CL Jan Apr 21 by Robert

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Heb. 4:16

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, We are grateful to God for His amazing protection and provision in the past year. Though there are challenging times, God has sustained us by His Grace. In ‘Living with Joy’, John Neufeld talks about being content in all situations. Paul is saying that: when I am poverty stricken, have nothing, and all men speak ill of me, I can live through even that experience with joy and contentment – knowing that Christ and the reward He promises is more than enough. I can live through any difficult experience, whether broke or well supplied, and never take my eyes off of Jesus. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me! Nothing can steal my joy, and nothing can steal my confidence in my hope. Let us learn to be fully content in Him. William MacDonald in his article ’Great is the Lord’ says that the greatest thought that can occupy the human mind is the contemplation of God. Human intellect can find no subject more lofty and more worthy than this. He goes on to emphasise that thinking about God is the highest occupation, the most sublime exercise of our mental faculties. Petersen in ‘Bill of rights for Parents’ clarifies that there is a vast difference between giving our children the necessary love and discipline, which is their right, and pampering them into becoming irresponsible delinquents. These parents have programmed their children to get everything their little heart’s desire— if not immediately, at least after a “nag and whine” session. The gospel reveals how much God loves us; and God’s love in us enables us to be loving. In the article ‘Measured by the Gospel’, Wiersbe tells that a Christian who is close to God’s heart will not be critical or unkind. He challenges the believers to reflect on how we fulfil our basic responsibilities in light of the gospel. John Piper says that according to the Bible, Christ gave himself ‘To Deliver Us from the Present Evil Age’, it does not mean that he will take us out of the world, but that he will deliver us from the power of the evil in it. Due to financial downtrend a combined issue of Jan-Feb & Mar-Apr 2021 has been printed, we regret the inconvenience caused and request for prayers. Let me share these encouraging scriptures: “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength…Those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” — Isaiah 40:29,31 May the Lord grant you strength and wisdom to live a confident life in Christ. God bless you With Best Regards.

Rev. A.P. Anil Kumar Associate Director (apanil@backtothebible.in)

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Contents

Philippians 1:6

Jan-Apr’

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

2021

3 Designed For Your Need 5 Can you see where you are going? 6 Living with Joy 7 Young Challenge 8 Just as I am 9 Letters from Readers

11 Great is the Lord

21 Bio | Oswald Chambers 24 The Threshing Floor

14 Bill of rights for parents

26 Depression

16 Measured by the Gospel

30 Expect the Unexpected

17 YOUTH | Living Hope 18 Jesus died to deliver us from the present Evil Age 19 The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

Engaging

Bible Everyday

First: Your rights are as important as your child’s, if not more important! Your responsibility is greater; therefore, your authority must be greater.

34 Do you know who is He? 36 Creative Bible Learning 37-38 Faith Partner Form

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~Theodore H. Epp~ 1 John 1:5-10

or a person to walk in the light requires that he first receive Christ as personal Saviour. The light of God’s Word must first have enlightened that person’s heart and convicted him of his sin. That same light reveals to us the holiness of God and brings us to a reverential fear of Him, something foreign to the natural man (see Rom. 3:18). That same light reveals to us how Christ came to reconcile us to God. To us is offered “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference” (v. 22). Christians who walk in the light become increasingly conscious of the holiness of God and of the sinfulness of sin. They are not deluded into denying that they have a sinful nature. They realize that they still have sinful tendencies that are expressed in fleshly impulses, non spiritual inclinations and standards of living that are patterned after the world rather than after God. These are all sinful in the sight of God, and to call them righteous rather than sinful is to walk in darkness. Should we even so much as waver in our trust in God, we sin, for the Word says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12). CL

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this church gave well beyond their means. (see Philippians 4:14-16) While it is true that the church and other Christian ministries cannot function without the generous donations of those who give, I also know that God could rain down money from heaven – and so bypass the need for any donors at all. So why is Paul so pleased with the Philippians’ giving record? In Philippians 4:17, Paul says, “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.” Paul rejoices in the fact that they have used their money to support ministry and have seen the gospel move forward. Their giving has shown him what their hearts hold as valuable!

Series: “Philippians: The Fellowship of the Gospel”

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:11-13)

because He was interested in dealing with the internal condition of people. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:34) Any preacher who does not speak about money does not have an interest in the hearts of people.

Some of us might not be convinced of this. We may still think that all that Christian ministries want oney is a thought- of us is their money and all of this provoking thing. Jesus kind of talk is deceitful – it will all talked about it a lot. In a come down to the same thing. third of His parables, He addresses the concept of wealth. Most of us are So, let us have an honest well acquainted with the accounts of conversation about money. the rich young ruler, or of Zacchaeus, the tax collector from Jericho. For Paul, in his partnership with the Philippian church to bring the Jesus talked to people about gospel into the heart of the Roman money not because all He wanted world, money was required. When was their money. The reason he we read about this church, we see talked about money so much is how generous they were. In fact,

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You see, the fundamental point that Jesus stressed about money is that how we use it is an accurate diagnostic tool of the state of our hearts. Want to diagnose your own spiritual condition? Today, you can look at your bank account and your use of money as it relates to how you give. What are your finances saying about where your “treasure” is? As we look at the apostle Paul and his attitude, I believe we can learn another lesson about living with joy as it relates to our money. Paul knows that an unhealthy lust after money is altogether destructive to the soul. Money can, like sex, be the cause of fidelity, faithfulness and love – or it can destroy every last moral and spiritual impulse in your being. In Philippians 4:13, Paul says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Now, some people have made this well known verse their “life verse.” But what concerns me is how we tend to abuse it.

JAN – APR | 2021

So what does it really mean? Well, in this context, what Paul is saying is this: when I am poverty stricken, have nothing, and all men speak ill of me, I can live through even that experience with joy and contentment – knowing that Christ and the reward He promises is more than enough. I can live through any difficult experience, whether broke or well supplied, and never take my eyes off of Jesus. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me! Nothing can steal my joy, and nothing can steal my confidence in my hope. Even money or lack of it cannot do that. Application: Are you living with joy? Can you echo the words of Paul, or are you always lacking in joy because there are some things you still want? Let us learn to say, “were it not for what Christ offers, I would be of all men and women most to be pitied!” Let us be fully content in Him! CL

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A Devotional Thought on the Hymn...

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

young lady was severely injured in an automobile accident and onlookers knew that she would require immediate medical attention. Shortly before she was placed in the ambulance she cried, “Don’t let my doctor see me this way. Get me cleaned up first.”

If you heard someone talk this way, you would have reason to wonder if she were rational. Men train to be doctors in order to take care of emergency situations just like this. They spend years in college, in internship and in practice in order to help people who are sick or injured. It is not reasonable to think that an injured person should not go to a doctor at a time of emergency and need.

Someone else says, “I can’t go to a perfect God in my condition.” True, that is why God sent Jesus to be the Mediator. We are to come just as we are—sin and all. It was for sin-sick people that Jesus shed His blood. But this invitation is not exclusively for the unsaved. Christians are included too. When sin crops up, doubts and discouragements take over and conflicts continually pull first one way and then another, how do we react? Do we try to work out these situations by ourselves? Jesus’ invitation, “Come, just as you are,” is for us too. He says, “Don’t try to mend things by yourself; don’t try to run your own life. You can’t change the circumstances, so come just as you are.”

And yet, this is how some people react when it comes to spiritual matters, “I’m not good enough,” says the unsaved person. Of course, he isn’t. If he were, Whatever your problem today, say Christ would not have had to die. “I’ll wait until I’m not so sinful,” says another. with this hymn writer: “O Lamb of God, Jesus said that people who are well don’t I come! I come!” CL need a doctor; only those who are sick.

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Letters from Readers... 1. Back to the Bible ministry is very special to us. Our dad Late R.Y.Samuel introduced us to this ministry, way back during 1960s. From that time we are in touch with you. We are retired pensioners, our children are away, but thanks for keeping in touch with us and sending the ‘Confident Living’ magazine to revive us in our old age. -Mrs. Rawlin, Tamil Nadu 2. I still remember the days when I used to hear the Bible Study by late Rev. Theoder Epp in the radio program when I was a youth. Ever since, the ministry of Back to the Bible has played a vital part in knowing and growing in my faith in my Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever I am today is the foundation laid in those days by your ministry. – Dr. Sam William, Kerala 3. Thanks for sending ‘Confident Living’ magazine, in spite of the pandemic situation and financial constraints. It is a magazine I look forward to. It covers several aspects of our lives, from our formative years to old age. It is inspiring, edifying and instructive. May the Lord bless this literature ministry of yours and make it instrumental in bringing many to the Lord Jesus Christ. – Mrs. Saritha, TN.

Names of those who sent the Answers for the Quiz on Luke 13-18 CONGRATS TO ALL THE WINNERS !!

1.Mary Swaroopa Rani, Secunderabad 2.Mrs.L.K.David, Secunderabad 3.Saritha Kumaresan, Kanchipuram 4.Emmanuel, Secunderabad 5.Chandrakala Elia, Huzurabad

4. Thank you for so regularly sending me the CL magazine. I look forward to reading all the challenging articles. Warren Wiersbe is my favorite author. I am 86 yrs old, I was very happy to read an article on “Life after 60”. I am not able to learn electronic communication, so I love to read your magazine from the first page to the last cover page. –Mrs. S. Alva, Bangalore.

