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BAFFLERS FROM THE BIBLE 
1. Who Was Cain's Wife? This is one of the most common questions posed by people who want to dispute the Bible. Cain and Abel were the first two boys born to Adam and Eve, the first people. At maturity they fought, and Cain killed Abel. Later on, the Bible tells us that Cain was married (see Genesis 4:1-17). The question is, where did his wife come from?The only conclusion we can draw from the scant record given in scripture is that Adam and Eve had daughters as well as sons, and that Cain married his sister. In the early days of the human race, there would not have been a prohibition against incest; otherwise, there would have been no way for mankind to replenish the earth. Later on, incest became a societal taboo for various good reasons, especially genetic ones. I do not believe that Cain's marriage to a sister would have presented genetic problems, because they would have had almost a pure genetic strain from which to produce offspring. Inbreeding and intermarriage bring out defective recessive genes today; but presumably, Adam and Eve and their children had no defective genes to begin with, since they were created perfect. We really do not have any record, one way or the other, about Cain's wife, and so any answer has to be conjectural.
2. Why Isn't Everyone Healed? Jesus Christ was the perfect expression of God's will. During His recorded lifetime He never refused anyone who asked for healing. Therefore, we may assume that it is God's perfect will to heal everyone. To understand more about those today who are not healed we must consider how Jesus healed.First of all, He had the gift of discerning spirits (see I Corinthians 12:10). He knew whether a sickness was caused by a demon, a disease, unconfessed sin, or if it was a psychosomatic disorder. If it was a disease, He would speak to the disease; if it was a demon, He would cast out the demon; if it was sin, He would forgive the sin. He always knew exactly what was called for. Jesus also had complete access to the Father (see John 11:41-44, 14:9-11). He had no sin to cloud His understanding. When He spoke, it was with pure power. And He had an absolute understanding of how to use His power; therefore, there was no sickness or disease that could stand in His way. Today, those of us who minister in His name seldom exercise true spiritual discernment. Our access to power is clouded by sin and unbelief, or earthly cares, all of which prevent us from having complete access to God (see Psalm 66:18, John 9:31, I Peter 3:7). Consequently, our prayers are not as effective for healing as His. Beyond this, many people have been taught that God does not heal today, so neither they nor their spiritual leaders take the necessary steps to bring about spiritual healing. I should add that there are some people who enjoy being sick. They use sickness as an excuse not to face up to life. Some people are tired of life and consciously or unconsciously want to die. They are not healed for the simple reason that they do not want to be. There are some people who harbor unconfessed sin. They may seem holy and righteous on the surface, but, deep down inside, they are filled with resentment. There are others who are sick because of demonic activity. Prayer for healing will not work for them, because the demon has to be addressed and cast out, usually by someone else. In certain cases a healing does not take place until the individual's spirit and mind are in a condition where he or she can be receptive to what God has to offer. The healing in such cases is not instantaneous, but gradual, because the person being healed needs to come to an appreciation of the promises and the truth of God. Others are so overcome by shock or grief or pain or medical treatments or contagion that it is virtually impossible to focus their spiritual energies on the healing powers of God. These are just some of the reasons, and there are many more. Remember that Jesus Christ showed us what is possible. His life and ministry were not intended to add to our suffering by pointing out our failings but to give us an attainable goal to strive for. In searching for answers we must ask, "What is it in this situation that is blocking or preventing the healing?" Once we have discovered the problem, the healing may take place.
3. Should Women Teach Men? The apostle Paul wrote, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man" (I Timothy 2:12).In the New Testament, there were deaconesses who had key roles in the church and women prophets who had the gift of being able to prophesy and speak forth God's Word. In the Old Testament, the woman Deborah was a leader and judge of Israel. She led her people safely through a time of danger (see Judges 4:1-24). However, nowhere in the Bible is there an example of a woman pastor who actually directed the spiritual lives of a congregation of believers. That is what Paul said he did not permit. God has established a pattern. He is the head of the man, and the man is to be the head of the woman, and together they are to be the head of the children. God sets this divine order in the church. This does not mean that a woman cannot be a business executive or a politician or a lawyer, but in the government of the family and the church, men are to be the leaders. These two institutions are a type of God's universal fatherhood that must be adhered to.
