Gloria Christopherson

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 Here's the Difference

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 George Müller Biography - George Müller was one of the early brethren in the United Kingdom who is known for his work of faith among orphan children by running his organization by faith to provide for their needs.

"May it not be the will of God that I should establish schools for these children, asking Him to give me the means?"

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Debby Stickfort

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 The Old Nature

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I am thinking about suicide.  Can God help me?

Suicide is a tragic decision regardless of the reasons one may have for contemplating killing one's self.  In addition to seeking help from a doctor or counselor, there are some important facts from the Bible that will help you.

What is Satan's goal for you?

First, know that Satan is at work trying to lead you to destruction.  If you are not saved, the moment after you die you will be in hell.  If you were conscience of the fact that you will be either in heaven or hell forever, suicide would take on a far greater meaning.  You cannot come back after death.  You cannot change your mistake.

A story in the Bible tells of the awful shock of a man who died without being prepared.

Luke 16:19-31" TARGET="_blank">Luke 16:19-31  "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.  (20)  And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,  (21)  who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.  (22)  The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried,  (23)  and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.  (24)  And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'  (25)  But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.  (26)  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.'  (27)  And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house--  (28)  for I have five brothers--so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'  (29)  But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'  (30)  And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'  (31)  He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'"

Romans 8:1" TARGET="_blank">Romans 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

John 5:24" TARGET="_blank">John 5:24  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

2 Corinthians 5:17" TARGET="_blank">2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Being freed from guilt is like living with a weight lifted from life.  Knowing that you are on good terms with God will help you see life in a new way.

Having eternal life changes your perspective on the smallness of events in life.  The loss of a job or a boyfriend is insignificant compared to the great eternity that is beyond this life.

Having a new life changes the habits we struggle with.  Salvation gives you a new start in life.

Other Information about Teen Suicide / Suicide Thoughts

Read the story of Joel Hovey , who decided one day that he would commit suicide, but then found peace in God instead.

You might also be asking the following questions about suicide...

• Is the sin of suicide a special, unforgivable sin?
• Can a Christian commit suicide? 
• Why does God allow us to experience trials and suffering?
• Is going to the doctor a sign of weak faith?

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It is being taught in some quarters that our Lord was “God the Son in eternity,” and became the “Son of God in incarnation.”

Is this distinction scriptural?

I do not know where the phrase, “God the Son,” occurs in Scripture, though no serious objection need be raised to it. As a Trinitarian Person He was God the Son, but THEN, too, He was in the relation of Son to the Father, and was therefore Son of God. There are those who deny the Eternal Sonship of Christ, which is a very serious error, but clearly the teacher referred to here admits this important truth.

But I believe it is unscriptural to limit the expression “Son of God” to incarnation. To the Son He saith, “Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever,” and to the Son also, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth” (Hebrews 1:8-10)" TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 1:8-10)—uttered to the Lord centuries before His incarnation. I doubt if the Sonship of Christ is ever made to depend on His incarnation. He was CALLED the Son of God’ in incarnation, because He was the Son of God before incarnation (Luke 1:35)," TARGET="_blank">Luke 1:35), just as the “Son given” is called “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God,” because He was all this before being “the child, born” of the virgin (Isaiah 9:6)." TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 9:6). The above teacher has been referred to as to the phrase this question is based on, and he replies that what he intended to be printed was, “Christ was God the Son in eternity, and became the Son of God as Man,” which seems only to mean that personally He was unchanged, but now as Son of God He entered into Manhood and became changed in condition.

W.H.

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Sunday School Worksheets

1. Printable Sunday School Worksheets are available for download.

2. Sunday School Activities is another download section that includes 3D models, games and Power Points.

3. Weekly email of a Sunday School activity featuring printable booklets and creative ways to tell a Bible story.
   

1. Lessons outlines and Activities.

2. Sunday School Worksheets.

• You can turn a Bible vese or chapter into a Sunday School class activity in a 3 mouse clicks or use one of the 325 worksheets already made.

 You need have the Acrobat PDF reader, also called Acrobat Reader and a printer.

The Sunday School Worksheets are a source of ideas for lessons and simple crafts designed for appropriate age-group levels: primary aged sunday school students can easily do the Sunday School Story Coloring Worksheets or the fill-in-the-blank worksheets.  Middle school and high school students can do the worksheet activities that have open-ended responses.  Wordfind (or wordfinder puzzles) and crossword puzzles can be done by both primary and secondary age students.  You don't need to have a crossword puzzle maker or a wordfind maker since each Bible story already is completed for you.

