HB Newsletter V12N02

8/9/2019 HB Newsletter V12N02

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Volume 12 Homeward Bound Number 02

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 3:11)

Homeward Bound Ministries – P. O. Box 3351 – Milford – Connecticut – 06460(203) 449-6190 – [email protected]

Join Us For Bible Study!

We have the greatest time onSaturday mornings at theTrumbull Mall here inConnecticut. Gathering atthe center of the food court, we select our breakfast fromthe assortment of variousfood establishments andthen settle in for finefellowship and study in God’s

Word, the Bible.The Bible Study andmeal is sponsored by Homeward Bound Ministriesand is taught by John Payne. Whether it is a specific topicor just a Q and A session, theHoly Spirit provides all weneed and we leave after acouple hours literally filled.Onlookers and passersby

sometimes look in to see what we are doing and wehave had the opportunity toshare the Gospel. We are anever-present witness of the goodness and mercy of our God.

So, if you are ever in the area on Saturday morning, stop by and meet with us for a cup of coffeor breakfast. Be sure to bring a question or two as well as a friend. There will always be room at outable for you! Usually every Saturday, 10:00AM, Trumbull Shopping Mall, Trumbull, Connecticutright off Exit 48 of the Merritt Parkway. (Please call for more information – (203) 449-6190)

Not Afraid To Die

Jean Poly

Many people don't like to face the subject of death. They try toignore it, so as not to let it haunt their thoughts. But suchcircumstances as war, serious illness and most recently terrorismall bring a certain fear of death to the human heart. When someoneclose passes away this fear becomes even more personal and real.This fear is of the unknown - of what death really (continued on page two)



Homeward Bound Ministries – Volume 12 – Number 02

Homeward Bound Ministries – P. O. Box 3351 – Milford – Connecticut – 06460

(203) 449-6190 – [email protected]

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Not Afraid To Die (continued)

is and what will come after death. Yet there is also an opportunity toface this fear and overcome it.

If you have experienced this feeling of fear it is perfectly normal. One of the best things you can do is determine why you are

afraid. The only way to do this is by turning to God’s Word. God may be another unknown in your life, but as your Creator, He knows allabout you and His Word has all the answers to life’s mysteries. Hebrews9:27 tells us, "as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Could it bethat your fear comes from an inner knowledge that you are accountable to God for your actions andthat this is the true cause of your distress over death? If so, then you can do something about it. I didand I've been at peace ever since.

As a child I listened to and learned from those who had come in contact with their mortalitysome through the death of a loved one, and one who had almost taken his own life. Through theiordeals they turned to God and sought a way out of their trouble, a way to face their own death

without fear. "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from al

my fears." (Psalm 34:4) As I watched their lives I believed inthe power of God and I became more and more aware omy own accountability before God. For me there wanothing else I could do but seek for peace with God and aright relationship with Him. "Forasmuch then as the

children are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Christ) alsohimself likewise took part of the same; that through death

he might destroy him that had the power of death, thais, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of

death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.(Hebrews 2:14-15) In turn I accepted

Christ as my personal Lord andSavior. He has set me free from sin and its bondage to death andthe fear it causes. He is the reason I can say, "I’m not afraid todie!"

My prayer for others is that they too will face their fear andexamine themselves before God. God's plan of salvation is foreveryone, including you. I pray that you can see your need for thisSalvation and that you can honestly picture yourself standing before the judgment seat of Christ. Will it be said to you:“I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:23), or, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant . . .

enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” (Matthew 25:21)? You still have an opportunity now to make your peace with God. Don't wait because you don't know when you aregoing to die. By turning to Him sincerely, confessing your sin andinviting Jesus into your heart and life, as I did, you’ll also find true salvation from your own fear odeath. However, once you come to God you must not turn back or you'll lose your peace and the fea will return. Jesus promises to believers in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give untoyou: not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your your heart be troubled, neither let it bafraid." Stick with your decision; stay true to God and you'll never be sorry!






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A Prophet Behind Every TreeJohn Payne

I am wearied of well meaning brothers and sisters attemptingto get me to come with them to a church service and hear the latest

and greatest “prophet” from who-knows-where so I can “get a ‘word’from the Lord”. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I do not want tohear from Him, because I do. It’s just that for the most part thesemen, and in increasing numbers women, are simply not prophets of the most high God but rather emissaries of our common enemy Satan. (Don’t get me wrong, I believe that God still uses theprophetic ministry today, but that they are few!)

