Category: human viewpoint / human wisdom / philosophy

Redeem the Year!

Monday, January 1, 2024

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV).

What great advice for 2024!

Despite 2,000 years of Bible schools and seminaries, 2,000 years of a completed Bible canon, 2,000 years of Bible reading in churches, several decades of “Christian” television and radio, and a decade-plus of widespread use of “Christian” websites, how sad that Bible ignorance is still quite extensive (it is as if God never gave His Word to start with!).

Frankly, the Church the Body of Christ needs to wake up! The verse previous to today’s Scripture says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (verse 14). Paul, loosely quoting Isaiah 60:1, reminded us that the spiritual ignorance that gripped Israel in Isaiah’s day seized Christians in his day—and it still grips Christians 20 centuries later. Feel-good sermons, enjoyable “worship” services, and rites, rituals, and ceremonies will NOT solve this problem—they exacerbate it!

“[God] will have all men to be saved…” (1 Timothy 2:4a). Do you want this New Year to count for God’s glory? First, you need to get saved from sins and hell! You need to become a Christian by trusting in and relying on Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for your sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). That is only part of God’s will for you, for 1 Timothy 2:4b continues, “[God] will have all men… to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Now, God’s will for your Christian life is daily, personal Bible study to renew your mind, so your faith in those verses can cause God to work in your life—it will be His life, thus making you “perfect [spiritually mature], throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Today’s Scripture urges us to buy back the time Satan has robbed from God (time created for God’s glory). By faith, we need to make that time glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by applying His Word, particularly Paul’s epistles of Romans through Philemon, to our lives. Have a good year in Christ! 🙂

You can download our free “One-Year Bible Reading Schedule.”

See our archived Bible Q&A: “What Scriptural advice can you give me for the New Year?”

The Person of the Year

Sunday, December 31, 2023

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” (Philippians 2:9,10a KJV).

Let us praise the 2023 Person of the Year—our Lord Jesus Christ!

Society’s most stressful time of year, the Christmas Season, is winding down. The year 2023 is nearly over, and a new year, 2024, will dawn soon. At this time every year, various groups and publications feature their particular choice for “Person of the Year.” Whether a chief of state, a philanthropist, a religious leader, a distinguished author or scientist, a television or radio personality, or some other “professional” who impacted society in a negative or positive way the most during the past year, they are all still people with limitations and frailties. One can accomplish all sorts of praiseworthy, generous, and awe-inspiring feats. However, what carries the most weight is the attitude, the heart, underlying the action, not the action. Was it Jesus Christ, or simply the flesh?

The one single event in history that pleased God the Father most was when His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, went by faith in His Word, to an awful Roman cross to suffer the worst possible and most graphic death a human ever experienced, to pay for our sins. “Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). It is through that finished crosswork of Jesus Christ that He is still doing mighty works, 20 centuries later. How our Lord Jesus Christ has saved countless souls from sins and hell this past year, and how He has saved innumerable Christian souls from false doctrine and spiritual ruin.

Jesus Christ, who in death defeated His greatest enemy (Satan), was raised by God the Father and is now the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ (today’s Scripture). Saints, may we ever thank and praise our Saviour Jesus Christ for what He has done for us, what He has done with us, and what He will do with us next year… and all the countless ages thereafter….

NOTE: Saints, believe it or not, we close yet another year of grace ministry. Thank you for your continued prayer and encouragement these last 12 months. We surely needed it. While we have come so very far, we still have so much more ground to cover, so much more sound Bible doctrine to learn and believe, and we look forward to serving you here for at least another year (provided our Lord Jesus Christ wills it). So, with that, I sign off for 2023. See you in 2024! 🙂

Joy to the World! #2

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

“Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity” (Psalm 98:5-9 KJV).

The second verse of the classic Christmas carol highlights today’s Scripture.

“Joy to the earth! the Saviour reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.”

