<BrethrenVoice>
<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY>
<5 September 2002>
Contents:
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(1) <Devotional> "The most amazing...sight..." - David Harsha
(2) <Devotional> "Standing at the pearly gates" - Ravi Zacharias
(3) <Doctrinal> "In the beginning it was not so!" (Pt-10) - C.E.Wigg
(4) <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-20)- A.W.Pink
(5) <Apologetics) "Christian Apologetics" (Pt-8) -M. Copland
(1) <DEVOTIONAL>
THE MOST AMAZING, MOST AFFECTING, MOST MELTING SIGHT
THAT MORTAL EVER WITNESSED!
David Harsha*
In the death of Christ, we behold the most astonishing exhibition of divine
love that has ever been manifested to a lost world.
Such love as is here displayed, is without a precedent; without a parallel
in the annals of time or in the records of eternity.
To behold the Son of God, the Maker of worlds, bowing his head on the cross,
and yielding up his immaculate soul amid the agonies of death, is the most
amazing, the most affecting, the most melting sight that mortals ever
witnessed!
Around the Cross of Christ there shine the most resplendent rays of divine
love that ever beamed from the Sun of Righteousness; that ever emanated from
the Deity.
O, my soul, look and wonder!
Behold your Savior bleeding on the cross; bleeding from every pore, that
your sins might be washed away in the flowing stream!
See him pouring out his soul unto death, for your salvation! Is not this a
manifestation of unparalleled love to you?
Christ's suffering and dying for us is a great mystery, a mystery of
unfathomable love!
How vehement was the love of Christ, that led him to endure death in its
most terrible form, even the death of the cross! "Love is strong as death;
the coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most vehement flame. Many
waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it."
Such is the love of Christ.
All the waters of affliction and suffering; all the billows of divine wrath
that rolled over our blessed Redeemer, were not sufficient to quench the
ardency of that love which he felt for a dying world of sinners!
---
*[Taken from David Harsha's "Thoughts on the Love of Christ")
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(2) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY>
STANDING AT THE PEARLY GATES
Ravi Zacharias
Jesus’ teaching on human nature is often dismissed as unrealistic dogma.
Many people feel that to say that man is not innately good is to disable
human creativity. Yet in the proverbial wisdom of every culture Jesus’ view
is sustained again and again, even in the form of tragicomedy. Let me
illustrate what I am saying.
I have just returned from Australia, which is an incredibly beautiful
country, but each time I visit somebody always reminds me that Australia was
originally settled by “criminals” sent from Great Britain. That reminder is
usually followed by a cynical explanation of why life is so easygoing. I
therefore share this story as it was told to me by an Australian.
Two Aussies, he said, appear at the pearly gates of heaven, catching the
doorman completely by surprise—he was certainly not expecting any
Australians in heaven. He asked them to wait at the gate until he could
verify their credentials with Peter. When Peter was informed of these
applicants from “down under,” he, too, was caught off guard and decided he
would need to accompany the doorman back to the pearly gates to talk to
these visitors. But when they arrived at the entrance the Australians were
gone—and so were the pearly gates!
Is it not a revelation of our own understanding when people can parody
themselves and show their own failures? We may mock this idea of the
depravity of man or say that it demeans humanity in some way, but the truth
is it resurfaces every day, in every life, and in every culture, for we are
all criminals at heart. We do not like the word “sin,” but have we not seen
its expressions—in our own lives as well as in others’?
When we begin to look below the surface to who we are, the depravity of our
nature—as difficult as it may be—is inescapable. But friend, until we
recognize that, we will never understand the profound message of grace that
God offers us, nor will we believe we are in need of it.
Jesus said to those who wished to stone a woman caught in adultery, “If any
one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” As
each dropped his stone He said to her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus calls us to examine the stones in our hands and in our hearts and to
drop them at his feet.
---
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-10)
NOT ALL ARE HEALED
Charles E. Wigg
....
