The Encourager Newsletter - Vol.4 Issue 4 - March 5, 2010 - The Bible Says Global Warming IS Coming - The Real Thing

The Bible Says Global Warming IS Coming! Part I

(Because of the amount of scriptures used there was not room to print all the verses. The references are hyperlinked so computers and blogspot can access the verse texts. If you are reading a paper copy and you want a computer copy, go to www.encourager@biblewalking.com. In the subject line type subscribe. Please include your name.

We are hearing a lot about global warming. Truth is, the earth is always warming or cooling. The real mean (average) temperature of the earth has never been compiled. The current warming is in the northern hemisphere so it is not global. After studying this for three years I have concluded that if we will send our wallets and our freedoms to the politicians of the world they will "fix" a problem that does not exist. Over 17,000 scientists now disagree with the claims. See http://www.petitionproject.org/ But there is an awesome global warming coming.

The encouragement in this article is for you to be ready to leave this world in the twinkling of an eye and to encourage you to miss what is coming here on this earth. We are living in the very end of the end-time period leading up to the seven years of God's judgment of the earth called The Great Tribulation. The church of true believers making up the body of Christ will soon be called out of the world (1Corinthians 15:51-52; 1Thessalonians 4:14-18). Then the bad news. To get this message today, you will need to sit down with your Bible and work some. Look up the passages in your Bible.

In Revelation 16:8-12 as the fourth, fifth and sixth angels pour out their vials (bowls) there will come forth an enormous amount of heat. It will be a global warming that has never been on the earth before. The destruction from that heat will be awesome! But even this burning is not the ultimate heat that will one day envelope the earth. This short article can only present a highlight of that time with some background and references for those who want to study further. Jesus predicted signs in the sun (Luke 21:25).

Three vials/bowls have already been poured out (Rev.16:2-4): The first one brings about a noisome and grievous sore upon those who had willingly taken the mark of the Beast. It parallels the scene of God's judgments upon Egypt through Moses (Exodus 9:8-12) (Ex.10:21-22) See also: (Deuteronomy 28:15) (Deut. 28:27)(Deut. 28:35). All these things were not carried out against Israel at one time. The northern ten tribes were invaded and carried off by the Assyrians. After many years the remaining two tribes of Judah were carried off by Babylon. The final scattering was carried out by the Romans in A.D. 70 and the effect remains to this day. To imagine that the God of Heaven is a figment of the imagination is a big mistake. The 2^nd and 3^rd vials/bowls transform the earth's oceans and then the rivers into blood. Over half of the world's population will die during the seven-year tribulation period (Rev. 6:8) (Rev. 9:18).

God is going to judge the world (Acts 17:30-31). Late night TV comedians will have no standing to stay God's hand. No political party will be able to delay His destructive power. The churches that have made peace with the devil and denied the Bible will be the first to taste God's displeasure (1Peter 4:17). Isaiah warned about this day in referring to it briefly: (Isaiah 24:4-6). He talked about the sun shining sevenfold (Isaiah 30:26).

God has been warning the human race about this for many centuries. God is love and more than love. He is a God of truth and love and mercy and justice. Eventually His mercy was exhausted and then came Noah's flood (Gen.6:13), the confusion of languages and scattering of the human race (Gen.11:1-9), the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.19:24-25), and the destruction of Jerusalem after Jesus' final warning that they were left desolate (Luke 13:34-35). God gave them another 40 years of grace after Jesus' crucifixion. Titus the Roman general came and leveled the city during Jewish Passover resulting in the slaughter of a million Jews trapped in the city. The Arch of Titus in Rome commemorates this event.

God promised not to destroy the earth again with water (Gen.9:13-17). The next world-wide destruction will be by fire (2Peter 3:10). There is a primary and secondary fulfillment of that promise. This is the case with many prophecies. The first is (Revelation 16:8-12). The final is (2Peter 3:10-13).

Peter warned of the day of ultimate destruction of the earth by fire. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. (7) But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men (2Peter 3:6-7).

Malachi warned of a future day of fire. For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:1).

Henry Morris writes this comment in his study Bible concerning Rev. 16:8-12: "The heat will aggravate their sores even more. The temperatures will likely melt the polar ice caps, causing a rapid rise in sea level which will inundate and destroy most of the great and wicked cities of the world, situated as they are almost at sea level.

The MacArthur, Jr. Study Bible comments on Rev. 16:8-12): With no fresh water to drink, earth's inhabitants will face extreme heat. The scorching heat will melt the polar ice caps,… inundating many of the world's major cities and producing further catatrophic loss of life. The resulting disruption of ocean transportation will make it difficult to distribute the dwindling resources of food and water. Amos 9:5-6 uses wording that may relate to this. Ω

The Real Thing—Barbara Carr

In 1969 Coca Cola changed its advertising slogan to: "It's the Real Thing." The upbeat musical ads saturated TV and radio audiences at a cost of millions of dollars. The public loved it! Underneath, people love the idea of real things.

