Category: Book Reviews

WARNING: Watch Out For The Failure To Activate Your Heavenly Benefits Clause In A Timely Manner!

“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalm 16:11

People sometimes say, “I’d rather have a good time in Hell than be bored in Heaven.”

But the truth is that Hell will be deadly boring – a place where everyone is lonely and miserable, where friendship and good times simply do not exit. Everything good, enjoyable, fascinating, and exciting comes from God. Without God there will never be anything interesting to do.

The New Heavens and New Earth will be expansive because God is infinitely large. The withered souls of Hell will be infinitely small with no room for pleasure to be found anywhere.

BOTTOM LINE:

“Earth knows ugliness and beauty; it’s halfway between heaven and hell. And And the inhabitants of earth must decide whether they are to seek the beauty of heaven, or the monstrous, unrelieved ugliness of hell.” A. W. Tozer

NEXT UP: NO IDEA, although I do find it interesting neither Alcorn or Tozier mention here hell fire or eternal damnation, though these few words from them may certainly not be representative of their perspective on hell. The above words without the usual & customary reference to hell’s excruciating painful physical conditions not mentioning mental remorse, is honestly unsettling to me, as I’m thinking the miniscule pain I’ve suffered from merely 50 broken bones in 76 years, certainly pales to burn victims, such that my inquiring mind loops to thinking whoever is experiencing hell, is really NOT going to care much about being bored, lonely, miserable…. Monday’s post may have a quote from Nancy Leigh DeMoss that explains that further.

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 59 Harvest House.

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3

We do live in the age of dialogue. But when it comes to truth, we need some monologue. Better to shut up for a while and listen to God. When we come to know and love His voice, we will “never follow a stranger” because we do not recognize a stranger’s voice” (John 10:5)

Years ago I stopped listening to talk radio because I didn’t like its effects on me. I listen to the Bible instead – and I like what it does to my mind and heart. Scripture and Bible-based audio wisdom books and teaching accompany me as I travel. I never regret investing my time this way. Why listen to mere human opinions when you can listen to the God of the Universe? Seriously now!

“The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, regardless however noisy our times with the world may be. Oswald Chambers

BOTTOM LINE:

The great cause of neglecting the Scriptures is not want of time, but want of heart, some idol taking the place of Christ.” Robert Chapman.

“Although not widely known today, Robert was one the most respected Christians of his generation. His caring and humble attitude had a marked impact on the lives of such men as George Muller, J Hudson Taylor, and Charles Spurgeon. These notable men agreed that Chapman was a giant among them. He is noted as saying, ” My business is to love, and not to seek that others shall love me.”

NEXT UP: Do You Realize Your Bottom Line On God’s Balance Sheet Is ENTIRELY Your Choice?

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 54 Harvest House.

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wave of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” Ephesians 4:14

Inquiring spiritual minds would tend to ask what specifically precedes the “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth…” The blueprint to avoid such disasters is clarified beginning in verse 11 “It was He who gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors & teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ…”

In a nutshell, what happens when we don’t listen to God’s truth? Don’t we tend to become gullible, believing fairy tales that we come from nothing and are going nowhere, that inanimate objects forever existed, or living things arose from nonliving? Given enough time, the impossible becomes the possible. Scripture warns, “They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (II Timothy 4:4).

Theological illiteracy has dramatically increased among professing Christian communities. Churches desperately need a fresh infusion of true biblical doctrine. Without it, we have nothing to offer a truth-deprived world. There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity. The above blueprint offers Identity Tracks for Service, Building the Body to a Mature Unity of Faith & Knowledge for our good & the fullness of His Glory.

BOTTOM LINE:

“Doctrine matters. What you believe about God, the gospel, the nature of man, and every major truth addressed in Scripture eventually filters down and bears revealing fruit in every area of your life.” John MacArthur

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 53 Harvest House.

NEXT UP: Silence At Times Can Be Golden, Whereas His Monologue, Is Divine!

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2 Corinthians 4:16-17

God doesn’t merely say that someday we’ll get over or forget our light and momentary troubles. He says they’re purposeful, not random or useless, based on the truth of God’s eternal benefits for us.

