Clary's Christian Comments

The Lies of The Ottawa County Republican Leadership

2011-12-12T05:57:00.000-08:00

False and slanderous allegations made by members of the Ottawa County Republicans were printed Sunday Nov. 6th, 2011, in the Miami News Record editorial section. Mike Tuttle serves as the Secretary of the Ottawa County Republicans but also works for Jay Calan at his place of business. Tuttle’s letter went back over 22 years to dig up my past association with the Ku Klux Klan and Professional Wrestling. It's no secret that I was once in the Klan and that I quit the KKK and became a Christian. My story is told all over the world in churches, books, magazines, and TV shows. However, Tuttle did not bother to check his facts and simply copied from the Internet stories written by the KKK and other Aryan supremacists in a juvenile attempt to discredit me. Therefore, I feel I must take the time to set the record straight, especially since I am the President of the Ottawa County Conservatives, a voting member of the Ottawa County Ministerial Alliance, a licensed ordained minister, an International Evangelist, an Official Diversity Change Agent with the United States Armed Forces, and a consultant lecturer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

I did not quit the KKK to become a professional wrestler. I was in the Klan when I became a professional wrestler. I lost my wrestling career because of my appearances as a Klan member on Oprah Winfrey and other talk shows. Tuttle went on to cite my “interference” in wrestling matches and stated that I cost another wrestler his belt by interfering in his match. I think it is sad that Mike Tuttle, a mature adult, does not know what most ten-year-olds know: Professional Wrestling is fake. When men who weigh over 250lbs hit one another in the face 30 times and no one bleeds, that can't be real! It is all acting and scripted. To use my involvement in Pro Wrestling in an attempt to assassinate my character is equivalent to attacking an actor in a play at the Coleman Theater for portraying a villain. After reading Tuttle's letter, one Miami pastor stated that he wonders if Tuttle sits up on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa Claus to bring him presents! Can the Republicans of Ottawa County be comfortable knowing that one of their elected officials believes professional wrestling is real? This is only one reason I believe that the people in leadership of the Ottawa County Republicans are an embarrassment.

Tuttle lied and said I left the Klan 1990, but it's a documented fact that I left the White Knights of the Klan in 1989.

The most serious of Mike Tuttle’s accusations against me was his statement that I admitted to committing several felonies. This is a slanderous lie. There is a TV interview and other media in which I was asked about something illegal that happened when I was in the Klan. In those interviews, I used the word “we” in describing the incident; but it is clear that it was an editorial “we” because I was a leader in the Klan at the time of the incident being discussed. I was taking responsibility as a Klan member for the action, but at no time did I say I was the one who personally performed the illegal action. Tuttle used the term "felonies" which misleads the reader into thinking I admitted to several felonies. Tuttle says that, to his knowledge, I have never been held accountable for my actions. He then says he wonders how this could be possible. It's possible because they never happened.

Tuttle also made the blatant false accusations that I have made a career out of self-promotion by manipulating the facts of my past and that I use the pulpit for personal and monetary gain. I am extremely surprised that a retired career law enforcement officer as he claims to be would not know the legalities in publishing a letter of libelous and slanderous falsehoods. I have NEVER manipulated any facts of my past; and, as any pastor or evangelist, I have received voluntary donations and have been paid for my ministry just as Mr. Tuttle is paid for his work. There is no proof to the contrary. Tuttle has crossed the line with his outright lies to the people of Ottawa County, and he must be held accountable for that.

There are plenty of facts to back up everything I have ever told about myself, including all media forms. I speak in mainline churches all over the world. I am a regular speaker at the FBI Training Academy where I help train law enforcement officers on how to combat and understand the mindset of hate groups and gang members. One cannot set foot on the FBI Training Academy grounds, located on a secure military base, without undergoing an extensive background check. If I were a liar and manipulator of the facts of my past as Mr. Tuttle stated, I would not be granted access to those grounds or be used by the FBI as an authority on hate groups. I am a diversity speaker for the United States Armed Forces and have been given an award from the U.S. Army as an “Official Change Agent.” In addition, just last year, I addressed Pentagon officers, including generals, at Ft. Belvoir, for the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and I conducted chapel services for the officers and their families. I work with educational systems across the world implementing an Anti-Bullying program for children in addition to teaching them to take a stand against racism. There is more than enough proof that will hold in a court of law to back up everything I say. However, there is no proof to what Mr. Tuttle says; and he should be concerned.

Both Jaycee Calan and Betty Goodrich lied in their letters that I was defeated by Greg Heibert for an officer’s position in the Ottawa County Republicans by 45-4 votes. There were 40 people in attendance that night and not 48 as they led the people to believe. I was not campaigning but was nominated for an office, and so was Greg Heibert. The vote count was 33-7 and not 45-4. Until that night, the largest attendance at a regular 2011 meeting of the Ottawa County Republicans was about 15. The elections were held due to the resignation of the former OCR Chairman Scott Morton who had been hounded by Jay Calan to resign. This left my wife, the Vice-Chairman, as acting Chairman. The night Mr. Morton resigned, Mr. Calan came into the meeting throwing his fists back, challenging me to fight him. Dr. Heibert also childishly asked me if I wanted to “throw down” with him. Some people who had never been to a meeting before got up and left due to the behavior of Jay Calan. The night of the elections, about a month later, approximately 25 people showed up who had never been to a meeting. Many of them said they received a phone call telling them to come vote for Jay Calan. It was obvious that Mr. Calan had stacked the deck in his favor. Since the overwhelming majority of people there were under orders to vote for Jay Calan or Greg Heibert, no one else stood a chance of election. I didn’t need the position anyway since my wife was already Vice-Chairman at the time of the ‘election,’ outranking both Heibert and Tuttle. We could have stayed in their group with my wife as 2nd in command, but we did not wish to be associated with these embarrassing people after witnessing what they have done in Ottawa County.

Jaycee Calan claims in his letter that the majority of Republicans in Ottawa County stand behind Jay Calan and Greg Heibert. There are over 4500 registered Republicans in Ottawa County. Fewer than 1% attended the meeting to vote them in, yet Mr. Calan claims to have the backing of the majority of Republicans? In 1992, KKK Leader David Duke ran for the Republican nomination for President against then President George H.W. Bush and received less than 1% of the vote! It would be absurd to say David Duke represented the majority of Republicans with such a low count any more than saying that Jay Calan and Greg Heibert represent the majority of Republicans in Ottawa County with the same percentage.

Greg Heibert’s editorial telling me how to minister on how Apostle Paul preached door to door just shows his ignorance of the Bible. Paul wrote several letters to churches, and he established churches and preached in them. Jesus Himself preached in the Synagogues. I do not have the credentials to go into Dr. Heibert’s place of business and tell him how to fill a cavity in a tooth. Likewise, he has no credentials to tell me how to work in the ministry.

As for the rest of his and Betty Goodrich’s rants, all I can say is: Just consider the source!

I am thankful my wife resigned from a position of leadership in the OCR, and I am sorry that we ever had anything to do with the people who now lead it. Jesus is the answer, not the Ottawa County Republican party!

Johnny Lee Clary

You Can't Always Get What You Want

2011-10-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

Phil. 4:13 says God will supply all of your needs according to His riches and glory in Heaven. Notice it says "needs" and not "wants" As a follower of Christ, you can't always get what you want but you get what you need. It is a false teaching to teach that God wants everyone to have everything they want. The Bible does not say that.

I remember when I was a young Christian, I prayed for things and claimed things in Christ's name that I had no business praying for or claiming but I was caught up in that type of teaching because I was listening to the wrong people. For example I was told as long as you give a certain amount you can name what you want and claim it. The problem is when you name it and claim it, it could be violating someone else's will or God's will. Also if I would have gotten certain things I claimed from God back in those days, I would have screwed it up because I would not have known how to handle it.

It is sort of like someone with an addiction to gambling who becomes a new Christian. They then listen to a teaching that as long as you give a certain amount of money, God is going to give you what you want and a hundred-fold return on your money. The new Christian then puts a huge amount of money in the offering and gets back a hundred-fold return which is taught by some misguided teachers. The gambling addict would now be tempted to use that money to feed their addiction which they have not been delivered long enough from; meaning they still struggle with the desire to gamble. That would cause more harm to the person than good. Why would God do that? Well, I can answer that. He wouldn't. So the teaching that you will receive a hundred-fold return every time you give is false.

Yes the Bible does talk about a hundred fold return, but no where does it say you are going to get that each time you give money to a church or a preacher. Mark 10: 28-30: "Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's,But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life."

Jesus taught that people who forsook home, family, and land meaning everything that they had, would receive a hundred-fold return. First rule is one must forsake ALL to follow Him. In order to receive a hundred-fold return. A hundred-fold means a hundred times as much. This is not to be understood literally, but that he will give what will be worth 100 times as much in the peace, and joy, and rewards of being His follower. It is also literally true that no man's temporal interest is injured by the love of God.Mark adds, "with persecutions." These are not promised as a part of the reward; but amid their trials and persecutions they should find reward and peace.

To teach that God favors those who give more money is wrong. As I grew over the years and got more mature in God, I discovered that God does not work that way. God never shows favoritism among His people. Acts 10:34 says exactly that. You may think that you will be a better Christian and it will increase your faith if God gave you everything you want. The truth is that often the things we want can distract us from from focusing on God. God is our Father. He knows what we need and according to His word He will supply those needs, but His word never says He will also supply your wants. God is your Father and your manufacturer. He knows what is best because He made you. He knows what you can handle and what you can not handle. He is looking out for you. It is time for Christians to start giving out of their love for Christ and not their desire for riches or to get what they want.

To those who teach that God is all about making you rich, I leave you with these scriptures:

1 Timothy 6:9-11

"But people who want to get rich keep falling into temptation. They are trapped by many stupid and harmful desires which drown them in destruction and ruin. Certainly, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people who have set their hearts on getting rich have wandered away from the Christian faith and have caused themselves a lot of grief. But you, man of God, must avoid these things."

Johnny Has His Say On Japan

2011-03-19T05:21:00.000-07:00

What a horrifying nightmare Japan had to go through. An earthquake at the magnitude of 8.9! That is one of the largest ever recorded in history! Then to top it all off, the world watched in horror as the Tsunami came ashore and wiped out everything in it's path! The death tolls are in the thousands and climbing higher each day with many more missing and still not recovered.

Japan was the only nation in history to suffer two atomic bombs being dropped on it in World War II and leaving 340,000 people dead. Yet through all of this, Japan managed to build itself up again and become one of the most productive nations the world has ever seen. I have always admired how they discipline their children at a very young age and train them up to be the most intelligent business people in the world. They test them early on and then determine where their skills would best fit and give them the best education and training the world can offer. This is why they grow up to be experts in whatever field they enter. The same cannot be said about other nations including the United States.

Japan has contributed so much to the world and now they have to once again suffer devastation that has not only killed thousands but threatens to destroy their nation with a possible nuclear meltdown.

However, unlike other nations who beg the United States and it's allied forces to come help them rebuild, Japan is getting up and will get back up on their feet whether others help or not! Don’t get me wrong. I am positive Japan appreciates the Americans, the Aussies, and others who are rushing in to help rescue people, help the injured and help rebuild Japan in whatever way they can, but they will not sit on their rear ends like some other nations have waiting for a handout. They are already back to work doing what needs to be done to accomplish their goals. That is one reason why they are the most productive intelligent people in the world.

You see the Japanese are a proud people. I admire them. They have honor. It’s like “Hey we appreciate your help, but we are getting the job done whether you are on board or not.” They have wise sayings which they not only say but practice what they say. A Japanese proverb says, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” You see they have been knocked down many times but they always get back up again. The world can learn from that.

God Bless Japan!
Rev. Johnny Lee Clary
©www.johnnyleeclary.com

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham Radio show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, Sunrise Today,
The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales.

Al Capone Says: “Happy Valentine’s Day!”

2011-02-14T22:06:00.001-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

On Thursday Morning, Feb. 14th, 1929, gangster George “Bugs” Moran was walking to the Clark Street garage in Chicago for a meeting that had been set up, when he saw a police car pull up in front of the building. Rather than risk a shakedown, Moran decided to go to a café to have a cup of coffee and wait for the heat to die down. As it turns out that was the best choice he ever made in his life.

“Bugs” Moran

Ever since Al Capone had moved to Chicago around 1920, the city had been rocked by gangland wars. Prohibition was the law of the land which outlawed alcoholic beverages and the gangsters cashed in on it, selling illegal (bootleg) booze. Mobsters divided Chicago up into 4 sections, North, East, West and South. The most powerful was Johnny Torrio who controlled the Southside, which he inherited after the murder of his boss, “Big Jim” Colosimo who was gunned down. Colosimo's secretary Frank Camilla described the fleeing assailant as a heavyset man with scars on the left side of his face; an accurate description of Al Capone, although he was never arrested.

Big Jim Colosimo

The North side of Chicago was controlled by Irish mobster Dion O’Banion and he came into conflict with Torrio and Capone. O'Banion cheated Torrio out of $500,000 in a brewery acquisition deal and caused Torrio's arrest. Torrio was furious and ordered a hit on O’Banion. On November 10th, 1924, O’Banion was to pay the ultimate price for what he did to Torrio. O’Banion who owned a flower shop which he used as a front to cover his mob involvement, was working that day when Chicago mobsters John Scalise and Albert Anselmi walked into the shop. “Oh hello boys! Are you here for the floral arrangement? “ O’Banion said as he reached out to shake their hands. One of the mobsters clasped O’Banion’s hand and then drew his gun along with his partner and pumped O’Banion full of bullets.

Dion O’Banion

North Side mobsters who were friends and partners with O’Banion, Earl "Hymie" Weiss and George "Bugs" Moran vowed revenge for O’Banion’s murder. On January 24, 1925, Torrio was returning to his apartment at 7106 South Clyde Avenue from a shopping trip with his wife Anna. Moran, Weiss and another mobster who was driving the car lay in wait to ambush Torrio. A hail of gunfire from Weiss and Moran greeted Torrio's car, shattering its glass. Torrio was struck in the jaw, lungs, groin, legs, and abdomen. Moran attempted to deliver the final bullet into Torrio's skull, but ran out of ammunition. The driver of Moran and Weiss’s car signaled that it was time to go, and the three Northsiders left the scene. Although Torrio was severely wounded, he survived but recovered slowly from the assassination attempt. Capone had men guarding Torrio around the clock to make sure his beloved boss and mentor was safe. Torrio observing the rules of the mob to keep silent, refused to tell the police the names of his assailants. Right after his release from jail, Torrio served a year in jail for Prohibition violations. After his release, Torrio said to Al Capone, “It’s all yours Al. I’m quitting,” and moved to Italy with his wife and mother.

Johnny Torrio

Al Capone became the big boss now and the war between the mobsters grew even more violent. The rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire could be heard throughout the streets of Chicago as Capone and the Moran-Weiss gang hit back and forth at each other for control of the bootleg empire. The Moran-Weiss mob murdered Capone’s trusted chauffeur and tortured him for hours before ending his life. His body was found on Aug. 3rd, 1926. A week later on August 10th, the Capone mob struck back with an attempted hit on Weiss, but they were unsuccessful. On September 20, 1926, a motorcade of ten cars from the North side mob roared up in front of the Hawthorne Hotel restaurant where Capone and his entourage were having lunch and in broad daylight opened fire riddling the restaurant with bullets from Thompson sub-machine guns and shotguns. Capone's bodyguard Frankie Rio, threw his boss to the ground at the first sound of gunfire and lay on top of “Big Al” as the headquarters was riddled with bullet holes. Several bystanders were hurt from flying glass and bullet fragmentation in the attempted assassination, including a young boy and his mother who would have lost her eyesight had not Capone paid for top-dollar medical care for her. After this Capone called for a truce but the North side mob wanted no part of a truce; they just wanted Capone dead.

Hymie Weiss

Capone’s men gunned down Hymie Weiss on October 11th, 1926. Moran was furious and all hell broke loose. The next couple of years were hit-for-hit between the North and South side in what became known as the Capone-Moran war. Several attempts were made upon Capone’s life until finally, Capone had had enough. Capone hired Chicago hitman Machine Gun Jack McGurn to put an end to Moran once and for all by sending them the reddest Valentine ever. McGurn planned everything out carefully and Capone headed to his vacation home in Miami, Florida while the hit went down.

Weiss dead

On Feb. 13th, 1929 McGurn had a local booze hijacker contact Moran and offer to sell him a shipment of Old Log Cabin whiskey (i.e. very good liquor) which he was willing to sell at the very reasonable price of $57 per case. Moran quickly agreed and told the hijacker to meet him at the garage at 10:30am the following morning. McGurn got his hands on a police car and two police uniforms. He then brought in two torpedoes (hitmen) from out of town, just in case there were any survivors no one would be able to finger them as part of Capone’s mob.

Machine Gun Jack McGurn

On the morning of Feb. 14th, 1929, McGurn had posted two men as lookouts to watch the S.M.C. Cartage Company garage at 2122 North Clark Street. At 10:30am the lookouts phoned McGurn and told him they had spotted Bugs Moran heading into the garage. McGurn’s hitmen went into action. The stolen police car pulled up in front of the Clark Street garage and 4 men got out; two wearing police uniforms and two wearing suits, overcoats and fedora hats, and entered the garage.

The man the lookouts spotted as Bugs Moran was not Moran at all, but a man that closely resembled him, named Albert Weinshank. Moran was just about to the garage when he saw the police car and rather than risk what he believed would be a shakedown, he headed off to a café to drink coffee until the “shakedown” was over.

Reenactment photo of the shooters

Once inside the garage, 7 men saw what they thought was cops and just figured it was a routine police raid. The 7 men were told to put their hands in the air and line up against the brick wall. The gunmen then opened fire, using two Tommy guns, a sawed-off shotgun, and a .45 caliber pistol. The killing was fast and bloody. Each of the seven victims received at least 15 bullets, mostly in the head and torso. One of the gangsters fell with one side of the top of his head completely blown off.

Actual photo of the aftermath of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Neighbors heard the gunfire and were watching the garage. They reported seeing two men in suits wearing hats and overcoats with their hands in the air coming out of the garage followed by two uniformed policemen with their guns trained on them. They said the two men in suits were put in the backseat of the police car and the two policemen climbed in front and drove off. The neighbors assumed that the police had staged a raid and was arresting two mugs. As a matter of fact, after it was discovered to be a massacre many of the neighbors for several weeks believed the police did it. Six of the victims died in the garage; Frank Gusenberg was taken to a hospital but died three hours later, refusing to name who was responsible. The dead were identified as Frank Gusenberg, Pete Gusenberg, John May, Albert Weinshank, James Clark, Adam Heyer, and Dr. Reinhart Schwimmer. Each of these men had 15-20 or more bullets in him. The only one who would survive the massacre that day was a German Shepherd dog the police found cowering and shaking underneath a car.

