================================================================== <GLEANINGS> for 31 December 2002 appears to have been skipped [from despatching] by the eMail server and I noticed this omission only a few days ago. To a few of the brethren who had requested this <GLEANINGS>, I send them indidivudally, but since such requests are increasing, I am sending this again. I apologize for this omission. God bless - Ben ================================================================== ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben" <ben@...> To: "BrethrenVoice" <brethrenvoice@...> Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2002 2:25 PM Subject: <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> 31 Dec 2002 -------------------------<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/digests/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <31 December 2002> Contents: ---------- 1) <Devotional> "A writer's sight" - Ravi Zacharias 2) <Bible-Study> "Ruth the Moabitess" (Pt-2/10)-Charles Wigg 3) <Prophecy> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-114) - A.W.Pink 1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> "A WRITER'S SIGHT" Ravi Zacharias For the past decade, doctors and psychologists have been taking notice of the health benefits of reflective writing. They note that wrestling with words to put your deepest thoughts into writing can lift your mind from depression, provide insight, and offer a healing wisdom within your experiences. Similarly, a recent news article discussed the benefits of confessional writing, where one is freed to explore the depths of the emotional junkyard. Indeed there is so much ugliness around us, writing is one way to sift through the mess. But its effectiveness is most significant when we learn from reflection, not merely revel in the messes. You see, the eye of a writer seeks the transcendent. Moments where you behold the extraordinary in the ordinary. Glimpses of clarity within the junkyard. The beauty of God in a godless world. Writing is a tool with which we learn to see ourselves more clearly, and a catalyst for which we can learn to see God. In the C.S. Lewis novel, Till we have Faces, the main character, Orual, has taken mental notes throughout her life, carefully building what she refers to as her "case" against the gods. Finally choosing to put her case in writing, she describes each instance where she had been wronged. It is only after she has finished writing that she soberly recognizes her great mistake. To have heard herself making the complaint was to be answered. She now sees the importance of uttering the speech at the center of one's soul, profoundly observing that the gods used her own pen to probe the wounds. With sharpened insight Orual explains, "Till the words can be dug out of us, why should [the gods] hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?" Such an illustration brings to mind the intimate descriptions of life recorded in the Psalms. Writing to express loneliness, joy, even frustration with God, the Psalmist always walks away from his words with a clearer sense of reality. Have you dared to utter the words at the center of your soul? What if God could use your own pen to probe the wounds of your life? Try writing through your struggles; giving words to your doubt, your pain, or your anger. In the beginning, Jesus Christ was the Word who brought life into existence. May your own words heed this creative drive and bring you to a richer knowledge of yourself and, ultimately, of God. ---- 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) <BIBLE-STUDY> "RUTH THE MOABITESS" (PART-2 OF 10) Charles E. Wigg .... FAMINE As we have just seen, famines in the Old Testament were one of God's ways of teaching His people through discipline. This is so even today, in the spiritual sense amongst God's children. If there is no blessing, when His people gather to the name of the Lord Jesus. If there are no souls being saved, then we need to ask ourselves; Why? God loves to bless, and when He withholds His blessing there is a reason for this. In that situation we need to search our own hearts, and to give ourselves to earnest prayer. However when famine came to Israel, Elimelech failed to do this. Instead he took the easy way out, he ran away from that place of blessing, Bethlehem, (house of bread); and went to the fields of Moab. There is always the temptation, when difficult times come, to run away from the trouble. However we never solve problems by running away from them. At such a time, things always seem to be worse than what they really are. Naomi confessed this ten years later, when she admitted, "I went out full ".Elimelech had an illustrious name, but he was not true to that name. His name means, "My God is King", however Jehovah was not the king of Elimelech's life, he was king himself. He did his own will; he did what was right in his own eyes. So he took his family, and ran away to the country of Moab, and continued there. In other words, this was not just a visit, he settled down there, and he died there also.Moab was the son of Lot, the product of a drunken and incestuous relationship between poor fallen Lot and one of his daughters. So that Elimelech could have claimed that the descendants of Lot were his relatives. Lot was the adopted son, & nephew of the great Abraham. Also when the children of Israel came into the Promised Land, they were not permitted to attack the Moabites, because God had given them that piece of territory as their inheritance. However they brought a solemn curse upon themselves, because they failed to meet the Children of Israel with bread and water. In fact they hired the wicked Balaam to curse their distant cousins. Because of this, God proclaimed that the Moabite was not to come into His congregation forever, even to the tenth generation. Deut. 23:3 It seems that they continued Lot's drunken practices, and also turned to idolatry. Thus the Moabites were a drunken, immoral, idolatrous people. Their territory was hardly the place for a godly Israelite to settle his family. But poor Elimelech chose the easy path rather than stay and face the difficulties at Bethlehem. The same temptation exists today, when spiritual famine comes amongst those people of God that gather to the name of the Lord Jesus alone. That is, there is always the temptation to run away, to choose the easy path. To accept fellowship with those that have no proper regard for the principles of holiness that are set out in God's word. We may argue, "They are Christians also". Elimelech could put forward the same argument, as the descendants of Abraham, and the descendants of Lot were related. Let us be warned by what happened to Elimelech! [To be concluded] --- [Reproduced with permission] _____________________________________________________________________ 3) <PROPHECY> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-114) THE MILLENNIUM IN RELATION TO ISRAEL (PART 5 OF 5) Arthur W. Pink .... Many are the passages which describe Israel's millennial glory and blessedness. The last six chapters of Isaiah are occupied more or less with this theme, and from them we quote a few portions. After speaking of the Redeemer's return to Zion (Is. 59:20, 21), the prophet cries--"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" (Is. 60:1). The prophet continues--"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of they rising.** Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and the Holy One of Israel, because He hath glorified thee. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in My wrath I smote thee, but in My favor have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the wealth of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish: yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.** The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified" (Is. 60:3, 9-12, 14, 15, 20, 21). The Lord shall "appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of Righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves" (61:3-6). And again; "And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah (My delight is in her), and thy land Beulah (Married): for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married" (62:2-4). Not only will Israel enjoy glorious blessings themselves, but, in the Millennium, they shall be a blessing to "all families of the earth" (Gen. 12:3).Then will be fulfilled that word, "He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Is. 27:6). And further we are told, "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass" (Micah 5:7). We turn now to consider, ---------------------------<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 ____________________________________________________