Truth Inspires

You can't beat the weather: Spring is too rainy and summer's too hot; Fall is soon over and winter is not.* An astute observer would note the poetic verse above had to be written in the season of winter and probably on a bad hair day! All too well we know the feeling and we chuckle along with the author. But, nevertheless, the seasonal cycle does continue; winter does fade and soon gives birth to the spring of new life. And new life is what I want to speak of for a moment.  Often, I find myself looking through history books and reading old news articles, all the while thinking, the writer, the characters and all involved have long passed on to eternity. I wonder what they thought of the future ahead--the days they would never see? You see, life does go on. No matter how inconspicuous and shifting it may be to us, it has its own life, its own people, its own places, and its own news. For most, a glimpse of our future will never be known. But there was such a one who d...

Proverbs 4:23 reminds us to, "Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life." (NKJV) I love the castle illustration that Charles Spurgeon used in his sermon, "As Thy Days, So Shall Thy Strength Be." At one point in the sermon he speaks of the crafty devil and how he knows the backdoor to a man’s heart. In pointing out how some say they are able to walk a pure life without sin, he clearly warns to be careful with that statement. He wrote:  "'Satan is very crafty; he knows the ins and outs of manhood. There is many an old castle that has stood against every attack, but at last some traitor from within has gone without, and said "I know an old deserted passage, a subterranean back way, that has not been used for many a-day. In such and such a field you will see an opening; clear away a heap of stones there, and I will lead you down the passage: you will then come to an old door, of which I have the key and I can let...

The last restraint that I would like to point out is the Restraint of the Church. Truly, Jesus was right when He said, "the gates of Hell would not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). The Church is the crowning glory of the Lord Jesus. He is the Head of the body, the Church, and High Priest over it. It is unfortunate, for so many, that they profess themselves Christians but will not take part in it. It pains the heart of Jesus when they choose to ignore the greatest organism ever--one He set up for their edification. Too many people find themselves content with walking an aisle. Hence, they deny themselves the favor of God by refusing to fellowship with other believers. They seek a future and a hope but are not willing to submit their heart and life to find out what that future is. There is no one on earth that can convince me that God can use them, to the extent that he called them, if they do not attend Church.   1 John 1:1-5 states: 1 That which was from the beginnin...

At this time I would like us to consider the Fourth Restraint in the series, Grace. God has placed what I call an umbrella of Grace upon all of mankind. In referring to those days of the end when God would unseal the words of prophecy in the Book of Daniel we find an interesting statement that bears quoting. Daniel 12:10 says: "Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand." In this passage of Scripture we have a contrast between the wicked and the wise. We are told the wicked shall do wickedly as opposed to the wise who would understand (ie. the words of the prophecy). It also states that the wicked would not understand. I see two reasons for this lack of wisdom or illumination: First I believe that a person cannot understand spiritual truth unless he is allowed to do so by the Holy Spirit. Much in the same way that a Christian is not allowed to go on past elemen...

The third Restraint we can list is that of Conviction.  Using the Holy Scriptures, the invisible attributes of God (Rom. 1:20), or the proclaimed message of the gospel the Holy Spirit will move upon the heart in His office of restrainer.  It is active restraint, in that it involves how believers act or react in any given circumstance throughout their lives.  The scriptures teach us that the Holy Spirit has a job to convict or convince of sin, righteousness, and judgment: Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged (John 16:7-11). Simply put, Jesus is sayi...

In continuing the series on Restraint, today I want to look at the Restraint of Darkness. In John 3:18-21 we read: "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." Sin is a pseudo form of well-being. It clouds the mind and entangles a person so tightly in its cords that it literally chokes the life right of him; and oftentimes, the person does not know it is happening. I like to envision the forces of Hell as tentacles that are reaching up through the ground adorned with a candy-coated sweetness...

In the next few posts I would like for readers to consider the uses of restraint that are found in scripture. Starting with the Restraint of Vision I will work through five types of restraint that I see used in the scripture. The other four are The Restraint of Darkness, The Restraint of Conviction, The Restraint of Grace, and The Restraint of the Church. Shortly after Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and some other women, Luke 24:10 had found the tomb miraculously empty on that first resurrection Sunday another amazing miracle occurred. It happened to the two travelling companions of the Lord as they made their way toward the nearby city of Emmaus; the Bible relates this way: Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes ...