.

.

Daily Devotional, Year 4: April 2 

.

.

.

.

.

ABC Christianity

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

“But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you,

and ye need not that any man teach you:

but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,

and is truth, and is no lie,

and even as it hath taught you,

ye shall abide in Him.”

1st John 2:27.

.

.

.

.

When you were young, did one of your friends ever offer you ABC gum?

.

And you said, “Sure!”, only to see them pull gum out of their mouth, and hand it to you! Then they laughingly explained that ABC stood for “Already Been Chewed”!

.

Okay, so that joke only worked one time, leaving you a little embarrassed, but just a little bit wiser!

.

Chewed gums wikimedia share-alike license

.

.

.

.

.

ABC STEAK?

.

But can you imagine going into a restaurant, and ordering from the menu, “ABC steak”?

.

And then, when it was brought out to you, there it was, a steak which had already been chewed!

.

Well, you probably wouldn’t think that was so funny!

.

And you probably would never go back to that restaurant, ever again!

.

King David Hotel waiter wikimedia share-alike license

.

.

.

.

.

HAVING OTHERS CHEW OUR FOOD!

.

Well, for some reason, too many Christians are seeking after ABC Christianity!

.

What’s that, you ask?

.

ABC Christianity is when a church-goer reads everything but the Bible! It’s as if we’re afraid of the Bible! It’s as if we need to have somebody else chew it for us! As if we have no spiritual teeth!

.

Oh yes, there may be some very nice books in the Christian bookstore. And of course there’s nothing wrong with reading (or listening to) a biblical perspective.

.

But if we are not extremely well-grounded in the Bible, how are we to discern whether or not we are reading 100% truth?

.

After all, Satan is a master at concealing lies in a book or a sermon, or a Bible study, which contains 90% truth.

.

Holy bible – wikimedia – cropped image – creative commons lic.

.

.

.

.

.

90% OATMEAL

.

It’s like the proverbial mouse poison.

.

You can’t fool the mouse, unless you first mix the poison with 99% oatmeal!

.

And so it is with religious books! Oh yes, they may have many Scriptures mingled in.

.

But more often than not, they have some sort of lie mingled in, too!

.

Oatmeal – copyrighted but permissable for use wikimedia commons

.

.

.

.

.

“EXAMINE YOURSELVES…PROVE YOUR OWN SELVES”

.

For instance, there is a false notion blowing through the church-world, that it is a denial of faith to ever question your Salvation.

.

But the fact is, the Bible encourages us to question whether we are truly saved, or just living a lie.

.

Listen… “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2nd Corinthians 13:5.

.

Thus, by reading many of today’s Christian books, one may never realize that it’s a command of God to examine and prove if our Salvation is real or not!

.

Well this is just one example of how easy it is for Satan to slip a lie into other books!

.

USMC – Prayer before Bible study – Wikimedia – Public Domain

.

.

.

.

.

KNOW THE REAL THING, SPOT THE COUNTERFEIT!

.

After all, even the people of the world know that you don’t discover counterfeit money by studying counterfeit money.

.

No, counterfeit money is detected by studying real money! And so it is also with Christianity. A Christian must study the real thing first: the Bible! And only then can he or she easily spot the counterfeit doctrines.

.

In today’s high-tech world, it’s so easy to simply turn on the TV or radio, and just leave it on all day, tuned to a Christian station.

.

These stations are mostly preaching some form of an “Itching Ears” gospel.

.

10000 bill wikipedia public domain

.

.

.

.

.

“PUT YE NOT CONFIDENCE IN A GUIDE”

Micah 7:5

.

But even some of the great radio preachers of yesteryear, have errors in the otherwise good teachings!

.

We just can’t leave the responsibility of our soul’s Salvation in the hands of erring, fallible men! No matter how much we respect or even revere them!

.

Listen to the apostle, John…

“But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you,

and ye need not that any man teach you:

but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,

and is truth, and is no lie,

and even as it hath taught you,

ye shall abide in Him.”

1st John 2:27.

.

So here we see that God is telling us that we just don’t really need anybody to teach us!

.

We have the Holy Spirit to teach us (if we’re truly saved).

.

.

.

.

.

NO REPLACEMENT FOR PERSONAL STUDY!

.

“But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you,

and ye need not that any man teach you:

but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,

and is truth, and is no lie,

and even as it hath taught you,

ye shall abide in Him.”

1st John 2:27.

.

This above verse from 1st John reveals that we are not required to have any person teach us!

.

Nobody!

.

Because, as this verse plainly states, the Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know.

.