The Sunday School Worksheets are provided originally for free download and distribution by Calvary Chapel.  They are a free Sunday School Teacher craft idea resource that cannot be sold according to the original copyright agreement.

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DISCIPLESHIP
Is there any difference between a Christian and a disciple? (John 6:66)." TARGET="_blank">John 6:66).

Are all Christians disciples?

Luke 14:27," TARGET="_blank">Luke 14:27, “cannot” Can one be a disciple and not a Christian?

What of Judas (John 12:4)." TARGET="_blank">John 12:4). Can we speak correctly of “discipleship” as a call distinct from conversion?

In Acts 11:26" TARGET="_blank">Acts 11:26 we read “that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch,” so here the two terms are not to be separated, especially when one remembers that, as I firmly believe, the new name was God-given. The verse runs as in the Revised Version: “And it came to pass, that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church, and taught much people; and that the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch,” so that the “gathering together,” “the teaching,” and the naming of the disciples in the new way, were three concomitant facts of spiritual significance. The English word, “dis-ciple,” is from the Latin, “dis-co,” “I learn by study,” and is the equivalent in the New Testament of “mathtës,” “a learner” (from “manthanö,” “I learn”). It is certainly used in two meanings like our word “scholar.” A boy goes to school and becomes at once “de facto” a scholar in that school, though he may not yet have learnt anything, but he is regarded according to the intention of his being there. He may not become a “scholar,” in the deeper sense of being proficient for years to come; in fact he may never deserve the name.

So we read in John 4:1," TARGET="_blank">John 4:1, “Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John.” They became disciples by obeying the Lord’s call. They professed themselves His followers and they were marked as such by baptism. But of some such we read in John 6:66," TARGET="_blank">John 6:66, “Many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.” But did this take the Lord by surprise? In no way was He surprised, for in ver. 64 we read, “But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him.” When these special disciples became such the Lord knew they were not real. It is the same to-day. Perhaps one of the best proofs that we ever did believe in the Lord Jesus isto be Continuing daily to believe on Him. There is, it is to be feared in these days of easy profession, a possibility of taking ourselves too easily for granted. The exhortation is “that they that have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works” for “faith without works is dead” (Titus 3: 8;" TARGET="_blank">Titus 3: 8; James 2:20)." TARGET="_blank">James 2:20).

However, there were many who proved themselves true disciples, in the primary sense, but such were called to go on and become disciples in the fuller meaning. To do so meant and ever means a costly thing, as Luke 14:26-33" TARGET="_blank">Luke 14:26-33 testifies. It involves the sacrifice of natural ties, of self, yea, of all. Though the word “disciple” does not occur in the New Testament after Acts zi. i6, the verb manthanö occurs often, e.g. Ephesians 4:20;" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 4:20; Philippians 4:11;" TARGET="_blank">Philippians 4:11; 1 Timothy 2:11;" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 2:11; 2 Timothy 3:4" TARGET="_blank">2 Timothy 3:4 (and for the false thing, see 2 Timothy 3:7);" TARGET="_blank">2 Timothy 3:7); and the commission of Matthew 28:19," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 28:19, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations” (marg. “make disciples of”), carries the thought on throughout the present dispensation, and the truth is prominent in the Epistles.

Philippians 3" TARGET="_blank">Philippians 3: is a good example of true discipleship: “What things were gain to me (i.e., as a religious Jew) those I counted (lit. I have counted: hëgmaj) loss for Christ. Yea doubtless and I am counting (hgoumaj) all things but lOSS. . . but dung, that I may win Christ” (Vi’. 7, 8).

A man said to a friend of mine, “I would give the world to have What You’ve got.”

“Well,” replied my friend, with a smile, “that is about what it cost.”

W.H.

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We have over 320 pictures in the collection of coloring pages for Sunday school. Click here .

Sunday School coloring pages are a good way to retell a story. However, there are other Sunday school activities with these pages.

1. Lessons outlines and Activities.

• Lesson plans - A kick-start to help you prepare for next class.
• Printable activities - Crafts, foldable paper models, worksheets, more sunday school coloring books, PowerPoint and other items to make your lesson more interesting and active.

2. Sunday School Bible Verse Puzzle Maker.

• You can turn a Bible vese or chapter into a Sunday School class activity in a 3 mouse clicks.

3. Online Study Bible

Bible search, commentary, dictionary and other tools to help you prepare a lesson for your next class. 