Go to one of these services where the prophet arrives from outof town and hear him make great pronouncements from god aboutour land and the message with which he has been sent to this specificchurch and community of saints. Then a long line appears before

him of people wishing to hear the word from the lord out of his lips,especially for them. The line lasts for hours, running down the aisleand around the sanctuary, nobody wants to be left out. Then aspecial offering is taken up so the prophet goes home blessed. Another fleecing of the flockHogwash. Horsepucky. I know this to be true because I’ve been to so many of these things it makeme want to wretch. There must be some sort of dog and pony show training school so many of thespeople do it all the same way, even the words coming out of their mouths are almost identical! Yet thpeople keep coming and coming and coming. Snake oil sales training is alive and well in Americatoday!

Go to their web sites, read their brochures and promotional material. It reads like circucarnival stuff. Satan provides the entertainment you crave, the supernatural experience and

knowledge which satisfies your longing that is supposed to come from God directly, but because you won’t submit and surrender your life to Him the way He has ordained for you in His Word, you wilnot receive it from Him. I warn you, ignore the man behindthe curtain; it will destroy your soul. For many it has becomean addiction. God warns you, has warned His people for manythousands of years about these people, but they will not listenHave you fallen for this slick trick from Satan?

Dear brother A. W. Tozer put it correctly when he wrotethis over half a century ago. It is as fresh this very momentHear what he says: “Whatever it may be in our Christianexperience that originates outside of Scriptures should, for that very reason, be suspect until it can be shown to be in accord with them. If it should be found to be contrary to the Word o

revealed truth no true Christian will accept it as being from GodHowever high the emotional content, no experience can be proved to be

genuine unless we can find chapter and verse authority for it in Scriptures"To the word and to the testimony" must always be the last and final proof.”“Whatever is new or singular should also be viewed with caution until it can furnish

scriptural proof of its validity. Throughout the twentieth century quite a number (continued on page four)






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A Prophet Behind Every Tree (continued)

of unscriptural notions have gained acceptance among Christians by claiming that they were amongtruths that were to be revealed in the last days. The truth is that the Bible does not teach that ther will be new light and advanced spiritual experiences in the latter days; it teachesthe exact opposite! Nothing in Daniel or the New Testament epistles can be

tortured into advocating the idea that we of the end of the Christian era shallenjoy light that was not known at its beginning.”

“Beware of any man who claims to be wiser than theapostles or holier than the martyrs of the Early Church. The best way to deal with him is to rise and leave his presence!” Thank you brother Tozer!

God has indeed warned His people over time regardingfalse prophets, but they have not listened. Hear, in smallpart, what He has said, “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and untowizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people

seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak noaccording to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Isaiah 8:19-20)

Turn on your cable television, listen to your so-called Christian radio and the airwaves anddigital signals are filled to overflowing with prophecy. Prophecy, that in many cases, is not of GodHow will you know? How can you know? First of all by knowing for yourself through the Word o

God. There is absolutely no substitute for personal reading and familiarity with theBible, the whole Bible. If you have not read it and are continually reading it you

will be open to deception by Satan who is seeking to destroy your soul“Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a

controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truthnor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land . . . My people are

destroyed for lack of knowledge . . .” (Hosea 4:1,6)Oh, we here in America have so very much, so many Bibles, somany churches, professing so much Christianity with our mouths yet weare so Biblically illiterate. We allow false prophets, false pastors and

shepherds and teachers to come in and tell us what they want to say, what they want us to hear and we do not go and read and learn it for ourselves. Grossly inexcusable. The Bible says,“Study to shewthyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word oftruth.” (II Timothy 2:15) It is up to you and me to know what the Word says so that when someonsays something to us we will know whether it is the truth or a lie, therefore Satan cannot deceive usIt is a protection afforded us by the indwelling Holy Spirit. As Jesus says, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all Truth.” (John 16:13) Can we not

trust the Spirit of the living God to lead and guide us into all Truth? This is one of the Spirit’s paramount purposes in the life of a believer but He cannot do it if weare not doing our part by reading and studying the Word.

