Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

This Line of Scarlet Thread - Joshua 2:8
Jul 1st, 2020
Morning MeditationF.B. Meyer
Categories: Meditation;Inspirational;Book Study

It speaks of the precious blood of Christ. Scarlet is the color of Calvary. Twine it round the window through which thou lookest out on thy foes, and away to the river of death. Nothing can hurt the soul which has put the precious blood of Christ between it and condemnation or alarm. Let every outlook to the future be associated with a remembrance that His blood was shed for thee, and be thou thankful.

Rahab is the type of Gentile sinners who are permitted to share in the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to sit with Him in the heavenlies. That scarlet thread had been the means of salvation to the spies. By it they had been let down to the ground and saved from death. It must have been strong. So the blood of Christ avails, not only for us, but for all who shelter with us in the household of faith, and for others who find it the means of life as they receive it from our hands.

Let us see to it that, like Rahab, we gather father and mother, brethren and friends, to share with us the shelter and safeguard of the precious blood.

But, after all, it was not the cord that saved - that was only the emblem and type. Behind it on the one hand was God's oath, spoken through the spies, and on the other was Rahab's faith. The true safety of that house on the wall stood in the moral attitude of one woman in it. Rahab believed God who had dried up the water of the Red Sea, and who was God in heaven above and in earth beneath. This faith raised her afterward from her life of shame to become the ancestress of Christ. Such wonders does the blood of Christ work in outcasts from the commonwealth of Israel, bringing them nigh.

The Christian is not the Dreamer
Jul 1st, 2020
Main StoriesA.W. Tozer
Categories: Printed Newsletter

We of the Christian faith need not go on the defensive, for it is the modern man who is the dreamer, not the Christian believer!

The sinner can never be quite himself. All his life he must pretend. He must act as if he were never going to die, yet he knows too well he is. He must act as if he had not sinned, when in his deep heart, he knows very well that he has. He must act unconcerned about God and judgment and the future life, and all the time his heart is deeply disturbed about his precarious condition. He must keep up a front of nonchalance while shrinking from facts and wincing under the lash of conscience. All his adult life he must dodge and hide and conceal. When he finally drops the act he either loses his mind or tries suicide.

If realism is the recognition of things as they actually are, the Christian is of all persons the most realistic. He, of all intelligent thinkers, is the one most concerned with reality. He pares things down to their stark essentials and squeezes out of his mind everything that inflates his thinking. He demands to know the whole truth about God, sin, life, death, moral accountability and the world to come. He wants to know the worst about himself in order that he may do something about it. He takes into account the undeniable fact that he has sinned. He recognizes the shortness of time and the certainty of death. These he does not try to avoid or alter to his own liking. They are facts and he faces them full on.

The believer is a realist – his expectations are valid and his faith well grounded.

Revelation 6: 7-8 pt# 1 Exploring Revelation
Jul 1st, 2020
Exploring RevelationArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Prophecy;Book Study

THE RIDER ON THE PALE HORSE

The last of the four beasts (living ones) issues his invitation to John to witness the opening of the fourth seal.

The four living ones are mighty Cherubim. Many writers have called attention to the description of the "four living ones" In Revelation 4:7, the four living ones are represented as as a lion, an ox, a man and an eagle.

These are compared with the four gospels in which Christ is presented, in four different capacities, MATTHEW = King of Israel, The Lion of Judah. MARK = The Suffering Servant - the Ox LUKE = The Son of Man - JOHN = The Eagle, from heaven.

The implication is, in the four gospels, the Four Living Ones invite men to come and see the Lord Jesus as He left His Glorious Throne to come to earth to perform the work of Redemption.

Now, in Revelation 6: the Four Living Ones invite men to "Come and See," the Lord Jesus as He pours out His Judgments for sin upon the earth. These terrible judgmenta will ultimately purge the earth of sinful men.

"And when He had opened the fourth seal", it is good to remember it is the lord Jesus who is continuing to open the seals. These Judgments come from Him.

"And I looked and behold a pale horse." - "Pale" = Greek = Chloros" = the color of grass. Green = The color or symbol of life, even though here it is identified with death.

I believe this indicates a prophetcic irony. The world will, in spite of the preceding troubles, still be filled with optimism of the attainment of the Utopian Age of Peace and Prosperity that men have always sought for.

The Judgments of the first three horsemen are hardening Judgments. The Christless masses of that day will not recognize the Hand of God in these awful visitations. See, 11 Thess 2:10-12, see God's hardening of their hearts in verse 11.

One of God's severest judgments is the hardening of hearts, see Exodus 4:21. The scripture says, in three instances, Pharoah hardened His own heart, in 9 instances scripture says, God hardened Pharoah's heart.

Pharoah had his opportunity to respond in obedience to God, but when he refused, God moved in to harden his heart. Every man faces the same situation. "God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance," 11 Peter 3:9, but if men refuse to repent, they face the hardening Judgment of God.

Matthew 13:12 is a principle, responding to truth will bring the revelation of more truth. Rejection of truth, will result in the loss of truth. In verse :13 we see the process of blinding eyes to the truth. In verse :14, we have the confirmation of this principle from the Old Testament concerning Israel. In verse :15 the word" "gross" means, calloused or hard. because "THEIR EYES THEY HAVE CLOSED "

The Tribulation Period begins in a wicked world that has rejected God's truth. The Holy Spirit is withdrawn from the world in the sense that His present convicting, restraining ministry , through the righteous lives of believers is terminated at the time of the rapture. "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way". 2 Thes. 2:7 ... "LET" = "HINDERETH" = RESTRAINS.

When men harden their hearts, ultimately, if the process continues they reach a point where they are beyond repentance (Rev. 9:20,21; 16:9,11)and beyond mercy. (see Jer. 7:16)

Next week we will consider what the pale horse represents.