THE CHRISTIAN'S PERMANENT HOME

When and where we happened to be born, our parents, our material wealth or lack of it all make a difference where we live for our short stay here on earth. But no matter how long we may live, it's brevity is emphasized in scripture as being like a mist passes away, or grass that withers and is burned. In reality, it is simply a time granted to us a time to prepare for the reality of the endless time ahead. We have been given this time to prepare, not with material things, but Spiritually. I think of it as being something like the accomodation we used to use for our attendance at the African conferences. When the children were small, and where they were available, we sometimes hired small rondavel homes similar to those built by by our African brothers. They consisted of a round wall enclosing a twelve foot circular room, and with a thatch, metal, or asbestos roof. The floor was concrete, and the only furniture consisted of one or two narrow cots. Clearly, they were meant to be very temporary and we used them only as a sleeping shelter even those days. What did it matter, as they were shelter for a few days. Thus it is that life here on earth, can not be compared to life without end, eternity, without illness of any sort, in perfect surroundings. This life on earth has no real significance.

Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." He who created all the universe and everything in it, said: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." John 14:1-7. What is important is that we make ready by accepting Jesus at his word, and obeying him in repentance, baptism and a devoted life. He left several parables to emphasize that fact. The chief one being the parable of the foolish and wise bridesmaids as they waited for the groom to come for his bride and the wedding to begin. The wise prepared with extra oil for their lamps, and the foolish took only the oil that was in their tiny lamps. Their lamps ran dry as they waited, and they had to go to search for more oil, thus they found themselves locked out of the wedding which had already started before they returned. Have you made the proper preparations, or have you left that for the last minute? None of us can be certain when our groom, Christ, will come for his bride, the church. If we are not ready, the "mansions" of heaven will not be for us, only the weeping and gnashing of teeth of those who, not being dressed in the wedding garments provided by the host, are escorted out to the place prepared for Satan and his demonic angels. There they will share with them the only other place. We are told that man can not really comprehend, nor words describe what lies in store, but the last two chapters in the Bible, make an attempt. Read Revelation 21, and 22. You don't want to miss this!

YOUR PUPPY''S LOVE SHOWS YOU HOW:

TO SHOW UNLIMITED DEVOTION

“And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (KJV, translates love as “charity”} 1 Corinthians 13:13.

My last dog, as a child, was Ted. Ted was of somewhat dubious background. The SPCA would probably have called him a Rotweiler. We just called him a “German police dog.” He had the proper markings and somewhat the build of a Rotweiler. Ted was devoted to our family. When my father was away, which was often, he slept by our kitchen door. Even a violent thunder and rainstorm would not induce him to come inside, but neither would he abandon his place as protector, however he only need to hear dad’s car coming, and he would vanish, perhaps for days at a time. Because he liked us, he would frequently come and sit in front of us, extending his right paw to “shake hands.” After my father left permanently, we could no longer afford to keep him so we found a new home on a farm for him. Unfortunately he preferred us and kept returning to us until we had to physically drive him away. After that he totally ignored us. We had broken his heart, not to speak of our own in the process.

Years later in Africa, we were given a lovely Pekingese female. Peaches really loved to be the center of attention and had the adorable habit of sitting up and “praying” with her two front paws together and giving a single yip.

Our final dog was another Pekingese, a male who followed Phyllis about everywhere he could go. He was blind and crippled with arthritis by that time and seldom ventured anywhere he did not hear her moving about. It broke our hearts to leave him behind, but we left instructions that he should be put down by the SPCA as he would certainly mourn our departure.

We can learn a lesson from our pets. Each of these, showed its love in a different way, but if we love our Lord, we will find a way to show it. We will let Him know through our prayers and genuine devotion as both Ted and Peaches did. Let us have an attitude of prayer, conversing frequently with our Lord. Scripture says “pray without ceasing.” God walked in the cool of the evening in the garden with Adam and Eve. He misses that closeness, and so should we. We need it. We need to listen for the footsteps of Christ, and follow closely. If we don’t follow closely, we will break his heart, to our own eternal loss. Ted treated us as strangers. He could not understand that we simply could not keep him as before.

