the things of God and having a desire to be alone in communion and fellow ship with the Saviour. Commune with Him about your daily life, your friends and neighbors, your family, your busi ness, and have sweet fellowship with the living God of heaven. Then you can open your Bible and understand it. You see, the clear and plain teach ing of Scripture is that God alone gives us a new life which makes us an en tirely different person. While the world goes in for the things of this life, the believer goes in for the things of the other life, the place to which we long to go and where we will live forever. Here is a rich man who says to Jesus, “What shall I do to get eternal life?” Now you know very well a per son can’t do anything to get life. If I had four dead rabbits in front of me, one had just .died, another had been dead a week, a third for a month, and the last for six months, what should I tell these rabbits as to how they could get life? You say, “You’re foolish!” And you are right. There is no use tell ing a dead thing about life. There is nothing you or they could do about it. Life has to be given from outside the object itself. Perhaps it would be wonderful if I had power to go into hospitals and find someone who had died and then give life to that person. For certain, I would surely be in demand. But no body can do it. Divine healers can’t do it. Life is in the hands of God Himself. Jesus’ answer to the lawyer was, “What is written in the law, how read- est thou?” It is unfortunate that many people take their Bibles and read them, never thinking to apply the truths to themselves. Let us ask our heart in this case, “Is the Lord talking to me?” Take the book of Ephesians and read it slowly some time. It has only six short chapters. You can put your fin ger on each verse and say, “Thank you, Lord, for you’re talking to me.” Before you have gotten through the book many times you will be a different person; God will speak to your heart. Take the Bible, if you’re unsaved and
Talbot Seminary Officers
Pictured above are student officers in the Talbot Theological Sem inary. Prom left to right, Ron Graff, Denver, treasurer; John MacA rthur, Los Angeles, president; James Battenfield, San Diego, vice-president. read the first chapter of Ephesians. Read, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (verse 7). Thank the Lord for such a great truth and assurance. I remember asking a leading re ligious man about the meaning of Acts 13:38 and 39 that reads, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and breth ren, that through this man (Christ Jesus) is preached unto you the for giveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” I said, “Bishop, does that mean me? Can I come, as a guilty sinner to the Lord Jesus without going to you or to any other person to find forgiveness of sins and redemption?” Do you know what he said to me? “You know too much about the Bible!” He turned his back on me and walked down the stairs. Beloved, “How readest thou?” I read a time table about how to get to Seat tle or to some other town. But since I am not going there I read it care lessly. I read about some treatment for a particular sickness. But since I don t have the disease and am not now practicing medicine, it means little to me. But this is not the way a man should read the Bible. As you study the Scriptures apply them to 6
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