduled, but we know it is for certain.

People have told me, “Well that's your interpretation.” This is not an interpretation of what the Bible says, it is a report of what the Bible says. The modernist christians have passed off an idea that there are different interpretations and different versions of what the Bible says. They pick out the pieces that they want and discard the bulk of the God's Word. Baptist believe the whole, and discard not a piece. You will find that modernism, pluralism, atheism and agnosticism will abruptly end when the Lord Jesus Christ appears (or when you gasp your last breath of God's air and meet him face to face.) We will all appear before our creator, even if your convinced your creator is a chimp. Get a BIBLE and prepare for finals.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
450 Words For Week #25, Jun 18-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#626 For Week #26, Jun 25-, 2006

Vice is legal sin. It is immoral. It is a lust of the flesh which when fulfilled, changes ones body chemistry and always wants more. It always leads down a path of known destruction but each one trapped in a lust fulfilling vice believes they are the exception to that destruction. This path to destruction is ugly and filled with contention, disease, agony and pleasure. The latter and the chemistry command an unrelenting hold on a persons will. One thinks that they can control it, but a vice always wins control and squanders what is valuable on a lust of the flesh. The five predominate vices of America are Wine, Women, Gambling, Gluttony, and Nicotine. They each share these characteristics, it is a lust of the flesh, it changes body chemistry, it awakens a desire for more, it has destruction at it's end, and it paves an ugly path wrought with false hope. You have a vice. God has a cure

Unscrupulous marketers and governments use these vices to make money off of the flesh binding addiction. Vice squanders what is valuable and precious in life to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Lives, marriages, children, homes, purpose, love, responsibility and possessions are daily poured down a bottle, hidden in dark motels, lottoed and blackjacked, engulfed and puffed out of sooty lungs. All because it's your pleasure, and you can beat the odds. “Hey, you never know.” But we do know, if we are honest with ourselves. It has all been demonstrated by time immortal. The black lung, the clogged artery, the lost bet, the genital herpes, the DWI, .. you loose, marketers win. Hey looser, you can break the addiction. The Lord Jesus Christ can set you free. “ Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. ... As he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.(John 8:12,30-32)

A miss worded sign read “Don't let your vice kill you, let our Church help.” Independent Baptist Churches have ready access to a Reformers Unanimous (RU) program that can directly apply those word of Christ to your life. You can die to self and the desires of the flesh and live in fullness of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thousands have, don't be the loser in this life, or the next.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
448 Words For Week #26, Jun 25-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#627 For Week #27, Jul 2-, 2006

I own two houses that are over 100 years old. Since school is out I have been working 60 hours per week on house repairs. The endless foolishness reminded me of “This Old House.” ... not the show the song. My mom sang it all the while I was growing up. Unfortunately it was much later in my life that I realized that Ecclesiates chapter 12 and the song “This Old House” are not talking about any house but the one that houses your soul. As best I can recall my mom's wording:

This old house once knew my children This old house once knew my wife ... This old house was home and comfort As we fought the storms of life. ... This old house once ringed with laughter This old house heard many shouts ... Now she trembles in the darkness when the lightning walks about

Aint-a gonna need this house no longer. Aint-a gonna need this house no more. Aint got time to fix the shingles Aint got time to fix the floor. Aint got time to oil the hinges Nor to mend no window pain. Aint gonna need this house no longer Im a gettn ready to meet the saints

This old house is a getting shakey This old house is a getting old. This old house lets in the rain. This old house lets in the cold. Oh my knees are getting chilly But I feel no fear of pain. Cause I see an angel peeking through a broken window pane.

This old house is afraid of thunder This old house is afraid of storms. This old house just moans and trembles when the night brings things its own. This old house is is getting feeble This old house is in need of paint. Just like me its tuckerd out but I'm a getinng ready to meet the saints!

Maturity should bring on a quest for God. We don't have forever, ... unless you ask for it.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
450 Words For Week #27, Jul 2, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#628 For Week #28, Jul 9-, 2006

The Bible says “ Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) The 'government' had given order that Christians were not to speak in the name of Jesus any more. Nineteen hundred years later the state of Maryland had passed a law that forbid people from praying in the name of Jesus Christ in their assemblies. That law was swiftly overturned but the intent was blatant. Our military chaplains are under continual legal challenge by the ACLU (aka the Anti-Christian Liberties Union) that they not be allowed to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The humanist's hatred for that name is over running Christian freedoms in America, but Peter was clear and true when he attack their bias hatred with “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved “ Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship; a relationship with the only begotten Son of God; a relationship whereby he takes my sin debt, pays it in full and sets me free with eternal life in my possession. Humanist want to deny me the right to use his name in the public square. Pluralists want to forbid that I tell others about the availability of this eternal life to all humanity. Family services has tried to make my teaching about this name, which is above every name, akin to child abuse in the home. For 230 years now there has been only one country where constitutional law requires that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” As they try to forbid Christians from naming the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in public school, public office, public prison, public square and public prayer they keep kicking at that first amendment. Praise the Lord, for God has blessed America. Will he continue to bless as the ACLU tries to kick his name out of school, public and country? “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved “ ... “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? “ (Heb 2:3-4) Salvation is available to any that would call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christians are commissioned to tell that to everybody the meet, even in public! “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. “ (Rom 10:13) Have you called? Would you? Have your children? Will they? God Bless you as you name his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
488 Words For Week #28, Jul 09-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#629 For Week #29, Jul 16-, 2006

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. “ The spiral rings in the little sea shell on my bathroom shelf, the spiraling horn on the big horn sheep that I shot in Colorado, and the pinwheel spirals of the M51 galaxy, called The Whirlpool Galaxy, all have identical mathematically derived spiraling structures. Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) spent his life analyzing Eucalidian geometry and wrote “On Spirals” in 225 BC. Awesome does not begin to express the glory of God found in this connection between the shell, the sheep, and the sky. Indeed the heavens declare and the firmament shows His handiwork. Indeed “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1) His word says that down in side you know you were created, and are without excuse, when it comes to knowing God. (Romans 1)

This past year, the challenge of teaching 300 BC Euclidian geometry to high school students was quite like explaining colors to a blind man. The exasperating task of changing student ears into learned eyes is one of the most enjoyable of my life. But a whole dimension of learning is null and void in the upcoming generations. Our public schools teach your children that 'In the beginning a rock and a stone produced an amoeba' and that man evolved from dirt without a creator. Thus, Euclid and Archimedes, in their miss held theory, where barely steps above ignorant cave men. Euclidian geometry that focused the thinking of great men like Abraham Lincoln, is cast completely out of the NYS run educational system that favors the dummied down Math A and Math B curriculum. Where are our next generation thinkers that would explore the glory of God found in the hyperbolic spirals of the shell, the sheep and the sky? What teacher can turn ears into eyes and cause a blind man to see colors when math is taught only as a means of balancing ones checkbook? Shame on Albany for our public schools condition, shame on parents for letting it get this far. I went to public school before they kicked Euclid out, ... even before they kicked Jesus the Christ out, before they kicked God out!, and Mr. Oliver taught me “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.“ What are they teaching your children? Math A? I am forced to pay over $100 per month to our failing public school system that I despise. I want education reform. It couldn't possibly make things worse, but it is not the answer. The answer was kicked out of government schooling around 1963. The answer is Jesus Christ the righteous creator of the universe ('uni' = one, 'verse' = spoken sentence that brought all into being) We who know The Answer are called Christian, ('Christ' = Jesus the Messiah, 'ian' = living in me) and should keep our children where they keep Euclid, out side of the godless government school system. The Greek Parthenon was built around the golden rectangle that when unsquared, via Pythagoras of 500 BC, constructs the logarithmic spiral which defines the nautilus shell, the sheep horn, the sunflower seed pattern and the M51 galaxy of the sky. Where but in a Christian school would you learn that? Where will those who will ponder these truths be educated?