6.Vanaja Samuel, Bangalore

5. I have been an ardent listener to the Back to the Bible radio program since my childhood days. We used to listen on SLBC every morning from 7- 7:30 AM. Somehow after my marriage I moved to US, then I lost in touch with you all. Recently I returned to India and found the CL magazine in my church, my joy was immense seeing it, I just recollected the old memories of visiting your office and how I was blessed by the radio messages. Now I am happy to reconnect with you. May God bless you as you spread the gospel of Christ. – Mridula, Vijayawada, AP

12.Immanuel David, Chennai

6. We Thank and praise God for all His benefits towards us even in the times of the pandemic and scarcity in our lives. We want to thank you for the ministry of Back to the Bible, for spreading the message of gospel through various ways, even digitally. God has led us into a new year with His mighty hand. May God bless your ministry and all this working for it. - Anita Hermon, Secunderabad

19. Jalaja Naresh, Bangalore

7. Birdie Stanly, Kannure 8.Janet Peter, Secunderabad 9.Susila Jayakumar, Arakkonam 10.Hepzibah Thomas, Chennai 11.Shirley Sam, Arakkonsl 13.P.E.J.Samuel, Chennai 14.Nirmala David, Madurai 15Joshua Raman, Secunderabad 16.Selena Dhilip, Trichy 17.Ruth Joseph, Bangalore 18. Magdalene Daniel, Hyderabad 20. Garapati Rao, Hyderabad 21. Mary Benher, Secunderabad 22.Premlatha Sekhar, Kadapa 23. Grace, 24. Neeraja Sampath Daniel, Mumbai

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to live and die without ever thinking deeply and seriously about one’s Creator and Lord. Having spent some time in the contemplation of God, we now should realize that the subject is too big for our minds to take in fully. We are like children with their little buckets at the edge of the ocean. We can fill our buckets, but the ocean is not diminished. It should not bother us that we cannot fully understand God. If we could, we would be as great as He is. Even throughout eternity we will be ceaselessly learning the wonders of His person and work. Novatian, a third-century Christian martyr, wrote, God is greater than mind itself. His greatness cannot be conceived. Nay, could we conceive of His greatness, He would be less than the human mind which could form the conception. He is greater than all language, and no statement can express Him. Indeed, if any statement could express Him, He would be less than human speech, which could by such statement comprehend and gather up all that He is. All our thoughts about Him will be less than He, and our loftiest utterances will be trivialities in comparison with Him. Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; Nor can the number of His years be discovered. —Job 36:26

How grateful we should be that God has given us minds that are able to consider His knowledge, holiness, love, power, and wisdom. True, we He does great things, which we see through a glass darkly. But never cannot comprehend. —Job 37:5 mind! It is still a tremendous privilege to stretch our minds to the limit in hat is the greatest contemplating His divine attributes. thought that can occupy the human mind? The I often think of the great scientists contemplation of God. Human and philosophers of the world intellect can find no subject more and of the tremendous issues they lofty and more worthy than this. No have grappled with. But many of other theme comes close. Thinking them have never wrestled with about God is the highest occupation, the greatest issue of all—the the most sublime exercise of our eternal God. It seems an enormous mental faculties. prostitution of the human intellect

JAN – APR | 2021

Now, by way of summarizing God’s attributes, let us think about His greatness as it is unfolded in the Bible. As we read various Scriptures, we will notice that the words seem to bend under the weight of the ideas. The Spirit of God harnesses human language so that we may better understand. He assigns human form and personality to God so that we can better comprehend Him. He exhausts vocabulary to express the inexpressible. Turn first to Job 26:14. In the preceding verses, Job has given a CONFIDENT LIVING

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marvelous description of the Lord. It is one of the many breathtaking portraits of God in the Old Testament, setting forth His wisdom and power in creation. Then when Job is all through, he says, Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, And how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand? In other words, God is so great that we see only the fringes of His ways and we hear only a whisper of His power. If the fringes are so mindboggling, what must the fullness be? And if the whisper is so deafening, what must the thunder be? Moving on to Psalm 104:32, we get another insight into God’s greatness. It says, “He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the hills, and they smoke.” A glance from God can produce an earthquake, and His touch can cause volcanic eruptions. That’s power! A mere look from the Almighty causes the foundations of the earth to shift violently, and the gentle touch of His hand causes Vesuvius to pour out tons of molten lava. If such slight impulses cause such shattering cataclysms, what would the full unleashing of God’s power produce? In Psalm 113:6, we read that God “humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth.” It is a beautiful way of describing the transcendence of the Lord—the fact that He is far above and beyond the limits of our experience or our universe. If we were to stand on our tiptoes, we couldn’t behold the things that are in heaven. What would be an enormous stretch for us is an enormous stoop for God. The human mind cannot imagine how exalted above all creation God is.

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Psalm 147:4 says, “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Here are two marvels— the ability to count interminably without running out of numbers and to assign a myriad of names without duplication. We do not know how many stars there are, and even if we did know, we do not have words in our vocabulary to express such quantities. British astronomer Sir James Jeans once said that it’s very likely that there are as many stars in the heavens as there are grains of sand on all the seashores of the world. In the light of that, it’s interesting that when God made the promise of a numberless posterity to Abraham, He spoke of stars and sand in the same breath (Gen. 22:17). In counting the stars, God shows Himself to be a God of infinite capacity. In giving each one a name, He reveals Himself as a God of infinite variety. Surely, He is the God of the telescope. But if you look back at the preceding verse, you will find that He is the God of the microscope as well: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Ps. 147:3). The One who knows every detail of the celestial expanses is vitally interested in His sorrowful creatures. Such personal concern is awesome when you consider what a speck of cosmic dust our planet is in the universe, and how tiny we are, even in comparison to the earth. Yet the same God who counts the stars and gives a distinct name to each one also stoops low in grace to heal the brokenhearted and to bind up their wounds. The prophet Isaiah states, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple” (6:1). The train of His robe filled the temple! What does that mean? The train is the part of a

robe that trails behind. Only here it refers not to an actual garment but to the Lord’s glory—His radiance and moral excellence. Picture for a minute a wedding in Westminster Abbey where the bridal gown is so great that its train fills the whole abbey. Then transfer the picture to the Lord and His glory. If the train of His glory fills the temple, what would the full display of that glory be like? In Isaiah 40, we have another superlative description of the Lord. God is remonstrating with His people because they have become idolaters. That is the ultimate insult—to turn from this glorious Person we’ve been describing and to worship graven images representing a man, a bird, a four-footed beast, or a snake. Anyone else would have destroyed humanity long ago, but the Lord pleads with men and women in longsuffering mercy: Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand. Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, And are counted as the small dust on the scales; Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to bum, Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing, JAN – APR | 2021

And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless (Isa. 40:12-17).

In the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet (1:3).

impoverished accordingly. If our God is too small, we will never rise to greatness in His kingdom. Frederick William Faber sums it up:

Notice what this says about the Think of that! The tornado and God we have been contemplating. the storm have their way with us, O how the thought of God attracts He is so great that He measures the but God has His way with them. To and draws the heart from earth, waters in the palm of His hand— us, the clouds resemble towering And sickens it of passing shows is virtuous thenIndian, the means to that time for such some made by Henri Bremond: the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Himalayas, butthings. He isPossibly so high andstatement and dissipating mirth! end is acceptable. Not so, however. readers – activists perhaps – are ‘Adoration disinfects us from egoism. ’ souls, and Antarctic Oceans, and all the great that they are no more than ‘Tis not enough to save our Though I am aware that I am getting thinking to themselves at this stage: I can say no more on this subject. seas, lakes, ponds, and rivers. is justdust to shun eternal fires; slightly philosophical here,He I will ‘Allunder this is His fine feet. but inWilliam a worldCowper such so great make that this Hepoint measures saidas itours well:we“He plants His footsteps of be Godwith will Dr rouse the and thenheaven leave it: the would be better given Let The the thought last word self-regarding something to social reform or works charity. Lloyd-Jones: ‘If we desires. spent CL “with a span. ” A span nature is the of distance in the sea and rides uponofthe storm.Martyn heart to more sublime not tip changed end is is howand we can glorify God.His ’ more of our time looking at [God] betweenisthe of thebecause thumbtheand TheThis winds the best waves obey virtuous and not evil. Henri Bremond, Edward Box, in his book, The Ethics of we would spend less time thinking the tip ofthe theFrench little writer, finger.used God’s span will.Socialism, ” a wonderful put it more bluntly when about ourselves.’ is able to include arch the phrase when the he said thatofadoration he said: ‘The idea of a holy working Further Study If you don’t see the ‘disinfect us from And man then is grotesque. ’ The tension here heaven. has He the canpower scooptoup the dust in the book of Habakkuk, greatness of God, then egoism’ . When we adore God and is the age-old one between the 41:1; Hab. of the earth in the third part of a we have another great vision of God Psa. 123:1-4; Eccles. 3:7; Isa. put Him at the centre and see that all contemplative and the activist. 2:20; Rev. 8:1all things that money measure worth (about two bushels). He in His solitary, unparalleled splendor:1. Why would we be silent before is in Him then everything else, can buy become very can weigh the majestic came from Teman, including the self, ismountains removed to the God Work for God, as I have said, is God? exciting. Ifworship. you can’t circumference. important, but I stress again that and and hills in His scales; to Him, they The Holy One from Mount Paran. 2. Contrast adoration see the sun, you will be the most effective service for God is are very insignificant. The mightiest Selah. The best way to become holy is accomplished by those who know Matt. 17:1-8; 2 Cor. 4:1-18 impressed with a street empires in the world are equivalent His glory covered the heavens, not to set about eliminating from Him intimately. It cannot be without 3. What happens when we gaze on light. If you’ve never felt to the last remaining drop a to And the earththat was of always His praise. your life all the things youin know significance ourfull Lord put Jesus? thunder and lightning, be unholy. is one way, of course, His love for God before love forlight; others. 4. How do we reflect the glory of bucket—no moreThat important than brightness was like the but ifdruggist’s we use thatscales. methodIfalone argue that He His puthand; love Jesus? you’ll be impressed with dust on the you it is HeSome had might rays flashing from possible to cut off the branches and for God on a par with love for others, fireworks. And if you were to take all the cedars of Lebanon And there His power was hidden still leave the trunk intact. Gazing but that is not so. Love for Him is to be Deut. 6:1-12; Micah 6:6-8; Matt. turn your back on the for firewood and all its animals for (3:3-4). in love on God deals with the trunk. our priority. Contemplation of God 22:34-40 greatness and majesty sacrifice, The the more burntweoffering focus onwould Him thebe more and nearness to Him enables Him to 5. What does God require of us? of God, you’ll fall in His love and power penetrates to the direct His willing servant to the tasks 6. Why is the first commandment utterly insufficient for such a great The question that He leaves for us core of our personality. We gaze, He that He wants done. Experience has first, and the love second one,asecond? CL with world of God. Nahum wrote, is, If this is His hidden power, what invades. shown, I think, that when it comes shadows and short-lived must its fullofrevelation be? to purity motive, commitment to The LORD isAsslow anger and pleasures. youto meditate with great me on this the task, disregard of reward, and “Only one Life, it will soon issue of adoration I wonder if you It self-effacement in service one can in power, is important thatno we have be past, only what’s done for — John Piper thiswicked. is something equal those who And willmight not atbe allthinking acquit the great thoughts of serve God.their If wefellows reduce Christ will last”- C.T. Studd best left to contemplative orders as a consequence of their worship The LORD His–way Him our level, our will of has monks to those who have the andtoadoration of God. Let lives us recall the be

