Biography (courtesy of INO Records)

It's funny how Bart Millard charted as the top selling new Christian artist in the year that his first solo album, Hymned No. 1, was released. The man better known as the voice of multi-platinum band MercyMe ("I Can Only Imagine") was foremost aiming to fulfill a promise made to his late grandmother to record the church songs she'd led him to love as a boy. Popular success as a singular act was an afterthought, though much appreciated.

Christianity Today gave the unexpectedly soulful, Deep South gospel-meets-pop, rock, and country set a five-star review, calling it "one of the most enjoyable and varied hymns albums ever recorded. You may have heard it all before, but you haven't heard Hymned."

Having had such a great experience all around with that first effort, Millard is back with Hymned Again, this time specifically honoring the wishes of his three children who enjoyed their dad's record so much they wanted another one.

"Our six-year-old son, Sam, would fall asleep listening to it and then be singing 'In the Sweet By and By' at breakfast the next morning," says Bart. "There were more songs that my wife and I wanted him and Gracie and Charlie to know. Now they're singing along to these new takes on 'I Stand Amazed' and 'Victory in Jesus' at the top of their lungs, and we're so happy about how that affirms the decision to do this again."

Hymned Again re-teams Millard with award winning producer Brown Bannister. Together they handpicked hymns of an evangelistic nature mostly from the 1800s, setting an outward-then-upward spiritual tone for the album.

"I've learned the lyrics of that era were more horizontal than vertical," explains Bart. "A lot of songs from the 1700s were direct praises to Jesus, and that's reflected on the first Hymned record. But in the 1800s the message was often person-to-person, an 'I've got to get my brother or sister saved' way of expressing faith."

Such a unified theme perfectly balances the increasingly diversified styles that make Hymned Again, indeed again, a true rarity among modern Christian music albums. Acute listeners have rightfully lauded gamut-running efforts before (David Crowder*Band's A Collision for example), but it's safe to say they haven't encountered many projects—from a contemporary pop-based artist—that open with a Dixieland banjo, proceed deeper into New Orleans flavored horn-led marches and stomping Texas guitar blues, or let a ukulele do the driving at one point without altogether ignoring commercial sensibilities.

"Brown and I decided to go to extremes," admits Bart. "If the song was upbeat, we'd get out a funky Harry Connick, Jr. album, some Louis Prima big band, or a Bob Wills swing record for inspiration and swing for the fence, hoping to get that 'soundtrack to your life' vibe. And if it was a slow song, we'd go the other way and really make it worshipful."

There's certainly a contagious jubilance running through the faster paced selections on Hymned Again. "Stand Up for Jesus" will have soldiers of the cross clapping and dancing along with a banjo that manages to pluck and slide through heavy jazz and swing grooves. "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" finds an ever brighter path in its 1970s funk-soul arrangement. "I Saw the Light" shakes off all darkness with the swampy strut of steel-stringed boondocks rock. "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" is a full-tilt Crescent City musical tribute with brass jams that sound like joyful laughter.

The gentle side of Hymned Again is equally effective. The lesser known "Brethren We Have Met to Worship" becomes a meditative bluegrass shuffle. "Grace That Is Greater" highlights the simple charm of Millard's voice accompanied only by the ukulele's nylon chords in a way that compares nicely to late Hawaiian singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's popularized rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The album's first single, "I Stand Amazed," explores a deeply emotive modern worship setting with help from Passion and Watermark vocalist Christy Nockels.

Also joining Bart on Hymned Again is Grammy winner Vince Gill whose high lonesome delivery briefly graced Hymned No. 1 and more substantially helps turn the rising and falling melody of new song "Jesus Cares for Me" into an unforgettable duet. 

"He's the nicest guy on the planet, but it still makes me nervous to call him up," says Bart. "I asked his wife, Amy Grant—who I know better—if she'd ask him to sing with me again. But she made me do it. I got his voicemail and acted shy and apologetic. He called back and said, 'Man, I'll do anything you want. You don't have to be that way.'"

