Two Minutes With The Bible

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Two Things We Know
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


In Romans 8 St. Paul points to two great truths which every true believer knows. The first (Verses 22,23) he knows by experience; the second (Verse 28.) he knows by faith.

    Rom. 8:22,23: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

The words “until now,” in this passage, are significant, for our Lord came to earth healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, making the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the lame to leap for joy. But He was rejected by sinful men and nailed to a cross.

After His resurrection and ascension His persecutors were given another chance, however, as Peter called upon them to repent so that “the times of refreshing” might still “come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19,20). But again the King and His blessed kingdom were rejected so that, in the words of Paul, the whole creation continues to groan and travail in pain “together until now.”

But in this passage the Apostle points out that even God’s children are not exempt from this suffering, for the most sincere believer, the most consecrated saint, must still partake of the sufferings and sorrows of the world while he waits for “the redemption of our body,” when “we shall all be changed” (I Cor. 15:51).

But while every believer knows about suffering and sorrow by experience, there is something else he knows by faith. Verse 28 speaks of this:

    “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

The true Christian is not a mere optimist; he is a believer in God’s Word, and God has much to say about how He is working all out for the good of His own. We have room here to quote but two passages:

    II Cor. 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

    Rom. 8:18: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

True Liberty
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


As true Americans celebrate their liberty, true Christians should rejoice in the even greater liberty which they have in Christ.

Our Lord said: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” and “If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:32,36). Likewise St. Paul declares that believers in Christ have been made “free from sin” and have become “servants to God,” who deals with us in grace (Rom. 6:22).

It is strange that so many sincere religious people actually wish to be in bondage to the Mosaic Law, which can only judge and condemn them for their sins. Peter called the law: “a yoke… which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear” (Acts 15:10). Paul called it “the handwriting of decrees, that was against us, which was contrary to us” (Col. 2:14). He called it “the ministration of death” and “the ministration of condemnation” (II Cor. 3:7,9).

He challenged those who “desired” to be under the law:

    “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” (Gal. 4:21).

“For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Gal. 3:10).

Thank God, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). Man always responds better to grace than to law. The law was “added because of transgressions” (Gal. 3:19). “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). But Christ died for our sins and now true believers serve God from gratitude and love. Hence Rom. 6:14 says: “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law but under grace.” Since Christ has redeemed us from the law (Gal. 4:5) God says to every true believer:

    “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Every-Man Evangelism
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Do the work of an evangelist.”

Paul’s Spirit-inspired injunction in II Tim. 4:5 applies indirectly to every believer in Christ. Are not our pastors simply leaders in the work of the Lord? Shall the congregation sit idly by as the pastor alone does “the work of an evangelist?” God forbid! The pastor is rather to be an example to his flock to go and do likewise.

How well this writer recalls the days of the so-called Darby-Scofield movement when multitudes all over the country thronged to hear Bible teachers like Gaebelein, Gray, Gregg, Ottman, Chafer and Newell. These able men of God expounded the Word as the “blessed hope” of the Lord’s return was being recovered. But these Bible teachers were evangelists too, in the truest sense of the word, and their evangelism was contagious.

In those days almost all premillenarians, including the young people, carried New Testaments in their pockets wherever they went. Why? They hoped and prayed for opportunities to testify to others about God’s plan of salvation through Christ and they wanted to show them the way from Scripture. In those days if a Christian failed to have a New Testament with him he was apt to be reproved with the words: “What! a soldier without a sword?” By contrast few believers carry New Testaments about with them today, and they certainly don’t carry Bibles!

Some are telling us today that this brand of fundamentalism is out of date and ineffective in these fast-changing times. We reply that all of us ought to get back to this brand of fundamentalism, this earnest effort to personally win souls to Christ by showing them God’s plan of salvation from the Scriptures.

God help his people in general and each spiritual leader in particular, to “do the work of an evangelist.”

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Christian Liberty
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Christian liberty is a priceless possession. It can be abused, of course, but legitimately used it is an overflowing source of spiritual joy and power.

God’s purpose with regard to the liberty of the believer in Christ is aptly summed up for us in one short verse in the Galatian letter:

    “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).

