June 30
“Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling,” Psalm 2:10,11.
“Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD,” Psalm 34:11.
"I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on Your laws." Psalm 119:30.
The common link in each of these verses is the intent of propagating the truth and honor and law and respect of God. From people of high estate who are the wealth and power brokers of the world to the children of ordinary men, their responsibility is to know the Holy One, to honor Him, and to keep His law.
We live in a world that has fallen abysmally short of that mandate. We live in a nation (those of us who are citizens of the United States) that was established by our founding fathers upon the principles of the Bible and upon the law of God, but our current leaders are ambivalent at best and openly defiant at worst regarding their adherence to the truth of God that is eternal.
Our citizenry in America are more concerned with having leadership that promises their wants and desires will be fulfilled by the government than they are with assuring that our remarkable Constitution is upheld and that all citizens have the opportunity to work toward the goals they wish to attain.
The fabric of our once-great nation is being undermined from within by a corrupt leadership and an indifferent populace. How did this fall from our once-lofty position transpire? It began with the removal of Bible reading and Christian prayer from our public schools.
We, as a people, are no longer girded in the strength of Truth. We are no longer grounded in the Word of God. We aren’t allowed to use the name of Jesus in the public forum—we aren’t even supposed to say “Merry Christmas” because of political correctness run amuck!
Our leaders are foolish men who are well-schooled in the schemes of the Saul Alinskys of the world but are totally ignorant of the Truth of Jesus. They care nothing for the fact that this nation was conceived in Him and placed at His feet at its inception.
Our children are not receiving instruction in the Lord because their parents and grandparents have fallen away from the faith that made them a strong and independent people.
What can be done to remedy our dire predicament?
If anything can turn our circumstances around, it is the words of II Chronicles 7:14: “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”
People of the world, heed the Word of the Lord! Pray for YOUR country! Pray for YOUR leaders! Pray for YOUR children! If men of faith will comply with the admonition of our God, we may transform our nations from godless entities to bastions of godliness. And if we cannot accomplish that, we will at least establish a remnant to stand against the flood of wickedness as it washes around us.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Evil Must Flee
June 29
“We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,” Ephesians 4:14.
Paul makes an important point of which all believers in Christ must be mindful. There is a scheme afoot to bring down people of faith. Although it’s true that “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers, against principalities, against spiritual wickedness in high places, against the rulers of darkness of this age,” Ephesians 6:12, it is also true that these demonic entities often do their evil through people.
We’ve all heard about the nocturnal visitations of wicked entities who imposed their presence upon their victims. Often such visions of evil come on the heels of drug use, but they certainly are not restricted to those who abuse their bodies and their minds with drugs.
Sometimes these vile beings from the depth of the pit come to harass people who have dabbled in the occult and then discover Christ as Savior and Lord. The demons have been dispatched to frighten such a one back into the clutches of the evil one. We are told that there is power in the BLOOD of Jesus and there is power in the NAME of Jesus.
When a believer finds himself under demonic attack, his assurance is that at the NAME OF JESUS, evil must flee. One believer tells the story of having been under such an attack early in her walk with Christ. She had toyed with the occult and because of that minimal involvement in the devil’s territory, he felt she should remain under his influence.
One night, she was awakened from her sleep (or had a terrible dream) to discover she was being pursued through a dark, narrow passageway by a villainous creature who was shrouded in the darkness of the abyss. She found herself bounding as fast as she could go up what appeared to be a fire escape on the side of a foreboding-looking building.
There seemed to be no safety anywhere but she continued to run up those steps. As she did, she reflected upon a teaching she had recently been given by the pastor of the church she’d begun to attend. He had told her that if she ever felt threatened, she should plead the blood of Jesus and cry out the name of Jesus.
Unfortunately, the power of the enemy over her was so profound that she could not utter a syllable. Because her jaws were locked, no word could come forth from her mouth but she plead the blood of Jesus and reiterated the name of Jesus silently in her mind. In so doing, the force that was in pursuit of her was forced to vaporize into thin air.
The devil is a formidable foe, but only against mortals. The monarch of evil is as nothing when compared to the Living Christ! Jesus Himself made a very pointed comparison between His power and the power of the enemy in Luke 11:20 where He said, “I, with the finger of God, cast out evil.”
Can you envision it, Believer! The enemy comes against you—a child of the Most High God—much as a bully assails a smaller, seemingly defenseless person; then, a mighty warrior figure steps into the picture in defense of the one under attack! This is what Jesus does when His people are assaulted by the wicked foe.
When you are under attack by the enemy, remember Whose you are! Remember the power He has promised to you! Remember the power of His Name and the power of His blood. Whether your assailant is in demonic or in fleshly form, remember that at the Name of Jesus, the Holy One who lived and died and lives again, evil must flee!
“We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,” Ephesians 4:14.
Paul makes an important point of which all believers in Christ must be mindful. There is a scheme afoot to bring down people of faith. Although it’s true that “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers, against principalities, against spiritual wickedness in high places, against the rulers of darkness of this age,” Ephesians 6:12, it is also true that these demonic entities often do their evil through people.
We’ve all heard about the nocturnal visitations of wicked entities who imposed their presence upon their victims. Often such visions of evil come on the heels of drug use, but they certainly are not restricted to those who abuse their bodies and their minds with drugs.
Sometimes these vile beings from the depth of the pit come to harass people who have dabbled in the occult and then discover Christ as Savior and Lord. The demons have been dispatched to frighten such a one back into the clutches of the evil one. We are told that there is power in the BLOOD of Jesus and there is power in the NAME of Jesus.
When a believer finds himself under demonic attack, his assurance is that at the NAME OF JESUS, evil must flee. One believer tells the story of having been under such an attack early in her walk with Christ. She had toyed with the occult and because of that minimal involvement in the devil’s territory, he felt she should remain under his influence.
One night, she was awakened from her sleep (or had a terrible dream) to discover she was being pursued through a dark, narrow passageway by a villainous creature who was shrouded in the darkness of the abyss. She found herself bounding as fast as she could go up what appeared to be a fire escape on the side of a foreboding-looking building.
There seemed to be no safety anywhere but she continued to run up those steps. As she did, she reflected upon a teaching she had recently been given by the pastor of the church she’d begun to attend. He had told her that if she ever felt threatened, she should plead the blood of Jesus and cry out the name of Jesus.
Unfortunately, the power of the enemy over her was so profound that she could not utter a syllable. Because her jaws were locked, no word could come forth from her mouth but she plead the blood of Jesus and reiterated the name of Jesus silently in her mind. In so doing, the force that was in pursuit of her was forced to vaporize into thin air.
The devil is a formidable foe, but only against mortals. The monarch of evil is as nothing when compared to the Living Christ! Jesus Himself made a very pointed comparison between His power and the power of the enemy in Luke 11:20 where He said, “I, with the finger of God, cast out evil.”
Can you envision it, Believer! The enemy comes against you—a child of the Most High God—much as a bully assails a smaller, seemingly defenseless person; then, a mighty warrior figure steps into the picture in defense of the one under attack! This is what Jesus does when His people are assaulted by the wicked foe.
When you are under attack by the enemy, remember Whose you are! Remember the power He has promised to you! Remember the power of His Name and the power of His blood. Whether your assailant is in demonic or in fleshly form, remember that at the Name of Jesus, the Holy One who lived and died and lives again, evil must flee!
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Meriam
Meriam
Many of you have been following the plight of Meriam Ibrahim and praying for her and her family. In a recent report, her husband, Dani says Meriam and their family are currently at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.
Her case attracted worldwide attention after Sudan's Islamic courts sentenced her to death for being a Christian. Meriam and her toddler son were thrown in jail, where Meriam gave birth to a baby girl.
Her conviction was overturned only after intense international outrage. In recent days, she was released from jail only to be re-arrested hours later.
Meriam is just one example of radical Islam's very real war on women and Christians, which the left-wing elites in our government and in our media conveniently ignore.
Please continue to pray for this family. Meriam has suffered much and we must beseech our Savior in her behalf, that indeed, "the joy of the Lord will be her strength," Nehemiah 8:10.
Many of you have been following the plight of Meriam Ibrahim and praying for her and her family. In a recent report, her husband, Dani says Meriam and their family are currently at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum.
Her case attracted worldwide attention after Sudan's Islamic courts sentenced her to death for being a Christian. Meriam and her toddler son were thrown in jail, where Meriam gave birth to a baby girl.
Her conviction was overturned only after intense international outrage. In recent days, she was released from jail only to be re-arrested hours later.
Meriam is just one example of radical Islam's very real war on women and Christians, which the left-wing elites in our government and in our media conveniently ignore.
Please continue to pray for this family. Meriam has suffered much and we must beseech our Savior in her behalf, that indeed, "the joy of the Lord will be her strength," Nehemiah 8:10.
The Altar Of Sacrifice
June 28
"Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac...and offer him..." Genesis 22:2.
What is your Isaac? Isaac meant more than life to Abraham. His son was beloved of his father, as many sons are to many fathers, but Isaac was much more than that. Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to give him a son with his wife Sarah.
Abraham had originally decided to make a trusted servant his heir because he had no children but God spoke to him and said, “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” God took Abraham outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them;" then He said to him, "so shall your offspring be.”
We know that Abraham and his wife Sarah were growing older and God’s promise seemed to have no hope of fulfillment in their eyes so they attempted to resolve the situation by natural means. Sarah suggested and Abraham reluctantly agreed that Sarah’s maid Hagar would act as surrogate mother to Sarah’s child (see Genesis 16:4)
As might be predicted, Hagar became rather pompous in her own eyes when she conceived and bore Abraham’s only child. Sarah obviously reciprocated with an adamant dislike of her maidservant.
Sarah’s sorrow drew the attention of the Holy One who had promised and He had mercy on her and she conceived a child, a son, Isaac, in her old age (see Genesis 21:2). The child of Abraham’s wife was greatly preferred over the child of the handmaiden, and Hagar and her son Ishmael were sent away.
Isaac meant EVERYTHING to Abraham...he was the fulfillment of God's promise in Genesis 15:4, but then God spoke again to Abraham and told him that he must sacrifice Isaac! With a heavy heart, Abraham set out to do as God had spoken to him.
Of course we know the Lord provided a substitute sacrifice, just as He has provided Jesus as the substitute sacrifice for our sins.
But God’s question to us is, ‘What's your Isaac?’ What do we cherish above life itself? What do YOU cherish above life itself? What do I cherish above life itself? Can we be like Abraham who was willing to lay his beloved son on the altar of sacrifice to the Holy God who inhabits eternity?
Can we lay our dreams, our hopes, our aspirations, even our prayers on the altar as a sacrifice to Jesus?
Will we?
"Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac...and offer him..." Genesis 22:2.
What is your Isaac? Isaac meant more than life to Abraham. His son was beloved of his father, as many sons are to many fathers, but Isaac was much more than that. Isaac was the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to give him a son with his wife Sarah.
Abraham had originally decided to make a trusted servant his heir because he had no children but God spoke to him and said, “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” God took Abraham outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them;" then He said to him, "so shall your offspring be.”
We know that Abraham and his wife Sarah were growing older and God’s promise seemed to have no hope of fulfillment in their eyes so they attempted to resolve the situation by natural means. Sarah suggested and Abraham reluctantly agreed that Sarah’s maid Hagar would act as surrogate mother to Sarah’s child (see Genesis 16:4)
As might be predicted, Hagar became rather pompous in her own eyes when she conceived and bore Abraham’s only child. Sarah obviously reciprocated with an adamant dislike of her maidservant.
Sarah’s sorrow drew the attention of the Holy One who had promised and He had mercy on her and she conceived a child, a son, Isaac, in her old age (see Genesis 21:2). The child of Abraham’s wife was greatly preferred over the child of the handmaiden, and Hagar and her son Ishmael were sent away.
Isaac meant EVERYTHING to Abraham...he was the fulfillment of God's promise in Genesis 15:4, but then God spoke again to Abraham and told him that he must sacrifice Isaac! With a heavy heart, Abraham set out to do as God had spoken to him.
Of course we know the Lord provided a substitute sacrifice, just as He has provided Jesus as the substitute sacrifice for our sins.
But God’s question to us is, ‘What's your Isaac?’ What do we cherish above life itself? What do YOU cherish above life itself? What do I cherish above life itself? Can we be like Abraham who was willing to lay his beloved son on the altar of sacrifice to the Holy God who inhabits eternity?
Can we lay our dreams, our hopes, our aspirations, even our prayers on the altar as a sacrifice to Jesus?
Will we?
Friday, June 27, 2014
God's Word--Eternally True
June 27
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance," II Peter 3:9.
Scoffers abound in our age. And it isn’t just the idea of Christ coming back that they ridicule. Yes, indeed the words of II Peter 3:4 still cross the lips of unbelievers who say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning.”
People are wont to disbelieve the veracity of Jesus’ soon return because He hasn’t come back yet—much in the same way that none of us can fathom death because we haven’t died.
And that is a truism that is fair to factor in here. Just as those of us who are poor cannot imagine living in the lap of luxury, and horror of horrors, those who are rich cannot fathom life without the trappings of their wealth, neither can we conceptualize the Lord’s return, for it simply isn’t part of our background.
The reality is that the focus of most people is what they can see, taste, hear, feel, smell. If it cannot be perceived with our senses, if it is not already part of our personal physical or emotional experience, we’re inclined to put it totally out of our thoughts.
So we doubt the Second Coming of Christ will ever occur.
And not only do we disbelieve the fact stated in Acts 1:11, “You men of Galilee! Why do you stand gazing into the air? Don’t you know that this same Jesus who is taken from you will come again in like manner as you have seen Him go!” Many of us also negate the entire concept of a Holy God whose LIVING WORD, JESUS, is “yea and amen” forever (see II Corinthians 1:20).
We indeed live in the age prophesied in Isaiah 5:20 where men will “call good evil and evil good.” We needn’t look far to see evidence of that convoluted perception in every-day life.
