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One Step At A Time · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey friend, I'm Mike and McCurray.
• 0:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to Bible Tract Echoes.
• 0:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to jump right in today.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sharing with you an old message over six decades old from Dr. Paul Levine.
• 0:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, 60 years plus.
• 0:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: from the past but still so very relevant today.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dr. Paul Levine preached this message way back in the day.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: It would be in the mid-50s, maybe even earlier.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know precisely.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, I don't have a recording from all the way back then, but I do have the very first edition, the very first book of the very first edition of this message titled
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was printed as a book and the desire was that thousands of people would maybe be able to interact with this message to read it for themselves even though they'd never meet Dr. Paul.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you've never met Dr. Paul, you won't get a chance until we get to heaven because he passed away in 1996, but the intention, the purpose of this book, this message,
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: is being fulfilled because this week we're sharing it on Bible Tract Echoes and we're going to jump right in.
• 1:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: The first thought, the first theme of one step at a time was the will of God.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'd ask you, are you living, are you in the will of God?
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: God's will for your life.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: It ends with this thought.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you missed yesterday's broadcast, you can go back and find the Archives podcast version.
• 1:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just search for Bible Tract Echoes on your favorite podcast provider.
• 1:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Potliving jumps in here with a parable of the foot lights.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: He says this, I read in another part of the world, they would tie a little lamp on each ankle.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now watch how this works.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Imagine they have a little light on each ankle, it's dark, there's a crooked pathway ahead.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: As they step forward with that right foot, the light in that little lamp shows enough of the pathway ahead for the next step.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those little lamps aren't like a beacon light that shoots a ray of light two blocks ahead.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those little lamps will only show the light for the next step.
• 2:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's all they show.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: But when the wearer takes, when the person takes that step, then the light on that foot shows the next step and so on step by step down the pathway, the way to see further ahead down the pathway is to go as far as they can see now.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: When they take that next step, the light on that foot shows the light for the next step and that is all the further they can see.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: They can't see any further down the pathway until they go as far as they can see and that
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So when they take that one step, the lamp on that foot shows the next step and they just keep going one step at a time.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: There might be a sharp rock in the pathway, or a nasty rattlesnake coil there, or a scorpion or something else dangerous.
• 2:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: So each step is taken carefully.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when they take one step, they see the light for the next one, so on.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: They can say these little lamps that I've tied on each foot are the lamps to my feet.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because they only show each step, but as they follow the light step by step,
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then they can turn around and say, not only are these little lamps that lamps to my feet, but they are also the light to my pathway one step at a time.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's what the Bible is, a lamp or a light for the next step.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now if you take that step, then God will show you the light for the next step.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: the way to see further ahead in the will of God is to go as far as you can see now, and that's the next step.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you take that step, God will show you the next one.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why should God show you the steps far ahead if you are not willing to take the ones he is showing you now?
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: You take the first step, and on the second, then the third, and on to the fourth, you don't take the first step, and then the fourth, and then the seventh, God's board is a light to your feet for the next step, not for the next year or to ahead.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you follow the Lord's step by step from the time you are saved until you meet the Lord face to face.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does he want you to do now?
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: You do that, whatever that is.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: What does he want you to do next?
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do that!
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: After a while, you can turn around and say about God's word.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thy word is a lamp to my feet.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And has also become a light to my pathway.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: One step at a time.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: that's the way you know the will of God and that's the way it works.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a Bible principle.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: He continues on Paul of being does with something I mentioned yesterday how great Bible characters knew God's will for their lives, how great Bible characters knew God's will for their lives,
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: When the Apostle Paul got saved, he was heading for Damascus in Syria.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: On the way, the Lord slaps him down.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here he is lying on his face in the dust and there is a great light from heaven and he is blinded.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: He hears a voice, somebody is speaking.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: But he doesn't know who it is, but he knows this.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: That whoever that person is, that knocked him flat, he's bigger than him.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he is ready to give up.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's not going to fight him.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: No sir, he's ready to cry, uncle.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: So while laying there on his face, he says X96, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: did the Lord say, I'm going to change your name to Paul.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to make you a great missionary out of you.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to travel all over the Roman Empire.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to establish a lot of churches.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to write Romans, first sing Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Galatians, first sing at Thessalonians, first sing at Timothy.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ted is finally in.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you haven't even yet decided whether or not I'll have you write Hebrews for those of you that understand that.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's pretty funny.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll go on for a time.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Say, is that what the Lord said?
• 5:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: No.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's not what the Lord said.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Lord said, Acts 22, 10, or rise.
• 5:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told they have all things which are appointed for thee to do.
• 5:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Lord just showed him the next step.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now suppose Paul would have gone stubborn about it and said, I don't want to go to Damascus.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why do you want me to go to Damascus?
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to go to Jerusalem.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: If he had gone to Jerusalem, or Rome, or Ephesus, or some other city, maybe he'd have never gotten the directions God had for him in Damascus.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: He wouldn't have gotten the light for the next step.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: When Paul said, what do you want me to do?
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Lord said, go to Damascus, Paul didn't argue about it.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: He just went to Damascus, and there he got the directions for the next step.
• 6:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: In other words, he took the next step that God wanted him to take.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Abraham
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: How about him?
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says he bruselominate he went out not knowing whether he went.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: He just walked with God's step by step.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Once, he spent 15 years in disobedience.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And during that time, Abraham never received another commandment or another promise.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: It might be dark of a head, but there's plenty of light for the next step.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: First John 17, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: You won't walk alone.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you walk in obedience to the light, God gives, he walks with you to comfort and strengthen you.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: What about Philip?