4. Are Suicide Victims Forgiven? The American judicial system presumes that a person who commits suicide is insane. In many instances this is undoubtedly true. If someone does not know right from wrong, and does not realize what he is doing, he cannot deliberately sin and thus be held accountable for his actions. He therefore has no guilt for what he has done.However, some people know precisely what they are doing when they take their own lives. They are not crazy. They calmly decide that they are going to take matters into their own hands, and in so doing, they kill a life that belongs to God. The Bible is not clear about what happens to a suicide victim in relation to eternal salvation, but we do know that unless the person is insane, suicide is a sin. It is an unconfessed, unforgiven sin at the moment it takes place. A suicidal person is taking an extreme risk in gambling with eternal destiny merely to get out of a difficult situation on earth. There is absolutely no guarantee that I can give to a person who is determined to commit suicide, or to someone who has lost a loved one through suicide, that a suicide victim would go to be with Jesus forever. We know that God's mercies are very great, but I hesitate to presume upon them.
5. If God Is Love, How Can He Send If there were someone in heaven who was a rebel against God, and who was essentially evil, he would not get better over the years, but worse. Ultimately, that individual would threaten the security of everyone else in heaven. That sort of person must be kept apart from those who willingly serve God. God doesn't send people to hell so much as they send themselves away from heaven. God says to all of us, "Will you accept Me now? Will you please take My will and be Mine? Will you do what is necessary to enter heaven?" But some people answer Him, "Not Thy will, but mine be done." So when they die, God says, "You asked for your will to be done, so I will let you have it your way. You would not take My will on earth, so I am going to let you have your will in eternity." For all eternity, those people will be alone, apart from God, shut out of heaven by their own desire (see Luke 14:16-24, I John 2:15-18). God is just; He has given them what they asked for. Even as a good ruler on earth must lock up criminals so that innocent citizens can be free of fear, even so a loving God must one day shut off rebellion so that His universe can be free from fear and filled only with creative love. 6. Should I Go Into Debt Now? The Bible says that the debtor is the servant of the lender (see Proverbs 22:7). This has always been true. It is a great tragedy to have to borrow money to pay for current expenses, to live beyond your means and constantly try to make $100 do the work of $200.I believe that those who do not live within their means and who borrow to meet day-to-day expenses wind up being the slaves of those who lend to them. They do not have peace, and very often their marriages are torn apart. Some marriage counselors and financial consultants assert that 80 percent of marriage failure is caused by money pressure and that money problems account for about 50 percent of the impotence in married men. Living beyond your means, which results in debt, can be devastating. There are some types of debt that are not always damaging, however. For example, a business may need to borrow to purchase productive assets; the servicing of interest and principal payments make up a business expense that is included in the operating budget. Modest debt can allow a business to buy equipment, buildings, and land, and to expand in an appropriate fashion. The same justification applies to the debt-financed purchase of a house. Mortgage payments are not considered by some as debt but as a monthly budgeted expense. Of course, the happiest people in this regard are those who have no debt on anything, who have paid cash for their cars, their furniture, and their houses, and who have funded their businesses out of either equity or cashflow. These people are better off in times of recession or even in times of rampant inflation. Especially in today's world, when in the next ten, fifteen, or twenty years I believe we are going to be faced with increasing deflationary pressures, the paying of debt is going to be extremely difficult, because we will pay off debt with more and more expensive dollars. It will be a terrible situation. A time of deflation is a debtor's hell. The present economic environment is the worst possible time to incur debt for anything. If at all possible, do not go into debt now.
7. Is Cremation Right Or Wrong? In Leviticus 20 and 21, the Lord commanded that certain types of sinners were to be burned with fire. In the case of King Saul and his sons, whose bodies had been mutilated, their flesh was burned but their bones were buried (see I Samuel 31:12-13). Other than these extraordinary cases, the only honorable or proper disposition of the dead in the Old Testament was by burial, which was also the New Testament practice and that of the early church.Both the Jews of the Bible, and subsequently Christians, believed that the body would one day rise from the dead. We are therefore to preserve the body and honor it. The body is the temple of the loved one's spirit that is now gone but will one day be reunited with a glorified body. Therefore, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, cremation has generally not been practiced. The Bible speaks of the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David, and of the burial place of Jesus Himself, and of the graves of other of the saints and heroes of the Old and New Testaments. All were buried in traditional fashion. Many religions practice cremation. The Hindus and the ancient Vikings cremated people. In the Shinto faith of Japan ancestors are cremated and their ashes put into little household shrines as objects of veneration. There are some, of course, who cremate from a very practical standpoint. Some countries encourage cremation because they cannot afford the space for burials and expensive funerals. Although there is no specific prohibition of cremation in the Bible, it was not practiced in those days, and I believe it should not be practiced now because of our belief in the resurrection.
