Friday, October 26, 2012

My Sheep Hear My Voice...And They Follow Me

See this video that shows sheep following their shepherd...

Monday, October 15, 2012

Tabernacle Replica in the Wilderness

I ran across this blog today.  I have seen Tabernacle replicas over the years but have not really seen a full scale replica out in the open wilderness like it would have been during Israel's journey to the Promised Land.  Hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

King David and End of Life


Acts 13:36 KJV - For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:

It is beautiful to find that word sleep used of David's death.  His life had been full of tumult, storm, and passion, of war and blood; many a revolt had cast its foam in his face; but rest came at last, as it will come to all.  Like a tired infant's, those aged eyes closed in the last sleep, and the spirit joined the mighty dead.  His sepulcher remained to the day of Pentecost, for Peter refers to it; but the man whom God had raised up was drinking of the river of his pleasures, and was satisfied as he awoke in his likeness.  The fairest dreams of his Lord that had ever visited his soul fell short of the reality; and upon his aged face must have rested a look of glad surprise, as though the half had not been told.
The parallel between him and our Lord may be carried into minute particulars.  In their anointing; their inimitable words; their sufferings; their zeal for the house of God; their love for their friends; their betrayal by those they had trusted; their wars; their love for Jerusalem - how much in common!  But there the parallel stays. In his atoning death, in his incorruptible nature, in his glorious ascension, the Son of David stands alone.  David himself, in the Spirit, called him Lord, and knew that he alone could fulfil that ideal of kingship which had passed before his inspired thought, given to him by the Holy Ghost, but which no mere mortal would ever be able to realize.
Psalm 72:6, 8, 12, 17 KJV - He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers [that] water the earth. ... He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. ... For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and [him] that hath no helper. ... His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and [men] shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.
- as quoted from F.B. Meyer's David


Thursday, September 27, 2012

Quotes from Lutzer's Book

From Erwin Lutzer's 2010 book When A Nation Forgets God (my emphasis in bold):

...have we forgotten that God's power is more clearly seen in the message of the cross than in any political or social plan we might devise?...Do we cling to the cross with the deep conviction that it is not simply a part of our message to the world, but rightly understood it is the whole of it? (p134)
He refers to an analogy by a Christian writer of Christianity having become an empty bottle and then says this:

Regrettably, today the Christian bottle has been filled with many different agendas: pop psychology, environmentalism, and a nationalistic spirit that cannot distinguish between Christianity and the American way of life.  The cross has become an an ornament hung around the neck, not an instrument that changes the heart.
Some political activists have filled the Christian bottle with a strategy for political reform.  Salvation, it appears, is electing conservatives to national and local office.   Important though the right leaders might be, we must always remember that God is neither Republican nor Democrat.  When the cross is wrapped in the flag of a political party, it is always distracted or diminished.  Even for some who have experienced its power, the cross has become an addendum to what is thought to be more pressing agendas. (p 36) 
 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Helpful Books for Understanding Our Times


Two books I am reading...one for the first time, another is a re-read:  When A Nation Forgets God by Erwin Lutzer (2010) and World Chaos: Its Root and Remedy by G.H. Lang (1949).  Both are insightful and provide food for thought of parallels between what occurred in Germany prior to and during WWII and what is happening in our world today.

Lang's book, among many other valuable things, provides an in-depth look at the belief system of Hitler and his advisers that relied heavily on Fate (i.e. Karma, Kismet, etc.) and, thus, allowed them to, in delusion, rid themselves of any accountability to the God of the Bible.  Any belief system that accomplishes that, including evolution, is exactly what the natural man craves and what the enemy of man's soul will provide.  When one succumbs to such, they find themselves open to a wide range of ultimately destructive ideas.  For Hitler, the state became his god.  For some of Hitler's closest advisers, when Hitler died, they saw no value in living and thus took their own life.

Lang's book is available through Schoettle Publishing.  Lutzer's book is available from a variety of sources.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

In Everything Give Thanks?


Ephesians 5:20 KJV - Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

In everything give thanks, Lord?
Even the pain, the hardships, the heartaches?
It is easy to give thanks for the good things: 
The health, the comforts Thou hast blessed me with.
But Thou alone, can make me thankful 
For trials that try my faith.

As Paul wrote, "I have learned in whatsoever 
My state, to therewith be content." (Philippians 4:12)
As he so learned by his trials, so I must learn.
Only by thy grace, can I learn to give thanks
For all things.

Thank Thee, Lord, for grace to do so.

- Becky Coffey

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

God's Will


Romans 12:2 KJV - And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Is this passage teaching that we are to use our God-given faculty of discernment to determine ('prove') which of many options for God's will is the one that is good, acceptable and perfect in a particular situation?  Or, rather, is it that we are to have our mind so adjusted as to understand that God's will for us in any particular situation is in fact good, acceptable and perfect?  I think the latter.

The difficulty we face is acknowledging that anything contrary to our way of thinking and is burdensome to us might in fact be the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.  My will may be to take all steps necessary to alleviate a particular problem circumstance. Frankly, this is thinking that conforms to the world's way of thinking. God's will may be that I stay under that circumstance until He resolves it.  Which would be better?  My way or His?  His, no doubt.

Burdens and What To Do with Them

From F.B. Meyer in The Secret of Guidance:

The one cure for burden-bearing is to cast all burdens on the Lord.  The margin of the Revised Version of Psalm 55:22 reads thus: "Cast that He hath given thee upon the Lord."  Whatever burden the Lord has given you, give it back to Him.  Treat the burden of care as once you did the burden of sin; kneel down and deliberately hand it over to Jesus.  Say to Him, "Lord, I entrust to You this, and this, and this.  I cannot carry them; they are crushing me, but I definitely commit them all to You to manage, and adjust, and arrange.  You have taken my sins.  Take my sorrows, and in exchange give me Your peace, Your rest."

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Modesty of the Ideal Servant - F.B. Meyer


 Isaiah 42:2 KJV - He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
God is always at work in our world, leading the progress of suns, refreshing grass with dew, directing the flight of the morning beams, and even the glancing light of the firefly.  And while lovingly compassing our path and our lying down, he is not too busy to determine the fall of a shell on the sand of the ocean bottom.  But all his work is done so quietly, so unobtrusively, with such reticence as to his personal agency, that many affirm there is no God at all.

He spreads the breakfast table each morning for myriads living in wood and ocean, and in the homes of men as well; but he steals away before we catch sight of him to whom we owe all.  We know that he has been at work but he is gone without a sound, without a footmark, leaving only the evident touch of his hand.

Thus it was with the work of Christ.  He put his hand on the mouths of those who blazoned abroad his fame.  He repeatedly told the recipients of his bounty that they must not make him known.  He stole away from the multitudes that filled the porches of Bethseda, and the healed paralytic knew not who had healed him.  He lingered as long as he could in the highlands of Galilee, until his brethren remonstrated with him.  He did not quarrel nor cry out, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

This quality is God’s hallmark upon the best work.  His highest artists do not inscribe their names upon their pictures, nor introduce their portraits among their groups.  It is enough for them to have borne witness to the truth and beauty of the universe.  The wish for nothing more than to reveal what they have seen in nature’s holiest shrines, or in the transient gleams of beauty in the human face.  To win a soul for God; to cleanse the scar of the leper; to make blind eyes see; to give back the dead to mother, sister, friend – this is recompense enough.  To look up from the accomplished work into the face of God; to catch his answering smile; to receive the reward of the Father who is in secret – this is heaven, compared with which the praise of man is as valueless as his censure. - F.B. Meyer in Christ in Isaiah