"Guilt or Gratitude?" - Ronald L. Dart

I was reading Peggy Noonan's book when character was king it's a wonderful book I strongly recommend it good reading Peggy Noonan is a wonderful writer and of course she has a story to tell which I think a very worth telling but she told about a discussion she had with Patti Davis who was Nancy Reagan's daughter who spent of course a great deal of her young life with Ronald Reagan as he was you know on his way toward becoming president United States she said but she thought she knew somehow her dad would be President United States when she was just a little girl which I thought was remarkable but in the interview she was talking about how that when she was 12 years old she read a book titled black like me by a black author and she was so moved by it so profoundly moved by she found herself wishing that she could somehow make her family herself and her family black to be in solidarity with with black people because she had so much sympathy for what black people had gone through I understood how she felt because when I was about her same age maybe a little later I also read a biography of a black man James Weldon Johnson and I also was very touched to remove by the black experience in America but patty made a statement to Peggy that I thought was interesting she said I felt so guilty about being white and privileged I felt very guilty about it now I think her reaction is common but faced with the same information I had a totally different reaction I was grateful I remember when I was a kid growing up and I suspect this will be very familiar to everyone when I didn't eat all the food that was on my plate I was reminded of all the starving children in Africa and Asia and India and all the stuff that they did not have enough to eat and that therefore I should be grateful and should eat the food that was set before me and I can recall at a very young age saying to myself I am so glad I was born in America I don't remember distinctly saying I'm so glad I was born white but a sentiment was there as well in my whole life I felt grateful and I asked myself when I read what Peggy patty Davis said why should I feel guilty about something I can't help why should I feel guilty about being an American why should I feel guilty about being white why should I feel even guilty about being privileged but it made me think long and hard about why people feel guilty about being white and privileged and how guilt affects our view of the world and of the people who are around us feeling guilty and being well off is easy to remedy there's nothing to it young man came to Jesus one day and he thought fit knelt down said what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life and good said keep the commandments he said I've done all right what else what's missing and Jesus said well you're a fine young man go sell all you have give it to the poor and come follow me so being well-to-do we can remedy that just like that right well unburdening oneself of wealth is simple unburdening oneself of being white is not so simple nor is unburdening oneself of being black or Asian or whatever it is that you happen to be well why should a person feel guilty about being black white Bayesian tall short male/female and for that matter why should you feel guilty about being well off unless you stole it or unless you are not using your wealth in a proper manner I present for your consideration this afternoon two sets of feelings guilt and gratitude and I submit for you that you can feel either of those sets of emotions for precisely the same set of circumstances you can make a choice to feel guilty or to be grateful you can't very well do both of those which of these sets of emotion is the most influential in your life guilt or gratitude I may be wrong but I suspect this has an awful lot to do with your happiness whether you're a happy person or a doer person whether you are a cheerful or whether you're sour you know whether you go through life with a smile or whether you go through life feeling beleaguered and down in the dumps the Apostle Paul one-a-day had come to Philippi it's a fascinating story there because he had going there was no synagogue so he went out by Riverside where prayer was wont be made he met some women there I guess there were no men so he just met with the Jewish women who were there on the Sabbath day having prayer together and he did this as a constant way of life for two or three weeks it again said he was there I don't know how long he went back and forth but what happened was there was a young woman who was possessed of a spirit of divination and this spirit of divination recognized Paul and Silas immediately for who they were and she followed them all the time saying these men are the servants of the Most High God they show us the way of salvation you know you're walking through town and this woman's walking around behind you pointing at you and yelling this stuff at the top of her voice it would get to be a little annoying after a while frankly I don't know there are two things I don't know one I don't know why I put up with it as long as he did and I don't know why finally he decided he had to do something about but he finally did he turned around and said to the spirit I command you in the name of Jesus Christ come out of her same hour it was gone this is an act 16 if you're looking for the references to it and verse 19 when our master saw that the hope of their gain were gone well they grabbed Paul and my Silas and they dragged him into the marketplace and they and he got him in there and they said these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our cities and teach customs that are not lawful for us to receive word obey being Romans that was a total lie they did nothing of the kind doesn't matter you know when they're out to get you they're out to get you and they're going to get you one way or the other well the