Bits and Pieces – 60th Edition – April 25, 2021

“For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (Hebrews 6:10).

The Bible foretells that in the last days, there shall be a falling away from the faith.  That apostasy can be seen today in the increasing attacks upon the cardinal doctrines of Christianity.  Two areas are central to the devil’s strategy, namely, the deity of Christ and His bodily resurrection.

What a gloomy proposition is the denial of Christ’s resurrection!  It would mean that all Christian preaching is vain and a waste of time.  Even worse, it would be an exposition of falsehood.  The faith of believing people would be empty and groundless, sin unforgiven, and our buried loved ones eternally perished.  Salvation at best could only be for this present life.  What a dark prospect!

However, the resurrection of Christ is one of the best-attested facts in history.  There were over five hundred eyewitnesses whose testimony must be overthrown to deny the fact.  Christ foretold it.  It was recorded in the Gospels. The lives of the disciples, so depressed and discouraged by the crucifixion, were transformed by the resurrection of their Master.  They went forth as fearless heralds of Christianity.  A faked resurrection could not account for that transformation.  The changed lives of millions attest to the veracity of Paul’s statement, “Now is Christ risen from the dead.”

Three philosophers – Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin – have had a profound but debilitating effect upon modern society.  Thank God, the Christian does not follow the mutable theories of dead philosophers but the life-giving gospel of a living Redeemer.  His resurrection is the capstone of all Christian doctrine.  May we know “the power of His resurrection” today. (Philippians 3:10).

We are instructed by Psalm 34:3 to magnify the Lord.  He wants us to be magnifiers of Him, but how can we do that?  God is infinitely great.  He tells us, “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”  How can we make God bigger?  How can we magnify Him?

A hand magnifying glass will help us answer this question.  It must have light.  It is useless without light.  Light is an amazing substance.  It is the First created substance, “ Let there light” (Genesis. 1:3).  It is also the Fastest created thing.  It travels at roughly 186,000 miles per second.  The Bible teaches “God is light” (1 John 1:5).  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12).

On the other hand, we are told, “the god of this world (the devil) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore, the unbeliever dwelling in nature’s darkness cannot magnify God.  He needs the “light of the world”.

To understand how we can magnify the Lord, take a magnifying glass and focus it on some writing.  The writing immediately appears bigger but in fact it is not.  It just appears so.

What we can do by our testimony is to make the perception of God to be greater to others.  That is why it is most important we should bear a good testimony before a dying world.

The Covid19 pandemic is worsening by the hour, and Canada is not immune. We can read about the disaster situation in India and in other countries but let us not forget Canada, with rising numbers of infections, vaccine delivery delays and health services stretched to the limit.

What can we do?  Well, what we should do is obey all medical restrictions.  It is hardly likely medical staff are out to trick us.  The Hippocratic oath is all about helping the sick get better.

The Christian should redouble his efforts in prayer.  Only the Lord can remove this plague.  Our voices should be towards heaven for God’s intervention.  He is still Jehovah Ropheka, “I am the Lord that healeth thee”  (Exodus 15:26).

Euthanasia in Canada or doctor-assisted suicide – what the Criminal Code calls Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)-was legalized in Canada in June 2016. By the end of 2019, doctors had hastened the deaths of nearly 14,000 Canadians.  MAiD accounted for more than 5,600 deaths in 2019 alone – one doctor-assisted death every one–and one–half hours.  With these and the abortions, how can Canada expect the blessing of God when He has said, “Thou shalt not kill.”