My Story #46

 Ronnie Wolfe

"Please Help Me; I'm Falling"

"God Is Good"

I am sure you remember the old song by this title "Please help me; I'm falling." Today for some reason I was thinking of the many time that I have fallen and how the Lord protected me through all of it.

I have already mentioned before how that, when I was seven years old, I stumbled off the front porch of our house and landed on my nose right on a rough rock. My nose bled, but I did not get hurt too much; my feelings were hurt more than my body. God is good.

In grade school and one year of high school I went to Morgan School, Morgan, Kentucky. Especially in the elementary school building, there were many steps; but I do not remember falling at all in that building or in the larger high school building, which also had many steps.

When I was a senior in Pendleton County Memorial High School; there I fell down approximately 12 concrete steps, popped myself right back up and went on my way. God is good.

In Lexington, Kentucky, in the house where I lived, I slept upstairs. One morning, I was ready to leave for work, and I was coming down the stairway that had, I think, 13 steps, then to the right two more steps. When I was going down the steps, I caught one of crutches on the pocket of my coat and pulled myself down; and I rolled down almost all of those steps, turned right and went on down the other two. I landed flat on my back.

When I tried to get up, I could not move either arm. I just lay there like a brick and could not move. Then, as a few minutes went by, my fingers and hands began to tingle, and then my arms began to tingle. It was not but a few minutes until I was able to get up and go right on to work. God is good.

When my legs began to swell, my legs, while I was walking, would rub against the locks on my braces and unlock the braces; then I would fall. I fell several times and got a black eye once or twice, but eventually the people at the brace shop put on some ball bearings that would keep the locks locked, and I have had no problem since. God is good.

Once I was beginning to go down the steps toward the front door at church, and I lost my balance. I fell straight forward down the steps (about six steep steps), I caught myself on my hands; but, as my arms were week, I could not hold myself up, and I scraped my face on the carpet. All I had was a very red face where my face rubbed against the carpet and took off the skin. I have a picture to prove this. No more harm. God is good.

 

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My Story #45

By Ronnie W Wolfe

"Breaking The Piano"

When I played piano and later sang with the Bluegrass Boys Quartet (both the first group and the second group), I remember that, when we would go into a church to set up for our singing, the first thing I would do was to take off the front part of the piano on the bottom and adjust the piano peddle to make the pressing down of it with my weak left foot a little easier.

Sometimes the pastor would come in, or some other people would come into the building and see me with the piano apart and would think that I was tearing up the piano, but I was not. I was just making an adjustment. I did this very often.

Now my left foot is so week that I put a hymnal under my foot to get leverage to help press down the sustain peddle. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it does not.

This is not so bad when one realizes that, not only did I tear apart the piano, but either Demas Brubacher or Bobby Lakes sometimes would break into the church building by working with the lock until the door would open. Fortunately, no one ever had to go to jail for either one of these capers

 

The Sabbath

Thoughts On The Sabbath

Dr. Pastor Ronnie Wolfe -- October 24, 2017

You might want to copy, paste and print this. It is long.

It is important that we as believers know why we worship on Sunday. Although Sunday is not the Jewish Sabbath, the book of Hebrews tells us that there remaineth a rest (a Sabbath-keeping) for the children of God. This, I believe, is our Sunday, the first day of the week, observed for rest and worship by the apostles and the first church in Jerusalem and believers and other churches thereafter. Here are some interesting things about the Sabbath and the use of Sunday as our Lord's Day today.

I. FIRST SABBATH MEANING AS A DAY OF REST

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 

So a Sabbath to the whole world was given as the seventh day for people to rest and to worship the Lord, because God rested on the seventh day.

II. SECOND MEANING AS CELEBRATING EXODUS FROM EGYPT

The Sabbath was to continue to be kept by Israel after Israel was called out of Egypt, for Exodus 20:8 says, Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. They were already observing the Sabbath, so they are to remember the Sabbath, or continue to observe it.

