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Lowell Brueckner

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The Vision of the Flying Scroll

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Then again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, a flying roll. And he said unto me,
What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on the one side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off on the other side according to it.  I will cause it to go forth, saith Jehovah of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name; and it shall abide in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.                                   Zacariah 5:1-4

Up to this point in his first four chapters, the message of the prophet was full of consolation and hope for Israel. He prophesied that God had prepared destruction for her enemies and promised protection for her future. God would dwell among them and the Gentiles would be drawn to her, as well. He saw the purification of the high priest and learned of a Unique Stone, a Servant and a Branch, who would take away sin from the earth in one day. In the last chapter, he received a message for Zorobabel that stated that the Holy Spirit would do a supernatural work to reconstruct the temple.

Nevertheless, the message would not be properly balanced, if it did not also present the curse upon those, who persisted in their evil ways; God also cares for them. They will be excluded from the blessings to come. So that none will be deceived, along with the promise of forgiveness for the repentant sinner, the Scriptures guarantee with solemn certainty that “no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God… because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Eph.5,5,6) and “those that practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal.5:21). “The cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars” (Rev.21:8), will be excluded. 1 John 3:8 proclaims: “He that practices sin is of the devil”.

What is Spiritual Power By A. B. Simpson

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A. B. Simpson was founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a movement which was dedicated to taking the gospel to the far ends of the world. This is the movement, to which A. W. Tozer belonged and, in fact, Tozer wrote Simpson’s biography, Wingspread. My father also belonged to the C&MA and loved to read Simpson’s Christ-exalting books.

His message wonderfully echoed the cry of the Apostle Paul, “Not I, but Christ in me”. One of Simpson’s many hymns was entitled simply, Himself: “Once it was a blessing,” the hymn stated, “now it is the Lord… Once for gifts I wanted, now the giver own, once I sought for healing, now Himself alone.” A. B. Simpson’s love for Jesus drowned out all else and left him with a single passion… Christ alone! Oh God, give us again preachers and hymn writers like this man!

What kind of man could inspire hundreds of missionaries to go to most of the countries on this planet with the message of salvation? Well, a guest in Simpson’s home got up at 4:30 a.m. and walked out of his room into the hallway. He noticed that the door to Simpson’s office was ajar and light came from the small opening. He heard weeping and looking through the crack, he could see Simpson standing above a large globe of the world, embracing it, his tears falling upon the countries below his face. Read the following from this godly man…

What is spiritual power? First, it is the power which convicts of sin. It is the power that makes the hearers to see themselves as God sees them, and humbles them in the dust. It sends people home from the house of God not feeling better but worse; not always admiring the preacher, but often so tried that they perhaps resolve that they will never hear him again. But they know from their inmost soul that he is right and they are wrong. It is the power of conviction; the power that awakens the conscience and says to the soul, “You are the man.” It is the power of which the apostle speaks in connection with his own ministry: “by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”

I Am the True Vine

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Some key thoughts in this article: The fruitful branch is trimmed drastically (vines more than trees) and pruned close to the vine… If the church would submit to such pruning, it would completely wipe out traditionalism… The pruning process removes distance (from Christ) and indirect connections are eliminated… Dependence on a program competes with dependency upon Christ alone… Success is not the same as fruit bearing… Material that the Holy Spirit uses to teach His people is Bible material… To pray without ceasing means that we are to habitually practice praying as Jesus commanded us to do: “When you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Mat. 6:6)… His love is not humanistic and it is not, primarily, humanitarian. It exists and functions to give glory to God…

From Gardening Know-How: When it comes to pruning grapes, the most common mistake people make is not pruning hard enough. Light pruning doesn’t promote adequate fruiting whereas heavy pruning provides the greatest quality of grapes.

John 15:1-11

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” If we understand biblical principle, then it will not be hard to see that Jesus is saying that He is exclusively the only true, legitimate vine that exists. The best that all the vines in the world’s vineyards can do is to portray the characteristics of this vine.

Billy Graham about disciplining children

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If you fail to discipline your children… you are sinning against God.

Billy Graham: “Many of our educational leaders sneer at the old-fashioned idea of God and a moral code. Movies feature sex, sin, crime and alcohol. Teenagers see these things portrayed alluringly on the screen and decide to go and try them. Newspapers have played up crime and sex until they seem glamorous to our young people.” One of the fundamental problems, according to Rev. Graham, is the failure of parents to fight “the Devil in the home” through discipline and, as a result, “children are allowed to go wild.”