Such anecdotes are a testament to Bart Millard's everyman personality. For all of his success in and out of MercyMe, there's nothing really "famous" about him. He makes music to honor God and his family, still gets star struck, and hopes that all who hear Hymned Again will find his cross-genre performances to be, quote, "authentic."

And they should. Bart was born and raised and still lives in the east Texas town of Greenville where his father's radio played western swing and old country favorites; and places thriving on delta blues, gospel, and jazz were always within easy driving distance.

"I grew up in the church, and hymns influence the way I write lyrics. But this is the music that made a lasting impression on me outside the church," he says.

Bart is also humorously genuine about his solo efforts in relation to his main gig, humbly knowing his side projects have their time and place in relation to MercyMe's formidable success. (Each of the band's albums has achieved gold or platinum sales status).

"To do a record like this with MercyMe—to break out the banjoes and horns and dobroes—would be a bust. That's not what we do. But this gives me another creative outlet that in turn helps me have more to offer going back into whatever we do next."

As for here and now, it's clearly time to be Hymned Again.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord”- Rom_7:24-25
You know the wonderful place that this text has in the wonderful epistle to the Romans. It stands here at the end of the seventh chapter as the gateway into the eighth. In the first sixteen verses of the eighth chapter the name of the Holy Spirit is found sixteen times; you have there the description and promise of the life that a child of God can live in the power of the Holy Ghost. This begins in the second verse: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” From that Paul goes on to speak of the great privileges of the child of God, who is to be led by the Spirit of God. The gateway into all this is in the twenty-fourth verse of the seventh chapter:
“O wretched man that I am!”
There you have the words of a man who has come to the end of himself. He has in the previous verses described how he had struggled and wrestled in his own power to obey the holy law of God, and had failed. But in answer to his own question he now finds the true answer and cries out: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” From that he goes on to speak of what that deliverance is that he has found.
I want from these words to describe the path by which a man can be led out of the spirit of bondage into the spirit of liberty. You know how distinctly it is said: “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.” We are continually warned that this is the great danger of the Christian life, to go again into bondage; and I want to describe the path by which a man can get out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Rather, I want to describe the man himself.
First, these words are the language of a regenerate man; second, of an impotent man; third, of a wretched man; and fourth, of a man on the borders of complete liberty.
The Regenerate Man
There is much evidence of regeneration from the fourteenth verse of the chapter on to the twenty-third. “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me”: that is the language of a regenerate man, a man who knows that his heart and nature have been renewed, and that sin is now a power in him that is not himself. “I delight in the law of the Lord after the inward man”: that again is the language of a regenerate man. He dares to say when he does evil: “It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” It is of great importance to understand this.
In the first two great sections of the epistle, Paul deals with justification and sanctification. In dealing with justification, he lays the foundation of the doctrine in the teaching about sin, not in the singular sin, but in the plural, sins - the actual transgressions. In the second part of the fifth chapter he begins to deal with sin, not as actual transgression, but as a power. just imagine what a loss it would have been to us if we had not this second half of the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, if Paul had omitted in his teaching this vital question of the sinfulness of the believer. We should have missed the question we all want answered as to sin in the believer. What is the answer? The regenerate man is one in whom the will has been renewed, and who can say: “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.”
The Impotent Man
Here is the great mistake made by many Christian people: they think that when there is a renewed will, it is enough; but that is not the case. This regenerate man tells us: “I will to do what is good, but the power to perform I find not.” How often people tell us that if you set yourself determinedly, you can perform what you will! But this man was as determined as any man can be, and yet he made the confession: “To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not.”
But, you ask: “How is it God makes a regenerate man utter such a confession, with a right will, with a heart that longs to do good, and longs to do its very utmost to love God?”
