Be ready for Christ’s return
- Be patient, Jas 5:7-8.
- Be ready, Mt 24:44.
- Be pure, 1 Jn 3:3; Php 1:10.
- Be abiding in Christ, 1 Jn 2:28.
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Guidelines for parents
- Acknowledge that your child is a gift from God. (see Ps 127:3, GNB)
- Dedicate your child to the Lord to be used in his service. (see 1 Sa 1:11, RSV)
- Make a personal commitment to God to grow as a Christian parent.
- Identify your values and convey these values consistently in your behavior.
- Express to your children love and acceptance.
- View discipline as an ongoing process of helping your children ultimately to become self-controlled and self-disciplined.
God’s hand
Expressive of
1. Judgment Ex 9:3
2. Chastening Job 19:21
3. Security Jn 10:29
4. Miracles Ex 3:20
5. Providence Ps 31:15
6. Provision Ps 145:16
7. Protection Ps 139:10
8. Punishment Ps 75:8
9. Pleading Isa 65:2
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Evaluating prophecy
According to 1 Corinthians 14, a number of questions may be asked when attempting to evaluate a prophetic utterance:-
- Does it glorify God? v25
- Is it in accord with Scripture? v37f
- Does it build up the church? v5
- Is it spoken with love? v1
- Does the speaker submit to the judgement of others? v29
- Is the speaker in control of himself? v32
- It there too much of it? v29f
Duties of parents
- Encouragement, 1 Chron 28:20.
- Reproof, Pr 19:18.
- Instruction, Pr 22:6; Eph 6:4; 2 Tim 3:15.
- Provision, 1 Tim 5:8.
Glory
Old Testament – usually Heb ‘kabod’ = ‘heaviness’; ‘weight’; (cf. 2 Cor 4:17) ‘worthiness’. Used of men to describe wealth, splendour or reputation (honour). God shows his glory by displaying his excellence and praiseworthiness, Isa 44:23 Jn 12:28 13:31f. God also glorifies his Son, Jn 13:31-32 17:5 Acts 3:13. We give glory to God when we respond by honouring and adoring him, Jn 17:4 21:19 Rom 4:20 15:6,9 1 Cor 6:20 10:31 1 Pet 4:12-16.
The glory of the Lord shows in the reality of his active presence, sometimes accompanied by physical manifestations, such as lightning, Ps 29:3; and cloud, Ex 16:7,10 40:34-38.…
The abominations of the heathen
Some crucial passages are: Deut 7:1-5; cf Ex 23:23ff; Deut 20:16-18.
Although our Lord did not explicitly endorse this particular act of judgement, as he did the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and of Noah’s contemporaries, he set his general seal on the book of Deuteronomy, which, from the number of times he quoted from it, must be regarded as his favourite book.
Specific endorsement is found in Acts 7:45; 13:17ff; Heb 11:31; 12:29. ‘Unquestionably the New Testament view is to take the Old Testament at its face value.…
Preaching Christ
We do so when we:-
- represent him as a living person as distinct from an historical character.
- remind the hearers that he is present in the gathering.
- represent ourselves as his ambassadors bringing a message from him.
- press his claim upon the hearers.
- tell of his finished work and testify that his blood cleanses from all sin.
- preach Christ as a present deliverer from the power of sin.
- warn sinners that to reject him is to perish.
Mutual encouragement
While this is the special duty of the ministers of the gospel, 1 Tim 6:2; 2 Tim 4:2; Tit 2:6,15, it is also the duty of all the members of the churches -and a most important, but much neglected duty. This does not refer to public exhortation, which more appropriately pertains to the ministers of the gospel, but to that private watch and care which the individual members of the church should have over one another.…
From what are we called?
‘From what does God call men?
(1.) From sin. He calls them from their ignorance and unbelief. 1 Pet 1:14. By nature the understanding is enveloped with darkness. God calls men ‘from darkness to light,’ as if one should be called out of a dungeon to behold the light of the sun. Eph 5:8.
(2.) From danger. As the angels called Lot out of Sodom, when it was ready to rain fire; so God calls his people from the fire and brimstone of hell, and from all those curses to which they were exposed.…