How can I know God's will for me personally?

How can I know God's will for me personally?

The New Testament records God's will for all believers. The largest part of our life fits within these guidelines. We must approach the Bible with objective questions about His will for us. Through His Word, we should attempt to learn and do His revealed will. Devotion to Christ motivates us to want to do His will. Looking in the Bible for what is "not against His will" indicates we are going through our Christian experience looking for as many shortcuts as possible.

In addition to the Bible's specific expressions of His will, its principles apply to our lives. Scriptural principles express God's ways. If we really want to know our God, we will gladly allow His principles to guide us.

We also learn that God superintends the circumstances of our life. If we are honest with our own heart and are willing to do God's will, the circumstances may be His means of guiding our decision.

We know, for instance, that God "will have all men to be saved" (I Timothy 2:4)." TARGET="_blank">I Timothy 2:4). But there are times when the Spirit places a special burden on our hearts for a specific sinner. This is the "mystical" side of guidance. It is a sense in the soul - always in keeping with what we know of God through His Word - that this is His will at the moment. We may be wrong in thinking we have discerned His will and therefore need to keep an open mind on this, but never doubt His ability to act in our life consistent with His revealed will.

The more we walk in fellowship with the Lord daily, the more clearly we will sense His guidance.

D. Oliver
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Printable Cryptogram Puzzle Maker

Printable Cryptogram Puzzle Maker is a program that allows you to turn a phrase, such as a verse from the Bible or a quote from a famous speech into a printable word cryptogram worksheet.

Click here to go to step one of the printable word search puzzle page.

Instructions for the Printable Cryptogram Puzzle maker

1. Type in a famous phrase or select a verse from the Bible to make into a cryptogram puzzle.
2. The Cryptogram Puzzle maker will automatically encode the message using a random letter substitution algorithm. You may also choose to modify word spacing to make the cryptogram harder.

3. The third step is simply to view the printable cryptogram worksheet and print it.

Hints:

If your phrase does not make a very good printable word scramble, try adding a few more words to the sentence. The cryptogram puzzle program needs between 5 and 15 words. Phrases that have common words such as "the" "is" "or" "an" "and" etc. are useful starting points for decoding a cryptogram.

In addition to the printable cryptogram puzzles, you can make

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What does the parable of 10 virgins mean?

Will you please interpret the Parable of the Ten Virgins?

As in previous parables (cf. The Wedding Garment, Matthew 22)," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 22), the Lord Jesus stresses in this parable the need for keeping watch for His return (see 24:42, 44) as well as His rejection of unreality when He does return. Like the man without the wedding garment, the five foolish virgins represent those who expected to be in the kingdom but had never properly prepared. Although Paul uses the imagery of a chaste virgin in reference to the assembly at Corinth, the Church which is His body is seen as a unit (His Bride), not as friends attending the wedding or wedding supper, therefore the Rapture is not likely in view. Since this is part of an answer to the disciples' question in chapter 24:3 regarding the end of the age and the coming of the Son of Man, it would seem that this parable points to the advent of the Lord Jesus as King of kings, coming to establish His kingdom. During His public ministry, the Lord Jesus was often confronted by those in Israel who felt that, as a result of their natural links with Abraham, they held privileged ground (John 8:33)." TARGET="_blank">John 8:33). His warning to them will have its dire fulfillment at His coming when many "children of the kingdom" will be cast into outer darkness (Matthew 8:12)." TARGET="_blank">Matthew 8:12).

E. Higgins

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Did Isaiah say a virgin would give birth?

Is there any good ground for the change, advocated by some, of the word “virgin” In Isaiah 7:14" TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 7:14 to “young married woman” or “young woman of marriageable age”?