8. Are Credit Cards Associated With Six is the biblical number of humanity. It is one less than perfection. The man whose number is 666 will lead humanity's revolt against God. There are some who feel that Nero could have been that man whose number is 666, and various other names have also been put forward as that person. But Revelation says that, when he comes onto the scene, he will have such dominance that no one can buy or sell without taking his mark, either on the forehead--which indicates will--or on the hand--which indicates action. So, how will that mark come to be accepted? There are a couple of possibilities. Today we have developed devices called smart cards. These are tiny credit cards that have a microchip implanted in them. They can be put through a card reader at a store that will reveal a person's entire credit history, including the amount of his bank account. The person's transaction in the store can be sent back to a central bank and one master account can then be kept in a computer. Now there is also the SWIFT system, which means Society of World-wide Interfunds Transfers, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. It ties together about seven hundred major banking systems around the world. Every day, hundreds of billions of dollars in bank transactions are processed by this vast world-wide computer network. Clearly, mankind now has the technology to link up virtually all the credit in the entire civilized world from the local retail outlet right through to the international banking center. So, it would not be too difficult, technologically, to move from the smart card to a microchip implanted in the hand. This could be read by a laser-type device that would in turn be connected to a master computer. This could lead to a time when there would be no need for cash or checks: Everything would be done by computer. With these developments, it becomes easy to see how the world may be controlled. Banks are moving in the direction of ever more efficiency with the advent of so-called "transaction cards." These are not charge cards, but they debit an account immediately. As a charge is made, they immediately subtract the money from the bank account. This entire electronic funds transfer system is gaining momentum in the drive toward a checkless, cashless society. This society will not necessarily occur, but it certainly is technologically possible, and could easily fulfill what Revelation says: That people could not buy or sell without the mark of the Beast. Of course, with all our discussion of technology, we should never lose sight of the deeper implications of the "mark of the beast." The forehead signifies volition, while the hand signifies action. Together, they indicate a willing spiritual acceptance of a satanic being (or system) that has been put forward against God and in place of Jesus Christ. Nothing short of this would lead a just God to send these people to be "tormented with fire and brimstone" as we are warned by Revelation 14:9-11.
9. What Do You Think of Long Hair For A Man? Many people have raised this question. A few years ago, when hippies were common, respectable society felt that long hair for men was a disgrace.The apostle Paul wrote about excessively long hair for men. He said that for women, long hair was their glory, and yet it was a shame for men to have very long hair (see I Corinthians 11:14-15). At the same time, every painting I have ever seen of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, or of the patriarchs, except for a painting by Salvador Dali, showed them with long hair, and often with a long, full beard. They did not have barber shops around every corner in those days, and Hebrew men especially did not have closely shaven faces and closely cropped hair. The Nazarites, for example, were even forbidden to shave their heads (see Numbers 6:1-5, Judges 13:5, 16:15-22)! In view of this, I really do not think there is any problem with long hair. I think the reaction against it was really a reaction to a group of people who were taking drugs and living a lifestyle that was outside the bounds of accepted morality. Their unkempt appearance, long hair, and beards were symbols of their revolt against society. The issue was their lifestyle, not the length of their hair.