Last summer I attended a Women's Conference in Chattanooga with a group of women from our church. Their theme was "Be Still—Get Real Makeover." Since then I have thought more about what "get real" means. One dictionary says: Genuine and original not artificial or synthetic.

Does "get real" include your dreams and imaginations? For reasons known only to God, He made us with a capacity to dream and imagine. In other words, a "not--real" world. It turns out to be a wonderful place to incubate and create ideas—powerful ideas. But it's a world removed from reality and can be used for good or for evil. God-given imagination gave us the electric light bulb and most of the inventions we use every day. But it has also given us war and tragedy.

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (6) And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Genesis 6:5-6)

Do you have a problem separating your dream/imagination world from your world of reality? We may dream or imagine just how we want something to be and when it doesn't turn out that way we are disappointed. God has a plan for each of our lives; a plan that the majority of us do not follow. We pray about our dream/plan, but do we wait for God's answer? If God doesn't show us a sign, we may decide our plan must be God's plan and do our own thing.

Georgia, my sister, has a new job as Post Master at Stevenson, AL. She now has to cross the Tennessee River and drive up and down the mountain regardless of the weather. Already this year a sudden snow storm covered the side of the mountain and she had to hitch a ride home with the Highway Patrol and leave her car crossways on the icy mountain road. She didn't think I wanted her to get the job. Never mind that I drove up and down that same mountain for twenty-two years. I told her I would pray for the Lord's will to be done. I couldn't help but smile when I heard she had the job. I guess I just kept thinking that my will would be God's will. He answers prayer according to His plan. I had to get real.

At the Women's Conference I mentioned, the word "Real" was used as an acronym:

R - Resist the temptation to be something you are not. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7) Submit means to yield, to accept someone else's authority. We are not going to be able to resist the devil in our own strength. There are evil influences all around us tempting us on every hand. God supplies His grace in our time of need and His strength is our mainstay.

E – Expect the process to be a difficult one. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. (Isaiah 43:2)

This promise was given to Israel when God delivered them in the past, but it is also a great spiritual promise to all of God's children in all times. Have you ever thought you were in way over your head? That you couldn't touch bottom? In this verse we have the assurance that God will go through any experience with us. He is always with us.

A – Allow God to use your present situation to mold you into the person He wants you to be. "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." (James 3:17)

L – Lay and leave your burden/problem at His feet. "The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalm 34:18)

If we are willing to be humble before the Lord; if we are willing to come as a sinner and trust Him, the Lord will be near us. Sometimes we ladies feel like we need a new makeover—we have a bad hair day, etc. I think the Lord wants us to do the best with everything He has given us and that includes our physical appearance. BUT, the makeover we are in need of is God's molding us into the person He desires. "Get Real!" Let's not make ourselves believe, as we struggle along in life, that changes are not needed. As the song says, "He's still working on me."

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth (Psalm 46:10). He tells us to be calm. We are living in a wicked world with many changes taking place. God is still in control and He is our rock in time of trouble. Ω

The Encourager Newsletter - Vol.4 Issue 3 - February 26, 2010 - Punchin' Up the Fire! - Train Trips

Punchin’ Up the Fire!

Our Medlock Hollow house was built before the Civil War and had bullet holes in the ceiling of the dining room. (If you’ve heard these stories 30 times, please be patient—some have not.) A small detachment of men stormed into the house looking for enemy soldiers and rather than stick their heads up through the attic manhole (a dangerous thing, indeed!), they just shot through the ceiling a few times and left. They had done their duty. My great grandfather built the house and lived there but he was hiding out in the field inside a big hollow shock of corn. But that’s not what this story is about.

The most expensive part of the house was a fine stone chimney and fireplace built at the end of the dining room; not field stones but quarried limestone. I have a piece of the stone at the corner of our house in a flower bed. I was born in that house and lived there for eight years but never saw anyone build a fire in the fireplace. I suppose the cracks between the stones made it dangerous after a hundred years.

My mother was a whiz at building a fire in the kitchen stove every morning at 4:00 o’clock (M-F), using dry wood kindling. I never heard her complain about it. The kitchen fire was always allowed to burn out at night and was seldom punched up. Daytime, just add split chestnut wood to the firebox and regulate the air draft to control the heat. On the right side was a water tank that provided hot water for washing dishes, and the oven made the best biscuits, cornbread, and fruit cobblers.

The living room and the one bedroom were heated with a JUNO cast iron coal heater. It could run you out of the house. My mother had swapped a mother hen and a dozen little biddies for the stove stored in a wood shed. The iron bowl that contained the coal fire had been overheated and cracked. She found another bowl and we were toasty warm. Coal is much hotter than wood and burns less fuel. We lived in the edge of the Wilder coal mines and bought a load of coal at $6.00 a ton. That’s a lot of heat but was then a lot of money.

