NOTE FROM LES

Dear Friends,

Since we are no longer taping programs, I have to use our newsletters now to continue thanking everyone for your prayers and faithful giving. We also want you to know how much we appreciate your letters of encouragement. After so much time traveling the last several weeks, my letters with questions are piling up again, so if you do not receive an answer to a question that might have been written in the last several weeks, please try again as I do consider every question an important one.

It has been a full three months of blessings. In June, we had a full week with Lee Homolki and Joel McGarvey at the cowboy camp in Missouri. In July, we had the trip to Indiana and Ohio and then Nashville on our way home. In every instance each facility was filled so we feel very blessed.

We were home for a couple of weeks before loading the Yukon once again for the trip up North. That trip started with a short visit with my ninety-year-old brother, Harley, and his wife Norma, in Iowa City. They are both in nursing homes and need our prayers. From there we drove to Fort Dodge for a three-hour seminar. What a thrill to meet old acquaintances as well as new ones from all around the Midwest. The next morning we left early in order to speak at a Teen-Challenge in downtown Minneapolis at 1o' clock. They use my material so I was not a stranger to them. Over 300 young people ranging in age from 17 - 35 were present and they seemed to love it. I taught for an hour and 15 minutes and they wanted me to continue but we had to move on so we could be back down to Prior Lake for the 6-9 sessions there. On Saturday, we attended a wedding and were back at the Bethesda church for another 6-9 teaching. Then on Sunday morning, Pastor Mark gave us the Sunday school and morning service to teach. Once again, there was a great turnout and the facility was full. After that we headed over to Wisconsin for the 10th annual Osceola retreat and what a privilege! The turnout was the largest ever and there were 200 on the Tuesday boat ride where everyone enjoyed a delicious lunch followed by an hour long question-and-answer period with answers from both Pastor Mark and me.

Next we traveled north to spend a few days with Todd, Kim and the kids near the South Shore of Lake superior. While we were there we had our usual Thursday night potluck supper and Bible study at the home of Bob Surver on Lake Nebagamon. But this year was not the same as Bob's lovely wife Sally went home to be with the Lord last winter and how we missed her!

Sunday morning after breakfast, we had to bid goodbye to the family in order to be in Wilmar, Minnesota for a 6-9 evening teaching at the Wilmar Bible Church. Again a full house but not so many that anyone had to be turned away. We are always amazed at how God controls the numbers! As with all of the meetings, so many blessings.

After a late breakfast on Monday, we journeyed once again towards Oklahoma and home. After a few days of rest, folks started coming in from several different states for our Labor Day picnic hosted by Beverly Elleffson. Beverly barbecued some of our ranch raised beef brisket and the rest was delicious pot luck. How we should appreciate the blessings of America!

Now we are once again scheduling Oklahoma classes but we are down scaling so I will be teaching once every other month in each of the four cities of Tulsa, Muskogee, Tahlequah, and McAlester. If you are interested in attending a class, be sure to call and check with our office as to when we will be teaching where. We will also be teaching at the Little Rock Bible conference with Pastor Dick Ware in October as well as at the Berean regional conference in Ankeny, Iowa in November with Dr. Paul Sadler. We are also making tentative plans to be in Mobile, Alabama in March so you can see we are not retired! We are just trying to slow down.

What in the World?

This note was prompted by a letter from one of our listeners who included a ''Letter to the Editor'' that was taken from his area newspaper. The letter was a total diatribe against the apostle Paul, claiming that Paul was a false apostle because he was self proclaimed and that he had no authority from anyone. He went on to claim that Barnabas was false also and had no authority either because he had been appointed as an apostle by Paul.

