How Great Thou Art
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. Psalm 55:22
The Lord says in His Word that He will never give you more than you are able to bear and that He will always make a way of escape. 1Corinthians 10:13. Somehow He will make it easier for you or at least help you to bear it. Even of our service for Him He says, "My yoke is easy and My burden is light!" Matthew 11:28-30. That verse can be a real encouragement to you sometimes when you may be tempted to feel like life is just too hard and the burden, the particular thing you are going through, is just too heavy.
Sometimes it is a rough and a rugged road, with a hard and a heavy load, and the people you meet are not always kind. But most of the time it is a smooth and a happy road, He helps you to carry the load, and many lost souls you will help to find!
So if you ever feel overloaded and down in the dumps, dump it on Jesus! And if you really are overloaded, He will help you! Seek the Lord! Cast your burdens on Him! Just roll it over on Jesus and roll over and go to sleep and let Him stay up all night! Do not worry about it! Let the Lord do the worrying! His shoulders are broad enough to carry any load, all the burdens put together, including His own!
Sometimes it is a rough and a rugged road, with a hard and a heavy load, and the people you meet are not always kind. But most of the time it is a smooth and a happy road, He helps you to carry the load, and many lost souls you will help to find!
So if you ever feel overloaded and down in the dumps, dump it on Jesus! And if you really are overloaded, He will help you! Seek the Lord! Cast your burdens on Him! Just roll it over on Jesus and roll over and go to sleep and let Him stay up all night! Do not worry about it! Let the Lord do the worrying! His shoulders are broad enough to carry any load, all the burdens put together, including His own!
Putin on America
"The Americans are obsessed with the idea of ensuring absolute invulnerability for themselves, which is utopian and unfeasible from both technological and geopolitical points of view,” said Putin. “An absolute invulnerability for one means an absolute vulnerability for all the others. It’s impossible to accept such a prospect.”
“Russia is worried about the growing threat of a strike on Iran,” he said. “If it happens, the consequences will be truly catastrophic. Their real scale is impossible to imagine.”
“Russia is worried about the growing threat of a strike on Iran,” he said. “If it happens, the consequences will be truly catastrophic. Their real scale is impossible to imagine.”
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The International Bankers
From the Fourth Reich of the Rich by Des Griffin, Emissary Publications, 1976, page 204.
When the International Bankers bring about the next great crash they will be playing for total stakes, total control of the world! The stage is now all set for this planned catastrophe, only the timing is not known. The results will make the Crash of 1929 and the resultant Great Depression look like a time of great prosperity.
When the International Bankers bring about the next great crash they will be playing for total stakes, total control of the world! The stage is now all set for this planned catastrophe, only the timing is not known. The results will make the Crash of 1929 and the resultant Great Depression look like a time of great prosperity.
The Independent Press- a quote from New York Times editor John Swinton.
The Great Quotations, A Caesar Stuart Book, Lyle Stuart, New York, 1960. page 671.
Is the press honest? The shocking, but truthful answer to that question was given by John Swinton (1830-1901), a New York Times editor, in a five minute talk, "Journalists Gathering," at the Twilight Club in New York, April 12, 1883. Here is what he said.
"There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history in America, as an independent press, if we except that of the little country towns. You know this and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print.
"I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
"The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or what amounts to the same thing, his salary. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
"We are the tools and vassals of the rich behind the scenes. We are marionettes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our capabilities and our lives are all the property of these men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
Is the press honest? The shocking, but truthful answer to that question was given by John Swinton (1830-1901), a New York Times editor, in a five minute talk, "Journalists Gathering," at the Twilight Club in New York, April 12, 1883. Here is what he said.
"There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history in America, as an independent press, if we except that of the little country towns. You know this and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print.
"I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
"The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread, or what amounts to the same thing, his salary. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
"We are the tools and vassals of the rich behind the scenes. We are marionettes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our capabilities and our lives are all the property of these men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
He wants you to be happy! February 28
From the Daily Might
God is not a sad God! He is a happy God, who wants you to be happy, too!The Bible says in Psalm 144:15, "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord!" This is the whole point of salvation, to relieve us of the suffering, pain, death and tears brought into the world by the Enemy and sins of man! God is not a monster who is trying to deny you everything and make you miserable. But He loves life and created it all for you to enjoy! He has made this beautiful world as a home for you to live in and enjoy and He has lovingly given you a wonderful body, mind and heart with which to enjoy it!
In fact, He sometimes almost spoils us with such blessings that He gives us the desires of our hearts for having delighted ourselves in Him. (Psalm 37:4) But God is pretty smart. He knows that the happier we are, the more we will love Him. The more we love Him, the more obedient we will be out of pure love and so do an even better job for Him in serving others with whom He wants us to share His love!
He wants to make you happy with His love and help yo to make others happy, too, with both His love and your love! This is our main purpose in life, to love God and enjoy Him forever, and to try to help others to do the same!
God is not a sad God! He is a happy God, who wants you to be happy, too!The Bible says in Psalm 144:15, "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord!" This is the whole point of salvation, to relieve us of the suffering, pain, death and tears brought into the world by the Enemy and sins of man! God is not a monster who is trying to deny you everything and make you miserable. But He loves life and created it all for you to enjoy! He has made this beautiful world as a home for you to live in and enjoy and He has lovingly given you a wonderful body, mind and heart with which to enjoy it!
In fact, He sometimes almost spoils us with such blessings that He gives us the desires of our hearts for having delighted ourselves in Him. (Psalm 37:4) But God is pretty smart. He knows that the happier we are, the more we will love Him. The more we love Him, the more obedient we will be out of pure love and so do an even better job for Him in serving others with whom He wants us to share His love!
He wants to make you happy with His love and help yo to make others happy, too, with both His love and your love! This is our main purpose in life, to love God and enjoy Him forever, and to try to help others to do the same!
The Wisdom of Job, David and Paul!
Dennis Edwards
Here is a quote from Job 12:7-10. "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach you; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell you: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you: and the fish of the sea shall declare unto you. Who knows not in all these that the hand of the Lord has wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind."
Job is saying that in our studies of animal life(beasts), bird life(fowl of the air), marine life(fish of the sea) and geology, chemistry and physics(the earth) we should find God.
David the Psalmist, and great king of Israel sang in Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day do they speak, and night unto night do they show forth knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard."
Here David is saying that the skies are declaring the existence of God unto us. Throughout the day they are speaking and at night also. Watch the sunrise, or the clouds forming or racing across the noon day sky or before an approaching storm. Watch the sun set and the stars come out. When we stop to look up our spirits are somehow refreshed and renewed and strengthened. That is why we rush off to the country whenever we get a chance, or to play golf or go fishing as some men like to do, or take a stroll in the park or along the beach. There alone in nature our spirits are comforted and relaxed by the soothing force of the presence of God. Science has even found that the colors green(of nature) and blue(of the sky) have a relaxing effect upon our psychology.
Paul in his letter to the Romans goes on to write:"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20.
Again, like Job and David before him, Paul admonishes us that if we study the things around us, we will find God. He even says, we have no excuse for not finding God for He is clearly seen and understood by the things He has made.
So here we have three great men of times past, Job from around 2000 BC, David from around 1000 BC and Paul around 50 AD giving us the same counsel. These men were head and shoulders above their brethren in so much so that we still have their words with us today read daily by millions of people around the world. Each of these admonishes us that the presence of God can be found in His creation. He is speaking if we will open our hearts and minds and ears and listen.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Daniel Webster on America's Undoing!
“There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence. I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing.” ― Daniel Webster
Is the White Horse of Revelation 6:2 the Anti-Christ?
Dennis Edwards
Someone recently wrote my sharing with me a prophecy revealing that the white horse in Revelation chapter 6:2 is the anti-Christ. After praying about it for a few days, here is my answer.
Sorry I was not able to answer your note sooner. But over the weekend when I had more time your note kept coming to mind. Finally, when praying about the prophecy that the white horse in Revelations 6:2 is the anti-Christ, and restudying Revelations 6 and 19, the verse that came to me was from II Timothy 4:3. "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,... and shall turn away their ears from the truth."
The unscriptural pre-tribulation doctrine came in a revelation of prophecy to a person in Scotland around 1830´s. So a revelation in prophecy is not a sufficient means of finding true doctrine. It must be confirmed by a careful study of the Word itself. The Word is our true measuring stick and standard and guide. I have seen this doctrine of the white horse being the AC promoted in some evangelical literature, so it is not new in itself. The prophecy you sent me does not convince me that the view our fellowship has traditionally advocated is wrong.
In Revelations 6 we see the white horse going forth to conquer with a crown on his head. In Revelations 19 the white horse´s rider has crowns upon his head. He is more easily identified as Jesus because of the other descriptions added, The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, The Word of God, Faithful and True. (Revelations 19:11,13,16.) Maybe those crowns he is wearing are those of kingdoms which have accepted and received His kingship since he went forth to conquer after His resurrection.
The white horse is still continuing to go forth and is still conquering. That is why Christianity is making such headway in places like China and Africa, in spite of the red, black and grizzly grey horses and their devilry. Sorry, you will have to convince me with Scripture, line upon line, here a little, there a little, and not just a prophecy from someone you know of influence.
Thank you for sharing your question with me. Pick up your Bible and study, for in it you think you have eternal life. If there is some Bible study to go with the prophecy, I would be interested in studying it. Thanks.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Man-It is Hard to be a Christian!
