The Magic Evangelical Formula

 

The Magic Evangelical Formula

America has had Four Great Awakenings in its history, and I wish fervently that she had a dozen more. The history of Awakenings was a intriguing study for me. Always I found a sleepy nation, hardly doing its evangelical duty and often mired in sin and blindness. The Awakening that God brought would rouse a sleeping church back to life, and a great harvest would ensue.

Dallas Willard points out that evangelicals often pursue vigorously the books that are out there, talking about this spiritual point or that spiritual basis being the one to pursue. But then he laments that seldom are evangelicals reading the Book and following the One whom the Book is talking about. I agree wholeheartedly.

Which leads me to the point of this article; there are many authors out there (of which I am one) who are vying for an audience. Too often, the authors are resorting to their magic formulas of finally reaching the nation for Christ. They say, “Do this faithfully and watch the great results.”  I remember one author, who shall remain nameless, recommending that the church follow his special evangelism technique, and watch the church double. The author was so carried away by his magic formula that he declared his church, following his formula, would double in size the next year, and then double the year following. He then suggested the entire national church could follow his magic formula and would double every year.

Which is enough of “magic formulas”. It takes no great guess to see that I am adamantly against those formulas. Let me try to throw a bucket of cold water on it to try to bring us back to reality. There is no magic formula that will awaken our wayward world. There is no training in apologetics that will win the day. (Of course, we are to seek always to be ready always to answer every man that asks you.)

Consider for a moment the complete arrogance of some of these authors. God himself provided a way of salvation in the person of his Son. What did the world do with the Son? They hung him on a cross; there is no doubt that they would, if they had the opportunity, do the same thing all over again. God did all he could in sending his Son—a Son who warned the world of judgment and was killed for his warnings.

Could anymore have been done? Was there a magic formula waiting to be picked up and used to produce Christians? Or did God really do everything that could be done?

When we try to explain the simple gospel—that Jesus came into the world as God incarnate to die for the sins of the world—the message cannot be changed. There is no magic formula that can be concocted. God did it all in sending Jesus. Thank God that there is nothing more! We have been given it all.

Carrying a simple message to a lost world is the task God has given the church. It remains our responsibility. But should we expect a world who crucified the Savior to welcome our message? I think the closer we are to presenting a clear and true simple message, the closer we become to experiencing the rejection that Christ himself faced.

What is the remedy? It is found, I believe, only in the mind of God. A God who sent our nation four great awakenings—could he not do it again? I was saved as part of that Fourth Great Awakening in 1972. God reached out and saved this poor farm boy sovereignly, amid of thousands of others whom he also brought to himself. And a sleeping national church was invigorated.

We are tasked with telling the simple gospel. It is not beyond our means to do so. Neither do we have to put some special whammy on it to make it more effective. But the world has not changed, neither has it become “better”. We can expect the very same rejection given to our Savior when we tell others of His saving grace.

My hope—and I hope yours as well, is that the Lord may bring a renewed harvest in these dark days. Let us proclaim faithfully—and may He bless the efforts of his feeble servants.

Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

John

The Wonder of Conversion

 

The Wonder of Conversion

I was reading Acts yesterday, along with Romans, and once again was struck by the repetitive theme of Paul’s testimony.  Then again, this morning my through-the-Bible daily reading was in Acts, where again Paul is testifying about his conversion. His testimony is at least told three times in Acts, and probably was repeated wherever Paul went to a new mission field.

I do remember that I used to express a bit of frustration as I worked through Acts, and hit yet again another “refresher course” about Paul. But after considering my frustration, I realized that Paul was doing his testimony yet again because it was where he met the Lord, where the Lord gave to Paul meaning.

In my conversion, the Lord met me squarely, and after 53 years, I do still find it both fresh and poignant. Nothing in my life compares to it, and I do not think anything in this lifetime will ever compare to it. Of course, in the lifetime to come I will come to see the Lord himself and that will eclipse all that has happened here.

How about you? Is it the same for you? I suspect so, but always there are people with different experiences. Tell me about yours.

He is Risen!

 He is Risen!

