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on: Today at 02:14:29 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society
Free Email Subscription
For Questions Or Comments: berean@execpc.com
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A Gift For You
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
In the light of the Pauline epistles these well-known words have become more appropriate than when our Lord first spoke them. Through Paul, Christ’s redemptive work at Calvary has been proclaimed and fully explained. In this light, then, we suggest that our readers take the time to really meditate on this passage about God’s greatest gift to man.
Think of the love that prompted it! “God so loved….” We were the “children of disobedience” and “by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:2,3). We deserved judgment, “but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us,” gave His best, His all, to save us (Eph. 2:4).
Think of its priceless value! “His only begotten Son — everlasting life.” Christ, the holy One, had to be given up to disgrace and death in order that our sins might be justly dealt with, and that we might become the rightful heirs of everlasting life (Rom. 3:25,26).
Think of your need of this gift! “…that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish….” How perilous not to accept “the gift of God, eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23)! What folly to spurn or ignore a gift we need so sorely!
Finally, think how gracious the offer! “…that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Whosoever believeth! Any sinner may have this gift by simply believing, accepting in simple faith what God says about Christ paying for our sins at Calvary. In fact, this is the only way we can become the recipients of this wonderful gift, for Rom. 4:5 declares:
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith [believing] is counted for righteousness.” |
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on: Today at 08:16:04 AM
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Started by Soldier4Christ - Last post by Soldier4Christ
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Out of the Ivory Palaces
“All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.” (Psalm 45:8)
Psalm 45 is one of the Messianic psalms, quoted as such in Hebrews 1:8-9. The section so quoted (vv. 6-7), which immediately precedes our text, begins with one Person of the Godhead addressing the Messiah also as “God,” whose throne is eternal. Then, He says, “Oh God, . . . thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” The “oil of gladness” was the holy oil used for the anointing of priests and kings and was compounded of a mixture of spices that included myrrh and cassia (Exodus 30:22-25). Since the Messiah had been anointed to be “above his fellows” (first as High Priest, then as King of kings), “all his garments” would bear the sweet aroma of the holy ointment.
At the birth of Christ, His garments were “swaddling clothes,” and the gifts of the eastern wise men included a supply of myrrh and frankincense (Luke 2:7; Matthew 2:11). At His death, they gave Him to drink “wine mingled with myrrh [and] . . . parted his garments” (Mark 15:23-24). Then once again His body was wrapped in linen clothes and anointed with myrrh and aloes (John 19:39-40) for His burial.
The psalmist sees Christ (i.e., “Messiah,” both Greek and Hebrew titles meaning “the Anointed One”) emerging triumphantly from the “ivory palaces.” These mansions with their ivory walls and pearly gates are of shimmering white beauty in the distant heavenly city that will someday descend to Earth (Revelation 21:2, 10-21).
The Lord descended once from these ivory palaces to take on human flesh in Mary’s womb, thence to a burial in Joseph’s tomb. But someday He will again come forth, anointed as eternal King, and then “shall the people praise thee for ever and ever” (Psalm 45:17). HMM
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on: Today at 01:29:30 AM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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You are either in the Word--or in the world!
(Howard Hendricks)
You are either in the Word, and the Word is conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ--or you are in the world, and the world is squeezing you into its mold!
The first reason for studying Scripture is that it is a means of spiritual growth. There is no growth apart from the Word. It is God's primary tool to develop Christian character.
The Word of God is able to transform your life, but you must probe for its wisdom. You have to penetrate the surface with more than just a cursory glance.
The Bible was written not to satisfy your curiosity, but to conform you to Christ's image. Not to make you a smarter sinner, but to make you like the Savior. Not to fill your head with a collection of biblical facts, but to transform your life.
The will of God is found in the Word of God. The more a person grows, the more he begins to think instinctively and habitually from a divine perspective. |
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on: October 15, 2019, 12:08:37 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 10-15-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________
ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY
Featured Analysis: Sanders and Warren, Socialism and Fascism16 — The two Democrats fight for the same socialist voters, while claiming Warren’s “capitalist.”
