{"id":5857,"date":"2020-10-24T10:29:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T10:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5857"},"modified":"2020-10-24T10:29:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T10:29:02","slug":"bulletin-edition-october-2020-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=5857","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition October 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a\nflame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush\nburned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” Exodus 3:<\/strong>2
\nOctavius winslow
\nThere is yet another part of this significant type to be considered, equally\nimportant and rich in the view it conveys of the glory of Jesus in His work.\n“And he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was\nnot consumed.” The symbol of fire was expressive of the holiness and\njustice of God. It is thus frequently employed\u2014”The Lord your God is a\nconsuming fire.” “And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like\ndevouring fire.” “Our God is a consuming fire.” But that which\nformed the greatest wonder,\u2014which riveted the eye, and attracted and enchained\nthe feet of Moses to the spot, was the bush unconsumed. “And Moses said, I\nwill NOW TURN aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not\nburned.”
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\nBut a more marvelous and stupendous spectacle meets us in the cross of\nChrist\u2014Jesus enduring the fire of His Father’s wrath; wrapped in the flame of\nHis justice, and yet unconsumed! Let us turn aside from all inferior objects,\nand for a while contemplate this “great sight.” It is indeed a great\nsight! The Son of God is bound upon the altar as a\n“burned-offering”\u2014a sacrifice for sin. The fire of Divine justice\ndescends to consume Him; holiness in fearful exercise heaps on its fuel, and\nthe flame and the smoke ascend in one vast column before the throne of the\nEternal, “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling\nsavor.” But behold the astonishment! Jesus suffering, and yet rejoicing!\ndying, and yet living! consuming, and yet unconsumed! These prodigies marked\nthe offering up of our great High Priest upon Calvary. The dark billows of\nsorrow rolled over the human soul of Christ, but the Godhead remained calm and\npeaceful, its tranquility unruffled by a wave of grief, its sunshine undimmed\nby a cloud of darkness. He thus passed through all these throbs, and throes,\nand agonies of death, descended into the grave, rose again, lived, and still\nlives, the Fountain of life to the created universe. Behold the GOD! Say you,\nHe is a mere creature? Preposterous thought! Mad conception! Soul-destructive\nbelief! Had He been less than Divine, suffering as He did for sin, the\ndevouring fire would have consumed Him in its quenchless flame.
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\nTo a heart-broken sinner, how attractive and glorious is this spectacle of an\nalmighty Redeemer, sustaining the wrath, and suffering the justice of God for\ntransgression! Mourning soul! turn aside, and behold yet again this “great\nsight.” “Put off your shoes from off your feet, for the place whereon\nyou stands is holy ground.” Lay aside your fleshly reasoning, your carnal\nviews of self-justification, self-salvation, and human power. Put off all your\nfleshly ideas of God, of His grace, and of His goodness; divest yourself of all\nyour unbelieving and hard thoughts of His power, willingness, and readiness to\nsave you. Thus prepared, approach\u2014gaze\u2014wonder\u2014and adore! No one can stand on\nthis holy ground, but he who stands on his own nothingness; none are welcome\nhere but the poor, the empty, the bankrupt, and the vile. Are you all this? is\nthis your case? Then draw near! God will speak from amid the flame of the\nsacrifice, and say to you, “Fear not!”
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\nDear tried and suffering reader, do you resemble this burning bush? Are you in\nthe fire, passing through the furnace? Does some strong temptation assail\nyou\u2014some sore trial oppress you\u2014some deep sorrow wound you? He who dwelt in the\nbush, dwells in you! and He who kept the bush unconsumed amid the flame, will\nkeep you! Let your greatest care and deepest solicitude be to “glorify God\nin the fires.” Be more prayerful for sustaining and sanctifying grace,\nthan for the removal of your trial. This will bring richer glory to God.\nBeseech your Father that the flame may not be extinguished until the alloy is\nconsumed, and the tried gold has come forth reflecting more vividly from its surface\nthe image of Jesus\u2014your soul partaking more deeply of the Divine HOLINESS.
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\nThere is enough tinder in the heart of the holiest of men, to light a fire\nthat shall burn to the lowest Hell!<\/strong>
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\n(Charles Spurgeon)
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\n“Keep back your servant also from willful sins; let them not have dominion\nover me!” Psalm 19:13
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\nSuch was the prayer of “the man after God’s own heart.” Did holy\nDavid need to pray thus? How needful, then, must such a prayer be for us babes\nin grace! It is as if he said, “Keep me back, or I shall rush headlong\nover the precipice of sin!”
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\nOur evil nature, like an ill-tempered horse, is apt to run away. May the grace\nof God put a bridle upon it, and hold it in, that it rush not into mischief.\nWhat grievous sins might the best of us do\u2014if it were not for the checks which\nthe Lord sets upon us both in providence and in grace!
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\nThe psalmist’s prayer is directed against the worst form of sin\u2014that which is\ndone with deliberation and willfulness. Even the holiest people need to be kept\nback from the vilest transgressions! It is a solemn thing to find the apostle\nPaul warning the saints against the most loathsome sins: “So put to death\nthe sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual\nsin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires, and greed, which is idolatry.”\nColossians 3:5. What! do saints need warning against such sins as these? Yes,\nthey do! The whitest robes, unless their purity is preserved by divine grace,\nwill be defiled by the blackest spots.