mulleted rose up together and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded to beat them they whipped off their clothes to have to make it up to a post somewhere and had some big old burly guys with whips come up and whip them thoroughly and I expect by the time this was finished that they were bruised and bloody when it was all over with and in considerable pain and they threw them into the inner prison and put their feet fast and sauce stocks and left them there okay there you are beaten bloody bruised hurting and every joint of your body and clamped into these stocks to where you can't lie down comfortably you can't turnover you can't move around to make you find a more comfortable position you're just frozen in this miserable situation in this miserable cold dank prison in the middle of the night now how should Paul and Silas feel about this guilty or grateful or maybe something else entirely or maybe nothing at all they had done nothing wrong but let's pause here just for a moment not having done anything wrong doesn't keep you from feeling guilty does it you're a very strange person indeed if you're never in your life felt guilty when you have not done anything wrong it creeps up on us in your sudden first thing you know you're feeling guilty about something well you haven't done a single thing to deserve feeling guilty about so how did they feel well we happen to know how they feel well because in verse 25 it says at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and saying praises to God and everybody in the jailhouse Erdem so what would you say I would say they were grateful they were singing praises to God for being where they were it was just their part of the deal for them that didn't mean they weren't hurting it doesn't mean they weren't miserable but they were grateful for being there and I'm going to show you I think before we're finished today why that is so and why I can say that because you know they could be praising God even though they were ungrateful for why they were there but that doesn't work does it it just doesn't work well suddenly there was a great earthquake the foundations of the prison were shaken and every door open and every band was loosed and every man in the whole jailhouse was out of those stocks now the chains all of them the keeper the prison woke up immediately and saw the prison doors open and pulled out his sword he was going to fall on it and kill himself because he knew what they would do to him if he life he lost his prisoners in the middle of the night and he didn't want to go through it he was going to kill himself the pole cried out with a loud voice saying do yourself no harm we are all here he called for a light and he sprang in and he came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said sir what do I have to do to be saved well isn't that something now there's something that Paul and Silas could have been grateful for and they didn't even know that it was coming all they knew was they'd been whipped you know they had been put in stocks and they were in pain and they were miserable but they gave thanks to God praise God and song in the middle of the night along and what happened from as a result of that a man was saved they said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you should be saved in your house and they spoke the word of the Lord to all that were in his house he took them the same hour of the night washed their stripes and was baptized he and all his immediately and we brought them into his house he said food before them and rejoiced believing in God with all of his house sometimes you just don't know do you you just don't know of whatever it is that you're being drug through whatever manure pile whatever Knothole whatever messy thing that you're into you just don't know where it's going so be grateful for it for God is able to take those things and make them come this instant is very much worth your attention these men were miserable and their response was they sang praises to God in the middle of the night I have an idea that there's something very encouraging and embolden about being punished for serving God faithfully you know it'd be one thing to be in jail for something you'd done but to be in jail strictly because you had been faithful to the Word of God and the service of God would be a tremendously strengthening thing because of your awareness of what Jesus has previously told us that was going to happen they were grateful that they've been accounted worthy to serve God in the first place now they were grateful that only to serve but also to suffer and their gratitude actually led to the conversion of another man in Acts chapter 5 there's another situation under the rose where Peter and those had been preaching got arrested got themselves in trouble on that finally they called the Apostle chapter chat Acts chapter 5 verse 4 then they beat them and commanded them that she did not speak anymore in the name of Jesus and then let him go you know a good whipping again for it and they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name that's a little hard sometimes I think when you're actually suffering to get your mind around this but let me tell you some personal I think there's some personal things which might help you to understand what I'm trying to tell you a long time ago when I was a very young minister a series of remarkable things happened to me they were subtle in a way but they were quite remarkable and quite unmistakable I found myself deeply troubled at one time was one of the things this was may have been the first of these occasions that I really was aware of I became deeply troubled by what I was calling at the time wrong thoughts you know I would be praying I would be studying I would be doing whatever it would be and a thought would come to my mind unbidden that I knew had no business being there and it was a struggle to get rid of it it was a