February 28, 2018

From division to unity by Gary Rose

When I turn on my TV to watch the evening news, its hard not to notice how divided this country is. The political left is becoming more radically left and the right is also more right. Its no wonder they can't agree on anything. Whatever happened to the spirit of compromise "for the good of the country"?

But its not just in politics, its in our everyday life as well. American's have forgotten John F. Kennedy's most famous statement...

Therefore, it should come as no surprise to see churches reflect this "me first" attitude as well. Over time, this way of thinking results in false doctrine and all sorts of departures from the original church of the first century.
But, there is a cure for this ill; look to the Bible for the answer...


Ephesians, Chapter 4 (WEB)
 11  He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;  12 for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;  13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  14 that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;  15 but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;  (emphasis added 13-15) 16 from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

America, let's work together for the betterment of the country and not just our own interests. As for the church, look to the standard above and grow up in Christ.

Bible Reading February 28, March 1 by Gary Rose

Bible Reading February 28, March 1
World English Bible


Feb. 28
Exodus 9

Exo 9:1 Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, 'This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 9:2 For if you refuse to let them go, and hold them still,
Exo 9:3 behold, the hand of Yahweh is on your livestock which are in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the herds, and on the flocks with a very grievous pestilence.
Exo 9:4 Yahweh will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt; and there shall nothing die of all that belongs to the children of Israel." ' "
Exo 9:5 Yahweh appointed a set time, saying, "Tomorrow Yahweh shall do this thing in the land."
Exo 9:6 Yahweh did that thing on the next day; and all the livestock of Egypt died, but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died.
Exo 9:7 Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not so much as one of the livestock of the Israelites dead. But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he didn't let the people go.
Exo 9:8 Yahweh said to Moses and to Aaron, "Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the sky in the sight of Pharaoh.
Exo 9:9 It shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with boils on man and on animal, throughout all the land of Egypt."
Exo 9:10 They took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward the sky; and it became a boil breaking forth with boils on man and on animal.
Exo 9:11 The magicians couldn't stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the magicians, and on all the Egyptians.
Exo 9:12 Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he didn't listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken to Moses.
Exo 9:13 Yahweh said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, 'This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 9:14 For this time I will send all my plagues against your heart, against your officials, and against your people; that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.
Exo 9:15 For now I would have put forth my hand, and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth;
Exo 9:16 but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;
Exo 9:17 as you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won't let them go.
Exo 9:18 Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.
Exo 9:19 Now therefore command that all of your livestock and all that you have in the field be brought into shelter. Every man and animal that is found in the field, and isn't brought home, the hail shall come down on them, and they shall die." ' "
Exo 9:20 Those who feared the word of Yahweh among the servants of Pharaoh made their servants and their livestock flee into the houses.
Exo 9:21 Whoever didn't regard the word of Yahweh left his servants and his livestock in the field.
Exo 9:22 Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand toward the sky, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man, and on animal, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt."
Exo 9:23 Moses stretched forth his rod toward the heavens, and Yahweh sent thunder, hail, and lightning flashed down to the earth. Yahweh rained hail on the land of Egypt.
Exo 9:24 So there was very severe hail, and lightning mixed with the hail, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exo 9:25 The hail struck throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and animal; and the hail struck every herb of the field, and broke every tree of the field.
Exo 9:26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.
Exo 9:27 Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
Exo 9:28 Pray to Yahweh; for there has been enough of mighty thunderings and hail. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer."
Exo 9:29 Moses said to him, "As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands to Yahweh. The thunders shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that you may know that the earth is Yahweh's.
Exo 9:30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you don't yet fear Yahweh God."
Exo 9:31 The flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom.
Exo 9:32 But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they had not grown up.
Exo 9:33 Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands to Yahweh; and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.
Exo 9:34 When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Exo 9:35 The heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he didn't let the children of Israel go, just as Yahweh had spoken through Moses.

