“A dull axe means harder work and we lose no time when we sharpen the edge.”

~Vance Havner

“To believe is one thing; to know is another. Some believe in Christ, but they do not have certainty. It is possible to accept certain facts about our Lord and yet not have personal knowledge of Him.”

~Vance Havner

Mortal Error

By A.W. Tozer

The Judge on Trial

By Vance Havner

Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
Matthew 26:64

Here another nevertheless turns the tables. Our Lord is on trial, but He declares, “Nevertheless…this scene will change one day. I will be the Judge and you will be on trial.” It was this affirmation of His return that opened the floodgates of wrath so that even the high priest rent his clothes. Jesus Christ is no longer on trial awaiting our verdict. We are awaiting His verdict! The prospect of that Great Assize throws even organized religion into a fit, rending their garments sometimes as it did here, but the Christian welcomes the day when the trail will be reserved by the Judge who will rend not His clothes but the clouds of heaven!

The True Way to Divine Knowledge

By A.W. Tozer

Repetition Of Prayers

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

One of the most unscriptural and unspiritual misuses of prayer is the repeating of prayers composed by others. Many members of both Protestant and Catholic churches, indeed, many sincere believers, repeat over and over again prayers that have been prepared for them to recite. Undoubtedly the greatest number of all make it a practice to repeat the so-called “Lord’s Prayer,” taken from the Gospel records.

Evidently all these millions of professing Christians have overlooked the fact that it was when the disciples asked our Lord to teach them how to pray (Luke 11:1) that He said: “After this manner therefore pray ye” (Matthew 6:9).

Moreover, He prefaced these words with the specific injunction:

“But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them…” (Matthew 6:7,8).

Both Protestants and Catholics make much of repeating the “Lord’s Prayer.” They repeat it singly and in unison, in trouble and sorrow, in sickness and death, in storm and drought, in war and disaster, with little or no regard for its contents.

Imagine praying, “Give us this day our daily bread” at a funeral service! Imagine praying, “Thy kingdom come” at a sick bed or in a storm at sea! Yet this is solemnly done again and again throughout Christendom. Whole audiences continue to repeat the prayer in unison — and this in the face of the fact that it was in connection with this very prayer that our Lord pronounced the mere repetition of prayers “vain” and enjoined His disciples not to follow the heathen in this practice.

What a difference there is between praying and saying prayers! No truly spiritual believer will do the latter.

Cast Your Cares

December 28, 2014

Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken. — Psalm 55:22

Imagine that you are carrying boxes filled with valuable glass objects. Truthfully, you aren’t strong enough to carry the boxes. You huff and puff and worry immensely about the contents. Suddenly, someone stronger comes by and offers his help. Not only that, but he’s got some friends with him who are also willing to pitch in. You unload the boxes and breathe a huge sigh of relief. You feel light, unburdened, and at peace.

That’s the way we are supposed to feel every day when we fulfill the words of Psalm 55: “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you.” We go through life carrying huge burdens of worry and tension. They weigh us down and cause us much unhappiness. But the psalmist gives us different instructions with this verse that have the potential to completely change the way we live – not to mention how long we live: Give your burdens to God, and go about your life with light and joy.

The Talmud, Judaism’s oral tradition, relates that the Jewish sages didn’t understand what this verse meant until the following event occurred. One day, a sage was carrying a heavy load and an Arab merchant came along and told him, “Take your yahav and cast it on my camel.” From there, the sages understood that the same Hebrew word in the psalms meant “burden.” God wants us to give Him our burdens.

The rabbis explain that it’s not that the sages were unaware of the literal meaning of the word yahav. It’s that they weren’t sure how to apply it. What does it mean to cast your burdens on God? The merchant helped them understand that we are to take all our worries, just like a sack of stuff, and place them fully on God’s shoulders. Not only that, but we don’t even have to ask God if it’s OK to burden Him. He asks us. He wants our burdens. He wants our faith.

Now that we know what it means to cast our cares onto God, it’s another thing to learn how to put it into action. Try this practice. Every day (or more than once a day) type up a list of your cares and burdens. Nothing is too big or too small for this list. Next, read the list through. The first thing you may notice is that you aren’t really in control of these things anyway – only God can really take care of our health, safety, finances, etc. The next thing to do is to delete the items and send them up to God one by one, in faithful, diligent, fervent prayer. You should feel lighter and ready to serve God as He intended – with peace and joy.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Paul’s Three I Am’s

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

Three times in Romans 1:14-16, the Apostle Paul uses the phrase “I am”, and each one carries an important message for every true believer in Christ.

First, he says in verse 14: “I am debtor” — debtor to all men, to tell them about the saving work of Christ. But why was he indebted to people he had never even seen? For several reasons:

First, he had in his hand what they needed to be saved from the penalty and power of sin. If I see a drunkard lying across the railroad track and I do nothing about it, am I not a murderer if he is killed by the train? If I see a man drowning and I have a life buoy in my hand but do not throw it to him, am I not a murderer if he goes down for the last time? If I see millions of lost souls about me and, knowing the message of salvation, do not tell them, am I not guilty if they die without Christ?

Further, Paul felt himself a debtor to others, because the Christ who had died for his sins had also died for the sins of others. As he says in II Corinthians 5:14,15: “Christ died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again.”

Finally, the Christ who had died for Paul’s sins, had commissioned him to tell others of His saving grace. Thus he says in I Corinthians 9:16,17:

“Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For…a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” (ICor.9:16,17).

