WHERE'S THAT DONKEY?                            

We preachers have been known to embellish the Word just a bit, adding a pinch of fiction, a dash of tradition, and maybe even a little exaggeration in our bid to make Sunday's serving of the Manna a little more appealing to the ear, and, just maybe, more appetizing to the spiritual palate. I'd like to share a few examples:

1/ “Brothers and Sisters, Saul was breathing out threatening and slaughter

against the disciples of the Lord Jesus. While on his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians, this Jesus that Saul was persecuting arrested his mission by shinning a bright light around him, flinging him from his donkey to the ground, and introducing Himself to him. A conversation followed. The light in his eyes, the pain of the fall from his donkey (Oh, the pain of that fall!) and the voice that no one else heard persuaded Saul to ask submissively, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' Hear me brothers, sisters and sinners, if God must, He can get your attention the same way He did Saul's! He can, and will, if necessary, slap you off your Donkey!” (Acts 9:1-9)

Where's that donkey found in that Passage?

2/ “I tell you Brothers and Sisters that Aaron the high priest went alone once a year into the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle once a year to atone for the sins of Israel. Those without, being forbidden to enter, listened intently for the ringing bells on the hem of his garment as Aaron ministered before the Lord. If those bells stopped ringing, everyone knew the sacrifice for Israel's year's worth of sin was insufficient to stay God's wrath. Aaron was dead! However, before his entering the Holiest there had been a rope tied to Aaron's ankle so that, in such case, he could be dragged out (Exodus 30:10; Exodus 28:35; Lev 16:16-17).” 

Where's that rope found in those Scriptures? And, if there were a rope, who would be alive to pull on it?  If Aaron's sacrifice was not accepted, then, yes, he would be dead, but all Israel would have died with him, for the sacrifice he offered was for all their lives to be spared yet another year.

 

3/ “Come on Brothers and Sisters! let's praise Him and lift him up! The Bible says in John 12:32 that if we lift Him up in praise He will draw all men unto Himself. Come on, lets lift Him up!! Let's praise Him!!”

Let's read that verse from the Bible: And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (John 12:32). And, we we might need to read the next verse: This he said, signifying what death he should die (John 12:33).

4/ “Abel offered a blood sacrifice to God. The ground had been cursed, yet Cain dared bring an offering of its fruit to the Lord. Did he really think that God would respect a sacrifice other than that of blood?”

Was blood really the determining factor of God's acceptance of Cain's sacrifice? Where was Cain's faith?? (Heb 11:4a By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,”

5/ “I tell you my Brothers and Sisters, that which God has waiting on the other side for us is beyond our imagination! He said in 1Cor 2:9 that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. You just can't possibly in any way know the beauty and splendor of all the things He is going to give us. There is just no way. But we will know when we get there that it was worth the wait to find out!”

Let's read the next verse: But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:10).

Makes me wonder just how many more donkeys are not really there:

Acts 17:10-11                                                                                       10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea [Thayers definition: well watered]: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.                                                   11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.