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ABC Prayer Crusade

You Can Love Again

Glenn Coon

1 - You Can Love Again

Now our study tonight at this hour is how a couple who had been alienated were able to become sweethearts again.

You have before you the page that tells very briefly their story.

You'll notice as you look at this story, you'll notice that the man in the case, the husband, bless his heart, was a habitual backslider.

Habitually, he was unfaithful to his wife.

And evidently she was forgiving him again and again.

And by the way, this couple we knew, we met and every experience that we relate during this seminar is an experience of individuals whom we personally know.

1 little girl came to me after 1 of the meetings and she said, Was that a true story?

And after this dear man had carried on this program in a habitual, repeated way for a period of years, His wife became so discouraged that even though he found the Lord and had a rich experience in the Lord, she was so discouraged that she actually despised his experience in the Lord.

She was angry that he'd found happiness in the Lord and forgiveness in the Lord.

And she found in her heart a lack of forgiveness.

At about this time, bless her heart, she went to visit her sister.

And as she was visiting her sister, they were talking of course about her trials and her tribulations and you know isn't it too bad that we Christians just have to kind of mull over all the problems of our lives?

And she and her sister were discussing some of these problems and her sister's husband came in, unexpectedly.

And he said, he has a wonderful experience in Jesus.

And then he added a negative, which he should never have added.

He said, but he's finding it very difficult to forget that other woman.

With that, his precious wife just burst into tears, rushed in the other room sobbing.

Her sister came after and her sister said, listen, maybe you ought to go for a little ride out in the open air and and maybe it'll help you to feel better.

My husband will take you for a little trip.

So she said, I went for the little trip with her husband.

She said, I never should have taken that trip.

She said, we went out, parked the car by the beach, and we walked along by the beach, and her husband began to tell me that he never had loved his wife, that he'd loved me for years.

And she said, it broke down all of my reserve, and before I realized scarcely what was happening, I had fallen into sin.

Such guilt, she said, has covered my soul I cannot even describe.

She said, I came back I hope that he would never tell his wife and I plan never tell my husband and she said with that I as soon as I could I took off for camp meeting and Pastor Coon you're holding a series of meetings there at camp meeting.

And she said, it was just the message that God had for my soul.

She said, 1 of the messages that you gave was how to help an infatuated mate.

And she said, I found that I had been using the wrong methods entirely.

And she said, and so I cried out to the Lord, dear Lord forgive me.

I haven't been using the right method on my husband.

And because I wasn't forgiving, you let me fall into the same trap.

And she said, just about this time, my husband called me by long distance, and she said he was sobbing.

This man that had been habitually unfaithful to his wife, Now that he learns what has happened to her, for he was told.

His heart was breaking and he said, do you know, I've loved you all these years.

I never realized till now how much I loved you.

Oh, she, he said, my heart is just breaking.

He said, why don't you come home right away?

She said, well, I've just come to a series of meetings and the Lord is feeding my soul.

And she said, you know, couldn't you come?

She said, as he came in on the campground that morning, at first she said, we're almost like strangers.

And then little by little, by the power of the Lord, we warmed up and she said, We became friends, we became lovers.

She said we apologized to each other, we asked God to forgive us, and we sensed his complete forgiveness, his complete cleansing.

And she said, I rested in my bed and I felt so happy.

Oh, thank you Lord for bringing peace after all of these years of trouble and sorrow and alienation and quibbling and murmuring and disputing.

And she said, as I as I lay there on my bed something happened.

And I said to myself, well, this won't last very long.

Surely, I don't know what this is all about, but it can't last very long.

But she said it continued, and I thought, well, maybe if I get up and go to the meeting.

And she said, and it continued all night.

I said, well, to my husband, I don't believe I can go to a meeting in the morning.

And he said, you know what I think it is?

I think it's a devil trying to keep you from God's special message.

So she said, with his help, I made it over.

Almost staggering in the meeting place, sat down, and she said, as you began to speak, it seemed I could not stand it, my heart was pounding, and My breath was so short, I said to my husband, I've just got to get up and leave.

And he put his hand on mine and he said, honey, the devil is trying to deprive us of God's special message for us.

Oh She said but it seemed like I never could stand it She said and but I listened the best I could crying out to God to help me She said when the meeting was over.

I went back in my room and I took the bed and she said and I said to my husband maybe if you leave and I'll just kind of be all alone maybe I maybe I'll just find a relief I don't know what it is So she said he got up and and he walked out of the place walked down the aisle The the hallway and he was gone and she said as he left It seemed that all the demons of hell took over She said it seemed that I was going to die.

Oh, she said, Lord, I don't know whether I need to see Pastor Coon Or whether I need to see a doctor or what, but Lord, I'm here all alone.

And she said, as I was praying, the devil took over so completely.

And then she said, I just looked up by faith into the Lord's face and I said, oh God, If there's anything between you and me, point it out, because I don't want to die without knowing that everything is alright.

Every sin is confessed so far as I know, Lord.

And dear Lord, if I should die, I want to be sure that everything's all right.

And she said, I got worse and worse, and I finally said, Oh Lord, I will not let you go except You bless me.