Another actual photo view of the massacre

The massacre on that Valentine’s Day made headlines all across the United States. People from everywhere was shocked by the violent brutal killings of the 7 men. Capone’s alibi was bullet-proof. At the time of the massacre he was in the Dade County Florida’s District Attorney’s office. Jack McGurn had an iron clad alibi also. He had been at a hotel with his blond girlfriend from 9:00am Feb. 13th, until 3:00pm Feb. 14th.

Jack McGurn and his girlfriend who was his alibi

Moran was sitting in the café drinking coffee when someone rushed in the door and said that Bugs Moran and his gang were just gunned down at the Clark street garage. Moran immediately left the cafe and went into hiding. A few days later he gave an interview to the media and made the statement, “Only Al Capone kills like that!” When reporters in Miami, Florida told Capone what Moran said, he replied, “Well they don’t call that guy “Bugs” for nothing!” Bugs means loony or crazy.

George “Bugs” Moran

To this day no one has ever been tried for the St. Valentine’s day Massacre.

Legend has it that the two hitmen in civilian clothes were discovered later to have taken part in a plot to betray Capone. Capone lured them to a banquet dinner he was hosting in a banquet room at a Chicago hotel, and while the men sat at the table in front of several witnesses Capone beat the two men with a baseball bat within an inch of their lives, before Capone’s henchmen took them out and finished the job with bullets.

Jack McGurn was murdered on Feb. 15th, 1936 while bowling in a bowling alley in Chicago. The killers placed a Valentine’s card in his dead hand.

The body of Jack McGurn gunned down in a Chicago bowling ally

George “Bugs” Moran managed to hold on to his territory for a short time after the massacre but lost control after the repeal of Prohibition when liquor was made legal again. Moran was suspected of the murder of Jack McGurn because he was known to be a prankster and to write funny limericks. A limerick was found on the Valentine’s card that had been placed in the dead hand of McGurn. However, Frank Nitti, who was Capone’s enforcer was also a suspect because McGurn had become a liability risk to the Chicago mob, getting drunk and shooting off his mouth. Whatever the case, Moran turned to bank robbery and was caught and sentenced to ten years in prison, and then once released he was sentenced again to another ten years for a prior bank robbery. Moran died in prison of lung cancer on Feb. 25th, 1957, with only $100.00 net worth. He was given a pauper’s funeral.

Johnny Torrio

Johnny Torrio returned to the USA and was given much respect by the Mafia as an elder statesmen. He lived to the ripe old age of 75 when he died April 16th, 1957 while sitting in a barber chair getting a haircut.

Al Capone The Man Who Ruled Chicago

And whatever became of Big Al Capone? Well, the police never did get him for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, however the government came after him for income tax evasion. The judge in the case heard a rumor that Capone’s mob was trying to bribe and intimidate some of the jurors so in the last minute before the trial began the judge railroaded Capone by ordering the jury to be switched with another jury on another trial. This very act should have called for a mistrial because the defense did not have a chance to question the new jurors as required by law. They found Capone guilty and he was sentenced to 11 years in the Federal Penitentiary. Capone appealed but it was denied. Capone was sent to Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary which was a very tough prison, but the judge then found out that Capone was able to obtain special privileges there and he ordered Capone transferred to Alcatraz Island Federal Prison on August 11th, 1934 under the tightest security possible and ordered that while in Alcatraz, Capone could not have any contact with the outside world. Capone has clearly drawn the wrath of the federal government who were determined to punish him as hard as anyone could be punished.

Capone on his way to prison

While in Alcatraz Capone got into a fight with an inmate who stabbed him but Capone only received a minor wound. He was more seriously injured by an old case of syphilis from many years before that went untreated. He spent his last year in Alcatraz in the prison hospital confused and disoriented a lot of the time. He was released from Alcatraz Jan. 6th, 1939 and was transferred to Terminal Island Penitentiary to serve a one year misdemeanor sentence, before being paroled Nov. 16th, 1939 after which Capone moved to his estate home in Miami, Florida.

Ariel view of Capone’s estate

Capone had not lost his mind completely, but he was unable to return to running the mob. He was known to have gone into fits of rage while playing tennis when someone would beat him, he would yell to his guards, “I want this guy taken care of! “ At times he would seem OK, and then for no apparent reason he would fly off the handle and start having imaginary conversations yelling at people who were not there such as Bugs Moran and Hymie Weiss threatening to have them rubbed out. Sometimes he would sit by his swimming pool in his bathrobe with a fishing pole, thinking he was fishing. He constantly yelled and carried on about Communists, foreigners and Bugs Moran, who he was convinced was plotting to kill him from his prison cell in Ohio.

Capone used to fish in his swimming pool wearing his bathrobe

Al Capone suffered a stroke on Jan. 21st, 1947, but then he started to improve when he contacted pneumonia on Jan. 24th, and suffered a fatal heart attack the very next day on Jan. 25th. He died in his home surrounded by his family including his wife who collapsed at the scene.

Al Capone a changed man

One thing the history writers most always neglect to mention, is that Al Capone repented of his sins while he still had some of his right mind left. He asked Jesus into his heart and became a Christian. Capone was released from Alcatraz on January 6, 1939 and sent to the Federal Correctional Institute at Terminal Island near Los Angeles. There, one Sunday Reverend Silas A. Thweatt, pastor of the First Baptist Church of San Pedro, California, held a church service. When he asked if any needed prayer, Capone raised his hand. They prayed. When Thweatt gave the invitation, according to his account in Time Magazine, "'At the close of the talk, Capone's face seemed to radiate, and when I asked those prisoners to stand who felt the need and will to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, he was the first to rise.' That this "conversion" had taken place, no one doubted."² Al Capone was the first of 16 men to stand up.^3,4,5

Judging from newspaper accounts, Capone's conversion took place on or before March 19, 1939. By September 1939. His mind began to go a few months later.

Even when Capone was head of Chicago’s mob, he gave money to the poor, and also opened up soup kitchens to feed the homeless and hungry, which the government was not doing. He was known to have a generous heart and to have had his driver pull over and hand kids money that looked poor and hungry. He also provided coal for widows and orphaned children so they could keep warm in the winter.

Al Capone’s grave marker reads:

Alphonse Capone
1899-1947
My Jesus Mercy

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

Happy Valentine’s Day!

2. "Religion: Bitter Thweatt," Time, April 10, 1939. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761014,00.html
3. John Kobler. Capone, The Life and World of Al Capone, (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press), 2003, p. 372.
4. "Al Capone Turns to Religion," St. Petersburg Times, March 25, 1939, p. 5.
5. "Capone, Leaning Toward Religion, Attending Services Regularly," Los Angeles Times, March 24, 1939, p. 1.

Are You Fat And Disrespectful?

2011-02-12T15:35:00.000-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Deuteronomy 32:15 says “Jeshurun got fat and disrespectful. (You got fat! You were stuffed! You were gorged!) They abandoned the God who made them and treated the rock of their salvation like a fool.”

Jeshurun was another name for Israel which meant ‘righteous nation.’

Here is the problem in a nutshell. Israel had everything it could possibly want as it was blessed of God, as well as protected by God. (Deuteronomy 32:9-12) It is almost like Israel being chosen by God to be the CEO of a billion dollar corporation. The possibilities and potential was limitless.

So what happened? Well, once the contract was signed and the agreement was made Israel was not hungry anymore. They felt like there was no longer a need to ask God for help or to pray for the crops because they now had everything. See that was the problem. When you have everything you can forget real easy the fact that you still need God which is what Israel did and they grew fat and lazy.

The very people God had blessed and prospered rebelled against Him.

Isn’t it interesting how we tend to forget about God when everything is going well? Before the big test at school, we pray. When we are sick, we pray. When we need money we pray. When we are looking for a mate, we pray. When we want that job we pray. When we want that promotion we pray.

Yes whenever someone is in trouble, all of a sudden God is first and foremost in their life and all they can do is pray. Then when the prayer gets answered and the blessings start rolling in, that prayer time seems to diminish and people end up spending less and less time talking to God.

When we first join the football team, we are ready and willing to do what the coach says to do no matter how hard it is or how much discipline it will require. Then give us a few victories and we become fat and sassy and busy reading our own headlines. We let the fans praise us and forget to give praise to the One who made it all possible which is God. This same thing happens to many Christians in their relationship with God. A few successes and we forget about God and His word. They fail to realize that it is through Him that we move and have our very being. (Acts 17:28)

I remember someone making fun of me one time for praying over my meal. They said “I won’t give thanks to God like you do, because I worked for my money and earned what I have!” What the guy didn’t realize is without his legs that God gave him and as a matter of fact a good healthy body, he would not be able to work. He was too stupid to realize that.

Let Israel’s rise and fall be an example to us. Being fat and filled up does not always lead to you being faithful. It can lead to you being faithless if you are not careful! Be sure and give thanks and honor and praise to God after every success and victory that cokes your way.

I remember a guy that had an ex-wife back years ago in the 80’s, that packed on 40 pounds within a few months after getting married. She hit the couch, stuffed her face with junk food, and let herself go. He asked her why she was gaining so much weight and why she was not taking care of herself anymore. She replied that she was married now and didn’t need to diet and do all that special stuff to look good anymore. That did not make him feel special at all which is probably why they are divorced today. What she did was take him for granted and show him that she had no respect for him whatsoever. Did you ever stop to think that is how God feels sometimes?

How about you? Have you taken God for granted in any area?

Pray this: God I repent of my pride and ego that has kept me from seeing that I need you all the time and in everything I do. Please remove conceit and arrogance from me. Help me not to get too fat and filled up that I forget that it is you that gave me the blessing. I need you in everything I do and I give you honor and glory. Always remind me of this prayer in case I forget. I pray I never again become fat and disrespectful! Amen.

©Johnny Lee Clary
All Rights Reserved
www.johnnyleeclary.com

Getting God's Best

2011-02-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Do you know that God wants His absolute best for you and that includes dating! God does not want you to settle for second best or anything below His best. God wants your dating relationships to be HOLY! That means only date people who honor God! Anything less is not only dishonoring yourself but God as well.

When I was a single man, I used to hear people in church say ridiculous things like, “Don’t date; just pray for your mate!” Hogwash! You just can’t sit around and wait for God to act like a Genii in a lamp and say “Poof! There’s your mate!” It is unrealistic not to date in order to find the right person, but when you date, treat your date the way Christ would treat that person. Wait until marriage to be sexually active and be completely honest with what you say and do. Be yourself and let the date see your true self. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble and heartache that way. If you lie to the date and put on false pretences you will eventually be found out when you grow tired of putting on a façade and the other person will more than likely dump you faster than a supermodel would dump a fat man!

Deuteronomy 14:2 says “You are people who are holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the people who live on earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his own special possession.” Therefore you need to exemplify holiness. Now if you do that then you should expect to attract the same type of person. Sometimes you end up attracting the opposite. I remember going out on a date once with a girl I met in church. She was a foxy mama. I also thought she was holy, that is until she lit up a cigarette in my car and said the F-word! That was the end of that. A person should not just look at the outside either. For example there was a girl I was so attracted to that looked just like Madonna that I met in a Tulsa church. I thought she was holy because she praised God in church and sang in the choir; that is until she dropped by my house one day to go swimming in my pool and suggested we get naked and get in the shower together! Get thee behind me Jezebel! That was the end of that date!

So many think it is OK to date non-Christians in hope that they can convert them. You are playing with fire there. Christians almost always get drug down into the pigpen instead of pulling the pig up out of the mud. Then they end up either in the pastor’s office crying their heart out asking for prayer or in the confession booth talking to the priest, or backsliding all together.

Make sure you conduct yourself in a way that pleases God and don’t settle for anything less than someone who does the same. I used to know a girl from church that dated guys and she wore miniskirts, low cut tops that exposed the cleavage and flaunted that body like a hooker at a downtown club on a Saturday night. Then she complained about guys trying to take advantage of her. However girls that I knew that dressed appropriately didn’t seem to have that problem. It is also the way someone acts that can cause problems too. I remember working for a boss of a siding company back in the 1980’s that bore an amazing resemblance to the comedian Rodney Dangerfield, named Mr. “B”. There was this girl I knew named Brenda who worked there that was a backslidden daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher. Her father pastured a small church and worked for Mr. “B” selling siding on weekdays in Oklahoma City and got Brenda a job there. Brenda dressed nice but not provocative. However she didn’t need to dress that way because she was so pretty that she could have worn a potato sack and still been a stone fox. Brenda knew how to flirt and make the guys all jump to look at her. She went into Mr. B’s office and flirted with him one day and according to Brenda, the old codger who was old enough to be her grandpa chased her around the desk about 20 times before she was finally able to get out the door. She threw a fit but she had no one to blame but herself. Remember that what you throw out as an advertisement will attract that same thing.

The Bible says to be Holy because your Father in Heaven is Holy. (Leviticus 19:2) If you conduct yourself like a godly person, you will end up with God’s best.

©Johnny Lee Clary Ministries
www.johnnyleeclary.com
All Rights Reserved

Getting Rid Of Your 'Idols'

2011-02-09T03:11:00.000-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Although I like the TV show, I personally don’t like the name “American Idol” or “Australian Idol.” Webster’s dictionary describes the word ‘idol’ as a noun meaning : a representation or symbol of an object of worship; broadly : a false god. They need to change the name of that show.

When someone says a person is their idol, they are in essence saying, “This is my god.” Not only is this wrong but they are committing blasphemy when they do so and I promise you that does not make God happy.

Bad habits come from bad choices. God said in Deuteronomy 12:2-3, “Completely destroy all the worship sites on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every large tree. The people you're forcing out worship their gods in these places. Tear down their altars, crush their sacred stones, burn their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, cut down their idols, and wipe out the names of their gods from those places.”

God commanded this so His children would not be tempted to worship those idols themselves. I have seen people go absolutely nuts at concerts I have attended all of my life, ‘idolizing’ singers and other celebrities. Hank Williams Jr. had a song out years ago called, ‘Old Habits Like You Are Hard To Break.” Well I say yes they may be hard to break but either you break them or you will be broken because God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a person sows that will they also reap. (Galatians 6:7)

Many Christians are caught up in this hoopla also. I remember when I attended a church in Tulsa many celebrities went there also. One was the well-known gospel singer Carman. Thousands of girls were there thinking they were going to marry him or the pastor who was also single. Carman sat up in the balcony and it was not uncommon to see dozens of girls downstairs with their heads turned around and looking up at Carman while the pastor was preaching. I had more than one girl ask me to introduce them to Carman which I never did. How embarrassing. Carman had to call the cops more than once out to his home to take crazy fans away.

I have had my share of stalkers too, although not to the extent Carman has since he is much more well known than I am. I had one girl from Georgia follow me to several places around America stalking me when I preached and when I told her to stop and never contact me again, she went home and took a bottle of sleeping pills. She called some people and told them what she did and they called the ambulance who got there just in time. There was another girl that stalked me and her pastor tried to talk to her and said it was no use. He said he went to her house and she had made a shrine to me with my pictures up all over everywhere. It gave me the creeps especially when she said, “If I can’t have you nobody can!” Reminds me of the movies ‘Fatal Attraction” or “Play Misty For Me.” The police would not do anything. She made my life a nightmare. She stalked me for a year making hundreds of calls to me as well as relatives of mine, making threats to my life before she stopped and that was only after I threatened to shoot her.

People go way over the top and no one should make an idol out of anything or anyone. God should be our only object of worship.

What is so sad with the show “American Idol” is that these people beg and plead and will do anything, including making fools out of themselves in order to get that shot at being the next “idol.” If they would put half the time they spend trying to be an “idol” into serving God we would already have our nation Christianized like it should be.

Take a look at your life and see if there is anything that interferes with your relationship or time with God. Are you spending too much time on the golf course? How about too much time going to sporting events? How about your girlfriend or boyfriend? Dating relationships can become idols too. Sometimes kids can get into making good grades to where their school work takes first priority over everything, even God, the Bible and church. They become obsessed with making that A until that is all that matters to them. Don’t allow a TV show, a magazine, an IPOD, your favorite hangout, a group of friends or even your school work to become an idol in your life. Don’t let anything steer you away from God. Put God as number one over anybody and anything and make sure he is your ONLY Idol!

©Johnny Lee Clary Ministries
www.johnnyleeclary.com
All Rights Reserved

Are There Snakes In Your Church?

2011-02-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Al Wilson once sang a song about a woman that found a snake all frozen in the cold. She felt sorry for the snake and also thought it looked beautiful. She took it into her home, laid it by the fire in blankets, then fed the snake honey and milk. She came home from work and found the snake had been revived. She held it, kissed it, and said how beautiful it looked when the snake gave her a vicious poisonous bite. She cried and asked the snake, “How could you do this to me? I helped you and saved you, and now you’ve bitten me and I am going to die!” The snake replied, “Oh shut up silly woman! You knew darn well I was a snake before you took me in!”

Today many Christians are playing with snakes and sadly many pastors are talking in snakes into their congregations, praise and worship teams, choir, bands, staffs and administrations. They attempt to rationalize it by saying they are reaching out to a lost world. Luke 11:11 tells us the hedges are full of snakes and Ecclesiastes 10:8 says that if you break a hedge you will get bitten! Christ told us to go out into the world and preach the gospel so you are going to encounter snakes. Psalm 58:3-5 says the wicked are like poisonous snakes full of venom and they will not heed the voice of the charmer no matter how skillful he is. In other words you can’t tame a venomous snake. Yes some people have boas and pythons as pets but show me someone who has a rattlesnake, cottonmouth, Black Mamba or Australian Brown snake as a pet! Not going to happen, in my lifetime or anyone else’s.

Pastor David Wilkerson said “ Just as surely as Christians drink of the Blood of Christ-------the river of life, of His divine love and beauty-------we unconsciously drink of the poison of this world when we go out to preach the gospel.

