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The Home Missions Director Was Afraid Of Twenty Words

The Home Missions Director Who Was Afraid Of Twenty Words!

I sat eating supper at the steakhouse with the Home Missions Director and the District Superintendent.

“Brother Ballestero, we have a total of ten Home Missions churches in our state that we want you to preach a week’s revival at, and we will pay you $700 a week. We have visitors and new converts that we don’t want to scare off. So here is a list of twenty words and phrases we don’t want you to say while preaching in these Home Missions Churches.” The Home Missions Director said while handing me a piece of paper.

I scanned down the list…

Adultery
Fornication
Homosexuality
Gay
Lesbian
Alternative lifestyle
Abortion
Pre-marital sex
Babies out of wedlock
Lust
Immoral
Jewelry
Rings
Immodest apparel
Short skirts
Men’s apparel
Hell
Damnation
Abomination
Trinity

I looked up from the list wanting to see the Superintendent’s reaction. He put his head down and cut another piece of steak. Without a smile or word, I pushed the list back to the Home Missions Director and shook my head from side to side.

The rest of the meal was finished in near silence.

That’s when this scripture came to my mind…

Isa. 30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

Written by Martyn Ballestero

July 12, 2019 at 12:00 pm

Posted in Doctrine, God's Word, Old-Time Pentecost, Salvation, Sin, Truth

I Would Appreciate It If You Just Wouldn’t Mention Anything About…

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I Would Appreciate It If You Just Wouldn’t Mention Anything About…

The car glided quietly down the Texas road. The only noise came from the breeze in the open windows of the car. The fact that there was no air conditioner in the car made it necessary to roll the windows down because of the heat.

“Brother Ballestero, tonight is the first night of our revival and you will notice three teenage girls that are the praise singers. You will notice also that they are all wearing mini-skirts. They have such great spirits. I am working with them on their attire and I would appreciate it if you just wouldn’t mention anything about mini-skirts or short skirts while you’re here.”

He said that while looking straight ahead. I never turned mine to look at him. Here was an icon in Texas asking me to not to say anything about mini-skirts.

“No problem!” I blurted out.

“Oh, thank you!” He said.

“Well, that was easy. If you would, I have a couple here who have just inherited $1,000,000.00 and they haven’t paid tithes yet. If you say anything while you are here about tithes, they will think I talked to you about it, get mad and may not pay tithes at all. So, if you just wouldn’t say anything about tithes while you’re here I will take it as a personal favor.”

“Not a problem, sir,” I said.

“Well then, just one more thing. I have a precious little Assemblies of God couple coming here and I am waiting for the Holy Ghost to reveal the revelation of the Oneness of the Godhead to them. So, if you wouldn’t preach on the Godhead while you’re here. I would take that as a personal favor also.”

“Relax brother,” I said.
“While I’m here, all I’m going to preach is Jesus!”

He looked at me with relief in his eyes and said, “Thank You.”

“The reason that all I am going to preach while I’m here is Jesus is that it sounds like no one here knows Him!” I said flatly while looking through the front window.

(I am not sure why that revival only lasted one night, but I have a good guess.)

Written by Martyn Ballestero

July 11, 2019 at 10:54 pm

Posted in Doctrine, Evangelists, God Head, God's House, Holiness, Pastors, Tithes

What’s Wrong With Your Voice?

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What’s Wrong With Your Voice?

My father rode beside me in the car as we talked about the alarming decline of standards and morality among some of the churches we knew. Dad shook his head after a while and rhetorically said, “Where’s Bro. Verbal Bean when we need him? Where’s Bro. Joe Duke? I wonder why God took their ministries from us when we needed them the most?”

Since neither of us could answer that question, the car stayed quiet for a while as I drove down the highway. Since then, many more strong voices of men and women have been laid silent in their graves. Today, nearly forty years later, I revisited that moment in the car with my daddy.

We look around us now for another star to shine bright! We look for another champion of the faith. We look for someone with an amazing ministry. A preacher we would drive a hundred miles just to listen to one sermon. Someone who will lift their voice.

Really?

What’s Wrong With Your Voice?
What Keeps You From Speaking Up?
Why Don’t You Say Something?
Why Don’t You Respond To The Need?
Can’t You See What Sin Is Around You?
And, You Still Can’t Open Your Mouth?

Maybe you say to yourself that you don’t have a ministry like Bro. Bean, or a Bro. Duke. So you feel content to be quiet.

Have you never read about a man named Amos in the Bible?

Amos 7:14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit:

Amos 7:15 And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.

Amos declares that He wasn’t preacher nor a preacher’s son. He was just a herdsman and had a little fruit stand. Yet God chose to speak through him to a whole nation.

God looks for availability.

Eze. 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

Isa. 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

God is still looking for a voice!