Poverty of Spirit #1 — Leonard Ravenhill

The Sermon on the Mount as a Christian Checklist

While I was thinking about this, this week a new thought came to me. I don't have the years, I've read this, I guess you've read it many times too. But here Jesus is laying down, again we call the manifesto of the kingdom.

But in doing this he did three things. He put himself on exhibition because whatever he taught they would expect it to be worked out in his life. And he put the church on exhibition because this is what the church collectively is supposed to do.

And thirdly he put us on exhibition as individuals. In other words I think Jesus is saying to the people who are listening there and saying to us this is your checklist. If you want to know what a Christian is, here it is, it's all summed up in this.

And if they don't comply with what is written here then question their Christianity, question their Christian life. Again I'm tremendously impressed with this idea that came to us last week that in the first book in the Bible we have the first Adam.

In the first book in the New Testament we have the last Adam. In the first book again the man reminding ourselves that he was put into a perfect environment. There wasn't a flaw in it, there wasn't a flaw in him.

The First Adam and the Last Adam Under Pressure

And it seems from what record we have that the first time that man was tested he collapsed under the pressure. In the case of the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, he came into a totally hostile atmosphere. And he wasn't just tested once, he was tested in all points like as we are and yet he triumphed in every one of them.

The first Adam failed in one, the last Adam triumphed in every one of them. The first Adam God was disappointed in him and in the second Adam God was delighted in him. Sometimes people say you know what I've got to watch my reputation.

Well if you have you're in awful trouble. I left my reputation at the cross with my sins. Reputation is what men think we are, character is what God knows we are. And if your relationship with God is right it doesn't matter a hill of beans what anybody says about you.

They could take the front page of the newspaper tomorrow morning in Baton Rouge and say you're an adulterer and a thief and a liar and a shady person. And you are not a loser, a wink could sleep over it and it ought not to cause you a grey hair.

But after all that's merely man's opinion. It's got nothing to do with character. Now I do not think that when Adam was put into the garden he was a perfect person. And I think you'll understand this in saying that his nature was perfect but his character wasn't developed.

You say sometimes about a certain person oh he has a nice disposition. He has a nice disposition. True. There are strange things in dispositions. I know people who are unsaved who are much nicer than lots of Christians.

I think a little girl I'm refuting this saying at prayers one night she said Lord make all bad people good and all good people nice. I'm not wanting to pray that publicly and I haven't the courage. But anyhow there it is.

Dispositionally we're so very different. But in character you shape your own character. You make your own character. To some people you say no. Did he say do it? Yes. Listen he'll do it. If he has to stay up all night he'll do it.

Franco told me to do that. Well I hope he does but you know he's let me down about four times so don't build up too high on that. Now what is that? It's a revelation of character. The Bible again says he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.

David’s Hidden Faithfulness and Public Courage

Why did a little boy if you like just a boy say well I'll go out and fight Goliath. Well what do you mean? What do you mean? Look at the crowd there. Look at all the enemies who lined up there and all your brothers are there.

The king is there. His son is there. And don't you have any nerves? I mean you know first time publicly you go on to a platform you didn't know your knees were so friendly and you shake and wobble a bit but no no I'll go do it.

I mean do you want to get rid of Goliath? Well I'll do it just before going to lunch. But everybody's terrified. Well what's given you this super confidence? Well one night I was on the hills of Bethlehem.

I happened to be playing the 23rd star of my heart having a great time. Suddenly I heard a roar and there was a lion. And I went out and destroyed him. Another night I was busy there and I heard a noise and there was a bear.

I went out and killed him. And he's saying in essence look if I can be a hero when there's nobody there to applaud I can surely be a hero when there's a whole gang watching. You see just as you say about a man he is not a martyr because he's burned at the stake.

That doesn't make him a martyr. It reveals that he was a martyr before he got there. That man made a deal with God somewhere up the road years and years ago and said Lord this is where I assign my life and everything.

Now when it comes to the issue you're ready for public manifestation. And this is what David says. And he says alright. There came a lion. I ought to go and get somebody. Go on boy get him get him. I hit him once more.

