APRIL 17 – An Ensign

APRIL 17 – An Ensign

Num_2:2  Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house: far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.

Whose child are you? This is a very important question today. Who is your father? What family do you belong to? Who do you associate with? Who do you obey? Do you carry the family name proudly or do you give cause to bring shame upon the name of your family?

It appears that some lose their way and forget the family. They have lost track of their family values. That is why the Lord has an ensign, a flag, a standard so that those that see can recognize where the family should be. I have seen those that have been involved with a different family and then find out that family was not what it seemed to be on the surface. Then they have to cast around to find that familiar ensign or standard and thereby find their family again.

We know the Lord’s standard and the Church that He personally built while here on this earth. Our national flag of the United States is very distinctive. In the left upper corner, there is a field of blue with white stars. The rest of the flag has horizontal alternating red and white stripes. The Lord’s ensign or standard is also very distinctive. It is the Church that teaches, believes, and practices what the Lord has given it as an identification. These are:

1. Salvation by grace through faith only. Nothing more and nothing less. Ephesians 2:8,9.

2. Once saved, always saved. Salvation is based entirely upon Jesus and his shed blood. Hebrews 10:10; Romans 5:9; Hebrews 9:12 – Eternal redemption.

3 Local visible Church only. Philemon 1:2 Church in thy house. Galatians 1:2 – Churches (plural) of Galatia. I Corinthians 1:2 – Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth.

4. Baptism; Scriptural authority, Scriptural Candidate, Scriptural mode. Authority was given to the Church – Matt. 28:19,20. Scriptural candidate -Acts 8:36-39, Luke 3:7-9 Fruits meats for repentance. Show me you have repented. Scriptural Mode. – Immersion like being buried in the earth. Mark 1:9-11

5. Lord’s Supper restricted to that local church membership only. I Corinthians 1:2-13. Shows church discipline by putting outside the church membership to deny them the Lord’s Supper.

We have an ensign or standard that the Lord has given us. He gave us these things purposefully. The Lord’s people have gone into captivity because they have ignored the ensign or standard that has been given to us. Their captivity is the ignorance that blinds them to the ensign or signs of truth. Isaiah 5:26 says that God will lift up His ensign after his people have been scattered because of their unfaithfulness and will hiss and the people will come. Isaiah 11:10 speaks of the stem of Jesse that will reign during the thousand years and His ensign the Gentiles shall seek and the rest of the Lord shall be glorious.

Are you in the family of God. Jesus told Nicodemus, “ye must be born again.” John 3:3. You must be born into the family of God. If you have been born again, are you as close to the ensign as you can be? Are you following the truths of Gods Word faithfully? Our overwhelming desire should be to follow as close as we can the truths delivered to us.

APRIL 1 – Truth and Righteousness

APRIL 1 – Truth and Righteousness

Psalm 85:11  Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. 

This is a beautiful picture of the meeting between truth and righteousness. Truth from the earth? Who would have thought of such a thing? Let me reference something that I am a witness to. A young man who was at the least an agnostic went to college and took horticulture. As he learned about plants and the intricacies of plant growth and plant food he finally saw that this could not happen by chance. He became convinced that there is a God. I must relate that he is saved. The truth came out of the ground.

Isaiah 45:8  Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. 

There is a testimony in the creation of God that testifies to truth and salvation. We have an illustration in the New Testament of seed sown in the ground and life from that seed. Here is truth derived from the earth in the seed re-generating into life. I Corinthians 15 speaks of the body as seed and sown in the ground and will come forth a new body. Truth from the earth.

Now we have the righteousness from heaven. Directly from God. Righteousness and truth meet together. We know this righteousness is of God because Romans 1:17 speaks of the righteousness of God. Romans 1:20 speaks of the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made…. This creation reveals that there is a God and reveals that truth of salvation for men. The righteousness of God comes down to meet truth and convict man of that need of renewal, that need to be born again to experience everlasting life. We are told that even the rocks would cry out as a witness to the Savior and our need.

What a wonderful witness. May we be an even greater witness for our Lord.