By Peter Amsterdam
Being a Christian can sure feel like an uphill fight all the way. When you think about all that Jesus said and you try to actually apply it to your life, it’s really tough. Why? Because it doesn’t come naturally. So much of what He taught goes against the grain of our nature as human beings. Look at the list below and ask yourself if what Jesus said in the following verses comes naturally to you.
Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who mistreat you.
Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also.
Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.
Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.
Lend, expecting nothing in return.1
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.2
He said other things that are hard to live, too.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.3
Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.4
Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.5
Jesus said these things (and a lot more), and He expects us to actually do them. That’s the kicker. He really meant that you are supposed to do these things. And they’re hard!
Obviously, if you are going to be a follower of Jesus, it’s going to cost you.
Why would anyone be willing to follow Him, considering how hard it is? There are a lot of good reasons, but I’ll mention just two.
(1) Because the man who said these things is God.
Here was Jesus, the Word of God, the expression of the Father, walking the earth saying these things. If He was expressing God’s thoughts, if He was articulating the way God thinks about things, if He was telling mankind what God thought was important, or which of man’s actions or attitudes were valuable to God, then it’s a good idea to seriously consider trying to do what He said—even if it’s hard.
I’m pretty sure He knew that living what He said and following Him would be hard, because He was also human and underwent all the temptations we do. But He said what He said anyway.
He had to know that a lot of what He asked of us as disciples would go against natural human instinct. Humans tend to be proud; if someone hits us or steals from us or takes advantage of us in business, we often feel like retaliating in some way. We’re often selfish, or at least self-serving, by nature. Because it’s natural to be that way, it’s difficult not to be.
Yet Jesus was clearly trying to show that He expected us to act in ways that don’t conform to our human nature. I’d say He was intentionally challenging us by giving us a glimpse of how He wants us to be. After all, He did say, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.”6 So there was some expectation that we would try to do just that—even if it’s hard.
(2) The second reason is a little less noble than doing it because God Himself said it, and that is, “What’s in it for me?”
You’ve got to think long-term—very long-term. It’s wise to not only make do for now, but also to put something forward for then. And then is a very long time. When you’re thinking about what you’re going to get, you want to look forward to the future, to invest now for then.
It’s pretty clear in Scripture that there are rewards given in the afterlife that are connected to how we lead our temporal lives.
Revelation 22:12 says, Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done (NIV).
Colossians 3:23–24: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (NIV).
1 Corinthians 3:11–14 says, For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward (NIV).
Luke 6:22–23: Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets (KJV).
Matthew 16:27 says, For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works (NKJV).
Besides rewards in the afterlife, God rewards us in this life as well.
Mark 10:28–30: Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life (NASB).
Matthew 6:3–4: When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly (NKJV).
Jesus clearly states that we should build up treasure in heaven.
Matthew 6:20 says, Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal (NASB).
There’s a clear case made in the Scriptures that we will be rewarded, both in this life and the next, for doing the things that Jesus said we should do—even though they are hard. Perhaps the fact that they are so hard has something to do with why we are rewarded by God for doing them.
So two reasons for doing these tough things are that God said we should do them, and that we will be rewarded for doing them—both now and later. Let’s look at the later rewards for a minute.
He says that we have the means of laying up treasure in heaven. That’s like investing in the future—making right decisions now that will make our future better. Perhaps it’s a bit like putting money in the bank.
What I’m about to say might sound money-minded, but I think it helps to make the point.
Imagine that for every time you showed love or kindness to someone, 100 euros was deposited in your bank account. Or that every time you witnessed to someone, 500 euros were banked. What if you loaned someone money and didn’t expect it back, but you received double the money in your account? Or if every time you turned the other cheek, a check was deposited?
If that happened, then doing what Jesus said wouldn’t seem so hard, would it?
We’re going to live forever. It’s wise to invest in the future.—Even if it’s hard.
Originally published October 2010. Excerpted and republished February 2012.TFI
1 Luke 6:27–30, 35 NASB.
2 Mark 16:15 NKJV.
3 Matthew 6:19 NASB.
4 Mark 10:21 NASB.
5 Luke 12:15 NIV.
6 John 14:23 NASB.
Being a Christian can sure feel like an uphill fight all the way. When you think about all that Jesus said and you try to actually apply it to your life, it’s really tough. Why? Because it doesn’t come naturally. So much of what He taught goes against the grain of our nature as human beings. Look at the list below and ask yourself if what Jesus said in the following verses comes naturally to you.
Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who mistreat you.
Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also.
Whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.
Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back.
Lend, expecting nothing in return.1
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.2
He said other things that are hard to live, too.
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.3
Go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.4
Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.5
Jesus said these things (and a lot more), and He expects us to actually do them. That’s the kicker. He really meant that you are supposed to do these things. And they’re hard!
Obviously, if you are going to be a follower of Jesus, it’s going to cost you.
Why would anyone be willing to follow Him, considering how hard it is? There are a lot of good reasons, but I’ll mention just two.
(1) Because the man who said these things is God.
Here was Jesus, the Word of God, the expression of the Father, walking the earth saying these things. If He was expressing God’s thoughts, if He was articulating the way God thinks about things, if He was telling mankind what God thought was important, or which of man’s actions or attitudes were valuable to God, then it’s a good idea to seriously consider trying to do what He said—even if it’s hard.
I’m pretty sure He knew that living what He said and following Him would be hard, because He was also human and underwent all the temptations we do. But He said what He said anyway.
He had to know that a lot of what He asked of us as disciples would go against natural human instinct. Humans tend to be proud; if someone hits us or steals from us or takes advantage of us in business, we often feel like retaliating in some way. We’re often selfish, or at least self-serving, by nature. Because it’s natural to be that way, it’s difficult not to be.
Yet Jesus was clearly trying to show that He expected us to act in ways that don’t conform to our human nature. I’d say He was intentionally challenging us by giving us a glimpse of how He wants us to be. After all, He did say, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.”6 So there was some expectation that we would try to do just that—even if it’s hard.
(2) The second reason is a little less noble than doing it because God Himself said it, and that is, “What’s in it for me?”
You’ve got to think long-term—very long-term. It’s wise to not only make do for now, but also to put something forward for then. And then is a very long time. When you’re thinking about what you’re going to get, you want to look forward to the future, to invest now for then.
It’s pretty clear in Scripture that there are rewards given in the afterlife that are connected to how we lead our temporal lives.
Revelation 22:12 says, Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done (NIV).
Colossians 3:23–24: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (NIV).
1 Corinthians 3:11–14 says, For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward (NIV).
Luke 6:22–23: Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets (KJV).
Matthew 16:27 says, For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works (NKJV).
Besides rewards in the afterlife, God rewards us in this life as well.
Mark 10:28–30: Peter began to say to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You.” Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life (NASB).
Matthew 6:3–4: When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly (NKJV).
Jesus clearly states that we should build up treasure in heaven.
Matthew 6:20 says, Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal (NASB).
There’s a clear case made in the Scriptures that we will be rewarded, both in this life and the next, for doing the things that Jesus said we should do—even though they are hard. Perhaps the fact that they are so hard has something to do with why we are rewarded by God for doing them.
So two reasons for doing these tough things are that God said we should do them, and that we will be rewarded for doing them—both now and later. Let’s look at the later rewards for a minute.
He says that we have the means of laying up treasure in heaven. That’s like investing in the future—making right decisions now that will make our future better. Perhaps it’s a bit like putting money in the bank.
What I’m about to say might sound money-minded, but I think it helps to make the point.
Imagine that for every time you showed love or kindness to someone, 100 euros was deposited in your bank account. Or that every time you witnessed to someone, 500 euros were banked. What if you loaned someone money and didn’t expect it back, but you received double the money in your account? Or if every time you turned the other cheek, a check was deposited?
If that happened, then doing what Jesus said wouldn’t seem so hard, would it?
We’re going to live forever. It’s wise to invest in the future.—Even if it’s hard.
Originally published October 2010. Excerpted and republished February 2012.TFI
1 Luke 6:27–30, 35 NASB.
2 Mark 16:15 NKJV.
3 Matthew 6:19 NASB.
4 Mark 10:21 NASB.
5 Luke 12:15 NIV.
6 John 14:23 NASB.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Say "I love you" to those you care about!
Life's Frailty, and the Gestures That Go a Long Way
By Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times, February 13, 2012
Several years ago, my friend Jeffrey Zaslow sent me a chapter from a book he was writing about lifelong friendships among a group of women from Ames, Iowa. It was a powerful story about love and loss that moved me to tears.
With the draft pages still in my hands, I sat down with my daughter, a second-grader at the time, to talk about the importance of friendship. We talked about her girlfriends, why occasional fights didn’t matter and why she should always treasure her friends. It was a sweet moment, and I was grateful to Jeff for inspiring the conversation through his writing.
Later, I called him to tell him how much that single chapter had meant to my daughter and me. How, I asked him, had he managed to inject himself into this circle of women he had only recently met and so accurately depict the power of female friendship?
“I have a wife and three daughters,” he said, laughing, without missing a beat. “I’m quite comfortable being outnumbered by women.”
I thought about our conversation this weekend when I learned the terrible news that Jeff had died in a car accident on snowy roads on his way to his Detroit-area home, returning from a book-signing event in northern Michigan. “The Girls From Ames” became a best seller. But many people know Jeff as co-author of “The Last Lecture,” with the Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who delivered that now famous lecture after learning he had pancreatic cancer.
Despite the disparate subject matter, Mr. Zaslow noted that much of his writing centered on the theme of love, commitment and living in the moment.
