Category: correction

God on the Go

Friday, May 8, 2015

“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16 KJV).

Saints, when we are “on the go,” God is “on the go” with us!

Society has millions of professing “Christians.” Many of them say, “I was born a Christian.” (?) Unfortunately, most of these people are unable to define the term “Christian.” They declare their denominational affiliation or membership in a local assembly, but that is all they know. They have not actually studied the Bible to learn about Christians. They have no idea who the Holy Spirit is or where He is. They talk like they know Him but they do not. They are not possessing Christians, and thus, not really true Christians at all.

If you have relied exclusively on the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, His finished crosswork as complete and final payment for your sins, you are a possessing Christian. Today’s Scripture says that you are “the temple of the living God.” The God of the Bible is not some dead idol of wood or stone. He is the living God, and He lives in us Christians. Chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians says that we who have believed the Gospel of Grace unto eternal life, are “the temple of the Holy Ghost.” The third member of the Godhead lives within us to guide and strengthen us.

As JEHOVAH lived in Israel’s Temple in Jerusalem in time past, so He lives in us Christians today. Contrary to popular belief, He does not dwell in church buildings: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). There is no manmade “house of God” today. God lives in us Christians, and we take God the Holy Spirit literally everywhere we go (even to the places of “ill repute”). Remember, friends, if we would not want to take the Holy Spirit into a place, we had better not take ourselves there either! 🙂

A Prayer According to God’s Will

Thursday, May 7, 2015

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;” (1 Timothy 2:1-3 KJV).

On this United States’ National Day of Prayer, we pray you pray according to the Lord Jesus Christ’s will for today!

Today, religious people—the general public, clergy, and government officials—will assemble nationwide, like they do every year, and pray for spiritual and moral revival of the “Christian” (?) United States of America. We commend their noble efforts, but God’s Word says there will be no godly revival of any of the world’s Gentile nations until Jesus Christ returns to earth at His Second Coming (Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 59:20–60:3; Zechariah 8:20-23; Revelation 11:15; et cetera).

The LORD’s words to King Solomon are often quoted on this day: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Friends, this is certainly God’s Word, but has nothing to do with Gentiles in the United States in the Dispensation of Grace. This verse has a context often overlooked—the nation Israel under the Mosaic Law, praying in relation to God’s Temple in Jerusalem (verses 15,16). Actually, that Temple was destroyed over 19 centuries ago! Unlike Israel, the United States was never a divinely-founded nation. The American people as a whole are not God’s people like Israel was.

Rather than praying 2 Chronicles 7:14, remember today’s Scripture (God’s Word to us Gentiles). The verse following today’s Scripture says, “[God] Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Pray for those in authority, that they would trust Jesus Christ alone as their personal Saviour, and then grow in His Word to them so they can make wise decisions on behalf of the people they govern.

Avid Ambassadors for Christ!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

“I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8 KJV).

Do you “delight” in the will of the Lord?

Unless the New Testament Scriptures commented on today’s Scripture and its context, it would remain mysterious. Hebrews 10:5-9 reveals that today’s Scripture was Jesus Christ’s humble confession to follow Father God’s will. Jesus Christ had so filled His mind and heart with the “Old Testament” Scriptures, that He knew what had to be done. As a loving Shepherd tending His sheep, He would teach His people, the Jews, His Word (Isaiah 40:11). He would have a healing ministry to confirm that Word (Isaiah 35:3-6). Yes, He knew He would go the way of the Cross and die, too (Isaiah 53:3-12).

Hebrews 10:5-7: “[5] Wherefore when he [Jesus] cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou [Father God] wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: [6] In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. [7] Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.” As Psalm 40:6-8 suggested, Father God gave His Son Jesus a physical body so that physical body could be offered for our sins. How did the Son react? He “delighted” to do His Father’s will (today’s Scripture)!

We should be so delighted and so passionate about preaching Jesus Christ and sharing His Word rightly divided. In fact, someone (a Christian, actually!) suggested that all of my intense ministry activity was due to some sort of medical, social, or mental “disorder” or “issue” that afflicted me! (Hahahaha) No, it is not that I have issues, I have the Holy Spirit and I submit to His working in me. There is nothing special about me. I am a nobody. We are all just common people with a heart desire to have Christ’s words dwell in our hearts richly. We have a heart desire that that Word then work in us so that it bursts forth from us in word and deed! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What does ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ mean?”

The Key to Harmony

Saturday, May 2, 2015

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32 KJV).

Behold, the key to harmony!

We all recall times when fellow Christians mistreated us. We all remember times when we wronged other Christians. While Father God has granted us abundant forgiveness in Christ (today’s Scripture), it is very difficult to apply that forgiveness to others. What they did to us hurt, and what we did to them hurt. Some wrongs are especially painful, very tough to relinquish (which then fester to become grudges). When we see these people, what they did to us immediately comes to mind. It was five, 10, 20, or over 50 years ago, but we still remember what happened. Our emotions (tainted by sin) then get involved, and how we want to lash out at them!

