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Daily Bread - May, 2009
by
Robert J. Wieland
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May 29, 2009 -
God Did the Unthinkable
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When God the Father, our Creator, found
Himself confronted with a world [this fallen planet] that had
rebelled against Him, He did the unthinkable: He frankly forgave
us all!
This astonished the unfallen universe.
He sent His only Son, GAVE Him, to die our
second death.
The death of Jesus was infinitely more than a
weekend of sleep (which any crucified person would appreciate;
crucifixion did not kill people, it merely tortured them); the
kind of death that Jesus died was what He described when He
screamed on His cross, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The
death that Jesus died is God-forsakenness. That's what hell is.
He knew He was dying our second death; He knew
He was entering hell for us--the hell that has no ending, no
light at the end of its dark tunnel.
Someone may object, "but He was resurrected
the third day!" This understanding that many have diminishes the
sacrifice of Christ and deprives us of the ability to appreciate
its grand dimensions.
Crucifixion is a terribly painful experience
but it is not lethal. Victims could live on for days, even
weeks. It's just torture. But Jesus knew that the death He was
dying is the unending hell--the "curse" of God.
Moses had said it truly, "He that is hanged
[on a tree] is accursed of God" (Deut. 21:23). Everybody
believed Moses, including Jesus, which is why He screamed in His
agony, "My God why have You forsaken Me?" The cross was the
proof of God's forsakenness of Him.
Hell is the infinite curse of God, the Father;
there are no measurable dimensions to the extent of its horror;
yet Jesus chose to enter into that; and the Father chose to GIVE
Him to it! (Maybe more tomorrow.)
When we sinners even
begin to see its "breadth, and length, and depth, and height"
(Eph. 3:18), there is no end to the devotion that this divine
love motivates us to give to Him forever!
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May 28, 2009 -
Paul's Brilliant Insight
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The world is indebted to "our beloved brother
Paul" the apostle (cf. 2 Peter 3:15) for his brilliant insights
into the meaning of the gospel of Jesus.
Perhaps the most beautiful is what he [Paul]
writes in Romans chapter 5. Only a man of genius-spiritual
capacity could have thought of this idea:
"It was through one man [Adam]
that sin entered the world, and through sin [came] death, and
thus death pervaded the whole
human race
... " (vs. 12).
Well, adds Paul, we don't want to blame
everything on Adam; the fact is, "we all sinned."
"But God's act of grace [in giving us Christ]
is out of all proportion to Adam's wrongdoing, ... which brought
death upon so many."
But the
grace of God
and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man
Jesus Christ "vastly exceeded" the wrong that Adam brought on
the human race (vss. 15-17).
"The judicial action, following on the one
offence, resulted in a [judicial] verdict of condemnation, but
the act of grace [the sacrifice of Christ on His cross] resulted
in a verdict of acquittal" for the whole human race!
Brilliant thinking!
Because of Christ's cross, the Father is now
free to treat every human being as though he/she had never
sinned!
Now, what is our duty?
It's to appreciate what Christ has done: "With
the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Romans 10:10).
Therefore a clear definition of
what is faith is this: a
heart-appreciation of what it cost the
Son of God to purchase for us our
salvation from the second death.
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May 27, 2009 -
The Cat and the Quail
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Someone may say that I am unfairly accusing
our community cat for the disappearance of our one remaining
quail.
Could be a coyote, of course; coyotes and cats
have a similar nature, but our Napa Valley is so thickly settled
that I wonder if a coyote would want to infiltrate our human
presence here (I suppose some old-timer will tell me of times
when coyotes have gotten in).
But knowing the nature of our
lovable pets, cats, I still can't help feeling that the cat may
know something. We can pet these little creatures and they will
purr delightedly, but they are by nature predators. And God has
not promised a new nature for cats of any kind until after the
second coming of Jesus Christ.
(a) When He comes, and He re-creates our earth
into His glorious "new earth" (see Revelation 22:1-7, etc.), all
who will inhabit His glorious "earth made new" will have
experienced a change in their nature.
(b) People are by nature predators even as
cats are, for Romans 8:7 says, "The carnal mind is enmity
against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be." We who are by nature at "enmity against God"
have all the evil within our nature that is in being predators.
(c) We ALL need to be converted; we ALL need a
new nature; we ALL need a Savior from ourselves.