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look at him.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's preaching to great crowds in Samaria.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: The angel says in Acts 8, The next step for you is to leave the busy work you're doing here, leave the crowds, go out on the desert road.
• 7:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Did the angel tell him why?
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: No.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Did the angel say the Secretary of the Treasury of Ethiopia will travel that road and you're going to go win him the Christ?
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: No.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder what Philip would have thought if God had told him that.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Lord, you mean to tell me that the big Hanjo from Ethiopia will be there?
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: That would be like God telling you to get out on the country road because the Secretary of the Treasury of France would come by and you'd have to have a high honor meeting him.
• 7:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: You'd get all spruce up and get down there, Pronto.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: But all God said was get down on that desert road.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: He obeyed and when he went down there, God gave him the next step.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: If Philip had not taken that first step to the God's erode, he never would have known the second step.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: What about Ruth?
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: The way Ruth found Bo as her husband, read the book of Ruth, see how she obeyed step by step.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: She said Naomi, what do I do next?
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Naomi said do this.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ruth got her instructions from God through Naomi.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ruth obeyed one step at a time and the pathway led straight to Bowess.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: They married and her son Obed was David's grandfather, imagine that, and through that line Christ came into the world to be our Savior.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: So take the next step.
• 8:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dr. Paul says, I know a young fellow who is educated for the ministry.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't in the ministry as yet.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was working in electronics.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: As he walked down the pathway of the will of God, he prayed, what do you want me to do next Lord?
• 8:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: What's next step?
• 8:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Lord said, I want you to quit your job.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the man said, I can't quit my job, Lord.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: God, why can't you?
• 8:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because I have a wife and six children, that's why I have to eat.
• 8:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, a little tongue and cheek, God probably didn't know that man had all those kids and that they had to eat.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: But friend, he did and he does.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because the Lord will never ask you to do anything that you can't do.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if the Lord tells you to do something,
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: and you can't do it, all you have to do is tell him.
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, tie thing.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you can't afford to tie it, tell the Lord.
• 9:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't know you can't afford to tie it.
• 9:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: If Lord knew you couldn't afford it, he wouldn't ask you to do it.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just explain it to him.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why do I have to get my job?
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to give you a church.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where is the church?
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Never mind what a church is.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: You quit your job and want you to trust me.
• 9:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, Lord, you give me the church and then I'll quit my job.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, you quit the job and you'll get the church.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Finally, he said.
• 9:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, all right, Lord.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll take that next step and I'll quit my job.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: He might have said, Lord, if my wife starts death, my kid started a death, it's going to be your fault.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: But just obey God and leave the consequences to him.
• 9:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: The man quit his job on Monday.
• 9:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Imagine he went to work and said, I'm quitting my job.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Perhaps they thought he'd got a promotion or a better job.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody quits his job unless he has a better job somewhere else, right?
• 10:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're going to quit your job?
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, sir.
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've already quit.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have another job?
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: No.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: What are you going to do?
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to pastor a church.
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: What church?
• 10:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you think happened?
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: He got the church without even knowing where the church was.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was going to pastor.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: He quit his job.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know the man personally, Paul Loving says and we had meetings in his church.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: He quit his job on Monday and Thursday of that week.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had his church and had a wonderful ministry there.
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now then that's the way you know what God wants you to do.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: You take the next step in the will of God and when you take that one, he shows you the next one.
• 10:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Tomorrow we're going to talk about chapter three, talk from a chapter number three in this message one step at a time.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: But can I share with you a personal illustration in the last two minutes here?
• 10:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I recall when I was trying to figure out what God had for my life.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was a system pastor, wonderful ministry, working with a great man.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I knew God had something to step out on, something of faith, something of a next step, as just was being talked about by Dr. Paul Wien.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: and the Lord appointed to evangelism, appointed to traveling America and the world, preaching the gospel and finally.
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was not supposed to it, but it was just, it was a difficult thing.
• 11:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd never really considered it and sat down with my pastor.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: My wife was in the office there, and the pastor, I know for a fact, I know God has me to step onto evangelism.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was a Sunday of, it was June or July 2019.
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of you've heard the story before.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Pastor, I know God has this evangelism.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what that's gonna look like.
• 11:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking at the time 27 years old, who's gonna have in a 27-year-old evangelist and one of my gonna have to say, even if they do have me in.
• 11:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we talk and we agreed, maybe wise, six months for him to find a replacement for me, six months for me to put some things in order and get ready and sell our house and all that stuff.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was Sunday.
• 12:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Two days later, I was at camp with our young people.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I got a call, friend of mine called, during a game time.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I stepped away.
• 12:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he said this, hey, are you thinking about a transition in ministry?
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that was the beginning.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: That was what led to me taking the helm of Bible, tracks, incorporating.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: What God has done through this marvelous ministry, please understand it's all God.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: but it happened one step at a time and far be it for me, though it sometimes is difficult.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you have to muster up the faith.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are big things on the horizon, things we are working on, and we have to take them one step at a time.
• 12:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, encourage your friend as Dr. Paul Councilless, one step at
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: the time.
• 12:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: My prayer as always is that you have a wonderful day, a great day for his glory.
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: We will plan on talking to you soon, tune in tomorrow and Friday as we draw this message to
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Visit us online at BibleTracksInk.org that's BibleTracksInk.org or follow us on social media to learn how you can partner with this ministry.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for Him.