TEN SHEKELS and A SHIRT - Extract
Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>
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TEN SHEKELS and A SHIRT - An Extract
-by Paris Reidhead.
If you'll ask me why I went to Africa, I'll tell you
I went primarily to improve on the justice of God.
I didn't think it was right for anybody to go to Hell
without a chance to be saved. So I went to give poor
sinners a chance to go to heaven. Now I haven't put
it in so many words, but if you'll analyze what I
just told you do you know what it is? Humanism.
That I was simply using the provisions of Jesus Christ
as a means to improve upon human conditions of
suffering and misery. And when I went to Africa,
I discovered that they weren't poor, ignorant, little
heathen running around in the woods looking for
someone to tell them how to go to heaven. That they
were
MONSTERS of INIQUITY !!!
THEY WERE LIVING in UTTER AND TOTAL
DEFIANCE of FAR MORE KNOWLEDGE OF
GOD than I EVER DREAMED THEY HAD !
They deserved Hell! Because they utterly refused to
walk in the light of their conscience, and the light of
the law written upon their heart, and the testimony of
nature, and the truth they knew! And when I found
that out I assure you I was so angry with God that on
one occasion in prayer I told Him it was a mighty fine
little thing He'd done, sending me out there to reach these
people that were waiting to be told how to go to heaven.
When I got there I found out they knew about heaven,
and didn't want to go there, and that they loved their
sin and wanted to stay in it.
I went out there motivated by humanism. I'd seen
pictures of lepers, I'd seen pictures of ulcers, I'd seen
pictures of native funerals, and I didn't want my
fellow human beings to suffer in Hell eternally after
such a miserable existence on earth. But it was there
in Africa that God began to tear through THE
OVERLAY OF THIS HUMANISM! And it was
that day in my bedroom with the door locked that I
wrestled with God. For here was I, coming to grips
with the fact that the people I thought were ignorant and
wanted to know how to go to heaven and were saying
"Someone come and teach us", actually didn't want to
take time to talk with me or anybody else. They had no
interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ, and
they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. And I
was to that place at that time where I felt the whole thing
was a sham and a mockery, and I had been sold a bill of
goods! And I wanted to come home.
There alone in my bedroom AS I FACED GOD
HONESTLY WITH WHAT MY HEART FELT, it
seemed to me I heard Him say, "Yes, will not the
Judge of all the earth do right? The heathen are lost.
And they're going to go to Hell, not because they haven't
heard the gospel. They're going to go to Hell because they
are sinners, WHO LOVE THEIR SIN! And because they
deserve Hell. BUT, I didn't send you out there for them.
I didn't send you out there for their sakes." And I heard as
clearly as I've ever heard, though it wasn't with a physical voice,
but it was the echo of truth of the ages finding its' way into
an open heart. I heard God say to my heart that day
something like this, "I didn't send you to Africa for the
sake of the heathen, I sent you to Africa for My sake.
They deserved Hell! But I LOVE THEM !!!
AND I ENDURED THE AGONIES of HELL FOR THEM !!!
I DIDN'T SEND you OUT THERE FOR THEM !!!
I SENT you OUT THERE FOR ME !
DO I NOT DESERVE the REWARD OF MY SUFFERING?
DON'T I DESERVE THOSE for WHOM I DIED?"
And it REVERSED IT ALL! AND CHANGED
IT ALL! AND RIGHTED IT ALL! And I wasn't any
longer working for Micah and tens shekels and a shirt.
BUT I WAS SERVING A LIVING GOD! I was there
not for the sake of the heathen. I was there for the
Savior that endured the agonies of Hell for me, who didn't
deserve it. But He deserved them. Because He died for them.
Do you see?
Let me epitomize, let me summarize. Christianity says,
"The end of all being is the glory of God."
Humanism says,
"The end of all being is the happiness of man."
And one was born in Hell, the deification of man.
AND THE OTHER WAS BORN IN HEAVEN,
THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD! And one is Levite
serving Micah, and the other is a heart that's unworthy serving
the living God,
because it's the highest honor in the universe.