The Unity of God

In the formation of every argument it is necessary to lay down correct premises; because on them the conclusion depends. In every science it is necessary to have a knowledge of its first principles. These are the basis of the whole system. In the science of Theology, as in all other sciences, there are fundamental truths, which must be admitted or proved, before inquiries can be prosecuted with success. The most important of these, and which claims the first attention, is, the unity of God.

1. The first argument, which offers itself in proof of this truth, is, there appears to be no need of more than one God. In treating subjects philosophically it is correct to admit no more causes, than are necessary to account for the effects produced. One Being of almighty power is sufficient to create the world. One Being of infinite wisdom is sufficient to organize it, and form a constitution for its government. One Being of infinite goodness is competent to the administration of its laws. The same Being, who created, organized and supports one world, can multiply them to any extent he pleases. It is no harder to conceive of infinite attributes residing in one Being, than to conceive of them residing in many beings. As all the effects, which are visible, or fall within the compass of human apprehension, may be traced to one Cause, possessing infinite perfections, there is no necessity of inferring more than one.

2. The unity of God is argued from the harmony and mutual subserviency of different parts of the world; and from the uniformity of its government. There is a just proportion between the various parts of the world. The elements are so adjusted, that one does not prevail against another. The globe is wisely balanced with earth and water. The spheres, which compose this system, are so exactly proportioned as to size and distance, that they perform their revolutions with the greatest precision. There is a remarkable correspondence and subserviency between the different parts of the world; between different classes of animals; and between the brutal and the intelligent creation. The face of the earth is agreeably and usefully variegated with hills and vallies. There is a happy subserviency between the atmosphere, earth, and water. The different parts of this system so correspond that they are mutually beneficial. The sun enlightens and warms the earth. The moon and the host of heaven, not only adorn the canopy of the skies, but they shed their milder rays. The regular succession of day and night promotes the growth of the vegetable kingdom; and affords a pleasing and refreshing variety to human nature. The rotation of the seasons is wisely calculated to bring forward and mature the productions of the earth, and to restore its wasted strength.

Cont'd tomorrow! 10/1/15

Words transmit Images

Excerpt from Charles Capps teaching about the Power of Words.

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteh nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63)  Jesus said there is spirit life in the spoken word.  That;s why it is important for us to confess what God has already said about us in His Word.  Words carry spiritual forces.  Words can transmit faith.  They transmit images after their kind to others.  God's Word transmits the image God wants you to have.  The devil's words transmit the image he wants you to have.

Your words are powerful transmitters.  Be careful what you say to yourself and others.

Faith is Transmitted by Words

In Romans 10:17, Paul said, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."  That is "A truth," but it is not the whole truth.  When Paul made that statement, he was talking about faith in God and in His word  Faith in God's word come by hearing what He said.  But there is a reciprocal of that truth.  Just as Faith in God comes by hearing and receiving the Word of God, faith in the devil comes by hearing the words of the devil.  The opposite of faith is fear.  Most of the time,  fear is actually faith in the devil.  Don't take "A truth" and make "THE truth" out of it.  For if we dogmatically declare that the only way anyone can obtain faith is by hearing the Word of God, that's not the WHOLE truth.  You can have faith in the weather man by hearing him predict the weather.

The truth is that Faith comes by hearing, Whether you are hearing me or hearing the weather forecast, faith comes by hearing.  Spoken words transmit a corresponding spirit.  Fear-Filled words produce fear in those who hear and receive them.  Faith-Filled words produce Faith in those who hear and receive them.