“We don’t know what moment in our lives we’re going to be judged on; that’s true for all of us,” he said at a TED talk last year. “We’ve got to be honorable, be moral; we’ve got to work our hardest.”
Despite his success as a memoir co-author, Jeff’s true labor of love was his latest book, “The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters.” Dedicated to his daughters, the book focused on a bridal shop in Fowler, Mich., as a way to tell a story of parents’ hopes and dreams.
Jeff often said he honed his skills for listening and offering advice during a stint as an advice columnist, a role he won in a contest to replace Ann Landers. During his many public talks, Jeff told the story of a favorite letter from a man who wanted his girlfriend, Julie, to undergo breast augmentation.
“Julie deserves someone who loves her for who she is, not how she looks in a sweater,” Jeff wrote in his reply. “If you can’t do that for her, she won’t need implants anyway because she will already have a big boob in her life. You.”
In every conversation I had with Jeff and in much of his writing, he talked about how much he had learned about the frailty of life and the importance of never leaving important words unsaid.
At his TED talk last November, Jeff told the audience about a column of his that focused on the words “I love you.” It appeared two days before Valentine’s Day in 2004, and led with the story of a judge in Maywood, Ill., who often told his children that he loved them. One day in 1995, as his 18-year-old daughter was leaving the house, the judge called out to his daughter. “Kristin, remember I love you,” he said.
“I love you too, Dad,” the girl replied. That day, Kristin was killed in a car accident. It was a story that resonated with Jeff, and one he took to heart, always saying “I love you” to his wife and daughters before saying goodbye or hanging up the phone.
“All of us should say ‘I love you’ to the people we care about,” Jeff said. “We should do it because you never know. I got about 1,000 e-mails from readers saying they were going to tell their children they loved them.
“What I like about my job is sometimes I’m just writing about the obvious. By doing that, you can touch a lot of people and tell them things that will change their lives, even if it’s something simple.”
Removing the Veil
By Aiden Tozer
“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”—St. Augustine
The great saint states here in few words the origin and interior history of the human race. God made us for Himself: that is the only explanation that satisfies the heart of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason may say.
God formed us for Himself. The Shorter Catechism asks the ancient questions what and why and answers them in one short sentence hardly matched in any uninspired work. “Question: What is the chief End of Man? Answer: Man’s chief End is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” With this agree the four and twenty elders who fall on their faces to worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”1
God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we as well as He can in divine communion enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.
Who can flee from His Presence when the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?2 When, as the wisdom of Solomon testifies, “the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world?” The omnipresence of the Lord is one thing, and is … necessary to His perfection; the manifest Presence is another thing altogether, and from that Presence we have fled, like Adam, to hide among the trees of the garden, or like Peter, to shrink away crying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”3
The whole work of God in redemption is to bring us back again into right and eternal relationship with Himself. This required that our sins be disposed of satisfactorily, that a full reconciliation be effected and the way opened for us to return again into conscious communion with God and to live again in the Presence as before. Then by His prevenient working within us He moves us to return. This first comes to our notice when our restless hearts feel a yearning for the Presence of God and we say within ourselves, “I will arise and go to my Father.” That is the first step, and as the Chinese sage Lao-tze has said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step.”
The interior journey of the soul from the wilds of sin into the enjoyed Presence of God is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament tabernacle. The returning sinner first entered the outer court, where he offered a blood sacrifice on the brazen altar and washed himself in the laver that stood near it. Then through a veil he passed into the holy place where no natural light could come, but the golden candlestick which spoke of Jesus the Light of the World threw its soft glow over all. There also was the showbread to tell of Jesus, the Bread of Life, and the altar of incense, a figure of unceasing prayer.
Though the worshipper had enjoyed so much, still he had not yet entered the Presence of God. Another veil separated from the Holy of Holies where above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in awful and glorious manifestation. While the tabernacle stood, only the high priest could enter there, and that but once a year, with blood which he offered for his sins and the sins of the people. It was this last veil which was rent when our Lord gave up the ghost on Calvary, and the sacred writer explains that this rending of the veil opened the way for every worshipper in the world to come by the new and living way straight into the divine Presence.4
Everything in the New Testament accords with this Old Testament picture. Ransomed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies. God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day.
The greatest fact of the tabernacle was that Jehovah was there; a Presence was waiting within the veil. Similarly, the Presence of God is the central fact of Christianity. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His Presence. That type of Christianity which happens now to be the vogue knows this Presence only in theory. It fails to stress the Christian’s privilege of present realization. According to its teachings we are in the Presence of God positionally, and nothing is said about the need to experience that Presence actually. The fiery urge is wholly missing. And the present generation of Christians measures itself by this imperfect rule. Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning zeal. We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions and for the most part we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience.
Who is this within the veil who dwells in fiery manifestations? It is none other than God Himself, “One God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible,” and “One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God; begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father,” and “the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.”5 So in part run the ancient creeds, and so the inspired Word declares.
Behind the veil is God, that God after whom the world, with strange inconsistency, has felt, “if haply they might find Him.” He waits to show Himself in ravishing fullness to the humble of soul and the pure in heart.
The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged.
What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in is this God. He is eternal, which means that He antedates time and is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it He suffers no change. He is immutable, which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure. To change He would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot do either, for being perfect He cannot become more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect He would be less than God. He is omniscient, which means that He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events. He has no past and He has no future. He is, and none of the limiting and qualifying terms used of creatures can apply to Him. Love and mercy and righteousness are His, and holiness so ineffable that no comparisons or figures will avail to express it. Only fire can give even a remote conception of it. In fire He appeared at the burning bush; in the pillar of fire He dwelt through all the long wilderness journey. The fire that glowed between the wings of the cherubim in the holy place was called the “shekinah,” the Presence, through the years of Israel’s glory, and when the Old had given place to the New, He came at Pentecost as a fiery flame and rested upon each disciple.6
The highest love of God is not intellectual, it is spiritual. God is spirit, and only the spirit of man can know Him really. In the deep spirit of a man the fire must glow or his love is not the true love of God. The great of the kingdom have been those who loved God more than others did.
Frederick Faber was one whose soul panted after God as the roe pants after the water brook,7 and the measure in which God revealed Himself to his seeking heart set the good man’s whole life afire with a burning adoration rivaling that of the seraphim before the throne. His love for God extended to the three Persons of the Godhead equally, yet he seemed to feel for each One a special kind of love reserved for Him alone. Of God the Father he sings:
Only to sit and think of God,
Oh what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name;
Earth has no higher bliss.
Father of Jesus, love's reward!
What rapture will it be,
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,
And gaze and gaze on Thee!
His love for the Person of Christ was so intense that it threatened to consume him; it burned within him as a sweet and holy madness and flowed from his lips like molten gold. In one of his sermons he says, “Wherever we turn in the church of God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle and end of everything to us. … There is nothing good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor, because, if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the joy of heaven, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that might be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done, but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with Him, and we desire nothing more.” And addressing our Lord directly he says to Him:
I love Thee so, I know not how
My transports to control;
Thy love is like a burning fire
Within my very soul.
Faber’s blazing love extended also to the Holy Spirit. Not only in his theology did he acknowledge His deity and full equality with the Father and the Son, but he celebrated it constantly in his songs and in his prayers. He literally pressed his forehead to the ground in his eager fervid worship of the Third Person of the Godhead. In one of his great hymns to the Holy Spirit he sums up his burning devotion thus:
O Spirit, beautiful and dread!
My heart is fit to break
With love of all Thy tenderness
For us poor sinners' sake.
God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is. Such worship can never come from a mere doctrinal knowledge of God. Hearts that are “fit to break” with love for the Godhead are those who have been in the Presence.
From “The Pursuit of God,” published 1948.
Excerpted and republished on Anchor February 2012.
1 Revelation 4:10–11.
2 1 Kings 8:27.
3 Genesis 3:8; Luke 5:8.
4 Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 10;19–21.
5 Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16; John 3:16, 17:5, 15:26; 1 John 5:7.
6 Exodus 3:2, 13:21; Ezekiel 10:2; Acts 2:2–3.
7 Psalm 42:1.
“Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”—St. Augustine
The great saint states here in few words the origin and interior history of the human race. God made us for Himself: that is the only explanation that satisfies the heart of a thinking man, whatever his wild reason may say.
God formed us for Himself. The Shorter Catechism asks the ancient questions what and why and answers them in one short sentence hardly matched in any uninspired work. “Question: What is the chief End of Man? Answer: Man’s chief End is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” With this agree the four and twenty elders who fall on their faces to worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”1
God formed us for His pleasure, and so formed us that we as well as He can in divine communion enjoy the sweet and mysterious mingling of kindred personalities. He meant us to see Him and live with Him and draw our life from His smile.
Who can flee from His Presence when the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?2 When, as the wisdom of Solomon testifies, “the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world?” The omnipresence of the Lord is one thing, and is … necessary to His perfection; the manifest Presence is another thing altogether, and from that Presence we have fled, like Adam, to hide among the trees of the garden, or like Peter, to shrink away crying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”3
The whole work of God in redemption is to bring us back again into right and eternal relationship with Himself. This required that our sins be disposed of satisfactorily, that a full reconciliation be effected and the way opened for us to return again into conscious communion with God and to live again in the Presence as before. Then by His prevenient working within us He moves us to return. This first comes to our notice when our restless hearts feel a yearning for the Presence of God and we say within ourselves, “I will arise and go to my Father.” That is the first step, and as the Chinese sage Lao-tze has said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a first step.”
