NEW AND IMPROVED PERIH . . . MAGAZINE
I know most of you
must be thinking, “I really love the new changes you have made to the
Perihelion!” That’s right, in addition to starting with a quote, we have
eliminated most of the listings under the upcoming events calendar because it takes up way
too much space to list all FIVE of Larry’s bookings. Most of you are
probably very excited about the full color glossy pages not to mention expanding to the 39
page magazine format! I actually checked a newsstand and it turns out most magazines have
expanded beyond the 4-page format so we kind of caved in to the peer pressure. (For more
details go to page 36.)
So once upon a time
in a Perihelion long, long ago, I did an interview with someone like Michael Jordan that I continued
on page 18 (or some such high number) of that newsletter. I was quite surprised when
someone actually called me to let me know that they were missing a few pages to the
newsletter, specifically the ones with the rest of the interview. In a related story, I am
also amazed at how many companies label their product “new and improved” when
all they actually do is change 1 or 2 little things while actually giving you less product
or information so they can cut back costs and make more money for themselves.
It is tricky when
you use humor because some of it is made up stories. I do want people to be able to trust
me so my goal is to tell you if something is made up, or hope that it is so outlandish it
is obvious that I made it up. For instance when I speak, I mention graduating # 1 in my
High School class . . . but of course, I was homeschooled. People obviously know I am just
joking . . . about the homeschooling part, of course! I am so old that homeschooling had
not been invented when I was growing up! Some people complain about walking to school 15
miles each way because they had no car. Well things were tougher when I was growing up. We
didn’t even have legs back in those days. We had to roll all the way to school
and roll all the way back. Those were tough days!
.
. . we must stop gullible warming now!
So back to the topic
at hand. I don’t want to say some people are gullible, because it is actually not
even a word in the dictionary. Look it up! I’ll wait. Quit putting it off until you
are done with the article, go ahead and look now! I looked up “gullible” in the
dictionary and it said if someone told you to look this word up in the dictionary and you
did, go look in the mirror. I looked in Jeff Foxworthy’s dictionary for the
word gullible and it said, “You might be gullible if . . . you really believe this
Perihelion has 39 pages.” You might be gullible if you believe everyone who calls
themselves a friend, always has your best interest in mind. Conversely, not everyone you
think is your enemy really is (like your parents, or the dentist, or the person in the
church business meeting who disagrees with you). “Our battle is not against flesh and
blood ... but spiritual forces of evil ...” (Eph. 6:12)
Some people in your church have the God given gift of discernment (I Cor. 12:10) so
please listen to them! You might be gullible if you believe everything a religious leader
says. Be like the Bereans who “... received the message with great eagerness and
examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul
said was true.” (Acts 17:11) “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but
test the spirits to see whether they are from God ...” (I John 4:1)
You
might be gullible if you believe everyone who calls themselves a Christian, really is a
follower of Jesus Christ. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will
enter the
Finally, I agree
that we must stop
gullible warming now! I am still not sure
how being gullible causes one’s temperature to rise, except that sweating is a
natural response when one is about to be devoured by a wild animal like a wolf. And so
Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as wise as
serpents and as harmless as doves.” (Matt. 10:16)
WARNING! BEWARE! Gullibility Computer Virus Alert!
The Gullibility Virus apparently makes people believe and forward copies of silly hoaxes relating to email viruses, get-rich-quick schemes, etc. This story is so important, we're using lots of exclamation points! Lots!! Forward it to all your friends right away! Don't think about it or check to see if it is true! For every message you forward to some unsuspecting person, the Home for the Hopelessly Gullible will donate ten cents to itself. (If you wonder how the Home will know you are forwarding these messages all over creation, you're obviously thinking too much!)