At bedtime my mother (my father was usually away running a sawmill) would build up a pretty good fire, and then shovel coal on top of it and pat it down with a poker (iron rod). The whole thing was then covered with ashes and the fire was “banked.” The fire slowly simmered all night burning only the coal that touched the red coals. In the morning, the poker stirred up the whole thing and flames immediately shot up and crackled. The door was closed and it began to roar. The air vents had to be quickly reduced to prevent overheating. In a few minutes the room was toasty warm.

But one morning my mother was sick in bed in the corner of the room. My father was a better sawmill man than anything else. He stirred the banked coals and nothing happened. He dashed a little kerosene through the stove door and nothing happened except a grey mist came up. He closed the door and went to get some wood kindling. Suddenly the grey mist exploded and blew the door open. The flame went out about ten feet and over the foot of the bed where my mother was lying but nothing was set on fire. If she had been sitting up, it would have been bad. The stove fire was now burning and my subdued father knew a lot more about punchin’ up a coal fire.

My grandfather had only a fireplace - like the one we never used in our dining room. He was an expert at building and maintaining fire in the fireplace. The kitchen stove was woman’s work, but the fireplace was man’s work. He usually banked the wood fire in the fireplace at night by getting a fire going and then covering it with ashes. In the morning he raked off the ashes, stirred the coals and lay on fresh dry wood. In the back was a Sweet gum or Black gum log. The back stick would be covered with red smoldering coals like a red skin on the log. It slowly burned all week and set fire to the new smaller pieces of wood. It was about gone and was replaced every Saturday morning at which time the ashes were shoveled out, the hearth swept, and the whole weekly process began all over again. Two adult-size beds were in the living room. If they had company, they opened the back bedroom and warmed it from the fireplace. Even at zero temperature the sleepers kept warm only by the covers and their own body heat. They saved every scrap of cloth for making quilts.

One particular act my grandfather performed always fascinated me. If the wood was not quite dry enough for rapid burning, the fire became lazy and the heat would die down. At that time, the solution was not to add more wood, but to “chunk up” the fire with the poker. He would insert the poker into the sticks and turn them over and punch them, pushing them together, or whatever seemed to be needed. Showers of sparks would fly up the chimney like the fourth of July. It was not as simple as it looked. It was done vigorously like he was attacking it. Almost always it brought results. New flames would pour out of the same lazy, dull fire and the heat was immediate to the people sitting before the fire. Wood needs to dry without being rained on for ten months and then some newer wood can be added to keep it from burning too hot and burning up all the dry wood.

One other thing fascinates me to this day. In burning wood, it’s almost impossible to maintain a fire unless there are at least two pieces of wood. It’s that way in anybody’s stove in any nation of the world. If one of the sticks is smaller and burns out, the remaining stick will begin to go out or go into a smoldering state and produce mostly smoke or go out completely. I think it’s that way among Christians and is the reason God made us to function in families and for Christians to gather together in church services to be fed and to fellowship together. Please consider these four verses.

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25) (See also Hebrews 3:12-13)

Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. (2Peter 1:13-14)

I’ve had people tell me many times: “I can worship God out in the woods or while I’m fishing.” God plainly told us to meet together as Christians because we need one another. That’s God’s idea, not Dan’s idea. People who talk like that have surely never tried to burn just one stick of wood. Our personal fire needs punchin’ up pretty often. Ω

Train Trips—Barbara Carr

Paul described the ideal senior widow to young pastor, Timothy. One does not necessarily become more saintly simply because of age, but it’s refreshing to find older people who have not soured on life from hard times. This verse is worth close study. There are people like this who follow hard after Jesus until their last breath.

“Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.” (1Timothy 5:10)

I grew up with a woman like that verse. Mama was not a perfect woman, but I believe she tried her best to rear Georgia and me to know and love the Lord. The pastors and evangelists were always welcome in her home. No foot washing, but she cooked delicious meals and they stayed overnight and sometimes for a week. She helped the neighbors in need of food or caring for their sick loved ones. She studied her Bible and prayed. She loved to discuss the Scriptures and did so until the Lord took her home. One of my most treasured memories I have of her was when she was about 27 years old.

When we moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee, we moved from a city with electricity, indoor plumbing and the convenience of city buses to Sand Mountain, Alabama and all the things it didn’t have. That was about 1942. Mama went from being able to run a block to a small grocery store to making a list of her needs for Daddy to get at Grandpa Goforth’s grocery store two miles away. Don’t forget we didn’t have a car. We went from an indoor plumbing to a #3 washtub and an outhouse. We went from electric lights to kerosene lamps. If either Mama or Daddy ever regretted that move, I never heard about it. They were happy to get home. They were thoroughbred mountaineers.

I think Mama did miss visiting her brother’s family and shopping downtown, because she made a plan for a trip to Chattanooga. We rode the train. A passenger train passed through Stevenson, Alabama several times a day. From where we lived Stevenson it was down the mountain by way of a gravel road and hair-pin curves, and then across the river by ferryboat.

