Being a Free Man

Being a Free Man

This summer I am going to be ministering on shorter books. I plan to minister from some of the Proverbs. The Bible has a lot to say about good, honest work. One particular book I have addresses the idea of work with some interesting twists. One of the proverbs I was reading yesterday says so many people miss their opportunities because opportunity is disguised in hard work clothes. Surely that can't be it that I have to go to work or something. But actually that's it. And the Bible has a lot to say about labor.

I will be dealing with some of the Proverbs. I can tell you that whatever success I have had in life, it has come as a result of God opening up channels in my life through reading the books of Proverbs. There was a time when I intently studied that books, days on end, months on end, until I began to understand the heart of Proverbs.

I think a good many of our children will be benefitted being raised on the Proverbs. Those Proverbs should be imparted, explained, seen by examples in the parents and in the church. The Bible is very careful to say, "My son heed my instruction." You follow the instruction and I guarantee you, you will be successful in life.

Nothing that life has to give that is God's will can possibly be held back from the man or woman who practices the rules of that book.

We also will be studying from Ecclesiastes. Ecclestiastes is a remarkable book. In one way it is negative like all is vanity and vexation and spirit. Another way you look at it is saying this that enjoyment is a gift from God. You may try to get it in things. You may try to get it in drugs. You may try to get it in power. You may try to get it in fame. But all these things are vanity and vexation of spirit. But all these things are available but joy is the gift of God. If you are going to enjoy any of these things it comes as a result of the gift of God. That is why Jesus said in the New Testament, "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses."

Today, I really have something to say to the young people, as well as to the older ones, and even to the smaller children. From the Bible's perspective, we as parents have an aim in life. The Bible says that the children are not to lay up for the parents. Although we know it is right for children to take care of their parents in old age if they are destitute or sick and need help. But the Bible says generally though children are not to lay up for their parents but the parents are to lay up for the children.

It speaks that a good man lays a portion aside for his children's children. He and his wife are extending themselves out not only in their own lifetime, not only to the lifetime of their children, but their children's children. Reaching out as far as we can in those generational reaches.

Now I am going to read the text and you might think this is a strange message for family. But you will see that it is a message for family. I'm reading from Ephesians 6:

"Slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, (notice slaves of men, slaves of Christ) doing the will of God from the heart.

"With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good things each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free."

Notice what he is saying here. Be obedient to your masters that are over you in the flesh. Rendering good service and good will to them in that service. Giving it your heart and what you have got. It says that because you are not doing it to men, you are doing it to God. The pagan concept is I am stuck in this thing here. I have got to get out of it. But no. See this as the will of God in certain areas of your life and certain times of your life and make the most of it, and you will see what happened to men and women who did.

Then again in Ephesians 6:9:

"And, masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him."

It's interesting how people consider that this particular passage of scripture and a great many people I have talked to even some preachers consider this passage irrelevant for Americans since we have no slavery in our country. So they say that particular passage doesn't apply to us, maybe in some other country.

But you need to understand the nature of the message. Paul has been delivering the message, first of all, to wives, then to husbands as a family unit, then to children, then to slaves. These slaves were part of the household. Sometimes they were part of the larger group, where they were out in the fields and so forth, but they were a part of the household, and they ministered together. And they saw this household including the slaves as one large family. It was their mentality at that time. So even though these people were bought or had sold themselves into slavery because they had lost their land or something and had nowhere to go and sold themselves as slaves. Sometimes permanently because that was an honorable way to go in those days. Still it was considered as a whole set of family relationships, first in God, then in relationships with other people.
In the truest sense of the word, you see slavery all the way through the Bible from the highest to the lowest. For instance, Jesus Christ considered himself and spoke often of the fact that he was the bond-slave of God. That meant he said, I am here Lord, not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. The Father hears me always because I do those things always that are pleasing to Him.

In other words, His thought was not this is what I want to do. This is my ambition. This is my plan. I have a right to this. I am going to be educated and become this. I want to be this and then I want to do this.

The thought was I am here as a servant of God. "Lord what do you want me to do with my life." Following that, God revealed to Jesus that it was the cross. You remember He went to the Cross and kneeled down in the Garden of Gethsemane and He said, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." Those are the words of a bond servant. Those are the words of a slave. Those are the words of one who belongs to another, and has no right to a will of his own except to submit to the one who is over him in that particular position.