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Parenting FAMILY children to know that you have rights than to use your rights. They will respect your value as you assert your worth, and they will thereby learn to respect and value the worth of others. Third: Have a private life of your own, and have some fun every day. “Recreation” actually means “recreation”—the renewal of the spirit. This is absolutely essential if you are to be at your best for your children and everybody else. Fourth: Don’t try to fulfill your ambitions through your children. Then you won’t resent them for disappointing you, and they won’t hate you for smothering their inner feelings.

his father was hurt and indignant as he exploded to his son: “How can you be so rebellious and disrespectful, after all we’ve done for you? You’re breaking our hearts!” That poor, misguided parent thought that because he had given his child everything—possessions, luxuries and the physical necessities of life—his child would respond with grateful love and justify the sacrifices made for him. But it didn’t work out that way! There is a vast difference between giving our children the necessary love and discipline, which is their right, and pampering them into becoming irresponsible delinquents. Parents who have sacrificed in order to pamper their children will discover too late that they have unwittingly planted larceny in the hearts of their offspring. These

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parents have programmed their children to get everything their little hearts desire— if not immediately, at least after a “nag and whine” session.

Fifth: Teach your children to be self-reliant, and keep your own independence. Your children are visitors, passing through your home on their way to the outside world, where they will be expected to be a help, not a burden. Once they are gone, your life together as husband and wife will continue. Build that relationship now. Don’t let your children steal your interest in one another. Your relationship with each other is more important than your relationship with your children.

Willard and Marguerite Beecher, child guidance counselors, tell us that exploited parents should issue a “Declaration of Independence.” They may have to fight a short war if they are ever to gain equality with The love that many parents have the kids, but they should promote a for their children is really a selfish program that will not allow them as love that wears its feelings on its parents to be enslaved again. sleeve. Such parents cannot listen to the problems of their teenagers Here are some points for a parent’s without becoming emotionally distraught. Their children soon learn “Bill of Rights”: to keep their troubles to themselves, First: Your rights are as important rather than to endure a scene. Yet as your child’s, if not more important! these same parents can’t bring Your responsibility is greater; themselves to draw up guidelines, therefore, your authority must be make decisions or enforce discipline. greater. Many attribute this same Second: Take your full share every spineless, mindless kind of love to time. There is no better way to teach God, imagining that a God of love JAN – APR | 2021

would never punish sinners. How foolish! Nothing could be further from the truth! Does God have less character than a good parent? He does not pamper us or let us call the shots. The final authority is His, and when we come to Him, we come strictly on His terms. And what are these terms? We are to give up our resistance and to let Christ run our lives from this day on. We say “Lord, what will You have me to do?” (Read Luke 9:23-26.) The result is fantastic! CL

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Leadership Parenting be true to its message. 2. Are we bearing fruit and increasing? The message of salvation is not sterile or stagnant. It produces life by “bringing forth fruit” (v. 6). Are we seeing people come to Christ through the different ministries of our church? 3. Are we a loving church family? Paul had been told of the love demonstrated in the Colossian church (v. 8), and that love was a result of their response to the gospel. When we are mutually concerned about winning the lost and sharing our faith, it produces a harmony within the body that prevents unkindness. Church leaders make a lot of decisions about budgets, staff, programs, services, and curriculum. In making those decisions, we have s Paul began his letter to for the Lord we are constantly being to consider whether they will further the Christians in Colossae, measured by the gospel. Let us apply the gospel—because our church is he gave thanks for them, this truth in two areas. evaluated in the light of its truths. and for the way they first responded to the “good news” of the gospel. First, our church itself is measured The second application of this It had transformed their lives, and by the gospel. As Paul reviewed the passage is to our personal lives, which molded them into a faithful church. early days of the Colossian church, are also measured by the gospel. A he touched on several influences church is made up of individuals, Someone said that for today’s the gospel should exert on the and God will hold us to account for Christians the “good news” is no fellowship of believers. We can frame what we have done with the gospel longer good, nor is it news. We have them as questions and test our own message. Our responsibility here is threefold: . grown accustomed to the gospel, church by the answers. but it should never be routine for a child of God. Some believers treat 1. Are we true to the gospel First, we are responsible for their salvation like a consolation message! The gospel had come to what we have heard. The Colossians prize: if they get nothing else out of the Colossians (v. 6), and they were “heard... the word of the truth of life, at least they will go to heaven. proclaiming it as they had learned the gospel” (v. 5), and what they That God loves us, that Christ died it. Some Christians think that being heard affected the way they lived. for our sins on the cross, that we spiritually “deep” means leaving They began the process of growing have eternal life—all this should the simple truths behind. Actually, toward maturity. Is what you have thrill us every day! things that can be simply stated are heard becoming ingrained in your often the most profound—such as daily life? Our new life in Christ began the words “I love you.” We need to be Second, we are also responsible when we responded by faith to the sure that the words that first brought gospel. No longer “babes in Christ,” us to Christ are still presented—in the for sharing what we have heard. The we still want to grow and mature pulpit, the Sunday school classroom, Colossians did not keep the gospel as Christians, but we cannot leave the Bible-study group. The gospel is to themselves. They shared it, and the gospel behind! In fact, as we live a source of God’s grace, and we must there was fruit and increase (v.6). The

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gospel is worth possessing, and it is worth passing on. Third, we are responsible to love. Christian love is inclusive—”for all the saints” (v. 4)—and is produced by the Holy Spirit (v. 8). The gospel reveals how much God loves us; and God’s love in us enables us to be loving. A Christian who is close to God’s heart will not be critical or unkind. But if we begin to take the gospel for granted, we may lose some of the energizing power of our “first love.” We are being measured by the gospel. Don’t be nervous about that, as though God were looking over your shoulder all the time. But let us take seriously our accountability as a church, and as individuals, to the truth that is still “good news.” CL

For YOUTH

Living Hope ~R. Elizabeth Erlandson~

Bible Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Pet. 1:3, NIV).

The words “living hope” seemed to jump off the page as I read this passage. After all, who ever heard of “dead hope”? Trouble is, the only thing most people have is dead hope. That’s because the things they trust in are either totally life-less or destined for destruction—things like power, fame, money and other forms of worldly success. Powerful, rich and famous people can make a difference in this life. But if they’re depending on these things alone, their hope is dead. Only living hope, based on faith in the living Saviour, can really make a difference. Think About This: Be honest. Get alone with the Lord and ask Him to show you the “dead hope” that you’ve been depending on. CL JAN – APR | 2021

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felt like freedom was bondage. The Bible speaks straight to twenty-firstcentury fads, fun, and addictions when it says, “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19). The resounding cry of freedom in the Bible is, “Do not be comforted to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2). In other words, be free! Don’t be duped by the gurus of the age. They are here today here and gone tomorrow. One enslaving fad follows another. Thirty years from now today’s tattoos will not be marks of freedom, but indelible reminders of conformity.

(He) gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. Galatians 1:4

ntil we die, or until Christ returns to establish his kingdom, we live in “the present evil age.”Therefore, when the Bible says that Christ gave himself “to deliver us from the present evil age,” it does not mean that he will take us out of the world, but that he will deliver us from the power of the evil in it. Jesus prayed for us like this: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). The reason Jesus prays for deliverance from “the evil one” is that “this present evil age” is the

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The wisdom of this age is folly in view of eternity. “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God” (1 Corinthians 3:18-19). “The word of cross is folly to those who are perishing “ (1 Corinthians 1:18). What then is the wisdom of God in this age? It is the great liberating death of Jesus Christ. The early followers of Jesus said “We preach Christ crucified….the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

age when Satan is given freedom to deceive and destroy. The Bible says “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). This “evil one” is called “the god of the world,” and his main aim is to blind people to truth. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light When Christ went to the cross, of the gospel of the glory of Christ” ( he set millions of captives free. He unmasked the devil’s fraud and 2 Corinthians 4:4). broke his power. That’s what he Until we waken to our darkened meant on the eve of his crucifixion spiritual condition, we line in sync when he said, “Now will the ruler of with “the present evil age” and this world be cast out” (John 12:31). the ruler of it. “You once walked, Don’t follow a defeated foe. Follow following the course of this world, Christ. It is costly. You will be an exile following the prince of the power in this age. But you will be free. CL of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Without knowing it, we were lackeys of the devil. What JAN – APR | 2021

If a man could somehow become a grasshopper, or a microbe, that would be only a weak comparison with what it meant for Christ to become a Man. And he did not enter the world as a full-grown Man. The mighty Creator was born into the world as a baby (Luke 2:7). The all-powerful Sustainer of the universe was a helpless infant, in his mother’s arms. Remember, too, that he was not born to a mother of wealth or of influence, but to a humble Jewish peasant—the Virgin Mary. And his birth did not take place in a clean hospital, or even in a tidy cottage. He was born in a stable and cradled in a manger (Luke 2:7). You see, there was no room for him in the inn.

ust as God’s grace was shown He could have remained in that in the gift of his Son, so place of wealth and rest. He could Christ’s grace was manifested have stayed in heaven, beyond the in his willingness to die for sinners. reach of sorrow, suffering or death. He could have permitted fallen men “For ye know the grace of our Lord to rush headlong to the awful doom Jesus Christ, that, though he was which they deserved. rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty But he chose to leave his wealth, might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). joy and bliss in heaven in order to become the Savior of the world. His grace is seen, then, in these He did not feel that the visible two tremendous facts: display of his equality with God was 1. He was rich. something he must hold on to at all 2. He became poor. costs (Philippians 2:6). He was willing to exchange wealth in heaven for First, he was rich. From all poverty on earth. eternity, he had dwelt in undisturbed peace and joy with God, his Father. He who was rich chose to become He was by him, as One brought poor. up with him; and he was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him He became poor, first of all, (Proverbs 8:30). It would be easier by becoming a Man (Philippians to count the stars than it would be 2:7). This was a tremendous act of to adequately describe the riches condescension—for God to become which were his in heaven. Man. It was an unspeakable stoop. JAN – APR | 2021

