January 24, 2010

Morning Meeting  

• Hymn 150 - Thou art the Everlasting Word

• Scripture:

  • 1 Timothy 3:16
  • Hebrews 1:1 - 3
• Hymn 79 - Brightness of th’ eternal glory
• Scripture: John 14:8 & 9
• Hymn 246, book 2 - Eternal word, Eternal Son
• Prayer
• Hymn 82 - Jesus, Thou alone art worthy
• Scripture: Philippians 2:5 - 11
• Breaking of Bread
• Hymn 8 - O Lord, we adore Thee
• Ministry: John 17:1 - 5
• Prayer

Ministry : Norman Burgess

John 17:1 - 5

“God manifest, God seen and heard”. He’s been made known to us. He’s the Only True God. 

Children’s Meeting: Gordon Burgess

Hymn 139 - Nothing but the Blood of Jesus

Prayer

Today I’d like to go on talking about creatures in the Bible. Our first one for today is the:

1. Ape - II Chronicles 9:21, I Kings 10:22

Through these verses we find that apes weren’t native to Palestine. Solomon had to have them brought from over seas. Now, the ape is a very important animal in Darwin’s theory of Evolution. In his theory, they evolve into humans. However, an ape couldn’t evolve into a human because an ape has 24 chromosomes, whereas a human has 23. They don’t match up. Also, an ape has just a body and a soul. Humans have a body, a soul, and a spirit; and you can’t evolve a spirit.

Our second creature is:

2. Ass (or donkey) - Genesis 22:3

We can see that asses were used to carry things, and used as a means of transportation. Job 39:5. A wild ass is very stubborn. They need a lot of work and training before they will do what you want them to do. Numbers 22:22-31. Here, God allowed Balaam’s donkey to speak to him. Matthew 21:5. This is where Jesus rides a foal into Jerusalem. Usually, a young donkey wouldn’t want to be away from it’s mother. But here he just went along quietly. Zechariah 9:9. This is where Zechariah prophesied that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on that donkey. And when  our Lord comes back to reign, He will bring peace to this earth.  The story of the ass starts with stubbornness, but it ends in peace. When we were unsaved, we were stubborn like the ass. We did what we wanted to do. But once we are saved, the Lord can change our attitude, and we can peacefully do His will.

I hope that our look at the ape and the ass has been helpful.

Reading Meeting: Nehemiah 9:18 - 20

We saw last time what the children of Israel did in v.18: they made the golden calf. In v. 19, we saw the mercies of God to them in bearing with them through their sin. They had His presence with them in the form of a pillar of cloud or fire.

During this time—the forty years in the wilderness—God gave them three things. v. 20:

• His good spirit
• Manna
• Water His good spirit is actually the Spirit of God. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God came upon certain individuals at certain times. Here, we see that God gave them His Spirit to instruct them. We have the same opportunity: read I John 2:20 & 27. We can be taught by the Spirit, if we are willing. 

Talking about being instructed, read John 14:16 & 26; the Spirit helps us remember what has been said (in His Word) in the past. Now read ch. 15:26: the Spirit will testify to us of what is present, the Lord in the glory. Finally, read ch. 16:7 - 13. The Spirit will show us things of the future. We have been blessed with a full teaching from the indwelling Spirit.

Hymn 263 - The glory shines before me!

Prayer