Now the Lord through Paul is extending this through every area of life. There are many illustrations in the Old Testament to illustrate the power of a man or a woman who understands this and who execute this with diligence and joy in any kind of situation that they find themselves in.

The same thing is true of a man. It was not just a man. Paul considered himself as a bond slave of Christ, and he did exactly the same thing. He gave up his place in the Sanhedrin. He gave up his place of leadership. He gave up his relationship to his family. They cut him off. He said that he suffered the loss of all things for his slavery to Christ, suffered the loss of all things, but counted them but rubbish or dung in order that he might win Christ, that he might stand in this place of being a bond slave to Jesus Christ.

So far from considering slavery as an evil thing, the Bible does not hold it up that way. We know there were evil masters and Paul is dealing with that. We know there were evil slave conditions but Paul is saying that even there I will show you how to operate. The Bible in the Old Testament, even there I will show you what to do.

But I wish to bring it down to the family. You see in a certain sense, all of us in one way of looking at it are slaves. Now let me show you in kind of a humorous way. We all consider ourselves in that way sometimes.

Have any of you married women ever considered yourselves a slave? Have you ever said this? "Slaving over a hot stove all day long. I am just a slave in this house. All I do is get up and wash dishes, and wash diapers and clean and then...and no appreciation." Has anyone ever spoken like that? Well yes. You would be very abnormal if you did not say that or feel like that at times. For two reasons. Number one, Satan is right there telling you that. And number two it is in fact true. But it is how you handle the situation.

It is not just to wives alone that I speak this. I speak this to husbands. Have you ever heard your husband say, "Slaving my life away in that sawmill. Slaving for this family. Off to the salt mines again." See. The wives hear this quite often. They ask, "how do you feel?" "I feel I am just a slave, day after day."

That's right. But how do you make it a good thing? How does it become what Paul is talking about? How does it become what the Bible is talking about? And how do we impart to our children an understanding about relationship because someone is always over you somewhere? Have you noticed that? Someone is always over you somewhere. You speed a little too fast. We are free in this country, right? "I'm a free man. And besides that I am a Republican. And besides that I pay taxes." And I'm going 70 miles an hour in a 40-mile-an-hour zone. And pretty soon you hear a siren. And suddenly there is someone over me. And is he over me in the Lord? The Bible says that the powers that be are ordained of God and they do not carry the sword in vain. Well, the police do not carry swords, but it is like a sword.

"Yes, sir. Morning officer. How are you today?"

"Did you know you were going 70 in a 40 mile-an-hour zone?"

"Oh no."

How do you handle that. That is what the Bible is all about. The Bible says agree with him quickly.

"I'm sorry, officer, I guess I was doing that. I feel so terrible."

I remember one time I time I did a U-turn on the Verazono Straits Bridge in New York. I know you do not make U-turns on a major bridge or any bridge. You just don't do that. But I did it. I was kind of confused. I made the wrong turn. I got on this bridge. And what am I doing on this bridge here. And I said to another motorist, "Sir what do I do. I got to get back the other way." And someone in another car said, "Pull over, pull over there." And so suddenly I looked and no cars were coming, so I whirled my car around. And a cop comes and stops me. And what do I do? Suddenly I am a slave. I couldn't say, "Well, I am the head of Gospel Outreach. Furthermore, I own property back in Eureka." You are nothing mister. You are in trouble. That's what you are.

So I'm sitting there, and the police officer screams at me, "Give me that driver's license. You got one?" "Yes sir, yes sir. Here it is." "Your registration." "Yes sir, here it is." He goes out and looks at my car. Fortunately, I had my car from California. He looks at my car license and comes back to me and looks at me. And I'm looking very humiliated, very humble. I agreed with him entirely. Yes, sir. I'm really a bad guy. Finally, he said, "Oh, you're from California. Get out of here." Thank you Lord. I have not be on the Verazono Straits Bridge since that time. I am afraid that same policeman will be there looking for me.

But I did the right thing. I took my right position. I remember my number one guy told me that a policeman stopped him one time. And he said to the policeman, "Listen cop if you know what is good for you, jump right back onto your motorcycle and get out of here fast." He said the policeman jumped right on his motorcycle and took right off. I said ho, ho, ho. If he did think he was in danger, he would get right on his motorcycle, drive out about five seconds and say, "There is a guy in a black car with license number UUN436, put out a road block for me. Stop him. He is extremely dangerous. Shoot to kill."

