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Logos Ministries Incorporated
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Volume 6, Number 2 September 1998
IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF THE THING! (This is the ninth in a series of meditations on principles one can find in the Scriptures; principles that affect the way we live and serve God.) A SECOND CHANCE?! There are a host of people who when offended will never forgive, much less forget. The offending party may completely change and be thoroughly repentant, but in the eyes of the one wronged that person will forever remain tainted, rejected and ostracized. Our God, however, has been called" the God of the second chance." Peter is usually the first to come to mind. He had three opportunities to take his stand as Jesus' disciple when questioned outside the palace of the High Priest. Nevertheless, Peter repeatedly denied that he even knew Jesus. Peter even called down a curse upon himself if he knew Jesus. Though Jesus earlier had taught Peter to turn the other cheek, still when the temple guards came to take Jesus into custody, Peter drew a sword and cut off the soldier's ear. Peter would never make it as a soldier. Yet, on the day of Pentecost, God through the Holy Spirit used Peter to take his stand preaching the Gospel and 3,000 were saved. In Genesis 20:2, Abraham lied to Abimelech saying that Sarah was his sister. In a dream, God warned Abimelech not to touch Sarah and added this statement, "Now restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for you and you will live." Abraham told the lie and God promised that he would pray for Abimelech and the king would live. The other part of this story is that when God told Abraham to go to a place He would show him, Abraham went. When God told Abraham that he was going to destroy Sodom, Abraham pleaded with God to spare the righteous people of the city. Here is a case of a spiritual giant who did something wrong, but God forgave him and used him again. Abraham had trouble believing God could give him a son some 35 years after Social Security. Still, he could be used by God to establish the nation of Israel and become a part of the lineage of the Messiah. The New Testament tells us that John Mark went with his Uncle Barnabas and the apostle Paul on a missionary journey. When things became difficult, however, John Mark left and went home. This was so distressing that it precipitated a division between Barnabas and Paul. Later, however, you see Mark working with Paul and Paul saying that he was a valued coworker. Paul said to the Galatian Christians, "Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted." Paul instructed these Christians to not only restore such a person, but to do it in a spirit of gentleness. That is the attitude of which we speak. In Matthew 18, Peter asked Jesus an important question: "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus' answer had to be shocking, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." This is the characteristic of Jesus. He was determined to forgive the erring brother one more time than he sinned. The book of Judges is an excellent example of the thing we are highlighting. God brought Israel out of Egypt with a mighty hand. As they were getting ready to go into the land of Israel, God commanded them to drive the people out of the land. In the first chapter, one tribe after another did not drive the Canaanites out of the land. The punishment for this disobedience was that the people got what they wanted. These people who were supposed to be driven out became a thorn in the side of Israel. Repeatedly, Israel sinned and their enemies conquered them and oppressed them. Israel cried to the Lord and He delivered them. Invariably, they sinned again and were defeated by their enemies. When oppression became unbearable, Israel cried to the LORD and He sent them a Judge to deliver them from their oppression, only to have this happen again and again. As a young lad, David was a faithful servant of God. When David came to power, something changed. He was different than he had been as a young man. We point to the terrible things that David did in relationship to Bathsheba and her husband. Nevertheless, God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin. It was not a punishment, but rather a way to get David to cease his erring ways. Even though David sinned grievously, still God was willing to forgive and used David again to accomplish His purposes in the kingdom of Israel. Only about David does the scriptures say, "he was a friend of God." Perhaps the greatest honor that God reserved for this errant king was that he was a vital part of the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah. Have you read the story of Hosea, the prophet? If so, you know that his wife betrayed him and lived with other men. As a visual message to the people, Hosea took her back to be his wife as though she had done nothing wrong. What a beautiful picture of the mercy and grace of God! You probably remember Jacob's son, Judah. Genesis 37 and 38 tell his story. In chapter 37, Judah was the one who suggested that Joseph be sold as a slave. In effect, he was sentencing his brother to certain death in a very short time. In that culture, the average life span of a slave was approximately two years. Again, to sell a person as a slave was an unconscionable thing to do. To sell a person as a slave to the Midianites was far worse. It was much worse yet to sell a Jew to the Midianites In Genesis 38, Judah refused to provide a husband for his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Thinking he was having a sexual relationship with a temple prostitute, Judah was actually