ABC News Caught Promulgating Fake News17 — Hypocritical Leftmedia outlets condemn Trump for the very thing they practice.
Leftist Judges Strike Trump Immigrant Welfare Rule18 — Yet another Trump immigration order is challenged and bound for the SCOTUS.
American Spirit: Man Baptized in Church He Vandalized Six Months Earlier19 — “Forgiving and offering him grace ‘was the right thing to do,’ senior pastor Don Chandler said.”
Video: The Real Reason Why NBA Won’t Criticize China20 — Larry Elder explains why they’re quick to criticize Trump, but are reluctant to criticize China.
Video: When Did You Decide Men Are Women?21 — Matt Walsh on why Democrats have flip-flopped on the “transgender” issue.
TOP NEWS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TURKEY SANCTIONED: According to Reuters23, “President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey on Monday and demanded the NATO ally stop a military incursion in northeast Syria.” At the same time, “The Pentagon on Monday announced the official withdrawal of U.S. forces from northeastern Syria,” The Hill reports24.
ABC’S FAKE NEWS: “ABC News aired footage claiming to show a Turkish attack on a Syrian border town that was actually from a 2017 video of an American shooting range,” The Washington Free Beacon reveals25. Regardless of anyone’s position on Trump’s Syria policy, engineering a crisis is way beyond the pale.
QUASHING DISSENT: “Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., an ardent supporter of President Trump, got the boot on Monday when he tried to sit in on the testimony of a former top National Security Council expert on Russia who was appearing on Capitol Hill as part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president.” (Fox News26)
CNN’S VENDETTA: CNN whistleblower reveals network “vendetta” against Trump, obsession with impeachment (The Federalist27)
WHO’D A THUNK IT? Target cuts workers’ hours after vowing to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2020 (National Review28)
HELPING THE LITTLE GUY: Blue-collar employment thriving under Trump — hits 50-year high (The New American29)
FLYING WOKE: Air Canada to stop announcing “ladies and gentlemen” in recognition of gender fluidity (Washington Examiner30)
SWING AND A MISS: Tribal chiefs urge Atlanta Braves to end the “tomahawk chop” (New York Post31)
MORE DALLAS-AREA FALLOUT: Ex-Fort Worth police officer charged with murder after shooting black woman in her home; occurred less than two weeks after Amber Guyger’s sentencing (USA Today32)
UPRIGHT: William Barr warns of “militant” secularism in speech about declining religious values (Washington Examiner33)
POLICY: U.S.-China trade deal: What it is, is not, and may become (Hudson Institute34)
POLICY: The painful realities of carbon tax-and-dividend schemes (Washington Examiner35)
HUMOR: Elizabeth Warren takes 1/1024th of the day off to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day (Genesius Times36)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights37.
The Patriot Post is a certified ad-free news service, unlike third-party commercial news sites linked on this page, which may also require a paid subscription.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/66118-tuesday-top-news-executive-summary-2019-10-15
OPINION IN BRIEF
Stephen Moore: “A study by former Census Bureau researchers and now statisticians at Sentier Research has found gigantic income gains for the middle class under Trump. The median or average-income family has seen a gain of $5,003 since Trump came into office. Median family income is now (August 2019) $65,976, up from about $61,000 when he entered office (January 2017). Under George W. Bush, the household income gains were a little over $400 in eight years, and under Barack Obama the gains were $1,043. That was in eight years for each. Under Trump, in less than three years, the extra income is about three times larger. … The tax cut also added an additional $2,500 to a typical family of four’s after-tax incomes. So after taking account of taxes owed, the income of most middle-class families is up closer to $6,000 in the Trump era. Memo to Pelosi: That ain’t crumbs.”