Daddy had found a job driving a lumber truck which his employer let him drive home at night. Grandpa Goforth’s brother, Ben Goforth carried the mail from Stevenson to our Post Office at Fabius, Alabma which was about three miles from our house. Now, this was Mama’s plan. We would ride with Daddy out to the Post Office; there we would hitch a ride with Uncle Ben to Stevenson and once there, we would catch the train to Chattanooga.

Can you imagine the excitement of a little girl five years old getting in on this plan to ride a train? I must have been jumping up and down and talking and asking questions constantly. We did it!!

The train had a steam engine that belched great, noisy puffs of smoke and steam. Mama got our tickets and we boarded the train. A porter helped me up the steps and then offered his hand to Mama as she stepped up. We soon found a seat and we were off! Most of the other passengers were soldiers either returning home from the war (this was about 1943) or on their way back to the war after a furlough. They were all glad to see me, their having just left their families or heading home to their own little girls. Believe it or not, at first I was a little shy of all this attention, but I quickly got over it and talked to them.

We arrived at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, a big showy, classy station—it’s still a big showy, classy station today even when the trains are absent and no longer thronged by pressing crowds of people coming and going. There’s a nice restaurant there now and people can stay overnight in one of the Pullman cars parked in the station. But then, it looked really big to me. Mama didn’t seem to have a problem with it. We walked outside to a corner and caught a bus a few blocks to downtown.

Mama loved to window shop, so we walked up and down the streets and looked in all the windows. At that time downtown Chattanooga had department stores and shops of dresses and shoes. It was wonderful! Miller Brothers department store had a bargain basement, so we went there and bought a few things. Eating lunch at Woolworth’s lunch counter inside their five-and-dime store was a very special treat!

Then we caught a bus over to Mrs. Blanton’s house. She was mother-in-law to Uncle Johnny (mother’s brother). I guess Mama had written her that we were coming. Uncle Johnny and Aunt Mattie lived next door, but they were at work. Mrs. Blanton made us feel right at home and we had a great time. We spent the night at Mrs. Blanton’s house.

The next morning we reversed the whole wonderful process and arrived safely back on Sand Mountain. If we had stayed in Chattanooga—if we had not moved to Sand Mountain, I would have missed this great adventure. This is one of my wonderful, wonderful memories of Mama. She was in charge that day, took care of everything. Afterward, we made this trip many times and always had a great time. I miss her so, but it won’t be long until I see her again. Ω

The Encourager Newsletter - Vol.4 Issue 2 - February 12, 2010 - A Lot of Love Goin' On - Matters of the Heart

A Lot of Love Goin’ On

Everybody's talkin’ about love. Anybody know what love is? Is love a warm fuzzy feeling? Long ago somebody said that love is when we get shot with an arrow from Cupid’s magical bow. Young people (and some older) ask me: “How do you know when you’re in love?” Short of a lightning strike, what is it? What is love?

The Greeks discussed love 2,500 years ago in the Koine Greek (ancient form of Greek spoken by the common people) and some of their love words found their way into the New Testament and modern America. There’s phileo, to be friendly, the base word for Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love. That’s a very important kind of love. It makes one civil and cooperative and makes civilization work and projects to get done.

Then there’s eros, a love dominated by sexual passion. This was God’s idea and it belongs in marriage between a man and woman who have vowed to be loyal to each other until death. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. (Hebrews 13:4)

Eros love is portrayed by Hollywood as acceptable, impromptu entertainment. But this is the scarlet sin that messes up the minds and lives of so many people; the sin that produces poverty, disease, death, and empty, unhappy people especially the resulting children. Millions of unwanted babies are then murdered or displaced and deprived. It was not God’s will that eros love should result in untold suffering and deprivation.

A third Greek word is agape which is the unselfish love coming from the Spirit of God. … the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5) Most people know nothing about agape love and how many who know about it actually allow God to love through them? This is the kind of love that makes a little cottage with cotton curtains to be a piece of heaven.

Remember this verse? Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. (Proverbs 15:17) God knows lot about what will make a happy home. The dogs and the neighbors will notice it. The children are the first to notice it.

A young man was accused of treason and was to be executed the next day upon the ringing of the bell in the church tower. The accused was led by the soldiers to the place of execution and waited for the bell to ring. The bell ringer went to his post to ring the huge bell. They waited…and waited….and waited. What they did not know was that the church custodian in charge of ringing the bell was deaf from many years of service.

The young bride had followed the bell ringer up the ladder. Quickly she reached up and then leaped as high as she could to grab hold of the clapper, pulling herself up inside the bell. As the bell ringer pulled hard on the big rope, the bell swung up to beat against the clapper. Instead, the bell housing struck against her body. But she padded the clapper and prevented the bell housing from striking it. Back and forth the bell turned and beat against the body of this valiant, determined woman.

