-------------------------<BrethrenVoice>------------------------- [which seeks to be guided solely by the NT Biblical pattern, facilitates free flow of Christian info. To God be the glory!] [eMail Moderator: brethrenvoice-owner@...] [<GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> Archives/Read online: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ezmlm.cgi] <GLEANINGS-FOR-THE-DAY> <19 September 2002> Contents: ----------- (1) <Devotional> "The romance of enchantment" - Ravi Zacharias (2) <Doctrinal> "In the beginning it was not so!" (Pt-21) - C.E.Wigg (3) <Prophetical> "The Redeemer's Return" (Pt-31)- A.W.Pink (1) <DEVOTIONAL> <SLICE-OF-INFINITY> THE ROMANCE OF ENCHANTMENT Ravi Zacharias We have been discussing the search for meaning, so one can't help but quote William Shakespeare. Said he, All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts So go the lines of As You Like It, in which Shakespeare presents seven stages of life's script. At each stage meaning is pursued, attained, and sometimes lost. Think with me today about one stage, the passage of childhood. G. K. Chesterton proclaimed unabashedly that he learned more about life by observing children than he ever did by reflecting upon the writings of philosophers. If you think about it, there is something so enthralling in watching a young life engaging a world new to her. But what is it about a child that fascinates us? Or more to the point, what is it that fascinates a child? The answer to both questions is the same: Is it not that sense of wonder that pervades much of what the child sees and touches? A young child has the capacity for rapture with the simplebeing absorbed by things the adult mind often considers commonplace. Imagine a world without such fascination. Is it any wonder why we call undiluted excitement "child-like"? It would be very easy to say, "Ah! But you are not going to take a child's view for such a serious subject. Is this not far too naïve a way to satisfy a search for meaning?" It is true, exhilaration alone is not sufficient to find lasting fulfillment. Yet undeniably, wonder plays a role in satisfying our hunger for meaning. What I am arguing is that for a child, meaning is gained by her recognition of the awe-inspiring reality that surrounds her life. H. L. Mencken said, "The problem with life is not that it's a tragedy, but that it's a bore." But a child who is filled with wonder is also filled with a sense of enchantment, a sense of significance, of meaning. When wonder ceases, boredom and emptiness set in. May I suggest to you that, in this instance, the child has it right? Consider the possibility that God has really made this world beautiful and awe-inspiring. The importance of wonderment is something I will sustain tomorrow. But I leave you with this first component of meaning: Wonder, an essential facet of our search for meaning. --- Copyright (p)(c) 2001 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. A Slice of Infinity is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. _______________________________________________________ (2) <DOCTRINAL> IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS NOT SO! (PART-21) THE SUPPORT OF GOD'S SERVANTS (2/2) Charles E. Wigg .... When the Apostle Paul came on the scene, he emphasised the right of the ministers of the gospel, to live of the gospel. 1Cor. 9:14. However he did not use this right, in his ministry to the Church at Corinth; which was a fairly affluent Church. It is plain that both there, and at Ephesus, and at other places also, he worked with his hands, as a tent maker, to provide for his own needs, and the needs of his fellow workers. (Never let the servant of God think that it is beneath his dignity to get his hands dirty, or to work manually to provide for his own support). Though he did not insist on his right as an Apostle at Corinth, yet other servants of lesser gift and importance, (authority), were not slow to make demands on that Church, and at the same time slandering the Apostle, who was their spiritual father. He says that he and his fellow workers did not (like many), make a trade or business of the word of God. It is obvious from this statement that the many did do so, and in doing so corrupted the word of God. 2Cor. 2:17.(See margin). The Corinthian believers bore fools gladly, and were willing to encourage those who got their money, and at the same time beat them on the face, (that is, they exercised a harsh and condemnatory ministry amongst them). 2Cor. 11:19-20. (J.N.D.) Similarly gullible, carnal believers, part with their money today, giving huge sums to arch deceivers, (who call themselves, 'faith preachers'), thereby making them millionaires. Such deceivers are skilled in the art of extracting money from scripturally ignorant, gullible people. 'In the beginning it was not so'! Today there are many Gospel funds etc. that have been established from good motives, as a means of helping to co-ordinate the flow of finance to support the Lord's servants, yet we can find no scriptural basis for these. It may be argued that Paul set up such a fund, and appealed to the Assemblies to give money in support of the poor saints at Jerusalem. However this was a one-off event to meet a specific need, at a given time. It was not perpetuated with office bearers, secretaries, treasurers and the like. It was the practice of the early Church to give gifts to the servants of God direct. Such gifts were not channelled through funds or organizations, but often conveyed by hand to the servant to whom it was given, by designated members of the Assembly. Phil. 4:10-19. The danger inherent in such funds, organizations, or bodies, is that they tend to come between the giver, the workers and their Lord. Subtle pressures can be exerted by such funds, (and have been exercised), to influence the workers, and to manipulate the givers. However let it be noted, that I am not questioning the purity of the motives for the setting up of such funds, etc. We have an idiom in English, that "He who pays the Piper calls the tune". Then there is the modern practice of Missionary Societies, and other similar organizations, as well as individual workers, appealing to Churches and believers for donations. Every secretary of any Church will tell you how that they are inundated with letters, expensive colourful brochures etc, (which they regard as 'junk mail'), most of which is consigned to the waste paper basket, or the fire. Such are begging for money, or appealing for funds etc. When in the U.S.A. in 1994, I was able to hear 'Christian' radio broadcasts twenty-four hours a day. Some were as far away from the truth as possible, some were a mixture of truth and error, a few were quite sound, but all had one thing in common; they all ended with a begging session. The unjust steward in the Bible said, "I cannot dig, and to beg I am ashamed", but it seems that 'Christian' individuals and organizations are not ashamed to beg from others. 