I believe “virgin” can be shown to be the true rendering, along several lines of proof. It is significant that those who propose this change are mostly of Modernist tendencies. Such men deny the miraculous in general, and would gladly get rid of the Virgin Birth of our Lord, and create a discrepancy between Matthew 1:23" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 1:23 and our verse. Gesenius, the well-known author of the Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, a man with a strong Modernistic bias, says, “The true meaning of ‘almäh, (“virgin” in Isaiah 7:14)" TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 7:14) is a girl of marriageable age, with no special reference to her unspotted virginity, which is expressed,” he affirms, “by another word, bethulah”; but that moral purity is surely taken for granted, unless definite proof is alleged to the contrary. He adds, “almãh is used of a youthful spouse recently married”; but the only place he quotes to prove this is the verse in question, Isaiah 7:14," TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 7:14, where he wants to rule out the other meaning, and thus begs the question. He also
quotes Canticles 6. 8 to prove his point, but as virgins (‘almöth) are distinguished there from wives and concubines, we may ask what they do stand for, if not for unmarried girls of unspotted character? Gesenius admits, moreover, that his word bethfflah is sometimes clearly used of a woman newly married, e.g., in Joel i. 8. If that word had been used in Isaiah 7:14" TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 7:14 he might still have found a loop-hole, and have quoted Joel to show that even “bethfflãh was not conclusive. God, however, has raised up to oppose Gesenius a man of equal scholarship, namely, Dr. S. P. Tregelles, of humble evangelical faith, and also of European reputation as a Hebraist. He translated Gesenius’ Lexicon from the German, and has added notes in brackets to neutralise, where necessary, the bias of the Lexicon. The following note by Dr. Tregelles occurs under “‘almãh”: “Gesenius’ object in view in seeking to undermine the opinion, which would assign the signification of virgin to this word, is clearly to raise a discrepancy between Isaiah 7:14" TARGET="_blank">Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23." TARGET="_blank">Matthew 1:23. Nothing which has been stated (i.e. by Gesenius earlier in the article) does, however, really give us any ground for assigning another meaning.. . . ‘Almãh in the Punic language signifies virgin.
The absolute authority of the New Testament is, however, quite sufficient to settle the question to a Christian.” We may refer here to the words of Matthew 1:23" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 1:23: “Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is by interpretation, God with us.” The Evangelist uses the ordinary Greek word, “parthenos,” for “virgin,” used too in Luke 2:27," TARGET="_blank">Luke 2:27, of the Virgin Mary. The Greek Version, the Septuagint, does sometimes translate the word “‘almãh” otherwise than by “parthenos,” but here in Isa. 7. 14," TARGET="_blank">Isa. 7. 14, where as Tregelles points out “it must to their minds have occasioned a difficulty,” they translate by the same word that we have in the Gospels. We may suppose these learned Jews—the translators of their own Scriptures—knew at least as much of Hebrew and Greek as Modernist scholars. Matthew does not appear to have quoted from the LXX, so is an independent witness. We do not, however, in any case, need even the authority of God-fearing scholars. This is a question in which “a wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err.” Let us look at the other occurrences of the word, “‘almãh,” in the Old Testament. It is used in Genesis 24:43" TARGET="_blank">Genesis 24:43 of Rebecca—the prospective wife of Isaac. The other word, “bethülãh, occurs in verse i6, as we might say “virgin” or “maid” indiscriminately. Miriam, in Exodus 2:8," TARGET="_blank">Exodus 2:8, is called an “‘almh,” and she was clearly not a young married woman, but a maiden. This suits, too, in Proverbs 30:19." TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 30:19. Canticles 10:3 seems to demand the sense of virgins, as also chap. 6. 8, as we have seen. Psalm 68:25" TARGET="_blank">Psalm 68:25 we may take as neutral; we cannot affirm the damsels to be virgins, though they might have been. Then there is another consideration. The name to be given to the child—”Emmanuel,” “God with us”—goes a long way to justify the translation of “virgin” by our Translators and Revisers, as such a birth demanded extraordinary concomitant circumstances. The context, too, favours the same conclusion. Jehovah had offered Ahaz any sign he might choose to ask—”in the depth or in the height” above, that is anything comparable with the drying up of the Red Sea or the Jordan, or on the other hand, with Joshua’s long day. When Ahaz refused, the prophet replied, “The Lord Himself shall give you a sign. “Behold a* (literally “the”) virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.” Clearly God’s sign would be something extraordinarily arresting. How else would the Eternal Son of God enter into manhood except in the womb of a Virgin? The birth of a son to a young married woman, far from being an arresting sign, would not be a sign at all, but the most atural of events.

W.H.

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Did Jesus have to be buried in order to complete his work?

As regards our Lord’s burial, is it right to say that, “Burial is a necessary part of our Lord’s vicarious work”?

“The Gospel includes it as we see 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4." TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. Adam being guilty, the judgment of God required that he should return to the earth whence he came. The burning outside the camp of the sin- offering when its blood was taken inside the veil, points to this”

It is important to distinguish between the penal and governmental consequences of sin. The former are defined in the words of the Lord God, “In the day that thou eatest therefore thou shalt surely die.” There is no mention till later of dust returning to dust, if we must take that as the equivalent of burial, though it is more a putting out of sight, than physical dissolution. Nor indeed was physical death the death primarily referred to in the above warning: additional precautions had to be taken to ensure that, namely the prevention of access to the Tree of Life—”Now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever (i.e., exist in a sin-haunted body), therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.” Nothing of an outward physical change seems to have taken place at the Fall, but a mysterious moral gulf had appeared between the creature and his Creator; he was afraid of God and hid himself. This was spiritual death.