I have learned to do what the Bible says.

Do you children ever feel like slaves? "I feel like I am a slave. All I do is mow lawns, carry out the garbage, wash dishes, take care of children, go here, and I don't even get paid for it. I am a real slave."

We all feel that way folks. Everyone feels that way. The fact is I am saying it is true, in one way or another, we are all slaves.
Now the question is how to handle it.

Here is how to handle it. Not by way of eye service, slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your hearts, as to Christ. Whether parents, whether bosses, whether employes, whether government, whether police. Not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

All through the Bible, you will find wonderful examples of men and women who understood this godly reality and they began to put it into practice. My wife understands this wonderfully well. She didn't understand it every part of her life. Tried to. But once we got back together there was some great revelation in her heart, and I want to tell you what the revelation is. My wife is with me 100 percent. Honey, I am with you.

The secret in the Old Testament is you find people who were sold into slavery. Joseph would be one of the earliest examples of people sold into slavery. Now, here Joseph was living as a free man with his father Israel. Israel was rich. Israel had many cattle, a large family. Joseph had received promises and dreams from God. His brothers turned against Joseph and sold him into slavery. What an unfair, wrong thing. What a terrible thing to do. Normally the first thing that would be done to a new slave when first received, he would be taken and beaten. Do you know why they would beat him? To take the fight out of him. He would be beaten into submission.

The Bible says that Joseph was taken into Egypt and was sold to a man named Potiphar. Now Joseph could have done one of two things, which many of us do in our lifetime. Now some of us have this attitude toward work. "Oh work. Man alive, this stinking job I have." You see it doesn't matter if it is a hamburger joint job, or whether you have this kind of job where you say, "Oh man this job is driving me crazy. People just driving me insane, this crazy boss. He must have rocks in his head. Every day I have to go here and work. Oh, God get me out of here. Deliver me." That's an attitude.

You can change any situation you are in by the right attitude toward that particular situation. Joseph could have gone down to Egypt and said, "Oh look at me, what has happened to me. Oh God, why?" He could have first of all been bitter at God. "God you are supposed to be so powerful. You are supposed to be so great. You are supposed to have angels? You are supposed to be the one who loves us and delivers us. Why have you let this take place? You could have stopped my brothers. Why have you done this Oh God? He did not say that. Maybe, he was tempted, but he didn't get upset with God.

Then he was sold into Potiphar's house. He could have said, "Oh man, I have got to escape. I have got to plan a way. How will I get back? The first time they let me free I will get out." That is not what he did. Let me tell you what he did.

He gave himself to his master with 100 percent of his ability, not by way of eye service as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men...Lord, here I am working for you. I don't know why this has happened. But somehow it is part of your plan. Somehow something is working out. And I am going to give it every thing I have got. In every situation I find myself I am going to rise up and give it every thing I have got. Knowing that whatever good thing each one does. Toward Potiphar yes. Toward the jailer in Egypt. Yes. Toward Pharaoh. Yes. Give it everything you've got. Get in there with the right heart. Do it.

Once Joseph practiced that here is what happened.

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there.

And the Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man.

He's a slave, but notice what he does. He's put out on the rummy, bad jobs to start with, the hard ones to do, the messy things, the dirty things. But he got out there and cleaned up the stables like they had never been cleaned up before.
Years ago, I received two or three promotions in a secular job I was doing because the first job I had with this company was cleaning up the toilets. Isn't that a wonderful job. Do you think I didn't feel like a slave?

I would sweep the sawdust out. Then I would walk in the toilets and here some of them were dirty, and the sinks were all dirty, and there was dirty slogans all over the walls. And I'm like, "Oh God, this is terrible." Then I stopped and said I am going to clean these toilets up like they have never been cleaned up before. And I am going to keep them clean. I am going to do it three or four times a night. I worked the night shift. And I started cleaning out the toilets. And the men would come up to me and say, "Man, we have never had our toilets so clean. We feel good to go in there. We didn't even want to go in there. We thought something was going to jump on us when we were in there."