(d) Think of the tremendous change in nature
that the lion will experience in God's great new earth: "The
wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat
straw like the bullock. ... They shall not hurt nor destroy in
all My holy mountain, saith the Lord" (Isaiah 65:25).ĺ
(e) That means there will be no predators in
that wonderful new earth!
(f) If the lion can
experience such a tremendous change in nature, why can't we
experience a change in our nature now by the much more abounding
grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ?
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May 26, 2009 -
The Crucifixion - Why?
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Our most loved Bible text says, "God so loved
the world ..." (John 3:16).
(a) Then it goes on to say that
He did something about His love! He is not a
secret lover!
(b) What He did was to GIVE His only Son for
the people whom He loved--the inhabitants of this lost planet.
(c) He did not merely offer to give Him IF we
lost people did something first.
(d) No, the Father GAVE Him outright--not to
go to sleep for a weekend; but to die our SECOND death--the
everlasting one.
(e) "But," you say, "it was only for a
weekend; then He resurrected Him."
(f)
Crucifixion
does not kill people outright; victims could survive for days or
longer, in constant torture; it was the most horrible death ever
invented by man.
(g) But that does not mean that the Father
merely lent Him to us for a weekend; when Jesus was hanging on
the cross, He cried out in soul anguish, "My God, why have You
forsaken Me?"
(h) Those were not crocodile tears, not
something spicy to add to the story; no; the Father truly
FORSOOK His Son.
(i) Turned His back on Him; cast Him out of
heaven--cast Him into hell.
(j) Why?
(k) The only possible answer: because the
Father loved us.
(l) He also loved His only Son; but when the
Father GAVE Him for us, what does that tell us about His love
for us?
(m) You please answer that question!
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May 25, 2009 -
A Lesson From the Quail
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Quail are beautiful birds; their distinguished
headdress marks them as special.
I am not an ornithologist; but I have observed
numerous little quail families start life; the little ones run
excitedly to keep up with their mothers.
But I have also been saddened to see these
little families disappear--that is, most of them; whether it's
because of coyotes, or dogs, or just people, I don't know.
But when it happens I feel saddened that there
is so much violence and predation in our earth.
But I am encouraged by a promise in Isaiah 65:
"They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, saith
the Lord" (vs. 25).
There will be no predators there; and even the
lions will become vegetarians! "The wolf and the lamb shall feed
together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock."
That means that the lion will experience a
change in his very nature! (I long for that time to come!)
"In all My holy mountain" means in all the new
earth that the Lord will create for our eternal enjoyment.
Two lessons stand our for us especially:
(a) The fact that the lion will experience a
great change in his way of living emphasizes that all the people
who inherit a place in that wonderful new earth will also
experience a great change in themselves.
(b) That change will come NOW, by the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin makes predators out of sinful people; side
by side with wild lions we will be changed in character; I
didn't say "nature" for believers in Christ will still bear
their sinful nature when the Lord Jesus returns the second time;
BUT they will have learned to govern "self" and thus will gain
the victory.
"I am crucified with Christ" will be the
triumphant shout of victory coming from every follower of Jesus
in these last days (see Gal. 2:20).
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May 23, 2009 -
Heaven's Supermarket
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Have you ever walked along the
west side of a river, or lake, or the ocean, and watched the
moon rise?
I have often, in Kenya, at
Malindi
on the Indian Ocean coast. Between where you stand and the moon
is a shimmering
path of light. Then if you walk along the
beach, that
path of light moves with you, so that
always from whatever spot where you stand there is a path of
light leading direct to the moon.
From where you stand at this
moment there is a path that leads direct to Jesus, the Savior.
He is our
Son of man but He is also the
Son of God,
and God is infinite. He has billions of people on earth to care
for, but being infinite He cares for you as if you were the only
one on earth. The sun, the moon, rises for YOUR benefit; the
Father of our Lord Jesus is YOUR Father. No matter what mistakes
or sins you are guilty of, there is your Savior meeting you
right where you are. "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise
cast out," is His assurance (John 6:37).
Not one person who reads this
is sinless; all of us have fallen. But His business is receiving
sinners. Our job is to believe it. And that believing is for
sure the most difficult task we have; we have all been born and
nurtured in unbelief.
Israel
could not enter the
Promised Land because of unbelief. Nothing
but unbelief will keep any soul out of heaven at last (read Heb.