struggle to get beyond it it was a fight it was a disturbing thing I I just couldn't figure out why it was doing that now mind you I had spent four years in the Navy and I had all the vocabulary that went with that so that was there were no words that were run really unfamiliar to me but it wasn't just that there was more to it than that I fought that battle and I won it but that doesn't end the story about two weeks after the end of that battle I was out on a visit and a woman I was talking to said I want to talk to you about something I said sure she said I have been fighting a terrible battle with you guessed it wrong thoughts I was able to talk to her and encourage her about this problem in several ways one that she was not the only person who ever had to fight that battle and that was in itself a comfort to her to know that when I told her that I had just been through it two weeks before second I was able to tell her how to deal with it I will go into that with you today but because I have spoken on elsewhere out of the times but I was able to talk to her about here's how you go about wrestling with this problem and third I was there to tell her that the battle could and would be one that God would be with you you will overcome this you will whip it and you'll get back to your old normal self again after it's over now I went through the same kind of cycle on different issues with other problems about three or four times before I finally woke up and realized what was going on and it was uncanny because the interval between my having whipped something or fought something and won the battle over something or other and when I had to sit and visit with somebody who was going through exactly the same thing seemed it almost consistently for a while be two weeks and I you know I just happened to me and I would shake my head and finally I woke up one day and I said what's going on here and it came to me I began to understand how could I possibly understand what people were suffering if I had not suffered myself how can I encourage people in a problem if I didn't know what the problem was like now again there are of course obvious limitations to all of that but at the same time there are things that you can say to people when you have been down that road before them when you have traveled this stretch of highway ahead of them whenever you have put up with all the problems that are inherent with this the same way they are having to do it and you talk to people they will believe you in a way that if you've never been there they can only hope that you know what you're talking about and I'll have to confess as a young minister there were a lot of things I told people worried they and I both hoped that I knew why I was talking about how could I tell people to overcome something that I had not overcome myself then one day I had an epiphany I got in trouble again I hate to disillusion you people but I did that very regularly as a young minister and I'm not gonna talk to you about what happens these days I was in trouble things were going wrong and I realized that this trouble I was in at that time was necessary for something that lay in the future and it was important to me that I over it was an epiphany that was when I realized what had been happening to me and then I was in the middle of this thing I'm feeling rotten about it and all of a sudden it came to me just clear as crystal you have to go through this it's important that you go through this because you are going to use this you're going to need this at some time in the future for the sake of other people to whom you are going to minister and I found in myself at that time a very deep calm and I found gratitude I was thankful for the fact that God was willing to train train to me as a young minister to be able to do this thing and I had to understand and by the way on that particular occasion it wasn't very far down the road I think was longer than two weeks this time but that happened in perfectly I have become grateful for every scar on my body I really have many years ago when I was in the Navy I had major surgery and I've got a huge scar across my left ribcage some of my friends have seen it know what it looks like I'm grateful for that scar because I know what it's like to lie in the hospital bed look in total misery and pain with tubes coming out of different orifices and out of places where there aren't any orifices in your body yearning for my next pain pill I know exactly what that's like even though it was let's see it was back in the 1950s I can still remember the bed I can still remember the feeling I can still remember wondering where in the Sam Hill that nurse was with that pill because of the discomfort I know what that is like I'm grateful for that because I've come to realize if I'm going to be a minister I have to be trained and only a part of that training is the Bible the other part of the training is life and frankly if God had let me run smooth through this whole thing there's just a whole lot of stuff that I would not understand I would understand a lot of other things in the abstract but not in the real and it was really necessary that every scar I have carried in my body every pain that I have ever suffered every doubt I have experienced in the middle of the night every fear that I have had to work my way through every one of those things has is a part of me and it's made me what I am today has made me able to serve to whatever capacity God decides to use me today because he I think work to love that stuff out and he said I could keep rest away from wrong but I'm not gonna keep it away from him because I want him to learn the lesson that's involved in the situation now I didn't learn all this by myself I learned some of it from Paul the Apostle Paul trying to help the Corinthians understand in some small measure what I'm talking about today in his second letter 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 