Thou Shall Guide Me With Thy Presence
Monday, March 2, 2020
Friday, February 28, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
The Holy Land
By D. B. Berg
The 21st verse of the 37th chapter of Ezekiel says: “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land.” The church has often interpreted this as being the Jewish people and this land being the literal land of Israel. It’s true that in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, the Jews have been gathered out of all the world and every nation on the face of the earth to which they had been scattered and gathered back into the land of Israel, and they have proclaimed it again their own land, Israel, a Jewish homeland.
But who is this Israel, since Jesus’ coming as the Messiah and death on the cross for our redemption? God speaks about the spiritual Israel, the children of Abraham by faith, which He has told you through His Word and through the mouth of His apostles of the early church means you! Whether you be Jew or Gentile or Greek, it no longer makes any difference. There’s now no longer any Jew nor Gentile in Christ Jesus. No male or female, for all are one in Christ Jesus. We are all just one nation now, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ.1
What is our land? It’s the kingdom of God. Where is it? It’s in our hearts. “The kingdom of God,” Jesus Himself said, “cometh not with observation.” You can’t see it! He said, “For the kingdom of God is within you.”2
The woman at the well in the Gospel of John, chapter 4, began a religion argument. As soon as she found out Jesus was religious, like so many unbelievers she wanted to argue religion. And she herself was obviously what the world would call a sinner.3 But in the eyes of Jesus she was accepted and loved. He went way out of His way to make a lonely trip through her land of Samaria to meet her personally and alone at a well when she came in the heat of the day, the time when no other women came for water because it was too hot. Perhaps she came when no other women would be there because they would have criticized her or viewed her with contempt.
Jesus knew she was going to be there because He told His disciples before He left on the trip to hike that long way, many weary hot miles along the dusty roads of the Holy Land. He was in Judaea and going to Galilee, and every good Jew would have avoided Samaria which lay between like the plague, “because the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.”4 They were considered a mongrel race, a mixture of Jews and Arabs who had a different place of worship, not at the temple on Mount Moriah but upon another mountain in Samaria that they claimed was the place to worship. The Samaritans were ostracized, banned and exiled by the Jews because they had mixed with the Gentiles, and were viewed with contempt and despised, as they considered them foreign and irreligious. But Jesus loved them!
One of the greatest stories Jesus ever told was about a Samaritan who had mercy and love upon a Jew—the story of the good Samaritan.5 He used this story to try to show the world “Who is my neighbor?” In so doing, Jesus was showing what it meant to love your neighbor and what His Law of Love truly meant when He said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor as thyself.”6
So while the Jews despised and avoided the Samaritans, Jesus loved them and He went out of His way to go the lonely road to Samaria to meet a lone woman by a well in the heat of the day when no one else went there, so they could have a conversation alone together. And right away she began to argue religion. She said, “You Jews say that Mount Moriah, the temple, is the place to worship. We say that here on Mount Gerizim is the place to worship.”
And Jesus said to her, “The time is coming and now is when ye shall worship God neither here upon this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but he that pleases God shall worship God in spirit and in truth”—in the Bible, His Word. “For God seeketh such to worship Him.”7 “He that worships God shall worship Him in spirit and in truth.” In other words, the physical temple meant nothing to God anymore.
Moses said that “without the shedding of blood, there shall be no remission of sins.”8 And yet the temple no longer exists—it is under a Muslim mosque now. They have no fire, no sacrificial worship, no shedding of blood. I asked a rabbi one day, “When Moses said that without the shedding of blood there’s no remission of sins, now that you no longer have sacrificial worship and the shedding of the blood of animals as a type of the cleansing of sin, how do you get forgiveness of your sins?” He replied, “Today we believe that our sacrifice is a sacrifice of prayer and worship.”
I thought to myself, “Isn’t that a pretty bloodless religion, when Moses said without the shedding of blood there’s no remission?”9 We believe that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”10 He was the final sacrifice for sin. He was the ultimate Lamb of God slain for the remission of our sins. He took the punishment of our sins in His own body on that tree, the cross, and that was the last efficacious, legal, and authoritative religious sacrifice of blood for sin as far as God was concerned.
