May 2015 OBB

FAMILY FILE

KEEP UP WITH OUR GRADS

HOME WITH THE LORD Rev. Austin G. Calder, graduate of 1956, went home to be with his Lord, on March 3, 2015. Please pray for his dear wife, Wilma and their extended family.

Thrive

OPEN BIBLE VOL. 56 NO. 5 MAY 2015

ALUMNEWS WITH BILL & MARIA MOONEY

We have volunteers across the country. If you are interested in having someone from our ministry come and share this important message, please visit our website at www.vomcanada. com. While there, please take the opportunity to get informed about the price our brothers and sisters are paying for their faith.

Bible institute GOD’S PURPOSE

TOUR 2015

May 6, 7:00 pm White Head Baptist Church White Head, NB Concert

May 13, 8:00 am Lisbon Falls Christian Academy Lisbon Falls, ME Chapel

May 7, 7:00 pm North Road Baptist Church Campobello, NB Youth Meeting

May 13, 7 pm First Parish Congregational Church Pownal, ME Concert

May 8 Faith Bible Fellowship Cherryfield, ME Supper 6:00 pm; Concert 7:00 pm

May 15, 6:30 pm Knox Ridge Baptist Church Knox, ME Family Night

May 9, 11:00 am Faith Bible Church of Olamon Greenbush, ME Mothers’ Day Banquet

May 16 Springfield Community Chapel Springfield, ME Concert

May 10, 10:30 am Grace Community Chapel Gardiner, ME Morning Service

May 17, 10:30 am Mars Hill United Baptist Church Mars Hill, ME Morning Service

May 10, 6:00 pm Maranatha Riverside Church Lincoln, ME Evening Service

May 17, 6:00 pm Perham Baptist Church Perham, ME Evening Service

May 12 Appleton Baptist Church Appleton, ME Pot Luck Supper 6:00 pm, Concert 7:00 pm

New Brunswick Bible Institute 2335 Route 103 Victoria Corner NB Canada E7P 1C7 Phone: (506)375-9000 Fax: (506)375-1800 Website: nbbi.ca Email: nbbi@nbbi.ca

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Editor........................................Larry Rushton Writers........NBBI Faculty, Staff & Students Typist........................................Brenda Cabral Layout & design.............................Larry Rushton Copy proof.................................... Rose Meed Printer....................................... Merritt Press

OUR PASSION

FOCUS

WITH MATTHEW LITTLE

BY DAVID GOUPILLE

THE CERTAINTY OF GOD WORD

Canadian publications mail product sales agreement #40012001

I co-ordinate a team of volunteers in the Maritime provinces who seek to partner with Christians in their local areas to serve the persecuted church.

Our team does presentations and provides resources to congregations, youth groups, small groups, Bible studies, Sunday school classes, etc.

New Brunswick

Printed in Canada

I graduated from the Diploma of Biblical and Theological Studies program in 1995. I and my wife, Maria, have two sons, David (5) and Joseph (3), and we live in Stratford, PEI. After a number of years trying different things, I studied to become a Chartered Accountant.

Besides serving at my local church, I’m also a volunteer with the Voice of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC). VOMC is a ministry started in 1971 whose mission is to glorify God through serving His persecuted church, seeking to fulfill the words of Hebrews 13:3.

From its opening pages we can tell that God’s Word is a book of certainty. In the opening chapter, Genesis 1, little doubt is left as to how everything came into being (1:1-25). Man and woman were created to bear the image of God and to people the earth (1:26-28). Every good thing that God made was placed under the dominion of man and designed to be used for man’s benefit (1:29-31). It was all good, and all so certain.

It is not until Genesis chapter 3 that any sort of a question enters into the good world that God had created. The question did not come from Adam or Eve, the people that God had created. It did not come from the lips of the God who had created. Rather, it came from Satan, masquerading as the serpent (Genesis 3:1). The first question posed by the devil was designed to cast doubt on what God had said to the man and the woman.

His words literally began with, “Has God indeed said…?” (3:1).

