Used To...

Here is a Powerful Message from my husband Carl.
May the Lord Jesus minister to you through His Mighty Truth set forth in this message.
Connie

USED TO .......

" ...Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world..."
---2nd Timothy 4:10

Here in our text we have a man who "USED TO" serve God. In my thinking, I believe
that these are, oftentimes, Two of the saddest words that could ever be spoken or written
about any individual---"USED TO."

Let me name a few names and see what kind of picture I can paint in and upon your mind---

ADAM, EVE, SAMSON, KING SAUL, and the topic of our present text--DEMAS.

ADAM wasn't born into this world like you and I--he was fashioned, PERFECT, by the very
hand of ALMIGHTY GOD, his CREATOR ! The words of the old Hymn--"He walks with
me and He talks with me and he tells me I am His own "........were never more true than for
the very first man--ADAM.

Yet, in spite of it all, the Bible pages tell us that ADAM totally lost out with God.

We know, from Revelation 20:12, that God has and keeps books (records) in Heaven.
Maybe, He has a "Diary"; And maybe God has entries in his Diary about each and every
one of us---And maybe when God reads his Diary He is more BROKEN HEARTED than not.

Maybe, one day ALMIGHTY GOD, the CREATOR, took up his Diary and with TEARS
STREAMING DOWN HIS FACE FROM A BROKEN HEART penned these words---

"ADAM, you USED TO love me.....ADAM, you USED TO walk with me......

ADAM, where art thou ? ".......

And on and on we can go through the pages of the Holy Bible, History, and God's record books---

EVE ! You...... USED TO......

SAMSON ! You.....USED TO.......

KING SAUL ! You.....USED TO........

DEMAS ! He's gone..........

Think, dear friend, of the MIGHTY EXPLOITS, with GOD, that SAMSON accomplished !

Yet, if we listen real good, and look real hard down through the corridors of Time, it's as
if we can still see SAMSON. There he is ! Do you see him ?! He's bald now !
He lost his glorious covering ! Do you see SAMSON ?! He's going round and round the
same circle, day in and day out ! He's weak...emaciated....not even one iota of the man he once
was ! OH ! MY GOD !! LOOK !!! ---It's SAMSON, AND NOW HE IS A CAPTIVE AND SLAVE OF THE VERY ENEMY HE ONCE WREAKED HAVOC UPON !!!

What's that I hear ?! Do you hear it ?! Why, it's SAMSON ! He's mumbling something.......
Listen ! Do you hear it ?!----"I....USED TO..."

Then, of course, there is KING SAUL ! Head and shoulders above ALL the men of Israel !!
Now, we see him dying a SUICIDE'S death !!! And, if we could see him TODAY, we would
SEE HIM IN THE BOWELS OF HELL FIRE... and, if we could hear him TODAY, we would
HEAR HIM SCREAMING IN AGONY---"I...USED TO !!!!! "

Now, we come to DEMAS. See him SERVING GOD with the mighty Apostle Paul !

-----"THESE MEN HAVE TURNED THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN ! ! ! "-----

But wait a minute ! What's that I see ?!! Something else is now being penned in The Book of God--

"DEMAS HATH FORSAKEN ME, HAVING LOVED THIS PRESENT WORLD "

DEMAS ??? Well, He....USED TO.

Last, but not least, we now come to---YOU & I .

This present message came to me as I was in attendance at a Prayer Meeting, and very
grieved, as I heard a BROKEN HEARTED lady praying for a young teen-age girl---

"Oh, Lord ! Help her to yield to You, like she---USED TO......"

When it's "all said and done" and we lie cold and lifeless in the ground, will men be able to
write upon our tombstones---"FAITHFUL" ---or will it be----"USED TO ".

JESUS says---"BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE."

Carl Giordano
(Carl has a mailing list of his own. If you would like to receive his messages, write to cg172@juno.com

Carl & Connie Giordano
P. O. Box 383016
Duncanville, Tx. 75138-3016

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