SHORT CUTS
An unfortunate truth: “Foreign-policy blunders often take months or years to reveal their damaging consequences, but the harm from President Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria is playing out almost in real time. Critics said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would invade northern Syria despite Mr. Trump’s public warnings, and the Turkish strongman did. Critics said our Kurdish allies would strike a deal with Syria’s Bashar Assad to defend themselves, and the Kurds have. Critics said Islamic State prisoners held by the Kurds would be released and scatter to wage jihad again, and they are.” —The Wall Street Journal
Media diagnosis: “All reporters sometimes bend a rule, or go out on a limb or get something wrong. But the important thing is that they usually do this in aid of getting truth to the public. What has defined the media breakdown that started in 2016 was the press’ abandonment of standards in aid of peddling a narrative — rather than reality.” —Kimberley Strassel
Exhibit A: “More than five years after going into business with Hunter Biden, his associates in China are still ‘working on an explanation’ of his role there? If this doesn’t arouse the curiosity of a neutral journalist, it’s hard to imagine what would. But the reaction of much of the American media perhaps tells us how rare such journalists have become.” —James Freeman
For the record I: “The Aztecs would literally rip the beating heart out of your chest, cut you into pieces, eat your limbs, then take your children as slaves. [Christopher] Columbus was playing patty cake compared to them. It was a brutal time. Nobody’s hands were clean.” —Matt Walsh
For the record II: “In fact, mass murder, genocide, slavery, war, conquest, child sacrifice WAS happening in America… before Columbus. At the hands of Native tribes. It could be argued because of the Christian influence Columbus brought to America that those atrocities ended.” —Liz Wheeler
The BIG Lie: “Columbus Day is when we honor a man who killed more innocent ppl in the name of religion than ISIS on their best day.” —actor John Fugelsang
Non compos mentis: “I’ve been a climate scientist for decades and decades.” —Jane Fonda
Village idiot: “Yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and only thinking about yourself. I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey [who defended Hong Kong demonstrators], but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand.” —NBA star LeBron James, who later audaciously fretted, “My team and this league just went through a difficult week.” (“Guys, in fairness, all of this China business has made it a little more difficult for LeBron to sell shoes. So I mean consider it from his perspective. He’s really the victim here, when you think about it.” —Matt Walsh)
And last… “If you don’t monitor what’s influencing your kids online, they could end up a part of some fascist organization like the neo-Nazis or the NBA.” —Frank J. Fleming
https://patriotpost.us/articles/66116-tuesday-short-cuts-2019-10-15
Join our editors and staff in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis |
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on: October 15, 2019, 12:07:16 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 10-15-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________
The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Oct. 15, 2019
https://patriotpost.us/digests/66122-mid-day-digest-2019-10-15
THE FOUNDATION
“The safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war.” —John Jay (1787)
https://patriotpost.us/fqd/66119-founders-quote-daily-2019-10-15
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Making sense of the “insanity” in the Middle East.1
AG Barr warns that government is replacing our religious foundation.2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.
IN BRIEF
Middle East ‘Insanity’10
“Insanity!” That’s the way one Special Forces soldier who helped train and advise Syrian-based Kurds described President Donald Trump’s policy change11 in the region. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results — that’s an apt summary of the situation.
George W. Bush was rightly criticized for his premature “Mission Accomplished” banner, and Barack Obama was rightly criticized, to this day, for his politically motivated withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq, giving rise to the Islamic State12 and creating a massive humanitarian crisis13. Now, President Donald Trump is being criticized for his assertion that “we 100% defeated the ISIS caliphate” and withdrawing U.S. advisers from northeastern Syria — in effect, green-lighting a Turkish invasion. We can hope for a better outcome this time around, but, as military planners are fond of saying, “hope is not a viable strategy.”
The absence of a viable strategy has plagued U.S. military employment in the “Endless Wars” for some time. In fact, the wars are seemingly endless precisely because of the lack of an overarching strategic vision. With no clearly defined goal, we muddle along, occasionally stipulating what we won’t do — maintain troop levels past a predetermined date or conduct “combat” operations — rather than what we intend to accomplish. Stream-of-consciousness tweets don’t constitute a strategy, and our unilateral withdrawal from Syria is more likely to exacerbate than solve the problems President Trump cites. For example, we’ve already seen our soldiers threatened by Turkish shelling. Increased involvement from Russia and Turkey, along with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad — none of whom share our interests — threatens to expand both the scope and intensity of the fighting. Detention centers have been left unguarded, allowing hundreds of ISIS leaders and fighters to escape and replenish the terrorists’ ranks, already undermining the “100% defeated” claim14.