How can anyone who can read and write be so ignorant? Paul's Damascus Road experience is recorded three times in the book of Acts-- in chapters 9, 22 and 26. The Holy Spirit prompted Paul to write in Romans 11:13 ''I am the apostle of the Gentiles''. Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, instructed his Jewish readers [shortly before his death and the destruction of the Temple] to go to Paul's epistles because of the wisdom given to him and because all of Paul's epistles are Scripture. [See II Peter in 3:15-16] And where did Paul get his wisdom and authority? From the ascended Lord! [See Acts 9:15 and Galatians 1:11-12]

Note from Laura

I have been wondering for the last couple of weeks about a topic that I could write my note about this time but my dilemma was solved for me by Mom [Iris]. She asked me to write my note about my status because of numerous requests regarding such while on their various teaching trips this summer. I would much prefer to write about other things but because I know that so many of you still include me in your daily prayers, I will take this opportunity to let you know what is going on in my life.

In September, I will have been a quadriplegic now for six years. I have to admit that the first five years were miserable and yet God let His presence be known in so many ways and He blessed in many ways too. First and foremost, God gave me a family that has been unbelievably supportive and a husband who has just been absolutely and simply awesome. The physical battles have been many but in the last eight months God has answered prayer and I am hopeful that I will be able to continue to enjoy life a little bit now until the trumpet sounds. For five years I was plagued with what I referred to as the ''cold sweats''. This phenomenon was the source of most of my misery and God has basically all but taken my suffering from that away and I am so very thankful. I can sit up now a good part of the day although I still have to make sure I stay reclined. I have my problems with pressure sores and urinary tract infections but those are problems that can be dealt with and I also have the typical neurological burning that comes along with most spinal cord injuries but that too is something that can be handled fairly well with medication.

So I am happy. I am now able to focus on the things I can do and it is amazing how we can adapt as human beings! I have been trout fishing and I have a cart that I drive my wheelchair up in so now I can drive a horse even though I have basically no arm/hand/finger movement or feeling. I am still totally paralyzed from the shoulders down but because I have shoulder muscles that have learned to ''cheat'', I have arm movement. It is these wonderful shoulder muscles that have allowed me to do all the things that I do-- everything from using a keyboard and a mouse to answering the phone and using a recorder to driving a cart and using a fishing rod. God has blessed me so very much and I thank Him every day for all that I able to do and all that He has blessed me with. I thank Him each day for all the people who have kept me in their prayers and I thank Him so much that I am able to be part of Les Feldick ministries.

Question and Answer

Question: Where did Jesus' soul / spirit go to the three days and three nights while his body was in the tomb?

Answer: Let's let the Scriptures speak for themselves. In Luke 23:42, the one malefactor professed his faith much as Peter did, by proclaiming Jesus as Lord and the coming King and Messiah. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Jesus' response in verse 43 confirms that faith as well as telling us where they would go next-which was paradise. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And where was paradise? Down! Then let's go to Matthew 12:38-40 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The heart of the earth is the same place of the paradise spoken to us in Luke 23:42. Now to get another little window of information let's look at Luke 16:19-31. There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Here we find Abraham and Lazarus in Paradise. Now when Jesus arrived in Paradise [in the soul and spirit], he proclaimed to those Old Testament believers that the atoning blood had now been shed and he could free them from the prison of Paradise and take them to heaven.

Next we will look at Hebrews 9:11-12 But Christ being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. So why had they been kept from God's presence in heaven until this time? Simply because animal's blood could not truly atone for sins- it was simply a stopgap while waiting for the true atonement, which was the blood of Christ. Follow on down to Hebrews 9:13-14 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Finally, the Holy Spirit, through the pen of the apostle Paul, puts ''the frosting on the cake'' in Ephesians 4:8-10. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Now Available

Spanish versions of the Question and Answers book and Book 20 are now available by contacting us at:

Les Feldick Ministries 30706 W. Lona Valley Rd., Kinta, OK 74552
1-800-369-7856 or (918) 768-3218

Note from the Office

Thank you for using the memo line of your check as it really helps us in the office keep you account straight.

Also, Ruby would like to say "Thank You" for "NOT" using staples & paper clips when sending us mail.

FYI: At the end of Number 82 all television programming will revert back to the beginning, which will be in Genesis.