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Friday 31 August 2012

"Wait on the Lord."-Psalm 27:14


"Wait on the Lord."-Psalm 27:14

It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair?  Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God, and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience, not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in the full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower."

Thursday 30 August 2012

There was a day when the whole world died, and we need to understand how and why it happened.


There was a day when the whole world died, and we need to understand how and why it happened. We usually don't see it that way: we think only One man died on that Friday. Here's the story: "We judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died" (2 Cor. 5:14). How could this be?
(1) The Son of God became man, "Immanuel, ... God with us" (Matt. 1:23).
(2) He took upon Himself our humanity, became one with us, even to the point of being "not ashamed to call [us] brethren, ... My brethren" (Heb. 2:11, 12).
(3) Back up a bit: the former head of the human race was Adam; his name is our name; we were all "in him" for he is the common ancestor of every human being in the world (1 Cor. 15:22); no one of us was born on the planet Mars, or of a non-human race. Because Adam sinned, "all have sinned [past tense of the Greek verb] and fall short [present tense] of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). "There is none righteous, no, not one" (vs. 10).
(4) When the Son of God became incarnate, He fired Adam from his job of being head of the human race, and took over as the new Head of the human race. Paul describes the transaction as "the first man Adam" being in contrast with "the last Adam, ... the first man was of the earth, made of dust: the second man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor. 15:45-47).
(5) Thus when Christ died on His cross, He died as the "last Adam," the second Adam. He died the same death that God had warned Adam he would die, "In the day that you eat of it [the wrong tree] you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). That was not merely the sleep we all know--it was the real death, "the second death" (see Rev. 2:11). Christ didn't go to sleep for our sins, He "died for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3).
(6) As by nature we are all "in Adam," so now because our second Adam became one of us and died our death, we are "in Him" by virtue of His identity with us. This is why Paul could say that when "One died," then "all died."
(7) You and I don't even begin to "live" in the truest joyous sense until we realize, appreciate, sense the gratitude, of how "I [am] crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith [of] the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).
Don't ever forget "the day" when you "died," for it is also the day when you began to live "in Him."

Wednesday 29 August 2012

As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. (Psalm 55:16)


As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. (Psalm 55:16)

Yes, I must and will pray. What else can I do! What better can I do? Betrayed, forsaken, grieved, baffled, O my Lord, I will call upon Thee. My Ziklag is in ashes, and men speak of stoning me; but I encourage my heart in the Lord, who will bear me through this trial as He has borne me through so many others. Jehovah shall save me; I am sure He will, and I declare my faith.

The Lord and no one else shall save me. I desire no other helper and would not trust in an arm of flesh even if I could. I will cry to Him evening, and morning, and noon, and I will cry to no one else, for He is all sufficient.

How He will save me I cannot guess; but He will do it, I know. He will do it in the best and surest way, and He will do it in the largest, truest, and fullest sense. Out of this trouble and all future troubles the great I AM will bring me as surely as He lives; and when death comes and all the mysteries of eternity follow thereon, still will this be true: "the Lord shall save me." This shall be my song all through this autumn day. Is it not as a ripe apple from the tree of life? I will feed upon it. How sweet it is to my taste!

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Read Hebrews with this in mind: it will come alive for you.


One of the greatest treasures of all time is more valuable than the gold in King Tut's pyramid tomb, and for most Christian people it remains unexcavated: the Book of Hebrews. The reason its message is almost unknown is that sincere translators have unwittingly twisted one of its central truths that in effect covers up its message to modern readers.
Chapter 1 proves Christ is divine, eternally pre-existent; His name is "God" (vs. 8). Chapter 2 proves Christ is fully human, "in all things ... made like unto his brethren," "partakers of flesh and blood" as are all the fallen children of Adam, so that by means of this education He might be fitted to be "a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God" (2:14, 17, 18; 4:15; 5:8, 9). So far, good; all is clear. Chapters 7-10 emphasize how the Levitical priesthood and sanctuary ministry failed miserably in that they could not "year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." But the useless ritual went on continually for centuries! (10:1, 2).
Therefore there must be an entirely new priesthood, that of Christ Himself, and the old must cease for its failure. But the old was a type, a pattern, a kindergarten lesson to illustrate the nature of the new priesthood that resembled the new as a shadow represents the object that created it. And here is where the translation difficulties begin. Chapter 9:1-10 details a significant feature of the "shadow" Levitical ministry: there were two phases to the high priest's ancient ministry: every day in the year he would go into the first apartment where the seven golden candlesticks were and the table where twelve freshly baked loaves of bread were displayed every Sabbath morning, there to minister forgiveness to repentant sinners (but they kept on sinning!).
But once a year he would enter into the second apartment where the golden ark was with the two tables of stone with the ten commandments written thereon by the finger of God. That second-apartment ministry was to "cleanse" the sanctuary and put an end to on-going sinning. But it never worked!
So, says Hebrews, there must be a second apartment ministry of the great High Priest in the true heavenly sanctuary, to solve forever this on-going sin in the lives of His people. The problem: most translations confuse the two apartments, which in Greek are ta hagia and hagia hagion. At His ascension, Christ entered ta hagia; at a period before His second coming, He leaves ta hagia and enters hagia hagion, there to complete His work of preparing a people for His second coming. Read Hebrews with this in mind: it will come alive for you.

