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This is Daniel Whyte III, president of Gospel Light Society International with the Whyte House Family Devotional Reading of Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening podcast. This is Episode #59.

Charles Spurgeon was a prominent English Particular Baptist preacher. He was very influential among the Christians of various denominations during his age and even today, and is commonly called the “Prince of Preachers”. After some time of alternately searching for God and running from God, he had a powerful encounter which led him to give his life to Christ. Spurgeon was only 16 when he preached his first sermon and he began publishing books shortly afterward. At the time of his death, he had preached nearly 3,600 sermons and published 49 volumes of commentaries, sayings, anecdotes, illustrations and devotions. Spurgeon said, “encouraging thoughts are like honey to the heart”, and wrote this devotional in hopes that its uplifting messages for each day of the year would bring comfort and refreshment to our walk with God. He was inspired by Isaiah 50:4 which reads, “He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” and Psalm 63:5-6 which says, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips; when I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.”

2 Samuel 5:24 reads: “And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the Lord go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.”

The members of Christ’s Church should be very prayerful, always seeking the unction of the Holy One to rest upon their hearts, that the kingdom of Christ may come, and that his “will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven;” but there are times when God seems especially to favour Zion, such seasons ought to be to them like “the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.” We ought then to be doubly prayerful, doubly earnest, wrestling more at the throne than we have been wont to do. Action should then be prompt and vigorous. The tide is flowing—now let us pull manfully for the shore. O for Pentecostal outpourings and Pentecostal labours. Christian, in yourself there are times “when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees.” You have a peculiar power in prayer; the Spirit of God gives you joy and gladness; the Scripture is open to you; the promises are applied; you walk in the light of God’s countenance; you have peculiar freedom and liberty in devotion, and more closeness of communion with Christ than was your wont. Now, at such joyous periods when you hear the “sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees,” is the time to bestir yourself; now is the time to get rid of any evil habit, while God the Spirit helpeth your infirmities. Spread your sail; but remember what you sometimes sing—

“I can only spread the sail;
Thou! Thou! must breathe the auspicious gale.”

Only be sure you have the sail up. Do not miss the gale for want of preparation for it. Seek help of God, that you may be more earnest in duty when made more strong in faith; that you may be more constant in prayer when you have more liberty at the throne; that you may be more holy in your conversation whilst you live more closely with Christ.

PRAY.

Thank you for listening to the Morning and Evening podcast. If you do not know the Lord as your Savior, here is how you can be saved from Hell and walk with the Lord morning and evening until you go to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die:

First, accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

Second, accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”

Third, accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18:8: “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.” Also, the Bible states in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Now that is bad news, but here’s the good news. Jesus Christ said in 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.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can live eternally with Him. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will.

Romans 10:9 & 13 says, “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 whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you believe that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, and you want to trust Him for your Salvation today, please pray with me this simple prayer: Holy Father God, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. I am sorry for my sins, and today I choose to turn from my sins. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior and I choose to follow Him as Lord from this day forward. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.

If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the Cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

If you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior today, please email me at [email protected] and let us know. There is some free material that we want to send you. If you have a prayer request, please e-mail that to us as well, and we will pray for you until you tell us to stop.

God loves you. We love you. And may God bless you.

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This is Daniel Whyte III president of Gospel Light Society International with The Scripture & the Sense Podcast #445, where I read the Word of God and give the sense of it based on an authoritative commentary source such as the Bible Knowledge Commentary or Matthew Henry Commentary. This podcast is based upon Nehemiah 8:8 where it says Ezra and the Levites “read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” The aim of this podcast is that through the simple reading of the Word of God and the giving of the sense of it, the church would be revived and the world would be awakened.

Today we are reading Amos 4:11.

11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord.

________

That was Amos 4:11. Now here is the sense of it.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary reads:

Finally, God totally overthrew some of their cities with the same burning devastation He had wreaked on Sodom and Gomorrah. So thorough had been the destruction from a military siege that certain cities had ceased to exist. The whole nation had come perilously close to obliteration, barely escaping like a burning stick snatched from the fire. But this too had proved futile.