3:7-19, and 6:1-6, etc.). And Jesus says the same thing in John
3:14-19. This is why we are always to pray the prayer of that
distraught father, "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief"
(Mark 9:23, 24).
You don't want to be proud and arrogant, for
that is the lethal sin of "the angel of the church of the
Laodiceans" (Rev. 3:14-17). Come to Jesus but remember there is
no path that leads to Him but repentance and humbleness of
heart. Two heavenly commodities not seen much in society or even
the church, but available in Heaven's Supermarket, and they are
yours for free for the receiving.
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May 22, 2009 -
The Joy of the Early Apostles
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Does your heart crave the joy that filled the
hearts of the early apostles?
Yes! We are not satisfied with a dull,
unenthusiastic, leaden kind of spiritual experience, common as
it may be. What did the apostles have that we don't seem to
have?
They saw the significance of
the cross of Christ! Yes, they also believed the
resurrection of Christ;
but the resurrection meant nothing without appreciating what He
had accomplished by His cross.
Billions of Christians around the world all
glibly profess that "Christ died for our sins." But how and why
did He die?
To study for the answer is not
an exercise in futility or riding a hobby horse. Paul says, "God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ"
(Gal. 6:14); and he told the Corinthians that he knew nothing,
save Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:1-3). The light which
will yet lighten the earth with its glory will be a revelation
of the significance of that love revealed at the cross.
Something about the cross will yet stir Islam, Buddhism,
Hinduism, yes those billions of
lukewarm Christians.
Did Christ die (1) only as an
alien millionaire stepping in briefly to pay our legal debt? The
word used to describe this view is "vicarious." It's like
someone who might offer to spend someone's time in jail or pay
his fine--so he could go free instead. Or (2) did Christ
actually become one of us, the second Adam, and die as us? How
closely did He identify with us? #(1) is an exchanged
transaction; #(2) is a shared experience. #(1) leaves the human
heart cold, or at best, lukewarm; #(2) lights the soul with
unending joy. According to their testimony in the
New Testament, the apostles clearly were
fired with #(2).
If you want that kind of joy, know nothing but
Christ and Him crucified; then His resurrection will mean new
life for you in Him.
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May 21, 2009 -
The Lord Loves the Froward Soul
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There is a strange text in Proverbs 22:14,
KJV, which seems to say that any man who commits adultery is
"abhorred of the Lord." Sounds very serious!
The Revised English Version
says, "... is like a deep pit, he whom the Lord has
cursed
will fall into it." Sounds even more serious!
The Goodspeed Version says, "He with whom the
Lord is angry will fall into it."
It does not say that if a man falls into
adultery THEN the Lord will "abhor" him or be angry with him;
no, the idea is, that the anger and abhorrence of the Lord come
BEFORE the man falls into the pit of adultery.
Sounds even more serious still!
Why would the Lord "abhor" or be "angry" with
any man?
The key word is "froward." "The froward is
abomination to the Lord" (Proverbs 3:32).
Those who are recklessly, thoughtlessly,
prayerlessly going on in their own way, are the "froward" people
whom the Lord cannot help but "abhor."
But remember: being "froward"
is not the
unpardonable sin; the
Holy Spirit
can arrest a man (or woman, they too can be "froward"), and
convict him/her and bring him/her to repentance. To be froward
is to drive your life ahead thoughtlessly without "fearing the
Lord" (the word means to reverence Him, but not to be cravenly
afraid of Him).
The Lord loves the froward soul; and in
response to a heartfelt prayer will give repentance and
life-long healing.
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May 19, 2009 -
A New Birthday
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If we go without physical
food for an extended time, our bodies become hungry.
If we go without spiritual
food for our souls, our spirit becomes faint with hunger.
The result is spiritual
weakness and disease. It's just the
law of life.
"But reading the plain
Bible is dull and boring!"
It's different than
reading any other book, for it is
God's word; our natural mind that we all have is "enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).
(a) Therefore, step number
one is to choose to lay aside your natural "mind," and to "let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians
2:5). He will cooperate with you!
(b) Before you open the
Bible, humble your soul and ask the Lord to speak to you in its
pages. He will never despise that prayer!
(c) If the 16th century
Elizabethan English is a stumblingblock to your understanding,
get a modern translation. (But choose it wisely! Unless you are
a child, avoid getting a child's Bible; welcome one that stirs
your mind and makes you think.)
(d) Serious choices can
include the New
International Version; and the
New English Bible,
especially the
Revised English Bible.