Monday 27 August 2012

Is there any difference of attitude or opinion between the Father and the Son?


The Book of Hebrews is the only place in the New Testament where Christ is identified as our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. We are thankful it was included in our Bibles! "But what does Christ do there as High Priest?" is a question many are asking. As our Intercessor, is He trying to persuade the Father to be nice to us? That idea (which many hold) just won't fly; it was the Father who "so loved the world that He gave His only Son" for us.
Is there any difference of attitude or opinion between the Father and the Son? No, they are totally one. Then is Christ trying to intercede with Satan to back off and leave us alone? That idea won't fly either, because the devil is totally, irrevocably hostile. The devil's mind CAN'T be changed, and the Father's mind DOESN'T NEED to be changed. Where then is there somebody whose mind NEEDS to be changed? Could it be that our great High Priest is pleading with us, to change OUR minds? Hebrews seems to say so: "Consider the ... High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; ... [and] harden not your hearts" (3:1, 15). "He ever lives to make intercession FOR [US]" (7:25).
"The blood of Christ ... will cleanse our conscience from the deadness of our former ways and fit us for the service of the living God" (9:14, NEB). This is why a very apt name for Him as our High Priest is "Divine Psychiatrist," "the Great Physician" of our souls. Nobody can benefit from His high priestly ministry unless he realizes his need of such a "Psychiatrist." "They that are whole need not a physician," said Jesus, "but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31, 32).
Charlotte Elliott sensed this need when she wrote "Just As I Am" in 1835. A helpless invalid, she felt depressed at her inability to "do anything" to help in the cause of God. She felt bitter, alienated, unhappy. Left alone one day at home in her misery, she remembered the counsel a sympathetic pastor had given her years before: "Come to Jesus just as you are; He will not cast you out!" So, on that day of lonely discouragement she wrote the words: "Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind [Rev. 3:17?]; Sight, riches, healing of the mind; Yes, all I need, in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!" She found her Divine Psychiatrist! And the "healing of her mind" was permanent--the start of a lifetime of joyous service for Jesus. Let her faith inspire you to receive that healing from Him! (Incidentally, Charlotte did more to bless the world with that little poem than if she had been in perfect health all her life and kept on writing funny verses, as she had been doing).

Friday 24 August 2012

I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. (Proverbs 8:17)


I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. (Proverbs 8:17)

Wisdom loves her lovers and seeks her seekers. He is already wise who seeks to be wise, and he has almost found wisdom who diligently seeks her. What is true of wisdom in general is specially true of wisdom embodied in our Lord Jesus. Him we are to love and to seek, and in return we shall enjoy His love and find Himself.

Our business is to seek Jesus early in life. Happy are the young whose morning is spent with Jesus! It is never too soon to seek the Lord Jesus. Early seekers make certain finders. We should seek Him early by diligence. Thriving tradesmen are early risers, and thriving saints seek Jesus eagerly. Those who find Jesus to their enrichment give their hearts to seeking Him. We must seek Him first, and thus earliest. Above all things Jesus. Jesus first and nothing else even as a bad second.

The blessing is that He will be found. He reveals Himself more and more clearly to our search.... Happy men who seek One who, when He is found, remains with them forever, a treasure growingly precious to their hearts and understandings.

Lord Jesus, l have found Thee; be found of me to an unutterable degree of joyous satisfaction.