For the Lord of glory to be born into the world in this way was an astonishing act of self-emptying. But that was not all. Instead of coming as a ruler, a man of wealth, a high religious official, he came as a Servant (Philippians 2:7). He came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister (Matthew 20:28). The One whom angelic hosts had served in ages past became the Servant of men. And since these men were slaves of sin, he literally became a Servant of slaves. He lived for thirty years in obscurity, most of them in the disreputable village of Nazareth (Luke 2:39). Then he stepped forth into three years of public ministry (John 1:29). You would never have known by looking at him that he was the God of all creation; he had veiled his glory in a body of flesh. He was like one of ourselves—except that he never sinned (1 Peter 2:22). CONFIDENT LIVING

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He went about doing good— 26:69-75). Strange shame! A mortal giving sight to the blind, hearing to man ashamed of the Lord of glory. the deaf, and speech to the dumb. He healed the sick, cured the lame, He was tried by Pontius Pilate and raised the dead to life. (Matthew 27:2). Strange judgment! The innocent condemned by the But men did not love him. His own guilty. brothers misunderstood him. His neighbors scorned him. The religious Then he was crucified by Roman leaders hated him and harassed him. soldiers (Matthew 27:31). The only He endured the bitter contradiction perfect Man who ever lived was of sinners against himself (Hebrews nailed to a criminal’s cross. “He 12:3), only finding in the wickedness became obedient unto death, even of men an excuse to show kindness the death of the cross” (Philippians to them. 2:8). It was a death of shame.

infinite.

He wandered as a homeless stranger in the world his hands had made. He said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Luke 9:58). When his disciples went to the comfort of their homes, Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, presumably to spend the night there, unprotected from the elements (John 7:53; 8:1).

There on the cross, he was the Man who sold all that he had in order to buy the field containing the hidden treasure (Matthew 13:44).

The One who put the sun, moon, and stars in their courses became the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). The blessed Son of God, who never needed to have suffered, became the King of suffering. The Holy One who knew no sin became a sin-offering for ungodly sinners.

There on the cross, He was the Good Shepherd, exploring the sea of God’s wrath to save the sheep that was lost (John 10:11). “And none of the ransomed ever knew, How deep were the waters crossed, Or how dark was the night which the Lord passed through, Ere He found the sheep that was lost.”

There on the cross, he was the merchantman who sold all that he had in order to buy the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45,46).

He became poor in the fullest He who was rich became poor to sense while hanging on the cross. buy sinful man back to himself. During all this time, he was just It was not just that he was suffering as truly God as he ever had been, physical violence at the hands of Such is the grace of our Lord Jesus but he had changed one manner of men. That was severe enough. Christ. John Bunyan said, “Thou life for another. He had left the ivory Son of the Blessed, what grace was palaces for a world of woe. He had But the depth of his suffering was manifested in Thy condescension. left the holy scenes of heaven for the reached during the three hours of Grace brought Thee down from jungle of this world. darkness when he bore God’s wrath Heaven; grace stripped Thee of Thy against man’s sins (Luke 23:44). His glory; grace made Thee poor and At the close of his three years of bitterest anguish occurred when despised; grace made Thee bear public ministry, the opposition to he was forsaken by God—when such burdens of sin, such burdens him reached a climax. The religious he died as a substitute for others of sorrow, such burdens of God’s leaders were determined to get rid (Matthew 27:46). “On him the mighty curse as are unspeakable. O Son of of him. vengeance fell, that would have sunk God! Grace was in all Thy tears; grace the world to hell.” came out of Thy side with Thy blood; And so it came to pass! grace came forth with every word All the sins that were ever of Thy sweet mouth; grace came First of all, he was betrayed into committed—all the sins that are out where the whip smote Thee, the hands of his enemies by one of now being committed—all the sins where the thorn pricked Thee, and his own disciples, Judas (Matthew that will ever be committed —they where the nails pierced Thee. Here is 26:14, 15). The price was thirty pieces were all heaped upon him, and he grace indeed! Grace to make angels of silver. Strange bargain! The died for them all. wonder, grace to make sinners Savior sold for the price of a slave. happy, grace to astonish devils.” CL It is impossible to describe the He was denied by another extent of his sufferings. They simply disciple, Simon Peter (Matthew cannot be measured. They were

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Bible Times Biography & Customs as a student, but he remained after graduation to teach. He had a special interest in philosophy and psychology, and taught those courses. But in November 1901, Chambers had a deep experience with the Lord that transformed his life. He called it a baptism of the Holy Spirit, a term I prefer to apply only to the believer’s experience at conversion (see 1 Cor. 12:13). This special filling of the Spirit gave him new insights into both the Christian life and the courses he was then teaching. In his ministry of the Word, he reveals both the philosopher and the psychologist.

feel I shall be buried for a time, Oswald Chambers was born in hidden away in obscurity; then Aberdeen, Scotland, on July 24, suddenly I shall flame out, do 1874. His parents had been baptized my work, and be gone.” by Charles Spurgeon, who had also ordained Chambers’ father into Those words were spoken by Baptist ministry. While the family was Oswald Chambers, author of My living in London, teenage Oswald Utmost for His Highest and more gave his heart to Christ than thirty other books that never seem to grow old. His statement He and his father were walking was prophetic—except that the home from a meeting conducted flame God lit is still burning brightly, by Spurgeon, and Oswald admitted thanks to the printed page. that he would have given himself to the Lord had the opportunity been When you review the life of Oswald given. “You can do it now, my boy!” Chambers, you can well understand said his father, and right there, the why a friend once introduced him boy trusted Christ and was born as “the apostle of the haphazard.” again. He was baptized by Rev. J. T. Like the wind Jesus spoke of in John Briscoe and became a member of the 3:8, Chambers came and went in a Rye Lane Baptist Church in London. seemingly erratic fashion; yet there was a definite plan in his life, and he A gifted artist, Chambers entered was greatly used of God. He is a good art school in 1892 and three years reminder to boxed-in Christians later went to Edinburgh to continue that God sometimes bypasses our his studies. In 1896, he felt a definite date-books and management-by- call to the ministry, and the following objectives and does the surprising, year he entered the Dunoon Training even the unexpected, in our lives. College in Scotland. Not only did he have an outstanding record JAN – APR | 2021

He left school in 1905 and began an itinerant ministry in Britain, the United States, and Japan. He taught at the Oriental Missionary Society Bible School in Tokyo, and then he became a “missioner’’ for the League of Prayer that had been founded by Reader Harris. He who was married on May 25,1910, to Gertrude Hobbs, a devoted woman who was also an expert stenographer, a fact that would mean much in the years to come. Chambers felt there was a need for a Bible college in Britain that would emphasize personal Christian living and not just education and practical training. With the help of some friends, he founded the Bible Training College at Clapham. The school operated on faith and prayer. When a friend offered to endow the school, Chambers refused the offer saying, “No, if you do that it will probably go on longer than God means it to”. He felt led to offer himself as a military chaplain during World War I, and on October 9,1915, he sailed with the troops for Zeitoun, Egypt, where he ministered until his untimely death on November CONFIDENT LIVING

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15,1917. He had appendicitis and did Each time I read a page from not know it; peritonitis set in and his My Utmost for His Highest, I am life could not be saved. reminded of a forgotten nugget, or I see something new that previously At this point his wife Gertrude had eluded me. It is a book to grow (whom everybody called Biddy) with and, as such, it is unique. and his daughter Kathleen enter the picture and become very important. All the writings of Oswald Biddy remained at their home in Chambers have their value. I Zeitoun and ministered for about must confess that I get a bit a year. Then she and her daughter tired of his alliteration, some of returned to England. Over the years, which seems forced, but I have she had taken stenographic reports learned to look beyond it. I have of her husband’s messages and, at especially appreciated his book on the request of many friends, began Abraham, Not Knowing Whither. to edit and publish them. Oswald The Philosophy of Sin has some Chambers never actually wrote any penetrating insights in it. Chambers of his books, although his name is was similar to F. B. Meyer in his ability on them. He spoke every word, but it to diagnose spiritual problems was his wife, and later his daughter, and give biblical solutions. Biblical who prepared the manuscripts and Psychology reveals Chambers the mothered each book through the amateur psychologist, but the presses. How grateful we are to God emphasis is on the Bible and not that Chambers married an expert the psychology. His studies in Job, stenographer! Baffled to Fight Better, are brief but rich, and very rewarding. His most famous book is My Utmost for His Highest, a daily The official biography, Oswald devotional book that not every Chambers: His Life and Work, was Christian can immediately appreciate compiled and edited by his wife. I recall telling a mature Christian She quoted from his journals, added friend many years ago that I was her own comments, and quoted getting nothing out of the book. “Set from material given her by his many it aside for a time,” she counseled “It’s friends and associates in ministry. something you have to grow into.” Like Chambers himself, this book She was right: the problem was not is a bit haphazard, and the reader the complexity of the book but the can easily lose the chronological spiritual immaturity of the reader. In trail. But the many quotations from later years, I have come to appreciate Chambers, and the revelation of this classic devotional book, and I his personality, make its reading learn more from it as the years go by. worthwhile. It was published in London in 1933 by Simpkin Marshall, Too many devotional books Ltd. are finished with one reading, because they do not get down to What kind of a man was Oswald the fundamental truths that keep Chambers? For one thing, he was expanding into more truth. A good not a brittle and pious “saint” who book is like a seed: it produces fruit lived aloof from the world and the that has in it seed for more fruit. people around him. He was very It is not a picture on the wall; it is much alive, and he had a marvelous a window that invites us to wider sense of humor. One man wrote to horizons. Mrs. Chambers that he had been “shocked at what I then considered