The interior journey of the soul from the wilds of sin into the enjoyed Presence of God is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament tabernacle. The returning sinner first entered the outer court, where he offered a blood sacrifice on the brazen altar and washed himself in the laver that stood near it. Then through a veil he passed into the holy place where no natural light could come, but the golden candlestick which spoke of Jesus the Light of the World threw its soft glow over all. There also was the showbread to tell of Jesus, the Bread of Life, and the altar of incense, a figure of unceasing prayer.
Though the worshipper had enjoyed so much, still he had not yet entered the Presence of God. Another veil separated from the Holy of Holies where above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in awful and glorious manifestation. While the tabernacle stood, only the high priest could enter there, and that but once a year, with blood which he offered for his sins and the sins of the people. It was this last veil which was rent when our Lord gave up the ghost on Calvary, and the sacred writer explains that this rending of the veil opened the way for every worshipper in the world to come by the new and living way straight into the divine Presence.4
Everything in the New Testament accords with this Old Testament picture. Ransomed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies. God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day.
The greatest fact of the tabernacle was that Jehovah was there; a Presence was waiting within the veil. Similarly, the Presence of God is the central fact of Christianity. At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His Presence. That type of Christianity which happens now to be the vogue knows this Presence only in theory. It fails to stress the Christian’s privilege of present realization. According to its teachings we are in the Presence of God positionally, and nothing is said about the need to experience that Presence actually. The fiery urge is wholly missing. And the present generation of Christians measures itself by this imperfect rule. Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning zeal. We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions and for the most part we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience.
Who is this within the veil who dwells in fiery manifestations? It is none other than God Himself, “One God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible,” and “One Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God; begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father,” and “the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.”5 So in part run the ancient creeds, and so the inspired Word declares.
Behind the veil is God, that God after whom the world, with strange inconsistency, has felt, “if haply they might find Him.” He waits to show Himself in ravishing fullness to the humble of soul and the pure in heart.
The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence. The instant cure of most of our religious ills would be to enter the Presence in spiritual experience, to become suddenly aware that we are in God and that God is in us. This would lift us out of our pitiful narrowness and cause our hearts to be enlarged.
What a broad world to roam in, what a sea to swim in is this God. He is eternal, which means that He antedates time and is wholly independent of it. Time began in Him and will end in Him. To it He pays no tribute and from it He suffers no change. He is immutable, which means that He has never changed and can never change in any smallest measure. To change He would need to go from better to worse or from worse to better. He cannot do either, for being perfect He cannot become more perfect, and if He were to become less perfect He would be less than God. He is omniscient, which means that He knows in one free and effortless act all matter, all spirit, all relationships, all events. He has no past and He has no future. He is, and none of the limiting and qualifying terms used of creatures can apply to Him. Love and mercy and righteousness are His, and holiness so ineffable that no comparisons or figures will avail to express it. Only fire can give even a remote conception of it. In fire He appeared at the burning bush; in the pillar of fire He dwelt through all the long wilderness journey. The fire that glowed between the wings of the cherubim in the holy place was called the “shekinah,” the Presence, through the years of Israel’s glory, and when the Old had given place to the New, He came at Pentecost as a fiery flame and rested upon each disciple.6
The highest love of God is not intellectual, it is spiritual. God is spirit, and only the spirit of man can know Him really. In the deep spirit of a man the fire must glow or his love is not the true love of God. The great of the kingdom have been those who loved God more than others did.
Frederick Faber was one whose soul panted after God as the roe pants after the water brook,7 and the measure in which God revealed Himself to his seeking heart set the good man’s whole life afire with a burning adoration rivaling that of the seraphim before the throne. His love for God extended to the three Persons of the Godhead equally, yet he seemed to feel for each One a special kind of love reserved for Him alone. Of God the Father he sings:
Only to sit and think of God,
Oh what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name;
Earth has no higher bliss.
Father of Jesus, love's reward!
What rapture will it be,
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,
And gaze and gaze on Thee!
His love for the Person of Christ was so intense that it threatened to consume him; it burned within him as a sweet and holy madness and flowed from his lips like molten gold. In one of his sermons he says, “Wherever we turn in the church of God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle and end of everything to us. … There is nothing good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor, because, if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. No one need be downcast, for Jesus is the joy of heaven, and it is His joy to enter into sorrowful hearts. We can exaggerate about many things; but we can never exaggerate our obligation to Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus to us. All our lives long we might talk of Jesus, and yet we should never come to an end of the sweet things that might be said of Him. Eternity will not be long enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has done, but then, that matters not; for we shall be always with Him, and we desire nothing more.” And addressing our Lord directly he says to Him:
I love Thee so, I know not how
My transports to control;
Thy love is like a burning fire
Within my very soul.
Faber’s blazing love extended also to the Holy Spirit. Not only in his theology did he acknowledge His deity and full equality with the Father and the Son, but he celebrated it constantly in his songs and in his prayers. He literally pressed his forehead to the ground in his eager fervid worship of the Third Person of the Godhead. In one of his great hymns to the Holy Spirit he sums up his burning devotion thus:
O Spirit, beautiful and dread!
My heart is fit to break
With love of all Thy tenderness
For us poor sinners' sake.
God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is. Such worship can never come from a mere doctrinal knowledge of God. Hearts that are “fit to break” with love for the Godhead are those who have been in the Presence.
From “The Pursuit of God,” published 1948.
Excerpted and republished on Anchor February 2012.
1 Revelation 4:10–11.
2 1 Kings 8:27.
3 Genesis 3:8; Luke 5:8.
4 Matthew 27:51; Hebrews 10;19–21.
5 Genesis 1:1; Colossians 1:16; John 3:16, 17:5, 15:26; 1 John 5:7.
6 Exodus 3:2, 13:21; Ezekiel 10:2; Acts 2:2–3.
7 Psalm 42:1.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
An Oxygenated Cell Is a Healthy Cell!
Here are a few tips about cancer and health I have picked up over the years.
An highly oxygenated cell is a healthy cell. How does that translate. Get plenty of healthy exercise outside breathing plenty of fresh air. Vigorous activity gets the heart beating and the lungs inhaling and exhaling helping to clean the cells of impurities. A half an hour of vigorous exercise, even as much as a brisk walk can suffice. Exercise also helps reduce stress which is shown to be a killer.
Lettuce is anti-cancerous so eat plenty of healthy fresh salads. Fresh is usually better with vegetables. Cooking usually diminishes the nutritional value. Garlic and onions are also natural antiseptics.
With apples, eat the whole apple core and pits and all. Apple pits are shown to have vitamin B17 which helps fight cancer cells. It seems that too much meat in the diet makes it harder for the body to fight cancer as the same enzymes that are needed to help digest meat proteins are needed to fight and destroy cancerous cells. Too much meat translates into not enough immune system fighting off the cancerous cells.
Water. Drink plenty of natural mineral water. Water helps keep the intestinal tract clean and flowing, preventing constipation. Colon cancer is more prevalent in men who suffer from constipation. Water helps clean out waste from the body and keep the blood oxygenated.
Brown is better than white. When buying starches and sweets remember. Brown sugar over white. Brown flour, whole wheat or whole meal rather than white, brown rice rather than white, brown integral bread over white. But its so expensive! What you pay for healthy food will translate in fewer doctor bills down the line. So invest in your future. Eat right.
If the vegetable/fruit is red like tomatoes or strawberries it has more value cooked.Have you noticed how cooked tomatoes or strawberries will leave a pan cleaner than when you started. That strong acid will also help in the cleaning of your insides. So use that tomato sauce and enjoy!
One health food advisory suggested to not eat anything your grandmother would not have eaten. Stay away from processed foods and foods with high sugar content. Cows who were fed only processed food lost the ability to carry an offspring to birth by the 5th generation.
Those are a few tips. Plenty more can be found on Google. So shop around. No one has an excuse for being ignorant. Eat right. Exercise right. Sleep right. Play and work right. Love right! And stay healthy! God loves you!
Has God Forsaken You?
Recently I was talking to an old school friend. He had been through a crisis with cancer some ten years ago. Around that time, he was marvelously saved and eventually healed of cancer. The Lord even told him he would not have to battle with cancer again. But just the past month he was found with active cancer cells again. He was devastated. How could this be happening! Had not God promised him he would not have to battle cancer again? How could He break His word?
My friend said he felt like God had forsaken him. I shared with him some of the thoughts on this subject I had read a few months ago from the book God On Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer by Pete Grieg. In the book, Pete shares his personal experience with unanswered prayer. His wife suffers with epileptic attacks. As a firm believer in the ability of God to answer prayer and miraculously heal, Pete prays desperately each time his wife suffers an attack. Most of the time, it seems God does not answer his prayers and they rush off for medical assistance to the nearest hospital or clinic. But at times, He does answer.
One time when they were vacationing in the mountains of Virginia, his wife had another horrible attack. However, they were far from any kind of medical help. Pete prayed as he always does. But on this occasion, God heard his prayer and his wife supernaturally recovered. But why does it seem at times that God does not answer our prayers? Pete goes on to explain how Jesus Himself had to suffer the death of a sinner forsaken by God in His death on the cross.
Remember the words of Jesus from the cross,"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" Jesus had to experience the feeling of being forsaken by God to become a high priest that is touched with the feeling of our infirmity. He has gone through this same experience and knows how it feels so He can therefore understand what we are going through. That does not mean He will always reach down and heal us, as I explained to my friend. But he can give us grace for the trial like the old poem teaches.
God has not promised
Skies always blue
Flower-strewn pathways
all our life through;
God has not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.