Exodus 10

Exo 10:1 Yahweh said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I may show these my signs in the midst of them,
Exo 10:2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your son's son, what things I have done to Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that you may know that I am Yahweh."
Exo 10:3 Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, "This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me.
Exo 10:4 Or else, if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country,
Exo 10:5 and they shall cover the surface of the earth, so that one won't be able to see the earth. They shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, which remains to you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which grows for you out of the field.
Exo 10:6 Your houses shall be filled, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; as neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.' " He turned, and went out from Pharaoh.
Exo 10:7 Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve Yahweh, their God. Don't you yet know that Egypt is destroyed?"
Exo 10:8 Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, "Go, serve Yahweh your God; but who are those who will go?"
Exo 10:9 Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast to Yahweh."
Exo 10:10 He said to them, "Yahweh be with you if I will let you go with your little ones! See, evil is clearly before your faces.
Exo 10:11 Not so! Go now you who are men, and serve Yahweh; for that is what you desire!" They were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
Exo 10:12 Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up on the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail has left."
Exo 10:13 Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and Yahweh brought an east wind on the land all that day, and all the night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
Exo 10:14 The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt. They were very grievous. Before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.
Exo 10:15 For they covered the surface of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened, and they ate every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. There remained nothing green, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
Exo 10:16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, "I have sinned against Yahweh your God, and against you.
Exo 10:17 Now therefore please forgive my sin again, and pray to Yahweh your God, that he may also take away from me this death."
Exo 10:18 He went out from Pharaoh, and prayed to Yahweh.
Exo 10:19 Yahweh turned an exceeding strong west wind, which took up the locusts, and drove them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt.
Exo 10:20 But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he didn't let the children of Israel go.
Exo 10:21 Yahweh said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt."
Exo 10:22 Moses stretched forth his hand toward the sky, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
Exo 10:23 They didn't see one another, neither did anyone rise from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
Exo 10:24 Pharaoh called to Moses, and said, "Go, serve Yahweh. Only let your flocks and your herds stay behind. Let your little ones also go with you."
Exo 10:25 Moses said, "You must also give into our hand sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to Yahweh our God.
Exo 10:26 Our livestock also shall go with us. There shall not a hoof be left behind, for of it we must take to serve Yahweh our God; and we don't know with what we must serve Yahweh, until we come there."
Exo 10:27 But Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he wouldn't let them go.
Exo 10:28 Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me! Be careful to see my face no more; for in the day you see my face you shall die!"
Exo 10:29 Moses said, "You have spoken well. I will see your face again no more."

Mar.1
Exodus 11

Exo 11:1 Yahweh said to Moses, "Yet one plague more will I bring on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will let you go. When he lets you go, he will surely thrust you out altogether.
Exo 11:2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask every man of his neighbor, and every woman of her neighbor, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold."
Exo 11:3 Yahweh gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.
Exo 11:4 Moses said, "This is what Yahweh says: 'About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt,
Exo 11:5 and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of livestock.
Exo 11:6 There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has not been, nor shall be any more.
Exo 11:7 But against any of the children of Israel a dog won't even bark or move its tongue, against man or animal; that you may know that Yahweh makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel.
Exo 11:8 All these your servants shall come down to me, and bow down themselves to me, saying, "Get out, with all the people who follow you;" and after that I will go out.' " He went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
Exo 11:9 Yahweh said to Moses, "Pharaoh won't listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt."
Exo 11:10 Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and Yahweh hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he didn't let the children of Israel go out of his land.
 