10. How Is It That Christians Sometimes Lose Some Christians then begin to be careless: They speak a word of slander about a friend; they use a curse word from their old vocabulary; or maybe they take a drink when they do not think they should. Perhaps an immoral affair begins, or perhaps they just get involved with the cares of this life. They get wrapped up in their businesses and their families, and they lose sight of God. He no longer is their first love. When someone loses his joy, there is a terrible sense of loss. He feels a great emptiness and will not be satisfied by the things of the world. That which pleased him before he knew Christ cannot satisfy him now. God will have taken from that person the ability to be happy apart from Himself. God has recreated us in Christ to breathe the air of heaven and dwell in mansions of glory. Once we have tasted this life, we are miserable anywhere else. Such persons can continue in indifference and sin until they lose their assurance of salvation. They will not feel saved, and they will begin to question whether God really did anything for them because their lives no longer reflect salvation. The Holy Spirit will continue to give a witness in a person's heart. Then, like land that has been repeatedly rained upon and then baked by the sun, that heart will become callous and will no longer be sensitive to the wooing of the Holy Spirit. Such people will be barely distinguishable from non-Christians, with the possible exception that they may refuse to engage in the grosser acts of sin and immorality. They may still maintain a certain moral standard, but inwardly they will have neither joy nor assurance of salvation. The Old Testament prophet warns us to "break up your fallow ground" so the Lord may come and rain righteousness on us (Jeremiah 4:3). A Christian in this condition needs to repent and seek forgiveness for being careless and indifferent, for not loving God, for doing and saying things that offended Him, and for not studying the Bible and praying. That person needs to rid himself of the weeds--the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches--that have choked the Word in his life and made it unfruitful (see Matthew 13:22, Mark 4:19, Luke 8:14). He needs to seek cleansing and forgiveness from Jesus, and he needs to re-establish his love affair with the Lord. This is what Jesus meant when He spoke to the church of Ephesus, saying, "You have left your first love" (Revelation 2:4). When that love affair is back in bloom, there will come joy, assurance of salvation, and effectiveness in the Kingdom of God. The choice is ours: God gives us freedom, but he is continuously wooing us to Himself that we might be His willing servants. God will not violate our free will. He is tender, like a dove, for otherwise we would be His slaves. What He wants from us is voluntary, loving obedience, not the cowed, cringing subservience of a whipped slave. He wants us to be free and loving. He wants the voluntary, joyous devotion of sons and daughters who are destined to share eternity with Him in glory.
11. Did Jesus Have Brothers and Sisters? According to Matthew 12, when Jesus was teaching a group inside a house, with quite a crowd at the door, some people came to him and said, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You." Jesus replied, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" He continued, "Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother" (Matthew 12:46-50).By this statement, He moved beyond His earthly family relationship to a new spiritual family based on obedience to God's will. This and other Bible references clearly establish the fact that Jesus had a mother, a father, and siblings. In fact, the apostle James was one of the Lord's brothers. The apostle Paul confirmed this fact when he wrote, "I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother" (Galatians 1:19). Some teach that James was really Christ's cousin, because they believe in the perpetual virginity of Mary. But the Bible tells us that Joseph took his wife Mary and did not know her, or have sexual relations with her, until such time as her child was born (see Matthew 1:25). But the clear assumption is that they lived together normally as husband and wife from that time on, and that they had other children besides Jesus. Other statements to the contrary lack any biblical basis.
12. Could You Explain The Ten Virgins In The wise virgins trimmed their lamps and got ready to go with the procession. The foolish virgins wanted to borrow oil because they did not have any. The wise virgins said they could not share it, because they then would not have enough, and told those without to go buy their own oil. The foolish virgins frantically ran away to get oil, but when they came back, they found that the door was shut against them. The joyous wedding feast was in progress and they were excluded. What does that mean? Some feel that it relates to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Some think it concerns salvation. In the context, I believe Jesus was warning about personal godliness and integrity. In the preceding chapter, Matthew 24, Jesus had told His servants to watch until He comes back, to look after His household until He comes, however long it takes. In the watching process, the top priority should be our personal lives. We are to guard our personal integrity, our truthfulness, our honor, and our righteousness before God. We must manifest love for others as well as love for Jesus. We must pray, study the Bible, be born again, and be filled with the Spirit. All of these things are part of what we must be doing as we await His coming. Jesus is saying that there is no way a person can borrow personal morality in a moment of crisis. If you have been dishonest, you cannot go to someone else and say, lend me a portion of godliness. You either have it or do not have it. No one can lend a share of his honesty or decency to someone else; nor can he share his salvation or the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Lord is telling us, in effect, "Always be prepared." There will be times we let down. We cannot be awake twenty-four hours a day in the physical realm nor in the spiritual realm. But our personal godliness, righteousness, and honesty are with us all the time. These are not things that we pick up and lay down, that we get rid of or we use up. They have to be accumulated by personal initiative, effort, and zeal. They have to be kept up continuously. They become a part of you. You have to maintain integrity. You have to be moral this week. You have to be truthful this week. You have to be honest and loving this week. You have to be prayerful and full of the truth of God's Word this week. You have to be saved this week. You have to be filled with God's Spirit this week. Then, when a crisis comes--or the Lord returns--your personal life will be intact. This is the meaning of the parable of the ten virgins.
