Pastoral Resources

Jesus Christ, by His constant designation as the Son, must not be considered as belonging within time and space. Take as an illustration the sun and its rays. Does the radiance of the sun proceed from the substance of the sun itself or from some other source? We all know that it proceeds from the substance itself. Yet, though the radiance proceeds from the sun itself, we cannot say that it is later in point of time than the existence of that body, since the sun has never appeared without its rays. It is for this reason, says Chrysostom, that Paul calls Christ "brightness" (Heb_1:3), setting forth thereby His being and His eternity from God. The fact that Jesus Christ, the Word, is presented as a separate personality from God the Father does not mean that He is less eternal, less infinite, and therefore less God and less responsible for the creation of the world, than God the Father.

Garth Brooks has a song which says "We buried the hatchet, but left the handle sticking out." One great obstacle of stumbling is non-forgiveness. The hatchet might seem to be buried, but people continue to grab hold of the handle when they want to use it against another. Jesus said if a brother repents, forgive him-that is, bury the hatchet and its handle. How many times, you might ask? As often as the brother repents, we are to forgive.

Don't grab hold of buried hatchet handles, for they become stumbling blocks to forgiveness.

Among ancient Greeks the runner who won the race was not the man who crossed the line in the shortest time, but the man who crossed it in the least time with his torch still burning.

We are so often so busy with life's activities that we are in danger of allowing the torch of our spiritual life to become extinguished.

A good woman once said that in the rush and hurry of her life she felt in danger of being "jostled out of her spirituality." There is a real danger of being too busy to be good, of running too fast to keep our torch burning.

Chuck Swindoll reports that a seminary student in Chicago faced a similar forgiveness test. Although he preferred to work in some kind of ministry, the only job he could find was driving a bus on Chicago’s south side. One day a gang of tough teens got on board and refused to pay the fare. After a few days of this, the seminarian spotted a policeman on the corner, stopped the bus, and reported them. The officer made them pay, but then he got off. When the bus rounded a corner, the gang robbed the seminarian and beat him severely. He pressed charges and the gang was rounded up. They were found guilty. But as soon as the jail sentence was given, the young Christian saw their spiritual need and felt pity for them. So he asked the judge if he could serve their sentences for them. The gang members and the judge were dumbfounded. “It’s because I forgive you,” he explained. His request was denied, but he visited the young men in jail and led several of them to faith in Christ.

“… The prayer of the fourth-century church father Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, who prayed: ‘I am spent, O my Christ, Breath of my life. Perpetual stress and surge, in league together, make long, oh long this life, this business of living. Grappling with foes within and foes without, my soul hath lost its beauty, blurred your image.’”

Two fellows opened a butcher shop and prospered. Then an evangelist came to town, and one of the butchers was saved. He tried to persuade his partner to accept salvation also, but to no avail. “Why won’t you, Charlie?” asked the born-again fellow.

“Listen, Lester,” the other butcher said. “If I get religion, too, who’s going to weigh the meat?”

Edward Fudge tells this story:

One day through the primeval wood, a calf walked home as good calves should. But made a trail all bent askew, a crooked trail as all calves do.

Since then 300 years have fled, and I infer the calf is dead. But still he left behind his trail-and thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day by a lone dog that passed that way. And then a wise bellwether sheep pursued the trail o'er vale and steep, and drew the flock behind him, too, as good bellwethers always do.

And from that day, o'er hill and glade, through those old woods a path was made. And many men wound in and out, and dodged and turned and bent about, and uttered words of righteous wrath because 'twas such a crooked path.

But still they followed the first migrations of that calf, who through this winding woodway stalked-because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane, that bent and turned and turned again. This crooked lane became a road, where many a poor horse with his load toiled on beneath the burning sun, and traveled some three miles in one. And thus a century and a half they trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet. The road became a village street; and this, before men were aware, a city's crowded thoroughfare. And soon the central street was this of a renowned metropolis. And men two centuries and a half trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout followed this zigzag calf about, and over his crooked journey went the traffic of a continent.

A hundred thousand men were led by one calf, near three centuries dead. They followed still his crooked way, and lost 100 years a day. For thus such reverence is lent to well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach were I ordained and called to preach. For men are prone to go it blind along the calf paths of the mind, and work away from sun to sun to do what other men have done.

They follow in the beaten track, and out and in, and forth and back, and still their dubious course pursue, to keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove, along which all their lives they move. But how the wise old woods do laugh, who saw the first primeval calf.

Ah, many thing this tale might teach, but I am not ordained to preach!

(The called man) sees himself as a steward...He’s obedient rather than ambitious, committed rather than competitive. For him, nothing is more important than pleasing the one who called him.

We obey his commands and do what pleases him. I John 3:22 NIV

At what point did the straw break the camel’s back? In his Treatise on One-Humped Camels in Health and in Disease, A. S. Leese reports that camels can generally carry from 240 up to 1200 pounds--which only “the very best animals” can manage. The record for camel capacity in Australia is 1904 pounds.

The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, “What are you doing?”

The first replied, “I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day.”

The next answered, “I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job.”

But the third said, “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.”

A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday. “What are you most proud of?” he asked.

“Well, “ said the man, “I don’t have an enemy in the world.”

“What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!” said the reporter.

“Yep,” added the centenarian, “outlived every last one of them.”

There’s a charming story that Thomas Wheeler, CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, tells on himself. He and his wife were driving along an interstate highway when he noticed that their car was low on gas. Wheeler got off the highway at the next exit and soon found a rundown gas station with just one gas pump. He asked the lone attendant to fill the tank and check the oil, then went for a little walk around the station to stretch his legs.

As he was returning to the car, he noticed that the attendant and his wife were engaged in an animated conversation. The conversation stopped as he paid the attendant. But as he was getting back into the car, he saw the attendant wave and heard him say, “It was great talking to you.”

As they drove out of the station, Wheeler asked his wife if she knew the man. She readily admitted she did. They had gone to high school together and had dated steadily for about a year. “Boy, were you lucky that I came along,” bragged Wheeler. “If you had married him, you’d be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer.”

“My dear,” replied his wife, “if I had married him, he’d be the chief executive officer and you’d be the gas station attendant.”

