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Table of Contents: Thanksgiving: Not Just for the Good Things Gratitude for the Gift of God’s Love The Pastor and the Church Staff Exegetically Speaking Following God Words to Stand You on Your Feet Jewels from Past Giants Marks of the Master Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel Book Reviews News Update Sermon Helps Puzzles and ‘Toons ___________________________________ Thanksgiving: Not Just for the Good Things By Justin Lonas When the last Thursday in November rolls around each year, we in America try our level best to push aside our self-focused and fast-paced lives in order to express a little gratitude to each other and celebrate the gifts we’ve been given. That this annual ritual of Thanksgiving Day is a very Christian holiday (to whom but God would we give thanks for things that, from a purely temporal perspective, we earned by the sweat of our brow?) seems to be lost on most people in our culture, and even on many in the Church. Even when we do recognize God as the source of all our good gifts, we struggle to bring the tenor of the celebration up past the saccharine, often settling for a moment before the turkey-carving to thank Him for the things we enjoy about His gifts and to bask in the glow of everything good and wonderful we have known. When was the last time, however, we stopped to meditate on the awful, painful things in our lives and to give God the full measure of gratitude for bringing those to us? It is certainly not as natural a response; it requires a level of brokenness and maturity that does not come easily, and often requires time and distance to gain a grateful perspective. But we see repeatedly throughout Scripture that God is blessed and thanked by His faithful servants for far more than just the patently good things He gives to them. We see this in Joseph’s words in Genesis 50:20: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” His attitude reflects gratitude toward God cultivated through the years of ups and downs he endured after being sold to Egypt by his brothers. Joseph’s example is one of learning to see God’s hand in the circumstances of life, even when great evil is done to us by others. We see it in the words of Job: “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26). Even in the midst of horrible affliction (which, we know from the context, was brought about by Satan to try to wrest Job from his faith in God), Job is comforted in the certain hope of being with God in eternity. When life throws its worst at us, we can either sink into despair or be strengthened in our trust in God’s ultimate victory over sin and death. From the depths of despair, Jeremiah awakens to God’s mercy and proclaims stirring praises to Him: “Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I have hope in Him.’…Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?” (Lam. 3:20-24, 38). The tribulations described in Lamentations were the just punishment of God on Israel for their collective sins, not a random calamity. Jeremiah chooses to praise the Lord for His justice and mercy even when his people are suffering by God’s own hand. In the New Testament, Paul thanks God for, among other things, his life of sin prior to conversion: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:12-16). Paul’s perspective on God’s glory allowed him to see how even the reprehensible life he had before meeting Christ was part of God’s bigger plan for the world and that the scope of his sin made his testimony that much more of a witness to the power of Christ to save. At various points, the apostles remind us to thank God for the persecutions we endure as believers. James tells us to “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:2-3). Peter writes, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Pet. 4:12-13). To rejoice in persecution flies in the face of our desire for peace and comfort, yet the apostles knew firsthand that such suffering was a means of tremendous spiritual growth. Ultimate gratitude is due God for His ultimate suffering on the cross. It is only through the blood of Christ that we can even approach God to offer our thanksgiving for any other of His gifts. The spectacle of the mangled body of the Savior hung high for all to see is not in any earthly sense “good”, but in the magnificent plan of God, it is the best and highest thing in all of eternity. We thank God daily for the suffering and death of His Son because we know the end of the story; we know of His resurrection and exaltation and the salvation that His work secured. How is it that we can thank and praise God for all things (as we are commanded to do in Eph. 5:20, 1 Thess. 5:18, and elsewhere), for the good, the bad, and the ugly? It is because God does not work in the same ways as the world does. God’s plans and power are based in eternity, not in the present reality; thus our circumstances are not the final arbiter of our joy, and even the worst things that come to us can move us to gratitude when we see things from His perspective. Theologian Carl Trueman writes, “God achieves his intended purposes by doing the exact opposite of that which humans might expect. The supreme example of this is the cross itself: God triumphs over sin and evil by allowing sin and evil to triumph (apparently) over him. His real strength is demonstrated through apparent weakness.” It is through this “upside down” theology (exemplified in 1 Cor. 1:18-2:5) that we can begin to recognize God’s good gifts even in things our humanity sees as hopeless, worthless, painful, and evil. Perhaps the best example I’ve heard in recent years of this attitude comes from author and artist Joni Eareckson Tada. As a teenager, she was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a diving accident. After a period of depression and intense frustration, she began to recognize that God had given her a testimony to those with disabilities—a realization which has driven her ministry for decades. In 2010, Tada was diagnosed with cancer, and reportedly responded to an inquiry as to her spiritual state by saying, “Now God has given me a ministry to people who have cancer that I never could’ve had before.” This Thanksgiving, meditate on God’s gifts—all of them. It may be that the things with which we struggle the most are part of the work of God to sharpen us, purify us, and give us a voice to reach a suffering world. To let those things pass by us without acknowledging them is to miss an opportunity to worship the Lord and draw closer to Him. Justin Lonas is editor of Disciple Magazine for AMG International in Chattanooga, Tenn. ___________________________________ Gratitude for the Gift of God’s Love By Charles Haddon Spurgeon I. The Wonder of Christ “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name” (Ps. 100:4). Our Lord would have all His people rich in high and happy thoughts concerning His blessed person. Jesus is not content that His brethren should think meanly of Him; it is His pleasure that His espoused ones should be delighted with His beauty. We are not to regard Him as a bare necessary, like to bread and water, but as a luxurious delicacy, as a rare and ravishing delight. To this end He has revealed Himself as the “pearl of great price” in its peerless beauty, as the “bundle of myrrh” in its refreshing fragrance, as the “rose of Sharon” in its lasting perfume, as the “lily” in its spotless purity. As a help to high thoughts of Christ, remember the estimation that Christ is held in beyond the skies, where things are measured by the right standard. Think how God esteems the Only Begotten, His unspeakable gift to us. Consider what the angels think of Him, as they count it their highest honor to veil their faces at His feet. Consider what the bloodwashed think of Him, as day without night they sing His well deserved praises. High thoughts of Christ will enable us to act consistently with our relations towards Him. The more loftily we see Christ enthroned, and the lowlier we are when bowing before the foot of the throne, the more truly shall we be prepared to act our part towards Him. Our Lord Jesus desires us to think well of Him, that we may submit cheerfully to His authority. High thoughts of Him increase our love. Love and esteem go together. Therefore, believer, think much of your Master’s excellencies. Study Him in His primeval glory, before He took upon Himself your nature! Think of the mighty love which drew Him from His throne to die upon the cross! Admire Him as He conquers all the powers of hell! See Him risen, crowned, glorified! Bow before Him as the Wonderful, the Counselor, the mighty God, for only thus will your love to Him be what it should. II. The Steadfastness of God “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me” (Isa. 49:15-16). No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word “Behold” is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence. Zion said, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me.” How amazed the divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief! What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God’s favored people? The Lord’s loving word of rebuke should make us blush; He cries, “How can I have forgotten you, when I have graven you upon the palms of my hands? How dare you doubt my constant remembrance, when the memorial is set upon my very flesh?” O unbelief, how strange a marvel thou art! We know not which most to wonder at, the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of His people. He keeps His promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt Him. He never fails; He is never a dry well; He is never as a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a melting vapor; and yet we are as continually vexed with anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of the desert. “Behold” is a word intended to excite admiration. Here, indeed, we have a theme for marveling. Heaven and earth may well be astonished that rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of infinite love as to be written upon the palms of His hands. “I have graven thee. “It does not say, “Thy name.” The name is there, but that is not all: “I have graven thee.” See the fullness of this! I have graven your person, your image, your case, your circumstances, your sins, your temptations, your weaknesses, your wants, your works; I have graven you, everything about you, all that concerns you; I have put you altogether there. Will you ever say again that your God has forsaken you when He has graven you upon His own palms? III. The Joy of Salvation “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Col. 2:6-7). The life of faith is represented as receiving—an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace of God. The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows; they are empty vessels into which God pours His salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality. One cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us. While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us—a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago that His life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart. But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of something. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, He becomes my Savior, so much mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of Him. All this is to receive Christ—to take Him as God’s free gift; to realize Him in my heart, and to appropriate Him as mine. Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received Christ Jesus Himself. It is true that He gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; He gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ Himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received Him, and appropriated Him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain Him! “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15). Three selections from Morning and Evening Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), “the Prince of Preachers,” was a renowned pastor and author who served as pastor of London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle for 38 years. His works are still widely read today. ___________________________________ The Pastor and the Church Staff: Rules to Live By By Joe McKeever Recently I requested of some minister friends their advice and lessons learned concerning church staff relationships. What follows are some of the best of the responses, in no particular order. I. “Be very careful whom you trust completely” - Jim In over three decades of ministry, Jim says he has been brutally betrayed at least 3 times. It has made him wary about trusting anyone with anything confidential. I’m recalling a time two churches ago when the personnel committee and I were dealing with a sensitive issue, long since forgotten. I said, “Can I say something in here and it not go any further?” The chairman said, “Pastor, I wouldn’t say anything in here you do not want to get out.” That was a courageous thing for him to do. As subtly as he knew how, the chairman was warning me off from trusting some of the people in that room. In time, I learned he knew whereof he was speaking. II. “First, pastor the staff. Be their shepherd” – Andy Something inside us wants to protest, that, well, the staff are all ministers and they don’t need pastoring. They do. In fact, preacher, so do you. I have heard that the typical ministerial staff wants the pastor to be their friend and the congregation’s pastor; the congregation, however, wants him to be their friend and the staff’s pastor. My answer is: be both. You can pastor friends. III. “You will never have a ministry like Jesus’ until you’ve had a Judas at your table” – Chris Pastors should accept the reality that sooner or later one of their dearest friends and associates will turn out to be the biggest troublemaker in the church. IV. “Staff members should stand up for their pastor” – John One of the most devastating assessments of a certain minister says that he “tends to agree with whoever he’s talking with at the moment.” I suspect that in his mind this makes him a good guy and a friend to everyone. It also means he has no convictions, no courage, and no backbone. Sometimes, to be true to Christ and to one’s calling, each of us will have to say to the fellow across the table something like this: “I beg to differ with you. The pastor’s not that way at all. He’s actually one of the godliest men I know.” Amazing how those short sentences can stop a critic in his tracks. V. “And that knife cuts both ways. The pastor should stand up for his staff” – Joe The rule is: defend him in public, but criticize him in private, person to person. VI. “You can delegate tasks, but not responsibility” – Mel Even when I, as the pastor, ask you to perform a task, it’s still on my desk, on my plate, on my mind. I’m still accountable to the church to see that this gets done. The pastor cannot stand before the deacons or some other heavyweight team of leaders and excuse himself for malfeasance because “I asked Tom to do that and he failed.” VII. “Guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” – Michelle Keep yourself close to the Lord— whether you are the lead pastor or the lowliest staffer—and keep the heart pure by constant prayer, daily repentance, and faithful service. VIII. “The best leaders lead by serving” – Linda A pastor friend tells me he’s about to lose a church family because the annual Thanksgiving dinner in which members of the congregation gorge themselves on turkey and dressing and all the trimmings has been turned into a community dinner, where the members serve the neighbors and unchurched who attend. How strange is that, the idea that the church should actually “serve!” Pastors and staffers will always want to set the example by their willingness to get dirty and do the lowliest tasks. Nothing endears a leader to his people than seeing him lay aside his theological degrees and clerical persona, gird himself with a towel and wash their feet. IX. “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” – Linda (again) She did not elaborate on that old maxim from political life. I’ve known of governors and presidents who appointed an outspoken critic to a job in the administration in order to shut them up, but also so they could watch them closely. There are limits on that. I’ve also known of churches in which leaders wanted to appoint the pastor’s severest critic to a key committee thinking that would shut him up. All it tends to do is give him a platform and a bullhorn. Not a good idea. X. “A few key rules to live by” – Rocky 1) Do not ask anyone to do what you are unwilling to do. 2) Express appreciation regularly and publicly, but criticize privately. 3) Overlook mistakes. We all make them. 4) Free staffers to use their gifts. 5) Pray for one another. 6) Choose your staff carefully; they can make you or break you. XI. “Everyone needs a Barnabas [an encourager]” – Monte The other ministers on the staff are in the best position to encourage one another, because they know what you are going through. Monte says, “There are times when an ‘attaboy or attagirl’ is the balm that is needed to make it through a particularly rough situation.” XII. “Be sensitive to staffers who are unmarried – Monte (again) These ministerial staff members do not have someone waiting at home to bounce ideas off or get comfort from. She says, “It can be a lonely place.” So, what can a pastor do? “Maybe occasionally checking in with the single staffer to see how he or she is coping with their ministry would be helpful and healthy.” XIII. “The matter of coming in as pastor and giving leadership to a staff put in place by your predecessor has its own challenges” – Sam No question about that. I’ve known it to go both ways, for the new pastor to be given carte blanche to wipe the slate clean and bring in his own team, and for pastors to be told that “the staff are all loved by this church and we expect the new pastor will work with them.” I suspect this deserves its own article, rather than just a couple of lines here. In the meantime, we send this forth in the hope that something above will be of help to a staffer or the pastor who seeks to lead a staff. Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He blogs regularly at www.joemckeever.com. ___________________________________ Exegetically Speaking by Spiros Zodhiates The Return of the Son of Man—Part 1 of 3 Matthew 24:27-30 From Exegetical Commentary on Matthew, 2006, AMG Publishers [27] “For as” introduces the reason why the local appearances of prophets, socalled christs, signs, and wonders do not constitute valid testimony of the appearance (parousía [3952]) of “the Son of man…in his glory” (Matt. 25:31). Christ’s return will not be secretive at all but “like (hōsper [5618] from hōs [5613], as; and the emphatic enclitic particle per [4007], wholly, very much; ‘exactly like’) the lightning (astrapē [796]) coming out of the east and shining even to the west” (a.t.). This verse stresses the dramatic universal display of Christ’s coming against the localizations picked up by news reporters that happen to be in the area. “Coming” is actually parousía (presence). Jesus’ visible presence is also referred to as an epipháneia ([2015], a manifestation), a visible revelation (apokálupsis [602], an uncovering). It is associated with the verb used here of the lightning that “shineth” (from phaínō [5316]), especially in Paul’s epistles (2 Thess. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:14). Everyone who is living will see this event that ushers in the eternal reign of Jesus Christ with believers of all ages (Rev. 1:7). [28] Jesus will return in judgment: “For wheresoever the carcass (ptōma [4430], corpse; Luke’s Synoptic text uses sōma [4983], body) is, there the eagles (from aetós [105], an eagle or vulture, a species of rapacious birds that prey on dead bodies) will be gathered together (sunachthēsontai, the future passive tense of sunágō [4863], to lead together)” (a.t.). The picture is clearly one of judgment, a scenario of predatory birds perched on a dead body (sōma), intent on feeding. What eagles or vultures feed on is worthless apart from its value as fodder. A similar picture is painted in the book of Revelation: “And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great” (Rev. 19:17-18). The context in Revelation is Armageddon, thus the reference to the flesh of captains, mighty men, and horses (Rev. 19:18, 21). Jesus never answered His disciples’ question concerning the when of His coming; it is a divine secret (Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:32; Acts 1:7). But Revelation 22:2021 reveal that the series of events leading up to the physical return of Jesus Christ will take place in rapid succession (tachú [5035], quickly and suddenly; used as an adverb, it means speedily; Rev. 3:11; 11:14; 22:7; etc.). Living believers will be transformed “in an instant (from átomos [823], an indivisible unit of time), in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52; a.t.). Divine chronology does not always fit human speculations (2 Pet. 3:7–15). In general, the events will catch unbelievers by surprise, like a “thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2). [29] The events described in this verse occur “immediately (euthéōs [2112]) after (metá [3326], succession, sequence) the tribulation of those days.” This refers to the troubles described in verse 21 (without the definite article as here), the Great Tribulation, in the last three-and-a-half years of the seventieth week. This is the period of the worst activity of the Antichrist who wages war against “the saints” (Dan. 7:25; Rev. 13:5–8). The events of “those days” are similar to those on the day the Lord Jesus was crucified, especially during the last three hours He hung on the cross. We read in Matthew 27:45, “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land (gē [1093], earth) unto the ninth hour,” a time when the sun should have been the brightest. Yet darkness (skótos [4655], a word symbolic of spiritual darkness, i.e., sin) prevailed over the whole earth where people, separated from God because of sin, were doing their worst. Jesus’ tribulation on the cross was a prophetic type of the Great Tribulation. Jesus added, “The sun shall be darkened (from skotízō [4654], a verb associated with the noun skótos [4655], darkness), and the moon shall not give her light (phéggos [5338])” (a.t.). Phéggos refers to the light (phōs [5457]) of the sun reflected by the moon, which is analogous to the church’s reflection of the glory of Christ. This culminating darkness will end when He who is the “bright and morning star” dispels it once and for all (Rev. 22:16). [30] In verse 3, the disciples asked, “When will all these things be, and what is the [single] sign of your coming (parousía [3952]) and the consummation of the age?” (a.t.). Jesus now spoke of the sign. “And then shall appear (from phaínō [5316], to shine, to give light; from phōs [5457], light) the sign of the Son of man in heaven (from ouranós [3772], heaven, sky): 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.” The disciples asked about a variety of events that are designated by “these things” to which they expected Jesus to give a specific time. Jesus, however, described different events that will not take place simultaneously but at different times connected with the total process. We must, therefore, study these events from God’s revelation in the totality of Scripture. Jesus told His disciples that He was going to heaven to prepare a place for them (John 14:3-4). Just after His ascension into heaven, angels told His followers that He would descend from heaven at some future date to take them to Himself (Acts 1:11). He has not yet fulfilled that promise, which the apostle Paul also gives in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. We must, therefore, understand this event as the resurrection of dead believers and the transformation of living believers (1 Cor. 15:51–53), called “the rapture of the church” by some, the next event to take place. The Scriptures delineate the role of angels as ministering spirits in heaven at the service of Christ in all His appearances, beginning with the incarnation (Matt. 1:20, 21; Luke 1:28–33) and ending with the final establishment of His kingdom (Matt. 25:31). This “sign” of the “Son of man in heaven,” however, is at the end of the Tribulation period, when Christ comes back to earth to defeat His enemies and set up His kingdom for a thousand years (see Rev. 19:11-20:4). The appearance of the visible “sign” implies that the heavenly perturbations referred to in verse 29 will be temporary. Neither the sun nor the moon will stop shining permanently, although these disturbances will impact everyone on earth. The sign appears “in heaven,” in this case, visible to all humanity. The Jesus has already used the verb phaínō (5316) in the immediate context (verse 27) to liken His return to wild streaking (from phaínō) of lightning towards the west, vividly contrasted to the claims of false prophets that He is “in” their tamed, esoteric environments, the “desert” and the “secret chambers” (verse 26). It is most natural, then, to take the genitival expression, “of the Son of man in heaven,” appositionally—“of” meaning “which is,” that is, the sign which is the physical appearance of Christ in the sky. Corroborative evidence for this is that Jesus cited Zechariah’s prophecy, “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him” (Zech. 12:10), a clear prediction of the conversion of Jews who personally witness Christ’s physical return. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him” (Rev. 1:7; cf. Rom. 11:26). This sign is similar to the sign Jesus gave during His first coming to that “generation” (Mark 8:12). When the Pharisees demanded proof of His authority, Jesus characterized their generation—and every generation that seeks signs—as wicked and adulterous, adding that no sign would be given other than His resurrection typified by Jonah’s supernatural rescue from the body of the great fish (from kētos [2785]; Matt. 12:39, 40; see Jon. 1:17) after three days. Christ’s resurrection became the basis for all future resurrections, according to the apostle Paul: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits (aparchē [536]) of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power” (1 Cor. 15:20–24). As the firstfruits, Christ secured the resurrection of all those who believe. As Paul says in verse 23, “every man in his own order.” Christ was clearly the firstfruits. After the temple veil was rent in two parts during the crucifixion, “the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many” (Matt. 27:52–53). If this represents their permanent resurrection and not a temporary resurrection similar to what Lazarus experienced in John 11, these saints would be the first order. The resurrection accompanying the rapture will be the next order (1 Thess. 4:13–18). We are not told of any resurrection taking place during the Tribulation period, but we assume that all the Tribulation-period saints will be resurrected before the millennium begins. We gather this from Revelation 20:4-5 that says that the Tribulation-period saints have already been resurrected and will live and reign with Christ for a thousand years during the millennium. We also assume that no believers will die during the millennium and that only those unbelievers who deliberately rebel will die (see Isa. 65:20) as well as those who follow the released dragon into the Battle of Armageddon after the millennium (Rev. 20:8). These will be resurrected with unbelievers of all ages in the second resurrection, as implied in Revelation 20:5-6, to face the great white throne judgment of Revelation 20:11–15. At the sign of the Son of man in heaven, the “tribes (from phulē [5443], tribe, nation; Rev. 1:7) of the earth (gē) shall mourn (kópsontai, the future middle of kóptō [2875], to cut down to size, cf. Zech. 12:10– 14).” The Lord works in two arenas: heaven, the dwelling place of God, angels, and departed saints; and earth (Matt. 5:18, 35; 6:10, 19; etc.). What takes place in heaven affects those living on earth. Those on earth “will see (from horáō [3708], to see and perceive; or óptomai [3700], to see) the Son of man coming.” Hioráō contrasts with bléipō ([991], to see physically, gaze, look at). The fact that they will see and understand the significance of what is happening will cause many to lament. Note that erchómenon, “coming,” is the present participle of érchomai, I come, or I am coming. If a single coming had been intended, another tense would have been selected, like eleusómenon, the future participle. The present participle of érchomai is used frequently to describe Jesus’ return to earth (cf. Mark 11:9; Luke 21:27; John 1:15, 27; 3:31; etc.). The whole future is a series of comings of the Lord Jesus in salvation and judgment. Two Greek words are translated “cloud.” One is néphos ([3509], a cloudy, shapeless mass covering the sky), used metaphorically for a crowd or throng (Heb. 12:1). The other is nephélē (3507), a feminine diminutive, meaning a small, formed cloud, such as the pillar that guided the Israelites in the desert during the day (1 Cor. 10:1-2). This latter word is used in connection with the transfiguration of Christ (Matt. 17:5; Luke 9:34-35); His ascension (Acts 1:9); and His coming again (Matt. 24:30; 26:64; Luke 21:27; 1 Thess. 4:17; Rev. 1:7; etc.). Jesus will come in a final sense (élthē, the aorist subjunctive of érchomai, I come) in clouds of glory as in Matthew 25:31: “When the Son of man shall come (élthē) in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.” At this time, the Lord, the victorious Lamb, will defeat the Antichrist and come to earth not only with angels, but with the called, chosen, and faithful (Rev. 17:14). The defeat of Antichrist will manifest Christ’s “power” (from dúnamis [1411], accomplishing power) and “glory” (from dóixa [1391], glory, derived from the verb dokéō [1380], to think or recognize, therefore His recognition). This power and glory is qualified as “great” (from polús [4183], much), issuing from the victorious “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5). Christ will be properly recognized as the One who was eternally with the Father (John 1:1-2; 17:5; 1 John 1:1-2) and became flesh (John 1:14), without sin (Heb. 4:15), so that He might be the sacrificial lamb (amnós [286]; John 1:29, 36; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:19, in contrast to arníon [721], a living lamb). Spiros Zodhiates (1922-2009) served as president of AMG International for over 40 years, was the founding editor of Pulpit Helps Magazine (Disciple’s predecessor), and authored dozens of exegetical books. ___________________________________ Following God by Wayne Barber Grace Living Is Grace Giving We are coming into the season of the year when believers particularly have giving on our minds. Why? Because, as believers, Christ lives in us, and His very nature is to give. He gave His life for us on the cross so that we might have an eternal relationship with God the Father