-------------------------<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: ben@...] [<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> archives/read online: http://associate.com/groups/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <13 January 2003> Contents: ------------ 1) <Devotional> "Clues and reminders" - Ravi Zacharias 2) <Bible-Study> "Ruth the Moabitess" (Pt-10/10)-Charles Wigg 3) <Prophecy> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-122/123)- A.W.Pink 1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> "CLUES AND REMINDERS - JILL CARATTINI" Ravi Zacharias In the play Julius Caesar Shakespeare muses: "You are not wood, you are not stones, but men." Emotions are simply expectations we have of one another. We do not expect a totally callous individual. In fact, we find the emotionless Timothy McVeighs who speak of their actions with stone cold faces both infuriating and disturbing. Why? Because we wholeheartedly sense that a human who can sever their emotions in that manner is somehow less than human. Quite simply, we are emotional beings. And I think this reality hints at something much deeper. It is evident that we were created to be personal beings. To know and be known. It is this truth which points us to a spiritual reality: There is a reason we were made to feel. Simply look at this truth in the physiological realm of the human body and the reality is further noted. What happens if one suffers a severe wound to the arm? Immediately you notice swelling and redness. But beyond this there is a "sensitivity" about this spot. A sensitivity, which basically indicates to you and me, "Protect this. Protect it, because if the damage continues, you will wound it in an even greater way." The illustration is clear. Our feelings and emotions display a similar "sensitivity" that has been planted within us to guide us; planted by a personal God who uses our personal emotions to direct us to that spiritual reality. Many hold the false impression that leprosy causes the stricken individual to lose limbs and body parts. But what happens to the body is not actually caused by the disease itself. You see, leprosy causes insensitivity in the body. Lepers lose fingers and limbs because without the sensitivity of pain to guide them, tissues become damaged beyond repair. What then happens when emotions have lost their sensitivity? One only has to look around. It is utterly frightening. Insensitivity disfigures reality. God reminds us in His book that our emotions are indicators of a deeper reality-a truth which rouses us to know Him. Listen to the words of David in Psalm 42 and hear the emotion in his voice. As the deer pants for the streams of water, so my soul thirsts for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. My tears have been my food day and night while men say to me all day long: Where is your God? .Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him. David was known as a man after God's own heart. His emotions were real, and he followed them to the very throne of Truth. --- Copyright(c) 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. A Slice of Infinity is a ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries _______________________________________________________________________ 2) <BIBLE-STUDY> "RUTH THE MOABITESS - THE NEARER KINSMAN" (PART-10/10) Charles E. Wigg .... There remained but one obstacle to the granting of Ruth's desire. There was another kinsman who was nearer and had first claim. Boaz went to the gate of the village and sat down there. When the nearer kinsman came he was asked by Boaz to sit down, while the village elders gathered. When told that Naomi wished to sell the parcel of land that belonged to Elimelech, he was minded to buy it. But when told that he must also buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, he then confessed, "I cannot redeem it for myself". I suggest that this nearer kinsman represents the Law. The law was given first; it had the prior claim. The law stated that the Moabite was not to come into Jehovah's congregation forever. The law could not accomplish the redemption of the guilty Gentiles. No man is justified by the law Gal. 3:11. Rom. 3:20. We are told that "what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh", Rom. 8:3. The Lord Jesus, our Redeemer has willingly done this, He has paid the price in full. On the cross He cried, "It is finished". Nothing more needs to be done. The price has been paid. Righteousness has been satisfied. He gave the law; He met its righteous claims. The law revealed the righteousness of God, but the Cross revealed both His righteousness, and His wondrous love. THE KINSMAN-REDEEMER. The man with the prior claim forfeited his legal right, and drew off his shoe in testimony to that fact. When we look back to the letter of the law, this was meant to be a token of disrespect. Deut. 25:9. But here we do not see any spitting in the face of the one that declined his responsibility. This shows us that the Lord Jesus did not come to make void the law, but to do what the law could not do, to make it honourable Mat. 5:17.Neither does the teaching of the gospel cast a slight upon the law. Rom. 3:31. Boaz then comes forward to declare his intention, and his willingness to pay the price. Not only did he buy the property, but also he bought Ruth to be his wife. All was done righteously, in the presence of honourable and competent witnesses. The hymn writer could say. The perfect righteousness of God Is witnessed in the Savior's blood; 'Tis in the cross of Christ we trace His righteousness yet wondrous grace. God could not pass the sinner by, Justice demands that he should die; But in the cross of Christ we see How God can save, yet righteous be. Peter tells us that we have not been redeemed by corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and with out spot. 1 Pet. 1:18-19. Paul also tells us that we are not our own, we have been bought with a price, (O what a price), 1Cor. 6:19-20. Thus the righteous ground had been laid, whereby Ruth became both the wife, and the possession of Boaz. The passage we have just quoted in 1Cor. 6, tells us that there is intended to be an intimate relationship between Christ, (the Redeemer), and the individual saint that He has redeemed. This relationship is compared with the fulfilment of a relationship between a man and his wife, which culminates in a sexual act. So he that is joined to the Lord is said to be "one spirit". This spiritual union produces from the depth of the believer's inner being, the sweetness of adoration; and of worship. Thus the culmination of the relationship between Boaz and Ruth was that a son was born. They gave him the name of Obed, which means worship. Those men that sat in the gate, (who were to represent the rights of God), with