Wednesday 22 August 2012

Adam was a great man but he plunged the world into rebellion


Adam was a great man but he plunged the world into rebellion against God through sin. Sin brought death, not only the death that we call “sleep,” but the real thing--the total eternal end of life, what the Bible describes as “the second death.”
The Good News of the gospel declares that a “last Adam” or second Adam has entered our dark, doomed world, and has taken over the headship of the human race (1 Cor. 15:45). As we are all by nature “in Adam” with a verdict of condemnation hanging over our heads, so now “in Christ” we have a verdict of acquittal pronounced over us. Instead of a sentence of death, we have a sentence of life!
But all through the ages during these two millennia there have been some dear souls who thought that this Good News means that everybody will be saved eternally at last; this is known as “Universalism.” But the Bible does not teach Universalism.
God would like for “all men” to be saved eternally (1 Tim. 2:3-6).
(a) He takes no pleasure “in the death of the wicked” (Ezek. 18:23). In fact, their final ruin is terribly painful for Him to have to endure (cf. Rev. 8:1). Even today He is in agony when human beings, the creation of His love, endure it (Isa. 63:9). He repented in behalf of humans who repent because He became “the Lamb of God” and was baptized in John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance (Matt. 3:11).
(b) When humans choose irrevocably to reject the message of His much more abounding grace, they bring upon themselves the final ruin of the death that is the inevitable result of sin.
(c) To His great pain of heart, those who choose at last to be lost are in number “as the sand of the sea” (Rev. 20:8). The Bible does not teach the popular doctrine that God Himself has predestined them to be lost while He predestines other fortunate ones to be saved; the Bible is clear as sunlight--He predestines ALL to be saved; and Christ gave His blood for “ALL.” He will save all who do not frustrate or reject Him.
(d) But those in number “as the sand of the sea” have at last chosen to “frustrate the grace of God” (cf. Gal. 2:21), down to the last bitter end. Along with life and liberty and salvation the dear Lord has given us all the freedom of choice; all the angels in heaven cannot interfere with that or force us either way.
Oh, let us today choose life!

Monday 20 August 2012

Have you heard about the two men who never had a funeral?


Have you heard about the two men who never had a funeral? Their friends never received a death notice. No one ever said goodbye to Enoch and Elijah.
The Old Testament says simply that “Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). The New Testament says that Enoch was “translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5). One man reconciled to God!
The New Testament also says that there will be other people who “please God,” who in the last day “are alive and remain [who] shall be caught up ... in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall ... ever be with the Lord.” In other words, they will be translated at the second coming of Jesus, as Enoch was (1 Thess. 4:14-17). Paul calls this “the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).
Elijah also was “not,” for God “took” him with a whirlwind of a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11). We never get a sight of Enoch again, but we do meet Elijah on the mount of transfiguration when he appeared with Jesus in glory (Matt. 17:3). Moses also was there, but he had died and experienced a special resurrection (Jude 9). So, Moses represents the vast hope of sleeping saints who will be raised in the first resurrection when Jesus comes again; and Elijah and Enoch represent the living people who will never experience the “sleep” that the Bible says is the first death. Amazing!
Now we come to our question: is it really possible that a “body” of people, many in fact, could be “translated” without “seeing death”? That’s when “this mortal” shall “put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:51-54). Yes, Revelation 14 describes such a corporate “body” of people who will be “redeemed from the earth,” who “follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,” in whose “mouth [is] found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God” (vss. 1-5).
It makes sense to see them as the fulfillment of Paul’s prayer in Hebrews 13:20, 21 that “the God of peace ... make you perfect in every good work to do his will.” Apparently He will do just that! Hopefully the number “144,000” is symbolic for if literal that would be a tiny representation from the billions of present world population.
It also makes sense to see this group as the “bride” of Christ who finally “makes herself ready” for “the marriage of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:1-9). Something’s happening today! Tune in.