The bible does say in Mark 16:18 “They will pick up snakes, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them.” This is talking about going out to spread the gospel and accidently encountering snakes along the way. It is not talking about showing how strong your faith is by picking up rattlesnakes in a church service and dancing around with them in your hand like some of those backwoods nutty cult churches do in those “snake handling-strychnine drinking churches.” That is why you hear about people getting bitten by poisonous snakes or dying from drinking strychnine poisoning in those services all the time, because those wacky morons are tempting God, and the bible specifically tells us not to tempt the Lord God. (Luke 4:12; Matthew 4:7)

Many churches that have allowed venomous snakes into their congregations, are allowing their other members to get bitten. Some youth from a church, started experimenting with sexual perversion at a church camp and now some of these kids are living sexually perverted lifestyles. It makes me wonder whether or not a strong message was preached and taught to them that such perversions are wrong. I am sure some would attempt to justify allowing sexual deviants to attend church camp as “God loves the sexually perverted too!” Yes God does love them but God does not love it when people who claim to be Christians take in deadly snakes all in the name of “sharing the gospel and building the church” especially when it results in His children getting bitten. That is exactly what will happen when you bring in the snakes. So you disagree with what I just said? OK, so suppose there was a convicted child molester, a drug dealer and a rapist that all started attending your church. Do you think that is a good environment to be around or to allow your children to be around? If you do then you are a sorry excuse for a parent. You should have your kids taken away from you if that is the case. If child protective services found out you were allowing deadly snakes to roam around your home, they would take your children away. So what is the difference if you are attending a church that allows deadly spiritual venomous snakes to roam around it’s halls? That is why St. Paul said to expel immoral people when they refuse to repent.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 St. Paul wrote “In my letter to you I told you not to associate with people who continue to commit sexual sins. I didn't tell you that you could not have any contact with unbelievers who commit sexual sins, are greedy, are dishonest, or worship false gods. If that were the case, you would have to leave this world. Now, what I meant was that you should not associate with people who call themselves brothers or sisters in the Christian faith but live in sexual sin, are greedy, worship false gods, use abusive language, get drunk, or are dishonest. Don't eat with such people. After all, do I have any business judging those who are outside [the Christian faith]? Isn't it your business to judge those who are inside? God will judge those who are outside. Remove that wicked man from among you.”

We are to go into the world to bring the gospel to the wicked but we are not to partake in the wickedness of the world. To do so is to play with deadly snakes. Many churches are playing with snakes when they bring the wickedness of the world into the church in order to please mankind. Many are adopting the platform philosophy that preaching repentance, the fear of God and the fires of Hell are the old way of thinking and in order to fill the seats and grow churches the gospel must be toned down to a less offensive, more modern all-grace-all-loving-anything goes message. Some churches are even hiring marketing firms in order to sell the church to the world in order to get butts in the chairs. I even saw where one pastor of a mega-church wrote, “As a pastor you are not entitled to your opinions. Opinions do not put butts in the chairs. Your job as a pastor is just to grow churches!” Wow. So this dude is preaching quantity over quality. How sad. That may be the world’s philosophy but I can promise you that it is not God’s.

Rest assured, if you play with a snake you are going to get bitten. Those snake handling cult members will tell you they play with rattlers all the time and never get bitten. That is a lie because although some do not get bitten, many do and die from it. This is documented. Maybe there is something about a rattlesnake where it is not as aggressive. I don’t know and I am NOT going to find out. What I do know though, is I have never seen one of those cults break out a sack of Taipans, Black Mambas and Australian Brown snakes and play with them. I don’t think you will ever see that either. Even those cult nuts seem to know at least some boundaries. As a matter of fact, the late Steve Irwin who was known as the Crocodile Hunter, said he didn’t even fool around with Brown snakes.

Some will argue and say that numbers in church growth is the focus and is what matters. Really? I am going to tell you what, I would rather have 5 men and women with me that I know have my back and will die in battle if necessary, than an army of 5,000 who will run and desert me when they hear the gunfire. God is interested in quality over quantity.

Therefore, don’t stop spreading the good news and don’t stop building churches. However in going out among the hedges, highways and byways, take your snake bite kit which is putting on the FULL armor of God, Ephesians 6:11-17 so you can protect yourself from the snakes and any other evil that comes against you. Don’t back down and NEVER compromise the Word Of God. Finally brethren, any church that preaches this toned down-less offensive-more modern- all grace-all loving-anything goes-no repentance needed message, is no different than those wacky backwoods snake handling churches. If you are attending one of those, my advice to you is to make like Joseph when he encountered that snake that Potiphar was married to and RUN BABY RUN! That does not make you a coward to remove yourself from where sin abounds. It makes you smart. If you run with dogs you get fleas. If you take in snakes you will be bitten. That my friends is the bottom line.

©Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries

www.johnnyleeclary.com

All Rights Reserved

“The problem with the church today is not people who preach repentance, hell, and the fear of God, but it is people who compromise and fear to speak God’s word powerfully with conviction. Our job as ministers is not to bring God down to the level to please people but bring people up to the level to please God!”...Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

THE TRUTH ABOUT PRO WRESTLING

2011-01-21T09:38:00.000-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary
(Former Pro Wrestler Johnny Angel)

The Truth about Pro Wrestling is horrible. Kids should never choose Pro Wrestling as a career. Pro Wrestling actually died many years ago. Today you have what would be referred to as a freak show coming to town disguised as a Pro Wrestling event. When I was a little boy my daddy used to take me to the Stockyards Coliseum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to see what was then true Pro Wrestling shows. We watched it every Saturday night on WKY TV Channel 4 in Oklahoma City as Mrs. Donavon (LaVerne Bottoms) and her “boys” Dandy Jack Donavon and Jerry Brown would have an all out battle with whoever the good guys of the week were at the time. Oh yes, it was a ‘work’ ( meaning scam or deception) and always was but the guys believed in something called kayfabe and they lived their lives by it. The word “kayfabe” was carny (carnival talk) for “act like it is real and not fake.” This meant that babyfaces (good guys) and heels(villains) kept apart and were not seen socializing. Wrestlers would say the word and go into kayfabe whenever a ‘mark’ (someone who was not ring wise or smart to the fakeness of wrestling) was around.

Dandy Jack Donovan

Back in those days before kayfabe died, the wrestlers who were referred to in the business as workers, actually put on a good show and took the business seriously. . Old ladies saved their laundry money all week to come watch the wrestling matches on Friday nights. The boys respected that and knew that the fans were their bread and butter and they did their best to put on the best show possible even getting rough once in awhile to satisfy the fans. Even a lot of major newspapers wrote about pro wrestling and carried the results of matches in the sports section because in those days it was actually considered a sport, that is until Vince McMahon Jr. came along and started exposing it to the world in the 1980’s. I remember watching great wrestlers like Danny Hodge, Dandy Jack Donavon, Jerry Brown, Skandar Akbar, Gorgeous George Jr., Bolo, and Haystacks Calhoun bring the house down in matches that would excite the crowd and have them talking about it all week long. The fans would go away thinking it was real. My daddy was a big fan and that means the boys were very convincing back then because my daddy was a Golden Gloves boxer who had a record of 75 fights and won 74 by knockouts and 1 fight by decision. Daddy Clary would not have spent his hard earned money and wasted his time going to a wrestling match that looked fake like you see so many of them look today. As a matter of fact very few of the guys you see on TV today in the WWE or TNA could hold a candle to the guys I just named from the 60’s.

John “The Golden Greek” Tolos

Daddy Clary died when I was 11 years old and I was sent to go live in East Los Angeles, California. It was because of my baptism in wrestling as a little boy, that I continued watching it during my teenage years in East L.A. I would ride the city buses to KCOP Ch. 13 to watch the wrestlers film live free admission TV shows on Saturday afternoon and then I would save my money and would sometimes take the bus to go to the Olympic Auditorium to watch my favorites wrestlers, John “The Golden Greek” Tolos, Moondog Mayne, Butcher Brannigan, Black Gordman and Great Goliath, Professor Dale Lewis, Freddie Blassie, Crazy Luke Graham, Edward Carpentier, The Sheik, Pampero Firpo and a whole host of others put on the best shows possible. It was through watching the late great John Tolos that I knew I would someday become a wrestler and I did when I moved back home to Oklahoma.

Skandor Akbar and Danny Hodge

I met the late Skandar Akbar in Oklahoma City in the early 80’s. He was the booker for Leroy McGuirk’s Tri-State Wrestling and he gave me a try out. A booker is the person who runs the wrestling organization in terms of what talent they use, and how they use them. The booker decides who wrestles who and who wins. A booker has the job of deciding who will be used as star workers. Skandar was just one of the bookers. Some old jerk named Wade Martin also worked for Leroy McGuirk in some sort of authoritative capacity and he couldn’t recognize talent if it jumped up and bit him on the butt. Martin expected me to know everything the boys who were already in the business would know the first time I ever stepped into the ring for a tryout and when I didn’t he gave me a cussing ordering me to leave the arena, telling Leroy McGuirk who was blind that I couldn’t wrestle, and then telling me I would never be a wrestler. I made up my mind that I would not give up and that old fart would end up eating his words and he did. I met former world champion Danny Hodge a couple of years later and he said “Boy you have something and you know how to create heat,” and brought me into the business. Heat is a wrestling term used for when the heel gets the crowd all fired up. I went on to become the 3 time Arkansas Heavyweight Champion Johnny Angel, wrestling for 6 years. I worked for many promotions including the NWA and the NWF, and even purchased a wrestling ring and ran my own territory back in the 80’s called the United Wrestling Federation. It was during this time I starting seeing a lot of things I didn’t like. Don’t get me wrong, there were some fun times and I was booked occasionally to go work for the NWF which created great memories. I managed NWF Champion Don “D.C. Mad Dog” Drake who was a great human being as well as wrestler. I had feuds with Sgt. Slaughter and even feuded with World Women’s champion Wendi Richter, while managing her opponents. I opened shows for Bruiser Brody and Bam Bam Bigalow who are both dead now. It was cool working with them and sitting in the dressing room gossiping like old men in the barbershop about everyone in the business. (That’s what the old timers used to do.) Don Drake and I created so much heat up in Kallispell, Montana that I had to have a 20 man police escort to and from the ring. It was suggested by the police that I never return to Kallispell! Working with those guys in the NWF was the greatest moments of my wrestling career. Back in those days there was a certain amount of respect that was given in the business and also to the fans. Sometimes the villains (heels) would win over the heroes (baby faces) but good always triumphed over evil in the end. Today the fans have made heroes and role models out of the heels and evil usually triumphs over good which is not a good moral example for children.

D.C. Drake, a great champion

On the downside of things, being the promoter of my own federation I would occasionally get a call from some of the wrestlers who I had watched as a kid asking me if I could use them. I was not a large promotion at all. Most of the time I didn’t even break even on the gate after I paid the advertising, building rent, security, ring repairs, travel expenses, and all sorts of essentials. Many of the unknown wrestlers were always complaining about the money. Some of these unknown greenhorns ( inexperienced who can’t draw) who I or my tag team partner ,former NWA U.S. Jr. Heavyweight Champion Bill Ash ( my booker) had trained and not charged for training them, were demanding I pay them larger sums of money like someone with a name. Bill or I had to remind several of them on more than one occasion that if they went to work for the WWF or the NWA they would be paying out the nose for their training and may not even get a match. Some of them quit and went to see if they could get on with WWF, NWA, or Cowboy Bill Watts’ Universal Wrestling Federation and they soon found that they couldn’t even get passed the receptionists desk, so they ended up coming back to me or another small independent promoter.

It’s me back in the days when wrestling meant something

What would make me sad is to see how some of the guys that I had looked up to as a kid and read about in wrestling magazines, were now telephoning guys like me to see if they could work on a show and maybe get $100.00 if they were lucky. Some had grown older, had their muscles turn to fat, gotten grey hair and didn’t move as fast as they once did. They were now booted out of the major federations and sent down to the ‘minors’ as so to speak which were referred to as “outlaw” organizations. One major superstar that had once headlined cards all over the world was now working in the oil fields as a tool pusher running back and forth trying to make enough money to pay rent and eat. Some of the guys that once were riding in fancy cars or tour busses were now not only driving, but sleeping in old beat up clunkers. While they once dined on steaks in fancy restaurants they were now eating peanut butter sandwiches in their cars. I remember one has-been that was really up there in years that came to work on a show of mine, asking if I could leave the ring up overnight so he could sleep in it as his back and legs were hurting him from sleeping in his car. I asked him what happened to all the money he had made from years before and he told me how he had never saved money and always thought he would be on top. He said he didn’t realize that the older he got the less the promoters were interested in him and one day he found himself not being used by those who paid well. He said wrestling was all he ever knew because he had done it for so many years and he didn’t know how to do anything else. He was now well into his senior citizen years in the ring working with guys young enough to be his grandsons. Stories like that are so sad it almost breaks your heart to hear them. Some of them try to resort to selling Amway or other network marketing material, or they try to book a place to sell old pictures and autographs usually haunting the fan conventions or Walmarts. Some end up being security guards or sweeping floors as a janitor somewhere. Some even end up bartenders in some dive on skid row telling stories of how it ‘used to be.’ Sadly, some commit suicide.

The other day I saw where Vince McMahon’s WWE put up a notice that they were no longer hiring anyone over 30 years old. Vince McMahon ruined wrestling and was not only the death of kayfabe but he is responsible for the physical deaths of a lot of wrestlers. Vince destroyed the business when he broke the old unwritten rule of ‘territories’ ( an area where a promoter ran cards and did TV shows) and marketed a carnival full of side show freaks all over the world turning it into a multi-billion dollar industry and putting smaller promotions out of business. Vince encouraged his guys to use drugs like steroids to get huge and in the process caused many of them to destroy not only their bodies but themselves.

Boys and girls the world of professional wrestling is nothing like it used to be. I have witnessed drug deals going down from some people who are still on TV today. It might surprise you if I named names.

Drugs, foul language, alcohol, sexual perversion, child molestation, homosexuality, HIV, AIDS, and other STDS are just some of the things that goes on in the world of Pro Wrestling, oh excuse me I meant “Wrestling Entertainment” as it is now called. It is not a profession where any decent parent would want their child to pursue it as a career. No young man or woman should ever join the world of professional wrestling “entertainment” especially if they are a Bible believing Christian. God’s word tells us specifically “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)

Take a look at some of the things Vince McMahon’s WWE has promoted. Remember foul-mouthed beer swilling ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin shooting the middle finger on TV and blaspheming Jesus Christ by making fun of a wrestler Jake “The Snake” Roberts who had converted to Christ? Austin beat him in a match and then loudly proclaimed on TV that John 3:16 did Jake no good because “Austin 3:16” just whipped John 3:16’s a**. Austin ridiculed Jake’s faith in Christ in front of millions of viewers. Jake was never the same and ended up being released from the WWE after that and he also ended up backsliding, returning to the filthy ungodly lifestyle he lived before his conversion to Christ. He became a sad shell of a man, even doing a video called “Beyond The Mat” where he talked about how he has lost his relationship with his daughter and turned to drugs and alcohol. His life was ruined. Stone Cold Steve Austin went on to become one of the biggest superstars in World Wrestling Entertainment. They marketed shirts that said “Austin 3:16” which was blasphemy.

Lesbians promoted on WWE

Remember WWE’s “Satanic Sacrifices” involving Vince McMahon’s supposedly kidnapped daughter? How about the Same Sex Marriage wedding of two male wrestlers Chuck Palumbo and Billy Gunn in the ring or the HLA (Hot Lesbian Action) with two girls all over each other right there on TV? How about the time Edge and Lita did the very first Rated R version of sex in a bed in the middle of the ring? All those little kids watching. Or who could ever forget Triple H climbing into a casket and having necrophilia sex with the dead girlfriend of arch rival Kane? Yep..I am sure that is something every grandparent would want their 9 year old grandchild to watch that. Shall I mention the time 80 something year old Mae Young came out in a bathing suit to join a beauty contest along side of young divas and then exposed her breasts that hung all the way down past her waist because she thought in her words “Everyone wants to see my puppies!”

80 year old Mae Young pulls down her top and shows her sagging breasts to the crowd

Let’s not stop there. How about when old Mae Young was sitting backstage in a chair and 20-something year old Snitsky was down on his knees with her old foot in his mouth licking and sucking her 80- something year old toes? Then there was those wonderful adulterous scenes of Vince McMahon being caught by his wife backstage with his pants down around his ankles after telling a young female diva to come in and get on her knees to pleasure him if she wanted a job. There was Vince McMahon’s “Kiss My A** Club” where if wrestlers wanted to keep their job, they had to get on their knees in the middle of the ring while Vince dropped his pants and made them pucker up and kiss his behind literally.

Vince McMahon’s disgusting “Kiss My A** Club”

If all of that is not enough to sicken as well as anger you, who could ever forget the horror of the wrestler Mohammed Hassan coming out to the ring with a band of guys dressed up in ski masks looking like Middle East terrorists, jumping Undertaker and acting like they were going to sever his head off with a knife, while Hassan tells the TV audience that America deserved what they got on 9/11? Remember they did all of this at Madison Square Garden in New York City! What a slap in the face to America! No one needs to tell me what a great guy Vince McMahon is or how many times he has put shows on for the troops. He was in charge of that 9/11 fiasco with Mohammed Hassan because it is his show and he promoted it! I don’t care if it is a “work!” That was way out of line and an insult to everyone who lost a loved one on 9/11 . It was a slap in the face to America.

WWE stages an attack by Middle East Terrorists on the Undertaker

Let’s not let TNA off the hook either. Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett, Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan are not any better than Vince McMahon and have all promoted some vulgar language as well as filthy gestures on the show which should not be rated R but rated X. The f-word has been used so many times one can’t count. Although they bleep it, it is obvious to anyone including a 6 year old what is being said. Other vulgar language is being used with words that would have caused a network to be shut down 20 years ago. TNA copied WWE’s “Big Dick Johnson” with the “Fat Oily Naked Guy” which was a short fat nearly naked man in a g-string that comes out and dances for male wrestlers shoving his “package” in the face of another man.

Ric Flair was one of my role models back in the 80’s when I was a worker, and I had the utmost respect for him. I told everyone for years that he was the greatest worker in history. Now here he is on TNA at 60 something years old, an old balding man with white hair , standing outside the ring sticking his tongue out at young 18 year old girls acting like he is performing oral sex on them. How disgusting! Can you think of any parents in the world that wants to see an old man making tongue gestures for sex with their daughter? I can’t. TNA has also figured out how to turn a real life unfortunate situation into a way to make money and sell tickets. Kurt Angle brought his wife on the show and she had a real life affair with wrestler Jeff Jarrett who is part owner of TNA. She ended up leaving and divorcing her husband Kurt Angle and marrying Jeff Jarrett. Now Jarrett has been on TV bragging about how he took Angle’s wife and kids away from him. Real nice.

