The Sabbath Is About God and His Ongoing Spiritual Creation In Us.

 Exodus 20:8-11

(8) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9) Six days you shall labor and do all your work, (10) but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. (11) For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

New King James Version

We live in a grubby, grasping, material world. Every day challenges us with its built-in bias toward material things. With human nature ever-present within us, it is not hard to overlook spiritual things in the pressured rush to accomplish each day's work.

The Sabbath, though, almost forces us to think about the spiritual—about God and His ongoing spiritual creation in us. It presents us with the opportunity to consider the whys of life, to orient ourselves properly so that we can best use our time during the other six days. The Sabbath is the kernel, the nucleus, from which proper worship—our response to God—grows.

Existentialist philosophers say that life is absurd, that it is but a prelude to death. All of life, they proclaim, is virtually empty of value because it has no ultimate goal better than what one already has. Life is going nowhere. Yet, keeping the Sabbath is in fact a celebration of just the opposite: It is all about life and its great goal as planned by the very Creator! It concerns His ongoing creative process toward our being made into the spiritual image of His Son.

Life may indeed be stressful, tiring, and sometimes even frightening, but life is not absurd. It is a prelude to life on an infinitely greater and higher level. As we proceed through the time given to us, the more we become like Him, the more sanctified we become from the world. In this mentally refreshing and elevating experience, we have a tiny foretaste of what is to come.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

 

The Berean:

The Church Of The Greater God

PO Box 471846

Charlotte, NC  28247

 

 

JESUS CHRIST HAS NOT FORGOTTEN HIS PROMISE TO HIS SAINTS. 

The Relevance Of Bible Prophecy And The Old Testament In Christianity Today.

There are many Christians today who do not see any relevance, or very little relevance in the Old Testament much less Bible prophecy.  The Old Testament and Bible Prophecy is the very basis or foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is what the Gospel is based on and where it gets its authority. 

Jesus Christ when he was preaching, used the Old Testament and Bible prophecy to back up and support what he was teaching.  When the apostles went out to spread the Gospel as commanded by Jesus Christ, they followed His lead.

The Old Testament and Bible Prophecy are the parts of the foundation of the Church that Jesus Crist built.  Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:16-18).  People complain that the Bible is hard to understand.  On the contrary, it is very plain to those who seek the truth.
 
The Old Testament and Bible prophecy deals with the whole counsel of God’s Word and the hope of the Christian.  The hope of every Christian should be the promise of eternal life in the Kingdom of God.  The Old Testament and Bible prophecy deals with the end of the world and of humankind.  It is the Christians belief concerning the ultimate or final things, such as death, the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgment.


There are many people today concerned with current events and Bible prophecy reveals that the only hope for mankind is to be found in Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament and Bible prophecy is the doctrine of last things that will happen culminating in the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God an earth..

The Old Testament is important because it supports the New Testament.  Prophecy is what proves God's word and holds everything written as the Word of God to the truth.  There are over 300 prophecies regarding Jesus Christ's first coming and one quarter of the New Testament contains prophecy. 

Prophecy points to the sovereignty of God in real history.  It demonstrates what a believer is supposed to be doing in this age, the age you are living in.  Prophecy should be what causes people to want to live Godly lives according to His commandments. 

One of the most important things it has done since Jesus Christ left the Church behind to testify for Him is to  give comfort in the midst of all sorrow and wickedness in today's world and facilitates perseverance with a hope of the future.

The Old Testament and Bible prophecy are the impelling forces to warn people of their sins and drive them to repentance.  The future is not hidden from those who believe in Jesus Christ.  God's people, the Church of Jesus Christ, have not been appointed for the wrath that is to come to this earth.  Christians, should live each day with knowing that our future in Christ is certain as is testified in the Old Testament and Bible prophecy.


 

Jesus Christ Admonishes Those Who Blindly Follow Teachings Of Their Religious Leaders.

Millions of Christians today are deeply religious people and strictly believe and follow the doctrines of the Churches that they belong to.  Is this a good thing?  Can they be assured that they are truly saved?  What does the scriptures have to say about churches who preach a doctrine that cannot be backed up by scripture?

 

The Scriptures tell us:

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you... And many will follow their destructive ways...They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you... they speak great swelling words of emptiness.... (2 Peter 2:1-2, 13,18)

 

Many Christians faithfully attend Church every week.  Ministers, pastors and priests preach from the pulpits from the smallest to the largest churches in the world.  Believers come to the conclusion that Peter must not have been referring to the church in our day regarding false teachers. Tolerance is the word of the day. We hear admonitions on a regular basis to "just get along" with those of opposing faiths. "Love" reigns supreme. Is this what Jesus Christ or the apostles taught?

 

When someone comes along and points out that there are errors in the doctrine being preached and that there is apostasy in the Christian Church today, they are told that they are bringing discord into the church, that they are being divisive and judgmental, that their criticism could actually harm the Christian movement and the church itself.  These people are perceived as arrogant and "negative".  People believe, because someone may not have a theology degree from a certified Christian institution of higher learning or is not ordained as a minister or preacher of a recognized Christian church, that what they are professing just can't be true.  How can these people be speaking the truth and everyone else who are "qualified" be wrong.  In todays world, this does not make any sense so those trying to point out the discrepancies between doctrine and scripture are accused of being heretics and extreme Christian fanatics that need to be either shunned or silenced.

 

It is a clear trend in the Christian world today to embrace the "politically correct" position ignoring the fact that it is not supported by scripture.  The Apostle Paul wrote, "Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves" (Acts 20:30). 

 

Today there are preachers and religious leaders who support things that are corrupt, contrary and opposed to biblical doctrine.  Their objective is to gather followers into their own personal Church effectively separating them from the "True Church Of Jesus Christ". 

 

Paul even predicted that the main stream Christian Churches of the day would openly accept false teachings and beliefs when he wrote, ""For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted--you may well put up with it!" (2 Cor 11:4).  Most Christians not only tolerate those who speak "perverse things," but they ostracize believers who won't accept them.

 

Scriptures tells Christians that they are not to allow the evils of error alone and allow the church to be polluted by the lies.  "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers... Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake."  (Titus 1:10,11)  In the early Church the general populace did not have access to the written word of God as we do today.  It was up to the elders of the Church to admonish those who brought in false teachings. 

 

Today, most individuals have access to the Word of God, the Bible, which gives every believer the opportunity to study scripture and God for understanding and guidance.  The Bible and the scriptures there in are "...given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tm 3:16-17).  Each and every Christian can be readily equipped with the very instrument knowledge that gives them the authority admonish people, which would include Priests, Pastors, Ministers, and all other religious leaders who preach against the Word of God. 

 

In Titus 1:7-16 it calls on the leaders of the Church to identify errors in doctrine.  Unfortunately in the last 2000 years after the Apostolic period, a lot of the religious leaders have been, and still are, the ones who promote false doctrine.

 

God says, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (Matthew 7:15). "Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28).  "Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers..." (1 Peter 5:2).  God commands Christians to "contend earnestly for the faith" (Jude 3).  The faith of Christianity is the truth as found in the scriptures.  If you are not professing this truth, you are disobeying God and you have no Biblical faith.

 

Regrets

I regret that yesterday,
I didn't smile a little more, or give a warmer welcome
to a caller at my door.



I regret I didn't take the time
to call a distant friend,
that I wasn't somewhat kinder
and left some notes unpinned.



I regret I was so cranky
and hasty on my way,
oh, how I wish that I could change
my thoughtless yesterday.  - Virginia Borman Grimmer



Don't let today slip by, you may not get a tomorrow!