ACCORDING TO THE DIVINE PATTERN

It is strange how we can read the same scriptures time and time again, but suddenly, a new thought will occur that we had never thought before. I knew that the ark, the tabernacle, and the temple, were designed to show us many things about our Lord's church which would come under a totally new covenant.

When Noah was told how to build the ark, God was very clear that it was to be built according to his pattern in measurements and materials. Noah had never seen such a strange thing, and this must have brought much ridicule upon him. Still he did exactly as God told him, though it took him a hundred years to complete the task and to call upon mankind to repent and come into the ark.

Again when Moses oversaw the construction of the tabernacle, he followed in every detail, how it was to be built, and the materials to use, right down to the greatest detail.

Solomon's temple, eventually replaced the temporary tabernacle. It was a permanent building, built to last, but every detail in its construction was given by God. And the plan was followed.

Looking, back, we see that had Noah not followed every detail, the human race, along with all animal life would have been totally obliterated from the earth. We would not be here. God knew what would be needed, and he designed the perfect plan for Noah to use. The purpose of the ark was to save mankind.

The tabernacle was to be a foreshadowing, a picture, and a divine plan for the church. It too, would be for the salvation of all mankind. It too, would be rejected by most people, but that does not change the perfection of the plan.

Both the ark, and the tabernacle, came to be, because of God's great love. God loves those who are faithful to him, and Noah was faithful. If he was not a man of great trust and faith, he would have given up long before the hundred years of preaching, without even one convert, and the hard labor to build something so strange in the eyes of those all about him. Everyone thought it strange when a man built an ocean going yacht in his backyard in Johannesburg, some four hundred miles from the ocean. In the end, he had to have it moved by a huge "eighteen wheeler" If I recall right, it was damaged in transit. That seemed strange, but Noah was building the equivalent of a passenger liner, many miles from water. Both cases were a test of faith, and both men passed with flying colors.

I was reading Hebrews, chapter nine the familiar description of the tabernacle. "For there was a tabernacle made: the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid roundabout with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded. And the tables of the covenant; and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly." Thus is described the basic layout of the tabernacle, omitting the huge laver, and the altar outside, as well as the incense altar next to the curtain which separated the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The full details are given in the original instructions found in Exodus 25 and chapters following.

I knew the symbolic significance of the burnt altar, representing the final blood sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the laver, representing the cleansing of the priests before they entered the holy place to care for the showbread, the candlestick and the prayers at the altar of incense. I recalled the significance of the diving curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies which contained the ark, containing the Law of Moses. These things are basic, but what are they a picture of, and who is involved in each area?

The altar outside represents the death of Christ for all mankind. Some will accept, and some will reject. The giant laver represents baptism when we "put on Christ", and become a part of his body, the church, The Holy Place represents the church. Only the priests could enter the Holy Place. But now, Scripture speaks of Christians as being saints, and a Holy priesthood. They have direct access to God in prayer as they did in the tabernacle. They partake of the bread and the wine of the communion, and they are enlightened by the receiving of the word. In the tabernacle only the high priest ever entered the Holy of Holies, representing heaven, the dwelling place of God Himself. Even he was only able to do so once a year, but here is the thought that I realized. The veil was torn by God at the crucifixion of Christ, and Christ precedes us into the very presence of his Father God. We have access as far as the altar of prayer, and we can converse with the Lord there, but we can also see and know what lies ahead, for that is revealed in the last chapter of the book of Revelation. "Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God, But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:" Hebrews 9:2-7.

There are certain things that we dare not change. Cultures differ, different personalities will express themselves differently, but these are of God who is the same yesterday, today and forever. They must never change.

THE WORD:

THE SWORD OF LIFE

The book of Hebrews contains a wealth of information to guide us in our Spiritual growth. I am choosing one of its most difficult passages for today's consideration, so please do not expect a scholarly presentation. One can get in over his depth so easily with this text, but that is not the message I want to show here. I recall a friend and colleague who did just that. He realized in the middle of his sermon that he was over his depth.