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his undue levity. He was the most irreverent Reverend I had ever met!” But Chambers gave himself totally to the Lord, and this included his sense of humor. He once wrote in his journal, “Lord, keep me radiantly and joyously Thine.” En route to Egypt, he conducted services on the ship and brought his humor into the messages. “Ah, I see,” said one of the men, “your jokes and lightheartedness plough the land, then you put in the seed.” You could not find a better philosophy of humor in the pulpit than that. Chambers emphasized holy living, but he did not divorce it from practical affairs of life. “I am realizing more and more the futility of separating a life into secular and sacred. It is all His.” Those words summarize his position perfectly. He wrote to a friend, “You can be more for Him than ever you know by just being yourself and relying on Him…Keep praying and playing and being yourself”. He felt that his own greatest ministry was that of intercessory prayer. A gifted teacher, he was careful that the truths he taught were meaningful in his own life. “Views from propagandist teaching are borrowed plumes,” he said. “Teaching is meant to stir up thinking, not to store with goods from the outside.” That is good counsel in this age when many teachers and preachers manufacture their lessons and sermons out of borrowed nuggets instead of mining their own gold and refining it in experience. Chambers sought to present truth in ways that would excite new interest in his listeners. One listener said, “I wondered, as I drank in his message, whether I had the same JAN – APR | 2021

Bible as he had. The written Word something we do, it is something we became a Living Word, and as I are, twenty-four hours a day, and we obeyed it my whole life was altered.” live for souls because we love Christ. No counting trophies in his ministry. He would have agreed with A. W. Tozer that the only real world is the He was not afraid to accept truth world of truth found in the Bible. He no matter what channel God might wrote: “The Actual world of things use to give it to him. He told students and the Real world of Truth have to “soak, soak, soak in philosophy to be made into one in personal and psychology. ... It is ignorance of experience.” Too many Christians the subjects on the part of ministers try to avoid this creative tension by and workers that has brought our going either to extreme isolation evangelical theology to such a from the world or In extreme sorry plight.”1 Both in the pulpit preoccupation with the world. and classroom, and as a personal counselor, Chambers revealed his Oswald Chambers loved books keen understanding of the Bible, and read widely. The biography con- the human heart and mind, and the tains references to many authors world of thought. He was able to of different theological positions, blend these disciplines into a total from Alexander Maclaren and John ministry that God greatly used. Henry Jowett to Emmanuel Swedenborg and Ralph Waldo Emerson. “My Let me share a few quotations books!” he wrote to a friend. “I cannot from Oswald Chambers that, I trust, tell you what they are to me—silent, will whet your appetite for more. wealthy, loyal lovers.... I do thank God for my books with every fiber You can never give another of my being. Friends that are ever person that which you have found, true and ever your own.” He always but you can make him homesick for integrated his wide reading with the what you have. Word of God, which he considered the only test for spiritual truth. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our ordinary choices, In many respects, Chambers was and if we are going to choose what not in tune with the general spirit He does not want, He will check, and of evangelical Christianity in his day. we must heed. On his way to Egypt, he wrote in his journal: “How unproselytizing God Every doctrine that is not is! I feel the ‘soul winning campaign’ imbedded in the Cross of Jesus will is often at heart the apotheosis lead astray. (glorification) of commercialism, the desire to see so much result Stop having a measuring rod for from so much expenditure. The other people. There is always one ordinary evangelical spirit is less and fact more in every man’s case about less congenial to my own soul.” His which we know nothing. writings are a good antidote to the success philosophy that has invaded It takes a long time to realize the church in our own day. He said the danger of being an amateur that “the ‘soul saving passion’ as an providence, that is, interfering with aim must cease and merge into the God’s order for others. passion for Christ, revealing itself in holiness in all human relationships.” Our Lord’s first obedience was to In other words, soul-winning is not the will of His Father, not to the needs JAN – APR | 2021

of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. One of his sayings that is underlined in my copy of My Utmost for His Highest has been especially meaningful to me. The snare in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service, to rejoice in the fact that God has used you… if you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure that ever lived. The lodestar of the saint is God Himself, not estimated usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. Mrs. Chambers died in 1966, just after she had begun to prepare the thirty-second volume for the publishers, and her daughter completed the book. How grateful to God we should be for Biddy and Kathleen’s unselfish labor of love over the years, in sharing the ministry of Oswald Chambers with us. His body is buried in the cemetery in Old Cairo, his spirit is rejoicing in the presence of God, and his ministry goes on triumphantly. Perhaps one final quotation will sum up his philosophy of the Christian life. “Never make a principle out of your own experience, let God be as original with other people as He is with you.” He may have been the apostle of the haphazard, but Oswald Chambers can assist any sincere Christian in ordering his life according to the will of God. CL

“ONLY ONE LIFE, IT WILL SOON BE PAST, ONLY WHAT’S DONE FOR CHRIST WILL LAST.”

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Bible Bible Times Times and& Customs When possible, the top of a flat rock is used, and this is preferable because it is free from mouse and mole holes and ants’ nests. It is also cleaner and the mingling of bits of earth with the grain is avoided. The site of Solomon’s temple was the site of Araunah’s threshingfloor (II Sam. 24:18-25). This rock is under the dome of the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, called “The Dome of the Rock.” It is almost certain that it was on this same flat rock that Abraham built his altar and prepared to offer Isaac in sacrifice to God. On the threshingfloor the grain is beaten out of the heads of the stalks and then winnowed and sifted. Threshing is done in one of three ways: with a flail, by the treading of animals, or by the use of a drag.

here are many references in the Bible to threshing and the threshingfloor. I suppose one of the most familiar reference is the statement of John the Baptist: “He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the gamer; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:11,12). Two other significant passages are “I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land” (Jer. 15:7, ASV) and “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away” (Ps. 1:4). In the Book of Ruth we have Naomi’s

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A flail consists of a wooden bar, or swingle, hinged or tied to a long handle that is swung by the thresher to beat the grain on the floor. We are told that Ruth “beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley” (Ruth 2:17). Apparently she used some kind of flail. Likewise, we are told that Gideon “was beating, out wheat in the winepress, to hide statement concerning Boaz: “Behold, it from the Midianites” (Judg. 6:11, he winnoweth barley tonight in the ASV). threshingfloor” (3:2). Grain is also threshed by having William M. Thomson, writing in animals walk on the grain on the The Land and the Book, described threshingfloor, literally “treading a typical eastern threshingfloor: out the grain.” Oxen are commonly “The construction of the floor is very used for this purpose. As several simple. A circular space from 30 to of them are driven in a circle or 50 feet in diameter is made level, if across the floor, successive layers not naturally so, and the ground is of grain are placed under their feet. smoothed off and beaten solid that The hooves of the animals do the the earth may not mingle with the work of threshing. This throws light grain in the threshing. In time the on the expression “Thou shalt not floors, especially on the mountains, muzzle the ox when he treadeth are covered with a tough, hard, out the corn” (Deut. 25:4). The oxen grassy surface, the prettiest and used for treading out the grain were often the only green plot about entitled to eat a bit as they did their the village, and there the traveller work. The Apostle Paul quoted this delights to pitch his tent.” from the Law of Moses to enforce his JAN – APR | 2021

affirmation, “The labourer is worthy Because the grain is heaviest, of his reward” (I Tim. 5:18). it naturally falls to the floor, while the bulky straw is blown aside. The The common method of lighter chaff and dust are carried threshing in the Near East is with a away and scattered by the wind. In drag, or sledge. It is made of heavy, Psalm 1 the ungodly are described wooden planks and resembles the as being “like the chaff which the old-fashioned American “stone boat.” wind driveth away” (v. 4). Sometimes Sharp stones or pieces of flint are the bulk of the straw and chaff are wedged into holes in the bottom, simply burned with fire. This was the and these shred the straw to bits as symbolism John the Baptist used in the drag is drawn over it by animals. describing the judgment that Christ Drags sometimes have wooden will ultimately mete out (Matt. 3:12). rollers underneath with sharp stones Isaiah said, “The flame consumeth or spikes in them. the chaff” (Isa. 5:24). Winnowing is accomplished by tossing the grain into the air when there is a fairly brisk breeze, letting the wind blow away the dust and chaff, while the grain falls back to the floor. The instrument used in this process is described in our English Bible as “the fan.” However, the word “fan” is misleading. Actually, it is a huge, wooden fork with bent prongs or tines. Because there is generally a breeze blowing in the evening, this is the time when winnowing is usually done. Naomi said, “Behold, [Boaz] winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor” (Ruth 3:2).

completed, the farmer has pure, clean grain ready for storage in his granary.

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:31,32). This meant that Satan was going to give Simon a very severe shaking, but Jesus added, “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (v. 32). After Peter had gone through the sifting process, he would be pure and genuine and better able to After the bulk of the straw and nurture and strengthen his Christian chaff have been removed through brethren, just as pure wheat the winnowing process, the grain— strengthens the body. still mixed with some chaff and foreign matter—must go through a God Himself sometimes puts us process of hand-sifting. This is done through the sifting process so we by women, who sit cross-legged on might be better able to bless and the threshingfloor and rhythmically strengthen others. CL shake the sieve back and forth above or between their knees until “This is God’s universal purpose the chaff appears on the top, where for all Christian suffering: more they can blow it away. Stones and contentment in God and less other foreign substances are at the satisfaction in the world.” same time removed from the wheat — John Piper and likewise, the “tares,” or weeds. When the sifting process is finally

Obituary Our former Director Dr. Frank Suttle was called Home on 7th Dec 2020. Appreciate his efforts and hard work in the ministry of Back to the Bible. We express our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family.

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Elijah would not commit suicide, but he asked God to take his life. It is so easy to become discouraged when we get our eyes off the Lord and look on the dark circumstances around us. Just a short time before, Elijah was having a mountaintop experience on Mount Carmel. What exciting victories he witnessed; however, now he was in the valley of despair and wished that he were dead. Depression often occurs after a delightful experience. It may be in connection with special days of celebration or it may occur when the work load lightens and when we have a little time on our hands.

veryone must have felt upset or discouraged at one time or the other. We all have had days when it seemed like everything went wrong, but when discouragement overtakes a person day after day, it is hard to cope with it. Quite likely, the severe competition that we face in this fast-moving age is contributing much to the depression that has overtaken so many. Remember that Christians—even strong Christians—can become depressed and discouraged and feel that life has lost its meaning.

stalwart leader who did great things for God, often standing alone against severe opposition. One day this great man of God became depressed and discouraged to the point where he even despaired of life. Wicked Jezebel threatened his life and he went down in despair.

