IMPAIRED EYESIGHT

IMPAIRED EYESIGHT

Monday, February 09, 2015

  Which is most common, physical visual impairment or hindered spiritual ability to see?

  I am convinced it is the latter of the two.

  As proof I offer lifetime observation of Grammar Nazis as example:

·         Consider their niggling incisive corrections of our letters, e-mails, postings, essays et al. How easily they espy our poor grammar, missspellings, and mistakes!

·         Consider the times you have read their writing and noticed errors. Especially interesting are their critiquing responses pointing out our grammatical faults, imperfections, and lapses with text that contains poor grammar, incorrect spellings, punctuation failures, omissions, stumbling phrases, et al.

  Do I consider the GN Brigade with their incessant pickiness irritating? Not at all, I am thankful for their prodding as it reminds me of my periodic otherwise logging issues.  (Mt.7:1-5

READY, SET, GO! AND GO, AND GO.....

READY, SET, GO! AND GO, AND GO …..

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Romans 12:4-9 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

2Timothy 4:1-2 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.

1Peter [GW] 2:1-10 So get rid of every kind of evil, every kind of deception, hypocrisy, jealousy, and every kind of slander. Desire God's pure word as newborn babies desire milk. Then you will grow in your salvation. Certainly you have tasted that the Lord is good! You are coming to Christ, the living stone who was rejected by humans but was chosen as precious by God. You come to him as living stones, a spiritual house that is being built into a holy priesthood. So offer spiritual sacrifices that God accepts through Jesus Christ. That is why Scripture says, "I am laying a chosen and precious cornerstone in Zion, and the person who believes in him will never be ashamed." This honor belongs to those who believe. But to those who don't believe: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, a stone that people trip over, a large rock that people find offensive." The people tripped over the word because they refused to believe it. Therefore, this is how they ended up. However, you are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people who belong to God. You were chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God, who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not God's people, but now you are. Once you were not shown mercy, but now you have been shown mercy.

  For the fourth time a city snowplow placed a snow barrier across the end of my driveway, mail and newspaper boxes. Seeing as my wonderful neighbor that has not allowed me to do snow removal for last and this winter is away on a trip, I decided to carefully do the task. I say “carefully” because, though ready to go at an instant’s notice, I don’t want to experience bedside “You could’ve crippled or killed yourself!” from family and friend.

  Since I don’t wear hearing aids when home alone, the exercise walker had to say “Excuse me.” with determination several times at increasing volume.

  She explained that she had recently begun participating in a group Bible study, but is pretty much confused. Her questions were all basic. The kind like if we don’t comprehend 2+2=4 anything further is as Greek as this mixed metaphor.

  All I did was provide the parts she needed to intelligently connect the dots on her own. And from the joy she expressed, she did.

  One of our major blessed responsibilities as members of God’s priesthood is to study to show ourselves approved by Him, ready with supply of His answers for present and eternal life issues. This is reasonable service. This is worship. (Rom.12:1-9; 2Tim.2:15; 3:15-17)

EBB4 

MUST BEGIN WITH BEING SINFUL

MUST BEGIN WITH BEING SINFUL

Friday, February 6, 201

Psalm 46:1-11 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

                Isaiah 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Romans 7:18-20 For I [Apostle Paul] know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

  To travel life God’s way, pleasing to Him, we must begin and continue in accepting that in us alone is no good thing, sin dwelling in us.

  What’s the problem with our not seeing or refusing to accept that Romans 7:18-20 is true about ourselves?  

  To consider self as a good person that sins, rather than accepting that I am sinful in nature, demotes Jehovah Provider to position of spare equipment, auxiliary god not allowed to lead but to be only called upon for assistance and direction in time of our deciding when we need Him.

  Seeing self as God’s Word describes, sinful in nature and not at all an inherently good person that sins makes for a quantum leap from misguided life-walk to journeying with God as companion.

  Like the psalmist, let us embrace breath of life: God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in this ever troubled world.  EBB4

# 10 of TEN REASONS WHY I BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD by R.A. Torrey

# 10 of Ten Reasons Why I Believe The Bible Is The Word Of God by R. A. Torrey

TENTH, on the ground of the direct testimony of the Holy Spirit.