There's nobody there to cheer me on but I did my job. And if I can take care of sheep like that and there's nobody to applaud in other words again in the secret place God says what you do in the secret place will one day be shouted from the housetop.

Now supposing it starts tomorrow morning. All you did last week in secret. Would you like the neighbours to stand around while Gabriel stands on the rooftop and shouts it all out. Every deal you did. Business deal.

A conversational deal. Over the phone. Any other way. Would you really like it to be manifest. You know that's what God says one day this is going to happen. But again going back to the fact that when it came to pressure.

When it came to a situation. We don't know how long Adam had walked with God. But it must have been very wonderful when God came down. Again in the cool of the evening and he talked with him. And they walked together.

Christ’s Triumph in a Hostile World

A perfect man in a perfect environment made a perfect mess of it. Jesus comes down into a hostile world again. With the greatest military machine in the world on one side. The greatest system of slavery existing.

I don't know anybody tabulated it but it's reckoned historically. There were at least six million slaves in the day when Jesus was on earth. They never preached against slavery. Neither did John Baptist.

As a matter of fact Paul was good at slaves. Look you go back to your slave master and be a bigot. Now true enough Christianity abolished slavery. Through Wesley and a few of the old guys there in England.

Even before it was abolished under the American regime. But by the same token this is where Jesus comes. And again from the very day he entered into the world. Now you say you know what happened to me.

I had it a lot smoother before as a Christian. Well good for you I'm glad you did. It's a good sign really where God wants you. If you're getting beaten up on one side and buffeted on the other. And somebody else has become a thorn in your flesh.

And somebody else is putting you through hell as it were. That's a very good sign. I think you're going to make it. Only I've got news for you it's going to get worse up the road. It's going to get more stormy.

But you see from the moment Jesus entered the world. He'd hardly got out of his mother's womb. What happened? Well they passed a law. That all children under two years of age should be born. Well the wise men had come.

And Jesus was somewhere round about that age. The wise men came. They travelled maybe a year or more. And so for safety let's get rid of all the boys. Just the boys under two years of age. From the moment before he could walk or talk he had enemies.

A whole nation on top of him. And the last thing on the cross he had enemies. And in between he had enemies. He had enemies in the synagogue. He had enemies outside of the synagogue. He had enemies everywhere he went.

We used to think of him in the old days. Very old days. Is this vile world a friend to grace to help me on to God? You see if you and I are really walking with God. The world is going that way. And we're going that way.

That's what it was in the New Testament. The church was going one way. The world is going the other. Now they're so close together you can't tell one from the other hardly. I don't think the church is any longer a thorn in the side of the flesh of the world.

I don't think when they legislate in Washington where you were yesterday. So forth. I don't think they consider the church. I don't think they do in England. Not a bit of that. Who worries? The church hasn't much money.

She hasn't much power. You can push them around as you like. But it wasn't so in the early days. It wasn't so in the case when Jesus came into the world. And again I see him as a hero hero. You see here's what happened.

The Incarnation and the Mission of the Last Adam

God was disappointed in man. He failed. He failed God. And somewhere in the councils of eternity when God opens the records. We're going to find that one day Jesus sat down with his father and said you know what father.

I'd like to go down to that muddy old dirty old world out there. And I'd like to prove that a man can live in the flesh. And overcome every temptation that's possible. And I'll come out a winner. You know that's a fantastic thing when you think of it.

If Gabriel had said it, it would be wonderful. If Michael the archangel had said it, it would be wonderful. But here is very God of very God. Equal with the Father. Again you don't think of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is not the junior partner in the garden. You don't think of them. Father, Son, a descending scale. But rather this way. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Equal in every way. In glory, majesty, in honor and so forth.

And one of the partners in the Trinity says I'll go down to earth. I'll get wrapped up. As Wesley said it. He laid his glory by and wrapped him in our clay. Have you ever been away from home for a long while.

Not just a little trip to Washington. But a long while and said you know it's nice to get away. Oh it's so nice to go back. Kay, I don't know where Kay went. But Cava went to the White House. She decided not to buy it and so came back here.

And I guess when she came in here she said oh you know the White House is nice. But I like my house. You know. Well how often do you think when Jesus got up against hostility. And even his disciples let him down.

