January 2019 OBB

ON THE ROAD

MEN FOR

STAFF ITINERARIES

MATTHEW LITTLE January 9, 16, 23, 30 Faith Bible Church Olamon, ME Extension Classes January 18-20 First Baptist Church Waterloo, ON College & Career Retreat

DAVID DOHERTY January 17, 31 Open Bible Campus Church Victoria Corner, NB Prayer Meeting

CHAPEL SPEAKERS January 15-18.................John Romano Child Evangelism Fellowship of Maine January 22-24.........One Hope Canada Missionaries January 29-30.................Steve Gordon Gospel Misson of South America

FAMILY LIFE HOMEGOING

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Lawrence Aubrey Drake attended NBBI for the 1962-1963 school year.

On October 29, 2018, Lawrence went home to be with his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Lawrence attended the Clinton Baptist Church where he taught Sunday school, sang in the choir, ushered and helped out in any way he could. Please pray for his wife, Sharon (Manson, attended ‘61’63), and their extended family.

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

Printed in Canada

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

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Dr. Dino Pedrone After serving as President of Davis College in Johnson City, NY, Dr. Pedrone became their Chancelor/Historian. Before this role of leadership, Dr. Pedrone pastored two churches over a 40 year period, including The Open Door Church of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and New Testament Baptist Church in South Florida.

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JOHN HOAG January 9, 16, 23, 30 Faith Bible Church Olamon, ME Extension Classes

GOD

OUR PASSION

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Ted Lynch

Ted Lynch is a Christian singer/ song-writer from Craigville, NB. He left the work force to pursue youth ministry. He has managed a radio station and spent much of his time serving with youth. He now travels, singing and sharing his life-changing story.

January 25-26, 2019

Larry Rushton’s

Bible institute GOD’S PURPOSE

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New Brunswick

VOL. 60 NO. 1 JANUARY 2019

WHO IS IT ?

Because I joined the staff at NBBI right after I graduated in 1978, I know quite a few of our grads. I can’t always come up with a name but usually recognize a face. Today I received a couple of photos in the mail.

One was a recent photo and the other was a photo of this lady when she graduated from NBBI. As I looked at the two, I thought this might be fun.

Can you guess who this NBBI grad is? Watch for the answer and an old photo in next month’s issue of the Open Bible Bulletin.

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Send us your photos and join the fun. Add some information about where you are and what you’re doing. Digital photos can be sent to me, at larry.rushton@nbbi.ca as an email attachment.

OPEN BIBLE BULLETIN FOCUS

BY MATTHEW LITTLE Viewing Life Through the Wrong Lens Every person on planet earth has some kind of worldview or framework by which they process reality and make sense of life. A worldview is an interpretive lens that we look through that determines what we believe philosophically, scientifically, economically, socially, politically, morally, etc. This interpretive lens (worldview) is the combination of all that we believe and, by extension, all that we believe will determine how we behave. The problem is that the world’s lens continues to change as time goes on. Not only does it change, but often, people have sev-

eral lenses that are interchangeable. A follower of Jesus Christ is to have a biblical worldview that is not interchangeable but rather infallible and immutable. God’s Word, which is the ultimate source of truth, is the unalterable lens by which we base all that we believe in this world.

In Philippians 3, Paul tells us that he too once viewed life through the wrong lens. His worth was based upon who he was (“stock of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews”, verse 5); what he knew (“as touching the law, a Pharisee”, verse 5); and what he had done (“persecuted the church of God”, verse 6). The world viewed Paul’s successes and accolades as victories. Paul said a carnal, fleshly, worldview considered these things to be “gains” (verse 7). A carnal worldview is tallying its successes and filling its box of life with trophies, accomplishments and victories.

The pagan secularist says, “He who has the most

toys when he dies, wins.” The pagan religionist says, “He who has the most accomplishments (works) in his box, wins.” The world strives for gains but in responding to his own previous mindset, Paul says of all his previous gains, he counted loss for Christ. The gains (plural) are all loss (singular). The many gains of Paul were not mostly losses, rather the many gains were loss. In fact, Paul said that the gains were gains “to me”. All that he had chased after in his sin was not for God’s benefit. In contrast to that carnal worldview that leads to loss and is focused on many perceived gains, the biblical worldview is summarized in Philippians 3:10a, “That I might know Him.” Could it be that our biblical worldview has digressed to a carnal one? A biblical worldview focused on Christ has one Master and one goal, “this one thing I do”, verse 13. A carnal, secular worldview has many masters and many goals, “I count all things”, verse 8.

Maybe this year the “all things” need to become “this one thing I do.”

Viewing life through the biblical lens that God gives us, leads to a single focus and a unified purpose. A one thing focus in life presses toward “the mark” (verse 14) which is Jesus Christ. An all things focus leads to spiritual loss.