In verses 16 to 19, the governmental consequences of the Fall are detailed quite distinct from death. The Christian is saved from the penal consequences of sin whereas he often has to know its governmental consequences. I believe the former were exhausted at the cross as the words, “It is finished,” declare, and as the rending of the veil proves. The Lord before breathing out His spirit was now no longer forsaken of His God for He commends it to His Father.

But as the writer Mr. J. T. well says, “The forsaking would not have been a public matter, had not our Lord uttered the cry.” So the death of the body was the outward and visible sign of that other death which had the much deeper significance of separation from God. I am surprised that Mr. J. T. should understand the meaning of the burning of the sin-offering outside the camp in Lev 4" TARGET="_blank">Lev 4 as burial. The word for “burning” is “araph,” representing Divine judgment; it is Christ’s suffering under God’s righteous judgment, outside the camp.

It is difficult to conceive our Lord Jesus as under Divine judgment when with reverent and loving hands He was laid in Joseph’s tomb. We may remark that His grave with the rich man was not a penalty for sin, but, “because he had done no violence neither was there any deceit in His mouth.” It is perfectly true that Christ’s burial is an eloquent testimony to the complete setting aside of the old man; but could it be said that our Lord was buried vicariously? I trow not. It is part of “the truth of the Gospel,” but as far as I remember, is only once referred to by an apostle in any public address in the Acts, which seems to show that it is not a significant part of the Gospel for the unsaved. But the Gospel is very great and extended, and has a close application to the believer. Perhaps we would be right in saying that the cross is the refuge for sinners, the sepulchre, the receptacle for the old man— Signified by baptism; and “in Christ” risen, the residence of the new man.

W.H.

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Is remembering the Lord a privilege of the Church?

Is remembering the Lord a privilege of the Church?

This is an instance where it is essential to distinguish between the "Church, the Body" (Ephesians 1:22, 23)" TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 1:22, 23) and the "Church of God" (Acts 20:28;" TARGET="_blank">Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 10:32; 11:22; 15:9;" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 1:2; 10:32; 11:22; 15:9; 2 Corinthians 1:1;" TARGET="_blank">2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:13;" TARGET="_blank">Galatians 1:13; 1 Timothy 3:5, 15)." TARGET="_blank">1 Timothy 3:5, 15). Although the Church of God expresses truth about the Church, the Body, it is not its local expression. They represent distinct truths. A few of many distinctions should demonstrate this: the Body has one Builder (Matthew 16:18" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 16:18 vs. 1 Corinthians 3:10);" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 3:10); the Body has one Shepherd (John 10:16" TARGET="_blank">John 10:16 vs. Acts 20:17, 28);" TARGET="_blank">Acts 20:17, 28); the Body is indestructible (Matthew 16:18" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 16:18 vs. 1 Corinthians 3:17;" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 3:17; Revelation 2:5; 3:16);" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 2:5; 3:16); being in the Body is irreversible (John 10:28" TARGET="_blank">John 10:28 vs. 1 Corinthians 5:12, 13);" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 5:12, 13); the Body’s testimony and visibility is future (Revelation 21:9-11" TARGET="_blank">Revelation 21:9-11 vs. 1:12, 20). 1 Corinthians 14:25" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 14:25 states clearly that some believers in Corinth were not in the "whole church." The unbelievers were neither in the Body nor in the "whole church" which met in Corinth; the unlearned are in the Body, but not the Church of God (they are not unbelievers, but not part of the "whole church"); "the whole church" describes those in both the Church of God and the Body (presumably).

"Assembly" is an alternative translation of "church." Referring to a church of God as an assembly is an easy and common way to distinguish it.

In the New Testament, remembering the Lord is always associated with an assembly. It is therefore clear that remembering the Lord is not a privilege of the Church, the Body, but is a privilege of a church of God, an assembly. Remembering the Lord is a responsibility for all in the Body, however (Luke 22:19);" TARGET="_blank">Luke 22:19); to the degree a believer fails to obey what the Lord ordained, he disobeys the Lord.

D. Oliver
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My friend has doubts about his salvation. How can I help?

How can we help a person when we doubt his profession of salvation?