357 – Dec. 24 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Nothing would stop him

 

 

 

1867 – Josiah Ripley Goddard and his wife Eliza Cushing Barker sailed for Ningpo, China. The 131 day journey was arduous, and the couple experienced much seasickness, but Josiah’s goal of serving in China was fulfilled. On Sept. 30, 1868 a baby boy was born, but Josiah’s lovely bride died the next day and the baby was soon to follow. This was the second wife that he had buried. His first wife, Emma Tripp, had died right after he had fought in the Civil War. He had enlisted soon after he had graduated from Brown University, his father’s alma mater. Josiah was the first born in the family of Josiah and Eliza Goddard, missionaries to Bangkok and Ningpo. He was born in Singapore on Sept. 7, 1840 as his parents were enroute to Bangkok. When Josiah Ripley was thirteen he was sent to America by his parents to live with a missionary widow, Maria Brown, but before the ship arrived she married Dr. William Dean, and they had moved away, and Worchester College where he was to train had closed its doors, and the young traveler was adrift on his own. It was not long before he received word of the death of his father in Ningpo, and then three years later his mother died, so he and his sister had to fend for themselves. They lived on corn meal mush for a long period of time. After Eliza died in Ningpo, Dr. William Dean and his daughter Fanny arrived for a visit from Bangkok. That visit culminated in the marriage of Josiah and Fanny. For more than thirty years he and Fanny labored in Ningpo. His crowning achievement was completing the work of his father in the translation of the Old Testament into the dialect of the area.  [This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 703-04. Francis Wayland Garland, Called to Cathay (New York: Baptist Literature Bureau, 1948), p. 67.]   Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

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247 – Sept. 04 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

He Died as He was Born

 

1688 – “Wednesday…was kept in prayer and humiliation for this Heavy Stroak upon us, ye Death of deare Brother Bunyan. Apoynted also that Wednesday next be kept in praire and humiliation on the same Account.” John Bunyan, their most loved pastor had died on Friday, Aug. 31 while on a preaching trip to London, England. The news had not reached his congregation in Bedford until they had gathered to worship the following Sunday. Bunyan often preached to as many as 3,000 in London after spending nearly 13 years in Bedford jail for refusing a license to preach the gospel. There he had written Pilgrim’s Progress and other great works. In 1672 the Act of Pardon had set him free. He was born to a tinker (a repairer of pots and pans). He married in 1647 and was saved and baptized into the membership of Bedford church in 1655. His wife died the same year and he remarried in 1659. He had a precious blind daughter who visited him while in jail. He died as he was born, in poverty. His death came when he was exposed to a heavy rain which brought on a high fever, and in ten days the great preacher was with the Lord. [John Brown, John Bunyan His Life Times and Work (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1888), pp. 390-91.  This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 483-485.]  Prepared by Dr. Greg Dixon

 

 

J.R. GRAVES Life, Times, and Teachings. 3

Chapter 1

HIS BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS

In the quiet retreats among the foothills of the Green Mountains of Vermont, in the early years of the nineteenth century, there stood a quiet village called Chester. Following the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, some valiant men of Huguenot blood, having escaped the horrors of that awful tragedy, found asylum in the rural retreats near this village.

Among these one Zuinglius Calvin Graves, the youngest of three brothers, established a modest home and entered the mercantile business. Into that humble Christian home were born three children. The oldest of these was Z.C. Graves, afterwards the distinguished president of Mary Sharp College of Winchester, Tennessee. The next was a daughter, Louisa Maria, who afterwards became the wife of Prof. W.P. Marks, at one time mayor of Edgefield, Tennessee, before it was incorporated into the city of Nashville. Later, both Professor Marks and his wife joined the faculty of Mary Sharp College. The third child of the family was James Robinson Graves, the subject of this biography, who was born on April 10, 1820.

When the child was but two weeks old, a great calamity befell the family in the sudden death of the father. Then it was discovered that the business had been so manipulated by an unworthy partner, that it left the widow and the three children with but a small farm of unproductive land. It is not our purpose to linger over the sorrowful years of this brave woman, but let this meed of praise be laid at her worthy feet, she dipt the household together and made it Christian. “Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates.”

The question may arise as to the reason for writing this biography so long after Dr. Graves has ceased his active career among men. Some of the reasons I have stated in the introduction. Other reasons are to be found in the estimates of men who lived with him and knew him well. A few of these expressions will be given in the next post.