13. Are Prayer Cloths Proper? We read in Acts that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the apostle Paul were taken to sick people, and the sick people were made well when they received them (see Acts 19:11-12). The characterization of this by Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, was that God did extraordinary miracles through the hands of Paul. This was an example of something extraordinary.There is certainly nothing improper about prayer cloths. It is possible to bless a piece of cloth or paper, send it to somebody else and, on account of the prayer attached to it, see healing take place. That type of miracle has happened in the past and happens today. However, this also can be a device for charlatans, who sell magic amulets and such. In the Middle Ages, mountebanks sold objects of veneration such as milk from the Virgin Mary and splinters from the true cross. They reportedly sold enough splinters from the true cross to build a church! This sort of thing still goes on. I have personally heard a radio preacher selling Moses' anointing oil. There are others who sell "holy" water from the Jordan River, special bath tubs, and on and on. Prayer cloths can come into that category as a device to deceive and fleece innocent people. The concept, in itself, is certainly biblical; but there must be integrity behind the prayer cloths, and there must be the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
14. Is Acupuncture Wrong? Acupuncture as a medical technique may have some validity. However, it definitely has non-Christian roots. At its source is the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang, which are the opposing energy forces in the universe: Good and evil, male and female, health and disease. (The Korean flag contains the symbol of Yin and Yang.) The acupuncturist seeks a balanced flow of these life forces in the body to relieve pain and bring about healing.The acupuncturists claim that there are certain nerve junctures in the body that can be activated and made to release energy at another point in the body. Through this process, pain can be alleviated and diseased members receive healing energy. It is true that medical science has recently found a substance called endorphins, or beta endorphins, which are manufactured by the human brain, and are natural pain killers. I have been present at acupuncture centers in the Communist China, where the most unbelievable conditions of dirt and lack of antisepsis were present. Nevertheless, sick people were put into a state where they felt no pain. There apparently are certain places in our bodies that can be touched and made to release endorphins to deaden pain. When joggers receive what is called a "jogger's high," it is said to be caused by a release of endorphins. When someone runs to the point of near exhaustion, suddenly he feels a tremendous sense of well-being. The body fights the agonizing pain by releasing natural pain killers to inhibit pain centers in the brain. Whether or not people can be healed of various ills by the manipulation, pressure, or puncture of parts of their body, I am not really able to say. I do believe that some practices of acupuncture and acupressure are based on valid medical principles. However, I feel that the religious or metaphysical justification given for acupuncture by the Chinese and Koreans is not in accord with the Bible and is, in my opinion, wrong.
15. Is Hypnosis Wrong? I believe that any time a person allows his subconscious mind to be taken over by someone other than himself, he is asking for trouble.Hypnosis, basically, is nothing more than expanding one's susceptibility to suggestion. The suggestion can be made that the subject is feeling sleepy. If he accepts that suggestion and becomes drowsy, then the hypnotist makes another suggestion. Soon, the hypnotist has the power to implant other thoughts into the subconscious of the hypnotized person. The conscious mind has, in essence, been put to sleep, and the subconscious mind has been surrendered to the hypnotist. That makes hypnosis extremely dangerous, because almost anything can be implanted in the subconscious. What is called post-hypnotic suggestion can be like a time bomb. A preset cue may cause a certain inexplicable reaction on the part of the hypnotized person. After hypnosis, the subject becomes more susceptible to future hypnosis. Any cue--a word, or the snap of the fingers--can put him back in a submissive trance. My frank belief is that no human being should submit his deepest self to anyone other than God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Any other type of submission is inviting trouble danger (see Deuteronomy 18:10-13, I Corinthians 2:16, II Corinthians 10:3-5, I Peter 1:13).