Friday 17 August 2012

"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name."-Psalm 29:2


"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name."-Psalm 29:2

God's glory is the result of His nature and acts. He is glorious in His character, for there is such a store of everything that is holy, and good, and lovely in God, that He must be glorious. The actions which flow from His character are also glorious; but while He intends that they should manifest to His creatures His goodness, and mercy, and justice, He is equally concerned that the glory associated with them should be given only to Himself. Nor is there aught in ourselves in which we may glory; for who maketh us to differ from another? And what have we that we did not receive from the God of all grace? Then how careful ought we to be to walk humbly before the Lord! The moment we glorify ourselves, since there is room for one glory only in the universe, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High. Shall the insect of an hour glorify itself against the sun which warmed it into life? Shall the potsherd exalt itself above the man who fashioned it upon the wheel? Shall the dust of the desert strive with the whirlwind? Or the drops of the ocean struggle with the tempest?  Give unto the Lord, all ye righteous, give unto the Lord glory and strength; give unto Him the honour that is due unto His name. Yet it is, perhaps, one of the hardest struggles of the Christian life to learn this sentence-"Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name be glory." It is a lesson which God is ever teaching us, and teaching us sometimes by most painful discipline. Let a Christian begin to boast, "I can do all things," without adding "through Christ which strengtheneth me," and before long he will have to groan, "I can do nothing," and bemoan himself in the dust. When we do anything for the Lord, and He is pleased to accept of our doings, let us lay our crown at His feet, and exclaim, "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me!"

Thursday 16 August 2012

The Lord Jesus says to each one of us personally, "I have loved you with an everlasting love: (Jer. 31:3).


The Lord Jesus says to each one of us personally, "I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you" (Jer. 31:3).
That is personal, individual, intimate love; not a cold electronic thing. It's the love of a Father--our heavenly Father. As intimate, close, personal as any earthly father's love can be. Only far more so.
Some dear people feel that they have never known an earthly father's love; what can the dear Lord do for them? But truthfully, none of us have ever had a human father who could perfectly portray the love of our heavenly Father, for us. So, let no one be the least discouraged if you have never known an earthly father's love: kneel on your knees and make a choice to BELIEVE what you cannot SEE. He will respond to that prayer!
The dear heavenly Father will not forsake you or neglect your prayer; He has already loved you with "an everlasting love," now ask Him to grant you the spiritual eyesight, the discernment, to recognize the gift He has already given you. If His love is "everlasting," that means that He loved you while you were still in your mother's womb. He was working on you even then, with that love.
Please read Psalm 139: it is devoted to the pre-natal influence that the Holy Spirit exerted on your behalf. The "everlasting love" of the Lord Jesus is very real; now let your own choice be to respond to that love, to thank Him for it, to ask forgiveness where you have doubted it. Such a prayer comes "out of the depths" of your soul; "Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord" (Psalm 130:1). And immediately comes His assurance: "There is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be reverenced" (vs. 4).
Now make Psalm 139 your own. May millions of prayers rise tonight based on that blessed psalm.

Wednesday 15 August 2012

The LORD will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws


Child Chastisement Not Forever

"And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever"   (1 Kings 11:39).

In the family of grace there is discipline, and that discipline is severe enough to make it an evil and a bitter thing to sin. Solomon, turned aside by his foreign wives, had set up other gods and grievously provoked the God of his father; therefore, ten parts out of twelve of the kingdom were rent away and set up as a rival state. This was a sore affliction to the house of David, and it came upon that dynasty distinctly from the hand of God, as the result of unholy conduct. The LORD will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws: perhaps at this very hour such chastening is upon us. Let us humbly cry, "O LORD, show me wherefore thou contendest with me."

What a sweet saving clause is that -- "but not for ever"! The punishment of sin is everlasting, but the fatherly chastisement of it in a child of God is but for a season. The sickness, the poverty, the depression of spirit, will pass away when they have had their intended effect. Remember, we are not under law but under grace. The rod may make us smart, but the sword shall not make us die. Our present grief is meant to bring us to repentance that we may not be destroyed with the wicked.

The LORD will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws


Child Chastisement Not Forever

"And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever"   (1 Kings 11:39).

In the family of grace there is discipline, and that discipline is severe enough to make it an evil and a bitter thing to sin. Solomon, turned aside by his foreign wives, had set up other gods and grievously provoked the God of his father; therefore, ten parts out of twelve of the kingdom were rent away and set up as a rival state. This was a sore affliction to the house of David, and it came upon that dynasty distinctly from the hand of God, as the result of unholy conduct. The LORD will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws: perhaps at this very hour such chastening is upon us. Let us humbly cry, "O LORD, show me wherefore thou contendest with me."

What a sweet saving clause is that -- "but not for ever"! The punishment of sin is everlasting, but the fatherly chastisement of it in a child of God is but for a season. The sickness, the poverty, the depression of spirit, will pass away when they have had their intended effect. Remember, we are not under law but under grace. The rod may make us smart, but the sword shall not make us die. Our present grief is meant to bring us to repentance that we may not be destroyed with the wicked.

