<BrethrenVoice>
<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY>
<3 September 2002>
Contents:
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(1) <Devotional> "The Lord trieth the righteous" - C.H. Spurgeon
(2) <Devotional> "Outstretched arms" - Ravi Zacharias
(3) <Doctrinal> "In the beginning it was not so!" (Pt-8) - C.E. Wigg
(4) <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-18)- A.W.Pink
(5) <Apologetics) "Christian Apologetics" (Pt-6) -M. Copland
1) <DEVOTIONAL>
"THE LORD TRIETH THE RIGHTEOUS" PSALM 11:5
C. Spurgeon
All events are under the control of Providence; consequently all the trials
of our outward life are traceable at once to the great First Cause. Out of
the golden gate of God's ordinance the armies of trial march forth in array,
clad in their iron armour, and armed with weapons of war. All providences
are doors to trial. Even our mercies, like roses, have their thorns. Men may
be drowned in seas of prosperity as well as in rivers of affliction. Our
mountains are not too high, and our valleys are not too low for temptations:
trials lurk on all roads. Everywhere, above and beneath, we are beset and
surrounded with dangers. Yet no shower falls unpermitted from the
threatening cloud; every drop has its order ere it hastens to the earth. The
trials which come from God are sent to prove and strengthen our graces, and
so at once to illustrate the power of divine grace, to test the genuineness
of our virtues, and to add to their energy. Our Lord in His infinite wisdom
and superabundant love, sets so high a value upon His people's faith that He
will not screen them from those trials by which faith is strengthened. You
would never have possessed the precious faith which now supports you if the
trial of your faith had not been like unto fire. You are a tree that never
would have rooted so well if the wind had not rocked you to and fro, and
made you take firm hold upon the precious truths of the covenant grace.
Worldly ease is a great foe to faith; it loosens the joints of holy valour,
and snaps the sinews of sacred courage. The balloon never rises until the
cords are cut; affliction doth this sharp service for believing souls. While
the wheat sleeps comfortably in the husk it is useless to man, it must be
threshed out of its resting place before its value can be known. Thus it is
well that Jehovah trieth the righteous, for it causeth them to grow rich
towards God.
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(2) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY>
OUTSTRETCHED ARMS
Ravi Zacharias
I was told a fascinating story of a young couple's journey to Romania. They
went to adopt a little boy named George, who was born without arms. As they
visited the orphanage, they noticed that nobody would even look in little
George's direction because his handicap was viewed as an ill omen and a
curse upon a family. But the couple was determined to bring George back to
the United States and raise him as their son if his mother agreed. But then
something unforgettable happened.
The mother, when contacted, asked the couple why they wanted this child. "I
have heard," she said, "that in America they use babies for genetic
experimentation. Is that why you want to take my son?" The would-be parents
were as wise as they were selfless, and with the complete limitation of
language, handed a Romanian Bible to the woman and opened it up to Psalm
139. She took it and began to read:
O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my
ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are
wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my
unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them
came to be.
The mother wept as she read and clutched the Bible to her heart. She knew
that her little boy would grow up and want to see her. But she also knew
that he would be pointed not just to the source of his life but to the
source of her life, too. With gratitude to God, the mother gave her armless
son into the arms of one who saw his outstretched being, not the absence of
his outstretched arms.
May I submit, my friend, that our beings long for God. Only in Him is the
soul hunger met-even as we find our acceptance in Him. To slightly alter the
words of Augustine, our hearts are restless until they rest in His arms.
---
Copyright (p)(c) 2001 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM).
Reprinted with permission. A Slice of Infinity is a radio ministry of Ravi
Zacharias International Ministries.
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(3) <DOCTRINAL>
IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO! (PART-8)
Charles E. Wigg
....
Not all are healed
--------------------
In chapter 3 of Acts we have the case of the man who was lame from his
birth, one who had never walked. He had been carried daily and laid at the
beautiful gate of the Temple. We are told in a later chapter that he was
above 40 years of age. This means that he must have laid there when Lord
Jesus entered the Temple many times. Yet the Lord Jesus never healed him; He
left this for Peter and John to do.
This proves the fact that it is not the will of God to heal every sick or
disabled person. There are those who will tell you that when praying for the
sick, you should never use the words, "If it be Thy will". They claim that
this is only an evidence of unbelief, however the Lord Jesus prayed "not my
will, but Thine be done". The believers in Acts 21;14 said, "The will of the
Lord be done". His will is always best! We know that if we ask according to
His will He hears us and if we know He ears us, then we know that we have
the petition, whatever we ask of Him. 1 Jn 5;14 & 15.
But this man was healed, there was no doubt about it. He immediately rose
up, walked, leaped and praised God. It was an additional miracle that he
could walk, even when his feet and anklebones became strong because he had
never walked before in his life. It takes a child a long time to learn to
walk, yet he walked and leaped immediately.
The even greater miracle was the fact that he was saved. He became such a
strong witness for the Lord. He was even prepared to endure prison, for the
sake of the Lord Jesus. It is interesting to read that those who were saved,
were not saved through the healing of the lame man, but through the word
that peter preached. Chapter 4;4. The healing was not used as a gimmick by
the Apostles nor did they tell the people that if they accepted Christ they
would be healed. They did not seek popularity but faithfully preached the
word, even charging the people with denying the Holy One & Just. Charged
them with killing the Prince of Life. He called them to repent, to be
converted. This would not be considered a "popular" Gospel today. Oh that we
might go back to the beginning! Oh that we might see the demonstration of
the power of the Holy Spirit of God, convicting men of their sin, converting
them to Christ! In chapters 3 & 4, we are told of only one man that was
healed, but of 5,000 that believed.