The Integrity of the Word of God

Excerpt from "Advanced Bible Course"

 by E.W. Kenyon

"The WORD is god speaking to you.  "Thus saith Jehovah" is repeated over two thousand times from Exodus to Deuteronomy.  God and his Word are one.  The Word is always now. Jesus is the Word.  Jesus is the living Word.  Hebrews 4:12 "The Logos of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow- scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart." (Moffat)

And now notice carefully the next verse: "And no created thing is hidden from Him; all things lie open, exposed before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to reckon."  The Word is called the Logos.  Jesus is the Logos, and the Logos is a living thing- not in the book, not on the written page, but in the lips of the believer."  There is no created thing hidden from Him, this living Word.  The Word searches us out, find us.  The Word is our Contact with God the Father.  It is His contact with us. Christ and the Word are one.  It is the Word dwelling in you which is equivalent to Christ personally being in you.  Letting the Word have right away in your life is letting Christ have right-of way.  The Word dominating you is the Lordship of Christ in you."

The Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ part V

No sooner had the Lord received the baptism of the Holy Ghost than He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to "be tempted of the devil." This is especially emphasized by the Evangelist. It is aot the devil that appears first, but it is the Spirit. In the Gospel of Mark the language is still stronger, and it is said that he was "driven of the Spirit."

Perhaps His human spirit recoiled from the awful ordeal of the wilderness as it afterwards shrank from the anguish of Gethsemane, and the Holy Ghost pressed Him forward by one of those resistless impulses which many of us have learned to understand; and for forty days His blessing was challenged, His faith was tested, His very soul was tried by all the assaults of the adversary.

He was brought into certain places that seemed to contradict all that He believed, and to challenge all that had been promised to Him. The devil might well say to Him, "Art Thou indeed the Son of God, in the midst of hunger, desolation, and wild beasts, and every form of suffering, cast.off and neglected even by God, and left in destitution and desolation."

And then, amid all these perils and privations, suddenly there opened before Him, the vision of power and pleasure—the kingdoms of the world and all the glory of them if He would but yield a single point and accept the leadership of the enemy, who doubtless appealed to His higher nature and represented Himself as an angel of light, or perhaps approached Him through His own form, and all the visions and possibilities of power He might use for the good of men and the benefit of the world.

These and other yet more subtle insinuations and instigations came to Him on every side; and yet amid them all He stood unmoved in His obedience to His Father's will and His reliance upon His Father's word, until Satan was driven from His presence, and He came forth more than conqueror. And so the first thing that we may look for, after the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is the wilderness with its desolations and privations. Circumstances will surely come to us which seem to contradict all that we have believed, and to render impossible the promise of God. Even God will seem to have failed us; and when all is dark as midnight, the vision of help from other sources will come to us, and a thousand voices will whisper to us their promises of sympathy and aid if we will but yield a single point of conscience and give ourselves up to the will of the deceiver. All the temptations of our Master will come to us;—The lust of the flesh, The lust of the eye, The pride of life, The temptation to take help from forbidden sources,  All these will come; but if the Spirit has led us up into the wilderness He will lead us out. If we will but lift our eyes above the tempter to the Divine Deliverer, we shall find that even Satan shall be compelled to become our ally; and, more than conquerors like our Master, We shall take our enemy prisoner, and make him fight our very battles.

The Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ part IV

Jesus Christ was baptized by the Holy Spirit. Not only did He derive His person and His incarnate life from the Holy Ghost, but when at thirty years of age He consecrated Himself to His ministry of life and suffering, and service, and went down into the waters of the Jordan, in token of His self-renunciation and His assumption of death, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost by whom He had been born,  Now "came down and personally possessed His being and henceforth dwelt within Him."

No one can for a moment deny that this was something transcendentally more than the incarnation of Christ. Up to this time there had been one personality, henceforth there were two ; for the Holy Ghost was added to the Christ, and in the strength of this indwelling Spirit, henceforth He wrought His works, and spake His words, and accomplished His ministry on earth.

But this also has its parallel in the experience of the disciples of Christ. It is not enough for us to be born of the Holy Ghost, we must also be baptized with the Holy Ghost. There must come a crisis hour in the life of every Christian when he, too, steps down into the Jordan of death, when he yields his will to fulfill all righteousness, like his Master, when he voluntarily assumes the life of self-renunciation and service, which God has appointed for him in His Holy will, and when there is added to him, as a Divine trust, the Holy Ghost; and henceforth it is not one but two, and then these two are one.