At last the bell ringer stopped, tied the rope to its anchor and went down the ladder. The soldiers and their commander were waiting and watched the bell ringer come out of the building. A detail of the soldiers hastened into the church, up the ladder into the tower. There on the floor lay the motionless, bloody body of the bride-to-be. She appeared to be dead.

Then she moved slightly. The soldiers carried her to their commander. Her dress was red with blood and she was barely breathing. The Captain was summoned and looking upon the scene was so moved by the love of this brave, young woman that he gave the order to cut the prisoner down and to let him go. The bride-to-be would live but would be long in recovering and the several broken bones might not grow back straight. This is love. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) Ω

Matters of the Heart—Barbara Carr

Valentine’s Day! A day to remind those we love how much we really love them. We send cards, flowers, candy, have a special dinner or do all three. We all enjoy this attention and show of affection. These things are jut to remind our loved ones that we do love them. A good Bible chapter for us to read on real love is Corinthians 13. This is known affectionately the world-over as the great love chapter, where love is defined and encouraged.

The universal symbol for Valentine’s Day is a heart—chocolate hearts, message hearts, heart shaped cakes, etc. The prominent color is red—red hearts, red paper, red roses and on we go. Now, we can send all our friends messages on the internet. We use the word “heart” in our everyday sentences. For example: “that touched my heart.” “My heart goes out to her,” and “those words were from the heart.”

Years ago during a discussion with a good friend of mine, the phrases “feelings of the heart” and “heart felt” were used. She immediately explained to me that the heart was only a muscle that pumped blood through our circulatory system; that the heart had no capacity to feel. I knew what the heart’s job entailed, but I also knew that I had feelings that seemed to come from the heart area.

In 1981 my son, Doug died at age 24. From the day he was born, he was the center of my life. Maybe I loved him too much. The week following his burial, my heart hurt so badly. It felt like it would burst from my chest; like I was having a heart attack. My brain was not hurting. It contained all the events leading to death, but it was not hurting. I knew then without a doubt that the heart does have feelings.

In scripture we find the word “bowels” being used to show compassion. When I read this word in the Bible, I always think of the heart. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord. (Philemon 1:20) The word “heart” is used 765 times in the Bible. “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: ”(1Peter 1:22)

A couple of weeks ago, our son-in-law, Jim Cofield wrote an excellent article about the heart on his blog. With his permission, I would like to share a lengthy part of that with you. See: www.cpministries.wordpress.com

“Modern neuroscience makes some startling claims about the human heart. The organ beating in our chests is the major center of our intelligence. Since I’ve ’been in my head’ most of my life I find this fascinating … and unnerving. I’ve never been good with feelings!”

Apparently molecular biologists have discovered that the heart is the body’s most important endocrine gland. It produces and releases a major hormone that profoundly impacts every operation in the ‘emotional’ brain. Scientists say that 60 to 65% of the cells of the heart are actually neural cells, not muscle cells. They are identical to the neural cells in the brain.

What all this adds up to is this … there is literally a ‘brain’ in our hearts. It is linked to every major organ in the body and to the entire muscle spindle system that uniquely enables humans to express their emotions. About half the heart’s neural cells are involved in translating information sent to it from all over the body so that it can keep the body working as one harmonious whole. The other half make up an unmediated neural connection with the emotional brain in our head.

The heart of the matter? Our hearts organize and control the entire human system. This is why the heart is the first organ developed in the womb. It has to be there to oversee the baby’s development. And it never stops overseeing things. Literally!

One of the implications of this which scientists are noting is the priority and power of emotions. Somehow the heart’s involvement in emotional development is foundational to everything else about us (i.e. cognition, volition, memory, desire, etc.). ”It all begins with feeling unconditionally wanted, accepted, and loved.”

It’s no surprise that John 3:16 touches us as it does. And the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). And why Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart (Matthew 22:37).

Guess it would do me good to spend my last years getting down to the heart of the matter … not simply feeding my brain but nurturing my heart.” John 3:16, Luke 15, Matthew 22:37,” (End of quote.)

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Psalm 139:14)

I was right long ago in believing that the heart is the center of our emotions. Praise the Lord! We do feel things from the heart. I hope this makes our Valentine’s Day brighter and that we will yield our hearts to the Lord to love others through us. Ω

The Encourager Newsletter - Volume 4 Issue 1 - February 5, 2010 - One Another - The Door

One Another

How about a one-man baseball team? Or….a team with one player short? Team captains don't do that. God's main instrument of carrying on His earthly work is a team He calls "the church." But many church members want to sit in a comfortable pew and watch the pastor carry on the work of the church. When he doesn't measure up, whining sets in and they swap him off for one less tired. The ideal pastor is a 25-year-old with 50 years of experience whose family lives in royalty on a pauper's income, like the Children of Israel in the desert whose shoes never wore out. Many church members who claim to be Christians, have never found their Biblical place of spiritual labor in God's church.

