|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Glen Park Gospel Church >> Archive >> Editorial >> 2001
Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. Some months include a topical article or report. We thought you might appreciate reading those previously published.
Unusual Texts No 1.
Another Year,
So Count the Gray Hairs!
"Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him,
yet he knoweth not." Hosea 5:9
Some people have hair which hides the gray hairs coming through. When rich red hair turns to gold, look for the gray hairs coming through.
It sounds an amusing text, and so might it be, if it were not for the tragedy it plays. Ephriam was aware of the passing of time, but unaware of the changes events had brought upon his head. The full verse reads "Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not." ‘Stranger' here is the word for prostitute, a person of ‘foreign' culture. Hard living takes it's toll.
My grandfather was a strong man when I lived with him. Well I remember his large frame and the muscles that covered his body. He died of a stroke in his seventies after he lifted a stump out of its hole while clearing land on his farm. My father was also a strong man. He also died of a stroke in his early sixties after he single handed lifted a motor car to roll it over on its side. They were both godly men, but the years had taken their toll, and they knew it not. I am not strong like them, so I will probably die of something else.
Jesus told the story of a man who devoted his skill and energy to building his superannuation nest egg, so much so that he was able to retire early and enjoy what his business acumen had provided. Then God stepped in with a tragic message. "You fool! This night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which you have provided?"
Whatever your life style, remember the ancient proverb! "Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." We don't know when we will be called to give an account of ourselves to God. We do know that we are one year closer to that appointment. Heed to the warning of Scripture, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Its 2001. Its time to count the gray hairs. The message is true for those who have worked hard, as well as those who have lived hard. Count the gray hairs.
"The stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times." Jeremiah 8:7
Stork Means a Bundle of Trouble
Pam & Tom were expecting, expecting, expecting any day now. I was in College and at the meal table one of the students rose to his feet to give them some ‘fatherly' counsel. "I have a verse for you," he said, "It comes from Jeremiah, and your period of waiting will soon be over." As he read the text the joke was enjoyed by all the students.
If we put the text into its context it gives us some advice which we need to heed. The full text reads, "Even the stork in the heavens knows her times; and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming; but my people know not the ordinance of the Lord."
Here we see that the migratory creatures keep to their appointed seasons and territories. They are creatures of inst-inct. Men were created to be controlled by conscience. The difference here is that the creatures exist in time. They live and do the things that they were programmed to do and then they die.
People are eternal. We live in a moral universe where there is the law of the innate consciousness of personal right and wrong, As we have the right of free-will we have authority to make choices and are responsible for those choices. As we are responsible beings we do not only exist in time, accountability demands that we are eternal.
The rule of the authority-responsibility relationship seen everywhere in life is that of being responsible to -for in the exercise of authority. Authority, responsibility and accountability go together. We are responsible to God for the decisions we make as determined by the things we choose to do or avoid doing. The writer to the Hebrews expressed it, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"1 and again, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body."2
Jeremiah marvelled that although the animals knew and kept their appointments, his companions were acting as if they were ignorant of theirs. They were acting as though God did not exist, as though they would never be called to account for their actions. There is not that much different from the day of Jeremiah, and our day. Pick up any news paper. Listen to your radio talk-back session. Moral accountability is the furthest thing from the minds of people today. Reader, how about you?
1) Hebrews 9.27 2) II Corinthians 5:10
Notable Texts No. 3.
Probabilities and Certainties
There is Hope for a Tree
For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.
But man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
Job 14.7-10
We had a tree in a pot. It had been given to my wife by her father before he died. It would have been a large green leafy liquidambar, a shade tree in summer then brilliant red in autumn. We kept it pot bound for a few years while we considered where to place it, but eventually decided on the nature strip where all the street could admire it and take advantage of its cool shade in summer.
One night, someone who obviously did not share our sentiments, cut the tree out. It was not vandalised and left to wither by the way, as the intruder cut deep down in the bole at the root line with clean sharp incisions. We were most upset to say the least. The stroke was intended to kill the tree. We were sure that it had. However because we knew Job's verse, we decided to water the roots regularly and see what would happen. Sure enough after many weeks of watering, watching and waiting, a tiny green shoot appeared. We waited our opportunity, dug out the root and repotted it. Today it is a healthy young tree, nearly half a metre tall.
