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.)

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.

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).å

(e) That means there will be no predators in that wonderful new earth!

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!

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).

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

"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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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).

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.

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"!

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.

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.