It's not rocket science

(sorry for delay--still working on new article and will have tomorrow now)

From a recent article by a scientist: "In an era where scientific advancements continue to reshape our lives, the theory of evolution stands as a reminder of the intricate web of life that connects us all. Whether we are combating disease, preserving ecosystems, or exploring the potential of genetic engineering, evolution offers valuable insights into how life adapts, survives, and thrives. It’s a theory that remains as relevant today as it was over a century ago, offering us the tools to navigate the complex challenges of our time and those yet to come."

*****

The word science appears twice in Scripture, first favorably and then negatively. Daniel 1:4 says, [4] Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

Paul writes in I Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called.”

“The Bible’s against things that purport or pretend to be knowledge but really are not,” explains Columbus, Ohio preacher David Reid in a study. “I Timothy 6:21 continues, ‘Which some professing have erred concerning the faith.’

“False science is the result of man’s desire not to retain God in his knowledge. Romans 1:18 says, ‘For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.’

“Here’s what is commonly thought: Man likes to pretend that the truth is hard to find; that it’s elusive. People say, ‘Well, the reason I don’t believe is because the evidence is so confusing; it’s so hard to figure out.’

“But what does Romans 1 say? Verses 19-20: ‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
[20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.’

“Is the truth hard to find or is it actually within man’s grasp? The problem is men hold that truth in unrighteousness.

“Don’t people say all the time, ‘Well, I’d believe if I just saw a sign. I mean, if you’ve never seen Him how do you know He exists?’

“Notice the verse says, ‘Being understood by the things that are made.’ That’s interesting because what people pretend all the time is that they don’t understand. It says ‘even his eternal power and Godhead,’ and this is the part they detest above all else--‘so that they are without excuse.’

“Have you ever witnessed to somebody and they say, ‘Well, what about those who haven’t heard?’ That is an intellectual evasion. You know why? You’re trying to tell them!

“Whatever happens to those who haven’t heard is totally irrelevant to your situation because you’re being told! You know why people raise that? They want the answer to be that those who haven’t heard get a free pass, in which case, ‘Shut up!’

“You see, what man wants is there to be an excuse. What Romans 1:18-20 does is it says, ‘Look, guys, c’mon, you do know . . .  you know, you know, you know.’

*****

“Romans 1:22 says, ‘Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.’

“It’s fascinating to me that if you attain a PhD and then you obtain a full-time appointment with a university, what is your title? Professor. And the idea is you PROFESS; you assert to know something.

“Well, Romans 1:22 is exactly how men operate. He declares himself to be wise, and yet for the vast majority of mankind, they have rejected truth and, in the process, become fools.

“What man does is he refuses to retain God in his knowledge and then constructs a false wisdom to make it appear that his refusal is wise. They don’t want to think they’re doing something dumb, so they invent all sorts of false things like science to claim they’re being wise.

“I Corinthians 1:20 says, ‘Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?’

“Notice verse 21: ‘For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.’

“Is that God’s wisdom or man’s wisdom? For in the wisdom of God, men decided to create their own wisdom to defend their not knowing God. What that tells you is man has all sorts of false things that he believes; that he constructs for the purpose of excusing, defending or rationalizing why he’s rejected the knowledge of God.

“When man rejects God, he rejects true knowledge; he rejects true science because science is knowledge. But what happens is nature abhors a vacuum, so when man rejects truth, what’s he left with? He’s only left with worshipping something that’s false. Man’s going to worship something.

“You may think this is an exaggeration, but I would say to you that men worship science. I came across the following quote from a professor in a college alumni magazine:

‘Many people believe we will never bridge the moral and, thus, political divide in the United States. I’m a little more optimistic. You see, I believe in a higher power that does have the ability to provide this country with answers. Some may even say it speaks to me directly; it’s called science.’

“That’s where a lot of mankind is. They are looking for the answers to life—‘It can bridge the world divide in our country! It can solve the problems of life!’ And what it is, 'It speaks to us! It’s science!' And what they mean by that is ‘man’s science.’

“The professor’s not referring to studying the Scriptures and getting a better understanding of God’s science; it’s a reference to man’s wisdom solving the issues of life.

“If you study the history of evolution at all, you know it’s a history of hoaxes where they have believed that, ‘Oh, this proves something,’ and then years later they find out it’s a hoax.

“Let me suggest this, evolution is a faith. Some dictionaries will define faith as ‘something that is believed in the absence of proof.’ That’s not faith. That’s silliness. That’s superstition. If you believe things in the absence of proof, that’s just conjecture or being naïve.

“If you have faith in the Word of God, you’re believing something because there IS abundant proof that the Scriptures are true.

“When you read the Old Testament, there are all these specific prophecies that are then fulfilled in the New Testament that could not have happened by chance. When you believe the Word of God is true, it’s not a belief in the absence of proof; it’s a belief supported BY proof.

“The correct definition of faith is it’s something you did not see. Why do I say that? II Corinthians 5:7: ‘For we walk by faith, not by sight.’ So faith and sight are what? They’re opposites. Hebrews 11:1 says, ‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’

“Faith and sight are opposites. If you didn’t see something happen, then you believe it by faith. So, for example, you take it by faith that George Washington was the first president of the U.S. The point is, if you didn’t SEE it, it’s faith.

*****

“Evolution is the belief that all life arises from a single common ancestor; a one-celled organism. So evolution is a belief about the origin of life; how it all started.

“Think through this with me: How many people, including scientists, were there to observe, to witness the origin of life? If you believe evolution, by definition there couldn’t have been anybody because nobody was there! It took billions of years for man to even arrive! So for him to say, ‘Yes, evolution is a fact,’ he never witnessed it and no man EVER did.

“So evolution is a faith, and evolutionists will just freak out about that, but that is true. No one witnessed evolution in the past, and can I tell you, no one observes it today. If anyone thought they could observe evolution today, they would record it and put it on YouTube and say, ‘The creationists are idiots; just watch this video.’

“The first step of the Scientific Method is, make an observation, which in a word is ‘sight.’ The way the Scientific Method works is it observes some physical phenomenon and it tries to measure and evaluate it, but the point is it’s based upon observation, yet no one has observed the origin of life.

“May I suggest to you, evolution itself is not science according to the Scientific Method because the Scientific Method is based upon observation, and there was no one here to observe it! It’s all just guesswork and speculation to try and apply it.

“The origin of life is not something that can be studied using the Scientific Method and therefore evolution is unscientific. The bottom line is, God created the universe and He has said what happened and He didn’t say evolution happened.

*****

“There are no observed instances of species-to-species evolution. When we define evolution, it’s the belief all life arises from a common ancestor, meaning there was a one-celled organism in the past that went to a two-celled organism to a four to an eight to a cat, dog, wolverine, etc.

“What science talks about all the time is they’re trying to find the ‘missing link.’ But if you think about that for even 12 seconds, you realize the problem is not a missing link; the problem is THOUSANDS upon thousands of missing links, where it goes from cat to dog to platypus to bear to horse to pig to monkey. That’s a big problem.

“Here’s the second problem. There are no observed, naturally occurring favorable mutations. What does that mean? What evolution presupposes is organisms reproduce and there will be a genetic mutation, and the organism that has that mutation will then be better adapted to its environment; it will live longer and reproduce more.

“The whole crux of that is then there have to be mutations that are actually favorable. The problem is when they look at mutations (deviations from the correct genetic code), they invariably make the organism less well-suited to survive.

“So if evolution is true, evolutionists ought to be able to give us a list of 25 naturally occurring favorable mutations, because to go from a one-celled organism to mankind, you need hundreds of millions. So asking for 25 doesn’t seem like much. I’d be happy with 10. They don’t have 5. Truth be told, they don’t have any.

“You know why there’s none? Because God, when He created dogs, He created the perfect dog. When He created cats, He created the perfect cat. There was no mutation; there was no deviation from what God did that could possibly be an improvement.

******

“Evolution is the idea that you go from the one-celled organism to the highly specialized and functioning man.

“Think about this: Your body tends to live to 80 years old despite what you eat. Your body does such a good job repairing itself because the Creator designed it that way.

“Well, what evolution then believes is you went from this one-celled organism to this extremely, well-functioning, specialized, complex organism. Let me just tell you, life doesn’t work that way.

“How about this, your child comes to you and says, ‘Hey, dad, I’ve got this one-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle. Can you help me out?’ and you say, ‘Sure, son, here’s what you do. Take all the pieces, throw them in the dryer and put them on the spin cycle and just leave them for an hour. And what they’ll do is they’ll assemble themselves together.’

“What evolution believes is that order emerges from chaos by chance. They don’t believe there’s the application of external intelligence; they believe it’s by chance. So you put the puzzle on for an hour and what happens? Nothing! So run it again!

“The point is, if your philosophy for trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together is to use the dryer, you will be frustrated in life. Well, that’s what evolution believes.

*****

“Entropy is a measure of the disorder of a system. To make it simple, entropy is disorder. It’s lack of organization; it’s chaos.

“The California Poly Technical State University at San Luis Obispo has an article on the second law of thermodynamics that states, ‘Entropy is the measure of a disorder of a system. That disorder can be represented in terms of energy that is not available to be used. Natural processes will always proceed in the direction that increases the disorder of a system. All natural processes tend toward increasing disorder.’

“Did you get that? I call that the ‘law of the garage.’ What happens to your garage? Every six months or longer you have to restore it to a state of order. Because naturally it does what? It declines into chaos.

“What my children do, for example, is they follow my wife around, and as soon as she gets something done, they help her by ‘fixing it.’ What happens? Every progress you make is immediately undone. That’s life in a universe where there is entropy.

“All natural processes move in the direction of increasing disorder. Evolution doesn’t say you went from a one-celled organism to man in a week. It says there were billions and billions of years, so that by chance there was enough time, and given long enough they would eventually assemble themselves into the right shapes and order and so on.

“But you have to understand, the longer you make that period of time, what is the direction of the universe? Is it toward order or disorder? Making the period of time longer does not solve your problem. If anything, it makes it worse.

“No one believes in evolution because it’s compelling. It’s contrary to common sense. Do you go camping and take a nature hike and find an IPhone and say, ‘Wow, how did this assemble itself out in the woods?’

“Or do you assume some intelligent person left it there? That there was a designer who created it? You see, the design testifies to a designer.

“Some people claim that evolution can be reconciled with a literal belief in Scripture. Not so. God simply doesn't give you that option.

“First, God created all animal life in two days. That’s Genesis 1:20-30.

“One of the common things people do to make Genesis 1 not say what it says is when they see the word ‘day,’ they say, ‘Oh, well, a day means a lengthy period of time. It’s not just a normal day.’

“Genesis 1:5 says, ‘And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.’