From the demonic machinations of terrorists who do their god a favor by slaughtering innocent people to the lawmakers who turn God’s immutable truth on its head with their abhorrent legislation, we are seeing the fulfillment of Proverbs 29:2 which says, “When the righteous govern, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”
As our groaning persists and intensifies, may we be mindful of the truth of Romans 8:22-23, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
Yes, He will come for us—whether individually when the Death Angels comes to embrace us in his arms and take us to the feet of Jesus or collectively when the trumpet of the Archangel sounds and Jesus comes again to gather all people of faith to His home in glory—He will keep His promise, for His word cannot fail and cannot lie. As Titus 1:2 assures us, God’s word has been true from Eternity. His word shall never fail.
He states emphatically in Isaiah 55:11, “My word that goes forth out of My mouth, shall not return to Me void but shall accomplish that which I please and shall prosper in the thing to which I send it.”
Jesus desires that all men be saved. His seeming delay in returning is to give all who will embrace His Truth the opportunity to be among the redeemed before that great day of His return.
"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance," II Peter 3:9.
Scoffers abound in our age. And it isn’t just the idea of Christ coming back that they ridicule. Yes, indeed the words of II Peter 3:4 still cross the lips of unbelievers who say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning.”
People are wont to disbelieve the veracity of Jesus’ soon return because He hasn’t come back yet—much in the same way that none of us can fathom death because we haven’t died.
And that is a truism that is fair to factor in here. Just as those of us who are poor cannot imagine living in the lap of luxury, and horror of horrors, those who are rich cannot fathom life without the trappings of their wealth, neither can we conceptualize the Lord’s return, for it simply isn’t part of our background.
The reality is that the focus of most people is what they can see, taste, hear, feel, smell. If it cannot be perceived with our senses, if it is not already part of our personal physical or emotional experience, we’re inclined to put it totally out of our thoughts.
So we doubt the Second Coming of Christ will ever occur.
And not only do we disbelieve the fact stated in Acts 1:11, “You men of Galilee! Why do you stand gazing into the air? Don’t you know that this same Jesus who is taken from you will come again in like manner as you have seen Him go!” Many of us also negate the entire concept of a Holy God whose LIVING WORD, JESUS, is “yea and amen” forever (see II Corinthians 1:20).
We indeed live in the age prophesied in Isaiah 5:20 where men will “call good evil and evil good.” We needn’t look far to see evidence of that convoluted perception in every-day life.
From the demonic machinations of terrorists who do their god a favor by slaughtering innocent people to the lawmakers who turn God’s immutable truth on its head with their abhorrent legislation, we are seeing the fulfillment of Proverbs 29:2 which says, “When the righteous govern, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.”
As our groaning persists and intensifies, may we be mindful of the truth of Romans 8:22-23, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.”
Yes, He will come for us—whether individually when the Death Angels comes to embrace us in his arms and take us to the feet of Jesus or collectively when the trumpet of the Archangel sounds and Jesus comes again to gather all people of faith to His home in glory—He will keep His promise, for His word cannot fail and cannot lie. As Titus 1:2 assures us, God’s word has been true from Eternity. His word shall never fail.
He states emphatically in Isaiah 55:11, “My word that goes forth out of My mouth, shall not return to Me void but shall accomplish that which I please and shall prosper in the thing to which I send it.”
Jesus desires that all men be saved. His seeming delay in returning is to give all who will embrace His Truth the opportunity to be among the redeemed before that great day of His return.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Will We?
June 26
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going,” Hebrews 11:8.
Abraham was not so much a courageous man but an obedient man. Yes, it takes courage to leave all you know and venture forth into the unknown, but more than courage, it takes a true surrender to the will of the God you love. Just as Abraham has evidenced the surrender of His will to the will of the Holy One, so must we.
Another Biblical figure who allowed his will, his life to be swallowed into the will of God was Job. Job was the great grandson of Nahor, Abraham's brother. His maternal grandfather was Nahor's son, Uz the Elder. Like Abraham, Job was a man of great wealth and respect in his community.
Where Abraham was required by God to leave all the trappings of his prosperity behind and go forth into a new life away from his family, his great-grandnephew, Job, was required to witness the loss of all he possessed—including his children. As Abraham followed the Lord in faith to the destination he did not know, so Job followed the Lord in faith into a realm of sorrow and loss that he had never before experienced.
Neither man understood the reason for his transition from the familiar to the unknown, but both of them knew and trusted the God who sent them forth. The Lord expects no less from His people today.
The young couple had an employment opportunity before them. The wife was quite resistant to the notion of her husband being involved in the work because it entailed extensive travel into a country that is quite hostile to people of faith in Christ. When they attended church that weekend, there was a message in tongues and the interpretation was, “You can go anywhere in the world and I will be with you and I will return you home safely.” They went.
When the God of Heaven and Earth speaks into your life, whatever He calls you to do, whatever He calls you to leave behind, you must go forth. To do otherwise is to rob yourself of the joy of doing His will, to rob yourself of the satisfaction of obeying Him.
On a high level of devotion to Jesus, we find Meriam Ibrahim, the young woman who has been chained with her children in a Sudanese dungeon because she refuses to recant her faith in Jesus Christ. With the scrutiny of the world and great pressure upon them, the Sudanese have reversed her death sentence and set her free—only to detain her again as she was attempting to board a plane out of Sudan.
This courageous daughter of the Living God is possessed of a faith few of us have ever been or will ever be called upon to evidence, but if we were, would we go forth even into the pit of hell in faith and in love for the One who died to redeem us as she has done?
We who sit in the comfort of our air-conditioned churches, who think we have made great sacrifices when we have deposited our offering into the collection basket cannot begin to fathom the ordeal our brothers in faith endure daily because of their devotion to Christ in places like Sudan and Nigeria and Rwanda.
We have not seen our neighbors hacked to death by demons in human bodies who hate us just because we love Jesus. But daily they go forth into the hostile world around them, shielded only by their confidence that the One who has called them will keep them.
They say like Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” Job 13:15. They venture into each new day as “living epistles, read of all men,” II Corinthians 3:2, that boldly proclaim their faith in Jesus before the eyes of evil.
Will we pray for these our brothers who are on the front lines of the battle between good and evil? Will we pray for them as they go forth into the fray that demands that they fight the evil one in the power of their faith in Christ? Will we go forth if our Savior calls us from our church pew to the advance contingent of His Army? Will we?
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going,” Hebrews 11:8.
Abraham was not so much a courageous man but an obedient man. Yes, it takes courage to leave all you know and venture forth into the unknown, but more than courage, it takes a true surrender to the will of the God you love. Just as Abraham has evidenced the surrender of His will to the will of the Holy One, so must we.
Another Biblical figure who allowed his will, his life to be swallowed into the will of God was Job. Job was the great grandson of Nahor, Abraham's brother. His maternal grandfather was Nahor's son, Uz the Elder. Like Abraham, Job was a man of great wealth and respect in his community.
Where Abraham was required by God to leave all the trappings of his prosperity behind and go forth into a new life away from his family, his great-grandnephew, Job, was required to witness the loss of all he possessed—including his children. As Abraham followed the Lord in faith to the destination he did not know, so Job followed the Lord in faith into a realm of sorrow and loss that he had never before experienced.
Neither man understood the reason for his transition from the familiar to the unknown, but both of them knew and trusted the God who sent them forth. The Lord expects no less from His people today.
The young couple had an employment opportunity before them. The wife was quite resistant to the notion of her husband being involved in the work because it entailed extensive travel into a country that is quite hostile to people of faith in Christ. When they attended church that weekend, there was a message in tongues and the interpretation was, “You can go anywhere in the world and I will be with you and I will return you home safely.” They went.
When the God of Heaven and Earth speaks into your life, whatever He calls you to do, whatever He calls you to leave behind, you must go forth. To do otherwise is to rob yourself of the joy of doing His will, to rob yourself of the satisfaction of obeying Him.
On a high level of devotion to Jesus, we find Meriam Ibrahim, the young woman who has been chained with her children in a Sudanese dungeon because she refuses to recant her faith in Jesus Christ. With the scrutiny of the world and great pressure upon them, the Sudanese have reversed her death sentence and set her free—only to detain her again as she was attempting to board a plane out of Sudan.
This courageous daughter of the Living God is possessed of a faith few of us have ever been or will ever be called upon to evidence, but if we were, would we go forth even into the pit of hell in faith and in love for the One who died to redeem us as she has done?
We who sit in the comfort of our air-conditioned churches, who think we have made great sacrifices when we have deposited our offering into the collection basket cannot begin to fathom the ordeal our brothers in faith endure daily because of their devotion to Christ in places like Sudan and Nigeria and Rwanda.
We have not seen our neighbors hacked to death by demons in human bodies who hate us just because we love Jesus. But daily they go forth into the hostile world around them, shielded only by their confidence that the One who has called them will keep them.
They say like Job, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” Job 13:15. They venture into each new day as “living epistles, read of all men,” II Corinthians 3:2, that boldly proclaim their faith in Jesus before the eyes of evil.
Will we pray for these our brothers who are on the front lines of the battle between good and evil? Will we pray for them as they go forth into the fray that demands that they fight the evil one in the power of their faith in Christ? Will we go forth if our Savior calls us from our church pew to the advance contingent of His Army? Will we?
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
The Line of Separation
June 25
In Malachi 3:13-16, the prophet poses some thoughts that may have perplexed each of us at some time or another. Malachi also gives God’s perspective in the matter.
"’Your words have been harsh against Me,’ says the LORD, ‘yet you say, what have we spoken against You?’"
‘You have said, It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts? So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’
“Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.”
We tend to wonder why the Lord allows the godless among us to prosper and we are greatly perplexed when they are in positions of leadership, yet we hold fast to the truth that we know even when confronted with the fact that the age in which we live is growing ever more wicked.
The line of separation between belief and unbelief comes between those who fear the Lord and those who do not reverence Him. The prophet Malachi tells us that the first group feared God, they respected and revered Him, they stood in awe of Him--and their reverence for the Holy One was credited to their spiritual account.
Perhaps the believing group came to their place of faith because they actually thought on His name. They meditated on His name; they esteemed His name. They honored Him. Because His name stands for everything that He is, they allowed His name to be high and lifted up! The people of faith were given the many names of God that define various points of His character and they honored each of them and used them in the proper way.
Additionally, those who reverenced the name of the Holy One had fellowship with one another. Their interaction was not with the people of unbelief but with those of like precious faith. We can imagine that much of their discourse centered around the God who had rescued them from bondage in Egypt and that they extolled His holy name for the great works He had done in their behalf.
Rather than indulge the criticism and complaints uttered by the doubters and scoffers, they focused on the goodness of the Lord and upon His glory. We who believe should follow their example and allow our reflections on the work of God in our lives to be sweet.
May we forsake our complaining and our questioning of His purposes; may we instead focus on the goodness and mercy He has shown in past situations and trust Him to again show Himself strong for us as we show ourselves faithful to Jesus.
In Malachi 3:13-16, the prophet poses some thoughts that may have perplexed each of us at some time or another. Malachi also gives God’s perspective in the matter.
"’Your words have been harsh against Me,’ says the LORD, ‘yet you say, what have we spoken against You?’"
‘You have said, It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the LORD of hosts? So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.’
“Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.”
We tend to wonder why the Lord allows the godless among us to prosper and we are greatly perplexed when they are in positions of leadership, yet we hold fast to the truth that we know even when confronted with the fact that the age in which we live is growing ever more wicked.
The line of separation between belief and unbelief comes between those who fear the Lord and those who do not reverence Him. The prophet Malachi tells us that the first group feared God, they respected and revered Him, they stood in awe of Him--and their reverence for the Holy One was credited to their spiritual account.
Perhaps the believing group came to their place of faith because they actually thought on His name. They meditated on His name; they esteemed His name. They honored Him. Because His name stands for everything that He is, they allowed His name to be high and lifted up! The people of faith were given the many names of God that define various points of His character and they honored each of them and used them in the proper way.
Additionally, those who reverenced the name of the Holy One had fellowship with one another. Their interaction was not with the people of unbelief but with those of like precious faith. We can imagine that much of their discourse centered around the God who had rescued them from bondage in Egypt and that they extolled His holy name for the great works He had done in their behalf.
Rather than indulge the criticism and complaints uttered by the doubters and scoffers, they focused on the goodness of the Lord and upon His glory. We who believe should follow their example and allow our reflections on the work of God in our lives to be sweet.
May we forsake our complaining and our questioning of His purposes; may we instead focus on the goodness and mercy He has shown in past situations and trust Him to again show Himself strong for us as we show ourselves faithful to Jesus.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
He Has Not Closed The Embassy
June 24
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are,” I Corinthians 3:16, 17.
What patriotic American would enter the White House with the intention of destroying it? No one with a true patriot’s heart would ever contemplate such a thing. What loyal English subject would ever besmirch the dignity of Buckingham Palace? Again, not one. What true believer in Christ would contemplate profaning a church? The sanctity of the Lord’s house would not allow him to violate it in any way.
Yet the Holy, Immutable Word of the God we love, of the Savior who died and rose that we may live eternally has emphatically told us that we, His people who believe in Him are His Temple, His Holy Place, and often we allow ourselves to indulge behaviors, to think thoughts, to pursue goals that are offensive to our Lord.
What we do with this tabernacle of flesh that encases the essence of who we are is not meant for vain or imprudent pursuits. These lips are not intended for foolish or improper conversation.
We are “ambassadors for Christ,” II Corinthians 5:20, and as such it is our duty to represent Him as He is. When we encounter others of like precious faith or when we interact with people who do not share our faith, it behooves us to be mindful that our bodies are His temple, His embassy in a foreign land.
We are “citizens of Heaven, not of this world,” Philippians 3:20. We are “strangers and sojourners here,” I Chronicles 29:15 and I Peter 2:11, and it is imperative that we represent Our King and His Kingdom with honor and reverence and respect for those among whom we interact.
Sometimes we become caught up in the mindset of the world. We find ourselves desiring the pleasures and pursuits of those around us. We want what they want; we pursue the same goals they seek. When we do, we are forgetting who we are, we are forgetting Whose we are; we are neglecting our role of representing the Lord Jesus Christ in the beauty of His holiness upon us.
It is essential that we return to our first love (see Revelation 2:4) as Jesus admonished the believers of Ephesus. We must be mindful that He does not desire a lukewarm love from us but a fervent love. To be tepid in our devotion to and our representation of the Savior is tantamount to being cold (see Revelation 3:16).