As the cause of spiritual decline in Israel was always their departure from God’s Word to them through Moses, so the cause of spiritual decline among believers today is always their departure from God’s Word to us through Paul, and if anything is made unmistakably clear in the Epistles of Paul, it is the fact that believers in this present dispensation of grace have been delivered from the Law and, as God’s full-grown sons in Christ, have been “called unto liberty.” The failure of God’s people to appropriate and enjoy this liberty today results in spiritual decline as surely as did the failure of the people of Israel to observe the law of Moses in their day.

Could anything be plainer than those passages in this same Galatian epistle, where the Apostle says by the Spirit:

    “CHRIST HATH REDEEMED US FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).

    “But when the fulness of the time was come, GOD SENT FORTH HIS SON, made of a woman, made under the law,

    “TO REDEEM THEM THAT WERE UNDER THE LAW, THAT WE MIGHT RECEIVE THE ADOPTION OF SONS” (Gal. 4:4,5).

Thus, to reject our blood-bought liberty and go back to the servitude of the Law is to repudiate not only the Word of God, but the Word of God to us, and this must necessarily result in spiritual decline.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Encouragement to A Weary Soldier
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


During his ministry at Corinth, the strain of battle began telling on the Apostle Paul. He found himself haunted by fear and depression. Later he wrote of it.

    “I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” (I Cor. 2:3).

It must not be supposed that fearlessness was characteristic of a nature so sensitive as Paul’s. On the contrary, he was often afraid. His, by the grace of God, was rather the courage that went on braving dangers in spite of his fears.

After having left the synagogue at Corinth, the strain of meeting, week after week, right next door, with all the embarrassing situations inevitably involved, may well have caused some of his followers, and possible himself, to question the wisdom and propriety of the step he had taken, adding to his mental depression (though this step, moving into the home of Justus, next door, was most appropriate under the circumstances). But the Lord was to endorse the act again in an unmistakable way.

It would appear from several passages in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (especially II Thessalonians 3:1,2), that this letter was written while Paul was becoming apprehensive about the work at Corinth and that it was after this that the Lord appeared to him in a vision to encourage him.

Let the reader try to place himself in Paul’s position while reading Verses 9,10 of Acts 18 so as to appreciate its force more fully:

    “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, BE NOT AFRAID,–BUT SPEAK,–AND HOLD NOT THY PEACE:–FOR I AM WITH THEE,–AND NO MAN SHALL SET ON THEE TO HURT THEE;–FOR I HAVE MUCH PEOPLE IN THIS CITY.”

Ah, tomorrow he could begin the work anew, assured in advance of the outcome! Whether he “continued” in Corinth (Verse 11) a year and six months longer or all together is perhaps impossible to ascertain, but we know that his ministry there was exceedingly fruitful.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Who Shall Separate Us From Christ
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:35).

There have been individuals who thought the doctrine of the believer’s eternal security in Christ to be a dangerous heresy. They countered every Scripture on the subject with another to refute it. But in each of these cases it was this great truth, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ”, that finally persuaded them.

It is significant that the Apostle Paul never tells us about his love for Christ, but he is always telling us about Christ’s love for him and for others! The Law commands: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God”, but grace puts it the other way, telling us how deeply God loves us — and this begets love in return. The Apostle experienced discouragements that would have caused him to give up the work of the Lord a thousand times, but he could not. Why? He says, “the love of Christ constraineth us?”(II Cor. 5:14); it bore him along like a strong tide. No doubt he had this very thing in mind when he continued writing in Romans 8.

    “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long…accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Ver. 36).

And therefore defeated? Far from it!

    “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Ver. 37).

Not only do we win the battle; we are “more than conquerors”, for these adversities serve to draw us into still closer fellowship with Him, thus enriching our Christian experience.

When people or nations engage in battle, generally no one wins; both lose. But Paul’s personal experience serves as the foremost example that in the Christian life, “tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril [and] sword”bring us more than victory when borne for Him who loved us.

