Category: encouragement

333 Turns Four!

Monday, June 1, 2015

“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 20:32 KJV).

Greetings to all our grace brethren around the world! Rejoice in Christ with us as “333 Words of Grace” celebrates its fourth birthday today!

Dear friends, we have come a long way—1,462 daily Bible studies to be exact! Some of you have been with us for just a few. Others of you have been with us for every one. Thank you for your continued prayer and support. How we are so grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ to have been able to serve you these last four years. We look forward to thousands of new studies and many more years (Lord willing, of course). While we have covered much ground in the Scriptures, there is still much we have not yet discussed. God’s Word can never be exhausted. In fact, we have all of eternity to learn it and profit from it, but we might as well start here now.

When Paul gave advice to the Ephesian elders about surviving the damnable teachings of the “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” he offered, in part, today’s Scripture. He knew that “the word of [God’s] grace” (the Bible rightly divided) would edify these Christians in the midst of all the doctrinal error. We would do well if we kept that in mind as Christendom becomes more confused and further apostate.

We hope to have been a help and a blessing to you these last four years. It has been our daily prayer that you grow in the knowledge of the grace of God that is offered us in Jesus Christ. We hope that we have shown you the key to unlocking the Holy Scriptures and how to extract the profit that God put into them. Father God is doing something extraordinary in this vast universe and He invites us to join Him in doing it. He wants us to delight in it to the extent He does, and unless we know what He is doing, we cannot enjoy it.

* And now, beloved, we close Year 4 of this ministry project! Onward by God’s grace into Year 5! 🙂

Willing to Submit to God’s Will

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

“If any man will do his [the Father’s] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself” (John 7:17 KJV).

Let us be willing to submit to God’s will!

A ministry coworker recently told me about how one particular man was so excited about understanding the Bible dispensationally. I had talked with him months before via telephone, and she had given him some Bible study material. Just the other day, he had returned to her house—all these months later—to express his gratitude to her for showing him the truth. God’s Word has gripped his heart!

Earlier this week, a vehicle pulled up at my house while I was in our front yard. A man stepped out and asked me if I recognized him. Of course I did. Many months ago, he had just so happened to be passing in our neighborhood. At that time, a relative and myself have given him the Gospel and shared some Bible study material with recently. Recently, it was on his heart to stop, so he did. We had a delightful discussion about Bible versions and Bible perversions. I could sense his thrill in seeing such wonderful truths!

It is often asked, “Why does God hide His Word from some but reveal it to others? Why do some people see the Gospel, see the truth about the Bible versions issue, and see right division, while others do not see anything at all?” (Jesus’ answer is today’s Scripture.) Those who have faith see the truth! Those who do not see the truth do not want to see the truth! It has nothing to do with God hiding anything from anyone. It has everything to do with people not wanting to submit to God’s authority and refusing to believe Him. It is that simple!

May we be like these two men described above. People with such a desire to see the truth! People with a love to hear more of and believe God’s truth! Souls who simply took God at His Word, and who let God’s Word take them beyond their wildest imaginations! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Why did God kill the Egyptians’ firstborn sons?”

The Greatest War Hero

Monday, May 25, 2015

“For God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 KJV).

In the United States, today is Memorial Day, when we remember those who sacrificed their time and lives to provide our physical freedom. Likewise, as Christians, we have spiritual freedom, which was more costly. Someone had to die to give us the eternal life we now enjoy….

Scripture describes a spiritual warfare between good and evil, God’s truth program versus Satan’s lie program: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles [schemes] of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:11,12; see also verses 13-20).

Satan distracts mankind from God’s pure Word, the Bible, keeping unbelievers lost (dead in their sins), and preventing unbelievers and Christians from knowing God’s will. The devil draws them away (seduces them) from God’s Word by using religious tradition and human “wisdom” (1 Timothy 4:1-3; cf. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Galatians 3:1-3).

God loves us, so at Calvary’s cross, Christ fought for us sinners, died in battle (today’s Scripture), shed His divine sinless blood, and eternally rescued us from Satan and sin: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:14,15).