Feb. 28
Mark 2

Mar 2:1 When he entered again into Capernaum after some days, it was heard that he was in the house.
Mar 2:2 Immediately many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even around the door; and he spoke the word to them.
Mar 2:3 Four people came, carrying a paralytic to him.
Mar 2:4 When they could not come near to him for the crowd, they removed the roof where he was. When they had broken it up, they let down the mat that the paralytic was lying on.
Mar 2:5 Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you."
Mar 2:6 But there were some of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,
Mar 2:7 "Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Mar 2:8 Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you reason these things in your hearts?
Mar 2:9 Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven;' or to say, 'Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?'
Mar 2:10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" -he said to the paralytic-
Mar 2:11 "I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house."
Mar 2:12 He arose, and immediately took up the mat, and went out in front of them all; so that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!"
Mar 2:13 He went out again by the seaside. All the multitude came to him, and he taught them.
Mar 2:14 As he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he arose and followed him.
Mar 2:15 It happened, that he was reclining at the table in his house, and many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many, and they followed him.
Mar 2:16 The scribes and the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why is it that he eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?"
Mar 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Mar 2:18 John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and they came and asked him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don't fast?"
Mar 2:19 Jesus said to them, "Can the groomsmen fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they can't fast.
Mar 2:20 But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then will they fast in that day.
Mar 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, or else the patch shrinks and the new tears away from the old, and a worse hole is made.
Mar 2:22 No one puts new wine into old wineskins, or else the new wine will burst the skins, and the wine pours out, and the skins will be destroyed; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins."
Mar 2:23 It happened that he was going on the Sabbath day through the grain fields, and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of grain.
Mar 2:24 The Pharisees said to him, "Behold, why do they do that which is not lawful on the Sabbath day?"
Mar 2:25 He said to them, "Did you never read what David did, when he had need, and was hungry-he, and those who were with him?
Mar 2:26 How he entered into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the show bread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and gave also to those who were with him?"
Mar 2:27 He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Mar 2:28 Therefore the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."


Mar.1
Mark 3

Mar 3:1 He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered.
Mar 3:2 They watched him, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath day, that they might accuse him.
Mar 3:3 He said to the man who had his hand withered, "Stand up."
Mar 3:4 He said to them, "Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?" But they were silent.
Mar 3:5 When he had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardening of their hearts, he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was restored as healthy as the other.
Mar 3:6 The Pharisees went out, and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
Mar 3:7 Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples, and a great multitude followed him from Galilee, from Judea,
Mar 3:8 from Jerusalem, from Idumaea, beyond the Jordan, and those from around Tyre and Sidon. A great multitude, hearing what great things he did, came to him.
Mar 3:9 He spoke to his disciples that a little boat should stay near him because of the crowd, so that they wouldn't press on him.
Mar 3:10 For he had healed many, so that as many as had diseases pressed on him that they might touch him.
Mar 3:11 The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, "You are the Son of God!"
Mar 3:12 He sternly warned them that they should not make him known.
Mar 3:13 He went up into the mountain, and called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him.
Mar 3:14 He appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach,
Mar 3:15 and to have authority to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons:
Mar 3:16 Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter;
Mar 3:17 James the son of Zebedee; John, the brother of James, and he surnamed them Boanerges, which means, Sons of Thunder;
Mar 3:18 Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot;
Mar 3:19 and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. He came into a house.
Mar 3:20 The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
Mar 3:21 When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him: for they said, "He is insane."
Mar 3:22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul," and, "By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons."
Mar 3:23 He summoned them, and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan?
Mar 3:24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
Mar 3:25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Mar 3:26 If Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he can't stand, but has an end.
Mar 3:27 But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder, unless he first binds the strong man; and then he will plunder his house.
Mar 3:28 Most certainly I tell you, all sins of the descendants of man will be forgiven, including their blasphemies with which they may blaspheme;
Mar 3:29 but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"
Mar 3:30 -because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Mar 3:31 His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him.
Mar 3:32 A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, "Behold, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you."
Mar 3:33 He answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers?"
Mar 3:34 Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers!
Mar 3:35 For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother."

What beauty do you see in your mirror? by Roy Davison

http://www.oldpaths.com/Archive/Davison/Roy/Allen/1940/mirror.html

What beauty do you see in your mirror?
Do you only see an outward beauty or do you also see the beauty of Christ?

Do you want to be beautiful? Everyone can be beautiful. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).

There are two kinds of beauty, outward and inward, worldly and spiritual.

Think about someone who is very beautiful. In what direction did you think? Did you think about some movie star? Or did you think about Christ? He is, after all, the most beautiful person who has ever lived.

Was Jesus beautiful outwardly? In the art world Jesus is often portrayed as a very handsome man, but according to Isaiah: “He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2). Yet, he also wrote: “Your eyes will see the King in His beauty” (Isaiah 33:17). And in Psalm 45:3 we read about the Messiah: “You are fairer than the sons of men.”

Because of His inner beauty, Jesus was the most beautiful person who ever lived: “For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

From this we learn something important. It does not matter if we come short in some way with regard to our outward appearance. Everyone can be beautiful inwardly, and that is what counts.