Let us look at this question. What has God given us our will for? Had the angels who fell, in their own will, the strength to stand? Verily, no. The will of the creature is nothing but an empty vessel in which the power of God is to be made manifest. The creature must seek in God all that it is to be. You have it in the second chapter of the epistle to the Philippians, and you have it here also, that God’s work is to work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Here is a man who appears to say: “God has not worked to do in me.” But we are taught that God works both to will and to do. How is the apparent contradiction to be reconciled?
You will find that in this passage (Rom. 7:6-25) the name of the Holy Spirit does not occur once, nor does the name of Christ occur. The man is wrestling and struggling to fulfill God’s law. Instead of the Holy Spirit and of Christ, the law is mentioned nearly twenty times. In this chapter, it shows a believer doing his very best to obey the law of God with his regenerate will. Not only this; but you will find the little words, I, me, my, occur more than forty times. It is the regenerate I in its impotence seeking to obey the law without being filled with the Spirit. This is the experience of almost every saint. After conversion a man begins to do his best, and he fails; but if we are brought into the full light, we need fail no longer. Nor need we fail at all if we have received the Spirit in His fullness at conversion.
God allows that failure that the regenerate man should be taught his own utter impotence. It is in the course of this struggle that there comes to us this sense of our utter sinfulness. It is God’s way of dealing with us. He allows that man to strive to fulfill the law that, as he strives and wrestles, he may be brought to this: “I am a regenerate child of God, but I am utterly helpless to obey His law.” See what strong words are used all through the chapter to describe this condition: “I am carnal, sold under sin”; “I see another law in my members bringing me into captivity”; and last of all, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This believer who bows here in deep contrition is utterly unable to obey the law of God.
The Wretched Man
Not only is the man who makes this confession a regenerate and an impotent man, but he is also a wretched man. He is utterly unhappy and miserable; and what is it that makes him so utterly miserable? It is because God has given him a nature that loves Himself. He is deeply wretched because he feels he is not obeying his God. He says, with brokenness of heart: “It is not I that do it, but I am under the awful power of sin, which is holding me down. It is I, and yet not I: alas! alas! it is myself; so closely am I bound up with it, and so closely is it intertwined with my very nature.” Blessed be God when a man learns to say: “O wretched man that I am!” from the depth of his heart. He is on the way to the eighth chapter of Romans.
There are many who make this confession a pillow for sin. They say that Paul had to confess his weakness and helplessness in this way, what are they that they should try to do better? So the call to holiness is quietly set aside. Would God that every one of us had learned to say these words in the very spirit in which they are written here! When we hear sin spoken of as the abominable thing that God hates, do not many of us wince before the word? Would that all Christians who go on sinning and sinning would take this verse to heart. If ever you utter a sharp word say: “O wretched man that I am!” And every time you lose your temper, kneel down and understand that it never was meant by God that this was to be the state in which His child should remain. Would God that we would take this word into our daily life, and say it every time we are touched about our own honor, and every time we say sharp things, and every time we sin against the Lord God, and against the Lord Jesus Christ in His humility, and in His obedience, and in His self-sacrifice! Would to God you could forget everything else, and cry out: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
Why should you say this whenever you commit sin? Because it is when a man is brought to this confession that deliverance is at hand.
And remember it was not only the sense of being impotent and taken captive that made him wretched, but it was above all the sense of sinning against his God. The law was doing its work, making sin exceeding sinful in his sight. The thought of continually grieving God became utterly unbearable - it was this brought forth the piercing cry: “O wretched man!” As long as we talk and reason about our impotence and our failure, and only try to find out what Romans 7 means, it will profit us but little; but when once every sin gives new intensity to the sense of wretchedness, and we feel our whole state as one of not only helplessness, but actual exceeding sinfulness, we shall be pressed not only to ask: “Who shall deliver us?” but to cry: “I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord.”
The Almost-Delivered Man
The man has tried to obey the beautiful law of God. He has loved it, he has wept over his sin, he has tried to conquer, he has tried to overcome fault after fault, but every time he has ended in failure.
What did he mean by “the body of this death”? Did he mean, my body when I die? Verily no. In the eighth chapter you have the answer to this question in the words: “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” That is the body of death from which he is seeking deliverance.