Thus this great chapter opens with “no condemnation” and closes with “no separation”, and the Apostle, gathering all the forces of creation together, whether they be time, space, or matter, declares that none of them can separate us from “the love of God, which is [manifested] in Christ Jesus” (Vers. 38,39). Whether it be death or life, heavenly principalities, things present or things to come, height or depth or any other created thing — none of them, nor all together — can threaten our security or separate us from the love of God, which He has manifested to us in Christ Jesus.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

The Eyes Of The Lord
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (II Chron. 16:9).

The meaning of this famous passage of Scripture is clear, and its truth has been demonstrated a thousand times over. God is constantly searching, as it were, for men whom He can bless and use in the fulfilling of His purposes, but for whom, and through whom, does He accomplish His ends?

He does not need the world’s influential giants, for He says in Zech. 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” He does not need the world’s great thinkers, for our Lord, while on earth, prayed: “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matt. 11:25,26). Indeed, St. Paul declares, in I Cor. 3:19: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.”

No, it is not upon the world’s great ones that God bestows His blessing and power; it is rather upon the humblest believer whose heart is right with Him. Thus it is that by divine inspiration St. Paul wrote to those in ancient Corinth who had trusted Christ as their Savior:

    “Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory [boast] in His presence” (I Cor. 1:26-29).

To those of us who believe that God created the Universe from naught all this is perfectly consistent and it gives us confidence that He can bless and use even us.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

A Good Job
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


As Loren stood with his father, gazing at a beautiful Minnesota lake, the little four-year-old asked: “Daddy, who made this lake?” “God made it,” replied his dad, “and God made those trees and all this beautiful scenery.”

There was a moment’s silence. Then, placing his hands on his hips, little Loren said: “He sure did a good job!”

Yes, He did, yet this scenery was nothing compared with the glory this earth will know when Christ returns to reign. If earth’s rivers and lakes, its mountains and valleys, its landscapes and seascapes can now be so breath-taking, so awe-inspiring, what will be its beauty when prophecy is fulfilled and the curse removed!

    “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them [God’s people, Israel] and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

    “It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.”

    “…for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

    “And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water…”

    “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isa. 35:1,2,6,7,10).

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

True Unity
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


There are many unions all over the world, but in only one place is true unity to be found: in the Lord Jesus Christ. The children of fallen Adam have always been divided. Adam’s first two children could not get along together. One killed the other. And now that the race has multiplied there are about three billion separate, individual wills in the world. Some of Adam’s children try to get along together amicably and enjoy some measure of success, but this always takes effort. It does not come naturally. Even the dearest lovers must be prepared to yield to each other’s wishes frequently to get along well together. There is no true unity in this world.

But where Adam’s children have been divided by sin, they may be saved and truly united in Christ. As Christ became one with us when He died our death (the wages of sin) at Calvary, so we may become one with Him as in faith we acknowledge that that death was not His but ours. This is what the Apostle referred to when he asked:

    “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?” (Rom. 6:3).

This verse does not refer to water baptism, for no one can be baptized into Christ — become one with Him — by a physical ceremony. The only way to become one with Him is to accept by faith the fact that He died our death on the cross. The meeting place must always be Calvary. And as we acknowledge His death as ours and become one with Him, we automatically become one with each other.

    “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” (I Cor. 12:13).

Unity in Christ is not something for which Christians are to strive. It is a fact of grace to be recognized and enjoyed by faith. True believers in and out of all denominations have been baptized into one body, whether or not they recognize this.

Now it is for us to appropriate and enjoy this unity in Christ, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) i.e., seeking to experience the unity which the Spirit has made. Only those who have been baptized into Christ by faith can appreciate the blessed oneness which believers may enjoy.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Memories
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


Some golden daybreak the trump is going to sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Then: “We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…” (II Cor. 5:10,11).

When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me;
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see

How I blocked Him here and checked Him there
And I would not yield my will,
Shall I see grief in my Savior’s eyes;
Grief though He loves me still?

Oh, He’d have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While my memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I can’t retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With tears that I cannot shed.
I’ll cover my face with my empty hands
And bow my uncrowned head.

No! Lord of the years that are left to me
I yield them to Thy hand.
Take me, make me, mold me
To the pattern Thou hast planned.