But God has promised
Strength for the day
Rest from our labor,
Light for the way,
Grace for all trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.
(Annie Johnson Flint)
I then shared with my friend the passage in Hebrew 11 where Paul discusses some of the old great saints of God in verses 36 through 39.
"And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:"
In other words, they suffered for their faith and it seemed that God had failed them and He did not rescue them and they "received not the promise." But He gave them what they needed, he gave them dying grace. Some even raised their hands as they died as a predetermined signal to their family that God was giving them supernatural strength to endure the cruel death they were suffering at the hands of their enemies.
Two brothers were imprisoned and were to be burned at the stake for their faith. The older brother was to be burned first and so his younger brother, who was experiencing a great trial of faith, asked him to lift up his hands during his execution if God was giving him dying grace. And low and behold, just as the flames enveloped his body, the brother who was watching from his prison window saw his older brother raise his hands in praise unto God. God was giving dying grace.
Hebrews 12 goes on the explain that it is through looking unto Jesus we are able to endure suffering and affliction and He will help us not to be wearied and faint in our minds. (Hebrews 12:3) So if you feel you are fainting, wearied and unable to endure, maybe you need to spend more time in prayer and fellowship with Him looking unto Him for strength, faith and grace to carry on. Spend time with God. He will answer your prayers. He will help you.
God may not reach down and touch you and heal. But He will give you the grace for the trial. He will give you His unfailing sympathy and undying love.
Prayer-craft Is Greater Than Aircraft!
From Streams In The Desert 2 (Mrs. Charles E. Cowman)
It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; not the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they may be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they may be- which God cares for. Passion of spirit is what avails much.
There is nothing that makes us love someone as praying for him, and when you can do this sincerely for anyone, you have fitted your soul for the performance of everything that is kind and civil toward him. Be daily on your knees in a solemn, deliberate performance of this devotion, praying for others in such form, with such length, importunity and earnestness as you would for yourself; and you will find all little, ill-natured passions die away, your heart will grow great and generous. (William Lane)
The prayers of godly men and women can accomplish more than all the military forces in the world. Prayer-craft is greater than aircraft.
Because you prayed-
God touched our weary bodies with His power
And gave us strength for many a trying hour!
In which we might have faltered, had not you,
Our intercessors faithful been, and true.
Because you prayed-
God touched our lips with coals from altar fire,
Gave spiritfulness, and did inspire
That, when we spoke, sin blinded souls did see;
Chains of sin were broken;
Captives were made free.
Because you prayed-
The dwellers in the dark have found the Light;
The glad good news has banished heathen night;
The message of the Cross, so long delayed,
Has brought them life at last-
Because you prayed
(Charles B. Bower)
It is not the arithmetic of our prayers, how many they are; not the rhetoric of our prayers, how eloquent they may be; nor the geometry of our prayers, how long they be; nor the music of our prayers, how sweet our voice may be; nor the method of our prayers, how orderly they may be- which God cares for. Passion of spirit is what avails much.
There is nothing that makes us love someone as praying for him, and when you can do this sincerely for anyone, you have fitted your soul for the performance of everything that is kind and civil toward him. Be daily on your knees in a solemn, deliberate performance of this devotion, praying for others in such form, with such length, importunity and earnestness as you would for yourself; and you will find all little, ill-natured passions die away, your heart will grow great and generous. (William Lane)
The prayers of godly men and women can accomplish more than all the military forces in the world. Prayer-craft is greater than aircraft.
Because you prayed-
God touched our weary bodies with His power
And gave us strength for many a trying hour!
In which we might have faltered, had not you,
Our intercessors faithful been, and true.
Because you prayed-
God touched our lips with coals from altar fire,
Gave spiritfulness, and did inspire
That, when we spoke, sin blinded souls did see;
Chains of sin were broken;
Captives were made free.
Because you prayed-
The dwellers in the dark have found the Light;
The glad good news has banished heathen night;
The message of the Cross, so long delayed,
Has brought them life at last-
Because you prayed
(Charles B. Bower)
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Pray for Your Enemies?
Do you really want to pray for your enemies? Jesus, in his famous Sermon on the Mount, admonishes us to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. Do you know someone who seems to be doing things to spite you, or is speaking despitefully of you? One Bible dictionary defines despitefully as with malice, or taking pleasure in the misfortune of another.
Another dictionary defines malice as the desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of a deep-seated meanness like the malice and spite of a lifelong enemy. In Law it can mean the evil intent on the part of a person who commits a wrongful act injurious to others. Is there someone in your life right now who is rubbing you the wrong way and he seems to be doing it on purpose? Well there is something you can do about it. You can follow the admonition Jesus gave and pray for him/her.
In Streams in the Desert 2 William Lane says it is impossible to harbor negative feelings and thoughts about a person whom you are earnestly praying for, whom you are asking God to bless and prosper and protect and supply for. Why do you not try it? Tonight before you go to bed, or today while walking home, earnestly cry out to God in prayer for that poor soul who is giving your heart so much toil and heartache. If you will follow the advice of God, and pray earnestly with a full heart, He will supernaturally remove the bad feelings and thoughts you are having.
But you have to do the obeying. You have to pray even though your emotions and thoughts disagree with the commandment of God to pray for your enemies. But if you go ahead by faith and follow His admonition you will find you will be able to rise above the present unpleasant situation and find love and genuine compassion for that poor soul whose presence has tormented you for so long. Why do you not give it a try and pray. You will not be sorry. Prayer moves the hand of God. Sincere desperate prayer can radically change any heart or situation. So pray, it may even change you!
And I am not talking about a one day thing. This prayer change may take a few days or a week or it may be a continual battle. But if you in all earnestness and sincerity pray passionately for your enemy, you will experience results. It may not be a permanent victory and you may need to continue to address this person in prayer. But like the grain a sand inside of the oyster, as you continue to secrete the balm of prayer over this sandy personality, in the end God will create a pearl in your life. The pearl may be the deepening of your character or the strengthening of your nerve or the softening of your heart. But a pearl you will have. The fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Life is to Learn to Love!
By J.R.Miller from Streams in the Desert 2
The great business of a true Christian life is to learn to love. Mr. Browning, in his Death in the Desert, puts into the mouth of the dying Saint John these words:
For life, with all it yields of joy or woe,
And hope and fear-believe the aged friend-
Is just our chance o´the prize of learning love,
How love might be, hath been indeed, and is;
And that we hold thenceforth to the uttermost
Such prize despite the envy of the world.
Life with all its experiences is just our chance of learning love. The lesson is set for us-" Thou shall love"; "As I have loved you, that you also love one another." Our one thing is to master this lesson. We are not in this world to get rich, to gain power, to become learned in the arts and sciences, to build up a great business, or to do large things in any line. We are not here to get along in our daily work, in our shops, or schools, or homes, or on our farms. We are not here to preach the gospel, to comfort sorrow, to visit the sick, and perform deeds of charity. All of these, or any of these, may be among our duties, and they may fill our hands; but in all our occupations the real business of life, that which we are always to strive to do, the work which must go in all our experiences, if we grasp the true meaning of life at all, is to learn to love, and to grow loving in disposition and character.
We may learn the finest arts of life-music, painting, sculpture, poetry, or master the noblest sciences, or by means of reading, study, travel, and converse with refined people, may attain, the best culture; but if in all this we do not learn love, and become more gentle in spirit and behavior, we have missed the prize of living. If in the midst of all our duties, care, trials, joys, sorrows, we are not day by day growing in sweetness, in gentleness, in unselfishness, in thoughtfulness, and in all branches of love, we are not learning the great lesson set for us by our Master in this school of life.
"If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1John4:11)
Monday, February 13, 2012
The Death of My Son- the Lesson Learned!
What do you learn from the death of a son?
Message from Jesus!
All through life, my loved one, I am teaching you the lessons of love. Love is the greatest force in the world. It is also the greatest need of mankind. So if you learn anything, you must learn to love, for love is the gist and purpose of living. Many go through life accomplishing great feats of sports or politics or acting or business or music. But if they have not learned to love, it is all in vain and will not help them through the difficult times in life. Nor will it help them in the world to come where love is the cornerstone of every thought and action. So teach the fathers to love their children. Teach them to be gentle and kind like Paul so wisely admonished. Teach them to be loving fathers, to be understanding and patient lest they drive their children away from Me with their callousness.
Many a God believing son or daughter has turned from their faith because of the hardheartedness of their parent. Fathers are too often guilty. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, your son is gone from you and now you learn what you should have learned before. The heart of stone had to be broken before the love could pour forth to refresh the people. Let your heart be broken. Let it be crushed. Let all semblance of pride and self be squashed beneath the power of love.
Fathers, keep a line on your children no matter what their age. They are still yours to encourage, to guide and to lead by your example. Teach your children to love by being that loving example, by saying you are sorry when you do wrong or say wrong. Fathers, your children need you. Your sons need you. Your daughters need you. Be there for them. Forsake your pride, humble yourself and make things right. Apologize. Agonize in prayer for them. Help them. You are their father and they love you, or want to love you. The time is not too late. It is never too late to do or say the right thing. So do it. Do not delay or you may someday fight the remorse for having neglected to do the most important task first- to love.
Bible verses for Fathers
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Colossians 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Colossians 3:!2-16 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
How to Get Rid of That Ought in Your Heart
Dennis Edwards
I love the Bible. It is a great book and stands to be read frequently if not continuously. After I received Jesus it was the only book I would read for many years and I found it enthralling. It is normal when you first receive the Lord to have the hungering for His word as it gives you strength, counsel, comfort, knowledge, understanding and compassion. Reading the word and meditating on its truth gives you wisdom beyond your years and experiences. It becomes a filter on how you observe and absorb the world around you. David said, "I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients,because I keep thy word." (Psalm 119:99,100) So a good reading and meditating on the word of God would do us all good.
