-------------------------<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> <30 November 2002> Contents: ---------- 1) <Devotional> "Press one for the profane" - Ravi Zacharias 2) <Devotional> "Extremely derogatory to human pride?" - S.Tying 3) <Bible-Study> "What is the answer?" (Pt-22)-Charles Wigg 4) <Prophecy> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-93)- A.W.Pink 1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> "PRESS ONE FOR THE PROFANE" Ravi Zacharias Last year, one of my colleagues and her husband were trying to start a family. Hopeful that she was pregnant, she went to her HMO for a pregnancy test, and after completing it was handed a paper while the next woman in line was called. It said, "If this test is positive, you are pregnant. If you wish to begin prenatal care, dial this 1-800 number. If you wish to terminate this pregnancy, dial this 1-800 number." Basically, press one for this and two for that. So simple and expedient, and so utterly sad. An experience such as this causes one to shake his head in disbelief. Something profound has been lost when a new life can be treated with such mechanical directions. The wonder, the reverence, the awe at human life and its infinite value have been sacrificed at the altar of selfishness and expediency. We have failed to acknowledge God's gift and are paying the price in a world where nothing is sacred any more. A world bereft of reverence breeds the very malady now bemoaned by secular intellectuals who seem mystified by what plagues them. Scientist Carl Sagan's writings are a classic example. He lamented the fact that modern day scientists have lost their sense of wonder, yet seems to miss the point that they were being more consistent than he was. When the universe is stripped away from a Creator, how long can brute facts enthrall the mind? Ideas have an expiration date for thrills; only the glory of a person is inexhaustible. The same applies to sexuality. If its sanctity is lost, intimacy loses its meaning and becomes mere self-gratification. Ultimately it is the person behind the relationship that provokes wonder because of the divine image stamped upon the human personality. If the person is a means to an end, then the greater has been destroyed by the lesser. Can reverence be recovered? I wish it were as easy as pressing one for this and two for that, but it is not. At its root, our problem is not of the mind but of an unbending will. When reverence has been lost, it is because people have refused to follow where the logic of life's splendor must lead and instead dismiss it as mere matter. That is why the Bible reminds us that reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom. That wisdom reminds us that every life is of essential worth and not an object to be toyed with. --- 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) <DEVOTIONAL> "EXTREMELY DEROGATORY TO HUMAN PRIDE?" Stephen Tying Sin has entirely perverted the nature of man. The carnal mind is opposed to God in its: judgments, tastes, desires, and pursuits. God demands that guilty man: sacrifice his own imaginary independence, renounce his own fancied excellence, and acknowledge his personal unworthiness, before he can be received into the family of God. Such demands seem extremely derogatory to human pride. And for this reason, multitudes reject all the offers of the Gospel, and treat with contempt those who yield to the invitations which they themselves despise, and submit to the motives which they renounce, as deluded and degraded people. _______________________________________________________________________ 3) <BIBLE-STUDY> "WHAT IS THE ANSWER?" (PART-22) Charles E. Wigg .... This is the situation faced by many today, the “Creditor has come”, but how can we avoid this disaster? The answer lies in the ‘pot of oil’, the person of the Holy Spirit, and the revival of true evangelism. We need to borrow vessels from abroad, empty vessels, and the measure of our faith will determine the number. These empty vessels represent people that are without Christ. Because, until Christ comes into the human life we are but an empty shell, an empty vessel. Though men were meant to contain the Life content of God, yet through sin, there is just an emptiness, a vacuum in the human soul. The number of the vessels borrowed, was determined by the faith of the widow, and ultimately determined what the widow’s wealth would be, but the prophet told her, “Let it not be few”. It has been said “Faith attempts great things for God, and faith expects great things from God”. They must have gazed with awe as the oil flowed, such a small pot, and such large vessels, yet while ever the widow poured, the golden oil flowed. It is to be noted that she held the pot, and the boys brought the empty vessels to her. The pouring out was not entrusted to the inexperienced, but the oil flowed from the pot that was held in the hands of a mature, experienced mother figure. Thank God for the exuberance and the enthusiasm of youth, it is very refreshing to see, but it needs to be tempered by the