Three-Fold Vision - Part 1 (Video) — Leonard Ravenhill

Prayer for Christians Suffering in Bosnia

My enemy. He did very well, George. My voice isn't very good. It will get better, I'm sure. I think the first thing we should do is remember that while we sit in peace and you've had a good supper, we should remember people are dying in Bosnia.

Peace Declarations and Continuing Wars

I remember a few years ago there was a conference at a place called Camp David. You may remember Manak and Begin, the leader of the Jews, and Mr. Karter, who was the president, clasped their hands together with somebody else and declared that this was a period of peace from here to the end of the world.

Mr. Bush told us that the Desert War was over. The fact is at this very moment there are 35 places in the world where there's war. I have a few heroes. One of them is in Bosnia. A young man that came to my office just a couple of months ago, he'd just come back from Bosnia, and he said it's the most terrible sight he ever saw.

Atrocities in Bosnia and the Cost of War

He'd been in Vietnam. He'd been in the Central States when the Sandinistas were fighting. But he said to go down the street in Bosnia was terrible. Here's the body of a young lady and there's a head over there.

There's a river of blood down Main Street. Children were starving. And the amazing thing is he's gone back again this week. He doesn't have any church behind him. He's a very wonderful individual. And there are others like this.

Prayer for Suffering Christians

So I'm going to ask that we just have quietly, all of us have a minute of prayer and pray particularly for the Christians who are in Bosnia that are suffering so much. Everybody's suffering. Religion doesn't make any difference.

American Luxury and Global Poverty

Suffering comes to everybody, whether you're black or white or rich or poor. But we live in luxury. I don't know why we sing God Bless America. You know some women in India, you're in India. Women in India gathered cow dung today to bake a meal tomorrow.

God Bless America. Why? You have two ovens or do you have three? You have two cars or do you have three? You have two telephones or do you have three? See how rich we are in America? We flush our toilets with drinking water.

Did you ever think of that? What you put down the toilet every day will cost a stack of money. Oh, but I'm an American. You know the greatest fear I have, I'm not afraid of death. I've been at death's door many times.

Fear of God's Spirit Departing from America

I'm afraid that God will withdraw his spirit from America. He says my spirit shall not always strive with man. I checked at Billy Graham's office and they're pretty accurate there. I said how many Bible schools are there in America?

America's Bible Schools Compared with Sodom and Gomorrah

How many, how many seminaries? Well as you know America and Canada are joined together. America and Canada have 450 Bible schools and 250 seminaries. Did Sodom have one Bible school? Did Gomorrah have a seminary?

Now if the children are going to the bathroom, let them all go. All go if you want. Don't break up the meeting. I'm afraid we don't treasure what we have. Some parts of the world don't have one page of this sacred book.

The Sufficiency and Authority of Scripture

We have 26 translations. My judgment on the Bible is this, it's either absolute or obsolete. You can't believe what you want like David was saying. Believe this part, forget the other. Forget the dispensation of it.

Christ's Eternal Existence

The Christ I serve is no older than he was 10 ,000 years ago. He lived before creation. He's the only potentate who lived before he was born. The only potentate who lived after he died. I like the emphasis David made on the throne.

The British throne is in tatters just now. It's a mockery to the world. I go back again and again and again to a Hebrews 1. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. David didn't dwell long enough on that this morning on worship.

I'll spank you afterwards. Well, I'll tell you what. I don't give you lift to eat much older than I am. You never hear a better preaching than you heard this morning. People asked me about this conference months ago.

I said, if you only come to one meeting, don't come Saturday night, come Friday night. David has a rare combination of being a teacher and a preacher at the same time. Today he reminded us about the throne in that wonderful fourth chapter of Revelation.

Jesus Christ and the Overcomers

What did he say? Who sits on the throne? Jesus. Who sits with him? The Virgin Mary? Forget it. The Catholics would suggest she does. You know, one day Jesus will not bow the knee to the Pope. The Pope will bow the knee to Jesus.

The Virgin Mary sits on the throne with him? No. Who will? Those that what? Tell me. Overcomers. People say sometimes, oh, you know, I'm a survivor. I say, I'm not. I'm an overcomer. Surviving means you're going down for the third time.

Somebody drags you by the hair and saves you. No, brother. I'm not living to celebrate eternal life up there. I've got it now. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Well, I listened very attentively this morning, and I listened to that message again.

Honoring a Family of Preachers and Scholars

I get that tape, I'm sure. I often tell Martha, I say many days to her, darling, we're rich. After the meeting this morning, a man said to me, you trained your son very well. He's a good preacher. No, he isn't a good preacher.

He's a great preacher. And his brother's great. And the mother's great. One of the largest hospitals in England. For three years, she helped to do all the main surgery, everything, because she's skilled in that area.

I don't have that genius. Two boys, two of the best preachers in the world. The other one is one of the big chiefs of Smithsonian Museum. Mixes with kings and princes and people, multi-millionaire, and it never phases him at all.

Preserving a Common Touch

He's never lost, what, Kipling called a common touch. But, you know, if you strike, if you take a piece of metal and put it in a furnace, the first thing is, the metal goes into the furnace. Then the furnace goes into the furnace.