Author: Bob Nichols

(An excerpt from Pastor’s Book, “How to Make Your Life Count for God”)

In all four gospel accounts it states that it was a woman who poured the ointment.  I find this very interesting given the status of women at that time.  Women living in biblical times usually did not have access to this much wealth.  This woman had access to something very precious; she had access to a costly ointment that was worth up to at least one year’s wages.  She had it at her disposal to give.  This may have represented her entire life savings, yet she was willing to pour it out.

This expensive gift to Jesus caused religious people to become very angry.  Their complaint was that giving this to Jesus was a waste.  Once it was poured out it could never be retrieved.  All monetary value was lost the moment she broke the container open and began to pour.  But you cannot lose when you give to God.  Let me remind you that you cannot put one penny in the offering plate or give one dollar to Jesus that does not have an eternal reward.  Giving to Jesus is never a waste – never!  If you give your money to the sports or entertainment industry no one thinks it is a waste.  Yet they said giving this expensive gift to Jesus was a waste. The secular world would hear about this woman’s offering and say, “Yes, there is another preacher after money.”  But, how did Jesus feel about this offering?  Jesus did not say, “I am sorry lady, you are giving too much.  That is far beyond the call of duty to give away one year’s wages.”  No, Jesus said, “Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me.”

We know we are really starting to give when our relatives and friends say that our offering is a waste.  When you give something near and dear to you be prepared for people to misunderstand.  This woman gave out of her thankfulness and she was not moved by what others said.  I want to love God with all of my heart and please Him.  In John 8:29 Jesus said, “… I do always those things that please Him,” and I want to do the same.  Even to this day, I can get caught up in trying to please people.  I have to remind myself you cannot please everybody.  You have to do what pleases the Father.  Obedience today is so very important.

(An excerpt from Pastor’s Book, “How to Make Your Life Count for God”)

Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.-  C.T. Studd

I do not even remember the first time I heard that line, but through the years this quote has been a reoccurring theme in my life. You get involved in a lot of little stuff that you think is so important but one day your life will all be over and they will be having your funeral service.  It will happen to all of us if Jesus tarries.  That is why I want to make my life count for God.

If the Word of God says something one time it is important.  I noticed that all four Gospels tell the story of a woman who poured expensive ointment on Jesus.  The account in Matthew 26:6 – 13 says it this way: “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

Now, the prophet of God returns to the Shunammite woman’s home and if there was any doubt about the child’s condition, 2 Kings 4:32 says, “…the child was dead.”  Maybe you are thinking he was just ill.  No, the Bible says, “…the child was dead.”  I want you to see the progression of faith in the face of disaster.  The child is dead.  The mother puts him in Elisha’s room, shuts the door and runs to the prophet of God.  Here comes Elisha now and he goes into the room and shuts the door.

There is something about this shutting of the door.  In another story, Elisha told a woman with only a pot of oil, “And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons…”  We could take this to mean shut out unbelief, shut out what people think, understand, or misunderstand.  Shut the door and pour.  Sometimes the problem is that we leave the door open, so we have many distractions, voices, and choices entering in.  Sometimes, you just need to go in the room, shut the door and get alone with God for yourself.

Now the prophet of God shuts himself in with the dead child. There is something else that happened right after he shut the door.  Elisha prayed.  Oh, the power of prayer!  Elisha prayed unto the Lord.  This was not a casual prayer.  This was a prayer of total involvement.  Many people today do not know how to pray like that.  They know how to whine, or how to cry, or to tell somebody how bad things are.  You must know how to hit the deck, get on your face before God, open your Bible and put your finger on a promise of God and say, “Father, this is what the Word says.” Then you pray until God gives you the assurance in your heart that everything is going to be all right.  It is the only way that things are going to change.  The prophet lay upon the lifeless boy and prayed, and life returned to the child.  The prophet said to the woman “take up thy son.”

Take up the promise of God that you considered dead. Today, you can take a new grip on your faith.  You can purpose to take back what the enemy has stolen.  Get back on the Word of God.  Let this be your day of renewing your grip on your faith – your faith in God’s Word and your faith in God’s promise.

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

While Peter was willing to fight for Jesus, he also failed to stand up for Him.  So many of us have said, I will never deny Him.  “Oh, yes, I will stand.  Oh, yes, you can count on me, Lord,” and then an hour later we have just blown it all.  That is what I call short-haul faith.  You know what God is doing in the Body of Christ?  God is getting rid of this short-haul faith; the big explosion, big grandiose confession that says, “I will go wherever you want me to go,” but then refuses to actually follow through.  God is putting some staying power in the Body of Christ and we are not going to blow up on the short-haul anymore.  We are going to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Instead of failing and falling, God is putting a new strength, a new depth into the hearts and in the lives of those that will trust in the Lord.

