THE UNGUARDED MOMENT!    DFO838   29/11/79

         1. BELOVED, YOU BETTER STAY CLOSE TO THE LORD! You think you couldn't leave or go back, but you could do anything if you don't stay close to the Lord! There's not one of us that's above it, none of us are any good!
         2. Jesus said, "Without Me ye can do nothing!"--Nothing good! (Jn.15:5) Well, we can paraphrase it & say, "Without Him you can do anything evil!" So don't get too stuck on yourself & thinking you're so good, & that you would never do it!
         3. THERE'S A STORY ABOUT A WOMAN IN OUR CHURCH: She was quite musical & talented, but her husband was an absolute demon! He beat her up before she came to church nearly every Sunday morning, & would do everything he could to keep the kids from going with her! He was just a devil!
         4. This particular Sunday morning he came in while she was slicing the bread, & all of a sudden he came at her! He was going to hit her! And involuntarily--just like you automatically lift your hand to protect yourself--she raised the knife & plunged it right into his throat! He ran out & died in the arms of a neighbour.
         5. Well the court exonerated her & let her off, but this is what she told my mother: "We know the Lord forgives & it was an accident, yet if I had really been as close to the Lord as I should have been, & in prayer like I should have been that morning, I don't think the Lord would have let it happen."
         6. She said, "I want you to warn the people everywhere of what happened to me. I want you to tell them that it happened in an unguarded moment!--Just a sudden split-second involuntary movement, just a sudden quick thoughtless act, an unguarded moment! Tell the people to look out for unguarded moments!"
         7. PETER SAID, "LET ALL MEN DENY THEE, but I will never deny Thee!" Then he turned right around & denied Him three times! The secret of Peter's denial is where it says when Jesus was arrested that he "followed Him afar off." (Mt.26:58)
         8. So how can you prevent an unguarded moment?--You can't guard yourself from everything, but you can just stay so close to the Lord--awake or asleep, conscious or unconscious--that the Lord will see to it that there's not a moment that's unguarded!--GBAKY from unguarded moments because you keep close to the Lord!


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