Very simply, brethren, God, through the apostle John has given us great wisdom in how to know, how to check out who to trust, who we can believe. John tells us,“Belovedbelieve not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets aregone out into the world.” (I John 4:1) The Holy Spirit living within us will provide the witness o whether what we are hearing is the very truth being heard by our ears and as to whether we shouldlisten to the one standing before us or whether we should dismiss him (continued on page five)






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A Prophet Behind Every Tree (continued)

as a false teacher or prophet. Yet, even when the prophecies told by these people do not come to pass, they are not exposed

for what they are! I know many people who have received prophecies that have nevecome to pass. They sit and wonder why. They blame themselves and never

consider for one moment that maybe the fault lies with the prophet. Nah, icouldn’t be the prophet ’cause he is supposed to have gotten it directly fromthe horse’s mouth! People plan their lives around these prophecies of futureevents that fail to materialize, they’d be better off reading their horoscopes

Disappointment and disillusionment follow and then their faith in God fails andthen they “fall away”. Fall away? Perhaps they were neither committed norsecurely founded upon Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, to begin with. Doing icorrectly from the beginning is so important. Putting your faith in Christ andnot in prophecy is what it is all about. The Bible nowhere speaks about ulooking to prophets to direct our lives but rather looking to Jesus, the Author

and Finisher of our faith! He will never lead us down a dark alley or give ua wrong direction. Yet I know people who run from meeting to meetingseeking for prophets to hear and follow after. It is madness. Do not gecaught up in this garbage!

Evangelist, author and teacher A. W. Pink said: “Error serves as aflail, separating the chaff from the wheat. Let some plausible and popular preachecome forward with an old error decked out in new clothes and empty professors will at once flock tohis standard; but not so with those who are

established in the Faith. Thus, by means of the false prophets, Godmakes it appear who are the ones who hold the Truth in sincerity:they are faithful to Him despite all temptations to turn away unto a"broader-minded" way. The genuine gold endures every test to

which it is subjected. Thus too are the unregenerate "converts"revealed: the counterfeit gold will not withstand the fire. Those whoare attracted by a novelty do not endure but are soon carried away by some newer innovation.” Therefore proving what is said in ICorinthians 11:19, “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” Are you able to discern the lie from the Truth when both are plainly laidout before you?

Brethren, there are few true “prophets” as of old today.Personal prophecy is a rare thing and ought to be viewed with greatsuspicion. Do not run off looking for a word from the Lord about

your future from one of these latter day prophet-eers as the Word of God is filled with enough prophecy concerning your days here onthis earth to keep you busy learning them and becoming a doer of them. If your heart is right with Him His Word for you will certainly find you and He will make known to you what He needs to tell you. I have seen this born out time andagain with most believers whose hearts are right with God. A good relationship with a Holy Spiritfilled pastor in a Biblically sound church is essential for this to happen and you ought to be conversan with your Bible and be reading it daily for Him to speak personally to you.






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Can We Sin By Thinking?John Payne

Can we sin by simply thinking? The short answer isno. Scripture is quite plain for us on the matter. Let’s look atJames Chapter 1 verses 12 through 16. The Bibles says,

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he istried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he istempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man istempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin:and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err,my beloved brethren.”

Verse 16 tells us “Do not err my beloved brethren.” This is something very important he wantsus to understand, since it is possible for us to make an error in our understanding and therefore in ou

Christian life practice.Remember firstly that sin is an action, a premeditated action contrary to the will of God. Goddoes not tempt us, ever! He cannot be blamed for our failure to obey Him or for the consequences oour sin afterwards. We are fallen creatures, men and women who sin by nature and habit.

Sin proceeds from acting upon the temptations that are presented from without or within us We do not simply sin blindly or without provocation or stimulus of any kind. These temptationmight arise beginning from within our heart or mind as a thought. If they do, and we dwell upon thathought, they can only become a sin once they proceed to the point that they have become a “lust”

The Greek word herefor lust is “epithymia”meaning: cravinglonging, desire for whatis forbidden. Pleaseunderstand that what we previously discussedas a ‘thought’ has nowprogressed to some-thing far stronger, anobsession, somethingthat needs to be reignedin and controlled otherwise sin will result.

As we r

further in this passage of scripture it says, “Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin.” Thismeans that the strong desire within the person has led to an overt action outside the person, which isthe act of sin. Somewhere between the thought and the act, the lust went unbridled and thtemptation overcame the person and sin was the result. Sin was not the result of the thought, it wathe result, rather, of the person yielding to the temptation. The person acted upon the thought whichhad grown into the lust, the “epithymia”.