Of course when I was in the business I saw things like that all the time. These guys would say how much they missed their wife and kids and then pick up a “rat” (wrestling carny talk for female fan) and take her to the motel. Most of them never bother to ask the age of the girls either. Therefore parents can be comforted with the thought that when their teenage daughters attend a “wrestling entertainment” event, they could end up in a motel room with their favorite “star” getting an STD passed on to them. Even back in my day, I would be sitting in the dressing rooms and some of the promoters would talk about how this wrestler or that wrestler had 3 or 4 rats in the motel room doing all kinds of perverted things which the rats are happy to do since they are “star struck.” To the promoters, a worker is a meal ticket who can keep the rats coming to the arenas. They can care less if it is underage girls in the motel room with the wrestlers or not. I have often wondered why the police do not crack down on this.

The truth of the matter is a lot, not all, but a lot of Pro Wrestlers that are in the business today are losers, uneducated and would be great candidates for the Jerry Springer Trailer Park Festival show. Many of them are in debt up to their necks and do not have a pot to spit in or a window to throw it out of. They wear fake jewelry, drive rented cars and give the impression they are some sort of millionaire when the truth of the matter is they are spending almost every dollar they make on drugs. Some of the boys that worked for Vince McMahan’s WWF back in the 80’s were spending 5 thousand dollars a month on cocaine to snort up their nose.

The midgets and the women workers were not any better. The fans are given the impression that the cute little midgets are good clean fun little guys, when the truth is most of them I met would sit in the dressing room and talk so vulgar it made you sick. Many of the women workers were involved in lesbian relationships or they were sleeping with a different guy in a different town. Many of the boys were either homosexual or bisexual as well as child molesters. One wrestler was in jail down in Mississippi for committing sodomy with a young boy that attended one of the wrestling matches. He called one major promoter friend of mine begging him to help get him out of jail in which the promoter refused. I don’t blame the promoter.

So many wrestlers lead perverted lifestyles that they are taking a huge risk when they “juice” which is when the wrestler cuts himself on the forehead with a razor blade corner in order to bring blood. Fans that get close to the wrestler who happens to be brawling at ringside, or in the crowd, or just walking back to the dressing room, are also taking their lives into their own hands if they get splattered with blood containing HIV. Given the perverted lifestyles of most of the wrestlers, the risk of this happening is very high. In March of 2010 at a TV taping, Ric Flair who brags about sleeping with more women than anyone in the world, opened up a cut on his forehead and cupped his blood with his hands and threw the blood on fans in the crowd. Flair supposedly received a tongue lashing backstage for the incident that was edited from the show, but since he is Ric Flair, he got off with only a reprimand.

Ric Flair after ‘juicing’

Well I have enough stories to fill a book but I think you get the picture. It is not a nice business anymore. McMahon killed the real business and ‘old school’ replacing it with a new marketed version designed to attracted every pervert and trailer park dweller this side of the moon. From a worldly business viewpoint it was great money making strategy. From a moral viewpoint is was filthy and ungodly. Oh sure you hear about some of the workers that are born again Christians and some of them even promote Christ in their ring gimmicks which is a good thing. Former WWE Women’s Champion Nora Greenwald, aka Molly Holly was one of those. She refused to do storylines or anything vulgar after she dedicated her life to Christ which ultimately ended with her release from WWE. Then there was Sean Michaels who made it no secret that he followed Jesus Christ, and referred to Him as his tag team partner but Vince McMahon exploited that too. In a disgusting segment of blasphemy, Vince and his son Shane McMahon go into a church looking for Sean’s “tag team partner.” Vince stands up in the pulpit yelling something like, “Hey God! This is Vincent Kennedy McMahon and I don’t like you. I challenge you to come on down here so I can kick your a**!” Real nice Vince. I sure wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when you stand before God on Judgment Day. I can see Vince telling God, “Oh it was just a ‘work’!” ( as stated previously, a work is a scam or a deception) Yeah like God is going to accept that as an excuse, for Vince putting something like that on worldwide TV for all the kids to see! I wonder how many kids mimicked Vince and yelled blasphemous things at God challenging Him after they saw Vince do it?

Vince McMahon stands in the pulpit of a church, challenging God

Some of the workers and former workers who are or were in the business will of course be angry at me for writing this article. “The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.” (Proverbs 29:27) The truth of the matter is, angry or not they can’t deny that kids and some adults are gullible and look up to wrestlers modeling their lives after them. Whether the word “work” is used or not that does not stop them from being badly influenced by the so-called “role models” they see on TV. These disgusting actions are inexcusable. Luke 6:45 says “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

“Vince McMahon with his son by his side goes to church claiming he is going to kick God’s a**”

I left the business way back in 1988. I became a Christian and began traveling all over the world preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. I speak in a lot of schools and I always get asked the question of how to get into professional wrestling. I used to try to talk to the kids about it but ‘wrestling entertainment’ has gotten so bad, that I just do not feel it is right for kids anymore and you shouldn’t either. The bottom line is if you are thinking about joining the world of “pro wrestling entertainment” don’t do it. If you are a parent who has a child that wants to get into the business, you have a moral duty to discourage them from pursuing it. It all looks like glitz and glamour but behind the scenes it is not. Only a chosen few, make it to the “top” and stay there for years, and some of them, only get there by doing sexual favors for some perverted booker who works for WWE or TNA.

There is not a business on this earth that has more backstabbing, sexual perversion, drugs, freaks and nutcases than ‘wrestling entertainment.’ These guys live in a dream world where they come to your town in the illusion they are some kind of “sports star” because they have all of these illusional fans looking up to them. The truth is pro wrestlers of today couldn’t even carry the gym bag of the true wrestlers from yesteryear like John Tolos, Danny Hodge, and Lou Thez. The so-called ‘pro wrestling entertainment’ workers of today are nothing more than carnies bringing their freak show to town. If being known as a carny freak show worker is your lifelong ambition then good luck with that. If however you wish to be a decent hard working moral citizen then choose another profession other than ‘pro wrestling entertainment.’ The only reason I am not ashamed of my past in professional wrestling is because I was in it at the very last, right before McMahon killed the sport of Pro Wrestling, replacing it with his carnival freak show called “World Wrestling Entertainment.”

Today I feel it is my duty to warn the kids as well as parents about what really goes on in order to get them to think before they end making the biggest mistake of their lives. After all the youth of today will decide what kind of world we live in tomorrow. Wouldn’t it be better to get a college education, and become a doctor or CEO with a nice house, nice car and nice wife and kids, instead of ending up like the old wrestler who slept in his car and ate peanut butter sandwiches working for a few dollars a night?

Think about it.

“Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don't believe it because it's not the truth they want to hear.”

©Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries
www.johnnyleeclary.com
All Rights Reserved

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham Radio show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, Sunrise Today,
The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales.

FEAR

2011-01-16T06:22:00.001-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Have you ever been afraid? Have you had the experience of fear? I think if people will admit it, there was at least once in their life where they experienced fear. In the 32nd Chapter of Genesis it tells the story of how Jacob was in great fear of his brother Esau, and he had good reason to be. Many years before, Jacob had put the screws to his brother twice. Of the two times, the most serious was when Jacob tricked his father into giving him the blessings that belonged to Esau when his father was ill and nearly blind by pretending to be his brother. A man of God could not go back on his word so everything that should have been Esau’s was now Jacob’s. When Esau found out he said he was going to kill Jacob and Jacob fled to his uncle’s home which was a long way’s away. Jacob stayed there for many years and married. He also became very wealthy. There was some problems with his uncle. God told Jacob it was time to return home. Jacob took all of his servants and his wives and kids, along with his livestock and headed back home. He was in great fear of what his brother Esau would do to him so he sent his messengers ahead with all kinds of gifts to try to get Esau to not kill him as promised years before. When his messengers returned they told him Esau was coming to see him with 400 men! Jacob was really in fear now! As it turned out though, Esau was happy to see his brother and welcomed him with open arms.

Sometimes we forget that if we have God on our side we have nothing to fear. God told Jacob to go home. God didn’t take care of Jacob all them years and bring him that far just to abandon him later. Nor will God abandon you. I remember I started having dreams back in the mid 90’s about dying in a plane crash. I was in Bakersfield, California at the time and had a friend named Marcella. I shared with her what I had been dreaming one night and told her I had a flight the next day and was worried because of all those dreams I had been having. She said something that changed my life forever. She told me, “God didn’t bring you this far Johnny Lee Clary to abandon you now.” That hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought about how I had been a survivor. I thought about how I had escaped death so many times, from the ghettos of East L.A., to my exploits in the Ku Klux Klan, to driving drunk and even falling asleep at the wheel of my car once. I thought of how I had been shot at, stabbed, gone through a glass window in a fight, jumped by gangs, been in car crashes, had jealous husbands on the rampage looking for me, had contracts put out on me by the KKK, Nazis and Aryan Supremacists, and even crazy women I had been involved with threatening to kill me. Then I thought of how I was now saved, sanctified, a new creation serving God, and a whole new person from what I had been for years. Marcella had said something that changed me forever because it strengthened my faith and sent fear flying right out the window. Besides, I also thought about where I am going when I die and I realized it is stupid to have fear of death when you realize that eternal life begins when you become a Christian, and although your body will one day die here on Earth, your soul will live on forever in Heaven.

The word of God says in Romans 8:15 that God did not give us a spirit of fear but one of sonship. We are His children when we become a Christian. A good parent will look out for their child. I remember when I was around 10 or 11 I got into a fight with a kid on another block and beat the daylights out of him. That kid ended up having more friends than I could ever imagine. There was at the very least 30 or 40 kids that all came after me chasing me back to my block and into my house. I was in huge fear on the way home, and as I ran into the house I shouted “Daddy!” The mob had surrounded my house and was yelling for me to come back outside or they were going to come in and get me. My daddy came out the front door and yelled “Get your butts home!” He then chased them all down the street as I was standing in the driveway smiling and feeling relieved watching all those kids run for their lives back to their own street! My daddy was my protector.

God is your protector too because he is your Daddy! We call Him Father. He looks out after us. There is no need to fear. Yes someone could shoot me tomorrow and end my life, or I could go swimming in Australia and some Great White Shark could decide that he likes “Southern Fried Fat Boy,” and it is quite possible that I could board a plane and some Middle East Terrorist could blow it up, but I know where I am going should any of that happen. I get to go live in Heaven where there is no pain, sorrow, suffering and tears. I get to be with Jesus Himself, and I get to see a lot of loved ones that have gone on before me. I also get to see John Wayne and Ronald Reagan too! You do too if you are a Christian so there is no reason to fear. Granted I am hoping I don’t have to go anytime soon because there is still a lot of work left to do on this earth and I want to see a lot more people saved. Like Marcella said, God has not brought you this far to abandon you now. The word of God says he will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5) Fear is ugly! So my friends, when fear comes a knockin’ at your door don’t answer it!

2 Timothy 1:7 says God did not give us a spirit of fear but one of power, love and a sound mind.

©Johnny Lee Clary
©johnnyleeclary.com
All Rights Reserved

From Darkness To Light

2011-01-02T07:07:00.000-08:00

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

The other day my wife and I went to see the new remake movie of “True Grit” starring Jeff Bridges as the character John Wayne created called “Rooster Cogburn.” Good movie but let’s face it, it does not even come close to beating the original. No man can fill John Wayne’s shoes. This is not just my opinion, it is fact. John Wayne was a stand up man all the way and set an example of what a real man should be. This article however, is not about a review of the movie. When my wife and I walked into the Hollywood Theater in Joplin, Missouri, it was super dark. I mean you could not see a foot in front of you. The previews were still going on and whatever movie they were advertising had a dark setting with no light on the screen. Whenever a second or so of light did come on the preview we could see the theater was pretty full with the exception of the very front which most adults do not like to sit in. We both had to stand there a few minutes waiting until the screen gave off enough light in order to find a seat. In other words as long as we were in the darkness we were helpless.

Many people are helpless today and are walking in darkness because they do not have God in their lives. Life without God is life in the dark. They cannot see where they are going because the darkness has blinded their eyes. As a matter of fact, it is what we Southerners refer to as “pitch black.” The term “pitch black” means coal black, like being in a coal mine under the ground. Without light one would be lost. We need light to see where we are going. Jesus said “ I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) This is one of many reasons people need to rely upon Jesus.

We are not just talking about a dark movie theater. People go through life stumbling around in darkness never knowing where they are going because the darkness has blinded their eyes. Most people know I am the former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. For years I was in darkness myself until I saw the light and renounced hate, dedicating my life to Jesus Christ. I have been dedicated to Christ 21 years at the time of this writing and have been preaching for 20. Most people think I must be constantly harassed by the KKK, Neo-Nazis, Skinheads and other White Supremacists because they label me as a traitor. Yes, these people do harass me from time to time, but the people who give me the most trouble are so-called “brothers and sisters” in Christ. That’s right..so-called “fellow” believers. I have put up with these sick twisted mentally deranged people almost all of my Christian life. They have attacked me, called me names, spread false rumors, wrote horrible things about me, denounced me from their pulpits, cheated me out of money, wrote letters to pastors of churches encouraging them not to have me and to join them in stopping my ministry, tried to break up friendships and relationships, and told outright damnable lies and gossip about me. They do this all in the name of the Lord because it somehow gives them a feeling of “peace” if they can justify their actions with “God told me to shut down Johnny Lee’s ministry.”

What it really boils down to is a four-letter word called, hate. They will say, “Oh I don’t hate anyone, but God wants me to expose Johnny Lee as a son of Satan or a charlatan at best.” It does not matter whether they say they don’t hate or not because their actions expose them for what they are. In other words, actions speak louder than words. There is nothing more sickening than to see these types of people carrying on this way and using the Lord to do it.

They fail to realize the word of God says in 1 John 2:11 “Those who hate other believers are in the dark and live in the dark. They don't know where they're going, because they can't see in the dark.” 1 John 1:6 “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.” 1 John 4:20 “If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”

You see after reading and doing a study of these scriptures I have a full understanding of these people and what they are all about. They are NOT Christians according to the Word of God. Those who hate and display the actions of hate are in darkness and they do not know God and will be in hell, and that is sad. Ok, here it comes, as I am sure someone will write or comment, “Who are you to judge them? Judge not lest ye be judged also.” That seems to be the only scripture the “all-grace-no-repentance-new modern-new gospel- new change the word of God crowd,” people seem to know. If they would bother to read the rest of the Bible, and especially the scriptures I have written above they would see God’s word is plain that anyone who hates his brother is not only in darkness but does not know God. Titus 1:16 “They claim to know God, but they deny him by what they do. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit to do anything good.”

As a matter of fact, those who claim to be pastors or just plain old Christians who go around attacking other ministries, 9 out of 10 times it is because they suffer from what I call the “Cain-syndrome.” Cain harbored a rotten attitude toward not only his brother Abel but God Himself after God rejected his tiny little offering of chump change chicken feed compared to what Abel offered to God. Cain could have afforded to give God plenty more but didn’t. When God rejected it, Cain let his bitterness turn to jealously, which became hate, which led to rage, resulting in an outburst of anger, in which he murdered his own brother. Our attitude often determines the outcome of our actions and emotions. For example when someone blows up and says horrible things in anger, it can often be traced to a bad attitude towards someone. That is why we must keep our emotions in check and watch out for negative attitudes toward our fellow believers.

It is easy to fall into this trap. You may be sitting around with a group of people in the lunchroom at work who are all talking turns gossiping about a co-worker. You may be privileged to set at the lunch table at school where the “In-crowd” popular people sit, and may feel tempted to join in with them when they are putting down other students, like the new kid in school or the poor kid who can’t afford to dress as trendy. You may feel tempted to take what you pastor says as “gospel truth” when he is putting down another preacher without ever having researched it yourself or talked to the person being assailed. You may have even been interested in dating someone but dumped them because of what your friends said about them, that may not have even been true. You are no different than Adam and Eve. Sin looked tempting to them so they chomped down on the forbidden fruit even though God told them to stay away from it.

So what could have prevented this? Trusting in God’s warnings and instructions which are found in His Good Book. He is the one who will keep you out of darkness, but you have to trust Him and obey His word. Trust and Obey, there is no other way!

Genesis 1:3-4 says God filled the dark void with light and then pronounced it good. Light gets rid of darkness and brings vision!

Where are you at today in your life? Is there darkness or light? Are you bothered constantly about that idiot at church who is gossiping about you or that co-worker on the job who might be trying to get you fired? Maybe you have the coach or teacher in school that constantly puts you down in front of your classmates and makes you feel like you are the stupidest person on earth? Maybe you are in the ministry and you have so-called “fellow believers” that suffer from the Cain-syndrome who are trying their best to kill your ministry and your reputation out of jealously?

Ecclesiastes 2:14 “The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both.”

If you have been walking in darkness and have lost your way, there is a way out of the darkness.

In 1908, Minnie Louise Haskins wrote the following:

I said to the man who stood at the gate

'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'

And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'

©Johnny Lee Clary 2011

www.johnnyleeclary.com

ACCEPTANCE

2010-12-29T02:26:00.000-08:00

Acceptance

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Everyone wants friends and they would be lying if they say they don’t. Everyone wants to feel accepted and part of something, but the facts of life is, you are not always going to feel acceptance around certain people. There are always going to be people who don’t like you for one reason or another. Sometimes it makes us feel bad when people do not accept us and it ends up effecting our own self esteem. What we fail to sometimes realize it may not be you with the “problem” at all; it could be those that won’t accept you that has the problem. Maybe they have mental issues. Maybe they are jealous of you. Maybe they are just plain stuck up snobs that wouldn’t even accept Jesus if he appeared in front of them disguised as someone else. Think about it. Do you really want to be around people like that? Stop trying so hard to get people to accept you into some sort of a group or crowd that Jesus wouldn’t even waste His time with. You might say, “Oh wait a minute, doesn’t Jesus love everyone? Wouldn’t Jesus not give up and keep trying to gain someone’s approval?” Think about this. Jesus sent his disciples out to minister to people and told them in Matthew 10:14-15 “If anyone doesn't welcome you or listen to what you say, leave that house or city, and shake its dust off your feet. I can guarantee this truth: Judgment day will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city.” Jesus didn’t keep badgering people. They had a choice to accept Him or not. Accepting Jesus meant and still means eternal life. Rejecting Him meant and still means eternal damnation.

I hung out in barrooms for many years before I became a Christian. I would watch guys keep on and keep on trying to get girls to dance with them that had turned them down several times. I never did that because it was humiliating. When a girl turned you down, everyone in the whole place seemed to know it. They especially seemed to know it if a guy kept getting turned down by the same girl time after time. Well, I wasn’t about to let that happen to me. I knew how to handle rejection. As a matter of fact, depending on what mood I was in, on more than one occasion it went something like this:

Me: “Would you like to dance?”

Woman: No I would not like to dance.”

Me: “You misunderstood me. I said you look fat in those pants!”

See, I was not about to waste my time trying to get some girl who was not interested in me to dance, when all I had to do is ask someone else and I would find a girl that would love to dance with me.