As His ambassadors, as the keepers of His embassy, our bodies are indeed His Temple. If we represent Him well, the lost and dying world around us will see Him through us.
We live in an age where darkness is rapidly closing in around us. Our temple is being assailed by a world that is growing ever more indulgent of evil. In some parts of the world, Christianity is under siege and the mindset of opposition to our Lord and His Kingdom is growing.
He has not yet closed the embassy and returned His ambassadors to Himself, so as long as He allows us to remain where we are, it is our utmost duty and privilege to maintain the honor and integrity of His Temple.
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are,” I Corinthians 3:16, 17.
What patriotic American would enter the White House with the intention of destroying it? No one with a true patriot’s heart would ever contemplate such a thing. What loyal English subject would ever besmirch the dignity of Buckingham Palace? Again, not one. What true believer in Christ would contemplate profaning a church? The sanctity of the Lord’s house would not allow him to violate it in any way.
Yet the Holy, Immutable Word of the God we love, of the Savior who died and rose that we may live eternally has emphatically told us that we, His people who believe in Him are His Temple, His Holy Place, and often we allow ourselves to indulge behaviors, to think thoughts, to pursue goals that are offensive to our Lord.
What we do with this tabernacle of flesh that encases the essence of who we are is not meant for vain or imprudent pursuits. These lips are not intended for foolish or improper conversation.
We are “ambassadors for Christ,” II Corinthians 5:20, and as such it is our duty to represent Him as He is. When we encounter others of like precious faith or when we interact with people who do not share our faith, it behooves us to be mindful that our bodies are His temple, His embassy in a foreign land.
We are “citizens of Heaven, not of this world,” Philippians 3:20. We are “strangers and sojourners here,” I Chronicles 29:15 and I Peter 2:11, and it is imperative that we represent Our King and His Kingdom with honor and reverence and respect for those among whom we interact.
Sometimes we become caught up in the mindset of the world. We find ourselves desiring the pleasures and pursuits of those around us. We want what they want; we pursue the same goals they seek. When we do, we are forgetting who we are, we are forgetting Whose we are; we are neglecting our role of representing the Lord Jesus Christ in the beauty of His holiness upon us.
It is essential that we return to our first love (see Revelation 2:4) as Jesus admonished the believers of Ephesus. We must be mindful that He does not desire a lukewarm love from us but a fervent love. To be tepid in our devotion to and our representation of the Savior is tantamount to being cold (see Revelation 3:16).
As His ambassadors, as the keepers of His embassy, our bodies are indeed His Temple. If we represent Him well, the lost and dying world around us will see Him through us.
We live in an age where darkness is rapidly closing in around us. Our temple is being assailed by a world that is growing ever more indulgent of evil. In some parts of the world, Christianity is under siege and the mindset of opposition to our Lord and His Kingdom is growing.
He has not yet closed the embassy and returned His ambassadors to Himself, so as long as He allows us to remain where we are, it is our utmost duty and privilege to maintain the honor and integrity of His Temple.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Does God Exist?
June 23
The following is a departure from the usual post. There are few scripture verses, rather today’s post is a discourse between an atheist professor and two believing students. The first student is a young man who becomes quite intimidated by his professor. The second student more than ‘holds his own’ in defense of his faith in God.
May you find this to be strengthening to your faith and may it deepen your resolve to stand boldly for your belief in the One True and Living God—no matter the opposition you may encounter from the doubters and scoffers who endeavor to undermine your confidence in the One whom to know is life (see John 17:3).
"Let me explain the problem science has with religion." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.
'You're a believer, aren't you, son?'
'Yes sir,' the student says.
'So you believe in God?'
'Absolutely. '
'Is God good?'
'Yes, Sir! God's good.'
'Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?'
'Yes, Sir.'
'Are you good or evil?'
'The Bible says I'm evil.'
The professor grins knowingly. 'Aha! The Bible! He considers for a moment. 'Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?'
'Yes sir, I would.'
'So you're good...!'
'I wouldn't say that.'
'But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't.'
The student does not answer, so the professor continues. 'He doesn't, does he? My brother was a believer who died of cancer, even though he prayed to God to heal him. How is this good? Can you answer that one?'
The student remains silent.
'No, you can't, can you?' the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. 'Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?'
'Er..yes, Sir,' the student says.
'Is Satan good?'
The student doesn't hesitate on this one.. 'No, Sir, he is not.'
'Then where does Satan come from?'
The student falters. 'From God'
'That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Evil is everywhere, is it not? And God did make everything, correct?'
'Yes'
'So who created evil?' The professor continued, 'If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.'
Again, the student has no answer. 'Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?'
The student squirms on his feet. 'Yes, Sir, they do exist.'
'So who created them ?'
The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. 'Who created them?' There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.
'Tell me,' he says, as he continues to another student. 'Do you believe in God, son?'
'Yes, professor, I do.'
The old man stops pacing. 'Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen God?'
'No sir. I have never seen Him.'
'Then tell us if you've ever heard your God?'
'No, Sir, I have not.'
'Have you ever felt Him, tasted Him or smelt Him? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God?'
'No, Sir.'
'Yet you still believe in Him?'
'Yes'
'According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist... What do you say to that, son?'
'Nothing,' the student replies.. 'I have only my faith.'
'Yes, faith,' the professor repeats. 'And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.'
The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. 'Professor, is there such thing as heat? '
'Yes.’
'And is there such a thing as cold?'
'Yes, son, there's cold too.'
'No sir, there is not.'
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain.
'You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything we call 'cold'. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, Sir, just the absence of it.'
Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.
'What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?'
'Yes,' the professor replies without hesitation. 'What is night if it isn't darkness?'
'You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness. That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?'
The professor responds, 'So what point are you making, young man?'
'Professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.'
The professor's face cannot hide his surprise or his interest. 'Flawed? Can you explain how?'
'You are working on the premise of duality,' the student explains. 'You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.'
'Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?'
'If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.'
'Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?'
The professor begins to shake his head.
'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, Sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?'
The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.
'To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.' The student looks around the room.
'Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?' The class breaks out into laughter. 'Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so... So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, Sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, Sir?'
Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. 'I Guess you'll have to take them on faith.'
'Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,' the student continues. 'Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?' Now uncertain, the professor responds, 'Of course, there is. We see it Every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in The multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.'
To this the student replied, 'Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.'
The professor sat down.
The student is purported to have been Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein wrote a book titled 'God vs. Science' in 1921.
Here are some actual quotes from Einstein about Jesus Christ:
Question to Dr. Einstein: To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?
"As a child, I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene."
Question to Dr. Einstein: Have you read Emil Ludwig's book on Jesus?
"Emil Ludwig's Jesus," replied Einstein, "is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful…”
Question to Dr. Einstein: You accept the historical existence of Jesus?
"Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. How different, for instance, is the impression which we receive from an account of legendary heroes of antiquity like Theseus. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus."
Question to Dr. Einstein: Ludwig Lewisohn, in one of his recent books, claims that many of the sayings of Jesus paraphrase the sayings of other prophets. Does this discredit the wisdom of Jesus?
"No man," Einstein replied, "can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that His sayings are beautiful. Even if some them have been said before, no one has expressed them so divinely as He. If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus taught it of all subsequent additions…one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity.”
The following is a departure from the usual post. There are few scripture verses, rather today’s post is a discourse between an atheist professor and two believing students. The first student is a young man who becomes quite intimidated by his professor. The second student more than ‘holds his own’ in defense of his faith in God.
May you find this to be strengthening to your faith and may it deepen your resolve to stand boldly for your belief in the One True and Living God—no matter the opposition you may encounter from the doubters and scoffers who endeavor to undermine your confidence in the One whom to know is life (see John 17:3).
"Let me explain the problem science has with religion." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses before his class and then asks one of his new students to stand.
'You're a believer, aren't you, son?'
'Yes sir,' the student says.
'So you believe in God?'
'Absolutely. '
'Is God good?'
'Yes, Sir! God's good.'
'Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?'
'Yes, Sir.'
'Are you good or evil?'
'The Bible says I'm evil.'
The professor grins knowingly. 'Aha! The Bible! He considers for a moment. 'Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?'
'Yes sir, I would.'
'So you're good...!'
'I wouldn't say that.'
'But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't.'
The student does not answer, so the professor continues. 'He doesn't, does he? My brother was a believer who died of cancer, even though he prayed to God to heal him. How is this good? Can you answer that one?'
The student remains silent.
'No, you can't, can you?' the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. 'Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?'
'Er..yes, Sir,' the student says.
'Is Satan good?'
The student doesn't hesitate on this one.. 'No, Sir, he is not.'
'Then where does Satan come from?'
The student falters. 'From God'
'That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?'
'Yes, sir.'
'Evil is everywhere, is it not? And God did make everything, correct?'
'Yes'
'So who created evil?' The professor continued, 'If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.'
Again, the student has no answer. 'Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?'
The student squirms on his feet. 'Yes, Sir, they do exist.'
'So who created them ?'
The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. 'Who created them?' There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom. The class is mesmerized.
'Tell me,' he says, as he continues to another student. 'Do you believe in God, son?'
'Yes, professor, I do.'
The old man stops pacing. 'Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen God?'
'No sir. I have never seen Him.'
'Then tell us if you've ever heard your God?'
'No, Sir, I have not.'
'Have you ever felt Him, tasted Him or smelt Him? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God?'
'No, Sir.'
'Yet you still believe in Him?'
'Yes'
'According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist... What do you say to that, son?'
'Nothing,' the student replies.. 'I have only my faith.'
'Yes, faith,' the professor repeats. 'And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.'
The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. 'Professor, is there such thing as heat? '
'Yes.’
'And is there such a thing as cold?'
'Yes, son, there's cold too.'
'No sir, there is not.'
The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain.
'You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything we call 'cold'. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, Sir, just the absence of it.'
Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.
'What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?'
'Yes,' the professor replies without hesitation. 'What is night if it isn't darkness?'
'You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness. That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?'
The professor responds, 'So what point are you making, young man?'
'Professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.'
The professor's face cannot hide his surprise or his interest. 'Flawed? Can you explain how?'
'You are working on the premise of duality,' the student explains. 'You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it.'
'Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?'
'If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.'
'Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?'
The professor begins to shake his head.
'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, Sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?'
The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.
'To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.' The student looks around the room.
'Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?' The class breaks out into laughter. 'Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so... So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, Sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, Sir?'
Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. 'I Guess you'll have to take them on faith.'
'Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,' the student continues. 'Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?' Now uncertain, the professor responds, 'Of course, there is. We see it Every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in The multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.'
To this the student replied, 'Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.'
The professor sat down.
The student is purported to have been Albert Einstein.
Albert Einstein wrote a book titled 'God vs. Science' in 1921.
Here are some actual quotes from Einstein about Jesus Christ:
Question to Dr. Einstein: To what extent are you influenced by Christianity?
"As a child, I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene."
Question to Dr. Einstein: Have you read Emil Ludwig's book on Jesus?
"Emil Ludwig's Jesus," replied Einstein, "is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful…”
Question to Dr. Einstein: You accept the historical existence of Jesus?
"Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. How different, for instance, is the impression which we receive from an account of legendary heroes of antiquity like Theseus. Theseus and other heroes of his type lack the authentic vitality of Jesus."
Question to Dr. Einstein: Ludwig Lewisohn, in one of his recent books, claims that many of the sayings of Jesus paraphrase the sayings of other prophets. Does this discredit the wisdom of Jesus?
"No man," Einstein replied, "can deny the fact that Jesus existed, nor that His sayings are beautiful. Even if some them have been said before, no one has expressed them so divinely as He. If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus taught it of all subsequent additions…one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity.”
Sunday, June 22, 2014
He Keeps, Guides, Allows
June 22
“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ,” Colossians 2:16, 17.
Some things in the Bible are not matters for debate. The Ten Commandments, for example, are not God’s ten suggestions as to how man must comport himself but are immutable law.
The Word itself does clarify points that could be difficult to understand, such as the killing that occurs in warfare. The commonly held point of view here is that if it is a ‘just war,’ such as World War II which was fought against godless Nazi tyranny, the Allied soldiers firing the weapons of war were not in the same category as the one who kills in variance to the law of God.
On the other hand, the terrorist who slays the innocent in order to rid the world of unbelievers cannot be considered to be waging a just war by the standards of Christian belief, although under another religious world view, he is relegating himself to a place in paradise by doing so.
In the eyes of Jesus,” the Author and Finisher of our faith,” Hebrews 12:2, we are admonished to “love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you and despitefully use you,” Matthew 5:44. His example is to love and to forgive those who revile and slay us.
No better example of this extreme love exists than His prayer from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,” Luke 23:34. This, more than any other word of scripture evidences the heart of God that sent the Only Begotten Son to die in man’s place so man need not die but enjoy an eternal place in heaven (see John 3:16).
Though these are immutable truths, there are aspects of living the life of faith that are candidates for debate. Colossians 2:16, 17 (above) suggest some of them—foods and festivals—being among them. At one time, for example, adherents to the Catholic Church were prohibited from eating meat on Friday. Today, that rule has been rescinded.
Another example is in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), which Protestants end with the words, “For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen,” 1 Chronicles 29:11, but which Catholics do not use in their version of the prayer.
The consensus among scholars is that the closing words were not in Christ’s original prayer but were added later. We can justify this addition by saying that they are beautiful and Biblical in origin or we can quote the verse that forbids “adding to or taking from” the Word of God (see Deuteronomy 12:32).
The debate comes when we consider whether ‘transferring’ words of scripture from one place to another constitutes adding to or taking from the Word itself.
In another matter, regarding ‘feasts,’ some people jubilantly enter the celebration of Christmas and Easter while others believe that to do so is to dishonor the One whose birth, life, death and resurrection we profess to celebrate. Is there a Biblical place to which we can go to settle that dispute? No, there is not. It seems to be one of those matters left to the conscience of the individual.
Because God has given us a free will, He also gives us latitude in how we shall live out our Christianity. As long as we are faithful to the immutable law of God and to the One who gave His life to fulfill it in our behalf, perhaps we can safely exercise our discretion, knowing His love keeps us and His Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, even while allowing us our own choices in some things.
“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ,” Colossians 2:16, 17.