When Irving S. Olds was chairman of the U.S. Steel Corporation, he arrived for a stockholders’ meeting and was confronted by a woman who asked, “Exactly who are you and what do you do?” Without batting an eye, Olds replied, “I am your chairman. Of course, you know the duties of a chairman—that’s someone who is roughly the equivalent of parsley on a platter of fish.”

The Challenge: 100 million adults attend church weekly, most for 10+ years, 49% not even believers. The average Christian in American today will die without ever having shared his faith in Christ with another person.

An atheist who had just finished lecturing to a great audience invited any who had questions to come to the platform. After a short interval, a man who had been well-known in the town as a hopeless drunkard but who had lately been converted, stepped forward. Taking an orange, he turned to the lecturer and asked him if it was a sweet one. Very angrily the man said, "Idiot, how can I know whether it is sweet or sour, when I haven't tasted it?" To this the converted drunkard retorted, "And how can you know anything about Christ if you have not tried Him?"

Some of you have seen a lizard called the chameleon. Certain chameleons can quickly change color, and even develop spots and streaks that seem to be part of their background. They can turn green, gray or brown if they are standing on a green, gray or brown background.

Those of us who love the Lord Jesus should "show our colors"-let others know you belong to the Lord. Do not be like the chameleon who changes color with his surroundings. If you have to be with unsaved girls and boys at school and in other places, do not act as they do and do naughty things. Let others know you are different because you have a new life!

When the pilgrims settled in the United States, they brought their tools from Europe and learned to grow corn from the Indians. Their technology was limited. They dug a hole in the ground, planted an ear of corn, and added fish for fertilizer. By working hard with his hoe, a colonist could grow the equivalent of four bushels of corn a year, or about one bushel for each month in the growing season. By the time of the Civil War, farmers used mules and developed plows and other tools enabling a man to grow the equivalent of a bushel of corn a week or 16 bushels of corn a year. But today, with advanced technology, petrochemical fertilizer, soil analysis, and four-wheel drive tractors, a farmer can grow the equivalent of a bushel of corn for each 10 minutes of the growing season. American farmers grow more corn than the other farmers of the world because of better technology and better tools. The miracle of life in the seed has not changed; farmers can do nothing to change what God has ordered in the growth cycle. But tools and technology can improve the harvest.

Thought I’d let my doctor check me

Cause I didn’t feel quite right

All those aches and pains annoyed me

And I couldn’t get to sleep at night.

He could find no real disorder

But he couldn’t let me rest

What with Medicare and Blue Cross

It wouldn’t hurt to do some tests.

To the hospital he sent me

Though I didn’t feel that bad

He arranged for them to give me

Every test that could be had.

I was flouroscoped and cystoscoped

My aging frame displayed,

Stripped upon an ice cold table

While my gizzards were X-rayed.

I was checked for worms and parasites

For fungus and the Crud

While they pierced me with long needles

Taking samples of my blood.

Doctors came to check me over

Prodded and pushed and poked around,

And to make sure that I was living

They wired me up for sound.

They have finally concluded:

(Their results have filled a page)

What I have will someday kill me,

My affliction is .....Old Age.

A recent television documentary pointed out that the cheetah survives on the African plains by running down its prey. The big cat can sprint seventy miles per hour. But the cheetah cannot sustain that pace for long. Within its long, sleek body is a disproportionately small heart, which causes the cheetah to tire quickly. Unless the cheetah catches its prey in the first flurry, it must abandon the chase. Sometimes Christians seem to have the cheetah’s approach to ministry. We speed into projects with great energy. But lacking the heart for sustained effort, we fizzle before we finish. We vow to start faster and run harder, when what we need may be not more speed but more staying power—stamina that comes only from a bigger heart. Motion and busyness, no matter how great, yield nothing unless we allow God to give us the heart.

J. Oswald Sanders reports that years ago, Paul Morphy was the world’s champion chess player when he was invited by a friend to look at a valuable painting titled, “The Chess Player.” In the painting, Satan was represented as playing chess with a young man, the stake being the young man’s soul. The game had reached the stage where it was the young man’s move; but he was checkmated. There was no move he could make which would not mean defeat for him and so the strong feature of the picture was the look of utter despair on the young man’s face as he realized that his soul was lost.

Morphy, who knew more about chess than the artist, studied the picture for a time, then called for a chessboard and pieces. Placing them in exactly the same position as they were in the painting, he said, “I’ll take the young man’s place and make the move.” Then he made the move which would have set the young man free.

J. Oswald Sanders reports that years ago, Paul Morphy was the world’s champion chess player when he was invited by a friend to look at a valuable painting titled, “The Chess Player.”

In the painting, Satan was represented as playing chess with a young man, the stake being the young man’s soul. The game had reached the stage where it was the young man’s move; but he was checkmated. There was no move he could make which would not mean defeat for him and so the strong feature of the picture was the look of utter despair on the young man’s face as he realized that his soul was lost.

Morphy, who knew more about chess than the artist, studied the picture for a time, then called for a chessboard and pieces. Placing them in exactly the same position as they were in the painting, he said, “I’ll take the young man’s place and make the move.” Then he made the move which would have set the young man free.

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap, His hair was like a light.

(O weary, weary is the world, But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s breast, His hair was like a star.

(O stern and cunning are the kings, But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary’s heart, His hair was like a fire.

(O weary, weary is the world, But here the world’s desire.)

The Christ-child stood at Mary’s knee, His hair was like a crown.

And all the flowers looked up at Him, And all the stars looked down.

Honour and happiness unite

To make the Christian’s name a praise;

How fair the scene, how clear the light,

That fills the remnant of His days!

A kingly character He bears,

No change His priestly office knows;

Unfading is the crown He wears,

His joys can never reach a close.

Adorn’d with glory from on high,

Salvation shines upon His face;

His robe is of the ethereal dye,

His steps are dignity and grace.

Inferior honours He disdains,

Nor stoops to take applause from earth;

The King of kings Himself maintains

The expenses of His heavenly birth.

The noblest creature seen below,

Ordain’d to fill a throne above;

God gives him all He can bestow,

His kingdom of eternal love!

My soul is ravish’d at the thought!

Methinks from earth I see Him rise!

Angels congratulate His lot,

And shout Him welcome to the skies!