through Him. John 3:16 says it all: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” True, grace-induced giving is not some worldly investment program or a guilt trip to a believer, but it is the evidence that a believer is walking yielded to Christ. It bears witness to the One who lives in and through us. In fact, there is no way that a person can say he is allowing Christ to live through him and be stingy at the same time. Living grace, which is Christ living in and through us, is giving grace! In 2 Corinthians 8 Paul gives us a beautiful picture of the heart of a believer to give. The context is a one-time offering that Paul was collecting for the poor in Judea, but I want you to look at the heart of those that he uses as an example to the stingy and rich church of Corinth. He begins by saying, “Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality” (2 Cor. 8:1-2). What a picture Paul paints for the wealthy believers of Corinth. He uses the word for “known”, gnorizo, which means something like, “if we didn’t tell you, you wouldn’t have a clue!” Paul wants them to see what the heart of true giving is really all about. He wants them to realize that giving is a consequence of Christ living in and through a believer’s life. When Paul mentions the churches of Macedonia, there were three that were started by him that we know of—the Church at Philippi, The Church at Thessalonica, and the church at Berea. God had done a real work in these churches which was evidenced by their generous giving. Paul points to the “grace of God which has been given to the churches of Macedonia.” Now, how was the grace of God manifested in these churches? “that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.” It wasn’t just their giving but their giving was in the midst of the worst of circumstances. Now, our fleshly minds tell us that people don’t give when times are hard! Well, sadly that’s true unless they are allowing Christ to live through their lives. I’m told that during the Great Depression that the churches continued to maintain their ministries and missions because the believers were faithful to give. The word “great” here is polus, which refers to something way beyond the ordinary. The word for “ordeal” is dokime which refers to a severe test in which someone passes and proves himself to be genuine. The word translated “affliction” is a familiar word in 2 Corinthians, thilipsis, which refers to the deep stress that one goes through as a result of what someone does to them. So, it was in the midst of terrible times when the believers of Macedonia were suffering that they gave to the needs of others. Their giving stood in contrast to the fleshly minded Church of Corinth who got all they could get; canned all they got; and then sat on the can and poisoned the rest. Paul says that the Macedonians’ “abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.” They overflowed with joy in the midst of these terrible times, times that had brought them to the point of destitute poverty! Probably these tough times were because of their Christianity and they lost their jobs or were denied the right to buy food for their families. The word “poverty” here is ptocheia, which means total destitution! It is a point where a man cannot dig himself out of his dilemma. In the midst of this, they gave out of the abundance of God’s goodness in their hearts. The word “overflowed” comes from perisseuo, which means to be in excess, to exceed what is needed. “Wealth” here is not the Greek word for riches in the sense of monetary wealth, but the term means the abundance of something. Contextually, this is the abundance of God’s goodness in their hearts! His goodness which produced such joy caused them to think of others instead of themselves. The word “liberality” translates haplotes, which means without a double motive! The believers in Macedonia didn’t give as a tool to manipulate others because they had no double motive. Paul is overwhelmed at the generosity of these impoverished believers in Macedonia. Their giving was such that it was beyond what was needed, and they gave with no strings attached! Paul wanted the Church at Corinth to see what grace giving really was—part of the stewardship of one’s life under the Lordship of Christ. Grace giving is a product of God’s Grace working in the hearts of His people. I was in Austria years ago preaching with the International Congress on Revival. It was at the time of the war in Kosovo and there were so many believers there who were in need. We had several language groups attending the conference and one was a group from Romania, where I have had the privilege to minister every year since 1987. The Romanians were the poorest people in our conference but they were the ones who came to us and wanted to take an offering for their brothers and sisters in Christ who lived in Kosovo. As we took the offering, I watched in utter amazement as they were the ones who gave so totally and enthusiastically it brought tears to my eyes. The men literally took everything out of their pockets and their pockets hung outside of their trousers empty. Wow! I began to understand how Paul was so blessed by the giving of the poor Macedonian believers and it so convicted me of how greedy we are as believers in America. If you want to be blessed, keep reading in chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians and see what God might say to you. There are so many needs around us. This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, ask God how you can join Him in giving this year. You will be amazed at what He will tell you and you will be overwhelmingly blessed when you yield to Him. Remember though, the Macedonians first gave of themselves to the Lord, as verse 5 says, before they ever thought about giving their money. It is Christ in you that will give you not only the burden to give but the direction and balance He has for you. Wayne Barber is senior pastor of Woodland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. ___________________________________ Words to Stand You on Your Feet by Joe McKeever The Fruit of the Spirit Is: Longsuffering “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22). John Cameron Swayze crowned a long career in news and television work with a series of commercials he did for Timex watches. After subjecting a wristwatch to brutal treatment, he would retrieve it (from the hole in which it had been buried, the building they had just blown up, whatever), hold it up to the camera, and observe, “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” That’s you. That’s me. That’s the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we do it right. The Lord told His followers that as a result of their identification with Him they were most definitely going to “take a licking.” In one passage, for instance, where we are commanded to love our enemies, Jesus said we can expect to be hated, cursed, threatened, and spitefully used. If we are struck on the cheek—that sounds like a licking to me!—we are to turn the other to our assailant. If someone steals our cloak, we are to offer our tunic also (Luke 6:27-30). In order to love the person who hits me, hates me, curses me, and forcibly takes what is mine, I am going to be needing one resource that does not come as standard equipment with the human animal: restraint. The Greek word makrothumia is literally “long-tempered.” Various translations call it longsuffering, as well as forbearance and patience. Let’s stick with “longsuffering.” That word says it as well as any. Longsuffering is self-restraint. When being provoked, one does not lose control and dish out the same kind of treatment he or she has received. Perhaps a good way to emphasize what the word means is by thinking of its opposites. Here is my short list of the reverse image of longsuffering. I. The Opposite of Longsuffering Is Losing One’s Temper We were in seminary, in the third year of our marriage. I have no idea what we were discussing or arguing about, only that tempers were flaring. In a rage, I put my fist through the wall. The fact that we were living in seminary housing brought me to my senses quickly. We would have to report the (ahem) accident in order for someone to repair it. We did, they did, and nothing was ever said. Later, I wondered if this sort of thing happened with enough regularity that the maintenance office had learned not to inquire further. That was a wakeup call for me. Suddenly I became fully aware of the danger of my uncontrolled temper. In praying about this, the Lord impressed on me that the remedy is the fruit of the Spirit. To get control of one’s temper, it is not necessary to take courses in self-control, only to grow in the Lord and let His Spirit bear His fruit in my life. II. The Opposite of Longsuffering Is Retaliation The driver on the interstate treated you like you were invisible. He pulled right in front of you, then slowed down. Then, if that wasn’t enough, when you changed lanes, he changed too. You can’t get rid of this guy. Boy, would you like to give him a piece of your mind! Don’t. He’s not a good candidate for a brain transplant, you’re no surgeon, and the highway is no operating room. Another time, the driver in front of you stops at the red light. You seriously think about getting out and walking up and informing her that she just breezed through a school zone at 35 mph. Or, that the speed limit in your neighborhood—where she just emerged from—is 20 mph and she was doing twice that. Longsuffering means a lot of things, including not trying to teach foolish drivers lessons in law. They need to be taught, it’s true. But you are not the one to do it. We all get angry at wrong-doers. What we do with our anger says volumes about us. “Repay no one evil for evil…. Do not avenge yourselves…. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Rom. 12:17-19). III. The Opposite of Longsuffering Is Impatience under Hardship You have an irritating mother-in-law? A next-door neighbor who is driving you nuts? A church member who is constantly making demands upon you? Welcome to the human race. Everyone has someone who does that. It’s life. If you resolve everything with one trouble-maker in your life, turn around and you’ll find another one. It’s better to learn how to deal with them all—dealing with troublesome situations and people is the essence of longsuffering. 