As a brother in the ministry once said, “We grace Christians need to be the kindest, gentlest, most loving people.” Today’s Scripture should be committed to memory. No, we are not to be doormats, but we should make every possible effort to make any situation better, especially if it involves another member of the Church the Body of Christ (Romans 12:18; Galatians 6:10). Sometimes, because of pride, the other party refuses to yield. They decline to reconcile—no apologies are offered, no kindness is shown, wrongdoing is denied, et cetera. Some matters just cannot be straightened out. Unfortunately, they will only be made right in heaven (when neither person’s flesh is in the way).

We need to take a moment to pray for those who have wronged us. If they are unsaved, may we be burdened to pray for their salvation unto eternal life. They need to believe the Gospel of Grace now before they die and go to hell and have to pay for those sins forever. If they are Christians, we need to pray ever so earnestly that they grow in God’s grace, and straighten up, and hurt the cause of Christ no more. Yes, they have done us wrong, but Jesus Christ took care of it at Calvary, and we need to send those wrongs there! 🙂

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder #3

Friday, April 10, 2015

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13 KJV).

The third verse of James Milton Black’s classic 1893 hymn “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun,
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
Then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is done,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”

Some dear Christians just sit around idly waiting for Jesus Christ to come for them. While it is tempting to join them, today’s Scripture teaches otherwise. Through Paul’s all-nation ministry and epistles (Romans through Philemon), God’s grace that brings salvation has appeared to all nations. That same grace teaches Christians to live separate from the world—to reject ungodly living and worldly desires (cf. Ephesians 2:1-3)—and to live “soberly, righteously, and godly” (with sound thinking and right living; today’s Scripture). As we are walking (not sitting) in the grace life, God’s life manifested in and through us, we should be looking for the return of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Only one of two events should end the activity of every Christian’s ambassadorship on Earth—physical death or the Rapture! While there is still breath in our bodies, and the Rapture remains future, there is still time for God to use us on Earth. Let us get out there and tell everyone we can about the Lord’s wonderful love He commended to us at Calvary’s cross, and how the grace life is the answer to life itself!

One day, dear brethren, the work that God started with us here on Earth will culminate in the heavenly places. The roll shall be called up yonder one day, but until it is, let us labor in the Lord hither today! 🙂

Onward to Maturity!

Sunday, April 6, 2015

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:14,15 KJV).

Friends, it is not God’s best for us to remain in elementary Bible principles. We need to grow up eventually: we must progress from basic concepts to deeper thoughts, from ineptness to proficiency.

Weeks ago, I observed my little nephew’s baseball team practicing. All near seven years of age, he and his teammates were clumsy in hitting, catching, and throwing the ball. Still, they diligently practiced. Since then, they have won a championship—beating three opposing teams in one day! When I considered their development, I was reminded of today’s Scripture. God wants us to be “workmen” (2 Timothy 2:15), not children. We should be growing in the Bible, becoming more skilled in His Word, more equipped with sound doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16,17), just as an athlete trains hard to win the game. Our Adversary, Satan, wants us to remain unskilled, unpracticed in God’s Word, that we not stifle his work.

Sadly, some grace people refuse to spiritually mature. They want only basic grace teaching. They remain fumbling “in practice,” too unskilled to move to an actual “game,” let alone a “championship.” They single out one basic grace Bible teacher and listen to no other grace teachers. Certainly, we have to start somewhere in the Bible, but to go no further in the Scriptures than the (basic) one who taught us, is to wrong ourselves and those we reach.

If we would study the Bible for ourselves, and not merely rely on one grace Bible preacher or teacher, the results would be amazing. We would learn from others, we would also learn from our own studies, and then we could teach others both what we learned from others’ studies and what we learned from our own studies. Unfortunately, some Christians do not get very far in the Scriptures their whole lives. They are unable to teach the Bible.

Onward to maturity, that religion’s cunning ministers not deceive us!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Was the Holy Spirit really given in John 20:22?”

333’s 1400th – Morning By Morning

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

“The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isaiah 50:4 KJV).

Today, dear saints, only by the grace of God, we mark our 1400th devotional study!

Beloved, it was 46 months ago today that we began “333 Words of Grace.” After the cancellation of our weekly newspaper Bible study column, this daily devotionals blog was launched to fill that void. Only by God’s grace, we have branched out from our local community to literally scores upon scores of countries all around the world. We never would have dreamed our Lord Jesus Christ would transform our little ministry project into a massive online archive of grace-oriented, brief, clear, daily Bible studies. To the praise of His grace, it is still growing!

From the very beginning, we determined in the Lord to provide sound, high-quality, daily Bible devotionals at no cost. There is ever so much ignorance about Bible matters, even among professing Christians. We hope that our labor here in the Lord has taught and led many into the truths of God’s Word rightly divided. During these last 46 months, we have covered quite a bit of ground in the Holy Bible. Still, we have yet to do it justice. There is so much more yet to learn, so much more exciting truths still to extract from God’s precious Word!