(e) But don't discard the
familiar
King James Version; it is an honest and clean translation
although its verbiage may be outdated for you.
(f) Please remember, the
dear Lord Jesus Christ is a personal Being, one with us in
humanity; He will be delighted when you "taste" and see how
delicious is the reading of His Holy word. You will join your
brother in the faith, the prophet Jeremiah, when he said, "Thy
words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me
the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Thy name,
O LORD God of hosts" (15:16).
(g) That day will be like
your new birthday!
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May 18, 2009 -
When We "Hit Bottom"
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There is a prayer in the
Bible ready for us to pray, whenever we "hit bottom":
"Lord, out of the depths I
have called to You; hear my cry, Lord; let your ears be
attentive to my supplications" (Psalm 130:1, 2).
(a) You may not have "hit
bottom" just now; but it is good to get acquainted with this
psalm.
(b) Some day, you will
"hit bottom"! And to absorb this beautiful message now will be a
blessing to you forever.
(c) There is an Enemy of
our souls who wants us to "hit bottom" and stay there
forever;--but that's the place where we are to call upon the
Lord!
(d) The outstanding thing
about the character of the Lord that is brought to view here in
this psalm is, "There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest
be reverenced" (that's the meaning of "feared," vs. 4).
(e) Our relationship to
the dear Lord is always that of a penitent who is thankful for
His forgiveness!
(f) Included with that
"forgiveness of the Lord" is a deep sense on our part of
profound thanks.
(g) That thanksgiving for
forgiveness is the essence of joy. Not until the coming of the
Lord and the gift of His translation, are we to be forgetful
that "there is forgiveness with [Him] that He may be
reverenced."
(h)
Henceforth,
our pathway is one of joy in the Lord. We rejoice forever for
His "condemning sin in the flesh": "God sent His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in
us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit" (Romans
8:3, 4).
(i) He invites us to
"abide in Him." Included in that blessing is the same victory
over the sin that besets us!
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May 17, 2009 -
The Blessing of Being Hungry
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Today was one of those
rare days that were so filled with things to do, meetings to
attend, and travel, that I lost the contact I
usually have with sources for food.
The result, come evening,
I was hungry, very much so.
I thought of Deuteronomy
8:3 where the Lord speaks of permitting ancient Israel to
discover what hunger means: "[The Lord] humbled thee, and
suffered thee to hunger ..."
But not to torture them,
but "to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart" (vs. 2).
"He humbled thee and
suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou
knewest not ... that He might make thee know that man doth not
live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of the Lord doth man live." We can learn:
(a) Being hungry is a
blessing once in a while, if we can learn something helpful from
the experience.
(b) The experience of
being hungry for temporal food can teach us the blessing of
being hungry for spiritual food.
(c) The Lord Jesus Himself
has forever glorified the experience of going hungry [for a
time!]. In the most wonderful sermon ever preached, He said,
"Blessed [happy] are they which do
hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they shall be
filled" (Matthew 5:6).
(d) The meaning is clear:
the only ones who will ever be "filled" are those who "hunger
and thirst."
(e) Therefore, we conclude
that a wonderful prayer for us to learn to pray is, "Lord, make
me to feel hungry!"
(f) But that's just
backwards from common wisdom; but if the Lord Jesus says that
such are the ones who are "blessed," we had better listen and
learn.
(g) This raises the
problem of
fasting and prayer: but time's up. More later!
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May 15, 2009 -
A Bigger Heart Than We Possess
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Everybody's favorite Bible
text is John 3:16. Let's look at it again:
(a) "For God so loved ...
" That is the Father, ... the "our-Father-which-art-in-heaven"
of the Lord's
prayer, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(b) "He so loved that He
gave what He gave," did not lend.
The Father gave Him to us for eternity; emptied heaven of
Him. Gave Him to go to hell, for us.
(c) "His only Son."
The Son gave Himself to us. Gave Himself to go to hell,
for us.
(d) On His cross He
embraced our lot--which is to die the second death. That's what
He gave Himself to. As He hung on the cross, He could not see
through the portals of the tomb before Him.
(e) It was a total
sacrifice of Himself. Our finite minds cannot fully grasp the
truth, but we are invited to stretch our minds to comprehend it.
(f) That's what it means
to "believe." "BEHOLD the
Lamb of God."
A long, diligent look. Every day.