We began with God and shall end with God. We began with the testimony of the second person of the Trinity, and shall close with that of the third person of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit sets His seal [Jn.6:27; 2Cor.1:22; Eph.1:13;4:30] in the soul of every believer to the Divine authority of the Bible. It is possible to get to a place where we need no argument to prove that the Bible is God's Word. Christ says, "My sheep know my voice," [Jn.10:4, 14-15, 27] and God's children know His voice, and I know that the voice that speaks to me from the pages of that Book is the voice of my Father. You will sometimes meet a pious old lady, who tells you that she knows that the Bible is God's Word, and when you ask her for a reason for believing that it is God's Word she can give you none, She simply says: "I know it is God's Word."

You may say: "That is mere superstition."

Not at all. She is one of Christ's sheep, and recognizes her Shepherd's voice from every other voice. She is one of God's children, and knows the voice which speaks to her from the Bible is the voice of God. She is above argument.

Everyone can have that testimony. John 7:17 (R.V.) tells you how to get it. "If any man willeth to do

His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God." [GW Jn.7:17-18 “Those who want to follow

the will of God will know if what I teach is from God or if I teach my own thoughts. Those who speak their

own thoughts are looking for their own glory. But the man who wants to bring glory to the one who sent

him is a true teacher and doesn't have dishonest motives.”] Just surrender your will to the will of God, no

matter where it carries you, and you will put yourself in such an attitude toward God that when you

read this book you will recognize that the voice that speaks to you from it is the voice of the God to

whom you have surrendered your will.

Some time ago, when I was speaking to our students upon how to deal with skeptics, there was in the audience a graduate of a British University who had fallen into utter skepticism. At the close of the lecture he came to me and said:

"I don't wish to be discourteous, sir, but my experience contradicts everything you have said."

I asked him if he had followed the course of action that I had suggested and not found light. He said that he had. Stepping into another room I had a pledge written out running somewhat as follows:

"I believe there is an absolute difference between right and wrong, and I hereby take my stand upon the right, to follow it wherever it carries me. I promise earnestly to endeavor to find out what the truth is, and if I ever find that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I promise to accept Him as my Savior and confess Him before the world."

I handed the paper to the gentleman and asked him if he was willing to sign it. He answered, "Certainly," and did sign it. I said to him: "You don't know there is not a God, and you don't know that God doesn't answer prayer. I know He does, but my knowledge cannot avail for you, but here is a possible clew to knowledge. Now you have promised to search earnestly for the truth, so you will follow this possible clue. I want you to offer a prayer like this: 'Oh, God, if there be any God, and thou dost answer prayer, show me whether Jesus Christ is thy Son, and if you show me He is, I will accept Him as my Savior and confess Him before the world.'"

This he agreed to do. I further requested that he would take the Gospel of John and read in it every day, reading only a few verses at a time slowly and thoughtfully, every time before he read asking God to give him light. This he also agreed to do, but he finished by saying, "There is nothing in it." However, at the end of a short time, I met him again, and he said to me, "There is something in that." I replied, "I knew that." Then he went on to say it seemed just as if he had been caught up by the Niagara River and had been carried along, and that before long he would be a shouting Methodist.

A short time ago I met this gentleman again, and he said to me that he could not understand how he had been so blind, how he had ever listened to the reasoning which he had; that it seemed to him utterly foolish now. I replied that the Bible would explain this to him, that the "natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God," [1Cor.2:14] but that now he had put himself into the right attitude towards God and His truth, everything had been made plain. That man, who assured me that he was "a very peculiar man," and that methods that influenced others would not influence him, by putting himself into the right attitude towards God, got to a place where he received the direct testimony of the Holy Ghost that this Bible is God's Word; and, anyone else can do the same.

# 9 of TEN REASONS WHY I BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD by R.A. Torrey

# 9 of Ten Reasons Why I Believe The Bible Is The Word Of God by R. A. Torrey

NINTH, on the ground of the fact that as we grow in knowledge and holiness we grow toward the Bible.

Every thoughtful person when he starts out to study the Bible finds many things with which he does not agree, but as he goes on studying and growing in likeness to God, the nearer he gets to God the nearer he gets to the Bible. The nearer and nearer we get to God's standpoint the less and less becomes the disagreement between us and the Bible. What is the inevitable mathematical conclusion? When we get where God is, we and the Bible will meet. In other words, the Bible was written from God's standpoint.