AT THE HANDS OF ORTHODOX RELIGIOUS LEADERS:
Persecution is something that we do not like, and would rather avoid.
Nevertheless, it is something that, though Satan intends it for our harm and
suffering, yet God uses for our good.
It is a matter of great grief that the first persecution came from those who
were orthodox Jewish religious leaders. These were the men who condemned the
Lord Jesus to such a brutal death. Religious fanatics can be terribly cruel
and it is their way to get others to do their dreadful work. However history
shows that whenever Satan turns to persecute the children of God, it usually
results in their blessing and defeats his purpose. It is a tragic fact that
in the Western world persecution is very rare. There Satan has used his
more successful tool, that of seduction. He has succeeded in lulling the
children of God to sleep, by allowing them to become materially comfortable.
He has thus introduced the world into the believer's home and also into the
Church. He has got them occupied with trivialities and gimmicks such as
false miracles and speaking in unknown tongues. He has introduced
entertainment and such things as these have made the Church popular with the
World. Because of this, persecution is almost unheard of. "In the beginning
it was not so".
Though to begin with, the Apostles continued to visit the Temple and to
preach there, yet as time went on, this was no longer possible. At first the
Apostles went there and preached the Gospel with power, God using the
miraculous healing of the crippled man to confirm the truth of what they
were saying, but they were soon made to suffer for it. First they were
imprisoned and threatened, but when they were released, they went "to their
own company" and reported what had been done to them. This persecution did
not intimidate them, but drew them together, so that with united voice they
gave themselves to prayer. They did not pray that God would destroy those
who had made themselves their enemies, nor that He would turn off the heat
of the fiery trial through which they were passing. But they prayed for
courage and boldness to continue to speak God's word. That He might continue
to stretch out His hand to heal do wonders through the Holy Name of the Lord
Jesus. They prayed thus, even though the miracle of the cripple's healing
had brought them into such trouble.
However the answer to their prayer, though immediate and causing all present
to be filled again with the Holy Spirit and it seems that all spoke the word
of God with boldness; yet it brought them into even greater trouble. Once
again they were arrested and put in prison, but experienced a miraculous
deliverance through the intervention of the angels. At first opportunity
they obeyed the command sent through the angels, but while preaching in the
Temple, they were again arrested, but this time they were beaten. This only
made them to rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the
great name of Him whom they had come to love, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
[To be concluded]
---
[Reproduced with permission of Charles E. Wigg]
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(4) <PROPHETICAL>
"THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-20)
III. THE BLESSEDNESS OF OUR HOPE
Arthur W. Pink
....
4. Because of its bearing upon Christ Himself
------------------------------------------------
Our Lord Himself is waiting that blest moment when He shall rise from the
Father's Throne, descend to the air and catch up His loved and redeemed ones
to be for ever with Himself. What other meaning can possibly be given to
that remarkable word recorded in Rev. 1:9--"I John, who also am your
brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of
Jesus Christ." And again we read, "But this Man, after He had offered one
sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God. From
henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool" (Heb. 10:12,
13). Yes, for well nigh two thousand years, our Lord has patiently waited
for the last predestined member to be added to the Church which is His body.
Nay, may we not go further, and reverently say, from all eternity the Lord
Jesus has been waiting to possess that people given to Him by the Father
before the foundation of the world! It was for this "joy" that was set
before Him that He despised the cross and endured its shame (Heb. 12:2). It
was for this "one pearl" which He esteemed of "great price"--oh! wondrous
thought--that He went and sold all that He had to buy it (Matt. 13:46). It
is for this blood-purchased people that He has been interceding on high
since the day of His ascension. And at His Second Advent the time of
waiting, the long interval of His "patience," will be ended. Then it will be
that He shall come to receive us unto Himself. Then it will be that He shall
present the Church to Himself "a glorious church, not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish"
(Eph. 5:27). Then it will be that "He shall see of the travail of His soul
and be satisfied"(Is. 53:11). O blessed Hope. Well may we cry "Even so,
come, Lord Jesus." For Him, too, as well as for us, this is "that blessed
hope."
