Words are powerful. Much can be learned of a man by what he says, especially in his letters and journals. By studying the words of a man, such things as character, purpose, secrets, intellect, wisdom, knowledge, and being can be deciphered. One such man whose words are worthy of being analyzed and probed is David Livingstone, one of the greatest missionaries to ever spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ abroad. Dr. W. Garden Blaikie, who compiled a biographical sketch of Livingstone’s life through his letters and journals in his book The Personal Life of David Livingstone, expressed this quite eloquently when he said, “Nothing can be more telling than his life as an evidence of the truth and power of Christianity, as a plea for Christian Missions and civilization, or as a demonstration of the true connection between religion and science” (5). It would behoove those who seriously hope to capture the true spirit and heart of Christianity, especially prospective missionaries, to study the letters and journals of this great man Livingstone and his powerful testimony.
Livingstone, who died on his knees praying for the salvation of the souls in Africa, once said, “Death alone will put a stop to my efforts!” This could be interpreted as pure determination. Livingstone’s determination can be seen in many aspects of his life. Livingstone was born on March 19th, 1813, in Blantyre, Scotland. As a child, Livingstone grew up in a poor but deeply religious family. When he was nine years old, he learned the complete 119th Psalm and quoted it with only five errors; he was given a prize for doing this. At the age of ten, circumstances afforded him such scant opportunities that he was forced to leave school and begin working fourteen hours a day at a cotton mill. However, this did not stop him from obtaining an education; instead, he worked hard to teach himself from a Latin grammar, took night school classes, and read profusely, and in 1840, after studying medicine and theology at Glasgow’s Anderson College, he received his medical diploma and was ordained.
Amazingly, Livingstone did not trust Christ as Savior until he was twenty years old, even though he grew up with great religious convictions. In his first book entitled Missionary Travels, Livingstone says, “Great pains had been taken by my parents to instill the doctrines of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in understanding the theory of a free salvation by the atonement of our Saviour; but it was only about this time that I began to feel the necessity and value of a personal application of the provisions of that atonement to my own case” (Blaikie 15). From the time he was twelve years old, Livingstone struggled with the realization and concept of his sin nature and actually did not get saved at that point in his life due to the fact that he did not feel worthy to be saved; rather than accept the free gift of salvation, he instead waited several years for God to do some sort of a special work of grace in his heart (Blaikie 15). Interestingly, it was actually through a book entitled Philosophy of a Future State by Thomas Dick that he came to the realization of his error in understanding and accepted Christ as Savior; he recounts this in his first book, saying, “I saw the duty and inestimable privilege immediately to accept salvation by Christ. Humbly believing that through sovereign mercy and grace I have been enabled so to do, and having felt in some measure its effects on my still depraved and deceitful heart, it is my desire to show my attachment to the cause of Him who died for me by devoting my life to his service” (Blaikie 16). Looking into Livingstone’s own personal words of testimony sheds profound insight into a heart and mind that truly felt its worth in light of the holiness of Almighty God. We see a mind that understood that God and Christ and the doctrines of the Bible were true, but these truths had not yet sunk into his heart until he was twenty. What a beautiful and noble saint to realize that it was actually a privilege of worth untold to trust in Jesus, and even more do we realize that the depths of acceptance and understanding he had through his salvation experience as he expressed a soulful desire to give his life to the service of Christ and the propagation of the Gospel.
Livingstone’s calling into the ministry of missionary work is no less interesting that his call to salvation. Initially, he did not think that his calling was worthy of his being called a missionary. In a statement made to the Directors of the London Missionary Society, he stated that he believed “that the salvation of men ought to be the chief desire and aim of every Christian” and resolved “that he would give to the cause of missions all that he might earn beyond what was required for his subsistence” (Blaikie 16). His decision to embark into the world of mission work came after he read an appeal to evangelize the people of China by a missionary named Gutzlaff to the churches of Britain and America; it was “the claims of so many millions of his fellow-creatures, and the complaints of the scarcity, of the want of qualified missionaries” that pushed him to yield his life to this high calling (Blaikie 17). Here we find a man totally surrendered to the calling and direction of his Lord and Master. We find in Livingstone a pattern of successful Christian living and ministry work, namely that of seeing a need and being willing to fulfill a need. All Christians should have the same determination and Christian insight that would allow the plaintiff cries of the lost souls of this world to steer them in the direction of surrender to fulfill their urgent need of the Gospel. Livingstone surrendered to serve the people of China, but the opium war that broke out in China closed that door to him. While waiting for that door to open, he met Dr. Robert Moffat, a missionary whose work was to the people of southern Africa. When he told Livingstone of “the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary had ever been,” he decided to redirect his energies to the people of the continent of Africa. Once again, we find a marvelous testimony of a man whose heart was prompted to action by the needs of the lost souls of a place where no missionaries had ever gone to preach the Gospel of Christ. Wise prospective missionaries can find here a pattern of mission work pleasing to God and beneficial to those truly seeking to fulfill the needs of a dying people: Find a place with a need, and go there and fulfill it.
Livingstone’s preparation for the ministry was under the direction of the London Missionary Society. From an excerpt from his application to the London Missionary Society, we can find much of the reason why Livingstone was such a successful missionary:

The missionary’s object is to endeavor by every means in his power to make known the gospel by preaching, exhortation, conversation, instruction of the young; improving, so far as in his power, the temporal condition of those among hom he labors, by introducing the arts and sciences of civilization, and doing everything to commend Christianity to their hearts and consciences. He will be exposed to great trials of his faith and patience from the indifference, distrust, and even direct opposition and scorn of those for whose good he is laboring; he may be tempted to despondency from the little apparent fruit of his exertions, and exposed to all the contaminating influence of heathenism. The hardships and dangers of missionary life, so far as I have had the means of ascertaining their nature and extent, have been the subject of serious reflection, and in dependence on the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit, I have no hesitation in saying that I would willingly submit to them considering my constitution capable of enduring any share of hardship or fatigue (Blaikie 24).

These are not the words of a man who had not counted the cost before embarking into a lifelong calling that carried with it certain dangers and virtually unforeseeable trials and testing to which he would be subjected. Also, these are the words of a man who understood what his purpose as a missionary was and who outlined measurable goals for himself so as to have a definite aim and drive while in the ministry. There is no doubt that such statement could be taken and used by prospective missionaries as their own personal objective. Of course, he was accepted by the London Missionary Society, and came under the tutelage of Reverend Richard Cecil, who taught him Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. He fulfilled all his requirements with the exception of one interesting experience. One of his requirements was to prepare regular sermons for the scrutiny and analysis of Rev. Cecil; after being corrected, they were to be committed to memory and preached to local congregations. On one such occasion, Livingstone had prepared and memorized a sermon, but when he got up to present it, his mind drew a total blank; in humiliation and terror, he exclaimed, “Friends, I have forgotten all I had to say,” and he quickly left the church (Blaikie 27). Livingstone was forever humbled by this experience, and he always considered himself to be an incompetent preacher; in a letter he wrote in Elizabeth Town in Africa to his friend, the Reverend Joseph Moore, he said, “I am a very poor preacher, having a bad delivery, and some of them said if they knew I was to preach again they would not enter the chapel” (Blaikie 27). Whether true or not, we find here a humble man who saw limits in his abilities yet still continued to persevere in despite of them. Of course, Livingstone went on to be ordained on November 20th, 1840, and he immediately began his mission work to Africa.
We find that learning the language of Africa was not easy for Livingstone due to time restraints. During his initial period in South Africa in the northernmost station of the London Missionary Society, Livingstone writes, “. . . but there is a great drawback: we can’t study or read when we please. I feel this very much. I have made but very little progress in the language (can speak a little Dutch), but I long for the time when I shall give my undivided attention to it, and then be furnished with the means of making known the truth of the gospel” (Blaikie 39). Additionally, he felt they would be spared the pains of being “the first in at the death” if they would give him one or two months to learn the colloquial language (Baikie 39). During his initial stay in Africa, was able to learn the language in a relatively short period of time and was able to begin preaching the Gospel of Christ to the natives in less than a year; after a year in Africa, he wrote his father, saying, "The work of God goes on here notwithstanding all our infirmities. Souls are gathered in continually, and sometimes from among those you would never have expected to see turning to the Lord. Twenty-four were added to the church last month, and there are several inquirers." Something can be learned from these accounts is that it is extremely important to learn the language of your people as quickly as possible so as to successfully be able to get the Gospel to them. Livingstone understood that if he was to be a successful soul winner, then he needed to learn the language of the natives. Just within a year of being in Africa he was already building a successful work for God because he took the time to learn the language. While awaiting further orders from the London Missionary Society, Livingstone said something most profound and beautiful that can be quite an inspiration to those who feel God’s calling on their lives: “Whatever way my life may be spent so as but to promote the glory of our gracious God, I feel anxious to do it.... My life, may be spent as profitably as a pioneer as in any other way” (Blaikie 41). It is wonderful to see what God was able to do with a man who was more concerned about God receiving the glory rather than himself.
Livingstone’s life is pictured beautifully by an account given of his rescuing a little eleven or twelve year old native girl who was being sought by a man with a gun; she came to Livingstone because she trusted him, and he helped to protect her and spare her from that man who was really only after some very expensive beads she was wearing in order to add to her value in a slave auction (Blaikie 43). This is basically what Livingstone spent his life doing. From the time when he was first introduced to the terrible slave trade in Africa to the moment of his death, Livingstone was constantly protecting Africans from the tyranny of not only real slave traders, but of the Devil himself. In another interesting account right along these lines that is too much like Livingstone protecting his people from Satan to not allude to, Livingstone was asked to help to protect his people in Mabotsa from an onslaught of lions that had been plaguing the people; while shooting one of those beasts, he was attacked by a ferocious lion that just refused to die and had one of his arms ruined for life. Once again, though, we find Livingstone defending his people from the onslaughts of beasts that sought to devour them just as he spiritually defended their souls from being devoured by the Devil.
Livingstone spent his life engaged in the cause of spreading the Gospel of Christ to the world. While doing his mission work, he began to conduct extensive geographical surveying and exploration. On his missionary journeys, he established himself as a pioneer who basically mapped out the whole continent of Africa during his lifetime in order to open the continent to other mission work and civilization of this savage continent. He discovered Victoria Falls, Lake N’gami and Lake Nyassa, and mapped out many of the river systems of Africa while searching for the source of the Nile River. During his exploration, he began to fight the terrible slave trade which ravished the entire continent and which he referred to as “the open sore of Africa.” Livingstone’s main purpose once his mission work really materialized can be seen in the following excerpt from S. Earl Taylor’s book The Price of Africa:

Livingstone's purpose was now threefold: First, to find a healthful location for a mission north of Lake Ngami. Second, to open up a way for commerce to the west coast, since the distance of the proposed mission station from the Cape would be too great to permit of communication with that point. Third, by introducing legitimate commerce, to do away with the slave trade which was an insurmountable barrier to successful missionary operations. It soon became evident that he was to be baffled in his search for a healthful location. He therefore concentrated his energy upon the second and third points in the program which he had laid out for himself.