“So this day has an evening and a morning.  If you go through all the days, it says that each time. It’s almost as if God knew the nonsense people would say and just put little things in there to disprove them.

“Genesis 2:2 says, ‘And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.’

“Do you say you did something ON a millennium? Or ON an eon? You do something IN a millennium, but you do something ON a day.

“Exodus 20:11 says, ‘For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.’

“Think through this with me. If you say in Genesis 1 that when it says ‘day’ it really means this huge period of indeterminate time, then what that means is we are still in the seventh day, a huge period of indeterminate time, and none of you should be working. (Exodus 20:8)

“The reason why the Sabbath was hallowed is because God Himself rested on that day.

“The question’s often asked of a pregnant woman, ‘Do you know what you’re having?’ and there are only two answers. I’ve never had anyone say, ‘Well, we’re having a dog.’

“Genesis 1:24 says, ‘And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.’

“It says ‘after his kind’ 23 times in the Old Testament. Here’s the point. Crazy people say things like, ‘Oh, well those are textural emendations. The ‘his kind’ and ‘their kind’ was copied over and over and it was a copyist’s error and it wasn’t in the original.’ Nonsense.

“If God had the power to create the universe, He had the power to preserve His Word for six thousand years so you have it as He wants. If the Holy Spirit said ‘his kind, his kind, their kind, their kind,’ it was because He was making a point He didn’t want you to miss!

“The point in Genesis 1 is that what animals do today is what they have always done since the beginning of time and that is they reproduce after their kind. The reason you can’t go from a one-celled organism to two, to four, to dog to cat to bear to horse, is the simple fact bears have bears and horses have horses and it will always be that way.

“Genesis 1:31 says, ‘And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.’

“If you believe evolution and want to reconcile that with Scripture, what that means is this:  By the end of Genesis 1 man is created, which means there’s been billions of years and trillions of deaths. Because all those inferior organisms had to live and die and live and die and live and die, and there had to be genetic mutation after genetic mutation, so in Genesis 1, God looks at an earth that has billions of carcasses and dead forms of life and says, ‘That’s very good.’ Nonsense.

“People don’t believe evolution because it’s intellectually satisfying. There’s the thousands upon thousands of missing links. They can’t find any favorable genetic mutations. The very concept of disorder randomly assembling itself into order without any intelligence violates everything you’ve ever experienced in life.

“No one believes it because it makes sense. The reason they believe it is what we read about in Romans 1. God has revealed the fact that He has wrath against man’s unrighteousness. Not only has He revealed that, He’s revealed His eternal power. He has anger against man’s sin and the ability to do something about it and that offends man.

“The reason why people believe evolution is the old ‘any port in the storm,’ because they want to avoid the judgment of God and want to believe there’s a way out, and want to believe it’s okay. If it was okay Jesus Christ didn’t have to go to the Cross. He went to the Cross because there was no other way to deal with man’s sin.

“The engine that drives evolution is natural selection; survival of the fittest. In other words, there are these organisms that reproduce and the ones that have the favorable genetics--those are the ones who live longer and reproduce more.

“The reason for that is death catches the other ones. What underpins ‘survival of the fittest and natural selection’ is death. What evolution is really saying is life, where it really originated from, was death.

“Notice Proverbs 8:36: ‘But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.’

“When men hate God they love death. What I think of when I read that verse is Halloween. It’s skeletons, zombies, graveyards, vampires, spooky things, haunted houses, and all sorts of things that are all about death.

“When you see that obsession with death, the thing you should think of from Proverbs 8:36 is, ‘When I see that, what am I actually observing?’ The hatred of God.

“Evolution is the belief that it was the death of trillions of prior organisms over billions of years that gave man life.

“John 1:4 says, ‘In him was life; and the life was the light of men.’ Life is inseparably connected to Jesus Christ, the Creator. What Romans 1 describes is when men reject the knowledge of God, they are rejecting the source of life itself, and so the explanation they are left with as to how life came about is death.

“Let me put it this way, if you’re trying to grow your church, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time looking for new converts in graveyards, right? I’m a huge believer myself in, look in the nursery.

“Evolution is an irrational, crazy philosophy where it views the origin of life as arising from death itself.

*****

“Man’s science correctly perceives that the universe is falling apart, but has no answers because God hid all the answers in Jesus Christ.

“What the second law of thermodynamics tells you is that the universe is falling apart. Entropy is always increasing; in other words, order is just decreasing, and the longer the universe is around the more disorder there is. Thermodynamics, as best I can tell, is true and what that means is science has an understanding that the universe is falling apart. It’s descending into chaos, but science can’t do anything about it.

“Now, by the way, the Bible explained the deterioration of the universe a long time ago. Thermodynamics came along in the 1800s. So what science views as this great advance, read Genesis 3. Can you get an inkling from Genesis 3 that now that sin has entered into the universe, the universe is going to decay?

“Romans 8:19 says, ‘For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.’

“What your physical being is subject to and can’t get out of is the bondage of corruption and that’s why the older you get, you don’t necessarily always start to look pretty. Verse 22 says, ‘For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.’

“Do you ever have those moments where you sort of exhale in exasperation at the insanity that’s going on in the world? I just think, ‘Wow, I’m a mess, the world’s a mess, it doesn’t seem like anything is getting better,’ and that’s because you live in a universe that’s under this bondage of corruption and man has this naïve view that if he just would create new and better laws, or just elect the right people, or just do something earthly, that things would then be better.

