----------------------------<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@...] [<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> Archives/Read online: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <31 October 2002> 1) <Devotional> "Have a good day" - Ravi Zacharias 2) <Science> "Are we alone in the universe?" (Pt-3/5) - Dr. Ray Bohlin 3) <Prophecy> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-67)- A.W.Pink 4) <Poem> "Dead to sin by the cross of Christ" - S.M. I. Watts 1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> "HAVE A GOOD DAY" Ravi Zacharias "Have a good day." Do you find yourself uttering this common phrase without giving any thought to what it is that you are actually saying? If we go beyond the mechanized utterance, what does this well-wishing phrase that populates our speech mean? Actually, it is not well-wishing. It is well-hoping. We hope they have a good day. Human beings are hopeful beings, so it is right that hope be found in our everyday language. But when we say "Have a good day," what is it that we are hoping for the other person? We hope for goodness in their life. So when we break out of the programmed farewell and say, "Have a good day," we are hoping that goodness surrounds them in their day. But what is the nature of this goodness that we are hoping for? Superficial pop-culture voices say that it is money or fame or success. For them, "Have a good day" means "Get rich today." To the hopeless among us-sadly they are in no short supply-there is no goodness to be found in life and so their "Have a good day" means "Good luck not getting killed." To the high-minded philosopher, goodness is a principle or an eternal Form. Her "Have a good day" may mean "Know a principle today." Are these the hopes you have for others or for yourself? You know, they aren't really my hopes. Consider the word good. The modern English word for good derives from the Old English word god-our contemporary word God derives from this same word. This reveals something quite astounding about how the Old English language cast the world: It connected God with good, goodness with Godness. To the Old English speaker "Have a good day" meant "Have a God day" or "Go with God, be with God, be with goodness." You see, their linguistic connection reveals a deep facet about reality: Goodness is intimately connected to God. He is the absolute. Wonderfully, He wants to share this goodness with us. And He also wants us to share with others the goodness He has given to us. Jesus says this when He says that God wants us to know Him, love Him, and to likewise love our neighbor. So, dear friends, let us speak with our Old English bequest and say to those around us, "Have a God day, go with Him, be with Him, be in goodness." Now you could, of course, prefer the Spanish and still say thesame thing: "Adios!" --- 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. _______________________________________________________________________ 2) <SCIENCE> ARE WE ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE? (PART-3 OF 5) THE IMPROBABILITY OF LIFE ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE Dr. Ray Bohlin .... I would like to address the amazing optimism of so many that the universe is teeming with life. No doubt this is fueled by the tremendous success of such science fiction works as Star Wars and Star Trek which eloquently present the reasonableness of a universe pregnant with intelligent life forms. Inherent within this optimism is the evolutionary assumption that if life evolved here, certainly we should not arrogantly suppose that life could not have evolved elsewhere in the universe. And if life in general exists in the universe, then, of course, there must be intelligent life out there as well. This is the basic assumption of the SETI program, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. This is the program, now privately funded instead of federally funded, that searches space for radio waves emanating from another planet that would indicate the presence of intelligent life. But is such a hope realistic? Is there a justifiable reason for suspecting that planets suitable to life exist elsewhere in the universe? Over the last two decades scientists have begun tabulating many characteristics of our universe, galaxy, solar system, and planet that appear to have been finely-tuned for life to exist. Christian astronomer and apologist, Dr. Hugh Ross documents all these characteristics in his book Creator and the Cosmos,{3} and is constantly updating them. In the book's second edition (1995), Ross documents 26 characteristics of the universe and 33 characteristics of our galaxy, solar system, and planet that are finely-tuned for life to exist. Some examples include the size, temperature, and brightness of our sun, the size, chemical composition, and stable orbit of Earth. The fact that we have one moon and not none or two or three. The distance of the Earth from the sun, the tilt of the earth's axis, the speed of the earth's rotation, the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun. If any of these factors were different by even a few percent, the ability of Earth to sustain life would be severely comprised. Recently it has been noted that even the presence of Jupiter and Saturn serve to stabilize the orbit of Earth. Without these two large planets present exactly where they are, the Earth would be knocked out of its present near circular orbit into an elliptical one causing higher temperature differences between seasons and subjecting Earth to greater meteor interference. Neither condition is hospitable to the continuing presence of life. Ross has further calculated the probabilities of all these factors coming together by natural processes alone to be 1 in 10-53; that's a decimal point followed by 52 zeroes and then a one. A very liberal estimate of how many planets there may be, though we have only documented 18, is 1022 or 10 billion trillion planets, one for every star in the universe. Combining these two probabilities tells us that there are 10-31 planets in the entire universe that could support life. Obviously this is far less than one; therefore, by natural processes alone, we shouldn't even be here--let alone some kind of alien life form. So unless God created life elsewhere, we are alone, and for the materialistic evolutionist, this is a frightening thought. [To be concluded] --- [Copyright © 2002 Probe Ministries - This file is the sole property of Probe Ministries. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this file must contain the copyright notice and this Copyright/Reproduction Limitations notice.]_____________________________________________________________________ 3) "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-67) THE RECOVERY AND REVIVAL OF THE BLESSED HOPE ITSELF Arthur W. Pink .... 