And she said, then I heard the voice of the Lord.

And she said, as his voice, the thought voice, spoke to my heart, immediately my breath returned.

She said, and I was so, so satisfied that I thought I was dying peacefully.

2 - Martha Salvages Bill

And at this hour, we're sharing with you the message of Martha and Bill.

And you'll find on the sheet of paper before you, those in the studio audience here, we'll find an outline of the experience through which they passed.

The experience itself is detailed in our book entitled Sweethearts Again.

Bill was a professional man, a medical doctor, a very close friend of mine.

He was the first elder of the church of which I was pastor.

I often went to Bill seeking the counsel he could give me in regard to church work.

Sometime after we left this church and went into our traveling ministry, we heard rumors about my friend, and from now on I'm going to call him my friend.

They were in effect that he was not attending church any longer, that he had met with some great discouragement, tragedy in fact, but I never could piece the story together.

In fact, he told me much of the experience himself, in fact nearly all, as his wife and my wife were in their kitchen and she was sharing the experience with my wife.

Because it contains such vital lessons to the home, we share it with you.

And we pray for the Holy Spirit that every 1 of us may learn the most outstanding lesson from this experience.

The Holy Spirit may impress you with 1 special lesson.

He may impress another individual with another lesson.

He's impressed me with 1 particular lesson that I will share with you in a few moments.

My friend had very generously paid the way, largely, of a relative of his through medicine.

His heart was very big, he was very generous, very outgoing.

And when his relative had finished his study course and received his degree, it was just like my friend to take him in as a partner in his profession.

And just a little after he took him in as a partner, a very, very unworthy rumor spread all over the area.

The rumor was that my friend had become an adulterer, that he was really rotten.

The Apostle James says the fire, the tongue is set on the fire of hell.

And so this rumor was believed by many people, but my friend knew that his relative, knowing him and having known him for years, would never believe it.

And then he was in for the shock of his life.

Of all things, this relative, for whom he'd sacrificed so deeply, believed the rumors.

He says to his relative, you've known me for years.

You've known the Christian experience that I have.

And his relatives said, Uncle, you can't fool me.

And then my friend made the mistake of his Christian life.

He took his eyes off Jesus and put them on his unworthy relative.

And 2nd Corinthians, the third chapter in the 18th verse says, we beholding are changed into the same image.

In other words, the thing you mull over, the thing you contemplate, that which you put your mind on continually, you become.

Very, very gradual it takes place, gradually.

And as he took his eyes off Jesus, who is love, he lost the love of Jesus.

As he put his eyes on his unworthy relative, his Love was turned to hatred.

Martha just threw her arms around him as usual.

She knew the terrible experience through which he was passing and he opened his coat.

She said, honey, you wouldn't murder a fly hardly.

You wouldn't think of doing a thing like that." He said, don't fear.

He said, there'll be no reproach brought on my family.

You think I'm going to take this, sitting down?

And then, when he got his eyes off of Christ, who is love, not merely did he have hatred, but when he took his eyes off of Christ, who is purity, he fell into the very trap of which he'd been accused.

He would come back home and tell his wife, and we're not going into the sordid situations ourselves, But just enough to say he told his wife of the women that he was living with, of the experiences that he'd had with 2 or 3 in a single day.

Can you imagine the effect that would have on Martha?

Now, friends, here is the first lesson that I pray to God that every 1 of us here doing this program and listening in the studio, by the power of God we shall learn and it is this.

She had every right in the world to divorce him, right?

But there's a higher right, and that higher right is to salvage.

The very feminine heart was full of revulsion at the things he was doing and yet the Lord impressed her with this.

If you show revulsion, if you show retaliation, if you show a pained look, if you give him the impression that you're pitying yourself, it will never help.

You must present to him the love that allures." Hosea 2 14, I will allure.

And she said, Oh Lord, I do want to salvage him, but how in the world can I allure him when I'm revolted at the terrible things he's doing?

And then she told us, she said, the Lord helped me to find a book in my library entitled The Ministry of Healing.

She said, we had a little lake, not far from our cottage, and she said, I took this little book, the Ministry of Healing, down to this lake and I opened this book and I read.

And she said and there was another book in my library entitled Path to the Heart.

She said, I took those 2 books down to my lake and I would read for 2 hours straight until all of This revulsion was gone.

I would get up from where I was sitting there at the lake.

When my husband returned, I would kiss him with a smile.

She said, but I was only cured of this revulsion for a matter of an hour or 2.

As I would think again on the sordid life that he was living, my whole soul revolted.

3 - Why Two Marriages Failed

What a glorious day it will be when Jesus comes again, and he wants us to be ready to meet him.

Not merely fathers and mothers, but our children, our whole family.

You know, the Bible says that before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes, Elijah the prophet, that means the message of Elijah the prophet, will go to the world calling daddy's and mother's hearts to their children, the children's hearts to their daddy's and mother's.

It involves a whole family becoming closer and closer as a unit in Jesus Christ, ready to meet Jesus Christ.

Oh, we have every reason in the world to claim the promises of God that we might learn the simple principles of family communication.