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
582 Words For Week #29, Jul 16-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#630 For Week #30, Jul 23-, 2006

Paul writing to the newly formed and harshly persecuted Church at Thessalonica concludes his epistle with “ Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.” Let's learn something about prayer in this charge to the Thessalonians. It is interesting that this church, who had seen whole families killed by the Roman persecution, is asked to pray for others going through persecution. When you are going through a trial pray for others. We have a tendency to internalize problems and have a pity party for ourselves. When we turn our focus outward, to others, our trial stays in a more realistic focus. Paul tells these persecuted folks, “Pray for us.” Secondly notice what they are to pray for, “That the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified,” We need to start praying for that again in America There was a time when the word of the Lord had free course here. Not today. My son returned as a missionary to Peru this week and we prayed that the word of the Lord would have free course in Cajamarca. Considering that the course is more restricted in schools here in New York than anywhere in the world, we need that prayer as well as he. Pray that the word of the Lord be glorified. Humanists, running our public education, hate the Holy Bible and do not allow it in the government run schools. Modernists, running our Churches, do not believe the Holy Bible, and will not preach it's truths from the pulpits. (i.e. I Tim 2 and 3 can only be preached as truth by a man of God, actually in the minority in Yates county.) We should pray that the word of the Lord is glorified in upstate New York, it sure is lacking here. Thirdly, Paul says to pray that they “may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men.” In Peru, these unreasonable men teach that Mother Mary, not the Lord Jesus Christ is mans advocate. Here in America, the unreasonable men slander our faith in Christ with atheist's fiction about the evolving of man from animal over millions of years, and the modernists with multiple versions of babble none being a believable, holy, and wholly inspired Bible. The ranks of true Christianity is a minority as Christ said in Matt 7. Truly “for all men have not faith.” like Paul warns. But for those who do it is written “And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.” (verse 5) May the Lord direct your heart. Pray for us. Pray for our missionaries carrying the gospel of Christ to foreign lands. Pray that it be glorified and have free course.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
486 Words For Week #30, Jul 23-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#631 For Week #31, Jul 30-, 2006

Lawyers and priests, scribes and scholars suffer a deserved harshness by the teachings of Jesus Christ. Luke 10:25 says “ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” After an exchange the haughtiness of the lawyer comes to full view as Dr. Luke records “But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?” (verse 29) The story of the good Samaritan has a depth that goes way beyond answering the question, “Who is my neighbor?” The deeper issue of man striving to justify himself, and the base question of inheriting eternal life are equally dealt with in this marvelously revealing tail woven by the master. Jesus choose his character “a certain man” representing all of mankind, and chose his journey “down from Jerusalem to Jericho” representing mans descent from the City of God (cf Psalm 87) to the cursed place (cf Joshua 6:26). His falling among thieves, loss of raiment, wounds and half dead condition is picturesque of mankind's condition in this world. Why is there so much evil and pain in this world? That was not God's design nor intent, it is mans journey away from the city of God, into the curse of this world that landed mankind among the thieves! Do you see the deeper dimension of Jesus' answer to the lawyers question? Verse 31 says “And by chance there came down a certain priest that way:” The priest is representative of the Old Testament Law that the lawyer was trying to keep. The law is effective at pointing out mans shortfalls but can do nothing to save him. Next comes a Levite, a minister of the temple, representative of mans religious works and efforts, as in sacraments to earn salvation. He passes by equally unable and unwilling to repair the mess of mankind. The master story now brings in the hero, the Good Samaritan. As Jesus so loved the world and came into the world to save sinners, so this Samaritan had compassion on the man fallen into such wretched condition. He bound his wounds gave oil and wine, put him on his own beast and put him in the hands of another comforter until his return. A Christian quickly sees that this is exactly what Christ has done for him. He bore in his body the wounds of our sin and by his stripes we are made whole. He has given us 'another comforter,' the Holy Spirit of God to indwell us until he returns for his own. When Jesus tells this self righteous lawyer a story that illustrates what a good neighbor is, He also deals with his self righteousness and his first question “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” There are people and organizations that call themselves “Good Samaritan” without going to the full dimension of Jesus' answer to the lawyer. You cannot keep the 10 commandments and inherit eternal life. You cannot religiously be baptized into, or do sacraments through a church and inherit eternal life. You cannot be a good Samaritan, i.e. a good deed doer and inherit eternal life. Man kind is in such a deplorable condition that no priest, nor religion, no Levite nor christian service can save you. Although plenty pass by on the other side, you need the saviour of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ to be your saviour. Ask him; He will. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. “ (Acts 4:12)

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
604 Words For Week #31, Jul 30-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#632 For Week #32, Aug 6-, 2006

The proverbial sayings used by the Lord Jesus Christ to drive home truths are as profoundly powerful today. If Matthew chapter 5 is called the sermon on the mount Matthew 23 would have to be the sermon of the valley. Jesus denunciates mans religiosity. We need a good dose of that today. Most of our religion is not “pure religion and undefiled” (James 1:27) Eight times Jesus calls out 'woe', 7 times 'hypocrites', 5 times 'blind guides' or 'blind', 2 times 'fools' and concludes calling the religionists 'serpents and vipers.' Such a message wouldn't come from nor set well with the spiritual pacifists of today, but in the middle of this denunciation we find a defining proverbial saying. Verse 24 says “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Wow do we fall guilty here. In our society we legally protect sea turtles in the shell because they are precious and endangered, yet just this day we used forceps to tear limb from limb over 4,000 more precious human babies that were still in a womb and inconvenient. We strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. In Israel it was common to drink your wine (that's grape Koolaid for those wine bibbers who would misread the word) through a cloth to strain out the ever present fruit fly in the drink. Jesus never said this was bad, and doubtless did the same. The gnat was by law unclean for diet, but so too was the camel. The absurdity of the proverbial saying is their ability to gulp down a mug of drink that had a camel in it. I should point out here that Jesus always taught with the old, old proverbial sayings of his day and never used the new international versions. Our society gulps down camels, rejecting their Creator and with evolution teaching our children we came from two rocks in a primeval soup... “Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth:” (Jer 2:27) It nit picks about helmets on cyclists but overlooks homosexuals and pedophiles entering our schools. It swallows camels, but so do our churches. We exalt trifles in religion and omit the weightier matters. Deifying and praying to Mother Mary, saints and statues are camels we have swallowed. Acting like water could wash away sin, it's a camel but gulped right down in Protestant Churches. We independent Baptists fuss about apparel and appearance but let fornication and adultery pass by unembarrassed. Straining at gnats, swallowing camels, we are good at it. Individually we are as guilty. We gush compliments on friend and family because of turned over leafs and moral improvements, yet we never share with them the eternal truth about their soul. Good people die every day and bust hell wide open because we don't want to share with them what we learned. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:36) We major on the minors, when we should be treating the important issues with the same scrupulosity of detail as the trivial. It's our nature. That's why Jesus emphasized it so. Overcome your old nature this week. Frankly search out the camels you are gulping down. Don't swallow gnats, but get rid of camels.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
570 Words For Week #32, Aug 06-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#633 For Week #33, Aug 13-, 2006

When the Lord Jesus Christ returns and you meet him face to face, you will be 'found'. The Bible emphasized the question, 'How will you be found?' Jesus said “Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” (Luk 12:40) The whole premise that the Lord may return at any moment permeates Christianity.

The teaching is profound: “ And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household? ... Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.” (Lu 12:42- 43) The Bible teaching that the Lord's return is imminent, is intended to keep you on your toes and responsible, and watching. For those who would live recklessly Jesus warns “But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.” (12:45-46) Now, this requirement to live responsibly and be good stewards of what God has given to us is most applicable to the born again Christian, but it has an application for the unsaved as well. When giving lessons on stewardship Jesus likens all mankind as receiving 'talents' to be accountable for. The next breath you breath is given to you by your creator. It might not be like the 10 talents of riches and ability he has given to someone else, but you are accountable for it just the same. So what will you do with it, bury it in the earth or invest it in His glory? To invest it is to seek Him out and call upon His only begotten son for your soul's salvation as he has commanded. You will give answer for it. Do right. You will be found when he returns. How will you be found at His return, saved or lost?