The Bible has some things to say about carrying on the work in His earthly body which is made up of several millions of local assemblies in the world where two or three are gathered together in [His] name,….(Matthew 18:20). God's church is not a man-made organization—but a God-made organism—a world of difference between the two. An organism is a living thing. God said of His church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).

God knows a lot about making things and He made His church to be an interdependent team. No, you won't find "team" in the Bible but you will find words that mean the same thing. We find "member" and "body" and "one another."

One of our Bible memory verses at church is: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).

In our family Bible reading Barbara and I came across: Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:12-13).

In one of our study Bibles we read: "There are many 'one another' passages in Scripture, and it is important to practice them daily. We should 'exhort one another daily,' 'edify one another; (1Thessalonians 5:5:11), 'pray one for another' (James 5:16), 'comfort one another' (I Thessalonians 4:18), 'be ye kind one to another' (Ephesians 4:32), and especially 'love one another' (John 13:34). There are many other such admonitions in Scripture." (The Morris New Defender's Study Bible, page 1896).

Praying for one another is the starting point. Then a telephone call or a dollar store get well card can make the difference in somebody's life. When there's sickness or death it is not a good idea to say: "If there's anything I can do just let me know." Unless you've been there, you can't know how frustrating and irritating that sentence can be. Find out from their family, friends, or neighbors what should be done and do it. It's ok if they never find out that you cleaned up their house from stem to stern and fed their dog. In our helping "one another" it must come out of love and genuine sincerity. That's the key.

Below is the verse I first memorized several years ago and it was through this passage that I saw from the Bible that it is everybody's business to make it their business about the welfare of other believers. Everybody gets down. Everybody gets sick. Everybody has a bad break. Everybody runs out of vitamins and loses too much sleep. Everybody's dog gets run over. Don't wait until somebody asks you to pick them up off the floor.

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: (25) Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25).

I plan to print a set of Bible memory cards containing the "one another" verses—for myself— and for the "one another-minded" people that want to take this idea to heart. I'm behind on my card printing right now. Meantime write verses on any scrap of paper and stick it in your pocket. That's what Abraham Lincoln did.

The Bible teaches that God places people in groups and calls them churches. He imparts the Holy Spirit into the body and life of every believer and gives each one a special gift to use in ministry. As Christians, we need not only the Lord but also need each other. "One another" is God's idea and He did not set up the church as a group of people to sit in pews and watch the pastor carry on the work of the church until he looks like a bear rug on the floor.

It's your business to try to reach out to me if you see me stumble or taking a nap in the path of a big truck. Of course if you see the need to minister "one another" to me in my weak state, I would appreciate it if you will remember these verses:

And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, (25) In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; (26) And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. (2Timothy 2:24-26)

It's not always easy for me to be patient and gentle and to avoid striving when I'm on a "one another" mission. Those may be the hardest verses in the Bible. Your mess-ups are worse than my mess-ups. Do you ever feel that way? You and I both have a mandate from the God of heaven through His Word to discharge our responsibility to "one another." If I love "one another" and pray for "one another" and forgive "one another" then I'll be in a much better condition to exhort "one another" and teach "one another" and edify "one another."

Here is one of the greatest mandates in the Bible, I think:

And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. (9) Use hospitality one to another without grudging. (10) As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1Peter 4:8-10).

It has always been God's will for all of His children to be good at the "one another" game. God's people don't all have the same gift and we do not all have the same needs. We have not all grown to the same level in developing our individual gifts. Some are ahead and some are behind in development. Let's get on with our "one another"duties.Ω

The Door —Barbara Carr

I have always thought of Revelation 3:20 as a salvation verse. I may have written an article using this comparison. The sermons I've heard since childhood often pictured Jesus standing at the door knocking, asking to be allowed to come into our hearts for eternal salvation.

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev 3:20)

Dan and I are doing a study of the book of Revelation—again. We have studied it many times, but each time we learn more and see things we either missed or have forgotten. We use several commentaries to help us—Strauss, Morris, etc. Let's look at Revelation 3:20. "Behold I stand at the door"

Morris' comment on "come in to him" was new to me. "This verse is not a gospel verse, appealing to the unsaved to accept Christ. There is nothing in it about Christ's sacrificial death for sinners or about believing on Him for salvation, or any other gospel essentials. It is addressed directly to the neutralist, self-satisfied Laodicean church, calling them to repentance. In context, the Lord is calling worldly, compromising believers to allow Him back into their lives."

Wow! Our Lord is knocking on our heart's door telling us, as He did the Laodiceans, to stop being neutral and self seeking in this world. He is asking us to hear His voice and repent of our sins. Christian sinners! Christian sins! Our sins as Christians do not send us to Hell because He paid that debt on the cross once and for all. Legally, our sins were placed on Jesus at the cross and He paid for our sins—all of them.