Good night everywhere he was let down. He reveals on one occasion in John 17. He says Father sometimes my heart aches for the glory I had with thee before the world was. He laid his glory by. He wrapped him in our clay.

I don't think Amarish Shaw wrote the hymn. I think his son wrote it. Down from his glory ever living story. From heaven to earth he came and Jesus was his name. Born in a manger to his owner stranger.

A man of sorrows tears and agony. What condescension bringing us redemption. When in the dead of night not one faint hope in sight. God gracious tender laid aside his splendor. Stooping to woo to win to save my soul.

He didn't come to earth to be a hero. He didn't come to show us a new system of living in one sense. He came to redeem us. All loving wisdom of our God and all the sin and shame. A second that really last Adam to the fight and to the rescue came.

All wisest love that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail. Should strive afresh against the foe. The same flesh and blood in that said God limiting himself. And Jesus living that perfect life on earth.

And he said I'll go back. I'll go to the earth and I'll live the life that Adam should have lived. And I'll show you what can be done. Now again only one temptation and Adam went down. In a perfect environment.

Jesus in a hostile environment. Not with one temptation not for one day but for 40 days and 40 nights. Battling it out there in the wilderness. Talking about proving character here. He's tempted in all points.

Flesh. Tempted as a man. Tempted on sex. Tempted in mentally. Tempted physically. Every possible way of temptation. He was tempted in all points like as we are. You wonder that little later when Jesus was.

In fact before this when Jesus. When he was baptised in the Jordan. He wasn't concerned about the testimony even of those right about him. But there came a voice from heaven saying. This is my beloved son.

And the second time that happened was on the Mount of Transfiguration. And I remember many years ago reading. God said this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And he said I just lifted my hand and said father if it pleases you it surely pleases me.

If he satisfied the heart of God he ought to satisfy your heart. I don't care what the craving in your heart is. You find it all in him. In him dwell all the fullness. He is the personification of the Sermon on the Mount.

Out of him everything is going to flow. You see we mentioned last week again about poverty. Now there are many areas of poverty. There is physical poverty. Some people are born terribly distorted. I saw a boy the other day.

I thought what a brave guy. I don't know he had some disease that just disorganised his body. And one of these little independent guys that didn't want crutches or somebody with him. You know when he moved he needed about two yards each way.

He slithered and he slugged like a frog. And he had a smile on his face, a distorted face. And I thought bless you boy. You deserve a medal for daring to go like that on your own path. Physically impoverished.

Physical, Mental, Social, and Spiritual Poverty

Some people are mentally impoverished. I hate to see women smoke anyhow. And I hate to see pregnant women smoke because when a woman is pregnant carrying a child she retards that child physically and she retards it mentally for seven years.

When she smokes carrying a child. And every time I see a woman. See some young women sometimes. We only come to town once a week. We don't like to contact civilisation so much. So we come to town about once a week.

And I see these young girls in a shopping centre without anything on. And there they are. Look as though the baby will be born before they get off the thing. And smoking away. And I think you poor clown.

Handicapping that child. The founder of the Salvation Army William Booth said some children are born damned. And they proved the case. That one woman was so heavily intoxicated in the days before they had artificial feeding she actually fed that child liquor instead of milk.

And he said the children are born damned. It was the same with some of the gorgeous girls that came to Teen Child and got messed up in drugs and everything else. Beautiful girls. And they'd taken drugs until the day before they came to Teen Child.

The child is born with a habit. Don't tell me. I feel like saying to all these youngsters smoking. Excuse me. You're going to have a baby. Yeah. It's coming in a month. You don't love it. You hate that child don't you?

I'll call my husband. Wait a minute. Don't call your husband. I'm just telling you don't love that child. Why not? You wouldn't be smoking now if you did. They see this chronic selfishness. These habits that lay hold of people are so terrible.

Now there's poverty of body. You can't always help that. There's poverty of mind. I'd have been born with a much higher IQ if I'd had my choice but I didn't have any choice in it. I chose the best parents I could but apart from that.

And a child should always be careful what parents he chooses but apart from that I had no choice in my IQ. You see. So there are some poverties that you can't help. You may be born in poverty. You don't have to stay in it necessarily.