Let us look at another passage of scripture. “There hath no temptation taken you but such asis common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able;

(continued on page seven)






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Can We Sin By Thinking? (continued)

but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (ICorinthians 10:13) This is one verse that every Christian ought to be at least familiar with if not havmemorized in order to defeat Satan when temptation arrives on his or her doorstep!

As believers, we will all be tempted. We are fools to think we will not be. In the verse just prio

to this passage the apostle Paul says, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” This portion of the Word prepares us to know that God WILL NOT allow Satan to tempt us beyond our breaking point, our falling point, the point at which we cannot endure the temptation

Isn’t that great news? Along with this great news comes a caveat . . . that iGod won’t allow us to be tempted beyond that point and we do snap and goover the edge and do indeed sin it is because WECHOSE to do so. It was our choice to sin, a willfuldecision. And this verse goes on to say that Godalso throws in a safety escape hatch so we can get

away from it. There will always be a way over it, around it, under it orthrough it without having to sin. Therefore, God is implying here, we are without excuse when we sin when confronted with temptation.

So, putting together these two passages from scripture, a thoughtsimply cannot be sin. Thoughts do not constitute a violation of God’s will.It is when they progress to actions with our hands, feet or the rest of our body that sin is the result. Remember what happened in the Garden of Eden. The serpent tempted Eve. As long as she just looked at the tree, walked around the tree, sniffed at the fruit and thought about the fruit,there was no sin. Thought is not sin. Once she ate from the tree she hadcommitted sin. Thoughts having turned into action crossed over the line beyond the point of no return for her and consequently all of mankind with eternal consequences. Our actions have eternal consequences as well.

We would do well to learn I Corinthians 13:10. Learn it well indeed and recite it aloud eac

time Satan and temptation come knocking at our door until we are confidently aware of our abilitiesas Christians to endure temptation and walk away from them. Remember

thought is NOT sin. Do not harbor thoughts that might lead to sin for verylong. Remember what scripture tells us we ought to be thinking of. TheBible says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoeverthings are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of goo

report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on thesethings.” (Philippians 4:8)

Editor’s Note: There is one sin, though, which I need to mentionhere that can be construed by many as of the mind. This has often com

up in classes I have taught and I need to make the distinction between mindand heart and thought. Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it was said by them

of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on awoman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)Jesus here clearly is speaking to those who have gone beyond looking upon a pretty woman andadmiring her beauty. The verb “looketh” implies an ongoing, continuing action and we know from thearlier passage about lust. This goes far beyond a simple thought of the mind. Please understandthen that Jesus here is not speaking to a thought but an action of the heart that culminates in sin.






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The Speaking Voice

A. W. Tozer

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

An intelligent plain man, untaught in thetruths of Christianity, coming upon this text, would likely conclude that John meant to teachthat it is the nature of God to speak, tocommunicate His thoughts to others. And he would be right. A word is a medium by whichthoughts are expressed, and the application of theterm to the Eternal Son leads us to believe thatself-expression is inherent in the Godhead, thatGod is forever seeking to speak Himself out to

His creation. The whole Bible supports the idea.God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God isspeaking. He is by His nature continuously articulate. He fills the world with His speaking Voice.

One of the great realities with which wehave to deal is the Voice of God in His world. The briefest and only satisfying cosmogony is this:“He spake and it was done.” The why of naturallaw is the living Voice of God immanent in Hiscreation. And this word of God which brought all

worlds into being cannot be understood to meanthe Bible, for it is not a written or printed word atall, but the expression of the will of God spokeninto the structure of all things. This word of God is the breath of God filling the world with livingpotentiality. The Voice of God is the most powerful force in nature, indeed the only force in nature, foall energy is here only because the power-filled Word is being spoken.

The Bible is the written word of God, and because it is written it is confined and limited by thenecessities of ink and paper and leather. The Voice of God, however, is alive and free as the sovereignGod is free. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” The life is in thspeaking words. God’s word in the Bible can have power only because it corresponds to God’s word inthe universe. It is the present Voice which makes the written Word all-powerful. Otherwise it wouldlie locked in slumber within the covers of a book.