This text comes from the book of Job. The book of Job is one of the most ancient documents in existence, being written some 4000 years ago. Job was a philosopher who had a clear grasp of both the spiritual and natural world in which he lived. We would be foolish if we were to heed Job's words about a tree, but blind our eyes to his warning about our mortality. Job's observation when put simply is, ‘Trees may revive, but for people death is permanent.' If this is the case then we ought to prepare for the certainty and finality of our own death.
There is a way! If we place our trust in the crucified Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the penalty of our sin, we receive eternal life in Him. On that day when such men and women are called before the Judgment Seat there is recorded in the journals of Heaven that they have passed out of death into life. In your own Bible read Job's prayer (Job 14.13-17) and you will find to your delight that Job knew that even this dry old root, like the cut down tree, will have sprung into newness of life. Is your name there?
There is Hope for a Tree
For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.
But man dies, and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, so man lies down and rises up not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake, or be roused out of his sleep.
Job‘s Prayer of Confidence
in His Redeemer in the Day of His ResurrectionOh that you would hide me in the grave, that you would conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint my set time, and remember me!
If a man die, shall he live again? I would wait all the days of my obligation, till my release should come.
You would call, and I would answer you; You would long for the work of your hands.
For then you would number my steps, you would not keep watch over.
Doing the Impossible
By this we do not mean the raising of the dead, rather, how can a holy God accept, welcome and receive an unclean, rebellious, guilt ridden humanity. To do would make the holy God unholy. Such a thing cannot be. If so, God would not onlybe unholy, God would cease to be God. For if God is holy, all that is holy is of God. He is only, there is no other.
If there were a lake of pristine, clear, fresh, water that gives life and health to all around it, and near by there were another lake of water heavy with salt, so heavy that nothing could live in it, nothing could drink it and nothing could live by it. If in order to make the salt water clean we dug a channel between the two, so that the fresh clear clean water flowed into the salt water, what would happen. Why, the clean water would become salty. The life that sprang from it would cease to exist.
This is the problem that confronts us as we consider the issue
of man's bias toward error, toward self serving, toward degradation,
in a world that recognises and demands the ideals of truth, fair
play and wholesomeness.
Governments, courts, philosophies, customs, traditions and religions
the whole world over recognise the concept of truth and right.
Even if the shape of that truth these institutions see, differs
in expression from place to place they all acknowledge right as
right, and truth as truth.
The fact that right may be bent, justice may be partial, and truth may be compromised does not alter the existence of an ideal. This ideal is God's world, a world that exists because He does, a world with the mark, however faded, of His character, personalty and purpose. A humanity created in His own image retains the vestige of His holiness despite the problems. Holiness is simply; uprightness, square, real, one hundred percent, purity, balance, right. What is not holy is wrong, and not of God!
As God is life and the source of life, to be alienated from God by unholiness is to exist alone which is death. See the problem? Now consider the answer.
This is the problem God faced when He first considered creation including mankind. If God was to create us in His own image, it required that man be given every transitive characteristic of God's personality, and to sustain these attributes by a personal trust relationship of man with God, called life. Man was to be free to exercise his personality in trust in God, which also maintained the true holiness of God in man. However, if man chose to go his own way, or the way of any other (which he did) the sustaining relationship of trust was broken, death resulted and that choice must essentially be one of other than holiness. To be other than holy is to be unholy. Unholiness must alienate man from God. God's problem was that of the reconciliation of wayward rebellious unholy man to Himself.
This problem was addressed by God before the creation ever took place, and it included God taking on Himself the penalty of unholiness by His stepping into man's world ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemning sin in the Flesh'. He did this in the person of Jesus who came into this world at Christmas, and was crucified at Easter. God has ‘made Him to be sin for us, He who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him'. As we have each been born into a sinful world, the offer of God is to every man, woman and child. Thus all who accept God's unselfish provision are made right with God, and thereby right with all that is right in this world. All this can be reduced to the simple Bible statement, ‘He (and she) that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life'.
If Easter is the evidence of God doing the impossible, why not get in on the miracle?