There is always that group of folks that you think you want to be part of but when you get to know them, you find nine out of ten times they are superficial phonies. Don’t waste your time with people like that. I would rather have one true friend I know I can depend on then 50 fake friends that talk behind my back and doesn’t care about me at all.

When Jesus went to strangers they welcomed Him and He ministered to them. He healed the sick, fed the poor, made the crippled walk and raised the dead. Yet, when Jesus went to His hometown they not only rejected Him but they put him down. They said things like “Isn’t this the Carpenter’s son?” The Bible says they actually were offended by Him! Offended because of what? Offended because Jesus wanted to minister to people in His hometown? They had no right to be offended. Jealous of Him would be an accurate description. In Matthew 13:57-58 Jesus said "The only place a prophet isn't honored is in his hometown and in his own house." He didn't work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

I have been in that situation. When I first became a minister 20 years ago, I was attending home bible fellowship groups. I knew this girl named Karen Bisgaard that started a home fellowship group that I thought was my friend. I started attending her small group and invited all kinds of singles from the church to attend. Her group grew rather large and when we would have prayer, people would come to me and ask me to pray over them. I carried anointing oil and would use that and pray over them and people were testifying how they were healed or how their prayers were answered. Karen called me on the phone one day and told me I was not to bring my anointing oil to her group anymore and she didn’t want me praying for or ministering to anyone. She told me the people were taking the focus off of her and putting it on me. She explained it was her group and she was the leader and if I didn’t want to obey her command she would have the pastors call me and they could explain it to me in language I would understand. I didn’t want the pastors bothered with such petty nonsense, so I told her I would not be attending her group anymore and she said “Oh good! That is what I was hoping you would say!” I kept my word and didn’t attend and started attending another one and everyone came to that one and Karen lost her group. She was furious! She bad-mouthed me and put me down every chance she got after that and accused me of destroying her group. It was so sad. You see, it was not me that was bringing healings. I have NEVER healed anyone in my life. It was Jesus doing the healings. I was just a mere vessel that was used by the Holy Ghost to pray over someone. When people start thinking it is them doing the healings and miracles, then there is a serious problem.

There is also a serious problem when they get jealous because God is using someone that they think should not be used because of the mistakes they made in the past before becoming a Christian. The thing is, I had lived in Oklahoma most of my life with the exception of my junior high and high school years which I spent in Southern California. Some people like Karen remembered my past as a hell-raising sinner who led the Ku Klux Klan and could never get past that. People like that are to be pitied. It was the same with Jesus. The people in His hometown remembered the kid who grew up there and worked with his father as a carpenter. He left and had been gone for awhile and came back years later and was teaching in the synagogue and people were amazed by what He had to say. The townspeople who knew Him years before grew jealous, putting Him down and rejecting Him. As a result Jesus didn’t work many miracles in His hometown because of the lack of faith and the way people treated Him.

I have been ministering for 20 years and have gone to some churches where the pastor has rejected a return visit even though the people asked that he have me back. A lot of times it is because of jealousy either from the pastor himself, or someone in his congregation that objects to him having me minister. It should never be that way. So many people have missed out on being ministered to or maybe even missed out on a chance to get saved because they might have heard something that was said in my sermons that could have convicted them and drawn them to Jesus, but the bitter root of jealousy kept them from it. A pastor may have wanted to have me minister, but there could be some people in his church that don’t like me and he is afraid he might lose them as members if he has me minister, especially if they are huge tithe-payers who control the strings financially or even members of his own family. If the church is not very large he feels he simply cannot take the chance on having me come if it means he might lose the member or members who object to my ministry. That is sad because if a pastor feels that way then he has his faith in money and not in God. He sees those people as his source and not God. What he fails to consider is there might be new people who get saved and could really help him in areas of church growth and finances but he missed that opportunity because of lack of faith and insight.

Remember what Jesus did after his hometown critics rejected and insulted him? He left and headed out for Cana of Galilee for a return visit because He had been there before. So why did He go back ? Simple. He went back to the people who really accepted Him. Notice I said accepted not tolerated. I hate that word “tolerance” because it means tolerate; Allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something or someone that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference. The folks in that place not only accepted Jesus but they celebrated Him! I once heard an evangelist say, “I go where I am celebrated not where I am tolerated!” That is what Jesus did. You would do well to remember that when you choose friends , what crowd you want to hang with, or what church you want to attend.

Do an evaluation on your friends and the church you attend. Are your friends giving you encouragement? Are they excited about what God is doing in your life? Do they want to see you succeed? How about the church you are attending? Are you encouraged by the pastors and the staff? Do they recognize your gifts and use you? For instance if you can sing, do they ask you to? If you can preach, does your pastor invite you to? If the answer to all of these question are no, then you need to get some new friends and find a new church. Don’t hang around friends who do not appreciate you. Do not stay in a church where your gifting of God is not recognized or used. Do what Jesus said to do and shake the dust off your feet and hit the road jack and don’t you go back no more! There are some new friends waiting for you. There is a new church on down the road that will use you. Don’t stay in a place where people don’t like you or your gift, or that hold your past or mistakes against you. God created you and you are special to Him. There are people who can benefit from you or what you have to offer. There will always be people who reject you, but Jesus will never reject you. Jesus said in Rev. 3:20 “Look, I'm standing at the door and knocking. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I'll come in and we'll eat together.” Don’t be afraid to make changes in your life. “The LORD is the one who is going ahead of you. He will be with you. He won't abandon you or leave you. So don't be afraid or terrified." Deuteronomy 31:8

Jesus celebrates you. He does not tolerate you. Return the favor!

That’s called…ACCEPTANCE!

©www.johnnyleeclary.com

Why Christians MUST Be Involved In Politics

2010-11-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

by Rev. Johnny Lee Clary....

There is a huge movement underway, with books being written and endorsed by pastors of large churches telling people that Christians should never be involved in politics and that if they are then they are turning unbelievers away from Christ. These books are not worth buying. Their authors are worthless because they lack knowledge and wisdom when it comes to God’s word and therefore should not be telling Christians how to live their lives.

All political power has been delegated by God. As Apostle Paul says in
Romans 13:1, in speaking on the subject of civil authority, “Every person should obey the government in power. No government would exist if it hadn't been established by God. The governments which exist have been put in place by God.”

People accuse me all the time of being disobedient to God’s word
for criticizing government officials, using Romans 13:1 to justify
that accusation. I always point out to them that if that is true that I am
disobedient, then so were the Apostles, John and Peter. The ruling authority
commanded and ordered them not to preach Jesus and they replied they must obey God rather than men. Therefore, the word of God is plain; we do not have to obey government authority when it conflicts with God’s word.

Now the key here is that when you have a government that is hostile to or just plain old anti-Christian, you must get involved with politics in order to change the government to be favorable to God’s word and the way to do that is to put Christians in power!

I see people’s profiles on social websites all the time that has
where it says the word politics: “Who Cares?” I say “YOU should care because
these people are running your life!” If your pastors are telling you it is
improper for Christians to get involved in politics, get out of their church
and do not give them any more of your hard earned dollars! You see, to them it is all about money anyway. They probably just want you all wrapped up in their agendas, which they will disguise as “God’s agenda” but in truth it is just programs designed to control your life and make them more money.

A true pastor is a man or woman of God who will want you involved in politics in order to build a godly society for our children and their children' s future! So you see, politics is about who will have the authority and power direct from God Himself who works through people to direct the affairs of our common public life. The direction we travel in depends on the choices that we make. Therefore it is our choice to elect a God fearing candidate to public office to direct the direction of our lives and the lives of our children, or to elect to office a secular humanist that will govern our lives according to every ungodly satanic principle that is available to them.

You can elect those who have no regard for the Bible or God’s laws and principles, or you can elect those who are humble and recognize that the authority they have that comes with the office they hold has been delegated to them by God and they are accountable to Him for their use of it.

It is insane for Christians to remove themselves from political activism using the excuse of "Christians shouldn't be involved in politics," when the Bible, which is the Holy Word and authoritative book they claim to live by and profess to believe, tells them that political power comes directly from the very God they worship!

Some of these same Christians that say we don’t need to be involved in politics because it is a dirty business, fail to realize that the church can be a dirty business too! I have been a minister for nearly 20 years and I can’t even begin to tell you how many times a pastor has ripped off my love offering the people wanted to give me, or all the backstabbing, greed, gossip, and slander that I have seen in the churches, not to mention the sexual perversion and immorality that goes on. I have had just as many propositions from church girls, and more opportunities to get laid than I ever did with the barroom honky-tonk girls or the whores who make a living hooking. Therefore if we as Christians do not need to be involved with politics because it is dirty, then we do not need to be involved with the church either.

When a Christian refuses to get involved in politics, he or she is yielding the
authority over our public lives to those who hate God or have no respect for
God who gives them that authority. They have abandoned their child’s future to atheists, Muslims and secularists!

They have no one to blame but themselves when prayer is outlawed in public places, signs with the name of Jesus are removed from public buildings, homosexuals are parading in the streets holding “pride” marches, abortion on demand is made available in every town in addition to teenage daughters at the school without parental notification, and secular science is taught in place of creationism.

In Luke 10:19, Jesus said “I have given you the authority to trample snakes and scorpions and to destroy the enemy's power. Nothing will hurt you.”

The question is, what are YOU doing with that authority? Are you listening to those lunatics that tell you a Christian should never be involved in politics therefore yielding the governmental authority that controls your life to the ungodly? Have you ever been accused of something you didn’t do? Have you ever been sued or taken to court for any reason whatsoever where you knew you were not guilty? Have you ever been arrested for something you didn’t do? If that ever happens to you then which kind of judge would you rather hear your case; a Christian judge, or a secular humanist left wing liberal with no love for God? How about some of you men who have ever gone through a divorce? Would you rather have a Christian judge that
loves the Lord decide who gets what, or would you rather take your chances with a feminist man-hating liberal who thinks all men should pay for the mistreatment of women in today’s society?

You are the one who has the power to elect these public officials and if you refuse to get involved with politics then you have no one to blame but yourself whenever the elected officials turn out to be ungodly animalistic God-haters.

I read where one writer said that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said that we are "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world." Salt was used, in the lack of refrigeration, to stop the spread of decay. Light was used to do away with darkness as it is today.

Jesus was saying that He desires His followers to get involved with all of life so that by our presence the spread of moral corruption can be stopped and detained and darkness and ignorance about important matters can be replaced with light and truth.”

Also wherever this is no light or salt, then there will be darkness and decay, which is what will happen if Christians refuse to get involved in politics.

The Lord is depending on us because He works through people. That is His plan for us to be the salt and light of the world. There is no alternative plan.

The truth of the matter is, those who say Christians should never be involved
in politics have no right whatsoever to complain about any immorality in
society or anti-Christian laws or rulings. Pastors, authors, or laymen who tell
Christians to stay out of politics are nothing more than bold-faced liars and hypocrites if they ever use instances of immorality, moral decay, or anti-Christian laws as an illustration of any kind in their sermons, writings, or witnessing.

So many of these people love to complain about how bad things are in today’s
society, but like a rabid dog, they immediately attack and turn on any
Christian who agrees with them and then actually tries to do something about it.

Lawmakers have the very power and authority of God in their hands, so Christians have much more reason to be involved in politics than the secular humanists.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was heavily involved in politics and he encouraged others to do the same. He said:

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

Finally John F. Kennedy said, “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

May we all love our Country enough to get politically active and do something!

© www.johnnyleeclary.com

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham Radio show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, Sunrise Today,
The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales.

Mosqueissippi Burning

2010-09-06T10:56:00.001-07:00

By Johnny Lee Clary

As we approach the ninth anniversary of 9/11 when Islamic terrorists attacked America killing thousands, I am shocked more than ever that many Americans have either forgotten 9/11 or just do not care that thousands of people have been murdered. Living proof of this is the Muslim Mosque controversy where Muslims are pushing full steam ahead with building a mosque at Ground Zero with the blessings of Barack Obama. Besides Obama , many other politicians including NYC Mayor Bloomberg have came out in total support of this mosque saying what a beautiful gesture of forgiveness and diversity this is and that it will serve a “symbol of peace and healing” throughout the land. They talk of reconciliation and how this will be a step in that direction. As a minister of reconciliation for the last 20 years I can assure you this will not bring reconciliation but more division. If Muslims and all the others who support the building of this mosque were serious about reconciliation they would not even entertain the idea of building that mosque on such a sacred site as this.

I am NOT saying Muslims can't build a mosque; I am saying they should build it some place else and not at the site of ground zero. This is only causing hatred.

Check your history of Mecca, Jerusalem, and Constantinople . It is a proven fact that Islam has a history of putting up mosques as a symbol or a flag of victory whenever they win a military battle. The building of the “Cordoba House” which the Muslims have chosen to name their planned mosque is no different. Just the name of it shows their evil intent. For those who do not know, the name “Cordoba” refers to the first system of government established in what is now modern Spain after the Islamic invasion from North Africa in the 8th century A.D. “Cordoba,” in Islamic symbolic terms, means Islamic rule in the West. It does not mean “coexistence” nor does it mean “reconciliation,” unless coexistence and reconciliation is interpreted as referring to Islamic rule.

When I think of Ground Zero, I think of the two twin towers of the WTC on fire that day with people jumping out of windows falling to their deaths. I think of the screams inside of people inside being burned alive. I think of the horror the passengers and crews of American Airlines Flight 11 and United Flight 175 must have felt as they saw their planes hijacked by Muslims and being flown straight into the towers exploding on impact. I think of all the heroes such as the police, rescue workers, firefighters and volunteers who gave their lives trying to rescue people from the burning buildings. I also think of all the families of the victims who would never see their loved ones again. I certainly do not want to think of a Muslim mosque on that site which would be a sick twisted symbol of “triumph” for a Muslim victory. When I think of that I also think of Osama bin Laden being caught on video tape praising “allah” for the destruction of 9/11 and the thousands of Muslims around the world who were dancing in the streets celebrating the attack on America. Can you picture in your mind the children and grandchildren of those who were murdered going to visit the site of where they lost loved ones and then having to look at the Muslim mosque where Muslims are celebrating the deaths of those who lost their lives at Ground Zero? My God has America sunken this low that we are willing to sit back and allow people who represent the cult that caused this destruction to throw this attack right into our faces by putting up this shrine to their so-called “triumph” over America? 3000 people lost their lives at that site! Doesn’t anyone care about that anymore?

The F.B.I has revealed that many Islamic mosques all over the world including America are tied to International terrorists and have been plotting terrorist attacks on American soil.

All over the world Islamic leaders are calling for the extermination of the Jews even advocating annihilating Israel. Iran’s leader Ahmadinejad is developing nuclear bombs and vows to nuke Israel off the map. He even held an anti-holocaust conference in 2006 in Tehran and the guest of honor was former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke who is now a Nazi. Duke with the support of many Islamic leaders speaks in Syria, Iran, Russia and many other nations advocating the destruction of the Jews. Yet according to the left wing liberal politically correct crowd, we are supposed to sit back and view this Muslim mosque at Ground Zero as some sort of “symbol of peace?” The world used to view Hitler and Nazi regime as monsters for killing six million Jews but now many Radical Islamic leaders are saying the Holocaust never happened and as a matter of fact Radical Islamic influence has grown so strong that the teaching of the holocaust in public schools have been banned in many parts of the world including many public schools in London because Muslims say it offends them. I am reminded of George Santayana’s quote, “Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Do you think for one minute that there is any Islamic country where they would allow Christians to put up a church next to any Islamic site where Muslims lost their lives? What would the world say if Neo-Nazis tried to build headquarters at the site of Auschwitz or Buchenwald? What if the KKK tried to build a Klan Christian Identity “church” in Birmingham, Alabama at the site of the 16th Avenue Baptist Church where 4 little girls lost their lives when KKK members bombed it in 1964? The world would be outraged and as far as those who would even attempt to build it goes, their lives would not be worth a plug nickel and it wouldn’t be safe for them anywhere in the world if they tried that. Why it would be Mosqueissippi Burning!

Anyone who supports the building of the mosque at Ground Zero spits in the face of every family member who lost lives on 9/11 and you also spit in the face of God. As Franklin Graham, son of Evangelist Billy Graham puts it on building the mosque: "It's hypocrisy. It's mockery. It's mocking the 3,000 Americans who died just around the corner, who were killed by Islamists in the name of Islam. There was not one Islamic cleric who oversees outside the U.S. who condemned [the 9/11 attacks]. If this had been a Catholic saying his Hail Mary's flying into the World Trade Center, the Pope would have been on television that night denouncing it. The lack of universal condemnation by the Islamic world, their silence, shows their support of this.

Ref:

http://lonestartimes.squawkboxnoise.com/?p=3081
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38678
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011614-7,00.html#ixzz0ylI9HdAP
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011614-7,00.html#ixzz0ylHWs2Zo

“Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don’t believe it because it’s not the truth they want to hear.” ~Helena Cassadine

Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary
P.O. Box 972
Miami, Oklahoma 74355

www.johnnyleeclary.com

How To Control Bad Thoughts

2010-08-16T15:26:00.001-07:00

How To Control Bad Thoughts In Your Mind

By Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Most of us if we will admit it have had bad thoughts going through our minds even as Christians. Our Circumstances sometimes dictate or dominate our thoughts but they shouldn’t be. St. Paul wrote a letter while he was in prison and said the following: Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers and sisters, keep your thoughts on whatever is right or deserves praise: things that are true, honorable, fair, pure, acceptable, or commendable.”

Now how in the world could St. Paul write something like this while rotting away in a dirty filthy prison and knowing he was facing death by beheading? Well it wasn’t easy but he did and regardless of your circumstances you can too. It is easy to praise God when we have money, a nice house, a nice car, a job promotion, and lots of friends. Could you praise God though if you got fired from your job, the repo man took your car, you get evicted, and you find out your best friend is sleeping with your girlfriend? So many people will say, “No I cannot under the circumstances.” What they need to remember that Jesus is not UNDER the circumstances but He is OVER the circumstances! Paul chose not to focus on the negative but instead his mind raced back to the positive things that took place in his Christian walk. I am sure Paul thought of all the souls that had been saved, of all the churches that he had planted, of all the healings that took place, and of his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. He wasn’t focusing on being arrested, being put on trial, being whipped, being beaten, that stinking dungeon of a prison, or his upcoming execution. We as Christians need to focus on the good things of God even when bad things seem to be ringing down all around us.