You may be mentally poor but you don't have to stay in it necessarily. You may be physically poor. You may or may not get out of that. You may be socially poor and you may choose to stay in it. Now I'm not thinking for a minute that the hippie kids are right but there's one thing I like about them.

I like the contempt for materialism. I honestly do. Because I've talked with some of the richest kids in the country who would say goodbye. Kiss daddy and mummy goodbye. Do you know why? They said we'd never have any home life.

That's why. They've got big sneaky automobiles at home rusting that daddy bought for them. They say look I used to take the, as they say, I used to take the dolls out that we used to swim naked and nude or anyhow we wanted.

We drank. Daddy and mummy went to Europe for a month. Daddy and mummy went somewhere else for a month. Never saw them. I never saw them. Can't remember my mother ever putting her arms round me and hugging me and saying I love you this.

The nanny did it in the house. And I've seen those kids pound their noses. They live in three story high mansions some of them. Some of the daddies, Vice President Coca-Cola, one who was daddy was Vice President of Frito Potato Chips.

Don't want anything to do with it. I'll tell you what, money didn't make our house happy in antiques and gold chandeliers and all the rest. Now I'm not saying, I'm not speaking to contempt at all. I'm saying that this, you've got to have your priorities right.

And if you don't have them right, you can't buy that attention back. A lady came to me, I was speaking in a conference. Here's a young boy about six foot two, his hair was down on his shoulder, backwards way.

I thought it was a girl in slacks. And she said, I wonder if you'd get my son on the other side and talk to him. So I said, which is your son? She said, that's a lovely look. And he turned around, marvellous face, lovely looking face.

What's your problem? I don't know, he's turned hostile and he doesn't want to come home and we have a beautiful home and cars and servants and everything else. I said, well I'm not so sure I can repair in 30 seconds what you've been tearing down maybe for 20 years.

I'll have a shot of it. And I got him on one side. He said, not interesting going forward. Never had any parents. Dad thought all he had to do was go away and give me 50 bucks to spend for the weekend and give me 100 and let me go here, there and somewhere.

I'm not interested in it. And he said, I've heard so much quarrelling. I've heard my father angry at night over the phone. What do you mean you didn't get those bonds for me? What do you mean I didn't do it?

It was eating him out. Now I said, I've had to make a choice between being eaten up by a materialistic world and living poor and living in a commune. I'll take the commune. I'm not saying they're totally right.

But again you see that you've got to set your values right for sure. Now if you read this version, Matthew 5, it's not too rough. Blessed are the poor in spirit. But if you read Luke, you'll find it's pretty jagged.

He doesn't say that at all. He says blessed are the poor. Reading the same sermon. Now listen what it says, Blessed are ye who hunger now. It says in the 6th chapter of Luke in verse 21. Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled.

Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. And then verse 25, Warn to you that are full, ye shall be hungry. Warn to you that laugh, ye shall mourn. Now what are you going to do? You see, here you turn the thing right round.

Blessed are the poor. Well, don't get too worried about that, because, you see, you've got something coming. You've got the riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Blessed are you who are so independent, you say, well I don't need the church this, that and the other.

Wait a minute. It puts the emphasis on the now. Wait a minute. Those of you who weep now, you're going to laugh afterwards. Those of you who laugh now, you're going to weep afterwards. Those of you who are hungry now, are going to be full.

Those of you who are full, are going to be hungry. We live in a moral universe, you can't upset it's balance, nobody can. Again, I've said this before I guess, but I say it again, that I don't know of course.

I don't know how you pray. But many times when I pray, I thank God for the incorruptible Holy Ghost. Those are the exact words I use. I say, thank you Lord for the incorruptible Holy Ghost. I spoke at the full gospel businessmen's convention in Denver a few years ago.

True Riches and Voluntary Poverty

I only got there once, but I preached my heart out. And I said to them one night, when the anointing was on the meeting, I said, look, if you fellows could buy the Holy Ghost, every man on the platform was a millionaire, a multi-millionaire, except David Wilkinson and myself.