The LORD will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws


Child Chastisement Not Forever

"And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever"   (1 Kings 11:39).

In the family of grace there is discipline, and that discipline is severe enough to make it an evil and a bitter thing to sin. Solomon, turned aside by his foreign wives, had set up other gods and grievously provoked the God of his father; therefore, ten parts out of twelve of the kingdom were rent away and set up as a rival state. This was a sore affliction to the house of David, and it came upon that dynasty distinctly from the hand of God, as the result of unholy conduct. The LORD will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws: perhaps at this very hour such chastening is upon us. Let us humbly cry, "O LORD, show me wherefore thou contendest with me."

What a sweet saving clause is that -- "but not for ever"! The punishment of sin is everlasting, but the fatherly chastisement of it in a child of God is but for a season. The sickness, the poverty, the depression of spirit, will pass away when they have had their intended effect. Remember, we are not under law but under grace. The rod may make us smart, but the sword shall not make us die. Our present grief is meant to bring us to repentance that we may not be destroyed with the wicked.

The sickness, the poverty, the depression of spirit, will pass away when they have had their intended effect.



"And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever"   (1 Kings 11:39).

In the family of grace there is discipline, and that discipline is severe enough to make it an evil and a bitter thing to sin. Solomon, turned aside by his foreign wives, had set up other gods and grievously provoked the God of his father; therefore, ten parts out of twelve of the kingdom were rent away and set up as a rival state. This was a sore affliction to the house of David, and it came upon that dynasty distinctly from the hand of God, as the result of unholy conduct. The LORD will chasten His best beloved servants if they cease from full obedience to His laws: perhaps at this very hour such chastening is upon us. Let us humbly cry, "O LORD, show me wherefore thou contendest with me."

What a sweet saving clause is that -- "but not for ever"! The punishment of sin is everlasting, but the fatherly chastisement of it in a child of God is but for a season. The sickness, the poverty, the depression of spirit, will pass away when they have had their intended effect. Remember, we are not under law but under grace. The rod may make us smart, but the sword shall not make us die. Our present grief is meant to bring us to repentance that we may not be destroyed with the wicked.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

This day I will pray in faith, not only believing that I shall be heard, but that I am heard;


"It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, l will hear"   (Isaiah 65:24).

Quick work this! The LORD hears us before we call and often answers us in the same speedy manner. Foreseeing our needs and our prayers, He so arranges providence that before the need actually arises He has supplied it, before the trial assails us He has armed us against it. This is the promptitude of omniscience, and we have often seen it exercised. Before we dreamed of the affliction which was coming, the strong consolation which was to sustain us under it had arrived. What a prayer-answering God we have!

The second clause suggests the telephone. Though God be in heaven and we upon earth, yet He makes our word, like His own word, to travel very swiftly. When we pray aright we speak into the ear of God. Our gracious Mediator presents our petitions at once, and the great Father hears them and smiles upon them. Grand praying this! Who would not be much in prayer when he knows that he has the ear of the King of kings? This day I will pray in faith, not only believing that I shall be heard, but that I am heard; not only that I shall be answered, but that I have the answer already. Holy Spirit, help me in this!


Monday 13 August 2012

Someday someone will walk up to you and thank you for what you gave or what you did TODAY.


You may have dreamed of doing some great work for the Lord. He has put that vision in your heart. If you have had success, thank Him in humility. It was all His blessing.
But if you feel that you have accomplished little of what you had hoped to do, please do not wound your Lord by doubting His love and faithfulness for you. He has heard your prayers; if you can receive this brief message, that proves that there is still opportunity for Him to bless the meager offering you have to give Him. The little boy in the big crowd of 5000 plus women and children had only his two fish and five barley buns his mother had baked for his lunch--but in love and boyish faith he gave them all to the disciples to give to Jesus (Matt. 14:15-19; John 6:9-11; did you know that John is the only one of the four Gospels to give the “lad” credit for his loving offering!).
You know how the Lord Jesus blessed that humble gift!
Now ask the dear Lord to show you what little thing you can do to bring some truth or some blessing in another way, to someone. The angels keep the record books; don’t even think about a reward for yourself. Forget that. But do pray that the Lord will bless your tiny little offering and trust Him that He will for the good of someone, somewhere. Someday someone will walk up to you and thank you for what you gave or what you did TODAY.


