The Lord Will Provide

Read John 6:5-7 and you will see in Philip a portrait of ourselves and, in his answer, our own thoughts and words in daily trials and difficult situations. Philip had just seen our Lord make wine of water and heal impotent people; yet, when our Lord asked him how the multitude was to be fed, Philip began to calculate HIS OWN RESOURCES and HIS OWN ABILITY to accomplish it. He said, “two hundred pennyworth of bread would only give each one a LITTLE to eat.”

Imagine talking of a “LITTLE”! in the presence of infinite power and riches! What is our feebleness compared to His fullness? Instead of looking to Christ, Philip, like us, looks to himself and to his own strength. Pastor Henry T. Mahan (bulletin 1991)

The Cost of Forgiveness

Psalm 103:3; “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy

diseases”

Ephesians 1:7; “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the

forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace”

Psalm 130:4; “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.”

I can wrong a man and seek his forgiveness. He can forgive me of the wrong at no cost to either party. Not so with God. For God to forgive me of my sins comes at a great cost to Himself. For God to forgive me of my sins, He must become bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He must take my sins to Himself, pay the sin debt that I owe to His justice. God himself, in a body prepared by him, for him, must go to the cross and shed His blood, suffer and die in my place for my sins, rise from the grave, and ascend back to glory. Now He can forgive me of all my sins. Let us never forget the great cost of forgiveness on God’s part.

Pastor John Chapman

OUR COMPASSIONATE PRIEST

“Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity” (Heb. 5:2).

Thanks be unto God for our compassionate and faithful Great High Priest, Jesus Christ (Heb.2:17; 4:14). Our blessed Saviour knows our frame; He knows that we are but sinful dust (Psalm 103:13-14). But in spite of all that we are (Psalm 39:5) and all that we have done (Rom.3:23) the Lord is longsuffering and compassionate toward His children (2 Peter 3:9). So much that He loves the unlovely (Rom. 5:8), so much that Christ justifies the ungodly (Rom.4:5), so much that the Redeemer died to save sinners (Rom. 5:6). We read that His compassions fail not and are new every morning (Lam. 3:22). We read when He saw a multitude of sinners as sheep that were scattered having no shepherd, He was moved with compassion (Matt. 9:36). What a blessed Shepherd the Lord has provided for us (Psalm 23)!

CITIES OF REFUGE

“And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh” (Joshua 20:7-8).

Each of those 6 cities and their names are a good picture of Christ our refuge from the curse and wrath of the law and from the penalty of sin (Gal. 3:13).

1). Kedesh signifies "holy," as Christ is, both as God and man, and is made sanctification to His people; (1 Cor. 1:30; Heb. 10:14).

2). Shechem is "the shoulder," Christ has not only been made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21); He bear the sins of His people in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), but He also bears and carries their persons home to glory. He is the broad-shouldered Redeemer (Isa. 9:6; 40:11).

3). Hebron may be interpreted "fellowship," and the saints have not only fellowship with Christ and His people but also with the Father through Him; (1 John 1:3).

4). Bezer may be rendered a "fortified place," Christ is a stronghold, a tower, a place of defense, where the sinner may run, and be safe and secure forever (Psalm 62:6).

5). Ramoth signifies "exaltations" and may fitly be applied to Christ, who is exalted at God's right hand, and who will exalt those that trust in Him in due time (Eph. 2:4-6; Heb. 1:3; 6:19-20).