We take a low and primitive view of things when we conceive of God at the creation comininto physical contact with things, shaping and fitting and building like a carpenter. The Bible teachesotherwise: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath ohis mouth. . . . For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.” “Through faith weunderstand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” Again we must remember that God isreferring here not to His written Word, but to His speaking Voice. His world-filling Voice is meantthat Voice which antedates the Bible by uncounted centuries, that Voice which has not been silentsince the dawn of creation, but is sounding still throughout the full far reaches of (continued on page nine)






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The Speaking Voice (continued)

the universe.The Word of God is quick and powerful. In the beginning He spoke to nothing, and it became

something. Chaos heard it and became order; darkness

heard it and became light. “And God said — and it wasso.” These twin phrases, as cause and effect, occurthroughout the Genesis story of the creation. The saidaccounts for the so. The so is the said put into theContinuous present.

That God is here and that He is speaking — thesetruths are back of all other Bible truths; without themthere could be no revelation at all. God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance byunaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing th

power of them to persist across the years. God breathedon clay and it became a man; He breathes on men and

they become clay. “Return ye children of men,” was the word spoken at the Fall by which God decreedthe death of every man, and no added word has He needed to speak. The sad procession of mankindacross the face of the earth from birth to the grave is proof that His original Word was enough.

We have not given sufficient attention to that deep utterance in the Book of John, “That wathe true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Shift the punctuation around a we will and the truth is still there: the Word of God affects the hearts of all men as light in the soul. Inthe hearts of all men the light shines, the Word sounds, and there is no escaping them. Something likethis would of necessity be so if God is alive and in His world. And John says that it is so. Even thospersons who have never heard of the Bible have still been preached to with sufficient clarity to remov

every excuse from their hearts forever. “Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, theiconscience also bearing Witness, and their thoughts the mean while either accusing or else excusingone another.” “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, beingunderstood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are withouexcuse.”

This universal Voice of God was by the ancient Hebrews often called Wisdom, and was said to be everywhere sounding and searching throughoutthe earth, seeking some response from the Sons of men. The eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs begins, “Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding putforth her voice?” The writer then pictures wisdom as a beautiful womanstanding “in the top of the high places, by the way in the places of the paths.”She sounds her voice from every quarter so that no one may miss hearing it.“Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men.” Then she pleads for the simple and thefoolish to give ear to her words. It is spiritual response for which this Wisdom of God is pleading, aresponse which she has always sought and is but rarely able to secure. The tragedy is that our eterna welfare depends upon our hearing, and we have trained our ears not to hear.

This universal Voice has ever sounded, and it has often troubled men even when they did notunderstand the source of their fears. Could it be that this Voice distilling like a living mist upon thhearts of men has been the undiscovered cause of the troubled conscience and the longing forimmortality confessed by millions since the dawn of recorded history? We need not fear to face up tothis. The speaking Voice is a fact. How men have reacted to it is for any observer (continued on page ten)






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to note. When God spoke out of heaven to our Lord, self-centered men who heard it explained it b

natural causes: they said, “It thundered.” This habit of explaining the Voice by appeals to natural law

is at the very root of modern science. In the living breathing cosmos there is a mysterious Somethingtoo wonderful, too awful for any mind to understand. The believing man does not claim tounderstand. He falls to his knees and whispers, “God.” The man of earth kneels also, but not to worship. He kneels to examine,to search, to find the cause andthe how of things. Just now wehappen to be living in a secularage. Our thought habits arethose of the scientist, not thoseof the worshipper. We are morelikely to explain than to adore.

“It thundered,” we exclaim, andgo our earthly way. But still the Voice sounds and searches. Theorder and life of the worlddepend upon that Voice, butmen are mostly too busy or toostubborn to give attention.

Every one of us has hadexperiences which we have not been able to explain: a suddensense of loneliness, or a feelingof wonder or awe in the face of the universal vastness. Or wehave had a fleeting visitation of light like an illumination fromsome other sun, giving us in aquick flash an assurance that we are from another world, thatour origins are divine. What we saw there, or felt, or heard, may have been contrary to all that we had been taught in the schools and at wide variance with all our former beliefs and opinions. We werforced to suspend our acquired doubts while, for a moment, the clouds were rolled back and we sawand heard for ourselves. Explain such things as we will, I think we have not been fair to the facts unti we allow at least the possibility that such experiences may arise from the Presence of God in the world

and His persistent effort to communicate with mankind. Let us not dismiss such a hypothesis tooflippantly.