“ It’s this naïve, vain hope that, ‘Yeah, man’s going to get it right. Just give us more time and we’re going to get it right.’ No, the universe is falling apart!

“Ecclesiastes 1:18 says, ‘For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.’

“What the writer’s lament is, ‘The more you learn about this earth, is that going to cheer you up?’ You realize there are more wars going on then you thought. There’s more slavery still in the world. There’s more human trafficking. There’s real, real persecution against Christians going on.

“Science can observe some of these phenomena that the world is falling apart but it can’t do anything to fix it.

“Proverbs 1:7 says, ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.’ Proverbs 9:10: ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.’

“When man rejects God, how much wisdom do they have? They haven’t even started! Proverbs 15:33 is the best definition of what the fear of the Lord is that I've seen: ‘The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.’

“What we know from Colossians 2 is God took ‘all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,’ the things that would give life meaning and purpose and understanding--and give you comfort as to what’s going on in the universe--and put them in Jesus Christ and hid them there.

“And you know what the vast majority of mankind is doing? They reject Jesus Christ, and while they don’t perceive it at the time, you know what they’re also doing? They just rejected all wisdom and knowledge, because God put it all in Him.

“God gave man a perfect map to allow him to navigate through life, but man hates the mapmaker so much he’d rather stumble around lost and in the dark, bumping into things, then read the map. That’s what Romans 1 says.

“Let me conclude with this: All truth is God’s truth. Science that is true is God-honoring, because the universe was created by God and it belongs to Him. But man creates ‘science falsely so-called’ because they want to get rid of the Creator, and evolution is just one example of that.

“Science falsely so-called is completely unable to address the real issues of life. It can’t give you peace or contentment or help you understand your eternal destiny, and it can’t help you resolve it because what God did is, all that wisdom that you need, He hid it in Jesus Christ. The answer to all the questions in life that really matter is the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Opening up the mouth

(It was one week ago now, during a batch of severe thunderstorms rolling through our area, that I experienced the most excruciating pain in my left jaw that went on for several hours. my mom dug through an old bin full of prescription medicines she keeps in a storage closet and found a Vicodin for me to take and it didn't make hardly a dent! to make a long story short, I thought I was having sinus trouble because the pain became almost non-existent the very next day and then came back in the evening with more thunderstorms. sure enough, it was all brought on by a tooth at the very back of my lower mouth. I got an appointment to see my dentist last Wednesday but, get this, my manager wouldn't let me leave work to take it! He turned me down! I was on a steady regimen of Tylenol and it was starting to affect my digestive system, causing me to feel ill on TOP of the mouth pain. Fortunately, I called my dentist again the next morning and they were able to schedule me even though it was the day before their break for the long Memorial Day weekend. The manager at work that morning did give me permission to come in late due to my appointment. I was given a root canal and crown. My mouth is still sore from where they did the work and I can't eat on that side for two weeks while I await my permanent crown but boy, am I grateful! UNDERSTATEMENT! Haven't had to take Tylenol for two days now and my digestion is starting to get back on track)

Note: new article this evening and sorry for not coming through last night--i fell dead asleep

When we see the issue of the mouth being open, yeah, it’s great to converse, isn’t it? But in a spiritual sense, it’s communicating something very specific.

Psalm 78: [1] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
[2] I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
[3] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

Now, we know who the “my people” is in the Book of Psalms. The nation of Israel. Can you appreciate the exclamation of passion here. “O” is not a word; it’s a sound. It’s a sound that typifies the heartfelt attitude.

When we find the expression, “I am opening my mouth,” specifically it’s communicating a system of doctrine.

We’re all familiar with the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5: [1] And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
[2] And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Matthew 13:35: [35] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

The Lord Jesus is opening up His mouth in parables; He’s teaching them some truths that are not available regarding His rejection and His impending exile as a rejected Messiah.

The point is He borrows Psalm 78 and He applies it to His work of ministry as Israel’s Messiah. He’s doing exactly what we just read in Matthew 5.

He opened His mouth and He’s teaching; He’s instructing His people. That’s what Paul’s communicating there to the Corinthians: “My mouth is open; I’m trying to communicate something.”

Look at what Paul says in Ephesians 4:29: [29] Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

That was Paul’s desire. “When I open my mouth, ye Corinthians, I have a deep well of doctrine and I want to communicate the system of doctrine to you for YOUR edification.”

Ephesians 6: [19] And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
[20] For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Paul, he’s ready; he’s prepared to communicate the advanced doctrine. The meat doctrine, the grace doctrine. He wants to continue to see this spiritual development there at Corinth.

II Corinthians 6: [11] O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
[12] Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
[13] Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

Think about that—to have that enlarged heart. Devotionally, it represents this swelling, abounding, joyful generosity. Paul, without question, had this inflated view of generosity toward his children, but there’s a doctrinal point to be made.

*****

Notice in I Kings 4 is a wonderful illustration of having an enlarged heart and it isn’t just, “Hey, I hope your heart’s big enough to love truly.”

In this passage is Solomon. Short of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was the wisest man in human history.

I Kings 4: [29] And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

The largeness of heart is not a reference to Solomon having the greatest capacity to love, or the greatest capacity to demonstrate compassion.

The largeness of heart has to do with this swelling capacity of wisdom; this swelling capacity of understanding.

There’s this boundless capacity that King Solomon possessed, both humanly speaking and divinely speaking. He had this vast comprehensive awareness of what God was doing; of what God was preparing, not only for him, but the nation of Israel.