Not another sacrifice after the moment Jesus died on the cross was meaningful! Not another animal slain upon the altar before the temple for another almost 40 years after Jesus was killed meant anything to God. The final ultimate Lamb of God had been slain and shed His blood already as a sacrifice for you and me upon the cross of Calvary. There is no other sacrifice! All other sacrifices were merely a type and a foreshadowing, a prophecy of the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His blood on the cross for our sins. Temple worship from that time on was in vain.
Jesus died on God’s altar, the cross, represented by every crucifix in the world, believed by every Christian, every son and daughter of God who trusts Jesus Christ for their salvation and His blood shed for their sins, observed every time we observe the sacrament of Communion, the Last Supper when we take the bread and the wine. The bread, representing His body broken for us, our healing. The wine representing His blood shed for our salvation. He said, “As oft as ye do it, ye do it in remembrance of me, and ye do show the Lord’s death till He comes.”11 It’s a testimony, a witness; it’s a sign that we believe.
So who is Israel today? It’s no longer the land or people of Israel. It is the believers in Jesus, who have Jesus in their hearts and are saved—they are Israel today! And you who believe are His Holy Land today. You are His kingdom, for the kingdom of God is within you. Praise God? Every Christian is a child of God, and you are the kingdom of God.
The natural land of Israel is merely a historical piece of property. The children of God have been driven out of every country on the face of this earth, persecuted all over the world, having no home here on this earth, pilgrims and strangers seeking for a city whose builder and maker is God.12—The Holy City come down from God out of heaven to dwell upon earth.13
We’ve already arrived! We’re already in the kingdom. We’ve got our land in our hearts spiritually—Jesus! We will be the sanctuary of God, His holy temple, and we already are. “You are the temple of the Holy Ghost.”14 You are the temple of God already! God doesn’t dwell in houses built with hands.15
So where is His sanctuary today? Where does He dwell today? In you and me and all His children saved by faith in Jesus! We’re His temple, His sanctuary, and wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, He’s in our midst.16 Hallelujah!
Originally published March 1981. Adapted and republished February 2020.https://anchor.tfionline.com/post/holy-land/
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Healthy Questions and Doubts!
A compilation
Believing purely by faith, having no tangible evidence, is not a natural approach for everybody in all cases. Just as the Lord made people very different in their personalities and physical makeup, there are also different kinds of faith. Whether you need time and study to reach a place of belief, or whether you embrace concepts with little questioning, the goal is what counts—building a living faith.
It’s not unusual to go through crises of faith and to question points of doctrine or even foundational Christian principles. The Lord often works through such battles of the mind and spirit and uses them to strengthen us. He can use this process to help us to go back to the foundation of our faith, to reaffirm our belief system, and to gain greater clarity. It can help us reach a better understanding as to why we believe certain things to be true—the scriptural foundation for our faith.
Many Christians have experienced crises of faith or grappled with bouts of doubt. Some noteworthy examples come quickly to mind—Martin Luther, Mother Teresa, and the pioneer missionary Adoniram Judson. Their crises of faith and the battles they fought to reach a place of faith and understanding have been documented. The result of their experiences, however, was a stronger faith, a deeper understanding of God and the intimate relationship He seeks with each of us. Their battles and victories have inspired many. I would venture to say that their struggles also gave them a deeper understanding of the battles people face in affirming their faith and how these can be used to ultimately strengthen their faith. You may have had similar experiences.
Rather than looking at doubts and crises of faith as a potential threat to our faith, to be resisted and pushed out of mind and heart, we need to bear in mind that questioning, doubt, and skepticism can also be stepping stones to a strong and mature Christian faith. They can help us to reason and understand our faith, to research and to determine “whether these things [are] so”1 and to reach a place of personal and reasoned faith. A faith built on these premises will not be easily swayed when challenged by contrary arguments or beliefs, or by the intellectual reasoning of unbelievers. Ultimately, the result can be a stronger and more seasoned faith.