Our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq started with clear objectives that earned broad bipartisan support in the form of Congressional Authorization(s) on the Use of Military Force (AUMF). Critically, both were also presented to the public in a way that rallied support (at least temporarily) for the policies. While there has been some healthy discussion in military and foreign-policy circles, and a few politicians have attempted to generate interest in a review of the AUMF, our military and political leaders have failed to define and communicate what we should do with these national security challenges and why we should do it. In the absence of a compelling narrative outlining our national interest, cries of “not another American life” and “make the other guys pay their share” resonate, even if it will mean more American lives and dollars in the long run.
This is not the forum to outline a coherent military or national security strategy. The mechanisms are already in place to debate and document those ideas, but they are meaningless if the public is unaware of and our politicians ignore their contents. Congress largely abdicated its role in the process after passing the AUMF. President Bush made the case for the “surge” in Iraq in 2007 at great political risk, but domestic politics have consumed presidential agendas since then. Given the current environment in Washington, that’s unlikely to change in the near term. We will continue to muddle along in this gray area between peace and war until American citizens’ interest and involvement in national security expands beyond thanking service members for their service.
As Thomas Jefferson once said, “An informed citizenry is the true repository of the public will.”
https://patriotpost.us/articles/66103-middle-east-insanity
Barr: America’s Religious Foundation Is Crumbling15
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other,” said John Adams in 1798. Some things don’t change, even after 221 years, and Attorney General William Barr quoted Adams to say so in a stellar speech at Notre Dame about American politics and our crumbling moral foundation.
Barr, a devout Catholic, made the case that modern Americans have replaced dependency on God with dependency on government. He also argued that modern secularists are not merely non-religious; they are outright hostile to religion.
“The campaign to destroy the traditional moral order has coincided [with] — and I believe has brought with it — immense suffering and misery,” Barr asserted. “And yet the forces of secularism, ignoring these tragic results, press on with even greater militancy.”
He wondered, “Among the militant secularists are many so-called progressives. But where is the progress?” Worse, he implied regression: “The secular project has itself become a religion, pursued with religious fervor. It is taking on all the trappings of religion, including inquisitions and excommunication. Those who defy the creed risk a figurative burning at the stake — social, educational, and professional ostracism and exclusion waged through lawsuits and savage social-media campaigns.”
In any case, says Barr, the government is a poor substitute for true religion. “Today, in the face of all the increasing pathologies, instead of addressing the underlying cause, we have cast the state in the role of the Alleviator of Bad Consequences,” he said. “We call on the state to mitigate the social costs of personal misconduct and irresponsibility.”
“So, the reaction to growing illegitimacy is not sexual responsibility, but abortion. The reaction to drug addiction is safe injection sites. The solution to the breakdown of the family is for the state to set itself up as an ersatz husband for the single mother and an ersatz father for the children. The call comes for more and more social programs to deal with this wreckage. And while we think we’re solving problems, we are underwriting them. We start with an untrammeled freedom and we end up as dependents of a coercive state on whom we depend.”
Humans were created to worship our Creator. When we refuse to do so, we don’t worship nothing; we worship something else. That explains the contentiousness over who controls the levers of power in Big Government. If it’s not the leftists’ man in power, their very religion has been infiltrated. Hence their crusade to burn the heretics.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/66120-barr-americas-religious-foundation-is-crumbling-2019-10-15 |
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on: October 15, 2019, 11:18:23 AM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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May 27.