he says it's not expedient for me to glory but I'm going to have to I'm gonna come to visions and revelations of the Lord I knew a man in Christ and over 14 years ago I don't know it was in the body or out of the body I can't tell God knows such a one caught up to the third heaven verse four how he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter our glory in that but of myself I will not glory except in my infirmities now that's an interesting thing that Paul says here and it's everybody I think by now understands it what Paul is doing here he is speaking of himself as though he were another man because he's obviously talking about himself in the visions that he himself had experienced before God but as he says I'll glory and the guy that went up there and heard those visions but of myself I'm not gonna glory anything except my infirmities for though I would desire to glory I will not be a fool for I will say the truth but I forbear lest any man should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears of me or hears me to say I think this is crucial what Paul is saying I'm not going to go into things that you can't verify I'm not gonna hold up heavenly visions to you and say you need to believe me because I heard these words from God and I'm gonna do that well I'm not I don't want you to think one thing above me apart from what you have seen of me and what you have heard from me okay you judge me by that he says alone and lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffett me lest I should be exalted above measure three times I ask God that this would go away he said to me my grace is sufficient for you my strength is made perfect in weakness remarkable man this man he says he came to understand something it took a while as I said for me to understand this myself that whenever you stand up and speak as I have to 14,000 people it can go to your head you know you can begin to start thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to think when you have all kinds of people telling you what a wonderful job you've done or they liked your sermon and all this kind of stuff it can go to your head if you're not careful of course I have one guy came up to me after a sermon in Jekyll Island said Mr dart I think that was the worst sermon you ever get Avery never gave I thanked him for that told not one of them had to be but you know he goes on to say here most gladly therefore I will glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon you I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distress for Christ's sake for when I am weak then I am strong you know it's not expedient for me either so I won't bore you with more examples suffice it to say I have learned in my life painfully that what Paul said is true that I am at my strongest in God's service when I'm at my weakest in the flesh and I know that better than any person living when I am weak then I am strong and I think this all comes back in a way to the difference between guilt and gratitude the ability to feel grateful for things that otherwise a person might be guilt written and I have known people who were there in their troubles and in their trials and so forth felt nothing but guilt because they thought God was down on them and God wouldn't hear them and I'm just a bad person and God doesn't love me anymore and they were not able anyway in their life to seem like to find gratitude to God for what I am going through for I know it must be for my good and the good of other people to come you know there's a segment of our society who are white and privileged and they feel guilty about it it's one thing for a 12 year old girl as patty Davis was at the time to feel that way and it's another thing for a mature adult to feel that way this segment of our society is extremely influential and the reason this is a problem is that these people do not know God this is what we have to come to understand about what happens in the political spectrum in our own country they are guilt ridden they can't be grateful for who they are and what they are and what they have and where they are because there is no one in their heart or mind to whom they can express that gratitude they don't recognize God and therefore all is left for them is to feel guilty when they see a poor person in the gutter driving through the streets of Bombay wants - one time we were just so overwhelmed by the poverty in us and around us and I know my friend Ted as we were driving along the car I had looked out the window I didn't see this but he saw a man urinating against the wall and the water running down the wall underneath the wall and out the other side a little child playing in the dirt and making mud pies in the mud that was being created by this man urine you see that type of thing how do you feel guilty we're grateful people who are without God blame themselves for the intractable social problems they see and they are unable to blame sin they just can't because they don't recognize sin they don't recognize God they don't recognize standards and therefore they've got nowhere to go with what they see around them without with the hurt and yet there is something in human beings that hurts when we see poor people being drowned downtrodden and treated badly it's in us it's in our genes but when you do not know nothing of God when you know nothing of God's ways when you know nothing of sin and the consequences of sin where do you go with that I'm afraid for many people they internalize it and they feel guilty they blame themselves for it none of this would be a terribly big deal if they didn't project their guilt feelings onto the rest of us they see around them a guilty Society and then they set out to solve man's problems without any help from God and they want to drag the rest of us along with them they are the secular privileged class in America they are what some people mistakenly call