Analyzing, discussing, and debating points of doctrine can be healthy for your faith, as it requires you to research, dig deep, and learn to articulate and defend your views and the scriptural foundation for them. There is also a lot written in the Bible about understanding and using our minds as a vehicle for our faith. God can strengthen and consolidate our faith through our gaining a greater understanding of its foundations.—Maria Fontaine
Diligently seeking Him through the questions
I grew up thinking that “faith” and “doubt” were opposites. Faith was good. Doubt was bad. With that mindset, even questions could be dangerous, as I figured they could lead to doubt. For an intellectually curious person, that is a difficult thing to deal with, and I struggled with it for most of my rememberable life. The questions I used to resist ranged from wondering whether God really cared that much about X or Y specific rule mentioned in the Bible, sometimes vaguely or heavily interpreted, to that large and ever-present question: Does God exist?
At one point, I had what seemed to me a revelation, and which I have since learned to be something many people of faith agree on: Doubt is not the enemy of faith, but can in fact make it stronger. Answers need questions as much as questions need answers.
The way I see it, when you are a person of faith and you question your faith, one of two things happens: either you lose said faith—in which case it was probably not real or strong enough to begin with—or you find that despite the inner struggles, despite the sadness, despite the unexplainable or unanswerable, your faith remains.
In the end, what we are left with is a choice of faith. Hebrews 11, “the faith chapter,” says in verse 6: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
I used to see that verse as saying that “if you doubt, you displease God.” Now I read it quite differently. There are only two things it says I need to do in order to have faith and please God: (1) Believe that He is, and (2) believe that He rewards those who “diligently seek Him.” I believe that He is, and I have diligently sought Him—the questions and doubts were a necessary part of that “diligent seeking.”
I have found peace in knowing that I’ll never have all the answers, and that’s okay. That’s a part of faith. Greatest of all, He rewards me with His presence. I know there’s no way of explaining that to someone who doesn’t have faith, but I know that I know Him, and that knowing Him is pure joy.—Jessie Richards
How questions can make your faith stronger
In many people’s eyes, religion is simply meant to be accepted. That is why it is called faith. To these people, questions and doubts belong firmly in the secular realm. To question religion is to question God, and questioning God is, of course, far beyond the rights of any mere mortal. Those who do have questions about their religion are seen as lacking faith. If they were strong and certain in their faith, if they truly followed God, then they would have no questions.
As such, the only way to deal with questioning minds is to encourage them to focus more fully on God. If they strengthen their faith, they will no longer need to question it. This often backfires. Someone who is asking serious questions about their faith does not want to hear platitudes and trite answers. They do not want to feel as if their honest concerns and sincere questions are being brushed aside. They want honest and truthful answers even if the answer is “I don’t know.” More importantly, they need to either be given their answers or given direction how to find the answers to their questions if they are going to continue practicing their faith.
People who are questioning their faith are not usually looking for excuses to leave religion behind. In fact, they are often doing the opposite. Many people who question their faith are desperate to receive answers that allow them to continue practicing their faith. They want to stay faithful, and they should be treated as such. Rather than being cast as weak in faith, they should be recognized as those who continue to trust that their faith does have the answers they seek if someone would just help them find those answers. Unfortunately, that perspective does not yet seem to have taken hold.
A person who has questions about their faith will want those questions answered. To get those answers, they will begin to investigate their own religion. While that idea may send some people aflutter, a person who investigates their own faith often starts by digging deeper into the texts they grew up reading and talking to the spiritual authorities they were raised to respect. …
Questions lead to investigation, which leads a person to become more knowledgeable about their faith. Answering questions also leads a person to grow in their faith. … Overcoming challenges makes something stronger. This is true whether it is a person’s mind, body, or faith that is challenged. That which can survive struggles will last, and that which can hold up under scrutiny is more likely to continue to be believed and trusted.
As such, there is nothing wrong with a person questioning their faith. It is through questions that a person learns and grows. It is through finding answers that a person gains the confidence to say without fear or reservation, “I believe.”—Stephanie Hertzenberg2
Published on Anchor February 2020.
The Virtue of Patience
By William B. McGrath
Throughout the Bible the virtue of patience and its rewards are spoken about, and you also find examples of the sad results of impatience. Tolerance, endurance, forbearance, and the ability to remain kind toward others who may not have been so kind to you can all be qualities that tie into being patient.
