August 2013

Woman: The Helper, The Gift of God

Posted 8/16/13 by Donald Barnhouse

God can be alone, for in Him are all the attributes of perfection. He is in three persons, and so was never alone in one sense - there was always the Father, who is love, the Son, who is the object of that love, and the Spirit of love between them. But man is a creature and cannot stand by himself. God, in His love, thought up the wonderful idea of home—man and woman together, one flesh, and one mind and heart. God created the home as the perfect triangle—the man, the woman and the Lord, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12). As long as the Lord is on His point of the triangle, the edifice is sure. Then home life is to be centered on the Lord, as each encourages and prays for the other.

“It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make for him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

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Image and Dominion

Posted 8/15/13 by Donald Barnhouse

It was not a physical image, for God is Spirit (John 4:24), and a spirit hath not flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). The physical descriptions of God are figures to teach our childish hearts some of the realities of His great love. No one knows the exact area or the full meaning of this image and likeness; I believe it refers to the trinity of our nature.

“Let us make man in our image and likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps over the earth.” Gen.1:26

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Creation: Order and Blessing

Posted 8/14/13 by Donald Barnhouse

God is a God of order. All things that exist are in groups that are interrelated. The farther science advances, the more it is realized that all things are interconnected. Not only are the various orders of living things made according to their various minds, but even in inanimate nature there is amazing orderliness with infinite variety. Every snowflake that ever fell upon the earth has a similar mathematical design, but no two are ever alike. All the elements in the chemical table are interrelated in weight and atomic structure, the great universe swings in predictable fashion. The astronomers know that a solar eclipse will be visible at a certain time in a certain place: they will travel to that spot, and the eclipse occurs exactly on time.

“…according to its kind. And God saw it was good. And God blessed them saying, “Be fruitful and multiply …) (Genesis 1:21,22)

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Creation: The Work of God

Posted 8/13/13 by Donald Barnhouse

There are many beginnings described in the Word. This verse refers to the beginning of the material universe. The gospel of John goes back much farther into the eternity when there was not yet a material creation. A music teacher may tell a child to go back to the beginning, and it may be the beginning of a phrase, a measure, a page, a movement, a sonata. God is the God of new beginnings. There is no peace for the mind apart from the knowledge that back of all that is around us…the stars and sun, the earth and all that is in it… our own bodies there is the mind and will of God. When we know that He created all these things, we can know that He has an eternal purpose - even though the universe is marked by the eroding signs of judgment upon sin, we can be sure that our God who began His work will also finish it. “When I begin, I shall also make an end” (I Samuel 3:12).

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1)

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Holiness and The Word

Posted 8/12/13 by Donald Barnhouse

Every true child of God longs for the deepening Christian life. We have God-given desires for holiness. How important then that we should remember that the Lord Jesus Christ, about to go to the cross, looked to the Father and said: “Make them holy through Thy Word; Thy Word is truth." It is an amazing thing, and we realize it more and more as we come to know God’s Word, that almost all God does in this world today, he does through the instrumentality of His Word. It follows that if we expect to secure blessings from God, we must receive them in the way that He planned to give them to us, and though we may find holiness in many ways in the Bible, we shall not find it apart from the Bible.

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

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Our Great Commission

Posted 8/9/13 by Donald Barnhouse

Jesus set forth the plan with the Great Commission in Mark 16:15-16. The gospel is Christ’s message, brought by Christ’s people, in Christ’s power. It calls the disciple to a life of complete surrender and total engagement. It is the life Jesus spoke of in Mark 8:34-35.

“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”" (Mark 16:15)

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Giving Life to Dead Hope and Dead Faith

Posted 8/8/13 by Donald Barnhouse

Mary’s frame of mind – so far removed from anticipating the resurrection – is precious proof of the historic reality of the resurrection. In the mind of Mary there was no soil in which hallucinations would spring - psychologically, it is absurd to say that she could have suddenly imagined the risen Christ. Mary’s love needed more than an empty grave and waiting angels to stay her tears.

“He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.” (Mark 16:6)

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Why did Jesus Die?

Posted 8/7/13 by Donald Barnhouse

Why did Jesus die? That is the question we need to answer as we read of Jesus’ suffering and death. Christ died because it was the purpose for which He had come to the earth. He died because His death would resolve the great dilemma of God. And He died because His kingdom of righteousness could not come without sacrifice. It was by the death of Jesus that the great tension within God Himself could be resolved. God has just as much hatred for my sin as he has love for my soul, but how can God strike my sin without destroying me? The answer is in Jesus who came so God could take my sin and put it on another. Then, with my sin on the Savior, God could strike the sin without striking me.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)

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Christ, the Cornerstone

Posted 8/6/13 by Donald Barnhouse

Here in Mark 12, Christ calls Himself the measuring stone, or as it is translated in our Bible, “the cornerstone.” When the Bible refers to the cornerstone, it refers to the first stone laid in the foundation. The builders would get a stone from the quarry and chisel it carefully to get as near a right angle as possible. They would measure the placement of all other stones against that cornerstone. It was the standard by which all the walls of the building were measured.

“Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?”" (Mark 12:10)

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Lessons from a Fig Tree

Posted 8/5/13 by Donald Barnhouse

Lesson from a fig Tree

“May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” (Mark 11:14)

I was brought up in California with a fig tree in my backyard. It was typical to find fresh figs in July and August, perhaps a few in September, and than, when the leaves fell off, to find dry figs in October and November, still on the tree. It was perfectly possible and plausible for Jesus to look for some dried figs, still on the tree from the season past, amid the first green leaves of the new crop to come. There is nothing ridiculous about Jesus’ response. The only problem is to find out the significance of His response.

In Jeremiah 8:13, God speaks about coming to Israel expecting to find righteousness, saying, “When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.” On this morning, Jesus sees the fig tree and kills two errors with one parable. Here was the fig tree-leaves – leaves, and no figs! A perfect picture of the nation of Israel. They had religion coming out their ears. The religious leaders had plenty of leaves. Their religion was all leaves, but no fruit,

Meditation: Is my Christian walk all “leaves“?

Further Reading: Matthew 11:12-14; 20-26

Lesson from a Fig Tree

“May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” (Mark 11:14)

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August 2013

Books by Dr. Barnhouse