We may not allow ourselves to be deceived by outward beauty. “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). “As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion” (Proverbs 11:22).

People who live a bad life become ugly: “When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth” (Psalm 39:11).

Outward beauty passes away: “The voice said, ‘Cry out!’ And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’ ‘All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades’” (Isaiah 40:6, 7).

You find certain things beautiful. But what is beautiful to God? Do you want to be beautiful in your own eyes and in the eyes of the world? Or do you want to be beautiful in God’s sight? “Do not let your adornment be outward -- arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel -- rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves” (1 Peter 3:3-5). “In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works” (1 Timothy 2:9, 10). Good works are “beautiful and profitable to men” (Titus 3:8).

What beauty do you see in your mirror? Do you see someone who is wearing sexy clothing? Or someone wearing modest clothing? Do you see someone who is dressed provocatively? Or someone who is dressed with propriety and moderation? Do you see someone who is wearing worldly clothing? Or do you see someone who reflects the beauty of Christ?

A mirror cannot make you beautiful. Why do we look in a mirror? To see if everything is in order. To see what needs to be improved.

Would you like to have a mirror that could make you beautiful? It does exist. The Holy Scriptures.
This mirror has the same function spiritually as a regular mirror, namely to let us see what needs to be improved. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:22-25).

But this mirror also has special power. If you look into it intently and often you continually become more beautiful by the power of God’s Spirit.

To understand the next text, one must know the background. After Moses had heard the word of God, his face shown so brightly that the people were afraid. So Moses hung a vail in front of his face. But each time he spoke with God, he removed the vail (Exodus 34:29-35).

Paul says that all Christians now, like only Moses then, may view the glory of God: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Is that not wonderful? When we look in this mirror, we do not see our own face, but the face of Christ! And the more we look at Him in this mirror, the more we look like Christ by the power of God’s Spirit! Then we shine with the beauty of Christ.

What beauty do you see in your mirror? Only an outward beauty? Or also the beauty of Christ? Look often and long in this powerful mirror that can make you more and more beautiful! Amen.

Roy Davison
The Scripture quotations in this article are from
The New King James Version. ©1979,1980,1982, Thomas Nelson Inc., Publishers.
Permission for reference use has been granted.
Published in The Old Paths Archive
(http://www.oldpaths.com)