"Learn this parable from the fig tree." Mark 13:28
The parable of the fig-tree, teaches that we should not shut our eyes to the foreshadowings of future things. We are taught not to be anxious about tomorrow. But there is also a duty of looking ahead—as well as not looking ahead. The good sailor watches the skies, and he would be criminally foolish—were he to pay no heed to the foretokens of storm. The prudent farmer watches the forerunners of winter, and gathers in his fruits, houses his cattle, puts wood and coal in his bins, when he can do so easily—and is ready before the snows and the bitter cold come. So in all our life we should watch the "signs of the times," and shape our course accordingly.
Young people, as they feel the impulses of life in their souls, and hear the calls of God sounding in their ears, should be reminded of the duties and responsibilities of life, toward which they are moving, and should diligently prepare themselves for filling well their place. Each period of life brings its own special work; and there are always forecasts which, if heeded, will enable us to prepare ourselves for what God is preparing for us. If we are faithful, one day will prepare us for the next, and we shall never be found by any event, however sudden, unprepared to meet it. |
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on: October 15, 2019, 11:11:53 AM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society
Free Email Subscription
For Questions Or Comments: berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________
Not Dying For Lack Of Love
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
It has been said that “the world is dying for the lack of a little bit of love.” When this statement is examined in the light of Scripture, however, it is found to be the exact opposite of the truth. Listen to what God’s Word says about this:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:9,10).
Many about us are dying in their sins, but not “for the lack of a little bit of love.” It is rather because they reject the great love that God has manifested to us in His Son. We are told in John 1:10,11 that “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” This is the problem: men are rejecting His love. “And this is the condemnation,” says John, “that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19).
But while others reject Him, you may accept Him as your Savior and know the joy of sins forgiven and of everlasting life, for “as many as received Him, to them gave He the power [Lit., right] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).
“The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on Him” (John 3:35,36).
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). |
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on: October 15, 2019, 08:49:09 AM
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Started by Soldier4Christ - Last post by Soldier4Christ
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A Truly New Thing
“How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.” (Jeremiah 31:22)
Long ago, the wise man concluded: “There is no new thing under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). That nothing is now being created is even recognized as a scientific law.
But God reminds us as He reminded His backsliding people of Israel that He has, indeed, created one new thing in the earth. Since only God can “create,” a really new thing would have to be produced directly by the Lord Himself. Of course, God had completed His original work of creating all things long ago (Genesis 2:1-3), including a marvelous mechanism for human reproduction. Nevertheless, because of man’s sin, He very soon had to begin a work of reconciliation, and this included a primeval promise that “the seed of the woman” (Genesis 3:15) would come someday to accomplish this great work. Since all normal reproduction requires male seed, such a miracle would mean God would have to create a new thing when the appropriate time would come. At that time, as Isaiah prophesied many years later, “a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,” and that Son would be “the mighty God,” who would establish His kingdom “with justice from henceforth even for ever” (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7).
Then, still later, Jeremiah reminded his forgetful people of this same great promise: God would create, by His mighty power, a new thing, a perfect human body, without inherited sin or physical blemish, and with no contribution from either male or female, in the womb of a specially called virgin. She would compass that “holy thing” (Luke 1:35) with warmth and love for nine long months as it grew in her womb. Then, in the fullness of time, “God sent forth his Son, made of a woman” (Galatians 4:4), to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). HMM
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on: October 14, 2019, 04:23:52 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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May 26.
"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Revelation 1:10
We should all seek to be in the Spirit on the Lord's day. During the week we have our cares of business, and our hands are full of work that must be done. The world is apt to get into our heart during the week-days; and if there is no break in this secular life, we are apt to become secularized in spirit, losing interest in spiritual things. The trouble is not that we are in the world—but that the world too often gets into us. It is a proper enough thing for a ship to be in the sea; but when the sea gets into the ship—that is an end of sailing, and the ship sinks into the waters! Christ wants us to be in the world—but he does not want the world to get into us!