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PRESIDENT’S CHALLENGE

BY MATTHEW LITTLE

A Perfect Picture of Calvary Most people who are 80 years of age have no ambitions of becoming a mountaineering expert unless their name is Yuichiro Miura. This man is famous, having been the oldest person to ever climb Mount Everest. He accomplished the feat after he’d had four heart operations and suffered a broken pelvis a few years prior. Yuichiro said the descent almost killed him. As impressive as this event is, it pales in comparison to the one we find in Genesis 22. It is the “Holy Ground” story of Abraham and Isaac. The offering of Isaac was to be a foreshadow of Calvary.

So connected was this event with Calvary that Jesus said to the religious leaders, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”

(John 8:56). Galatians 3:8 further adds that God knew how He would justify the ungodly and He “…preached the gospel unto Abraham.” Abraham’s willingness to offer up Isaac certainly fits this description. Isaac pictures Christ in that

his birth was prophesied (Genesis 18:10; Isaiah 7:14), he was named before he was born (Genesis 17:19; Matthew 1:21) and he was the beloved son of Abraham (Genesis 22:2; John 3:16).

As Abraham journeyed to Moriah, he was mourning the loss of his son. So strong was Abraham’s faith that when God said your son would die, Isaac was already as good as dead in Abraham’s mind. Hebrews 11:19 verifies this when it says, “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”

This verse is telling us that Abraham did receive him back from the dead figuratively.

As Abraham and Isaac arrived at Moriah, he told his servants to wait at the base of the mountain while he and Isaac went up to worship (Genesis 22:5). Never forget that God the Father and God the Son went to a place that you and I will never fully know. The transaction that took place between the Father and Son

was intimate, private and for the eyes of the Godhead alone.

When Isaac realized that he was the sacrifice, he willingly submitted to his father. Let’s be honest, a young, strong teenager could have easily overpowered his 100 year-old father but he did not.

They are on that mountain top with only father and son present. Isaac was bound and he laid on the alter and Abraham had the knife raised (Genesis 22:9-12). Up to a point, Isaac represents Jesus and then the picture changes and he then represents you and I. Isaac is destined to receive the knife of God’s wrath and then God says I have someone else who will take that knife for you Isaac. The same is true for us. There was a ram caught in the thickets by its horns. The ram had thorns on its head and God had a Lamb crowned with thorns to take our place as well.

It wasn’t Isaac that God was after; it was Abraham. Abraham, will you trust Me, believe Me and give all to Me, even if it is your one and only son? How about you?

february 15-17 march 15-17 nbbi.ca/encounter

Speaker

Brent Finchum Brent Finchum is a youth ministry coach living with his wife, Stacy, and their four children in Birmingham, Alabama. Through his ministry, he is involved in training ministry-leaders and helping them implement strategic, discipleship efforts within their local church.

Brent also leads a team of ministry 2

coaches serving alongside local churches throughout the southeast region of the United States. Over the past decade of serving churches, Brent has had the opportunity to minister to thousands of students and leaders, both in the U.S. and abroad. Through his ministry, he endeavors to challenge young people to become wholly-devoted followers of Christ. Brent’s aspiration is to see this generation rise up and lead a movement that will wake up the church and change the world as we know it.

Georgina graduated from New Brunswick Bible Institute in 1981 When I arrived in Madagascar in September, 2011, to serve in the AIM Madagascar office, I thought there would be little adjustment to living in a different country—after all I had already lived in Kenya and Tanzania; but there were still challenges and lessons to learn. One of the biggest challenges was learning one of the 18 dialects of the Malagasy language.

guage. Yes, I found the Malagasy language very difficult to learn. I still do.

There were times when I wanted to give up but the Lord gave me a good teacher who wouldn’t let me do that. She has patiently worked with me over the past seven years and I am able to communicate a little better now than when I first began. I was reminded again and again that the Lord will equip me for the task before me – even if it means learning this difficult language.

To help in this endeavour, the Lord led me to a Baptist church where the service is all in Malagasy, which helped me to focus more on learning Malagasy. One way of serving in this church was by preparing activity sheets each week to go along with the lesson for Junior Church – this helped in learning a bit more of the lan-

One of the highlights of serving in Madagascar has been the privilege of building relationships and serving with the Malagasy people. The Lord has opened doors of opportunity to disciple and encourage, whether through Bible study with Malagasy friends, or training Malagasy believers to serve as missionaries. I thank the Lord for each one of these people and the opportunity to encourage them in their walk with the Lord and service for Him.

2015 marked another change in ministry when I began to train Malagasy staff to take over the responsibilities of running the AIM office in the area of finances, managing the guesthouse, as well as the office administration. This was a lesson in delegating responsibility instead of doing it myself; but again what joy to work alongside the Malagasy people.

The Lord willing, I will return to Madagascar in December. Though I will still be involved a little in supervising the office work from time to time, I will focus more on one-on-one Bible Study discipleship, meeting regularly with Malagasy believers who have a call to serve the Lord in full-time service. These Bible studies will be held in Malagasy, so the challenge to get a good grasp of the language continues.

I still claim God’s promise that He will enable me by equipping me for the task before me. “Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it.” I Thessalonians 5:24