And the boss came to me and said, "Hey, come here, I want to use you in a different way. I would like you to work on pulling a chain here, and this and that. And they started giving me double shifts, I was in a mill, and finally the guy said, "Hey Jim, you're working pretty hard. I don't need you all night. You get things done here. And I said, "Yeah, I get it done in about three or four hours." So he said, "You go down and sleep down there, and if I need you I'll come down and get you." And the next thing I knew I got a promotion a raise, and moved up. You see. That is what I am saying. You can turn the dirtiest job into a stepping stone to something a whole lot better.`

Instead of saying, "Oh God, how could you have me cleaning toilets?" What dirty filth. Or you could say, "God, I am going to clean these toilets like they have never been cleaned before. I am going to make this a joy to see." And the next thing here are people talking. And you know something the next thing that happened was that those men started to keep the toilets clean. Before when the toilets were dirty, they were just dirty. Stuff thrown all over. The walls were washed, the bowls were clean. And after they would wash their hands, they would take the towel and wipe it out. And say, "Hey Jim, I cleaned it out for you. What do you think of that?" I would say, "Hey you guys are really right on guys." A slave, but you can become a free man if you give it everything you got.

Now let's see what happened to Joseph. He became a successful man, and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So the next thing the master did was to move Joseph here. Then up here. And he prospered. So he put him in charge of the sheep and they multiplied and the diseases disappeared. Well we will put you here. And here is what the Bible says:

"So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.

And it came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph; thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field.
So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge (Genesis 39:4-6)

See. Slave? Free man. He was the ruler of the house. He could go anywhere he wanted to. I am telling you, you can turn the worst situation into the greatest situation if you will.

You know a lot of families are struggling today because they don't understand this principle. Let me explain it from a wife's point of view.

When I first started studying the book of Proverbs and I got to the one about the virtuous woman, I kind of got the idea that what God really had women here was to jump up early in the morning, long before the sun comes up, and start working their heads off, work all day long without stop, after the husband goes to bed she keeps on working, and somewhere around 12 they go to bed for two hours, and get up and start all over again.

Proverbs 31 kind of reads like that. You read it one way and it looks like that. She does him good and not evil All the days of her life. She looks for wool and flax, and Works with her hands in delight. She is like merchant ships; She brings her food from afar. She rises also while it is still night, and Gives food to her household, and portions to her maidens.

She considers a field and buys it; from her earnings he plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength, And makes her arms strong. She sense that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out at night.

See she rises early so her lamp doesn't go out at night. That's a long day. That's the secret of a virtuous woman. Just get one who will work day and night, and never stop. Is that what he is saying? No that isn't what he is saying. Do you know what he is saying? This woman married this man. And what she said is, honey, I am with you. And I am going to give myself to our enterprise and our marriage together. And whatever you need to have done, whatever has to be done, whatever I see has to be done, I will be with you 100 percent. I am loyal to you. Whatever happens I am there. If you fall on your face, I am there. If you rise, I am there. She was 100 percent with him.

I tell you something you put any man, he could be a stick of a man who doesn't'"t have a half a brain in his head. You give him a woman like that who stands beside him and she will make up the other half of the brain, or the whole brain and he will have one and a half brains.

When I say my success is due to my wife. This woman is a loyal woman. She is with me. She gives 100 percent of herself. We have gone into business together, we have gone into church work together. Whatever it is, she says, "Honey, I am with you. I am with you. I am with you. And loyalty has changed something in me like "Well, I don't even know if I have a call.' She'll tell me, "Yes, you do. God is with you and I am with you. God is going to use you." Then one day I said, "You know I think I have a call. And I think God is going to use me." Dacie is my success. She was with me 100 percent. Slave? Yes. She has been up many times before the sun comes up and many times after the sun has gone down. Long hard hours sometimes when I have gone to bed, she would be up gettings things done. But, I tell you over the years, I have come to have a tremendous appreciation and love for the woman god has given me who sees everything in the light of, "I am with you. God is with us. God is blessing us. God is behind us and before us. Let's move on." And here she is up in years like I am and instead of like, "Well, I guess we have come to the end of it. We are about out of it now." Do you know what we are looking forward to. Many more years. I know that is what God promised me. He said, I am going to give this woman to you for many more years. Hallelujah. We are going to build the kingdom in the years to come.

Why? Because I am a great builder. No, I don't think I am. Do you know what I think that for all the years before I met Dacie I was a giant failure and for some of the years after I met her, I was a failure because I didn't realize what a great co-worker I had.