1) Welcome the troublemaker. You might as well; they’re coming on in, whether you let them or not. So, change your attitude. See them as potential blessings God sends your way. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad…” (Matt. 5:11-12). 2) Offer it to the Lord. See what He can make of it. In the rest of the passage cited just above, Jesus said, “...for great is your reward in Heaven.” Any temporary difficulty we can endure here that will result in eternal reward there must be considered a blessing. Remember the promise: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). No wonder we read about the early disciples: “So [the apostles] departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41). 3) Endure. Stay on the job. Do not quit. Twice in 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle Paul gives us reasons for not quitting. In verse 1, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.” Here are two great motivations for hanging tough: ministry (we have a great work to do) and mercy (we have been forgiven and dealt with in a merciful way). In verse 16: “Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” We do not walk away from the place where the Lord has assigned us because He is at work within us, making us stronger and stronger on the inside. 4) Learn to wait quietly. No one likes to hear a whiner, particularly in the Kingdom of God. Anyone who has served the Lord for a generation or longer has heard his full quota of church members who call attention to how faithfully they served the Lord under adverse conditions and how the Lord did nothing to alleviate things and how they know their reward in heaven will be something special. I have long enjoyed David’s testimony: “I waited patiently for the Lord and He…heard my cry. He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps” (Ps. 40:1-2) David was waiting, he says, but he was crying at the same time. Okay, we understand it. Sometimes we wait and cry. No one who endured Hitler’s or Stalin’s concentration camps for years on end can be faulted for crying to the Lord during their long wait. But don’t brag about it. And don’t complain to others about the long wait and your wonderful record of persevering. The Lord sees. He will reward. And that will be enough for you. Let us not leave this subject without reminding ourselves that God Himself is longsuffering. According to Exodus 34:6, it’s His nature to be that way. We can give thanks. 1 Peter 3:20 speaks of His longsuffering in the days of Noah. Best of all is 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” John MacArthur writes on this passage: “God has an immense capacity for patience before He breaks forth in judgment (cf. v.15; Joel 2:13; Luke 15:20; Rom. 9:22; 1 Pet. 3:15). God endures endless blasphemies against His name, along with rebellion, murders, and the ongoing breaking of His law, waiting patiently while He is calling and redeeming His own. It is not impotence or slackness that delays final judgment; it is patience.” No wonder Peter writes that we should consider the longsuffering of the Lord as our salvation (2 Pet. 3:15). To summarize, then, the longsuffering disciple simply believes in Jesus Christ and is willing to leave ultimate matters to God. What could be simpler? Oh, that it were easy. Joe McKeever is a retired Southern Baptist pastor from New Orleans, Louisiana. He blogs regularly at www.joemckeever.com. ___________________________________ Jewels from Past Giants Sin—Part 3 of 3 By Charles Hodge Originally published in 1841 as a chapter in The Way of Life. Edited slightly for modern spellings. The Grace of God toward Sinners, and Our Guilt in Rejecting It It is the doctrine of the Bible that the infinite and eternal Son of God assumed our nature, that He might redeem us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us. It is obvious that no severity of mere human suffering, no destroying deluge, no final conflagration, not hell itself can present such a manifestation of the evil of sin and of the justice of God as the cross of His incarnate Son. It declares in language which is heard by the whole intelligent universe, that sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, and that none who refuse submission to the appointed method of pardon can escape its condemnation. The penalty then which God has attached to the violation of His law, the certainty with which that penalty is inflicted, the doom of the fallen angels, the consequences of Adam’s sin, and above all, the death of Christ are manifestations of the evil of sin in the estimation of God, which it is the highest infatuation for us to disregard. However obdurate our hearts may be in reference to this subject, our reason is not so blind as not to see that our guilt must be exceedingly great. We cannot deny that all the circumstances which aggravate the heinousness of sin concur in our case. The law which we transgress is perfectly good. It is the law of God, the law of right and reason. It is the expression of the highest excellence; it is suited to our nature, necessary to our perfection and happiness. Opposition to such a law must be in the highest degree unreasonable and wicked. This law is enforced not only by its own excellence but by the authority of God. Disregard of this authority is the greatest crime of which a creature is capable. It is rebellion against a being whose right to command is founded on His infinite superiority, His infinite goodness, and His absolute propriety in us as His creatures. It is apostasy from the kingdom of God to the kingdom of Satan. There is no middle ground between the two. Everyone is either the servant of God or the servant of the devil. Holiness is the evidence of our allegiance to our Maker; sin is the service of Satan. Could we form any adequate conception of these two kingdoms, of the intrinsic excellence of the one and the absolute evil of the other, of the blessedness attendant on the one and the misery connected with the other; could we, in short, bring heaven and hell in immediate contrast, we might have some proper view of the guilt of this apostasy from God. It is the natural tendency of our conduct to degrade ourselves and others, to make Eden like Sodom, and to kindle everywhere the fire that never shall be quenched. He therefore who sins is not only a rebel against God, but a malefactor, an enemy to the highest good of his fellow creatures. Again, our guilt is great because our sins are exceedingly numerous. It is not merely outward acts of unkindness and dishonesty with which we are chargeable; our habitual and characteristic state of mind is evil in the sight of God. Our pride, vanity, indifference to His will and to the welfare of others, our selfishness, our loving the creature more than the Creator, are continuous violations of His law. We have never, in any one moment of our lives, been or done what that law requires us to be and to do. We have never had that delight in the divine perfections, that sense of dependence and obligation, that fixed purpose to do the will and promote the glory of God, which constitute the love which is our first and highest duty. It is in this sense that men are said to be totally depraved; they are entirely destitute of supreme love to God. Whatever else they may have is as nothing while this is wanting. They may be affectionate fathers or kind masters, or dutiful sons and daughters, but they are not obedient children of God; they have not those feelings toward God which constitute their first and greatest duty, and without which they are always transgressors. The man who is a rebel against his righteous sovereign, and whose heart is full of enmity to His person and government, may be faithful to his associates and kind to his dependants, but he is always and increasingly guilty as it regards his ruler. Thus we are always sinners; we are at all times and under all circumstances in opposition to God, because we are never what His law requires us to be. If we have never loved Him supremely; if we have never made it our governing purpose to do His will; if we have never been properly grateful for all His mercies; if we have never made His glory, but some other and lower object, the end of our actions; then our lives have been an unbroken series of transgressions. Our sins are not to be numbered by the conscious violations of duty; they are as numerous as the moments of our existence. If the permanent moral dispositions of man are evil, it must follow that his acts of transgression will be past counting up. Every hour there is some work of evil, some wrong thought, some bad feeling, some improper word, or some wicked act, to add to the number of his offenses. The evil exercise of an evil heart is like the ceaseless swinging of the pendulum. The slightest review of life therefore is sufficient to overwhelm us with the conviction of the countless multitude of our transgressions. It is this which constitutes our exceeding sinfulness in the sight of God. While our conscience sleeps, or our attention is directed to other subjects, the number of our transgressions grows like the unnoticed pulsations of our heart. It is not until we pause and call ourselves to account that we see how many feelings have been wrong; how great is the distance at which we habitually live from God, and how constant is our want of conformity to His will. It was this that forced the Psalmist to cry, “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up, they are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me” (Ps. 40:12). Again, we may judge of the greatness of our guilt before God by considering the numerous restraints of His truth, providence, and spirit which we habitually disregard. The simple fact that sin is wrong, that conscience condemns it, is a constant and powerful restraint. We cannot avail ourselves of the plea of ignorance, as we have a perfect standard of duty in the law of God. We cannot resist the conviction that His commands are righteous; yet, despite this, we live in constant disobedience. We are, moreover, fully aware of the consequences of sin. We know the judgment of God that those who do such things are worthy of death, and yet continue our transgressions. We are surprised at the drunkard who indulges his fatal passion in the very presence of ruin; yet we are blind to our own infatuation in continuing to disobey God despite threatened death. We stupidly disregard the certain consequences of our conduct, and awake only in time