Special Insights No. 1
Second Quarter 2007
“The Bible for Today”
(Produced by the
The Voice From Heaven
Welcome to a new 13 weeks of lessons, this time, “The Bible for Today.” No more repeated idle “speculation” in our Lesson Book as to what our Bible writer could have meant. No more sad weeping and wailing “gospel” of “don’t do like I did!” Now we will study what “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” during their lives of fidelity to God’s truth (cf. 2 Peter
In his early life Solomon quoted the Lord saying, “I will make known My words unto you” (Prov.
Our 13 coming weeks will be a “University 101 class” in Bible truth; you can “grow” wonderfully in 13 dedicated weeks; take them seriously.
You may say, “But I am so busy working night and day at two or three jobs to support my family (as they want to be supported!) and I have little or no time for study.” Well, you have 13 Sabbath days (actually, if it’s true that “six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work,” the seventh day ought not to be spent in exhausted sacking out so you can’t hear the voice of the Lord speaking in His word, the Bible). And though we have our lovely spring in the Northern hemisphere, and we want to enjoy God’s beautiful out-of-doors, we can reserve a good time for study of the Word each Sabbath afternoon. Jesus was our Example; He was busy, too, but He took time for study of the Old Testament, all He had.
May we suggest: get a g-o-o-d leather-bound Bible with cross-references and hopefully a concordance included (a lifetime investment, costs less than a pair of shoes). Get a fine-pointed pen or pencil for writing little notes in your margins—the Book will become your personal biblos “friend” for your entire life. Your underlining of a word or phrase is not to color your Bible like a child’s color book; no point in blocking everything for emphasis. You just want to mark a little so as to help you find it again, as you surely will want to do.
An occasional thought or quote in our Lesson Book that strikes you can be carefully cut out and pasted in the back of your Bible (don’t go to excess on this); you won’t want to go anywhere this summer without taking that Bible “friend” with you; you won’t want to be separated from it even for a day! You’ll never know when the Holy Spirit will be calling you to “come to class” to learn some more (cf, Isa. 50:4, 5). “Thine eyes shall see thy teachers: and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (30:20, 21). Your “Teacher” for this “101 class” will never take a vacation; and when you get to know Him you’ll never want to be away from Him. He joins Himself to the Word, the Bible. You want to love Him? You will love Him no more no less than you love His Book, the Bible. They go together.
No university degree can make you as happy as a genuine knowledge of God’s Holy Bible. Everywhere you go in life from now on you will be a blessing to others (cf. Gen. 12:2, 3), because New Covenant living will coincide with a constantly growing, personal knowledge of the Bible. You will know Jesus Christ intimately as your divine Elder Brother, and you will know His Father as your Father; you will never feel alone. Thank Him for His gift to you—the Bible. “Abide with Him” therein.
Lesson One
Our authors, Jonathan and Kathleen Kuntaraf, have done excellent work in writing this Lesson book for us. We rejoice that in this first lesson we have a clear recognition of one of the most encouraging elements of the 1888 message of Christ’s righteousness: instead of our long-held and widespread belief that it’s our job to seek and find Him, the truth reveals Him as seeking us “until He find [us]” (cf. Luke 15:4). The atonement (reconciliation with God) is not the result of our diligent search for Him as of our heart being melted with appreciation for what it cost Him to find us.
So, we begin with the truth of Christ and Him crucified. May we end the quarter there also!
—Robert J. Wieland
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