-------------------------<BrethrenVoice>------------------------- [which seeks to be guided solely by the NT Biblical pattern, facilitates free flow of Christian info. To God be the glory!] [eMail Moderator: brethrenvoice-owner@...] [The Moderator would welcome your comments/feedback] [<SUNDAY-GLEANINGS> Archives/Read online: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <SUNDAY-GLEANINGS> <22 September 2002> Contents: ----------- (1) <Devotional> "Treasury of David - Psalm 84:7"- C.H.Spurgeon (2) <Bible-Study> "Exposition of the Levitical offerings" (Pt-7)-C.E.Wigg (3) <Exhortational> "None shall appear before me empty" (4) <Bible-Study> "Perfect through sufferings" (1 of 2)- F.B. Meyer (5) <From-the-Gleaner> "Top-stories-of-the-week" - Ben (1) <DEVOTIONAL> TREASURY OF DAVID - PSALM 84:7 C. H. Spurgeon Verse 7. They go from strength to strength. So far from being wearied they gather strength as they proceed. Each individual becomes happier, each company becomes more numerous, each holy song more sweet and full. We grow as we advance if heaven be our goal. If we spend our strength in God's ways we shall find it increase. Every one of them in Zion appeared before God. This was the end of the pilgrim's march, the centre where all met, the delight of all hearts. Not merely to be in the assembly, but to appear before God was the object of each devout Israelite. Would to God it were the sincere desire of all who in these days mingle in our religious gatherings. Unless we realise the presence of God we have done nothing; the mere gathering together is nothing worth. _______________________________________________________ (2) <BIBLE-STUDY> THE BREAD OF GOD - AN EXPOSITION OF SOME OF THE LEVITICAL OFFERINGS (PART-7) Charles E. Wigg .... IDENTIFICATION WITH THE OFFERING - In verse four of chapter one, the worshipper was to put his hands on the head of the victim, and in doing this completely identified himself with the animal that was to die. Once he did this we are told that "It shall be accepted for him to make an atonement for him". We are told in Ephesians chapter one verse six, that we are "Accepted in the Beloved", that is, in the person of Christ, because of his worth and excellence. The laying on of the hands of the worshipper in this case did not involve the transfer of his guilt to the offering, as with some other offerings, but rather the complete and personal identification of the offerer with the sacrifice. In its application to us this means the realization that Christ gave himself for us, (in the collective sense,) and for me, (in the individual sense,) i.e., "The Son of God loved me, and gave himself for me", (Gal.2:20.) It is wonderful to know that Christ gave himself, but even more wonderful to know that he gave himself for us, even for me. The worshipper then found acceptance in the offering. As mentioned earlier, we are taught this in Eph. 1:6 & 7, where we are told that we are "accepted in the Beloved; In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.' - thus we find both acceptance and atonement, (the forgiveness of sins) in Him, but through his blood. All this is meant to stimulate our hearts and to move them to worship. The word atonement means to cover, so that we are able to approach God, covered with his worth, excellence and righteousness, being accepted in him, and because of him. THE ACT OF SACRIFICE - In Lev. 1:5, we see the most poignant and saddest part of the whole exercise. The priest puts a sharp knife into the hand of the offerer who kills the bullock before the LORD. In the light of what we have already seen, that must have been a very hard thing for the person to do. To violently end the life of the animal that he loved, which he had led unresisting to the place of sacrifice, must have hurt him very much, especially as it was the knife that he held in his own hand that shed the blood, and ended the life of the innocent victim. But this is meant to bring home to us the solemn fact that we are responsible for the sufferings and death of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. This should never fail to humble us, and to move our hearts to worship. We often condemn the cruel and horrible things that the Jews and Romans did to the Lord Jesus, but we should never forget that we were the cause of it all. "We had that debt augmented, which thou didst pay in blood". What a moving sight it must have been as the blood gushed out, and was caught by the priest in a vessel. It reminds of the experience of John, when he saw the soldier thrust the spear violently into the side of our dead Saviour, thereby releasing that precious flow of his redeeming blood, as John said, "And immediately there flowed out blood and water, ( John 19;34.). It would be good for us also, in our minds to go to Golgotha and stand with John and the weeping women there, to see the tortured, bruised body of our precious Saviour hanging lifeless there, to see the blood and water gushing forth. There we must surely bow in worship, saying to our souls, "The Son of God...loved me and gave himself for me. The blood of the victim was subsequently taken by the priest and sprinkled round about upon the altar, (the brazen altar,) that was by the door of the tabernacle. That blood spoke to God, ( and also to us), of the "Precious blood of Christ" as Peter called it. Redemption is now accomplished, the price