Jesus again said “ I tell you that he will avenge (His own) speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Lu 18:8) Catholic doctrine has polluted the Bible principle that things will get worse and worse and in the last days the number of believers will be less and less. The narrow gate of Mathew 7 will appear more narrow and the straight path seem the more straightened. .The Bible is clear that Christianity will not be in the majority, if you are a believer Jesus said that you should expect to be the persecuted minority. In America for 230 years laws have limited the persecution, it is not like Pakistan where by law I would be killed for Baptizing a convert to Christianity. (That law, by the way, would easily be voted in democratically by a 2/3 majority over there. Democracy and majority rule will not solve the Middle East's problems, and it is not what our country is founded upon. We are a republic, not a democracy!) The hand of God once wrote on the wall over there, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” (Dan 5:20) So, today, if you or I were weighed in the balances, how would we be found? Makes you think.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
588 Words For Week #33, Aug 13-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#634 For Week #34, Aug 20-, 2006

The Hebrews are asked “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;” That question is ushered in with the exclamation “We ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,” Christians today ought to pay greater heed. Much foolishness has crept into the things which we have heard. It should go without saying that a believer in Jesus should believe what Jesus believed. He believed the Old Testament Law. He believed in the eye-witnesses that he ordained as apostles and commissioned to write his teachings. There are those, even in our pulpits, who pick and choose out just the Bible portions they like, trying to maintain their philosophy or political correctness. Shame. We cannot just pick some of the red letter quotes of Jesus and leave out the epistles or the law. How much of the Bible is to be trusted? With all the private interpretations and versions to be found, people, even some professing Christians, ocupying pulpits, are picking out the parts that they want to believe, and discarding the rest. The world claims all the versions contradict and no one really knows what the Bible says. People make up their private interpretations of their own 'designer truth' saying 'that might be true for you, but that is not true for me'. The truth is abandoned, Satan is tickled, and the world sees the Bible has no authority, even in the Church! Jesus said there is only one Truth and we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. Jesus said it whether it is in red letters or not.

To counter this watering down of the truth a Christian should be well informed about how we got our Bible, well intended to believe all that his Lord requires of him, and well studied in the 66 books that we hold as the verbally inspired Holy Bible. Sadly, you will need to be better informed, better intended, and better studied than most of our pulpits are today. We should give the more earnest heed to the things which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us, in writing, by those that heard him; by those who have seen him with their own eyes; by those who have looked upon him; by those who's hands have handled the Word of life. The 12 apostles ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, wrote or authorized and passed on to us the 27 books that we call the New Testament of the Holy Bible. They read the Hebrew Scriptures, spoke the Aramaic language and wrote in the exacting Greek language of the 1^st century. The very exact Greek words that they wrote are preserved and available to us today. They are translated into the English language in exacting accurate verbal translation, in modern languaged hopeful renditions, in paraphrase ecumenical international interpretations, in poor misguided private perversions or in grossly errant deviant versions. Hundreds of English copyright versions glut our materialistic market. Each must have 'significant deviation' from the other to secure that copyright. You should always be aware which it is that you have in your lap and always understand that all the exact wording is available to us in the Greek and in only one un-copyright exacting English translation. Study. Pay the more earnest heed. It is worth the effort. It reveals The Truth.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
596 Words For Week #34, Aug 20-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#635 For Week #35, Aug 27-, 2006

Hebrews 2:3 says “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; “ I have previously emphasized giving the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. (vr. 1) In so doing we see an importance placed on the words of the 12 eyewitness, ordained apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan has waged a constant attack against the written record of these eyewitnesses. In 340 AD a Church in Rome alleged that she was the mother of all Churches with an apostolic authority that over rules these original ordained authors. But Jesus himself commends the free Church saying to her, “I know thy works,... thou hast tried them that say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:” Critics of the faith, modernists who refuse to believe Jesus' miracles and his claim to be God in the flesh and mankind's propitiation, have aimed textual, source, redaction and form criticism at the writings of these original ordained apostles but God said “My WORDS shall not pass away.” The eyewitness, ordained by Christ, apostles wrote in the exacting expressions of Koine Greek and copied and distributed their writings throughout the known world, so that we can have preserved for us today, 1,916 years later, their exact wording. The many 'versions' that the world has heard about and that modernists exploit in their attempt to deny Biblical authority, are not versions of the Bible but versions of the English translations with 'significant deviation' from the original apostolic writings, lest they not get their copyright dollars. There are bad versions of the Greek around as well. Those families of manuscripts copied by the Western Empire, that thought they were the mother of all churches and higher than the original apostles, were translated to Latin and are called today the vulgar Vulgate. Bad copy. Those families of manuscripts copied at Alexandria Egypt, where they thought themselves the mother of all worldly wisdom, are the oldest known and most eloquently copied, but are riddled with omissions and gross errors because they were copied by unbelievers. (When your Bible notes and scholars say 'the oldest and best manuscripts omit this verse' they are referring to an Alexandrian manuscript copied and edited by the world.) The exacting Greek, copied and preserved with complete emphasis on verbal inspiration comes to us inerrant in the Byzantine family of Greek manuscripts. There is only one English translation, not copyright and based solely on these verbally inspired Greek manuscripts. There are not multiple versions of the Bible, just multiple versions of copy right profit margins.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
451 Words For Week #35, Aug 27-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#636 For Week #36, Sep 03-, 2006

In paying “the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard” you will often hear the exclamation “That is just your interpretation of the Bible.” I have been told that if you take a portion of scripture given to 12 people you will end up with 13 interpretations. That may be true, but if you take the Bible in its entirety, omitting none and rightly dividing all systematically, there are not multiple interpretations. This can be well illustrated with the Jefferson Bible. Thomas Jefferson, calling the miracles of Jesus and the writings of the apostles amphibological nonsense, extracted just the red lettered words of Jesus into his “Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.” That may be a wonderful interpretation of moral behavior, but it is a horrible interpretation of the Bible. I respect Thomas as a founding father of our nation, but as for his Bible, it is 'his interpretation.' An interpretation in this sense is thus contrived when you extract a portion, you want to believe and discard the rest. The world and modernist Christians extract the golden rule, and 'judge not lest ye be judged' and discard the rest and then regularly recite to Bible believers the line, 'Well, that's your interpretation.' When one systematically believes the whole Bible and “studies to shew himself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2Tim 2:15), it is not a private interpretation. (2 Pet 1:20) You can rightfully say 'That's your interpretation” to those who discard portions of the 66 books of the Holy Bible because they only believe and site their selected favorites. You cannot rightfully say that of Baptists who hold to the verbal inspiration of every word, and make no private interpretation. (Excepting here the American Baptists that have rejected the virgin birth of the Christ and accepted the modernist translations of the Bible.) What then accounts for the 135+ denominations with distinctive interpretations of the Christian faith? Denominations spring from the central control of doctrine from a mother church or original founder. The Protestant denominations sprang from their mother Church in Rome, and hold many of it's error, i.e. infant baptism was derived by Roman law and is nowhere in the Bible. Wesley for Methodists, Calvin for Presbyterians, Arch Bishops for Episcopalians, they have their authority in the doctrines of founders, popes or leaders. Baptists have their sole authority in the inerrant, verbally inspired words of the Holy Bible We are rightfully careful about avoiding private interpretations and modernist versions.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
428 Words For Week #36, Sep 03-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#637 For Week #37, Sep 10-, 2006

Taking the more earnest heed of the things which we have heard, let us consider “So Great Salvation.” This salvation is the theme of the Bible; from Genesis to Revelation, from the fall of man to the returning of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and great glory. The theme is the restoration of man, who was originally made in the image of God. The Bible says “How shall we escape, if e neglect so great salvation, ...” Consider your need for this salvation. “How shall we escape... “ supposes first that there is something to escape, second that you know a need to escape, and third, that you have a desire to escape. The Bible is clear on the first; man has fallen from his innocence. Eternal death and the wrath of a righteous God hangs over every human. There is but one means of escape. The second two suppositions depend on you. In his book, “Mere Christianity” C.S. Lewis establishes that you know, down inside, that you have shortfalls to being what you should be, even what you were made to be. You are made in the image of your creator but there is a flaw in the works somewhere, and there is a departure from what you were intended to be. Lewis used 5 chapters to establish this and did it right well. The humanists holding the keys to our school houses are Bible rejecting evolutionists who dismiss both the Creator and His image. His book needs revival today because Lewis came from his atheism to the Truth about his need for 'So Great Salvation.'