A Christian grocer was in financial difficulties because his customers thought they could run up their bills indefinitely. They felt that such a saintly man would never press them for payment or take them to court. Their ready excuse was, "We don't have money to pay our bills." "How can I pay my creditors, if the people I have trusted do not pay me?" puzzled the grocer. What should a Christian do in such a case-believe all things and all men and go bankrupt? A novel idea came to him. He posted the following notice on the bulletin board in front of his store: "On this bulletin board, thirty days from now, will appear the names of all persons who have been indebted to me for one year or more and who, after repeated requests, have refused to pay! Some have told me that they are unable to pay, but they are able to build homes, drive cars, and have other things that I could have if I had the money due me. I hope I don't have to put any names on the board, but I won't be put off any longer!" Results followed immediately. Many paid their old accounts, while others promised to do so on the next payday. This grocer's action was wholly consistent with Christian love. He refused to believe the falsehoods of others and by so doing didn't allow them to continue in deceit and dishonesty. Love believes all things that encourages honesty and virtue in others. Love does not believe lies but endeavors to correct them.

There's much truth in saying that every man is the architect of his own fate. Your choices affect your destiny. Out of a rough block of stone one man may make a beautiful statue, another, gravel. Both products are good and useful under certain conditions. But a statue can be immoral in conception, and gravel can be the grudging and punitive work of a criminal condemned to a rockpile. The point is, whether you are a gifted artist or a competent gravel maker, you can choose whether to use your abilities worthily or unworthily. In building a Christian life you have the same choice.

John Bunyan wrote: The happy man was born in the city of Regeneration, in the parish of Repentance unto Life. He was educated in the School of Obedience; he works at the trade of Diligence and does many jobs of self-denial. He owns a large estate in the country of Christian Contentment and wears the plain garments of humility. He breakfasts every morning on spiritual prayer and sups every evening on the same. He also has "meat to eat that the world knows not of." He has gospel submission in his conduct, due order in his affection, sound peace in his conscience, sanctifying love in his soul, real divinity in his breast, true humility in his heart, the Redeemer's yoke on his neck, the world under his feet, and a crown of glory over his head. In order to obtain this, he prays fervently, works abundantly, redeems his time, guards his sense, loves Christ, and longs for glory.

There's much truth in saying that every man is the architect of his own fate. Your choices affect your destiny. Out of a rough block of stone one man may make a beautiful statue, another, gravel. Both products are good and useful under certain conditions. But a statue can be immoral in conception, and gravel can be the grudging and punitive work of a criminal condemned to a rockpile. The point is, whether you are a gifted artist or a competent gravel maker, you can choose whether to use your abilities worthily or unworthily. In building a Christian life you have the same choice.

If you visit any large foundry where the boilers are kept going at full force, you would never be able to look into a boiler to tell how much water there is in it, but you would be able to tell how much water the boiler contains by an instrument which is attached to the side of the boiler. Alongside is a small glass tube which has some fluid in it. If this glass tube is half full of liquid, then there is an indication that the boiler is half full of water; if the glass gauge indicated that there is no water in the glass, then we can depend that there is no water in the boiler. The little glass gauge is the indicator for the large boiler.

How can people tell whether we love God, our fellowman, or even ourselves? They can never look within our hearts and get the answer; it is only by our outward actions, the works that we do as Christians that people are able to tell how much or how little our religion amounts to. Our love for God is indicated by the works of love in which we engage. There are people who are constantly looking at the Christian's gauge.

John Bunyan wrote: The happy man was born in the city of Regeneration, in the parish of Repentance unto Life. He was educated in the School of Obedience; he works at the trade of Diligence and does many jobs of self-denial. He owns a large estate in the country of Christian Contentment and wears the plain garments of humility. He breakfasts every morning on spiritual prayer and sups every evening on the same. He also has "meat to eat that the world knows not of." He has gospel submission in his conduct, due order in his affection, sound peace in his conscience, sanctifying love in his soul, real divinity in his breast, true humility in his heart, the Redeemer's yoke on his neck, the world under his feet, and a crown of glory over his head. In order to obtain this, he prays fervently, works abundantly, redeems his time, guards his sense, loves Christ, and longs for glory.

St. Francis said one day to one of the young monks, "Let us go down into the town and preach." They passed through the streets and returned to the monastery without having said a word. "You have forgotten, father," said the young man, "that we went down to the town to preach." "My son," Francis replied, "we have preached. We were preaching as we walked. We have been seen by many: our behavior has been noticed; it was thus that we preached. It is no use, my son, to walk anywhere to preach unless we preach everywhere as we walk." "Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us play our part nobly, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith" (Heb 12:1).

There is one additional factor that will enable us to know Christ "as he is," and that is "we shall be like him" (1Jo 3:2). Being like Him will make us sensitive to all that we have missed in our relationship with Him on earth. You may have had a close friend for years, yet never truly known him, just because you are radically different from him. But someone who has a real affinity of nature with him will be able to see in him what you have never seen; he is like him and sees him as he is. You must have the Christlike heart to see the Savior; and in heaven our hearts will be perfectly tuned to His.

In ancient history we are told that Caesar had a friend to whom he once gave a munificent present. But when he offered it, the friend said: "This is too much for me to receive." To which the emperor replied: "But it is not too much for me to give."

After all our sinfulness and rebellion, God's gift of pardon through Christ does seem too much for us to receive; but the riches of divine mercy are so great that it is not too much for Him to give. When God forgives, there is not one sin left unforgiven. Christmas was indeed too great a gift for man, but it was not so for God.

A certain father was a chronic growler. He was sitting with his family in the presence of a guest in the parlor one day when the question of food came up. One of the children, a little girl, was telling the guest very cleverly what food each member of the family liked best. Finally it came to the father's turn to be described. "And what do I like, Nancy?" he asked laughingly. "You," said the little girl slowly, "well, you like most anything we haven't got."

The church is never a place but always a people; never a fold but always a flock; never a sacred building, but always a believing assembly. The church is we who pray, not where we pray. A structure of bricks or marble can no more be a church than one's clothes of serge or satin can be he. There is in this world nothing sacred but man, no sanctuary of God but the soul.