The Holy Spirit of Jesus part III

Our Lord was born of the Holy Spirit. The announcement by the angel to Mary, connects the Divine Spirit directly with the conception and incarnation of Christ. "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke 1:35.

The human mind cannot fathom this mystery —a holy Christ conceived and born of one who was herself the daughter of a sinful race. We cannot believe in the immaculate Mary, but we can believe in the immaculate Son of God, born of her without sin.

The very fact that she was an imperfect and sinful woman adds to the glory of this mystery and makes it the more perfect type of the experience through which we also come into fellowship with our living Head. For just as Jesus was born of the Spirit, so we, the disciples of Jesus, must also be born of the Holy Ghost; for "except a man be born from above he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

The mystery of the incarnation is repeated every time a soul is created anew in Christ Jesus. Into the unholy being of a child of Adam a seed of incorruptible and eternal life is implanted by the Divine Spirit, and that seed is in itself through the life of God, holy and incorruptible. Just as you may see in the sweet springtime the little white, spotless shoot, coming from the dark soil and out of the heap of manure, unstained by all its gross surroundings, so out of our lost humanity the Holy Spirit causes to spring forth the life of the newborn soul; and while the subject of that marvelous experience may seem an imperfect being, still he has that within him, of which the apostle has said, '' His seed remaineth in him, and cannot sin; because it is born of God." He can sin, but that holy nature implanted in him cannot, it is like its Author, holy too.

"And so He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." Like Him we areborn of the Holy Ghost and become the sons of God, not by adoption, but by the Divine regeneration.

Grace Abounding

"Where sin abounded grace did much more abound." Rom. 5:20.

Out of the terrible attack which the powers of darkness hurled against the world, the wisdom and grace of heaven have brought the victory which is to prove the triumph of the ages. Out of the catastrophe which threatened man's eternal destruction, God has evolved a new creation transcendentally greater and more glorious than the old. Out of the ocean  of sin, Christ has brought the Pearl of Great Price, the church, which shall shine amid the glories of eternity with a luster reflecting His own. Let us endeavor by the help of God to realize a little more fully this elevating and transporting truth.

Peace, love, and faith

"Peace be to the brethren, and love and faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."—Eph. 4:23.

Peace, love, faith; these are the three things which the apostle desired for the brethren; remembering, no doubt, what had come to himself,—"the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 1:14) This threefold blessing comes directly from the Father and the Son, through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.

"I need peace." Yes; and it is this that the Father gives. It is this that Jesus gives. Both Father and Son desire that you should have it. Allow them to give it.

"I need love." Yes ; and it is this which the Father and the Son bestow. They hold it out to you. They will not only teach you their own vast love, but also to love in return.

"I need faith." Yes, surely you do; and the whole Godhead presents it to you. "It is the gift of God." Lord, increase our faith! Lord, help our unbelief!

Go, then, trustingly to God; to the Father and the Son; that you may get at once the peace, the love, the faith which you need so much. Confide in the free love of the Godhead. You will find in this simple confidence the cure of all spiritual diseases, the channel of all health and blessing. Distrust will do nothing for you. It will only make you worse. Unreserved confidence will do everything for you. God asks this. Give Him his request.

Christ died for our sins

"Christ died for our sins."—I Cor. 15:3-8

If Christ, then, has died, why should we die? It was once needful that every sinner should die for his sins; but now it is no longer needful If the sinner now dies, it is because he is resolved to do so; because he will have nothing to do with the Substitute. That Substitute is the Son of God, who suffered for sin—the just for the unjust. He is not afar off, but at hand. He is a sufficient, a willing, a loving Substitute.

It is not our money nor our merits that He asks; it is simply our consent. He was willing to become the Sin bearer; are we willing that He should become our Sin-bearer? The Father consents; the Son consents; the Holy Spirit consents; do we consent? Then the great transaction is done; the great exchange is made. He gets our sins, we get His righteousness. He gets our death, we get His life. For what is faith but our consenting to have Him for our Surety and Substitute?

