RICKY SINGS..A SONG HE DID NOT KNOW

Written by Irvin L. Rozier


RICKY SINGS...A SONG HE DID NOT KNOW

Luke 1 verse 37 "For with God nothing shall be impossible."

I have been ministering at nursing homes for over 17 years. I have seen God move mightily during these times. I want to tell you what God did yesterday...it was a genuine miracle on 10 October 2004.

Ricky is a young man in his early 40's. He is mildly mentally handicapped, but he loves to sing gospel songs. His favorite is Victory in Jesus. His voice is so sweet, although he would getrepparttar words mixed up. Charlie, a cripple atrepparttar 126751 nursing home, died over two years ago, and Ricky sang Victory in Jesus at Charlie's funeral. I hadrepparttar 126752 privilege of speaking at Charlie's funeral.

A few months back, Ricky had a stroke, and it affected his speech....he quit talking. About four weeks ago, I was atrepparttar 126753 nursing home for our Sunday morning service. Afterrepparttar 126754 service, I saw Ricky inrepparttar 126755 hallway. I spoke to him, and asked him to sing Victory in Jesus..he did and everyone was amazed.

Well, yesterday (Sunday), I had a service atrepparttar 126756 nursing home, and Ricky was sitting inrepparttar 126757 back in his wheelchair. I always play gospel music onrepparttar 126758 stereo before we start. That morning,repparttar 126759 LORD told me to takerepparttar 126760 CD withrepparttar 126761 music ofrepparttar 126762 song I had wrote. The words torepparttar 126763 song was not onrepparttar 126764 CD, justrepparttar 126765 music my son, Joel, had wrote.

The title ofrepparttar 126766 song is "When Willrepparttar 126767 Answer Come". The first verse goes, "When willrepparttar 126768 answer come, What willrepparttar 126769 answer be, Where will I be waiting, Onrepparttar 126770 LORD's answer to me, So long I've been anticipating, onrepparttar 126771 answer I'm awaiting, Many sleepless nights spent talking, To my LORD with whom I'm walking." The chorus goes, "The LORD hears and answers my prayers, I cast on Him my cares, I know somehow, somewhere, The answer will surely be there."

Freedom of Religion

Written by Skye Thomas


We were all taught in school that our forefathers left England to escape religious dictatorships. Okay, there was a lot more to it then that, but it was a big enough deal that they made sure it got honorable mention in our rulebook. They clearly maderepparttar point that we were to have freedom of religion here in America. They also usedrepparttar 126750 word "God" in some of their formal paperwork and even on our money. I don't want to argue politics here, but rather semantics. They didn't say "freedom of Christianity," they said "freedom of religion." The boys who wrote up all of our formal paperwork were wordsmiths and they debated long and hard to findrepparttar 126751 perfect set of words to govern ourselves by. It wasn't decided that we hadrepparttar 126752 freedom to choose whichever form of Christianity that we liked, but whichever form of religion. Religion is in and of itself a much broader concept then Christianity. "God" can mean a lot more then justrepparttar 126753 Christian definition too.

No, I don't agree with allrepparttar 126754 bickering and arguing over whether or not there should be prayers in school or ifrepparttar 126755 Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional. You can't stop someone from praying whenever or wherever they choose. Nor can you force a prayer out of someone either. It's a dumb thing to argue about and not worth being offended over either way. I think it's important to teach out children what our country's Pledge of Allegiance is, but I don't know that it's right to force anyone to state a pledge, especially children. Seems a bit dictator like and kind of like brainwashing. Teach them what it means. Teach them what prayer means. Teach them what making a pledge of any kind means whether it's a pledge of one's allegiance to their country's flag, a pledge of fidelity to a spouse, or a pledge of loyalty to a boss. But also teach them that in this country we haverepparttar 126756 freedom to make pledges or not. Teach them that in this country we haverepparttar 126757 freedom to pray to whoever or whatever we like andrepparttar 126758 freedom not to pray. Teach them just how important that freedom is.

I'm saddened when I hear of Pagan's being persecuted for their spiritual beliefs in this country. Didrepparttar 126759 Sunday school teachers forget to mention that usingrepparttar 126760 colors green and red for Christmas is Pagan? Did they mention that Christmas lights, yule logs, and wreaths are all Pagan? Did they mention that almost every single Christian holiday is celebrated ironically on top of a Pagan festival? Why do you think we have bunnies, baby chicks, and pretty flowers as part of our Easter celebration? Because it coincides withrepparttar 126761 Pagan's celebrations of Spring's renewal. From what I can see, Pagans aren't all evil ugly witches anymore than all Christians are white supremacists.

I don't have a deep knowledge of all ofrepparttar 126762 different religions ofrepparttar 126763 world, but I can tell you that it doesn't take much research to see that they're all very muchrepparttar 126764 same. Get past which church uses which secret handshake and which rule book you should follow, and you find that they're all teaching us to respect each other, to love each other, to conduct yourself with honor, and to be good torepparttar 126765 planet and animals that we're blessed with. The rest is all dogma and debatable. Nobody has any real concrete proof that their particular form of God isrepparttar 126766 only one. Who's to say that God or Jesus isn't wise enough to visit more than once using different names and different forms? Wouldn't it make sense givenrepparttar 126767 size ofrepparttar 126768 planet thatrepparttar 126769 rest ofrepparttar 126770 world would need to be given a fair chance at knowing about God too? Is Buddha so very different from Jesus? Their teachings are incredibly similar. Why limit God to a concept that only fits what your particular culture or region ofrepparttar 126771 world knows about?

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