The story is told of a horse-pull in Canada. One horse pulled 9,000 pounds, another 8,000. Together you would expect them to pull 18,000 pounds. Not so! When teamed together, they pulled 30,000 pounds.

The principle is called synergism. By definition, the simultaneous action of separate agents working together has a greater total effect than the sum of their individual efforts. More can be done in a team effort than can be accomplished solo. In order for the principle of synergism to work like it should, there has to be teamwork.

Everything we do takes teamwork and trust. Every person in the local church is valuable and needed. The church is a team, and together we can build for the Lord.

During the century of westward migration in America, the trading post was a familiar landmark in every frontier town. To the trading post came the hunters, trappers, miners, and homesteaders with such things as furs and gold, and these they traded for things they needed more-food, tools, weapons, clothing.

In a very real way, the church is a kind of trading post. Here some things may be put down and left, and others may be picked up and taken. We may bring our cares and fears, our sins and guilt, and we may take forgiveness, joy and peace.

There was a dear black saint of God who happened to enter a fashionable church. After the service he approached the preacher and told him that he wanted very much to join the church. The pastor knew that his consent to such a request would certainly not meet with the approval of the official board of the church and of the congregation. At the same time he did not want to appear cruel and harsh. So he said to this man, "John, go home and pray for two weeks for the Lord to guide you definitely whether He wants you to join this church." Accordingly, humble John took the advice and went home. When the two weeks were up, he came again to the church, and after the service the preacher said to him, "John, what was the guidance of God?" "Sir," John replied, "God told me that He has been trying to get in here for the past fifteen years and He hasn't succeeded, so I had better give up trying where God cannot find entrance."

Paul calls himself a wise architect because the foundation he laid was not different from the one eternally laid. How foolish an architect would be if he refused to follow the laws of nature and civil engineering which are actually the laws of God. You, too, are unwise if you diverge from the Church's one Foundation, "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," laid down by God from the beginning.

Like many Christians today, the disciples had a faulty view of the future. They focused on Christ's future kingdom rather than on their responsibility to occupy enemy territory and represent His kingdom until He returns (Luk 19:31). The church's responsibility to occupy the world can be compared to what happened in 1983 on the island of Grenada. Due to the rise of Communist insurgency, the U.S. President ordered troops into Grenada. In just eight hours, the battle was over. However, many of the Communists would not accept defeat. Rather than surrender, they sniped at our troops from behind cars, buildings, and trees. So our troops remained there until the victory was secured and a new government was installed.

When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, He was victorious over all God's enemies. He clearly won the victory. However, Satan and his followers have not accepted defeat and still try to claim victory. Thus, the victorious Christ has established His troops-the church-to secure the victory until He returns to set up His new government. The church is God's occupational force until He comes again. Rather than focusing on their future rule with Him, therefore, Jesus wanted the disciples to focus on their impact in the world and be ready to receive God's power through the Holy Spirit.

Seminary graduates are needed, and God can use them mightily, but Christ's body is not to be served only by those who have 20-20 vision, but also by some myopic Christians who have to wear glasses. Is it any wonder that after two thousand years the Christian gospel is still unknown to three out of every four people in the world? It's because the Church has become an organization devoted to uniformity instead of realizing that it should be an organism, a body that has a diversity of organs with varied gifts to serve the unified body of Christ. A lack of committed believers with no college education is just as deadly to the progress of the Church as a lack of seminary graduates.

Many years ago in England a circus elephant named Bozo was very popular with the public. Children especially loved to crowd around his cage and throw him peanuts. Then one day there was a sudden change in the elephant’s personality. Several times he tried to kill his keeper and when the children came near his cage he would charge toward them as if wanting to trample them to death. It was obvious he would have to be destroyed. The circus owner, a greedy and crude man, decided to stage a public execution of the animal. In this way, he could sell tickets and try to recoup some of the cost of losing such a valuable property. The day came and the huge circus tent was packed. Bozo, in his cage, was in the center ring. Nearby stood a firing squad with high-powered rifles. The manager, standing near the cage, was about ready to give the signal to fire, when out of the crowd came a short, inconspicuous man in a brown derby hat. “There is no need for this,” he told the manager quietly. The manager brushed him aside. “He is a bad elephant. He must die before he kills someone.” “You are wrong,” insisted the man. “Give me two minutes in the cage alone with him and I will prove you are wrong.” The manager turned and stared in amazement. “You will be killed,” he said. “I don’t think so,” said the man. “Do I have your permission?” The manager, being the kind of man he was, was not one to pass up such a dramatic spectacle. Even if the man were killed, the publicity alone would be worth millions. “All right,” he said, “but first you will have to sign a release absolving the circus of all responsibility.” The small man signed the paper.

As he removed his coat and hat, preparing to enter the cage, the manager told the people what was about to happen. A hush fell over the crowd. The door to the cage was unlocked, the man stepped inside, then the door was locked behind him. At the sight of this stranger in his cage the elephant threw back his trunk, let out a might roar, then bent his head preparing to charge. The man stood quite still, a faint smile on his face as he began to talk to the animal. The audience was so quiet that those nearest the cage could hear the man talking but couldn’t make out the words; he seemed to be speaking some foreign language. Slowly, as the man continued to talk, the elephant raised his head. Then the crowd heard an almost piteous cry from the elephant as his enormous head began to sway gently from side to side. Smiling, the man walked confidently to the animal and began to stroke the long trunk. All aggression seemed suddenly to have been drained from the elephant. Docile as a pup now he wound his trunk around the man’s waist and the two walked slowly around the ring. The astounded audience could bear the silence no longer and broke out in cheers and clapping.

After a while the man bade farewell to the elephant and left the cage. “He’ll be all right now,” he told the manager. “You see, he’s an Indian elephant and none of you spoke his language, Hindustani. I would advise you to get someone around here who speaks Hindustani. He was just homesick.” And with that the little man put on his coat and hat and left. The astounded manager looked down at the slip of paper in his hand. The name the man had signed was Rudyard Kipling.

A little boy living in the country had never seen a traveling circus, and one was coming to his town on Saturday.

Saturday morning came. He asked his father for some money. His dad reached in his overalls and pulled out a dollar bill-the most money the boy had ever seen at one time.