Yes, prophet of God, I may have problems at home, but let me tell you what I have in my heart.  I have safety and wellness.  I am happy.  My family has good health.  We are prosperous.  We have favor.  We are at rest.  We are whole.  Everything is going to be all right.  Listen to me today.  It is not what is happening around you, it is what is happening on the inside of you that makes the most difference.

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

There are some very interesting things that this woman did.  When they brought her child in from the field and the child passed away, do you know what she did?  She picked up the child and walked straight to the room that she and her husband had built for the prophet of God.  She ran to the investment that she had made in the Kingdom of God.  Do you have such an investment? When the storms of life come can you run to that investment and say, I may not understand what is going on, but I have an investment in God’s Kingdom.  You make an investment in good times and God is going to help you in the difficult times.

What do you do when the pressure is on?  Your first response many times determines the outcome of your situation.  What it looks like at the beginning of a challenge is not the way it has to remain.  If you put seed in the ground before the storm, then your harvest will be ripe when you need it.  Just like this woman, you can have confidence in what God promised.  She picked up the lifeless body of her son and walked right into the prophet’s chamber and laid him on the bed.   Did she fall down beside the bed and weep and scream and carry on?  No!  She walked out and shut the door.  She postured herself in faith for a miracle to be manifested.  Is she outside the door, mad at God and mad about what happened?  No!  She went to her husband and said I am going to see the man of God.  Give me a young man and a donkey that can help me move quickly.

She did not run away from her problem; she ran to the source of help.  There was no hesitation in her spirit; she was not going to let go of her manifested promise.  She never told her husband that their son was dead.  She just moved in faith.  When her husband began to question her actions, she said, “It shall be well” (2 Kings 4:23). That word well is translated from the Hebrew word shalom which literally means peace.  So when the husband said, “Wife you do not just run off without any explanation. What is going on?”  She said, peace, “…it shall be well.”  She was telling her husband that she knew what to do. Everything is going to be all right. She knew her son was dead, but she just kept saying, “…it shall be well.”

Do you know where we usually miss it?  We miss it in our initial response to the situation.  In that moment we have a choice; we can choose to believe God’s Word or we can just align ourselves with the circumstances.  If we do not guard our faith, life will chip away at it until it is gone.  Usually when our faith wanes our peace wanes.  If you can have the kind of peace this woman had in the midst of a tragedy you are going to make it.  If you can have peace when the bottom has dropped out, you are coming through.  If you can have peace when the doctor’s report is very negative, you are going to be all right.  The night a devastating tornado destroyed our church building, Joy and I were absolutely overwhelmed for a few moments.  But we decided to get a grip on the promise of God for our future. We began to proclaim that we would come out stronger than before and that God would get the glory for the victory.

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

Was there ever a time that you had greater joy in your heart about serving God?  If so, the enemy has stolen from you.  If there has ever been a time that you enjoyed reading your Bible more than you do today; if there was ever a time when you enjoyed spending a quiet time with God in prayer more than you do today; then the enemy has stolen from you!  We need to be challenged to walk in our first love for Christ.  Keeping our first love for Jesus is probably one of the greatest challenges that all of us have, preachers included.  People need to be taught how to live.  People need to be taught what is right and wrong and how to keep their purity; how to flee from sin and its consequences.  Sin has no respect for anybody.  It will steal, it will kill, and it will destroy.

The question then becomes: if God gives you a promise, how could Satan steal it?  If you do not guard what God has given you, believe me Satan can take it from you.  As a pastor, I see it happening quite often.  I am constantly on the lookout for people that once had the fire of God burning in their hearts.  I wish I could just shake them and command them to be on fire for God again.  But I know it does not work that way.  It is something that each of us has to choose. It has to happen on the inside first then it will manifest on the outside.

The story of the Shunammite woman is an intriguing story.  The message comes that her child is sick and I look at this woman, and say, “Woman, what do you do now?”  What do you do when the pressure is on?  Where do you run when the pressure is on?  What do you say when the pressure is on?  Who do you turn to when the pressure is on?”  I will tell you one thing I appreciate about this woman, she did not quit!  She refused to grow bitter!  She did not sit at home and complain.  She kept a solid grip on God’s Word.

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

The promise of a son was spoken the Shunammite woman.  The next thing that happened was the promise came to pass.  God’s Word worked because that Word was spoken.  By a miracle of God a child was born to a couple who had been unable to have children.  The promise was given and the promise came to pass.  I would like to stop right there and be able to say that they lived happily ever after, but I must give you the whole story.  In Second Kings 4:18-22, “And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.”

How could a promise from God come to pass and yet end up being stolen?  A thief became involved and the promise was stolen because their son dies.  There are a lot of things being stolen in lives today.  There are probably some areas in your life where the enemy has tried to steal from you.