liberal they aren't really liberal they are merely guilt-ridden they are simply a guilt ridden elite and their guilt ridden because they're unable to feel grateful and I'm telling you all this because I don't want you to let yourself get caught up in that way of thinking I don't want you to let yourself think along those lines because for us there is a god to whom we may be grateful there is a God in heaven who has defined what sin is and there are consequences of sin in the world and we can't stop that the only thing we can do about the consequences of a sin in the world is to point people to God and to Jesus Christ as Paul and Silas in the prison in the middle of the night in Philippi with bleeding back's hurting hurting feet with their feet in stocks uncomfortable miserable sang praises to God in the middle of the night and saved a man life James wrote chapter 1 verse 2 my brethren count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations knowing this that the trying of your faith works patience but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Wow do you realize what he just said here that in order to make you complete that's basically the word that she was translated perfect by the King James translators so often basically means complete or excellent because none of us in the flesh is ever going to be perfect it means excellent you may be excellent entire wanting nothing in other words for God to take you from where you are to excellence requires trials and some of those trials involve pain be grateful for it not guilty if any of you lack wisdom let him active ask of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth and it shall be given him but ask in faith nothing wavering he that wavers is like the state like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed don't let that man that wavers think he shall receive anything of God why well the man that wavers probably thinks he doesn't deserve it and he's not grateful can't antolín he is guilty not grateful a double minded man is unstable in all his ways let the brother of low degree rejoice that he is exalted but the rich let him rejoice that he's made low because there's the flower of the field he shall pass away the Sun is no longer arisen with a burning heat but it withers the grass and the flower fails and the grace of the fashion of it perishes so shall the rich man fade away in his ways why should you feel guilty about being privileged after all it's just a flower of the grass and will shouldnt wither away there's nothing there to feel guilty about because it's gonna be gone and Trice anyway there's nothing to be proud of or guilty of verse 12 blessed is the man that endures temptation for when he is tried he shall receive a crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him let no man say when he is tempted of God tempted I am tempted of God God cannot be tempted with evil he doesn't tempt any man every man is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed and when lust has conceived it brings for sin and sin when it is finished brings forth death and luckily for you and me sin also brings forth pain in this life I say it's good for you and me because if there were no pain for sin in this life we probably would persist in it till death but pain is one of the things that causes us to stop and turn around and look for God therefore I think we can be grateful for pain don't make a mistake my brethren every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning of his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures so be grateful be grateful at every step of the way wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to anger for the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God you know you if you mark your Bible that's one you ought to have the other have marked you ought to memorize it never let this get away from you the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God so lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves what's he saying he's saying don't sit there feeling guilty do something about it get over this thing put it behind you so any of us I'm afraid sometimes we just sit around and wallow in our guilt we know we have sinned we know what you have lost we know it wasn't God that tempted us and made us do this thing we know it's our own self that did it and you know we can do is sit around and feel sorry for ourselves and call it well I felt guilty about it as though feeling guilty about something counts for anything with God it's not worth a dime it's only worth a dime when you actually get up and do something about it Matthew 5 Jesus said the same thing he said in Matthew 5 verse 10 blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are you when men will revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven they persecuted the prophets the same way be grateful when you're persecuted don't feel guilty because you're doing God's work in his will Luke 6 verse 22 says much the same thing blessed are you when men shall hate you when they will separate you from their company when they will reproach you and they'll cast out your name like it was evil they use your name like an epithet for the son of man's sake rejoice in that day and leap for joy dance be happy be grateful in a word that this is happening but why I mean where does this come from well first Peter I'm just to add another brick to the wall chapter 1 verse 6 Paul Peter talks about the trials they were having he says you greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be you're in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold than of gold that perishes though it be tried with fire may be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ now I think most of us will look at that will think ok I understand that and I accept that I know that all the hell I have to go through in this life that whenever I stand before Jesus Christ that