Some things in the Bible are not matters for debate. The Ten Commandments, for example, are not God’s ten suggestions as to how man must comport himself but are immutable law.
The Word itself does clarify points that could be difficult to understand, such as the killing that occurs in warfare. The commonly held point of view here is that if it is a ‘just war,’ such as World War II which was fought against godless Nazi tyranny, the Allied soldiers firing the weapons of war were not in the same category as the one who kills in variance to the law of God.
On the other hand, the terrorist who slays the innocent in order to rid the world of unbelievers cannot be considered to be waging a just war by the standards of Christian belief, although under another religious world view, he is relegating himself to a place in paradise by doing so.
In the eyes of Jesus,” the Author and Finisher of our faith,” Hebrews 12:2, we are admonished to “love your enemies, do good to those who persecute you and despitefully use you,” Matthew 5:44. His example is to love and to forgive those who revile and slay us.
No better example of this extreme love exists than His prayer from the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do,” Luke 23:34. This, more than any other word of scripture evidences the heart of God that sent the Only Begotten Son to die in man’s place so man need not die but enjoy an eternal place in heaven (see John 3:16).
Though these are immutable truths, there are aspects of living the life of faith that are candidates for debate. Colossians 2:16, 17 (above) suggest some of them—foods and festivals—being among them. At one time, for example, adherents to the Catholic Church were prohibited from eating meat on Friday. Today, that rule has been rescinded.
Another example is in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), which Protestants end with the words, “For Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen,” 1 Chronicles 29:11, but which Catholics do not use in their version of the prayer.
The consensus among scholars is that the closing words were not in Christ’s original prayer but were added later. We can justify this addition by saying that they are beautiful and Biblical in origin or we can quote the verse that forbids “adding to or taking from” the Word of God (see Deuteronomy 12:32).
The debate comes when we consider whether ‘transferring’ words of scripture from one place to another constitutes adding to or taking from the Word itself.
In another matter, regarding ‘feasts,’ some people jubilantly enter the celebration of Christmas and Easter while others believe that to do so is to dishonor the One whose birth, life, death and resurrection we profess to celebrate. Is there a Biblical place to which we can go to settle that dispute? No, there is not. It seems to be one of those matters left to the conscience of the individual.
Because God has given us a free will, He also gives us latitude in how we shall live out our Christianity. As long as we are faithful to the immutable law of God and to the One who gave His life to fulfill it in our behalf, perhaps we can safely exercise our discretion, knowing His love keeps us and His Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, even while allowing us our own choices in some things.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
All We Do Not Understand
June 21
"Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
"Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
"And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate." Daniel 9:24-27
End time prophecy tends to be confusing. Oh, yes, there are ardent scholars who scrupulously apply themselves to the study of all relevant scriptures and to ancient historical documents from non-Christian sources who have come to viable conclusions (note, the word is plural) and they are convinced that they have complete understanding as to how the end times shall unfold.
Many faithful believers, however, are not in that category of diligent students of ancient documents. They do believe that every word of scripture in the matter shall be fulfilled, as have been the countless prophecies of Christ’s first appearing, but they have not entangled themselves in the intricacies of end times revelation.
As Paul tells us in II Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” so we certainly cannot dismiss any portion of prophecy as being irrelevant to our study; however, if our focus is on the veiled truth of revelation, perhaps we shall overlook evident truth.
Perhaps it is safe to say that as the signs of the times become more conclusive, the meaning of God’s revealed truth shall become clear. Perhaps He intends that we appropriate to ourselves the scriptures that have clear meaning—that we are to receive Christ as Savior as Paul implores to his young disciple in I Timothy 2:4, “It is God’s Will that All Men Be Saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
That we seek to “make disciples of all men,” Matthew 28:19, as Jesus admonished that we do. How can we further the interests of the Lord through our mortal efforts? Perhaps the most definitive way is as Paul stated in I Corinthians 13:8, through lavishing those around us with the “love of God that never fails.”
As we do all we understand of how we are to live our lives and to share our faith, we can trust all we do not understand to the One who “will never fail or forsake us,” Hebrews 13:5.
"Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy.
"Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
"And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
“Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week;
But in the middle of the week
He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined,
Is poured out on the desolate." Daniel 9:24-27
End time prophecy tends to be confusing. Oh, yes, there are ardent scholars who scrupulously apply themselves to the study of all relevant scriptures and to ancient historical documents from non-Christian sources who have come to viable conclusions (note, the word is plural) and they are convinced that they have complete understanding as to how the end times shall unfold.
Many faithful believers, however, are not in that category of diligent students of ancient documents. They do believe that every word of scripture in the matter shall be fulfilled, as have been the countless prophecies of Christ’s first appearing, but they have not entangled themselves in the intricacies of end times revelation.
As Paul tells us in II Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” so we certainly cannot dismiss any portion of prophecy as being irrelevant to our study; however, if our focus is on the veiled truth of revelation, perhaps we shall overlook evident truth.
Perhaps it is safe to say that as the signs of the times become more conclusive, the meaning of God’s revealed truth shall become clear. Perhaps He intends that we appropriate to ourselves the scriptures that have clear meaning—that we are to receive Christ as Savior as Paul implores to his young disciple in I Timothy 2:4, “It is God’s Will that All Men Be Saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
That we seek to “make disciples of all men,” Matthew 28:19, as Jesus admonished that we do. How can we further the interests of the Lord through our mortal efforts? Perhaps the most definitive way is as Paul stated in I Corinthians 13:8, through lavishing those around us with the “love of God that never fails.”
As we do all we understand of how we are to live our lives and to share our faith, we can trust all we do not understand to the One who “will never fail or forsake us,” Hebrews 13:5.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Be Forgiven of Deed and Thought
June 20
"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire,” Matthew 5:21, 22.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came to earth to deliver us from sin. He did that by taking every sin committed by every man, woman, child who has ever lived upon Himself. The only HOLY, SINLESS PERSON who has ever walked the earth has made Himself sin for us so we may be sinless before God.
Jesus not only took our sin, but He redefined our sin. In the above passage He makes it perfectly clear that sin does not constitute merely what we do, but it is what we think; it is who we are in the inner man of our selfhood.
He tells us that if we indulge hatred, we are like murderers in the mind of God. To carry that to its ultimate, humanly impossible source, allow me to relate a story told originally by Charles Colson in one of his wonderful books on Christianity.
Our Brother Colson told the story of a wealthy man, an heir to the Coors Beer fortune being murdered in the process of a robbery. The perpetrator was ultimately apprehended, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. The son of the slain man, a believer in Christ, felt led of the Lord to go to the prison to visit the man who had murdered his father and to share the Gospel with him. The young man did so on several occasions and ultimately let his father’s murderer to salvation. Not only that, but he returned again and again to study the Bible with him and nurture him in the truths of the Word that are eternal.
Another poignant story of forgiveness was told by Corry Ten Boom. That godly and wonderful woman had been held in a Nazi concentration camp along with her beloved sister Betsy during the Holocaust of WWII. Both women endured much suffering at the hands of the sadistic guards. Betsy died under the cruel treatment that was meted out in that cruel time and place but Corry lived and traveled the globe sharing the beauty of the Gospel and forgiveness in Christ.
At one of her seminars, after she had shared her story and invited people forward for prayer she was met by a man who identified himself and whom she recognized as one of the evil guards at the concentration camp where she and her sister were abused. The man told her he had become a Christian and asked her to forgive him.
She was constricted within herself at the thought of being confronted with one who had perpetrated such evil against her and Betsy who she loved so dearly, but when the Holy Spirit came upon her, the forgiveness that he sought flowed from her!
Corry experienced a true release from all the evil that had beset her and her family and her country at an awful epoch of history. She understood that for her to continue to hate the man and to hold his sin against him would have been as bad in the eyes of God as was his horrific sin!
How can such an assertion be made? From man’s vantage point, it makes no sense, but from God’s point of view it does because all sin is evil in His eyes in that all sin separates a man from God.
Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace are you saved through faith, it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast.” This makes it clear that there is nothing we can do to earn our own salvation. We can only place ourselves at the feet of Jesus and allow His grace as demonstrated by His sacrifice on the cross, to make us clean, to make us new, to make us holy before Him.
With that truth settled in our hearts, let us then allow ourselves to be cleansed from the sin of our minds that is as offensive to the Lord as is the commission of the deed.
"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire,” Matthew 5:21, 22.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came to earth to deliver us from sin. He did that by taking every sin committed by every man, woman, child who has ever lived upon Himself. The only HOLY, SINLESS PERSON who has ever walked the earth has made Himself sin for us so we may be sinless before God.
Jesus not only took our sin, but He redefined our sin. In the above passage He makes it perfectly clear that sin does not constitute merely what we do, but it is what we think; it is who we are in the inner man of our selfhood.
He tells us that if we indulge hatred, we are like murderers in the mind of God. To carry that to its ultimate, humanly impossible source, allow me to relate a story told originally by Charles Colson in one of his wonderful books on Christianity.
Our Brother Colson told the story of a wealthy man, an heir to the Coors Beer fortune being murdered in the process of a robbery. The perpetrator was ultimately apprehended, tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison. The son of the slain man, a believer in Christ, felt led of the Lord to go to the prison to visit the man who had murdered his father and to share the Gospel with him. The young man did so on several occasions and ultimately let his father’s murderer to salvation. Not only that, but he returned again and again to study the Bible with him and nurture him in the truths of the Word that are eternal.
Another poignant story of forgiveness was told by Corry Ten Boom. That godly and wonderful woman had been held in a Nazi concentration camp along with her beloved sister Betsy during the Holocaust of WWII. Both women endured much suffering at the hands of the sadistic guards. Betsy died under the cruel treatment that was meted out in that cruel time and place but Corry lived and traveled the globe sharing the beauty of the Gospel and forgiveness in Christ.
At one of her seminars, after she had shared her story and invited people forward for prayer she was met by a man who identified himself and whom she recognized as one of the evil guards at the concentration camp where she and her sister were abused. The man told her he had become a Christian and asked her to forgive him.
She was constricted within herself at the thought of being confronted with one who had perpetrated such evil against her and Betsy who she loved so dearly, but when the Holy Spirit came upon her, the forgiveness that he sought flowed from her!
Corry experienced a true release from all the evil that had beset her and her family and her country at an awful epoch of history. She understood that for her to continue to hate the man and to hold his sin against him would have been as bad in the eyes of God as was his horrific sin!
How can such an assertion be made? From man’s vantage point, it makes no sense, but from God’s point of view it does because all sin is evil in His eyes in that all sin separates a man from God.
Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace are you saved through faith, it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast.” This makes it clear that there is nothing we can do to earn our own salvation. We can only place ourselves at the feet of Jesus and allow His grace as demonstrated by His sacrifice on the cross, to make us clean, to make us new, to make us holy before Him.
With that truth settled in our hearts, let us then allow ourselves to be cleansed from the sin of our minds that is as offensive to the Lord as is the commission of the deed.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
His Constant Watch-care
June 19
“…who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:3.
Sometimes we might not to give God His due by failing to comprehend what this verse is saying. The word "upholding" does not give the impact of the Greek; it gives us the impression of God as an Atlas figure or as a watchmaker who wound His creation up and then walked away.
Wuest's Amplified New Testament translates this word as "sustaining," indicating an ongoing operation. Sustaining not only gives the impression of support but also of continuous maintenance and providence. The Amplified Bible also catches the essence by adding "maintaining, guiding and propelling."
What this statement illustrates is the continuous, minute-by-minute, year-by-year, century-by-century, eon-upon-eon generation of the enormous, awesome, prodigious amounts of power necessary to keep His creation operating. The very stability of the creation speaks of His continuing involvement. He did not just create and walk away with everything operating according to impersonal law…” John Ritenbaugh
What isn’t mentioned in this description of God’s abiding involvement in the matter of keeping the earth and the universe operating according to His specifications is the reality that He is also profoundly involved in the things that touch the lives of His people.
From earliest creation, He was about the business of providing a covering for Adam and Eve when they had fallen into sin; in fact, He personally provided the garments to cover their nakedness.
When the children of Jacob were starving in a severe drought, God, who had already spoken to Joseph, had stored away the grain that would save them from sure annihilation.
When a pharaoh who “knew not Joseph,” Exodus 1:8, enslaved the people of Israel, it was God who personally chose Moses to lead them forth from bondage into their own land. Because of their disobedience, they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, but the promise was never far from the heart of God to restore them to the country He had promised to them.
The Old Testament is replete with tales of God’s intervention into the affairs of His people that evidence His unwavering desire to do them good, to deliver them from the oppressor.
The New Testament is a continuation of His goodness and mercy to His children; however, the deliverance discovered here involves the lostness of man’s spirit rather than the entanglement of his way with the ordeals of life. The fact of Jesus’ entry into the realm of men conveys God’s perfect love for His fallen creation—and His supply of man’s only deliverance from the sin that separates him from his God.
As we consider God’s continual involvement with the maintenance of the universe in its correct order, may we also ponder the amazing reality that, “He keeps us as the apple of His eye; He hides us under the shadow of His wing,” Deuteronomy 32:10, Psalm 17:8.
May we never be distraught, for we “know whom we have believed and are persuaded that He is able to keep all that we have committed unto Him,” II Timothy 1:12. As Jesus said, “He watches over the sparrow—and you are of more value than many sparrows,” Luke 12:7, 8.
Let us never waver in our confidence that He who keeps the earth spinning on its axis also minds the affairs of those who lay their lives at the feet of Jesus and trust Him to mind everything that touches their lives so He may be glorified in them.
“…who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:3.
Sometimes we might not to give God His due by failing to comprehend what this verse is saying. The word "upholding" does not give the impact of the Greek; it gives us the impression of God as an Atlas figure or as a watchmaker who wound His creation up and then walked away.
Wuest's Amplified New Testament translates this word as "sustaining," indicating an ongoing operation. Sustaining not only gives the impression of support but also of continuous maintenance and providence. The Amplified Bible also catches the essence by adding "maintaining, guiding and propelling."
