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Bright and shining lights

Bright and shining lights in the Bible #5

Stream or download Bright and shining lights in the Bible #5

Now let us see the second thing we obtain from reading and believing the Bible.

It is PATIENCE. “ . . . . . that we through patience.”

The word translated ‘patience’ in Rom 15:4 means in the New Testament, the endurance of a man who is not made to  swerve from his purpose and his loyalty to God and His truth, not even by the greatest trials and sufferings. This patience comes from our reading, studying and believing the Bible.

1. As we read the Bible we are enabled to bear patiently with life’s trials.
Waiting for a bus can create impatience but when it appears around a corner, suddenly impatience goes. The Bible shows us that we are not waiting in vain, 1 Corinthians 15:58.
The vine encounters winds and buffetings of the weather. But it is tied to a support and so can stand the buffeting. What the Bible tells us enables us to have patience and gives us comfort in our troubles! “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy,” James 5:11.  In the story of Job we ‘see the end, the purpose that God worked out in his trials!’ Job 42:12.
We learn that the Lord rescues His people from trial and sustains them and this truth gives us comfort.

2. In life we shall ALL have trials. So said the Lord Jesus. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” John 16:33. We cannot live in a world filled with enemies without encountering opposition and trial. BUT, the Lord Jesus our DELIVERER has conquered the world so we may run to Him in our trouble.  “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe,” Proverbs 18:10. See also Ps 34:19.

Bright and shining lights in the Bible #4

Stream or download Bright and shining lights in the Bible #4

We have been considering how that we will “learn” as a result of studying the history of the righteous men and women given us in the Bible. We have learned that the Bible will give us – Roms 15:4.

  • A knowledge which will take us to heaven.
  • A knowledge which will guide us in the darkness.
  • A knowledge of what to do in a time of crisis.

Here is the TEACHER of teachers!!

Roses growing up a trellis – so we must grow up, clinging to the Bible. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” Proverbs 22:6.

Note the phrase – ‘in the way he should go’. Not the way he ‘would like to  go’! Vine dresser ties the vine to a frame. Otherwise it would just lie in the dirt! So it is with us! By holding on to God’s Word we stay away from the dirt of sin and bear fruit for the Lord!
Now see the second thing we obtain from reading and believing the Bible is PATIENCE. “ . . . . . that we through patience.”

But you will have to have patience and wait until next Friday for us to deal with that subject!

Bright and shining lights in the Bible #3

Stream or download Bright and shining lights in the Bible #3

We are considering how that we will “learn” as a result of studying the history of the righteousness given us in the Bible.* It is a knowledge which will guide our feet in the darkness of this world.  “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path,” Ps 119:105.

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts,” 2 Peter 1:19.

Both these verses indicate the source of light that will guide us in the darkness of this world.* It will show us what to do in a time of crisis. “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things,” Luke 24:45.

When there is confusion, as there was in the hearts of the two on the road to Emmaus, the Bible, under the Holy Spirit’s blessing, will show us the way.