This was an outright attack on the integrity, trustworthiness, and accuracy of the words of the Creator of all things.

Our first parents gave consideration to this casting of doubt. Eve was deceived (1 Timothy 2:14) and Adam willfully stepped over the line that God had clearly marked out (Romans 5:12, 15, 18).

BULLETIN

Tour 2015 Mankind has lived in the uncertainty of that transgression and sin ever since.

Yet, the certainty of God’s Word remains. As we work our way through the Scriptures, we find the LORD giving his inspired writers certain descriptions, or symbols of the certainty of all that He has said. Each of these symbols point to the fact that His Word is incapable of being overcome or subdued.

1. Psalm 119:105 says that God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Since the world is a dark place, God has given us the only sure light that can be found. Are you following that light as you read the Scriptures each day?

2. Jeremiah 23:29 say that God’s Word functions as both a fire which burns and a hammer which crushes things. A fire will eventually consume all that it touches and a hammer will ultimately break the hardest of hearts. When we read and study the Bible we are encountering the fire of God and examining one of His most amazing tools.

3. Hebrews 4:12 calls God’s Word a sword. As the living, powerful, sharp twoedged Sword, the energetic Scripture pierces, judges, exposes, and lays bare the very inner recesses of the human heart. We are all in need of the surgical precision which can only be rendered by the Holy Spirit of God by the use of His Word.

4. James 1:23-25 tells us that the Word of God is like a mirror. Mirrors enable us

to see ourselves for whom and what we are. The reflection rendered by God’s mirror will never lie. What do you see when you gaze into that which God has given?

5. 1 Peter 1:23 calls God’s Word a seed that will grow. The spiritually dead are given new life by the seed of God’s truth.

In trusting this truth, dead souls are given the life of God! Do you have this life?

6. 1 Peter 2:2 says that the Word of God is milk that causes newborn babes (believers) to grow. Babies only grow when they take in what is offered to them.

Have you grown in the nourishment of this milk?

In an uncertain world, we have this truth that is greater than anything of man’s devising. Peter had seen many amazing things in his life, but he called the Scriptures the most sure thing that he knew (2 Peter 1:19). May we rest assured in the same truth.

VacationVision with a

Why not join us this year for our Vacation With A Vision program?

The dates are June 28-July 3, and July 5-10, 2015.

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PRESIDENT’S CHALLENGE

TOUR 2015

BY MATTHEW LITTLE

Renovation or Regeneration In 2 Peter 2:18-22 we are introduced to what is often a confusing and difficult passage to understand. A casual reading of the text may lead one to believe that you can lose your salvation or question the security of your faith. In order for us to understand these important verses it is essential that we understand the context from the book in which it is found.

1 Peter was written to combat the attacks of the enemy from without; 2 Peter deals with attacks of the enemy from within, mainly apostasy. An apostate looks like a true believer but sadly they are not. They have outward conformity to many Christian standards and conduct but they have never been transformed by the power of the Gospel. They have light but no life, renovation but no regeneration. They remind us that religion does not save nor do well-intentioned efforts to adhere to biblical standards or conduct. This passage tells us that an unsaved person can be confronted with what they know to be religion and that

religion seeks to clean them up. This is what Peter is referring to when he says, “they promise them liberty...” (verse 19a). Religion takes the drunk out of the gutter and cleans him up and then gives him a set of rules to live by. Will these rules help this man? No! So Peter counters with these chilling words, “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment.” (verse 21). A pagan drunk is bad enough, but a religious drunk is far worse. Why? The pagan drunk may be in the gutter but he may reason that he still has God as His last resort but if he thinks he has tried God, and it never worked, where does he goes from there? In the end the dog returns to its vomit and the sow to its wallowing in the mire (verse 22). This is the key to the entire passage. Dogs and pigs were unclean to the Jews. They were unclean by their very nature.

The issue at stake in these verses is that the individuals in question never

SPRING CONFERENCE 2015 APRIL 30 - MAY 3

Keynote Speaker...