As you may know, I do a weekly newsletter entitled "Searching the Scriptures with Bob." That is also the overall title of one of my blog sites where this is also available. A portion of the sidebar of that each week is a daily reading guide for that week which will result in your reading the Bible through in one year's time. However, reading the Bible, unless you also make it a part of your life, guiding your activities every day, is not going to help you all that much. Satan is far more knowledgeable of the content of scripture than any of us are likely ever going to be. He is a master of quoting it out of context, twisting it, and misapplying it. Your only answer is to make it a part of your daily life so that you know the context, the meaning, and can use it against falsehood. You won't be able to do that unless you read it. You can use a different version every year.

"The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12.

The sword was the basic weapon of warfare of that era of history, and continued to be so for many years. It continued to be so right up to fairly recent history. It was, and is, a weapon of destruction; mostly used against a single person at a time. His emphasis is on how quick, how powerful, and how devastating it is; how thorough it is. He speaks of the joints, and the marrow. That thought takes my memory back to my childhood, when I watched my mother take a live chicken nearly every Sunday, and methodically reduce it to a stack of severed parts separating the wing and leg joints. At one time, years later, I did the same with domestic rabbits. You learn where and how to cut it up through doing it. And you expect to make mistakes while you are learning. With the chicken, pity the person who breaks the wish bone in preparing it for the cook. My mistake with the rabbit was that I prepared one for a friend and returned it to him much too soon. I should have placed it in the refrigerator for a while first. It still twitched as the muscles cooled down.

Thus it is with the word. It is capable of helping us in many ways, but we have to read it, understand it, and make use of it. Practice doesn't make perfect, but it certainly helps, thus, as I am coming to the end of the year, I have every intention of repeating the Bible reading guide of my newsletter again next year.

The word is a discerner of "the thoughts and intents of the heart." If you know the word, you will know where a false teacher is headed even before he gets there, and what his intentions are even before he reveals them, or even if he never tells you. You will recognize that he is dropping a word or changing a word here and there or perhaps changing the punctuation. A false teacher will often say Jesus Christ is a prophet or even a god, but scripture says he is God, John 1:1. Not a god, but God. Not only that, but he was "in the beginning with God." And all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." There, you have the answer to the origin of the whle universe. I read in my computer headlines this week of the explosion of the Comet Holmes. As the wise men of the East read the heavens and followed the star to Bethlehem to find the new born king, let us note this new and growing light of the heavens and remember that this is one of the signs that he shall return soon.

THE SWORD OF LIFE

THE WORD; THE SWORD OF LIFE

The book of Hebrews contains a wealth of information to guide us in our Spiritual growth. I am choosing one of it's most difficult passages for today's consideration, so please do not expect a scholarly presentation. One can get in over his depth so easily with this text, but that is not my purpose here. I recall a friend and colleague who did just that. He realized in the middle of his sermon that he was over his depth.

As you may know, I do a weekly newsletter entitled "Searching the Scriptures with Bob." That is also the overall title of one of my blog sites where this is also available. A portion of the sidebar of that each week is a daily reading guide for that week which will result in your reading the Bible through in a year's time. However, reading the Bible, unless you also make it a part of your life, guiding your activities every day, is not going to help you all that much. Satan is far more knowledgeable of the content of scripture than any of us will ever be. He is a master of quoting it out of context, twisting it, and misapplying it. Your only answer is to make it a part of your daily life so that you know the context, the meaning, and can use it, truth against falsehood. You won't be able to do that unless you read it. You can use a different version every year.

