GOT A LOT TO LEARN!      DO 2054  6/85

         1. DOES ANYBODY NEED A LITTLE PRAYER? It says, "If there are any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church." (Jam.5:13,14) Why does the Lord ask you to call for help?--It's a sign of faith in Him & His Word, & humility. It's not always easy to admit that you're weak & sick & afflicted.--Just like it's good for you to make a mistake, it keeps you humble! I make lots of'm! If I didn't make some mistakes I'd probably get really proud & think I was very wholly sanctified & couldn't sin!
         2. EVEN ST. PAUL HAD A THORN IN THE FLESH WHICH HE SAID HE FIGURED WAS TO KEEP HIM HUMBLE! Most of the necessities of life, all these human weaknesses & human frailties of the flesh are very humbling, because it shows you have a need, you're not sufficient in yourself, you need something.
         3. BUT IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE THAT HUMAN FRAILTY, THAT HUMAN WEAKNESS TO MAKE WRONG DECISIONS & TO FAIL, THEN THERE WOULD NOT BE THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE, the majesty of free will that God implanted in every heart, including, apparently, in the hearts of the Angels, to make a choice, to voluntarily love & serve Him.
         4. BECAUSE THOSE HOLY SPIRITS, THE SAINTS, ARE HUMAN JUST LIKE YOU & ME!--And just because you suddenly get a spirit body in the Next World & you suddenly have some powers you didn't have before, such as appearing & disappearing & walking through walls & flying, sorry to have to tell you this to your great disappointment, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you will never again make a mistake or never again make perhaps the wrong choice!
         5. I THINK WE HAVE TRIED TO PROVE TO YOU THAT IN THE NEXT WORLD WE ARE STILL LEARNING, still developing, & we are not yet absolutely perfect. We will be the spirits of just men, in other words good men, made perfect (Heb.12:23)--but when? We're being made perfect. The Greek often uses the continuative tense. It means, "I am being made perfect."
         6. OH, YOU'RE SO DISAPPOINTED! YOU THOUGHT THE MINUTE YOU DIED & WENT TO HEAVEN YOU WERE GOING TO BE ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! How could you be when you've been so imperfect down here? You're the same person with the same thoughts, the same mind! That's a part of the marvel & the wonder of this process of being made perfect, that it continues!--And who knows, maybe there's no end to it! It's wonderful to be able to make progress & continue!
         7. THE TREE OF LIFE MUST HAVE SOME KIND OF PROCESS. Why would God have to do things like that? Well, why didn't He just make you perfect by snapping His fingers, or even when you were saved? We learn from it. That's what I'm trying to get across to you & what the churches don't seem to get the point of!
         8. LIFE IS A LEARNING PROCESS!--And you don't learn it by snapping your fingers or suddenly getting an injection! It would be too easy! Look what you would miss!--This trial-&-error process, this trying-&-learning process!
         9. ISN'T IT WONDERFUL TO WATCH A BABY LEARN & GROW? Did you know even while he's still in his mother's tummy the baby is learning?--He's hearing sounds, voices, music, recognising voices, even recognising music!
         10. DON'T YOU ENJOY WATCHING YOUR BABY LEARN THINGS? Don't you think God enjoys watching you learn things?--Even by mistakes, trial & error? And don't you learn things better that way & for sure that way? Isn't experience really the best teacher?
         11. THE LEARNING PROCESS IS A MARVELLOUS THING! Do you realise that's what you're here for? Do you realise that's what Adam & Eve in the Garden was all about? Why didn't God just create them with the knowledge of good & evil & how to be good & not be bad & all that sort of thing? What was the surest way to learn, to really know for sure & never forget?--At least if they would try to learn & not forget. Of course some people never seem to learn & they never seem to even try, they always forget! But we who are really trying to learn, trying to remember to be good, trying to do good, I'd say at least we're good most of the time, right?
         12. WE MAY MAKE MISTAKES ONCE IN AWHILE TO REMIND US HOW MUCH BETTER IT IS TO BE GOOD. Well, even if you make a mistake once in awhile, it helps you to learn that it feels so good when you don't.--Because we all make'm! We're all sinners! "There's none righteous, no, not one! All have sinned & come short of the glory of God." Nobody's perfect!