And now, dear reader, What is your hope? What is it that is occupying your
heart and filling your vision? Is it the prospect of a speedily returning
Redeemer? If you are truly the Lord's then do you not yearn to see Him face
to face? Do you not long to fall at His feet and say "my Lord and my God"?
Surely you do, for you cannot be fully satisfied in this world. How could
you be? How can you find satisfaction in a world from which your Saviour is
absent? "Earth is a wilderness, not merely (no, nor chiefly) because of its
trials and its hardships, its sorrows and its pangs, its disappointments and
reverses, but because He is not here. Heaven would not be heaven to the
saint if Jesus were not there. He, His presence (as that which introduces us
to it), His coming is our hope--the hope of the Christian, the hope of the
Church. May our hearts cherish it as we have never done! May its brightness
so attract us that earth's fairest, loveliest, most enchanting scenes may be
weariness itself to our hearts, as detaining us from the object of our
hopes! May that object so animate us that earth's heaviest afflictions--the
narrowest, most rugged, and most thorny portions of the narrow way--may be
welcome to us, as the path that leads us onwards to the goal of our
expectations the home of our heart, the Jesus whose presence makes it what
it is, whose love made Him tread a narrower and a darker path than this, and
whose smile of ineffable satisfaction shall crown the faith that has trusted
Him, the love that has followed Him, and the patience of hope which has
waited for Him, throughout this dreary journey, along this narrow way, amid
the darkness and solitude of this long and dismal night" (W. Trotter).
[To be concluded]
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(5) <APOLOGETICS>
"CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS, AN INTRODUCTION - (PART-8)"
M. Copland
....
II. WHAT IF IT WERE SHOWN CONCERNING THE NEW TESTAMENT...
A. THAT IT WAS WRITTEN OVER 100 YEARS AFTER THE EVENTS SUPPOSEDLY
HAPPENED?
1. Then the New Testament was not written by eyewitnesses, nor by
those whose names are connected with it (Paul, Peter, etc.)!
2. It was the general consensus of many scholars in the last
century that the New Testament was in fact composed during the
Second Century A.D., not the First
3. If such is true, then the New Testament is a FORGERY!
B. THAT IT IS FILLED WITH ERRORS IN REFERENCE TO GEOGRAPHY, PEOPLE,
AND EVENTS?
1. Then how could we trust the authors of the New Testament to be
accurate in describing supernatural events, when they were
careless with describing the natural ones?
2. This would make the New Testament an UNRELIABLE RECORD!
C. THAT THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE IS VERY SCARCE, AND A THOUSAND YEARS
REMOVED FROM THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS?
1. Then we would have no way of testing the accuracy of the
copyists, who for hundreds of years preserved the New Testament
only by making copies by hand
2. Then our faith in Jesus would be based upon shallow ground,
upon a document which is historically questionable!
III. OUR FAITH IN JESUS IS DEPENDENT ON THE NEW TESTAMENT BEING
RELIABLE AS A HISTORICAL DOCUMENT!
A. "BLIND FAITH" MAY SEEM ADEQUATE FOR SOME...
1. For children who believe whatever their parents say
2. For people who are never placed in an environment where their
faith is challenged (like state universities)
3. For people who are not trying to convince others to trust in
Jesus for their salvation
B. BUT IF WE DESIRE TO HAVE A "STRONG FAITH" FOR OURSELVES AND
OTHERS...
1. Then we need to understand our dependency upon the New
Testament
2. We need to know how to demonstrate the evidence which supports
it as a reliable, historical document!
CONCLUSION
1. Hopefully, we now appreciate the need to carefully examine the
evidence for the historical reliability of the New Testament
2. In doing so, we shall apply the same kind of tests applied to any
ancient document to determine its reliability!
3. The next study will examine what is the "ACID TEST" for any ancient
document claiming to be a historical record of certain events...
[To be concluded]
---
© M. Copland 2002
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