(g) It means "let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ..." (Philippians
2:5ff.).It's emptying our worldly self-centered mind to receive
His mind.
(h) To "believe" means to
appreciate the length, and breadth, and depth, and height, and
to know the love
of Christ which passes knowledge--Ephesians 3:14-19.
(i) That calls for a
bigger heart than you and I possess.
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May 13, 2009 -
Grace Has to be "Imported"
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"Grace" is something that
doesn't exist here on this fallen earth; it has to be imported.
And the only way it can
get in is through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is loving bad
people, even your enemies.
Such grace is creative in
that it "creates" or produces in the person who is loved, a new
heart that is responsive to grace.
It is something that we
fallen humans just cannot do unless we receive grace from the
Lord, and unless we open our hearts to let it stay in.
It's something we don't
have to beg an unwilling indifferent Lord to let us have, for He
is trying His best to get us to open our naturally unwilling
hearts to receive it. "Let this mind be in you," He begs us in
Philippians
2:5, "which was also in Christ Jesus." In other words, if we
don't resist receiving this grace, He will give it to us!
" Behold
the Lamb of God!" says
John the Baptist.
"Beholding" is simply looking--the
natural thing
everybody in the world does when something happens, something
different than usual. We all crane our necks to get a better
view; it's the natural thing to do.
Now, "behold" Jesus, says
John the Baptist.
If you think the clouds
and the mist are so dense, in your particular circumstances,
that you can't "see" Him clearly, remember, He is more desirous
that you "behold" than you can be yourself; He loves to drive
clouds and darkness and mist away so we can see clearly.
But the desire in our
souls must be there like a
hunger and thirst
that transcends our hunger for breakfast in the morning.
And that's a simple but
proper place to start: make a choice to eat not a bite of
"breakfast" until you have begun to "feed" upon the "bread of
life," which is the word of the Lord.
When I was a teenager, I
went through a crisis--I knew I was not truly converted. You
know how a teen in the dormitory yearns to get to breakfast in
the morning; well, I decided I wouldn't go ... until I at least
had a beginning of "eating" some "bread of life."
You may smile at my
naiveté; but I meant business with the Lord! I was serious.
And now, even to this day
many years later, ... no breakfast until I have knelt on my
knees and found some morsel of the "bread of life" first.
And you will know more
about the "grace" of the Lord Jesus than the ponderous theology
tomes can tell you.
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May 12, 2009 -
"The Holy City"
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There is a
Christian song that many around the world love: "The Holy
CIty."
The last stanza is:
"And once again, the scene
was changed; new earth there seemed to be.
I saw the Holy City beside
the tideless sea.
The
light of God was on its streets, its gates were opened wide,
And all who would could
enter, and no one was denied."
Beautiful!
But is it true? Can anyone
who wants in be admitted?
The apostle John says that
"God is love [agape]" (1 John 4:8). Does that
mean that the Lord will let anyone who wants in the
New Jerusalem
to come in?
The very last page of the
Bible suggests that it is true: "The
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth
say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17).
No one will ever be shut
out of the New Jerusalem by a choice of the Lord! The "gates
[are] opened wide!"
The Lord will give every
one what he/she really wants; the picture of the Lord throwing
people screaming and yelling in protest into the Lake of Fire is
not Biblical; no one will ever end up there except by his/her
own personal choice.
Maybe more on this
tomorrow, the Lord willing.
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May 11, 2009 -
As Close as the Telephone!
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On the day when Christ was
resurrected, two of His disciples (not of the Twelve) were
walking along a path that leads from Jerusalem to the village of
Emmaus.
A Stranger joined them,
and in a pleasant, friendly way engaged in their conversation (a
beautiful picture of what Jesus is like!).
He inquired why they
seemed to be so sad.
They told the Stranger
about Jesus, and their hopes that He might prove indeed to be
the long-awaited Messiah.
As the Stranger began
explaining Isaiah 53 and the other Old Testament prophecies of
the coming Messiah, these two were deeply impressed. The cross
does not mean that He cannot be the Messiah: it's the proof that
He IS!
Their hearts burned within
them with excitement! What they had thought meant that Jesus
could not be the Messiah turned out to be the strongest evidence
that He is!
When they reached their
village of Emmaus, the Stranger appeared to say Goodbye and keep
on going; but they begged Him, "Abide with us." The record says
that they "constrained Him." Maybe with tears! "Abide with us:
for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent."
