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<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY>
29 March 2003
 
Today's Bible verse:
Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.  Heb 2:18
 
In this issue
1)  <Devotional> Zeus, Marduk, and God – Keith Cox
2)  <Doctrinal> Fellowship, not membership - (Pt-2/2)–H.G. Mackay
3)  <Bible-Study> The hidden years of Christ - Steve Anderson
 
1)  <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY>
ZEUS, MARDUK, AND GOD
Keith Cox
 
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  Thunderously Genesis begins.  And it continues, "And God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light. (Footnote 1: Genesis 1:3) The rest of creation unfolds in the same manner: God speaks and it is.  God, effortlessly and extravagantly, calls forth creation out of nothingness. 

The significance of God's supremacy in creating can be easily missed unless you compare it with other stories of creation.  Take the Ancient Greek creation story.  Uranus fathers Chronos only to have Chronos overthrow his rule.  Then Chronos fathers Zeus, and Zeus rises up and overthrows Chronos.  It is in this tumultuous battling of the gods that the world comes to be formed.  Compare that with "and God said, and it was."

Or consider the Babylonian creation story.  Tiamat, a god of chaos and destruction, rules until she is destroyed in fierce battle with Marduk.  Marduk then establishes Babylon as a symbol of his glory.  Here again there is battling of the gods.  But no swords clash in Genesis chapter one.  There, all that can be heard is the loving breath of God speaking creation.

This creational truth is of singular importance to the believer.  Since the fall, creation has been a tumultuous and dangerous place for humans.  Yet the believer has hope for the ultimate triumph of goodness, and this hope is buttressed by the supremacy of God in creation.  We have a fervent hope that as it was in the beginning, so it shall be in the end. 

The human story begins in the Garden of Eden and ends in the City of God, the New Jerusalem.  This is our trajectory.  And this trajectory is essential to Christ's vision of His ministry.  Christ heralds the advent of the Kingdom of God here on earth.  Jesus proclaims that God is on the move.  Or as C. S. Lewis put it in the Chronicles of Narnia, "Aslan is on the move."   

Yes, we get mired in the details of our lives and miss it.  Yes, we can be overcome by the misery and evil of this present age.  But Christ calls us to see that His Kingdom is on the move, active and real today.  And we are heading towards its fulfillment. 

This does not mean we take the dour mindset of looking for the apocalypse with every new crisis.  It means we hope for the final reign of goodness in the face of each new crisis.  The Kingdom of God is at hand.  Neither Tiamat, nor Chronos, nor the devil can hold it back.
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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>
FELLOWSHIP, NOT MEMBERSHIP - (PART -2 OF 2)
H.G. Mackay
 
Unless a clear and constaait emphasis is maintained on this fact that true church membership is that of living members in a living organism, and if it is permitted to degenerate into the notion of a membership in a religious organization, the term "membership" can become a cold and sterile thing. But, in contrast, there is a warm, vibrant term often heard in assemblies--"fellowship"--a word that seems to inherently suggest closeness, community of interest, cooperation. The Greek word is, literally, "to share in common," and is translated, not only as fellowship, but as communion, communication, contribution and distribution. It is closely akin to the word for partner Luke 5.10, 2 Cor. 8.23, and partaker, 2 Pet. 1.4.
 
What makes fellowship so important is that man was created to enjoy fellowship with his God, and undoubtedly didso in his unfallen state in Eden. But the entrance of sin changed all that, and the spiritual death which ensued from Adam's disobedience made such communion impossible. Now, on the basis of the abounding grace of God, by means of the reconciling work of Christ on the cross and the regenerating work of the Spirit, believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus, 2 Cor. 5.17, with the spiritual capacity for fellowship with their God. John writes: . . . truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 1 Jn. 1.3. And to the Corinthians Paul declared:  God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Cor. 1.9. . . . and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. 2 Cor. 13.14.
 
Thus the believer in Christ has been brought into fellowship with the triune God. And this becomes the basis for our fellowship with all of like precious faith.
 
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 Jn. 1.3. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 Jn. 1.7.
 
When the three thousand at Pentecost heard and believed the preaching of the gospel by Peter, Acts 2.22-41 , they were saved, and it is recorded of them: And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers . Acts 2.42 (JND.)
 