____________

Thank you for listening to the Scripture & The Sense Podcast. Remember to read the Word of God each and every day and pray without ceasing to God for wisdom to understand it and apply it to your life. Most importantly, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Please stay tuned for a complete presentation of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you can get your soul saved from Hell to that wonderful place called Heaven when you die. May God bless you and keep you is my prayer.

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California’s Rock Church went solely online for its Sunday worship services due to the coronavirus scare, and the megachurch’s pastor, Miles McPherson, said in his sermon that carefulness was needed, but with faith and not fear. He also interviewed a health official and two mayors about the pandemic.

We have to be careful in the wake of the novel coronavirus crisis, which is “serious and real,” McPherson stressed in his sermon.

In California alone, there are so far 335 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six deaths.

But “God doesn’t want you to be filled with fear,” he said. “He wants you to be filled with faith.”

He cited 2 Timothy 1:7, which reads, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” and explained each key term.

“Fear” means having “a heart filled with dread and panic.” Power means “the ability to exert the spiritual force necessary for change.” Love means “affection towards God and others.” And having a sound mind means making “sensible, intelligent and reasonable decisions.”

We need to walk around with the faith that God can not only keep us safe but also help us to help others, the pastor said.

We don’t need to pray for the coronavirus to go away, but for God’s presence, he added.

He asked one of the special guests, Dr. Wilma Wooten from San Diego County Health and Human Services, about the symptoms of COVID-19.

Wooten said the symptoms include fever, cough and an acute respiratory syndrome that could include pneumonia. Additionally, doctors would also ask if the person showing these symptoms has been to one of the affected regions like Wuhan in China or Italy or Iran, or has been in contact with someone who has the disease.

If you don’t have the symptoms, she noted, that means “you cannot transmit it to other individuals.”

Pastor McPherson said he had heard that you could transmit the virus even before you develop symptoms. The health official called it a rumor.

“That makes me feel good,” he said.

But, she added, that’s what’s known as of now, as the research is still going on.

Source: The Christian Post

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Retired Bishop Barbara Harris, the first woman to be ordained and consecrated as a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, died on Friday (March 13).

She was 89.

Harris died at a hospice house after a recent hospitalization.

“Our hearts are truly heavy at the loss of one who has been a faithful and altogether irrepressible companion, pastor and inspiration to us in the Diocese of Massachusetts for 31 years,” said Bishop Alan M. Gates, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, in an announcement.

“At the same time our hearts are truly buoyed by the hope which she preached and the conviction she embodied for us throughout all these years,” he said.

Harris, who was known for quoting the words “Hallelujah anyhow” from a gospel song, served as a suffragan, or assisting, bishop in the diocese from 1989 until she retired in 2002. She later served as assisting bishop in the Diocese of Washington from 2003 to 2007.

“Bishop Barbara Harris was not large of physical stature,” said Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in a tweeted statement. “In fact, the opposite. But she was larger than life. She was larger than life because she lived it fully with her God and with us. She did it by actually living the love of God that Jesus taught us about.”

The great-granddaughter of a woman born into slavery, she described herself as a “fiercely independent” child, and she grew up to take a nontraditional path to the episcopacy, according to a remembrance posted on the website of the Massachusetts diocese. The Philadelphia native joined the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march, became president of a black-owned public relations firm, and was ordained a priest at age 50 in 1980, four years after the Episcopal Church began officially recognizing women in that role.

She broke numerous stereotypes as she became the first woman Anglican bishop, being an African American, a divorcée and a person who had not graduated from seminary.

“The temptation we have,” she said in her first sermon as bishop, “is to play it safe, don’t make waves.

“But if Jesus had played it safe, we would not be saved,” she continued, according to 1989 coverage in the Los Angeles Times. “If the Diocese of Massachusetts had played it safe, I would not be standing here clothed in rochet and chimere and wearing a pectoral cross.”