What this statement illustrates is the continuous, minute-by-minute, year-by-year, century-by-century, eon-upon-eon generation of the enormous, awesome, prodigious amounts of power necessary to keep His creation operating. The very stability of the creation speaks of His continuing involvement. He did not just create and walk away with everything operating according to impersonal law…” John Ritenbaugh
What isn’t mentioned in this description of God’s abiding involvement in the matter of keeping the earth and the universe operating according to His specifications is the reality that He is also profoundly involved in the things that touch the lives of His people.
From earliest creation, He was about the business of providing a covering for Adam and Eve when they had fallen into sin; in fact, He personally provided the garments to cover their nakedness.
When the children of Jacob were starving in a severe drought, God, who had already spoken to Joseph, had stored away the grain that would save them from sure annihilation.
When a pharaoh who “knew not Joseph,” Exodus 1:8, enslaved the people of Israel, it was God who personally chose Moses to lead them forth from bondage into their own land. Because of their disobedience, they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, but the promise was never far from the heart of God to restore them to the country He had promised to them.
The Old Testament is replete with tales of God’s intervention into the affairs of His people that evidence His unwavering desire to do them good, to deliver them from the oppressor.
The New Testament is a continuation of His goodness and mercy to His children; however, the deliverance discovered here involves the lostness of man’s spirit rather than the entanglement of his way with the ordeals of life. The fact of Jesus’ entry into the realm of men conveys God’s perfect love for His fallen creation—and His supply of man’s only deliverance from the sin that separates him from his God.
As we consider God’s continual involvement with the maintenance of the universe in its correct order, may we also ponder the amazing reality that, “He keeps us as the apple of His eye; He hides us under the shadow of His wing,” Deuteronomy 32:10, Psalm 17:8.
May we never be distraught, for we “know whom we have believed and are persuaded that He is able to keep all that we have committed unto Him,” II Timothy 1:12. As Jesus said, “He watches over the sparrow—and you are of more value than many sparrows,” Luke 12:7, 8.
Let us never waver in our confidence that He who keeps the earth spinning on its axis also minds the affairs of those who lay their lives at the feet of Jesus and trust Him to mind everything that touches their lives so He may be glorified in them.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Be Not Among The Tares
June 18
“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.'
“So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’”
“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’”
“The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
“But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will tell the reapers to first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn,’” Matthew 13:24-30.
The Word of God has gone forth into all the world. His Apostles were tasked with sharing the truth of salvation through Christ in Mark 16:15. Jesus further stipulated to those He sent that, “…they who believe and are baptized shall be saved; those who believe not shall be damned,” Mark 16:16.
There is a lot of disagreement among those who profess faith in the propitiatory death of Jesus that centers around this very concept. Some assent to His warning totally. They believe without equivocation that anyone who does not accept Christ as Savior and Lord will not see Heaven.
Others believe just as emphatically that a loving God could never allow anyone to spend eternity in hell. One branch of Christianity believes that there is a transition period between earth and Heaven in a place where penance will be done to ready the unbeliever who died in trespasses and sins for eventual entry into glory.
There also looms the great question as to the fate of the countless souls who have never been privileged to hear the Gospel of Christ, let alone to accept or to reject it. Of those, perhaps the only thing we can say with assurance is that while man can judge only based upon outward appearance, God looks upon hearts (See I Samuel 16:7).
We can presume that if an individual recognizes that he is a sinner and implores the only god he knows to cleanse him from sin, his repentance would cause him to receive God’s grace; while if he were arrogant in his own conceit he would relegate himself eternally to the realm of the lost…but our presumption is only that.
What we may know without speculation or presumption is that Christ has made a way for us. Indeed, the Word says that He has “made a way where there is no way,” Isaiah 43:16.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote of the coming Messiah approximately 600 years before the birth of Christ. In the 53rd chapter of his book he gave great detail about the One who would come to save mankind from sin and death.
In fact the prophet penned some of the most beautiful and encouraging words in all of scripture that assure us:
“He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief; a man of suffering and pain…He was despised and rejected of men and we hid our faces from Him and held Him in low esteem.
“But, surely He took our grief and carried our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God and afflicted! But He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities! The punishment that brought us peace was placed upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed,” Isaiah 53:3-5.
Let us fully embrace Christ’s solution to our sin problem. Let us receive the salvation He so freely gives without equivocation lest we deceive ourselves into believing there is some other way to the portal of glory! Let us share the good news of Jesus and His salvation with all who will hear the message from our lips and discern our faith in Him by our surrendered lifestyle.
Let us make sure we are not found among the tares when the trumpet sounds (I Thessalonians 4:16, I Corinthians 15:52) and His feet stand again on the Mount of Olives (see Zechariah 14:4, Acts 1:11). Let us keep our eyes on the eastern sky, knowing that as He said, "At an hour when you (the world of unbelievers) think not, He will come again," Matthew 24:44, Luke 12:40.
“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.'
“So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’”
“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’”
“The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
“But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will tell the reapers to first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn,’” Matthew 13:24-30.
The Word of God has gone forth into all the world. His Apostles were tasked with sharing the truth of salvation through Christ in Mark 16:15. Jesus further stipulated to those He sent that, “…they who believe and are baptized shall be saved; those who believe not shall be damned,” Mark 16:16.
There is a lot of disagreement among those who profess faith in the propitiatory death of Jesus that centers around this very concept. Some assent to His warning totally. They believe without equivocation that anyone who does not accept Christ as Savior and Lord will not see Heaven.
Others believe just as emphatically that a loving God could never allow anyone to spend eternity in hell. One branch of Christianity believes that there is a transition period between earth and Heaven in a place where penance will be done to ready the unbeliever who died in trespasses and sins for eventual entry into glory.
There also looms the great question as to the fate of the countless souls who have never been privileged to hear the Gospel of Christ, let alone to accept or to reject it. Of those, perhaps the only thing we can say with assurance is that while man can judge only based upon outward appearance, God looks upon hearts (See I Samuel 16:7).
We can presume that if an individual recognizes that he is a sinner and implores the only god he knows to cleanse him from sin, his repentance would cause him to receive God’s grace; while if he were arrogant in his own conceit he would relegate himself eternally to the realm of the lost…but our presumption is only that.
What we may know without speculation or presumption is that Christ has made a way for us. Indeed, the Word says that He has “made a way where there is no way,” Isaiah 43:16.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote of the coming Messiah approximately 600 years before the birth of Christ. In the 53rd chapter of his book he gave great detail about the One who would come to save mankind from sin and death.
In fact the prophet penned some of the most beautiful and encouraging words in all of scripture that assure us:
“He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief; a man of suffering and pain…He was despised and rejected of men and we hid our faces from Him and held Him in low esteem.
“But, surely He took our grief and carried our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God and afflicted! But He was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities! The punishment that brought us peace was placed upon Him, and by His wounds, we are healed,” Isaiah 53:3-5.
Let us fully embrace Christ’s solution to our sin problem. Let us receive the salvation He so freely gives without equivocation lest we deceive ourselves into believing there is some other way to the portal of glory! Let us share the good news of Jesus and His salvation with all who will hear the message from our lips and discern our faith in Him by our surrendered lifestyle.
Let us make sure we are not found among the tares when the trumpet sounds (I Thessalonians 4:16, I Corinthians 15:52) and His feet stand again on the Mount of Olives (see Zechariah 14:4, Acts 1:11). Let us keep our eyes on the eastern sky, knowing that as He said, "At an hour when you (the world of unbelievers) think not, He will come again," Matthew 24:44, Luke 12:40.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Stand Like Flint
June 17
“Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house,” Ezekiel 3:8-9
Some people are intractable. Oh, yes, we all have our moments of stubbornness but there are those among us who make dealing with them quite unpleasant simply because their challenging personalities pose virtually insurmountable walls of resistance to any open, objective, constructive communication.
God’s word in the matter seems to be that we are to ‘tough it out.’ If they are resistant and hard-headed in their opposition to common sense, to reason, to amicable interaction, to compromise, to solution-finding, then we must be just as resolute in our determination to stand firm in truth.
Whether our opposition comes from rebellious children or uncompromising parents or difficult neighbors or deceitful professional associates or godless world views, our charge is to stand fast in truth. We must not simply be obstinate; no, the Lord would not have us to merely reflect the mindset of those around us who pit themselves against Him. Rather, He would have us to be “adamant stone, harder than flint and undismayed” as we stand against any and all rebellion against the Holy One.
Further, we must be mindful that as He said in II Chronicles 20:15 when a vast army stood against King Jehoshaphat, “the battle is not yours, but God’s.” We as believers in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are privileged to be among the Army of the Redeemed. We are blessed to bless—in other words, it is our prerogative to share the immutable truth of the ages with everyone around us.
Those against whom we find ourselves are those who oppose the Lord Jesus. As He said, “If the world hates Me, so will it hate you,” John 15:18. Jesus makes it very clear that if we were “of the world,” we would be accepted by the world. It’s the very fact that the Christ in us challenges every negative thing that the world stands for that people who are not surrendered to Him find intolerable when they see Jesus in us.
People of today’s world declare themselves to be extremely tolerant. They will gladly allow and even embrace any behavior, any departure from godly truth or social mores, and even any world view—no matter how odious its tenets—as long as the people of God do not insist that there is one way to God and that is “Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” I Corinthians 2:2.
The Apostle Paul was adamant—there is nothing else worth knowing or teaching but the unshakable truth that Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our salvation (see Hebrews 12:2.)
So, dear Child of God, if you find yourself in conflict with those who do not embrace the Lord who has saved you and who loves you, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing,” James 1:2-4.
The obstinacy of those around you is rooted in their recalcitrance against God. Your charge is to stand like flint against it—not in your own strength, but, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” Ephesians 6:10.
“Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house,” Ezekiel 3:8-9
Some people are intractable. Oh, yes, we all have our moments of stubbornness but there are those among us who make dealing with them quite unpleasant simply because their challenging personalities pose virtually insurmountable walls of resistance to any open, objective, constructive communication.
God’s word in the matter seems to be that we are to ‘tough it out.’ If they are resistant and hard-headed in their opposition to common sense, to reason, to amicable interaction, to compromise, to solution-finding, then we must be just as resolute in our determination to stand firm in truth.
Whether our opposition comes from rebellious children or uncompromising parents or difficult neighbors or deceitful professional associates or godless world views, our charge is to stand fast in truth. We must not simply be obstinate; no, the Lord would not have us to merely reflect the mindset of those around us who pit themselves against Him. Rather, He would have us to be “adamant stone, harder than flint and undismayed” as we stand against any and all rebellion against the Holy One.
Further, we must be mindful that as He said in II Chronicles 20:15 when a vast army stood against King Jehoshaphat, “the battle is not yours, but God’s.” We as believers in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are privileged to be among the Army of the Redeemed. We are blessed to bless—in other words, it is our prerogative to share the immutable truth of the ages with everyone around us.
Those against whom we find ourselves are those who oppose the Lord Jesus. As He said, “If the world hates Me, so will it hate you,” John 15:18. Jesus makes it very clear that if we were “of the world,” we would be accepted by the world. It’s the very fact that the Christ in us challenges every negative thing that the world stands for that people who are not surrendered to Him find intolerable when they see Jesus in us.
People of today’s world declare themselves to be extremely tolerant. They will gladly allow and even embrace any behavior, any departure from godly truth or social mores, and even any world view—no matter how odious its tenets—as long as the people of God do not insist that there is one way to God and that is “Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” I Corinthians 2:2.
The Apostle Paul was adamant—there is nothing else worth knowing or teaching but the unshakable truth that Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our salvation (see Hebrews 12:2.)
So, dear Child of God, if you find yourself in conflict with those who do not embrace the Lord who has saved you and who loves you, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing,” James 1:2-4.
The obstinacy of those around you is rooted in their recalcitrance against God. Your charge is to stand like flint against it—not in your own strength, but, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” Ephesians 6:10.
Monday, June 16, 2014
We've Got The Power!
WE'VE GOT THE POWER IN THE NAME OF JESUS
WE'VE GOT THE POWER IN HE NAME OF THE LORD
THO SATAN RAGES WE CANNOT BE DEFEATED
WE'VE GOT THE POWER IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.
Just a reminder that you've got the power!!!!!!!!!!
Break every chain- Jesus Culture - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6ncg2pLYks Cached
Jesus Culture - Awakening Live From Chicago (2011) Lyrics: There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus ...
WE'VE GOT THE POWER IN HE NAME OF THE LORD
THO SATAN RAGES WE CANNOT BE DEFEATED
WE'VE GOT THE POWER IN THE NAME OF THE LORD.
Just a reminder that you've got the power!!!!!!!!!!
Break every chain- Jesus Culture - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6ncg2pLYks Cached
Jesus Culture - Awakening Live From Chicago (2011) Lyrics: There is power in the name of Jesus There is power in the name of Jesus ...
A Father's Joy
June 16
"The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him." Proverbs 23:24
We have just celebrated Fathers’ Day, and that warm, familial holiday brought us to some points to ponder regarding our view of parenting as compared and contrasted to that of our ancient counterparts.
The word of God makes it quite clear that a man’s progeny is his great reward. Psalm 127:3-5 says, “Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring are a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.”
The strong implication in the age in which the holy writ was penned by the scribe is that in the multitude of his offspring is a man’s strength established. The more children he had, the stronger was his position in the society in which he lived. Having numerous adult sons meant he was sure to have allies to fight with him against any kind of opposition.
If his sons were as arrows in his quiver, then he was well-armed in battle. He would never be alone in his fight for the army of his sons stood with him in time of conflict. If a man’s confrontation were of a legal nature, his sons would testify in his behalf before the assembly.
As with so many things, our view of having many children has changed with time. Most people of modernity do not view large families as an advantage. Although we love the children we have, we do not see them as a potential army or as our advocates in matters of legal dispute. We tend, in fact, to view our offspring as our ‘responsibility.’
Rearing our youngsters entails far more in our day than merely supplying their food and clothing while they are young and anticipating their allegiance to us as they mature. Our provision of their needs extends into young adulthood where we are responsible for their education and for their sustenance in a troubled economy.
The role of parent to offspring as it is depicted in Psalm 127, could, in fact, be considered role reversal. Instead of expecting our children to align themselves with us against any foe, we maintain our support of them against the onslaught of a materialistic age that may require their on-going reliance upon their more-established, self-sufficient parents.