DON’T TELL ME OF GREAT THINGS by Jim McGuiggan

https://jimmcguiggan.wordpress.com/2016/05/

DON’T TELL ME OF GREAT THINGS

Lord Byron gave us the moving poem The Prisoner of Chillon. The prisoner’s chained to a pillar along with his brother. After some time the beloved brother died and was buried in the cell under a slab. This drove the prisoner into deep depression and the jailers had pity on him and loosed him from the pillar so that he could walk around his cell. In his despair he made friends with spiders and mice and became a kindly lord in his domain. He wouldn’t have thought of it as Aspen or the French Riviera, but because he had no reason to think things would ever change he adjusted to the situation. He became content.
One day the broken but contented prisoner heard the song of a bird. It was up there on the window ledge and at the sight and sound something stirred in the man. Imagine him with great effort, and perhaps many failures, making his way up the wall and looking out at familiar sights and faintly hearing sounds that carried from a great distance. He sees the mountains, a river meeting the lake, the white wall of a little town, trees and a green island. He saw an eagle fly, free and high, in the blue sky before his strength was gone and he slipped or clawed his way back down into the cell. Having seen, he couldn’t “unsee” and the vision unsettled him; now the cell with which he had grown content was like a coffin that suffocated him and he wished he’d never been loosed from the chain and the pillar; seeing life’s possibilities destroyed his peace and we can easily imagine him for the first time beating on the door and yelling, “Let me out of here! I’ve got to get out of here!”
This is how he put it:
I had not left my recent chain;
And when I did descend again,
The darkness of my dim abode
Fell on me as a heavy load;
It was as is a new-dug grave,
Closing o’er one we sought to save.
Would it have been better had he not seen through the window the world he was deprived of? One thing is sure, he felt worse. His contentment was shattered and his peace obliterated. The vision of something finer turned his cozy little cell into a coffin. Would it have been better had he never looked? I suppose it depends on what we mean by “better”. Would you prefer to know that there exists so much more than you have, even if it created great pain in you? Would you prefer to remain ignorant and contented? There’s something to be said for both sides of the argument.
But is there really? A poor soul told me that she had never felt real bewilderment or sense of alienation in life until she became a Christian and life changed in many ways that were not pleasant. [“Arrrgh! I heard that everything would be better, easier, and it isn’t!” I suppose a baby in the womb feels that kind of distress at birth.] Did Peter ever feel the wave of awed fear before that day when he sat in a boat with Christ and witnessed the nearness of God that drove him to say, “Get away from me, for I am a sinful man O Lord”? It’s true isn’t it that in some true sense of the words that the closer we get to God the more we feel out of place in our own skin and in a world of people like us? And what makes it more distressing, on those occasions when we feel it most intensely, is that we can’t ask to be taken out of the world. Jesus Christ said to us: “As the Father sent me, so I send you into the world.”
Is it really a source of wonder that the better we see him the more we recoil at everything else because it is unlike Him? Imagine what it must have been like for Him to be elbow to elbow with the evil that is in us and flows from us. Now that is a true source of wonder! Somewhere in all this, his glorious vision of His Holy Father, Himself and us, in all our awful need, made Him restless and divinely discontent. His holy compassion toward us grew until, as Browning put it, it became a rage to suffer for humanity. And He thought it all worthwhile. Christ is no Greek god sitting blissfully unconcerned sipping the wine in the presence of equally unconcerned divine colleagues. He looked over the rim of the palace walls in the land of the Trinity, saw our desperate need, felt compelled to go and found the Father and the Spirit already preparing His gear for the assault on all the powers that enslave the bodies, minds and spirits of the human family.
We must love the best we see and know or we’ll never be anything worth talking about. I understand that in our debilitating weariness we don’t want to hear challenge and upward calls. “Leave me alone, I’m too tired.” Too much disappointment and dashed hopes, too many responsibilities, too many pressures—humans aren’t made to walk like kings! That makes sense but there are other things that make sense too and even when we’re too weary to want to continue we wish we had the energy to do it.
Listen, things not only can be better, they will be better! God’s Son became incarnate to make it clear that we’re not alone in this cosmic and eternal enterprise. “God is with us!” The Incarnation is the witness to that; that’s why He became “homeless” and yet never more at home than when He became one of us and remains one of us.
Blessed are the weary for they will rise up in strength like an eagle.

Is the Bible Totally Inspired of God? by Alfred Shannon, Jr.

https://biblicalproof.wordpress.com/2010/04/

Is the Bible Totally Inspired of God?