Verse 30: [30] And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
[31] For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.

The largeness of heart is that heart that is inflated with the wisdom of God and the heart is now going to be the mechanism that’s going to properly apply the understanding and knowledge.

In other words, God FILLED the heart of Solomon with wisdom and understanding. When Paul says, “Our heart is enlarged,” Paul possessed SO MUCH knowledge and wisdom and understanding that was given to him directly from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s saying to the Corinthians, “I want to deposit it all; I want to place into YOUR heart.” He wanted the heart of the Corinthians to be FILLED with the deep understanding and knowledge of all that God’s doing.

And what’s the problem? With the Corinthians, there’s no room, there’s no room. And with Paul, again, there’s a rebuke. He’s saying, “Open it up. Let me in. Not just let me in personally, devotionally. Let me in as a father who wants to share this deep wealth of understanding.” 

Dismayed heathen: 'Anything to appease sun god'

(was traveling yesterday and will have a new article this evening for certain)

Job 31:26: [26] If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

[27] And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
[28] This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

"What's Job talking about? Job, the oldest book in the Bible, and he already knows the power and the influence--how insidious, how cunning the satanic policy of evil . . .

"Where's Job from? The Land of Shinar and in his day he sees the prevailing system of sun and moon worship.

"Obviously he can see the sun shining and the moon walking in brightness, full moon, and 'my heart hath been secretly enticed.' Enticed to do what? To worship that. You see the power of this system in that region?" says Alex Kurz.

"People say, 'Well, who today worships the sun and the moon and the star?' You better believe this worship goes on. It may not be a direct act before the sun god, but there are subtle ways of worshipping that ultimately is directed to Baal.

"We won't call it the s-u-n. We won't call it the moon. What if we just switch names? By the way, at the Tower of Babel all the languages were confounded. Just because over here they call it the sun and the moon--well, over here they call it something else but it's still the principal deity. You see the corrupted master genius of this creature, Mystery Babylon?

II Kings 23:5: [5] And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

"By the way, when you study Baal worship there's always the issue of the high places. What did we read in Genesis 11? A tower whose top may reach unto heaven. This fascination with the high places.

"How often, over and over, does God warn Israel and you know what the sad part is? Israel falls victim to all of this.

Jeremiah 8: [1] At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
[2] And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
[3] And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

Jeremiah 10: [1] Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
[2] Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

"If you're involved in the astrological, astronomical movements and activities, what would cause a heathen to be dismayed? In the Babylonian tradition--heathenism, paganism--why did they worship the sun, the moon and all?

"What type of season might cause a heathen to be dismayed at the sign up there in heaven? Historically, guess what happens when the days are getting shorter and shorter? The heathen says, 'Wait a minute, we can't let the sun god die!' 

"So how do you appease the sun god? Wow, you should learn some things about the Aztecs. Do you know how they would appease the sun god? They would sacrifice their enemies. They would take the heart of the victim and give it to god. Have you ever heard anybody say, 'Give your heart to Jesus.' Don't give your heart to Jesus; that's what the pagans did.

"The pagans will rip your heart out and offer it up to the sun god because 'Hey, we want the days to get long again.'

"Now, how will the heathen react to the shortening of days? Verses 3-5: [3] For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

[4] They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

[5] They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

"What heathenistic response happens because they're dismayed by the shortening of the day? A tree, which represents life . . .  

"We find there are these customs of the heathen to appease and to satisfy; all of the astrological phenomenon going on out there.

"What if we moved the moon over and the star over, what do you get? A crescent moon. You see why we're focusing in Revelation 17 on where?

"The moon, Ashtaroth, is called the face of Baal; she's called the Lady of Baal. It's fascinating that if we study the Babylonian tradition, their infatuation with sun and moon and the movements, etc.

"Listen, there's a symbol today called the crescent of the moon. You've heard of a solar eclipse. That's when the moon eclipses the sun. The moon becomes more important than the sun. You see, she's a mother."

'Lights, action!'

Light is a particle and a wave. Light has substance to it, but darkness has nothing to it; there’s no substance to it. Darkness is the absence of light.

How does God create darkness? Turn off the light. Darkness is the effect; the cause is the absence of light, explains Alex Kurz in a study.

On the first day God said, “Let there be Light,” and it’s interesting that the Light is capitalized. There is a person in the Bible who is named capital “L” light. The Lord Jesus Christ.

The first verses of the Book of John are all about Jesus Christ being light: [4] In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
[5] And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
[6] There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
[7] The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
[8] He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
[9] That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

I John 1: [5] This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Some would say that verse is used in a figurative sense; in a symbolic sense. But does the Bible describe God as being a literal source of light?

Lucifer was called “the son of the morning.” Lucifer, by name, means “light-bearer.” He possessed a built-in capacity to shine. He’s not “the moon of the night.” Lucifer was an illluminary.

Remember what Ezekiel said about Lucifer? “By the brightness of thy beauty.” Is it any wonder God’s response would be, “Turn the light off”?

This creature Lucifer was consumed with the brightness of his capacities. He became self-reliant, self-sufficient: “Who needs God? In fact, I’m going to become just like Him.”

Revelation 21: [23] And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Is this figurative and symbolic, or is this a literal description of Jesus Christ? There is no need for celestial lights? Why? The Lamb is the shining, penetrating manifestation of light.

Listen, when the Bible describes God, He’s described as being in possession of this radiating resource of light.