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world, and death by sin (Romans 5:12), plunging creation into suffering. What God had intended to last forever was now languishing away and dying off! “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth together in pain until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit…” (Romans 8:22,23).

We humans, pinnacles of God’s creatures, are so ungrateful to our Creator. Even in such a fallen state, our universe is amazingly complex and it is a miracle it even functions at all with its abounding impediments! Rather than praising our Creator for giving us life, we complain about our “problems” and then write books, display billboards, and give lectures about His “non-existence.” We mock His name, laugh at His Bible, stick out our tongues at Him, and wag our fingers in His face. Newsflash—God will not tolerate that forever!

In His own time, Almighty God will make all things right. That means getting rid of that which (and who) is wrong/evil. As 1 Timothy 6:14,15 say: “…the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;” No matter what mankind does—cooperate with Him by faith, or protest by throwing a tantrum in unbelief—God has already determined what He is going to do. Jesus Christ, whether people like it or not, will be King over all creation!

Your Right to Eat Meat

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

“For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4,5 KJV).

Before we advocate animal rights, let us understand that we have a God-given right to eat them!

An animal rights activist once appeared on television to complain about the consumption of turkeys on Thanksgiving. He argued that turkeys “feel pain” when they are slaughtered, and thus we should not eat them. His line of reasoning was, “If we would not eat our pet dog, then we should not eat turkey.” Such people, despite their sincerity, are ignorant of today’s Scripture.

Originally, all people and animals were herbivores; they only ate vegetation. “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Genesis 1:29,30).

Then, sin entered, and God incorporated meat into the human diet: “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat” (Genesis 9:3,4).

When we ignore the fact that God gave us animals to eat, and we demand that others must also abstain from meat for religious (nature-worshipping) purposes, that is a “doctrine of devils” in this dispensation (1 Timothy 4:1-5). The creature should not be worshipped; only the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, should be worshipped (Romans 1:25). As long as we thank the Lord for whatever creatures we eat, consuming animal flesh is acceptable and godly. It does not sit well with the pantheists—who exalt nature as God—but it is approved of the living God, and that alone ultimately matters.

Stick to God’s Testimonies!

Sunday, October 22, 2023

“I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame” (Psalm 119:31 KJV).

Stick to God’s testimonies, dear friend, and you shall not be ashamed!

The people of our world have engaged themselves with an endless quest for truth and meaning. Inquiries are posed but few answers are found. Advice columns, how-to books, and motivational speakers are in vogue—yet the search goes on because man’s solutions to his problems are actually the cause of his problems. Dissatisfaction and discouragement can be avoided if we turn away from our “wisdom” and look to the God of creation for insight.

Long ago, Moses advised Israel in Deuteronomy 11:22: “For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;….” Observe that “cleave unto [the LORD].” This is another way of saying stick to the LORD, attach yourself to Him, fasten yourself to Him like glue. As wallpaper bonds with a wall, so we should affix ourselves to the Giver of Life!

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5,6). Unfortunately, Proverbs chapter 18 tells us: “[1] Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. [2] A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” The fool here is someone looking for proof to support his erroneous views. He is searching only for that which will defend what he wants to believe and do. How much better it would have been had he wanted true wisdom—the LORD’S wisdom! Instead, what he is left with an endless maze of confusion.

As English-speaking people, we should be thankful for God’s preserved words in the King James Bible. We need to “stick” to them, and not drift around to purchase the latest trendy “updated translation.” Let the textual critics have their doubts and infinite speculations; ultimately, they will fail them, devastate them, ruin them, embarrass them. We are Bible believers, so should we not believe the Bible more than we believe man? The LORD will not put us to shame!

Attention Saints: Concerning our New Testament Survey Project, we have now concluded our verse-by-verse video studies of Acts and are moving into Paul’s epistles verse-by-verse. Click here for the introduction video to the Pauline epistles from a grace/dispensational perspective. Our next study is an intro to Romans, and the next video begins Romans verse-by-verse. Join us!