to see that madness is in our hearts. This insensibility, notwithstanding the constant warnings of the Word of God, constitutes a peculiar aggravation of our guilt. Nor are we more mindful of the restraining influence of the love of God. We disregard the fact that the Being against whom we sin is He to whom we owe our existence and all our enjoyments; who has carried us in His arms, and crowned us with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy; who has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities, but has borne with our provocations, waiting that His goodness might lead us to repentance. We have despised His forbearance, deriving from it a motive to sin, as though He were slack concerning His promises, and would not accomplish His threatening; thus treasuring up for ourselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Besides all this, we disregard the love of Christ. There stands His cross, mutely eloquent; at once an invitation and a warning. It tells us both of the love and justice of God. It assures us that He who spared not His own Son is ready to be gracious. All this we disregard. We count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing; we act as if it were not the blood of the Son of God, shed for us for the remission of sins. Or, it may be, we turn the grace of God into licentiousness and draw encouragement from the death of Christ to continue in sin. This unbelieving rejection of the Savior involves guilt so peculiarly great that it is often spoken of as the special condemnation of the world. “He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). “When He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in Me” (John 16:8-9). “If he that despised Moses’ law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God” (Heb. 10:28-29). The great sin of rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior, it must be remembered, is an often repeated and long continued sin. It is also one which is chargeable not only on the openly wicked only, but upon those whom the world calls moral. They too resist the claims of the Son of God; they too refuse His love and reject His offers. It was when all other messengers had failed, the Lord of the vineyard sent His Son to His disobedient servants, saying, “They will reverence my Son.” The guilt of thus rejecting Christ will never be fully appreciated until the day when He shall sit on the throne and from His face the earth and heaven shall flee away and no place be found for them. Besides these restraints from without, we resist the still more effectual influence of the Spirit of God. That Spirit strives with all men; suggesting truth and exciting conscience, expostulating and warning, and drawing men from sin to God. It is from Him that all good thoughts and right purposes do proceed. This spirit we quench; we resist His gracious influences, not once or twice, but a thousand times. Though He will not always strive with men, He strives long, and returns after many insulting rejections, repeating the warnings and invitations of mercy. All men are sensible of this divine influence, though they may not be aware of its origin. They know not whence proceed the serious thoughts, the anxious forebodings, the convictions of truth, the sense of the emptiness of the world, the longing after security and peace of which they are conscious. God sends these admonitions even to those who are most contented with the world and most happy in their estrangement from Himself. He leaves no man without a witness and a warning. These strivings of the Spirit are not only frequent, but often urgent. Almost every man can look back and see many instances in which an unseen hand was upon him, when a voice, not from man, has sounded in his ears, when feelings to which he was before a stranger were awakened in his breast, and when he felt the power of the world to come. The shadow of the Almighty has passed over him and produced the conviction that God is, and that He is an avenger. From a review of what has been said, it is plain that the Scriptures teach not only that all men are sinners, but that their corruption is radical, seated in their hearts, and that it is exceedingly great. The severity of the penalty which God has attached to transgression, the certainty of its infliction, the costliness of the sacrifice by which alone its pardon could be obtained, are all proofs of the evil of sin in the sight of God. The greatness of our personal guilt is plain from the excellence of the law which we have violated; from the authority and goodness of the Being whom we have offended, from the number of our sins, and from the powerful restraints which we have disregarded. Charles Hodge (1797-1878) was Presbyterian theologian and leading proponent of historical Calvinism in America during the 19th Century. He taught for most of his career at Princeton Theological Seminary, serving as its principal from 18511878. He was the founder and first editor of The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, using the publication as a platform to address many controversial issues in his day. Among his best known books are numerous commentaries on New Testament books, his Systematic Theology, The Way of Life, and What Is Darwinism. He is remembered as a great defender of the faith who articulated the ageless doctrines of Christianity in an age when they were being called into question from many quarters. He argued strongly that the authority of the Bible as the Word of God had to be understood literally. His teaching and writings continue to be a significant influence on today’s evangelical believers. ___________________________________ Marks of the Master by The Old Scot Many Needs, One Provision Originally published in Pulpit Helps, February 2006. Take a breath, and let it out. Now, think of yourself doing this minute after minute, hour after hour, year after year. Every breath you inhale contains approximately 21 percent oxygen. Every stale breath you exhale contains only 16 percent oxygen. You use up a lot of precious oxygen—you and the billions of other people on this earth, and all the billions of airbreathing animals. In fact, someone estimated that all of the animal life on Earth consumes about 10,000 tons of oxygen with every tick of the second hand on your watch! This has been going on for thousands of years, yet still there is sufficient oxygen. How can that be? Why aren’t we gasping for every breath, straining after an increasingly short supply of oxygen? Defer that question for a moment, and think about this puzzler: every exhalation adds carbon dioxide to our atmosphere, for carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the living process. Why hasn’t our atmosphere overloaded with carbon dioxide—and put another huge strain on our breathing? And still another question: Why hasn’t the world run out of food long ago? We know that all animal life ultimately depends on plant life for food—but what do plants eat? We see plants constantly growing, but what is their food? All these questions are related, and there is one answer to them all: The world’s supply of oxygen is renewed, and the surplus of carbon dioxide is removed, and abundant plant growth is provided by one amazingly intricate process, called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which all green plants convert energy from sunlight into food energy. The raw materials for this process are carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. Working with these, in the presence of chlorophyll (which gives plants their green color), the plants produce oxygen and food. Let it sink in: we have not run out of oxygen, because photosynthesis produces oxygen in plants. We have not smothered in too much carbon dioxide, because photosynthesis takes it back out of the air. We have not starved, because plants continuously produce food (for themselves, and in turn for us) from sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. This wonderful process is an endlessly repeating cycle—we may well ask: What would we do without it? If we examined a single cell in a green leaf, we would discover tiny granules called mitochondria. These tiny bits of matter are actually busy factories, which turn glucose (a basic sugar) and oxygen into energy for the plant, with a by-product of carbon dioxide. This is very similar to our own production of energy—but this is only the consuming half of the plant’s living cycle. The creative half of each plant’s cycle centers on miniature factories called chloroplasts, where carbon dioxide, water, and energy are converted into food and free oxygen. Fortunately for us, plants produce far more oxygen than they consume. Scientists and scholars have been probing the secrets of photosynthesis for centuries, but they are only beginning to comprehend all that goes on inside a leaf. They have learned that chlorophyll is a tremendously complicated substance, containing many different enzymes (facilitators) which initiate or speed up the many chemical changes involved in photosynthesis. The more closely the process is examined, the more complex it is revealed to be. And here, perhaps, is the greatest wonder of all: this hugely complex process, which humans are still laboring to understand, had to be in place and fully functioning from the very beginning of life— or so soon after as to make no real difference. It takes a stiff neck indeed not to see what God hath wrought! Truly, the lifebalancing, world-balancing photosynthesis cycle is a mark of the Master! The Old Scot (Ted Kyle) lives in Newberg, Oregon, with his wife, Marga. References: Photosynthesis, by Isaac Asimov, Basic Books, Inc., 1968. “Photosynthesis,” by R. Govindjee, in Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Vol. 10, pp. 200-210, McGraw-Hill, 1977. ___________________________________ Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel Helping In Haiti: Watching as God Puts People Together By AMG International Staff This column highlights the ministries of Disciple’s parent organization, Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel (AMG) International, a non-denominational missions agency. In May 2011, we shared a story in our monthly ministry newsletter, AMG News, about a young lady named Jean-Louis Alaine. She survived the January 2010 earthquake that collapsed her school around her, killing most of her classmates and the family she was living with in