And there is no replacement for just sitting down with a good King James Bible, and perhaps a Strong’s Concordance, and simply compare scripture with scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

.

However pressing his duties STM2-c James Lee Frazer always finds time to read a few chapters from his Bible each day. I – NARA – 520675 – Wikimedia – Public Domain

.

.

.

.

.

“WHEN FOR THE TIME YE OUGHT TO BE TEACHERS”

.

And each and every Christian should come to the point of reaching “teacher-statues”.

.

Listen to Paul…

“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,

ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God;

and are become such as have need of milk,

and not of strong meat.”

Hebrews 5:12.

.

Paul is scolding us, because we have been letting others do our Bible studying and even do our thinking for us, when instead, we ourselves should be teachers by now!

.

Apostle Paul Wikipedia Public Domain

.

.

.

.

.

SLINGING STONES…AND NOT MISS!

. 

So in conclusion, each and every one of us needs to become so well-grounded in the Bible that, we each can… “sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.” (Judges 20:16).

.

Yes, the verses of the Bible are those stones. And we all need to be willing to deny ourselves every earthly pleasure, if it means spending more time in God’s Word. And for Heaven’s sake! Let’s stop eating all that ABC gum, and all that ABC food, and starting eating God’ Word instead!

.

Yes, it takes a lot of chewing. But it will be well worth the effort! 

.

Osmar Schindler David und Goliath wikipedia US public domain

.

.

.

.

.

TODAY’S PRAYER…

“Dear Lord, Give me a deep love for Thy Word. Open my eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of Thy Word…

Marine Praying – Wikimedia – USMC Public Domain

.

.

.

.

.

READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Martha, the “Doer” & Mary, the “Hearer””

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

.

.

.

.

.

THE END

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

TODAY’S FEATURED HEAVENLY SIGN

.

.

.

A STAR & SCEPTER ARISES IN THE NIGHT SKY

.

“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.” Psalms 45:6

.

Now, this 3rd brightest star in the night heavens, Arcturus, seems to very nicely fulfill the prophecy, “there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel” Numbers 24:17. But where would the scepter be in this prophecy? After all, it speaks not only of a star rising, but also of a scepter.

.

.

.

.

NOT THE NORTHERN NOR THE SOUTHERN CROSS

.

.

This is not the Northern Cross, nor is it the Southern Cross. This cross is made of stars from both the Serpens Constellation and the Ophiuchus Constellation. Here is a star-chart from Wikipedia, in which the editor of this site has sketched in this Cross/Scepter Constellation. The stars in this star-chart are accurately placed, and this Cross/Scepter Constellation stands out in brilliance, among the other stars in the night sky.

.

The sketch below is the Summer Constellations, as seen when looking west. Well, if you look just to the south (south is to the left in this sketch) of Arcturus, you will see what appears to be a scepter. But this scepter also appears as a Cross. And this constellation has been named, the Cross/Scepter constellation. It can be seen in January, in the pre-dawn hours. Each night, it appears a little earlier, as it slowly inches its way westward. Finally this constellation dips below the western horizon, in the fall, not appearing again till January, back in the eastern sky.

.

Now, as earlier stated, this wonderful prophecy (“there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel”) has its greatest fulfillment in the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus is represented by that glorious Star. And His death on the Cross is truly His scepter of authority. Jesus died to save a world of rebellious sinners.

.

Sceptre_and_Orb_and_Imperial_Crown_of_Austria Wikipedia photo by Michal Maňas US public domain

.

.

.

.

READ MORE…

To explore deeper into this subject, please read… “Cross/Scepter Constellation”

Question book magnify svg – Wikimedia – GNU license

.

.

.

.

.

TOMORROW:

April 3 (The Evil-Eyed Pharisee Scorner, Part 7: “God Is No Respecter of Persons!”)

Homeless man reading Bible – Wikimedia share-alike license

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

THE DESIRE OF AGES, BY ELLEN G. WHITE

.

This is a chapter of the audio book about the Gospel of Jesus Christ in His life and ministry.

.

Chapter 48 – Who Is the Greatest?

.

.

ABOVE STAR-CHART: The Sign of the Son of Man Constellation – made of the various constellations on this website

.

.

.

.

.

EXCERPTS FROM THE OPEN FORUM QUESTION/ANSWER RADIO TALK-SHOW…

.

This recording #142, is a small 30 minute sampling of the late Harold Camping’s 90 minute nightly talk shows. This particular program aired in the last few years of his 50 year radio ministry, and includes caller’s questions regarding his teachings on “the end of the church age”…

.

.

ABOVE PICTURE: Holy bible – Wikimedia – Creative Commons 

.