The third supposition swings on how badly you view yourself. The modernist christians will tell you your not that bad, if everyone would love each other we will all be good enough for God. The religionists will tell you that you can do some good deed, penance or sacrament through their church and make up for your fallen state. But the Bible says you are “desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9), that my sin makes me condemned by God (John 3:17-18) and that we are all in iniquity, gone out of the way. (Isa 53:6) That is more serious than a little church-going can fix.

If you desire 'So great salvation' it is available free for the asking. Rather than hanging with the modernists who pretend your not that bad and don't really need it, or sticking with the religionists that say a little water, wine or wafer will make you good enough for God, you need to come to Christ and be born again. Gathered at Good Sam, and any Bible preaching Independent Baptist Church are some people who realized how bad they were, and accepted an undeserved pardon of their sin. We have been pardoned, forgiven, redeemed, reconciled to God. We are Bible Christians, fundamental believers, who were once vile, but now we are washed, but we are sanctified, but we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:11) Your invited to visit, but to be a member you will have to give testimony that you deserved hell when God saved you with “So Great Salvation.”

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
539 Words For Week #37, Sep 10-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#638 For Week #38, Sep 17-, 2006

The free and available salvation from sin's eternal penalty and sin's overwhelming power is exalted in Biblical Christianity's “So Great Salvation.” The theme of Christianity is not “Love thy neighbor” as expressed by our politically correct modernists, but that God so loved..., that he gave us a propitiation. We need to see the stark difference. Though you don't need a degree to study this salvation theme of the Bible a dictionary is often helpful. Therein you find that a conciliatory offering to a god is in view here. Thus a propitiation is to conciliate an offended power; or to appease an angry god. This Biblical idea that God is offended, even angry at man's sin is soft peddled in modern Christianity. The idea that there is only one propitiation acceptable to Jehovah God our Creator does not set well with our pluralistic, 'have it your way' society, but that is the premise of Christianity. God, can only be reconciled to man, with a propitiation which will appease his holy anger. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) This propitiation must first be seen with respect to God's great love to man. The Bible says that God SO loved that he gave us this propitiation. He does not love us because of the price he paid, he paid the price because he loves us. When the world is so busy denying what they are doing is sin, and the modern 'christians' are equally denying that all sin is vile, fundamental Bible believing Christians are often portrayed as judgmental or hateful because they call iniquity sin. In reality, the true believer, knows the great love of God toward the sinner, and the great value and potential for every soul, no matter what depth of sin that soul is presently tangled in. Confrontation with those who deny their sinfulness, however, was inevitable for Christ and is likewise for those who preach the same message of repentance. Why then do we labor? It is not a premise that I am right and you are wrong, I am sanctified and you are damned, that marks the believer evangelizing this love of Christ and repentance toward sin. It is that “I am a nobody who wants to tell everybody about The Somebody that can save anybody”. Evangelical Christians must not leave out any of those four 'body's of truth. When you think your a somebody, you miss the mark. When there is somebody you won't tell, you miss the commission. When Christ isn't the central Somebody, your not Christ-centered and hardly Christian. When you think God won't or can't save somebody, your limiting the power of His Gospel. Why do we preach the love of Christ and repentance from sin? Why do we labor? The Apostle Paul puts three reasons in print in II Cor 5, “Wherefore we labour, ... For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; ... Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; ... For the love of Christ constraineth us;” If your saved, you need to tell somebody, they need what you have. He is the only answer.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
539 Words For Week #38, Sep 17-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#639 For Week #39, Sep 24-, 2006

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” This verse marks the beginning of the Bibles section of Hebrew poetry. The most powerful poetry ever kicked out of a public schooling system is the revelation of God in Job, the prophecy and songs of God in Psalms, and the wisdom of God in Proverbs. Despite America's new found despise of Hebrew poetry it is the most powerful genera of poetry in the world. Here in Job there are three major crescendo's which involve Job's need (9:28-35, 16:21), Job's faith (19:25-27), and the revelation of God to Job (38:1-41). All three of these, of coarse, are germane to an examination of “So Great Salvation” that we are giving the more earnest heed. (Heb 2) But the first captures the role of Christ, our redeemer. When one rejects the trinity and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, as do the Russleites and Smithites among us, they miss the majority of the Bible and all of Christianity. The book of Hebrews and poetry of the Hebrews insist that God be made flesh and dwell among us in order to be a redeemer of mankind, a mediator of a new covenant. This need is made blatant by Job's cry for a 'Daysman' in “Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. (Job 9:33)” As in all Hebrew poetry the wording is such as to give meaning in replication of phrases. Here Job declares his need of a daysman-redeemer “For (God) is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. (vr 32)“ This daysman-redeemer-priest has three important functions as described in the New Testament book of Hebrews. First he must be a man. Only as a man can he suffer the frailties and flaws of humanity. To suffer exhaustion, hunger, frustration and temptation he was a human. He had to be man to suffer death, and indeed the cruelest and most public of all deaths is what he suffered. He had to be man to lay his hand in equality on humanity undergoing judgment. Second he must be God, not a god, but the God. An equal part of the triune Godhead. The creator of man and the universe. As this God-Man he lived victoriously over the frailties and flaws and was without sin. As such he arose victorious over death. He had to be God to lay his hand in equality on God standing in righteous judgment. Thirdly he must “stand betwixt us.” Stand between man and God as an advocate, our only advocate. Others mean well praying to saints or Mary, but in reality saints are barred from being our advocates in anything and the Bible forbids us addressing our prayers there. Standing betwixt He is our propitiation, that died in our place. Standing betwixt He unites man and God as one, even as He is one with God. Christianity alone has such a proven daysman. If you, of your free will, personally receive him as your Lord and Saviour of your soul, you can be Christian. Believers became disciples by continuing on in the doctrine of the apostles.(Acts 2:42) Disciples came to be called Christian because they acted like Christ. (Acts 11:26) Are you a believer? A disciple? A Christian? You can't be that without a perfect daysman.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
599 Words For Week #39, Sep 24-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#640 For Week #40, Oct 01-, 2006