Port-au-Prince. Many readers responded with prayers and financial gifts to help her continue her education back in her hometown, impoverished Grand-Bassín. Today, Alaine has a big smile and a big “Thank You” for all those who helped her. “I feel so happy today to thank you for your help that is so good to me,” she wrote to us. “I want to thank you with all my heart for your financial support during my time back in Grand-Bassín after the earthquake. Without your help, I wouldn’t be able to go to school, as the people who used to help me died [in the earthquake]. I am at the point of finishing high school soon, and I praise God that He gave you a helping heart. Your help permits me also to have food, school supplies, and other expenses related to my education, as I lost everything during the earthquake. Thank you so much. I will always be grateful to you and most of all to God who is giving you the opportunity to share with others.” Jim is a volunteer at the AMG International offices in Chattanooga, Tenn. He saw the AMG News article about JeanLouis Alaine, and told Roger Thomas, AMG’s Associate Vice President for International Ministries, he wanted to help. But by that time, more than enough financial support had come in for Alaine. So Roger suggested that there were more Haitian children in dire circumstances whom Jim could help, and he asked Pastor Rodné Romeus for suggestions. Pastor Rodné presented the needs of three young people. The needs of the first boy totaled $420—$20 for a school uniform, shoes, school fees, food for three months, and $200 to help his mother start a little business. The needs of the second child, a little girl, totaled $440 for a school uniform, shoes, church clothes, school fees, books and school supplies, and food for three months. The needs of the third child, a boy, were not yet quantified in dollars. Jim gave $1,500. The third boy’s name is Pierre Louis Wisly. He is a believer and a member of the Baptist Church of Grand-Bassín. His father is the president of the church board, and the whole family attends regularly. He has just graduated from high school. Like most young people in Haiti, he has graduated high school with no prospect of getting a job, and no opportunity to go on to university. But that has not deterred Pierre Louis in the least. He has seen the tremendous help and blessing that the AMG Bethesda Medical Center has been to his town. Many people were dying because there was no available medical care of any kind. But the Bethesda center has changed all that. Over 400 lives were saved at Bethesda during the cholera epidemic this year, and now mothers are safely delivering babies at Bethesda, where in many cases previously either mother or baby, or both, would not survive childbirth. Pierre Louis wants to be the x-ray technician at the Bethesda center. There is no x-ray machine at Bethesda—yet (at present, there is presently only one x-ray machine in all of Northeast Haiti!). But never mind that. His training to become an x-ray technician will take three years, and surely by then, his faith tells him, Bethesda will have an x-ray machine. There is also no place in Haiti where Pierre Louis can be trained to become an xray technician. He has just enough money saved to get to Santo Domingo, the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic, and friends who are helping him get a passport and visa. He has no money for books, tuition, food, or a place to live. But he has his eyes fixed on the goal, and faith that God will enable him to become that x-ray technician, making a huge difference for the poor people in his hometown of GrandBassín. “I press on toward the goal, for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). Roger was recently in Haiti and met this young man. Pierre Louis did not know how much his x-ray training would cost, but he would travel to Santo Domingo to begin that training (by faith) in one week. Roger told Pastor Rodné to let him know as soon as Pierre Louis found out the cost. In a few days, the answer came. Pierre Louis would be required to first study Spanish at the university, and then be admitted to regular classes for x-ray training in January. The cost to be registered and participate in the Spanish classes—$640. Now let’s see—Jim’s gift of $1,500, less $420 for the first boy, less $440 for the little girl, leaves… exactly $640! At AMG, our staff smiles, because they are privileged to be in a place where they see God doing things like this all the time. We are so grateful to see how God uses AMG’s supporters to advance His kingdom. Please pray for Pierre Louis as he faithfully pursues his goal and for all the children under AMG’s care in Haiti. Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel (AMG) International is a nondenominational, international missions agency based in Chattanooga, Tenn. AMG’s distinctive has always been its reliance on national workers to carry the Gospel in their own cultures. Today, they operate ministries in over 40 countries around the world through partnership with national believers. ___________________________________ Book Review—11/14/2011 Gospel Wakefulness, Jared C. Wilson, 2011, Crossway, Wheaton, Ill., ISBN 9781433526367, 224 pages, $15.99, softcover. Through the pages of Gospel Wakefulness, Vermont pastor and blogger Jared C. Wilson asks the Church two fundamental (and nagging) questions: “Does anything capture your imagination, energy, and activity more so than the Gospel of Jesus Christ? If so, why?” The concept of Gospel-centrality is a growing movement in evangelical and reformed circles in recent years, and Wilson taps into this vein with an engaging description of just what it means to be apprehended by the message of salvation through grace alone by faith alone. To this discussion, Wilson adds the idea of “Gospel wakefulness”, which he defines as “treasuring Christ more greatly and savoring His power more sweetly.” What he means by this is not some sort of “second blessing” after salvation, but a growing realization by the Christian of the sheer magnitude of the forgiveness of sins and the glory of God. Within that framework, Wilson shares insights and stories (some his, some from friends and associates) of how the power of the Gospel fully realized impacts every aspect of a Christian’s life, from worship to good works to spiritual disciplines and spiritual growth. He shows how the Gospel message necessitates the destruction of our idols, changes how we view the people and things God places in our lives, and casts out fear. Wilson is particularly prescient in his discussion of Gospel-driven sanctification, reminding us that the work of Christ does not end with conversion and that our growth in holiness is not primarily our task but His. He writes at the end of his chapter on sanctification, “Don’t…pursue righteousness by pursuing righteousness, per se, but by pursuing Christ. Seek first His righteousness. It is the only way to get yours.” Wilson also offers a challenge to pastors to allow the Gospel to drive not just their personal lives but to lead their whole churches to a greater appreciation and application of the completed work of Christ. He argues passionately and persuasively that any other motivation for ministry will ultimately fail. This is not an “innovative” book— Wilson is not selling something new here. Rather, he urges readers to return to their first love and to find within the wondrous work of Christ the source of their life and strength. His witty style and compelling testimonies bring a personal touch that helps his message resonate with Christians of all stripes, particularly those of the younger generation. Justin Lonas Target: All Type: Christian Life Take: Recommended ___________________________________ News Update—11/14/2011 Sudan’s Islamist Regime Renewing Attacks on Refugees, South Armed forces of Sudan’s Islamist regime crossed international borders and dropped bombs on two states in the new nation of South Sudan for two consecutive days last week, including a camp of northern Sudanese refugees, according to the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD). Twelve people were killed and 20 injured in the attack on South Sudan’s Unity State’s Yida refugee camp, populated by both Muslims and Christians persecuted by Sudan’s regime, and seven were killed in the bombing of Upper Nile State. Attacks by the Islamist regime began in June, and South Sudan president Salva Kiir warns that Sudan may be preparing to invade South Sudan soon, possibly attempting to provoke South Sudan into restarting a war. The IRD’s Church Alliance for a New Sudan, along with dozens of other advocates, is working to strengthen U.S. policy to stop Khartoum’s genocidal war, in a new alliance called “Act for Sudan.” Religion Today Summaries U.S. Commission: Pakistani Schools Teaching Religious Intolerance The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a study showing that textbooks in Pakistani schools foster prejudice and intolerance of religious minorities and that most teachers view non-Muslims as “enemies of Islam,” the Washington Post reports. The study reviewed more than 100 textbooks from grades 1-10 in Pakistan’s four provinces, and researchers visited more than 50 schools and interviewed nearly 500 students. Researchers found systematic negative portrayals of religious minorities, specifically Hindus and Christians (which make up 1 and 2 percent, respectively, of the population), as “inferior or second-class citizens,” as well as instances of historic revisionism designed to denigrate nonMuslims and foster the sense that Pakistan’s Islamic identity was under threat. Leonard Leo, chairman of USCIRF, said: “Teaching discrimination increases the likelihood that violent religious extremism in Pakistan will continue to grow, weakening religious freedom, national and regional stability and global security.” Religion Today Summaries Police Detain, Beat Converts from Islam in India Police in India’s Kashmir Valley detained and beat seven converts from Islam and were expected to arrest Christian workers after Muslim leaders alleged that Muslim youth were being “lured” to Christianity, Compass Direct News reports. Police got the names of the converts, as well as the names of their pastors, from a video recording of their baptisms that was posted on YouTube, and, in addition to beating them, asked them if Christians had given them money for their conversion. One of the