is paid, the claims of divine righteousness fully met, so that God is not only satisfied, but also glorified, and we are perfected forever by that wondrous sacrifice, all glory be to his great and holy name! [To be concluded] --- [Reproduced with permission] _______________________________________________________ (3) <Exhortational> "NONE SHALL APPEAR BEFORE ME EMPTY" Author Unknown Ex.23:14-17; Ex.34:20-24; Deut.16;16,17 - "And none shall appear before me empty." If this was expressed in its positive form it would read: "They shall come before me as worshippers." For to worship is the presenting of something to God. The first mention of "worship" in the Old Testament gives us the basic and central thought in connection with the subject of worship. In Genesis 22:5 we read that Abraham said: "I and the lad will go yonder and worship." Abraham was about to offer his son unto the Lord (offer = bring). So in the New Testament we find wise men presenting gifts to the infant Saviour. Matt.2:11 ...and fell down and worshipped. I hope you see the language which would describe the gratitude and thankfulness is that of Ps.103:1 "Bless the Lord O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name." The redeemed cannot appear before the redeemer "empty". Heb.13:15 says: "By Him therefore, (our redeemer) let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." Our hearts should be filled with love and our mouths with praise as we appear before our Saviour God. There are two aspects regards the believers position before God which may here be given due consideration. First, the believer is said to be born into the family of God, and thus by relationship God becomes his Father, and the believer becomes the child of God. Secondly, the Bible also speaks of the believer as being adopted into the family of God. In other words he is placed into the family of God with full status as a son by adoption. Entitled to all what belongs to his Father. 1 Peter 1:23 Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. Rom. 8:15 We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. Gal.4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of Sons, and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. There is an obvious reason for the two aspects of being born into the Family of God, and of being adopted into the Family. Being born into the family gives the child family and relationship rights, but in contrast, to be adopted into the family of God is to look back and remember from where we have been taken, and to where we have been placed - to make us thankful. Our God has done everything he could possibly do for us that "none before Him should appear empty handed." _______________________________________________________ (4) <BIBLE-STUDY> "PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS" (PART 1 OF 2) F.B. Meyer "It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Heb 2:10 THERE is no book which can stand the test of sorrow and suffering as the Bible can. Other books may delight us in sunny hours, when the heart is gay; but in dark and overcast days we fling them aside, and eagerly betake ourselves to our Bibles. And the reason for this is in the fact that this Book was born in the fires. It is soaked with the tears, either of those who wrote or of those addressed. Take, for instance, this Epistle. It was intended to solace the bitter anguish of these Hebrew Christians, who were exposed to the double fury of the storm. In the first place, there was the inevitable opposition and persecution to be encountered by all followers of the Nazarene; not only from the Gentiles, but specially from their fellow-countrymen, who accounted them apostates. Next, there was the pain of excommunication from the splendid rites of the Temple, with its daily service, its solemn feasts, its magnificent ceremonial. Only those amongst our-selves who from childhood have been wont to worship in some splendid minister, with its pealing organ, full-voiced choir, and mystery of architecture, arresting and enchaining every sense of beauty, but who have felt constrained to join the worship of an obscure handful in some plain meetinghouse, can realize how painfully those who were addressed in these words missed the religious associations of their early days. And then this suffering, thorn-crowned, dying Messiah! It seemed almost impossible to realize that he was the Christ of national desire. The objections that baffled the faith of the two travellers to Emmaus arose in almost irresistible force: "The chief priests and our rulers have crucified him; but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel" (Luke xxiv. 20). No attempt is made in these words to minimize the sufferings of Christ. That were impossible and superfluous. He is King in the realm of sorrow; peerless in his pain; supreme in his distress. Though earth be full of sufferers, none can vie with our Lord in his. Human nature is limited. The confines of its joys or sorrows are soon touched. The pendulum swings only hither and thither. But who shall estimate the capacity of Christ's nature? And because of it, he could taste the sweets of a joy beyond his fellows, and of sorrow so excessive as to warrant the challenge: "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." If it be true, as Carlyle says, that our sorrow is the inverted image of our nobility, how deep must the