Know Right Division

Saturday, September 30, 2023

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

Dear friend, would you like to know right division?

It truly is a sad state of affairs when most people who possess a Bible have no idea how to use it. They appeal to “scholars” and manmade systems for light, but often receive nothing but further darkness because the blind lead the blind (see Matthew 15:12-14). If we have even the slightest hope of extracting the spiritual profit God the Holy Spirit placed in His inspired and preserved words, we must pay attention to His words instead of the words of man’s “wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:10-16).

The key to understanding and enjoying the Bible is 2 Timothy 2:15. We are not told to merely study Scripture, but rightly divide it. The Apostle Paul explains how he rightly divided the Word of Truth in Ephesians chapter 2. “Time past” (verses 11,12) is the period on the Bible timeline when God dealt with mankind on the basis of circumcision (Israel, Jews) and uncircumcision (nations, Gentiles). This is Genesis all the way into early Acts. “But now (verses 13-18) is Paul’s ministry (Acts chapter 9 onward, including Romans through Philemon), when God does not distinguish between Jew and Gentile because He has broken down this “middle wall of partition.” In “the ages to come” (verses 6,7), we the Church the Body of Christ will rule and reign in the heavenly places.

It is not enough to divide truth from error, or Old Testament from New Testament, or Israel from “the church,” or Judaism from Christianity. We must rightly divide Israel from the Church the Body of Christ, Peter from Paul, law from grace, Earth from Heaven, prophecy from mystery. Prophecy, what God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:21) cannot be the same as mystery, what God kept secret since the world began but has now revealed through Paul’s ministry (Romans 16:25,26). If we do not recognize these dispensational distinctions, then we will stumble over Bible “contradictions” and have no idea where we are on the Bible timeline or what God’s will for us even is. Right division will grow us up!

333’s 4500th – To Eat Bread, Not Hold Pebbles

Monday, September 25, 2023

“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4 KJV).

Dear friends, only by God’s grace we present our 4500th daily devotional!

Once, a “Christian philosopher” (whatever that means!) confronted another preacher. The preacher had endorsed heretical beliefs, so, attempting to reform him, the “Christian philosopher” asked precisely what had happened to him. This heretical preacher explained his spiritual dilemma.

After he as a young man had forsaken agnosticism (“I do not know if God exists”), he went on to “become a Christian” (whatever that means!) and attend seminary. He had hoped for “bread,” spiritual nutrition, at that institute. However, upon graduation, he had nothing but “a handful of pebbles.” He was so resentful to learn his professors cheated him of Bible truth. All he received was words of men—not words of God. Moreover, he had since passed on that bad education to his congregation. As it turned out, both men (the philosopher and the preacher) had been robbed of the truth. Neither was grounded in Scripture rightly divided, and though they departed this world long ago, each man’s ministry still misleads the Body of Christ.

What Moses wrote 3,500 years ago; what Christ quoted 2,000 years ago; is just as applicable to us. There is absolutely no substitute for “every word of God” (see today’s Scripture). People can talk about “God,” “Jesus,” the Bible, church history, philosophy, creeds and doctrinal statements, Hebrew or Greek or Aramaic or Latin, or various religious topics, but if there is no sound Bible doctrine being studied, there is no Holy Spirit building anything in the inner man. It is just man using his limited intellect to reason about life, the creature usurping the Creator, a task doomed to fail. The aforementioned example is but one of millions.

Dear brethren, we trust and pray we have left you each of these last 4,500 days—over 12 years (!)—with bread not pebbles, spiritual nourishment that will truly sustain your soul and those to whom you minister. Perhaps the good Lord will grant us another 4,500 days of bread not pebbles! 🙂

NOTE: All 4500 devotionals of “333 Words of Grace” are archived here for your convenience: https://333wordsofgrace.org/master-list-of-devotionals-chronological/.

