Category: encouragement

Messiah’s Joy Amidst Calvary’s Grief #2

Saturday, April 4, 2015

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 KJV).

Do you ever wonder what our Lord Jesus Christ was thinking about while He hung there on Calvary’s cross?

Jesus knew Bible prophecy had to be fulfilled: He had to suffer in accordance with the Old Testament prophets. Even when He spoke seven times from the cross, He quoted various Old Testament verses. The Old Testament prophets also gave Him comfort: “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (today’s Scripture).

For instance, He remembered that Jonah’s prophecy had to be fulfilled: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). On the third day, He would live again, and be reunited with His heavenly Father!

He knew that His Father would resurrect Him. His spiritual torment and physical death were only temporarily, as David quoted Jesus 1000 B.C., “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Psalm 16:10; cf. Acts 2:24-31).

Our Lord thought of reigning over that glorious kingdom that His Heavenly Father would give Him after His resurrection. As the psalmist wrote centuries before Calvary’s crosswork, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession” (Psalm 2:6-8). “Begotten” refers to Jesus’ resurrection, not His nativity in Bethlehem (Acts 13:33,34).

Jesus Christ, during His torturous crucifixion, thought about and rejoiced in the promises in the Scriptures that applied to Him. Likewise, we, during difficult circumstances, can remember and rejoice in God’s promises to us—Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon.

We too can share Messiah’s joy amidst grief! 🙂

Please check out our archived Bible Q&As: “Should Christians celebrate Easter?” and “Is ‘Easter’ a mistranslation in the KJV?”

Many Adversaries

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

“But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:8,9 KJV).

With ministry opportunities come ministry oppositions!

Recently, I spoke with a Christian sister whose pastor-husband (a brother and ministry friend) just held a grace Bible conference at their local church. She explained to me how they had encountered opposition: a local denominational preacher had learned of their grace meetings and he held “competing” meetings at his church, so that his people could not check out the grace conference nearby! While speaking with her long-distance, I encouraged her with today’s Scripture.

The Holy Spirit had been working mightily in and through the Apostle Paul for the last 20 or 25 years. Pagans who had never before heard of the one true God were suddenly turning to Him and abandoning their idols. In Ephesus, recorded in Acts chapter 19, Paul’s preaching was beginning to threaten the income of the local idol-makers (verses 22-41). Now that people were becoming Christians by trusting Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, they no longer needed the religious trinkets of heathenism.

“[26] Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia [Turkey], this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: [27] So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” In the next several verses, the silversmiths who made silver shrines for Diana the pagan goddess, started a riot and the mob nearly overwhelmed and killed the Apostle Paul!

Even today, we encounter lost people—and even fellow Christians—who refuse to give up their traditional teachings, lest the funding for their religion be eliminated. They see the Bible verses that delineate the message of grace and God’s Word rightly divided, but lest their denominational system fall apart, they fervently cling to their water baptism, tithing, supernatural experiences, confessions, prayers, et cetera. Dear friends, let us lose our tradition, but let us not lose heart! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Why was Saul of Tarsus’ name changed to Paul?”

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?”

Our Weakness and God’s Strength

Friday, March 27, 2015

“Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake” (John 13:37 KJV).

In today’s Scripture, Peter makes a daring claim, but the Lord knows the frailty of our humanity.

It is not uncommon to exalt Christian leaders as though they were super-humans. No, they do not have sinless lives and “constant faith to move mountains.” Even the Bible characters we love the most, save for the Lord Jesus Christ, they all faltered and stumbled at some point. Peter, the chief of Israel’s apostles, was no exception.

In the Upper Room, just hours before Jesus was betrayed and executed, He told His disciples that He was going away (verse 33). Peter, ignorant of Calvary, and all the events leading up to it, inquires, “Lord, whither goest thou?” Verse 36 continues, “Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.” Today’s Scripture is Peter’s response: “Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.”

Jesus tells Peter, “Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice” (verse 38). And yes, despite Peter’s great efforts to fight off Jesus’ arresters with a sword (John 18:10-11), Peter lost his courage. All the disciples fled, actually (Mark 14:50). To make matters worse, Peter three times denied knowing Jesus (Luke 22:54-62). The poor man “wept bitterly” when he heard the rooster crow. As his Lord’s eyes fixed on him, he remembered the prediction, “The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.” We can only imagine Peter’s anguish and Jesus’ sadness!

Dear friends, we can make to God all the promises we want, but we will fail at some point. Thank goodness He does not fail us like we fail Him! “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep [guard] that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:11).

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Are all Christians ‘ambassadors?’”

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! 🙂

The Apocalypse, God’s Lips, and Our Mouths

Monday, March 23, 2015

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103 KJV).

What is the “Apocalypse” and how can it be honey from God’s lips to our mouths?

A Christian brother told me he utterly feared the Book of the Revelation. Doubtless a saved man, certain of his home in heaven because of the Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary on his behalf. Yet, in light of Revelation 22:18-19, he dreaded studying that last Bible book: he feared “adding to it” or “taking away from it” would bring God’s chastisement on him. The poor brother had to learn that that warning is given to unbelievers in Israel’s program, not us believers (members of the Body of Christ) in this the Dispensation of Grace.