I said, you put your checkbooks up, and you drive, I'll give a million, I'll give two, I'll give five. You buy the Holy Ghost up and say, he's the director, he's the chairman of full gospel businessmen.

But I said, gentlemen, I want to tell you this, he still says to you what he said to everybody else, your money perish with you. He doesn't say you'll perish because of your money, he says your money will perish.

And remember you brought nothing into this world, and you'll take nothing out. Now there's a conflict all the time, we're human beings, we're going to be human, you better make this up, I hope we'll stay human till we die.

And there are so many levels in our personality where Satan can tempt. In one area, it won't worry a man, if you talk poverty or riches. In another area, he's full of ambition in another direction. You see, a man is tempted when he's carried away and he's on lust, the word of God says.

Now, there's poverty of spirit, but there is a voluntary poverty. I guess you've got favorite chapters in the Bible, haven't you? Some of them, you duck into this, oh I like John 15, oh I like the Psalm 90, the 91st Psalm, you know.

Okay, very good. One of my favorite chapters, let me just read a bit and see if you figure where it is, but this is one of my favorite chapters. And it's by one of the greatest men that ever crossed the bridge of time.

Let me read to you what he says here. Got in the wrong section for a moment. All right. He says of us, giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of God, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet all we're rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

Now this, disagree if you wish, and I've never tried to brainwash you, I'll speak my convictions if I'm going to die in a minute from now. But these are my convictions here. You're to make of your choice where you're going to be rich.

Here is a man who doesn't have a penny and he says I'm poor but I'm making many rich. If ever there is an illustration of a man God-filled, and remember that when he's at the end of the journey and he's lived, if he'd had ten lives he couldn't have packed more into them and yet when he's founded churches and he's been through hell itself and he's still saying after all the miracles he's raised the dead and done everything else and he's still saying that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.

You see there's no such thing as a one baptism of the spirit that's going to last you from here to Timbuktu or eternity, I don't believe that at all. There is one baptism, true baptism, into the body of Christ.

When we talk about the baptism, the baptism of the spirit is into the body of Christ. The baptism of Christ, he shall baptize you, Christ shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. But there are subsequent anointings.

Again the greatest preacher in my judgement maybe America ever had, certainly the greatest revivalist and we're not revivalists anymore, we're evangelists, God pity us. But the greatest revivalist we ever had was Charles G. Finney and he said he had subsequent...

Now nobody ever preached to him about the baptism with the Holy Ghost. He was a lawyer, brilliant lawyer. I read somewhere he was seven foot four and I'd like to have seen a preacher that high, watching him about three inches high in my judgement but he was seven feet four.

And I'd like to have seen him and he had a brain like a razor's edge. He was brilliant. Some people said to him one day we're praying for you. He said don't bother. We were praying in the church. Pray me.

He said don't bother. Oh you must be in bad shape. Don't bother to pray for me. He said no you never get any prayers answered so I've no hope in you anyhow. Pity you're up on them aren't you? He said you don't get your prayers answered, don't bother to pray for me.

But when he became a lawyer, pardon me, when he got saved, he said he was walking over Boston Common. I preached in that famous church on the corner of Boston Common. They called it Brimstone Corner. Harold Ockingay was pastor at the time.

Now remember coming out from there and thinking of Philly walking when it was more barren than it is now. And he said I had repeated baptisms. I just felt somehow I'd burst with the glory of God that came over me.

And they were endowments of power. They were fire anointings that he got. Tremendous inward and he would call it what you like. Impulsion, compulsion of the spirit of God that came over him and made him do the things that he did.

But again you see poverty. Paul says I'm poor but I make many rich. You see. I've no children. I've thousands of spiritual children. I have nothing material but I've laid up treasure in earth. The church at this time was the outscouting of the earth.

Poverty of Spirit in the Beatitudes

You see again in this manifesto as I call it of the kingdom. Blessed are what? Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.

Well you know what that word blessed means. Mr. John Westley has a New Testament if ever you can still get them and it's a very good translation. But he uses the word and most people copied him afterwards.

He takes that word blessed and he changes it and puts it out and puts the word happy in its place. Which is very good. Now you say but wait a minute. Happy happy are the poor in spirit. Yeah that's true happiness.