The word of God says to call things that are not as though they were. I remember hearing Gloria Copeland talk about how she and Kenneth were poor when they first started out in the ministry. She had old clothes and he had holes in his shoes, yet he was preaching prosperity. What he was doing was putting his faith out there, calling things that were not as though they were and God fulfilled it. Today the Copeland’s are extremely wealthy so they are living proof that it works. Of course they had to be obedient to God and focus on what was to come instead of what their circumstances were at the time. Now you just can’t be a poor person, choosing to live like the devil and for the world, confessing to be rich and expect it to happen. Obedience to God and faith in God are keys to making this happen. You see, others had seen the good things that happened in Paul’s life and he could appeal to others with such great merit in what he had to say because of it. It was a testimony to others.

You can’t dwell on evil thoughts and live righteously. Living for God is the result of thinking the thoughts as well displaying the thoughts of God which is found in His word.

To be a Christian means to be Christ-like. We are to strive with all of our heart and soul to be as much like Christ as possible which includes having the mind of Christ. We should develop our minds to have the thoughts of Christ which is found in His word. That should be every Christian’s desire and it certainly is the desire of Christ to see us have His thoughts in our mind. However, Satan would also like us to have his thoughts in our mind so he attacks our minds with evil, wicked and impure thoughts. A war takes place within our mind and it is a constant battle of ‘Good vs. Evil.’ It is normal for every Christian, no matter how much of a ‘Holy Joe’ or ‘Holy Jane’ they are, to have their mind attacked with impure thoughts. Sometimes we open the door of our mind to allow these wicked thoughts to come in by what we place before our eyes. I like what God’s Word says in Psalm 101: 3 “I will not put anything wicked in front of my eyes. I hate what unfaithful people do. I want no part of it.”

Remember, it is not Satan, but you who makes the choice to watch bad TV programs, go to naughty movies, look at porno magazines, go to websites that are bad, or go watch the girls at the nudie bar. Satan or anyone else can’t force you to do this. You make your own choice and you will pay the price when you choose the bad ones.

Another problem with allowing your mind to conform to the world’s way of thinking, is you will eventually become either hostile to God or you will begin to worship a counterfeit “god” that is not the God of the Holy Bible. That is what is happening today with a lot of these churches that have with the ‘new all-grace-no-repentance-needed’ theology which is in direct contrast with the Word of God I don’t care if your pastor preaches from all the top self-help books in the world and has a PhD in psychology! If what he is preaching does not line up with the word of God then get out of that church. Those who preach this damnable doctrine are more interested in quantity and not quality. To them it is about butts in the chairs for a bigger church and not about developing soldiers to serve in the army of the Lord! People that follow this sort of thinking end up leaving the Word and conforming to the world’s way of thinking because God’s rules and standards make them feel guilty.

The old saying goes, “You are what you eat.” I believe the Bible teaches us, “You are what you think.” Sadly I read where one study said that only 12% of people who call themselves Christians bother to read the Bible on a daily basis. If you have a car, and you never put gas and oil in it, eventually it is going to stop running. You need the word of God every day for fuel to keep going otherwise you will stop going for God.

A lot of us have bad thought habits because of what was taught to us in life, from parents, teachers, friends, or the type of entertainment we have been exposed to. For instance I was raised in an environment of racism so I could not expect all those bad beliefs and thoughts to go away overnight. Jesus didn’t automatically remove them from my mind when I became a Christian. He gave me the ability to do that. Romans 12: 2 says “Don't become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants-what is good, pleasing, and perfect.” (GWT) The Devil does not want you to think on the things of God though. He doesn’t care if you never think at all; he just doesn’t want you dwelling on the Word of God.

If we allow our minds to dwell upon the negative impure evil thoughts then they will take control and the Devil will win the battle. God created us with a free-will and it is our choice as to what we allow to dominate our minds. Therefore this is what a believer must do to overcome the bad thoughts.

1. Realize and believe that you have the mind of Christ and start acting like it! Show true faith! (1 Corinthians 2:16) (James 2:20)

2. Do not listen to worldly intellectual arrogance that opposes the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ. Man’s wisdom is foolishness to God. (2 Corinthians 10:5;1 Corinthians 3:19)

3. Set your mind on the things that are of God and not the secular worldly things. Focus on good and not evil. God’s cure for bad thoughts is to fill our minds with that which is good. (Colossians 3:2; Philippians 4:8)

4. Resist the Devil and He will flee from you. (James 4:7) The entire scripture says Submit to God and THEN resist the Devil and he will flee from you. He won’t flee unless you are submitted to God.

5. Whatever happens, give thanks, because it is God's will in Christ Jesus that you do this. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) You are not thanking Him for your troubles, but you are thanking Him for taking you through them.

6. Do like Job did. Praise Him no matter what the circumstances and know He is Over and not Under the circumstances. (Job2:10; 13:15)

7. Let Christ's word with all its wisdom and richness live in you. Use psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to teach and instruct yourselves about [God's] kindness. Sing to God in your hearts. (Colossians 3:16) Make the decision to sing praise to God no matter what and watch what He does for you. Paul and Silas chains were broken because of this. (Acts 16:25-39)

There are your keys to overcoming bad thoughts. Now it’s up to you to implement them.

©www.johnnyleeclary.com

Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary

Rev. Elder Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, Australia’s Andrew Denton, Australia’s morning Sunrise Ch. 7 and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

Todd Bentley False Prophet

2010-07-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

Todd Bentley was born in 1976 in Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada

This was written by me back in 2008 and I am republishing because the false prophet is back and being promoted by some churches and well-known ministers.

Todd's upbringing was predominantly situated in Gibsons, British Columbia. At age 6, his parents divorced. He continued residing with his mother, who lost her hearing years before the divorce. Despite the divorce and his father moving away, Todd visited his father regularly. At age 11, Todd began undertaking illicit alcohol consumption under his father's supervision. Later, at age 15, Todd was sentenced as a juvenile delinquent after perpetrating sexual assault on a minor.

Following his release from jail, Todd continued struggling through adolescence, transferring between several foster homes in the vicinity of Lower Mainland, B.C. before finally rejoining his father.

At age 17, Todd was unconsciously hospitalized after swallowing a bag full of illicit amphetamines and hallucinogenic pills. His stomach pumped of the drugs, the doctors posited him to be irrecoverably approaching certain death. Albeit notably bleak, his health gradually ameliorated. Afterwards, Todd dedicated his life to God, pursuing a life as a "revivalist" missionary. Todd credits God for his healthy recuperation and life transformation.

Criminal history

According to The Report Newsmagazine, a social conservative publication that is now uncirculated , Bentley was jailed for 18 months when he was fifteen years old for crimes of a sexual nature against a 7-year-old boy.

As a juvenile offender, Bentley's record should have been protected from public disclosure. The article in The Report acknowledged the Canadian law, but stated that Bentley freely provided details of the offence.Two years later Bentley said he had no idea the reporter interviewing him would publish his acknowledgment of the molestation. "[The reporter] did not tell me he was doing a follow-up story," Bentley told Charisma. "He was just friendly and told me what the mother had said, and I admitted to him in what I thought were off-the-record comments that it was true, but that it happened years ago and I had since been changed by the gospel."

A few months after the article in The Report was published, the mother of the victim contacted the media in Kewlona, B.C. where Bentley was holding a crusade. In response, "Bentley decided to address the local outcry by going on the 6 p.m. local TV-news broadcast. He admitted the crime on-air, asked for forgiveness, told viewers how ashamed he was, and how he was transformed five years after the incident by the gospel's power."

Bentley willingly admits his past: "I turned around and did what had happened to me. I was assaulted too." He states in his book "Today I want to be sure that in the future no one can say I hid things or mislead people about my past" . (Journey Into The Miraculous, p.24, used by permission)

Ministries and activities

Todd Bentley has travelled internationally holding church services and crusades in over 55 nations including South Africa, Malaysia, Peru, Ethopia, and Uganda where he has a children's home for orphans called the "Uganda Jesus Village." In addition to these activities, "Freshfire Ministries," which Todd serves as CEO since 1998, oversees a Supernatural Training Centre in conjunction with a group in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Efforts to train native pastors to help set up a Supernatural Training Centre in Kampala, Uganda were undertaken in January 2008. Todd's claim is to raise up sons and daughters for his kind of ministry. His home church is Global Harvest Centre.

Florida Healing Outpouring

Main article: Florida Healing Outpouring

In April 2008, Todd Bentley was invited to Ignited Church in Lakeland, Florida for a several-day conference. Meetings moved from the church building to local auditoriums and stadiums, continuing daily and broadcasted live via God Tv satellite channels and online streaming.

Personal life

Todd currently resides in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. Bentley is married to Shonnah, and has three children —Elijah, Lauralee, and Esther. His father lives on Vancouver Island.

Bentley lives in an Abbotsford home when not in revival, and he owns a 2007 GMC Sierra and a 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle, as well as a 2008 f150 35-foot travel trailer (The Province Newspaper) .

Todd Bentley's current interests as expressed on his MySpace page are: Family, Sushi, Harley Davidson's, Music, Starbucks, Movies, and hanging out with friends.

His heroes are listed as: Jesus!, Paul the Apostle, true Spiritual Fathers (anyone who can be a true father), David and The Mighty Men, Overcomers, and those who take up the cause of the widow and the orphan.

Todd has a number of impressive tattoos and piercings which, he claims, God told him to get.

Views and beliefs

Todd is associated with the controversial "Kansas City Prophets", and has had various prophets speak in support of his ministry and the event in Lakeland, Florida.

Here are a couple of extracts from Todd's 2003 article 'Angelic Hosts':

So when I need a financial breakthrough I don't just pray and ask God for my financial breakthrough. I go into intercession and become a partner with the angels by petitioning the Father for the angels that are assigned to getting me money: "Father, give me the angels in heaven right now that are assigned to get me money and wealth. And let those angels be released on my behalf. Let them go into the four corners of the earth and gather me money.

Todd continues...

Jane, ANGEL of The PROPHETIC

Now let me talk about an angelic experience with Emma. Twice Bob Jones asked me about this angel that was in Kansas City in 1980: "Todd, have you ever seen the angel by the name of Emma?" He asked me as if he expected that this angel was appearing to me. Surprised, I said, "Bob, who is Emma?" He told me that Emma was the angel that helped birth and start the whole prophetic movement in Kansas City in the 1980s. She was a mothering-type angel that helped nurture the prophetic as it broke out. Within a few weeks of Bob asking me about Emma, I was in a service in Beulah, North Dakota.

In the middle of the service I was in conversation with Ivan and another person when in walks Emma. As I stared at the angel with open eyes, the Lord said, "Here's Emma." I'm not kidding. She floated a couple of inches off the floor. It was almost like Kathryn Kuhlman in those old videos when she wore a white dress and looked like she was gliding across the platform. Emma appeared beautiful and young - about 22 years old - but she was old at the same time. She seemed to carry the wisdom, virtue and grace of Proverbs 31 on her life. She glided into the room, emitting brilliant light and colors. Emma carried these bags and began pulling gold out of them. Then, as she walked up and down the aisles of the church, she began putting gold dust on people... Within three weeks of that visitation, the church had given me the biggest offering I had ever received to that point in my ministry. Thousands of dollars! Thousands!... During this visitation the pastor's wife (it was an AOG church) got totally whacked by the Holy Ghost - she began running around barking like a dog or squawking like a chicken as a powerful prophetic spirit came on her. Also, as this prophetic anointing came on her, she started getting phone numbers of complete strangers and calling them up on the telephone and prophesying over them... Then angels started showing up in the church.

More recently, Todd stated that in one of his "Third Heaven" trips he literally visited the small cabin where the apostle Paul lives in Heaven. Paul told him that he wrote the book of Hebrews with the personal help of Abraham the Patriarch: "The authorship isn't clear because it was Abraham and I; Abraham shared the content with me." Todd's 'Third Heaven' tales are full of such astonishing claims.

In this YouTube video, Todd speaks of the angel that is going to "visit the children" and then he begins to jerk and laugh uncontrollably. He prays that a 'drunken glory' will move across the whole place, with evidence within the audience. Both Todd and Bob Jones credit an angel that carries the "Winds of Change" for the current healing revival — an angel that they say is still driving it.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Bentley"

First of all, barking like dogs and clucking like chickens is unscriptural. I challenge anyone to find me scripture to back this up. It strikes me that saying that howling and roaring and making animal noises "in the Spirit" is an unusual claim. If you are claiming that God is involved with that then it seems to me that it's up to you to prove it. I'm a bit uncomfortable talking about this because even discussing it like this lends some legitimacy to it. It's kind of like saying, well, let's reflect on this for a moment and see whether this might be okay.

Ladies and gentlemen, why would anybody even be tempted to say that people thrashing about making animal noises is an evidence of the movement of God? What has the Body of Christ come to that we look at this kind of behavior and we call it the Holy Spirit? Just on the face of it, doesn't it seem--think, please think--doesn't it seem that if anyone was going to turn people into animals it would not be God? It would be Satan. I mean if I had a choice. Remember the Gad Rene demoniac? Thrashing about in the tombs, demon possessed, cutting his body, living like pardon me, an animal? That was demons, not God.

The only time I can think of God making someone like an animal was Nebuchadnezzar--and that was a judgment of God. If you recall, it was when Nebuchadnezzar came to his senses that he was released from his crazy behavior. Read the book of Daniel. He was taking all the glory to himself, not giving praise to God, so God made him into a cow. I mean, he was still Nebuchadnezzar, but he lived like a cow. He went out in the field for seven years (Daniel 4), I believe, and ate grass. His nails grew long. He was an animal. He bellowed, and mooed, I imagine. And then he came to his senses, gave God the glory and was restored to his position of authority.

I have been in church services where people were barking like dogs and clucking like chickens and laughing like hyenas. I also saw people get up and walk out and say they wouldn't come back anymore either.

I am reminded of what Apostle Paul said, 1 Corinthians 14:40 "But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner." Also in 1 Corinthians 14:33 "God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."

Suppose someone was considering giving their life to Christ that did not go to church? Do you think carrying on like this would make them come to Jesus? What if someone was suicidal? Would this type of carrying on draw them to Jesus? If you took a successful business person or maybe your boss at work to a church service like this, would they be impressed?

Punching people in the mouth, choking them, and knocking out their teeth as well as kicking old ladies in the face, well, I can't find where that is proper and in order. If someone can show it to me in the word then I stand to be corrected.

On the "Gold Dust" question, the God that I serve owns all the gold and all the silver (Hag 2:8) and since He owns it all, why would he just sprinkle a little dust on the crowd? Why not give the crowd a huge abundance to pay bills with since he owns it all? Why was Todd Bentley the only one who got thousands and thousands of dollars and not those attending the meeting? My God's name is El Shaddai not El Cheapo! I do not believe in this gold dust junk when the God I serve would pour out a much larger abundance than dust!

Speaking to an angel called Emma that comes from Kansas City? Where is that in the word? Show it to me because somehow in the studies I have done in the word I have missed it. I will tell you what I didn't miss though, and that is Gal. 1:8 "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

Now if you do a search on Angel Emma you will find 1. EMMA-O: King of Hell. He lives the good life in a large castle covered in gold, silver, pearls and jewels. Now I know Bentley says Emma is a female but demons can appear as a male or female angel, which ever they choose. Satan is known as the deceiver. EMMA-0, The Lying demon that calls itself the angel that (it is claimed) ministered with Rev. William Branham, the famous faith healer who fell into much error before he died. He believed that he was god.

Let me say, that real revivals do not move on the power of angels. True revivals come by the Power of the Holy Spirit. God with sovereignty move, bringing people face to face with the state of their soul. He will convict them of sin and then reveal to them God's divine love and compassion that He sent His Dear Son, to suffer death in their place. Revival will sweep millions into the Kingdom of God. A demonic angel called Emma has absolutely nothing to do with salvation or miracles by the hand of God. The Holy Ghost will never lift an individual's personality up because The Spirit's job is to draw people to Jesus Christ, to convict and bring them to God.

Now I realize that some will attack me and try to say I am jealous of Todd Bentley and wish that my ministry was huge like his. Well I will stop that thought right now, because I am a high profile public figure and speak in some of the world's largest churches. I not only speak to huge crowds but I hold records in Australia and New Zealand for souls saved, and I did it by focusing on Jesus Christ and NOT an angel or barking like a dog!

I never kicked an old woman in the face either. I do not wish to attack any other person including Todd Bentley but when a fake comes along that is deceiving people that I have ministered to as well as friends of mine, then I know I have a duty to expose him as a heretic. I am in hopes he will repent of this nonsense but until he does, I am others will continue to expose him. I am not some Johnny-come-lately who has no one listening to him, so Todd Bentley should keep that in mind as he continues to fleece the flock.

Todd claims that Jesus literally stepped out of heaven and came down to visit him. http://www.christianresearchservice.com/ToddBentley1.htm

Todd claims he went to Paul's cabin in heaven and had a rap session with him as to the authorship of the Book of Hebrews. He claims that Paul told him Abraham helped him write it. Never mind the fact that Abraham had already been dead for many years before Paul wrote the book. I guess we are supposed to believe Abraham was allowed to return to life and help Paul write Hebrews even though Paul never mentions this. Don't you think something as important as this would be mentioned in the Bible? Are we supposed to believe that Todd Bentley is the ONLY one on Earth God chose to reveal this to? Well isn't that special? Oh my! Thank you for enlightening us Oh holy one!

The bottom line is this Todd Bentley is making all kinds of claims that does not line up with God's word. If we are to believe that God chose to reveal things like this to Todd Bentley so he can educate the rest of the world, even though they do not line up with God's word, then why not believe Bishop Carlton Pearson when he says things that do not line up with God's word in his new religion called "Gospel of Inclusionism" instead of labeling him a heretic? Why not believe Oprah and her new religion when she says there are other ways to get to heaven instead of just through Jesus?

Before anyone accuses me of being anti-Charismatic let me say I was mentored not only by Rev. Wade Watts but by Ps. Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center who pastors one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world with over 25,000 members back when I used to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ps. Daugherty always taught that anything that is preached must line up with God's word and if it does not then it is not of God. I am thankful that Ps. Daugherty taught me this many years ago. I have carried these teaching in my world wide ministry and I always preach what I was taught.

Some people want a touch from the supernatural so bad they are willing to flock to these false revivals and believe anything as long as they can "feel good" and get a supernatural high. People need to stop acting like flakes and stop this insanity! If it does not line up with God's word then it is NOT of God, period!

Psalm 12:6-7 says, "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." Then we read in Psalm 100:5 that ". . . . his truth endureth to all generations," and Jesus said in John 17:17 that God's WORD is truth.

2 John 9 - Whoever fails to abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.

But following human standards - whether by failing to practice what Jesus teaches, or by practicing things He never authorized - is a failure to abide in the teachings of Jesus.