Friday 10 August 2012

What was taught in the schools of the prophets?


What was taught in the schools of the prophets? To know this is important, not only for its own sake: but because, when we know this, we know what should be taught in the Lord's schools always. These things are in the Bible. They were written for our learning. And being in the book of Daniel, they are written especially for our instruction and admonition "upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Daniel and his three companions were "skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science." This education was acquired in the college, or school of the prophets in Jerusalem. This, therefore, certifies that wisdom, knowledge, and science were taught in those schools.

Another thing that was taught there was music, instrumental as well as vocal. This we know from the fact that the first time that we meet any of the students of such a school, they have "a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them;" and they were playing with such spirit, and with such power in the Spirit, that the man who then personally met them was drawn to God and converted. Thus all the circumstances show that this was trained, harmonious music, played by the students of this school. And this is plain evidence that music was taught in the schools of the prophets.

Another thing that was taught there was work, or "manual training" as it would be called to-day. This we know from the record of these schools in the time of Elisha: "And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood." 2 Kings 6:1-4.

Yet another thing taught there was poetry. This was an essential accompaniment of the teaching of music, and the songs of worship of which their music was composed. With all this, of course, the fundamentals of knowledge, reading and writing and numbers, were taught.
We find, then, that the teaching in the schools of the prophets embraced at least the following studies:-
1. Wisdom,
2. Knowledge,
3. Science,
4. Manual labor,
5. Music,
6. Poetry,
7. Temperance,
8. Morals,
9. Law,
10. History,
11. Reading,
12. Writing,
13. Numbers.

But the one greatest thing over all, in all, and through all, in the Lord's schools was the pervading presence of the divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. In the schools of the prophets the Spirit of God was the one all-pervading influence, the one great prevailing power. The first time we meet one of these schools is in 1 Sam. 10:5-12, when Saul came "to the hill of God," and met "a company of prophets coming down" with instruments of music, and prophesying. "And the Spirit of God came upon him," and "God gave him another heart;" he was turned "into another man," and "he prophesied among the prophets."

These things are written in the Bible for us. They center and are emphasized in the book of Daniel specially for the last days. We are now in the last days. The instruction given, the course of study in the schools of the prophets, is instruction for the Lord's schools for all time. This is the instruction that belongs to-day in every school that makes any pretensions to being a Christian school.





Thursday 9 August 2012

"The LORD God will help me" (Isaiah 50:7).



"The LORD God will help me"   (Isaiah 50:7).

These are in prophecy the words of Messiah in the day of His obedience unto death, when He gave His back to the smiters and His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He was confident in divine support and trusted in Jehovah.

O my soul, thy sorrows are as the small dust of the balance compared with thy LORD's! Canst thou not believe that the LORD God will help thee? Thy LORD was in a peculiar position; for as the representative of sinful men -- their substitute and sacrifice -- it was needful that the Father should leave Him and cause Him to come under desertion of soul. No such necessity is laid upon thee: thou art not bound to cry, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" Did thy Savior even in such a case still rely upon God, and canst not thou? He died for thee and thus made it impossible that thou shouldst be left alone; wherefore, be of good cheer.

In this day's labors or trials say, "The LORD God will help me." Go forth boldly. Set your face like a flint and resolve that no faintness or shamefacedness shall come near you. If God helps, who can hinder? If you are sure of omnipotent aid, what can be too heavy for you? Begin the day joyously, and let no shade of doubt come between thee and the eternal sunshine.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Why is there so much opposition when truth is proclaimed, even sometimes in the church?