23 – Jan. 23 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

His last words were, “SWEET HOME,”
 Charles Dutton Mallary was born in West Paultney, Rutland County, Vermont, on Jan. 23, 1801.  He had deeply pious parents, especially his mother.   He experienced the saving grace of Christ when he was sixteen during a revival.  He was immersed into the fellowship of the Baptist church in West Paultney, Clark Kendrick pastor, in June of 1822.  He graduated from Middlebury College in August 1817 and taught school for a year.  He became burdened to preach the gospel and relocated in Charleston, S.C. where he began preaching and became licensed by the local church, and in 1824 received a call to pastor the First Baptist Church of Columbia, S.C., where he was ordained.  On July 11, 1825 he married Miss Susan Mary Evans, the maternal granddaughter of the eminent preacher, Edmund Botsford.  Susan died in 1834.  He married again in 1840 to Mrs. Mary E. Welch.  After two years he moved 20 miles southeast to pastor Beulah and Congaree Baptist Churches.  In 1830 he accepted a call to the First Baptist Church in Augusta, GA.  In 1834 he went to a church in Milledgevillle, GA, but because of poor health, only stayed for two years.  At that point he began working with Mercer University where he served as agent from 1837-1839.  With a passion to preach he accepted the position as Missionary for the Central Association.  This was the most effective time of his ministry when he preached great revivals in the central area of Georgia.  From 1840 – 1864 he lived in Twiggs and Sumter Counties and resided in Jeffersonville for many years ministering in a number of churches until 1848 when he was called to the LaGrange church, until 1852.  He moved to Albany and because of poor health was unable to pastor but preached until the end in 1864 at the age of sixty-four. His last words were,  “SWEET HOME,” (clapping his hands).
Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. IIII: Cummins, pp. 47-48.

Daughter: But Mommy, My Brother Was Born in Your Belly | LifeNews.com

Daughter: But Mommy, My Brother Was Born in Your Belly | LifeNews.com.

Our Predestined Appointment

OUR PREDESTINED APPOINTMENT

At the moment we were born, a countdown began on our lives. Every tick of the clock brings us one step closer to our inescapable appointment with God. Each of us will stand before Him as we are about to enter our eternal destination.

Tragically, there will be shocking disappointment for some. Jesus Himself warned, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name . . . ?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” ( Matt. 7:22 -23 ).

The only way to eternal life is through faith in Jesus. Truly, our sin has separated us from the Father. But God’s Son provided the solution to this universal problem: Christ lived a perfect life and then died a sinner’s death on the cross to pay the penalty each of us owed ( Rom. 6:23 ). After three days, He rose from the grave, defeating death and evil. By accepting His sacrifice on our behalf, we no longer have to live apart from God.

To receive this amazing gift, we must simply believe in Jesus and what He did. As a result, we become new creations ( 2 Cor. 5:17 ), are adopted as God’s children ( Eph. 1:5 ), and enter into a never-ending personal relationship with our Father.

Do you have confidence about where you will spend eternity? You may assume you have time to figure out this important issue, but let me give you some wise advice: Don’t wait another minute to settle the matter, because “later” may never come. Repent of your sin today, and follow Jesus.

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Born Of Water

I will address the issue of Nicodemus again. In John 3:1-8; Nicodemus came to Jesus and made a statement that Jesus had come from God. The reply of Jesus is very important to every man – ye must be born again. Nicodemus did not understand and questioned Jesus about Nicodemus mother, physical being able to do this. Here is where many start going wrong in this passage. Jesus speaks spiritual things and Nicodemus is speaking physical things. Jesus said one must be born of water and of the Spirit. Don’t go wrong here now. Jesus addresses Nicodemus physical application and extends the spiritual application. Born of water is the physical birth that each of us experienced when we were ushered into this sin decayed world. In the womb we lived in a sack of water. Yes! I know it was not literal water, okay? We always say “her water broke.”

Now Jesus points Nicodemus to the Spiritual New Birth. Notice verse 6 – that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The physical birth that Nicodemus spoke of. “that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit,” the Spiritual birth that Jesus was referring to. Keeping everything in context and reading the context helps us to not make a false interpretation of God’s Word.