If you beg the Lord
earnestly to "abide" with you, He will never turn away from you.
This story also teaches us
another happy lesson: He will not leave us alone; He will
provide someone to share our faith together!
That "friend" whom the
Lord may give you for
sharing your faith
experience together, may not necessarily be physically
near, but could be as close as the telephone.
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May 9, 2009 -
Is Jesus REALLY Coming Back Soon?
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You can't deny
that it's a temptation: for over 150 years "we" have been
preaching that Jesus is coming "soon," "it's the eleventh hour,"
"time is almost finished," etc. Now, many are wondering, because
they are tempted to doubt: "Is Jesus REALLY coming back again
SOON as we humans are forced to understand the word "soon"? And
some who have long believed that Jesus promised to return
visibly, personally, in the clouds, are beginning to try to
redefine "the second coming" so it won't be personal and
visible. (That means they are repeating the arguments of "our"
opponents of 150+ years ago! While telling us they still believe
in the
Second Coming!)
If you are tempted to
doubt the fulfillment of
Bible prophecy, let me suggest one simple observation you
can make that can't help but clarify your vision: consider how
our modern world is fast becoming like Jesus described the days
of Noah before the Flood. Look at Matthew 24:37-39 (these are
the simple, direct
words of Jesus Himself): "As the days of Noah were, so
shall also the coming of the
Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the
flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew
not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also
the coming of the Son of man be." Genesis 6 describes those
"days" as "corrupt, ... and filled with violence" (vs. 11). All
the people cared about was sex and pleasure. And Genesis says
that "God repented that He had made man."
Think of how we are today
living in a time of solemn judgment, and contrast the giddy,
pleasure-mad, yes, corrupt spirit that prevails, and you can't
help but see that it's as it was in the days of Noah before the
Flood. It's time for solemn, serious, sober thinking! Nothing in
this world makes sense except the truth as it is in Jesus! God
give us grace to believe it!
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May 8, 2009 -
Free at Last!
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The same Creator LORD who
created us humans, created the birds.
But He subsidized them in
a way peculiar to them--He designed their bones to be hollow,
thus lightening the weight that they have to carry in their
flight.
(a) This is an
illustration of the goodness and the kindness of the Lord as our
Creator.
(b) But He expressed His
goodness and kindness in another way: He gave the birds complete
liberty to fly anywhere they want to fly.
(c) Some birds choose to
fly from the
Northern Hemisphere to the Southern, and back.
(d) Just watch the birds
in your local sky flying where they wish; then thank the dear
LORD for the freedom He has given you to "fly," or rather to go,
wherever you wish.
(e) The LORD gave you your
"mind." But since sin entered into our world, our natural mind
is a "carnal mind," which is "at enmity against God," for it is
"not subject unto the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans
8:7).
(f) But because He loves
us so, the Lord appeals to us to give Him our "mind."
(g) "Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus," pleads our brother Paul (Philippians
2:5).
(h) The meaning seems to
be, "Let this life-purpose be in you ... " Yes, be consecrated
to the Lord who consecrated Himself even to the second death, so
He could save you.
(i) But what does it mean
to "believe in Jesus"? It means to yield to Him our worldly
mind; you do that on your knees before Him.
(j) It means to give to
Him your will; to thank Him for the freedom He gave you by
creation and by redemption, and then yielding back to Him that
same freedom that He gave to you.
(k) Then, at last, you are
free!
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May 7, 2009 -
"Sin Which Is Not Unto Death"
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Here's a most precious
promise tucked away where you may not expect to find it:
(a) It's in 1 John 5:16:
(b) "If any man [person]
see his [her] brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he
shall ask, and He [the Lord] will give him life for them that
sin not unto death."
(c) Very encouraging news!
(d) But there is a proviso
involved. There is only one kind of sin that one can ask help
for: a "sin which is not unto death."
(e) How can we tell the
difference when we pray?
(f) "The sin which is unto
death" is obviously the
unpardonable sin; John does not give hope that a person
committing that sin can be saved at last.
(g) We had better stay on
the safe side: accept every person as the purchase of the
sacrifice of Christ; do not give up hope for anyone no matter
how discouraging the prospect seems!
(h) In an unlikely spot in
Scripture we find a message of great encouragement: "Cast thy
bread upon the waters ... Give a portion to seven, and also to
eight. ... In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening [when
you become old] withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not
whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both
shall be alike good" (Ecclesiastes 11:1, 2, 6). That's a success
promise!
