Study Desk

I haven't made it to y'all yet because I've been so busy doing these things and riding these pastures and canyons.

I'm going to go to Spain and I'll stop in Rome to see y'all. I'll stay with y'all a while so you can offer me some much needed rest before I head out again.

Give a hug for me to Mary who has done so much for all of us.

Everyone knows y'all know the truth and ride for the Lord with all your heart. This makes me so proud. I want you to be wise in doing good things and innocent of wrong things.

The Jews want their miracles and the Greeks their lofty philosophies, so they both turn up their noses at our foolishness.

So don't be pulling the wool over your own eyes. Wisdom doesn't come from clever ideas or fancy words. If this is your wisdom then you should try to become fools. Only then will you know what it takes to become wise.

So, no more big-talking and name-dropping. You don't need any human to gain all things because they already belong to you.

So, don't look at Apollos and me as anything more than cowboys who've been put in charge of teaching you the mystery of how to ride for God.

So don't go making judgments about yourselves or others. If there's breath left in either, there's time to make things right. The only judgment that matters will happen when the Lord rides back through the main gate. Like a light in a pitch-dark tack room, he will reveal our darkest secrets and our secret prayers. Then, if there's attaboys to be given, God will do the givin'.

Now, cowboys and cowgirls, this is how Apollos and I ride for the Lord. We do this so you can see God's way in action. That's what the Good Book means when it says, "Don't do more'n what you're told." If you follow this, you won't be bragging about riding with any cowboy except Jesus.

So don't go making judgments about the way other cowboys do things. What gives you the right? What do you have that didn't come from God? And if you answer that everything is from God, then why brag like you're better than the next cowboy?

So watch me carefully and do what I do.

So I guess y'all have a decision to make. Do you want me to come back with a quirt or with love?

Then send this man down the road and let him ride with the devil so his evil ways will be destroyed. Hopefully, he will be saved when the Lord comes riding back.

Are y'all so dense that you haven't figured out that cowboys who act like that won't get through the narrow gate when their ride is done? You've got your hats pulled down over your eyes if you think perverts, idol worshipers, adulterers, gigolos, gays,

I know some of you used to do those things, but you sit in a new saddle now. It's been oiled and washed clean and so have you. Y'all are holy now. You've been made right with God by asking to ride for Jesus Christ and be guided by the Holy Ghost.

I know some of you are thinking, "Food was made for the stomach and the stomach was made for food." But just because this is true doesn't mean you should stuff yourselves like gluttons or use your body for sexual things God never intended. Don't use your bodies for your own pleasure, but for the will of God. He gave you your body so give your body to him.

Don't you know your body is the saddlebag for the Holy Ghost? You wouldn't throw God's great gift in the dirt and stomp on it, so don't do it to yourself either.

If you were a slave, don't fret about remaining so . . . but if you get the chance to be free, take it.

God paid a terrible price for you, so don't tie-on to the world's ways.