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\nExperienced Christian, do not boast in your experience; you will yet trip\u2014if\nyou look away from Him who is able to keep you from falling. You whose love is\nfervent, whose faith is constant, whose hopes are bright, say not, “We\nshall never fall!” but rather cry, “Lead us not into temptation.”\nThere is enough tinder in the heart of the holiest of men, to light a fire that\nshall burn to the lowest Hell\u2014unless God shall quench the sparks as they fall.\nWho would have dreamed that righteous Lot could be found drunken, and\ncommitting incest? Hazael said, “Is your servant a dog\u2014that he should do\nthis monstrous thing?” and we are very apt to use the same self-righteous\nquestion. May divine wisdom cure us of the madness of self-confidence!
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\n“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool!” Proverbs 28:26
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\nI am with you always<\/strong>
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\n(John MacDuff, “The Christian’s Pathway” 1858)
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\n“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed,
\n for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you.
\n I will uphold you with My victorious right hand.” Is. 41:10
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\nThe Divine presence is . . .
\n  the believer’s strength in weakness;
\n  his support in suffering;
\n  his consolation in the hour of death.
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\nThe blessed assurance, “I am with you,” is sufficient to
\nenliven every scene, and sweeten every condition. Its
\nrealization opens springs of joy in the cheerless waste
\nof this desert world. The Divine presence . . .
\n  dissipates the thickest darkness,
\n  soothes the anguish of the keenest affliction, and
\n  lightens the heaviest load of poverty and distress.
\n
\nReader, be anxious to possess an abiding consciousness
\nof the great truth\u2014that the eye of God is ever upon you!
\nWherever you are, and whatever you are doing\u2014set the
\nLord always before you. Having Him at your right hand,
\nwhatever difficulties and dangers may surround your
\npath\u2014you shall not be moved.
\n
\n“Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to
\n the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
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\n“O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help.”\nHosea 13:9<\/strong>
\nJ.C.Philpot
\nGod is all-wise, and therefore takes no rash, precipitate steps. As the\noriginal plan of salvation was devised by infinite wisdom, so all the\nsuccessive steps of the execution of that plan are directed by the same\nboundless wisdom also. “Wherein he has abounded towards us,” says\nPaul (Eph.1:8), “in all wisdom and prudence.” Thus, in his dealings\nwith his people, God does not put them at once into possession of all the\nblessings which he has laid up for them.
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\nHe has pardoned, for instance, their sins; but he does not immediately, when he\ncalls them by his grace, put them into possession of this blessing. He has\nfirst to teach them their need of it. He has to prepare their heart for the\nright reception of it. It is no common gift, and he has to teach them how to\nvalue it. They are saved from wrath and eternal misery, from his dreadful\ndispleasure and ever-burning indignation against sin. They have need to be\nshown, and made deeply to feel, from what they are saved, as well as to what\nthey are saved. And as the oak does not grow to its full stature in a day, but\nneeds years of sunshine and storm, of beating winds and howling tempests, to\ngive it strength and constancy, a deep and wide root, as well as a lofty and\nbranching stem, so do God’s children need months and years of trial and\ntemptation, that they may push a deep root downwards, and shoot up healthy and\nvigorous upwards.
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\nThus, before the soul can know anything about salvation, it must learn deeply\nand experimentally the nature of sin, and of itself, as stained and polluted\nthereby. It is proud, and needs to be humbled; careless, and needs to be\nawakened; alive, and needs to be killed; full, and requires to be emptied;\nwhole, and needs to be wounded; clothed, and requires to be stripped. It is, by\nnature, self-righteous and self-seeking; is buried deep in worldliness and\ncarnality; is utterly blind and ignorant; is filled with presumption,\narrogance, conceit, and enmity, and hates all that is heavenly and spiritual.\nSin, in all its various forms, is its natural element. “The Ethiopian\ncannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots.” To make man the direct\nopposite of what he originally is; to make him love God instead of hating him;\nfear, instead of mocking him; obey, instead of rebelling against him; and to\ntremble at his terrible majesty, instead of running upon the thick bosses of\nhis shield;–to do this mighty work, and to effect this wonderful change,\nrequires the implantation of a new nature by the immediate hand of God himself.
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\nHeed the rod, and the One who appointed it!<\/strong>
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\n(Charles Spurgeon)
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\n“Heed the rod, and the One who appointed it!” Micah 6:9
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\nGod’s most useful instrument is His rod of correction!
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\nIf we had no idols in children, friends, wealth or ourselves\u2014we would not need\nhalf the trials we have! Foolish idols, make rods for foolish backs!
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\nI bear a willing witness that I owe more to God’s fire, and hammer, and file\nthan to anything else. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned\nanything profitable, except through God’s rod.
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\nThere are blessed and favored exceptions, but most of us need the rod, for we\ndo not seem to learn obedience except through the chastening of the Lord!
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\nWhatever God keeps away from His servants\u2014He never keeps away the chastening\nrod from them! He had one Son without sin\u2014but He never had one son without chastisement.
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\nGod’s rod flogs His child not from Him, but to Him!
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\nChristian, God’s love to you is always the same. He cannot love you more, and\nHe will not love you less! Never, when afflictions multiply, when terrors\nfrighten, or when distresses abound\u2014does God’s love to you falter or flag. Let\nthe rod fall ever so heavily upon you\u2014the hand that moves, like the heart that\nprompts the stroke, is full of love! Whether He brings you down into the depths\nof misery, or lifts you up into the seventh Heaven of delight\u2014His faithful love\ntowards you never varies or fluctuates!
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\n“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
\n But trust Him for His grace;
\n Behind a frowning providence
\n He hides a smiling face!”
\nWilliam Cowper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” Exodus 3:2 Octavius winslow There is yet another part of this significant type to be considered, equally important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5858,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5857\/revisions\/5858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}