The Bible Standard - Re-Discover the Truth.

Bro Pete Owen

Gathering Sticks

We’re living through a difficult situation. The stay at home order is getting old, real fast, even as the threat of the pandemic is always just one cough from a non-masked stranger at the grocery store away. It’s not as bad, however, as being involved in a shipwreck. Or being bitten by a venomous snake. Paul experienced both of those things and the natives of Malta who witnessed his misfortune made the logical conclusion, after seeing Paul being bitten by the snake, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” (Acts 28:4). In a sense they were correct; he was a murderer, or at least had been. If they had known the story of him as Saul of Tarsus, going about arresting Christians and putting them to death, they would have felt vindicated in their conclusion. If the sea didn’t get him the snake would and justice would be served. But Paul survived.

The Bible Companion (or Bible Reading Planner) is a guide developed by the Christadelphians to aid reading the Bible.

It was designed to help you read the old testament once and the new testament twice each year.

These readings which we feature are recorded using the KJV or the NKJV of the Bible and we hope will be helpful to those who may struggle with time or who have poor eyesight.

“INCREASING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD” May 14

Is your knowledge of God increasing? We live in a world in which all kinds of knowledge multiplies as never before

– human cleverness appears to know no bounds!

Sadly – at the same time, awareness and acknowledgement of God is decreasing at an astonishing rate. It

reminds us of the parable in which the citizens “hated” him and sent a message saying, “We do not want this man to

reign over us.”[Luke 19 v.14]. Note what happened to them when the king returned! (v.27)

Today the citizens are saying, and if they do not actually say it, their actions show it – ‘We do not want to even

think there is a God who has oversight of our lives and knows the nature of human thought and desire.

Our thoughts were provoked in this direction by Paul’s letter, written from prison, to the Colossians. The believers

there are very much in his thoughts. “We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you

…” [1 v.3] Timothy is with him (v.1 sharing his prayers. . He emphasizes what occupies his mind in v.9 “… we have

not ceased to pray for you asking that ….” And what is he asking? “Asking that you may be filled with the knowledge

of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner fully pleasing to him …” [v.9,10],

His next words are, “bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” In some

contexts we read the word ‘knowledge’ in the sense of “knowing” – becoming ‘fully aware of’ so as to develop a

relationship with someone. Consider Job’s final declaration about God after his earnest efforts to understand his

ways.! Read ch. 42 v.2 onwards. Consider also what Jesus accomplished “by his knowledge” (Isaiah 53 v.11)

Central to our relationship with God is “Christ in you” [v.27] “Him we proclaim,” writes Paul, “that we may present

everyone mature in Christ” [v.28] How is your maturity developing? Absorbing the true sense of the divine word is a

foundation for this. May we all increase day by day in the “knowledge

Earthquake, Wind and Fire

Don’t you sometimes wish you could do something dramatic to convince the world about God? When you see the immorality and atheism in the world, for instance, and could shake the world up? How much better would our preaching efforts go if we could perform miracles like they did in the first century? But faith doesn’t work like that. What we see with our eyes, however amazing it might be, can’t generate faith. That was the experience of the children of Israel who wandered through the wilderness. Look at the emphasis on “seeing” in the opening verses of our reading from Deuteronomy 29 – “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders.” (v.2-3). You’d think, having seen all the plagues, crossing the Red Sea and all the other miracles, that they would be a people who were immensely faithful. But the very next verse says, “But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” Despite all they saw with their natural eyes, they hadn’t comprehended God.

The Bible Companion (or Bible Reading Planner) is a guide developed by the Christadelphians to aid reading the Bible.

It was designed to help you read the old testament once and the new testament twice each year.

These readings which we feature are recorded using the KJV or the NKJV of the Bible and we hope will be helpful to those who may struggle with time or who have poor eyesight.

“PROCLAIMING THE KINGDOM” May 13

We complete reading ACTS today: the last 2 verses show us us that Paul was in Rome for “two whole years …

and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with

all boldness and without hindrance.” Notice the emphasis on Paul proclaiming God’s Kingdom – it is sad that as the

generations passed that the message preached became totally corrupted to one of human imagination, that of an

immortal soul existence in heaven.

However our reading in Isaiah has wonderful details about God’s Kingdom that “shall come to pass in the latter

days … and all the nations shall flow to it … and say: Come let us go up … to the house (temple) of the God of Jacob

that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go the law and the word of the

LORD from Jerusalem … he shall judge between nations … nation shall not lift up sword (weapons) against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more” [2 v.2-4]. The kingdom Paul was proclaiming was that revealed in Isaiah and

other prophets as well as by Jesus Christ.

But Isaiah has another vision of our days: three times in the last 11 verses of this chapter we encounter the

phrase, “in that day”! His vision describes a time when the kingdoms of men come to an end and “the lofty pride of

man shall be humbled” [v.11]. It is a message against “every high tower” [v.15] and never have buildings been built

higher than today. Later Isaiah sees in vision “the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall … the LORD comes

from afar, burning with anger … to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction” [30 v.25,27,28] This compares with

words in today’s chapter, “the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day

… when he rises to terrify the earth” [v.17,19].

Those who do not know God’s word will indeed be terrified. But those who know God’s word, although their faith

will be tested as “man is humbled and each one is brought

Kicking Against the Goads

What did Jesus mean when he said the following words to Saul on the road to Damascus? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 26:14). The usual explanation is that Paul was experiencing pricks of conscience because of what happened to Stephen. Something Stephen said in his defense got through to Saul and he had nagging feelings at the back of his mind. The idea of a goad is a stick used to direct an animal and several lexicons state that the term “kick against the goads” is idiomatic for exactly that. It’s as if Jesus was working in Saul’s life to goad him into accepting the truth. There is merit to that explanation, but there may be something else going on here as well.

The Bible Companion (or Bible Reading Planner) is a guide developed by the Christadelphians to aid reading the Bible.

It was designed to help you read the old testament once and the new testament twice each year.

These readings which we feature are recorded using the KJV or the NKJV of the Bible and we hope will be helpful to those who may struggle with time or who have poor eyesight.

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