Now for the true believer in God, after quoting Paul’s charge to Timothy, (2 Tim 3:16)  I could say yes, and that would be sufficient. However, there are many whose faith waivers because of the world which teaches the impossibility of any book written by man being perfect. There are many who search the bible daily in hopes to finding the bible’s first mistake. Yet no man to date has ever found one. A book so perfect that not one historic fact has been disproved to date or ever will. A book that though it took 1,600 years to complete, and was authored by at least 40 different men, has no error whatsoever. Some were shepherds, some were fishermen, some were kings, some were farmers. One was a scribe, one was a tax collector, and one was a doctor of medicine. One was a tent-maker. A few were well educated, most were unlearned and uneducated. Let us examine who inspired the words of the bible.
We know that there were acknowledgments from one writer to another throughout the old testament. Such examples of these can be found as Joshua said of Moses (Josh. 1:8). King David charged his son Solomon to keep the charge of the LORD your God: to walk in His ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments in (1 Kings 2:3). There are said to be at least 855 quotations in the new testament. Every book in the old testament is quoted from in the new testament except Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, & Esther. Every new testament book contains quotations from the old testament except 2 & 3 John, Philemon, & Titus. No new testament writer ever has called in to question on any historical person or fact referred to in the old testament scriptures. Quite remarkable realizing that some of these authors were in fact illiterate. New testament writers also bear record of each other such as the case was Peter speaking of Paul (2 Pet. 3:16; Gal 2:9).
Consider all the prophesies that came true hundreds if not thousands of years in advance. Such was the case where the land of promise took 400 years to come true. Consider all the prophesies of the Messiah, Jesus Christ beginning first in Genesis 49:10 (some believe as early as Gen. 3) and ending in Malachi  chapter 4.
The bible in many places, and by different writers over many centuries has tried to assure its readers that this book is totally truthful, and has never mislead anyone. Such scriptures began to surface in the book of Numbers 23:19, Ezek 24:14 of the old testament and Titus 1:2 and Heb 6:18 of the new testament. Where one of its own writers, Paul, stated 4 times that he lied not concerning the scriptures (Rom. 9:1, 2 Cor. 11:31, Gal. 1:20 and 1 Tim 2:7) and one verse that states that the word of God was not both yes and no (2 Cor 1:18 compare to Lam 3:38)
A book that warned its readers to not to lean to their own understanding (Prov. 3:5), and to not add or subtract from any of its words beginning in (Deut. 4:2, Deut. 5:32, Deut 12:32; Deut. 28:14, Prov. 30:6, Eccl. 3:14), and culminating in the last book of the bible Rev. 22:18-19. Peter told us that no prophesy of the scriptures could be privately interpreted, because prophesies of any time came from God, and not man. (2 Pet. 1:20-21).
We are warned time, and time again with such warnings that the way is narrow, and few would ever find it, and fools would not enter in accidentally (Matt. 7:14, Isa 35:8). A road map that is so perfect that the wise of this world would not easily find, and even would be blinded so that they could not understand it. (Matt. 11:25;  2 Thess. 2:11-12, Ps 19:7). A puzzle that was so scattered that no genius could ever find all the pieces except that they have a love for the truth (Isa 28:13; 2 Thess. 2:10).
Such was the treasure that is was spoken as something one ate, and was on their tongue, and sweet to eat. Job said that it was esteemed more his necessary food (Job 23:12) David spoke on this wise that the word of God was sweeter than honey (Ps. 119:103) and that the Spirit of God was in his tongue (2 Sam 23:2). So unsearchable and rich is the wisdom and knowledge that it is past finding out except that the Holy Spirit search it for us, and gave it to the apostles (Rom 11:33, 1 Cor. 2:11-13).
So much has been written, and in more eloquence of design than I could ever aspire to attain of the excellency of the word of God (Phil 3:8). Jesus told his own disciples that when he left this earth that he would leave them a comforter (The Holy Spirit) who would bring back to their remembrance and teach you all things (John 14:26). Paul wrote that he spoke not of man’s wisdom, but of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:4-5). Paul would later thank the Thessalonians for following them, and their words as it were the word of God, because it was the word of God. (1 Thess. 2:13).
Just as Moses had Janes and Jambres who arose up against him (2 Tim 3:8), as Samuel had those who would not adhere to him (1 Sam. 8:7), the apostles had those who forsake them as well (2 Tim 4:10) and even to warn brethren to follow him, and his teaching because it was from Christ (2 Thess. 3:7, 2 Thess. 3: 12-14). So does the preacher and teacher of the word of God today. Just as God told Samuel, it is not you, but me (God) that they resist. (1 Sam. 8:7) Just as the wise men in Jeremiah 8:9. Just as those who rejected the knowledge of God in Hosea 4:6. Just as those spoken of in Job 21:14,15.
This is the same word of God that the Psalmist David and Solomon described as pure (Ps 119:140; Prov 3:5), yet powerful enough to break rocks in pieces (Jer. 23:29) and sharper than two-edged swords which even divides the spirit from the body (Heb. 4:12). The word of God is precious, even the very thought of God (1 Sam 3:1; Ps 139:17) which lives and abides forever (1 Pet. 1:23).
So, does the word of God prove itself as verifiable. Has it proved itself by its own words. Such rhetorical words to ask, yet they have one simple answer, yes they do. You can rest assured that when you obey the scriptures, the truth, the word of God, that is is truth straight from God’s mouth to your eyes and ears. You will know the truth, and it shall make you free from sin. (John 8:31-32). That you can be assured of and be fully persuaded (2 Tim 1:12, 2 Tim 3:14, 2 Tim 3:16).