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  Bible reading for Oct 4 -- 5 Oct 4 -- Ezekiel 37 and Psalms 87-88 Oct 5 -- Ezekiel 38 and Psalm 89 ================   "I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Ezekiel 37:26-27) DRY BONES RESURRECTED (ch 37). Ezekiel is prophesying the future restoration of the nation -- uniting both Israel and Judah together -- in conjunction with God's new covenantal work (ch 36). On one sense (spiritually) this is being fulfilled in the church age as the gospel goes forth bringing life to Jew and Gentile (Rom 3:29-30; 9:24; 11:1-5). But the church does not replace Israel in God's plan. This chapter looks forward to the future work of God in restoring Israel (Rom 11:25-32; Zech 12:9-14). "David" ruling as king (vv 24-25) is ...

Bible reading for weekend Oct 1 -- 3 Oct 1 -- Ezekiel 34 and Psalms 83-84 Oct 2 -- Ezekiel 35 and Psalm 85 Oct 3 -- Ezekiel 36 and Psalm 86 ================   "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27) BAD SHEPHERDS, GOOD SHEPHERD (ch 34). Ever since King David, the first shepherd-turned-king, the leaders of Judah were designated as shepherds, who were called to exercise oversight and care for God's people. They were to feed, guide, care for, and protect the flock of God. Generally, they did this poorly (vv 1-10). Where they failed, God himself would step in (vv 11-31). Over 18 times in this chapter God says, "I will..." or "I myself will...", that is, he will be the shepherd who seeks, gathers, feeds, and protect...

Bible reading for May 13.  Numbers 22. "So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab." (Numbers 22:21)  THE ENIGMA OF BALAAM. By the enigma I do not mean Balaam's donkey that spoke. That's plainly a miracle, and I can't explain the dynamics of how an animal with donkey vocal chords can communicate by talking.  After all, we do have the case of the serpent in Gen 3 communicating with the woman.  I believe that it happened in the way it is recorded in the inspired account, and is historical, and I take it by faith. After all, I do believe that God spoke the universe into existence and that his Son rose from the dead on the third day , so I don't have a problem with the report of miracles. No problem with the donkey.   THE PROBLEM I have is the same one that we face in the Bible not only with Balaam, but also with King Saul (1 Sam 11:6; 16:14), Judas (John 6:70; 13:2), and Simon the Magician (Acts 8:9-24)...

Bible reading for March 13:  Exodus 24; John 3. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, "All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words." (Exodus 24:7-8)  The blood of the covenant.   Previously, the people of Israel had to stay away from Mount Sinai. It was a fearful sight, and people (and animals) were barred by penalty of death from approaching the presence of God there.  Now here's a change: the leaders of the people are invited to come to the mountain , and wonder of wonders, to see the glory of God and to eat in his presence.  What made the difference?  It was the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrificial offerings, the blood of the covenant.  This blood foreshadows the new covenant that Christ would i...

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."  (John 3:3) The Christian life begins with Christ.  It begins with faith in a Person.  You must be in Christ before you can live upon Christ.   Here are two quotes to ponder... "...it is impossible even to begin living the Christian life, or to know anything of true spirituality, before one is a Christian.  And the only way to become a Christian is neither by tying to live some sort of a Christian life not by hoping for some sort of religious experience, but rather by accepting Christ as Savior.  No matter how complicated, educated, or sophisticated we may be, or how simple we may be, we must all come the same way, insofar as becoming a Christian is concerned.  As the kings of the earth and the mighty of the earth are born in exactly the same way, physically, as the simplest man, so the most intellectual person must become a Christian in exactly the same w...

"[You] were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."  (Ephesians 4:21-24 ESV) "The whole matter of putting on the new man is in essence the application of truth to ourselves.  It is the most important thing that one can ever discover in the Christian life.  The real secret of Christian living is to discover the art of talking to yourself.  We must talk to ourselves, we must preach to ourselves, and we must take truth and apply it to ourselves, and keep on doing so.  That is the putting on of the new man.  We have to hammer away at ourselves until we have really convinced ourselves.  In other words, this is not something that you wait for passively.  If you wait until you feel like the new ma...

"But that is not the way you learned Christ!-- assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."  (Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV) "The putting on of the new man is something that must be done completely, it must always be done as a whole, and it must apply to the whole of our life continuously.  In other words, we must never do the work in compartments; we must put on the new man not only in certain parts of our lives, it must be the whole of our life.  We must not put on the new man only at certain times or when we are in certain company, or when we are in certain places.  That would be to deny the whole principle.  The new man must be the reigning and the governing principle...

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28 ESV) Here is an excerpt from "The Blessing Of Being Human" , a sermon from Genesis 1:28-31.  Here's the outline of the passage... • Fruitfulness (v. 28a)  • Dominion over creatures (v. 28b) • Provision of food (v. 29) • Provision for creatures (v. 30) • A very good creation (v. 31)   "The blessing of being human is fulfilled ultimately by God’s Son , the Lord Jesus, who was prophesied to be the blessing  that would come to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:2-3), and the King, the one like a Son of Man, who would come to  establish his righteous rule and subdue the earth (Daniel 7:13-14).    "Though being in nature God, he took on a human nature (Philippian 2:6-7), and being made ...

I have begun reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Experiencing the New Birth   (Crossway Books, 2015),  based upon a series of sermons on John chapter 3 that he preached at  Westminster Chapel (London) almost fifty years ago (in 1966). I'm so very thankful to see Lloyd-Jones' sermons are still being published, and that Crossway is offering these previously-unpublished messages in book form .   The subject -- experiencing the new birth -- is also a very timely and needed topic for study today.  Much has been written in recent years (it seems to me) on the nature of justification and sanctification, but not as much on regeneration, or the new birth.  Lloyd-Jones is always biblical, thoughtful, insightful, and practical. His pastoral heart is evident in these messages. MLJ was a Spirit-anointed preacher and has been for decades a kind of historical mentor to many ministers. I was first  introduced to his writings in 1997, when I read Knowing The Times , a se...