Spellbound! #16

Sunday, September 3, 2023

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17,18 KJV).

Let us analyze these “good words and fair speeches.”

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3,4). Having “itching ears”—an uneasy or restless desire or longing to hear something that pleases the ear—the professing church rejects rightly divided Scripture (2 Timothy 2:15) so as to believe, teach, and do what they want!

When advising the elders (church leaders) of Ephesus, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declared: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:28-32).

After “marking,” or fixing our eyes upon, false teachers for the purpose of identifying and avoiding them—even if their message sounds good! (cf. today’s Scripture)—we are to then “mark” sound teachers so as to follow them. “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample” (Philippians 3:17). We protect ourselves from the “spells” of today’s false teachers (cf. Ephesians 4:14-16) by having a firm understanding of and faith in “the word of [God’s] grace” (Acts 20:32), the Pauline epistles of Romans through Philemon.

-FINIS!-

Spellbound! #15

Saturday, September 2, 2023

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17,18 KJV).

Let us analyze these “good words and fair speeches.”

After giving us 16 chapters of fundamental grace doctrine—the entire Book of Romans—God the Holy Spirit wrote today’s Scripture to call to our attention the fact we should guard that information delivered us. If we truly (!) were thankful to Him for what He had taught us through our Apostle Paul, we would make every effort to maintain or uphold it, protect it from loss or alteration, and to never drift from it. Moreover, we would be vigilant regarding those who sought to pervert it.

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Paul asked us to “mark” (Greek, “skopeo,” as in “scope”) them. That is, “take notice of them, fix your eyes on them.” This is in contrast to, “Overlook them, pretend like nothing is wrong, excuse them.” We are to “avoid” those kinds of people, these who refuse to unite around grace teaching and who discourage others from gathering around it. Not only do they cause “divisions” (disunity, rifts, denominations), they create “offences” (Greek, “skandala,” as in “scandals,” or “causes of stumbling/fall/sin”) contrary to the sound doctrine we have learned from Paul (especially in Romans).

“For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” Provided here is the reason why we distance ourselves from false teachers. It has to do with the fact they are self-serving instead of Lord-serving. If we have chosen to do the Lord’s will, then it is ridiculous for us to sit under the “ministries” of those who have not. However, unless we have mastered sound Bible doctrine, we will be easy targets and fall into the error ourselves. Their elegant or fine words, and their praise-filled sermons, will seduce us.

Let us summarize and conclude this devotionals arc….

Spellbound! #14

Friday, September 1, 2023

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17,18 KJV).

Let us analyze these “good words and fair speeches.”

Study the following “ministry” conducted in Samaria (central Israel, north of Jerusalem): “But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries” (Acts 8:9-11). Empowered by Satan, Simon worked miracles! He was “giving out” (saying, bragging) that he was “some great one.” The Samaritans were spellbound, considering him “Messiah” (thereby foreshadowing the Antichrist!). Simon used witchcraft to fool them, and they exclaimed, “This man is the great power of God!”

Re-read today’s Scripture: “…they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly.” The “belly” symbolizes the heart or soul: a false teacher’s motivation is a self-serving “appetite” that must be satisfied. As a glutton in the physical realm obsesses over food, so a false teacher’s goal is to gain devotees. The person most vulnerable to such a “ministry” is someone who is “simple.” In Greek, it is “akakos,” literally “without evil.” The victim is unsuspecting, fearing no evil from others, and distrusting no one. That false sense of security is summed up as, “No one will harm me because everyone means well. All preachers and teachers serve God. It does not matter where I attend church or which denomination I join.” While it sounds harsh, this is a foolish, ignorant, or gullible person—and, when multiplied by two billion, Christendom’s tens of thousands of denominations form!

If we understand how today’s Scripture is taken from Romans, the most basic Pauline epistle, then a sure way to avoid falling prey to false teachers is to have a good foundation in grace teaching as furnished in Romans….