Here we find the great missionary doing what he could to truly help his people. As a missionary, he saw the impossibility of reaching the African people with the Gospel as long as the plight of slavery was ravishing his people. He spent his life fighting against the terrible slave trade while evangelizing the people of Africa. By the end of Livingstone’s life, countless souls had been saved and changed to the honor and glory of Jesus Christ.
As Christians we must remember that we, like Livingstone, are obligated to get the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. There is a world that is dying, and it is we Christians who are responsible for their eternal souls. In 1843, a tribal chief named Sechéle asked Livingstone a powerful and disturbing question: "Since it is true that all who died unforgiven are lost forever, why did your nation not come to tell us of it before now! My ancestors are all gone, and none of them knew anything of what you tell me. How is this?" What a question. How can we answer such a question with our cold-hearted apathy and unwillingness to cooperate with the command of our Lord and Master to fulfill His Great Commission? Though Livingstone’s body is buried in Westminster Abbey in England, his heart is buried on the mission field with the people he for whom he lived and died in serving. Oh, that we Christians today would learn from such a great man and, like Livingstone, find a people for whom we’re willing to spend our whole lives in reaching their souls for Christ and His Kingdom.

Bibliography
Dr. Blaikie, W. Garden. The Personal Life of David Livingstone. Edited by Randy DeMoville. DeMoville Publications: United States, 2005.
Information from the following three sources was obtained from excerpts copied by Stephen Ross for WholesomeWords.org:
Howell, Clifford G. The Advanced Guard of Missions. Pacific Press Publishing: Mountain View, California, 1912.
Jensen, Florence Huntington. Hearts Aflame. Metropolitan Church Association:
Waukesha, Wisconsin, 1932.
Taylor, S. Earl. The Price of Africa. Eaton and Mains: New York, 1902.

Posted on Thursday 14 of December, 2006 [21:09:37 UTC]

