Future Things

Joseph Caples

Jan 30, 2020

I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us – Romans 8:18

There are many things we do not know about the end of this life or the end of the world. But God has given us all the assurance we need in order to look joyfully, expectantly forward.

Paul knew enough about what was coming to say, I reckon — an accounting term, meaning he had taken a careful inventory, done the calculations, and come to a careful and reliable conclusion. And what Paul was comparing was the sufferings of this time (with which he was intimately and personally acquainted) and the glory to come for every believer in Jesus Christ.

As Paul added up the multiple trials, heartaches, losses, and sorrows of this world and carefully considered this sum in relation to the glory afterwards, he came to this stunning realization: the two should not even be compared, because the amount of the one is so far greater than the mass of the other.

Anyone who has experienced even a fraction of the pain that this world holds will find this hard to imagine. We cannot conceive of a happiness so deep, a pleasure so complete, a glory so glorious that our grief here is swallowed up by it. But God does not ask us to fathom such a claim; he simply requires that by faith we believe it.

Are you living by faith in the enormity of glory, in the expansive joy that is found in the presence of Jesus?

Day 1 – Psalm 73:28 – Draw near, Trust Him and Declare His Works.

PSALMS OF COMFORT

Day 1 – Psalm 73:28 – Draw near, Trust Him and Declare His Works.

Here is the bold implication that we as a people wander away from God. This may not be our intention but yet the attractions of the world, the insistence of problems, distractions, work and family turn us to the beggarly things of this world and draw our attention away from God. A result of this separation are a growing dis-satisfaction with life. We encounter more afflictions and trials. We become engrossed in the art of fire fighting instead of seeking the nearness of the Lord. Stress, worry and indecision brings defeat, discouragement and dread. Our lives become a battle ground of drama, hurt feelings, loss of friendships, and broken heartedness. We are looking for acceptance of those that are infused with worldly wisdom. Anger and angst overtake our once happy peaceful lives. We have lost our joy of salvation, our joy of living and our thought process has turned from Godliness to self. When we draw near to the Lord rely and depend upon Him for the answers of life.

Our greatest need after salvation is to put our trust completely in Jesus. How often do we trust Him with our soul and not with our life? As we turn our sight more upon the Lord for our daily living, we find the help in the pitfalls of living. We rise up from our pity pot of sorriness and confer with the Lord about our attitudes. We rise above the pettiness of the world and strengthen our daily living with daily conversations with our Lord and Savior. When our bonds are strengthened spiritually, the critics of the world become irrelevant. Our desire is to please our Lord by trusting implicitly in Him.

Many are the people that have drawn closer to the Lord and thereby in obedience declared to a lost and dying world the great works of God. Those that are lost see the work of salvation that Christ accomplished on the cross. They see the myriad lives that have changed because of the inner work of the Savior. Our testimony is not just a verbal one but is one that is displayed by the life we live. We declare the mighty works of God. We affirm His spoken creation, His spoken decoration, and marvelous preservation of this world. Our greatest declaration and demonstration is of a greater work than creation of the world. Our greatest declaration and demonstration of the work of God and the Holy Spirit and the Son of God is the work they do in the cleansing of a wretched sin encrusted heart that is made pure by the work of Christ on the Cross.

Let us draw near and declare the work of Christ in man.

262 – Sept. 19 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

A church within prison walls

 

1662 – Francis Bampfield conducted worship in his house for his family and a few neighbors, his text was I Th. 5:6-7. Soldiers broke up the service producing a warrant and arrested Bampfield, Humphrey Philips his assistant, and twenty-five others who were taken to the home of the provost, Marshall, and detained for five days. All received rough treatment and were later released. Bampfield returned to preaching and was arrested again. After a series of arrests, trials, imprisonments, and persecutions he was finally imprisoned at Dorchester, England where his incarceration lasted for nine years. During this time he preached nearly every Sunday, and was able to establish a church within the prison walls. It was during this time that he embraced the observance of the Sabbath Day. Upon his release he started a church in Piner’s Hall in London, on March 5, 1675. He ministered there, whenever his “prison schedule” allowed until his death in 1684. It was also during this time that he came to accept believer’s immersion only as the scriptural means of baptism, and was immersed while an inmate. He led his congregation to that biblical position. On March 17, 1682, he was arrested for the last time. Following his trial, in which the jury, at the order of the judge, gave a verdict of guilty, he was imprisoned for what would prove the remainder of his life. He was imprisoned in the dread prison at Newgate and was buried in a new graveyard purchased by the Baptists near Aldersgate Street on Feb. 19 1684. [Richard L. Greaves, Saints and Rebels (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University. Press, 1985), p. 183.This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 513-15]
Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon