-------------------------<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>
<25 January 2003>


Contents:
------------

1) <Exhortation> ""Without ears, it hears" -  Connie Giordano
2) <Evangelism> "Witnessing ethics and helps" - Harold Smith
3) <Poem> - "He became sin for us" - Ron Fergusson


1) <EXHORTATION>
"WITHOUT EARS, IT HEARS"
Connie Giordano

"Lifeless nature without voice tells the glory of God; without ears it hears
what the Lord speaks." - Barnes' Notes
"Where God has a mouth to speak we must have an ear to hear; we all must,
for we are all concerned in what is delivered." - Matthew Henry

It is utterly amazing for creation to preach a thousand sermons every day on
the Glory of God yet God's people remain silent and seemingly ashamed to
witness to others of His Glorious Power to change the vilest  sinner into a
saint. "Lifeless nature" - having no ears - as Barnes noted, hears what the
Lord speaks yet  God's own people, for the most part, are dull of hearing.

What an indictment!

God is speaking! Are we hearing Him?
He is revealing things to us! Are we yet blind that we cannot see them?

As Matthew Henry stated, God has a mouth to speak, and He is indeed
speaking. And we have been given two ears to hear what He is saying. We must
hear Him. Our life depends on it!

What keeps people from hearing the voice of the Lord? For one thing -
Pride!!!

In Jeremiah 13:15, it is recorded that the Prophet Jeremiah said - "Hear ye,
and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken."

Here we see that a prideful and haughty attitude deafens a people's ears to
the call of God. Therefore, in order for us to ever hear from God, we must
walk in humility. We must humble ourselves under the Lord's mighty hand.
Never should we be found in abject scorn, arrogancy, stubbornness, and
rebellion, rejecting the messenger whom God sends.

God expects us to receive His Word from His chosen vessel. He expects us to
readily bow to the Truth being spoken and not be wilful and stubborn,
considering ourselves too good or too knowledgeable to be taught anything.

Have you heard from God lately? Have the heavens been seemingly silent?
Could it be that you are too high in yourself to hear from Him? Reduce
yourself. Change your attitude. You will see that God has been speaking all
along, but your own pride has kept you from receiving His Word to you.

Throughout the Books of the Prophets, we notice a very sad commentary
indeed. The people of God shut their ears to the Word of the Lord so the
Prophet was then sent to inanimate creation to prophesy.

What was the purpose in all of this? Do the mountains and the hills have
ears? Can the heavens and the earth hear as man hears?

God's purpose in sending the Prophet to prophesy to His senseless creation
was to reveal how His inanimate creation sooner answers their purpose than
God's dull, brute, stupid, perverse, and unthinking people.

God had a message for His people then, and He has a message for His people
in this day and hour. Who will hear it?

If we persist in pride and hardness of heart as Israel and Judah did, then
God will have no other alternative than to call upon His creation for a
witness of His goodness and our wickedness. May we as nations of people not
provoke Him to this end.

The following are some examples from the Scriptures when God summoned the
heavens and the earth as a witness before He brought judgment upon His
senseless people.

Deuteronomy 4:26 - "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,
that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over
Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall
utterly be destroyed."

God gave His people the choice between life and death or blessing and
cursing, based on their obedience or disobedience.

Sad to say, they chose death through their idolatry, murmuring, and
rebellion.
Hence, He called heaven and earth as witnesses of His fair dealings with His
people.

Deuteronomy 32:1 - "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O
earth, the words of My mouth."

Here we have a very solemn appeal to the heavens and all of the earth to
hear what the Lord God Almighty has to say.

When He speaks, all creation must listen. Sadly, the heavens and the earth
are demonstrated as hearing much sooner than His perverse people who have
chosen to go their own way.

Psalm 50:4 - "He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth,
that He may judge His people."

Psalm 50:1 - Once again, the universe is called to attention for God - "The
mighty God, the LORD, hath spoken..."
He is coming in judgment, and all creation is notified of this awesome
event.

Isaiah 1:2 - "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath
spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled
against Me."

Here the heavens and the earth are summoned to bear witness to the tragic
state of God's apostate  people. They are charged with ingratitude.

God "nourished" them. He educated, trained, and made them great.

He brought them up. In other words, He exalted them, raised them up, and
preferred them before others, by bestowing great honors and privileges upon
them.

He showed them special favors. In return, they became traitors and deserters
to Him.

Jeremiah 2:12 - "Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly
afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD."

Here the Prophet Jeremiah calls for a reaction from the heavens for the
people of God were certainly not reacting in any way, shape, or form.

The people should have been "astonished" or stupefied at their deplorable,
backslidden condition. They should have been "horribly afraid" to see how
far sin had taken them.

They were totally oblivious to their wretched, spiritual state. So the
Prophet is commanded to call upon the heavens to stand amazed at such a
horrid sight.

Jeremiah 6:19 - "Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people,
even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto My
words, nor to My law, but rejected it."

God will not be without a witness. So He calls upon the earth to witness the
justice of His proceedings  against His people. He was about to "bring
evil" - "the fruit of their own thoughts" - upon them for they had rejected
His law and commands.

Jeremiah 22:29 - "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD."

Jeremiah is summoning all peoples to "hear the word of the LORD." However,
because they are so caught up with earthly matters and swallowed up in
inordinate, worldly pursuits, they are deaf and senseless to the voice of
the Lord.

Since they will not hear God's Word in prosperity, God will make them hear
it in judgment.