So what to we do about that ought in our heart about that other person? How do we get rid of it?Did Jesus leave us any advice? Well, I am sad to say He did. I am sad, because it is not easy advice to follow. Most people will not follow it. They may think you are wrong for following it also. They may do all they can to persuade you it is not the right way to go. I believe if we follow this advice whole-heartedly, it will work. If we only put half a heart into it, we cannot expect much results. We will get what we put in.
"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)
So here Jesus starts by saying we should love our enemies. Though we may have a feeling for hatred for those enemies far beyond the sea, most of our real enemies in life, turn out to be more close to home. They may be a former loved one, former workmate, neighbour, spouse, in-law, son or daughter, boss or partner, employee or friend. It is usually some one close to us, or who was once close to us that we have trouble loving. Most probably they have done wrong to us and probably we feel they have never done restitution for what they have done. Therefore we find it hard to forgive them and make things right. We will not forgive until they ask for our forgiveness. By taking that stand, we are making our obedience to the Word of God dependent on what they do. We will forgive, when...
So here Jesus starts by saying we should love our enemies. Though we may have a feeling for hatred for those enemies far beyond the sea, most of our real enemies in life, turn out to be more close to home. They may be a former loved one, former workmate, neighbour, spouse, in-law, son or daughter, boss or partner, employee or friend. It is usually some one close to us, or who was once close to us that we have trouble loving. Most probably they have done wrong to us and probably we feel they have never done restitution for what they have done. Therefore we find it hard to forgive them and make things right. We will not forgive until they ask for our forgiveness. By taking that stand, we are making our obedience to the Word of God dependent on what they do. We will forgive, when...
But that is not what Jesus said. He said, Love your enemies. What does that mean? Is it something like doing unto them what you would want someone to do unto you if you were in the same situation? In I Corinthians 13 Paul talks about love. What does it say there? "Love suffers long and is kind. Love envies not, is not puffed up. Love does not behave itself improperly. Love seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil. Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth." What about those verses we read the other day in Ephesians 4:31&32 "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderheated, forgiving one another, even as God for the sake of Christ has forgiven you."
So there we have it. The Word of God is powerful and hits right on target, if we let it. So how then do we get the victory over that person whom we are having a hard time to get along with, that person who seems to be making our life miserable? Well, Jesus said you need to love them. That is fair enough. But then He gives three specific things you should do to manifest love for that person. Are you ready for them? Then here we go.
"Bless them that curse you." First step is to start talking positive about the person who is getting you annoyed. Words are real things. They bless or they curse. If you are talking negatively about someone behind their back, it could very well be a form of cursing. Do not do it. Bless, or speak positively and do not curse. You will one day give account for every idle word. Proverbs 18:21 says "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." We will eat the fruit of our words. If we are sowing love and friendship with our words we will reap the same. If we are sowing discord or bitterness, we will reap the same. "What a man sows, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7) So be positive and talk positive about the person whom you are having a hard time to love.
Next step: "Do good to them that hate you." (Matthew 5:44) That is straight forward enough. Start doing good things to the person you seem to be having difficulty with. What ever little act of kindness you can think of. There are plenty of little or big ways you can implement this. Use your imagination, Remember, you will only get out what you put in. What ever you do, do it whole-heartedly. It will eventually bear fruit. Maybe not after the first little good thing you do, but down the line it will eventually bear fruit.
You see your enemy is waiting to see if this change in you is for real, or some kind of a trick. So be patient and consistent. Remember Jacob (Israel) in the Bible when he returned to see his brother Esau of whom he had robbed his birthright and the blessing of their father. Genesis 32&32 What did he send on ahead of himself? Gifts for his brother, the brother that had vowed to kill him once their father was dead. By doing good he won back the friendship and forgiveness of his brother. "A gift...pacifies anger: and a reward in the bosom strong wrath." (Proverbs 21:14)
The last step and I do not mean that these are in any type of chronological order. I have often found that to go ahead with the first two steps mentioned I needed to first apply this third step. But since Jesus mentioned this third, I have kept it in His order. "Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." That is how you often feel when you are living with or working close by someone who you are not in harmony with. You may feel they are doing things on spite and they may be. You may feel persecuted and maybe rightfully so.
Nevertheless, Jesus says to pray for them. But I have also found, that I need to pray not only for them, but also for my self and against any wrong attitudes I may be hiding from myself. So prayer is important and often the key or catalyst for spiritual progress. Start praying for that person who is making you miserable. Start praying for your own heart to be right with God and your attitudes to be right before Him. You will find if you do pray, it will work wonders. Pray moves the hand of God. "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16)
So there you have it. Love you enemy by following these three positive steps: positive speaking, positive actions and positive prayer. You do not need to do these in any set order, but do them you must if you want a wonderful victory over that "neighbour" who is just dragging your life down. Try the plan Jesus gave and see what wonders it can work for you in your life today. Get those prayer muscles in action. Speak and act positively and you will soon regain a lost friend or loved one. As you change it may very well be that they will change also. Start today. Tomorrow may be too late. God bless you as you pray, speak and act positively! You will not regret it. God will bless you as you follow His word.
I must note here that I read the following book some time ago which contains some of the ideas and arguments I have presented above.
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PUTTING OFF ANGER
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I recommend it for anyone dealing with the problem of anger and forgiveness. You can find at Christian Light Publications.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Is the Pre-Tribulation Doctrine Scriptural?
By Dennis Edwards
The false Pre-Tribulation doctrine is study I have been wanted to finalize for some time. I recently posted my questioning of the Pre-Tribulation doctrine on a Creation site which had indicated that Jesus could come back any day. Maybe it was not the right place to present a differing opinion, but I did and as a result got blocked. Obviously the Creation site has many Pre-Tribulation followers and supporters so they would not enter into the debate publicly. But here goes my reasoning from Scripture in favor of the unpopular Post-Tribulation doctrine. I say unpopular, because no one likes to believe he will have to go through hard times, especially religious persecution. But sad as it might seem, this is what the Bible warns will happen in the Last days. Let us begin our study.
Origins of the Pre-Tribulation Doctrine
The Pre-tribulation Rapture doctrine originated in the nineteenth century with John Nelson Darby, a member of the Plymouth Brethren movement. Samuel P. Tregelies, also of the Plymouth Brethren, charges that the view originated during a charismatic service conducted by Edward Irving in 1832. Others maintain that it was the product of a prophetic vision given to a young Scottish girl, Margaret MacDonald, in 1830. Impressed by the accounts of a new Pentecost, Darby visited the scene of the revival and met Margaret MacDonald. Darby rejected her claims of a new outpouring of the Spirit, but he accepted her view of the Pre-tribulation Rapture and worked it into his own system. (The doctrine was later incorporated into the widely read Scofield Bible with notes.) The pre-tribulation rapture view has had a worldwide influence ever since. (Walter A. Elwell, ed. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, 1984, pp. 908-910.)
The Creationist often talk about an honest reading of Genesis chapter one. They say if any normal person would read it, he would come away believing that God had created the universe and everything in it in six literal days. But if one reads the footnotes, he would be in for trouble as they would lead him into thousands or millions of years. Just so, without the footnotes, an honest reading of the scriptures will lead us to a Post-tribulation interpretation of scripture like the church had believed for hundreds of years. Let us look at what the scriptures say and not the footnotes.
I do not believe that God intended that his word be so shrouded in mystery that only the most educated scholars with a line of degrees after their names could understand its truths. I believe God intended for the common man to read and understand. That was the wonder of the Reformation which lead to bringing the Bible into the hands of all men.
Paul warns us in 2 Thessalonians 2: 1-4 "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be trouble, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing that he is God."
So it would seem that Paul is talking about the coming of the Lord and our gathering together unto him or what is commonly called the rapture will not happen until first there is a falling away from the faith and the man of sin or what we call today the Antichrist is revealed. The Antichrist will even sit in the temple of God manifesting to the world that he is God. The temple may be a newly built Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
The cross reference I have in my Bible to gathering together is to Matthew 24:31. However if we read the passage from verse 29 Jesus says," Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from the heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
So here we see Jesus in this his famous dissertation on the time of the end and his second coming saying the gathering together or rapture will not take place until after the tribulation. In verse 15 of this famous chapter of the signs of the end Jesus says, "When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,(whosoever reads, let him understand:)" and as we follow the passage to its logical final in verse 21 Jesus concludes, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." and verse 22 "And except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the sake of the elect, those days shall be shortened." So obviously the great tribulation is before the rapture and this is what the early church fathers and Christians believed down through the centuries. Charles Spurgeon the famous 19 century Church leader was definitely post-tribulation and said the pre-tribulation doctrine was unscriptural.
The following is a short excerpt from a Blob by Dennis Michael Swanson.
Copyright © 1996 by Dennis Swanson. All rights reserved.
Position of Spurgeon
Spurgeon clearly did not adhere to a pre-tribulational view of the rapture. He stated, "we must regard the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the of Temple as being a kind of rehearsal of what is yet to be."351 In his few discernible comments on the rapture, Spurgeon is most easily identified as post-tribulational. (The rapture will come after the tribulation.)