The Revelation of Jesus Christ is aptly named and powerfully revealing. After the Apostle John had been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ for over 50 years his Lord gave him a revelation “to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:” There is coming the last Yom Kipor before the return of the Christ. Our Hunt for the Last October Bible prophecy conference is more in respect of the Jewish Feast of Trumpets that points to Messiah's 2^nd coming than it is to Tom Clancy's book of similar name. The Revelation of Jesus Christ solidly nails this event in the annals of prophetic truth. If Christ does not return both for his saints and then with his saints the whole of Biblical prophecy can be dismissed as sham and sophistry. Under it's 1200 years of tyrannical rule Roman Catholicism errantly adopted all prophecy about Israel to itself. In this re-appropriation of prophetic truth the Revelation of Jesus Christ was dismissed as a fanciful far fetched figurative book. It is in actuality a well organized clearly stated literal revelation which behooves your study. In it John accurately reports what he has seen, the things that are, and the things that shall be, exactly as he is commissioned by his Lord. When you have an apostles word on it, you call it Holy Bible and don't dismiss a word of it despite what some cleric or supposed scholar may say about it.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ has a divinely inspired and powerfully complete introduction in the whole of chapter one. The 7 spirits of Christ, the 7 attributes and 7 titles of Christ, the 7 Churches of Christ, the 7 stars and the 7 candlesticks, put an notable emphasis on the coming completion of His role as prophet priest and king. Where 6 is the number of man, 7 is the number of completion. Since the day of his creation man has not been complete. This is a revelation of the completer. Every word of the introduction is key and interwoven throughout the book as it shines light on the whole of scripture. The divinity of the Christ is found in his taking the title “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last;” The appearance of His 7 Churches as 7 golden candlesticks is a powerful picture that reverberates throughout the whole of scripture. His Church is plural and not the One Mother Church that catholicism tried to form. His Church is local and visible, and not the invisible no membership Church that some contend for today. His Candlesticks hold candles. If your candle is not membered with a local Bible believing Church that believes and follows the doctrines of the apostles, your not where the Lord Jesus Christ would have you to be. The Revelation of Jesus Christ is not figurative fabrication. It is figurative interpretation. “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is (still) at hand.” All through October we study this revelation. You should join us in that study.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
540 Words For Week #40, Oct 01-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#641 For Week #41, Oct 08-, 2006

As a farmer has a well worn path from his house to his barn so ought a Christian to have his familiarity to the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Two thirds of the Holy Bible is prophetic and two thirds of prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. Yet two thirds of Christendom remains ignorant of this Revelation. In writing of “the things which are” John records messages to 7 churches. We need to learn to “rightly divide the word of truth”, as Paul encouraged young Timothy, and to fully understand the “mystery of the dispensations” as he charged the Church at Ephesus. The “Church age” we are in will come to a close at the catching away of the Church when “we which are alive and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds.” The age of grace in which His saints are to be the spirit filled witnesses which preach the gospel to every creature will be over at that trumpet sounding. The world will then be plunged into the most horrible and awesome 7 year transition period between dispensations. This Revelation of Jesus Christ deals largely with that transition and the events leading to His second coming as King of kings and Lord of lords. Although mocked by the world, discarded by catholicism, and twisted by Ellen White and other cults, this dispensational transition is clearly outlined in the Revelation before us. These messages to the 7 churches mark the last mention of the Church in this dispensation of grace. The 7 also mark out distinct phases of history that Christianity has passed through. The last message is to the “church of the Laodiceans” where we find an ineffective, even apostate Christianity which considers itself “rich and increased with goods, and (in need) of nothing.” That is an altogether fitting description of America's Christianity. I hope not of yours.

The titles used by the Christ in addressing each of these 7 churches is a very insightful study. All titles tie back to the introduction of the Revelation and portray various aspects of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. They include very figurative language like “he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand” or “he which hath the sharp sword with two edges” which make us go back and find what the stars represent and where the sword proceeds from. The stars in the right hand give clear illustration of the autonomous independence and singular eldership of His local churches, the sword clear representation of His word. The Catholic pope just rilled the Muslims by admonishing their use of their bloody sword for persuasion. But he has a “Doctrine of The Two Swords” of his own hidden away under his robes. The catholic sword drips with Baptist blood that I'll not allow unnoticed, and declare here to be their misrepresentation of this two edged sword wielded by Christ not by his Church! The clear insights from these titles culminates in the last message to the last church before the rapture portrayed in 4:1. “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” American Christianity has profained all three of these title attributes, but Baptists will not. The Amen speaks to the “so be it” of our final authority, the Holy Bible. The faithful and true witness speaks to the accuracy of every word of this authority. The beginning of the creation speaks to the rejection of every fiber of atheistic evolution even to where we will not subject our children to its propagation in government schools. If yours is not a Bible believing Church that esteems these three titles your likely in a Laodicean ineffectual church. Come out from among them and be ye separate is Christ's command.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
634 Words For Week #41, Oct 08-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#642 For Week #42, Oct 15-, 2006

'Left behind' is starkly descriptive of what becomes of non-believers at the first phase of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says Jesus will meet his saints in the clouds, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. But what of the non believer and the pretend believer? What becomes of them? Biblical Prophecy clearly shows a 7 year transition between the Church age and the millennial reign of Christ. The Revelation of Jesus Christ shows the stages that this world will go through in that horrifying 7 year period. Jesus previews it as seeing the “abomination of desolation” (Matt 24:15) “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (verse 21) His stern instruction comes as “whoso readeth, let him understand!” This stark warning is given, not that you can make it through this tribulation period, but that you might escape it. The tribulation period is portrayed in the Bible book called the Revelation of Jesus Christ so that believers would know the pending 'terror of the Lord' and all the more 'persuade men' to trust the Christ as saviour. (2Cor 5:11) The horrid indescribable portrayal is presented that an unbeliever would know of the pending wrath of God and repent of their sin and trust Christ as their Lord and saviour of their soul. It is called the Revelation of Jesus Christ because that is exactly what it reveals, Jesus the Christ.

The tribulation period starts rather timidly for those 'left behind.' The beginning phases are illustrated as if 7 seals that bind the great book of God's judgment were one by one being removed. This preparation phase begins with a new world order portrayed as a white horse rider that comes 'conquering, and to conquer.” (Rev 6:2) This world leader brings tentative peace to the middle east and solves all the world problems with a one world government and peace on earth, good will toward men. A new world order with a one world government and a one world religion is the pursuit that already has seed in our world today. The rider is a pseudo-Christ, a fake and charade that is accepted by the whole world in their blindness. Tentative indeed, as the ongoing opening of these preparatory seals reveals the horror and death and persecution that this new world order brings in. The opening of the 7^th seal brings about silence in heaven for the space of a half an hour (Rev 8:1) Silence in preparation for the trumpeting voice of Christ that pronounces the next 7 woes to befall the earth and mankind prior to the pouring out of the 7 vials of the wrath of God. Horrid beyond description is this transition period between the age of grace, that we occupy now, and the millennial reign of Christ that is ushered in by his second coming and the infamous battle called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (Rev 16:16)

Believer, “knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” are you a witness that is persuading? To the pretender and unbeliever Jesus must say “Depart from me, I never knew you.” What a revelation. Will you be caught up to meet him in the air or will you be 'left behind'? There are only the two paths available to mankind, and you must choose before it is too late. Choose wisely.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
594 Words For Week #42, Oct 15-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#643 For Week #43, Oct 22-, 2006

The Bible says that “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” (Prov 29:15) The child left to himself is a snapshot of what happens to those 'left behind' when Jesus returns for his saints. The white horse, red horse, black horse, pale horse and then massive martyrdom of saints of Revelation chapter 6 is the shame that mankind is brought too. These illustrate the natural course of this world as “The Lamb that was slain” opens the first 5 seals on the book of His judgment. As we look to the Revelation of Jesus Christ to contain the cataclysmic ending of the world as we know it, it captures both the nature of man and the news articles of today's paper. It is hard to imagine that a religion sweeping over our supposed sophisticated society could once again promote world domination and utter annihilation of the Jews as a nation and a people, but Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah of Lebanon has worded that fundamental of Islam. That is why they are called fundamentalist Moslems. The Bible says that left to himself man will pursue a one world government and then strive to annihilate His chosen nation Israel. Our news papers portray the foreshadowing of exactly what is laid out in panorama in The Revelation of Jesus Christ, the last book of the Holy Bible.

