-----------------------------<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> <2 November 2002> Contents: ------------ 1) <Devotional> "Opthlmadoulian: Appearance Bound" - Ravi Zacharias 2) <Science> "Are we alone in the universe?" (Pt-5/5) - Dr. Ray Bohlin 3) <Prophecy> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-69)- A.W.Pink 1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> OPTHLMADOULIAN: APPEARANCE BOUND Ravi Zacharias Opthlmadoulian. If you don't know Ancient Greek that must sound like nonsense to you. But it is no such thing. It is a powerful word that captures a powerful idea. It means slave to the eyes. Do your eyes rule you? Do your eyes dictate to your heart and your mind what you want, instead of the reverse? Such servitude is rampant in our society. Turn on the television and that settles it. The icons of the entertainment world spend inordinate portions of the day on their appearance. It goes with the territory. Or consider our cultural fetish of trying to impress others with cars, or wealth, or titles. Then there are the advertisers who've learned how to appeal to the eye-invariably with some perfect looking personality. Now, I do not mean to suggest that the visual is inherently bad; nor am I suggesting that the eye is not an important factor in judgment. The problem comes when the appearance of a thing ceases to be a window into the heart of a matter but instead hijacks the show and becomes the sole attraction. Noticing that another person is attractive is not wrong, but viewing him or her as an attractive thing-that is seduction. You see, the appearance is not the person. I am concerned about enslavement to the eyes and its fixation on appearances because the richest, deepest, and noblest aspects of reality run deeper than appearances. And we will miss them if our eyes rule us instead of the other way around. Faith, hope, love-you will miss them if you are in bondage to the eye. God, too, is missed by those who can't see beyond the visible. You know, Jesus spoke of the blind leading the blind. Don't fall into that pit. Jesus is the master of seeing beyond appearances to the heart of the matter. He told us to let our eye be single-meaning purposefully directed, not handcuffed by the visual. Time and again through the gospels Jesus saw past the barriers and pretensions people put up to hide from His knowing gaze. But fortunately for them, and for us, He will not be misled by human attempts to deceive with appearances. He sees that we need love, and hope, and meaning. Jesus is not a slave to the eyes, and if you let Him, He can free you by teaching you how to see yourself truly and also to truly see others. Let the truly-seeing Jesus lead you instead of the blind. --- 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-5 OF 5) INDEPENDENCE DAY, THE MOVIE Dr. Ray Bohlin In the movie Independence Day, an alien battle force swoops down on Earth with the intention of destroying the human race, sucking the planet dry of all available resources and then moving on to some other unlucky civilization in the galaxy. But, those indomitable humans aided by good old American ingenuity outsmart those dull-witted aliens and Earth is saved. The story has been told many times, but perhaps never as well or never with such great special effects. The movie was a huge success. But why are we continually fascinated by the possibility of alien cultures? The movie gave the clear impression that there must be great numbers of intelligent civilizations out there in the universe. This notion has become widely accepted in our culture. Few recognize that the supposed existence of alien civilizations is based on evolutionary assumptions. The science fiction of Star Trek and the Star Wars begins with evolution. As I've stated earlier, evolutionists simply rationalize that since life evolved here with no outside interference, the universe must be pregnant with life. Astronomer Carl Sagan put it this way after he had reviewed the so-called success of early Earth chemical evolution experiments: Nothing in such experiments is unique to the earth. The initial gases, and the energy sources, are common throughout the Cosmos. Chemical reactions like those in our laboratory vessels may be responsible for the organic matter in interstellar space and the amino acids found in meteorites. Some similar chemistry must have occurred on a billion other worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy. The molecules of life fill the Cosmos.{6} Sagan strongly suggests that the probabilities and chemistry of the universe dictate that life is ubiquitous in the galaxy. But as I stated earlier, the odds overwhelmingly dictate that our planet is the only one suitable for life in the universe. And the chemistry on Earth also indicates that life is extremely hard to come by. The probability of life simply based on chance occurrences is admitted by many evolutionists to be remote indeed. Many are now suggesting that life is inevitable because there are yet undiscovered laws of nature that automatically lead to complex life forms. In other words, the deck of cards is fixed. Listen to Nobel Laureate and biochemist, Christian de Duve: We are being dealt thirteen spades not once but thousands of times in succession! This is utterly impossible, unless the deck is doctored. What this doctoring implies with respect to the assembly of the first cell is that most of the steps involved must have had a very high likelihood of taking place under the prevailing conditions. Make them even moderately improbable and the process must abort, however many times it is initiated, because of the very number of successive steps involved. In other words, contrary to Monod's affirmation, the universe was--and presumably still is--pregnant with life.