Upon this basis, Christianity rises or falls. If he is not risen, our faith is in vain, and as the apostle says, “We of all people are most miserable.” 

So, what of the evidence? The evidence for his resurrection is substantial by any historical standards. But set those standards aside for a moment—we will get back to them. If we paid no attention at all to the evidence, what sort of things we notice might be convincing?

The answer is in the people God has called. Many of the people called we might see as people of a “religious” mind, and pay them no attention, especially their testimony, as we see it as “tainted evidence”. Tainted by the desires of the people. But any look at the variety of people who have come to Christ will quickly dissolve the idea of “tainted evidence”. We have only to look at the Sauls of Christianity.

Who are the Sauls of Christianity? Like Saul of Tarsus, who became the greatest of the apostles, these people are people who have radically changed their outlook, and they go to their deaths proclaiming the good news of the resurrection. It seems like they occur in every generation. There are a couple of big names in this generation. Lee Strobel and J. Werner Wallace come first to mind; skeptics who bothered to examine the evidence. They are both famous authors who came to realize that He had risen indeed. Chuck Colson is more of my generation. Whittaker Chambers of my father’s generation. These people have in common the idea of a risen Lord, and look at their respective changed lives. It would take a book to note all their changes alone. 

That should be “arresting”, if not compelling evidence of Jesus resurrection. Any person, looking at just those lives, should be able to see that “something” radically changed them. But the evidence is just beginning. I have not time to tell all—this would be a book. But the manuscripts are wonderfully preserved and date from early apostle times. The record is that there were hundreds of witnesses to the marvel that God had done. Exactly what we would expect, if someone had finally defied death, and set the course for the rest of us.

We see the birth of the church, against all odds, succeeding where failure was the likely outcome. Why? Just maybe, just maybe there really was a resurrection. And that leads us to the next tenet. Maybe Jesus was exactly who he said he was. God come in the flesh, to reset mankind to a new life. That deserves your consideration. Just like it has in every generation.

He is risen indeed!

He Lives!

I serve a risen Savior
  He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
  Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
  I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
  He’s always near.

 

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
    He lives within my heart.

2

In all the world around me
  I see His loving care,
And though my heart grows weary,
  I never will despair;
I know that He is leading,
  Through all the stormy blast;
The day of His appearing
  Will come at last.

3

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian,
  Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs
  To Jesus Christ the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him,
  The Help of all who find,
None other is so loving,
  So good and kind.

Pharisees and Sadducees

In the New Testament times of Christ, there were two prominent sects of religious thought. There were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. We are very familiar with the groups; we watch them stir up feelings against the Messiah of God, and we watch them eventually succeed in taking Christ to the cross.

But what was the difference? Pretty much the doctrinal differences were like the difference between night and day. The Pharisees believed in zealous good works, sort of fitting the philosophy of overdoing everything in their zeal for God. They were very concerned about rules and were even confronted over some of their rules about hand washing by Jesus himself. Jesus pointed out that they were more concerned with ritual washing of hands than they were concerned with the insides of men themselves.

Sadducees pretty much believed that there was no resurrection from the dead. There were no angels and no after life. Of course, they could not believe in a Messiah raised from the dead; neither could they believe that such a one had the power to grant others victory over death through the forgiveness of sins.

Saul was a Pharisee, trained under the famous Gamaliel, and a devout hardened Pharisee who took great pride in persecuting the new Christians. When Jesus called Saul, Saul left that life behind, and became the great defender and explainer of Christian doctrine.  Many Pharisees took the Christian viewpoint and believed in the Christ, which became somewhat problematic to the church.

Some of the Pharisees were unable to leave Judaism, and tried to embrace a keeping of the Law along with receiving grace. We see part of this group in the faction of Acts Fifteen, where a group of Pharisees insisted that the new Gentiles coming to faith had also to adopt Jewish customs and law. The church council ruled that there was a new age, an age of grace, and the law was forever left behind.

But the problem persisted, evidently throughout the lives of the apostles, for the heresy of keeping the law was time and again referred to, and the false teachers had to be continually reprimanded. 

