TESTIMONY FOR GOD

“O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth!" (Isa. 25:1 NKJV).

Here in our verse we have a great testimony for God. The prophet Isaiah speaks of consecration to God, commendation for God, conquering by God, and counsels of God.

Consecration to God - “O Lord, You are my God.” It is never easy to show our consecration to God because it involves living for God, standing up for God, and being loyal to God. Nevertheless, we need to stand up for God if we want God to stand up for us. It was the Lord Jesus who said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32-33).

Commendation for God - “I will exalt You, I will praise Your name.” The main purpose of man is to glorify God. We are exhorted in Scripture to glorify Him in everything we do (1 Cor. 10:31). Further, glorifying God is related to praising His name. While most people profane the name of God, those who are devoted to Him will praise His name.

Conquering by God - “You have done wonderful things.” God conquers evil. In context, these wonderful works involved overcoming evil nations. No work is more important than overcoming evil. Today we esteem stardom, making money, and political success as great achievements. But he that overcomes evil is a greater achiever.

Counsels of God - “Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” “Counsels” here speaks of the Word of God and the Bible is absolutely trustworthy. Skeptics are ever attacking the Scriptures, but God’s Word cannot be faulted for they are faithful and true. It will never lead you astray. No counsel is needed more than the counsel of God’s Word. And no counsel will help more than the counsel of God’s Word. We can survive without the world’s counsel but not without God’s counsel.

(Adapted from Butler Daily Bible Reading)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“God’s unsearchable ways deserve our unbounded praise!”

Anonymous Word Study

Discipline (instruction/teaching)

In Titus 2:12 we read, “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (NKJV).

Discipline (instruction/teaching) is the Greek word paideuō (παιδεύω = pahee-dyoo'-o). The word refers primarily to the training or discipline of children, whether in the schools of men or in the school of God.

In classical Greek paideuō means the upbringing and teaching of children. Such upbringing consisted of teaching general knowledge and various kinds of training aimed at developing discipline and character. In both the Septuagint and the New Testament paideuō is also used of upbringing a child, however, it was particularly used of religious upbringing.

Now, although paideuō includes the idea of ‘chastening’ it does not mean punishment in the judicial or vengeful sense. As such, believers can be assured that God’s chastening is not an expression of His wrath, but of His love, wisdom, and care.

Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

Old Testament Prophecy – Messiah will be Lord and Savior (Isa. 45:21-25)

New Testament Fulfillment – Phil. 3:20; Titus 2:13

Did You Know…

In the Bible, it states that “Jesus always lives to make intercession for us” (Heb. 7:25).

Bible Quiz

According to the Book of Revelation who was found “worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?”

**Answer to last week’s trivia: According to the Lord Jesus, what is it that causes a man to de defiled? Evil that “comes within, out from the heart” (Mark 7:20-23)

Everyday Expressions Alluded to in the Bible

“Rest in peace”

“Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope” (Acts 2:26 NKJV).

“Rest in peace” - The expression “rest in peace” carries the idea of dying or being left alone. In context, Peter is quoting David from Psalm 16:8-11. There David spoke of the Lord not abandoning him to the grave or allowing him to see decay (2:25, 27). But Peter made it clear that David wasn’t speaking about himself. He was speaking about the Lord Jesus (2:25). Death could not hold Him because God the Father raised Him from the dead (2:24). So, like David we too can express confidence that the grave will not mark the end of our fellowship with God. We will continue to enjoy life in the Lord’s presence.

Did You Know – Christian History

Robert Harold Ainsworth Schofield was born in 1851, in Gordon Square, London, England. He was a British medical missionary in China.

Schofield gave up a bright future in medicine to serve as a missionary doctor with the China Inland Mission. He was one of only eight evangelical missionaries in the whole northern province of Shansi and the first Protestant missionary allowed into the heart of China. For months his heart ached for those lost souls and he knelt again and again, sometimes foregoing food, praying that God would send more men to spread the gospel among the Chinese.

His prayer was for more than just missionaries, though. Schofield was praying for a specific kind of person. He was praying for university men, men equipped in England’s top colleges with the finest mental and physical training. However, at age 31, Schofield contracted typhus and became gravely sick. Nevertheless, he continued to press God for an answer. But he would not live to learn the outcome of his prayers. On August 1, 1883, Harold Schofield died.

But God had heard his prayers. A year and a half later, in February, 1885, on a platform in London, seven university men, all of them athletic and scholarly, stood to testify how God had changed their hearts and led them to offer themselves for mission work in China. Today those young men are famed as The Cambridge Seven. They included Stanley Perigrine Smith, C. T. Studd, Montagu Beauchamp, E. E. Hoste, W. W. Casels, and the Podhill-Turner brothers, Arthur and Cecil.

After their acceptance into the China Inland Mission, the seven toured England and Scotland, preaching and appealing to their listeners to follow Christ. Impressed by the fact that these young men had given up everything the world holds dear to serve God, many folks yielded their own lives for God’s use. The example of these young men helped to inspire the Student Volunteer Movement and Inter-Varsity Fellowship. And many recruits were attracted to the China Inland Mission. All seven worked for Christ to the end of their lives. Such were the fruits of Harold Schofield’s prayers.

A Little Humor

Atheist: “Do you honestly believe that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish?”

Preacher: “I don’t know, sir, but when I get to heaven, I’ll ask him.”

Atheist: “But suppose he isn’t in heaven?”

Preacher: ‘Then you ask him.”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“If you live wrong, you can’t die right!”