Hebrews 12:1–2 tells us: “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Some more recent Bible translations use the word “perseverance” or “endurance” in place of the word “patience.” The word “race” is used as a representation of our life as a Christian. We leave behind being a mere spectator sitting in the bleachers, and we enter into a lifelong race, a lifelong endeavor, aspiring to live close to God. Jesus becomes our trainer and role model. As is the case for athletes who run a race, training, commitment, and focus are required.
It seems I need to be reminded on almost a daily basis that I need to learn to be more patient. So many little tasks that I feel capable of doing get a monkey wrench thrown in or are laid on the shelf altogether due to some unforeseen circumstance. Over and over again, when I set out to do some errand or to begin a work project, I run into complications that put a damper on the whole thing, trying my patience. Delayed traffic, lines for little business transactions, tracking down some car part, the list goes on. Sometimes other people will request my help just when I’m in the middle of making that long-awaited progress that I thought was so important.
These little things tempt me to feel a bit impatient and a bit resentful. But I wonder if these might be what God uses to help develop my character, to teach me to let patience do its work? Might He have different and more important goals for me that I might easily overlook and not include on my to-do list? He surely sees the need for more refining of my character.
I hope to learn how to take these setbacks in stride and even use them as reminders to accept and yield to His plans more cheerfully. Who am I, really, to feel I have a right to get impatient or resentful about the delays He allows, when He has done so much for me? I know it’s a privilege to invite Him in to be my pilot in everything. What could be better than being willing to let go of my own projects to partner with Him on His projects?
Perhaps these little delays may also work toward developing a higher level of patience, to prepare me for greater opposition, or greater affliction, or greater loss that only He knows may come in the future.
In the book Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul, we find the poem “Patience of Jesus,” by Edward Denny:
What grace, O Lord, and beauty shone
Around thy steps below!
What patient love was seen in all
Thy life and death of woe!
Around thy steps below!
What patient love was seen in all
Thy life and death of woe!
Forever on thy burdened heart
A weight of sorrow hung;
Yet no ungentle, murmuring word
Escaped thy silent tongue.
A weight of sorrow hung;
Yet no ungentle, murmuring word
Escaped thy silent tongue.
Thy foes might hate, despise, revile,
Thy friends unfaithful prove;
Unwearied in forgiveness still,
Thy heart could only love.
Thy friends unfaithful prove;
Unwearied in forgiveness still,
Thy heart could only love.
Oh give us hearts to love like thee,
Like thee, O Lord, to grieve
Far more for others’ sins than all
The wrongs that we receive.
Like thee, O Lord, to grieve
Far more for others’ sins than all
The wrongs that we receive.
One with thyself, may every eye
In us, thy brethren, see
That gentleness and grace that spring
From union, Lord, with thee.
In us, thy brethren, see
That gentleness and grace that spring
From union, Lord, with thee.
Another reference to patience in the Bible is found in the book of James, chapter 5. This time we’re told to look to God’s own example of patience, as well as to that of all the past prophets, in particular the patience of Job. God is pictured as a farmer over the field of all the souls He has ever created: “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”1
Then we’re told to look to the past prophets: “Take the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”2 Job kept his patience through major loss and affliction. Undoubtedly, there were times when he was tempted with impatience and resentment, especially while listening to the surmises of his counselors. But despite all that, in the end Job came through, keeping his faith in God and praising God in the midst of his loss and affliction.3 This, no doubt, is pleasing to God. Job was greatly rewarded.4
In the book Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul there is another poem about people like Job, the people whom God allows to endure a great loss, or persevere through some hidden suffering or painful affliction; those who live the martyr’s life, though they might not be called on to die the martyr’s death. Some of those who suffer through this life may not see the rewards for their patience during this life, as did Job. But they remain patient and faithful and are surely rewarded in the next life. The poem is called “The Noble Army of Martyrs Praise Thee”:
Not they alone who from the bitter strife
Came forth victorious, yielding willingly
That which they deem most precious, even life,
Content to suffer all things, Christ, for Thee;
Not they alone whose feet so firmly trod
The pathway ending in rack, sword and flame,
Foreseeing death, yet faithful to their Lord,
Enduring for His sake the pain and shame;
Not they alone have won the martyr’s palm,
Not only from their life proceeds the eternal psalm.