I Timothy 6: [15] Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
[16] Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

That writer says that the Lord Jesus, in connection to His eternal reign and rule as King of kings and Lord of lords, dwells in the light.

When the Bible says, “He is light,” there’s no need for the sun and the moon and all these cosmic celestial orbs of illumination because He IS that source of radiating light!

Remember Saul of Tarsus on the Road to Damascus. When the Lord Jesus appeared there was this penetrating light and it literally BLINDED Paul. Then, of course, the scales fell off Paul's eyeballs.

You know what, in that new heaven and earth there isn’t going to be any nighttime. It’s going to be the Light of the lamb that just penetrates the universe.

Matthew 17 provides an interesting description: [1] And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
[2] And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

By the way, Genesis 1:2 says “darkness was upon the face of the deep.” If you’ve ever been in the ocean, you know that the deeper you go the less light can move through the water. There are creatures we don’t even know exist down in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, for example.

“The face of the deep” indicates that were not just talking about darkness at the bottom. There’s no light on the FACE. That means there’s no light reflecting off of the surface of the water. Now you understand why God says, “Let there be light.” God is light.

Psalm 104 begins: [1] Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
[2] Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

He covers Himself “with light AS a with a garment.” What is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a garment?

Look at verse 6: [6] Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
[7] At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

Verse 6 describes the earth being covered with water as a garment. What did God do to that water? Didn’t He take that garment, that covering of water, off? Verse 6 describes water, the deep, serving as a covering. It’s a garment and we find out that at God’s command the water hasted away.

In Genesis 1, God spoke the command and He pulled the garment of water off the earth. God calls the water a covering. It’s a garment and God can take it off and put it on.

Now read Psalm 104:2 again. Why does God describe light as a garment that can cover Him, but a garment that can be removed, and then, four verses later, He uses the exact same language to describe the water that at one time covered the earth and that now has been removed? Because it’s like a garment.

Look at Genesis 1:1: [1] In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

What can we clearly infer? Did creation exist as long as God? No. God created, so that means God existed before creation. It’s obvious. God exists outside of time, space, matter.

Do you think God created the heaven and the earth and this was all done in the dark? Why would we think that?!

There was a moment in time when the same God who declares Himself to be light decided, “I’m going to create heaven and earth.” There’s a gap between "God" and "create" in verse 1.

*****

Here's an outtake from an old post on Lucifer:

For his clothing, Lucifer was covered in “every precious stone.” The way Ezekiel 28 describes it, “every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold . . .”

“Obviously gold is not a stone, and people will say, 'See, your Bible’s got a big mistake there!' but it isn’t a mistake," explains Richard Jordan, pointing to Exodus 28:17-20:

“And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row.

[18] And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.
[19] And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.
[20] And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings.”

 

“Gold is the setting used for stones, just like with a woman’s wedding ring, etc. When God gave Moses the pattern for the tabernacle, He gave him the breastplate as the covering for the high priest, and on that breastplate were stones. There were twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Nine of those stones are found in Ezekiel 28 (describing Lucifer).

“Three of them that are on the breastplate of the high priest in Israel were not in the list in Ezekiel 28. Now, there’s a whole evening’s worth of studies about the stones and why there are 12 here and three of them are left out, but if you look at Exodus 28:19 and then Ezekiel 28, you’ll see there are three stones missing in Ezekiel 28.

“These three--beryl, onyx and jasper--were not in the original breastplate and they’re set in gold. That’s how they were held there. Imagine that breastplate with the settings of gold with all these jewels in them.

*****

“In his covering, Lucifer was given a spectacularly dazzling attractiveness that reflected the dazzling display of God Himself.

“He had the original ‘coat of many colors. If you look down at end of verse 14 (in Ezekiel 28), it says, ‘thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.’

“Fire is light, and if you take these jewels and hold them up to the sparkling of a fire, it’s going to make them glow and sparkle. Stones of fire represent justice and judgment in the Scripture, but just for the physical appearance, they would be causing the stones to glimmer, to glisten, and each one of them has a different color.

“And what he’s doing . . .  just like Adam was given this garment of light, but the light Adam had wasn’t just this blazing white light coming off of him—‘Hold it back, I can’t see him!’

“In Ezekiel 1, when you see the appearance of the glory of God, it’s described as a rainbow. And you know what a rainbow is? The word is ‘refracted.’ Not reflected, but refracted. It’s bent light so that the colors of the light spectrum are seen.

“Literally, the throne of God in the ‘third heaven,’ when you see it, the light that comes around it is like a rainbow. It’s this dazzling array of light. God Himself lives in the ‘coat of many colors,’ as it were, and He gave it to His representatives in the earth—those special people who were loved and represented Him—and Lucifer had that! In other words, Lucifer in his person was bearing God’s light! And those stones represented that."

No more in chains

When you get delivered, you are turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God. 

"What I want you to see is that issue of the power of darkness," says Richard Jordan. "In Genesis 15 is a great illustration. When God chose Abraham, all the nations of earth had been let go to walk in their ignorance. God said in His promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, 'I'm going to demonstrate to the world what it would be like if they had me as their God.'

"God makes that promise into a covenant in Genesis 15. God swore with an oath so there was no question.

"My dad's oldest brother, in the early 1900s, in East Brewton, Ala., used his church letter from the East Brewton Methodist Church, as collateral at the bank to borrow money to start a business. In that era, your church letter meant something. Being a member of the Methodist church meant something about your integrity and who you were. Nowadays we don't want to shake a guy's hand; we want a contract.