one voice sought to call down the blessing of God on this union. So it was that Ruth came into the royal line, and her son became the ancestor of the King of Kings. It seems fitting to point out, that true worship, (in spirit and in truth), will always result in the exaltation of Christ. But before we leave this lovely book, we must notice the great joy, and the sweet peace that must have filled the soul of Naomi, as she took the little baby into her arms, and became nurse to it. The women of the village also blessed Jehovah, because He had not left this poor desolate widow with out one to carry on the testimony that her husband so sadly compromised. This child was not like her own two sons, that were both weak and sickly boys. But he was to father a child later in his life, and that child was to be the father of David, who was Israel's greatest King, until the advent of "Great David's greater son." The One that calls Himself the "Root and offspring of David, the bright and Morning Star". This is a beautiful end to a lovely story. May God give you and I an ever-increasing appreciation of the wonder of God's ways, and of the Glory of His Son! May He help us to profit from the many lessons that this lovely book would teach us. May His Holy Name be glorified! [Concluded] --- [Reproduced by permission - We are grateful to Br. Charles Wigg for these articles and pray that God would continue to use Him to be a source of blessing to many - Ben] _______________________________________________________________________ 3) <PROPHECY> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-121 OF 123) APPENDIX (PART 1 OF2) Arthur W. Pink .... There has been considerable difference of opinion among Bible students as to which of the two "beasts" of Revelation 13 is the Anti-christ. On the one side are those who regard the first beast as the revived Roman empire with the Anti-christ as its head, and the second beast as the False Prophet--the third person in the Trinity of evil. On the other side are those who view the first beast as the revived Roman empire with a man (a Gentile) energized by Satan as its political head, and the second beast, the Anti-christ (a Jew) as its ecclesiastical or religious head, thus making the Anti-christ and the False Prophet one and the same person. The advocates of these two views are about equally divided. Eminent names might be cited on either side. We shall not here quote from the writings of others, but will give as concisely as possible our own reasons for identifying the Anti-christ with the first "beast" of Rev. 13. We write now for the student, not the popular reader. In the first place, to regard the Anti-christ as limited to the religious realm and divorced from the political seems to us to leave out entirely an essential and fundamental element of his character and career. The Anti-christ will claim to be the true Christ, the Christ of God. Hence, it would seem that he will present himself to the Jews as their long-expected Messiah--the One foretold by the Old Testament prophets--and that to apostate Christendom, given over by God to believe the Lie, he will pose as the returned Christ. Therefore, must we not predicate as an inevitable corollary that the pseudo Christ, will usher in a false millennium and rule over a mock messianic kingdom? That this conclusion is fully borne out by Scripture we shall show in a moment. Why was it (from the human side) that, when our Lord tabernacled among men, the Jews rejected Him as their Messiah? Was it not because He failed to fulfill their expectations that He would take the government upon His shoulder and wield the royal scepter as soon as He presented Himself to them? Was it not because they looked for Him to restore the kingdom to Israel there and then? Is it not therefore reasonable to suppose that when the Anti-christ presents himself to them that he will wield great temporal power, and rule over a vast earthly empire? I would certainly seem so. Happily we are not left to logical deductions and conclusions. We have a "Thus saith the Lord" to rest upon. In Dan. 11:36--a Scripture upon which all are agreed concerning its application--the Anti-christ is expressly termed "The King(which) shall do according to his will." Here then is unequivocal proof that the Anti-christ will exercise political or governmental power. He will be a king--"the king"--and if a king he must be at the head of a kingdom. In the second place, if the Anti-christ is to be a perfect counterfeit of the true Christ, if he is to ape the millennial Christ as set forth in Old Testament prophecy--for, of course, he will not ape the "suffering" Christ of the first advent--then it necessarily follows that he will fill the role of king, yea, that he will reign as a King of kings, as Satan's parody of the Son of Man seated upon "the throne of His glory." That the Anti-christ will also be at the head of the religious world, that he will demand and receive Divine honors is equally true. Just as in the Millennium the Lord Jesus will "be a priest upon His throne"(Zech. 6:13) so, we believe, the Anti-christ will combine in his person the headships of both the political and religious realms. And just as the Son of Man will be the Head of the fifth world-empire (Dan. 2:44) so, we believe, the Man of Sin will be the head of the revived fourth world-empire (Dan 2:40). In the third place, to make the Anti-christ and "the False Prophet" one and the same person is to involve us in a difficulty for which there seems to be no solution. In Rev. 19:20 we read "And the Beast was taken, and with him the False Prophet that wrought miracles before him**. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Now if the "False Prophet" is the Anti-christ, then who is "the Beast" that is cast with him into the lake of fire? The Beast here can not be the Roman empire, for no member of the human race (as such) is cast into the Lake of Fire until after the Millennium (see Rev. 20). That "the Beast" is a separate entity, another individual than "the False Prophet" is also clear from Rev. 20:10--"And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the Lake of Fire and brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet are." In this last quoted Scripture, each of the three persons in the Trinity of Evil is specifically mentioned, and if "the Beast" is not the Anti-christ, the Son of Perdition, the second person in the Trinity of Evil, who is he? [To be concluded] ---------------------------<BrethrenVoice>--------------------------- Subscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-subscribe@...> Unsubscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-unsubscribe@...> FAQs/Faith Statement, eMail: <brethrenvoice-faq@...> <BrethrenVoice> Home: www.brethrenvoice.net <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