After Elijah’s life had been threatened by Jezebel, “he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he Elijah Experienced Depression prayed for himself that he might die; We see a striking illustration of and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, this in I Kings 19. Elijah was without take away my life; for I am not better doubt one of the greatest prophets than my fathers” (w.3,4). of the Old Testament. He was a

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What triggers depression? It may be brought about by a sharp word, a careless word, or by the fact that someone failed to notice us or speak to us. Depression is not always brought on by a valid reason. The sharp word from Jezebel triggered Elijah’s depression; however, he had no reason to fear, for the prophets of Baal were dead and the king would not dare to move against the national feeling that had been built up in favor of Elijah. Elijah had prayed for rain and God had sent it to end that three year drought. Elijah was a great man in the eyes of the majority of the people at that time, but apparently he felt that he was an utter failure. This reminds us of the fact that some of the reasons people give for their depression are not valid reasons to us, but their view of life is often a little bit out of focus at such a time. From verse 4 it is evident that Elijah was only concerned about himself, and he was so depressed that he requested the Lord. He had lost the vision of helping others. His horizon had shrunk to a tiny, selfish circle. While the normal role of a believer is serving others, Elijah was JAN – APR | 2021

now concerned only about himself. Notice that he turned away from friends who would help him, and he chose to be alone. He went into the wilderness where there were no charted pathways. This indicates his thought patterns—a wilderness of worry and frustration. And then to make matters worse, a depressed person has the tendency to argue with God and to find fault with the way God has dealt with him. Such a person even challenges the authority of the Word of God. The depressed person sees only the negative side and not the positive provisions of the Lord.

It is a dangerous thing to harbor feelings of anger and bitterness. James 3:14 says, “But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.”

It is possible for even a Christian to become unhappy with God and critical of the way God has dealt with him. Elijah told the Lord just how he felt, and this confession to God was a part of God’s cure for Elijah’s depression. An unbeliever cannot be saved until he admits his helpless condition and turns to Christ by faith. This same principle applies to the way out of depression; there must Relief From Depression be an admission of helplessness and But notice how God treated a turning to God by faith. Elijah. First, God provided for Elijah’s physical needs by miraculously Elijah, like everyone suffering from providing nourishing food. There is depression, wanted instant recovery. a relationship between the vitality of He wanted to experience some good the physical body and the vitality of feelings, something emotional. So the soul. Remember that Jesus was also, the one who confesses sin to severely tempted of the Devil after the Lord not only wants to read He had spent 40 days and 40 nights God’s Word of forgiveness but also in the wilderness without food. wants to feel forgiven. The feeling of forgiveness is nice to have, but God also provided the proper rest we must not depend on feelings for Elijah, as indicated in verses 5-7. for “without faith it is impossible Then there was physical exercise, for to please” God (Heb. 11:6). It is not Elijah walked to Mount Horeb which feeling but faith in the promises of was a distance of about 200 miles. God that counts. Physical exercise is sometimes of help in dealing with depression. Elijah wanted to feel that God was near so God provided three exciting Second, God gave Elijah a chance miracles. God said, “Go forth, and to empty the feelings that he had stand upon the mount before the bottled up in his mind. God simply Lord. And behold the Lord passed by, said, “What doest thou here?” (v. 9). and a great and strong wind rent the Then Elijah poured out his heart: “I mountains, and brake in pieces the have been very jealous for the Lord rocks before the Lord; but the Lord God of hosts: for the children of was not in the wind; and after the Israel have forsaken thy covenant, wind an earthquake; but the Lord thrown down thine altars, and was not in the earthquake” (v. 11). slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they I am sure that Elijah’s emotions seek my life, to take it away” (v. 10). were stirred as he felt the strong Elijah had feelings of bitterness and wind that even picked up rocks and resentment and he poured them out dashed them to pieces. But God was to the Lord. not in that emotional experience. JAN – APR | 2021

Then God sent an earthquake and I am sure that Elijah was again stirred emotionally as the earth trembled beneath his feet. But God was not in that emotional experience. Then notice what happened! “And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice” (v. 12). The miracle of fire must have really stirred Elijah’s feelings. But God was not in that emotional experience. After the fire, God spoke to Elijah in “a still small voice.” God still speaks quietly through His Word. Don’t demand that God give you some feeling, or emotion, but simply take God at His Word. Perhaps you have asked God to forgive a sin of yours but you don’t feel forgiven. God says in I John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Rest on the promises of God and don’t demand that you must feel forgiven. In delivering Elijah from depression, the next step was that of causing Elijah to see the needs of others. First Kings 19:15 says, “And the Lord said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.” Yes, Elijah had to get his eyes off of himself and on to others.

Willpower Necessary

A depressed person often feels helpless and useless because he lacks willpower. Many have found it helpful to make a list of “I wills,” as found in the Book of the Psalms. David did not always feel like praying but he prayed anyway. In Psalm 18:3 he said, “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” David did not always feel like praising CONFIDENT LIVING

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God but he said in Psalm 57:9: “I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations.” David did not always feel like getting up early in the morning and praising the Lord but he did anyway. Psalm 108:2,3 says, “Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people; and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.” Remember—music that is based on the promises of God is especially good for the soul in dealing with depression. A person who is depressed is largely occupied with self instead of with the Lord. Concerning God, Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.” Let us not be looking at self; rather, let us be “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

stop and take a long look at Isaiah’s words recorded in Isaiah 30:15: “In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Quietness and confidence two qualities that this world has always been in need of. But this need is greater now than ever. The opposite of quietness is worry, and worry saps our physical strength even more than the most strenuous physical labor. One can sit in his comfortable living room and worry and become more weary and exhausted than if he were shoveling sand. The English word “worry” can be traced back to an old German word meaning “to strangle.” No wonder we are growing weaker; we are being strangled by anxiety and worry.

And then to make matters worse, men are allowing bitterness and anger to creep in. Bitterness is like a poison for it affects our thoughts, our emotions and even our ability to make decisions. It is not surprising to find that depression is on the Elijah was not put on the shelf increase for anxiety and worry after his battle with depression; he provide fertile soil for depression to was greatly used of the Lord. God also grow. has further work for you and me to do; therefore, let us press on by faith, While we do not like to admit counting on the faithfulness of God. it, depression can affect believers Paul said, “The Lord is faithful, who just as severely as the unsaved shall stablish you, and keep you from ones. When the unsaved person evil” (II Thess. 3:3). Jeremiah, who becomes depressed he feels cut off lived in a very difficult age, said, “It is from friends and cut off from God. of the Lord’s mercies that we are not In the time of depression, even the consumed, because his compassions Christian may feel that friends do not fail not. They are new every morning; love him and he may even feel that great is thy faithfulness” (Lam. 3:22, God does not love him! How tragic! 23). How wonderful to know—and remember—that God’s mercies are A Feeling of Being Unloved new every morning and that He is A depressed person often feels faithful! unloved and unwanted and this is sometimes traced back to a Quietness and Confidence childhood problem. Parents should In the hectic setting of the anxiety want their children to be obedient ridden 20th century, we need to for this is God’s will. However, some

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parents have used wrong methods in obtaining obedience. I shudder when I hear a mother say to her child: “Now obey your mother or I won’t love you anymore.” And what is even more destructive is to say, “Now do what is right, or God won’t love you anymore.” How tragic to cause a child to think that God’s love is conditional, when that is farthest from the truth. God’s love is entirely of grace, for He loved us when we were yet in sin. The Bible says, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:10). The one who is suffering from depression needs to realize that God loves him with an unconditional, everlasting love. God says, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:3). A farmer had the words “God Is Love” painted on his weather vane. A friend stopped by to ask why these words were painted on the weather vane, of all places. The farmer replied, “To remind me that regardless of the way the wind is blowing, God is love.” God loves us just as much when the cold winds of adversity blow as when the warm winds of blessing come our way. It is not wise to say to a depressed person: “Stop feeling sorry for yourself, it’s all in your mind.” That kind of advice does not help anyone and, besides, the depressed person doesn’t need a lot of advice. Instead, he needs a lot of understanding. A person who is depressed will often say, “My mind is like a broken record. Those same tormenting and accusing thoughts continue to go around and around in my mind.” What can be done about this? In creating us, God planned that we should control our minds, and this is possible for every child of God. JAN – APR | 2021

The Bible tells believers: “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Cor. 10:5). In I Peter 1:13, God tells us to “gird up the loins of your mind.” We are to gather up the loose ends of our thought life and allow God to control our minds.

Six Suggestions

The following are six suggestions to help you in controlling your mind and in maintaining a healthy mental attitude. First, do not entertain negative thoughts. This leads to depression. A person who is depressed is negative in his thinking. He sees only the dark clouds, the problems and the obstacles standing in his way rather than seeing these obstacles as stepping-stones to greater heights as he allows God to work in his life. When negative thoughts come to your mind, refuse to think on them. Follow the instruction of Philippians 4:8: “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Second, think right thoughts about yourself. Some Christians feel that they are of no value to their family or to God. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” A person who continually feels that he is a failure will eventually become a failure because he becomes what he thinks. Statistics indicate that some young people become delinquent because they continually think of themselves as failures. This idea may have been JAN – APR | 2021