Spurgeon said little, if anything, about the rapture. He seems to have most likely equated this with the Second Coming. However, he did believe that the church would pass through a tribulation, thus any "rapture" in his thinking would be post-tribulational. He said, "we must regard the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple as being a kind of rehearsal of what is yet to be."347 (Again we see he thought the rapture would occur after the tribulation just as the early church fathers, though they didn't use that term, nor did Spurgeon.)
To examine Spurgeon's millennial views it would be helpful to outline the main features of his beliefs as they have already been delineated in Chapter Two of this thesis and then reiterate Spurgeon's statements on these points.
1. After Pentecost, the church will continue for an undetermined time working in the world to spread the gospel by the power of and under the sovereignty of God.
2. In the last days the spiritual condition of the gentile world will grow progressively worse, while Israel as a national and political entity will both return to their land and submit themselves to the Gospel of Christ.
3. As a result of the spiritual deterioration, true believers will be increasingly persecuted, led by the "antichrist system" which for Spurgeon was the Papal system of the Roman Catholic Church.
4. God will judge the unbelieving world and the Antichrist system with a period of tribulation. During this great tribulation the true church, God's elect (Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ) will be supernaturally protected.
5. The personal and visible return of Christ will bring an end to the tribulation, as well as the end of the Antichrist system. His return will apparently also culminate the process of world-wide evangelism. Unbelievers will be swept away, Satan and the demons bound and the dead saints in Christ resurrected. Those Christians living on earth both (Jewish Christians and Gentile), protected during the great tribulation will prosper and reign with Christ during the millennial kingdom on earth.
[Dennis Edwards: I disagree here on a few small points. The rapture will occur after the 1,260 days of tribulation, but before the wrath of God which is just before the millennium. The wrath of God is a short period just after the 3 and 1/2 years (1,260 days) of tribulation and may endure some 75 days. 75 and 1,260 add up to the 1,335 days mentioned in Daniel 12:12. Daniel said that those people who managed to live to the 1,335th day would be blessed. Those that accepted the mark of the beast will have their lives ended. However, the people who lived through the wrath and had not accepted the mark of the Beast or worshipped his image will get to live on into the millennium. Spurgeon mentions the dead saints being resurrected, but doesn't say anything about the rapture of the living saints. His eschatology may not have been well formed as he didn't feel it was necessary to be able to place a name tag on every horn of Daniel.]
6. Christ will personally reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem and many or some, if not "all" of the Jews will become true believers in Christ when they see Him returning in the clouds of heaven. Those that accept Christ will enjoy the full blessings of God that the earlier generation at the time of Christ had forsaken. Nowhere in his sermons does Spurgeon say anything about the "rapture," pre-wrath or otherwise. On the contrary, he always indicates that the church will go through the tribulation of those days in total.
Spurgeon and Historic Premillennialism from Dennis Swanson
https://www.sgat.org/pdf/The-Millennial-Position-of-Spurgeon-by-Dennis-Swanson.pdf
Having
examined the three other millennial positions and found them inconsistent with
Spurgeon's beliefs on eschatological subjects; this thesis comes to the
"Historic Premillennial" position. Thus far this thesis has
demonstrated that Spurgeon rejected the key features of the amillennial,
postmillennial, and dispensational premillennial schemes. At this point only
two possible conclusions remain: first, that Spurgeon had a completely unique
view of the millennium not consistent with any of the "Contemporary
Options" as Erickson called them, or secondly that Spurgeon most closely
adhered to what has been defined as the Historic or Covenantal Premillennial
position.
There is no
evidence for the idea that Spurgeon held to a position on the millennium unique
to himself; so the purpose of this section will be to demonstrate the
contention of this thesis that Spurgeon did hold a Historic or Covenantal
Premillennial view. When examining the "historic premillennial"
position it was observed that there were essentially two key features:
(1) The
nature of the kingdom being the culmination of the church age. Although Israel
will experience a national repentance and salvation through Christ, its place
in the kingdom is only in relation to the church; nationally converted Israel
is simply a continuation of the "single-people of God"; and
(2) The
"rapture" will be after the tribulation, with the church going
through the tribulation, but being protected by the power of God.
Ladd also
delineates this millennial position when he states: A nondispensational
eschatology forms its theology from the explicit teachings of the New
Testament. It confesses that it cannot be sure how the Old Testament prophecies
of the end are to be fulfilled, for
(a) the
first coming of Christ was accomplished in terms not foreseen by a literal
interpretation of the Old Testament, and
(b) there
are unavoidable indications that the Old Testament promises to Israel are
fulfilled in the Christian Church.
To examine
Spurgeon's millennial views it would be helpful to outline the main features of
his beliefs as they have already been delineated in Chapter Two of this thesis
(particularly pp 51- 63) and then reiterate Spurgeon's statements on these
points.
1. After
Pentecost, the church will continue for an undetermined time working in the
world to spread the gospel by the power of and under the sovereignty of God.
2. In the
last days the spiritual condition of the gentile world will grow progressively
worse, while Israel as a national and political entity will both return to
their land and submit themselves to the Gospel of Christ.
3. As a
result of the spiritual deterioration, true believers will be increasingly
persecuted, led by the "antichrist system" which for Spurgeon was the
Papal system of the Roman Catholic Church.
4. God will
judge the unbelieving world and the Antichrist system with a period of
tribulation. During this great tribulation the true church, God's elect (Jews
and Gentiles) will be supernaturally protected and demonstrate a miraculous
joy.
5. The
personal and visible return of Christ will bring an end to the tribulation, as
well as the end of the Antichrist system. His return will apparently also
culminate the process of world- wide evangelism. Unbelievers will be swept away,
Satan and the demons bound and the dead saints in Christ resurrected. Those
Christians living on earth (both Jew and Gentile), protected during the great
tribulation will prosper and reign with Christ during the millennial kingdom on
earth. Christ will personally reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem and
the Jews will enjoy the full blessings of God that the earlier generation at
the time of Christ had forsaken.
6. At the
end of the 1,000 years the time for judgment of the ungodly will arrive and the
second resurrection of the unjust will occur. Satan and the demons as well as
all unbelievers from all ages will be cast into the "lake of fire"
for all eternity. The New Heavens and New Earth will be revealed and all
believers will move into the eternal state of heaven.
Regarding some secondary issues of eschatology Spurgeon says very little. He does apparently hold out a possibility of a rebellion or apostasy of the nations toward the end of the millennial kingdom, but he never, as far as this writer could determine, expounds on that theme. At least one place he seems to acknowledge that certain aspects of Jewish worship may exist in the millennial kingdom; but again, he is less than specific on the issue. On these issues it seems to be unwise to ascribe firm conclusions for Spurgeon on the basis of these two brief statements. It also must be remembered that neither of these points are primary issues to the question at hand, nor are they vital to any millennial scheme.
In
relation to Spurgeon's millennial view it seems conclusive that he fits most
consistently into the "Historic or Covenantal Premillennial" scheme.
The reasons for this conclusion are based on several factors.
First of all, it has been shown that Spurgeon believed that the church would go through the totality of the tribulation. "So shall it be when, at the last great day, we walk among the sons of men calmly and serenely. They will marvel at us; they will say to us, "How is it that you are so joyous? We are alarmed, our hearts are failing us for fear;" and we shall take up our wedding hymn, our marriage song, "The Lord is come! The Lord is come! Hallelujah!" The burning earth shall be the torch to light up the wedding procession; the quivering of the heavens shall be, as it were, but as a dancing of the feet of angels in those glorious festivities, and the booming and crashing of the elements shall, somehow, only help to swell the outburst of praise unto God the just and terrible, who is to our exceeding joy."
Second,
Spurgeon believed that the Second Advent would precede the millennial kingdom;
that is a premillennial coming:
"If I read
the word aright, and it is honest to admit that there is much room for
difference of opinion here, the day will come, when the Lord Jesus will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the trump of the archangel and the voice of God.
Some think this descent of the Lord will be post-millennial —that is, after the
thousand years of his reign. I cannot think so. I conceive that the advent will
be pre-millennial; that he will come first; and then will come the millennium
as the result of his personal reign upon earth."
Third, Spurgeon felt that the millennial kingdom was the culmination of God's program for the church: . ". . you will cry, "Come Lord Jesus. Let antichrist be hurled like a millstone into the flood, never to rise again." The vehemence of your desire for the destruction of evil and the setting up of the kingdom of Christ will drive you to that grand hope of the church, and make you cry out for its fulfillment."
Fourth, Spurgeon believed that there would be two separate resurrections, one of the just and one of the unjust, separated by the 1000 year millennium: "If I read the Scriptures aright, there are to be two resurrections, and the first will be the resurrection of the righteous; for it is written, "But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrections. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power." And: "We anticipate a first and second resurrection; a first resurrection of the righteous, and a second of the ungodly, who shall be condemned, and punished for ever by the sentence of the great King."
Fifth,
Spurgeon taught that the Jews, as a national, political and temporal entity
would again emerge in their own land, coming to faith in Christ and having Him
to reign: "There will be a native government again; there will again be the form
of a body politic; a state shall be incorporated, and a king shall reign. . . If
there be anything clear and plain, the literal sense and meaning of this
passage [Ezekiel 37:1-10] —a meaning not to be spirited or spiritualized away—
must be evident that both the two and the ten tribes of Israel are to be
restored to their own land, and that a king is to rule over them."
Finally, Spurgeon taught that while the Jews
would return to their land and that Messiah would reign over them, they would
come to faith in Christ in the same manner as the church and would be part of
the church, as is once again demonstrated:
"Distinctions
have been drawn by certain exceedingly wise men (measured by their own estimate
of themselves), between the people of God who lived before the coming of
Christ, and those who lived afterwards. We have even heard it asserted that
those who lived before the coming of Christ do not belong to the church of God!