         13. AND THAT'S WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT!--IT'S ALL ABOUT NOT BEING PERFECT, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! The Holiness people think life is all about being perfect, & they say that's what Christianity is & Salvation is, it's being perfect. Actually the Christian life is a constant learning process. I don't mean you learn to be saved, you're saved the minute you believe & Jesus comes into your heart! You believe the Word & you receive Christ, you're saved then & there!--Because that's a gift, you had nothing to do with learning it or earning it!
         14. YOU GET SAVED JUST LIKE THAT, IT'S A MIRACLE OF GOD, HE DOES IT ALL FOR YOU, HE'S ALREADY DONE IT, IT'S FINISHED! Praise God? But that is just the beginning of learning how to be a Christian & live a Christian life, to love others, & even how to love God & how to be faithful & how to be loyal, how to be diligent!--Again the baby!
         15. THE BABY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING CONCEIVED. CONCEPTION HAPPENS INSTANTANEOUSLY. The baby didn't do anything, it just happened, bang, like that! But from then on the baby has to grow, & even in the mother's womb it has to learn & the rest of its whole life is a learning process.
         16. AND WHEN YOU DIE, THEN YOU'VE GOT A THOUSAND YEARS & ALL ETERNITY TO LEARN ALL THE THINGS YOU DIDN'T LEARN WHILE YOU WERE A FLESH-&-BLOOD HUMAN BEING! I think God has an awful lot of things to teach you, to learn better all the things you didn't learn in this life.
         17. SO YOU SEE, NOT ONLY LIFE, BUT THE MILLENNIUM & ETERNITY IS A CONSTANT LEARNING PROCESS, another grade, another step, to do what you failed to do before & to learn what you failed to learn before. Aren't you glad you've got Eternity to learn it?--Because some of us are pretty slow! Thank God I've got Eternity to learn it! I'm going to look forward to the Millennium to learn a few things I haven't learned yet. I've got a lot of questions to ask, for one thing, but I've probably got a lot of bad habits to cure & a lot of my failures to make up for. There's so much!
         18. HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK YOU COULD JUST SOMEHOW GET A SHOT IN THE HEAD THE MINUTE YOU DIE & GO TO HEAVEN & SUDDENLY YOU KNOW IT ALL? You'd be like God! Suddenly you'd have it all, know it all, be all-powerful! If you were that way you'd be God Himself! He's the only One Who is omniscient, that means He knows it all, He's the only One that's omnipresent, that means everywhere, He's the only One that's omnipotent, that means all-powerful!--Not you, not me.
         19. WE'VE GOT LOTS TO LEARN! That sounds like one of our songs! (Fam: "We've Got a Lot to Be Thankful For.") We've got a lot to be thankful for, yes, that's past, but we've got a lot to learn yet!
         20. NOW DOESN'T THAT CHALLENGE YOU MORE THAN SITTING ON A CLOUD PLAYING A HARP FOR ETERNITY? What is it all about? What is Eternity for? What is the Millennium for? Why all those years? Why Eternity if you know it all the minute you get There? What's it for?
         21. WELL, THANK GOD, WHEN WE GET TO THE NEXT LIFE, WE WON'T HAVE TO RE-LEARN A LOT OF THE THINGS WE ALREADY LEARNED. Just like children, once they're so big they don't have to learn to walk & talk any more, they know how. You don't have to learn how to feed yourself & dress yourself any more, do you? There are some things you've already learned & it's past & thank God it's done!
         22. AREN'T THERE SOME THINGS IN YOUR ADULT LIFE, THANK GOD, THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED & THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LEARN ANY MORE?--That you surely have learned & learned enough & made enough of those mistakes that you're not going to make'm any more? Thank God there are some things that we have learned! So now look back a little bit. There's one good thing about looking back, & about the only good thing about looking back.--To see all the progress you've made!
         23. THAT'S ONE ADVANTAGE TO LOOKING BACK, AT LEAST YOU CAN SEE WHERE YOU'VE BEEN! Doesn't that encourage you a little bit? Don't you feel like you've made some progress when you look back & you see how you used to be, things you used to do, what you used to be like, how dumb you used to be? If you think you're dumb now, look how dumb you used to be! Can't you see you've made some progress? Come on, confess it! Give God credit for it! You don't have to go back & learn it again! If you don't thank God for His blessings like healing, He may make you go back through it again!