Suppose you are traveling through a forest under the conduct of an experienced and highly recommended guide. You come to a place where two roads diverge. The guide says the road to the left is the one to take, but your own judgment passing upon the facts before it sees clear evidence that the road to the right is the one to take. You turn and say to the guide,

"I know you have had large experience in this forest, and you have come to me highly recommended, but my own judgment tells me clearly that the road to the right is the one we should take, and I must follow my own judgment. I know my reason is not infallible, but it is the best guide I have."

But after you have followed that path for some distance you are obliged to stop, turn around and go back and take the path which the guide said was the right one.

After a while you come to another place where two roads diverge. Now the guide says the road to the right is the one to take, but your judgment clearly says the one to the left is the one to take, and again you follow your own judgment with the same result as before.

After you had this experience forty or fifty times, and found yourself wrong every time, I think you would have sense enough the next time to follow the guide.

That is just my experience with the Bible. I received it at first on the authority of others. Like almost all other young men, my confidence became shaken, and I came to the fork in the road more than forty times, and I followed, my own reason, and in the outcome found myself wrong and the Bible right every time, and I trust that from this time on I shall have sense enough to follow the teachings of the Bible whatever my own judgment may say.

Proverbs [GW] 1:1-7 The proverbs of Solomon, David's son who was king of Israel, given to grasp wisdom and discipline, to understand deep thoughts, to acquire the discipline of wise behavior- righteousness and justice and fairness- to give insight to gullible people, to give knowledge and foresight to the young- a wise person will listen and continue to learn, and an understanding person will gain direction- to understand a proverb and a clever saying, the words of wise people and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. Stubborn fools despise wisdom and discipline.

# 8 of TEN REASONS WHY I BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD by R.A. Torrey

# 8 of Ten Reasons Why I Believe The Bible Is The Word Of God by R. A. Torrey

EIGHTH, on the ground of the inexhaustible depth of the book.

Nothing has been added to it in eighteen hundred years, yet a man like Bunsen, or Neander, cannot exhaust it by the study of a lifetime. George Müller read it through more than one hundred times, and said it was fresher every time he read it. Could that be true of any other book?

But more wonderful than this-not only individual men but generations of men for eighteen hundred years have dug into it and given to the world thousands of volumes devoted to its exposition, and they have not reached the bottom of the quarry yet. A book that man produces man can exhaust, but all men together have not been able to get to the bottom of this book. How are you going to account for it? Only in this way-that in this book are hidden the infinite and inexhaustible treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

A brilliant Unitarian writer, in trying to disprove the inspiration of the Bible, says: "How irreligious to charge an infinite God with having written His whole Word in so small a book." He does not see how his argument can be turned against himself. What a testimony it is to the divinity of this book that such infinite wisdom is stored away in so small a compass.

Isaiah [MKJV] 40:1-8 Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak lovingly to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is done, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of Jehovah's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him who cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Jehovah, make straight a highway in the desert for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked places shall be made level, and the rough places smooth; and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken. The voice said, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the beauty of it is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Spirit of Jehovah blows on it; surely the people is grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall stand forever.

1Peter [MKJV] 1:24-25 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of men as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls out, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the Word preached as gospel to you.

# 7 of TEN REASONS WHY I BELIEVE THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD

# 7 of Ten Reasons Why I Believe The Bible Is The Word Of God by R. A. Torrey

There is more power in that little book to save men, and purify, gladden and beautify their lives, than in all other literature put together-more power to lift men up to God. A stream never rises higher than its source, and a book that has a power to lift men up to God that no other book has, must have come down from God in a way that no other book was.

I have in mind as I write a man who was the most complete victim of strong drink I ever knew; a man of marvelous intellectual gifts, but who had been stupefied and brutalized and demonized by the power of sin, and he was an infidel. At last the light of God shone into his darkened heart, and by the power of that book he has been transformed into one of the humblest, sweetest, noblest men I know to-day.

What other book would have done that? What other book has the power to elevate not only individuals but communities and nations that this book has?