Just Visiting.....

 

Dear Brother,

 

    It was so good to hear from you.  I am sorry I didn't answer your email immediately, but have been covered up with work, rain, flooding, health, and emails to answer.  Anyway.....

    Yes, I am still pastoring the little group of believers here in Columbia, Missouri.  We are just a few in number, but we are always blessed with the presence of our Lord when we assemble together.  We have some of the most wonderful Bible studies I have ever experienced.  How the Lord does bless!  We study book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and often word by word.  And how the Lord does open the Scriptures and enlighten and bless.  Praise the Lord!  He is so good to us. 

    Brother, thank God every day for your Godly wife.  Your wife sounds like a true woman of God, and everything a Godly wife should be.  It is sad to say, but most of the women today have been infected by the so-called "Women's Liberation Movement," and are too spiritually ignorant to realize that Satan's deception of Eve in the garden is being played out all over again.  My Helen was a dear humble, sweet Christian lady, and we were absolutely devoted to one another and to our Lord.  I still miss her so very much.  There is a pain there that only the rapture will ever heal.  Brother, every time you look at your wife, just remember that a "good wife" is a gift from God, and show her your love and appreciation for her every day.  I refer you to Proverbs 18:22 and 19:14.

    I fully realize the situation you spoke about in the churches.  We are living in that time of "falling away" plainly predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.  Sadly, the Laodicean spirit of compromise with the world system is all through the churches of America today.  The American people have enjoyed a time of unprecedented financial prosperity for now some 63 years since the end of World War II, and they no longer think that they need God.  They don't realize that it was the Lord who brought such prosperity, and it is the Lord that is now taking it away.  To say that the churches haven't been affected with this spirit of covetousnous would be ridiculous.  Just look at their magnificent buildings; monuments to the pride of man, exactly as the Lord predicted in Revelation 3:17-18.  And listen to the grandiose plans of the pastors and church leaders, as they lay plans for years to come.  Sic!  Many of them today actually think they are going to "take the world for Christ."  These modern preachers couldn't even stand in the shadow of the Apostles, and the Apostles weren't able to "take the world for Christ."  Such arrogant pride is spewing forth from most of the pulpits today, and it is indeed sickening, Revelation 3:16.  If the "blessed hope" is not the hope of all who claim to be "Christians" today, then they have no hope.  Destruction and death are dead ahead, and most are too spiritually blind and Biblically ignorant to see it.  God have mercy!

    Yes, my brother, I do believe what you are telling me about the poor children of God in other countries.  I have realized for many years that the presence and power of God's Holy Spirit is being withdrawn from the apostate churches of America, and  is being manifested in the poor "third world" countries.  I hear from poor children of God all over the world via the Internet.  The so-called "great end-time revival" blabbered about by some here in America today is indeed taking place, as the Lord graciously gathers in the very last of the Gentiles to be saved during this present dispensation.  But the revival is not taking place in America!  It is occurring in Russia, China, Africa, Indonesia, and many other third world countries where it still means something to be "a Christian."  People are being saved by the hundreds in those countries, and are paying a terrible price in persecution, robbery, rape, imprisonment, and death for placing their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than in the "dumb idols" of the heathen.  May God hasten the day when the Lord will come to rescue His true "born again" people from "this present evil world," Galatians 1:4, and take His people home to glory.  There is not a day goes by that I don't weep and pray over the apostasy of the churches and ministers here in America.  God have mercy!  If it were not for the grace of God, there wouldn't even be a believing remnant left in this vile, wicked country.  And yet many in this country are so spiritually bankrupt that they still spout, "God bless America" every time the wind blows in a different direction.  How can God bless a nation who is slaughtering 5 million unborn babies every year, a nation who has endorsed the homosexual sodomite movement, and is now courting the favor of the bloodiest most depraved religious system on the face of the earth?  How could "God bless America" under these conditions without being the biggest "hypocrite" in all of human history?  The only thing we have left here in America is "freedom," and that is swiftly being taken away from us. Sadly, most Americans and so-called "Christians" are too blind and ignorant to even realize that their "freedom" is being stolen from them by the wicked politicians they so exalt and adore. 

    Brother, I do read Chuck Baldwin's editorials often.  I am not acquainted with the Power of Prophecy or Pastor Butch.  My time is so limited that I don't visit a lot of websites other than Five Doves and Peggy McIlveene's website except on rare occasions.  I know there are many good ones out there, and I pray daily for every "man of God" who teaches and preaches the Word in truth without compromise. 

    Don't be silly brother.  Every child of God has their own "gift" from God for His ministry.  There is no way that me or anyone else can replace the "gift" that God gave to you.  But even if you did invite me to go along with you, I couldn't.  I have been a very poor preacher all my life, and I still am.  I couldn't even afford to travel anywhere to speak here in the States unless some dear saint or group of saints made it possible.  But that is okay.  My economic state is neither a complaint nor a boast.  The Lord has provided everything I have ever needed to serve Him, and that is all that matters.  I do know what "abundance" is, for at various times across the years I have been blessed with "abundance."  I truly believe the Lord gave it to me to see what I would do with it.  I can now look back and have the sweet knowledge that I invested my "abundance" in the Lord's work, and just continued to look to Him daily for my needs.  I know that there is a time coming when God's people shall inherit all the "riches" that Heaven itself has in store, so I am perfectly content to invest what little I have in the Lord's work here, and wait for the "riches" to come.  By the way, I don't want to discourage you, but I don't think you will make it to Indonesia and Sri Lanka in June.  I think God has another appointment for His people to keep this year, and not a one of us is going to miss it.  Glory! 

    Thank you dear brother for sending me your address and phone number.  My address is on every Bible study that I write.  My phone number is 573-514-4594.  You can try me any time, but your best shot of reaching me will be after 6 p.m. CST.  I am in and out every day.  But please feel free to call.  I would count it a blessing to fellowship with you even if we have to do it over the phone. 

    Thank you for writing dear brother.  I plan on sitting down in the Kingdom of God with you and others of God's people very soon, and having a time of fellowship that will never have to end.  Praise the Lord!  God bless you.  Pray for me. I always need the prayers of God's people. Your brother in Christ,

 

          Pastor F. M. Riley