Hebrews 9:12 says Jesus Christ has “obtained eternal redemption for us.”

If we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). Now, God can use us for His glory for all eternity.

Beloved, let us rejoice in our victory over sin, death, and hell that Jesus Christ secured for us by going to Calvary’s rugged cross! Jesus Christ is now alive forevermore—He is our Hero, the Greatest Hero!

*Adapted from a larger Bible study “The Greatest Hero,” which can be read here or watched here.

Fruit in the Time to Come

Friday, May 22, 2015

“For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus” (2 Corinthians 1:13,14 KJV).

Oh, what excitement and rejoicing there will be when all members of the Body of Christ in heaven we will see!

In the early 1900s, preacher and Bible scholar Dr. C. I. Scofield led a certain missionary to trust Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. In the 1940s, that missionary led a certain preacher to Jesus Christ. By the early 1970s, that preacher had led a certain woman and her husband to Jesus Christ. In 1980, that woman led Mom and Dad to Jesus Christ. It was in the mid-1990s that Mom led me, at the age of 6 or 7, to trust Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. In just a few lines, that was one route the Gospel of Grace “traveled” in the 20th century!

Today’s Scripture is a very exciting passage in light of the above paragraph. Paul and Timothy knew the Corinthian believers would be their rejoicing at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Conversely, Paul and Timothy would be the rejoicing of the Corinthians in that day. Similar statements were made about the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:19,20.

When we all arrive at the Judgment Seat of Christ on that glorious day post-Rapture, and the Lord Jesus Himself evaluates the doctrine we have stored in our inner man, there will be great joy, a most glorious reunion, an event that transcends our imagination! There, we will recognize those we led to Jesus Christ, and we will know those Christians whose lives we impacted with sound Bible doctrine (dispensational Bible study). Also, we will be able to thank the saints who were so faithful in leading us to trust Jesus Christ and/or teaching us His wonderful truths. All the memories of the troubles of this world will just melt away. We will be awed by what God Almighty did to get us all there! 🙂

Speak to the Hungry People!

Thursday, May 21, 2015

“…He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully…” (Jeremiah 23:28b KJV).

Do you have God’s Word? Then speak that Word faithfully, that you may feed the starving souls!

In ministry, I meet many cantankerous people. They are not interested in being Bible believers. They only want to argue and change the Bible text when they disagree with it. What is sad is if they have actually trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour! Then again, I find some people (saved and lost alike) who make ministry so worthwhile. They want to believe God’s Word, and cannot hear enough of it. They want to hear more, more, and more! (It is our pleasure to stick around talking with them as long as possible.)

One Christian sister explained to me that she was teaching dispensational Bible study to another Christian. He was so intrigued by the verses she was sharing. The poor man was “starving” spiritually. Church services were just not feeding his soul. He had religion, but not edification. He wanted to hear more from God’s Word!

A Christian brother who has since gone to meet the Lord, was known for his sincere searching for the truth. That man was so open to being taught the Holy Bible rightly divided. He refused to hear any more denominational teaching—he had heard enough of that for many years before. He wanted the pure Word of God. For hours at a time, he eagerly received Bible lessons! His earthly life was cut short due to illness, but we were so glad to serve him for the brief time we did.

One of my closest friends in the ministry attended weekly services with her husband for some 10 years in a denominational church. Once these Christians came to understand God’s grace and the King James Bible rightly divided, she summarized their decade of denominationalism: “In those 10 years there, we learned nothing!”

Saints, Father God has not yet closed our Dispensation of Grace. We have His preserved Word (the King James Bible), so let us faithfully speak it to as many people as we can before time runs out! 🙂

The Hope of Creation

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22 KJV).

Having recently taken our family pet dog to the veterinarian, I was reminded again that the curse of sin affects all creatures, not just us.

In the waiting room, an enormous Great Pyrenees dog limped with “flopping” hind legs. Puzzled, I asked the nurse what was wrong with it. She said “old age.” The dog was 12 years old—roughly 60 in human years—and suffered from severe arthritis. The aging dog could not stand for long. My mind immediately recalled today’s Scripture—“the whole creation….”