prompted by their parents who God has forgiven or this will hinder frequently told them: “You will never our walk with the Lord. amount to anything; you’re no good.” Fifth, do not let feelings of Third, learn to love yourself. bitterness and anger rest in your God loves you and you need to mind. The Bible says, “Let not the love what God loves. Jesus said, sun go down upon your wrath” “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as (Eph. 4:26). Bitterness and anger thyself” (Matt. 19:19). When a person are like a cancer to the soul. These receives Christ as Saviour the Holy feelings grieve the Holy Spirit and, Spirit comes to dwell in his body, therefore, we dare not harbor and his body is called the “temple” them in our hearts. Whatever your of God (I Cor.6:19). God is the burden, commit it to the Lord for He designer of our appearances and of has graciously invited us to do so, our abilities. Rather than criticizing saying, “Cast thy burden upon the God’s handiwork, let us thank Him Lord, and He shall sustain thee: he for His workmanship thus far and shall never suffer the righteous to remember that He is not yet through be moved” (Ps. 55:22). Give God the with us. If we maintain a right opportunity to correct your problem attitude toward God, He will be able and remember that God can make to finish in us what He has purposed. all things work together for good, We cannot properly relate to others even as He promised in Romans 8:28. if we do not learn to love ourselves. No wonder Jesus said, “Thou shalt Sixth, purpose in your heart to love thy neighbor as thyself.” praise God. There is tremendous power in praise and thanksgiving. Fourth, refuse to entertain When we pray we should ask the Lord unpleasant memories of the past. to teach us to praise Him. Sincere This is destructive. If there is an praise to God will help to dispel unconfessed sin that is tormenting discouragement and depression. you, confess it to the Lord. He is Many who battle with depression willing and anxious to forgive that find the battle is often won as they sin. First John 1:9 says, “If we confess turn to God in prayer and praise. our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse There is a biblical illustration of us from all unrighteousness.” When this in II Chronicles 20. God’s people God forgives, He cleanses us from all were being severely oppressed by unrighteousness and blots out even a mighty enemy. Jehoshaphat said, the very record of our sins. The Devil “Believe in the Lord your God, so likes to remind us of these sins for he shall ye be established; believe his is the accuser of the brethren. But prophets, so shall ye prosper. And we must reject Satan’s accusations when he had consulted with the and rest on the promises of God’s people, he appointed singers unto forgiveness. the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out The Apostle Paul was determined before the army and to say, Praise the to forget those things that were Lord; for his mercy endureth forever” behind for he said in Philippians (w.20,21). How strange to send the 3:13: “This one thing I do, forgetting choir members out to battle and those things which are behind, and even to send them out ahead of the reaching forth unto those things army! From the human standpoint which are before.” We must also determine to forget those sins that Continued on page 33 CONFIDENT LIVING

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LIFE

AFTER SIXTY

Do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day’. — II Cor. 4:16.

xpectations differ from one to another. We have expectations for our families and for ourselves. We plan our lives and plan even our children’s lives also. As much as we can we want to be financially comfortable, physically fit, mentally stable and emotionally balanced. We have places to go to get guidance for financial security, get regular health check-ups and get treated for what hurts us physically. We even have recommended brain exercises to keep us alert even when our physical health may be beginning to decline. But on the other hand, when it concerns our spiritual lives we tend to give it least importance. We need to give utmost important to our spiritual lives. In fact, it’s the state of the inner being that is reflected on the outside. Spirituality is the most important factor enabling us to be young at heart and good in body and mind. Paul identifies himself in II Cor 4: 16, “So do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day”. Paul’s focus was not on his physical being, though he asked the Lord

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three times to remove a deep-seated thorn, but instead God’s answer was “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. (II Cor 12:9). Paul accepted what God had for him and experienced a wasting away of his body but instead a renewal of his inner being on a daily basis. Reflecting on our own lives, how have we used the past years of our lives? Is there a deeper growth or is God far removed from what we knew of him when we started our Christian journey? Life after sixty doesn’t need to be fearful, meaningless, monotonous but we can still celebrate life provided we make the right choices. Life is full of challenges, surprises, pain, sorrow, joy and tears. Our response to life itself determines the kind of life we are going to live. If we are committed, God promises a life that is abundant (John 10:10). Age is not a barrier to abundant life. A personal commitment to God is the basis to experience that life. According to scientists at Stony Brook University New York “Despite risks of death and disease it seemed that people in their fifties worry less, ignore negatives and accentuate positives”. For many the age of fifty may be the beginning of the end but a group of scientists claim “Good

life begins only when people reach the age of fifty” Dr.Carlo streamer of Israel’s Tel Aviv University said. “If you make fruitful use of what you have discovered about yourself in the first half of your life, the second half can be the most fulfilling. “Most people can anticipate a second life, if not a second career”. Having such a potential for living a more fulfilling life even after sixty years, a committed Christian can walk through the uncertain days ahead of them whatever may come their way. But for some there are real barriers that we may need to address in our lives on a daily basis. Here are three barriers to reflect on: 1. CULTURE: In our Indian culture, a person who has reached retirement stage is generally looked upon as helpless, they’ve worked hard and need to sit back and enjoy life. Often our very own children also affirm this set way of thinking. But we don’t need to accept this belief that we see around us. Sometimes, we seem to think we have to look after our grandchildren while our children work hard. And our lives center on our own families rather than inquiring of the Lord what we should do in the next lap of life. We may lose sight of the eternal purpose God has JAN – APR | 2021

for us because we are occupied with are entitled to retire (withdraw to the immediate which we may not be a to a rhythm of life we chose). But even called by God to fulfill. no-where in scripture do we find any support for this way of thinking. 2. FEAR AND WORRY: However In fact scripture calls us to run with dark our future may seem to be fear endurance the race that is set before and worry should have no place in us, laying aside every weight and sin our lives. They rob us of a peaceful, which clings so closely (Heb 12:1). trustful life. Fear and worry reflect our lack of trust in the character of The devil brings other things who God is. We cannot add a single as priorities to keep us away from hour to our life. (Mat 6:25- 34) In seeking God for His plan and purpose these verses, the Lord points out in our lives. We are still called to be that we cannot do even the smallest on the frontline of life, impacting of things. We worry because we people in whatever way possible. do not rest in the fact that God is Our lives belong to Him and not concerned not only about the big ourselves (I Cor 3: 23,6:20,7:23). things of our life but also the most insignificant things of our lives and Being aware of what God wants being. Moreover, Jesus assures us, to be as we are growing in age and “I am with you till the end of the age”. being fully aware that life is not The assurance of His presence is seen going to be the same as when you through so much in scripture which were young., we nevertheless must calls us to lean and trust in Him. God be following our Master on a daily is committed to his Word and his basis. There is no substitute to this children and is faithful to both. when eventualities find their way into our lives. Over these we have 3. OUR COMMITMENT TO no control and to both face our CHRIST: This is key factor in facing trials (health problems or any other uncertainties of life at any age, for problems) with joy and hope we any crisis, suffering death or disease must be in step with Him. Walking or relationships. Building our lives on with Jesus was part of my life and Jesus and His Word must be central would recommend such to you too. to our life. Even if we have failed This enables a person not only to face to walk in a consistent growing life’s crises but also to experiencing relationship with God we can still the grace of God in suffering. He seek God, repent and restart our gives us His grace, His power, His journey with Him. Even if you feel presence, His peace and joy amidst you are stuck, pray fervently, trust the suffering. God and have faith in His love and in His faithfulness. WALKING WITH HIM Abiding in Him and He in us DETERMINE GOD’S PURPOSE IN enables us to be prepared when we OUR LIVES: face difficulties, problems, crises, Once we return, we need to seek pain, and sorrow. When we allow God as to how He may want us to Him to rule and reign our lives, we spend the rest of our lives. There are better equipped when adversity seems to be a sense that once our strikes us because we are already children have settled in jobs and living in Him. We may be caught marriages and our own careers unaware but God is not caught end, then we feel that we have unaware He knows the end from the accomplished a great task. We feel beginning. our responsibilities are over and we JAN – APR | 2021

FACING SUFFERING

Suffering is for every Christian. Acts 14:22. “That through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. We need to see suffering from God’s point of view. It is not something superfluous or something that disturbs our comfortable life but in suffering we find God. “Therefore, it’s very important for the runner in this arena to have the right view of Godintended meaning of his suffering even if one does not understand the details of it,” says Eric Sauer in his book, The Arena of Faith. Our suffering isn’t random or without a purpose. Many people have gone through suffering as our examples, as encouragement to run the race and to win the crown of eternal life. Paul’s life was filled with suffering. II Corinthians talks about Paul’s life and many of the trials he went through (II Cor 4:8-9). In these two verses Paul lists several kinds of suffering - mental physical, emotional and spiritual. Suffering touches one or more of these areas. Suffering equips us for ministry, Paul writes that God comforts us in our affliction (II Cor 1:4). We may be able to comfort those who are in affliction with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by the Lord. How do the experiences in suffering equip us for ministry? David Powlison answers “When you have passed through your own fiery trials and found God to be true to what he says, you have real help to offer. You have firsthand experience of both his sustaining grace and his purposeful design. He has kept you through pain, he has reshaped you more into His image. What you are experiencing from God, you can give away in increasing measure to others. You are learning both the tenderness and clarity necessary to CONFIDENT LIVING

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help and sanctify another person’s deepest distress”. (Suffering and Sovereignty of God, 166) Wherever there is suffering there is a battle. It is a battle for the soul. We can either reject the suffering and curse God or we could submit to it and praise God for it. For God is with us through every trail Ps 23:4. “For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Christians who accept suffering prepare themselves for more glory (II Cor 4:17-18). “For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Suffering though painful, when rightly responded to, ends with spiritual growth and His name will be glorified. But through this painful journey of suffering, we are blessed and we find God.