When the Apostle John was told to record “The things which shall be hereafter” his record began right after he heard the voice as it were of a trumpet talking which said “Come up hither.” Those who believe the Bible and the dispensational truths that are contained therein, recognize that as the same trumpet like voice of the Lord Jesus Christ which calls for the rapture of the saints of the Church (John 11:25-26, 1Cor 15:42, 1Thes 4:14-18) The Second Coming or Advent of Jesus Christ is believed by all of Christendom. Even, to some extent, the Adventists and other cults that sprang from the 1800s believe in his return. Baptist have stood as the remnant that cling to this clear Bible teaching of the pre-tribulation rapture of the saints of the Church. The Bible says that Jesus will come 'for his saints' and meet them in the clouds. The Bible says that Jesus will come 'with his saints' and carry his rightful title of King of kings and Lord of lords. These two truths are easily reconciled with a pre-tribulation rapture of the Church. The two truths are forever mucked up in the teaching of catholic and her daughter, protestants, teaching about the second coming of Christ. They get even more mucked up in the cultic teachings of Russelites, Smithites and Ellenites. The Bible teaching of this pre-tribulation rapture of the Church is clear and decisive. Those not raptured out, both unbelievers and Christian pretenders, have been called the 'left behind' and the child left to himself bringeth shame.

The Holy Spirit of God taken out of this world when the saints depart is tasked to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8) just as a parent is charged to reprove a child. When that reprover is taken away from the world (2Thes 2:7) mankind does what he wants, illustrated via the 7 seals of Revelation, then the devil does what he wants, illustrated via the 7 trumpets of Revelation, then God does what judgment demands illustrated via the 7 vials of Revelation. I pray that you will not be 'left behind' if the Lord should return today. He could, for his return is imminent.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
617 Words For Week #43, Oct 22-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#644 For Week #44, Oct 29-, 2006

Revelation 11:3 says “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophecy 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” When we rightly divide the word of truth the timing, placement and possibilities of these two witnesses is awesome. The Old Testament book of Daniel outlines 70 weeks of years wherein God “finishes the transgression and (makes) and end of sins,” for His elect nation Israel. (Dan 9:24-29) Sixty nine of the 70 weeks of years are already accomplished and the final 7 year period of this promise is in our future. It is called “the time of Jacob's trouble” in Jeremiah 30 and “the great tribulation “ by Christ in Matthew 24. Good Bible interpretation easily demonstrates that the tribulation period described in the Revelation of Jesus Christ is the 7 year period being the 70^th week of Daniel's vision, where God is dealing with His elect nation Israel (not the Church which was 'raptured' out previous) and that the 1260 days is half of that week of years (recalling that a Hebrew calendar has a 360 day year and a leap month every 7 years or so.)

The two witnesses herein referenced are thus Jews, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ on the streets of Jerusalem after the re-initiation of the Jewish temple during the first half of the 7 year tribulation. From this indescribably powerful witness we see 144 thousand virgin males becoming God ordained and God sealed witnesses to the whole world. The destiny of these 2 witnesses and of the 144 thousand witnesses is richly portrayed in the pages of His Revelation.

Around the turn of the last century we find many cults springing out of the very poor Biblical interpretation about these promises made to the Jews. The gross error in interpretation began when catholic doctrine tried to steal every promise made to Israel and apply it to a universal mother church. This twisted world church interpretation fed into the protesters of catholic indulgences, thus Protestant Churches ended up teaching that we are presently in some kind of tribulation period and that God would not literally keep the promises made to his elect nation Israel. No, the Bible teaches very clearly that God will keep every promise made to Israel, and that nations paired with Satan himself will repeatedly attempt to annihilate Israel. It is very clear when it comes to God's dealing with Israel and that is very separate from God's dealing with his Church. Tentacles of catholic error reach deep into church doctrines of the kingdom, election, enduring to the end, and eschatology. If you cannot discern these difference between Jew and Gentile, Israel and the Church, in your Church's teachings, you should seek out a Church which rightly divides the Word of Truth. At the rapture of the Church, believers will be taken, pretenders will be left behind, and afterwards God will be dealing with the promises made to his elect nation Israel. Understanding the difference makes us pray for the peace of Israel and look for the return of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
519 Words For Week #44, Oct 29-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#645 For Week #45, Nov 05-, 2006

The Bible says “Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.” (Mark 9:50) Three times Jesus makes inference that those in his kingdom are to be like salt. Salt has so many uses that it was once used as wages to the Roman soldiers. We have called our wages 'salary' ever since. Google salt and you find that the saltinstitute.org has an overwhelming amount of information about salt and that we near Seneca Lake live on a major salt deposit. We find three functions of salt as a preservative and purifier, a thirst maker, and a seasoner. Doubtless Jesus had in view each of these when he said of those who enter his kingdom in his Sermon on the Mount that “Ye are the salt of the earth.” His saints should have the noticeable effect purifying their local. When you are present at work, dirty magazines should get removed and foul tongues should get guarded. If just your presence in the room is not doing any purifying perhaps you have lost some saltiness. The presence of salt induces a thirst for water. Your presence in the world should make people thirsty for the living water Jesus preached about in John 4 and 7. Salt so seasons a baked potato or ripe tomato as to make it delightfully edible. As a saint, your saltiness should make every circumstance of life well seasoned to the point where all things work together for good (Romans 8:28) and you can give thanks in everything. (I Thes 5:18) In his Sermon on the mount Jesus said that those who enter his kingdom would be the salt of the earth. How is your salinity so far?

In Mark chapter 9 Jesus was rebuking his disciples for opposing those who didn't follow Jesus just like them. He again uses this salt analogy to show that Christians are to be salt amongst errant Christians. Although the modernist's bibles from the worldly library of Alexandria leave many of these verses out Jesus clearly warns here that the most important aspect of Christianity is the salvation whereby people miss the eternal fires of hell where “their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.” When in the presence of errant Christians, salty Christians are to purify, cause thirst for right, and seasoning for the flavor of truth.

In Luke chapter 14 Jesus uses the salt analogy again. This time so that you consider the cost of turning into the salt of the earth. All the problems of life are not solved and over when you accept Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Indeed they will heighten. Being full time salt can be emotionally draining, physically demanding, spiritually exhausting, but it captures well Paul's assurance that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Lastly Jesus warns in all three contexts that salt that has lost it's saltiness is worse than worthless. That is very strong language, but is included in each reference to a saints saltiness. This week, as a believer watch that you can purify your environment, create thirst for the living water and make life delightfully edible. If not your relationship with the saltmaker needs to be adjusted.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
554 Words For Week #45, Nov 05-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#646 For Week #46, Nov 12-, 2006

The Bible says that God created all things in 6 days. The rampant disbelief of that creative act cannot make it, nor it's evidences disappear. The late Dr. Morris, founder and president emeritus of the Institute for Creation Research points out that we were Created-Formed- Made.

“Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” (Isa. 43:7) “There are three main verbs used to describe God's work of creation in Genesis. There are “create” (Hebrew bara), “make” (asah), and “form” (yatsar). The three words are similar in meaning, but each has a slightly different emphasis. None of them, of course, can mean anything at all like “evolve.” or “change,” on their own accord.

“All three are used in Genesis with reference to man. “And God said, Let us make man in our image ... So God created man in His own image ... And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground” (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:7).

“Although the subject of creation is commonly associated with Genesis, it is mentioned even more frequently by the great prophet Isaiah. The words bara and yatsar are used twice as often in Isaiah as in any other Old Testament book and are applies uniquely to works of God. All three verbs are used together in Isaiah 45:18 in order to describe, adequately, God's purposeful work in preparing the earth for man: “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord, and there is none else.”

“God created, formed, made, and established the earth, that it might be the home of men and women. But what was God's purpose for the people who would inhabit it? Our text answers this most fundamental of questions, and once again, all three key verbs are used: “I have created him ... I have formed him ... I have made him ... for my glory.”