In this world today, pride is one of the ultimate destroyers of human lives. As a matter of fact, it is pride that led to the ultimate pandemonium and chaos mankind has found himself dwelling in—both within and without. In Isaiah 14:12-14, we find Lucifer, a mighty angel of God, making several declarations of what his will would have him to do. He wanted to ascend to God’s dwelling place and lift His authority above that of the Almighty King of Kings. He said, “I will be like the most High.” That same pride led to his ultimate destruction, but unfortunately, he took mankind down with him in the Garden of Eden. Paradoxically, it is the opposite of pride that has ultimately given mankind the ability to be brought back into fellowship with God. That opposite is humility. About 2,000 years ago, God Himself willingly humbled Himself to be born into a sin-cursed world and live and die to redeem mankind. The humility of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, is one of the most amazing miracles that God ever committed on the behalf of mankind.
Just what is humility? The dictionary defines humility as a modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc. It is a lack of false pride. Humility can be lowliness, meekness, submissiveness, or a disposition to be humble. Easton’s 1897 Bible Dictionary calls humility “a prominent Christian grace” (Rom. 12:3; 15:17, 18; 1 Cor. 3:5-7; 2 Cor. 3:5; Phil. 4:11-13) and “a state of mind well pleasing to God” (1 Pet. 3:4); it also says that “it preserves the soul in tranquillity” (Ps. 69:32, 33), and “makes us patient under trials” (Job 1:22). Easton’s 1897 Dictionary also says that “we should be led thereto by a remembrance of our sins (Lam. 3:39), and by the thought that it is the way to honour (Prov. 16:18), and that the greatest promises are made to the humble (Ps. 147:6; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; 1 Pet. 5:5). Taking all of this into consideration, how is it that this whole character or attribute of humility can be so miraculous and so redeeming? The answer lies in the study of the humility of Jesus Christ.
There is no higher authority than God. In Romans 1:20, the Bible tells us that God’s power, might, and authority are obvious and evident upon observation of all creation, and have been so since the beginning of time, making all mankind without excuse neither now nor on the Day of Judgment. However, this same mighty God truly loves mankind. He wants to redeem mankind from the curse of sin. In order to do this, God devised a plan before the foundation of the world to redeem mankind through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. As part of this plan, God was to condescend to the lowly estate of mankind by being born of a virgin woman and living the life of a man for thirty-three years on this earth. This took unimaginable humility to the greatest extreme that it has ever been taken. Only Divinity could condescend in such an astronomically cosmic manner.
In John 1:1-3, the Bible says that Jesus is the literal Word of God, and it says that He created everything that exists. Apart from God the Father, there is no mightier being than Jesus Christ, and even considering that He is the Son of God doesn’t change the fact that He is God. Yet this same Jesus was willing to give up all his might and power so that He could give us the most precious gift that has ever been given—Himself. Briefly studied, we can understand that the only way that God could redeem mankind was by condescending to the estate of man and dying for man. Romans 3:23 says that all are sinners, and Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death. As a just God, He must pay those wages to the deserving sinner—unless someone else was able and willing to pay man’s unimaginable debt to God. The only one both able and willing to pay this debt and receive the wages of death was God’s only begotten Son.
The humility of Jesus Christ is very complicated because He humbled Himself in a vast number of ways. First of all, we can see His humility in His birth. In Isaiah 9:6-7, the Bible says that a child was to be born, and the Bible expressly says that this child is none other than God Himself: “. . . and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Just how can God Himself humble Himself to the extent that He would be willing to place Himself as a seed in the womb of a virgin maiden? There is no comparison that could remotely suffice as an analogy for humility on such a vast scale. Just imagine the President of the United States being willing to resign his position on day one of his four year term as the most powerful man on earth in order to go and live as a homeless beggar in the slums of Iran serving other homeless people. This would be absurd, and no doubt all would think he had gone insane in order to humble himself in such a way. Yet this doesn’t even remotely convey the magnitude of Christ’s act of humility. The very Christ who created the whole universe was willing to become a seed, grow through nine months of labor inside the belly of one of His own sinful creations, and be born into a sin-cursed earth. How do you fit God into something the size of a seed in the belly of a woman? There is just no answer that will suffice.
The birth of Christ was even more humbling than the fact that He was born of a virgin maiden. This maiden was a sinner. As Romans 3:10 says, Mary was a sinner like all others, for the Bible expressly declares in this verse that there is none good. Jesus could have created another race of beings who were sinless and perfect and be born of them, but He chose to be born of a woman who was a sinner. Galatians 4:4 says that Jesus not only was born of a woman, but He was also born under the law. Why was He born under the law? Galatians 4:5 tells us He was made under the law in order to “redeem them that were under the law.” Another thing about this woman whom He chose to be His mother was the fact that she was very poor. In Luke chapter two, we read the story of Jesus’ birth, and we find that both Mary and her espoused husband had to journey to Bethlehem in order to pay their taxes. They were so poor that when Jesus was born, they literally had to lay Him in a manger because the local inn did not have room for them to stay. This is a most amazing story of humility. Of all families Jesus could have chosen to be born in, He chose a family of no esteem and no wealth who could not even find anyone who would be willing to take them in when His mother was birthing Him into the world. Surely someone could have had room for them, but they didn’t. Rather than being born in a beautiful castle or marvelous palace, Christ instead humbled Himself to be born in a lowly barn. What an amazing God!
The humility of Jesus can also be seen in His life. When Jesus was born, He did not come as a mighty God who invoked fear into the hearts of all who crossed His path. Rather, He came literally in the form of a man. He had a human body (Matthew 26:12), a soul (John 12:27), and a spirit (Luke 23:46). He did not live as a mighty Roman, but instead chose to live as a despised and lowly Jewish carpenter’s son (John 4:9). According to Hebrews 2:14, He was literally flesh and blood just like everyone else, and He did many things that all men do: He thirsted as a man (John 19:28); He became tired (John 4:6); He had to sleep (Matthew 8:24); He cried (John 11:35); He became angry and grieved (Mark 3:5); He became hungry (Matthew 21:18); He became burdened in His Spirit (John 11:33); He suffered (I Peter 4:1); He became happy and joyful (Luke 10:21); and He was tempted just like all men are, with the only exception being that He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus may have still been one hundred percent God, but it is without a doubt that He was also one hundred percent man.
In His humility, Jesus lived a life full of compassion and love. In Matthew 9:36, we read the story of Jesus looking upon multitudes of people who were coming to Him with their sicknesses and diseases; upon looking at them, the Bible says that Jesus felt compassion towards them because they were just like a bunch of sheep without a shepherd. Little did they know that God Almighty had humbled Himself to live among them and be their Shepherd. In Matthew 15:32, we read the great story of the feeding of the four thousand where Jesus has compassion on a multitude of people who had followed Him for three days without eating. In His compassion, Christ performed a miracle and fed this starving multitude. He also showed compassion towards a widow woman whose son had died in Luke 7:11-15, towards the maniac of Gadara in Mark 5:1-20, towards a father whose son was demon possessed in Mark 9:14-27, and towards man others as well.
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus tells all who labor and are heavy laden with burdens to come to Him for rest; furthermore, He goes on to tell them that He is “meek and lowly of heart.” What a humbling statement for the Son of God. In Philippians 2:5-11, we find a very powerful passage of Scripture that goes in depth to explain the humility of Jesus. When Jesus came, this passage says that He came with no reputation in the form of a servant. According to Dr. Willmington, Jesus did not stop being God when He came into this world, but rather He laid aside every bit of His Heavenly glory and honor (621). In I Peter 2:21-24, the Bible says that Jesus willingly suffered for us and took all the mockery and shame that mankind threw at Him; moreover, He did not just take the persecution of man, but He took it without fighting back. Peter says that He did this to leave us Christians a pattern of suffering so that we would know how we should take persecution when we are persecuted for the name of Christ.
Lastly, the humility of Jesus can best be seen in His death. In Isaiah 53:7, the Bible says that even though Jesus was oppressed and afflicted, He willingly allowed sinful men to lead Him to the slaughter just like a lamb “before her shearers is dumb.” Back in Philippians 2:8, the Bible says that Jesus willingly became obedient to death. Jesus was not forced to die on the cross at Calvary; rather, He willingly subjected Himself to the cruelest and most inhumanely torturous death so that mankind could have a home in Heaven. I Peter 2:24 tells us that Jesus bore our sins in His own body so that we could die to sin and live unto righteousness; additionally, Peter tells us that we are healed by the stripes of Christ.
Thankfully, we find in Philippians 2:9 that due to Jesus’ willingness to humble Himself and die for us on the cross at Calvary, God has highly exalted Him and has given Him a name that has authority and majesty above all names. In verse 10-11 of this same chapter, the Bible says that one day every knee will bow to Jesus and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord “to the glory of God the Father.” What a wonderful day that will be for those who have believed on this side of eternity. What a wonderful Savior!

Bibliography


"Humility." Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. 01 Dec. 2006.
Rev. Scofield, C.I. The Scofield Study Bible: Authorized King James Version. Oxford University Press: New York, 1909.
Dr. Willmington, H.L. Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: Wheaton, Illinois, 1981.