If we were to go to heaven and ask Adam, “Given the chance to do it all again, would you eat that forbidden fruit?,” I wonder what he would reply. That sin was certainly enjoyable but it had such awful consequences. Adam foreknew death for himself and Eve, but not the long-term and extensive damage. He had no idea that his one act of unbelief and disobedience would impact over 10 billion people and innumerable animals and plants. They would all suffer the repercussions—disabilities, disease, and death—for something he did. He had no idea that his sin would require the Creator’s very life!

Everywhere we turn, we see problems, problems, and more problems! It is such a comfort to know that our Creator God has abounding grace and pity toward us. It was not His will that such difficult human, animal, and plant conditions would exist. He has not left us hopeless and helpless. All hope for creation rests solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. No pope, priest, “prophet,” president, preacher, pundit, professor, or person has any power to undo what Adam did. Scientific analyses, political agendas, social movements, economic theories, religious participation—all the works and thoughts of weak and faulty men such as ourselves. Oh, how Jesus Christ is so desperately needed here. He is the answer to all our problems.

Rather than looking within ourselves, or looking to others like ourselves, let us look in the Holy Bible to learn that Jesus Christ is the only Hope for heaven and earth and all their hosts. He will set it all right in His time! 🙂

Our special edition 150th Bible Q&A: “Who wrote the book of Hebrews?”

A Higher Education: It Is Up to You

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 KJV).

Nine years ago today, I graduated high school. Consequently, we dedicate this devotional to high school students who are nearing graduation.

Are you about to graduate high school? What would God have you do afterward? Go to college? Trade school? Something else? What career should you pursue? If you do plan on education after high school, where should you attend school? These are tough questions, and while God’s Word does not answer them, you can make decisions that conform to sound Bible doctrine—that is God’s will.

In today’s Scripture, Paul encourages downcast Timothy. Timothy was considerably younger than the Apostle Paul. Older people who are teaching false doctrine are intimidating young Timothy: “Tim, you are too young to teach God’s Word. Let us handle it.” Young Timothy conceded, became silent, and allowed the (“older and wiser”) false teachers to continue teaching their damnable heresies (cf. 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 1:5-8). Paul replied, “Timothy, Speak up! Let no man despise thy youth!”

Christian youth can be just as effectual in their station in life as Christian adults. The lost world is watching us Christians, and we need to be sure that our actions are in accordance with the sound Bible doctrine we claim to believe (lest we be guilty of confusing the already-puzzled unbelievers). Whether “young or old,” our speech, our lifestyle, our acts of love, our determination, our belief in sound Bible doctrine, and our separation from that which God hates, is the way we communicate to the lost world God’s Word and its preeminence in our lives and hearts (today’s Scripture).

Above all, dear graduates, whatever you do post-graduation, “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). After all, it really is not your life—it is Christ’s life in you (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4), so He alone deserves the glory!

*Based on a Bible study by the same name, which can be read here. Also, see the study “The Spirit-Filled Student.”

Out of Season

Sunday, May 17, 2015

“And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness” (Isaiah 29:18 KJV).

What does today’s Scripture have to do with the current spiritual affairs of “Christian” United States of America?

According to a recent poll, in 2014, about 71 percent of Americans claimed to be “Christian.” In 2007, it was 78 percent. Some 23 percent of Americans polled in 2014 claimed to be “atheist, agnostic, or of no specific faith.” Back in 2007, that percentage was 16. In other words, it seems that Christianity is losing its majority. Why do I say “seems?”

One of the greatest misconceptions is the widely held belief that every person who claims to be “Christian” is a Christian. If we were to re-poll the above persons, and ask them to define what a Christian is or believes, many would be unable to tell us. The actual percentage of Christians is far lower. There may be 224 million church members in our beloved nation, but certainly not 224 million members of the Body of Christ! From Genesis through Revelation, the God of the Bible has never had a majority. I doubt there are 224 million true Christians in the whole world!