“This biblical perspective alone provides the greatest of all possible incentives to live a godly and useful life. The reason we were created is to glorify God!”

Thank you Dr. Morris for that clear insight about creation and our purpose. The Bible clearly answers questions posed by all mankind. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? And How do I get there? Are questions clearly dealt with by any religion, including the secular humanists who control our government schools. God's revealed answers are critical to eternal life. When considering the beginning and the ending, it's good to consider the testimony of one that was there. Jesus, the Christ is the creator, the alpha and omega. All Christianity hangs on that truth. Jesus said you must stand on it or be crushed by it.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
495 Words For Week #46, Nov 12-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#647 For Week #47, Nov 19-, 2006

The great Hebrew King and Psalmist, David records the now 3000 year old poem which starts “ I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” (The Holy Bible, Psalm 116) This poem, like all the Hebrew poetry that the ACLU has censored and effectively banned from our government schooling systems, is marvelously organized into patterns of profound thinking. Hebrew poetry does not normally use rhyme or meter to set it's pace but profound thought. This one uses a triune marriage of enlightened musing about the salvation of ones soul, which makes it especially profound for the Christian reader. It begins with the plight of a soul without God's salvation. Such destiny is described as “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. ” The simplicity and availability of this salvation is captured in his phrase “Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. ”

Then, in verse 5, the marvelous power and miracle of this salvation is expressed in the triune provision of 'grace', 'righteousness' and 'mercy.' This theme is the whole thesis of Paul's letter to the Romans which is a masters thesis on the balance of righteousness, grace and mercy found in so great salvation. Martin Luther was studying it when he broke from the penance practices and indulgence sales of Roman Catholicism. David introduced these ingredients of salvation 1000 years before the Christ made it real and accessible. Paul delineates the superb and intricate balance of these ingredients. God's Word demonstrates marvelous undeniable continuity in this regard. In verse 7 the poet sets his soul to rest. If you are troubled you can find rest for your soul in this tremendous discourse called the Holy Bible.

The second portion of the poetic trilogy of Psalm 116 deals with ownership. You cannot give your soul into God's keeping and hold your life for yourself. When God saves (and owns) your soul, he owns your life. The trinity of thought here is found in verse 9 of the poem. It says He delivered my soul from death, removing the 'hell' of verse 5, delivered my eyes from tears, removing the sorrow of verse 5, and delivered my feet from falling, removing the trouble of verse 5. You could parallel these into salvation for your body, soul and spirit, the full trichotomy of man. A person's salvation must apply as much to his body, and spirit as it does to his soul. The psalmist expertly expresses this truth.

The third of the trilogy is the thanksgiving found in this poem. David pens it as “I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the LORD.” (Vrs 17) As we approach a time of national thanks giving, to Jehovah God, we should notice a trinity in the thanksgiving of this poem. It is a free will offering, it is a sacrifice, and it involves a calling upon the name of the Jehovah. Happy Thanks Giving.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
531 Words For Week #47, Nov 19-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#648 For Week #48, Nov 26-, 2006

The purpose of life is a profound consideration best defined by our creator. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. “ (Rev 4:11) “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. “ (Eccl 12:13-14) Three very practical applications of these verses hang upon our understanding of the fear of God, the Lordship of His Son, the Christ, and the indwelling of His Spirit. In any Church today there will not be a handful of people who could describe, much less practice, the fear of the LORD. Most have swallowed the line, that it only means 'reverence', discarding the 'tremble in your boots' or 'fall down as dead', fear. In my Bible I find more of the latter two than the first. The first English translators got it right when they said,” Fear God.” Fear his Righteousness, He can tolerate NO unpunished sin in his presence. It often amazes us what sins 'good Christians' rationalize in this life. The supposed preachers of the gospel imprisoned as a pedophile or defrocked as a homosexual are glaring depictions of our ability to rationalize away gross sin. God's holiness does not settle in well with our old nature of sin. Fear of God's righteousness will enable you to “die daily” and “mortify the deeds of the body”. The Bible is clear that we are to “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication,(any sex outside of marriage, any sexual disobedience of God, etc.) uncleanness, (lustful thinking, pornography, dirty jokes and sexual innuendo, etc) inordinate affection, (pedophilia, homosexual relations, etc) evil concupiscence, (evil lusting, sexual gluttony, etc.) and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: “ (Col 3:5-6). Fear His righteousness because he will not dismiss or overlook your sins, and fear his presence.

If your godly parents could watch every thing that you said and did every day, America would have no teenage pregnancy, no fornication problem, no rapists, and no drug problem. But since godly parents are rare today, and most parents have now brought these sins into their living rooms we need a renewed fear of God's presence. He is watching when you roll up that sleeve or slide down those jeans. He presently sees your deeds, hears each word, and knows your thoughts. We need a sobering acknowledgment of him in all our ways (Prov 3:5-6). We should also fear his absence. Romans outlines 7 steps away from God wherein the end result is God giving him up unto, 'vile affections' (Rom 1:26) These 'vile affections' are clearly defined as homosexual relations. America has turned its back on God, walked down these 7 steps and today is promoting these vile affections as their alternate lifestyle. When God gives up his outstretched arms to a person or a people they are in dire straights. But not as dire as one who goes to their deathbed rejecting his only begotten Son. They enter eternity without the presence of God and go to a lake of fire prepared for Satan and his angels. If you rejected God's messiah (Christ in Greek) and can read this today, you can repent and receive Him with the fear of the LORD. ... “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” (John 1:12)

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
621 Words For Week #48, Nov 26-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#649 For Week #49, Dec 03-, 2006

Fifty years years before the Assyrian destruction and captivity of Samaria God's prophet Amos faced off against JerUSAlem and gave 6 sound reasons why she too deserved a similar fate. The message of an angry God is recorded for us in the 2,800 year old Bible book called Amos. Chapter 6 starts with the word 'Woe', a command we later used when a horse needed to cease and desist prior to pending punishment. God used it first in the Bible to point to the pending doom of nations and request their repentance. In verse one His chosen nation was trusting in it's size. In verse 2 in her self comparisons with others and supposed superiority. In verse 3 she was trusting in living for the supposition that she had plenty of time before her judgment and in verse 4 in her material wealth and fatness, ease and gluttony.

Both Samaria and JerUSAlem had fallen into idolatry, where they worshiped created things, pagan god's and the creature more than their Creator. If you would know what a country holds dear as it's religion you should but look to what is taught to her children in her schools. Secular humanists know this well as they indoctrinate ours with their religion of godless evolution. The six tell tale signs of pending doom preached by Amos then are not unfamiliar to our own nation nor the history books. They marked the fall of the Grecian Empire exalting education as it's idol. They marked the demise and fall of the Roman Empire exalting pagan Roman religion as her idol. The Soviet Union met their devolution and fell after indoctrinating 6 generations of her children that there is no god, no creator, no moral right nor wrong. The earmarks found the internal rotting away and fall of the British Empire which even today is a leader in the fallacious 'science,' so called, that the creature created itself from a spontaneous generation of life. They call such foolishness 'science' and teach it to our children today. What do you suppose is the course of this country that carries all six earmarks related to God's anger with his chosen people of JerUSAlem? We Christians, who know the love of God and the anger of God should blast as the Prophet Amos did, with God's message of 'Whoa', 'Repent' and Woe.' Yet our pulpits are strangely silent as they pretend evil is good and good is evil. Woe to them that are at ease and acceptance and tolerance in our untrustworthy pulpits and in our mislead pews.