But we retain the old sin nature with which we were born and which will be a part of us until we die. We close our eyes to the sins that somehow continue to flow from our old nature. The new man of the new birth does not sin but the old man can do nothing but sin and just keeps on urging us to sin. We think if we are not on a drinking binge or doing drugs or committing murder, etc that we are living a good Christian life.

That's not what Jesus was telling the Laodiceans. He was telling them that they were neutral, lukewarm. When we get to the point that we have to strain our brain to think of a sin we might be harboring, we better do a self-check. As Dan has said many times, "Our thoughts count, too." We have become so comfortable in our little world, our lifestyles, that we are actually "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked" (Revelation 3:17)

"Come in to Him" The Lord is calling us careless and perhaps compromising believers to allow Him back into our lives. He will not force us to admit our sins and repent. He just patiently stands at the door and knocks. We believe that His coming is very near…do we not? Shouldn't we give up trying to be in control of our lives and allow Him to lead us? I often have to fall on my knees in tears and ask forgiveness. I could list why, but it would make the article too long. You don't get over sinning just because you are old. No, Satan continues to say, "Yea, Hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1)

"will sup with him and he with Me." Jesus loved the Laodiceans. He loves us. His desire is for us to meet with Him in Bible study and prayer. In verse twenty-one He shows His grace by inviting them to share His throne. We are forgiven. We are underneath the blood. All because God loved us enough to send Jesus that we might have eternal life. Let's love Him enough to obey him and serve Him. If He has been shut out of your life, He is at the door even now. Invite Him to come in and resume His place as the Lord of your life. Ω

The Encourager Newsletter - Vol.3 Issue 53 - 2009.12.18 - Our Religious Symbols (Part 3) - Hark! the Herald Angels Sing

The Encourager Newsletter

Toward Knowing God and Walking With Him

A FREE WEEKLY PUBLICATION with a BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW – Volume 3 Issue 53

December 18, 2009 Dan Carr, Editor

      Our Religious Symbols (Part 3)

The Christmas season produces an explosion of color, music, plays and pageantry, rich food, decorated trees and houses, and a plea for snow. It's a national holiday and families invest time and money to get together. Red and green are the dominate colors of which the Poinsettia is queen and is flanked by the red berries of Nandina and Holly. God is the author of color and celebration and even in our fallen state, there's something about Christmas that draws millions of people to its excitement. We want to enjoy color! We want to celebrate hope!

 

It's the most exciting time of the year and the loneliest time of the year. Suicide rates go up at Christmas time because people are reminded of their emptiness and loneliness and bad experiences they have tried to keep locked up. For them, Christmas overwhelms them with a feeling of failure and futility. No other time of the year has this much power to highlight excitement and despair—and debt!

 

Last week we looked at our incurable exercise of inventing and using symbols throughout our human activity. Industry and commerce is laced with its copyrighted logos and icons. Our computers depend on icons.

 

Status symbols are subtle but powerful and people will labor for them 'till they have a heart attack or kill another human being. These symbols cover clothing, hair styles, cars, houses, neighborhoods, clubs, occupations and our reading and viewing habits. In Detroit and New York City, police records have shown several killings to get the shoes from the feet of the victims because the shoes were coveted status symbols. Religious Symbols  are a small section of the world of symbols.

 

In the earliest days of Christianity the "sign of the fish" was an important part of communication. When Rome realized that Christians were not a mere branch of Judaism, Rome went after Christians to extinguish them. The Empire found it necessary to examine the various religions of the nations it conquered. If those religions would "give licit to Caesar," that is, if the religions would submit to the authority of Rome, they were considered to be licensed by the Roman government.

 

Christians would not "give licit" to Caesar and therefore were considered by Rome to be illegitimate.  Rome said "You can say that Christ is Lord if you are willing to say that Caesar gives you permission to make Christ Lord." Their supreme loyalty was to Christ as Lord, not to Rome as Lord. It cost them their lives.  Christians began meeting secretly and in some situations used the sign of the fish to point to their meeting places. They were also fishers of men, so the symbol was convenient and easy to use.

 

Another major symbol of early Christianity was the symbol of the cross. It was resisted at first but then began to be used.  The Apostle Paul wrote: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Galatians 6:14).

 

Today, millions of gold necklaces are in use for the purpose of displaying a cross. The hymn: "In the cross of Christ I glory – towering o'er the wrecks of time" embodies the great feeling of this important symbol.  The cross remains the most widely used symbol of Christianity today.

 

Jesus established the greatest symbol: By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:35). A gold cross necklace may or may not express who we really are. But love is impossible to fake and is the ultimate symbol of who we are.  …the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:5).  …the fruit of the Spirit is love,…(Galatians 5:22)

 

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (2Timothy 1:7)

 

Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins (Proverbs 10:12). It is true that some people are hard to love. However, if I love you I am not going to blab your sins all over the neighborhood.