God has a way of causing us all to hear His Word. May we not provoke Him to
use harsh measures in order to move us to compliance.

Ezekiel 36:4 - "Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord
GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the
rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that
are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen
that are round about."

The Prophet Ezekiel was asked to do a very strange thing. God commanded him
to prophesy to the mountains, hills, rivers, valleys, desolate wastes, and
forsaken cities.  Why?

God had a controversy with His backslidden people. Because of their
disobedience and rebellion, the entire land would become "a prey and
derision" to the surrounding nations.

Micah 1:2 - "Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is:
and let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple."
When God speaks, all are summoned to give strict attention to what He has to
say.

The sad commentary is that the earth trembles sooner at the Presence of the
Lord than God's very own people.

Micah reproaches the people for their dullness before the insensible
creation. He assures them that if they do not take warning to the final Word
of the Lord, they will meet with swift and severe judgement. God will surely
come "from His holy temple," Himself bearing witness to their stubbornness
and rebellion.

Micah 6:1-2 - "Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before
the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the
Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD
hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel."

God gave man reason, but he seems to not want to use it. So God sends the
Prophet to the mountains and hills to hear what He has to say.   It was in
the very mountains and hills where the people conducted their idolatrous
practices. God had a controversy with them as a result. Sin always brings a
people in controversy with God their Maker.

In His Great Mercy, He pleads with "Israel" to repent. He makes an appeal to
the mountains and the hills to be a witness of His longsuffering and
forbearance with His people and their provoking ways.

He also summons His creation to be a witness of His just judgment to come.
God is speaking. Are we listening?

How are we listening? Are we listening with reverence and fear? Or with
striking superficiality, indifference, and wandering minds?  As a whole, is
the Body of Christ where she should be today? Is she walking in the ways of
the Lord or the ways of the world?  Has she given God a stiffened-arm and a
deafened ear to His various warnings to repent and return to the Cross?

Is God summoning  His True Prophets today to prophesy to the heavens or to
His inanimate creation as a witness of His people's general apostasy and the
swift and severe judgments to come?

May we tremble and fear this day at the Word of the Lord.
May we repent of all pride and stubbornness that would dull our hearing.
May we repent of any and all mistreatment of those who we despised,
rejected, ridiculed, mocked, and jeered who were sent by God with a Word of
correction for us.
May it not be said of any one of us that all of senseless creation trembles
sooner at the Presence and Word of the Lord than we as His sensible people.

1 Peter 4:17-18 - Let's remember and heed the warning given to us by the
Apostle Peter - "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house
of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey
not the gospel of God?
And IF THE RIGHTEOUS SCARCELY BE SAVED, WHERE SHALL
THE UNGODLY AND THE SINNER APPEAR?"
---
Copyright 2002 by Connie Giordano
_______________________________________________________________________

2) <EVANGELISM>
"WITNESSING  ETHICS AND HELPS"
Harold Smith

1.   Watch for opportunities
2.   Be wise in approaching people.
3.   Be kind and courteous.
4.   Ask a few questions, analyze them.
5.   Don't argue.
6.   Don't pressurize people.

Here are some verses for the Christian who would like to do some personal
witnessing.   Don't be discouraged. God will be praised as you witness for
Christ.

Answers that you will here as you talk to, others about Christ.

I'll COME BUT  NOT NOW-SOME OTHER TIME

1.   Can't count on tomorrow. Prov. 27:1; Jas. 4:13, 14,
2.   Today is the accepted time. 2 Cor. 6:2.
3.   God can't always be found. Isa. 55:6.
4.   It is harder to come later. Heb. 3:13.
5.   Lessening your chances by hardening yourself. Prov. 29: 1.
6.   Suppose your soul is required tonight. Luke 12:20.
7.   What is thy life?  James 4:14

I AM AFRAID I COULDN'T HOLD OUT

1.   You're not asked to hold yourself.   Psa. 37:23-24.
2.   He is able to keep you from falling  Jude 24; 2  Tim. 1:12.
3.   Christ will live the life in you. Gal. 2:20.
4.   He promises to carry us through  Phil. 1:6.
5.   If truly saved, will be  saved to uttermost. Heb. 7:25.
6.   No man can pluck from His hand. John 10:27-29.
7.   Kept by the power of   God. 1 Peter 1:5.

(To be concluded)
_______________________________________________________________________

4) <POEM>
"HE BECAME SIN FOR US"
 Ron Fergusson*

His face was marred far worse,
Than any son of man.
Upon the cross He suffered,
A sacrifice by choice.

 Our sins were laid upon Him,
 Placed by the hand of God,
 And He alone did bear them;
 For them he did atone.

And in the hours forsaken,
His God did turn away.
The Son could find no standing,
The depthless pit was His.

 The weight of sin upon Him,
 Borne in that dreadful hour,
 When for sins He was made sin,
 Was awful in extreme.

His face was so contorted,
That none would understand;
And none could recognize Him,
As one, a son of man.

 God would not allow the sight,
 And blotted out the sun.
 None in earth or heaven beheld
 His agony so deep.

The wrathful cup was emptied;
The Lord had seen it drained;
For He won full atonement -
Redemption through His blood.

 Lamb of God, our sacrifice,
 Our sinless offering;
 Your deep, deep love and mercy
 Joined with grace to save me.

Salvation now is offered,
The freest of all gifts;
But one that had been purchased,
At such enormous price.

 Contemplation of that act,
 In which He gave His all,
 Should result in our response:
 Our all we give to Him.

 ---------------------------<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