Why is there so much opposition when truth is proclaimed, even sometimes in the church?
For example, Bible teaching is clear as sunlight that the New Covenant is the "better promises" of God, and the Old Covenant is the worthless promises of the people (cf. Heb. 8:8-10): yet Old Covenant ideas keep cropping up, and there is tension and suspicion where there should be pleasant fellowship and harmony among the people of God ("Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity"! Psalm 133:1).
Like the prophet Jeremiah who was hounded and cursed in Jerusalem by God's own people until he longed for a place in the wilderness where he could cry and cry ("Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night ... in the wilderness ..." (Jer. 9:1, 2); people who love the truths of the Bible weep today. Jeremiah was not a psychopath; the truth is that his opposing people were at war with God Himself. After Jeremiah's death, the Jews began to recognize how he was the greatest of the prophets whom God had sent to them; yet they made his life a hell on earth for him.
The Son of God came one Sabbath day to a congregation of God's true people in the town of Nazareth, and told them He was the true Messiah their people had looked for, for millennia. Result? The people of God who "kept" the holy Sabbath tried to kill Him (cf. Luke 4:16-29). The common people "heard Him gladly" but the higher you went in the hierarchy of the true church of that day, the more bitter was the hatred that the meek and gentle Jesus provoked (Matt. 12:37; John 1:11).
A delegation from the intellectual capital of the then world came to invite Jesus to come and teach them in Greece. The temptation for Him was enormous--get away from this bitter prejudice where he could go and teach receptive people; but He chose to stay and go to His cross and be crucified by the leaders of God's people (cf. John 12:20-27).
He has told us not to be surprised by the painful opposition coming sometimes from God's true people in the last days. As Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34), so He prays today.
And the prayer will be answered: God does forgive His people for opposing and rejecting the beginning of the latter rain and the loud cry; but He will also be very severe. He gives any generation only one chance to accept or reject "the beginning" of that rare and most precious gift of the latter rain. Let no idle word escape our hearts from now on!


Tuesday 7 August 2012

Again, what does it mean to "live under the new covenant,"


Again, what does it mean to "live under the new covenant," or the promise of God?
All God's promises were made to the "Seed" (singular), which is Christ (Gal. 3:16), and the only way we come into the picture is "in Christ." But thank God, that's our "way."
Christ was known as "the son of David" not only through physical ancestry, but because in His incarnation He "lived" in David's psalms. As the leadership of God's true church condemned Jesus, so the divinely appointed leadership of His true church in the days of King Saul condemned David. Saul was "the anointed of the Lord," and David's agony was not only the physical exertion of constantly fleeing from Saul but wrestling with the greater temptation to doubt that God had truly anointed him to be king of Israel, when "the anointed of the Lord" condemned him. He had to overcome, to believe that God would take care of him.
Thus we have David's psalms written during his exile (57, 59. for example); repeatedly, the future king begins by wrestling with fear (old covenant-inspired!), and before the end of the psalm he erupts in new covenant joy of believing that the LORD will not forsake but vindicate him.
A millennium later the Son of God, sent "in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3) which He had taken upon Himself, wrestles with the same temptation. Again He is "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15), triumphing again over our old covenant fears, emerging day by day into new covenant sunlight (cf. Isa. 50:4, 5). This goes on continually in His earthly life until the greatest temptation of all to old covenant unbelief as He hangs on His cross in the darkness crying, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" And there on the cross He wrestles His way through the darkness into the sunlight of new covenant faith, crying out joyously as His heart was already bleeding to death, "You who fear the Lord, praise Him! ... He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted [Me!], nor has He hidden His face from Him [Me!], ... He heard"! (Psalm 22:23, 24).
Jesus has taught us how to live under the new covenant.

Friday 3 August 2012

"Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."-Ephesians 1:11


"Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will."-Ephesians 1:11

Our belief in God's wisdom supposes and necessitates that He has a settled purpose and plan in the work of salvation. What would creation have been without His design? Is there a fish in the sea, or a fowl in the air, which was left to chance for its formation?  Nay, in every bone, joint, and muscle, sinew, gland, and blood-vessel, you mark the presence of a God working everything according to the design of infinite wisdom. And shall God be present in creation, ruling over all, and not in grace? Shall the new creation have the fickle genius of free will to preside over it when divine counsel rules the old creation? Look at Providence! Who knoweth not that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father?  Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. God weighs the mountains of our grief in scales, and the hills of our tribulation in balances. And shall there be a God in providence and not in grace? Shall the shell be ordained by wisdom and the kernel be left to blind!
  chance. No; He knows the end from the beginning. He sees in its appointed place, not merely the corner-stone which He has laid in fair colours, in the blood of His dear Son, but He beholds in their ordained position each of the chosen stones taken out of the quarry of nature, and polished by His grace; He sees the whole from corner to cornice, from base to roof, from foundation to pinnacle. He hath in His mind a clear knowledge of every stone which shall be laid in its prepared space, and how vast the edifice shall be, and when the top-stone shall be brought forth with shoutings of "Grace! Grace!  unto it." At the last it shall be clearly seen that in every chosen vessel of mercy, Jehovah did as He willed with His own; and that in every part of the work of grace He accomplished His purpose, and glorified His own name.