The one thing that remains unchanged is the premise of Proverbs 23:24, "The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him." As the father of antiquity delighted in the support of his sons against any adversary, so today’s father delights in his well-educated son as he becomes equipped to make his way into the world and to face and overcome the challenges of an age fraught with economic and moral upheaval.
Today’s godly father rejoices when his children abide in truth. As the beloved disciple said of his spiritual children in III John 1:2, “I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers,” so today’s parent yearns to see his children rooted and grounded in faith in Jesus—faith that enables them to do all they can to oppose the growing tide of evil around them, and, as the Bible says, “When you have done all that you can do, stand,” Ephesians 6:13.
"The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him." Proverbs 23:24
We have just celebrated Fathers’ Day, and that warm, familial holiday brought us to some points to ponder regarding our view of parenting as compared and contrasted to that of our ancient counterparts.
The word of God makes it quite clear that a man’s progeny is his great reward. Psalm 127:3-5 says, “Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring are a reward from Him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.”
The strong implication in the age in which the holy writ was penned by the scribe is that in the multitude of his offspring is a man’s strength established. The more children he had, the stronger was his position in the society in which he lived. Having numerous adult sons meant he was sure to have allies to fight with him against any kind of opposition.
If his sons were as arrows in his quiver, then he was well-armed in battle. He would never be alone in his fight for the army of his sons stood with him in time of conflict. If a man’s confrontation were of a legal nature, his sons would testify in his behalf before the assembly.
As with so many things, our view of having many children has changed with time. Most people of modernity do not view large families as an advantage. Although we love the children we have, we do not see them as a potential army or as our advocates in matters of legal dispute. We tend, in fact, to view our offspring as our ‘responsibility.’
Rearing our youngsters entails far more in our day than merely supplying their food and clothing while they are young and anticipating their allegiance to us as they mature. Our provision of their needs extends into young adulthood where we are responsible for their education and for their sustenance in a troubled economy.
The role of parent to offspring as it is depicted in Psalm 127, could, in fact, be considered role reversal. Instead of expecting our children to align themselves with us against any foe, we maintain our support of them against the onslaught of a materialistic age that may require their on-going reliance upon their more-established, self-sufficient parents.
The one thing that remains unchanged is the premise of Proverbs 23:24, "The father of a righteous man has great joy; he who has a wise son delights in him." As the father of antiquity delighted in the support of his sons against any adversary, so today’s father delights in his well-educated son as he becomes equipped to make his way into the world and to face and overcome the challenges of an age fraught with economic and moral upheaval.
Today’s godly father rejoices when his children abide in truth. As the beloved disciple said of his spiritual children in III John 1:2, “I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers,” so today’s parent yearns to see his children rooted and grounded in faith in Jesus—faith that enables them to do all they can to oppose the growing tide of evil around them, and, as the Bible says, “When you have done all that you can do, stand,” Ephesians 6:13.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Beautiful Excerpt...
June 15
This is a beautiful excerpt from THE AUDACITY OF PRAYER by Don Nordin
"You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2).
If we truly believe the Bible means what it says, what then might we have received had we asked? What victory? What healing or provision? What protection, restoration or redemption? What glory and worship might our heavenly Father have received if we had but asked His help in our time of trouble?
Why then do we not ask? What prevents us? Is the way blocked to God? Do we suppose Him limited or uncaring?
Quickly we find the open door: "Come boldly to the throne of grace," the writer of Hebrews exhorts us, "that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The preparation is done, our answer is waiting, if only we come boldly and ask! We have no other precondition or criteria to achieve the answer God has made ready for us except one: we must believe! "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24). "Let him ask in faith, with no doubting" (James 1:6).
Notice the vast extent of His invitation: Whatever things you ask!" What is overlooked in that majestic word? Is any need? Any concern or fear? Any pain or hopeless circumstance?
The One who answers is ready. The provision has been prepared. His abilities and compassions are limitless. Yet we often do not ask, we do not contend for our miracle, and His wonderful, sufficient response remains in the storehouse of His blessing.
Is it possible that God uses our adversities to teach us the benefit of asking? Does He let distress and dilemma have their way for a season while He waits to hear our cry? Does He use our desperate need to turn our eyes upward where we will find our Father listening and our answer at the ready?
Ask and you will receive! I know God is willing to move heaven and earth on our behalf. I saw it first as a small boy, as God healed a father who had been crushed beneath a two-ton tree. I've seen that power repeatedly as a pastor and intercessor, watching in silent amazement as God has raised the crippled, spared unborn children from certain death, restored financial fortunes, secured redemption, and healed countless dozens whose cause was written off as lost.
Christians today will do well to once again pray over their families and lives in an audacious manner. The promise to reverse negative circumstances is only guaranteed to those who pray. "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). What does He mean by "our land?" Our land is not only our nation and world but also our lives. He has promised to heal the lives of those who are serious about prayer and righteous living.
Jesus Himself implored us to pray audaciously. "Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened" (Matt. 7:7-8). These are not the words of some popular success guru; these are the words of Jesus! What is promised to those who pray and don't lose heart?
• Ask and you will receive
• Seek and you will find what you are searching for
• Knock and doors will be opened to you
The words of Jesus provide a wonderful assurance to those who will take the time to be diligent in prayer. Prayer transcends all religions. Every religion has its own idea of the proper means, times, and reasons for prayer. Various religions pray to a diversity of gods.
What sets apart the prayers of Christians from all others is that, while other religions pray to dead deities, Christians pray to the God that is very much alive.
We often make the mistake of believing that prayer is only about getting stuff from God. While it is true that prayer is the delivery route for things in the life of the believer, it is much more than that.
Prayer develops trust in the heart of the believer that God absolutely will perform what He has said. For the believer, all intimacy with God is born out of trust that has been developed in times of prayer. Intimacy leads to faith and audacious praying. Faith and audacious prayer produce the miraculous.
This is a beautiful excerpt from THE AUDACITY OF PRAYER by Don Nordin
"You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2).
If we truly believe the Bible means what it says, what then might we have received had we asked? What victory? What healing or provision? What protection, restoration or redemption? What glory and worship might our heavenly Father have received if we had but asked His help in our time of trouble?
Why then do we not ask? What prevents us? Is the way blocked to God? Do we suppose Him limited or uncaring?
Quickly we find the open door: "Come boldly to the throne of grace," the writer of Hebrews exhorts us, "that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The preparation is done, our answer is waiting, if only we come boldly and ask! We have no other precondition or criteria to achieve the answer God has made ready for us except one: we must believe! "Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24). "Let him ask in faith, with no doubting" (James 1:6).
Notice the vast extent of His invitation: Whatever things you ask!" What is overlooked in that majestic word? Is any need? Any concern or fear? Any pain or hopeless circumstance?
The One who answers is ready. The provision has been prepared. His abilities and compassions are limitless. Yet we often do not ask, we do not contend for our miracle, and His wonderful, sufficient response remains in the storehouse of His blessing.
Is it possible that God uses our adversities to teach us the benefit of asking? Does He let distress and dilemma have their way for a season while He waits to hear our cry? Does He use our desperate need to turn our eyes upward where we will find our Father listening and our answer at the ready?
Ask and you will receive! I know God is willing to move heaven and earth on our behalf. I saw it first as a small boy, as God healed a father who had been crushed beneath a two-ton tree. I've seen that power repeatedly as a pastor and intercessor, watching in silent amazement as God has raised the crippled, spared unborn children from certain death, restored financial fortunes, secured redemption, and healed countless dozens whose cause was written off as lost.
Christians today will do well to once again pray over their families and lives in an audacious manner. The promise to reverse negative circumstances is only guaranteed to those who pray. "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). What does He mean by "our land?" Our land is not only our nation and world but also our lives. He has promised to heal the lives of those who are serious about prayer and righteous living.
Jesus Himself implored us to pray audaciously. "Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1). "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened" (Matt. 7:7-8). These are not the words of some popular success guru; these are the words of Jesus! What is promised to those who pray and don't lose heart?
• Ask and you will receive
• Seek and you will find what you are searching for
• Knock and doors will be opened to you
The words of Jesus provide a wonderful assurance to those who will take the time to be diligent in prayer. Prayer transcends all religions. Every religion has its own idea of the proper means, times, and reasons for prayer. Various religions pray to a diversity of gods.
What sets apart the prayers of Christians from all others is that, while other religions pray to dead deities, Christians pray to the God that is very much alive.
We often make the mistake of believing that prayer is only about getting stuff from God. While it is true that prayer is the delivery route for things in the life of the believer, it is much more than that.
Prayer develops trust in the heart of the believer that God absolutely will perform what He has said. For the believer, all intimacy with God is born out of trust that has been developed in times of prayer. Intimacy leads to faith and audacious praying. Faith and audacious prayer produce the miraculous.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
The Lord Is Faithful
June 14
"The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one," 2 Thessalonians 3:3.
The Lord is faithful. No matter what you’re going through, no matter how abysmal the circumstances of your life appear, He is. And He is with you and He is for you. Jesus Himself said, "I AM," John 14:6 as God spoke the same words in Exodus 3:14.
Life can be overwhelming. The challenges of day-to-day living can boggle the mind and frustrate the resources of every-day people who aren’t wrestling with severe persecution or with abject poverty or with the horrors of war.
The Word says, “The little foxes spoil the vines,” Song of Solomon 2:15, and we discover that though we may rise to the necessity of problems of great import by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we often succumb to the distressing minutia of our lives.
If we are to be people of faith in whom the unbelieving world around us may see the power and the glory of Christ revealed, we must endeavor to appropriate the peace and comfort He has available to us in the light-weight challenges of our lives, not just in the overwhelming problems whose weight is crushing.
The promise in this verse is that because Jesus is faithful, He will strengthen us. Even though we can do nothing without Him (see John 15:5), we are encouraged to trust that with Him there is nothing we cannot do (see Philippians 4:13).
In this word to believers at Thessalonica, Paul leaves no doubt as to who their enemy is and from whom it is that the Lord will protect them. Like believers of old, we are assailed to varying degrees by the evil one.
The intent behind his attack against people of faith is that they abandon their hope in Christ, that they become first discouraged, then ultimately overwhelmed by their lives and despair of faith in the only One who can set them free from the machinations of God’s ancient foe.
Though satan hates us, it is the Holy One he really hates and against whom his fight is directed. We are merely pawns in his game. It is his intent that our fall diminish the glory of God. Though he cannot achieve that end, his resolve is to wrench us from Christ’s love and salvation so he might, in his own twisted mind, topple God from His seat of glory.
Rather than facilitate his evil, let us hold firmly to the One who is “the way, the truth and the life,” John 14:6, the One without whom, “no man can see the Father,” John 6:44. Let us trust Him fully in the small and in the large challenges of our lives, for as Paul assured the Thessalonians, "The Lord is faithful."
"The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one," 2 Thessalonians 3:3.
The Lord is faithful. No matter what you’re going through, no matter how abysmal the circumstances of your life appear, He is. And He is with you and He is for you. Jesus Himself said, "I AM," John 14:6 as God spoke the same words in Exodus 3:14.
Life can be overwhelming. The challenges of day-to-day living can boggle the mind and frustrate the resources of every-day people who aren’t wrestling with severe persecution or with abject poverty or with the horrors of war.
The Word says, “The little foxes spoil the vines,” Song of Solomon 2:15, and we discover that though we may rise to the necessity of problems of great import by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we often succumb to the distressing minutia of our lives.
If we are to be people of faith in whom the unbelieving world around us may see the power and the glory of Christ revealed, we must endeavor to appropriate the peace and comfort He has available to us in the light-weight challenges of our lives, not just in the overwhelming problems whose weight is crushing.
The promise in this verse is that because Jesus is faithful, He will strengthen us. Even though we can do nothing without Him (see John 15:5), we are encouraged to trust that with Him there is nothing we cannot do (see Philippians 4:13).
In this word to believers at Thessalonica, Paul leaves no doubt as to who their enemy is and from whom it is that the Lord will protect them. Like believers of old, we are assailed to varying degrees by the evil one.
The intent behind his attack against people of faith is that they abandon their hope in Christ, that they become first discouraged, then ultimately overwhelmed by their lives and despair of faith in the only One who can set them free from the machinations of God’s ancient foe.
Though satan hates us, it is the Holy One he really hates and against whom his fight is directed. We are merely pawns in his game. It is his intent that our fall diminish the glory of God. Though he cannot achieve that end, his resolve is to wrench us from Christ’s love and salvation so he might, in his own twisted mind, topple God from His seat of glory.
Rather than facilitate his evil, let us hold firmly to the One who is “the way, the truth and the life,” John 14:6, the One without whom, “no man can see the Father,” John 6:44. Let us trust Him fully in the small and in the large challenges of our lives, for as Paul assured the Thessalonians, "The Lord is faithful."
Friday, June 13, 2014
The Person Jesus Is Within Us
June 13
“A time to gain, And a time to lose; a time to keep, And a time to throw away…” Ecclesiastes 3:6.
God has established seasons as part of the structure of how we live our lives. There is a time to prepare the soil, a time to plant the seed, a time to tend the crop, a time to harvest. There is a time to make commitments and a time to work at maintaining commitments; there is a time to reap the reward of promises kept.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 gives us an extensive list of the things God has established for us in their time. His Holy Word says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die
a time to plant and a time to uproot
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
King Solomon, the author of the passage goes on to ask, “What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race; He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
The seasons of life have a sobering impact upon the way we live our lives, for we know if we do not do things in their appointed time, we risk failure. If we do not plant the seed at the appointed time, the harvest cannot come, if we do not prune the trees, they will not flourish.
The brother of the Lord, in James 1:2-4, tells us to, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be complete, lacking nothing.”
Here we discover that even the seasons of trial in our lives are designed to perfect us and strengthen us in the inner man. So, can we, will we, attend to the seasons of life in their appointed time? Will we gather and scatter; will we rend and sew; will we laugh and mourn—knowing that in all these things God will receive the glory, for through them, the person we are will become the person Jesus is within us.
“A time to gain, And a time to lose; a time to keep, And a time to throw away…” Ecclesiastes 3:6.
