IMAGINE YOU CAPTURED BY EXCEPTIONAL LOVE
Excerpts of Ada Brownell's book, Imagine the Future You
Also available in Audio. Read
or listen to first chapter free! #Teens #Family #DevotionsLinks: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1489558284 http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001KJ2C06
By Ada Brownell
I picked up some Avon products at
my neighbor’s, and then she burst into tears.
“My friend from South Dakota is here visiting, and I don’t
know what to do to help her,” Roberta said.
The friend’s son was in a Denver hospital after tests on his
heart. A blood clot developed in the small boy’s arm after the test, and
doctors told the mother if the clot moved the short distance up the artery to
the heart, the child would die. If they operated to remove the clot, he might
lose the use of his arm.
I told Roberta we believed in prayer and told her I’d pray
for the child. After I went home, however, I realized that wasn’t enough. The
mother needed some faith of her own.
So I took one of my Bibles and underlined the ninety-first
Psalm: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my
fortress: my God, in Him will I trust.…A thousand shall fall at thy side, and
ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with
thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou
hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation.
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy
dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy
ways.…He shall call upon me and I will answer him. With long life will I
satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”
I put a marker in the Bible and took the Bible to Roberta.
Later, Roberta related to me what happened. When her friend
came home from the hospital, she sat down and read the Psalm. Tears soon
dripped on the marked page, but the mother found hope.
At the hospital, doctors circled the little boy’s bed in
consultation about what they should do. One of them gently began to examine the
thin, inflamed arm where needles had inserted dye for the X-rays.
“It’s gone!” the doctor said in amazement. “The clot has
dissolved.”
Like the boy’s mother, many people have found comfort and
hope in God’s Word.
The Bible is a unique book. There is none like it—although
many books have been written trying to take its place. It begins with the story
of creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the
earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, “Let
there be light, and there was light” (Genesis 1:1–3).
The creation story continues, with life springing forth on
the land, in the sea, each plant and animal capable of reproducing their kind,
male and female. Then God scraped up some dirt and He made a man—Adam.
God didn’t just give this person life. The Lord leaned down
and breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Can you imagine God
wanting to spend time with you? Many theologians believe God created the earth
and humans so he could fellowship with them. The Bible says where two or three
are gathered in His name, He is in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20).
God instructed Adam
and Eve that they could eat any fruit in the garden, except one—the knowledge
of good and evil. If they ate of that tree, they would die.
Satan told them they
wouldn’t die, but the couple discovered what God said was true. When Cain
killed his brother, Able, and they stood beside their first grave. Every human
who has lived since that time until now died.
But God had compassion and promised a Redeemer (Genesis
3:15) who would forgive sin and give eternal life. God also breathed into men
scriptures, so His love story could be shared with every person who lives.
Although there are still consequences for sin, the Bible is the story of God’s loving
redemption of humankind.
No other writing in the history of the human race has been
preserved with the care that has been given the Bible.
Throughout history men have spent their lives preserving,
copying, and translating scripture. They had to verbalize each word as they
wrote and examine every consonant and vowel, counting the characters in each
column of writing. The words were reviewed every thirty days, and if as many as
three pages required corrections, the entire manuscript had to be redone.[1]
Most Bible scholars verify this is true.
Manuscripts usually were preserved on fine animal skins and
kept in dry places where they would be safe for generations to come. When the
Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, some dating from 100 BC to 100 AD, there were
few discrepancies from those copied in the tenth century. Furthermore, the New
Testament has the greatest amount of manuscript evidence among ancient Greek
and Latin literature. The Iliad by
Homer has 643 ancient manuscript copies, compared to more than 24,000 for the
New Testament.[2]
The writing of the Bible also is unique. Unlike Mohammed’s
Koran, or Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon, written almost completely by one man
(Mohammed wrote the Koran, but his followers also wrote some of his sayings for
the book), the Bible was written by forty authors over a 1,500-year span, over
thirty generations. The authors included peasants, philosophers, fishermen,
poets, statesmen, scholars, a doctor, and a tax collector. It was written on three
continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe, and in three languages, Hebrew, Aramaic,
and Greek.
Hundreds of controversial subjects are included in the
subject matter, but although the authors were so different, they wrote with
harmony and continuity from Genesis to Revelation. There is one unfolding
story: God’s redemption of man.
You might wonder whether Jesus wrote any of the Bible. No,
yet the whole book is filled with prophecies about the coming Messiah and the
fulfillment. The New Testament is written by witnesses who saw how God
completed His plan of salvation for humankind through Jesus. Much of the New
Testament contains quotes of the teachings of Jesus, recorded by the disciples
and apostles. Some writers, such as John and Peter talked about being eyewitnesses
of His life and Resurrection from the dead (See 2 Peter 1:16 and 1 John 1: 1).