pastors, Chander Mani Khanna, has been summoned by the mufti, the head of the sharia (Islamic law) court, to appear in court next week, and the converts have all agreed to sign affidavits saying there was no duress or allurement to convert. Khanna said the Muslims had been coming to the church on their own initiative: “I can’t convert anyone; it’s the work of the Holy Spirit,” he said. India’s constitution provides for religious freedom, including the right to propagate and the right to change one’s religion. Christians have generally had good relations with the Muslims in the region, but recent tensions have been brewing as a result of thousands of young Muslims converting to Christianity. Religion Today Summaries Faith-Based Organization to Help Veterans, Families Cope with PTSD Base Camp Hope, a new nonprofit, Christ-centered organization in Minnesota, is being developed to help veterans and their families address the growing problem of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), ASSIST News Service reports. The organization, which will provide centers in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul and in St. Cloud, Minn., is currently in the process of fundraising and searching for two counseling directors, and it is being supported by several local groups. “Base Camp Hope will be a unique response to PTSD because we will integrate spiritual healing along with mental and physical therapies, plus we will be one of the few facilities that addresses the needs of the families of the traumatized veterans,” said founder and executive director Diane Kinney, who served in the U.S. Army in the 1970s. “I have seen too many veterans with PTSD whose needs are not being met.” The goal is to provide comprehensive treatment for PTSD and enable troubled veterans to readjust to home, Kinney said. The facilities will be open 24/7 and provide a safe place for any veteran or family member. Religion Today Summaries Police-Sponsored Gang Attacks Church in Central Vietnam A gang said to be following police orders attacked a Central Vietnam pastor’s family with iron bars and wooden clubs, seriously injuring some, Compass Direct News reports. On the same Sunday that local authorities disrupted pastor Thien An’s house church service, a gang of about 20 men attacked his family—who locked Pastor Thien away in a secure room because they believed the gang wanted to kill him—twice, at 1:00 p.m. and then again at 8:30 p.m. During both attacks, Pastor Thien called four levels of police and security officials for help, but his calls went unanswered; church members said “even a child” could figure out the connection between the public security police and the gang who attacked them. Police had visited his home the week before to “investigate” his house church, whose application for registration had been denied twice by authorities. Religion Today Summaries Faith is Number One Reason for Teens’ Abstinence A recent study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the most frequent reason teenagers give for abstaining from sex is that the behavior goes against their religion or morals, Baptist Press reports. Among the 57 percent of girls and 58 percent of boys ages 15-19 who said they had never had sex, 41 percent of girls and 31 percent of boys chose “against religion or morals” as their main reason for not being sexually active. The least-chosen option was “don’t want to get a sexually transmitted disease.” Researchers also found that the rate of teenagers having sex has declined slightly from the last report, which was released in 2002; however, the percent of sexually active teen females has decreased dramatically since 1988—down from 51 percent to 43 percent. Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, said the study showed the abstinence movement and message were “not only resonating, but also making a difference in the lives of youth.” Religion Today Summaries ___________________________________ Sermon Helps From SermonHall.com Sermon Outlines Lessons Learned From the Leper Luke 17: 15-19 Intro.: Why we should be thankful (cf. Ps. 100:1-5)? A. The Father devised salvation’s plan (Eph. 1-2). B. The Son enacted salvation. C. The Spirit applies salvation. I. The Love Behind Thanksgiving A. God’s creation (James 1:17-18). B. God’s creatures (1 Tim. 4:4). C. Our confusion (Rom. 8:22). D. Our call to faith (Rom. 8:28ff). 1. Paul’s thorn in the flesh. 2. Paul’s “light afflictions” (2 Cor. 4:7-18). 3. Paul’s summary of sufferings (2 Cor. 11:22-33). II. The Labor of Thanksgiving A. Thanksgiving is good, thanks living is better! B. Our labor of thanksgiving should include: 1. Immediate expression (v. 15). 2. Extemporaneous expression. 3. Humility. 4. Heartfelt sincerity. 5. Obedience. 6. Focus on God, not on our expression. III. The Lesson of Thanksgiving A. God gives greater blessings to those that are obedient to express gratitude. B. We should thank Him for all things. IV. Liberality of Thanksgiving A. Much giving of thanks. B. Much offering of praise. V. Lyrics of Thanksgiving A. Turn our thanksgiving into songs of praise. B. Thank God for His specific gifts. VI. Lasting Thanksgiving A. It’s not just one day a year. B. His praise is a constant blessing. Application: Do you praise God, or just tell Him what you want? Dan Hill Much Obliged, Lord! 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 Intro.: When Fulton Oursler was a young boy, he learned a lesson from an old lady who baby-sat him. Every time she ate, she bowed her head and said, “Much obliged, Lord.” The boy asked her, “Why? The food is already on the table, you get to eat whether you give thanks or not.” She said, “Sure, but everything tastes much better when we’re grateful.” Years later, as her pastor, Oursler ministered by that woman’s deathbed. He wondered to himself if in her pain she could still be grateful. She opened her eyes, looked around at her family and friends, and said softly, “Much obliged, Lord, for these fine folks” (from Proclaim, October/November/December, 1996, p.20). As Christians, what must we remember about thanksgiving? I. We Must Remember Thanksgiving Is an Attitude. A. An attitude is an action. B. Look at the verbs in this passage. II. We Must Remember Thanksgiving Is a Requirement A. It is commanded (verses 31, 34). B. It flows from God’s peace (Col. 3:15). III. We Must Remember Thanksgiving Is a Delight! A. Joy gives God glory (verse 10). B. Thanksgiving helps us be joyful (Jer. 33:10-11). Application: If at our church’s Thanksgiving dinner the ladies who prepared the food decided to take all the best home and only serve us the leftovers, how would we feel? But in many ways, isn’t that what we do with God? Don’t we set aside for ourselves what we covet and give God the leftovers? Remember that what we sow we reap. Sermon-Outline-a-Week Illustrations A Thanksgiving Prayer We thank Thee Lord, for all the good That we have had this year: For raiment, shelter and for food, For all the friends so dear. We praise Thee for thine Only Son Who died to set us free: We praise Thee for the victories And for the light we see. We thank Thee for Thy keeping power And for Thy saving grace; For blessing us each day and hour, With Thy sweet smiling face. We praise Thee for Thy blessed truth And for Thy Love divine, That leads us from our very youth Until our years decline. We thank Thee for Thy guiding hand. And for the way of life, That guides us safely through this land Of darkness and of strife. We praise Thee Lord for peace and rest That fills our very hearts; For blessing us with all the best That heaven can impart. We thank Thee for Thy precious Word. That feeds our hungry souls: We thank and praise Thee, blessed Lord, Who keeps us well and whole. Life Lines Why Only One Day for Thanksgiving? Charles Dickens once said that we are somewhat mixed up in America. He told an audience that instead of having one Thanksgiving Day each year we should have 364. “Use that one day just for complaining and griping,” he said. “Use the other 364 days to thank God each day for the many blessings He has showered upon you.” Anonymous Savor the Morsel Are you so blessed that small gifts are inconsequential to you? Well, it’s another fourth Thursday in November. How many does that make for you? Today if you asked the person on the street what one word comes to mind when Thanksgiving Day is mentioned, you would probably hear words like: football, turkey, sales, holiday, and fall. Like most holidays, the initial reason for the celebration has been brushed aside or totally forgotten. The problem is that most of us have more than we need. We have overlooked our need to be grateful for everything both great and small. Think of a time in your life when a single letter or gift was very precious to you. Can you remember a happier, lesswell-off time in your life when a single morsel of food seemed like an entire smorgasbord? A n ancient prophet asked the question: “Who despises the day of small things?” (Zech. 4:10). If the answer is “you,” apply this inspiration from your gracious Creator: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18). Pray this Thanksgiving Day for a continuous and all-encompassing thankful spirit. Remember: No blessing is too small not to merit a big thanks to God. Via Reflections Bulletin Inserts On Thankfulness The greatest possession for which to be thankful is a thankful heart. True thanksgiving is a cultivated habit rather than a yearly ritual. No one really gives thanks unless he is willing to give more thanks. If you will learn to appreciate the good things you have, you won’t miss the good things you don’t have. A thankful heart doubles our blessings, causing us to enjoy them twice—when we receive them and when we remember them. Giving thanks means little unless you are living thanks. If we pause to think, we’ll have cause to thank. Gratitude takes three forms: a feeling in the heart, an expression in words, and giving in return. These eight via the Old Union Reminder Critical words that come from the mouth originate in an unthankful heart. Those that blame God for the bad times are likely to be those who do not thank Him for the good times. These two from Wayne Nix ___________________________________ Puzzles and ‘Toons Church ’Toons by Joe McKeever Father Abraham and Hidden Wisdom By Mark Oshman Originally published in Pulpit Helps, September 1994 Hidden Wisdom on next page Answers to last issue’s puzzles: