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Midsummer Letter
THE KING’S NAME IS JESUS not James
Wana and I hope you are having a great summer. We thank God for your friendship. I am sending this letter to help you in your Bible study and to know and meet some Bible People that we don’t hear about very often. Today I want you to meet JETHRO, father-in-law of Moses. We meet him in Exodus, Chapter 18. We first met Jethro in Exodus 2-18 and Numbers 10-19. Our Bible tells us where Moses was when he met his wife, ZIPPORAH and the name of his children, Gershom, 18-3, and Eliezer, l8-4.. Jethro invited Moses into his home and there Zipporah was given to him.,
In Exodus 18 we read more about Jethro. He was a learned man and full of wholesome wisdom. He came with Moses’ wife and children. In this visit some great things happened. Moses told Jethro all that God had done. Jethro watched Moses trying all the cases of so many people. Jethro said to Moses, ‘You can’t hold up to this. Look out special (able) men. We see this in Acts chapter 6. Set one over thousands, one over hundreds, one over fifties, another over 10 and the great problems they can bring to you. DR. KEN MARTIN has been so helpful to us.
This is still a good practice today. Look at the Doctor. Someone checks you in, another will put you on the scales, take your blood pressure, when in a room they will ask a lot of questions and then the Doctor comes in. If he puts stitches in after the surgery, a nurse or aid will take them out. Lawyers have the same operation and your larger churches. Why do you think we have Deacons, Music Ministers, Pianists and Organists, Sunday School teachers, Assistant Pastors and other?
ONE MAN CANNOT DO IT ALL. Someone has wisely said, ‘THE GRAVES ARE FULL OF INDISPENSABLE MEN’, Presidents, leaders, teachers, etc. and the list goes on and on.
Jethro to Moses, You are the leader, one of the greatest men whoever lived, but this is to much for you. The Pastor needs time away from the office, he needs a quite time in the office, and time off to be away and do some things he enjoys and time with his family. People seem to forget that it takes time to study. I have been more than four hours on this one article and I am not through. Many want a Pastor to be out and in the public all the time, he needs time in his study to do justice to the sermons he wants to preach. YOUR PASTOR’S FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT JOB IS TO PREACH. It takes time to get a sermon together. GREAT LEADERS CAN LEARN! GREAT LEADERS CAN AND MUST LISTEN. Jethro’s advice is good and is used today. Thank God He put this story in our Bible. Moses owed a lot to Jethro. I owe so much to many precious people. DR. BRAD DAVIS has helped me so much. He has encouraged us. Wana and I love Brad and Sandra.
I know a fine young Pastor, DR. KENNY KUYKENDALL Pastor of Cross Roads Baptist Church, as you listen to this young man you know he has been in his study, alone with God and his books. It does not take long to know if the Pastor has studied. Remember the average Pastor preaches, Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday evening, each week. WOW, that is one more job. Pray for your Pastor. Read Exodus 17-8-13, they had to help Moses hold up his hands.
GREAT LEADERS LISTEN TO OTHERS. Here is Moses, one of the greatest men who ever lived listening to his father-in-law . It shows that Jethro was a HUMBLE man. The man who listens to others is the great man. I am a Pilot and have many hours flying, both day and night, but I listened to others many hours in ground school and listen to trainers as they taught me how to operate if I lost an engine, what to do when you get into ice. When you fly in bad weather, YOU HAD BETTER LISTEN TO WHAT CENTER AND THE TOWER TELLS YOU..
There is just one chapter given to Jethro, he is mentioned in other places but what he did in Chapter 18 was to give the order Israel was to follow and we still follow his advice today. Moses was a great leader he is great because he listen to Jethro. HE LISTENED. We should keep our ears open for the advice of others. God used Moses but He also used others.. I am what I am first to a Dad.
I listened to Dad. He told me never to take my first drink and I have never had a drink of whiskey, a glass of wine or a bottle of beer, I am 88 and I can say that. Mother was pure and clean. I have never
been on a Dance Floor, never had any affair with any woman except Wana. Mother and Dad taught us to be clean and right and I never cursed and used bad words. Mother would wash your mouth out.
If you read Exodus chapter two it was Jethro who helped Moses get started. Moses was a fugitive from Pharaoh. He had acted prematurely and killed a man. Most great men have someone who helped them. DR. KENNY KUYKENDALL tells of his mentor ( the person who helped him) and DR. ED MOORE is one of the greatest preachers living told me of his mentor, a man to helped him so much. When you read Exodus chapter 20, remember what Moses was in Chapter 2. Every great man is the product of others in the past, in the home, the schools, his friends and others.
Jethro fades in the greatness of Moses but in the life of Moses there was a JETHRO. I served as President of Antioch Baptist Bible College and Seminary. When a young preacher came I would ask him if he really had been called. We did not have a Preacher Hatching School. If God has called you we can help you. God’s call to preach is a real event. After four years and they were leaving I would tell them to go out and get to work and you are just beginning to LEARN.
It won’t hurt the preacher to go to special times of training. We never learn it all. I love to listen to young and old. I enjoy talking to PASTOR DON RICHARDS, he has so many successful years of serving and he is a great help to me. I listen to DR. KENNY KUYKENDALL, young but has so many great ideas and such a knowledge of the Bible. I talk with REV. RAYTON PUCKETT, he knows so many or God’s great preachers. I learn so much as I talk with him. There is much to learn by listening to others. My prayer, God give me listening ears, Moses had Jethro, Aaron, and many others who helped him.
I thank God for the missionary Checks we send out the first of each month. We could not do this without the help of our friends who send their checks to the Winfrey Evangelistic Association. Your gifts are tax exempt. We are reaching more than 40 nations in our world.
We are told that recently in one of our states they stopped mentioning the Holocaust because it offended some Muslim students. That really bothers me, if that offends, let them to back to some Muslim country. If all over the world the evil acts were done by radical Baptist. I would get out of the Baptist movement. If I were a Muslim and got saved and was baptized I would get out the Muslim religion. Islam says Israel must be wiped out completely and all over the world they hate the U. S. and yet we go right on trying to appease them. Islam did not start this great nation and why should we give them any voice in our nation. We believe in God, not Allah, the Bible and not the Koran, and anyone with any common sense knows that this nation was built on a strong faith in God and the Bible was believed, read, and obeyed. Even today on T V we were told that women in one of the Muslim countries are fighting the law that only men could drive cars. We don’t want that kind of teaching and action in the U.S. Many of our top leaders are doing their best to make us a Muslim Country. America had better wake up and take a stand before it is too late We must vote Obama OUT.
Some times great honors come our way. July 17, REV. PREACH McGUIRE will celebrate his 45th year as Pastor of the West Side Free Will Baptist Church, Sapulpa, Oklahoma, he has asked me to preach that special sermon, July 17 in their beautiful new Church. I have known Preach since he was a boy. We have traveled together and he has conducted Revivals in Churches where I have been the Pastor. Preach is an old-time Gospel Preacher. He and Mary Lou have been true to our Lord and have faithfully served the West Side F W B C, They are well known through-out Oklahoma. He, Mary Lou and their family are great gospel singers.. Preach and I have been in Israel several times, and in Egypt and Amsterdam. He has been my friend through these many years. I consider it a great honor to be invited to preach this sermon. Pray for this meeting.
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