the world because he didn’t under stand God’s program. Someone has well said, “Education g ives me spokes for my wheel, but it doesn’t give me a hub.” A lot of people are learning a good many things but they have no center or hub without Christ. By Him all things consist and hold together. If you are ignorant because you don’t know the Scriptures and the power of God, you can know Him through personal faith. To “believe” does not mean an intellectual accept ance of the fact. The word for “be lieve” in the New Testament doesn’t have a verb. In English it does. Our term “believe” is not exactly what the word says in the New Testa ment. It means putting all one’s de pendence on the Lord Jesus Christ. The bank is not going to keep your money until you push it across the counter and deposit it. So it is with faith. Don’t go around saying, “I be lieve in the bank.” That won’t keep your money. Even so, you can have an intellectual faith in Jesus Christ and yet it still won’t save you. Have you made the deposit? Do you know that you have been passed from death unto life? We know He abides in us by the Spirit which He has given to us. Here is the Lord’s cure for ignorance: know the Scriptures and the power of God.
they ought. The Saviour said to Phil ip in John 14:9, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” After three years with our Lord, hearing the teaching and witnessing the miracles, he still was not fully persuaded in his own heart. But don’t blush for Philip, blush for yourself. We have had 2000 years of His church, His Spirit and His Scriptures, and look at us! Some are well “over the hill,” and still don’t know Him intimately. We are so slow of heart to believe. How we need to be closely acquainted with Him. I think of a great old bishop who was told one day by a certain lady, “I have followed all the rules and read all the books, and yet I don’t seem to know the Lord very well. Does God have favorites?” The saintly man responded, “No, He doesn’t have favorites, but He does have intimates.” It is certainly a fact that sinners don’t know the Saviour. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” A woman was telling her husband when he came home from work, “Somebody knocked at the door today. When I opened it a stranger stood there. He asked me ever so abruptly, ‘Do you know Jesus Christ?’ I didn’t know what to say. I stared at him and finally closed the door in his face.” Her husband re plied, “Well, why didn’t you tell him you teach the ladies’ Bible class and are president of the women’s mis sionary society?” She sadly answered, “Because that’s not what he asked me.” It would be a good thing if some of us would open the door on ourselves and say, “For all your re ligious activity, do you really know Jesus Christ?” Because of ignorance we live in error. We err because we know not the Scriptures for, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” The wise man is the man who knows God’s Word and God’s will. Head knowledge is useful if it is sanc tified by the Spirit of God. Other wise it is dangerous. Hitler wrecked
Water is a precious com odityin Southern Cali fornia, therefore, withthe smallcreekwhichflows throughthe Campus, maintenance engineers have constructed small conservation damswhich allow irrigation of the playing fields, in the background are some of the many olive trees which enhance the landscape.
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