What is happening in our nation is we are reverting to pre-Christian times. When Christianity spread through pagan lands in New Testament times, there was increasing light and truth. Now, the opposite is occurring. That light and truth are becoming scarcer—not just here, but in all places history once knew as “centers of Bible believers.” This world is heading for the seven-year Tribulation, and rightly so. Two thousand more years of unbelief have been credited to mankind.

The spiritual ignorance that so gripped Israel millennia ago is suffocating the whole world spiritually. Thankfully, today’s Scripture says that God’s Word will still be preserved beyond our present-day, to convert Israel in the future. If that Word will exist then, it must exist today. Despite all the false religions, false teachers, and false Bibles, our King James Bible is a beacon ever so bright and true. ‘Tis the preserved Word of God that shall see us through! 🙂

A Renewed Opportunity

Saturday, May 16, 2015

“To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19 KJV).

If only more lost people knew the first half of today’s Scripture. If only more Christian people knew the second!

Recently, I learned that a family member attempted suicide. Thankfully, the police intervened and hospitalized him before he carried out his plan. A dear religious man, a war veteran plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder, haunted by his violent past, has gotten the psychiatric help he so desperately needed. Sometime ago, he told me that he could still see in his mind his friends’ faces from all those years ago, people who never came home from the war alive. Like so many veterans, he feels guilty for not dying with the others on the battlefield. I do hope to visit him soon and share Jesus Christ with him (again).

It is estimated that there are between 10 and 20 million failed suicide attempts worldwide every year. Every year, over 800,000 people are successful in taking their lives. What is saddest of all is that the vast majority of these precious souls go to hell (not because they committed suicide, but because they died without Jesus Christ). They did not have go to hell.

When Father God sent Jesus Christ to Calvary, He sent Him to change the status of the nations of the world (today’s Scripture). Once, while He dealt with Israel, the nations were cut off from Him (Ephesians 2:11,12). Today, God has concluded “all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all,” Jew and Gentile (Romans 11:32). Verse 15 talks about how God has temporarily cast away Israel in order to reconcile the world. He is not pouring out His wrath on them. People of all nations can come to Him by simple faith in Jesus Christ’s bloodshed, death, burial, and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). This is the Gospel of the Grace of God, “the word of reconciliation,” and may we Christians be faithful in getting it out to the masses before it is eternally too late. There is hope in Jesus Christ! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Could you explain Acts 19:1-7?”

Young and Old(er) Men

Monday, May 11, 2015

“The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the grey head” (Proverbs 20:29 KJV).

Young or old(er), today’s Scripture says we both have something of which to be proud.

As a young man, I realize that I cannot speak as an old(er) one. All I can say about advancing in years is what I have witnessed in the lives of others. With the passage of time, there is an increasing disconnect between the inner man and the outer man. As we age, what our inner man wants to do is often not what our outward man is even capable of doing. While our physical bodies grow slower and frailer as the decades pass, our soul and spirit still want to behave as we did in our younger decades. Such an oddity is captured by the phrase, “the young at heart.”

Today’s Scripture says that a young man has one chief reason to boast—his strength. Generally, his bones have more calcium than an old man’s, so a young man’s bones are heavier and stronger. Also, the young man’s muscles have not deteriorated yet. The older man, however, has a chief reason to boast too—his grey head. His hairs are not receiving melanin to the extent that a young man’s hairs are, so his hairs have greyed and eventually they will turn completely white.

With age comes wisdom. “The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness” (Proverbs 16:31). A grey-haired (older) Christian is someone who has not only had experience in life in general, but who has had experience in God’s life (true life). That is the “beauty of old men.”

The young Christian man will not be able to boast forever—if the Lord tarries, reality assures us that his body will become old. Likewise, the old(er) Christian man will not boast forever—when the Lord comes, reality assures us that his body will become brand new! So, in the Lord’s grand design, it will all level off eventually. We just need to literally “give it some time….” 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What is the difference between a minister, a pastor, and an evangelist?”