And now he is on the brink of deliverance! In the twenty-third verse of the seventh chapter we have the words: “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” It is a captive that cries: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He is a man who feels himself bound. But look to the contrast in the second verse of the eighth chapter: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” That is the deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord; the liberty to the captive which the Spirit brings. Can you keep captive any longer a man made free by the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”?
But you say, the regenerate man, had not he the Spirit of Jesus when he spoke in the sixth chapter? Yes, but he did not know what the Holy Spirit could do for him.
God does not work by His Spirit as He works by a blind force in nature. He leads His people on as reasonable, intelligent beings, and therefore when He wants to give us that Holy Spirit whom He has promised, He brings us first to the end of self, to the conviction that though we have been striving to obey the law, we have failed. When we have come to the end of that, then He shows us that in the Holy Spirit we have the power of obedience, the power of victory, and the power of real holiness.
God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but, alas! many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be each moment received from the Holy Spirit. It is the man who is conscious of his own impotence as a believer who will learn that by the Holy Spirit he can live a holy life. This man is on the brink of that great deliverance; the way has been prepared for the glorious eighth chapter. I now ask this solemn question: Where are you living? Is it with you, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?” with now and then a little experience of the power of the Holy Spirit? or is it, “I thank God through Jesus Christ! The law of the Spirit hath set me free from the law of sin and of death”?
What the Holy Spirit does is to give the victory. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live.” It is the Holy Ghost who does this - the third Person of the Godhead. He it is who, when the heart is opened wide to receive Him, comes in and reigns there, and mortifies the deeds of the body, day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment.
I want to bring this to a point. Remember, dear friend, what we need is to come to decision and action. There are in Scripture two very different sorts of Christians. The Bible speaks in Romans, Corinthians and Galatians about yielding to the flesh; and that is the life of tens of thousands of believers. All their lack of joy in the Holy Ghost, and their lack of the liberty He gives, is just owing to the flesh. The Spirit is within them, but the flesh rules the life. To be led by the Spirit of God is what they need. Would God that I could make every child of His realize what it means that the everlasting God has given His dear Son, Christ Jesus, to watch over you every day, and that what you have to do is to trust; and that the work of the Holy Spirit is to enable you. every moment to remember Jesus, and to trust Him! The Spirit has come to keep the link with Him unbroken every moment. Praise God for the Holy Ghost! We are so accustomed to think of the Holy Spirit as a luxury, for special times, or for special ministers and men. But the Holy Spirit is necessary for every believer, every moment of the day. Praise God you have Him, and that He gives you the full experience of the deliverance in Christ, as He makes you free from the power of sin.
Who longs to have the power and the liberty of the Holy Spirit? Oh, brother, bow before God in one final cry of despair:
“O God, must I go on sinning this way forever? Who shall deliver me, O wretched man that I am! from the body of this death?”
Are you ready to sink before God in that cry and seek the power of Jesus to dwell and work in you? Are you ready to say: “I thank God through Jesus Christ”?
What good does it do that we go to church or attend conventions, that we study our Bibles and pray, unless our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit? That is what God wants; and nothing else will enable us to live a life of power and peace. You know that when a minister or parent is using the catechism, when a question is asked an answer is expected. Alas! how many Christians are content with the question put here: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” but never give the answer. Instead of answering, they are silent. Instead of saying: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” they are forever repeating the question without the answer. If you want the path to the full deliverance of Christ, and the liberty of the Spirit, the glorious liberty of the children of God, take it through the seventh chapter of Romans; and then say: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Be not content to remain ever groaning, but say: “I, a wretched man, thank God, through Jesus Christ. Even though I do not see it all, I am going to praise God.”
There is deliverance, there is the liberty of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is “joy in the Holy Ghost.”