10. Because there is not a single Scripture in the Church Epistles which, rightly interpreted, teaches a partial rapture (2/2) .... But further still. Death did not retain Christ. He rose again, and in the reckoning of God I rose too, for all believers were identified (reckoned one with) with Christ in His resurrection, so that it is written, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins (spiritually, and therefore, judicially), hath quickened (made alive) us together with Christ" (Eph. 2:4, 9). It is not our individual spiritual quickening (the new birth) that is here in view, but our judicial identification with Christ--"together with Christ." The next verse goes farther still and informs us that, in the reckoning of God, all believers were identified with Christ in His ascension--"And hath raised us up together (Christ and His people), and made us sit together in the Heavenlies (Greek) in Christ Jesus." Observe that this is "in Christ Jesus" which refers to our position before God (compare "in Christ Jesus" Rom. 8:1) and is not at all a question of experience or attainment. We are now prepared to consider the fourth aspect of "death" and "resurrection." Every believer in Christ has "died to sin," died judicially not experimentally, died in the sight of God because he was "crucified with Christ." Here then is where faith comes in. God says I am"dead to sin" (Rom. 6:2), but "I don't feed dead to sin: my experience shows me otherwise" says one. Beloved, it is not a question of "feelings" or "experience" but of believing the testimony of God. Hear Him: "Reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto sin (Greek) and to be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:11). Here then is the experimental death and resurrection. By faith I am to translate into my practical life what is true of me judicially. Believing God's Word which tells me I have died unto sin and that I am alive unto God through (or rather "IN") Jesus Christ our Lord, I am now to live in the realization and power of that truth. This is what the apostle had reference to when he said, "Mortify(put to death) therefore your members which are upon the earth" (Col. 3:5): the "therefore" looking back to the previous verses where he had been discussing the believer's judicial death and resurrection. It was as though he said, See to it that your practical state corresponds with the standing which you have before God "in Christ." Returning now to Philippians 3. Here Paul is speaking of "resurrection" but, as we have seen, the New Testament treats of four different orders of resurrection, to which of them then is the apostle here referring? Is he here speaking of physical resurrection, spiritual resurrection, judicial resurrection, or experimental resurrection? The context must decide. A close reading of the entire passage will make it evident that it is experimental resurrection which the apostle had before him. The whole passage refers to his practical experience and is a biographical amplification of Romans 6:11. Beginning at the seventh verse he says--"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things (how evident it is that the apostle is here recounting a practical experience!), and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know Him (the Greek word here is "ginosko" and means know intimately), and the power of His resurrection" (verses 3 to 10). The apostle yearned to live as one who had been raised from the dead. He longed to walk in "newness of life." He desired that he should no longer "serve sin." And the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." The apostle longed to tread the same path his Lord had trod, to be baptized with the baptism He had been baptized with, and to drink of the cup which He drank (Mark. 10:38, 39). "If by any means I might attain unto the out-resurrection from among the dead" (Phil. 3:11), that is, if, by any means I might experience the full and blessed effects of complying completely with the terms of Rom. 6:11--reckon myself indeed to have died unto sin and be alive unto God. The apostle longed to apprehend or lay hold of that for which he had been apprehended, namely, to be "conformed to the image of God's Son." What he desired above every thing else for himself, was that he might realize practically in his daily life, that which was true of him judicially in regard to his standing before God. But had the apostle fully achieved his ambition? Had he arrived at the place where he was now beyond the reach of the lusts of the "old man"? Did he never yield to temptation? Was he delivered from the very presence of sin? Nay, verily. The language of the next verse is very emphatic--"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect" (vs. 12). Here is proof positive that in the previous verse the apostle was not writing about a future resurrection of the body, for if participation in the first resurrection (or of an eclectic resurrection at the return of Christ) is the reward for a life of exceptional spirituality, the apostle here acknowledges that he himself did not measure up to the required standard--and if he did not, who has? No, this passage proves too much for the partial-rapturist, for in making the resurrection of believers a matter of spiritual attainment he excludes the Apostle Paul himself! It should be evident that the apostle is here referring to an experimental resurrection, something which had to do with his practical everyday life. Someone once said to an Irish brother, "Pat, you are dead to sin: Your old man was crucified with Christ." "Yes," was the reply "but, I'm frequently troubled with my ghost." Says the apostle, "I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind (his successes and his failures; his attainments and his sins), and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark (goal) for the prize of the high calling (or "vocation") of God in Christ" (vss. 13, 14). A further word on this last verse. Note the apostle speaks of "the prize of the high calling" which is quite distinct from the "high-calling" itself. The "high-calling of God in Christ Jesus" is the judicial position which is occupied by every believer. It is to this the apostle referred when he said, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation(the "high-calling") wherewith ye are called"(Eph. 4:1), and for those who do "walk worthy" there is a "prize." Did the apostle succeed in winning it? We certainly believe so. 2 Tim. 4 is the SEQUEL toPhil. 3! Listen to the beloved apostle as he has arrived at the close of his earthly pilgrimage--"I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness (the "prize" he so earnestly coveted), which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing" (2 Tim 4:6-8). May grace be given both reader and writer to fight the good fight of faith, to finish our course with joy, and to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. [To be concluded] _______________________________________________________________________ 4) <POEM> DEAD TO SIN BY THE CROSS OF CHRIST (Rom 6:1,2,6) S.M. I. Watts Shall we go on to sin, Because thy grace abounds? Or crucify the Lord again, And open all his wounds? Forbid it, mighty God! Nor let it e'er be said That we, whose sins are crucified, Should raise them from the dead. We will be slaves no more, Since Christ has made us free; Has nailed our tyrants to his cross, And brought us liberty. -----------------------------------<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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------