The Bible Standard - Re-Discover the Truth.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE READING?"  April 30

This was the question the Ethiopian Eunuch asked Philip; he was one of the seven appointed to assist the 12 disciples (Acts 6 v.2,4); Stephen who was killed was also one of them.

“An angel of the Lord” (8 v.26) caused Philip to go up and meet with this Ethiopian as he was returning from worshipping in Jerusalem.(v.28} which shows he was a genuine God fearing man – and as he travelled, he was reading God’s word and puzzling over a person he was reading about in the book of Isaiah who was “like a lamb before its shearer is silent … in his humiliation justice was denied him.  Who can describe his generation?  For his life is taken away from the earth.” [v.32,33]

He asks Philip, “Does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else?” [v.34] Philip explains, “beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.”   The whole world has now been given the whole of the word of God - all 66 books of it, in just about every language. Remember what Jesus said; “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (Luke 12 v.48)

People in the ancient world were challenged by the faith of Noah in the huge ark he and his sons built over many years!  Does the word of God really challenge us?  It did when it was first printed! Let us read some of it every day – and our understanding will grow and – like the Eunuch, we will start to think and to ask, “What prevents me from being baptised?” [v.37]  And if we are already baptised and have experienced the feeling he did after his baptism in “going on his way rejoicing” [v.39] we will find less and less to rejoice about in much of what we do in this world..

We will relate to words in Peter’s 1st letter.  He said that genuine believers “by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last to time.  In this you rejoice, though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith … may be found to result in praise and honour and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” [1 v.5-7]

The speaker looks at this very interesting subject.

One of the reasons why God puts us through trials is for us to develop empathy with others. In Deuteronomy 15 the principle is explained in the law about how Israelites were to treat their slaves. During the year of release, they were to “let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress.” (v.13-14). Why were they do to this? Because “As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you” (v.14-15). God allowed his people to suffer in Egypt, and experience the joy of release from that bondage, that they might learn empathy and treat others in the right way.

A small group of young Christadelphian brothers have taken the time to produce this valuable resource for the brotherhood and beyond, they are using the Bible reading planner developed by Brother Robert Roberts called The  Bible Companion. The Bible Companion (or Bible Reading Planner) is a guide developed by the Christadelphians to aid reading the Bible. It was first produced by Robert Roberts when he was just 14 years of age, in about 1853, and revised by him over a number of years into its current format. 

 Most Christadelphians use this plan each day and 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.

“REMEMBER THE DAY  April 29

We all have memories; bad things we try to shut out of our memory, good things we try to retain and bring to the fore.  We read today how Moses told the people to look back on; “all the days of your life (that) you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt” [Deut. 16 v.3]  The Passover Feast was set up to aid that memory, to cement it into their consciousness.  Most of the generation that had experienced the miraculous deliverance had failed to do that and had died in the wilderness because of their faithlessness.  Now Moses is delivering the message to the next generation; whose leaders had been teenagers and children at that time.

Today’s chapter details the feasts they are to keep when they start living in the promised land. As well as remembering the actual deliverance, through the Passover feast, there are 3 other feasts associated with farming the land and the reward of harvesting.  This they would experience for the first time in their lives. The key lesson is they are not to “appear before the LORD empty handed.  Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD” [v.16-17].

Verse 20 has another blunt ‘punch line’ message, “Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

Now we consider our own journey in life, how close are we to the climax of all that God has prepared for all those who truly believe in and love Him?   Is the crossing of the Jordan close at hand for us?

We must face up to today’s challenges and make sure we “escape all the things that are going to take place” [Luke 21 v,36] as the Almighty prepares to cleanse the earth of its’ evil.  Let us “remember the day” when we made the commitment to join the Lord’s side and accepted his “deliverance” by being baptised.   If you have not yet experienced such a day – ask yourself – very seriously - why?  Don’t let “that day come upon you suddenly like a trap” [Luke 21 v.34] so that you fail to enter a far greater “promised land”.

In Acts 4 we read of a prayer which helps us understand how God works with us. It begins in verse 24 with “Sovereign Lord” and what follows is a prayer displaying the apostles’ complete trust in the power and wisdom of God. They’ve just experienced persecution at the hands of the authorities but they put it all down to God being in control of the situation and continued to “speak the word of God with boldness” (v.31). What a wonderful mindset they had, and something to think about as we continue to deal with the situation we’re all going through.

A small group of young Christadelphian brothers have taken the time to produce this valuable resource for the brotherhood and beyond, they are using the Bible reading planner developed by Brother Robert Roberts called The  Bible Companion. The Bible Companion (or Bible Reading Planner) is a guide developed by the Christadelphians to aid reading the Bible. It was first produced by Robert Roberts when he was just 14 years of age, in about 1853, and revised by him over a number of years into its current format. 

 Most Christadelphians use this plan each day and 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.

“WHAT IS BETTER”  April 29

Solomon’s reminiscences in Ecclesiastes are in one sense a continuation of Proverbs.  Several times in today’s chapter (7) he contemplates ways of living and asks “What is better?” and makes observations which do not always provide a clear answer, but they do provoke our thinking.

The chapter begins, “A good name is better than precious ointment” which leads us to recall the valuable ointment used to anoint Jesus and those who only thought of its wasted value.  How important is it to make a good name (reputation) for yourself?  Very important, but make sure it is a good reputation in God’s eyes.

Verse 5, “It is better for a person to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.”  In so many ways this world is filled with the latter – but some, maybe many young people, would see Solomon as wrong!  We ponder the state of mind that reaches that conclusion   “Better isthe end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” [v.8].   But when “the end of a thing” is not good, some positive thinking is needed to draw out the lessons for doing better in the future.

Solomon laments, “In my vain life I have seen everything” [v.15] We usually do not appreciate how some things are “vain” until we get to a mature age. Some modern versions translate this as -  the pointlessness of life; but what does one really achieve in life that is of lasting value?  There are some things: but we recall Solomon’s attitude when he had accomplished everything that he had set his mind to physically achieve (Ch. 2 v.1-11) that it was all “a striving after wind.”

At the end of Ecclesiastes he writes, “The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.  The words of the wise are like goads, like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one shepherd.” [12 v.10,11]

In the New Testament we have the ultimate “good shepherd” yet those who came before him, such as David and Solomon, provoke much worthwhile thought.  The last verse of today’s chapter says, “this alone I found, that God made man upright”   “but now we have twisted minds” (CEV)

Let us make sure our minds are untwisted by reading and reflecting on God’s word every day.

In this week's edition of the webinar we examine the miraculous prophecies concerning the scattering and regathering of the Jews.   The unlikely establishment of the nation of Israel in their ancient homeland provides proof of God's existence.   We also examine the first sign of John, where Jesus turns water into wine to illustrate the means of asking questions to better comprehend the Bible.

I don’t like the phrase “ecclesial life” even though I find myself using it from time to time. Using it betrays the fact we can fall into the trap of compartmentalizing our lives. We have an ecclesial life and we have a home life and a work life. But it shouldn’t be like that – we should have one life under the sovereignty of aligning ourselves with the purpose of God. For the first century ecclesia just prior to the death and resurrection of Chris that’s the sort of life they had. Luke records that our early brethren spent their time “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes” (Acts 2:46). Whether that means every single day isn’t clear and of course it’s impractical for us to spend every day in official ecclesial activities. We must work and provide for our families. But whether it’s work, recreation or any of the other things we busy ourselves with, we can bring God into everything we do.