Off the little wide-eyed fellow went. As he approached the town, he saw people lining the streets. Peering through the line at one point, he got his first glimpse of the parade. There were animals in cages and marching bands. Finally, a clown was seen bringing up the rear of the parade. The little boy was so excited that when the clown passed, he reached in his pocket and handed him the precious dollar bill. Thinking he had seen the circus when he had only seen the parade, the little boy turned around and went home.

The tragedy of most of our lives isn't that we aspire too high and fail. It's rather that we settle for too little. We could have a greater influence, and yet, because of fear or ignorance, shame, or inertia, we take the precious dollar of our lives and settle for the parade instead of the real thing.

It is related that once the devil came to Luther and tried to use the biblical truth of the fallibility of the Christian to create in him a defeatist attitude. He presented Luther with a long list of sins which Luther was guilty of; sins of commission and sins of omission. Then Luther with his characteristic wit turned to the devil and said, "No, you must have forgotten some, for sure. Think a little harder." Sure enough, the devil thought of some more, and he put them down. "That's very fine," said Luther. "Now write with red ink across them all, 'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin' (1Jo 1:7)." There was nothing the devil could answer to that.

A woman came to a minister one day carrying a container of wet sand. "Do you see what this is, sir?" she asked. "Yes," was the reply, "it is wet sand." "But do you know what it means?" "I do not know exactly what you mean by it, woman; what is it?" "Well, sir," she said, "that's me; and the multitude of the sins that constantly dirty my heart cannot be numbered." Then she exclaimed, "Oh, wretched creature that I am! How can such a wretch as I ever be saved and keep clean from the influences of the world?" "Where did you get the sand?" asked the minister. "At the beach." "Go back, then, to the beach. Take a spade with you; dig, dig, and raise a great mound; shovel it up as high as you can, then leave it there. Take your stand by the seashore, and watch the effect of the waves upon the heap of the sand." "Sir," she exclaimed, "I see what you mean-the blood, the blood, the blood of Christ, it would wash it all away and would keep washing any new dark stains away."

A man fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. The following conversation ensued:

“Is anyone up there?”

“I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?”

“Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can’t hang on much longer.”

“That’s all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch.”

A moment of pause, then: “Is anyone else up there?”

The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour. To lose one's wealth is sad indeed. To lose one's health is more. To lose one's soul is such a loss that no man can restore.

Thirty-nine people died while you read these words. Every hour 5,417 go to meet their Maker. You could have been among them. Sooner or later you will be. Are you ready?

The clock of life is wound but once

And no man has the power

To tell just when the hands will stop,

At late or early hour.

To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed.

To lose one’s health is more.

To lose one’s soul is such a loss

That no man can restore.

In 1835 a man visited a doctor in Florence, Italy. He was filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep. He couldn’t eat, and he avoided his friends. The doctor examined him and found that he was in prime physical condition. Concluding that his patient needed to have a good time, the physician told him about a circus in town and its star performer, a clown named Grimaldi. Night after night he had the people rolling in the aisles. “You must go and see him,” the doctor advised. “Grimaldi is the world’s funniest clown. He’ll make you laugh and cure your sadness.” “No,” replied the despairing man, “he can’t help me. you see, I am Grimaldi!”

There are dungeons beneath the castle of despair. C.H. Spurgeon

Flying a helicopter by instruments is difficult unless you do it every day. One afternoon on the tower frequency I heard a pilot report matter-of-factly that he had joined the holding pattern over the outer marker beacon at 3000 feet. Immediately, another voice cut in. “You can’t be there!” it said in panic. “I’m holding at 3000 feet, too!” After a pregnant pause, the first pilot’s voice came back on the air. “You idiot,” it said. “You’re my co-pilot.”

For 51 years Bob Edens was blind. He couldn’t see a thing. His world was a black hall of sounds and smells. He felt his way through five decades of darkness. And then, he could see. A skilled surgeon performed a complicated operation and, for the first time, Bob Edens had sight. He found it overwhelming. “I never would have dreamed that yellow is so…yellow,” he exclaimed. “I don’t have the words. I am amazed by yellow. But red is my favorite color. I just can’t believe red. I can see the shape of the moon—and I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky leaving a vapor trail. And of course, sunrises and sunsets. And at night I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light. You could never know how wonderful everything is.”

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts, nor measure words, but to pour them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

Ronald Meredith, in his book Hurryin’ Big For Little Reasons, describes one quiet night in early spring: Suddenly out of the night came the sound of wild geese flying. I ran to the house and breathlessly announced the excitement I felt. What is to compare with wild geese across the moon? It might have ended there except for the sight of our tame mallards on the pond. They heard the wild call they had once known. The honking out of the night sent little arrows of prompting deep into their wild yesterdays. Their wings fluttered a feeble response. The urge to fly—to take their place in the sky for which God made them—was sounding in their feathered breasts, but they never raised from the water. The matter had been settled long ago. The comfort of the barnyard was too tempting! Now their desire to fly only made them uncomfortable. Temptation is always enjoyed at the price of losing the capacity for flight.

Although the apathy of some Christians and the wickedness of society are discouraging, we should pray and remain confident. William Wilberforce was a great Christian philanthropist and vigorous opponent of the slave trade in England during the early 1800s. As he surveyed the terrible moral and spiritual climate of his day, he did not lose hope. He wrote, “My own solid hopes for the well-being of my country depend, not so much on her navies or armies, nor on the wisdom of her rulers, nor on the spirit of her people, as on the persuasion that she still contains many who love and obey the gospel of Christ. I believe that their prayers may yet prevail.” Within a few years after he made this statement, the country he loved experienced one of the greatest revivals in modern times, bringing salvation to thousands and producing widespread social changes.

Those who are students of revival are encouraged because hey see a divine pattern repeating itself. Robert Coleman of the Association of Church Missions Committees noted in a recent interview that he feels we are on the threshold of revival due to three developments: (1) the increase of citywide concerts of prayer; (2) the gathering together of pastors in concerted prayer; and (3) the growing concern for revival among our young people.

On this last point, David McKenna, president of Asbury (KY) Seminary, reached a positive assessment of the future based on his study of what God has done and is doing among young people. His conclusion is found in the title of his latest book, The Coming Great Awakening, J. Edwin Orr summarized for me in one sentence his 60 years of study on prayer and spiritual awakening when he wrote: “Whenever God is ready to do something new with His people, He always sets them to praying.” This was certainly true during the First Great Awakening.