Kristen
and I were part of a church home group that often met at the home of a dear lady named
Marie Baugh. Someone once asked where my next trip was so they could be praying. I
couldn’t remember but Marie didn’t hesitate and told them exactly when and where
I would be next. I was kind of stunned and even more amazed when I discovered she had
memorized my entire schedule and would pray for every event I had. It became a running
joke because when I could not remember where I was scheduled to be next, I would just ask
Marie and she always knew. Afterward she would always ask how the event went or how many
people were saved, even once after I spoke at a state pastors’ conference!
Marie
had a bad fall in January and went into the hospital for surgery. When I talked and prayed
with her she said it was the most pain she had ever experienced her entire life. Things
unexpectedly took a turn for the worse; she slipped into a coma, slipped out of her body
and into the loving arms of her Heavenly Father.
A couple hours
after she passed into eternity, but before I knew it, I woke up unable to sleep and felt
like God was giving me words to share for her memorial. I fought back the tears and tried
to convince myself she was going to be OK. (Of course, she is OK now.)
Later that
morning when I heard the news, I was sad, shocked and emotionally distraught. When I got
in my car later I hit one of the preprogrammed buttons on the radio and heard a man
preaching. Since I almost always listen to music while driving, I started to change the
station but said a quick prayer asking if somehow God could use it to encourage me. The
preacher was in the middle of a story about a little boy who was scared of a bumblebee
flying around him, which had come inside the car as the family was traveling. The boy was
allergic and a sting could be fatal. The boy’s father stopped the car and was able to
catch the bee against the windshield and then held it in his hand. The boy was relieved.
He didn’t have to fear the bee any longer since his dad had caught it. Then after a
couple seconds, the father let the bee go free in the car again. Now the boy was in fear
once again that the bee would sting him. Then the father gently told his son he did not
need to be afraid anymore, as he opened his hand and showed his son the stinger. The
father had absorbed the pain of the sting so the bee would have no power over his son.
In the same
way, Jesus absorbed the sting of death on the cross and then conquered death by His
resurrection so that death would have no more power over us if we received His gift of
life. As I was driving, I had tears in my eyes at God’s timing of that reminder that
because of what Jesus did on the cross, Marie Baugh is not dead! Then the preacher read
from I Cor. 15:54, 55 "Death, where is your sting? Death has been swallowed up in
victory.” The power of death is dead because of what Jesus did! Sure, Marie’s
83-year-old physical body gave out but now she has a new one just like she wanted . . .
and no more pain. Just before Marie slipped out of consciousness, someone asked if there
was anything they could get her. She said, "A new body and heaven." Her request
was answered as she went into the presence of our awesome God with no more pain. Rev. 21:4
talks about that time when God will wipe away all the tears and there will be no more
pain. I do miss Marie. Not only was she one of the greatest prayer warriors for Larry Bubb
Ministries, but also she was a good friend. Thankfully, because of God’s gift and her
faith, I don’t have to say good-bye. I’ll just say, “See you soon,
Marie.”
A preacher, an
evangelist and a former state evangelism director walk into a restaurant. (I know the joke
is supposed to start out with a rabbi and a priest but this one really happened.) Harry
Williams is now 80 something and he was telling us fascinating stories about the good old
days and preaching back to back revival meetings each lasting 2 weeks in length (he would
preach some 56 times over the 4 weeks)!
One of his trips
involved chartering a small prop type plane with a friend to fly down to
As Harry was finishing many of the other details of the story, which due to time
and the G rating of this newsletter cannot be included here, the pastor of the church
where I was preaching the revival meeting, Richard Cavoretto, was writing on one of the
napkins at the restaurant. He mentioned that they could have summed up their experience
with these words, which he had penned on that napkin . . .“We killed the coffee and
then the coffee started killing us!!!!”
We got up to leave
and pay the cashier and as we were waiting at the front, one of the servers came up to us
with that napkin in her hand and a very distressed, panicked look on her face and apologetically asked, “Did
you all have the coffee
today?” We
couldn't keep from laughing as we realized she thought the near death experience described
on the napkin was from drinking their coffee. I think she was going to refund our money hoping to avoid a lawsuit!