Daybreak
There was a man who spent much of his youth and early life in company with others doing everything that was evil and wrong. In time he came to put his faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and was released from his evil ways.
One day he met an old mate and drinking partner and tried to explain to him what it meant to him now to live as a Christian.
‘Bill' I says to him, ‘you know what I am,' for he was employed as a lamp lighter, ‘When I goes around the streets turning out the lights, I looks back and all the road over which I's been walking is blackness, and that's wot my past life is like. Blackness! Then I looks ahead of me and all I can see is a row of twinkling lights to guide me, and that's what my life's been like since I found Jesus.'
‘Aha!' exclaimed Bill anxious to take the mickey out of his friend, ‘But by and by you gets to the last light and turns it out. Then where's is you?'
‘Then,' says I, ‘Why! When the last light goes out it's dawn, and there ain't no need for lamps when mornings comes.'
"Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee." Psalm 143:8
Some day that golden dawn will come
When I have
reached my journey's end
And all my work on earth
is done
My guide has now become my friend
glenparkgospel.org.au
There would be few in Australia who do not recognise the above title as something to do with the Internet. It is known as a Domain Name. glenparkgospel.org.au, in this case, uniquely identifies our church's little piece of the internet; that is, our domain. Within it we provide two types of public interaction; e-mail and the web. Other types of service are possible, but these two are the most useful.
Missions are finding e-mail to be of great value for sending out prayer and news letters. As the years pass, more Missions will rely on the internet for keeping in touch. The World Wide Web can be thought of as one huge library of interlinked information which is stored all over the world and is created by hundreds of thousands of people.
Yes, there are some bad things to be found on the internet. Although, generally, one must go looking for it. There is plenty of nuisance material on-line too, and sadly, it tends to come along uninvited. There is also much that is good value to be found, and like the other, one usually has to hunt it down.
So why should Glen Park put up a shingle on the internet?
• First of all, so we can receive e-mail without
relying on Joan's personal internet address.
•
Second, our own domain name is identifiable with, and unique to,
Glen Park Gospel Church.
• Third, the internet
is an opportunity for evangelism and reaching into the community.
• Fourth, we can provide a lot more information
which is available widely and readily keep it up to date.
The church's web site has been deliberately made simple. The reason is partly technical (a slow connection) and partly because we are still learning how it is done. So our web site has been designed to be informative rather than attractive. We will jazz it up a little once it's content is filled out. Ironically, many other web sites are re-discovering the value of simplicity, so we will not be out of place.
So, what are our plans for glenparkgospel.org.au? The key attributes are: to be informative, non-threatening, an outreach to the community, and for missionary & church contact.
It is important for all of us to take an interest in and to contribute to the design of our web site. Your suggestions are much appreciated, and to provide new material would be even better. To get things going we have constructed a template of what the site could look like. A small part is already on-line.
On the back wall of the church will be posted a quick guide to how our web site is structured at the moment and what it looks like. Of course the best way to find that out is to get on-line and have a look for yourself. Our current plan is for the site to be divided into four sections: Church Activity, Bible Studies & the Gospel, Mission Awareness, and an Archive of previously published information. Because Church Activity is the principal section, all of its web pages will be selectable from the front page. The site currently shows where we are, tells a quick history of the church's early days, and provides basic on-line contact details.
The church's history could really do with ten times more information, including pictures. Next up however, we would like to list the various church activities and describe the annual and special events which we provide. Have a look on the back wall of the church. Please scribble on the pages if you would like to correct errors or suggest changes, or whisper in Philip's ear if you have an opinion.
http://www.glenparkgospel.org.au
Can We Know
Things to Come?
We live in terrible days.
Nation is at war with nation! Countries are torn apart. Brothers betray each other! Parents fear their children! Religious hatred is everywhere! Earthquakes, floods and drought and famine abound. Morals are contemptible! Crime is uncontrolled! Children are rebellious! Vandalism is pandemic! The rich-poor divide is unbreachable! There is no security. . . we could go on and on and on. Is there no end to it all? What lies ahead?