In 1746, Jonathan Edwards published a book on “concerts of prayer”—a term used in his day and repeated in subsequent prayer movements over the last 250 years. Well aware from biblical and historical accounts that united prayer was the only way to sustain the spiritual awakening that already had begun in the colonies, Edwards called for Christians on both sides of the Atlantic to pray for revival. The title of his book summarizes what is happening throughout the Body of Christ at this hour in the growth of the prayer movement: “An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer, for the Revival of the Church and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.” Edwards’ book, along with such classic texts as Andrew Murray’s “Key to the Missionary Problem” and Timothy Smith’s “Revivalism and Social Reform,” suggest there usually are five phases in every historic revival:

1. Intercession—God’s people begin to unite in prayer for revival;

2. Revelation—God answers prayer by pouring out a fresh new manifestation of the person of Christ; (

3. Consecration—as a result, God’s people consecrate themselves to Him, and each other, and to the work of Christ in the world;

4. Revitalization—ministries are purified and rejuvenated and become more fruitful, both locally, nationally, and beyond;

5. Expansion—out of revival the gospel is advanced further, the church makes a greater impact upon the surrounding culture, and a general spiritual awakening takes place on many levels.

Q. What is meant by the command to “Keep the Sabbath Day holy?” And, why isn’t it included in the New Testament?

A. To keep it “holy” meant to observe the day according to God’s instructions. The central idea was rest from labor, as specified in Deut. 5:12-15.

In the Deuteronomic account of the Ten Commandments, the Lord reminds the people that they had been slaves in Egypt and that He had brought them out from there. Therefore, He explains, He commanded them to observe the Sabbath. The weekly rest would remind them of a time when they could not rest when they were slaves.

The link between slavery in Egypt and the Sabbath is reiterated in Ezek. 20:5, 12: “On the day I chose Israel...[the Lord says] I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy.” The Sabbath was essentially Jewish, which explains, in part, its absence in New Testament instructions to Christians.

It should be noted that nine of the Ten Commandments are both moral and timeless. It will always be wrong to lie or steal—on earth and in heaven. But in heaven, there will be no Sabbaths. Observation of a Sabbath was moral only as an act of obedience to a command limited to a specific earthly people.

An Iranian invented a compass-like device engraved with the names of 150 cities, in Arabic. The devout Muslim turns the instrument until the needle indicates north, twists a dial to the name of the city he is in—and the arrow points the way to Mecca, which Muslims face to pray five times a day.

Dr. Clarence Bass, professor emeritus at Bethel Theological Seminary, early in his ministry preached in a church in Los Angeles. He thought he had done quite well as he stood at the door greeting people as they left the sanctuary. The remarks about his preaching were complimentary. That is, until a little old man commented, “You preached too long.” Dr. Bass wasn’t fazed by the remark, especially in light of the many positive comments. “You didn’t preach loud enough,” came another negative comment; it was from the same little old man. Dr. Bass thought it strange that the man had come through the line twice, but when the same man came through the line a third time and exclaimed, “You used too many big words” —this called for some explanation. Dr. Bass sought out a deacon who stood nearby and asked him, “Do you see that little old man over there? Who is he?” “Don’t pay any attention to him,” the deacon replied. “All he does is go around and repeat everything he hears.”

It is related that Michelangelo, the famous Italian sculptor, painter, and poet, once stood before a great block of marble that had been rejected by builders and cast aside. As he stood there with eyes staring straight at the marble, a friend approached and asked what he was looking at. "An angel," came the reply. He saw what the mallet, the chisel, and patient skill could do with that rejected stone. He set to work and produced one of his masterpieces. Likewise, God sees possibilities in us.

There was a very well-thought-of deacon who was a zealous advocate of the cause of temperance. One day he employed a carpenter to make some alterations in his living room. As the worker was tearing things down, he came upon a very nicely concealed closet. He was shocked when he saw a jug and tumblers in the hidden closet. The carpenter, with wonder-stricken countenance, ran to the proprietor with the announcement of the discovery. As soon as the deacon heard of it, he said, "H'm! Well, I declare, that is curious. Sure enough, it must be that Captain Brown left those things here when he occupied the premises thirty years ago." "Ah, perhaps he did," answered the carpenter; "but say, deacon, that ice in the pitcher must have been well frozen to have remained solid all this time."

Did you hear about the man who tried to run a symphony and did such a bad job they decided to electrocute him? But they couldn’t, he was such a poor conductor.

We read about a church which was calling a new pastor. There were only a few negative votes, the great majority being in favor of the nominee. A gracious member of the minority moved to make the choice unanimous. But one man in that minority, a stern old Scotchman, was by no means disposed to make any such soft surrender of opinion, and he wasted no words. His ultimatum was quick and straight: "There is one thing ye might as well understand right here and now. I'll let you know there'll never be anything unanimous in this church as long as I am in it."

The Lord will happiness divine

On contrite hearts bestow;

Then tell me, gracious God, is mine

A contrite heart, or no?

I hear, but seem to hear in vain,

Insensible as steel’

If ought is felt, ‘tis only pain,

To find I cannot feel.

I sometimes think myself inclined

To love Thee, if I could;

But often feel another mind,

Averse to all that’s good.

My best desires are faint and few,

I fain would strive for more;

But when I cry, “My strength renew!”

Seem weaker than before.

Thy saints are comforted, I know,

And love Thy house of prayer;

I therefore go where others go,

But find no comfort there.

Oh make this heart rejoice or ache;

Decide this doubt for me;

And if it be not broken, break—

And heal it, if it be!

"I am by birth," said a converted Hindu, "of an insignificant and contemptible caste; so low, that if a Brahmin should chance to touch me, he must go and bathe in the Ganges to purify himself. Yet God has been pleased to call me, not merely to the knowledge of the gospel, but to the high office of teaching it to others." Then addressing a number of his countrymen, "My friends, do you know the reason of God's conduct? It is this: If God had selected one of you learned Brahmins and made you the preacher, when you were successful in making converts, people would say it was the amazing learning of the Brahmin, and his great weight of character, that were the cause. But now, when anyone is convinced by my instrumentality, no one thinks of ascribing any of the praise to me; God gets all the glory."

