The Boards and Bars of the The Tabernacle

 

(I understand that a young girl about 15 years old heard Jack Carroll speak about the Tabernacle at Bakersfield convention in 1938, and next morning handed him these verses which she had composed. The thought about the “bars” is taken from Ephesians 4:1-7. I also found out it can be sung to the tune of “Abide With Me.”)

R. Aragones / N. Chau Vu

Lessons In Living

• When the things of the world can hardly satisfy the people of the world, how could it ever satisfy the people of God?

• Our physical body is subjected to serve our spirit but so often it is our master.

• We can build altars but we will receive no blessing if we fail to sacrifice.

• Instead of feeling burdened with having to sacrifice, consider your sacrifices as your greatest investments.

• God doesn't grudgingly pour out blessings. He does it because He loves our choices.

• Everything in the world will one day lead to disappointment. This may make it difficult to extend trust to God but He knows who trusts in Him.

• Our souls need to be clean before the Lord and the only cleansing agent is the blood of Christ.

• Unwillingness, not weakness, hinders our walk.

• It's hard to be encouraged by the journey so we need to keep focused on the goal.

• Even the smallest hint of light affects vast darkness.

• Rearrange s-i-l-e-n-t and you get l-i-s-t-e-n. They go hand in hand.

• Peace making is a far greater sacrifice than peace keeping.

• There's blessing from God in going the second mile.

• Do we have the urge to be our brother’s keeper?

• Are we feeding on the things we've left behind or the things that God is providing for us?

• There is no point in waiting to act once God has revealed His will.

• We choose our friends. We can choose the world but it gives nothing back.

• When we bear our burdens in unity with Jesus, our burden is light.

• God responds to us saying, "I can't do it" with, "But can't WE do it?"

• When the burden comes from the heart, it is light. If it's a burden of the mind, it is heavy.

• It's most effective to work on one project, one change in our life, at a time.

• The Lord hears the cry of a lost sheep and will move heaven and earth to save him.

• We want to change our cries from, "Why me?" to, "Help me!"

• Jesus went into the garden to pray with two wills but left with only one.
• Remember the cost.

• We deceive ourselves when we are hearers but not doers of the word.

• Conventions are likened unto mirrors. If we get a glimpse of our image and after leaving, forget what we look like, it was a waste of time. We need to remember what we look like to make a change.

• Are we living in a way that can invite people to meetings solely on our life?

• God will not answer our prayers when we aren't willing for the response.

• Don't forget to pray for the harvest field.

-Maureen Ives

The Seed And The Sower

I don’t think we can ever fully understand the interest our Sower has in every piece of ground! What will the reaping be? It all depends on 2 factors: we need good seed and good soil. We have no doubt about the seed, which came from heaven, and at a price! In this seed is the potential of eternal life, and the possibility of producing the same fruit that was found in Jesus. But, the soil is something else! In not one of these 3 classes that didn’t produce a harvest, was the seed at fault!! It was the soil!! There’s no soil so poor that it cannot produce something, if it’s separated and yielded, and willing to be worked.

Matthew 13:4 – “Some fell by the wayside.” This ground was too hard – not soft enough for the seed to penetrate. Like those who listen in a careless way. The seed then will just be taken away – no impressions made. Seed by the wayside is just stepped on and trodden under foot. Like despising the word spoken. One man said, for example: “I listen to anything, as long as it’s God’s word, and the things I don’t like, I just let them go over my head!!” Many are like this: “I will decide what I’ll take notice of!” The seed growing by the wayside doesn’t reach maturity. It has no chance of maturing because of the traffic on the road, or the cattle, and the wheels of the carts, breaking it off. There’s no respect for the tender things, like the tenderness that God wants to produce in our hearts. The wayside soil is not separated for a specific purpose. If we want to yield our lives to God, there has to be a measure of separation from this world.

Verses 5-6 – “The stony ground.” The soil looked, and was, good on the surface, but underneath there was a hard layer. It’s like those who listen, being emotionally moved at the time, and maybe have an immediate reaction, but not moved to faith nor obedience. This class had no depth of earth – shallowness! Casual listening is dangerous, without having understanding from God. It’s the cause of unfruitfulness in a life. Jesus didn’t say much about how much time we should spend in prayer, but rather, how to pray! Shallow prayers don’t mean much to God. If we could only realize the power in prayer, we’d be faithful, and never miss praying. It’s not a matter of changing God’s thoughts when we pray, but to give ourselves over to Him again, so that our thoughts can be in line with His. It’s the opportunity to give God the opportunity to change our will to do His will. This is the deep soil. The answer is in finding the presence of the Giver – that’s where our salvation begins! Superficial soil doesn’t require much preparation. The preparation before the meeting – this is deep soil.