We want to share with you at this hour 7 special secrets of family communication.

We've announced this subject, why 2 marriages failed.

Both of their husbands were professional men and both of these men were already infatuated with another woman.

These ladies came to our meeting, stayed for the after-service.

We shared with them how they could claim the wonderful promises of God's immutable, eternal, impeccable Word.

And as we told them how they could claim promises that their loved ones would be delivered?

I remember how they sat there and they just looked as though it was incredible.

Do we have a right to claim a promise that our mate will fall out of love?

Hebrews 2 14 and 15 says God will deliver those who all their lifetime were subject to bondage.

Genesis 3 15 says God will give a man a hatred for the thing that he loves.

Only God can give a man the enmity for the thing that it with which he was infatuated, but God can do it.

But we made clear to these ladies that to every promise in the Bible there are conditions.

Now these conditions we cannot fulfill in our own strength.

That is why we share in all of these services promises of how the Lord will give us the strength to live up to the conditions.

Christ in us is the only way by which conditions can be fulfilled.

That's why Paul said, the law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

So all the laws of marriage, all the secrets of marriage communication are really schoolmasters.

They're saying to you and me, you cannot do it of yourself.

You must reach up and take hold of divinity.

Second Peter 1.4 says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these, we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

So as we share with you 7 secrets, Bible secrets, of family communication, I hope every 1 of us will realize, friends, that we're not intimating, we're not suggesting that a human being can conform to these laws except as Jesus Christ lives in us.

I want you to notice that the joy of Jesus, as I studied with these, as we studied in fact, my wife was with me, as we studied with these 2 very sincere ladies, who naturally were heartbroken, that the only way by which they could expect the Lord to work through them to allure these mates of theirs back to them, even though the mate was in the wrong, since they wanted to allure the mate back to the Christ in them, the only way was for them to ask Jesus Christ to make them joyful spouses.

There are 826 texts of scripture that indicate that you and I should be happy and joyful, buoyant, even in the most severe conflicts, the most terrible temptations and trials.

We're to do this because the Bible says all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, Romans 8 28.

And it says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

So all the events in life are screened first by our wonderful Lord.

And then we say, Lord, since you have screened these events and you have only permitted that to come to me, which is for my good, I shall look to you, according to Romans 8.32.

Anything that you give me constitutes no sacrifice to you.

You certainly can give me the power, the ability, the strength to conform to your laws.

You can help me to be happy in tribulation.

Psalm 1611 says, in his presence there is fullness of joy.

At his right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

How in the world can we be happy and rejoice in trouble except as we know that God is using this trouble to refine us so that we shall be ready when Jesus comes." These ladies were not Christ-centered, they were self-centered.

What have I done to my husband that he should do this?

The husbands were not fair, and yet if they wanted to win them back, they must look up in the face of the Lord and say, Lord, You give me the joy of Jesus because I know that you've not permitted any trouble to come to me except that which is for my good.

And since you gave all heaven in the gift of Calvary, you've not forgotten me.

You're going to stick by me in this trial.

Fill me with a joy that my husband would rather see my countenance than the countenance of the other woman.

We call them the laws of divine allurement because Hosea 2 14 says I will allure, that's Jesus.

Nehemiah 8 10 says the joy of the Lord is your strength.

The strength of marriage is the joy that we share.

The next 2 secrets that these dear, precious, sincere, conscientious ladies knew nothing about are the secrets of humility and choice.

These 2 laws, these 2 secrets are Bible secrets.

Choice is presented from Genesis to Revelation.

And the Lord said, Choose now, choose ye.

Not I will choose for you, you do the choosing.

Jesus said, in effect, If you choose to come to me, all you that labor and are heavily laden, I'll give you rest.

If you will learn of my humility, my meekness, you'll find rest.

So choice and humility, Christ's humility, is 1 of the outstanding principles that mates who separate have never learned.

I have never yet seen a couple separate who have followed the simple principles of Jesus and joy and humility.

Humility means I look up to the other person.

Philippians 2.3 says, esteeming other better than myself.

You know what the mates of those marriages are doing?

But when we see the humility of Jesus Christ as manifested on Calvary for those that were so mean, those who persecuted.

We say, my, how could he say, Father, forgive them?

And Philippians 2, 5 says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

My friends, if marriage partners would not belittle the other and yet would not strive for their own reputation, something tremendous could happen to any marriage.

Choice means instead of our trying to program our mates, We let the Lord Jesus take over.

A lady came to a minister and she said, Pastor, I don't know what more to do to my husband.

4 - Prisoners Delivered

At this hour, I'd like to share with you 1 of the most tremendous things by which prisoners are released.

You may possibly remember the story in the 16th chapter of the book of Acts where Paul and Silas were in prison in Philippi, and their feet were put fast in the stocks.

According to students who understand the situation, we understand that those men were very, very miserably located.

Their backs were just lacerated with stripes and they were placed in such a position that they were in a very painful condition.

And at midnight I hear Paul saying to Silas, let's sing together.

Now I don't know what part Silas sang and I don't know what part Paul sang.

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