We never know what we shall hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these
absurdities are revealed at one time, in order that we may be able to endure
their stupidity without dying of amazement. Why, every child of God in every
place stands on the same footing; the Lord has not some children best beloved,
some second-rate offspring, and others whom he hardly cares about. These who
saw Christ's day before it came, had a great difference as to what they knew,
and perhaps in the same measure a difference as to what they enjoyed whole on
earth meditating upon Christ; but they were all washed in the same blood, all
redeemed with the same ransom price, and made members of the same body. Israel
in the covenant of grace is not natural Israel, but all believers in all ages.
Before the first advent, all the types and shadows all pointed one way —they
pointed to Christ, and to him all the saints looked with hope. Those who lived
before Christ were not saved with a different salvation to that which shall
come to us. They exercised faith as we must; that faith struggled as ours
struggles, and that faith obtained its reward as ours shall."
Summary
Spurgeon was most certainly premillennial, although not dispensational. Though
in our own age this has been disputed, during his own lifetime his position was
well known and attested to. As Drummond points out, "Nineteenth Century
premillennialists loved to get Spurgeon in their camp. The Episcopal Recorder,
November 1, 1888, wrote, 'C. H. Spurgeon (is a) . . . pronounced premillennialist.'"
While Spurgeon must be identified as a premillennialist, he is most accurately described as a
premillennialist of the "historic" or "covenantal" variety. He adhered to every major point which
identifies this position, while certain features of dispensational premillennialism (e.g. the timing
of the rapture and the nature of the millennium) were in opposition to his biblical and theological
understanding.
The thrust of the Premillennial view, as espoused by Charles Spurgeon, is well- summarized
by Clouse when he states:
"
In every age when the return of Christ has been a living reality premillennialism has been the
prevailing view. Even today it is among dispensationalists that the second coming is emphasized.
Those who adopt other views seldom mention the return of Christ and the fact that history will
end one day with the establishment of God's kingdom. Neglecting the second coming is a failure
to proclaim the whole counsel of God and deprives Christians of a powerful source of comfort.
The Gospel is a message of hope and openness toward the future. Premillennialism constantly
reminds the believer that no matter how discouraging the situation is today, millennial glory
awaits. Perhaps one's social class is declining or his theological viewpoint is on the wane or
some great personal tragedy has befallen him yet he may take heart, for one day assuredly he will
rule the world with Christ."
Conclusion
In this study, several things have been observed about Charles H. Spurgeon; specifically his
beliefs about eschatology in general and the nature of the millennial kingdom and its relation to
the return of Christ in particular. This study was motivated by observing men of vastly different
millennial beliefs all attempting to "use" Spurgeon to bolster their own views and/or to help them
in influencing others to their particular view.
When a single individual writes as extensively and divergently as Spurgeon, the sheer
volume of material will have the tendency to make proper interpretation or systemization
difficult. If only a part of a sermon here and there is examined, devoid from its context, message,
occasion, and audience, no doubt Spurgeon could be "proven" to adhere to many theological positions that he clearly would have rejected.
As stated in the introduction, this writer's hope is that this thesis will serve two distinct
purposes:
(1) the uninformed will come to understand Spurgeon and his millennial views clearly,
and
(2) that the misuse of his stature and the misinterpretation of his works would come to an
end, at least on this issue.
In this thesis the author has attempted to show that Spurgeon did not display a "fundamental
uncertainty" in his thinking on issues of eschatology. He held a clear and consistent view of
the "major" features of eschatology: namely the second coming of Christ, the eventual
restoration of national Israel to their land and their corporate faith in Christ, the resurrections of
the just and unjust, the millennial kingdom, the reality of heaven and the certainty of hell. On
some other minor issues he either commented little or not at all. But all in all, the evidence is
irrefutable that Spurgeon was a premillennialist of the "historic" or "covenantal" school.
Spurgeon's ministry was built around the exposition of the Scriptures and the declaration of
the Gospel. He refused to use prophetical themes in a "sensational" way as a means to attract
people to either his church or to the Gospel. In eschatological issues he majored on "personal"
eschatology; that is, the final abode of each individual, either heaven or hell. He preached the
joys of heaven for the believer and he preached the terrors of hell for those who would reject the
salvation which God graciously provided for and offers to all men. He was strongly Calvinistic
in his understanding of redemption and God's purposes, but at the same time he called on "all
men everywhere to repent," and turn to Christ.
In relation to the "corporate" eschatology, he
discussed those issues when either his text or the situation demanded such attention, but that was
admittedly a small percentage of the time. As he stated: "You will bear me witness, my friends, that it is exceedingly seldom I ever intrude into the
mysteries of the future with regard either to the second advent, the millennial reign, or the first
and second resurrection. As often as we come about it in our expositions, we do not turn aside
from the point, but if guilty at all on this point, it is rather in being too silent than saying too
much."
It seems that Spurgeon preferred to stay on the "too silent" side of eschatological issues, in
the great tradition of the Reformers (e.g. Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, Knox, et al). He lived in an age
where speculation on the return of Christ was rampant. The Millerite movement of the United
States had crossed the Atlantic; and, again there was a wave of excitement about the setting of
dates and speculation on exactly when Jesus would return. This was especially true in the early
part of his ministry in the middle and late 1860's.
Spurgeon took the words of Acts 1:7, "It is not for you to know the times or epochs which
the Father has fixed by His own authority," very seriously. He viewed any prophetic speculation
that delved into these areas to be unprofitable at best and dangerously wicked at worst. Even in
his own day there were those who attempt to misuse his name and stature to give credence to
their views on things eschatological. One false publication, with Spurgeon's name affixed,
declared his belief that Jesus would return in 1866. When he heard of this he wasted no time in
condemning the action and informing his congregation that, "you will hear of me in Bedlam
when you hear such rubbish as that from me."
It is futile to speculate how Spurgeon would articulate his eschatological beliefs if "he had
lived in this century." It is sufficient to say that Spurgeon had a clear and consistent view of
all the major areas of systematic theology, including eschatology. Some might have wished he
had said more, while others may have wished that he had said less. However, all that he said is internally consistent and there can be no doubt to the conclusion that Spurgeon was, a self proclaimed premillennialist in his eschatology.
This study has been extensive, but perhaps not exhaustive, in its searching out the writings
of Charles Haddon Spurgeon in the area of his millennial beliefs. While all may not agree with
the conclusions presented, the evidence speaks for itself and seems to be irrefutable. Since 1993,
a century after the death of Spurgeon, a renewed interest in the life and ministry of Spurgeon has
been seen. Because of the stature of Spurgeon in the evangelical community, the continued study
of his works is clearly needed. Inevitably Spurgeon will continue to be quoted and cited in many
circles on many issues; both properly and improperly, and perhaps the only thing that will end
the irresponsible use of his name is a definitive systematic theology of Spurgeon's works. Should
that task ever be undertaken, this study will at least have answered the question on Spurgeon and
the millennium. It is also hoped that it will inspire future students to further clarify and further
develop Spurgeon's views in this important area.
[End of section by Dennis Swanson]
Closing comments by Dennis Edwards:
It seems that Dennis Swanson has done a thorough job of articulating the opinion of Spurgeon, the 19 century evangelical leader.I agree with most of Swanson's conclusions on Spurgeon's eschatology. Though Spurgeon's ideas were not articulated to such a degree as Benjamin Wills Newton who lived during the same time period, they nevertheless are similar. We know that Spurgeon was a friend with George Mueller and Newton who held traditional premillennialist ideas. Spurgeon was not on good terms with Darby who brought in the Dispensantional Pre-millennial system. The church will indeed go through the tribulation as Spurgeon, Mueller and Newton taught.
There are many more confirmimg scriptures in the New Testament that we could present. However, the main thing that Darby and Scoffield after him did was to divide the elect of God into two groups, the Christians who would get raptured in the first (unscriptural) secret rapture and the Jews who would get saved during the Tribulation and get raptured at the end of it. Like Spurgeon noted, there is very little scriptural bases for this doctrine.
Though Spurgeon agreed that from prophecy Israel as a nation would be restored again before the coming of Christ, He did not separate the Old Testament prophecies between the Church and the Jewish nation. He grouped converted Israel into the Church and believed those Old Testament prophecies would be fulfilled on a unified Jewish/Gentile Church of believers in Christ.
The plain reading of the Bible teaches one rapture immediatedly after the 3 &1/2 years of tribulation, a rapture for both saved Christians and Jews alike. Following the rapture is the 75 day wrath of God which we see in Revelation 15 and 16 ending at the return of Christ to physically take over the earth during the Battle of Armageddon seen in Revelation 19. Christ will actually land in Jerusalem and a great earthquake will take place [Zechariah 14:4; Revelation 16:18].
The Bible clearly teaches that God's children will go through the great tribulation period under His protection. However, we will be saved from His wrath by the rapture event which occurs immediately after the tribulation and just prior to the wrath of God. The wrath of God is a short but more intense period of God troubling the wicked than the tribulation had been. Compare the trumpets of tribulation in Revelation 7-10 to the Vials or Bowls of the Wrath of God in Revelation 15 and 16.. The peoples on earth who manage to live through the great tribulation and the wrath of God and do not accept the mark of the beast or worship him will have their lives continued on into the millenium period. The millennium is 1,000 years of peace on earth under Christ's direct rule [Revelation 20:6].
Please write if you have any questions: dennismedwards@gmail.com