Here we rest. We hand over to Him all our sins and burdens. He takes them from us, and buries them out of sight in His own grave. No other, save the Divine Substitute can relieve us of our guilt. No other can remove our fears or give rest to our troubled conscience. He can and will do it all . For this He died and rose again. For this He ascended on high, and ever liveth to intercede.

Ye shall know that I am the Lord.

"Ye shall know that I am the Lord."—Ezek, 20:44.

It is God's desire that He should be known; moreover, it is His purpose that He should be known. He compels even His enemies to know Him. If they will not know Him in His love, they shall know Him in His wrath. If they will not know Him in His pardons, they shall know Him in His judgments.

It is, however, a blessed thought for us that God wishes to be known. There is no hiding of Himself; no retiring out of view. He is not unwilling to shew Himself; no, His object in all that He says and does is so to reveal Himself that it shall be impossible for any one not to know Him. Considering what God has done to unfold His glorious character, we are led to wonder that He should be to so many still "the unknown God."

It is life to know Him. (John 17:3) It is peace to be acquainted with Him. (Job 22:21.) And if He is so willing to be known, why should any of us remain ignorant of Him? Shall we not go straight to Him, that He may teach us to know Himself? If He is so desirous that even those who are turning away from Him should know Him, will He hide His love or veil His glory from those that are seeking His face?

The knowledge of Jehovah! What is there of peace and light and joy that is not contained in that!

The Joy of the Lord is our strength for the body.

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." This is the divine prescription for a weak body. And so on the other hand, despondency and depression of spirits are the cause of nervousness, head-ache, heart-break, and low physical vitality. A word of cheer and an impulse of hope and gladness will often break the power of disease. 

It is true there is a deeper cause and a diviner power than the mere natural influence of joy. Incurable disease can only yield to the actual touch of Divine omnipotence, but joy is the channel through which the healing waters flow, and the overflow of the life of Christ in both soul and body.  If you would live above your physical conditions, if you would renew your strength continually and "mount up on wings as eagles, and run and not be weary, and walk and not faint," if you would carry in your veins the exhilaration and zest of unwearied youth and freshness, if you would know, even here, in all its fullness, the foretaste of the resurrection life in your body, if you would be armed against the devil's shafts of infirmity and pain, and throw off his arrows upon your body as the heated iron repels the water which will not lie upon it, then, beloved, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and. again I say, Rejoice."

Faith Hindrances part 2

Faith is hindered by sight and sense, and our foolish dependence upon external evidences.

The very evidence in which we must live and grow is the unseen, and therefore all outward things must be withdrawn before we can truly believe; and as we look not at the things which are seen but on the things which are not seen, they grow real, more real than the things of sense, and then God makes them real in actual accomplishment. But faith must first step out into the great unknown, and walk upon the water to go to Jesus.  

Finally, this faith is hindered most of all by what we call "our faith," and our fruitless struggles to work out a faith which after all is but a make-believe and a desperate trying to trust God, which must ever come short of His vast and glorious promises.  

Beloved, in the light of this great provision, listen to the mighty promise now, and in His faith rise to claim, "If thou canst, believe. All things are possible to him that believeth," and cry, "Lord, I believe, Help Thou my unbelief."

The Reasonableness of Faith

Why should God make all things dependent upon our faith?

1. Because the ruin of the-race began with the loss of faith, and its recovery must come through the exercise of faith. The poison Satan injected into the blood of Eve was a question of God's faithfulness, and the one prescription that the Gospel gives to unsaved sinners is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

2. Faith is the law of Christianity, the vital principle of the Gospel dispensation. The law of faith the apostle calls it in distinction from the law of works. The Lord Jesus expressed it in the simple formula which has become the standard of answered prayers and every blessing that we receive through the name of Jesus. God is, therefore, bound to act according to our faith and also according to our unbelief.

3. Faith is the only way known to us by which we can accept a gift from God, and inasmuch as all the blessings of the Gospel are the gifts of grace, they must come to us through faith and in the measure of our faith, if they come at all.