"God said, 'I'm going to enter into a legal, binding agreement.' A covenant was always made with the shedding of blood: 'I'm giving the oath of my life.'

Genesis 15:12: [12] And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

"Literally, what God did was put Abraham in a position of experiencing what it's like to be a part of the Gentile nations, who were held captive by Satan. He said, 'I'm going to take you out of that,' and it was out of that horror of great darkness that Abraham's seed was to emerge.

"It's a description used to tell what it's like to be held captive by the Adversary. It's this horror; this tremendous captivity that people are in. Now, they're oblivious to the meaning of it. Why? Because they're in darkness; they don't see.

"By the way, Israel is in bondage to Satan in Egypt. You remember when God brought them out, He gave 10 plagues. Moses was told, 'I'm judging the gods of Egypt.'

God could have told Moses, 'Just go down and tell Pharaoh, let my people go and bring them on out.' They could have been out in Exodus 5. He said, 'I'm going to bring them out, Mo, but I've got a couple of things I want to do first. I'm going to judge these gods.' Whap, whap, whap, whap, whap, whap, whap, whap, whap, whap. 

"Job was in captivity. That's why he was suffering. People say, 'The Book of Job is about why do the righteous suffer,' but don't pay any attention to the answer. Job suffered until God came and liberated and turned his captivity.

Job 42: [10] And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
[11] Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
[12] So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

"Isaiah 49: [24] Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

Here's the big question of the Adversary. Satan holds the creation in the horror of great darkness, alienated from the life of God, from the light of God.

"Satan literally lines them up as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and he says, 'Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?'

"The chapter ends, [25] But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.

[26] And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

"Go to Jeremiah 31 and you see he literally holds them in his hand. Verse 11 says, [11] For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

"Jesus said if you're going to deliver the guy held captive, you've got to bind the strong man and take his stuff. So Jesus says, 'I'm the mighty one; I can do it.'

"But then Satan says, 'What about the lawful captive? The contract said if you don't keep my commandments I curse you and I can't use you.'

"God's given His Word to the contract so Satan says, 'I got you. Your Word says--your covenant says--they're mine.'

"Colossians 2 says, [14] 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; [15] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

"He said, 'Okay, I'll come and I'll fulfill all the requirements of that contract, I'll pay for it, I'll put it out of the way, I'll satisfy it and then I'll make a new one.' He took that law and nailed it to His cross. He went in and took the prey from the mighty. He made a shew of them openly, triumphing in the Cross. 

"I Corinthians 2: [6] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

[7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
[8] Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

"It was on that Cross that He spoiled principalities and powers. It was on that Cross that He nailed the law to do away with it. That's what Calvary, the resurrection, the ascension is all about. It's about setting the captive free.

"But if you don't understand the captivity, you can't really have the appreciation you ought to have for the liberty. I read that and I say, 'Woo, woo, woo, that's enough to make a grace Believer shout!' It's a wonderful thing to be free. 

"Every time we sing the song Glorious Freedom, I wonder how many of us are telling the truth:

Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters, Chained like a slave I struggled in vain; But I received a glorious freedom, When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.
	Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom, No more in chains of sin I repine! Jesus the glorious Emancipator,   Now and forever He shall be mine.
2	Freedom from all the carnal affections, Freedom from envy, hatred and strife; Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions. Freedom from all that saddened my life.
3	Freedom from pride and all sinful follies, Freedom from love and glitter of gold; Freedom from evil temper and anger, Glorious freedom, rapture untold.
4	Freedom from fear with all of its torments, Freedom from care with all of its pain; Freedom in Christ my blessed Redeemer, He who has rent my fetters in twain.

'Can't start a fire without a spark'

Music critic: “ ‘Dancing in the Dark’ is a song by Bruce Springsteen which is about darkness. The song talks about how we are all dancing in the dark, trying to find our way out. It is a metaphor for how we are all trying to find our way in life and how we sometimes have to go through difficult times before we can find the light.”

From a website: “The phrase ‘darkness feeds off light’ is often used metaphorically to describe how negative forces, emotions, or entities can thrive on the presence of positive energy, truth, or goodness. It suggests a dynamic where the very things that bring clarity, hope, or strength can be exploited or consumed by opposing forces.”

*****

Here is an outtake from tonight’s Bible study at my church:

Jude 1: [6] And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Notice they’ve got some fallen angels that are reserved under "everlasting chains under darkness." The darkness is the chains.

Just like it says at the beginning of Genesis 1: [2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
[3] And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Darkness disables the functioning of the angelic creation. You know why angels are associated with stars? They need light to function.

You put them in the dark . . . How good do you function in the dark? Have you ever been in absolute darkness? You know, you live in a city like this and can’t imagine. You live in dimness, but you can’t imagine darkness.

You go down to central Illinois, you go down to Ridge Farm, Ill. (farm town, population 735) in September, it gets DARK down there.

One time we were riding back to Morris Chestnut’s farm, and there’s only about 4-5 farmhouses in a mile stretch of land and the rest of it is just fields, and you get out there on a moonless night and it’s DARK.

One of the guys with us, we asked, “What’s the matter?” and he said, “Somebody going to jump on me!” and we said, “There ain’t nobody out here; just corn, maybe a deer or two.” But in the dark, you get the heebie-jeebies.

If you want to get into real darkness, you go into a cave. One time our family went to Lookout Mountain and went down to the cave there to see Rock City and the falls, and you get down there about halfway and the guy turns the light out and you know, all you want to do is hold onto the wall. Because it’s dark. It immobilizes you. 