(Micah 3:5 KJV)  Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

(Mat 10:36 KJV)  And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

One of the greatest Christian author’s in the world, Author of Pilgrim's Progress, the english book second to the Bible its seems, John Bunyan the preacher,   his own wife did not go along with him.. or for certainty the Pilgrim's own wife he wrote about..

(Prov 22:6 KJV)  Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it

Now why is it some persons do like to control slander others, gossip about them, and  try to dominate, bully, bash or influence others?

Is  it really just cause they have a poor self image, and as a result crave attention upon, for themselves or what? Or do  they feel that bashing others makes themselves feel temporally better, but that quickly dissipates anyway  and they have to do so more bashing?

Or is just cause they  do not know any better and perform  all these immoral acts ? They come from real troubled homes, bad upbringing and they are searching for love, acceptance  the wrong way.. even because their parents now have done a really bad job in bringing them up, in raising them properly to face life, hold a job, hold a marriage etc?

At what point are do they no longer have an excuse, have reached an age of personal  accountably for their own actions and cannot any longer blame others, their parents, past  teachers, administrators, society in general  and now they have  to be personally fully accountable rather for their actions?

SEE ALSO

http://pbulow.tripod.com/  
http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/hidden-agendas

http://postedat.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/the-pretender-imposter-wolf-in-sheep-clothing/   
http://postedat.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/control-freaks/   
http://www.socyberty.com/Advice/Are-You-a-Control-Freak.101788   
http://postedat.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/wrongful-accusations    
http://thefocusonthefamily.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/verbal-abuse-is-always-unacceptable-too/  
http://postedat.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/healing-todd-bentley-florda-lakeland-revival/  
http://thefocusonthefamily.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/more-about-control-freaks/
http://thefocusonthefamily.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/deliberate-unforgiveness /

http://thefocusonthefamily.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/adultery/

21 And they came to Capernaum; and on the Sabbath he went into the Synagogue and gave teaching.
22 And they were full of wonder at his teaching, because he gave it as one having authority, and not like the scribes.
23 And there was in their Synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he gave a cry,
24 Saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? have you come to put an end to us? I see well who you are, the Holy One of God.
25 And Jesus said to him sharply, Be quiet, and come out of him.
26 And the unclean spirit, shaking him violently, and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
27 And they were all greatly surprised, so that they put questions to one another, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he gives orders even to the unclean spirits, and they do what he says.
28 And news of him went out quickly everywhere into all parts of Galilee round about.

Luk 4:31-37

31 And he came down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee; and he was giving them teaching on the Sabbath.
32 And they were surprised at his teaching, for his word was with authority.
33 And there was a man in the Synagogue who had an unclean spirit; and he gave a loud cry and said,
34 Let us be! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? have you come to put an end to us? I have knowledge who you are, the Holy One of God.
35 And Jesus said to him, Be quiet, and come out of him. And when the evil spirit had put him down on the earth in the middle of them, he came out of him, having done him no damage.
36 And wonder came on them all and they said to one another, What are these words? for with authority and power he gives orders to the evil spirits and they come out.
37 And there was much talk about him in all the places round about.

61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, seated by the place of the dead.
62 Now on the day after the getting ready of the Passover, the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate,
63 Saying, Sir, we have in mind how that false man said, while he was still living, After three days I will come again from the dead.
64 Give orders, then, that the place where his body is may be made safe till the third day, for fear that his disciples come and take him away secretly and say to the people, He has come back from the dead: and the last error will be worse than the first.
65 Pilate said to them, You have watchmen; go and make it as safe as you are able.
66 So they went, and made safe the place where his body was, putting a stamp on the stone, and the watchmen were with them.

Mar 15:47

47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joses, saw where he was put.