"The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

The sword was the basic weapon of warfare of that era of history, and continued to be so for many years. It continued to be so right up to fairly recent history. It was, and is, a weapon of destruction; mostly used against a single person at a time. His emphasis is on how quick, how powerful, and how devastating it is; how thorough it is. He speaks of the joints, and the marrow. My memory goes back to my childhood, when I watched my mother prepare a chicken for our Sunday meal nearly every week. She methodically reduced it to a stack of severed parts separating the wing and leg joints. At one time, years later, I prepared domestic rabbits for cooking in the same way. You learn where and how to cut it up through doing it. And you expect to make mistakes while you are learning. With the chicken, pity the person who broke the "wish bone" in preparing it for the cook. My mistake with the rabbit was that I prepared one for a friend and returned it to him too soon. It still twitched as the muscles cooled down. I should have placed it in the refrigerator for a while first.

Thus it is with the word. It is capable of helping us in many ways, but we have to read it, understand it, and make use of it. Practice doesn't always make perfect, but it certainly helps, thus, as I am coming to the end of the year, I have every intention of repeating the Bible reading guide of my newsletter every year.

The word is a discerner of "the thoughts and intents of the heart." If you know the word, you will know where a false teacher is headed even before he says it, and what his intentions are even before he reveals them, or even if he never tells you. You will recognize that he is dropping a word or changing a word here or there. A false teacher will often say Jesus Christ is a prophet or even a god, but scripture says he is God, John 1:1. Not a god, but God. Not only that, but he was "in the beginning with God." And all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." There, you have the answer to the origin of the universe. I read in mycomputer headlines this week of the explosion of the Comet Holmes. As the wise men of the East read the heavens and followed the star to Bethlehem to find the new born king, let us note this new and growing light of the heavens and remember that this is one of the signs that he shall return soon.


. .

MARCHING ORDERS

"PREACH THE WORD"

Paul, in writing to his frequent associate and fellow worker, gave what could be called his last marching orders. These were appropriate not only for Timothy, but for all of us. We are fighting the same battle against Satan. Our task is the same, no matter how intense the battle should become. God told Noah to preach a message of repentance for a hundred years to all who would listen, while he was building the ark. God knew that the only ones who would believe would be Noah’s own family, but he gave the opportunity to all. The earth was to be destroyed by the flood then. Today we are living in days when “they shall not endure sound doctrine”, and we face the final destruction of the earth, not by gradual warming and melting of the ice caps, but by fire. I recall the statement of a Charismatic Pentecostal evangelist, several years ago, who said “I don’t preach doctrine.” This year’s horrific wild fires in California should open our eyes of that event to come, certainly they are a graphic warning, yet I have not heard one word mentioning that fact. As Jesus said to the apostles, “teaching them all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” Matthew 28:20, so we must also do. Jesus said, “teach them,” and to Paul “preach the word.” It is the same command passed on to every new generation.”

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:1-8.

The quick, the dead, and his Kingdom. Notice that he separates those of his kingdom, from those who are living, and not living at the time of his coming to judge. Why is it that those of his kingdom are separated from the others? Is it not perhaps because they have been caught up to meet him in the air? These are the ones who have heeded the charge and have been preaching the word. In John 1:1 we have noted that the “Word” was with God and the Word was God and the Word had a part in the creation of all things. The word was Christ. We are to be preaching Christ and what he has taught us. Whether people believe it or not is not the question. In fact, we know that most will reject it, but that is not our basis for preaching, just as it was not with Noah. We are told that they will not endure sound doctrine, and will prefer little stories instead. Paul calls them fables. A fable can be an illustration but not the content of thr whole message as is sometimes heard.

Not everyone is going to like the evangelist, especially if he is the bearer of bad news. Read the prophets of the Old Testament days. Sometimes the kings they were told to carry a message to, were violent in their rejection. One had his scroll cut into pieces and thrown into the fire as it was read, Jeremiah was thrown into an abandoned cistern, Elijah fled for his life from Jezebel. I, myself, was cautious as I collected my mail at my post office box after I received a threatening letter in response to tracts I had distributed in the Oriental Plaza of Johannesburg. The box could have been watched. Christians can “endure afflictions” in any period of history.

Paul was able to say of himself, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Are we able to say the same? If we are, we are also able to say with confidence, “there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Let us look forward to that day with confidence.