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May 6, 2009 -
"Fiery Furnace"
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Is the story of the
"burning
fiery furnace" in
Daniel 3 pious fiction? Or authentic history?
Historical and
archaeological research confirms supportive details: such as
brick kilns that were common. Jeremiah 29:22 tells the history
of how King Nebuchadnezzar "roasted in the fire" two seditious
Jews; another Babylonian king boasted of burning some political
enemies--evidence that this method of execution was actually
practiced;
Herodotus and Pliny tell of ancient kings who built huge
statues covered with gold leaf. The deliverance from death by
fire had been promised: "When you walk through the fire, you
shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you." Doubtless
the three Hebrew youth thrown in the fire had cherished this
assurance. The promise "I will be with you" was literally
fulfilled (Isa. 43:2). "The Son of God" shared the "furnace"
with them, as even the pagan king confessed (Dan. 3:25).
This is the point of
Daniel 3: will we believe that the Son of God shares our
sufferings for His sake? Will He give divine courage to "stand
up" when everybody else bows down? The apostle Peter collapsed
when the test came to him (Matt. 26:69-75); in fact, all the
eleven disciples ran away.
Many
Israelites
had been exiled to
Babylon when Daniel and his three companions went, but
none of them had the courage to obey God's
Ten Commandments except these four! Granted, the three
who faced the
fiery furnace were terrified at the prospect of death by
fire; but they sensed that they were called to honor the
truth of God
before the assembled leaders of an empire. He gave them courage,
even if God should choose not to deliver them from death (Dan.
3:16-18; this was a selfless motivation inspired by
agape). A similar final test will come to us all in the
"mark of the beast" crisis (Rev. 13:11-17).
The Good News: right now worldwide the
Holy Spirit is preparing, nerving, strengthening, and
training willing people to endure the test. Fellowship with
Christ in "fire" is precious, even today as we honor Him in
school, in college, at work, at home.
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May 5, 2009 -
A Personal Testimony
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Today some kind friends
took me out for my birthday dinner.
Yes, I must be honest and
confess: the total of my years is getting up a bit.
But I wish to testify to
the
goodness of the Lord who has kept me and blessed me all
this long while. No way do I deserve His many goodnesses to me
that have pursued me into what many say is "old age."
But perhaps my testimony
may encourage some young person somewhere:
(a) I was twelve when my
Sunday School teacher in the big church with the huge
Gothic windows and the
pipe organ
one Sunday asked us kids to memorize the
Ten Commandments
so as to repeat them the next Sunday.
(b) I took her seriously
and did it.
(c) I couldn't help but
see there in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) that "the
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." I
glanced at the calendar on the wall and saw that the seventh day
is Saturday and not Sunday.
(d) I asked her the
following Sunday, "How come?"
(e) She said she had never
thought of it before; but "Dr. Campbell, our revered pastor, and
all the other churches go to
church on Sunday, so it must be all right."
(f) I accepted that for
the time being, but the nagging question remained unanswered.
(g) Then someone cleared
up the mystery for me: the
Roman Catholic
Church had changed the day of worship from the seventh to
the first day of the week.
(h) Martin Luther had been
a hero to me; I remember that at the age of 12 I made my
decision: "I must keep the Sabbath!" The Lord must come first.
(i) But I had never heard
of a church that observes the seventh day, Saturday, as the day
of worship. So I waited and kept alert.
(j) Finally I discovered
one. It was a dinky little building on the western side of town;
it had no pews, only rude benches to sit on; not even a
piano--only an old fashioned wheeze organ that you had to pump.
(k) But I made my
decision; I love great Gothic windows and I love
pipe organs;
and I love popularity; it became a bit difficult dressing up in
my Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes and walking right through the
heart of town on
Saturday morning so my fellow high school kids could see
me ("What's wrong with Robert? He's going to church on
Saturday!").
(l) I had some terrific
battles over Sabbath-keeping in that high school that I can't
take the time to describe here now; but let me testify, the Lord
never let me down.
(m) And I praise Him
today.
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May 4, 2009 -
Happy "Bedtime Reading"
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There are two books in the
Bible that the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself especially urges us to give
special attention to:
(a) In Matthew 24:15 Jesus
is speaking and He says of the
Book of Daniel,
"Whoso readeth, let him understand."