16. Why Are Some People Clother To God There are people who have been chosen by God to accomplish special tasks. Samuel was one such person. God began to speak to Samuel when he was just a little boy, maybe eleven or twelve years old, and to reveal deep truths to him (see I Samuel 3:1-14). God's Spirit was present in John the Baptist, the Bible says, "from his mother's womb" (Luke 1:15). The apostle Paul also felt that he had been chosen from his mother's womb (see Galatians 1:15). Some people have a godly ancestry, as I do. I have many people of God in my family tree. I was dedicated to God by a great-aunt when I was a little baby. She believed that I would be a servant of the Lord. In that way the blessings of God last from one generation to another. Therefore, there is a call of God on some people's lives from birth that is not present in others. There are some people whose parents are involved in the occult, witchcraft, and similar activities. These people are closer to the realm of Satan than those who have a great Christian heritage and have more to overcome when they decide to follow Christ. In any case, the same individual can feel very close to God at some times, but a little farther away at other times. I do not think God leaves us. The privileges and benefits of God remain constant, but our perception changes such as in a time of revival, when there seems to be a heightening of God's presence. Such an occurrence happened on the day of Pentecost, when God visited His people with an extraordinary burst of power, and they were supernaturally filled with spiritual power. Even when He may seem far away, God has not left you. The Bible says, "He will not leave you nor forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6-8). The original language reinforces this concept with a succession of negatives--"I will no, not never leave you."
17. Does God Play Favorites? God does not show partiality (see Acts 10:34). He does not respect one man over another. He does not respect one race over another. However, He does have callings on people's lives for service, and He will equip people for various functions that are different.For example, I am persuaded that in the year 1980 Ronald Reagan was God's choice as president of the United States. He was chosen for that office. I am also persuaded that King David was chosen by God to be the ruler of Israel at a particular point, as was his son, Solomon, who followed him. I believe that the Jews were chosen by God to be the bearers of the Bible, and to be the ones through whom the Messiah was born. That does not mean that all of these people are God's favorites, but they are people called to do a job. God equips people to do work for Him, not because He is playing favorites but because He needs a job done. He gives certain people special tools to get the job done. For example, if I want a building constructed I will give some construction workers cranes to lift steel, bulldozers to grade land, trucks to haul supplies; and I will give them the steel, concrete, bricks, and mortar. The architects will receive none of these things. They have drawing pencils, easels, special lights, and computer equipment instead. The builders are not favored over the architects, nor the architects over the builders. Both have a task to perform, and the tools they receive reflect the demands of the task. Hudson Taylor, founder of the old China Inland Mission, which is now Overseas Missionary Fellowship, was asked why God chose him. Taylor replied, "He looked until He found someone small enough to do the job." The Bible says God is not impressed with the strength of a horse or the legs of a man (see Psalm 147:10). He said that "on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word" (Isaiah 66:2). What impresses God most is a person who will listen to His voice, be humbled before Him, and carry out His program. Over the centuries, God has called some rather remarkable people. Moses was an extraordinary individual. He was mighty in word and deed in Egypt and was a powerful figure in Pharaoh's courts (see Acts 7:22). The apostle Paul sat at the feet of the great teacher Gamaliel (see Acts 22:3). He was heading toward being a leader in Judaism. Billy Graham is obviously a very gifted individual. He could have been a success in any field he chose. He was a top salesman before devoting his life to the ministry. God takes skills that He has already put in someone's possession and then strengthens them for His glory. Humility, more than natural ability, qualifies a person for God's service. Moses spent forty years in the palace of Pharaoh. He needed forty years of humiliation on the "back side of the desert" before he was ready to lead God's people (see Exodus 3:1). Saul of Tarsus was a leader of Israel, but it required time in the desert, in prison, and in countless tribulations, to form the apostle Paul (see II Corinthians 6:4-10, 11:22-33). If you would be favored by God, seek humility, seek obedience, seek a broken and contrite heart. These things He will not despise. (See Psalm 51:17) |
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