Paul could say further what every true believer should be able to say: Not “I am debtor, but“, but rather, “I am debtor…SO, as much as in me is, I AM READY…” (Rom.1:15). He was ready to discharge his debt because he had that with which to discharge it — the wonderful “gospel of the grace of God”. And he did indeed make this the message known to others with all that was in him.

And now the third “I am”: “I am debtor…So I am ready… For I AM NOT ASHAMED of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth…” (Ver. 16). Paul was always proud to own Christ as the mighty Saviour from sin. Do you know Christ as your Saviour? Do you tell others of His saving grace?

The “Nevertheless” That Makes the Difference

By Vance Havner

Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.
Luke 5:5

After a night of failure came the turn when they passed from defeat to victory, and they did it when they crossed the bridge marked Nevertheless. “We have toiled, “ Peter said, but now “at thy word, I will let down the net.” When we move from we to Thy, we have crossed the bridge. After they caught a superabundance of fish, Jesus said, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (5:10). When we cross the bridge called Nevertheless, the next sign reads HENCEFORTH. This is success.

The Power Of Godliness

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

God would have us live as His own sacred possession, separate from this world-system, but godliness is out of style these days. Religious leaders in ever greater number are telling us that to win the world we must become part of it and to win the people of the world we must fellowship with them in the things they do and the places to which they go. But the believer cannot impress the world by conforming to it. And even if he could this approach would still be contrary to the Will of God, for His Word exhorts us:

“Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and accept- able and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).

It is true godliness, consistent separation to God from this world, which most deeply impresses the lost to whom we bear witness.

True godliness exerts enormous spiritual power. It causes men to toil and sacrifice, yea to suffer and die for Christ and for others. It exerts a profound influence upon those with whom it comes into contact. A truly godly believer will win the respect of other believers and by his example encourage them to live godly lives, while at the same time his godliness will convict the lost, so that they will either be angered or will turn to Christ for salvation.

This is why II Timothy 3:12 says: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Carnal Christians do not like to think about the word “all” in this passage, but it is there and stands as a rebuke to their lack of consecration to God. They have “a form of godliness” but deny “the power thereof” (II Timothy 3:5).

The Wisdom Of This World

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

“Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (I Corinthians 1:20).

This challenge was hurled at the intellectual world of nineteen hundred years ago, so famous for its philosophy, literature and art. Nor are these the words of one who himself lacked the benefits of higher learning. Rather, they flowed from the pen of one of the most learned men, one of the greatest thinkers of all time: the Apostle Paul. More than this, they are found in that Book of books, the Bible, which has withstood, not barely but magnificently, all the attacks of a thousand critics through centuries of time. This Book says:

“The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (I Corinthians 3:19).

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

Actually, the “intellectuals” in any age are those who assent to the theories of those who agree with each other that they are intellectual! Dissent from them and you have automatically branded yourself an illiterate!

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

“And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

“That no flesh should glory in His presence” (I Corinthians 1:27-29).

Old-Line Rationalism

By A.W. Tozer

The New Creation

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

In Romans 5:12 God tells us how we are all related to the first man, Adam:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin… so death passed upon all men…”

This verse clearly indicates that every child born into the world since Adam has partaken of Adam’s sinful nature.

Parents sometimes wonder why their children act as they do. The answer is simple! Every child is related to rebellious Adam by physical birth, and soon rebels like Adam, whose offspring he is.

In Scripture we are told that God “commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

When you are in trouble and someone comes to your aid, are you not automatically drawn to that person? Should we not then be attracted to the One who cared so much for us that He “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7,8)?

Through natural birth we partake of the sinful natures of our parents back to Adam, and frequently we even have the same physical features as our parents. How touching, then, to know that the Lord Jesus Christ took on Him “the likeness of men” (apart from sin) and, as the God-man, died for our sins upon the cross, where sinful men (people like us) nailed Him! As we recognize this and place our faith in Him, a spiritual birth takes place and we become the children of God (John 1:12). More than this, we become members of the Body of Christ, God’s new creation, for “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation” (II Corinthians 5:17). “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

One Code of Morality

The social turbulence of the 1960s created a revolution in societal mores among the baby boomer generation. The stated philosophy of “do your own thing” literally has “gone to seed” in American society. The result is that many Americans live their lives and make their day-to-day moral decisions on the basis of a hodge-podge of values drawn from a variety of sources. Situation ethics is the order of the day, and the average person simply acts on his feelings and personal opinions. Morality is now individualistic—with each person formulating his own belief system and then measuring his behavior against that subjective, personal, moral framework. Concomitant with the development of this circumstance is the corresponding sentiment that no one should “judge” anyone else’s beliefs or actions, and everyone should be “tolerant” of the diversity of viewpoints that permeate society. When such a state of affairs holds sway, one should not be surprised to encounter jurors who are lenient with a woman who murdered her husband in cold blood. One should not be surprised when millions of law-breaking, illegal immigrants are tolerated and even excused. One should not be surprised that repeat offenders who rape, maim, and murder are allowed to circumvent the criminal justice system and perpetuate their atrocities on innocent citizens.

The Founding Fathers of the American Republic would be deeply saddened to see the extent to which our civilization has slumped from its original high moral ground. In a letter from Paris dated August 28, 1789, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison: “I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively” (1789). He was simply expressing the widespread view of the Founders as well as the populace of the United States at the time. Indeed, he merely articulated biblical reality, in which moral value, good, and evil, are defined by the Creator in His Word, the Bible. By that Word and by that standard, every human being’s life will one day be measured. In the words of Jesus Christ: “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). Indeed, the day is coming when

the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).

Jefferson, Thomas (1789), “Letter to James Madison,” The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes, ed. Paul Leicester Ford, [On-line], URL: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit (tj050135)).

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