February 2018 OBB

ON THE ROAD

New Brunswick Bible Institute

MATTHEW LITTLE February 2-4 Hope Baptist Church Hopetown, PQ Special Weekend Meetings

Encounter Youth Retreats

February 5, 12, 19, 26 CEF Youth Center Formerly Faith Baptist Church Blaine, ME Extension Classes

CHAPELSPEAKERS February 1............................... Roger Black

Living Waters Bible Conference February 6............................. Ethan Parker

Mount Trabor Bible Camp February 7...............................Seth Bevans

International Student Ministries February 21......................... Wayne Fraser

Gideons International

February 16-18 & March 16-18

Encounter, NBBI’s youth retreats are just around the corner, February 16-18 and March 16-18, 2018. Come and join us for a weekend you won't soon forget.

Don't believe us...here's what others are saying: "I am so glad I came to Encounter.

This has been the best weekend of my life." - Retreater "I bring my teens to Encounter retreats because I know they will be ex-

"These retreats are awesome. Your students are the best and have helped me grow in my relationship with Jesus." Retreater

SPRING CONFERENCE MAY 3-6, 2018 with Bay & Peg Forrest 4

Camp NBBI, for children ages 5-12, will be available during the first week of Vacation With A Vision, (July 1-6) with a full program of activities.

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

FOCUS

BY ROBERT BOOKER

This year's retreat will be even bigger and better. On top of gym activities and swimming, we have added skating.

There will be great food, great friends, great fun, great interaction with our students and we will learn about our great God. What more could you want? Don't miss out - register today!

JULY 1-6 & JULY 8-13

NBBI. We will feed you, provide lodging and arrange fun activities. You will have a chance to fellowship with other believers and help invest in a practical way in the ministry of NBBI.

VOL. 59 NO. 2 FEBRUARY 2018

posed to God's Word and I have seen many of their lives changed over the years." - Leader

VACATION WITH A VISION 2018 Every year NBBI counts on you to help us with our many summer projects. Whether you can commit to coming for a week or if you can only come for a couple of days, we need you! Couples, families and special church work teams are all needed and welcomed! It doesn’t matter whether you are a skilled labourer or just have a willing heart, there are plenty of opportunities to serve at

OPEN BIBLE BULLETIN

2018

with Peter Verkaik, Executive Director, Word of Life Canada

OUR PASSION

nbbi.ca/encounter

We are seeking to raise $25,000 and here is what we hope to accomplish...

• Facelift our office area, (new carpet tiles, renovation of reception area) • New vinyl siding on a staff home • Foundation repairs on staff home • New porch/entryway on staff home • Many miscellaneous tasks

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

Light Is A Fact

Canadian publications mail product sales agreement #40012001

JOHN HOAG February 5, 12, 19, 26 CEF Youth Center Formerly Faith Baptist Church Blaine, ME Extension Classes

GOD’S PURPOSE

Printed in Canada

STAFF ITINERARIES

New Brunswick

Bible institute

The facts are in: light dispels darkness! Have you ever opened a door and run your hand up and down the wall trying to find the light switch? How about this? Have you ever walked into a dark room and found an end-table with your shin and then finally flipped on a lamp?

We all have stepped out on a starless, pitch-black night only to have the clouds roll back for a time and reveal the light reflected by the moon.

While these physical things often happen, I trust we will not forget the spiritual reality and application regarding light and darkness.

Jesus said of Himself in John 8:12, 24, “I am the Light of the world.”

Why would Jesus use that phrase to describe Himself? He had just been dealing with the Pharisees and their deception in thinking they were righteous. Here were religious leaders and teachers walking in darkness.

They had accused a woman of adultery, but Jesus spoke kindly to her - that is offering light for darkness!

Our world is dark. Jesus said in John 3,

“men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.” Since Adam, the world of Noah, the days of Babel, Lot’s Sodom and Gomorrah, the days of the judges and through today, the world, without Christ, is in the darkness of sin. That’s why Jesus claimed to be the Light, because He is the only One who can dispel the darkness, bringing light and hope to society. How sad to hear our political leaders offer “hope” to the world, never mentioning the true Light-Giver.

If Jesus is the Light-Giver, then God the Father is the Light-Source. In James chapter one, he declares that God is “the Father of lights.” While we know that James is talking about creation and the sun, moon and stars of the sky, we also know that God sent His Son, Jesus, to this earth to be born, live, die and rise again to bring salvation and light to the people of this dark world (John 3:17).