Prophecy written hundreds of years before it was fulfilled
also is a testimony of the divine authorship of the Bible.
As I mentioned before, one of the most outstanding examples
of prophecy coming to pass just as the biblical writer under the Holy Spirit’s
revelation said it would be, is taken from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel,
fulfilled in my generation.
In Ezekiel 37 there is the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.
Human bones were scattered all over the valley. Talk about Halloween!
As Ezekiel looked at the bones, the Lord said, “Prophesy
upon these bones, and say unto them, ‘Oh ye dry bones, hear the word of the
Lord.’”
When Ezekiel prophesied, the bones started moving. I don’t
know if it occurred like the black Gospel spiritual:
DRY BONES
Toe
bone connected foot bone
Foot
bone connected leg bone
Leg
bone connected knee bone
Don’t
you hear the Word of the Lord?
Leg
bone connected knee bone
Knee
bone connected thighbone
Thighbone
connected hipbone
Don’t
you hear the Word of the Lord?
Hipbone
connected backbone
Backbone
connected shoulder bone
Shoulder
bone connected neck bone
Don’t
you hear the Word of the Lord?[3]
Ligaments and flesh began to cover the bones, and when
Ezekiel prophesied again, breath came into them. They lived and became an
exceedingly great army.[4]
The Lord then
explained to Ezekiel that the Israelites (the Jews) would be scattered all over
the face of the earth just as the bones were scattered over the valley floor.
But Israel would live again. It would be a nation again.
Ezekiel’s career extended from 592 to 570 BC. While his
prophecy was fulfilled in part at the close of the Exile, the main prophecy of
this text refers to the Jews being scattered after the destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 AD. Since then, they have lived all over the globe, but in the twentieth
century, an urgent desire to return to their homeland stirred in Jews’ hearts.
They packed their bags, and Israel became a nation in 1948.
The whole world today acknowledges that Israel is alive and
breathing again, resurrected from its valley of dry bones.
The Bible is full of fulfilled prophecy. Educated people
from the secular world may take one example of fulfilled prophecy lightly, but
if they would become students of the Bible, studying it as they study Freud and
Darwin, they would discover the Bible can’t be rejected so simply. Many persons
have been converted when they studied the Bible to discredit it.
Two of these converts
who come to mind are C. S. Lewis, the great writer of a generation past, the
author of Chronicles of Narnia and
other great books, and the modern-day Josh McDowell, author of Evidence That Demands a Verdict, who
gave tremendous evidence on the authenticity of the Bible in recent years.
The purpose of the Bible, though, is not to be a history
textbook, or a phenomenon of foretelling the future. The purpose of the Bible
is to unfold God’s love to man and His plan to give him eternal life.
The Bible has a supernatural origin and purpose, which is
evident from Genesis to Revelation.
In all the nearly 1,500 years it took to write the Bible,
never once did the paganism of the societies in which the authors lived
penetrate its pages, despite some of their leaders worshiping idols. Even
though polytheism was dominant through Egyptian history, the writers of the
Bible continually wrote about one God.
During much of their history, the Hebrews (the Jews, or
Israelites) did not live according to God’s laws. This wasn’t hidden, but even
the gravest sins are revealed in the Word.
Man would have “made up” a religion he could easily live up
to, or that made humankind comfortable without changing its ways. But the
inspired Word of God never compromised, no matter what person God used to write
his message to man. His message never changed despite the different
personalities and writing styles that became part of His book.
The Bible zeros in on human problems and needs— as no other
book has ever done. The late advice columnist Ann Landers wrote before she died
about the value of the Ten Commandments. “What else can you name that still
works after 3,000 years?” she asked.
[1] Scott
Manning, “Process of copying the Old Testament by Jewish Scribes,” March 17,
2007, http://www.scottmanning.com/archives/scribeswritingoldtestament.php.
[2] Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh
McDowell, 43.
[3]Dry
Bones; Melody composed by African-American author and songwriter James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938). Long
and a shortened version of the song are widely known.
[4]
Ezekiel 37:10
©Ada Brownell
IMAGINE THE FUTURE YOU
A
motivational Bible study by Ada Brownell
Ready or not, you’re
going into your future.
If
you continue to do what you do now, what kind of future will you have? This
Bible study will help you discover evidence for faith in God; how to look and
be your best; who can help; interesting information about dating, love and
marriage; choosing a career; how to deposit good things into your brain you can
spend; and how to avoid hazards that jeopardize a successful life on earth and
for eternity, all mingled with true stories that can make you smile.
Review: How I would have loved to sit at Mrs. Brownell's knee when I was
a teen. This wholesome book resounds with sage, Godly advice and could be
picked up again and again as needs arise. Worthwhile for parents too. Much
fodder for family discussion.
Also available in Audio. Read or listen to first chapter
free! #Teens #Family #Devotions
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