If we had no eternal future as resurrected people living with King Jesus, then our present sufferings would be ultimately useless. With Christ’s promise, however, no present suffering – regardless of its scope – will prove worthless. Such sufferings are actually a means to an end: incalculable future goodness and everlasting gladness.

merlin now: Suffice it to say now as a matter of fact, even though America has Christian laurels far surpassing any other nation on earth, that we now as a paper tiger are being bombarded by swirling uncertainities, even atrocities, perhaps surpassing even those of the Third Reich, while we now ourselves pursue what is truth and reality, following our past century of global bullying and fostering lies and deception both within our nation and around the world, such that today I am reminded of our fragility on the world stage by the February 7 reading from “My Utmost For His Highest.” Appropriately named “Spiritual Dejection” based on Cleopas’s statements to their apparently “yet in the dark” unknown travel companion on their Sunday afternoon Emmaus stroll as recorded in Luke 24:21, the text states “We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.”

The Utmost reading continues “Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else.

Dejection stems from one of two sources – I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God himself who gives the answer.

What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get a hold of God, not of the answer!

It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is WRONG, and we are always to blame for it!

We look for visions from heaven and for earth – shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected (perhaps in a not so temporary tizzie?) is proof that we do this. Yet how often do we take time to listen, reflect, and talk with God who is always there with us in all our everyday events and in our spheres of influence with all those persons about us. He is waiting for us to obey, and do the task He has placed closest to us, and when we do, perhaps as when bread was broken after traveling the road to Emmaus, our hearts too will burn within us.

One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life, be they world catastrophes, national trauma, personal tragedies, a congregational discernment, planning a summer vacation, or even sharing the Gospel and being rebuffed, that the deity of Christ is realized, understood, as we are transformed by his Holy Spirit. Once we’re filled with His wonder and righteousness, the spirit of dejection simply fades away; even while we’re being continually bombarded by the deceit, blasphemy, and iniquity paraded about us, and quite possibly, even by persecution, whether from the world, or even the tares or false prophets from within, until the harvest begins. Remember Jesus’ words that are applicable to all of us, regardless of our situation or source of persecution, as recorded in John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if ye love one another.”

BOTTOM LINE:

“While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, forseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.” Timothy Keller (9/23/50-5/19/23)

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 52 Harvest House.

My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. Psalm 71:23 (ESV)

Christians are often perceived as angry, judgemental people, devoid of life’s joys. In light of our redemption in Christ, shouldn’t we radiate such joy, peace, and contentment that others are naturally drawn to us, wanting what we have?

So why aren’t we happier? Unfortunately, many Christians are taught that God doesn’t want us happy; he wants us holy. In fact, many Christians labor under the false notion that God himself is not happy. But nothing could be further from the truth!

Let’s reject the lie and follow God’s truthful admonition: “May the righteous be glad and rejoice before God ; may they be happy and joyful” (Psalm 68:3).

BOTTOM LINE: “If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full.” John Piper

NEXT UP: Life Goal: To Pursue & Possess This Pertinent Purposeful & Powerful Perspective!

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 48 Harvest House.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father… He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created. James 1:17-18

God’s best and most perfect gift is Jesus himself: “All things were created through him and for him… and in him all things hold together”(Colossians 1:16-17).

For Your Consideration: If everything that comes into our lives is Father-filtered, how can we be anything less than optimistic? Our optimism is based squarely on realism.

THEREFORE: Jesus is real, atonement is real, resurrection is real, Heaven is real, and the gospel really, really is “good news!!!” Actually, the best news ever!

BOTTOM LINE: “It is a glorious thing to know that your Father God makes no mistakes in directing or permitting that which crosses the path of your life. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is our glory to trust him, no matter what.” Joni Eareckson Tada

NEXT UP: You Ever Wonder Why Church Live Streams Seldom Scan Their Audiences?

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 16 Harvest House.

Jesus prayed, “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

Eternal life is not found by believing in just any god but by believing in the “only true God.” False gods, both religious and secular, litter the landscape. The only true God is the One who sent the only true Savior, Jesus Christ.

Jesus gives us more than eternal existence. He gives us eternal life: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6 ESV).

merlin’s BOTTOM LINE:

This great truth all hinges on the person and work of none other than Jesus Christ, as forecast by Hosea in Romans 9:25-26 (Message Version) “I’ll call nobodies, and make them somebodies; I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved. In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!” they’re calling you “God’s living children.” Isaiah further continues this unique identity for us in verses 27-28 “If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered and the sum labeled “chosen of God,” They’d be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection. God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name. Arithmetic is not his focus.”