         24. THANK GOD FOR THE PROGRESS YOU HAVE MADE! THANK HIM FOR WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN! And thank Him that you're not that dumb any more & you're not that slow any more & you're not that ignorant any more, you're not that bad any more! Aren't you glad? Isn't that a wonderful feeling of satisfaction, of fulfilment, of a certain amount of completion? Didn't you always have a certain feeling of real satisfaction when you graduated from a grade in school or in college?
         25. AS THE CHILDREN GROW UP, ISN'T THAT A TREMENDOUS SATISFACTION FOR YOU TEACHERS? CAN'T YOU SEE THE PROGRESS YOU'VE MADE? Can't you see what a wonderful product you've got, what a marvellous creation that both you & God have created in these children? Look at all they've learned, look at the progress they've made! If you look back where they were, for God's sake, look how wonderful they are now! Look how marvellous it is that you've come this far! Don't you think the Lord rejoices over it too? Don't you think He gets excited about it just like you do every time the baby takes a new step or learns a new word or makes a little progress or that child learns to read?
         26. THINK OF ALL THE THINGS HE HAS IN STORE FOR YOU TO LEARN! Think of all the things you still don't know! You think you're pretty smart, grown adults, here I am 66 years of age & you think I know everything! I don't know anything compared to what I'm learning & hope to learn!--All the things I still don't know about the Bible, all the things I still don't know about nature & Creation & Heaven & the Future!
         27. AND IT'S OBVIOUS THAT EVEN THE ANGELS OF GOD MUST STILL BE LEARNING, EVEN THE DEPARTED SAINTS MUST STILL BE LEARNING! They're not perfect yet, they still make a few mistakes. But we learn by our mistakes as much as almost anything! The mistakes are the bad things that we really usually learn not to do any more.
         28. THAT'S OUR JOB, THAT'S WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR, TO LEARN, that's what we'll be There for, to learn, & to do a lot of things we failed to do, maybe even undo a lot of things we did. Would you like to undo some of the things you did in the past but now it's too late, you figure it's impossible, the damage is done? What if God gives you another chance to meet that person Over There & straighten that thing out & undo it & tell'm you're sorry & help them to undo the damage you did? Wouldn't you like to do that?
         29. AREN'T THERE SOME THINGS IN YOUR PAST YOU'D LIKE TO UNDO IF GOD GAVE YOU ANOTHER CHANCE?--Well, there it is! I believe God's going to give you a chance to do some of the things you failed to do & make things right with some of the people you hurt! Isn't that wonderful? Doesn't that give you a good feeling, to think God's going to give you a chance to do some of the things you failed to do here & undo some of the things you did?
         30. DESPITE ALL THE SCI-FIS WHERE YOU JUST PUT ON THE CAP OR FEEL THE BOOK & YOU SUDDENLY KNOW IT ALL, IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! If it could work that way, God would have done it that way, right? If you could have just taken a pill & done without eating, God would have done it that way! If you could just pass your hand over the book & know everything in the Bible, oh boy, that's the lazy man's way!
         31. BUT GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES! He helps you learn to help yourself! He raised Lazarus from the dead, but He made the people roll away the stone! He could have zapped it and it could have dissolved, but He didn't. He let them do what they could and He was teaching them a lesson. He said, "Roll ye away the stone! You do what you can do and I'll do what you can't do."--Get it? (Jn.11:39) It's all a part of God's plan and process to make you learn for yourself what you can, and He will give you what you can't!
         32. SO BE THANKFUL FOR THE PAST, THAT IT'S OVER WITH, be thankful for the present, that you're learning, even if you're not always successful, & thank God for the future when you can finish the job, we hope, or at least keep on with the job & do even better!--PTL? Amen! So let's thank Him for it right now! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ!
         33. LORD BLESS & KEEP US ALL TODAY, GIVE US A GOOD DAY TO LEARN WHATEVER WE NEED TO LEARN TODAY, or to lean however we need to lean today on You, & on others.--And Lord, to rest in whatever way we need to rest, to feast in whatever way we need to feast, Lord, & to love in whatever way we need to Love!--In Jesus' name we ask for Thy glory! Amen!


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