The Christian life is all about learning more and more concerning what Father God is doing. As Jesus Christ Himself testified in today’s Scripture, He was willing to listen to the will of Father God. “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things… I do always those things that please him” (John 8:28,29). Every morning, for the last 1,400 days, we have given an ear and an eye to Father God’s Word. We are all so much better off now, but let us not be content to stay where we are. Onward in Christ we must press… morning by morning… onward to #1500! 🙂

P.S.—Brethren, thank you for your continued prayer for this ministry project. Neither your time nor ours have been wasted!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What is the ‘angels’ food’ of Psalm 78:24-25?”

A Love Letter, Not a Dust Collector

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:13 KJV).

You are hereby exhorted to read the Scriptures and learn doctrine!

Earlier this week, I received an email reply from someone I had emailed nearly four years ago! My unopened message sat in her inbox for all those years until someone recently showed her how to finish setting up that account. Till she replied, I had forgotten all about it. Imagine my delight when we finally made contact!

Similarly, God wrote the King James Bible to us, a love letter, written in the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, transmitted through history with the blood of His saints. Yet, there it sits on people’s bookshelves as a dust collector for years! Occasionally, it is taken out to construct a family tree, or put on the coffee table to decorate the room, but it is rarely utilized for its intended purpose. Sadly, time is spent on everything but what matters most. Mainly, these distractions are televisions, computers, and cell phones. People do not put God’s eternal Word in their eternal souls, so out in eternity, what will they have? For the lost, it will be one great strike against them at the Great White Throne Judgment! For Christians, it will be a tremendous loss of reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ!

Oh, beloved, my dear readers, may we not spurn the wonderful Word of God and the wonderful grace of God! May we blow the dust off His Book’s cover and actually read it for once. Consider the lost people who spend their whole lives—70 or 80 years—pursuing vanity and worthlessness. Without Jesus Christ, they go to hell. They could have spent 30 minutes reading the first five chapters of Romans. In that half-hour, they could have learned how to be saved from their sins, and they could have believed the Gospel and gone to heaven. They had many decades to read God’s Word. Now all they have is time without the Bible—eternity in hell!

Whether saved or lost, let us take time today to read and believe Romans chapters 1-5. It will be well worth the 30 minutes! 🙂

A Rude Apostle

Sunday, March 22, 2015

“But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge…” (2 Corinthians 11:6a KJV).

Just how was Paul “rude?”

The Greek word translated “rude” in today’s Scripture is idiotes (from which we get “idiot”). It would be helpful to see how our 1611 translators rendered that word elsewhere.

First, Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Then, 1 Corinthians 14:16: “Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?” The word “unlearned” appears in verses 23 and 24 as well. “Ignorant” or “unlearned” means “untaught, uneducated, in a particular subject.”

“Rude” in today’s Scripture did not mean that Paul spoke offensive, nasty language; it was “rude” as in rudimentary (basic, simple, plain). Paul knew proper Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic—he had been trained under the guidance of Gamaliel, the chief rabbi of that time. He was highly educated in literature, history, and religion. Jesus Christ even taught him doctrine never before revealed. In short, Paul was no idiot. But, he did not use his education to form statements that would manipulate people to make them do or believe. Unlike Apollos (Acts 18:24-26), Paul chose not to be an eloquent speaker.

“[1] And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. [4] And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: [5] That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1,4,5).

Many church leaders need to understand this simple fact. According to God the Holy Spirit, it is not about using highly technical theological terms and defending complex denominational dogmas. It is all about using plain, simple language that common people (even children) can understand and believe. Remember, the King James Bible is sixth-grade English for a reason!

Praying Like Elijah #20

Monday, March 9, 2015

“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17 KJV).

Why did Elijah pray like this, what was so special about his prayer that God answered it, and how can we have our prayers answered of God?

Prayer, and its fundamental level, is talking to God in light of His Word to us. When saints in Israel’s program prayed, they saw visible manifestations of divine intervention. They saw angels, they saw miraculous healings and raisings of the dead, and so on, because that is what God said He would do for them (“the Jews require a sign;” 1 Corinthians 1:22). What did Jesus say to Israel? “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe!” (John 4:48). Actually, according to Jesus, anyone asking for a miracle today is really saying, “God, I need a miracle before I believe!”

Dispensational Bible study guards against such Bible mishandling. There are no such promises of signs, miracles, and wonders, given to us in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon. Rather, God is working invisibly today. “We walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Today, God’s Word is working in us when we believe it, to “renew our minds” (Romans 12:2), to “renew our inner man” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Paul, our pattern, was never spared trouble. Rather, he had God’s power so that the trouble would not destroy him. This is our identity in Jesus Christ, our provisions in Jesus Christ, to handle all circumstances, good or bad (Philippians 4:13).

We should not use prayer as a “use-the-right-words-to-get-something-from-God” scheme. Prayer is simply an intelligent understanding to what God has already said in His Word, has already given us in Christ, and then believing and repeating it back to Him so that that Word works in us. Prayer is designed to be a blessing, not a burden as religious confusion makes it. Dispensational Bible study is thus critical to our prayer life, for without right division, we would have no prayer life at all! Let us never forget to pray the Pauline way! 🙂

FINIS!

You may also see our study, “Praying With Paul,” for more information about Pauline prayer.