Month: March 2019

Numbers in Scripture: #3

Three has several connotations in Scripture. We will just consider two of them.

1. It is God’s number of complete witness. For example:

“At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death” (Deuteronomy 17:6).

“In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Matthew 18:16).

“This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1).

“Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses” (1 Timothy 5:19).

2. It denotes death and resurrection.For example:

“The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24:7).

“He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4).

Wait for the Lord

We often speak of waiting patiently for the Lord, but do we know what it is to wait patiently with the Lord?

The Bible encourages us, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord … Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:7-8). So, we learn from this, that we are to wait patiently for the Lord.

However, in the meantime, He wants us to walk with Him in every circumstance, whether hard or easy, good or bad. Not to lag behind, and not to run ahead. When He stops, we are to stop as well. When He goes ahead, we are to move as well. Just like the Children of Israel in the wilderness; when the pillar of cloud moved, they moved, and when it stopped they stopped as well, and waited with the Lord as long as He felt it necessary for them to be in that place.

David gave us some good advice when he said, “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule” (Psalm 32:9). The horse is impulsive and has to be held back with the bit and bridle, and the mule is stubborn and has to be forced ahead, often with the whip or rod. We are not to be like either. Let’s learn to wait with the Lord … His time and ways are perfect!

Under New Ownership

Outside a hotel that had been closed for weeks this notice hung:

This establishment will shortly be opening

under new ownership.

The hotel had a new proprietor, but it was the same building and outside it looked no different than it ever had. The changes were inside. It is just the same with a Christian who has been converted to God. He remains the same person with the same natural characteristics, the same schooling and profession, and he has the same family relationships. But he has become the personal possession of someone else. He now belongs to the Lord Jesus and is therefore “under new ownership.” The Holy Spirit dwells in a Christian’s body and is there to direct him according to the divine principles of the Word of God. We are now to live in a way that pleases the one who bought us. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Dear Young Christian:

Before you get up in the morning to face another day and another week, remember, it has all been planned out in a past eternity. Not only so, but all the resources that you need to meet the situations you face are already in place. All you need to do is utilize them. Realize, like David, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped” (Psalm 28:7).

Instead of trying to assess your own energy level and anticipating and wondering about what’s on the road ahead, focus on the Lord Jesus, and all that is available through Him. He has promised:

“I am with you alway” (Matthew 28:20).

“My grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness” (Isaiah 41:10). These are just a few of the many promises we are given. Entrust yourself to Him. “The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9).

 Your Christian Friend,

 Jim Hyland

We would love to hear from you.

Send your comments and questions to jhyland@primus.ca

Eat and Drink

After the breaking of bread remembrance meeting, a brother in Christ gave a short word of exhortation and encouragement regarding the privilege we had just had. Part of what he said really impressed me, and I will try to quote it as closely as I can remember.

First of all, he referred to the verse that says: “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

He then continued:

“If we had come into the Lord’s presence this morning, and sung these wonderful hymns, read the Scriptures concerning the person and work of Christ, and expressed our worship and praise, without a loaf and a cup on the table, and without eating of that loaf and drinking of that cup, we would have missed something very special and precious. In fact, we would have missed the most important element of this meeting. We can, and should, remember the Lord Jesus in our hearts every day, but there is something He has asked us to do each first day of the week … He has asked us to eat and to drink.”

I thought that was a good exhortation!

A Contrast

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:23).
“But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55).

What a contrast. A man who lived for sin and self lifts up his eyes in a lost eternity. On the other hand, God’s faithful servant, as he is about to lay down his life as martyr for Christ, lifts up his eyes, and sees the Lord on the very threshold of heaven waiting to receive him safe home. What a glorious sight it was, and what a wonderful welcome he must have gotten.

But you ask, “What makes the difference?” It is knowing Christ as Savior. Nothing else matters and nothing else will do when considering where we will lift up our eyes in eternity. It all hinges on knowing Him, and having availed ourselves of that great salvation offered freely to us. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

No Separation

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”
(Romans 8:35,38-39).

NOTHING can separate us from that constant, unchanging, divine love. Let the assurance of this glorious truth settle into your mind, heart, and soul … NOTHING!

We all want to be loved, and have the assurance that we are loved. Much of the human misery of this world stems from people feeling unloved. In the midst of adverse circumstances people tend to feel that love has been withdrawn and that they have been forsaken. This feeling of abandonment is often worse than the adversity itself. But the promise of the Lord is, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). This is a promise from the One who also says, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).

The Easy Yoke

The story is told of a man who was carrying a heavy basket some distance down a country road. His young son, who was with him, offered to help. After some hesitation, and due to the persistence of the lad, the father cut a large stick and placed it through the handle of the basket so that the end toward himself was very short, while the end toward the boy was three or four times longer. Each took hold of his end of the stick, and the basket was lifted and carried easily.

The son was bearing the burden with the father, but he found the work easy and light because the father assumed the heavier end of the load. So it is when we live for Jesus Christ. He says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:29-30).

There are burdens to bear and trials to face in the Christian life. But we can go through it all knowing that there is nothing that we have to bear alone, and we are encouraged, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

His Grace — Part 2

“And of His fulness have all we received,
and grace for grace” (John 1:16).

James and John are a good example of what we had in yesterday’s meditation. The Lord surnamed them, “Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). From that, and the fact that they united in asking the Lord to command fire to consume the village of the Samaritans, who refused them (Luke 9:54), we gather that they were rough, impatient, noisy men. Their mother was ambitious, too, in asking for her sons the chief places in the kingdom, and such a mother was likely to have ambitious sons (Matthew 20:20). The fact that they accompanied her when the request was made seems to point to this very clearly.

But see how grace worked. From the book of Acts we gather that James had become a man, ready to suffer martyrdom for Christ’s sake, with no trace of the Boanerges left. John, from his writings, is seen to be gentle, tender, and deeply affectionate — he had well graduated from the top place in the Lord’s school — his head upon his Master’s breast. Certainly, the Boanerges had been rooted out of him, the lion of nature had given place to the lamb of grace.

(Adapted from Comforted of God)

His Grace — Part 1

“He giveth more grace” (James 4:6).

A gardener gives the following illustration:

In clearing a flower bed to make room for some fruit trees, I learned a beneficial lesson. The most difficult to pull up were the rose bushes, because they were covered with more thorns than any others. At the same time, the rose was the sweetest flower that bloomed in the bed. There was a combination of the most thorns and the sweetest scent. I thought, “How like many a Christian.” With some, it is quite easy to be pleasant and amiable — which may be mistaken for the graces of Christ. But when a rough person is transformed into a gentle, lowly follower of Jesus, this is indeed grace. Of all the bushes and plants I rooted up, the thorny rose was the one I was most careful to find a new place for.

May this little illustration be an encouragement to some of us who find it difficult to be pleasant and gracious, to think that, if grace works in their hearts, the Lord may find His sweetest roses upon His thorniest bushes. We are apt to judge quickly and superficially, and see much grace where there is little, and little grace where there is much. God reads aright, and values the flowers of His own cultivation.

(Adapted from Comforted of God)