So I shall conclude with a word for Todd Bentley:

Revelation 22:18,19 - Whoever adds to Jesus' words, God will add to him the plagues in the book. Whoever takes from God's words, his part will be removed from the holy city.

Again, the basic error of human standards is that they show a lack of respect for the teachings of Jesus. All human standards are written on the presumption that weak, imperfect human beings can write a better standard than what was written by the all-wise, infallible God. This is why God refuses to allow His people to follow any other standard but the Bible.

TODD BENTLEY DIVORCES WIFE AND MARRIES HIS MISTRESS!

http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23332/todd-bentley-9

Todd] Bentley has married the former Jessa Hasbrook, a former intern for his ministry. Last summer, his internationally famous revival campaign in Lakeland, Florida collapsed when it was revelead that he and Jessa had begun an “emotional affair”. Charismatic leaders C. Peter Wagner and Robert Ricciardelli, however, have reported that the affair was apparently sexual. Mr. Ricciardelli, furthermore, has indicated that this affair, whatever type it was, began in January of last year, which would place it well before Mr. Bentley announced that he was separating from his wife Shonnah. This is also well before Mr. Bentley brought Shonnah Bentley and his kids to Lakeland to show them to an international T.V. audience. Shonnah Bentley even preached in a local church to promote her husband’s revival.

IF YOU ARE AGAINST ME THEN YOU ARE WITH THE KKK

2010-05-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

I was doing an interview with a Christian Women’s magazine in Australia when the reporter asked me, as I have been asked many times if I still get threats and harassment from the KKK. She asked me this because I was the Imperial Wizard of the Klan at one time and then turned against them and became a Christian, minister, and an outspoken civil rights speaker against the Klan and organizations like them. I shocked her with my answer. I said, “You know who gives me more harassment and threats than the KKK? The so-called ‘Christians’ who I refer to as ‘church people’ have considered it a ‘calling of God’ to slam and degrade me every chance they get.” The reporter replied, “Are you serious?” I replied, “Yes Ma’am. These people have dogged and harassed me more than any KKK member, Nazi or Skinhead ever has.”

I can not count how many blogs I have seen on Facebook where so-called ‘born again Christians’, many of them from Australia have spent endless hours calling me names, telling people I am of the Devil, telling people I hate gays, Muslims and Obama, telling people I am off theologically, telling people I am all about money, and etc, etc, etc.

Recently a family of deranged psychopathic so-called believers from Newcastle, NSW, attacked a young lady who wrote a blog where she said she thought my ministry was awesome and that I had led 279 people to make commitments to Christ in her town over the weekend. One guy who works for a law firm in that town claimed to know me really well because I had come to his office many years ago and had a cup of coffee and spoke about my testimony for 10 minutes. It is funny how people speak to me for 5 or 10 minutes and then tell everyone how well they know me! Anyway, he had added me on Facebook and when he didn’t like something I said about my nation’s politics, he deleted me and went to his pastor and started telling everyone in the church he attended that I am full of hate. Now, several years later, he and his daughters came on this young lady’s Facebook page and began to call filthy names and use foul language to everyone who was speaking well of me. When the daughters were asked why they were opposing me when they had never met me in person, they replied, “Because our dad knows him and says he is bad.” WOW! What great logic! NOT! I reckon those poor misguided girls were either in the special education class all through school or in the local chapter of the KKK which would explain why they judge people without knowing them.

It is not just them though. There have been some prominent ministers who have bagged me out to other ministers as well.

There have been so-called ‘Christians’ who have written blogs, written emails, and sent me hateful letters and have even tried to sow seeds of discord between me and my wife.

One group of nincompoops even stood outside the church where I was preaching and was praying against my meeting. This was back in the 1990’s. Rev. Wade Watts and I were invited to preach for the late Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty who pastored Victory Christian Center, one of the largest churches in the USA who held it’s meetings at Oral Roberts University’s Mabee Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We advertised the meeting as “Racial Reconciliation.” A KKK member who was also a mechanic/electrician snuck into the building and caused an electrical wire outage in the system, which resulted in $300,000.00 worth of damage. The nincompoops were all outside slapping each other five and “praising god” when that happened thinking the meeting was not going to take place. They praised their ‘god’ too fast because the God that I serve made sure the meeting happened anyway by getting Ps. Daugherty to move the meeting into the gym across the street where over two thousand people came and two hundred people gave their lives to Christ that night. By the way, the insurance paid nearly a million dollars because there were other things they discovered needed to be done and ORU received a brand new system and some other things to boot. God gave back what was lost and then some. However, just the mere fact that there were people praying against the meeting and then celebrating that the wire system was burned out shows what kind of people they were. That put them as allies of the KKK because both did not want the meeting to take place. They showed they cared nothing about souls being won into the Kingdom of God, and more about stopping a man who they hate. How sad of those little people.

I am reminded that Jesus said “Whoever isn't with me is against me. Whoever doesn't gather with me scatters.” (Luke 11:23)

Jesus explained this because of people bagging Him out for casting out demons and healing others. Whoever was not for what Jesus was doing was against Him according to the Word of God.

Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream that one day Blacks, Whites, Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Gentiles could come together as one and be free at last. Someone killed the dreamer thinking they could kill the dream. It didn’t happen. Rev. Wade Watts picked up the mantle of Dr. King as did several others, and spent their entire life working to keep that dream alive. On his deathbed, Rev. Wade Watts passed his ministry mantle on to me and I made him a promise I would preach on and fight racism until the setting of my sun.

I have said for years that if you never run head on into the Devil then you must be walking in the same direction he is. I am running into the Devil almost everywhere I go, but there ain’t no devil or demon in Hell that can stop what God has called me to do! Those who oppose me are fools because the Word of God says, “If God be for you then WHO can be against you?” (Romans 8:31)

Now here is the truth. My job is to promote racial reconciliation, to stop the KKK and organizations like them as well as win souls to Christ. According to the Bible, those who oppose me and speak bad about me, are in league with Ku Klux Klan, whether they be white, black, red, brown or yellow. That means they are racists. They are in league with Satan. The god they pray to is not the God that I promote which is the God of the Bible! I worship Jesus Christ, and those who bag me out do not. According to, Titus 1:16 “They claim to know God, but they deny him by what they do. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit to do anything good.”

I say to my critics the words of the late great Rev. Wade Alexander Watts, “You can’t pull me down to your level and get me to hate you. I will pray for you whether you like it or not.”

However I also remind my critics of how Jesus finished up telling the so-called experts and believers in Moses’ law who was opposing him, these words "How horrible it will be for you experts in Moses' Teachings! You have taken away the key that unlocks knowledge. You haven't gained entrance into [knowledge] yourselves, and you've kept out those who wanted to enter." (Luke 11:52)

When you oppose me, you are trying to keep people from being saved and that means you are just like the KKK. Go put your sheets on. There is no difference between you so-called ‘Christians’ and the KKK. You are with them. I am with Jesus. Enough said.

© Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, Australia’s Andrew Denton, Australia’s morning Sunrise Ch. 7 and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

Staying Faithful

2010-05-04T06:09:00.001-07:00

STAYING FAITHFUL

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

You may never grace the centerfold of Playboy Magazine, star in a movie, record several hit songs, have a mansion in Beverley Hills next door to Mr. Drysdale, make several million dollars playing for the Atlanta Braves, jet around the world with Paris Hilton partying ever night, or win the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing but give good speeches with a teleprompter. Does that mean you aren’t great? No it does not. Just because you may never accomplish any of the above aforementioned, does not mean you are insignificant in any way!

I remember seeing a man who claimed to be rich, get up in the face of a young man that was trying to witness the love of Christ to him, and brag about all the things he had; money, cars, women, etc., and tell the young Christian he would never have all the things he had and therefore his telling him he needed God was bull****! The sad thing is that so-called ‘rich man’ will be reminded of that conversation when he stands before the Great White Throne Judgment, and sees just how successful that young Christian man turned out to be, while the ‘rich man’ will think about how all of those things he bragged about and chose over God will do him no good as he is thrown into the Lake Of Fire. (Revelation 20:15 And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.)

Maybe you have wondered if you will ever pull off anything great in your life. Many people have. The good news is you can! Each of us can do something even greater than any of things just mentioned. Each and every one of us can remain faithful to God.

That may not sound too exciting to you, but think about Jeremiah 29:11-13:”11 I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope. 12 Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 When you look for me, you will find me, when you wholeheartedly seek me.”

God believes in you, is faithful to you, and has great plans for your future.

Have you ever had anyone cheat on you in a relationship? I have and it didn’t feel nice. The chicks had promised to be faithful but wasn’t, and it tears at the heart. When you have had someone you loved be unfaithful to you, it not only breaks your heart but you lose trust. You start thinking that no one is faithful anymore. However there is someone who always remains faithful to you and that is God! He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Deuteronomy 31:8, Hebrews 13:5)

God believes in you and has great plans for you and all He wants in return is for you to remain faithful to Him. DON’T GIVE UP ON GOD! Stay faithful!

© Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

Is God Jealous?

2010-04-21T09:45:00.001-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

Back when I was single I had a girlfriend once that I thought was hot, beautiful, and a stone fox. Problem is other guys thought so too. I found out she cheated on me and we broke up and then she had the nerve to show up at the bar with the guy she was cheating on me with and the fight was on baby! Tables,, beer bottles, chairs, all sailed across the honkytonk and as Roy D. Mercer would say, “Git yo’re fists a- flying” seemed to be the barroom motto that night. Why did all this happen? I was jealous that’s why.

How would you like it if you saw the person you were dating out on a date with someone else? The jealousy you might feel might just be similar to the jealousy God has for His people. You mean God is jealous? Yes He is because He says so in Exodus 20:4-6, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”

God wants exclusive rights to your affection and He will not tolerate anybody or anything that try to take His place. When you marry someone you both take an oath to love, honor and be true to each other, forsaking all others. You would not tolerate your spouse breaking that vow and likewise God doesn’t tolerate people sharing him with false ‘gods’ either. Some twisted preachers teach that universalism is OK and there are different paths to heaven besides Jesus. HOGWASH! Other ‘gods’ will land you in Hell, plain and simple because Jesus said “No man comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

It is not just bowing down like to the false ‘god’ of Islam or some other cult, but placing anything like your job, boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, child, or hobbies above God, is idolatry. Read this in Hosea 13:1-6:

“When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, people trembled. The people of Ephraim were important in Israel. Then they became guilty of worshiping Baal, so they must die.2 They keep on sinning more and more. They make idols from silver for themselves. These idols are skillfully made. All of them are the work of craftsmen. People say this about the Israelites: "They offer human sacrifices and kiss calf-shaped idols." 3 That is why they will be like fog in the morning and like morning dew that disappears quickly. They will be like straw blown away from threshing floors. They will be like smoke rising from chimneys. 4"I am the LORD your God. I brought you out of Egypt. You have known no god besides me. There is no savior except me. 5 I took care of you in the desert, in a dry land. 6 When I fed you, you were full. When you were full, you became arrogant. That is why you forgot me.”

Take a look at your life and see if you are letting anyone or anything get in the way of your relationship with the one who gave you eternal life. If there is, then make some readjustments now before God does it for you!

© Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

OBEY OR DISOBEY GOD: IT’S YOUR CHOICE!

2010-04-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

Most parents if they are any kind of good parent at all will have rules and boundaries for their child. Sometimes a child gets upset that there are rules to follow, not realizing that the parents have set rules and boundaries for their own good. For instance, a good parent will check out what type of friends their child is hanging around and make a determination as to whether their child should continue to associate with that friend. There was a survey done not long ago where parents were asked 5 questions like,

• Name the model, actress, singer, who has a grandfather that owns one of the world’s largest hotel chains.
• Name the singer that shaved her head bald and was married to Kevin Federline.
• Name the former President of the United States who had an affair with Monica Lewinsky and lied to the public about it.
• Name the most famous PGA golfer in the world who is also part African American.
• Name the actor that starred in ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ ‘Urban Cowboy,’ and ‘Pulp Fiction.

Almost every parent scored 100% in naming Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, and John Travolta. Then the survey had one more command: “Now name your child’s 5 best friends.” It was reported that 97% of the parents surveyed could not name all of their child’s 5 best friends and most could only name one. That is sad.

Your friends are your biggest influence in life when you are a teenager. The type of crowd you run with and the type of people you hang around are what you are known by. For instance, if you hang with the in-crowd of popular teens who “rule the school” then you are known as one of them, and are considered ‘cool.’ If you hang around troublemakers and hoodlums then you are considered as such. If you hang around nerds and geeks, you are considered one of them. Also if you are a teen girl and you hang around sexually promiscuous girls then the guys automatically think you put out even if you don’t. Yeah I know some people will say “Who cares? That’s judging!” Maybe it is judging but if you don’t care about your reputation then you will make one sorry excuse for a parent if you ever have kids. It is people who do care what others think that go places in their careers, ministries, friendships and personal gains. You see, it is a fact of life that you are known by the company you keep. If you run with dogs you get fleas and if you run with pigs you get slop.
The Bible says “Bad company corrupts good character.” 1 Corinthians 15:33 I have seen good people during my life that ended up making bad choices in the friends that they chose and those friends ended up taking the people down with them. I have seen innocent people ending up in trouble with the law or denied jobs because of who they chose to hang around.

If your parents love you and are decent parents then they will take steps to make sure your character is not corrupted. They will not only set rules about what friends you are allowed to hang around, but they will also set curfews, assign chores, make sure you are doing good in school and above all else, make sure you go to church. When parents go so far as to take these steps to insure the best for their child then they are the type of parents who know best.

God is the same way toward us. Father knows best! Sometimes when we are obeying God it can feel more like a hindrance than a help. Solomon was blessed of God as the world’s richest man and he was also blessed with wisdom, but he screwed up royally! He disobeyed God after God was so good to him. Solomon was sort of the Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen) or Warren Beatty of his day, as he made love to women from all over the world. Nationality and religion did not matter to him. It was obvious with over 700 wives and 300 concubines. I still don’t know how he found time to make love to that many women, especially when they hadn’t even invented Viagra yet! God told the children of Israel not to intermarry with women from foreign nations, not because they were a different race but because they worshiped other gods and they would tempt them to follow their false gods. Throughout history women have been known to have power over men and can generally make a man do things he would not normally do. Look at the example’s of Eve and how she led Adam astray, and how Delilah also led Samson to his doom. God will not tolerate someone worshiping false gods. That is number one of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:3, yet in spite of all the great wisdom Solomon had he still disobeyed God and suffered the consequences for his actions.

When God sets rules for us to obey He is not trying to keep us from enjoying our lives, but God’s rules are there to keep us safe from harm. The next time you feel like being disobedient to God remember that the consequences of what you do may not be what you expect or desire. As a matter of fact you could end up bringing all sorts of heat down on your head as well as those around you. Galatians 6:7 says “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you'll harvest.” You don’t plant corn and harvest strawberries! You won’t plant disobedience and harvest blessings either. God loved Solomon and blessed him tremendously until he screwed up and then the boom was lowered on him! Do you think you are any different than Solomon? Think you will get off lightly and the consequences of your actions do not apply to you because of “grace?” Think again! Acts 10:34 God does not show favoritism! Yes God shows grace and mercy but He also shows justice! God is a God of balance! The Creator is fair and loving but He ain’t blind! He expects us to follow His rules and regulations, and contrary to what those who preach that God is “all grace” say, God does not wink at sin! There is a price to pay for failure to obey!

Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-20, “Don't ever think that I came to set aside Moses' Teachings or the Prophets. I didn't come to set them aside but to make them come true. I can guarantee this truth: Until the earth and the heavens disappear, neither a period nor a comma will disappear from Moses' Teachings before everything has come true. So whoever sets aside any command that seems unimportant and teaches others to do the same will be unimportant in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches what the commands say will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. I can guarantee that unless you live a life that has God's approval and do it more faithfully than the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The Bible says in Luke 6:38 “Give, and you will receive. A large quantity, pressed together, shaken down, and running over will be put into your pocket. The standards you use for others will be applied to you." If you give obedience to God then you will receive blessings and rewards. If you give disobedience then you bring down curses upon your own head and make trouble for yourself. (Deuteronomy 28) It is up to you: Obey or disobey. That is your choice to make. Hope you make the right one!

© Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

COMPROMISING GOD'S WORD FOR MAN'S APPROVAL

2010-04-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

I see so many Christians compromising the word of God today in order to gain acceptance from the world. Is this really what Jesus would do? Did Jesus really speak to people and tell them to stop preaching about repentance and sin because it offends people? Did Jesus change his mind about everything God calls sin in order to make the church seem more attractive, appealing, and modern day? Did Jesus tell us to start thinking ‘outside the box’ because we have to change with the times to appeal to the younger crowd? No way! Jesus said “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Matthew 24:35.

Now if what Jesus calls sin, has indeed passed away and it is not sin anymore then that means Jesus is a liar. Do you really want to serve and worship a liar? Neither do I. That’s why I serve and worship Jesus because He is not a liar. He is incapable of lying because He is without sin. As a matter of fact Jesus said “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life.” John 14:6. Therefore the definition of truth is Jesus. Some say what is called sin in the Bible is an “old fundamentalist way of thinking.” That shows they do not even know God and certainly have no relationship with Jesus when they make an asinine statement like that. Jesus said "Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.” Matthew 5:17

Now let’s look at what Apostle Paul said. Galatians 1:10 “Am I saying this now to win the approval of people or God? Am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ's servant.” Paul made it clear in the following verses 11-12, that the gospel he preached is not something that came from man but God. “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Paul was saying that he didn’t have to conform to the latest craze, read some book by a guy with a degree in psychology, or see what the latest polls are in order to get what he had. He was saying he got his anointing, his wisdom, and his ministry from being on his knees and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through him.

In Galatians 1:17, Paul says, “I didn’t get my revelation of Christ from the saints in Jerusalem. Instead, I went into Arabia, to the desert, to have Christ revealed to me. I spent precious time there, being emptied of self, hearing and being taught by the Holy Spirit.”

Paul was not some flaky self-ordained charlatan. He was a man with a heart that served people out of love. He was not prideful and arrogant with his eyes fixed upon what the world had to offer, but rather was humble with his eyes fixed on Jesus and the prize offered to him in eternity.

While it is nice to have a big church, when we compromise God’s word in order to build one, we are displeasing God and misleading a lot of people. As a matter of fact we will be held accountable if we don’t preach the truth because the truth is what sets people free. Ezekiel 33:8-9 “Suppose I say to a wicked person, 'You wicked person, you will certainly die,' and you say nothing to warn him to change his ways. That wicked person will die because of his sin, and I will hold you responsible for his death. But if you warn a wicked person to turn from his ways and he doesn't turn from them, then he will die because of his sin. However, you will save yourself.” Jesus said “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:32

So what if people get offended by the truth! I would rather kick them into heaven than pat them into hell!