4. Newsletter for Sunday School Teachers - The Encourager

Get a weekly class activity in your mailbox. There are two options for the Encourager:

• Subscribe to the Encourager.
• View or download the Encourager archives.

4. Sunday School Teaching Help

The Sunday School Helper is an online book with ideas for organizing a lesson, maintaining discipline in the classroom, selecting an appropriate Bible verse, learning styles and much more.

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THE SPIRIT’S GUIDANCE

Is the Breaking of Bread meeting open for ministry, etc., under the Spirit’s guidance, in a way which would not equally apply to a Conference, a Gospel meeting or a Prayer meeting?

I certainly think it is; but in order to understand why, it is necessary to apprehend the special character attaching to meetings of different kinds. Each has in effect its special character, which predominates, though there is a certain latitude, and other things may have their place up to a point. Thus a Gospel meeting is for the preaching of the good news to sinners; that should characterise the meeting, though a short word to believers present may sometimes be in place and cannot be forbidden. A teaching meeting is for teaching the truth of God to believers, and need not be taken up too much with long prayers and hymn singing; an exhortation meeting is for exhortation, also to believers. In these cases it is a question of the exercise of gift manward. All are not evangelists or teachers; all are not called to exhort, etc. “He gave some, evangelists, some, pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11);" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 4:11); and in Romans 12:6" TARGET="_blank">Romans 12:6 we are reminded that “we have gifts differing according to the grace given,” either for prophesying (a foundation gift that no longer exists) or for ministry of various kinds—teaching, exhortation, etc. To apply the principle of equality of opportunity to all in such cases is clearly to set on one side the Lordship of Christ, who has given gifts according to His own will. We may invite men known to be qualified to evangelise or teach to the more general meetings for teaching (wrongly called “conferences,” for rarely does anyone confer). Where there are several teachers present, unless some special brother has been invited to minister the Word, there may well be an opportunity for open ministry, not however to all present, but only to those known to possess the gifts needful for edification.

Too often what is called “the open platform” has been abused, either because of too much liberty granted by elder brethren convening the meetings, or because of too much liberty taken by brethren present, who are not truly qualified to teach, but who get up on the plea of “the liberty of the Spirit,” and waste valuable time by unedifying talk. Let those who are gifted to teach wait on their ministry, and consider their brethren. The liberty of the Spirit is not anybody’s liberty to do as they like, but for the Spirit to do as He wills and use whom He chooses. The breaking of bread meeting is quite different; it is not primarily for ministry, though there may be secondary opportunities for this, when the true object of the meeting is over, which is to “shew the Lord’s death” (thus remembering Him in the breaking of bread), and to worship the Father. The object of those present is not to receive instruction, but to obey the Lord’s command, and as priests to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. As all believers, by the fact of the new birth, are constituted priests, the meeting is left open for all present to worship the Father, whether silently or vocally.

In the 1 Corinthians 11" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 11:  passage there is not a hint of any arrangement of speakers for ministry, and much less of anyone to preside and, as clergyman, minister, or pastor, “administer the sacrament” or “dispense the elements.” The bread is “the bread which we break,” the cup is “the cup of blessing which we bless.” These are terms which make breaking the bread and giving thanks for the cup a general privilege, rather than an ecclesiastical monopoly. The same principle applies to a prayer-meeting. All may pray, the women silently (1 Corinthians  14:34), the men “everywhere lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” (1 Timothy 2:8);" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 2:8); that is, it is they who lead in prayer. How can a prayer-meeting be rightly anything but “open” for the Spirit’s guidance? He alone knows the state of each soul; He alone knows the particular needs, and can make known that need to each and give suitable words to express it. Accordingly, there is not a hint in 1 Timothy 2" TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 2: of anyone presiding over or directing the prayer-meeting.

W.H.

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THE HOUSE OF GOD

Do you think that the House of God is regarded in Scripture as “the place of profession,” as is sometimes taught?  That is, the "profession" of one who is not saved, but is a part of church culture.

A good deal is taught on this subject, which we do well to test by the Word of God. It is sometime erroneously taught that the House of God is the place of Christian profession, and that God recognises this as a “third something” between the true Church and the world. What is known as Household-Baptism, for instance, thus seeks to justify the baptism of children and unconverted household servants. These are brought, they assert, into the House of God—they are “in the ambit of the Church of God,” as the strange expression goes. They are there on the ground of profession; but what profession can infants make? And if unconverted persons make any, it can only be false. That man has made a mixed thing of it by carelessness in reception, or by neglect of Scriptural discipline, is sadly true; but to make out that God is responsible for, or connives at such a state of things is indeed serious.