On the other hand we have the Sadducees. Interestingly, there is not one record of a single Sadducee ever repenting and coming to the faith. If you believed in what the Sadducees did, how could they possibly have faith in a resurrected Messiah when they did not even believe in the resurrection? So, one can search the New Testament in vain for a single record of anyone who came to faith.

As has been said many times before, that is quite “sad you see”. 

Do This and I Will Bless You

 Do This and I Will Bless You

The formula for Old Testament promises is “do this and I will bless you”.  Having read the Bible through hundreds of times, when I noticed this formula advanced by Scofield, I decided to test it out. I remember thinking to myself that since it is so obviously based on works, it cannot be true. But apparently it is. 

This very short article will only cover three major promises from the Old Testament; the rest will depend on your reading and noticing the truth: “do this and I will bless you.”

Of course, the natural place to start is with Abraham, the first covenant made with the Jewish people. Israel was a nation yet unknown, about to be started by divine fiat. What does the Bible say? Genesis 12:
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

What is the duty given to Abraham? He has to get out of his country, separate himself from his father’s household and go to an unknown country. What is the promise given if Abraham does these things? God promises to make of Abraham a great nation, bless him by making his name great and making Abraham become a blessing to others. He further promised to bless them that bless Abraham, and curse them that curse Abraham.

Does this follow the formula: do this and I will bless you? Yes, it does. Clearly God promises his blessing conditioned on Abraham’s obedience. Is the promise unconditional? Of course it is now that Abraham did as the Father asked. Seldom is pointed out the conditional part of the promise, but I have often speculated about what might have happened if Abraham had not left his country. God would not be able to bless him, as the promise was clearly made on the condition that Abraham left his country, his people and followed God.

Abraham receives many assurances and elaborations of these promises, but they are all part of the same formula: do this and I will bless you. Instead of making this shorter piece all about Abraham, I thought next to move to Isaac. In Genesis 26, God promises to Isaac:
And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.2 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Is the formula apparent in the above text? Note the condition: Isaac must sojourn in the land, and then God will bless by: 1) by being with Isaac, 2) by being with his seed (children), 3) being given countries, 4) by blessing all nations of the earth through the Jewish people. Note that God says this because “Abraham obeyed my voice”.  It is a conditional affirmation of Abraham’s promise, with some new elaboration. But it clearly follows the formula, do this and I will bless you.

Even after the great period of slavery for the Israelites, God again follows this formula. Moses, in one of the greatest passages of the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 28, tells us:

28 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.7 The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways.8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.9 The Lord shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways.10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord; and they shall be afraid of thee.11 And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee.12 The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them:14 And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Note verse one, “if you shall diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, and observe all his commandments”.  Conditional again. The formula is followed yet again. Do this and I will bless you.

How does that differ with the coming of Christ? Now the formula is no longer based on works. It is not a matter of what anyone does; it only is a matter of what Jesus has done. He did it all on the cross. No longer do we have to do this and work on that. We look to the author and finisher of our faith. As Hebrews would teach us, we have entered into a “better” rest.

Gamaliel- a Tragedy?

 Gamaliel- a Tragedy?

Acts 5:34 (KJV)

[34] Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;[35] And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.[36] For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.[37] After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.[38] And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:[39] But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.[40] And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Gamaliel is perhaps most famous for being the teacher of a young man, Saul of Tarsus. Saul himself (now going by Paul) says that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel, which must have been a privileged position. In the above passage is a rare moment where Gamaliel might be best pictured as trying to be neutral in the furor about Jesus. He actually says that the meeting of these men might be of God, and if it is of God, the Jews would find themselves opposing God himself.

The irony is that persecution of the church was stopped only this once, and ever afterwards the Jews set themselves solidly against the church and this man whom they crucified, Jesus. In fact the next chapters of Acts unfold the story of Stephan, the first martyr of the church, killed by zealous Jews.

But what about Gamaliel? I think him a picture of tragedy—the man who almost came to realize the truth. We are not told how close he came and we do not ever have record of his coming to Jesus.

So, I think he is a bit of a tragic figure—the man who almost saw Christianity as a movement of God. But not quite.