Verse 30 continues “How can we sum this ‘nobodies becoming somebodies’ up practically? You notice for all those people who didn’t seem that interested in what God was doing, actually embraced what God was doing as He straightened out their lives. And the Jews who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing (perhaps like our cultural entrapments?), simply missed it.

How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were simply absorbed in what they themselves were doing, and were so absorbed in their ‘God projects” (perhaps becoming somebody?) that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. So they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah continues in verse 33 giving us a metaphor for pulling this together: “Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to the Celestial City, a stone you can’t get around. But the stone is me! Wake up! If you’re looking for me, you’ll find me ‘on the way,’ not ‘in the way!‘”

Final call folks! “We weren’t meant to be somebody – we were meant to know somebody.” John Piper

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 15 Harvest House.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure… Jeremiah 17:9

Scripture is full of disheartening diagnoses, including that the heart is “desperately sick” (ESV).

But the Great Physician must tell us this hard truth so we can say, “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10) The Physician also promises, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees” (Ezekiel 36: 26-27).

Words that at first, sting us deeply don’t mean we’re without hope, only that we cannot cure ourselves. But God has provided the cure: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17).

BOTTOM LINE:

“Scripture considers repentance a path to liberation, not condemnation.” Edward Welch

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 14 Harvest House.

Either, Being Deceived Into Thinking You’ve Found Your Life Only to Die In Darkness, OR, Losing Your Life For His Sake, Guaranteed to Live & Be Found Forever In His Light.

Inspired by the Words of Jesus in Matthew 10:39, “Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

When we grasp this truth, we will undergo the ultimate paradigm shift: without Christ, any sacrifice we make is worthless. We are miserable without Jesus. Nothing we have can satisfy us. And even if it did, we couldn’t hold on to it.

So, when we hear Jesus tell us to take up our crosses and follow him, and say we should lose our lives for his sake, we’re tempted to think, “Then I will never be happy.” But in fact Jesus is saying out short-term sacrifices for him are a means to an end, and that end is true and abundant life for “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it,” thus experiencing heavenly joy.

BOTTOM LINE:

“Without the way, there is no going;

Without the truth, there is no knowing;

Without the life, there is no living.”

Thomas a Kempis

Truth: A Bigger View of God’s Word, Randy Alcorn, 2017, Pg 13, Harvest House.

Utmost For His Highest Jan 31

…separated to the gospel of God… Romans 1:1

Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God.

The one all–important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not merely human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption!

The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality.

Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.

Paul did not say that he separated himself, but “when it pleased God, who separated me…” (Galatians 1:15 ). Paul was not overly interested in his own character.

And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption.

Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God.

“Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes.”

To talk that way is a sign that the reality of the gospel of God has not begun to touch me. There is no reckless abandon to God in that. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character.

Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God (see  Romans 9:3). Read the whole chapter to gain perspective!

BOTTOM LINE WISDOM From Oswald Chambers

“We are not fundamentally free; external circumstances are not in our hands, they are in God’s hands, the one thing in which we are free is in our personal relationship to God. We are not responsible for the circumstances we are in, but we are responsible for the way we allow those circumstances to affect us; we can either allow them to get on top of us, or we can allow them to transform us into what God wants us to be.”

Merlin now:

I have not in the above words inflicted any of my personal interpretation or editing, but I have only desired to visually enhance the impact of its message to you, fresh on the tablet of your mind today, all done merely by breaking up paragraphs into separate sentences, and word appearance by changing letter size, font, etc.

Why do I do this? Perhaps because I believe today we are so visually and audibly oriented, that we’re even handicapped by our failure to read and grasp the impact of typical paragraphs on a page in a devotional as significant as this, not to mention, a familiar scripture passage, UNLESS PERHAPS, we have the desire to access by reading, pondering and delighting in its words, be it in hard copy print or on devices such as our phones multiple times daily in hopes that the Holy Spirit can break thru our brain fog.

I repeat the last sentence from the Chamber’s reading above, strictly for emphasis that “Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose – to proclaim the gospel of God (see Romans 9:3, actually, read the whole chapter for perspective).      

I recall hearing it said years ago, it is difficult, perhaps even impossible, to be “spiritually inhibited once you’re inhabited by the Holy Spirit!” Get the picture?