The Lord seems to have dealt with people on the basis of what they claimed to be, even when He knew their claim was false. He addressed the Samaritan woman as a worshiper (John 4:20-24)," TARGET="_blank">John 4:20-24), the lawyer as an honest questioner (Luke 10:29-37)," TARGET="_blank">Luke 10:29-37), and the womans accusers as defenders of the law (John 8:6-9)." TARGET="_blank">John 8:6-9). He kept the channel of communication open, but immediately, graciously, and wisely used that open channel to convey truth that worked effectively to expose their position. By limiting our ability to communicate further with individuals, we can no longer help them. When we maintain a channel of communication, we can effectively communicate Gods living, powerful Word (Heb. 4:12)." TARGET="_blank">Heb. 4:12).

Allowing for the possibility that our assessment is mistaken, we can pray for him, take a genuine interest in him, and act on his claim to be saved: feed him with Gods Word and talk often about the Savior and salvation with him. A lack of response to Gods Word, transformation in the life, and appreciation for the value of the cross indicates a lack of spiritual life.

If he is not saved, the channel of communication remains open for seeing him saved. If he is saved, cultivating spiritual growth fulfils the responsibility to "disciple all nations" (Matthew 28:19)." TARGET="_blank">Matthew 28:19).

D. Oliver
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How is our priesthood related to the Breaking of Bread?

How is our priesthood related to the Breaking of Bread?

Old Testament priests offered for themselves (Hebrews 9:27)," TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 9:27), but primarily their work was mediatory. They functioned on behalf of others. When New Testament priests offer up spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5)," TARGET="_blank">1 Peter 2:5), they express what they have personally enjoyed of Christ, but they are offering worship to God on behalf of other believers. The worship of both sisters and brothers in Christ ascends to God in each expression of praise, for all are holy priests. The males lead in praise, as taught in 1 Corinthians 14:34," TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 14:34, while the sisters are silent. All join in saying "Amen" to the words of thanksgiving (v 16), because those words have expressed their thanksgiving.

Younger brothers in Christ help the gathering as they express their heartfelt appreciation of the Lord. Understanding their role as priests may increase the value of their contributions. Each is not merely adding his voice to the praise, but is expressing his appreciation as part of the assembly’s worship.

D. Oliver
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What is legalism?

Please explain "legalism." Is it the same as what "legalizing teachers" promoted in New Testament times?

"Legalism" as promoted by Judaizing teachers (Acts 15:1)" TARGET="_blank">Acts 15:1) taught that a person needed to keep the law in order to be saved. This is different from the commonly accepted (but not Biblically defined) concept of legalism today. Legalism is not a close, careful and complete obedience to the Word of God. That is faithfulness. Legalism goes beyond the Word of God and adds rules and requirements, not for salvation, but as either a test of reality or as a measure of spirituality. It may involve a sincere desire to please the Lord and take the form of "interpreting" what certain verses mean or "applying" Scriptures. Because it is of the flesh (Galatians 5:19,20)," TARGET="_blank">Galatians 5:19,20), it usually demands adherence to its view and allows no time for personal faith to accept or for personal exercise to develop (Romans 14:3)" TARGET="_blank">Romans 14:3)

A.J. Higgins

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Should a pastor scare his congregation by preaching about Hell?

Should a pastor scare his congregation by preaching about Hell?

That depends on why he is doing it and what he is preaching. Hell is definitely worth preaching about, because it is real. God's great salvation made possible through the death of Christ on the Cross is a salvation to rescue guilty sinners from going to hell. If there is no hell to preach, then salvation has no meaning. Thank God that the awfulness of hell is balanced by the wonder of God’s love for us and the miracle of Jesus’ sacrifice for us on Calvary. Preach one without the other and you have heresy.

Some preachers like to promote their own agenda using the fear of hell to bring their point home. A great crime is committed by anyone who, for example, would suggest that not attending a certain church or not paying a certain amount of money, or even committing a certain sin the preacher does not like will guarantee that a person will go there.

When a person says, “Go to hell!”, they are doing exactly that, seeking to make whatever bothers them about someone else worthy of God’s ultimate judgment. This is called “taking the name (authority) of the Lord in vain”, and God says in the 10 Commandments that that sort of carelessness will not go unpunished (Exodus 20:7)." TARGET="_blank">Exodus 20:7).

The fear of the Lord who can “destroy both body and soul in hell” (Matthew 8:28)" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 8:28) should sober us up so much that we are most afraid to misrepresent God in the matter. So let us preach it faithfully, but also fearfully, with reverence and balance and complete biblical accuracy.

Alfred Corduan

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