While people often use the term “Apocalypse” in religious senses, they usually have little to no grasp of what the term means in the Bible. The first word of the Revelation is apokalupsis—“revelation, unveiling, uncovering.” As the (Greek) Bible uses it, “Apocalypse” describes the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS is hidden in the third heaven, having not been seen in 2,000 years, exiled since His beloved nation Israel rejected Him. The door to the third heaven is currently closed, but one day it will swing open, and out will ride the Lord Jesus Christ! He will be leading tens of thousands of angelic soldiers to purge Earth of all its unbelievers, utterly slaughtering those who have persecuted His Israel—stolen her land and killed her people. Just as Satan’s plan of evil crescendos, and it looks hopeless, the God of creation wins and then reigns over all creation!

No wonder John wrote to Israel in Revelation 1:3: “Blessed [happy] is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” The book of the Revelation (“Apocalypse”) came from God’s lips; it should be as sweet honey to our mouths! Let us read it. It comforts us that evil will lose in the end, and our Saviour will be exalted in the end. Let us use our mouths to praise His holy name! 🙂

Left Behind with Them in Mind

Saturday, March 21, 2015

“For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20 KJV).

While we saints tarry in this world, let us remember why we are here!

Not long ago, I spoke with a dear friend and Christian brother who shared some great news. Although still coping with his wife’s graduation to heaven, he was recently reminded of why he is still here on Earth. God is not finished using him in the ministry. A man who had “just so happened” to stop by his house, ended up being curious about spiritual matters, and they began to converse about the Bible. While time was limited, he learned that the man was a Christian, and he was able to help that other saint better understand spiritual matters.

Remember, if God were to remove all members of the Body of Christ from planet Earth, there would be no one left here to be His mouthpiece. There would still be the Bible, but there would be no living, flesh-and-blood testimony of His grace to us in Jesus Christ. Christians commonly say, “I want to leave this place and go to heaven! Things are getting so bad in this world and I want out! I want to go meet my loved ones who have died in Christ!” Yet, beloved, we must not be selfish.

Today’s Scripture says, “For our conversation is in heaven.” Ephesians 2:19 affirms that we are, “fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Because we are citizens of heaven, because we really belong in heaven (and we will get there one day), our “conversation” (lifestyle) should reflect that status. Not only should we be studying and memorizing Bible verses, not only should we be sharing those Scriptural truths with others, we are to have lives in accordance with those verses. While this Dispensation of Grace is operating, God needs spokespeople on Earth, and He has chosen the Church the Body of Christ for that role. As we continue in this Christian ambassadorship, let us live with the mentality that Jesus Christ will come for us one day! Keep looking up! 🙂

Greet the Brethren!

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

“Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen” (1 Peter 5:14).

Dear saints all around the world, we greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! 🙂

Elsewhere in the Bible’s canon, we find similar expressions to today’s Scripture. For instance, 2 Corinthians 13:12-13: “Greet one another with an holy kiss. All the saints salute you.” Or, “Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss” (1 Thessalonians 5:26). And 1 Corinthians 16:20: “All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.”

To “greet” is an action of endearment, a gesture of love and respect. As custom in apostolic days, to “kiss” other believers was to do so on the cheeks, beard, hands, or forehead. Men would kiss men and women would kiss women. Today, we shake hands, hug, wave, smile, say “Hello,” et cetera.

Many times the Greek word for “greet” is translated “salute” in our King James Bible (Romans 16:5,7,9,10-16,21-23; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Philippians 4:21,22; Colossians 4:10,12,15; 2 Timothy 4:19; Titus 3:15; Philemon 23; Hebrews 13:24; 1 Peter 5:13; 3 John 14; et cetera). Our English word “salute” is from Latin salutare ‘greet, pay one’s respects to,’ from salus, salut- ‘health, welfare, greeting’; the noun partly from Old French salut.

In this world of busyness and worldliness, love is greatly lacking—even within the professing “Body of Christ.” Christians talk about how there once was an atmosphere of love in their local assembly; now, the ambiance is cold and unconcerned, full of backbiting, division, and selfishness. Christians do not seem to be as caring as they once were concerning other Christians. It is described by the phrase “without natural affection” in 2 Timothy 3:3. What a shame when Christians treat other Christians as lost people treat Christians!

Today, find another Christian and “salute/greet” him or her. Give a handshake, a wave, blow a kiss, do something to acknowledge their presence. After all, you need your practice. There will be millions of saints for you to “salute/greet” when you get to heaven. And, never forget, some will be the exact same saints mentioned in today’s Scripture! 🙂

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.

Praying Like Elijah #19

Sunday, March 8, 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?

When we pray for things and do not get them, it is not because God is unconcerned or unloving. Oh, dear saint, never entertain such foolishness! Unanswered prayer results when we demand He do for us what He said He would do only for Israel. Rather than praying as denominational tradition encourages—asking God to remove or protect us from problems (“give me good health, safe trips, ‘miracle debt cancellation,’” and so on)—we remember God’s attitude concerning contentment, that Jesus Christ strengthens us to handle all circumstances, good and bad (Philippians 4:11-13).

Father God is concerned, for He gave us His power to endure our difficulties. We find value in tribulations, for these troubles work patience, which works experience, which works hope, and hope makes us not ashamed, “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:1-5). Troubling times remind us that we are weak, insufficient in and of ourselves; however, God’s grace, love, and power will get us through them. We rely more on Him, experiencing more fully and using the provisions He gave us in His Son: His peace consoles us in our difficult circumstances (2 Corinthians 1:3-11).

Our focus should not be on what we can see (physical circumstances), but, by faith, seeing what we cannot physically see—God’s Word working in us as we endure those troubles (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18; see also verses 19-28).

The indwelling Holy Spirit takes this sound doctrine that we believe and pray (Romans 8:26,27), and activates it (1 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 4:12), causing us to not only understand it but enabling us to have the life the doctrine describes….