—Author Unknown

May God give us the strength to redeem the time wisely. Only one life; ’twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Forgiven
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


    “We have… the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

The climax of Paul’s first recorded sermon is reached in Verses 38 and 39 of Acts 13, where he declares:

    “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

    “And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

Thus God, through Christ, forgives and justifies those who believe. Nor is this all that was accomplished for us by the death of Christ at Calvary. There is also reconciliation, baptism by the Spirit into Christ and His Body, a position at God’s right hand in the heavenlies and all spiritual blessings there.

“The forgiveness of sins” must come first, however, and the above passage assures us that in Christ we have this — not barely, but “according to the riches of His grace.” Indeed, the next verse continues: “wherein He hath abounded toward us…”

Thus Eph. 2:2-7 declares that though we were once “the children of disobedience,” and therefore “by nature the children of wrath,” “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us” has given us life and raised us from the dead, exalting us to “heavenly places in Christ…” His purpose in all this? “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Verse 7).

When God forgives us He no longer sees us in our poor selves, but in Christ, who took our place, dying for our sins on Calvary’s cross. There He hung in our place that we might now stand in His — “complete in Him” (Col. 2:10).

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Keep Your Eye on the Finish Line
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


    “Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).

Here in John 4, the Lord was just beginning His ministry, but He already had His eye on the finish line. What a great example for us! It is so easy to get caught up in the details of everyday life and give little or no thought to life’s end. As Pastor Stam used to say, “Most people live for this life as if it were never going to end, and they live for the next life as if it were never going to begin, when the very opposite is the case!” Too often this is true of God’s people as well.

Of course, as grace believers we are not just interested in what the Lord Jesus would do. Since we follow Paul as he followed Christ (I Cor. 11:1), we look to Paul as our example. But this is how he lived his life as well! He talked about how it was his goal, as he says, to “finish my course” (Acts 20:24). He too lived his life with his eye on the finish line!

If you are wondering what it means to live like this, notice that the Lord said that while on life’s journey, He made it His “meat” to do God’s will. The Bible word “meat” speaks of food of any kind, and food is the most important thing in your physical life. If you don’t believe that, just try going without it for a few days! This writer has a friend who says that while fasting, he will sometimes go to the grocery store just to gaze upon food! Thus the Lord was saying that continuing to do the will of His Father was the most important thing in life, and the way to live with the finish line in view.

How about you, dear Christian friend? Are you living your life with your eye on the finish line? It is important to notice that while the Lord talked about the finish line at the beginning of His ministry, Paul spoke of it as he neared the end of his life. And so if you are a young Christian, it is not too early to start living with the finish line in view, and if you are a “seasoned citizen” in the kingdom of God, it is not too late!

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Catch the Wave
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


As I write these words, the cause of Christ has suffered yet another embarrassing setback, as yet another prediction for the Rapture has come and gone without fulfillment.  The damage that has been done is far too extensive to fully document in this brief space, but you’ve all heard the stories.  The faith of sincere believers has been shaken.  Some who spent their life savings to warn the world of the end are now left to pick up the pieces of their shattered financial lives.  And since the media referred to the man who made this prediction as a “Bible scholar,” unbelievers now have yet another reason to scoff at Christianity, laugh at the Bible and Bible teachers, and dismiss anyone who tries to share anything from the Bible with them.

In the past, those who have tried and failed to date the Lord’s coming have sought to account for their failure in two ways.  Some have explained that the date they set was accurate, but that the Lord’s coming was a “spiritual” coming.  Others have scrambled to cover themselves by admitting to a miscalculation, and setting yet another date.  The Bible teacher behind this latest debacle has resorted to both excuses, and now warns that the end will come in October.

Thankfully, we serve a God who proved He can bring good out of bad when He took the worst thing that ever happened, the crucifixion of Christ, and turned it into the best thing that ever happened, the salvation of our souls.  And so we trust that you will join us in prayer that the disillusioned followers of this discredited ministry will now begin to question its leader, and that grace believers everywhere will be able to use this sad event to lead these brethren to an understanding of the truth.

