Dear Friends,

This July 1st will mark the ten year anniversary of the inception of Hand to the Plow Ministries.  As I begin to write, I think of the many churches that have been visited and the many messages preached.  My burden has been that churches would catch on fire for the honor and glory of God, and burn with purity and holiness before God and Man.  As you can imagine, in the midst of the great falling away, this has been an incredibly difficult struggle.  I have desired and attempted to be transparent in my writings, and while some have been offended at things I have written and the path we’ve chosen, we will not compromise the Holy Word of God.  I have seen many good men go down because they have compromised the truth for fear of making waves.  All forms of sin are now tolerated in the local assembly, and oftentimes we hear, “We’re not supposed to judge”;  “Don’t be so legalistic”; these folks cannot see that a Holy God is going to judge sinners, and that confronting people about their sin in hopes of repentance and restoration is one of the highest forms of love that can be demonstrated.  Today very few ministers preach hard against sin.  I must confess, and I have shared this before, that sometimes I do grow weary in the struggle.  When this happens to me, I realize it is a sign that I have gotten my eyes off Christ and onto my circumstances.  Perhaps you sometimes feel the same way, and grow weary in the struggle to uphold holiness and true biblical standards in your local church.  I would encourage you to band together with a few who are like-minded and pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on your church.  Remember, He will begin with you.

Recently, while preaching near Philadelphia, a man from the congregation began commenting how “people” don’t want to hear truth anymore, and “they” don’t want to change, “they” don’t want to hear, “they” don’t want to turn.  I said, “All right, that’s fine, how about you?  Instead of pointing the finger at ‘them’, how about examining yourself?”  I didn’t know about him at the time, but later he came after me and said he would send a book, which he did, about how much of the Scripture is irrelevant to us today.  On a return trip he commented that there was no sense in reading someone else’s mail–referring to the gospels!  He was taking the doctrine of dispensationalism to an extreme position.  And yet, this deceived man is a pillar in a church that is filled with older people, and has no young people to fill leadership.  This situation is happening in so many places today because young people are not seeing the reality of true Christianity.

To you, God’s holy remnant, I urge you to keep looking up and keep fighting the good fight of faith.  Today there are pressures to yield to super-sensational spiritualism.  People claim to have incredible encounters that we have no patterns for in Scripture, or else we settle into a deadening mode of not seeking for anything and shying away from any type of moving experience.  Open your Bibles and cry out for light–that you “may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:10).  If you are feeling strong spiritual oppression – rejoice–because you are in a fight!  Satan is having a field day in America right now.  Look at the recent O.J. Simpson affair–a man so disturbed he’s riding around with a gun at his own head.  This is only one of the thousands of episodes every day in America.  And the Church sleeps on … Our spiritual leaders cannot preach against sin because they are embroiled in it themselves.  The whole world is crumbling, and the organized church is falling away.  YOU remain faithful.  You will never have this opportunity again – to be part of God’s last days army He is assembling right now.  He’s preparing His bride for the Rapture.  And while many think that saying the sinner’s prayer is all they need, they are in for a shocking surprise.  Christ is coming back for a pure, spotless Bride.  Would you want your son whom you love and have kept pure to marry a woman who looks at him and says, “I love you,” but whom you know is sleeping around with other men?  How do you think God the Father feels seeing those who profess His name playing the whore with the world?  We have doctrines today that make people feel very comfortable in their sin, but those are a refuge of lies.  As I’ve stated in previous letters, Jesus died not only to save us in our sins, but from our sins.  A Christian is a new creation–totally different.  A Christian won’t feel at home in the world.  A Christian will hunger and thirst after righteousness, and thoughts of carnality or lukewarmness will cause him to cry out to God for deliverance.  A true Christian will be persecuted by the organized church and by the world.  You won’t be liked by many.  I have seen ministers who preach holiness turn and vilify those in their congregation who live holiness.  “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12).

Again, I want you folks to know that what I preach is old fashioned Biblical holiness.  In this century theatrics and manipulations of audiences have taken the place of the Holy Spirit.  I believe God has begun to judge this in the Church, and many true believers are having their eyes opened to what the true gospel is–not just a ticket to heaven–but a transformed, overcoming life.  Read Rev. 2 & 3, and notice in the letters to each of the churches the Lord speaks to overcomers.

We want to thank many of you for standing with us through some very difficult times.  We so appreciate your encouragement.  We are all learning and growing in Christ.  I also wanted to assure you of our desire to keep going, preaching the gospel and calling out to God’s people wherever they are to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).

Your brother in Christ,

Jim