It was not a question of joining a new church and becoming members of a new sect, but of sharing in a new fellowship with those who loved the Lord because of a common salvation, Jude 3. In this fellowship they continued stedfastly. The assemblies do not urge Christians to jointheir church and become members, they invite them to share in the fellowship of the saints because they are members of the Body of Christ. In the Lord's Supper the cup is - "the communion (fellowship) of the blood of Christ," and the bread is the "communion (fellowship) of the body of Christ." The assemblies donot ordain servants of Christ, but they give to them "the right hand of fellowship," Gal. 2.9, indicative of partnership in their labors for the Lord. Funds sent for the support of such workers are designated as - "fellowship in the gospel," Phil. 1.3-5; 4.14-16; (translated "communicate" in Gal. 6.6). Gifts for needy saints are likewise referred to as fellowship, 2 Cor. 8.4, (translated "contribution" in Rom. 15.26; and "communi-cate" in Heb. 13.16).
 
Because the basic thought in fellowship is sharing, the term becomes a comparative one, i.e., the measure of an individual's fellowship is the measure in which there is a sharing in the total activities of the local assembly. Some are in - "full" fellowship, participating in every way possible; with others it is "limited," "partial," "spasmodic."
 
Some will certainly ask, -- "But are not all true believers 'called unto the fellowship of the Son?' " They are; and therefore should be welcomed into the fellowship of the local assembly, Rom. 15.7, unless debarred by unclean lives, 1 Cor. 5.11, or unsound doctrine, Ti. 1.13.
 
Others will ask, -- "When all Christians give to the Lord's work and workers, or to needy saints , are they not fellowshipping with them?" They are. Still others inquire, "When all Christians meet for worship, prayer, or Bible study, are they not having fellowship together?" They are. What, then, is DISTINCTIVE about assembly fellowship? That which is distinctive about the teaching regarding fellowship and membership in the assemblies is that the erroneous practice of membership through joining a church is eliminated, and the truth of church fellowship because of membership in the Body of Christ is emphasized. [Concluded]
 
3)  <BIBLE-STUDY>
THE HIDDEN YEARS OF CHIRST - (PART 1 OF 2)
Steve Anderson*
 
"And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:52, NASB)
 
"What we think of Christ is the most important thing that can be said about us."  So said a preacher I once heard, and I believe that what he said is the absolute truth. Nothing can possibly matter more than knowing the Lord, and knowing Him as He is, not as we would like Him to be, nor as we may imagine Him to be. The Word of God takes great pains to give us particular information about our Lord's characteristics, just so that we will not indulge in vague and irreverent speculation about His nature. In spite of this specificity, there are some aspects of the Lord's nature, his humanity or his deity which are not fully exposited in Scripture. When we come upon such things, we must not speculate. There is an element of mystery in Christ, a point at which human minds must humbly admit their own incapacity, and be in awe before a greatness which even eternity can never exhaustively reveal.
 
You would think that this would be self-evident to Christians everywhere. Yet there are those who seem to believe that every mystery should be revealed by the penetration of human logic. Not fearing to gobeyond the words of Scripture, they make confident assertions about things concerning which God Himself has said nothing to us. They speculate about the nature of the Lord's humanity, or about the extent of His deity, or about the order in the Godhead, or about other such sacred things. In many cases, these people mean well; they hope to open new and beautiful truths to our appreciation, or to show the sufficiency of Christ for every experience, or some such thing. But we should remember Uzzah, who put his hand to the ark, thinking to steady it, and was struck down by God for his irreverence (2 Sam. 6). Being well-meaning does not mean that we can touch anything with impunity. If God cared so much for the ark, which was only a picture of His Son, what shall we say God thinks when we casually put a hand on the honor and reputation of the Son Himself? Let's be careful!
 
Much unruly speculation has been generated by the verse I have quoted at the start of this article. Little is said in Scripture about the childhood years of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the mind reels at the thought that God Incarnate could ever have been a child. What could it mean? What could He have been like? What could He have done? There is abundant fodder for guess-making in this. How could He in whom all things consist "increase" in anything? Human minds race to form the picture of what these years could hide. [To be concluded]
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[Courtesy: JRM Pages]
 
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