mellowness and maturity that age, experience, (and in this case, sorrow,) brings. The oil flowed until the last vessel was filled, and then it ceased. Perhaps then they wished that they had borrowed more vessels, that their faith had been greater. WHAT TO DO NEXT? The widow now had another problem, she had a house full of borrowed vessels filled with oil, what was she to do? So she returned to Elisha for advice, and he told her to sell the oil, to pay her debt, then to live with her sons on the residue of the great profit that she had gained. While ever the vessels full of oil remained unsold in the house, the debt, and the consequent danger of losing her sons remained. She was to distribute her oil to others, who would give her money for it. Thus she shared the blessing, and became rich as she did so. The writer of the Proverbs says, “There is that scattereth yet increaseth; and there is that witholdeth more than is fitting, yet it tendeth only to poverty”. Prov. 11:24. When God gives an undeserved blessing, He intends that we share it with others. It is thus that we become spiritually wealthy as we share His blessing with others. There is one thing that we must note, that is that the vessels were borrowed, the oil was the property of the widow and her sons, but the vessels were not. I have noticed over the years that those that adopt aloof, pharisaical, and exclusive attitudes, seem to regard the members of their fellowship as belonging to them. They dare not go anywhere else, or break bread with any other believers, except those that they regard as being in ‘fellowship’ with them. Some go so far as to teach that it is only those people that are in fellowship with them or their group, that are truly saved, and will at last be in heaven. Thank God, that is not so! If it was so, then heaven would be a very lonely place. No the vessels will always belong to ANOTHER, and for us this means that even if we are used to the blessing of God’s people, yet we can never claim them as ours. “The Lord knoweth them that are His”, (2Tim.2:19), it must always be so. Let us thank God for those with whom we can pursue righteousness, faith, love & peace, those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart, but never let us claim them as ours! [To be concluded] --- [Reproduced with permission] _____________________________________________________________________ 4) <PROPHECY> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-93) THE REVELATION AND CAREER OF THE ANTI-CHRIST 9/9 WHO IS ANTI-CHRIST? Arthur W. Pink .... Putting together the various Scriptures at which we have little more than glanced, we learn that the Anti-christ will be a supernatural being--the Son of Perdition; that he will be revealed subsequent to the departure of the Holy Spirit from the earth (which occurs at the Rapture of the saints); that he will be the greatest soul-destroyer that has ever trod this earth. He will be the Super-Man for whom the world is already looking. He will personify all the godless culture of the last days, and will be endowed with a supernatural wisdom. He will be the consummation of vileness--"the Wicked One;" he will be the personification of evil--"the Man of Sin;" he will be the incarnation of the Devil--"the Son of Perdition." He will pose as the Christ of God and will substantiate his claims by performing wonderful miracles. He will be welcomed and cordially received by all Christendom. He will utterly deceive the majority of the Jews who will hail him as their long-expected Messiah. He will rule over a restored Roman Empire thus travestying Christ who, in the Millennium, will sit as a priest upon His throne. He will be a warrior of worldwide renown, a statesman of unrivaled skill, a man of transcendent genius, before whom the exploits of Caesar, Charlemagne and Napoleon will appear trifling. Kings will be his toys and thrones his playthings. Toward the close of his reign he will throw off his mask, no longer assuming to be the real Christ, but standing forth in his own colors he will deny both God the Father and God the Son, will seek to exterminate the Jews and everything else which bears witness to the living God; will set up his own image in the rebuilt Temple at Jerusalem, and under pain of death will compel all to worship it and receive his mark upon their bodies. But he will meet with summary judgment at the end, as we shall yet see. We turn now to consider, ----- It is further to be noted that the Anti-christ is twice termed "Death and Hades" (Is. 28:18; Rev. 6:8) as if to intimate he came from Hades the place, which receives the souls of the dead. - See "Appendix" P. 397. [To be concluded] ---------------------------<BrethrenVoice>--------------------------- Subscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-subscribe@...> Unsubscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-unsubscribe@...> FAQs/Faith Statement, eMail: <brethrenvoice-faq@...> <BrethrenVoice> Home: www.brethrenvoice.com <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 _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963