{7} The only problem with de Duve's suggestion is that we know of no natural processes that will lead automatically to the complexity of life. Everything we know of life leads to the opposite conclusion. Life is not a product of chance or necessity. Life is a product of intelligence. Without Divine interference we are alone in the universe and without Christ, we are--and should be--terrified. The gospel is as relevant as ever. [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) <PROPHECY> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-69) THE CHURCH-WARD RESULTS OF THE REDEEMER'S RETURN Arthur W. Pink .... 1. The Lord's descent from Heaven. "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout." The Lord Himself--who had compassion on the multitude, shed tears at the graveside of Lazarus, and wept over Jerusalem; who healed the sick, cleansed the leper, and restored the dead to life; who stilled the angry waves, cast out demons, and emancipated the captives of Satan; who was despised and rejected of men, condemned to a malefactor's death, and was crucified on the accursed tree; who rose again on the third day, ascended to heaven, and took His place at the right hand of the Majesty on high; who has been given the Name which is above every name, at which Name every knee shall yet bow, "of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Yes "this same Jesus" shall descend from heaven with a shout. Forty days after our Crucified Saviour had risen from the tomb, He ascended into Heaven "far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come," and took His seat upon the Father's Throne. There He has remained throughout this dispensation waiting, patiently waiting for the promised harvest. As He declared, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24). The Lord Jesus was the "Corn of Wheat" that died, and the Church which is His body is the "much fruit" that will be the immediate issue out of that death; we say the "immediate issue," for in the Millennium many others shall then also enter into the salvation which was purchased upon the cross. For nineteen long centuries has the Christ of God waited for the fruit of His travail. As the apostle James says, "Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it" (Jas. 5:7). Long indeed has the Lord of the harvest waited. Thus, too, we read of "The kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 1:9). Slowly but surely has the Church which is His body been growing, growing "till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). And now the time of waiting is over. The last member has been added to the Body; the last living stone has been fitted into that Temple which the Holy Spirit is now building (Eph. 2:21); the last moments of the dispensation of grace have run out. Now has come that hour for which the Redeemer has waited so long. Now has come the time for the Head to be united to the Body. Now it is that the Saviour is to see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. "The Lord Himself shall descend." Unspeakably precious is this word to the hearts of His own. Christ is coming in person to effect the object which He has in view. The joy of welcoming His blood-bought people must be exclusively His own. Angels can not be commissioned to perform it, as will be the case when He gathers His scattered people Israel (see Matt. 24:31). Gabriel was granted the honorus privilege of announcing to Mary the first advent of Christ, yet not even to him will be entrusted this work. Christ Himself shall give the gathering shout. The Lord Himself shall descent. "I will come again" was His promise. The same blessed Lord Jesus who loved His own unto death, and who has gone to prepare a place for them, is the very One who has pledged His word to return for them. He will not send the arch-angel to conduct us to the Father's House. No; the Lord Himself is the One who shall descend from Heaven with a shout"--with a "shout" of triumph, with a "shout" of joy, with a "shout" of welcome. That Voice which summoned Lazarus from the tomb, shall again be heard calling the sleeping saints forth from their graves. That Voice of the Shepherd who addresseth His own sheep by name, shall then be heard calling His "little flock" from the valley of the shadow of death unto pastures ever green. That Voice which is "as the sound of many waters" (Rev. 1:15) shall then be heard summoning His people Home. "The Voice of my Beloved; behold, He cometh leaping upon the mountains skipping upon the hills" (Song of Solomon 2:8). And what is it that the Voice of the Beloved shall say? "My Beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, My love, My fair one, and come away" (vss. 10-13). We turn now to consider--[To be concluded] -----------------------------------<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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------