When you hear some people talk, God gets blamed for everything bad. God gets blamed for tornados, car wrecks, cancer, and for all kinds of catastrophes.  In fact, people blame God for the most terrible things that happen on the face of the earth.  Let me share some truths with you, from John 10:10.  Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Many people become disillusioned when the thief steals from them, because when something good gets stolen from them, they begin to doubt God.  We can relate to people who have bad things happen to them.  We do not doubt the sincerity and faith of someone who goes through difficult times.  We need to keep it straight in our thinking that the devil is the thief, not God.  God is the one who gives life.

We came home from church one night to our former house.  My wife, Joy, had been speaking to the ladies and I was out running errands.  When we came home, there was an unfamiliar odor in our house. That was not the only thing that was different, when I entered the kitchen I saw two cans of beer and I knew that something was wrong.  Joy looked at me and I looked at Joy, and I said, “Somebody has been in our house.”  We went through our house and everything was upside down, drawers were emptied and everything of value was gone.  It is a strange feeling when your home has been broken into.  Men take these things differently than women do, we want to get revenge.  We want to do something.  We want to help God, but in Romans 12:19 it reads, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

We had a couple with us that night and they said, “Well, let’s just praise the Lord!” My flesh did not like it, but I knew it was right.  I knew we needed to thank God that no one was hurt and things can be replaced.  I was not in the mood to praise the Lord, but I did it anyway.

There is something more important than protecting your valuables and that is protecting the blessing of God on your life.  Even when it looks like the thief has stolen your blessing, keep a grip on God’s promise.  In 2 Kings four the promised son died but the Shunammite woman kept hold of her faith, refused to act in fear, and she saw her son returned to life.  When this woman’s blessing seemed to be unraveling, she had to get a grip on the promise of God.  Satan wants to steal your gifts, your visions, your dreams.  If you have a business, do not be naïve about it.  Satan would like to steal the business.  You do not have to let him do it.  Do not turn loose of your faith and you will come out on the high side of victory.

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

I am standing here today because a promise was given in Romans 10:13, and I have stood on that promise: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Some people get in such deep theological discussions such as:  I just wonder who is foreordained to be saved and who is foreordained to be lost?  The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, that God is “. . . not willing that any should perish . . .” so there is no reason to go any further with that.  God is “. . . not willing that any should perish . . .” People are willing to perish, but God is not willing for them to perish.  It is not the will of God that some be saved and others be lost.  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  According to this verse God loves the whole world and the promise of God is salvation for “whosoever believes.”  You can trust God’s Word.

Advertisers make great promises but cannot always deliver on them.  For this reason you cannot believe every commercial.  If you think you can believe everything that you see on television then I have some property in Florida I would like to sell you.  It is a little under water right now, but it will get better.  Of course, I do not really have any property for sale, but the point is that you have to consider the source.  You can trust the promises of God for everything from salvation to provision because God is faithful.  The Word simply says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, “How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

In 2 Kings 4 there is a story about a woman who provided a room for the Prophet Elisha.  She furnished it with a candlestick, bed, and a desk.  You hear this sometimes referred to as a “prophet’s chamber.”  The room was a place for the prophet to stay when he came through the land.  The Word of God says that she perceived that he was a holy man and that she wanted to help him.  By providing Elisha with a room the woman positioned herself to receive a blessing.  The idea that we can position ourselves for the blessing of God is a truth that is becoming stronger in my heart every day. You do not have enough money to buy the blessings of God, but we position ourselves by our giving, by our faith, and by our obedience to God to receive God’s best.

For this reason, Elisha had it in his heart to bless her.  One day Elisha sent his servant to find out if there was anything that the woman needed.  Do you need me to speak to the king for you?  What kind of a favor do you need?  She did not express any specific needs to him, but the prophet found out that she did not have any children.  Then the prophet of God said in 2 Kings 4:16, “About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son.  And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.”

At that point in her life, the idea of having children seemed preposterous to her.  It is another one of those stories like Zachariah and Elizabeth or Abraham and Sarah, couples who were unable to have children.  Her husband was old and when she said, “. . . do not lie . . .” she was not making fun of the prophet of God.  She just said, “Prophet of God, you do not understand how impossible this is.”  But the Bible said in verse 17, “. . . the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.” 

Your Bible is a book of promises.  When I was a boy in Sunday school we used to sing “Every promise in the Book is mine; every chapter, every verse, every line.”  It was a song that appealed for us to have a simple childlike faith.  Somewhere along the way, someone may have told you, “You cannot believe like that.”  I want to tell you that every promise in the Book is yours – every chapter, every verse and every line.  And if you will believe it and if you will obey it, it shall come to pass.