God has established seasons as part of the structure of how we live our lives. There is a time to prepare the soil, a time to plant the seed, a time to tend the crop, a time to harvest. There is a time to make commitments and a time to work at maintaining commitments; there is a time to reap the reward of promises kept.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 gives us an extensive list of the things God has established for us in their time. His Holy Word says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die
a time to plant and a time to uproot
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
King Solomon, the author of the passage goes on to ask, “What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race; He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
The seasons of life have a sobering impact upon the way we live our lives, for we know if we do not do things in their appointed time, we risk failure. If we do not plant the seed at the appointed time, the harvest cannot come, if we do not prune the trees, they will not flourish.
The brother of the Lord, in James 1:2-4, tells us to, “Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be complete, lacking nothing.”
Here we discover that even the seasons of trial in our lives are designed to perfect us and strengthen us in the inner man. So, can we, will we, attend to the seasons of life in their appointed time? Will we gather and scatter; will we rend and sew; will we laugh and mourn—knowing that in all these things God will receive the glory, for through them, the person we are will become the person Jesus is within us.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Focus on the Family/Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
June 12
From FOCUS ON THE FAMILY:
The Power of Prayer
Sooner or later, many of us may ask ourselves (and God): Does prayer really change things? We're instructed to make our requests known to Him (Philippians 3:6), but can the Sovereign Lord, who knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end (Isaiah 48:3), really be persuaded to change His mind or alter His plans?
Both Scripture and experience teach us that prayer can and does make a very real difference in the course of human events, even in a fallen world. Examples include Abraham's intercessions on behalf of Sodom (Genesis 18:16-33), Hezekiah's prayer for the extension of his life (Isaiah 38), or the church's pleas for Peter's release from prison (Acts 12:1-19). Of course, there are also occasions when our petitions seem to go unanswered—or at least, aren't resolved in our timing, or the way we might choose.
The power of prayer is a mystery, which we must embrace by faith. In the final analysis, prayer is not about results. It's about relationship. God wants us to interact with Him, in order that we might know Him, trust Him, and remember Him in all our ways. He wants us to become involved and play an active role in the mystery of His plan for the universe—and allow Him to work in our hearts in the midst of that process.
From BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION:
Will you commit to pray for our nation in 2014?
In the face of widespread insecurity, fear, and hopelessness, our nation desperately needs your prayers.
Today we are surrounded by the effects of forgetting—even forsaking—God, both as a nation and as individuals. The problem is too big for human effort. Our nation has a heart problem, and only God can fix it. Will you join us in prayer as we ask God to heal our land?
"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Please also join us in prayer for the millions of individuals who are at a critical crossroad and don't even know it. Pray that those who don't know Jesus Christ will turn and find forgiveness, hope, and peace in Him. Let's stand together and ask God to pour out His Spirit on our nation in 2014
Commit to join us today in concerted prayer, for it is only another ‘Great Awakening’ that can save our nation, indeed, our world, from the incursion of the evil works of the enemy into the affairs of men.
From FOCUS ON THE FAMILY:
The Power of Prayer
Sooner or later, many of us may ask ourselves (and God): Does prayer really change things? We're instructed to make our requests known to Him (Philippians 3:6), but can the Sovereign Lord, who knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end (Isaiah 48:3), really be persuaded to change His mind or alter His plans?
Both Scripture and experience teach us that prayer can and does make a very real difference in the course of human events, even in a fallen world. Examples include Abraham's intercessions on behalf of Sodom (Genesis 18:16-33), Hezekiah's prayer for the extension of his life (Isaiah 38), or the church's pleas for Peter's release from prison (Acts 12:1-19). Of course, there are also occasions when our petitions seem to go unanswered—or at least, aren't resolved in our timing, or the way we might choose.
The power of prayer is a mystery, which we must embrace by faith. In the final analysis, prayer is not about results. It's about relationship. God wants us to interact with Him, in order that we might know Him, trust Him, and remember Him in all our ways. He wants us to become involved and play an active role in the mystery of His plan for the universe—and allow Him to work in our hearts in the midst of that process.
From BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOCIATION:
Will you commit to pray for our nation in 2014?
In the face of widespread insecurity, fear, and hopelessness, our nation desperately needs your prayers.
Today we are surrounded by the effects of forgetting—even forsaking—God, both as a nation and as individuals. The problem is too big for human effort. Our nation has a heart problem, and only God can fix it. Will you join us in prayer as we ask God to heal our land?
"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Please also join us in prayer for the millions of individuals who are at a critical crossroad and don't even know it. Pray that those who don't know Jesus Christ will turn and find forgiveness, hope, and peace in Him. Let's stand together and ask God to pour out His Spirit on our nation in 2014
Commit to join us today in concerted prayer, for it is only another ‘Great Awakening’ that can save our nation, indeed, our world, from the incursion of the evil works of the enemy into the affairs of men.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
The Only Provision Under Heaven
June 11
“The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever,” Revelation 20:10.
Some people are of the firm opinion that there is no hell. They have no difficulty in subscribing to the notion of heaven where all good people will go but they cannot abide the notion of eternal punishment being meted out to those who fall short of God’s high mark.
Actually, from the Biblical vantage point, they are wrong on both counts, so the unifying factor regarding the above mentioned individuals is that they are essentially illiterate of scriptural truth.
Verses like Revelation 20:10, quoted above and others that promise heaven, such as Jesus’ words in Luke 23:43, “…today you shall be with Me in Paradise,” confirm the existence of both of these places.
Argumentation against hell may be quite persuasive to the human ear; after all, many of us know deep in our hearts that our sins demand that we be separated from a Holy God and most of us require little persuasion that we fall far short of the perfection that is a defining aspect of Heaven, so we prefer to believe that hell is a figment of a mistaken imagination.
If we think all serious seekers deserve the reward of heaven, we should reflect for a moment on just how discomfiting the Christian idea of Heaven would be to unbelievers. The terrorist, for example, who dies while blowing up defenseless people in a church could hardly be expected to welcome the notion of living forever in an idyllic paradise where angels play harps and saints discover the mysteries of the ages.
To him, the prospect of eternal harmony would be tantamount to excruciating punishment rather than to eternal reward! It is only the person who sees himself as a sinner saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8) who can cherish the promise of eternal life at the feet of the Savior.
All others prefer the prospects afforded by differing religious ideologies, such as the one that assures those who fail to please the deity that they shall have recurring opportunities to live better lives and to rise or fall on the basis of their own performance in a given life.
Certainly anyone who subscribes to the notion that destroying innocent human life is a path to great reward would be most disappointed if that reward did not include eternal virgins and limitless libation.
The only conclusion we can reach is that hell exists for those who do not receive Christ as Savior and Lord and long for His Heaven, the place where worship of the Holy God abounds forever.
What that hell entails must be left in the hands of the One who has supplied its only escape through salvation in Jesus Christ. Unless we want to discover its existence by our presence there, we must accept the “unspeakable gift” of II Corinthians 9:15, for that priceless eternal treasure is the only provision under heaven that prevents our going there.
“The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever,” Revelation 20:10.
Some people are of the firm opinion that there is no hell. They have no difficulty in subscribing to the notion of heaven where all good people will go but they cannot abide the notion of eternal punishment being meted out to those who fall short of God’s high mark.
Actually, from the Biblical vantage point, they are wrong on both counts, so the unifying factor regarding the above mentioned individuals is that they are essentially illiterate of scriptural truth.
Verses like Revelation 20:10, quoted above and others that promise heaven, such as Jesus’ words in Luke 23:43, “…today you shall be with Me in Paradise,” confirm the existence of both of these places.
Argumentation against hell may be quite persuasive to the human ear; after all, many of us know deep in our hearts that our sins demand that we be separated from a Holy God and most of us require little persuasion that we fall far short of the perfection that is a defining aspect of Heaven, so we prefer to believe that hell is a figment of a mistaken imagination.
If we think all serious seekers deserve the reward of heaven, we should reflect for a moment on just how discomfiting the Christian idea of Heaven would be to unbelievers. The terrorist, for example, who dies while blowing up defenseless people in a church could hardly be expected to welcome the notion of living forever in an idyllic paradise where angels play harps and saints discover the mysteries of the ages.
To him, the prospect of eternal harmony would be tantamount to excruciating punishment rather than to eternal reward! It is only the person who sees himself as a sinner saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8) who can cherish the promise of eternal life at the feet of the Savior.
All others prefer the prospects afforded by differing religious ideologies, such as the one that assures those who fail to please the deity that they shall have recurring opportunities to live better lives and to rise or fall on the basis of their own performance in a given life.
Certainly anyone who subscribes to the notion that destroying innocent human life is a path to great reward would be most disappointed if that reward did not include eternal virgins and limitless libation.
The only conclusion we can reach is that hell exists for those who do not receive Christ as Savior and Lord and long for His Heaven, the place where worship of the Holy God abounds forever.
What that hell entails must be left in the hands of the One who has supplied its only escape through salvation in Jesus Christ. Unless we want to discover its existence by our presence there, we must accept the “unspeakable gift” of II Corinthians 9:15, for that priceless eternal treasure is the only provision under heaven that prevents our going there.
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Receive the New and Living Way
June 10
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,” Hebrews 10:19, 20.
The death of Jesus rent the heavy veil of the temple that separated the outer court from the Holy of Holies. Symbolically, this conveyed to the world that we no longer need to rely on priests to enter the Holy Place in our behalf, we may enter ourselves.
To further assure us of the reality that God was opening the inner sanctum, the earthly place of His abode to man, the veil of the temple was torn, as if by His own hand, from top to bottom. He wanted everyone to know that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross had opened to man the very Throne Room of the Holy One. (See Matthew 27:51 and Mark 15:38.)
There is a Jewish and Christian legend that the high priest had to tie a rope to his ankle before he entered the place of the Lord’s abode, the rope being so he could be pulled from the Holy of Holies should his sins have caused God to strike him dead while he performed his duties. It is said that little bells were sewn to his garments so their tinkling would allow those waiting outside the Holy Place to know he was received by God and remained alive to do his work.
Whether that legend is true or not, we know that the blood of Christ, applied to the door post of our heart causes death to pass over us as we approach the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Even as the blood was applied to the doors of the homes of the children of Israel so the death angel would pass over them when the horrible plague of death struck the firstborn of Egypt because of Pharaoh’s disobedience to God (see Exodus 12:7), so we pass from life to life because Jesus died and rose in our behalf.
As Revelation 21:4 tells us, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor sighing, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”
The former things—an unapproachable God, death, hell and the grave—are passed away because Jesus is our perfect Sacrifice as we are told in Hebrews 9:11-15:
“But when Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.
“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins they have committed…”
Should we not, then, enter as Paul admonishes us to do in Hebrews 10:19, 20? Should we not avail ourselves of the perfect sacrifice that Jesus made to redeem us, to buy us back from the enemy of our souls?
The only viable answer anyone can give to those questions is, “Yes, Lord, I believe and I receive.”
“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,” Hebrews 10:19, 20.
The death of Jesus rent the heavy veil of the temple that separated the outer court from the Holy of Holies. Symbolically, this conveyed to the world that we no longer need to rely on priests to enter the Holy Place in our behalf, we may enter ourselves.
To further assure us of the reality that God was opening the inner sanctum, the earthly place of His abode to man, the veil of the temple was torn, as if by His own hand, from top to bottom. He wanted everyone to know that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross had opened to man the very Throne Room of the Holy One. (See Matthew 27:51 and Mark 15:38.)
There is a Jewish and Christian legend that the high priest had to tie a rope to his ankle before he entered the place of the Lord’s abode, the rope being so he could be pulled from the Holy of Holies should his sins have caused God to strike him dead while he performed his duties. It is said that little bells were sewn to his garments so their tinkling would allow those waiting outside the Holy Place to know he was received by God and remained alive to do his work.
Whether that legend is true or not, we know that the blood of Christ, applied to the door post of our heart causes death to pass over us as we approach the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Even as the blood was applied to the doors of the homes of the children of Israel so the death angel would pass over them when the horrible plague of death struck the firstborn of Egypt because of Pharaoh’s disobedience to God (see Exodus 12:7), so we pass from life to life because Jesus died and rose in our behalf.
As Revelation 21:4 tells us, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor sighing, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”
The former things—an unapproachable God, death, hell and the grave—are passed away because Jesus is our perfect Sacrifice as we are told in Hebrews 9:11-15:
“But when Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are now already here, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.
“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins they have committed…”
Should we not, then, enter as Paul admonishes us to do in Hebrews 10:19, 20? Should we not avail ourselves of the perfect sacrifice that Jesus made to redeem us, to buy us back from the enemy of our souls?
The only viable answer anyone can give to those questions is, “Yes, Lord, I believe and I receive.”
Monday, June 9, 2014
First-hand Faith
June 9
Was C. S. Lewis a heretic? By Dr. Jim Denison
The "five second rule" isn't a rule: if you drop food on the floor and it lands on germs, the germs will stick to it immediately. We've been told that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, but the Empire State Building is struck 25 times a year. We don't really use only 10 percent of our brains—MRIs reveal that we use most or all of our brains in one way or another. And being in the cold doesn't cause colds—catching the virus from other people is how we get sick.
In other words, we don't always know what we think we know. This fact was reinforced for me today by an article on the Relevant website: "Six Heretics Who Should Be Banned From Evangelicalism."
According to the writer:
• C. S. Lewis was an inclusivist (believing that people can go to heaven without knowing about Jesus).
• Martin Luther apparently rejected an inerrantist view of Scripture.
• St. Augustine rejected a literalist view of the Genesis creation account.
• William Barclay was a universalist (believing everyone will eventually be in heaven).
• John Stott thought that the unrepentant might cease to exist rather than spending eternity in hell.
• Billy Graham once said in an interview that people who don't know Jesus' name can be saved by responding to the only light they have.
The writer's tongue-in-cheek point is that we can be too swift to brand people as heretics. He's right.
C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity changed my life when I first encountered it in high school. After years of intellectual struggles with Christianity, I was encouraged greatly by his reasoned approach to the faith. I don't agree with Lewis' belief in Purgatory, but I remain grateful to God for his mind and influence.