BLESSINGS IN SUFFERING In suffering we experience:

a. The Fatherhood of God: Through suffering we bear witness to our sonship (Heb 12:7). Heb 12:6 explains that every son is chastised. So this is normal to Christian life. Therefore, it is pointless and wrong if one complains and rejects going through suffering. Because He is our Father discipline is necessary to both educate and cleanse us. b. The Love of God: Heb 12:6 tells us that the Lord loves those He disciplines. He is molding and shaping us. David says in 2 Sam 24:10-14, ‘It is better to fall in the hands of the Lord for His mercy is great’. We are in the best of hands of our loving God. His love is about advancing our sanctification and

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blessing our way through time till So obstacles in our race are to we meet Him. further our inner development, to strengthen our spiritual muscle and c. The Wisdom of God: Through be more transformed in character suffering we trust God and trust and conduct into holiness and Christ His wisdom for what He is doing in like nature. our lives. An earthly father makes mistakes while disciplining his child. f. God’s goal: Heb 12:11 brings out God’s goal of suffering which But with God he never takes is the fruit of righteousness. The a wrong measure. Everything is fruit of righteousness grows with chosen to serve His end. Everything tribulations. This produces peace, is planned to reach the goal which is holiness, purity and joy to those of the highest kind - to be like Him. who submit to trials. So trials do not In the midst of suffering when we destroy faith but confirm it. Trials are see no way out, remember His hands from God’s goodness. They prepare hold you fast. Trust His guiding us for a full enjoyment of grace in hands during the time of suffering. His presence. Erich Sauer says, “Thus God’s children, from a natural point d. God’s Sovereignty and Au- of view we see only loss; faith sees thority: In our suffering, God is the the gain. From the natural point of one shaping you and what you en- view we see death, but faith sees dure is for your good (Heb 12:10b). resurrection and life.” This means that God overrules even the action of our enemies. Joseph RESPONSES TO SUFFERING: when he met his brothers said to them “They thought evil against me If suffering is what I need to go but God meant it for good.” (Gen through then how do I respond to it. 50:20). So no circumstance, no co- This is the beginning and crucial part incidence or even matters of chance of suffering. exist but rather it is the forethought of a gracious God. Erich Sauer in his yy Some despise it, rebelling instead book, The Arena of faith says, “In all of submitting. This leads to great events He never forgets small hardness of heart. matters, in the universal history never the personal life story, in course yy We may faint under it. We need of centuries never the happenings not for “His grace is sufficient of seconds. He holds all the reins of for thee.” (II Cor 12:9) There is events in His hand, in all the compligrace enough to bear the thorn cated network of happening of time of suffering. All we need to do and space of men and history”. So, is to cry to Him, expressing our let’s not complain, worry or distrust feelings and thoughts to Him our Father who is the organiser of and one finds both strength the race we are called to run. All spirit and peace amidst the pain and of complaint, dissatisfaction is rebelaffliction. lion against God. God’s dealings with us in suffering were always to help us yy We may accept it reluctantly but grow forward. without protest and bear it. This is the lowest form of victory. e. Holiness of God: Hebl2:10 says, “The Heavenly father disciplines yy We can accept it, yielding to it us for our profit in order that we happily - embracing God’s will, might be partakers of His holiness.” pray and hold on to Jesus and His JAN – APR | 2021

Word. There will be moulding and the highest form of victory. The choice is ours! What we choose determines our destiny. My dear brother and sister let us run the race that God has set for us though painful it may be. His grace is more than sufficient to carry us through until we meet Him. CL

“The staying power of our faith is neither demonstrated nor developed until it is tested by suffering ” — John Piper

Cont. of “Dipression” from pg. 29 this seems ridiculous. However, God responded when they offered their praises to Him. The account continues: “And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten” (v. 22). Yes, God performed a miracle as his people praised Him even before the battle was won. There is tremendous power in praise and sincere prayer and these help to dispel depression. If depression continues over a long period of time, the person should have a complete physical checkup. I am reminded of a pastor and his wife who came to us for counsel. The pastor’s wife was deeply depressed and felt that she was a severe hindrance to the work of the church. They even considered leaving the pastorate. However, they decided to share their problem with us. There were a number of attitudes that were contributing toward the wife’s deep depression, and these were—by God’s grace-corrected after a few counseling sessions. Then we reminded her of the importance of a physical checkup, and the doctor found a glandular condition which he was able to correct injust a short period of time. This pastor and his wife went back to their church with a new lease on life and God is blessing their church in a rich and wonderful way. Yes, God still performs miracles and He is never late in answering prayer! CL

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BibleGood Times & Just News Customs Ignorance of the right knowledge of God is the greatest problem worldwide. An unsound perspective of God’s nature will undoubtedly lead to false conclusions and make anything a god. However, one needs to pursue the truth about the grand characteristics of God, which helps us to know who God truly is.

he question, “Who is God?” is the most important matter on the face of the earth. There are diverse views regarding who God is. Some argue, “There is no God,” i.e. naturalists claim the physical universe is all that exists. Some claim, “knowing yourself is knowing god within you,” i.e. self is god. Others say, “God is everything and everything is god,” i.e. they claim that god exists in idols, animals, and nature. Some propose, “God is a supreme power,” i.e. he is reckoned just an impersonal force. Moreover, there are others who say, “God is someone who is extraordinary,” i.e. anyone who seems to be extraordinary—whether in knowledge, might, or in character trait—is seen as god. To them all who are unusually knowledgeable or mighty or morally good are seen as gods. Some assume, “There is one

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God but in many forms,” i.e. there are many demigods. Others state, “God is a mystical being incomprehensible to human beings,” i.e. skeptics say he is an unknowable being.

Reason and common sense implies: Considering this massive universe, God must be the Creator of all existence. Everything man knows is finite, including himself, so a Creator God must be superior and Infinite. Man’s knowledge and power is finite, so the Creator God, who is greater, must be allknowing and all-powerful. If man is a relational being, no doubt his Creator must be a personal rational being too (not necessarily having a physical body, but a capacity to feel, think, relate, desire and decide). Finite man is limited by time and space, but God, being superior, must be eternal and unbound by time and space. Finite man dwells in a world where good and evil conflict, but God dwells beyond those limitations and possesses the highest attributes like — the purest love, kindness, compassion, patience, righteousness, holiness and justice. In fact, He must be the ultimate truth.

In this chaotic world where multiple religions, philosophies, and beliefs try to define God, we see that each gains a following, but, can all be right? Unfortunately, people Just think, no sane person can are gullible enough to following claim himself to be a doctor without anything without the careful studying medicine, an engineer without finishing engineering, a examination that it requires. farmer without knowing farming. Some, in an attempt to bring unity And no one can claim himself to in this diversity, say, “everything be God without having the basic is right; nothing is wrong; there qualifications mentioned above. are different beliefs yet all roads lead to one God.” Though this Sadly, we are living in an age seems appealing, it, in fact, is not where “knowing yourself” has reasonable and logically convincing. become more important than If one can propose that everything is “knowing God.” Man has become so equally true then it is quiet possible self-centered that the magnificent that everything is equally false. knowledge of God has been blurred JAN – APR | 2021

by his selfishness. But the lofty sense separated from God. Man in his of who God is compels us to know sinful state has lost the godly the true God who is superior to all. knowledge and relationship with this wonderful God. The evidence Who do you think is perfectly of immorality, violence, distortion qualified in your view? There is of truth, deception, hatred, injustice, one reliable truth where God and selfishness in the world proves has revealed Himself. This book how blinded man has become to has proven itself—historically, comprehend the knowledge of archeologically, geographically, truth. scientifically, prophetically, internally (unity of the books), supernaturally But what is the knowledge of the and practically—genuine. And truth? this Holy Bible speaks of the God who is Self- Existent, Creator, The knowledge of the truth is— Infinite, Sovereign, Unchanging, all are sinners and thus separated Incomparable, Holy, Loving, from the holy God. Nevertheless, Personal, and Eternal. Therefore, in His passionate love for mankind, He alone is worthy for worship and God came as a man, who is called obedience. At one time the human Jesus Christ. He suffered for our sins, race knew this God intimately, but shed His blood on the Cross and through sin, all mankind became eventually laid His life for us.

That’s not the end. He rose again on the third day and became the Savior of the whole world. He commanded people to repent of their sins and to trust in Him to save them from inner emptiness, spiritual blindness, and everlasting destruction caused from sin. If you will, call upon Jesus in your heart— who is your Creator, the Savior and your only hope. Reflect on this truth and make a good decision that matters for eternity. CL There is a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve Him, boldness to share Him, and contentment in Him.

— J.I.Packer

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BIBLE STUDY

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We are happy to introduce this Creative Bible Learning method of studying your Bible book by book. Send the correct answers with your Name & address to receive a Special Gift from ‘Back to the Bible’. Study One book at a time.

Luke 19-21 – Kindly Answer the Quiz with Bible References (NIV) 1. Who was the wealthy, chief tax collector who lived in Jericho? 2. The Son of Man came to _____ and to _____what was____. 3. In the parable of the ten minas, where did the wicked servant keep his mina? 4. What was to be the disciples’ reply if they were asked why they were untying the colt? 5. What kind of house did Jesus say the temple at Jerusalem was to be? 6. In the parable of the ten minas, the servant whose mina earned ten more was put in charge of __________ 7. When Jesus drove out the sellers who were in the temple at Jerusalem, He told them they had made the temple _____________ 8. In the parable of the ten minas, ____________was given the wicked servant’s mina. 9. What did Jesus ask the chief priests and the teachers of the law about John’s baptism? 10. Moses showed that the dead rise, by calling the Lord as ‘the God of ________, God of _______, God of ____________. 11. ___ portrait and inscription were on a denarius. 12. Sadducees believed that there is no ____________ of the dead. 13. How much of his possessions did Zacchaeus tell Jesus, that he would give to the poor? 14. In the resurrection, there will be neither ____ nor ____. 15. Who likes to be greeted in the market places, and have important seats at synagogues and banquets? 16. Jesus’ reply concerning paying taxes to Caesar was, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to _____ what is___.” 17. Jesus said, ___will for a show, make ___ prayers.

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18. In the parable of the tenants, who did the owner of the vineyard send after the servants had failed? 19. What did the widow put in the offering? 20. Jesus said, this poor widow gave _________ 21. What was Jesus’ instruction concerning the false teachers? 22. How will the Son of Man return to the earth? 23. Jesus said, “ _________ and _______will pass away, but _____ will never pass away.” 24. The stone the builders rejected has become the _________ 25. The ____ and the ____ looked for a way to arrest Jesus. You can Also Send Your ANSWERS by Email: info@backtothebible.in

The next quiz will be from Luke 22–24 (NIV)

Quiz Answers: Luke 13–18 (1) Narrow door, 13:24 (2) Humbled, exalted, 18:14 (3) Poor, crippled, lame and blind, 14:13 (4) Cross, my disciple, 14:27 (5) Everything he has, my disciple, 14:33 (6) One sinner, ninety nine righteous person, 15:7 (7) Parables of the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son, 15 (8) With me , yours, 15:31 (9) Very little, very little, 16:10 (10) Masters, 16:13 (11) Money, 16:13 (12) Heaven and earth, 16:17 (13) Law and prophets,16:16 (14) Rich man,16:30 (15) Moses and the prophets, 16:31 (16) Seven, forgive,17:4 (17) Faith,17:5 (18) Pray, not to giveup,18:1 (19) The Pharisee and the tax collector, 18:9 (20) Little child, 18:17 (21) Men, God,18:27 (22) Blind begger,18:38,39 JAN – APR | 2021

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