The fifth verse points to their fifth woe. Therein we find a nation that trusted in and lived for their entertainment. I write this on the eve that thousands of Americans are sleeping on the streets so they can be first to get a $600 entertainment toy. They live for their godless and selfish entertainment. The sixth and final woe to a country trudging a path away from their Creator, Redeemer and the Jehovah God of the universe points to their love of strong drink and drugs. They had a drug problem. Need God say more to JerUSAlem before he allows it's fall into a Babylonian captivity? Will America repent and turn, or proceed and burn? Heard any 'Woe's lately? If your not in a Church where these 'Woe's are preached, you should be. As Christians we should be openly and boldly speaking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 'public square', vr 10; shoring up our children with Bible commandments and truth, vr 11; and preparing the rock hard soil of American hearts for the reception of the glorious Gospel of Jesus the Saviour, the Christ, vr 12-13; else we meat the certain doom, vr 14. The warning is clear, the command is certain. Let's get to work.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
640 Words For Week #49, Dec 03-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#650 For Week #50, Dec 09-, 2006

In allowing the Bible to declare to us the very purpose of life we have found it's declaration that we were created by the Lord Jesus Christ and that we are created for His pleasure. (Rev 4:11) Our Government

Schools have indoctrinated you with a hypothesis that there is no creator and we evolved into existence accidentally by random chance. This indoctrination contends that life has no eternal purpose, that you

function and procreate for the survival of the fittest, and that life sprang spontaneously from 2 rocks of a primeval sea. I fear for our nation as it approaches a majority of young people who have heard only

this ludicrous hypothesis in their indoctrination void of all Bibles. The Bible contends that your were created, not civilized from a tribe of apes. It contends that you are here for your creator, not for a self satisfying advancement to the highest rung of a food chain. This is a big difference in philosophical view. It should concern us all that only the humanistic evolutionary philosophy can be taught in our science

classes. It is not science.

Just the same the Bible contends that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and that you need to call your creator your Lord. For a Christian Jesus the Christ, the only begotten Son of Jehovah God is his Lord. This Lordship of Jesus Christ is not something that grows on you in time. It is something that you took on at conversion. And Jesus said “Verily Verily I say unto you, “Except ye be converted ..... ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matt 18) When you repented and believed on Christ, it did not require sorrow or tears or penance, but it did require a change of your Lord. You were once lorded by sin, or self, a world, or a religion, but you 'converted to' or 'repented' (changed) toward a new lord, the Lord Jesus Christ on whom you called. (Rom 10) A problem in our Churches is that many have made a commitment or a confirmation class but have never been converted to Christ; they have never repented and changed to a new lord in their life. Had they, they would be born again under a new Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't just be confirmed ... be converted. Don't just be religious, convert your ownership to the Lord. Don't be agnostic, be trusting in the one who gives eternal life. If he is not your lord, Jesus commands that you repent and take him as such. His word says “Except ye be converted ... ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18) and “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:3) Will you enter the Kingdom of heaven?

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
442 Words For Week #50, Dec 09-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#651 For Week #51, Dec17-, 2006

We celebrate his birth in Bethlehem; we covet his message about peace on earth, but we often forget his message to repent and believe. This Christmas season make the effort to hear and believe 'What the Bible Says' over what traditions and spin off religions report. If you dust off your Bible and read it this week you might be surprised to find it's truths plainly legible and different than your Church's teachings. The command to repent and believe is quite like a command to 'Leave NY and go to London'. You cannot go to London without leaving NY, so obedience to this command would include both leaving and going. You could leave NY and not go to London, this would be disobedience to the command. You cannot go to London without leaving NY and thus the parallel that you cannot believe on Jesus without repentance. In Jesus' repeated command of 'repent and believe' the repenting is the leaving off of something, and the believing is the clinging onto something. Repenting is not the being sorry for what we did but leaving off of what we are trusting in or leaning on. There is no penance in repentance. Penance came from a bad Latin translation and is nowhere found in the Greek New Testament, nor a trustworthy English translation.

I recently talked to a man who was Roman Catholic priest and 'father' to a parish in Trinidad. He was becoming more trusting in the Bible and less trusting in his Church and listened intently to the messages of Evangelist Billy Graham. This Catholic Priest had done all that the Evangelist asked in his invitations and more. He had received Christ. He had made a commitment to Christ. He had stepped out for Christ, leaving home and entering the country of Trinidad. He was executing all manner of Catholic penance, and yet he knew something was lacking in his soul's salvation. The Evangelist had not preached repentance so this priest continued on in error until the Bible showed him his need to let go of his Church's doctrine, his good deeds, his penance, and his works and forsaking all others cling only to Christ. Repent and believe, as Jesus said. The testimony of Richard Bennett, Converted Catholic Priest can be read at www.bereanbeacon.org.

When the rich young ruler came to Jesus asking “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 18) Jesus pointedly illustrated what repentance is all about. The man had to let go of everything else and cling only to Jesus. There was no sorry penance, nor regret for ones sins in Jesus' command to him. It was therein like the command “Leave NY and go to London”. The man would not leave his riches. He might have followed Christ with his riches in tow, but to inherit eternal life you need to leave off of everything else and cling only to Christ, you need to repent. That does not necessitate tears, sorrow, penance, nor even regret. It necessitates leaving off of something... yea of everything else, and converting to Christ. “God ... commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Act17:30) “Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19) This Christmas could be your merry-ist ever if your sins were blotted out. Jesus said “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5) Religion won't get you into His kingdom. Repentance will.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
573 Words For Week #51, Dec 17-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC

Good Sam's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice
What The Bible Says
Msg#652 For Week #52, Dec24-, 2006

The Christmas message is meant to be the Christian gospel message. The Christmas spirit of giving is only important because of the Christmas gift of God's only begotten Son, the Christ, the Saviour of men. During the preparation for Christmas the Bible believer will spend more time with their Bible opened and less time than most on lights and trees and gifts. In the weeks before Christmas we like to spend time examining the prophecy of His coming and the preparation for His coming. The prophecy trail has its beginning in Gen 3:15 and becomes very explicit in foretelling his birth, life, death and kingship. It is promised that he would be born of the 'seed' of woman, not of man and that He will be God in the flesh not just a prophet but The Messiah. The Old Testament prophecy of Christ's first advent is a marvelous, marvelous fore telling of all that we, as Christians, believe and hold dear.

In the preparation for the sending of the Christ there was a SIN problem to be dealt with. God could not send his son through the 'seed' sinful of man. God sent his son through the 'seed' of woman to hurdle the sin of man problem. So Christ cannot come into your heart until the sin problem is dealt with; it will require repentance (not penance, repentance) Also, God needed a herald for his King. God had to deal with Zacharias' UNBELIEF to get a herald born in the earth. Christ cannot be born in you until the unbelief problem is dealt with as well. Thirdly, God needed his Christ born in the city of David called Bethlehem, as he promised. Doubtless Mary and Joseph knew about Micah 5:2. But God moved in a Roman Emperor to cause all the world to be taxed. Without REBELLION, Joseph took his 'great with child' wife to the little village of Bethlehem. God cannot send Christ into your heart when your heart is full of rebellion and lacking in submission. I should mention here that rock music is synonymous with rebellion, and Christianity is synonymous with submission. Thus the term 'Christian Rock' is in actuality an oxymoron. Rebellion in mans heart needs to be dealt with before Christ can enter. God cannot send his son into your heart when it is filled with rebellion and lacking in submission. Even as God had to prepare the world for the reception of his son, God needs to prepare your heart for the reception of his son. The Bible says that when he does move into your soul you are born again, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. (John 3, 1Cor 5:17) If you had no change, or only a man made change, you'll need to examine your conversion, perhaps there was no new birth. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Phil 2:12) Don't miss eternal life because of your sin, unbelief or rebellion.

This Christmas season, as you marvel at all the things God did to send his son into the world, marvel at all the things he did to send his son into your soul. If you make room for him there, you can have a very merry Christmas.

Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY
483 Words For Week #52, Dec 24-, 2006 www.gsbaptistchurch.com TOC