Luk 23:55-56

55 And the women who had come with him from Galilee went after him and saw the place and how his body had been put to rest;
56 And they went back and got ready spices and perfumes; and on the Sabbath they took their rest, in agreement with the law.

14 And later he was seen by the eleven themselves while they were taking food; and he said sharp words to them because they had no faith and their hearts were hard, and because they had no belief in those who had seen him after he had come back from the dead.

Luk 24:36-43

36 And while they were saying these things, he himself was among them, and said to them, Peace be with you!
37 But they were full of fear, being of the opinion that they were seeing a spirit.
38 And he said to them, Why are you troubled, and why are your hearts full of doubt?
39 See; my hands and my feet: it is I myself; put your hands on me and make certain; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.
40 And when he had said this, he let them see his hands and his feet.
41 And because, for joy and wonder, they were still in doubt, he said to them, Have you any food here?
42 And they gave him a bit of cooked fish.
43 And before their eyes he took a meal.

Joh 20:19-25

19 At evening on that day, the first day of the week, when, for fear of the Jews, the doors were shut where the disciples were, Jesus came among them and said to them, May peace be with you!
20 And when he had said this, he let them see his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
21 And Jesus said to them again, May peace be with you! As the Father sent me, even so I now send you.
22 And when he had said this, breathing on them, he said to them, Let the Holy Spirit come on you:
23 Any to whom you give forgiveness, will be made free from their sins; and any from whom you keep back forgiveness, will still be in their sins.
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, named Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, If I do not see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails, and if I do not put my hand into his side, I will never have belief.

(Psa 63:1) O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
(Psa 63:2) To see thy power and thy glory, so  as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
(Psa 63:3) Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
(Psa 63:4) Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
(Psa 63:5) My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
(Psa 63:6) When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
(Psa 63:7) Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.

Matt 6:1 TAKE CARE not to do your good deeds publicly {or} before men, in order to be seen by them; otherwise you will have no reward [reserved for and awaiting you] with {and} from your Father Who is in heaven.
Matt 6:2 Thus, whenever you give to the poor, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites in the synagogues and in the streets like to do, that they may be recognized {and} honored {and} praised by men. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full already.
Matt 6:3 But when you give to charity, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
Matt 6:4 So that your deeds of charity may be in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you {openly.}
Matt 6:5 Also when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full already.
Matt 6:6 But when you pray, go into your [most] private room, and, closing the door, pray to your Father, Who is in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you {in the open}.
Matt 6:7 And when you pray, do not heap up phrases (multiply words, repeating the same ones over and over) as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking. [I Kings 18:25-29.]
Matt 6:8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Matt 6:9 Pray, therefore, like this: Our Father Who is in heaven, hallowed (kept holy) be Your name.
Matt 6:10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Matt 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
Matt 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven (left, remitted, and let go of the debts, and have given up resentment against) our debtors.
Matt 6:13 And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. {For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.}
Matt 6:14 For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matt 6:15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.
Matt 6:16 And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy {and} sour {and} dreary like the hypocrites, for they put on a dismal countenance, that their fasting may be apparent to {and} seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full already.
Matt 6:17 But when you fast, perfume your head and wash your face,
Matt 6:18 So that your fasting may not be noticed by men but by your Father, Who sees in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you {in the open.}
Matt 6:19 Do not gather {and} heap up {and} store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust {and} worm consume {and} destroy, and where thieves break through and steal.
Matt 6:20 But gather {and} heap up {and} store for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust {nor} worm consume {and} destroy, and where thieves do not break through and steal;
Matt 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matt 6:22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your entire body will be full of light.
Matt 6:23 But if your eye is unsound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the very light in you [your conscience] is darkened, how dense is that darkness!
Matt 6:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by {and} be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in).
Matt 6:25 Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life, what you shall eat {or what you shall drink;} or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater [in quality] than food, and the body [far above and more excellent] than clothing?
Matt 6:26 Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?
Matt 6:27 And who of you by worrying {and} being anxious can add one unit of measure (cubit) to his stature {or} to the span of his life?
Matt 6:28 And why should you be anxious about clothes? Consider the lilies of the field {and} learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin.
Matt 6:29 Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed like one of these. [I Kings 10:4-7.]
Matt 6:30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive {and} green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith?
Matt 6:31 Therefore do not worry {and} be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear?