'In the beginning it was not so!' Hudson Taylor, that great Missionary Statesman, said, "God's work, done in God's way, will never lack God's supply". Though these words are not scripture, yet they are very true and sound. It would be quite vain to suggest that we will ever be able to change the situation that has come into being in Christendom, (there is so much money involved), yet it is possible for you and I to return to what the bible teaches, to that which was 'In the beginning" May it be so, may God be pleased to bless His people, to bless His holy word, May His Holy Name be glorified! --- [Reproduced with permission of Charles E. Wigg] _______________________________________________________ (3) <PROPHETICAL> "THE REDEEMER'S RETURN" (PART-31) THE FACT OF THE REDEEMER'S RETURN Arthur W. Pink .... 7. The Fact of the Redeemer's Return had a spectacular setting forth on the Mount of Transfiguration. (1/2) The Transfiguration of Christ is perhaps as familiar as any of the leading events recorded in the four Gospels, yet is it less understood than the other great crises in His blessed life. The purpose and meaning of the Transfiguration is defined in the closing verse of Matthew 16--"Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom." This is a verse which has puzzled many Bible readers, yet its meaning is simple if we pay heed to its exact wording. Observe that Christ did not here say, "There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till the Son of man come in His Kingdom" but "until the see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom." The little word "See" furnishes the key to the above declaration. Observe further, that our Lord said to his disciples, "There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom." The above verse is the closing one of Matthew 16 and it is exceedingly unfortunate that a chapter division has been made to immediately follow it and thus obscure its real meaning to many readers. What follows in the next chapter is the fulfillment of Christ's promise to the disciples as is clear from its opening statement--"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them"--the "And" connecting Matthew 17 with chapter 16, the "after six days" dating from the promise given the disciples, and the "some" finding its fulfillment in "Peter, James, and John." Here then is the key to the significance of the Transfiguration scene--it was the disciples seeing "the Son of Man coming in His Kingdom:" it was a pattern and sample of the glory in which our Lord shall return to the Mount of Olives; it was a visible representation, a spectacular setting forth of each of the leading elements which shall be found in Christ's Millennial Kingdom. "And after six days"--"about an eight days after" (Luke). Every detail in the description of this remarkable event is worthy of our closest study. A careless and flippant reader might ask, "Why are we told that our Lord was transfigured just six days after He had given His promise to the disciples?--What does it matter to us whether it was six or sixteen days?" But the reverent student of Holy Scripture has learnt that everything in God's Word has a meaning and value. "Six days after," then it was a seventh-day scene, a Sabbatical scene, in a word--a Millennial scene. Some students will differ from us upon this point, but we record it as our belief that the above words furnish Scriptural verification of a view which was commonly held by the ancients, by the Rabbis and by the Church "Fathers," namely, that in line with the statement found in 2 Pet. 3:8--"One day is with the Lord be regarded as a definition of the duration of earth's history, i.e., six thousand years of toil and labor followed by a thousand years of rest and peace, the Sabbath-day thus pointing forward to the Millennium. "And his face did shine as the sun, and His rainment was white as the light" (Matt. 17:2). With this statement should be compared Peter's inspired commentary--"For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we make known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent Glory (i. e., the Shekinah Glory), "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this Voice which came from heaven we hear, when we were with Him in the holy mount" (2 Pet. 1:16-18). During the days of Christ's humiliation when He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, we are told, "His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men" (Is. 52:14), but here on the Mount of Transfiguration "His face did shine as the sun." The disciples were favored with a glimpse of Christ in His resurrection glory! It is thus He now appears in Heaven as is evident from the blinding effects of Christ's glory as manifested to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road. And it is thus He will appear when He shall return to this earth, arising as "The Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings" (Mal. 4:2). [To be concluded] _____________________<BrethrenVoice>_____________________ Subscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-subscribe@...> Unsubscribe, eMail:<brethrenvoice-unsubscribe@...> FAQs/Faith Statement, eMail: <brethrenvoice-faq@...> <BrethrenVoice> Home: http://associate.com/digests/brethrenvoice/ <eFellowship> Home: http://groups.msn.com/BrethrenChristiansForum/ "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith." 2 Cor 13:5 "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jn 8:32 _______________________________________________________