Came forth victorious, yielding willingly
That which they deem most precious, even life,
Content to suffer all things, Christ, for Thee;
Not they alone whose feet so firmly trod
The pathway ending in rack, sword and flame,
Foreseeing death, yet faithful to their Lord,
Enduring for His sake the pain and shame;
Not they alone have won the martyr’s palm,
Not only from their life proceeds the eternal psalm.
For earth hath martyrs now, a saintly throng;
Each day unnoticed do we pass them by;
‘Mid busy crowds they calmly move along,
Bearing a hidden cross, how patiently!
Not theirs the sudden anguish, swift and keen,
Their hearts are worn and wasted with small cares,
With daily griefs and thrusts from foes unseen;
Troubles and trials that take them unawares;
Theirs is a lingering, silent martyrdom;
They weep through weary years, and long for rest to come.
Each day unnoticed do we pass them by;
‘Mid busy crowds they calmly move along,
Bearing a hidden cross, how patiently!
Not theirs the sudden anguish, swift and keen,
Their hearts are worn and wasted with small cares,
With daily griefs and thrusts from foes unseen;
Troubles and trials that take them unawares;
Theirs is a lingering, silent martyrdom;
They weep through weary years, and long for rest to come.
They weep, but murmur not; it is God’s will,
And they have learned to bend their own to his;
Simply enduring, knowing that each ill
Is but the herald of some future bliss;
Striving and suffering, yet so silently
They know it least who seem to know them best.
Faithful and true through long adversity
They work and wait until God gives them rest;
These surely share with those of bygone days
The palm branch and the crown, and swell their song of praise.5
And they have learned to bend their own to his;
Simply enduring, knowing that each ill
Is but the herald of some future bliss;
Striving and suffering, yet so silently
They know it least who seem to know them best.
Faithful and true through long adversity
They work and wait until God gives them rest;
These surely share with those of bygone days
The palm branch and the crown, and swell their song of praise.5
It is certainly not for us to compare why some people seem to suffer more than others or the level of suffering each one endures, but it is for us to bear our own cross, to take our own losses or sufferings the best we can, and to strive to have a positive attitude, thereby allowing patience to have her perfect work in us.6
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
The Sad Commentary of Astronomer Robert Jastrow
By Dennis Edwards
Robert
Jastrow (1925-2008) was a disciple of Edwin Hubble the famous American
astronomer whose interpretation of the red shift in light from distant galaxies
gave rise to the Big Bang Theory. After Hubble died, Jastrow continued with
much of Hubble’s work. A few years ago Jastrow
wrote a book called God and the Astronomers. In an interview about his faith, or
lack of it, he makes an interesting observation. He starts by talking about the
implications of the Hubble’s red-shift. Read for yourself from his own words:
“If you
reverse the motion, the outward motions of the stars and galaxies and go
backwards in time, they come closer and closer together. Finally, they reach a
point where they are nearly infinite in density and temperature and further
than that you cannot go. So, there’s a beginning, a point in time from which it
all started. That’s a remarkable thing. It has a strong theological flavor to
it, which intrigued me, because I am an agnostic. But if there was a beginning,
a moment of creation of the universe, then there was a creator. But a creator
is not compatible with agnosticism. I found that point so interesting, that I
felt a strong compulsion to share it with others.
"That’s why
I wrote the book. Just like I can’t believe there was a creator, I can’t
believe that this all happened by chance, which implies, there was a creator.
So you see, I am in a completely hopeless bind and I have stayed there. Again,
I find it hard to believe that this is all a matter of atoms and molecules. So,
I try to fit into my concept of the world the conclusion that there is a larger
force of some kind which we can call God, or whatever. But I can’t accept that,
because I’m a materialist in philosophy. I believe the world consists entirely
of material substances (and no supernatural causes). When you specify those
substances and the laws of how they interact, you have done it all. Nothing
more needs to be said.