There is something we can learn from all this.  Christians who believed that the Lord was coming on May 21st were spurred to live for Him as never before, enthusiastically telling their friends and loved ones to be ready.  While this failed prediction has no doubt left some questioning if the Rapture will come at all, we who “love His appearing” still believe that we should be “looking for that blessed hope” (II Tim. 4:8; Titus 2:13).  With that in mind, may each of us catch the wave of this misguided enthusiasm, and may His coming find us all busily redeeming whatever time we have left in the service of the Christ that loved us, and gave Himself for us.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Capitalizing on Confusion
by Pastor Ricky Kurth


Depending on when your monthly Searchlight arrives, the Mayan calendar deadline for the end of the world has either come and gone, or else it is looming in the imminent future.  All the hoopla that surrounded this gloomy prediction got me to wondering if there might not be some way that Christians could capitalize on yet another failed non-Biblical prophetic expectation.  After all, last year when the Rapture failed to take place on the date designated by a popular radio Bible teacher, God’s people were able to take advantage of this by pointing out that, when it comes to the Second Coming of Christ, the Bible says that “of that day and hour knoweth no man” (Matt. 24:36).  Those that knew the difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming were also able to point out that the date of the former is just as unsearchable in Scripture as that of the latter.  Surely there has to be a way to similarly benefit from the failure of the Mayan calendar disaster as well.

I wonder if what we are looking for might be found in Isaiah 41:21-24.  There, God Almighty thunders forth a challenge to all the false gods of the nations, daring them to “produce your cause,” that is, to produce “strong reasons” why anyone should believe they are God.  If you are wondering what kind of reasons He had in mind, the Lord went on to say, “let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen…

“Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods….”

This challenge went unanswered in Isaiah’s day, of course, for only the God of the Bible knows the future, something He has proved over and over again in Scripture, and something that the failed predictions of others serve to magnify.

With all this in mind, why not put together a short mental list of fulfilled Bible prophecies, and mark Isaiah 41 in your Bible?  That way when the subject of the Mayan calendar comes up the day after the December 21st deadline (as you know it will!), you can capitalize on the biggest non-story of the year by reminding people that the challenge of Isaiah 41 has still gone unanswered, and that the God of the Bible is still the only God worthy of worship.  Let’s determine to be ready to offer “a word in season” (Isa. 50:4) to all who are disillusioned by the gods of the nations, and are in desperate need of the God who sent His Son to die for their sins.

[nChrist]

_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society

Free Email Subscription

For Questions Or Comments:  berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________

Only Going Through the Motions
by Pastor John Fredericksen


Throughout much of the Old Testament, God’s people, the nation of Israel, had a very shallow, distant walk with the Lord. Even though given the unique privilege of having God’s written Word available, the Lord told the prophet Amos, “they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept His commandments” (Amos 2:4). This did not mean they completely ignored the Scriptures. In some cases, they simply neglected the Word. Often they only went through the motions of having it read to them without internalizing the truths of God and allowing it to change their daily lives. In other cases, after time in a distant, meaningless walk with the Lord, they completely abandoned the sacred Scriptures to worship false gods made by the hands of men.

Israel still had priests, but when God’s true prophets came with a message too close to home, they responded with words such as, “prophesy not again any more” (Amos 7:13). Resistance, even anger and violence, was a frequent response. Yet, in many cases, they still worshipped the Lord, but only in a halfhearted way that the Lord would simply not accept. Therefore, God’s message to them was, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer Me burnt offerings…I will not accept them…Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols” (Amos 5:21-23). Even worship toward the Lord can be meaningless, or worthless, to the Lord. This is so when worship is offered with a cold heart, only going through the motions, and without seeking to be continually transformed into the person God wants His child to become (Rom. 12:1-2).

Why would the Lord not accept their worship? It boils down to the explanation recorded in both Isaiah and Matthew: “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me” (Matt. 15:8; Isa. 29:13). Simply going through the motions of worshipping the Lord is not enough. He desires that we come to Him in sincerity, with biblical truth being paramount, allowing His Word to transform our lives, and desiring a daily walk that knows Him in a real, close, and meaningful way.

Believer, don’t settle for just going through the motions of worship. Come to the Lord with a genuine desire to know Him intimately, be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29), and do His will. Then, and only then, will your worship of the Lord be truly pleasing to the One who gave His life for you.