 

Paul had this to say: Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart (2Corinthians 3:2-3).

 

Christmas is a special holiday (Holy Day) that serves as a symbol. It is not in the Bible. Christmas comes from two words: Christ and Mass, of Catholic origin. Aside from the Catholic coining of the term, it means dismissal or mission. Christ's Mission. A Mass is usually a special program of music focused on a theme. The word: Christmas has escaped its Catholic birth and is in the mouth of millions of non-Catholics. The commercializing of Christmas has damaged its public celebration. The importance of snow and decorations and the mythical Santa Clause have kidnapped the birth of Christ and stuffed Him in a closet out of sight.

 

Nevertheless, there remains a very strong remnant of dedicated Christians who sincerely seek to honor the birth of Christ as the most important advent (arrival) in history to this present hour. We use music, pageantry (plays) special sermons and decorations and many kinds of festivities. The four weeks of the Advent Season prior to Christmas day gives a longer time to reflect on the history and meaning of Christmas celebration. Some do not use Christmas trees and other decorations because of their personal feelings about it and some do not exchange gifts and other symbols of Christmas. I have met many people through the years whose idea of Christmas was to soak themselves in alcohol and really get "plastered." They wake up broke and feeling like a truck has run over them.  I think I can get by without that.

 

One word of caution. If someone has misused something, it doesn't mean that we can never use that item because its image is tainted. In my neck of the woods, bootleggers used glass pint jars to package their moonshine. My mother never stopped filling pint jars with jams and jellies because the bootleggers misused glass pint jars. Trees have been misused and made into wooden idols (Isaiah 40:20 and 44:19). But I have never seen anyone use a Christmas tree like that. Christmas trees symbolize many positive things about God and about us. We have the star of Bethlehem and green for eternal life and a lot of Christian history wrapped up in the symbol.

 

But, if your whole idea of Christmas is a Christmas tree and gifts and partying and artificial exuberance, then you have missed the whole point of Christmas. We use Christmas symbols because of the greater and deeper thing that has happened: Christ has come to die for the sins of the world and eventually to sit upon the Throne of David in Jerusalem to rule over a new world government for a thousand years. That's what all the symbols of Christmas are about. It's not about snow and trees and gifts and cookies.  Christmas is about Christ. He has come! He is coming!  Because He lives, you shall live also. Merry Christmas!

 

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

–Barbara Carr

 

Our last Christmas carol before Christmas Day is Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.  I have enjoyed looking up the history of several carols but these three are my favorites.

 

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing was written by Charles Wesley.  He was the younger brother of John Wesley the man who began the Methodist movement in the Church of England.  "Upon his conversion, he immediately began writing hymns, each one packed with doctrine, all of them exhibiting strength and sensitivity, both beauty and theological brawn. He wrote constantly, and even on horseback his mind was flooded with new songs. He often stopped at homes along the road and ran in asking for 'pen and ink.'"(R. Morgan)

 

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was first published in 1739 in a book called Hymns and Scared Poems.The version of this carol we sing today is a compilation of the efforts of Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, Felix Mendelssohn and WH Cummings.

 

Wesley was protective of the songs he wrote.  He did not want the wording changed.  He is quoted as having said, "Many gentlemen have done my brother and me the honor to reprint many of our hymns.  Now they are perfectly welcome to do so, provided they print them just as they are.  But I desire they would not attempt to mend them for they are really not able.  None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse.  Therefore, I must bet of them these two favors: either to let them stand just as they are, to take things for better or worse, or to add the true reading in the Margin, or at the bottom of the page, that we may no longer be accountable for the nonsense or for the doggerel of other men." (Morgan, 49)

 

However, Wesley's friend George Whitfield disregarded his friend's warning.  The first two lines were "Hark, how the welkin rings, Glory to the King of kings."  Welkin means "The vault of Heaven."  He changed these two lines to read, "Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king."

 

Felix Mendelssohn composed a cantata in 1840 to celebrate the invention of the printing press.  The song was called "Festgesang" or Festival Song."  W. H. Cummings, an organist, adapted Mendelssohn song to the lyrics of Wesley's Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.  He organized the song into the ten-line stanzas that we sing today.  The final version was published in 1856.

 

Roy (Sonny) Gamble teaches our adult Bible Study on Wednesday evenings.  He has been teaching on the birth of Jesus.  Everyone has learned  and enjoyed this class.  In our last class, he quoted the first verse of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, stating that it is his favorite carol.  He commented that he wonders how many people sing the song without hearing the words.  In one of my early articles, I had said, "How many of you sing the hymns on Sunday and your mind is on something else?" We who have sung the hymns all our lives practically have them memorized. We can sing them and never hear a word.  Let's read the following words.  Have you really listened to them before?

 

Hark the herald angels sing "Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:  "Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing "Glory to the newborn King!"

 

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:13-14) 

 

The Encourager may also be read at www.biblewalking.blogspot.com .

 

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