"That’s what science tells me. I have been a scientist all my life. But I find it unsatisfactory, in fact, it makes me uneasy. I feel I am missing something. But I will not find out what I am missing within my lifetime.”[1]
"That’s what science tells me. I have been a scientist all my life. But I find it unsatisfactory, in fact, it makes me uneasy. I feel I am missing something. But I will not find out what I am missing within my lifetime.”[1]
So here we see Robert Jastrow, who worked with Hubble on the
Hubble Telescope, making an incredible confession. He’s been a materialist, an
atheist, an agnostic, which is a type of atheism, all his life. Now he is coming
to the end of his life and he’s having
doubts about the world view he has held all his life. He’s looked at the
idea of the Big Bang, a naturalistic origin theory, and the fact that there was
a beginning point bothers him. He concludes that “If there is a beginning
point, then there must be a cause for why the universe came into existence. If
there is a cause then it seems probable that the cause could be a Creator God." But the idea of a Creator God is contrary to Jastrow’s materialistic world
view. And yet he has found his materialistic world view to be unsatisfying.
However, even though his mind and conscience are leading him to reject the
world view he has held all his life and embrace a world view with a Creator God,
he’s not able to. He’s caught in the atheistic, agnostic mindset which gave him
freedom to forget about God and believe and do whatever he wanted to do.
We don’t know how his world view affected his morality and
his sexual life. The famous intellectual and writer of the 20th century Aldous
Huxley candidly confessed that he chose the atheististic, materialistic,
naturalistic world view because he wanted his sexual and moral freedom. Robert
Jastrow doesn’t talk about that aspect of his life, but he talks about being
captured in a philosophical atheistic world view or mindset, and although he no
longer feels comfortable there, he is unable to make the jump to faith. He's not able to accept the
belief that the universe was created and not just a result of purposelessness. Here he is coming to the end of his life and
he senses that the world view he’s followed all his life has fallen short. But
he’s caught and he’s not able to make the jump to faith, to a world view with a
Creator God.
It’s a really sad
commentary, a really sad statement. Please don’t make the same mistake that he
made. Ask God to break you out of any kind of chains or mindset that are not of
Him. Apostle Peter wrote, “Where they promise them liberty, they themselves are
the servants of corruption.” The evil spirits and demonic doctrines of men
capture us and bind our thoughts so that later on when we come to the end of
our lives and we see the futility of our atheism, or the futility of our naturalism
and we want to break free, we can’t, because we are caught in a web of deceit. We
are caught by false concepts. We are caught by our pride and we’re unable to
make that leap to faith.
I remember the story of the famous WWII war hero British
Field Marshall Montgomery who led the combined Allied forces during the initial
part of the D - Day Campaign. When Montgomery was coming to the end of his
life, he, too, was feeling apprehensive. After the war when he gotten all the
glory and fame his conscience didn’t bother him. It was fine then to get the
praise of man. “Hail, Monty!” It was wonderful and his conscience didn’t
bothered him one bit. But at the end of his life, at 88 years of age, he’s
getting close to the end of his life and he’s not able to sleep at night. His
conscience is bothering him. He calls up his best friend and says, “Hey, you’ve
got to come over and talk to me. I know
I am going to die soon and I’m not able to sleep, because I don’t know what I’m
going to tell God about all those young lads that died under my command. I
don’t have a good argument to give Him.”
What at one point was all GLORY, now he is seeing it in a
different perspective. His conscience is weighing on him and he’s wondering how
is he going to justify all those deaths of those young British soldiers who
died under his command. When we get to the end of our lives, we start
reflecting a little bit more deeply on the decisions we have made and the
events of our lives. We see our mistakes sometimes more clearly than we did
when we were younger. They attack us in the quiet moments or at night when we
can’t sleep and come at us like waves of doubts, almost drowning us in dispair. let's hope that Montgomery's friend was able to bring Monty to real faith in Christ who promises to forgive all our iniquities.
I am reminded of the story in the New Testament where the
Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman who
had been taken in adulery, in the very act. The Pharisees had brought the woman
to Jesus to see how he would judge her. According to the Law of Moses she was
to be stoned to death. But Jesus very wisely answered, “He that is without sin
among you, let him cast the first stone.” And the passage very correctly goes
on to say that they, the Pharisees, when out one by one beginning at the eldest
even to the youngest. The younger ones were ready to cast the stone because
they felt they could justifiably kill that woman, since she was a sinner
anyway. Whereas the older men knew that they would be seeing their Maker soon.