And here are Dacie and I ready to serve you. We won't say, don"t call us after 5, don't call us before 8. We are here with all of our hearts. We are your slaves for Christ. That is what Paul said. He said I am your slave for Christ. One hundred percent. Here we are.

If you can impart that to your children. If they can see it by example that you are devoted to Christ, you ar devoted to each other, you give everything you got, every job, you do it. And you do it with joy. I'll tell you something, you can do it with joy, or you can do it with sadness. You can see it as God's will or you can see that the devil got in there and is messing everything up, and hate every minute of it. It depends on how you take it. But I take it this way.

Whatever situation I find myself in, I can turn it to good for Christ. How do I know that. We know the Bible says, all things work together for good for those who love the Lord, who are the called according to his purposes.

Now I want to speak to you younger people. I didn't learn most of these lessons until I was probably 38-39 years of age. Maybe, some I didn't learn until my forties. I would hold back my best. I would bargain with people. "Well, if you give me more money, I would work harder," or "if you would give me more responsibility, I would work harder." I never understood that I needed to give 100 percent of myself to everything I was doing. So if I am flipping hamburgers in a hamburger house, you might say well that is not much of a job. Hey, you can turn that into a tremendous stepping stone. You could turn it into the beginning of something really great. It depends on how you do it. You could either look at it and say, "Stupid hamburgers, one after the other, they all look the same, I wish they would all drop dead. Certainly a man of my brains is meant for something greater than this." That could be your attitude. Or, we could say, "Hallelujah, I have got a job. And this is the beginning. And I feel good about what I am doing."

I tell you the boss will come by and look and see some of his other workers who don't understand that slouching around with bad attitudes. And here you are cheerfully working.

You might think he"ll think I am crazy. Now he won't. Charles Schwab, who became the head of the United States Steel Corporation, was a janitor in that company as a young man. Andrew Carnegie was the president and a multi-millionaire many, many times over, some $400 million he was worth. He built many steel mills. How did Charles Schwab the janitor become the president of the United States Steel Corporation under Andrew Carnegie? As a matter of fact, he grew up as a protege of Carnegie's and then when the United States Steel Corporation was formed he became the first president. How was it done?

Whenever Andrew Carnegie would be walking in the mill yard. He would inspect and investigate things, here would be Charles Schwab. He would see him often. And Schwab was the janitor, and he was sweeping and cleaning up. Same way as with the toilets I cleaned up. As a matter of fact, that is where I got the idea to clean up the toilets, because I read it in a book about Charles Schwab. Who knows, I might have become the head of the U.S. Plywood Corporation if I had stayed there.
And Schwab was always whistling or singing songs. And Carnegie said, "Who is that young man over there. *He always seems cheerful. Is he that way all the time?" "Schwab's boss said, "Yes." Carnegie asked him what kind of job he did. "Best janitor we have ever had. He cleans it up and he doesn't fool around. You don't have to watch him.

So Carnegie watched him and kept an eye on him. The next thing, he said, 'I would like to try that man out over here. The next thing he moved up. Then, I want to take that man on as my personal protege. and step by step, he moved up that ladder, of what was then the Carnegie Steel Corporation. How did it all start? He took the right attitude towards sweeping a dirty steel mill floor. It depends on the attitude you have. If you see yourself as being put upon. The same thing can be true in the home. You learn it right there. "Dad says... Mom says...Son, will you go out and mow the lawn." "Oh, Mom. I really had it in mind to go zooming out the door today." Instead say, "Yes, Mom, I'm part of this family. I'm glad you asked me to do that. I will go out and mow that lawn right now." This will probably at first cause your mother to become faint in the knees.

"Daughter will you help me with the dishes?"

"Yes, Mom. I'm glad you're teaching me this because I know this will help me be a good wife and a good mother like you. Thanks Mom. Anything else you need done."

You'll probably even get out of work that way because your mother will be so shocked and won't know what to think. I tell you something if you will do that you are laying the foundation for a highly, successful life.