It is my own belief (and here I shall not feel bad if no one follows me) that every good and beautiful thing which man has produced in the world has been the result of his faulty and sin-blockedresponse to the creative Voice sounding over the earth. The moral philosophers who dreamed theirhigh dreams of virtue, the religious thinkers who speculated about God and immortality, the poetand artists who created out of common stuff pure and lasting beauty: how can we explain them? It isnot enough to say simply, “It was genius.” What then is genius? Could it be that a genius is a manhaunted by the speaking Voice, laboring and striving like one possessed to (continued on page eleven)






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achieve ends which he only vaguely understands? That the great man may havemissed God in his labors, that he may even have spoken or written against Goddoes not destroy the idea I am advancing. God’s redemptive revelation in the

Holy Scriptures is necessary to saving faith and peace with God. Faith in a risenSaviour is necessary if the vague stirrings toward immortality are to bring us to restfuland satisfying communion with God. To me this is a plausible explanation of all that is best out of Christ. But you can be a good Christian and not accept my thesis.

The Voice of God is a friendly Voice. No one need fear to listen to it unless hehas already made up his mind to resist it. The blood of Jesus has covered not only the human race but all creation as well. “And having made peace throughthe blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him,I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” We may safely preach a friendly Heaven. The heavens as well as the earth are filled withthe good will of Him that dwelt in the bush. The perfect blood of atonement secures this forever.

Whoever will listen will hear the speaking Heaven. This is definitely not the hour when mentake kindly to an exhortation to listen, for listening is not today a part of popular religion. We are atthe opposite end of the pole from there. Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, sizeactivity and bluster make a man dear to God. But we may take heart. To a people caught in thetempest of the last great conflict God says, “Be still, and know that I am God,” and still He says it, as iHe means to tell us that our strength and safety lie not in noise but in silence.

It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably withour Bible outspread before us. Then if we will we may draw near to God and begin to hear Him speakto us in our hearts. I think for the average person the progression will be something like this: First asound as of a Presence walking in the garden. Then a voice, more intelligible, but still far from clear

Then the happy moment when the Spirit begins toilluminate the Scriptures, and that which had been only

a sound, or at best a voice, now becomes an intelligible word, warm and intimate and clear as the word of dear friend. Then will come life and light, and best oall, ability to see and rest in and embrace Jesus Christas Saviour and Lord and All.

The Bible will never be a living Book to us unti we are convinced that God is articulate in His universeTo jump from a dead, impersonal world to a dogmaticBible is too much for most people. They may admit thathey should accept the Bible as the Word of God, andthey may try to think of it as such, but they find i

impossible to believe that the words there on the pageare actually for them. A man may say, “These words areaddressed to me,” and yet in his heart not feel andknow that they are. He is the victim of a dividedpsychology. He tries to think of God as muteeverywhere else and vocal only in a book.

I believe that much of our religious unbelief isdue to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the Scriptures of Truth. A silent God suddenly began to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence(continued on page twelve)





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again forever. Now we read the book as the record of what God said when He was for a brief time in aspeaking mood. With notions like that in our heads how can we believe? The facts are that God is nosilent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second Person of the Holy Trinity is

called the Word. The Bible is the inevitable

outcome of God’s continuous speech. It is theinfallible declaration of His mind for us put intoour familiar human words.

I think a new world will arise out of thereligious mists when we approach our Bible withthe idea that it is not only a book which was oncespoken, but a book which is now speaking. Theprophets habitually said, “Thus saith the Lord.”They meant their hearers to understand thatGod’s speaking is in the continuous present. Wemay use the past tense properly to indicate tha

at a certain time a certain word of God wasspoken, but a word of God once spokencontinues to be spoken, as a child once born

continues to be alive, or a world once created continues to exist. And those are but imperfecillustrations, for children die and worlds burn out, but the Word of our God endureth forever.

If you would follow on to know the Lord, come at once to the open Bible expecting it to speak to you. Do not come with the notion that it is a thing which you may push around at your convenience. Iis more than a thing; it is a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God.

Homeward Bound is published by

Homeward Bound Ministries, Post Office Box3351, Milford, Connecticut, USA, 06460.

Homeward Bound is a teaching ministry

attempting to edify the body of Christ,

prepare men and women to serve in the

Great Commission and furnish articles of

timely interest and content relevant to our

day and the issues we face in our daily walk

with Christ. We invite you to write to us and

ask questions regarding the Bible and mattersof faith, and submit articles, testimonies or

other pieces for publication that glorify God.

Thank you for taking the time to read this

issue of Homeward Bound!

2008 Homeward Bound Ministries

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