In a 2004 sermon, “A Circle of Concern,” she urged not only that congregants pray for people with AIDS and those who were hungry or homeless but that they act on those prayers.

“Our circle of concern must enlarge itself over and over and over again to include all of God’s people — especially those who seem hard to love,” she said in a sermon cited in the anthology “Preaching with Sacred Fire.” “For when we love those who seem hard to love, we may be loving ourselves as well.”

The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas — who edited Harris’ memoir titled “Hallelujah, Anyhow!” — tweeted that she was saddened to learn of her colleague’s death.

“There are truly no words that can adequately reflect the greatness of her life & witness or the gravity of her loss,” wrote Douglas, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union in New York City.

Gates noted that Harris will be honored in the future with a public funeral that will be held at Washington National Cathedral as well as a memorial service at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston.

“Because of the coronavirus pandemic and current restrictions on travel and group gatherings, we will delay setting service dates for now,” he said.

In his announcement, the Massachusetts bishop also quoted Harris’ hopeful words about death:

“If we can believe that Jesus, who died, rose again from the dead, … then we can, in peace, give over those who have died — known and unknown — to a loving, compassionate and ever-merciful God who has prepared for us a better home than this Good Friday world.”

Source: Religion News Service

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Washington, DC – The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 37 denominations and 26.7 million African Americans with an additional 116,000 sister churches, is urging all of our church leaders to respect the science regarding COVID-19 and allow and encourage all of its members who are at least 60 years old and have underlying conditions to forgo church for the foreseeable future. This extraordinary moral move by NBCI is to protect us all from this extraordinarily dangerous virus and is in accordance with guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the National Institute of Health, expressed that COVID-19 (coronavirus) “… is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.” Additionally, health experts have expressed that those with underlying conditions who are age 60 and over are particularly vulnerable to this disease.

The Reverend Anthony Evans, President of the National Black Church Initiative, strongly urges “We must follow all of the CDC’s guidelines pertaining to those who are at least 60, especially those with underlying health conditions and compromised immunities. We are taking this extraordinary action in light of the fact that we must show moral leadership here in order to get everyone singing the same song – God will take care of us if we listen and obey those who he was empowered to help us protect ourselves, our families, and our communities.”

Ministers are not doctors. I know that there are some churches and ministers who are going to defy this moral declaration. If you do so, you must be willing to institute the principles of social distancing as an extra measure to protect all those in your congregation.

The Bible is clear about using sound, moral judgment in light of our faith in Christ Jesus. In this case, both the scripture and God want us to heed the sound judgment of scientists, doctors, and government officials who are trying to keep us safe. Our faith in Christ relies not only on our faith in God, but also those individuals who God has empowered as scientists, doctors, and those who are in the government at this time.

The Black community should step away from the politics of the hour and focus on those who are trying to keep us safe.

About NBCI

The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) is a coalition of 34,000 African American and Latino Churches working to eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, education, housing, and the environment. NBCI’s mission is to provide critical wellness information to all of its members, congregants, Churches and the public. Our methodology is utilizing faith and sound health science.

NBCI’s purpose is to partner with major organizations and officials whose main mission is to reduce racial disparities in the variety of areas cited above. NBCI offers faith-based, out-of-the-box and cutting-edge solutions to stubborn economic and social issues. NBCI’s programs are governed by credible statistical analysis, science-based strategies and techniques, and methods that work. Visit our website at www.naltBlackChurch.com.

Contents of all communications sent to or from NBCI or staff, contractors or employees of NBCI containing information provided by NBCI including but not limited to email address, personal information and other data shall be the exclusive property of NBCI. Any misuse of this data which is not authorized by NBCI shall be prohibited. NBCI reserve the right to pursue legal action against any individual, member church, authorized or unauthorized who use or appropriate this property without consent of NBCI.

National Black Church Initiative

P.O. Box 65177
Washington, DC 20035
202-744-0184

Contact:
Rev. Anthony Evans
202-744-0184

March 14, 2020
For Immediate Release

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