4. Faith is necessary as a subjective influence to prepare our own hearts for the reception of God and His grace. How can the Father communicate His love to a timid, trembling heart? How can God come near to a frightened child? I have seen a little bird die of terror in the hand of another, when He only intended it no harm but tried in vain to caress it and win its love. And so the individual heart without faith would die in the presence of God in absolute terror, and be unable to receive the overflowing love of the Father which it could not understand.

5. Faith is an actual, spiritual force. It is, no doubt, one of the attributes of God Himself. We find it exemplified in Jesus in all His miracles. He explains to His disciples that it was the very power by which He withered the fig tree, and the power by which they could overcome and dissolve the mightiest obstacles in their way. There is no doubt that while the soul is exercising through the power of God the faith that commands what God commands, that a mighty force is operating at that very moment upon the obstacle, a force as real as the currents of electricity or the power of dynamite. God has really put into our hands one of His own implements of omnipotence and permitted us to use it in the name of Jesus according to His will and for the establishment of His Kingdom.

The Possibilities of Faith part 2

3. Divine Healing is possible to him that believeth. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick," is still the Master's unaltered word for His suffering church. And this faith must be the faith of the receiver, for in the epistle it is said, "Let not him that wavereth think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." Still it is as true as when the Master touched the eyes of the blind men to whom He said it, "According to your faith be it unto you." It matters not how serious the disease, it may be as helpless as the cripple's who could not in any wise lift herself up; as chronic as the impotent man who lay for thirty and eight years helpless. at the pool; as obscure and as despised a case as the poor blind men who begged by the wayside and whom the multitude thought unworthy of Christ's attention, or as the sinful woman of Syro Phoenicia, whom even the Saviour called a dog, and yet to her, as to others, the healing came when He could say, "Great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." It is not the faith which heals, it is the God that the faith touches; but there is no other way of touching God except by faith, and, therefore, if we would receive His Almighty touch, we must believe.


4. All power for service is possible to him that believeth. The gift of the Holy Ghost is received by faith. The power of the apostles was in proportion to their faith. Stephen "full of faith and power" could meet all the wisdom of Saul of Tarsus and the synagogue of the Sicilians. The simple story of Barnabas is that "he was a good man and full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and much people were added unto the Lord." The secret of effective preaching is not logic, or rhetoric, or elocution, but to be able to say, "I believed and therefore have I spoken." The success of some evangelists and Christian workers is out of all proportion to their talent or capacity in any direction, but they have one gift which they faithfully exercise, and that is expecting God to give them souls ; and, therefore, they are never disappointed.  Humble toiler in the vineyard of the Lord, will you go forth to all the possibilities of faith in your work for Him as you realize the strength of your weakness and the might of your God for it is "not by might or by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."

Basic Bible NT Questions & Answers

Q.Who was the fore-runner of Christ?

A.John the Baptist.

Q.Who were the four Evangelists?

A.Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Q.Who sat at the receipt of custom?
A.Matthew.

Q.Who was the Disciple that Jesus loved?

A.John.

Q.Who was the beloved Physician?

A.Luke.

Q.Who was the Mother of Jesus? . 

A. Mary.

Q.Who was the husband of Mary?

A.Joseph.

Q.Who sought to kill Jesus when he was a little child? 

A.King Herod.

Q.Who was raised from the dead by our Lord Jesus Christ?

A.Lazarus.

Q.Who betrayed his Lord?

A.Judas

Q.Who denied his Lord?

A.Peter.

Q.Who condemned Jesus to be crucified?

A. Pilate. 

Q.Who were struck dead for telling a lie?

A.Ananias and Sapphira his wife.

Q.Who was killed with the sword?

A.James.

Q.Who was stoned to death ‘I

A.Stephen.

Q.Who was the Apostle to the Gentiles‘!

A.Paul 

Q.Who wrote the first Book in the Bible‘! 

A.Moses.

Q. Who wrote the last Book in the Bible?

A. John