We used to sing a hymn that I loved very much when I was a kid. He was poor to give me treasure. He was slave to make me king. He was hated without measure. Heaven's love to me to bring. You see this is the only way in.

After the first two of these beautiful beatitudes the first two are really negative. Blessed are the poor and then blessed are they that mourn and the others are all positive they're all about being filled they're all about a heart that that is indwelt by peace and love and joy and so forth and so on.

Now you can call this Boren calls it the heavenly octave. There are some who break it down and say there are nine beatitudes there are others who say there are twelve beatitudes. Twelve is the is the sign of of perfect government.

The city lies four square there are twelve gates in the city there are twelve by there are twelve elders there are there are the walls there are 144 by something else and something else which is all twelve multiplied.

Make it up of twelve break it up as you like I don't care. It's a string of priceless pearls. But then again what do you find in a group? Here we are a group of people. Do I say well well David this is your beatitude blessed are the pure in heart.

Sue this is your beatitude blessed are the meek. Kay this is your beatitude blessed are they that mourn. Are they distributed among us? Or is every beatitude supposed to be in the life of every believer?

Well that's what I believe. Now you come in this house what if you came in the house and you walked through and you said this is a oh I've never been in a house like this twelve bathrooms all in a row and no where to sit that would be a naughty deal wouldn't it?

Or you went in and you said well go I walked through here and all they have in this house is six kitchens that's a funny house. I thought there would be a lounge I could rest in or something no bedrooms.

It's a funny oh well all the bedrooms in the house next door and all the kitchens are over there. You don't expect that you expect it to be fully furnished. Oh this is exactly what God says of us we're to be fully furnished unto every good work.

Spiritual Gifts and the Fullness of Christian Character

You know in the gifts of the spirit it says that God gave he gives to one this gift and he gives to the other the other gift but he never says that about the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit are all in one individual the gifts of the spirit not necessarily so now we're living in a day when of course lots of people throw the baby out with the bath water.

The gifts are not for the day. Well you tell me the day they're finished. I challenge you to find a theologian in the world that can tell you when the gift is finished you say well I don't think the gift of tongues is for the day.

Anything out of the word of God your name will be taken out of the book of life. Well how do you take it out. You do what they did in the old testament. They cut some part of the word of God out. One man was the old boy had forgotten his name took a pen knife and cut it out.

No you cut it out by silence. You can cut it out by never teaching it by never preaching it by never uttering it. I just read a book part of a book this week in which a man said well of course it's absolutely clear that the prophets and the apostles ended with new testament days.

Now I don't mind a man having his convictions as long as he's logical right through and scriptural. But if he's neither I'll fight him verbally at least if not physically. Not physically but verbally.

I will. If he says there are no apostles then there are no evangelists because they're in the same list. If he says there are no prophets then there are no teachers because they're in the same list. Now if you're going to throw the whole lot throw the whole shebang out.

But don't you come finicking around and say well I believe we need apostles. I believe we need evangelists. Sure we need teachers. And I think we need it. But we certainly don't need apostles. And we don't need a prophet.

No come on you see you are the. If you do that you'll make an awful big hole in the world of God for the liberal to come along and say well brother where you finish disbelieving the bible. That's where I take up.

So why don't we tear that whole book out between us. You're making an awful awful lot of leeway for him. Now the scripture is quite clear as far as I again as I see it here where the these each of these beautiful beatitudes.

If I'm going to be an all rounded Christian as God wants me to be then I ought to be careful and again reading this word. Because the word of God certainly is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword as it's said very often almost facetiously.

The Word of God Convicts and Comforts

Well the bible is a mysterious book. It comforts the afflicted and it afflicts the comfortable. You may go along for so long and read the word and you enjoy it. Say my I'm reading so and so this is great.

And then say oh wow. So somebody stuck a pen in you boy that boy that scripture really hit me today. I'll have to sit down and think about this. Or call Marianne or call brother Jack and see what he thinks.

It suddenly becomes alive. Well that that's the very purpose of the word of God. At times it will soothe us. There's no comfort like this. In fact if you're going to find it it's blessed. Are they that mourn a bit later on for they shall be comforted.