In that I suppose there are many modern examples of people, who like Gamaliel, see some of the truth, but hang on the sidelines, never quite committing themselves. Like the rich young ruler, they end by walking away from the only one who could bring them life.

Are you one of those who look at the Truth, are interested, but just not willing to commit?

What about today? Plans committed to the Lord are likely to succeed. Try committing your life to him, and see if He is not worthy of all your commitment.

Times of Refreshing

Times of Refreshing

Acts 3:19 (KJV)
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

I look at the world’s problems today, and I shudder. I know that we all suffer from a “modern” outlook. Every generation has always been modern and always convinced that this is the worst time ever. Yet, the tides are turning, and the signs are there for all to see. Only in recent years have men developed the ability to use warfare to destroy all of mankind. Yes, we have always had terrorists. But not terrorists with the full power of the nuclear bomb, an ability half of our country seems eager for Iran to obtain. Nuclear power to develop bombs was very slow in spreading. It used to be easy to count on your fingers the number of states with nuclear power.

But not anymore. Now so many are on the “edge” of developing them. It is only a matter of time before the accident (contrived, terroristic, or otherwise) happens, and a nuclear war envelopes the entire world. It is remarkable to me how America, frightened out of its wits in the Sixties, could come to such a place where America upholds the rights of terrorist nations to develop a nuclear arsenal. We are, as they say, living in a world that is a house of cards, and the least bump is going to bring great tribulation.

In times like these we need times of refreshing once again. Not that we shall escape the problems of the world—they will never go away, and will probably only deepen in the near future. Times of refreshing. Why not? Let us ask of the Lord for one more time of refreshing, that many in our country will see the coming judgment and flee from the wrath to come.

I myself, with my wife, am praying daily for our renewal and revival. Why could God not chose to bless our country with one more awakening? Let us lift up our hands together.

The Return of Jesus

  The Return of Jesus

Acts 1:7 (KJV)
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

How I have longed for the return of Jesus. I first learned about Jesus in 1972, he changed my life, as it has millions of others. He really was raised from the dead, and lives in the person of the Holy Spirit in us today, even while sitting next to the Father on the throne.

But there are now many generations of Christians who have watched for his coming. He has not come. Does that mean we should just give up? No, for Peter reminds us that his time will come during a period like that of Noah. Men and women getting married, life seemingly going on just as it always has, when suddenly everything changes. As the lightening flashes from the east to the west, so suddenly shall the coming of the Son of Man be.

The proof of his resurrection? Look at the millions of lives changed by their belief. If the Bible is correct, and it always is, our Risen Lord shall soon return, just as the angels said in the verse below.

Will you join with me in watching? The signs of the end are even now fomenting, and while we cannot fix the time of his coming, we do know the season. Spring is about ready to be sprung.

Acts 1:11 (KJV)
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Israel Is Going to Have Their Come To Jesus Moment

  Israel Is Going to Have Their Come To Jesus Moment

Acts 3:26 (KJV)
Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

Here Peter announces to his fellow Jews that God the Father had raised from the dead his Son Jesus, that all might be turned away from their sins to the holy and true God. Many Jews at first received the faith with great joy, not be dissuaded by the priests, for the priests had not yet time to develop their opposition.

Contrast that to today. All of the nation of Israel has been successfully turned from the Lord, being armed with the false doctrine denying the Messiah has ever come. I would think it obvious to Jews today that they missed the coming of the Messiah, the one that the whole nation was anxiously looking forward to be revealed. Something is obviously wrong with their outlook. So it has been for 2,000 years now.

But it will not always be that way. Paul tells us in Romans 11 that:
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Paul tells us of a time when all of Israel will be saved. We need only know two things. The first is that God has promised that all of Israel would be saved. Has this happened? Not at all. That leads us logically to the second thing: Since God promised it, and it has not yet happened, it must be yet future. In the future, probably not far off, the nation of Israel will finally perceive their Messiah.

The book of Zechariah tells us of this great prophecy coming to pass, in chapter 12:
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

The nation of Israel (all Israel says Paul in above passage) will understand the one that they pierced, and they will mourn. The King is coming, not only for all of the Christians who have died waiting for His return, and those of us anxiously waiting today, but also for his nation, his chosen people, whom he has never forgotten. God is always faithful to his promises!