Are these things happening by random chance, or is there a meaning behind the events of human history. Our world has turned its back on God and chosen to live by the illusion of human sufficiency. It has forgotten His word, and pursued the oracle of science. And in so doing has alienated itself from the omniscient. Only the eternal God can give answers to the imponderable. Is there meaning to the symptoms of this world's distress?
"Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from his den, if
he has taken nothing?
Does a bird
fall in a snare on the earth,
when
there is no trap for it?
Does a snare
spring up from the ground,
when it
has taken nothing?
Is a trumpet blown
in a city, and the people are not afraid?
Does
evil befall a city, unless the LORD has done it?
Surely
the Lord GOD does nothing,
without
revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
The
lion has roared; who will not fear?
The
Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?"
Amos
3:4-8
There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Daniel (in 2:28 ) told his Sovereign.
Fortunately for us, what God told the King has been recorded and these ancient records have been preserved. You and I can access that revelation.
Not only has the broad outline of future events been revealed , but also much of the detail has been told to us too. We know the kind of things that will happen in the world as the days of the end of this age approach. God has consistently and progressively shown His people the things that we can expect. And these things are happening right now! "Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets." cried Amos
More than that, the exact detail of final events has been recorded. This is not given by today's numeral dating system, but by the ancient method of calculating one event from another. Only those who know what is revealed will know what is to happen and when. Only those who know the sequence and live in those times will understand.
"He (the angel) said, "Go your way, Daniel, for
the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. Many
shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined;
but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall
understand; but those who are wise shall understand."
Daniel 12:9&10
At this year's house party Bryan Greenwood will take us through a study from the Bible on Things to Come
You will not want to miss one of these sessions.
You can learn so much!
"Now write what you see, what is and what is to take place hereafter." Revelation 1:19
Q Where Does the War on Terrorism
fit
into Scripture?
A It doesn't.
Here is where we are
in Bible Prophecy
Matthew 24.6 "And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet."
Jesus was asked when the end of the age will come. He clearly gave a sign by which we would know when it would occur.
Matthew 24.14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come."
How well have we done the task that Jesus set the Church when he gave to us the Great Commission? How soon will it be done?
Here is one assessment whereby we can answer that question. Wycliffe Bible Translators have estimated that there are 6809 languages. As of today there are 271 which have a Bible. A further 960 languages have a New Testament. A further 750 groups are considered to have these needs met in other ways. There are 1500 odd with work in progress. There are some 3300 where immediate work must be undertaken to finish the task. They have set themselves the impossible aim of seeing it completed by the year 2005. Only God can do a work like that. (Do you want to be part of it?)
This is only Scripture translation. There is also Radio broadcast and personal missionary work, and the phenomenal growth of the Church in the non Western world, at the moment 137% annually. These forces will have an exponential effect. It is all coming together rapidly. When all nations have the witness of the Gospel, this condition will have been fulfilled, as Jesus said, "and then the end will come!" Are you ready?
What's the best bet for the race?
Men and women are ever willing to gamble their future on uncertain chance. Are you?
The race that we are talking about is of course is the human race. And without doubt this race has an uncertain future. The only certainty is uncertainty.
Because we are so uncertain of the future, we are at a loss to know what to do in the present. The best thing that we can do is to plan for that uncertainty.
In this world there is no peace, even the degree of peace we thought we had has dissipated and with it the degree of confidence that we enjoyed. In reality we do not have and never had a measure of certainty; such a thing is a contradiction and cannot exist. Events of recent days has made that very evident.
It is here that the Christian has the edge, for although we are uncertain what the future holds, we certainly know who holds the future.
Jesus said "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me." John14:1
Jesus lived and died and rose again in order to bring us to God. He has here commanded that we allow our hearts to be untroubled, but instead fix our confidence in the God who sent His Son to secure our reconciliation to Him.
Here then are our options, live in the world the fear of uncertainty, or trust in the One Who is in control by accepting God's offer of peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
If you would like to know more about these things, e-mail one of the people on the contacts page. They will be pleased to assist.
Home || Back || Editorial
|| Thoughts || Quotes
|| Guests || Bible
Studies || Read Your Bible
Church
Info || Editorial ||
History || Easter
|| Bible Studies || Missions
|| Archive || Site
Map || Privacy