Two unbelievers once sat in a railroad train discussing Christ's wonderful life. Even non-Christians cannot escape thinking of Christ. One said, "I think an interesting romance could be written about Him." The other replied, "You are just the man to write it. Set forth the correct view of His life and character. Tear down the prevailing sentiment as to His divinity and paint Him as He was-a man among men." The suggestion was acted upon and the romance was written. The man who made the suggestion was Colonel Ingersoll; the author was General Lew Wallace, and the book was Ben Hur. In the process of constructing it, General Wallace found himself facing the unaccountable Man. The more he studied His life and character, the more profoundly he was convinced that He was more than a man among men; until at length, like the centurion under the cross, he was constrained to cry, "Verily, this was the Son of God." That's exactly the testimony of John the Baptist. He says, "The one coming after me, has been before me, because he was first compared with me." He was and is God. When that is accepted, then there is no difficulty in understanding either His character or His miraculous works.

A man traveling along a dark road one stormy night met a man coming from the opposite direction who said to him in a hesitant manner, "I think maybe the bridge is out. At least I heard something to that effect." The traveler was not impressed and decided to proceed. A little farther on a man came rushing out of the dark to him and said, "Stop! Don't go any farther. The bridge is out!" So passionately convincing were his tones that the traveler turned back, and his life was saved. That is how we are to witness, with passion and conviction.

Cleveland Amory tells this story about Judge John Lowell of Boston. One morning the judge was at breakfast, his face hidden behind the morning paper. A frightened maid tiptoed into the room and whispered something to Mrs. Lowell’s ear. The lady paled slightly, then squared her shoulders resolutely and said, “John, the cook has burned the oatmeal, and there is no more in the house. I am afraid that this morning, for the first time in seventeen years, you will have to go without your oatmeal. “The judge, without putting down his paper, answered, “It’s all right, my dear. Frankly, I never cared much for it anyhow.”

A woman was waiting at an airport one night.

With several long hours before her flight.

She hunted for a book in the airport shop,

Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see,

That the man beside her, as bold as could be,

Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between,

Which she tried to ignore, to avoid a scene.

She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock,

As the gutsy “cookie thief!” diminished her stock.

She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,

Thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I’d blacken his eye!”

With each cookie she took, he took one, too.

When only one was left, she wondered what he’d do.

With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh,

He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other.

She snatched it from him and thought, “Oh brother,

This guy has some nerve, and he’s also rude,

Why, he didn’t even show any gratitude!”

She had never known when she had been so galled,

And sighed with relief when her flight was called.

She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate,

Refusing to look back at the “thieving ingrate.”

She boarded the plane and sank in her seat,

Then sought her book, which was almost complete.

As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise.

There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes!

“If mine are here,” she moaned with despair,

“Then the others were his and he tried to share!”

Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,

That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief!

An atheist, who was also an invalid, sent his little daughter to live with friends who taught her to read. She proudly told her father when she came home, "I have learned to read." "Well," said he, "Let me hear you read that," pointing to a board at the foot of the bed on which he had printed in large letters, "God is nowhere." Carefully she spelled out the words in the way that seemed right to her, "God is now here." The unbelieving father was startled and perplexed, but God blessed that new reading to the salvation of his soul.

A professor of biology made it his custom to stand before his students holding up a little seed between his thumb and forefinger. When he bowed before the seed, his students were mystified. This university professor had spent his whole life studying the beginning of life, and he acknowledged to his students that it was still a mystery to him. He said: "I know exactly what this seed consists of in the exact proportions of water, carbon, and other elements. I can mix these individual elements and make a seed that will look exactly like this one. If I plant the seed that I have compounded, it will rot. The various elements I have put together will be absorbed by the ground. However, if I sow the seed that God made, it will spring up into a plant, because it contains that mysterious element we call life." The physical resurrection of Christ is just as much a mystery. In fact, the life you now possess which causes your body to function and renew itself continually, and not collapse into a putrefying mass, is also a mystery. He, therefore, who in the beginning created our present corruptible bodies, will also create a new body without having to collect the various elements of our old ones from the earth.

Winter was coming on and a hunter went out into the forest to shoot a bear out of which he planned to make a warm coat.

By and by he saw a big bear coming toward him and raised his gun and took aim.

"Wait," said the bear, "why do you want to shoot me?"

"Because I am cold," said the hunter, "and I need a coat."

"But I am hungry," the bear replied, "so maybe if we just talk this over a little, we could come to a compromise."

So the hunter sat down beside the bear and began to talk over the pros and cons. In the end, the hunter was well enveloped with the bear's fur, and the bear had eaten his dinner.

We always lose out when we try to compromise with sin. It will consume us in the end.

Former President Ronald Reagan says he learned the need for decision-making early in life. An aunt had taken him to a cobbler to have a pair of shoes made for him. The shoemaker asked young Ronald Reagan, "Do you want a square toe or a round toe?"

Reagan hemmed and hawed. So the cobbler said, "Come back in a day or two and let me know what you want."

A few days later the shoemaker saw Reagan on the street and asked what he had decided about the shoes. "I still haven't made up my mind," the boy answered. "Very well," said the cobbler.

When Reagan received the shoes, he was shocked to see that one shoe had a square toe and the other a round toe.

"Looking at those shoes every day taught me a lesson," said Reagan years later. "If you don't make your own decisions, somebody else will make them for you!"

The sovereign God has made us people, not puppets. We have His Word to guide us, His love to redeem us, and His assurance that we are capable of making choices.

For most of the last decade, Chicagoans who worked in the Loop, the booming downtown business district, could easily ignore the city’s budget crisis; Washington’s cutback of aid to cities didn’t seem to hurt business. Last week, they learned one price of neglecting the underpinnings of all that economic growth. A quarter billion gallons of murky Chicago River water gushed into a 60-mile network of turn-of-the-century freight tunnels under the Loop and brought nearly all businesses to a soggy halt. It turned out that a top city official had known about the leak, but, acting for a cash-strapped government, had delayed repairs costing only about $50,000. The final cost of the damage could run higher than $1 billion.

The Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) failing to penetrate the mystery of the divine and human natures of Christ, offered four precautions that would protect the Christian from error when contemplating this mystery.

