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PRAYERGEAR.COM / SPIRITUAL RESOURCE
SERVICES NEWSLETTER
April 13, 2000 Issue 40: Wisdom Versus Knowledge, Part 3
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<>< CONTENTS <><
1. Mini-Reflection
2. Cruising Christian Cyberspace!
3. Prayergear.com product and services updates
4. Let us know!
5. Weekly Reflection: "Wisdom Versus Knowledge", Part 3
of 4
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Greetings to all in the Name of our Lord and a great welcome to
our new subscribers!
We are anticipating with delight and gratitude the upcoming holy
days of reflection and celebration. You are in our prayers during
this special spiritual season. Please pray for us as well.
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1. ~~ ** Mini-Reflection ** ~~
"Unless a person be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God." (John 3:3)
A subscriber sent the following thought to ponder, suggesting
(twice <g>) that it would be a good lead into a
Mini-Reflection. So here it is:
"I read about an Eskimo hunter who asked the local
missionary priest, 'If I did not know about God and sin, would I
go to hell? 'No,' said the missionary. The Eskimo then asked,
'Then why did you tell me?'"
Reflect upon the thoughts that come to you upon reading this.
You'll soon be reading my response below.
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2. ~~ ** Cruising Christian Cyberspace! ** ~~
"And He told them to go out and preach the Gospel to all the
world." (Mark 16:15)
Our web site feature of the week is
TruePath.com
- Free Christian Web Site Hosting
(http://www.truepath.com) This site offers Christian web hosting,
including free web space and website creation tools for building
home pages. The Psalms say "I will sing Your praises unto
all the nations." Ever wonder how you could do that and help
spread the Gospel throughout the world? Your own free homepage is
one way to do that and honor the Lord with your praises and
witness on the World Wide Web. But TruePath.com offers much more!
This site is rich in resources to explore, especially the
"Paths," which is similar in nature to a "web
ring": Click on one of the many categories (such as
literature, business, faith, family, health, science and others)
and you'll find hundreds of links to related Christian sites.
Check it out and let us know what you think.
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3. ~~ ** Prayergear.com Product and Service Updates ** ~~
"Honor your mother and your father." (Exodus 20:12)
We greatly expanded the new Mother's Day section on the online
store since last introducing you to it. Check it out at
www.prayergear.com/mdg.html
We also added three new items on the What's
New page of the web site: your Verse of
the Day, your Proverb of the Day and your "ReverendFun"
cartoon of the week. These change automatically daily, except the
cartoon feature which has a weekly format. However, when you need
a little levity some time, click on the cartoon and you'll be
taken to ReverendFun.com where you can spend hours clicking
through various degrees of spiritually based chuckles and a few
that make you think. For instance, a friend just brought to my
attention a cartoon showing an American missionary listening to a
third-world convert in his indigenous attire with his worldly
possessions slung over his shoulder, ready to travel. The caption
has the convert explaining: "Thank you for coming here to
tell me about the Gospel. Now I am going to America. I understand
there is a great need there."
Keep in mind our web site reviews are posted on our "Cruising
Christian Cyberspace"
page where you'll find an abundance of useful and empowering
links. Do you have a homepage or web site or know of one you
would like us to consider in our feature and link page? Let us
know!
Please continue to shop our online Products Store and help
support our ministries...and share this with others! Many more
products will be added this week. We strive to provide the best
line of Christian growth items and service.
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4. ~~ ** Let us know! ** ~~
Now for my response to the conversation between the Eskimo and
missionary:
First, we cannot assume the priest is correct in his response, as
it has no biblical basis. So then comes the argument, "Well,
if ignorance is no excuse, that isn't fair...how about the
aborted babies, the children, the brain injured, etc., that die
before being able to hear the Gospel?" The Bible isn't clear
on that either. I do have some ideas, but they would not be
biblically substantiated either. God's ways are truly not subject
to human logic or senses of what is fair or right. God does say
that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not ours.
(And that is good news <g>.)
However, we can be clear on one thing: Christ mandated that His
Gospel be proclaimed not just because He, Redemption and the
indwelling Holy Spirit are the supreme gifts, but also because
"unless a person be born again, he cannot enter the
kingdom." That would include the Eskimo (Inuit, to be
politically correct <g>) who never heard the Gospel. There
are no fine print exclusion clauses at the end of the third
chapter of John that would cover Eskimos or undiscovered Amazon
jungle tribes. So important is this mandate of the Great
Commission that God told us He would have a powerful angel cover
the ground we humans might miss: "I saw another angel. This
one was flying across the sky and had the eternal good news to
announce to the people of every race, tribe, language and nation
on earth." (I think that covers Eskimos.) "The angel
shouted, 'Worship and honor God! The time has come for Him to
judge everyone. Kneel down before the One Who created heaven and
earth, the oceans and every stream.'" (Rev. 13:6-7.)
The scriptures also point out that all of creation bears witness
to God's existence and love so "no one is without
excuse." The people of ancient Athens could see that and
erected an altar to "The Unknown God." The apostle Paul
then proceeded to tell them who this God is. (Acts 17:23)
Perhaps the priest could have better responded with an "I
don't know. But now that you do have the knowledge of the Gospel,
what will you do with it? Why are you regretful that I shared it
with you? Why aren't you rejoicing in it? Why don't you tell your
children, now that you know? Do you really think their ignorance
will permit them the grace of redemption from their sins? Do you
think their ignorance of the Gospel will excuse them from the
hell of separation from their Creator?" I would think that
the Eskimo, after pondering those questions, would stop
challenging the priest on sharing the Gospel and would instead go
challenge his loved ones and neighbors with what the priest
shared, the Gospel.
What do you think? Whether they are ideas, questions,
information, or stories, we would love receiving them. By now you
should know that we aim to maintain the most subscriber
responsive and interactive newsletter on the Internet. So, let us
know!
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5. ~~ This week's Weekly Reflection follows below ~~
Please encourage others to subscribe! Share this newsletter with
many of your friends and help spread the word. Your
recommendations to others is our only means of growing and
reaching more people. We'll talk to you next week, unless, of
course, you email us before then! We are blessed to hear from
you!
"You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are
fellow citizens...and members of the household of God."
(Ephesians 2:19)
John
John S. Hilkevich, Ph.D.
Spiritual Resource Services: Prayergear.com
~ Education, Services and Products
in the Christian Faith ~
www.prayergear.com
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For a more attractively formatted Weekly Reflection or links to
previous
Reflections, point your browser to
http://www.prayergear.com/weeklyintro.html
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WEEKLY REFLECTIONS
Wisdom Versus Knowledge
Part 3 of 4
(Click on link above.)
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