On the Lord's day, therefore, we should run our ship just as completely as possible out of the world's troubled waters into the peaceful bay of spiritual rest and enjoyment. We should think on spiritual things, and seek to have our heart thoroughly cleansed of worldliness and filled with God. One who thus faithfully uses the Lord's day each week—will be safe amid the world's unspiritual influences. A well-spent Sunday, will keep up the spiritual tone of the life amid the most intense pressure of week-day duty. But there is no other antidote to worldliness; and no Christian who desires to be faithful, dare lose the Sundays out of his week.
"I am not praying that You take them out of the world—but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world." John 17:15-16
"You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God!" James 4:4
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him!" 1 John 2:15 |
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on: October 14, 2019, 04:19:46 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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_______________________________________________
More Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society
Free Email Subscription
For Questions Or Comments: berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________
Three Times When the Lord Wouldn't Answer
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
And what is more, does not God Himself justify the wicked every day and even offer them free forgiveness and justification, no matter how guilty? Do we not read in Romans 4:5,
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
How can He do this without violating the basic rules of justice?
This question brings us to still another occasion on which our Lord declined to answer. And here we will find why our Lord could help both the Gentile and the Jew and why, even today, He can justify “him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26) and still maintain perfect justice.
THE SON OF GOD BEFORE HIS ACCUSERS (Matt. 26:62,63; 27:12-14)
This time it is the Lord Himself who is in trouble. He stands on trial for His life before the representatives of Hebrew and Roman Law. Think of it! They sitting in judgment upon Him!
First He stands before Caiaphas, the Jew, charged with all sorts of crimes.
“And the high priest arose, and said unto Him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?
“But Jesus held His peace…” (Matt. 26:62,63).
Next He stood before Pilate, the Gentile, while the multitude, including Israel’s rulers, clamored for His death.
“And when He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing.
“Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
“And He answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly” (Matt. 27:12-14).
But why did He not answer? Why did He stand there speechless, taking the blame for sins He had not committed? Picturing the scene one feels like crying: Lord, answer for thyself! Tell them the truth! Expose the wickedness of these contemptible creatures!
Surely the Lord could have given a thousand answers and have tied His accusers up in a thousand knots. Knowing all about them, as He did, He could have uncovered evidence which would have sent them fleeing from the scene.
Why did He not do so? Because He had come into the world especially to die for man’s sin. As He had taken His place with sinners at His baptism by John (Matt. 3:5,6,13-15) so now He was to take the place of sinners in condemnation and death.
Some have wondered why Isaiah pictures Him as a sheep before His shearers, dumb and opening not His mouth, when as a matter of fact He said many important things at His trials. The answer is that when accused He held His peace and took the blame. Indeed, had the sinners of all ages been there and accused Him of their sins He would not have said one word in self defense. Yes, and had you and I been there, charging Him with our sins, seeking to shift the blame for our sins upon Him, He would still have remained speechless--so infinite was His love for us; so great His determination to bear our judgment for us. See Him standing there! Yes, He is guilty; not in Himself but as our representative, for He stands there, not merely for us, but as us, taking the full responsibility for our sins. Thus God can dispense grace to sinners because He dispensed judgment upon sin at Calvary.
Neither the Syrophenician wom-an nor the fallen Jewess understood all this, of course, for it had not yet taken place. Indeed, God’s great purpose in Calvary was to be “testified in due time” through the Apostle Paul, some years after the crucifixion (I Tim. 2:4-7). Nevertheless it was the basis on which he could justly help both women, and it is the basis on which He has ever justified sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles.
Unsaved friend, will you call on God to save you for Jesus’ sake? He is ready to save you, but you must call. Will you do it now?
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets:
“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe…
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,4 through the forbearance of God;
“To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded” (Rom. 3:20-27).
Hallelujah! The Law brings Jew and Gentile down to the same level and grace accepts them there!
“For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22,23).
“For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him” (Rom. 10:12).
Endnotes
Notes:
1 From His reply it seems evident that they meant He should grant her request and dispose of her case.
2 Lit., becoming.
3 The Hebrew race.
4 Cf. “But now” (Ver. 21) and “at this time” (Ver. 26). We now know how God could justly forgive “the transgressions that were under the first testament” (Heb. 9:15). |
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