Posted on Thursday 07 of December, 2006 [22:47:25 UTC]

Everyone goes through trials and testing in life. Many times we wonder as to why we have to go through different times and periods of pressure, suffering, sorrow, and tribulation—rarely ever drawing satisfactory conclusions. Without a doubt, everything has a purpose. The Bible teaches much on the idea and reason for trials and testing. Undeniably, God has a plan and purpose for everything He allows to come into our lives, and every trial and testing we will ever go through is most certainly for the fulfillment of God’s perfect, divine will.
Life is a series of events and periods during the course of time through which one sojourns in this world. In the life of a believer, God allows things to happen when necessary. In other words, there is a time for everything. In Ecclesiastes 3:1-10, Solomon says, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die . . . a time to kill, and a time to heal . . . A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance . . . I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.” Back in Ecclesiastes 1:13, Solomon says, “And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.” Solomon understood that there was an appropriate time for both the good and bad in life. It is very easy to wish that one could live in this sin-cursed world without ever struggling or suffering, but this desire is both impossible and foolish. For one, God warned from the beginning after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden that life would be one continuous struggle. What many miss, though, is the fact that God said He would curse the ground for man's sake. Suffering is not unnecessary. Though trials are imminent and certain, it is also needful that suffering and trials will come. As Christians, we could never become what God would have us to be if we never went through trials and testing.
In Romans 8:28, Paul said, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” To illustrate this verse, just imagine sitting down to eat a bowl of margarine. That sounds disgusting! Try eating a bowl of salt, or how about eating a bowl of flour or baking soda and drinking it down with a glass of hot buttermilk? Once again, this sounds as though it would be repulsive, and it is. However, try mixing these things together in appropriate doses and measures, apply immense heat for a period of time, and what do you get? Well, you get hot biscuits which can be quite delicious if prepared right. Thankfully, God is good at preparing things right. What this illustrates is the fact that trials, testing, suffering, pains, and other difficulties we face in life may not seem bearable or attainable, but one finds over time that these things work together to make a Christian what he could not be without them. James went so far in James 1:2-3 to tell us that we should rejoice over the many different temptations we bear in life because he realized that the trying of our faith would work patience in our lives. Temptations don't just lead to patience; they work patience. Patience just doesn't happen; rather, it must be worked and tried and sculpted and morphed so as to prepare us for each and every new temptation we face in life. God is a very patient God, so the idea is to put us through whatever is necessary to make us more like God.
In Hebrews 4:15, the Bible tells us that we are not serving a God who is clueless about what it is like to be tempted, but rather who was tempted in every way in which we are tempted with the only difference being that He did not sin. Being tempted is not a sin, but succumbing to temptation is sin; thankfully, Jesus Christ never succumbed. I Peter 2:21-23 tells us that we were called to walk in the steps of Christ, namely through suffering. Peter said that Jesus left us an example of how to endure suffering without sinning. In describing Jesus in verse 23, Peter said, "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." If we are to be more like God, then we need to be able to be persecuted without retaliating. Peter said in I Peter 2:19-20 that in no way does it please God when we are punished or suffer for our wrongdoings, but rather God is most pleased when we suffer for doing well as did His only begotten Son. Once again, the idea is that God is allowing us to go through trials and suffering in order to bring us closer to the image of Christ.
In Acts 11:26, the disciples were first called Christians. Why were they called Christians? They were called Christians because they evidently did a superb work of reminding non-Christians of Christ. They did not call themselves Christians, but rather they were called Christians. In those days, it was especially noteworthy that Jesus Christ had suffered and died for His faith in an irreproachable manner, so those disciples at Antioch must have been doing and enduring things quite along the line of those things done and suffered by Christ. In I Peter 4:1-2, Peter admonishes us as Christians to arm ourselves with the same mind that Christ had because He suffered for us in the flesh. In other words, it is only reasonable that we should try to live by the same mind, code of ethics and morality, standards, and lifestyle that Christ lived by because of the very fact that He did it to purchase our eternal salvation. In Philippians 2:5, Paul also admonishes us as Christians to have the same mind in us as was in Christ, namely that of a willingness to suffer wrongfully---especially for the sake of others.
In Philippians 2:9, Paul said that because of Jesus' willingness to suffer, God has also highly exalted Him. If we are ever to be exalted, we must do it the same way in which Christ was crowned. The Christian walk is filled with a bevy of paradoxical truths. In order to go up, we must go down. In order to win, we must lose our lives. In order to receive, we must give up our pride and give our souls and wills to the Lord. In I Peter 5:6, Peter told Christians to humble themselves "under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." We are to put our will under the will of God. We all have a will, but God commands us to be willing to die to ourselves and humble our wills to God's will. By humbling ourselves to do God's will, we are placing ourselves on course to be exalted by God in due time. However, God's will contains the inevitability of trials, testing, temptations, and suffering; so these valleys must be walked through in order to reach the mountaintop of exaltation. James went so far as to say in James 1:12 that the man who endures temptation is blessed. He knew that there is just no feeling quite like enduring a temptation without succumbing to it. Unfortunately, many never understand this feeling because they always succumb even with victory in sight.
Furthermore, James said in James 1:12 that not only would the man who endureth temptation be blessed, but ". . . when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." Here we find another reason why God puts trials and testing in our lives, namely that of proving, or trying, our love for Him. Jesus commanded in John 14:15 that if we love Him, we should keep His commandments. Many go about testifying that they love Jesus, but when trials come to test their love for Him, their true testimony is that they succumb to the temptations of doing the exact opposite of His commandments. Jesus didn't just tell us that He loves us, but rather He was willing to be obedient to the necessary death of the cross. If we truly love the Lord, we will be will to be obedient to the death of ourselves in our daily living, willingly heeding Christ's commandments.
In I Peter 4:12-13, Peter tells Christians not to think it strange or extraordinary that we will go through fierce, "fiery" trials and testing in life. Trials are going to happen. Rather than fret concerning them, Peter tells us that we should rejoice because we have the supreme privilege of partaking in the sufferings of Christ. We get to be just like Him when we go through trials and endure them as a true soldier of Christ. When we endure trials and temptations without succumbing to the desire to quit or give in to temptations, we become stronger and better equipped to face and endure greater trials and temptations. Each time we endure through Christ's strength, we learn how to better depend on Him. Philippians 4:13 says that we ". . . can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us" In other words, I can endure trials. I can resist temptations. I can pass periods of testing. However, I can only do these things through Christ, and this is what God is trying to teach us, namely that all our strength should come from Christ. In II Corinthians 8:2, Paul says, “How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.” Here, he says that the tremendous trial of affliction the saints were enduring in Macedonia was actually allowing them to abound in giving with great joy even though they were suffering deep poverty. This kind of living could only be attained through total dependence upon Christ and through Christ-centered living.