In the land of Australia, where I live, though we preach the Gospel, yet
rarely does one unsaved person come to hear. Very seldom is any one truly
saved. "In the beginning it was not so" May God bless you! [To be
concluded]
---
[Reproduced with permission of Charles E. Wigg]
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(4) <PROPHETICAL>
"THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-18)
III. THE BLESSEDNESS OF OUR HOPE
Arthur W. Pink
....
2. Because of its bearing upon the Gentiles
-------------------------------------------
This aspect of our subject has not received the attention which it deserves.
It has been assumed by some that the present dispensation is the time when
God is blessing the Gentiles and that in the Millennium the Jews will be the
special objects of God's favor. It is true that in the Millennium Israel
shall enter into the enjoyment of their inheritance and that at that time
they shall occupy the chief position, governmentally, among the nations, but
it is a mistake to suppose that the Gentiles will receive less notice from
God then than they do now. During this Age God is merely taking out of the
Gentiles a people for His name, and hence it is that the vast majority of
them are still living amid the darkness of heathendom. But it will not
always be thus. The restoration of Israel to God's favor will result in wide
blessing to the Gentiles.
In the eleventh chapter of Romans, where the apostle is showing that
Israel's present "blindness" is not to continue for ever, he declares, "I
say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather
through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them
to jealousy. Now if the fall of them (Israel) be the riches of the world
(i.e., the enrichment of the Gentiles by the Gospel), and the diminishing of
them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? (that is, How
much more will Israel's latter-day blessing enrich the Gentiles). For if the
casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the
receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" (vss. 11, 12, 15). How clear
it is from these verses that, universal blessings for mankind are not to be
brought about by the indefinite prolongation of this present dispensation
and the preaching of the Gospel, but by the restoration of Israel, after
Christendom has been cut off for its non-continuance in God's goodness. As
another has said, "The end of apostate Judaism was judgment: the end of
apostate Gentile Christianity will be judgment also. But just as blessing
came to us when judgment fell upon the Jew, so when judgment falls upon
Christendom, blessing will be restored to Israel, and Israel's restoration
will bring still fuller blessing to the world than any it has had during the
present dispensation; it will be as "life from the dead!" (W. Trotter).
The words of Simeon recorded in Acts 15 are in perfect agreement with the
teaching of Romans 11--"Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit
the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree
the words of the prophets; as it is written, after this, I will return, and
will build again the tabernacle of David (i. e., Israel), which is fallen
down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that
the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon
whom My name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things" (vss.
14-17). It is to be noted that here again the "seeking of the Lord" by the
"residue of men and all the Gentiles" is subsequent to the restoration of
Israel.
There are many prophecies in the Old Testament which speak of the Millennial
blessedness of the Gentiles. We single out one or two without commenting
extensively upon them. "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Is.
40:5). "O sing unto the Lord a new song; for He hath done marvellous things:
His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath
made known His salvation: His righteousness hath He openly shewed in the
sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the
house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our
God" (Ps. 98:1-3). Once more the order is the same: God's righteousness is
displayed before the "heathen" and His salvation is made known to the ends
of the earth following God's dealing in mercy with Israel.
One more quotation must suffice: "And ye shall know that I am in the midst
of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and My people
shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will
pour out My Spirit upon all flesh"(Joel 2:27, 28). Like all prophecy, this
one receives a double fulfilment. It is to be observed that when Peter
quoted from Joel on the Day of Pentecost he did not say, "And now is
fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16), because
the words of Joel quoted above will not be filled until the Millennium, then
and not till then, will God's Spirit be poured out upon "all flesh"--for
that glad day, the earth waits the Second Advent of our Lord. Thus we see
that the Return of Christ to this earth to usher in the Millennium will be
attended with gracious and wide blessing to the Gentiles, for then it will
be that "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea" (Is. 11:9). Again, the Return of the Redeemer
is a Blessed Hope.
[To be concluded]
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(5) <APOLOGETICS>
"CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, AN INTRODUCTION - (PART-6)"
M. Copland
....
III. THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS EVIDENCE
A. WHAT IT "DOES" DO...
1. It provides a solid basis upon which one can intelligently
believe in Jesus as a person who actually existed in history
2. It exposes the shallow thinking of any who would try to mark
off Jesus as a myth
3. It requires everyone to give some sort of answer to the
question posed by Jesus Himself: "But who do you say that I
am?" - Mt 16:15
B. WHAT IT "DOES NOT" DO...
1. The evidence we have seen thus far DOES NOT prove Jesus to be
the Son of God
2. In fact, it does not tell us anything about Jesus except:
a. That He lived and died during the First Century A.D.
b. That He must have done something significant to gain some
notoriety by the historians
C. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT JESUS, WE MUST LOOK ELSEWHERE...
1. There have been many fanciful stories written about Jesus
2. But the Christian considers the twenty-seven books known as the
New Testament to be the only reliable source of information
about Jesus
3. But are they?
a. Is the New Testament reliable as a historical document?
b. Can we even be sure that what we have is actually what was
penned by the original authors of the New Testament?
CONCLUSION
1. The next study shall begin an attempt to answer these questions
2. For now, we have simply laid one block as we build a foundation upon
which we can rest our faith...
a. We have seen that it is more logical to believe that Jesus did in
fact exist
b. To assert that He is a myth is groundless
3. And since He actually existed, that requires our giving some answer
to the question Jesus asked: "WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?"
4. Will our answer be "LORD!", or "A CAREFULLY CONTRIVED LIE!"
a. As we shall see, these are the only two choices we have
b. The evidence we shall continue to examine should help give us the
right answer!
[To be concluded]
---
© M. Copland 2002
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