Rest, relax: peace of God given by God of peace

(new article tomorrow)

Philippians 4: [6] Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

[7] And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Preacher Norman B. Harrison said many years ago in a famous sermon outline, “Be careful for nothing, be prayerful for everything, be thankful for anything.”

That’s the attitude to have. I’m careful for nothing, meaning I’m not worried and full of care about anything. Things aren’t the issue in my life, says Richard Jordan.

I’m prayerful about everything; I’m living my life under the constant scrutiny of examining what’s going on in light of what God says.

And then in everything give thanks. When you do that, the peace OF God. I think about that. What do words mean: “The peace OF God.” The peace that belongs to God. God’s own calm, still, restful heart. Understand, God is at peace today. He’s not worried about anything. He’s not upset. He’s not, “Oh whew, whew, wonder what they’re going to do down there.”

I love the word “rest.” Faith rests, because faith is simply resting. The first time rest appears in the Bible it’s after six days of working, making creation, and on the seventh day He rested. He said, “It’s done. The work’s finished. The purpose for which I’ve labored these six days to accomplish, this creation, now I’m going to enter into it; I’m going to enjoy it.”

In that rest that God has--that confidence that God has, that calm, restful heart--can be your personal profession. God filling your heart with His own divine stillness—the peace of God.

It’s interesting when you look at verse 9: [9] Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

You see, it’s the God of peace who gives you the peace of God.

*****

By the way, the word “anxiety” and the word “anger” come from the same root, and they’re all connected with fear.

How do you get away from that? How do you stop that? You know, Christian people worry about strange things. We worry about different things than the world does, but we worry about them nonetheless.

Again, Paul says, “In EVERY thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

Instead of being careful about things, we’re to be prayerful, meaning we’re going to talk to God about them. Instead of being filled with unrest inside, I’m to talk to God about these things.

The “everything” answers to the “nothing.” No thing over here is to be something that I be anxious, worried and full of care about, troubled about in my spirit, because EVERYTHING over here, I’m talking to God about. Do you get that? That’s great.

But you know one of the strangest things to me is that Christian people read that verse and one of the things they worry about the most is their prayer life. That’s a truth; you know it is.

“What should we pray for? How should we pray?” Everything goes haywire when you’re worried about prayer. Listen, if you’re worrying about how to pray in your prayer life, forget about not worrying about everything else. Because you’ve just jettisoned the thing that keeps you from worrying about everything else.

The way you war on worry is being prayerful for everything and thankful in anything. But if you’re going to worry about whether you’re praying right, you just lost it. And I tell you, folks, people do that.

Let me say this: Relax. There is no wrong way to pray in the dispensation of grace. There are some uninformed ways to pray, but you’re not going to make God mad at you if you say the wrong thing when you’re praying. Because you know what? You’re going to say the wrong thing. Relax.

*****

Norman Baldwin Harrison (1874-1960) was a well-known pastor, evangelist and New Testament expositor with many writings.

Here are some outtakes from a website that’s made his messages from Philippians available.

This duality is the key to victorious living. “In Me . . . peace. In the world . . . tribulation; but . . . I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). To live in the world is to be subject to its vicissitudes, which are many. To live in Christ, merely resident in the world, is to live in His complete, perpetual victory.

****

Christian's dual sphere of life, “in Christ Jesus at . . .” involves a paradox of experience. He may have Joy in the Lord while utterly lacking in Happiness at (the place of his residence). The paradox rests upon the separateness of the two spheres. Happiness is external. Etymologically, it is derived from “happenings.” So is it practically.

If the external happenings of life suit us, we say we are “happy.” If they shift or become uncertain, we are unhappy. It is a miserable chameleon existence. Yet it is the lot of all who merely live “at” their physical abode.

Joy is inward. It is “in the Lord”—in the inner sphere of the heart where He indwells. Its source is spiritual. Its resources are independent of circumstance. The degree of joy is often heightened and accentuated by the adversity of circumstance.

*****

A PROMISED PEACE (7). “The peace of God which passeth knowledge (surpasseth our natural powers of understanding, so unaccounted for by our circumstances, so contrary to them), SHALL keep (guard over) your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

It is military language. As a garrison of soldiers God will have His peace take possession of our hearts and minds. He will throw the cordon of His peace about us to ward off every worrying, vexatious thought that would infest us.

*****

We need more than peace; we need the Person—the God of peace. OUR IDEAL IN CHRIST. Paul is addressing himself to the Greek mind, with whom the pursuit of “virtue” was a habitual occupation.

He would have them know that the Christian faith has not only the loftiest ideal of all that is virtuous and praiseworthy, but the provision for realizing that ideal. This exemplary life, all the qualities he has enumerated, has already found expression in the Man Christ Jesus. And if the Pattern of life seem too remote, Paul is emboldened to direct them to a measurable realization of that model character, even in himself.

*****

“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be IN HIM a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). That is, from “within him.”

As this tact unfolds in experience, how wondrously PERSONAL He becomes. Christ is in Heaven; yes. Christ is common to all Christians; yes. But—He is mine. He is all mine, personal to me.

As I kneel in prayer, though a thousand others be similarly engaged, I do not share my Christ with them, claiming but a thousandth of His thought, His time, attention and love. I have it all, undivided. He is mine, all mine. Yet this is just as true in the experience of the other thousand, if they are truly His. How wonderful.”