The knew they needed God’s forgiveness. The sins of their lives were laying
heavy on them as they reached the end of their lives. They knew they were soon
going to have to face their Maker. But the younger men were not thinking about
death and they were ready to stone the woman and “Get rid of that sinner.”
Please, think about these things and call out to God for
help to get over your lack of faith, or your agnosticismo, or skepticism, or
doubts. Reach out for Him as He’s not far from any one of us, for in Him we do
live and move and have are being. And He will come as He has promised. Please,
call upon Him in Jesus’s name. Just say, “Come, Lord Jesus, I open my heart,
show me the way wherein I should walk. Deliver me! Help me! Rescue me!”
Saint Augustine said, “Seek not to understand that you may
believe, but seek to believe that you may understand.” Seek that God would increase
your faith, strengthen your belief in Him and enlighten your understanding. Jesus
said it was not only necessary to hear the Word of God, which brings faith, but
to understand it. So let us ask God to open our understanding of His Word! King
David prayed, “Open Thou my eyes that I may behold wonderous thing out of Thy
law.” Let us let God’s love come into our hearts. Let us let God’s
understanding come into our minds, by calling upon Him by faith. And let faith
work on our hearts and on our minds so that we can see things a new. Let us continue
reading, studying and meditating on God’s Word, because if we do, we shall know
the truth and the truth shall set us free. Then we will be able to say like C.
S. Lewis “By Him I can see and understand everything else.”
Monday, February 24, 2020
Telling Parting Words - Greg Koukl
A person’s final words are often telling.
Consider the last words spoken by John Newton—Newton, 18th-century infidel, libertine, and slave trader; later, Newton, rector of London’s St. Mary Woolnoth, mentor and political inspiration of abolitionist William Wilberforce, author of the most beloved hymn in history, “Amazing Grace.”
For all his undeniable moral greatness, John Newton’s parting words were, “I am a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior.”
Consider another honorable soul, the much-loved Fred Rogers—Rogers, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, ordained United Presbyterian minister, gentle and loving mentor to generations of preschool children through his long-lived television series, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
In the twilight of his years, reflecting on Jesus’ judgment parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, Fred Rogers asked his wife, Joanne, “Am I a sheep?”
John Newton, after a lifetime of noble accomplishment, confident only of his own badness and of Christ’s merciful goodness on his behalf. Fred Rogers, after a lifetime of loving, self-sacrificial service, certain only of his uncertainty—unsure of his own goodness, thus unsure of his own salvation.
Two lives; two virtuous legacies, yet two entirely different understandings of God’s grace.
It saddened me when I learned of the doubts of the decent, upright, conscientious Mr. Rogers. His wife, Joanne, had answered him, “Fred, if anyone is a sheep, you are.” It was not the right answer. Something vital was missing.
I want you to think of the words of this, the first Bible verse I ever learned more than 45 years ago: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). This verse—and the many like it—informs everything for me as a Christian. It always has.
I am 68 years old, and the twilight of my own life is slowly approaching—not close, I trust, but within sight. I am nowhere near as noble, as self-sacrificial, as persistently and irrevocably loving as Mr. Rogers was. No matter. That is not what counts in the final reckoning. Here is what matters:
When the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4–7)
And this:
Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Heb. 10:19–23)
And this:
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1:13–14)
Do passages like these (and there are a multitude of them) instruct your heart the way they do mine? Feast on these words. Regularly. There is life in them. Relief from self-doubt. The source of great hope, the only hope, for even the worst of us—and the best of us. These are the verses Joanne Rogers should have comforted her husband with—those that focus on Christ’s magnificent merits, not our own, feeble by contrast.
I have already chosen the epitaph for my tombstone. You’ll find it in Psalm 130:3–4. It reflects not Rogers’s sad uncertainty, but Newton’s proper confidence:
If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.
Are you a great sinner? You know you are. So am I. And if God should mark our iniquities, then we are all done for—John Newton, Fred Rogers, you, me. But Christ is a great Savior. Never forget this. It is our only hope as darkness encroaches.
Original article found here: https://www.str.org/article/telling-parting-words-john-newton-vs-mr-rogers#.XlOITslUk0M
Original article found here: https://www.str.org/article/telling-parting-words-john-newton-vs-mr-rogers#.XlOITslUk0M