If you get into the habit of saying, "Oh, dishes." Maybe the wife even does that. She grew up in that atmosphere. If you are doing that stop it. You are only hurting yourself and your family as well. One day you might get to where you have a dishwasher, or one day you want to get to where you have a maid, or freedom in some way from this, maybe, paper dishes and thrown them away. But the way to do it is by not cursing the darkness, light a candle. See. Hallelujah. I am thankful for the opportunity to wash dishes. Do you know what it means Lord. It means we have food. Thank you Lord for food. That should be the attitude we have.

I thank you Lord for dirty diapers because I have a healthy baby who is eating well, and I thank you for this child, Lord.
Don't look at life from the negative side. Be thankful. Be glad for the work you have to do. Sometimes it might be taking out garbage, or clean-70. Thank God I have work to do for Jesus. And it is wonderful work that I have got to do.

Do you know where I think it got started? I think this time becoming pastor here and having the churches that have gone out from here. Do you know where I think it started? I think it started in the Arcata Plywood Mill, when the boss said we only have one job opened, it's cleaning out toilets. And I started cleaning out toilets, and did it the best I could

Years ago, there was a man who was helping us out a great deal in our early days. He had a chicken ranch, and he would bring chickens, over and other types of food, and he would even give us money. And we would say is there anything we can do to work for you, to repay you. And he would say it was a gift. One day, that man said after we asked him. 'Well there. is. I am really in a spot. I just hate to ask this. I am willing to pay for it. I have some chicken pens, and they haven't been cleaned out in three years. It's hard to find anyone who will do it. He said the manure was so deep and it was full of disease for his chickens. And he said he needed to get it cleaned out. He said do you suppose some of your people could come do it. So I said we would do it.

So I ask for volunteers, and we got some. And they went over and started cleaning out the chicken pens. And some of them came back after two hours, and said, "The Lord Jesus didn't call us to clean out chicken manure. He called us to preach the gospel." There were some others who came back at the end of the day and heard about it and said, "We'll clean out any chicken pens this man has or anyone else has. We are here to work for Jesus. We don't care what it is."

The ones who wouldn't work in the chicken manure because they had been called to preach, none of them are preaching that I know of. The ones who cleaned out the chicken manure went on to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the principle. I can turn a chicken pen into a place to praise God. I can turn the dumbest job into a place to watch a good thing. I can turn a heavy-duty family situation into a heaven on earth. I can lay the example, the groundwork for my children.

And you children who are here, you young men and women, if you will take that attitude toward life, don't let anything get you down, or if it does, bring yourself up out of it. If you get behind your mom or dad and say, "Mom, I am with you. Dad I am with you."

My wife is with me. That is why I can't be stopped. It doesn't matter what happens. Any kind of trial can hit, any kind of trouble can hit. Sometimes I am down in the mouth, and I look at my wife and she says, "Honey, I am with you and God is with us and we are going on." Sometimes she is down in the mouth and I put my arm around her and say, "Hey babe, I am with you and God is with us, and we are going on."

Once that spirit is in your heart, nothing can stop you. Are you a slave? Are you like Daniel? Daniel learned the secret of it. Are you like Joseph? Joseph learned the secret of it. Are you like that little Israelite girl. She learned the secret of it. If anyone had the right to be angry at life, she had a reason to be angry at life. They kidnapped her. Naaman kidnapped her. And the Bible says she said one day to her mistress speaking of Naaman, "Oh, if only my master were with the prophet that is in Israel, for that prophet would heal him of his leprosy. That man was a leper. She had overcome her tendency toward hatred. She had overcome her tendency toward self-pity, and she began to reach out in love toward her master and her mistress, and he eventually got healed. And the result of that when you read the story was the deliverance of Israel. Never again did Arab go into that land. That girl's love that rose above. She could have said, "I hate my mistress. I hate my master. I hate the Syrians. I hate the king. I may even hate God because he allowed this to happen." She could have said that and you would never have heard of her, nor would she have delivered Israel. But once she rose above that, and said I love my mistress and my master and I want him to be healed, and God to be glorified, she turned a bad situation into a wonderful situation. That is what every person should do.

Ponder this situation. Look around home. Maybe you don't ave every convenience you wish you could have, don't be concerned with that. Be concerned with glorifying God.

Husbands, you might have heard that someone just got a big raise. And you are working on a particular job. Look at your job and ask yourself are you giving the very best you can to that job. Give it everything you have got. And if you do I tell you, you will not lose out on the battle of life.

Back to Articles, Teachings, Etc. by Jim Durkin