We encourage you to join us April 30 - May 3, 2015 for our annual Spring Bible Conference. Our guest speaker will be Dr. Ray Pritchard

who serves as the president of Keep Believing Ministries. He has ministered extensively worldwide and is a frequent conference speaker and guest on Christian radio and television talk shows. He has written 31 books and is the co-host of Today’s Issues on American Family Radio. Dr. Pritchard has also pastored for 26 2

years, has been married to Marlene for 39 years and has three sons. You will certainly be challenged by his ministry.

Guest Musicians...

Dell, Susan and Richard Hyssong travel full-time as the award-winning Hyssongs. Their energetic family ministry combines vocal harmony, humour and brass instruments to delight audiences with their Christcentered message, shared through the powerful medium of music. The group has been singing together for 18 years and perform at more than 250 events each year.

had their natures changed. You can take a pig, clean him up and even put a bow tie on him, but if you let him go, he returns to the mud. Why? Changing the outside of the pig does not change who the pig is by nature. He is still a pig and pigs will do what pigs do best - wallow in the mire.

So too, religion apart from Christ, that simply seeks to clean a man up will never work. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”

I fear our culture is breeding a strain of “Christianity” that says you can have the cross but you don’t need to carry it.

Many are given the facts of the Gospel but they have never become a new creature in Christ. The man of 2 Peter 2 is as lost in the end as he was when he started. He found religion but he never found a relationship with Christ. Many have been brought close to the cross but they remain as far as ever from Christ. There is nothing in man that can be renovated; we must plead with man that he must be born again and regenerated.

ON THE ROAD

STAFF ITINERARIES

JOHN HOAG May 4, 11, 18, 25 Danforth Baptist Church Danforth, ME Extension Classes May 10, 17, 24, 31 Cornerstone Bible Church Burtt’s Corner, NB Extension Classes

UNTIL THEN

VIVIANNE (ECKHARDT) BOOKER Mother of retired staff member, Robert Booker went home to be with her Lord on March 20, 2015 at 93 years of age. Please pray for her children Bob Booker ’68 & Avis (Long) ’68, Carrie ’74 & Eric Gulbrandsen and Don Booker ’78 & Rachel (Harris) ’80 and their extended families.

WITH KEITH MCMAHON

May 6 Merrimack Valley Baptist Church Merrimack, NH Youth Night May 7 Colonial Hills Baptist Church Milford, NH Family Night May 8 Berlin Community Church Berlin, NH Family Night May 9 Calvary Baptist Church Claremont, NH Youth Night May 10 Calvary Baptist Church Claremont, NH Morning Service May 10 East Waterboro Free Baptist Church East Waterboro, ME Evening Service May 11 Free Will Baptist Church West Buxton, ME Youth Night

TOUR 2015

WITH STEVE WAGSTAFF

May 4 Geary Baptist Church Geary, NB Evening Meeting

May 12 Cornerstone Christian Fellowship Vasselboro, ME Family Night

May 16 Grace Bible Church Oakland, ME Youth Night

May 13 Faith Baptist Church Auburn, MA Youth Night

May 17 Grace Bible Church Oakland, ME Morning Service

May 14 Faith Alliance Church Attleboro, MA Youth Night

May 17 West Rockport Baptist Church West Rockport, ME Youth Gathering with Maine Ministry

May 15 Berean Baptist Church Brunswick, ME Youth Night May 5 Cornerstone Bible Church Burtt’s Corner, NB Family Night

May 6 Devon Park Baptist Church Fredericton, NB Prayer Meeting

May 6 Fredericton Christian Academy Fredericton, NB

May 7 Beaver Harbour Baptist Church Beaver Harbour, NB Afternoon Meeting

d e m a h s a Un

May 7 Central Wickham Baptist Church Wickham, NB Family Night May 10 Sunrise Baptist Church Tatamagouche, NS Morning Meeting May 14 Maranatha Bible Church New Glasgow, NS Family Night May 15 Colchester Christian Academy Truro, NS Track & Field Meet May 16 Grant/Kelly Wedding Truro, NS 3