having a relationship with Tamar. These were two situations for which Judah should have felt much guilt. Still, God was not vengeful. In Judges, chapter one, the people of Israel asked God who should lead them into battle to take the land from the Philistines who inhabited it. In verse two God replied, "Judah shall go up; behold I have given the land into his hand." In each instance, there is a picture of God with His intense desire to forgive and restore those who love Him imperfectly. God looks past our failures to bless our lives and use our faltering ways to serve and extend His kingdom. What a great God we serve! Bill Cooper IT'S HERE!! The book entitled PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, has arrived from the publishers. It was delivered on July 8, just three days before I left for Garrett. This is a sequel to the book IMITATORS OF GOD. This book is a study of 13 qualities of spiritual growth. The table of contents contains such topics as "Abiding In Christ," "Prayer," "Holy Anger," "Pure In Heart," "Self-control," "Steadfastness," "Approvedness," "Blamelessness," "Contentment," "Guilelessness," "Hope," "Faith" and "Peacemakers." The study was done in preparation for the Spiritual Life Retreat in Tipton, Indiana, April 30 through May 2 of this year. SINCEREST FORM OF PRAISE Morris Publishing Company of Kearney, Nebraska publishes our books for us. They publish their own catalogue for writers that need help with design, etc. When we received their latest catalogue they had used our book DISCOVERING THE MESSAGE OF SCRIPTURE to show what can be done on the cover of a book. We felt honored, to say the least. WRITING AT GARRETT I am writing this newsletter at Garrett. On July 11, I left Colorado to go to Garrett. I started teaching on Monday, July 13. I will teach a course in Bible July 13 – 23. I will repeat the course July 27 – August 6. I have been teaching this course at Garrett since 1980. At night, during this module, I am teaching a free course in how to do Inductive Bible Study. During the second module, I will teach a course in HOW TO USE THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW THE LANGUAGE. It makes a busy schedule, but it is a great joy and the students are eager to learn. I teach all morning, then grade papers all afternoon and teach these free courses for two hours in the evening. ANOTHER NEW BOOK For more than 20 years I have been teaching people how to use the Greek New Testament when they do not know the language. This Spring I finally took the time to write down the things I have been teaching over these years. It is entitled DIGGING DEEPER. Some pastors have already indicated that they will be teaching this course to some of the people in their church Bible study classes. That is really exciting to me and I am very grateful. A NEW PRICELIST As always, there is a price list on the back page of this newsletter. There is a change, however. The prices have changed. Please take a look at the price list. It is much better! YET ANOTHER SCHEDULE CHANGE. In the last issue of this newsletter, we told you of a change in my travel schedule. It happened again. There are a number of changes in the course offerings of both seminaries. These changes also necessitate changes in the teaching schedules. Fortunately, this does not make it impossible for me to teach there. The new schedule looks like this: September 24 – October 18 – Donetsk to teach a course in the book of Judges to the third year seminary class. January 22 – February 8, 1999 – Donetsk to teach a course in the book of Luke to the first year seminary class. We would appreciate your prayers as we prepare to carry out these assignments. Because the schedules have been rearranged, it will be necessary to speed up the process of getting a visa to get into the country. Normally, this does not take very long, but the process continues to lengthen and as a result it takes longer and longer to arrange for these necessary papers. We have only eight weeks in which to take care of all these matters. God is able to work out these details. NEW BOOK UNDER WAY Having finished the first two books in the series, (Imitators Of God and Partakers Of The Divine Nature) we have begun the research phase of the more difficult of the three books in this series. This book attempts to describe what it means to have an intimate relationship with God. We would appreciate your prayers as we begin this task. ANOTHER NEW STUDY? Often the teaching schedule in the Ukraine and Moscow will call for me to teach in an area in which I have not written a book. When this happens, I must get busy and write lectures for that teaching session. It has happened again. The next time I go to Moscow, I will be teaching a course in the Pentateuch – Genesis through Deuteronomy. I have written two volumes about Genesis, but have not written about the other four books. It will be another year before I go to Moscow, but I must start now preparing these lectures. When each set of lectures is completed, they will be edited and prepared for publishing and will be available in book form. At this point, we are spending a little time each day working on the lectures for Exodus. Pray with us that this will go very well. WE HAVE A WEBSITE!! We are trying to catch up to the progress of the 20th. century. As you know, we have been online for several months. Dr, Peter Stone, our computer man, has prepared an excellent website for us. On this site you can see copies of all of our newsletters. You can also find selected chapters from each of the books that Logos Ministries has prepared. If you are online, check into our website and browse for a while. The URL is: |
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