The Isle of Patmos

Blessed is the man whose vantage point is Patmos!

“The Christian’s view of the future is not a spectacular dreamed up by science or the brainstorm of secular historians. He gets it from an old, old book written by a solitary exile on a lonely rock in a restless sea. The Apocalypse is laughed at by this world and discredited even by some churchmen but it is precious to all strangers in modern Babylon who are looking for the City that’s soon coming down. Its strange, mysterious characters make more sense every day as the seven-sealed book opens the meaning of God’s history within history and the stage is set for the last chapters in the drama of this age. He does not argue with the wise-acres of this world, for that would be casting pearls before swine. Blind eyes cannot see this vision nor can dead men understand Scripture until they are born again. God goes His quiet way and lets the panels discuss and symposiums debate current events in all their learned ignorance. Headlines mean something entirely different to Him and newscasts tell another story to His ears. Blessed is the man whose vantage point is Patmos!”

~Vance Havner

Treason Within the Christian Camp

“There are many brands of treason in the Christian camp. Men who deny the historicity and authenticity of God’s Word; worldlings who hobnob with the enemy; indifferent church members who come not to the help of the Lord against the mighty – all these are traitors. It sounds good to talk about forgetting all our differences and closing ranks to face the foe without, but we may lose to the foe within. Paul recognized two threats to the church – wolves from without and false leaders within (Acts 20:29, 30).”

~Vance Havner

Recruiting the Remnant Into An Effective Gideon’s Band

“Malachi faced an indolent and insolent generation who met his condemnation of sin with an oft-repeated “Wherein?” They were saying, in effect: “We’re not such bad people. You’re scolding us.” But there was a faithful remnant, a nucleus that feared the Lord. Every Sunday morning we have both groups in the congregation: the “Where-inners” – morning glories who bloom at 11 A.M. and fold up for the rest of the week – and the remnant. Our only hope lies in recruiting the remnant into an effective Gideon’s Band.”

~Vance Havner

“IT” OR “HIM”?

By Vance Havner

I am the resurrection and the life.
John 11:25

Martha believed in the resurrection, but Jesus moved her from the doctrinal to the personal: “I am the resurrection.” The resurrection is not an “It” – “I am the resurrection.” The resurrection is not an “It” – “I am the resurrection.” We stop too often with “It.” We get an idea, a theory, a doctrine in our heads, but we do not get Him in our hearts. We go in for sanctification, the victorious life, the second coming, and we believe and preach them with a vengeance, but we do not find our hearts warmed – we have “It,” not Him. We seek this blessing and that, we join this group and that, we think, “Now I have found it,” but all that is true and all that we need is in Him. We can even major on prayer and faith and not get through to Him. We can search the Scriptures and not come to Him that we might have life.

There is no life in any It, however good. He is our life In Him all things – including all the “Its” – consist.

I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU

By Vance Havner

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
John 14:2

Here is a blessed little word often overlooked: “If it were not so, I would have told you.” Jesus not only affirms positively the glorious fact of our heavenly home, He makes it doubly sure by a negative: “If it were not so, I would have told you.”

Countless multitudes have wondered whether there is a home beyond. Here is One who came from there and knows. We can take His word for it. He affirms it. And, furthermore, He assures us that if there were no such place He would have told us. He would not leave us in the dark. If death ends all He would have said so. But He died and returned to prove that the best is yet to come. And why do we wonder and hope, when we can know about our future dwelling-place? He would have let us know if there were no such abode. And He did let us know that there is!

I am not left merely to guess about it and hope for the best. I have a double guarantee: “There are many mansions: if there were not, I would have told you.”

DOCTRINE, DYNAMIC, DISCIPLINE

By Vance Havner

Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine.
I Timothy 4:16

Stir up the gift of God which is in thee.
II Timothy 1:6

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
II Timothy 2:3

Doctrine, Dynamic, Discipline – Paul would have young Timothy qualified in all three. For lack of any or all, our Timothy’s do not fare so well today. Some know not what they believe or else turn from truth to fable. Some lack fire from heaven, vainly “compassing themselves about with sparks.” And real discipleship has given way to a modern version without a cross.

How the church suffers for lack of all three! How many members can give a reason for their hope? How much of our religious activity is the work of the Spirit? And while we have professed believers aplenty, how many disciples do we have?

We need a fresh course in the Three D’s!

Jesus (Yeshua)  The Begotton Son Of God

by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam

The Apostle  Paul opens his Epistle to the Romans by stating that the Lord Jesus Christ was “declared to be the Son of God with power,” or “powerfully declared to be the Son of God… by the resurrection from the dead” (1:4).

In Psalm 2:7, we have Christ, in prophecy, saying:

“I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.”

Our Lord was, of course, eternally one with the Father, but the word “begotten” here comes from Israel’s laws, referring to the time when the child was officially declared to be the father’s full-grown son.

But what day was He referring to? On what day did the Father officially proclaim:

“This day have I begotten Thee”?

The answer is found in Acts 13:33, where the Apostle states that God “raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.”

So our Lord was officially — and powerfully — declared to be the Son of God at His resurrection from the dead. But what did Paul mean in II Timothy 2:7,8, where he said:

“Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL.”

The answer is that the twelve had proclaimed Christ as the Son of David, to sit on David’s throne. Theirs was “the gospel of the kingdom.” But when the King and His kingdom were rejected, God raised up another apostle, Paul, to proclaim “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).

Christ was, indeed, raised from the dead to sit on David’s throne, and this will yet come to pass, but Paul has a message for us, here and now: that Christ was raised from the dead to certify our justification and to become the Head of “the Church which is His Body.”

CAMPAIGN AGAINST RAMOTH-GILEAD

By Vance Havner

Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord?
II Chronicles 19:2

Jehoshaphat was a good man, but he allowed himself to be persuaded by Ahab to join him in an expedition against Ramoth-gilead. They called in the prophets after the decision already had been made in order to get their blessing, just as we often make our plans and then ask God to bless them instead of asking God for a plan. All the sycophant prophets concurred, except Micaiah, who told them the truth and was put in prison and fed the bread and water of affliction. The expedition resulted in Ahab’s death. Then Jehu reproved Jehoshaphat with the words of our text.

God never wants His people to team up with the ungodly in their ventures. We have a different program and there is no concord between Christ and Belial. Ahab is always going up against some Ramoth-gilead, and all it takes, as in this case, is a big supper to line up unwise Jehoshaphats. Better a Micaiah on bread and water than a Jehoshaphat at a banquet, when a Ramoth-gilead campaign is brewing.

God Is Indeed There

By A.W. Tozer