God tries our faith in order to bring honor and glory to Christ. In I Peter 1:6-7, Peter tells Christians to rejoice even though they are in "heaviness through manifold temptations." He said that if we rejoice while enduring, the rewards are eternal. Gold is purified when it is put through fire, but gold will perish. On the other hand, the trial and strengthening of our faith yields eternal dividends, most importantly that of bringing praise, honor, and glory to Christ. One day, Christ will appear, and if we wish to truly honor and glorify Him at His coming, then we must bring forth eternal fruits obtained through the successful trying of our faith. Peter says in I Peter 4:16 that we should not be ashamed when we suffer as a Christian, but rather we should glorify God instead, knowing that we will have fruits meet for the glorification of Christ at His coming.
The book of Revelation has much to say about the blessings attached to overcoming trials and tribulations. In Revelation 2:10-11, Jesus tells the saints at Smyrna not to fear those things which they were going to suffer, namely that some would be thrown into prison, while others would be put to death. Instead, He admonished them to remain faithful, even unto death; if they did so, He encouraged them by saying that those who overcome would "not be hurt of the second death." The second death is being cast into the lake of fire. Those who were afraid to stand for Christ would probably not get saved anyway, so they could not overcome and escape the second death. There is great reward for those who trust and overcome tribulation in their lives. In Revelation 2:26, Jesus told the saints at Thyatira that He would give power and authority over the nations to those who chose to overcome their trials. In Revelation 3:5, Jesus told the saints at Sardis that those who chose to overcome would be "clothed in white raiment" and that their names would not be taken out of the book of life. Even better, Jesus said that He would actually confess their names before His Father and His angels. Once again, tremendous exaltation in due time that only comes through successful enduring of trials and tribulation. In Revelation 3:11-12, Jesus told the saints at Philadelphia to hold fast and endure their temptations. To reward them, Jesus said He would give them a permanent, solid place in His Father's temple and that He would write the name of God and the name of the city of His God (new Jerusalem) upon them. Additionally, He promised to write His new name upon them. That's a whole lot of promises and encouragement to live a victorious Christian life.
In the Bible, there are many stories of great men of God who endured and overcame trials and tribulations. There is the story of Job. In the book of Job, Satan is allowed by God to put Job through immense periods of suffering and pressure. Satan did not believe that Job truly loved and trusted God; rather, he believed that Job was only serving God because He was blessing him. God knew better. To prove His servant, God granted Satan the right to inflict tremendous afflictions and suffering upon Job. Of course, God was right, and Job passed the test. It is notable that God has to give Satan permission to try His servant Job. This is how God does with us today. In the end it turned out for Job's good, and Job is still a lasting testimony of a man of God who endured trial and maintained His great faith in God. In the book of Genesis, we find another man whom God tested named Abraham. God called Abraham "the friend of God." Why was He God's friend? He was God's friend because he trusted Him. God tested Abraham's faith by giving him his first son Isaac when he was one hundred years old. To try his faith, God tempted Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt sacrifice. God had already promised that He would make of Abraham great and mighty nations of people through Isaac. Knowing this, Abraham trusted that God would somehow preserve or resurrect Isaac's life through his sacrifice. Of course, God knew He could trust Abraham, so He put him through this tremendous test to prove his faith to him and to those of us who read his story millennia later.
In Hebrews 11:24-26, the Bible says that Moses gave up a life of prestige and luxury with Pharaoh and the world and chose a life of affliction and trials with God's people instead. He knew that the pleasures of sin were temporary, and he knew that the treasures of righteousness and the overcoming of trials and afflictions reap eternal rewards. Of Moses, the Bible says in verse 26, "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward." Moses was allowed to lead the whole nation of Israel because he was willing to suffer with God's people. It is always greater for a Christian to willingly seek and accept ways to suffer for and glorify Christ than for God to have to afflict us against our will to draw us back in line. When we do wrong, God chastens us to bring us back in line with His will. In Hebrews 12:5-11, the Bible tells us that God chastens those who belong to Him whom He loves. Even though chastening may not seem to be enjoyable, God promises that He chastens to yield "the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." In II Corinthians 7:10, Paul tells us that godly sorrow leads to repentance which leads to salvation. He also says in verse 11 that godly sorrow yields other fruits in our lives, including carefulness, clearing of ourselves, righteous indignation, fear of God, vehement desire, zeal, and the turning away from wicked works.
The Bible also exalts the saints of God who endured terrible persecution for the cause of Christ. In Hebrews 11:36-38, the Bible says, “And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” In this passage, we read of saints of God who were martyred for the Lord or who suffered through great trials and tribulation in order to bring glory to God. Though it may seem difficult to reconcile their suffering and the ultimate finality of their persecution with any apparent evidence of their good, we know once again that their trials worked together with other things for good and the fulfillment of God's will. There is no doubt but that our present freedom of faith in our Christ according to the dictates of our conscience has been purchased by the endurance of monumental persecution and suffering. Blood, tears, and death were the redeeming factors in our liberty in Christ.
Finally, we can be admonished by Matthew 13:20-21 not to be among those who allow persecution that arises because of our faith in the Word of God to cause them to waver or forsake the faith. Christianity is an endurance test. Brother Wendell Evans says, "Christianity is not measured in years, but in decades." This is Biblical. As Christ overcame the world, so can we. In John 16:33, Jesus said that we would have to endure tribulation in the world, but He said that we should rejoice rather than sorrow because He left us a pattern of victory. Jesus overcame the world! In Acts 14:22, the disciples were exhorted to persevere and continue in the faith because the kingdom of God is entered only through immense tribulation and testing.
Trials, testing, tribulation, and temptations abound in the life of a true Christian. They are not negative, though, but are necessary if we are to be Christians. Christ suffered and endured trials and tribulations, so we must do the same if we are to be like Him. In Romans 5:3-4, Paul said that we should glory in the tribulations through which we suffer because it leads to patience, which leads to experience, which leads to hope. This hope is the only way we can triumph over the sufferings of this world because it is the only thing that keeps us going. In Romans 8:24, Paul says that we are saved by hope. As Christians, we should rest in this hope and continue to steadfastly look unto the Author and Finisher of our faith through all the testing we experience.