“Parents must spend time with their children, set a good example for them, discipline them, and teach them to ‘know God,’” said the pastor, who has five children and 19 grandchildren. “If you fail to discipline your children, you are breaking the laws, commandments and statutes of God,” said Rev. Graham.  “You are guilty,not only of injuring the moral, spiritual and physical lives of your children, but of sinning against God. The Bible says that if you fail to discipline your children, you actually hate them.”

Not by Brawn by J. Vernon McGee

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Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts.                                                                                                                                Zec 4:6 

You could characterize the greatest national force the world has ever seen with one word: power! Rome was the greatest power machine the world has ever seen. The legions of Rome marched on every frontier. They were invincible and victorious. But one day they took into custody a Man who seemed to be very weak. Pilate said to Him, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” The Lord Jesus answered, “You would have not power over me if it were not given to you from above.”

Today we have a perspective on that. The legions of Rom have marched into oblivion. As Kipling said, “The tumult and the shouting die, the captains and the kings depart.” They are all gone. But the gospel of that Man who died on the cross is still being carried by weak men to the ends of the earth… by men who are as weak as you and I. This death was a victory.

God is not impressed by brawn and a display of muscle. The church goes forward today like a little Samson shorn of its locks of power. It parades up and down, boasting of its accomplishments, and, like Samson, it does not know that the Spirit of God has departed from it. The thing that makes this so tragic is that the church could go forward like a little David with a simple slingshot of the Holy Spirit, to meet the enemy with all of his stratagems, and come away with a victory!

Oh how we need the power of the Holy Spirit! God’s work in the world is not done by brawn. It is accomplished only by His Spirit.

Doctrine Number One: The Bible is the Word of God

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Before anyone can profit from the riches of the Christian life, that person must obtain the firm conviction that the Bible is the Word of God. There is no way to enjoy, learn and grow in faith without this truth burned into his heart. In the book of Acts we read again and again that the apostles and other evangelists went from one place to another, preaching the Word.

We need to believe that the Bible is the Word of God in order to form the foundation upon which we can build our lives. We must be convinced that the Bible is the maximum authority that decides every question that has to do with Christian living. In the first place, we will take into account the Old Testament, because it forms the basis for the New Testament. For this reason, no Christian can say that he understands the New Testament, if he has not studied the Old. He cannot have a clue about many things that Jesus and His disciples taught.  

Who Should We Listen To?

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I will not try to hide the fact that one of my favorite authors, if not my favorite, is A. W. Tozer. There are several reasons for this. First of all, Tozer belonged to the same denomination, in which I was raised as a boy, so I especially appreciate some of the truth that they emphasized (just to mention two favorite verses… “Christ in you, the hope of glory” and “not I, but Christ in me”). Secondly, Tozer lived near enough to this generation to speak of trends that are still in the forefront in our day and he knew where they would lead us. Above those two reasons, Tozer had a gift of expression, when he spoke or wrote about God and His Son that warms my heart more than any other writer. Of course, I consider the material of many more authors to be valuable. We need the body of Christ, the saints of all ages, which comprise the Church, whether they are alive or have already passed on to Glory. We only see a small part of the whole spectrum of truth. Others in our day see other things, and down through time, men of God saw gems of scriptural truth, which can enrich us today. We need to read good books… lots of them! The people of God have always done that.

At the same time, I find things in which I disagree with Tozer, although they are not many and certainly not vital matters. I mention Tozer, because you will see that I have presented some of his thoughts previously and I want to do some again. Here are some things that Tozer had to say concerning loyalty and following man. Tozer was a pastor, principally in two churches in his lifetime, one in Chicago and the other in Toronto, so he is speaking on this subject from a pastoral standpoint. He always pointed his people to Christ alone:

In Rut, Root or Revival, chapter five, he said: “Faith in Jesus is not commitment to your church or denomination. I believe in the local church… I believe in the divine assembly. We ought to realize that we are, as a group of Christians, a divine assembly, a cell in the body of Christ, alive with His life. But not for one second would I try to create in you a faith that would lead you to commit yourself irrevocably to a local church or to your church leaders.”