I will be found these that all this stuff will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ but there's something wrong with that what value is there and our just stuffing out a lot of suffering here and now so that when we go before God would say oh what a good fellow you were you were grateful for all the hurt and suffering that you went through what that doesn't make any sense to me the only way it makes sense to me is if it is not for the only four then it is for now that the sufferings that you go through even when you're tried with fire make a difference now they make a difference in your character they make a difference in the way you are able to serve God they make a difference in the next person you meet after you have gone through some fiery trial they make a difference in this life in so many ways and it is that difference that is made it is the people that you can help because you overcame that enable you to stand before Jesus Christ with praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ now there's a set of scriptures in Revelation you don't want may probably don't wanna take the time to turn to them I'm just gonna read them in sequence they are each one verse they come at the end of each one of the letters to the seven churches they will be familiar to your ear when you hear them revelation 2 verse 6 he that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God not to the person who just you know who is fills up it fills out his time card as to the person who overcomes and in order to overcome there has to be something there to overcome I'm sorry there is no grease sled into the kingdom of God to him that overcomes I will give to eat of the Tree of Life revelation 2:11 he that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches he that overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death revelation 2:17 he that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to him that overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna I'll give him a white stone and in that stone a new name written which no man knows saving he that received it revelation 2:26 to him that overcomes and keeps my works to the end I'll give power over the nation's he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers just like I received of my father and I will give him the morning star the morning star what's that well later in the book of Revelation Jesus would say of himself I am the bright and Morning Star revelation three verse five he that overcomes the same shall be clothed in white raiment I will not blot his name out of the book of life I will confess his name before my father and before the Angels this doesn't go to the people who have a greasy slide to have life you know that everything works fine they're just you know have a wonderful way nobody's in their way everything is smooth for them revelation three verse 12 he that overcomes will I make up a pillar in the temple of my god he won't go out any more I will write upon him the name of my God the name of the city of my god which is New Jerusalem which comes down of heaven from my god and I will write upon him my new name revelation 3:21 to him that overcomes I will grant to sit with me in my throne even as I have overcame and sat down with my father in he's his throne wow that's something to consider all those things aren't it these go to the winners this is what goes to the winners people who have an obstacle people who have a battle people who have a struggle people who endure pain and they over come why is this important well I have given you in a smallest possible way in an awareness of the importance of it in this life of what it what it means to suffer through a problem now in order to be able to help someone later on does it ever occur to us that this to him that overcomes when this is said to these people this life is over and the new life is ready to begin and that somehow in that new life God wants someone there who knows what it is like to be betrayed he wants somebody to know what pain feels like he wants somebody to know what it's like to have to lie on your back in a hospital bed for days on end being cared for in your every need by someone else he wants someone in his kingdom who knows what that is like why does he want that in the next life it's an important question these people are not privileged these are people who were tried in the fire and won you want to know what it really means to overcome it's a short passage in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 32 Hebrews 11 verse 32 32 he says what am I going to say more than what I've already said the time would tell failed me to tell of gideon barak samson jephthah david's samuel and the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms worked righteousness obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the armies of the aliens women received their dead raised to life again others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might accept might find a better resurrection what for what for if all there is to the resurrection is just to be able to live again others had trial of Clue cruel mockings and scourgings yet moreover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted they were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains and dens and caves of the earth and these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise what a stunning thing to say and that can only mean that there is something out there far greater I think than you and I at this point in time could even imagine these people were not losers they were not whiners they were winners all they were not guilty they were grateful

Channel: BornToWinCEM

Views: 663

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Born to Win, Ronald L. Dart, CEM, Guilt, Gratitude, Thanksgiving, Thanks

Id: SXIZCkdrEK4

Length: 39min 14sec (2354 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2012