When you are focused on being a God-pleaser, you will never be focused on trying to win men’s approval!

Either you will offend God and please the world or you will offend the world and please God!

So what’s more important to you?

©Johnny Lee Clary International Ministries

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

ACCORDING TO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE

2010-04-10T06:23:00.001-07:00

After a week long conference in Sydney where I got no exercise as I sat all week listening to preaching, I knew I was way overdue for my walk I do every other day for fitness so I decided to spend the day walking through Darling Harbor and the parts of Sydney just around that area. I noticed a lot of young able-bodied men lying around on the sidewalk with signs that said things like, “Homeless, feed me please.” I was a bit offended especially when I had to step around a young guy that was sleeping on the sidewalk in front of a store. I knew it was either an addiction to alcohol or drugs that have placed him as well as the other young guys in those predicaments. I make it a policy never to hand out money to strangers when they approach me especially when they are young like that, because I know more than likely the money that God has given me will be used for dope or booze. Whenever I travel to Times Square in New York City, I can’t go two blocks without some young able-bodied girl or guy on dope asking for spare change or a few dollars. I felt like I was in New York City as I walked around Sydney with all the younger generation lying on the sidewalk with their signs.

However, this time something different happened. I was standing on the corner waiting for the crosswalk light when instead of some long-haired hippie-looking guy who looked like he never saw a bar of soap coming up to me; an old Chinese man approached me. He looked like he was at least 80 years old and he was trying to speak broken English as he said, “Excuse….me. Could you let me have…a dollar..so I can buy a sandwich?” I immediately shook my head no. I then heard him say “Thank you anyway sir,” as he sadly walked away. I watched him for a few seconds and then I immediately pulled some money out and walked up to him and said, “Here sir, take this.” The old man smiled with tears in his eyes and said “Oh thank you sir, thank you so much.” I immediately put up my hand and said “That’s Ok sir, that’s OK. God Bless.”

As I crossed the street and proceeded to walk down the sidewalk I was thinking, “That is not an able-bodied young man who is perfectly capable of working; that is somebody’s grandfather who probably doesn’t have much longer to live.” God only knows why he was poor and hungry, but it doesn’t matter; as I should have done more for him.

I walked for another hour or two and then I looked at my watch and saw it was getting to be later in the afternoon and I had been out walking for four hours. I hadn’t eaten all day so I stopped and got my lunch and went into Gloria Jeans and ordered an iced coffee and sat down to eat my meal. As I took the wrapper off my food, I thought of that old man again. Here I was setting down to feed my face with good healthy food I bought thinking I was doing the right thing, and that old man could barely buy maybe one small sandwich with what I gave him. I thought to myself, “Some preacher you are “Elder” “Rev.” Johnny Lee Clary! Here you are ordained as an Elder minister in one of the largest denominations in the USA with over six million members; you appear on FOX News, Charisma Magazine, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, The Christian Post, speak in churches all over the world, and you reached in your pocket and gave that man $4.00! It would not have hurt you to give that old man more and even asked him to share a meal with you while you shared the gospel with him! That old man would have probably been so grateful.” I started crying right then and there. I don’t know what the people sitting in the Darling Harbor Gloria Jeans coffee shop thought of a grown man sitting there crying, but I really don’t care what they thought. I was wrong.

I thought about how millions of dollars are passed around in churches all over the world and I know a lot of churches do great things and help a lot of people, and I also know some don’t. I don’t have a church of my own as Bishop George D. McKinney who is my boss in my denomination wants me to travel a few more years promoting racial reconciliation and evangelism before I take over an African-American church. Bishop McKinney has the largest church in San Diego, California where he works with inner-city urban youth, and provides jobs for the jobless and homes for the homeless. He is all about helping the poor. As a minister under him, I have a responsibility to reflect the same spirit of giving as he does. Today I failed the test.

I could say, “I am only human,” or some other lame excuse like that, but that would not excuse my behavior with Jesus. You see, I asked God awhile back for the same anointing of a very special man who all Christians should know, and that man is the late Keith Green, who died in a plane crash in 1982. Keith Green was a real on fire for God Christian singing preacher, and a role model for the way Christians should act, sing, and preach. He never sugar-coated anything and was a NO COMPROMISE preacher. He preached the word like it should be preached and never compromised God’s Word in order to be politically correct. He was a God-pleaser and not a man-pleaser. He and his wife Melanie used to sell bundles of witnessing tracts so Christians could have something to hand out to people so others could know Jesus. They always put a suggested price on those tracts, but also added the words, “or whatever you can afford.” You see, to Keith Green, it was more important to him to get the gospel out to people than to get rich and ride in a limo. Keith was a giving man of God, and so is Bishop McKinney. I asked God for Keith’s anointing but I guess I forget sometimes that God’s word says “To he who much is given much is required.” (Luke 12:48)

I sat in that coffee shop in tears thinking to myself, “How I wish I didn’t have to live from love offering to love offering, and could have a bank account that had so much money in it that it would not hurt to write a check for $5,000.00 or $10,000.00 to that old Chinese grandfather, take him to get a home, stock his ice box with plenty of food, and get him planted in a church that would care for him, so he could spend his remaining years being happy.”

I once heard an arrogant preacher say, “It’s a sin to be poor.” My little grandmother loved Jesus with all of her heart, but was poor and in poverty for the last several years of her life. She was not in sin because she was poor. She had no choice and was in her 80’s. None of us kids had money where we could take care of her, but we tried to do the best we could. She was married to my step-grandfather who was a gambler who gambled away all of their savings and retirement and never told her. He left her penniless and she had to survive on old age pension and a measly social security checks which totaled around $500.00 a month. I wish that preacher who said it was a sin to be poor could try living on that amount for a while like my grandmother did and maybe he wouldn’t make such asinine statements.

I hear a lot of people preaching about getting rich and that is OK if they have the motives to feed the Lord’s sheep and help the poor and downtrodden with the money God gives them. However, if they are wanting to get rich for gold toilet seats, air conditioned dog houses and to ride around in limos and helicopters or leer jets to show how “blessed and important” they are, then forget it! God is not into that. I on the other hand have been ministering since the early 90’s on a full-time basis. I had a good job, but I kept taking off to go minister and the boss told me to make a choice to either quit ministering or quit my job. That was the best choice I ever made to quit my job and minister full time. Although I have never gotten rich, nothing could be more fulfilling that what I do. I have never made enough money to own an airplane; my wife and I rent our home; we drive used cars; and she has a part time job so she can have a little extra spending money. We consider ourselves very blessed. God provides enough for us to pay our bills and to pay for my mission’s trips to go win souls. Most churches only pay hotel rooms for the nights you are with them and most of the time I have to pay throughout the week. Many of our plane tickets we pay on our own. Many churches give what they can but some don’t give a lot and some have downright ripped us off and not given what came in. I am not complaining though. For every church that does not do right by us, there are some that do. I am glad to do this and to be used of God, but I have never gotten rich off the gospel.

The truth of the matter is I do want God to bless our ministry with unlimited amounts of money so we can impact the world in a much larger way than what we are already doing with the gospel; feed the poor; provide assistance and job programs; help the elderly; fight racism and gang activities; encourage children with educational and motivational programs so they can avoid gangs and drugs; continue to visit the prisons, jails, and schools which we don’t get paid for; and be the best we can be for the Lord Jesus Christ. We are getting older now and although we are no longer young, we are middle aged and not senior citizens so we have some years left. We intend on doing the best we can with what God gives us and we know it is in His hands.

I didn’t do the best I could today or even a little better with that old Chinese grandfather and I am so sorry I didn’t. However I pray that from now on I will be more sensitive to the needs of others that really need help like the elderly. I pray God forgives me for my wrong, and I resolve from now on to be a much better minister. After all, if you are going to be a minister, especially one that is a public figure and high profile speaker known the world over, then you better represent Jesus right because He is coming back soon to give to each and everyone one of us according to what we have done. (Rev. 22:12)

Do you really want Him to give back to you according to what YOU have done?

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

DO YOU HAVE FEAR? TURN IT AROUND!

2010-04-07T09:54:00.000-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

I never will forget how I used to be bullied before I learned how to fight. When I was in the 9th grade, there was this one bunch of hooligans that threatened me all the time back when I was a kid in Bell Gardens High School in East LA. This one chick, I think her name was Alice was known as the school bicycle, which meant everybody got a ride. She had these punks that followed her around and did whatever she told them to do. One was named Barry and the other I can’t remember and there was some other guy whose name slips my mind also. They kept pushing me around and Alice told me every day I was going to get my a** kicked. She kept saying “It’s coming down soon,” and crap like that until one day as I was on my bike riding home her boys all jumped out in front of me and knocked me off my bike. Alice appeared from behind a bush and said “I told you it was coming! Today’s the day punk!” She then said to her boys, “Kick his a**!” All three of her guys moved towards me at her command. At that point I had to make a choice; I could keep my fear and be dead meat, or I could cast out the fear and fight! I had a split second to react and all of a sudden the fear left. I grabbed my chain that I used to lock my bike at school, and I didn’t wait for them to reach me, as I swung the chain hitting one of the guys right in the face. He screamed like a little girl and ran off crying! Then that Barry guy ran as fast as he could and all I saw was his white sneakers disappearing around the corner like greased lightning! The other guy was no where to be found either. They left their girlfriend Alice all by herself who was screaming and crying and begging me not to hit her! I would never hit a girl but I told her she best leave me alone or the next time she wouldn’t be so lucky. I told her to “Git, git, git, git, git,” and she ran away as fast as she could. Those punks never messed with me again and when they saw me at school they avoided me.

The point behind this story is fear is never good. Fear can keep you down, make you a coward, and destroy you. God’s word says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us a spirit of fear but one of power, love and a sound mind.” Since God did not give us fear that means it could only come from one other source and that is Satan himself. We don’t need anything that comes from him! You see fear had me falsely believing that Alice’s boys where tough, bad, and invincible. When David was a little shepherd boy armed only with a sling and he saw Goliath the giant, he did not fear him. He looked at his size and was not thinking about how fast he could flee from the giant without him catching him, but instead he was thinking that because of his size the giant Goliath would make an easy target to take down!

We need to stop fear dead in its tracks and realize God gave us power! Matthew 28:18 says all power has been given to Jesus, and Philippians 4:13 says we can do ALL things through Jesus who gives us strength! Therefore if you believe God at His word then you have nothing to fear!

I could have kicked myself for all the times I allowed fear to rule over me when I was a kid, and it wasn’t until that day I took care of Alice’s boys, that I realized I didn’t have to be afraid anymore. You don’t either. Stand up to those who bully you! Take a stand against those who push you around. Stand your ground and say I will not be moved!

When African-American’s finally had enough of the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists in the South who bullied them and kept them down, they all took a stand against hate and marched into towns in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi singing “We Shall Not Be Moved!” As a result and many sacrifices, today the civil rights African Americans didn’t have for years because of fear, they now have! Another song African Americans sang while marching against the injustice of the white supremacist system, was “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Us Around!” They didn’t and they turned the entire system around. They all marched right into Birmingham Alabama and right up to one of the most notorious racists of all time, Police Commissioner Bull Connor singing that song. Connor turned the fire hoses on them, had them arrested and even turned the police dogs loose on them. In spite of this they just kept coming back singing, “Ain’t gonna let Bull Connor turn us around, turn us around turn us around, ain’t gonna let Bull Connor turn us around, I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin' Marchin' up to freedom's land!”

If you are living in fear, stop it now and turn it around! That is the only way you can have true freedom!

Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world! 1 John 4:4

Rev. Johnny Lee Clary is an ordained elder minister in the Church Of God In Christ, the largest African American denomination in the USA. He is one of the leading advocates for racial unity in the United States and has appeared on countless television and radio shows such as The Billy Graham show, Fox News, Morris Cerullo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr., Rolanda Watts, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, Jerry Springer, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Montel Williams, Phil Donahue, A&E Investigative Reports, ABC World News Tonight, Bertrice Berry, The Today Show, A Current Affair, The 700 Club, and Kenneth Copeland's TV show. He has also been a regular guest on TBN's Praise The Lord show and has been featured in America's top newspapers and magazines, including a seven page feature story in Charisma magazine in Feb. 2010, April 1999, Moody Magazine, Guidepost Magazine (Sept. 1998), Kenneth Copeland's Believer's Voice of Victory magazine, as well as appearances on TV programs in Australia, England, Holland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, and Wales. He holds the record for the largest crowd ever at Hillsong Brisbane, Australia.

Excuse me, "Are you Jesus?"

2010-04-04T16:54:00.001-07:00

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional
sales convention in Chicago .. They had assured their
wives that they would be home in plenty of time for
Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and
briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked
over a table which held a display of apples.
Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking
back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for
their nearly-missed boarding.

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in
touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of
compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been
overturned.

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved
good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they
arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a
later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the
apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.

The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly
crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and
at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled
produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping
and no one to care for her plight.

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up
the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize
her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them
had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in
another basket.

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said
to the girl, 'Here, please take this $40 for the damage we
did. Are you okay?' She nodded through her tears. He
continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too
badly."

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered
blind girl called out to him, "Mister....." He paused and
turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued,
"Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered.
Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that
question burning and bouncing about in his soul:
Are you Jesus?"

Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our
destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people
cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a
world that is blind to His love, life and grace.

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as
He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting
Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the
Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too,
have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was
doing and picked up you and me on a hill called
Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.
Sometimes we just take things for granted, when we really
need to be sharing what we know. God has blessed us!

"Success means having the heart, the valour, and the will to become the person God meant for you to be!" Johnny Lee Clary

“Ah yes, truth. Funny how everyone is always asking for it but when they get it they don’t believe it because it’s not the truth they want to hear.” ~Helena Cassadine

IT ALWAYS HURTS TO SAY GOODBYE

2010-03-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

My father –in-law passed away today and I was thinking about him. He had Alzheimer’s and was in a rest home for the last three years of his life. At first he knew me because I would go with my wife every few days and visit with him. However as my traveling schedule increased, my visits got few and far between. Over the last year whenever I would drop in he didn’t know me. As I was packing and getting ready to go on my 2010 Tour of Australia, I fully intended to go visit him as I have every year before I leave just in case something happens. I always bring him back a ball cap or something, and this year was going to be no different. However, I got so busy with packing, schedules, last minute preparations and being in a hurry to catch the plane I forgot all about going to tell him goodbye and didn’t remember until I was long gone. I remember back in 1995 I was on the road and traveling to a speaking engagement in Mississippi when my grandmother got sick and I fully intended to go see her as soon as I got back home but by then it was too late, as she had went home to be with Jesus.

It always hurts to say goodbye especially when we have to say it to someone we love. It can be very painful to be separated from a loved one. It is never fun to stand at the airport waving goodbye to someone you love or watching as the U-Haul truck pulls away from the curb as people wave goodbye. Although Graduation Day is supposed to be a celebration of achievement, it is also a sad day as students are saying goodbye to friends that have been with them every day for years. It is not unusual to cry when watching a video that shows someone we had to say goodbye to.

Paul was no stranger to the word goodbye. In Acts 20, he met with the spiritual leaders of Ephesus. It hurt him and them that he had to go away and would not see them anymore. Verses 36 and 37 tells how Paul knelt down on the beach with all of them and they prayed together and everyone put their arms around him and kissed him goodbye. The same thing happened at Tyre a few months later, as described in Acts 21:5-6.

It hurts to have to say goodbye to those we care about and love. When one of my mentors, Rev. Wade Watts, who was also my close friend passed away, I remember patting him on the shoulder as he lay in his coffin and said, “This is not goodbye, it is just so long for right now. I will see you again.” As Christians we can take comfort in knowing that if the person departing was also a Christian then we don’t have to say goodbye. All we have to say is “so long” for right now because we will see them again when we all get to Heaven and what a day of rejoicing that will be!

In Revelations 21:1 John was describing the New Jerusalem and was excited that the sea was gone. Why was he so excited about that? Well you see he had written the book of Revelation while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. The sea was what separated him from the people that he loved. In Heaven there is no sea and no separation, therefore we will never have to say goodbye to loved ones again!

I am looking forward to seeing my father-in-law, Mr. Bob Edwards again. Next time I see him, he will not have Alzheimer’s either and will be in his glorified body. I will see Rev. Wade Watts who will have both of his legs and be cancer-free! I will see my grandmother who will be in her glorified body and will be able to hear me without her hearing aids! My wife is sad that her father has gone on in one way, but she is happy in another way because she knows his suffering his over and he is enjoying himself now. Right before he passed away, my mother-in-law was by his side and was patting him and telling him, “It’s Ok, you can go home to be with Jesus now. I’ll be Ok.” Right after she said that he took his last earthly breath and went home. My wife had been praying that same thing over him for the last several days because she knew it was time for him to go be with the Lord.

That is the difference between the non-believer and the Christian. If someone is not a Christian they have no chance of ever seeing those they love again. A Christian does however. If you are a Christian look forward to the day when you will never have to be separated from people you love ever again!

FEELING REJECTED

2010-03-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

By Rev. Johnny Lee Clary

I saw a bumper sticker the other day and it said, “Be Kind To Nerds: You Will Probably End Up Working For One!” You may not remember the nerd you used to bully and pick on in school, but he will remember you if you ever apply for a job at the corporation that he ends up owning or managing. It is a fact of life that sometimes the nerdiest guy in school ends up becoming a successful corporation president or owner. It is also a fact that the girl who was considered a dork and was picked on by the good looking “mean girls” who ruled the school, will probably end up becoming a high class success and have beauty treatments that transforms her into a model-type beauty queen while the mean girls become chubby soccer moms.

As you go through life you will encounter people that the in-crowd labeled as losers and totally rejected but they end up becoming extremely successful.

Jesus was sort of like that. Psalm 118:22 talks about “the stone that the builders rejected.” That is Jesus. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day labeled him as a troublemaker and even blasphemed his works attributing them to Satan. They would not believe that He was who He said He was and sought to kill Him. But Jesus was the real deal! The church leaders of His day thought He was just an old chunk of coal, but the truth was Jesus was the purest, most sparkling, highest grade diamond that ever existed.

You may have been rejected at school, at home, by a sports team, by someone you liked, by an “in-crowd” or even by a church group. Maybe they made you feel like an old chunk of coal, instead of a sparkling diamond. If that is the case I say to you, don’t give up on God or yourself! God loves you and knows your potential. He will never leave you nor forsake you! He is waiting to mold and shape you into the shiny new diamond that He knows you can be. You have to trust Him!