Bibliography

Rev. Scofield, C.I. The Scofield Study Bible: Authorized King James Version. Oxford University Press: New York, 1909.
Dr. Willmington, H.L. Willmington's Guide to the Bible. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.: Wheaton, Illinois, 1981.

Posted on Thursday 30 of November, 2006 [23:57:29 UTC]

One of the most amazing miracles ever to occur was that of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Nothing baffles the finite, logical mind of man more than the assertion that the Savior of the world had no earthly human father, but rather had only a Heavenly Father. Oppositions of science falsely called would have us believe that such a thing as the immaculate-conception is impossible, and without God this would be true. According to the Bible, God’s Word, Jesus Christ was in fact born of a virgin, and we can find within the Scriptures much teaching on the importance of this wondrous miracle.
Since the fall of mankind, God promised that there would be a Savior. In Genesis 3:15, God told Eve in the Garden of Eden that her seed would bruise the head of the serpent. Her seed was Jesus. In Deuteronomy 18:15-19, God promised to raise up a Prophet, just like Moses, who would lead His people, the children of Israel. That prophet was Jesus. Just why is it so important that Christ had to be born of a virgin? First and foremost, it is important to understand that Jesus was born of a virgin because the Scriptures prophesied long before His birth that His would be a virgin birth. In Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would send His people a sign, and that sign was none other than the virgin birth of Immanuel, which means “God with us.” The Bible says that God cannot lie, so Jesus had to be born of a virgin if God said He would be. The most miraculous thing about the birth of Christ was not just that He was born, but rather that He was born of a virgin; it is “the conception of Christ’s earthly body” that was the highest point of the miracle (Wilmington 612). His mother was a virgin. Never before had such a thing occurred, and never again will such a thing occur.
It is important to understand that Christ’s birth was a virgin-birth for very important reasons. First, it is most important that the Father of the Christ would be God Himself. Genetically, you are a combination of your parents. Our sin nature is passed down to us through out father, for Adam, the father of all mankind, was the one who introduced death into the world by transgressing God’s great commandment to him not to partake of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In order for Christ not to be a natural born sinner as are all others who have ever been born into this world, He would have to have had a perfect father. He did indeed. His Father was the Heavenly Father, the LORD God Jehovah. John 3:16 calls Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God. Because His Father was God, Jesus Christ was God. The Jews perfectly understood what God was saying when He said that God was His Father. One of the most miraculous things of all is the fact that because Jesus was both born of God and born of woman, He in fact contained both natures fully. This is called the hypostatic union. Jesus was both one hundred percent man and one hundred percent God; He was both divine and human. Another thing to consider is that if Jesus was going to be God Himself, then Joseph could not have been His father. Joseph was a man. If Joseph was His father, than Jesus was not the Son of God. Thankfully, the Bible does fully declare that Christ was the Son of the living God. In Luke 1:31 and 35, an angel told Mary that she would bring forth a son, and that the Holy Ghost would actually come upon her and that the power of the Highest would overshadow her; she was to call Him Jesus, and He was also going to be called the Son of God. In Matthew 1:20-21, the angel of the Lord came to Joseph and comforted him concerning the pregnancy of his espoused wife. He told him not to be afraid to marry Mary because the baby in her womb was actually conceived by the Holy Ghost; he went on further to tell him that His name would be Jesus and that He would be the Savior of His people. If the Bible is to be held infallible, then there is yet another reason why Joseph could not have been the father of Jesus. Joconiah and Johoiakim, two kings of Judah who did wickedly in the sight of God, were cursed by God. In Jeremiah 22:24-30, God cursed them and warned that no man of their seed would ever prosper upon the throne of David. In the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, we can see both Joseph and Mary traced back to David with one important difference: Joseph was descended through the line of Solomon down through Jeconiah and Jehoiakim, while Mary was descended through Nathan the son of David. If Joseph was Jesus’ father, then God did not keep His promise, which would cause doubt to be shed on all the rest of His Word as well. Thankfully, even something is minute as the preservation of a curse found in the genealogies of Mary and Joseph proves the infallibility and truthfulness of God’s Word.
The birth of Christ was prophesied in many passages of Scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah prophesied that a child would be born who would be God Himself born in the flesh; in giving this son’s various names, Isaiah said, “. . . and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” This is a very powerful portion of Scripture! God Himself, through one of His greatest prophets, foretold over seven hundred years before the birth of Christ that He would actually be born in the flesh. Furthermore, Isaiah prophesied that there would be no end to the kingdom of this child that would be born. Micah, another prophet, prophesied in Micah 5:2 that a ruler “whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting” would be born in Bethlehem. The importance of this great ruler being born can be traced back to the covenant God made with David. God promised David in II Samuel 7:13-16 that his kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom. Jesus Christ had to have been born in order for God to keep His Word to David because the only way to guarantee the perpetuity of David’s kingdom would be to give the kingdom to a King with everlasting perpetuity. That King is Jesus Christ. It is most touching that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David, almost as if to say, “Fear not, David.” When Christ was born in the body of a man in Bethlehem, David was guaranteed a perpetual king on his throne. No king currently sits upon the throne of David due to the rebellion and disobedience of God’s people throughout centuries of rule by heirs of David; Christ doesn’t sit on the throne of David, but God’s Word declares that one day Christ will sit upon the throne of David to rule forever.
Why is it important that Jesus had to be born into this world in the first place? Why couldn’t God have just saved mankind from Heaven through His love? Why couldn’t God just have spoken forgiveness by His eternal, creative Word? There are many important, scriptural reasons why Jesus had to be born. As already stated, it was important that God keep His Word because He had already promised long before the birth of Christ that Jesus would be born. Also, as already stated, God had already promised to David that He would give him an everlasting kingdom, so Christ had of necessity to be born in order to keep this covenant from being breached. However, the birth of Christ goes much deeper than God just keeping His Word or keeping a covenant with a great man.
First, we must understand that God is love. God-deniers and bitter, angry people throughout the ages have wondered why a loving, caring God would send anyone to Hell. They don’t understand the birth of Christ. In II Peter 3:9, the Bible tells us that God has no desire for any man to perish and go to an eternal Hell. In I Timothy 2:3-4, the Bible says that God our Savior desires that all men would be saved. It is noteworthy in the story of the leper being cleansed in Matthew 8:2-3 that the leper tells Jesus in faith that he knew that Jesus could cleanse him if He desired. Jesus did so desire, and Jesus cleansed him. However, just understanding that God is love does not take into consideration the fact that God is a God of justice. He is a just God. As a just God, God cannot condone sin. There must be justice if God is to maintain the part of God that is just. Romans 3:23 says that all are sinners. Romans 6:23 tells us our wages for being sinners is death; however, it also goes on to say that God’s gift of eternal life is available through Jesus Christ. Someone must pay those wages, and someone must receive those wages. As a God of justice, God will not withhold anything from him to whom it is due. If God owes wages as the mighty Judge, then God must and will pay those wages. If we as recipients of those wages receive the death we have earned, then we burn forever in a Godless Hell. Here is where God’s love comes into play. Because God is a God of love who desires to save, and because He knew what the cost would be to us if we received our earned wages, God made a plan before the foundation of the world of how He could redeem mankind long before mankind ever fell into sin.
The Bible says that Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Because someone had to take our punishment, or our wages, and because God knew that the penalty would be too great for mankind to pay, God devised a plan wherein His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, would be born of a virgin into this world, would live a sinless life, and would receive our wages by dying on an old rugged cross. Someone had to die for our sins because God’s justice said that the wages of sin is death. God stepped out in love and willingly paid that sin. Only a perfect one could afford to pay such a mighty debt as mankind owed, and only God was perfect. Hebrews 2:9 says that Christ was born as a man who was a little lower than the angels, and it says that by a divine act of grace God would “taste death for every man.” In I John 3:5, John says under inspiration that Jesus was manifested, or born into this world, “to take away our sins.” Because of the birth of Christ, salvation is openly available to all who believe. Because of the birth of Christ, God could maintain His justice and His love for mankind. In I John 3:8, John says that Jesus was manifested, or born, to destroy the works of the devil. In John 3:36, Jesus says that He will give everlasting life to anyone who believes on Him. Moreover, Jesus said in John 10:10 that not only was He born into this world to give life to us, but He was also born (come) so that we could have life “more abundantly.”
There were many other reasons why Christ was born into this world as well. In John 13:31, Christ said that He was born to die so that He could glorify His Heavenly Father. John 17:4 says that Jesus did glorify God with His life. In Luke 4:18, Jesus said that He came in order “to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” What a wonderful God! According to I Peter 2:21 and I John 2:6, Christ was born and lived to be an example to all believers who would come after Him. He left us a pattern of Godly suffering and of a victorious Christian life. In Hebrews 4:15-16, the Bible tells us that Jesus came so that He could understand our infirmities and weaknesses, especially under the immense load of temptations we face in our lives. How glorious to realize that Christ was willing to condescend to be born and live in this sin-cursed world just so that He could better understand us and be a more merciful and gracious God toward us!
We indeed serve a mighty God! What a God who would so love us that He would allow His only begotten Son to be born into this world, live in the slime and filth of a terrible, sin-cursed earth, and suffer an unimaginably brutal and disgraceful death on a cross of wood just so that mankind could have a choice as to whether or not to accept the joys of Heaven. What a God indeed!