Verse 8 – “The good soil.” This is soil that is willing to have the right put in, and the wrong taken out. No soil left to itself will produce good fruit. So, the teaching to give the children what they want isn’t good. Freedom without restraint is destruction. Liberty is not good. It takes nourishment out of the soil. Weeds take the light away from plants, like sapping one’s strength. Then we fall asleep and cannot get through, when we do have desires to seek God. It’s a slow process, until there’s no more love nor peace. The good ground is ground that is willing to be worked over, time and time again. -South African Convention

Matthew 13 – The Seed and the Sower:

Sand And Stone

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, he wrote in the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but his friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend, who had slapped and saved his best friend, asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now, you write on a stone, why?"

The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away, but when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it." Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your blessings in stone.

Author Unknown

Seven Lies Satan Tells To Deceive

1) Sin is not serious.

We live in a world where sin is taken very lightly. But remember – we also live in a world where God is taken very lightly. Sin will keep us out of heaven. So yes, it's that serious.

The things we feed in our lives are the things that will become strong. If you are feeding on something you know to be wrong, it will become stronger and stronger, and you will fail.

2) There's no harm in it!

Not everything in the world is wrong or bad. There's also nothing wrong with white bread – but we all know whole wheat is better. People who are concerned with what goes into their bodies usually choose whole wheat. Be concerned about what goes into your soul, and choose what is more spiritually edifying.

Often times, sports, activities, clubs, and such are ok! But, to make it work, be committed to making sure God comes first, 100% of the time. If anything infringes on this – you know it's time to back out of that activity. The people you associate with at school will only be with you for a few years – probably only until you graduate. God is with you forever – who do you care more about pleasing?

3) Go ahead and do it… after all, God will forgive you! 

How can God forgive if there's no repentance? And how can we truly repent if we know that we did it on purpose?

Many people assume that repentance is something that we decide to do – it's not. Repentance is a gift from God. When God sees that we have an honest heart, he will grant us repentance. Can we truly, honestly be sorry for doing something we were fine with doing – knowing full well it was a sin?

Why do we think that forgiveness is easier to get than permission? If we know we would never get permission – why do we assume that we will automatically get forgiveness?

We can't manipulate God to forgive us. How can an honest heart have manipulation?

When we take deliberate steps to exit God's will, we enter a road that is no longer of our timing. It could take years to get repentance – deliberate sin costs years.

Yes, God will forgive us. But, deliberate sin has a very high price on it. Satan is right in saying that God will forgive – but he neglects to tell us the price.

The Price for Deliberate Sin

1) Our secret life with God is nothing. When we're not right with God, He doesn't speak to us.
2) We can no longer feed our soul. Maybe we look to other things to fill that void? (More intentional sin?)
3) We begin to feel alienated and out of place with God's people. We feel like an inward hypocrite.

Can we now see why people who choose their own way often lose out?

4) This might not even be the right way!

Don't be deceived about what is the truth. Hebrews 13:8 – "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Matthew 24:35 – "Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

Christianity is right – don't throw it away for anything else.

5) You have lots of time!

Don't be deceived. We have absolutely no idea about how much time we have left. If we have anything in our life that isn't right with God, now is the time to make it right. If we haven't yet been granted the gift of repentance, now is the time we need to beg for it.

On our gravestone, two numbers will be seen, indicating our birth, and our death. The only thing that we control is that little dash between them.

6) You won't reap what you sow.

Nope. We will reap exactly what we sow. Where we are right now is from the choices we have made thus far.

Sowing doesn't take much time – but we will reap the harvest from it for all eternity.

7) The Judgment isn't as serious as it sounds.

At the Judgment, we will have no excuses. The only ones present, will be God, Jesus, Satan, and (fill in your name here).

God is the Judge, Jesus is our Defender, and Satan uses what we've done against us as ammunition. Don't give him any more ammunition for that day – he already has enough.

But – this day needn't be feared!

On Judgment Day, "Well Done" will mean much more than "Well Said".

J. McCracken

Pumpkins

A lady recently being baptized was asked by
a co-worker what it was like to be a Christian.

She replied, "It's like being a pumpkin: God picks you
from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt
off that you may have gotten from the other pumpkins.
Then he cuts the top off and scoops out all the yucky
stuff. He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.
Then, He carves you a new smiling face and puts His
light inside of you to shine for all the world to see."

 Pass it on to another pumpkin.

Source: mamarocks.com 

Forgiveness

The devil said:              Be proud!

The devil said:              Be cruel

The devil said:              Take care lest you should appear a fool!

The devil said:              Forgive, but don't forget - not quite! 

 

And the devil said      Be sure you prove that you were in the right! 

The Spirit said:             Be wise!

The Spirit said:             Be kind!

The Spirit said:             Be neighbourly and think kindly in your mind!

The Spirit said:             Forgive, and lest there be a doubt –

Call lovingkindness with her sponge and wipe the matter out!

WILLIE J HUGHES