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"If you abide in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free...So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed!" (John 8:31-32,36)

East-West Separation

October 2, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14)

If you take a few moments to Google the idea of the universe expanding, this is what you will find:

The American astronomer Edwin Hubble made the observations in 1925 and was the first to prove that the universe is expanding. He proved that there is a direct relationship between the speeds of distant galaxies and their distances from Earth. This is now known as Hubble’s Law.

The galaxies outside of our own are moving away from us, and the ones that are farthest away are moving the fastest. This means that no matter what galaxy you happen to be in, all the other galaxies are moving away from you. However, the galaxies are not moving through space, they are moving in space, because space is also moving. In other words, the universe has no center; everything is moving away from everything else.

There is no separation in a person’s life like the separation from the companionship of a loved one. Different causes produce the anguish from such a separation: military service, emotional estrangement, divorce, incarceration, and death. These and others can cause a sadness and almost unbearable, crushing depression.

If we were only animals, separation would most likely not produce severe sadness. Some animal species are deeply affected by separation. The study of the African Elephant, as an example, indicates that the memories of these huge beasts are deeply affected by the death of one of their herd. But we are quite different from any of the animals God created.

We humans were created for a unique fellowship and communion with our Creator. The fact of sin—disobedience to God’s law by our first parents, produced a progeny of lawbreakers who through history have illustrated alienation from God. We have been alienated from that common-union for which we were created—the union of God’s Spirit in our spirit. That’s what originally made Eden perfect.

It is the Christian religion that teaches reconciliation of man with his Creator by means of a mediator. The Scripture says,

“God wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Timothy 2:4-5).

You know, I think that David the King knew this long before Edwin Hubble made his discovery. After his sins of adultery and murder, the Psalmist was granted to learn the spiritual principle that God’s forgiveness of our sins is easily depicted as being removed from us by His grace further and further from those acts whereby we sinned against God and our fellow friends. The records of our sins and failures might be kept in the memory of friends—especially those against whom we sinned heniously. They may be kept in the records held by civil authorities. With todays computer technology they can pull up every speeding ticket, every act of tax evasion, and display it right in front of us or others. Look how the investigating agencies are digging into the political machinations of our political parties. Emails….telephone conversations, you name it. You are on record.

But that’s not so with your moral transgressions against the God of the Universe, if you have repented and asked forgiveness from Him. Look what King David says:

  1. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
  2. The Lord does not always scold us; He doesn’t keep His anger forever.
  3. He doesn’t always deal with us in accordance with our sins.
  4. He doesn’t always give us the penalty we really deserve.
  5. If we truly fear Him and repent of our sins He will show us mercy.
  6. God treats us like a loving human father would treat us.
  7. God knows everything about us—He knows every secret we keep.
  8. God knows every weakness, every character flaw, and every evil motive.
  9. And in spite of all that we have done to deserve His displeasure…
  10. God is willing to forgive us and separate our sins from us “As far as the east is from the west.”

Think of it! Meditate on the fact. If the universe as we know it is expanding, then the distance between our past sins and failures are drifting further and further away from us. We may be tempted to hold onto our past failures; but God has removed and is continually removing our confessed and forsaken sins away from us. He does this in order that we might serve Him every day with a clear conscience and a desire to allow Him in His power and grace to live through us toward others for His glory and the benefit they might receive by our positive witness to His grace in forgiveness. Now that is the mercy of God! Learn it. Grasp it. Cling to it, and rejoice that you are His forgiven child.

Condemnation, Death, Eternity, Faith, forgiveness, Grace, Judgement, Life Struggles, Love, Mercy, Salvation, Sin, Spiritual Truth, Truth Tagged: condemnation, eternity, faith, forgiveness, grace, heaven, Judgement, salvation, sin

The Missing Element

February 21, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

The Old Testament is old. It was not written to us in the 21st Century. It is not relevant to our culture and time. The person who says that is ignorant of what the Old Testament Scriptures reveal about the depravity of man and the holiness and eternal purposes of the God of the Universe.

To say that the laws, principles, moral and spiritual standards God gave the Jewish people have no relevance to our time and culture is to exhibit gross ignorance of both Judaism and Christianity. It is an absurdity. God said to Jeremiah,

“Behold, I put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant…You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:9b-12)

Jeremiah, like other select individuals, was called by God to deliver His message to His people – both those of faith and those of unbelief. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they were rendered infallible in speaking and writing. Evangelicalism in America today appears to have lost its prophetic voice. The New Testament declares to the Church,

“Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy…one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church…therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.” (I Corinthians 14:1, 3-4, 39)

Today, as never before, the Church needs those who have been called by God to prophesy to the Church. I’m not talking about professed biblical scholars who foolishly set dates for the rapture of the Invisible Church. The gift of prophecy, as Paul stated, is for the “edification, exhortation and consolation” of the Church – the body of Christ. It is not a ministry to unbelievers. Its focus should be to call the people of God back to God and away from its absorption of our pop culture in worship and practice.