Matt 6:32 For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for {and} crave {and} diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all.

Matt 6:33 But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

Matt 7:7 Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.

Matt 7:8 For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.

I agreed and arranged to give her and some of her assistants a tour of the building, particularly the fellowship hall, gymnasium, and classrooms.

This afternoon after we completed the tour she thanked me for my time:

"Thank you so much for taking the time to show us around! I'm so excited for the Youth Rally and I'm sorry you won't still be here to participate. Oh, and by the way -- did the church administrator tell me that you'll be preaching in a couple weeks?"

Apparently Dennis (the church administrator) had told them I would soon be filling the pulpit.

A preacher herself, she looked at me as if I was eleven years old: "How old are you anyway?"

"I'm actually nineteen."

"Oh, praise the Lord! I just love to hear about em' gettin' started early! You should be proud! That's quite a pulpit for a nineteen year old!"

"Well at this point, to tell you the truth, I just don't want to screw anything up." (Charming, I know.)

She laughed. I'm sure she thought I had never preached before.

"Well, Samuel, you know what you can do to make it real simple? I'll give you a little secret, alright?!"

"Sure."

"Just listen to the Lord, Samuel! Listen to the Lord and if you listen to the Lord then everything will be just fine! Listen to the Lord...it's that simple!"

I smiled and nodded.

And I wish "listening to the Lord" was "that simple." But it's not. Or at least it's not for me. God's intention for me and for this world seem so ambiguous -- so mysterious and inexplicit, and as a result, it is difficult for me to look around at our society today and sense some underlying plan through which God will work everything for His good intention. Sometimes I ask myself: "What is there to listen to?"

Nonetheless, I am still convinced that there exists a Divine Intention for all of us, and regardless of how equivocal it may be we must strive to find it and live by it. And in my times of doubt when God's will is clouded from my view, I've decided that it's best to err on the side of being too loving, too generous, too forgiving, too gracious, or too kind.

So he said Christ was actually speaking about one of the gates around the city of Jerusalem that was called the eye of the needle where a camel had to stoop and crawl on his hands and knees to get though the eye of the needle gate – and so if a rich man will humble himself Go will accept him. That is not at all what Christ said. Look now at the words of the disciples, they grasped the gravity of Christ’s words and it struck them with fear (The word Amazed in King James is fear in the Greek. This saying filled them with fear.  Why, because they wanted and were desirous to be wealthy.

Consider now Peter’s words. 

1 Peter 4:18-20 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. 

  
And this does not sound like a good eternal security verse. This not sound like good  verse for those who want to live in careless ease in Zion. This not sound like a good verse for those who preach that it is not the will of God for a Christian to be poor. This does not sound like a good verse for those who preach that is not the will of God for us to suffer.  

1 Peter 3:17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. 

It is better to suffer the momentary in this life for doing the will of God than to suffer eternal damnation for following after the lusts, the pleasures and riches of this life. 

The audience to whom Peter is writing this letter are all churches that were not only founded by the Apostles themselves, but these were churches that the Apostles had repeatedly visited and had taught not only the Gospel of Christ but the Doctrine of Christ as well 

Peter tells us that among those believers the righteous are scarcely saved.  Then we should be asking ourselves were does that leave us some 2000 years later in a church that has little or no foundation, a church that has more in common with the liberaqlized traditional churches of Roman Catholic Church, Menno Simons, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, than with Jesus Christ and the Apostles?

Luke 16:19-25 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: ²⁰And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, ²¹And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. ²²And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carrie