sorrow have been of the noblest of our race! Well may the Greek liturgy, with infinite pathos, speak of his "unknown sorrows." Shall the sufferings of Christ cause us to reject Christ? Ah, strange infatuation! As well reject the heaven because of its sun, or night because of the queenly moon; or a diadem because of its regal gem; or home because of mother. The sufferings of Christ are the proudest boast of the Gospel. He himself wears the insignia of them in heaven; as a general, on the day of triumph, chooses his choicest order to wear upon his breast. Yes, and it was the deliberate choice of him, "for whom are all things, and by whom are all things "-and who must, therefore, have had every expedient at his command-that the path of suffering should be his Son's way through our world. Every track through creation is as familiar to Omniscience as the tracks across the hills to the grey-haired, plaided shepherd. Had he wished, the Father might have conducted the Son to glory by another route than the thorny, flint-set path of suffering. But the reasons for this experience were so overwhelming that he could not evade them. Nothing else had been becoming. Those reasons may be stated almost in a sentence. Our Father has on hand a work greater than his original creation. He is "bringing many sons unto glory." The way may be rugged and tedious; but its end is glory. And it is the way along which our Father is bringing us; for, since we believe on the Son, we have the right to call ourselves sons (John i. 12). And there are many of us. Many sons, though only one Son. We do not go solitarily along the narrow way. We are but part of a multitude which no man can number. The glory of which we have already spoken, and into which Jesus has entered, is not for him alone, but for us also. "Many sons" are to be his joint-heirs; reigning with him on his throne, sharing his unsearchable riches and his everlasting reign. But all these sons must tread the path of suffering. Since the first sin brought suffering to our first parents, and bloodshed into the first home, there has been but one lot for those who will live Godly. Their road leads to glory; but every inch of it is stained with their blood and watered by their tears. It climbs to Hermon's summit; but it descends immediately into somber and devil-haunted plains. It conducts to the Mount of Olives, with its ascension light; but it first traverses the glades of Gethsemane, the wine-press of Golgotha, the solitude and darkness of the grave. "The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown." [To be concluded] _______________________________________________________ (5) <FROM-THE-GLEANER> A-GLANCE-AT-THE-TOP-STORIES-OF-THE-WEEK Ben IRAQ WON'T ACCEPT NEW UN RESOLUTION - Iraq said on Saturday that it would not accept any new UN Security Council resolution that runs contrary to an agreement reached with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. BUSH HAS DETAILED MILITARY PLAN FOR ATTACKING IRAQ - President George W. Bush has received a detailed Pentagon plan containing military options for deposing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, a senior defence official said on Saturday. FORCES READY FOR WAR - US GENERAL - Gen Tommy Franks, Head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) told a news conference in Kuwait that his troops were ready for war with Iraq whenever President Bush gave the order. ISRAEL CALLED ON ARAFAT TO HAND OVER MILITANTS - Israel called on Arafat to handover the 20 wanted militants it says are holed up in his headquarters and backed up its demands with guns that roared before day-break on Saturday. ARAFAT DEFIANT AS ISRAEL TIGHTENS SIEGE - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat vowed not to capitulate to Israel after its forces demolished parts of the building where he was under siege and turned most of his sprawling presidential compound into rubble. NO EVIDENCE OSAMA BIN LADEN IS STILL ALIVE; RUMSFELD - US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Saturday he had not seen any evidence since December 2001 that Osama bin Laden was still alive. ACTIVISTS MAKE 4TH BID TO KILL J&K MINISTER - Suspected activists launched the fourth failed attempt on the life of Kashmir's only female minister, police said, while 12 people died in violence ahead of a second phase of voting. THIRST FOR WATER TO END IN WAR? - The world's growing thirst for water is becoming a major potential trigger for war and global warming is set to accentuate that risk, experts say. CENTRAL BANKS, IMF WORRY OVER GLOBAL SHARE MARKET SLUMP - Plunging share prices worldwide are worrying more than just small shareholders ad major Western central banks and the IMF grow increasingly concerned about their impact on the much-awaited economic recovery. _____________________<BrethrenVoice>_____________________ Subscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-subscribe@...> Unsubscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-unsubscribe@...> FAQs/Faith Statement, eMail: <brethrenvoice-faq@...> <BrethrenVoice> Home: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ <eFellowship> Home: http://groups.msn.com/BrethrenChristiansForum/ "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith." 2 Cor 13:5 "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jn 8:32 _______________________________________________________