Because Jesus is the Light-Giver and God is the Light-Source, His children are the Light-bearers. In Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus called His followers, “salt” and “light.” What an awesome responsibility to be in this world and offer to people with whom we come in con-

tact, “the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4).

I am a sinner and was in darkness myself. Now I can recommend this perfect Light-Giver and His free salvation to dispel the darkness of life that people without Christ are experiencing. God is the Light-Source, Jesus is the Light-Giver. Will you accept the challenge of being a Lightbearer?

March 29-31

c ollege DAY for a

nbbi.ca/cfad

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PRESIDENT’S CHALLENGE

WINTER WONDERLAND 2017

BY MATTHEW LITTLE

CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS WITH STAFF, STUDENTS AND MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY

Empty? or Full?

Have you ever been full? I mean really full! Think of just finishing that Thanksgiving meal or pushing away from a Christmas dinner. It’s the feeling that comes when you have reached your max and nothing else could be added. You might plop down on the couch realizing you couldn’t eat another bite. I sometimes wish believers would get that feeling when we contemplate all that Christ is to us and has done for us.

How would you evaluate your life at this moment? Do you feel full, satisfied, blessed? During the time of the judges, when every man was doing “that which was right in his own eyes”, there was a family that dwelt in Bethlehem-Judah (the house of bread). A famine had laid siege on the land and this was, no doubt, a result of the people’s sin. The family, comprised of a couple and their two sons, fled to Moab to seek some relief. There, in that foreign land, Naomi’s husband and two sons died.

At this point she had lived in Moab for ten years. Why did they leave Bethlehem-Judah to begin with? It was primarily because they thought

they were empty. The famine had dried up the land, which resulted in economic hardships which, no doubt, contributed to marital tensions and possibly other strained relationships.

This couple left the promised land, thinking they were empty, to journey to a far off country, thinking they would be filled.

As we fast-forward this story ten long, disappointing years, we read these words from Naomi. Upon returning home she declared, “I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty” (Ruth 1:21a).

Now the truth is finally revealed.

They thought they left their homeland empty and Moab would fill them, but really, they went out full and Moab emptied them.

So what should this teach us?

First, we learn too late what truly satisfies and fills us. We head out supposedly “with Jesus” on a quest to find other things that will fill us only to realize that we were already filled from the start. To have a vibrant relationship with Jesus is to have everything and to lack that intimacy is to have nothing.

FIELD TRIP

Third, we grossly undervalue our relationship with God and with others. Before Naomi left she had her family, friends, the support of God’s people and a relationship with God. He had led them to the promised land and promised to take care of them.

Yet, she felt empty and thought Moab would fill her in a way that these relationships could not. Now she returns with all relationships severed and realized that what she had before she left made her truly full and blessed. J. Vernon McGee once said, “When you are out of fellowship with God, you’ll find you’re going to get your whipping in a far-off country and you’ll be coming home again empty.” My friend, your life may feel empty at this very moment, but take a closer look and you may realize, like Naomi, you are much fuller than you actually know.

FAMILY FILE

BY MIKE GRANT

BIRTH

Student Team to Bolivia

November 15, 2017 - to Caleb (’16) and Jennie (Olmstead ’16), a son, Sawyer Anthony James.

Once again, I’ll be heading to Bolivia with a team of 15 students, leaving on February 24 and returning on March 9. Our first stop will be the Ethnos National Training Center in Santa Cruz where we will start building a house for Bolivian missionaries. Next, we’ll head into the Andes to the city of Cochabamba to help Jaime and Sandra Vargas. This is the third year the NBBI Bolivia team has assisted them in their ministry to the brick-yard kids. In addition to a work 2

Second, the criteria we use to determine whether we are full or not is often arrived at by what is around us and not what is within us. Colossians 3:4 says that in Christ we find all the treasures we really need.

project, we’ll be running a VBS program and seeking to share Christ with those we encounter. What a blessing it is to partner with an awesome family that the Lord is using greatly as well as with their local church!

Mike Grant is a missionary with Ethnos Canada (formerly New Tribes Mission) and represents that mission throughout the Atlantic Provinces.

Mike also serves as a part-time faculty member at New Brunswick Bible Institute and teaches our Missions’ courses and New Testament Survey.

ALUMNEWS Ben Clouston graduated from the Advanced Biblical Ministries/Bachelor of Theology program in 2010.

He and his wife, Vanessa, live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He shared, “I have been a youth pastor at two different churches in the Winnipeg area.” Pray for Ben as he carries on an important ministry, working with the youth in the Winnipeg area.

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