The Old Testament Prophets didn’t simply speak God’s opinion on the nation of Israel. They spoke God’s revealed word of discernment and judgment. They boldly proclaimed,

“My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water…My people are foolish, they know Me not. They are stupid children. And they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” (Jeremiah 2:13, 4:22)

How long do you think an emergent church leader would last if he preached like that? The Old Testament Prophets spoke God’s judgment upon His people, the Jews. And in doing so they condemned the heathen around them with whom they had compromised and made alliances. They even prophesied that God would use those pagan nations to punish His chosen people.

Ancient Israel and Judah had forsaken the authoritative rule of the God of their fathers. They had amalgamated themselves with the worship of pagan deities and had sunk to the immoral practices of their heathen neighbors. Today’s emergent church, in many ways, has been invaded by the American pop culture. Emergent churches sought “new measures” for attracting the unsaved and opened their arms to our culture’s ways of marketing. In making alliances with the practices and psychology of our pop culture, the Evangelical Church has become as popular as any social organization. In doing so the traditions, creeds, theology of our Protestant forbearers have been abandoned for a message suited to satisfy the “tickling ears” of the masses. Traditional forms of worship were cast aside for new, emergent forms of liturgy. What’s missing in our Starbuck generation of relationship-building evangelical churches? What’s conspicuously absent is intestinal fortitude for pastors to preach the whole counsel of God. The gift of prophecy both in the Old Testament and the New Testament Church was and is to boldly proclaim the valid implications and applications of authoritative Scripture, whether church attendees like it or not. Until we see that on a broad scale our nation will continue to devolve in ways never resembling the greater generations of our past.

The Old Testament scriptures contain vital history, theological wisdom, divine promises, and unchanging judgments of God upon the sin of His people and those who know Him not. To ignore its truthful teachings is to incur the judgments the Prophets proclaimed. They are as relevant and applicable today as when they were first spoken. Not written to us, they are for our generation and generations to come. And what’s more,

“When He ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men…He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:8-12)

Where do you hear the voice of God’s prophets for this era of doom and death?

Beryl's Blog, Christian Vocation, Christian Witness, Church, Culture, Emergent Church, Evangelical Church, Mission, Spiritual Truth, Truth Tagged: culture, Evangelical Church, Judgement, mission, Spiritual Truth

Really Getting to the Truth

June 16, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
(John 8:32)

All truth is God’s truth. There is truth that is natural and truth that is supernatural. Natural truth may be discovered and known by most observant individuals. Supernatural or divine truth can only be discovered from God, the author and originator of all truth, by means of supernatural revelation.

In school I learned that 2 plus 2 equals 4. That’s natural truth, verifiable by mathematical law. If I throw an apple up into the air and it comes straight down to land on my head, I have discovered a natural truth of physics – gravity. We are told that gravity is “approximated by Newton’s law of universal gravitation, which postulates that the gravitational force of two bodies of mass is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them” (Wikipedia). So much for scientific truth. I accept it, I believe it and I experience it in everyday life. [Read more…]

Christian Witness, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Truth Tagged: Holy Spirit, regeneration, Spiritual Truth

Give Thanks for These

June 8, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yes, I have a godly heritage.” (Psalm 16:6)

We are so remiss to give thanks for the blessing of Providence. We read in the Scriptures of the saints of old – Abraham, Joseph and others – how God in His mercy saved, protected, and preserved them. Yet in our temporal freedom and abundance, we fail to show gratitude to the Father of mercies. We are an ungrateful lot! And what are those mercies we so easily neglect to consider?

Statisticians tell us that only five percent of people on this earth live under true democracy. Ninety-five percent live under military, political, or religious dictatorships. Look at the list of almost 195 nations and see the poverty, physical danger, diseases, and terror that holds these people in a dungeon of hopelessness. [Read more…]

Christian Vocation, Evangelical Church, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Truth, Theology Tagged: Christianity, Divine Providence, doctrine, Evangelical Church, mission, Postmodern Christianity, revival

A Frightening Prospect

June 2, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
(Mark 8:38 ASV)

John MacArthur begins each of the broadcasts we see on the NRB network with this statement:

“What in the world makes us so embarrassed about the Gospel?”

There are some good answers to this question. It would do us well to look at them briefly.

Statistics tell us that less than six percent of professing evangelicals honor God by tithing. Some have convinced themselves that the first ten percent of their income is theirs – not God’s. It’s no wonder many evangelicals meet in warehouses or other rented buildings. Our churches are filled with tithe thieves. But that isn’t the statistic that really disturbs me.

Less than five percent of professing evangelicals have ever witnessed to another individual who needs Jesus Christ as savior. For various reasons they have totally missed the New Testament teaching on evangelism. Many professing Christians would say, “Witnessing must be someone else’s responsibility…not mine.” [Read more…]

Culture, Evangelical Church, Sovereignty, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Truth, Theology, Worldview, Worship Tagged: Christianity, culture, doctrine, Evangelical Church, Holy Spirit, sovereignty, theology

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Beryl Smith

AvatarBeryl has a great love for studying the Bible and Christian theology. Beryl is a 12th generation descendant of Ralph Blaisdell, an English Puritan who came to America from Bristol, England in August, 1635 on the sailing ship “The Angel Gabriel.”
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