Bibliography

Rev. Scofield, C. I. The Scofield Study Bible: Authorized King James Version. Oxford University Press: New York, 1909.
Dr. Wilmington, H.L. Wilmington’s Guide to the Bible. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.:Wheaton, Illinois, 1981.

Posted on Thursday 30 of November, 2006 [23:50:26 UTC]

"To Beauty" posted on January 31, 2005, 3:35 P.M. Central Time

__“To Beauty”
By Emanuel Yarbrough
January 24, 2005__

She masquerades as moonlight
Shining in a haze of violet-blue,
Walks obscurely in the calm of night,
And dances as a scarlet hue
Upon a bed of dozing roses,
Blends like mist upon the darkening clouds,
Like drifting ghosts in nightly poses
Swirling by in death’s grave shrouds.
She sits in gloom and contemplates the dawn,
Defying light, opposing realms of day,
Listening to the breezes drawn
From worlds of death and life’s delay.
And for a moment turns her gaze
Upon her midnight hands,
As darkness kissed her with the sun’s bright rays,
And starlight mingled distant lands
Of milk and gold upon her cherubic face,
And made her bronze and pure and new,
Just like angelic spirits’ acts of grace---
Ever lovely, beautiful, divine and true.

Posted on Monday 31 of January, 2005 [20:29:25 UTC]