Thursday 2 August 2012

"Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been" (Gen. 47:9)


Jacob, the famous "Supplanter," tricked his father Isaac into giving him the birthright instead of to the elder (by-a-few-minutes) Esau. Esau was so angry that when he discovered what had happened, he threatened to kill him, and Jacob fled.
The first night on his exile the disheartened man dreamed of the ladder to heaven, and the Lord Himself appeared and renewed all the new covenant promises He had made to grandfather Abraham (Gen. 12:2, 3). Then the Hebrew says that next morning Jacob "went on his journey" (29:1) light hearted and light footed. That's what believing God's new covenant promises does for anyone!
Most commentators regard Uncle Laban's subsequent trickstering of Jacob as payback for his own trickstering to get the birthright. The idea is that the Lord overrules our lives into judgment for our wrongdoing; Jacob must suffer now.
But the Lord has solemnly promised at Bethel to bless him in everything! No mention of a payback. God has intended from the beginning that "the elder shall serve the younger," just backwards from human planning (Gen. 25:23). "I will not leave you," He has promised, "until I have done that which I have spoken to you of" (28:15). In other words, Jacob is invited to claim the equivalent of the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want," and entitled to pray "the Lord's Prayer," "My Father which art in heaven," with all its attendant blessings. Well might Jacob walk on air from now on throughout his life.
But as he grows old, he has to confess to Pharaoh, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been" (Gen. 47:9). Much sorrow and disappointment shadowed his entire life. And yet God had made those wonderful promises to him at Bethel!
The only possible conclusion: Jacob didn't always believe them with new covenant faith. The inspired prophecy from before his birth said that he should receive the birthright; that was a new covenant promise from the word go! Doubting or disbelieving it created his problems. All during his later anxieties with Laban he could have sailed through those trials with Solomon's [once] "merry heart [that] does good like a medicine" if he had only believed (cf. Prov. 17:22)!
Surely we have come to the denouement of sacred history when we as a people should learn to believe how good is God's good news! One thing is sure--the 144,000 will (cf. Rev. 14:1-5). And the time for rich blessings is now. And it's time for unbelief to go.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Have you been praying for a certain blessing, and the answer seems never to have come? Luke 18:1


Have you been praying for a certain blessing, and the answer seems never to have come? You have been persistent in prayer, as Jesus tells us to do (we "ought always to pray, and not to faint," Luke 18:1), and still the answer has not come. You have asked Him to show you what might be wrong, what might he hindering your prayers (Peter says that if a man doesn't treat his wife right his prayers will be "hindered," 1 Peter 3:7), and God has not told you of anything wrong that might be "hindering" the answer. The Holy Spirit does not convict you of failure to do any known duty, even though you kneel before God and beg Him to notice you and to instruct you. Still you ask Him for that special blessing and it doesn't come.
Welcome to Job's "Club," the Society of Unanswered Pray-ers. You are not alone. The Prime Member is Jesus Himself. He prayed "with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared," but still He had to go to the cross and die (cf Heb. 5:7). The next verse reminds us that "Though He were a Son," yet He had to learn the lessons of life as we do "by the things which He suffered."
But for sure He does not want you to duplicate the agony He suffered on the cross, nor even the agony which Job suffered. There is an answer to your perplexity and disappointment. Let's notice several possibilities:
(a) God may be working hard to give you a "yes" answer but He cannot force the will of some person who may be "withstanding" Him; that's what happened about one of Daniel's earnest prayers (cf 10:13). If that's what's happening, you can be sure that the dear Lord is as merciful to you as He was to Daniel, and He will impress your heart with the conviction of truth. He will save you from discouragement.
(b) The answer may be in process, and it just takes more time. This could be true if you are praying for a loved one. Remember that on the cross Christ accomplished something for "every man," which makes it possible for Him to treat "every man" as though that person has never sinned (see Matt. 5:45)--Christ has already died that person's second death, and therefore He treats him/her just as though that person is going to be saved. This is the meaning of that interesting phrase "legal justification." Now, you do the same; treat that person as though you fully expect that your prayers are already answered, and that person is going to be saved just as you are. Draw a "circle" that includes that person inside. Don't say, "Oh, that person is far from being ready!"
The closer you come to Jesus the more of His skill and wisdom you will share, because you will have "the mind of Christ" (Phil. 2:5).