(b) Jesus went out of His
way to single out that one book as worthy of our special
attention.
(c)
The Book of Revelation is the only Bible book that
carries a special blessing for the person who reads it, "Blessed
is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this
prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein" (Rev.
1:3).
(d) This is clear evidence
that the book can be understood! Jesus is honest with us; He
would never say things like that about a book which doesn't make
sense to us!
(e) The two books are
complementary--the one explains the other.
(f) Even if you and I
think that we may have been brought up on reading those two
books, let us not let them become "sealed books" to us.
(g) The Great Second
Advent Movement began in the 1840's in an understanding of these
two books; time has not changed the importance of the two books.
(h) The understanding of
these prophecies which the
Holy Spirit
gave to the "pioneers" is also valid today; in fact, it was the
Lord's full intention that all the prophecies should have met
their fulfillment in the latter years of the
19th century;
Christ wanted to come then ... before the horrors of the two
World Wars! The Lord Jesus Christ is the Prince of all the
nations--no way did He want those horrible events to happen.
(i) Are the Books of
Daniel and the Revelation suitable for "bedtime reading"?
Yes, but in context; let them speak fully--the message is always
encouraging and uplifting.
(j) For example: "They
that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and
ever" (Daniel 12:3). Can you think of more happy "bedtime
reading"?
(k) And, "The
Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him who hears
say, Come. And let him who is thirsty, come. And whosoever will,
let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).
Yours for some happy
"bedtime reading"!
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May 3, 2009 -
The Weeping Prophet
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When the Lord gives
someone a message for the people through the gift of the "spirit
of prophecy," it's a joyous message. And it makes the messenger
(the prophet himself) joyous to deliver it.
But there is one
outstanding exception:
There was one man whom the
gift of the spirit of prophecy brought unmeasured sorrow with
tears: that was the prophet Jeremiah.
He is known as "the
weeping prophet." He says: "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast
borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole
earth!" (15:10).
It was his misfortune to
live in a time of unparalleled apostasy in Jerusalem. The people
were in rebellion against the Lord, and since Jeremiah was
at-one with the Lord, they were also in rebellion against him.
Yet, in spite of the
heart-pain that was his burden to carry all his life, the Lord
also managed to give him some delightful joy along the way in
order to refresh his spirit and to keep him from perishing. He
tells of one experience the Lord let him have: "Thy words were
found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and
rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Thy name, O LORD God
of hosts" (15:16).
That experience "fed" his
soul and kept him from perishing!
Note: the blessing did not
come through some epiphany, some special vision that the Lord
gave him: it came through his reading the
books of the Bible
which he had at that time (don't forget, he had the books of
Samuel, of Moses, and the psalms of David).
Now you and I have far
more than he had at that time; but kneel and personally thank
the Father in
heaven for the 66
books of the Bible
which you have; let His "Word" be the "joy and rejoicing of
[your] heart" now and forevermore.
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May 2, 2009 -
The Marvelous Gift of Grace
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When
God the Father was confronted with a world [that is, in
Adam] that had sinned and rebelled against Him; did He drop a
bomb on them?
(a) No; He did what the
unfallen universe thought was unthinkable: He frankly forgave
them and granted the sinners a judicial verdict of acquittal.
(b) Now the Father was
free to treat sinners as though they had never sinned.
(c) The name for this
action is GRACE.
(d) Romans 5 describes
what happened:
"God's act of grace is out
of all proportion to Adam's wrongdoing. For if the wrongdoing of
that one man brought death upon so many, its effect is vastly
exceeded by the
grace of God and the GIFT that came to so many by the
grace of the one man, Jesus Christ" (vs. 15, NEB).
(e) This marvelous gift of
grace does not belittle the seriousness of the sin that we have
committed; the true dimension of the guilt of our sin is the
murder of the
Son of God.
(f) What kind of sacrifice
can balance that account of our guilt?
(g) Someone holy and
innocent must take our place and "pay the price of guilt."
(h) This is a legal or
judicial "verdict of acquittal" that Christ accomplished for us
and gave us as a GIFT.
(i)
The Father so loved us that He gave us His only Son to
die our second death.
(j) All He asks from us
[read John 3:16, please] is to "believe" what He has done.
(k) And that word
"believe" means to express a heart-felt appreciation for what it
cost Him to save us.
(l) And that
heart-appreciation melts the stony heart, and changes us--that
is, converts us.
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