The Wonder of It All

John 18:21-23 (KJV)

Why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?

I have thought about these words that I read for part of my devotion this morning. Jesus simply tells the priests that everyone knows what he said. He is declaring his innocence, and mocking the accusers by reminding them that they have no witness because there was no crime. 

For his comment, one of the minions strikes him, probably hard enough to draw blood, certainly hard enough to begin bruising his face. He is reprimanded for insulting the “high priest”.  Now it was the high priest’s job to recognize and honor the Messiah of God. What did the high priest do? He condemns Jesus to death, fearing his competition.

Jesus answers honorably, “if I spoke evil, tell me where. But why do you strike me?” Jesus knew very well that the priest were engaging only in what we have come to call a “kangaroo court”, one in which the principal was already convicted.

It does take my breath away when I stop to consider that the Creator of the Universe was struck, beaten, and crucified. The wonder of that sacrifice will be overwhelming for us all. In his very fingertips lay the power to completely undo the whole universe, yet he chose to endure a painful time of torment and death that I might live. I will never stop wondering at the grandeur of it all!

The Vineyard

John 15:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

In the rules of interpretation, this is a classic mis-interpreted passage. Jesus is not referring primarily to a Christian picture of Christians being in the Vine and the Father being the Vinekeeper. Rather he is continuing a conversation with his Jewish disciples about the Father being the Husbandman of Israel. 

Consider the setting. Judas is even now betraying his Christ to the leaders of Israel. The leaders are fomenting the death of Christ. All of the disciples are about to forsake the Christ and run away. Why would Jesus suddenly depart from contextually speaking to his disciples and start speaking to his Christians before the cross? It would make no sense, other than the great comfort we get from reading these words. They certainly apply to us, at least some of them. We are being kept by the Father who tends us even as a Loving Father does his son, or as a farmer might tend his vines. But that is application, not interpretation.

To look at the interpretation, we must understand the context. Jesus was facing desertion on every side, but mainly with the national leaders. Israel was about to forever reject their Christ. What else would Jesus have in mind when he declares, “if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men cast them into the fire and they are burned.” What other thing could possibly  be on his mind? His chosen nation, his people are about to reject him and he is facing the cross all alone. 

Not only the betrayal of Judas and the priests is on his mind; he is also thinking of his disciples. Peter has just foolishly, along with all the disciples, that they would never forsake him. But Peter does it so insistently, that Christ predicts that Peter would deny him three times. Having just said that in John 13, and having sent Judas on his way to betrayal, what else would he possibly be thinking about?

Does he not talk in the Vineyard passage about pruning the branches? Is he not thinking about the disciples being pruned here? Of their denial, and eventual restoration to belief? Israel was constantly being compared to a vine, with different pictures, but all having the background of God being in charge and Israel being responsible.

Early in my Christian life, I was learning the doctrine of eternal security.  Here is a verse that gives eternal security fits: “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth. . . into the fire.” I used to worry over these verses, contrasting them with the many verses on eternal security and worry about what God could possibly mean? But now I see that these verses are referring the nation of Israel, telling them that if they do not abide, they will be cast out. Is not the evidence before us? Israel has long denied their Christ, and has spent 2,000 years being cast out and burned. This tragedy is foretold in Jesus speaking in John 15.

 

A Tree Ought to be Enough

I never saw a poem as lovely as a tree

Says Joyce in a poem for me

But I cannot help but note

Others not in the same boat

Say they in some random rants

Trees are the product of chance

Products of accident and time

Springing from primordial slime

But I sit under the tree

And wonder at that I see

Its dancing leaves seem to sing

Praises to God it does bring.

Silly fools who do not believe

In darkest doubts they deceive

In all the wonders of creation

The tree is but a singular sensation

True, a wonderous one so strong

But, only one in the mighty throng

Created by our own Designer

The plan could not be finer

The tree alone ought to be enough

For you to believe the right stuff

But everywhere else do I look and see

The God who made the tree for me