DISCIPLE

  “Are there not twelve hours in the day?”     John 11:9 When Jesus suggested going back to Judea, the disciples were terrified. The Jews had tried to stone Him there only recently, and now He was talking about a return visit. In answer to the disciple’s apprehension, Jesus said, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?”   At first glance, the question seems to be completely disconnected from the conversation. But what the Savior was saying was this – the working day is made up of twelve hours. When a person is yielded to God, every day has its appointed program. Nothing can thwart the accomplishing of that program. So even if Jesus went back to Jerusalem, and even if the Jews tried to kill Him again, they could not succeed. His work was not finished. His hour had not yet come.    For every child of God, it is true that he is “immortal till his work is done.” This should impart great peace and poise to our lives. If we are living in the will of God, an...

  Westminster Abbey   by Dr. Renald Showers (1936-2019) (originally published in Israel My Glory ) Unfortunately, space restricts the number of problems I can address. Is Too Limited. Covenant Theology’s ultimate goal of history, the glory of God through the redemption of the elect, is too limited. During the course of history, God not only has a program of redemption for those people who get saved, but He also has a program for those who never get saved and programs for nations, rulers, angels, Satan, and nature. The ultimate goal of history must be large enough to include all of God’s programs, not just one. Denies Distinctions. Covenant Theology denies or weakens some of the distinctions in the Bible by insisting that distinctions are different phases of the same covenant of grace. For example, it claims that the Abrahamic Covenant and Mosaic Covenant (the Law) were essentially the same. But Paul emphasized their distinctiveness in Galatians 3. It also teach...

 In his first message on the book of Zephaniah, J. Vernon McGee cites Gibbons on why great nations decline and fall. He applied it as a warning to the United States, and it is certainly not difficult to see why, but other nations such as the U.K. and Canada, should also take warning.   The Five Reasons for the Collapse of the Roman Empire  by Edward Gibbon The British Historian Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) was no fan of the Christian faith, but his  History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire  is still worthy of being read, particularly because of his insights into the reasons for the collapse of the empire and the way they should be a sober warning to Western Culture that we are repeating many of the same patterns that destroyed Rome. Gibbon listed the following five primary reasons for the collapse of the Roman Empire:   First: The rapid increase of divorce, with the undermining of the sanctity of the home, which ...

  Read Rev.14:13 Beloved of the Lord:     The world says –  “Blessed are the living,” but GOD says - “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord”.  The natural man declares –  “Better is a living dog than a dead lion” – Eccl. 9:4. The world gazes on one with bounding step, bloom of youth, earthly prosperity, and says – “THERE is a happy person”.  Contrariwise, God says – of a saint in death – “BLESSED (or happy) are the dead.”  This is true of deceased saints of all times who have gone into His eternal presence.  Let us consider: 1.  THEIR ETERNAL HAPPINESS: They have entered into eternal happiness for ever, into the brightest place of God's universe, His immediate presence!  What a wonderful transition it is to be “WITH CHRIST – FAR BETTER – AT HOME” – with the Lord.  Multitudes in vast number have departed into eternity, yet only a minority “in the Lord”– Matt.7:13,14. The Christ-less dead go into a Christ-less eternity!...

    Herbert W. Taylor “And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness. And He said unto him, 1 am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Gen. 15:6-8). God’s people often are impetuous, and through want of understanding His dealings do not bear the fruit of patience; they would, in their haste, have things at once, for which their heavenly Father, in His wisdom, sees fit to keep them waiting. The spirit of such is too much that of the world, whose saying is, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” But the Christian, in communion with God, knows that it is better to lack in the present time the portion that the world covets, so that in the eternal future he may possess that which shall never pass away. The Spirit of God calls Esau a “profane person” (Heb. 12:16), because, by selling his birthright for a mess of pottage, he ...

He was asked why he wished to borrow and read Medhurst's book, China . "I told him that God had called me to spend my life in missionary service in that land. 'And how do you propose to go there?' he inquired. I answered that I did not at all know; that it seemed to me probably that I should need to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in Judea – go without purse or scrip, relying on Him who had called me to supply all my need. Kindly placing his hand upon my shoulder, the minister replied, 'Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will get wiser than that. Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.' I have grown older since then, but not wiser. I am more than ever convinced that if we were to take the directions of our Master and the assurances He gave to His first disciples more fully as our guide, we should find them to be just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given." TO CHINA...

continued from Christian Devotedness by Anthony Norris Groves (1795-1853)   WE SHOULD SHARE WITH OTHERS WHATEVER WE RECEIVE IN EXCESS OF OUR PRESENT NEEDS.       Such conduct does not necessarily involve the institution of some common fund. Rather it can be brought about by each individual blending himself with the whole household of faith, feeling their wants, and rejoicing in their welfare, as his own.  This sympathy of the members of the holy family toward each other is strongly enforced and beautifully illustrated by St. Paul: “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,  that ye through his poverty might be rich.  I mean not that other men may be eased, and you burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality; as it is written, ‘He that gathered much ...