However, the reason for keeping the Sabbath changed. To see this, we must read from Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. 13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

III. THE MEANING CHANGES AGAIN AFTER THE EXILE

We see the same Sabbath continuing to be observed, but the meaning changes again after Israel returns to their land after their captivity in Babylon:

Jeremiah 16:14-15 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; (and Israel kept the Sabbath for this reason) 15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

In our previous point, Israel observed the Sabbath because of their exodus from Egypt. That is mentioned again here to show that now they will observe the Sabbath for their deliverance from Babylon.

IV. NEW TESTAMENT SABBATH

In the New Testament the Jews continued to observe the Sabbath because of their deliverance from Babylon. Jesus kept the Sabbath because he was a Jew and under the law, but he also went into the synagogues to preach the gospel to the Jews. The seventh-day Sabbath was a Jewish day. Gentiles were never required to keep this day.

Paul kept the law, so he also kept the Sabbath in New Testament times; but, after the Lord resurrected, believers did not meet on the seventh day, nor did they observe a Sabbath for being delivered from Babylon. Believers observed another day, and that day was the first day of the week. You may look up that phrase in your Bible and see that they worshiped on the first day, not the seventh day, and that because Jesus resurrected from the dead on the first day of the week. See 1 Cor. 16:2.

Also, we learn that the Jewish Saturday Sabbath was abolished as a shadow of things to come: Colossians 2:14-17 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

Hebrews 4:8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. We believe this other day is the first day of the week, or The Lord's Day. But bear with me for one more important point.

Hebrews 4:9 continues this thought:  9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. The word REST here literally is a sabbath-keeping. Our Sabbath is not a Jewish day but a day for Jews and Gentiles alike. It is a day to rest from our work and to give worship to God because of his death, burial, and resurrection. We do not call it a sabbath-keeping, because that would connect it too closely with the Jewish Sabbath. We call it the Lord's day with John, who wrote the book of Revelation.

Now we are left with one more reference from Hebrews, which encourages us to meet together on the Lord's day for rest and worship: Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

Even if this rest in Hebrews is taken as our spiritual rest in Christ, we still have enough Scriptural proof that today we are not to keep the Saturday Sabbath but to assemble on the first day of the week because of Christ's resurrection.

• All ten commandments are reiterated in the New Testament except for "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."
• So, no commandment is given to Christians to keep it.
• The Saturday Sabbath is a Jewish day and does not apply to Gentiles.
• There is no warning in the New Testament for not keeping the Sabbath as there is in the Old Testament.
  

 

My Story #44

Ronnie W. Wolfe

"Leading The Blind"

Several of you know Bro. Gene Cox. He was one of my best friends in school when we were attending Lexington Baptist College. Last week I told the church here about the time that I allowed Gene to drive my car. You must keep in mind, now, that Gene Cox is blind.

I told Gene one day that I was going to let him do something that he has never done and may never do again. He, of course, was curious what that would be. I told him I was going to let him drive my car. It was hard for even him to believe.

I told him to get into the driver's seat. He did. I showed him by feel where the gas peddle and brake peddle were. I directed him to the ignition and gave him the car key. I told him what to do to start the car. He did not do bad. The car was running now.

Then I asked him to take hold of the steering wheel and turn it as far to the left as he could and hold it there. He did. I told him, then, to hold the brake and put the car in gear. I think I helped him a little on this.

Then I told him to take his foot off from the brake and step on the gas peddle and push very easily. He did very well at that. The car started going forward, and we went around and around and around in circles as he held the steering wheel all the way to the left.

He was very excited, and I was excited, too, to allow a blind man to drive. I don't know for sure, but I believe, no doubt, that he has not done that since.

By the way, Gene was (and maybe still is) in the hospital. I pray he is home by now.

God bless you, Gene. I miss those days of wonder.

Oh yes, we both made it out alive!