1. Attribute true and proper divinity to Christ.

2. Attribute true and proper humanity to Christ

3. Do not so mingle the human and divine that you end up with a being neither human nor divine.

4. Do not dissect Christ so that there are two persons in one being.

One of the saddest and scariest stories I’ve ever heard was about a young evangelist. He was just barely 21, on fire for God, effective in his preaching and soul-winning, and in great demand from local churches. He had preached several large crusades and was soon invited to an area-wide effort at which he would be the main speaker. Though he was not yet even out of college, he was a protégé of international evangelist, Sammy Tippit, and was admired and considered wise. Though he didn’t have a steady girlfriend, he dated regularly at Bible college. Spiritually he was alert and mature. He was, however, naive.

The first night of the crusade he headed up the counseling ministry in a large room near the pastor’s study. A beautiful teen-ager asked if she could speak with him personally. He tried to assign her to someone else, but when she persisted, he agreed for her to wait until he was finished with the others. More than an hour after the meeting had ended, the rest of the counselors and counselees had left, and he was alone with the young girl. A few minutes later she burst from the room, screaming, “He made a pass at me! He wanted to make love to me!”

That very night the pastor of the host church and a small group of the crusade planners confronted the young preacher and demanded an explanation. He denied the girl’s charge but had no witnesses. The girl had seemed an upstanding young woman in the church, and there was no reason to disbelieve her story.

“What did happen in that room?” the pastor demanded.

“To tell you that would to be to make an accusation behind someone’s back,” he said. “Which is what happened to me. I ask only that I be allowed to face my accuser.”

The pastor and the others canceled the rest of the crusade and agreed that the young woman should be asked to face the preacher in their presence. Two nights later she showed up with her parents at a private board meeting. The pastor asked if she would care to speak about her charges against the preacher.

“She has already said all she has to say, “her father said sternly, her mother nodding and glaring at the accused.

“Would you, son, care to share your version of what happened in that room the other night?”

“No, sir,” the evangelist said. “I see no future in that. Only she and I know the truth, and I cannot defend myself. I’d just like to say this to her. Cindy, you know what happened and what didn’t happen in that room. If you don’t tell the truth, I will be branded and may never preach again. This will damage my reputation and that of this church, and even that of God. If I did what you say I did, I deserve no better, but we both know that is not the truth. I’m begging you in the name of Christ to set the record straight.” The silence hung heavy as the board and her parents watched her face contort into a grimace before the tears began to flow.

“I lied,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry. I lied. He didn’t make a pass at me; I made a pass at him. When he turned me down I was so embarrassed and ashamed and angry that I made up that story. I’m so sorry!”

Ezekiel 36:25-8

The Lord proclaims His grace abroad!

“Behold, I change your hearts of stone;

Each shall renounce his idol-god,

And serve, henceforth, the Lord alone.

“My grace, a flowing stream, proceeds

To wash your filthiness away;

Ye shall abhor your former deeds,

And learn my statutes to obey.

“My truth the great design ensures,

I give myself away to you;

You shall be mine, I will be yours,

Your God unalterably true.

“Yet not unsought, or unimplored,

The plenteous grace I shall confer;

No—your whole hearts shall seek the Lord,

I’ll put a praying spirit there.

“From the first breath of life divine

Down to the last expiring hour,

The gracious work shall all be mine,

Begun and ended in my power.”

Eternal covenant, Heb 13:20—The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the ‘God of peace’, through the death and resurrection of the Son.

Edenic covenant, Gen 1:26-28—The creative covenant between the Triune God, as the first party (Gen 1:26), and newly created man, as the second party, governing man’s creation and life in Edenic innocence. It regulated man’s dominion and subjugation of the earth, and presented a simple test of obedience. The penalty was death.

Adamic covenant, Gen 3:14-19—The covenant conditioning fallen man’s life on the earth. Satan’s tool (the serpent) was cursed (Gen 3:14); the first promise of the Redeemer was given (3:15); women’s status was altered (3:16); the earth was cursed (3:17-19); physical and spiritual death resulted (3:19).

Noahic covenant, Gen 8:20-9:6—The covenant of human government. Man is to govern his fellowmen for God, indicated by the institution of capital punishment as the supreme judicial power of the state (Gen 9:5-6). Other features included the promise of redemption through the line of Shem (9:26).

Abrahamic covenant, Gen 12:1-3; confirmed, 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 17:1-8—The covenant of promise. Abraham’s posterity was to be made a great nation. In him (through Christ) all the families of the earth were to be blessed (Gal 3:16; Jn 8:56-58).

Mosaic covenant, Ex 20:1-31:18—The legal covenant, given solely to Israel. It consisted of the commandments (Ex 20:1-26); the judgments (social) - (Ex 21:1; 24:11) and the ordinances (religious); (Ex 24:12-31:18); also called the law. It was a conditional covenant of works, a ministry of ‘condemnation’ and ‘death’ (2 Cor 3:7-9), designed to lead the transgressor (convicted thereby as a sinner) to Christ.

Palestinian covenant, Deut 30:1-10—The covenant regulating Israel’s tenure of the land of Canaan. Its prophetic features include dispersion of disobedience (Deut 30:1), future repentance while in dispersion (30:2), the Lord’s return (30:3), the restoration (30:4-5), national conversion (3:6), judgment of Israel’s foes (30:7), national prosperity (30:9). Its blessings are conditioned upon obedience (30:8, 10), but fulfillment is guaranteed by the new covenant.

Davidic covenant, 2 Sam 7:4-17, 1 Chr 17:4-15—The kingdom covenant regulating the temporal and eternal rule of David’s posterity. It secures in perpetuity a Davidic ‘house’ or line, a throne, and a kingdom. It was confirmed by divine oath in Ps 89:30-37 and renewed to Mary in Lk 1:31-33. It is fulfilled in Christ as the World’s Saviour and Israel’s coming King (Acts 1:6; Rev 19:16; 20:4-6).

New covenant, Jer 31:31-33; Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; Heb 8:8-12—The covenant of unconditional blessing based upon the finished redemption of Christ. It secures blessing for the church, flowing from the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:13-20), and secures all covenant blessings to converted Israel, including those of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants. This covenant is unconditional, final and irreversible.