I disagree with Martin Luther on church polity, but admire his wisdom and courage. I disagree with St. Augustine on infant baptism, but marvel at his genius. I disagree with William Barclay's non-literalist view of the virgin birth and his universalism, but have found his commentaries to be extremely helpful with biblical history and context. I disagree with John Stott on hell, but aspire to be more like him in character and spirit. I disagree with Billy Graham on the book of Revelation, but will always admire his godly character and heart.
The Corinthian congregation's immaturity caused Paul to give them "milk, not solid food," I Corinthians 3:2). Milk is digested food, nutrition taken second-hand.
So it is with some of us—our faith is the product of our pastor's sermons, Bible study teacher's theology, or the last book we read. By contrast, the Berean congregation "received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (Acts 17:11). As I said to every church I pastored, measure everything I say by what God says. Seek meat, not milk.
Is yours a first-hand faith today?
Dr. Denison's encouragement to believers is sound. We must make our faith a 'first-hand' faith that emanates from our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the Solid Rock on whom we may build our lives for time and eternity. If we endeavor to build our future on words that express the opinions of mere men we will place ourselves on a very shaky foundation.
As we establish our heart-felt beliefs, we must be sure that we do so with sound teaching and prayer as part of the building blocks of our commitment to the Lord and we must be sure that the conclusions we reach are those that His Holy Spirit within us have sanctioned to be the bulwark of our belief system.
We would not be "like winds of the sea, driven and tossed," James 1:6, but we would be like the patriarchs described in Hebrews 11:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[d]
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
May we stand unwavering on the Solid Rock of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and arisen to glory in order that “we may live and move and have our being, “Acts 17:28, fully established in the One who is “the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE,” John 14:6.
May our commitment to Him be unshakable through time and may it be our portal to Glory.
Was C. S. Lewis a heretic? By Dr. Jim Denison
The "five second rule" isn't a rule: if you drop food on the floor and it lands on germs, the germs will stick to it immediately. We've been told that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, but the Empire State Building is struck 25 times a year. We don't really use only 10 percent of our brains—MRIs reveal that we use most or all of our brains in one way or another. And being in the cold doesn't cause colds—catching the virus from other people is how we get sick.
In other words, we don't always know what we think we know. This fact was reinforced for me today by an article on the Relevant website: "Six Heretics Who Should Be Banned From Evangelicalism."
According to the writer:
• C. S. Lewis was an inclusivist (believing that people can go to heaven without knowing about Jesus).
• Martin Luther apparently rejected an inerrantist view of Scripture.
• St. Augustine rejected a literalist view of the Genesis creation account.
• William Barclay was a universalist (believing everyone will eventually be in heaven).
• John Stott thought that the unrepentant might cease to exist rather than spending eternity in hell.
• Billy Graham once said in an interview that people who don't know Jesus' name can be saved by responding to the only light they have.
The writer's tongue-in-cheek point is that we can be too swift to brand people as heretics. He's right.
C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity changed my life when I first encountered it in high school. After years of intellectual struggles with Christianity, I was encouraged greatly by his reasoned approach to the faith. I don't agree with Lewis' belief in Purgatory, but I remain grateful to God for his mind and influence.
I disagree with Martin Luther on church polity, but admire his wisdom and courage. I disagree with St. Augustine on infant baptism, but marvel at his genius. I disagree with William Barclay's non-literalist view of the virgin birth and his universalism, but have found his commentaries to be extremely helpful with biblical history and context. I disagree with John Stott on hell, but aspire to be more like him in character and spirit. I disagree with Billy Graham on the book of Revelation, but will always admire his godly character and heart.
The Corinthian congregation's immaturity caused Paul to give them "milk, not solid food," I Corinthians 3:2). Milk is digested food, nutrition taken second-hand.
So it is with some of us—our faith is the product of our pastor's sermons, Bible study teacher's theology, or the last book we read. By contrast, the Berean congregation "received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so" (Acts 17:11). As I said to every church I pastored, measure everything I say by what God says. Seek meat, not milk.
Is yours a first-hand faith today?
Dr. Denison's encouragement to believers is sound. We must make our faith a 'first-hand' faith that emanates from our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone is the Solid Rock on whom we may build our lives for time and eternity. If we endeavor to build our future on words that express the opinions of mere men we will place ourselves on a very shaky foundation.
As we establish our heart-felt beliefs, we must be sure that we do so with sound teaching and prayer as part of the building blocks of our commitment to the Lord and we must be sure that the conclusions we reach are those that His Holy Spirit within us have sanctioned to be the bulwark of our belief system.
We would not be "like winds of the sea, driven and tossed," James 1:6, but we would be like the patriarchs described in Hebrews 11:
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[d]
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.”
May we stand unwavering on the Solid Rock of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and arisen to glory in order that “we may live and move and have our being, “Acts 17:28, fully established in the One who is “the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE,” John 14:6.
May our commitment to Him be unshakable through time and may it be our portal to Glory.
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Important Points
June 8
In II CORINTHIANS 5:15 Paul says, “He died for all that they which live should not be henceforth alive unto themselves but unto Him which died for them and rose again.”
This verse makes several important points.
First, "…HE died for all…” In John 3:14-15 Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
There is no numerical limit placed upon those who would be heirs to salvation. The only restriction is that which a man places upon himself. As Joshua stated so succinctly, “Choose you this day whom you will serve…As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” Joshua 24:15.
The strong second point made here is that a father, by his instruction of his children in the truth that is eternal, is instrumental in his children’s salvation.
Third, "…that they which live...” This phrase refers only to those who have been born again because all unbelievers are still dead in their trespasses and sins. Paul expands upon this truth in Ephesians 2:1 which says, “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
We were all dead in trespasses and sins. The mantle of this unfortunate assessment of our spiritual condition can be laid upon every man. David, the sweet psalmist says in Psalm 51:5 that we were conceived in sin. None of us can, of our own effort or our own volition dispel the cloud of death that hangs over us because of sin (see Ezekiel 18:20), but because Jesus laid down His life for our salvation, we can be free of the penalty of our sinfulness! (See John 8:36.)
But our having been set free brings us to the fourth point…
“…we should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him which died for us and rose again.” Christ died in our place and rose again. Because He is the “One who lives forevermore,” Revelation 1:18, we are to be living letters that all men may read that tell of His salvation and of His glory.
In II Corinthians 3:2,3, Paul says, “You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God—not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.”
May the story of Jesus’ love and salvation be clearly evidenced upon the tables of our hearts so that the living epistle of our lives may declare His glory to everyone who beholds His truth, His love, the joy of our salvation and His Holy Spirit in us.
In II CORINTHIANS 5:15 Paul says, “He died for all that they which live should not be henceforth alive unto themselves but unto Him which died for them and rose again.”
This verse makes several important points.
First, "…HE died for all…” In John 3:14-15 Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
There is no numerical limit placed upon those who would be heirs to salvation. The only restriction is that which a man places upon himself. As Joshua stated so succinctly, “Choose you this day whom you will serve…As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” Joshua 24:15.
The strong second point made here is that a father, by his instruction of his children in the truth that is eternal, is instrumental in his children’s salvation.
Third, "…that they which live...” This phrase refers only to those who have been born again because all unbelievers are still dead in their trespasses and sins. Paul expands upon this truth in Ephesians 2:1 which says, “You hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.”
We were all dead in trespasses and sins. The mantle of this unfortunate assessment of our spiritual condition can be laid upon every man. David, the sweet psalmist says in Psalm 51:5 that we were conceived in sin. None of us can, of our own effort or our own volition dispel the cloud of death that hangs over us because of sin (see Ezekiel 18:20), but because Jesus laid down His life for our salvation, we can be free of the penalty of our sinfulness! (See John 8:36.)
But our having been set free brings us to the fourth point…
“…we should not henceforth live unto ourselves, but unto Him which died for us and rose again.” Christ died in our place and rose again. Because He is the “One who lives forevermore,” Revelation 1:18, we are to be living letters that all men may read that tell of His salvation and of His glory.
In II Corinthians 3:2,3, Paul says, “You are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God—not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.”
May the story of Jesus’ love and salvation be clearly evidenced upon the tables of our hearts so that the living epistle of our lives may declare His glory to everyone who beholds His truth, His love, the joy of our salvation and His Holy Spirit in us.
Saturday, June 7, 2014
The Power of the Word
June 7
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17)
1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you,” Exodus 20:12, is said to be the ‘first commandment with promise,” Ephesians 6:2. Paul is making quite an assertion in his letter to the Ephesians.
In his letter to Timothy he states further, “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
We see that our adherence to the law of God is for our own good. Obeying the holy writ will benefit us in countless ways, including ‘setting things straight.’ Indeed, we tend to get our lives in a snarl when we go our own way and do our own thing, but compliance with the holy word of God will enable us to learn and to be profited in its reproof of our failures.
It will also help us in our outreach to others as we endeavor to allow our lives to be “living epistles, read of all men,” II Corinthians 3:1-3. But the Fifth Commandment has a personal promise attached to it. If we will honor our parents as the Lord desires that we do, He says we shall enjoy long life in the land He gives to us.
This promise will enable us to see our children and grandchildren thrive upon the earth as we nurture them in His way. If we will abide in the Word of God and allow His Word to abide in us, we will become vessels that hold the promise—and every life that touches ours shall be blessed.
The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17)
1 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6 “You shall not murder.
7 “You shall not commit adultery.
8 “You shall not steal.
9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you,” Exodus 20:12, is said to be the ‘first commandment with promise,” Ephesians 6:2. Paul is making quite an assertion in his letter to the Ephesians.
In his letter to Timothy he states further, “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
We see that our adherence to the law of God is for our own good. Obeying the holy writ will benefit us in countless ways, including ‘setting things straight.’ Indeed, we tend to get our lives in a snarl when we go our own way and do our own thing, but compliance with the holy word of God will enable us to learn and to be profited in its reproof of our failures.
It will also help us in our outreach to others as we endeavor to allow our lives to be “living epistles, read of all men,” II Corinthians 3:1-3. But the Fifth Commandment has a personal promise attached to it. If we will honor our parents as the Lord desires that we do, He says we shall enjoy long life in the land He gives to us.
This promise will enable us to see our children and grandchildren thrive upon the earth as we nurture them in His way. If we will abide in the Word of God and allow His Word to abide in us, we will become vessels that hold the promise—and every life that touches ours shall be blessed.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Strive As Paul Strove
June 6
"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace," Acts 20:24.
The Apostle Paul has done more to further the gospel than has any other evangelist of any period in time. The Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kuhlmans and Billy Grahams of the 20th Century don’t even come close to him in number of souls reached for Christ in spite of their shared advantage of modern technology.
Yet it has never been about numbers. For each of them the only relevant number is one—the ONE. It has been about the One True and Living Christ who bore our sins and carried our sorrows (see Isaiah 53:4); it has been about sharing the truth of Him with everyone who has walked the earth.
When Paul was cast into a Roman dungeon, chained and in the continual presence of a guard, he did not count his ministry as over. No, he used the time of his imprisonment, the time awaiting his execution, to pen the glorious words of scripture that we read today in much of the New Testament.
As he wrote of himself, his only desire was that he would be given the time to conclude the race the Lord had set before him; that he would be able to complete the task of sharing the good news of the gospel of God’s grace to the masses.
Today, his prayer is still being answered. His supplication has been granted in many ways. The words which he wrote are still being read and they are still being preached from pulpits around the world. In countries where the Bible is banned, the word of the Lord, including those from Paul’s pen, are being hidden in the hearts of men.
Modern day evangelists are spreading the Good News near and far through the convenience of technology that allows safe, speedy travel as well as provides almost instant communication from one point in the globe to another in the blink of an eye.
If you, dear reader, are in a quandary as to how you may be effective for Christ, may you appropriate the philosophy of Paul and simply do what you can do from where you are. As he could not imagine the gospel going forth from his prison cell with the power it has attained, neither can you begin to dream of what the Lord may do with your surrendered effort in the behalf of His Kingdom.
But He does promise that “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what has been prepared for those who love Him,” I Corinthians 2:9, so should we not strive to avail every person whose life touches ours of the ability to realize the fullness of that assurance?
Should we not strive as Paul strove, as the evangelists of our day strive to assure that “not one should be lost, but all should come to a saving knowledge of Christ,” even as the impetuous Apostle declared in II Peter 3:9.
"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace," Acts 20:24.
The Apostle Paul has done more to further the gospel than has any other evangelist of any period in time. The Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kuhlmans and Billy Grahams of the 20th Century don’t even come close to him in number of souls reached for Christ in spite of their shared advantage of modern technology.
Yet it has never been about numbers. For each of them the only relevant number is one—the ONE. It has been about the One True and Living Christ who bore our sins and carried our sorrows (see Isaiah 53:4); it has been about sharing the truth of Him with everyone who has walked the earth.
When Paul was cast into a Roman dungeon, chained and in the continual presence of a guard, he did not count his ministry as over. No, he used the time of his imprisonment, the time awaiting his execution, to pen the glorious words of scripture that we read today in much of the New Testament.
As he wrote of himself, his only desire was that he would be given the time to conclude the race the Lord had set before him; that he would be able to complete the task of sharing the good news of the gospel of God’s grace to the masses.
Today, his prayer is still being answered. His supplication has been granted in many ways. The words which he wrote are still being read and they are still being preached from pulpits around the world. In countries where the Bible is banned, the word of the Lord, including those from Paul’s pen, are being hidden in the hearts of men.
Modern day evangelists are spreading the Good News near and far through the convenience of technology that allows safe, speedy travel as well as provides almost instant communication from one point in the globe to another in the blink of an eye.
If you, dear reader, are in a quandary as to how you may be effective for Christ, may you appropriate the philosophy of Paul and simply do what you can do from where you are. As he could not imagine the gospel going forth from his prison cell with the power it has attained, neither can you begin to dream of what the Lord may do with your surrendered effort in the behalf of His Kingdom.
But He does promise that “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what has been prepared for those who love Him,” I Corinthians 2:9, so should we not strive to avail every person whose life touches ours of the ability to realize the fullness of that assurance?
Should we not strive as Paul strove, as the evangelists of our day strive to assure that “not one should be lost, but all should come to a saving knowledge of Christ,” even as the impetuous Apostle declared in II Peter 3:9.
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