Now, the expression “House of God” refers in the Old Testament, if we except Genesus 28:17, 22, where Jacob uses the expression in a figurative sense, to the Tabernacle or to the Temple, and though uncleanness and even idols (2 Chronicles 33: 7)" TARGET="_blank">2 Chronicles 33: 7) might invade that House, they never formed part of it, and at every revival were drastically removed and cleansed away (e.g., 2 Chronicles 24:13;" TARGET="_blank">2 Chronicles 24:13; 2 Chronicles 29:16;" TARGET="_blank">2 Chronicles 29:16; 2 Chronicles 33:15)." TARGET="_blank">2 Chronicles 33:15).

Paul in writing to Timothy speaks of his knowing “how to behave himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” This is the local aspect—the Church of God, viewed as the place of responsibility. Undesirable elements did incorporate themselves, alas too easily, in the local “house” (see Jude), but though the condition was detected, it was not approved of. Ecciesiastics justify the sad lack of discipline in their organisations by the parable of the tares and the wheat—”Let both grow together until the harvest”—but they seem to forget that “the field is the world,” not the church. Undesirable visitors, thieves, and such-like, may find entrance into a house, but it is contrary to the desire of the head of the house, and they form no part of the household and must be removed as soon as detected. In Hebrews we read, “But Christ as a Son over His own house: whose house are we, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence firm unto the end” (Hebrews 3:6)," TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 3:6), that is, those who continue in the way prove themselves to be the House of God, the rest have no part in it.

It is indeed a blessed privilege of the people of God no longer to be “strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19)." TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 2:19). And this is His purpose in gathering saints to Christ —“To whom coming as unto a Living Stone. . . chosen of God and precious; Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:4," TARGET="_blank">1 Peter 2:4, ). “Ye are God’s building.. . ye are the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:9, 16)." TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 3:9, 16). When the apostle speaks of the “House of God,” does he then view it as possibly or even probably including “false brethren crept in unawares,” or ideally? I believe the latter, for whatever is not God’s building is an extraneous element to be purged out. For instance, in Hebrews 10:21," TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 10:21, Christ is presented as “High Priest over the house of God”—surely He is not the High Priest of false worshippers—trespassers in that house. Again, Peter reminds us that “judgment must first begin at the house of God.” Has he in view the heterogeneous company, that some seem to see almost exclusively, in the place of profession—a mixture of believers and unbelievers, because they all profess and call themselves Christians? I think the context shows rather that the true House of God is in view—contrasted with those that “obey not the gospel of God,” and paralleled in the following verse with the righteous—”If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17, 18)." TARGET="_blank">1 Peter 4:17, 18). Where is there room in this verse for a third something, neither righteous nor ungodly, but “professors.” The original from which this quotation is taken bears this out: “Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner” (Proverbs 2:31)." TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 2:31).

These latter, including false professors, will be recompensed not now, but in the future. But someone will say, “Does not Paul speak of ‘the great house of Christendom’ in his Second Epistle to Timothy?” Certainly not in so many words, though such a form of words has been dogmatically attributed to his writings. What he does say, I believe parenthetically, is, “But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour and some to dishonour” (chap. 2. 20). This passage and the ‘parable of the tares seem to be the sheet anchors of ecclesiastics to justify their mixed systems. To them “the great house” is “the Church” in their broad sense of a great ecclesiastical, christened organisation, reciting the apostles’ creed and practising “the sacraments.”

Others, as we have seen, understand Paul to mean “the great house of Christendom,” though I believe such an idea springs from a misreading of the passage. I submit again that verse zo is in the nature of a parenthesis, explaining the use the apostle is about to make of the term, “vessel unto honour” in verse 21. “In a great house” (that is in any great house in Rome, where he was in prison, or in Ephesus, where Timothy is supposed to have been), there are vessels of various materials and of varied uses. At this point the apostle resumes his exhortation, “If a man purge himself from these”—the evil things and men above referred to—he shall be something corresponding to the literal material vessels of gold and silver of any great house, namely a spiritual vessel unto honour in the House of God, “sanctified and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”

One does not wish to dogmatise, but I would ask my readers, who desire to be still subject to the Word of God, apart from the glamour of great names, carefully to weigh above with the Scriptures.

W.H.

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