Greetings, and blessings in Jesus name.
The following is from Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, Founder of the Voice of the Martyrs.
Permission has been granted to post this passage from one of Pastor Wurmbrands Book's, 'The Answer to the Athiest's Handbook', from VOM Australia.
" *God Does Exist *
Fish lay their eggs in the fjords of Norway and from these eggs come a
new generation of fish that somehow find their way across the ocean to
the Caribbean Sea. When the time comes for them to spawn in their turn,
they return to exactly the same fjords they had previously left.
A man has to spend twenty years learning to become captain of a ship and to travel across the Atlantic Ocean. Who taught these fish to travel?
When we were in prison, the swallows made their nests in our cells, and every autumn they left our country. Yet these same swallows came back from as far as Mozambique to our prison in Romania, exactly to cell number
twelve which they had left half a year before.
For those who have their eyes open, the wisdom and power of God are revealed in a million ways.
Does God exist?
The question should not even be asked.
In every true rendering of the subject predicate form, the predicate is contained in the subject. God is the ideal Being, the sum of all the highest
qualities, such as love, goodness, righteousness, omnipotence, and so
on. If He has all the perfections (which He must, or He would not be
God), He must have existence, too. A nonexistent God would not have the
sum of perfections.
To ask, “Is there a God?” is tantamount to asking,
“Is the existent existing?” God is.
With this conviction I live, and with this assertion I hope to die. I use the expression that God is, only because I am dealing with atheists. Otherwise it is senseless, a tautology, like “All bachelors are male.” When you have said “bachelor,” you have already said “male.” And when you have said “God,” His existence is implicit. .... "
...........................................><>....................................................
May these word bless all who read them, with a deepness of understanding that strengthens conviction and courage, and fills you with joy and assurance of the heavenly Father's love and care in Jesus name.
Bless you,
Br. Bear
ps...I would like to add this from VOM,
THUMBS UP!
Recently I was reading something about entertainment in bygone eras, and the old Roman Empire came in for a mention.
It was pointed out that the centre of entertainment in Rome was the amphitheatre. In books, television programs and travel brochures we see pictures of the ruins of various old Roman amphitheatres, the most famous of which was the Colosseum.
Probably most of us at times have seen movies portraying, in their own way, some of the events of the past from the amphitheatres of Rome. It was an arena where gladiators became famous, and where many were killed and mortally wounded. We also know it as a place where Christians were cruelly treated as they were held in cells under the main floor before, in mock battles, they were fed to the wild animals.
In the just released VOM-USA fortieth anniversary edition of “Foxe: Voices of the Martyrs” you can read about Ignatius of Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians. He was taken to his martyrdom at the Colosseum in A.D.110. On his way to the place where lions would tear his flesh from his body, he is quoted as saying, “Now I begin to be a disciple, I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I may but win Christ. Come fire and cross and grapplings with wild beasts, the rending of my bones and my body . . . only let it be mine to attain Jesus Christ.”
The gladiators fought bloodthirsty battles. Armed with daggers and swords and other weapons they fought each other and sometimes fought against unarmed opponents. They fought to the death. If a man was wounded he would make a plea for mercy by throwing down his shield and raising his index finger. It is said the crowd would then have his life in their hands – they could decide if he would live or die. If the crowd gave him thumbs up, he would live. If they gave the thumbs down, he would die.
There was power in the thumb!
I remember Richard Wurmbrand told us about some artists in Russia. A husband and wife; they were painters. They had grown up in the atheist-communist environment of the Soviet Union, and they used their talent to produce works of art as a means to eke out a living and support themselves.
Day by day they applied brush to canvas. As they painted they thought and through the medium of art they philosophised.
One day the wife suddenly stopped painting, looked at her husband and said, “Who made the thumb?” Her startled husband waited for her to continue as he wondered what this was about and what was guiding her thinking. The lady went on to explain how important the thumb was to them as artists. She expressed her view that the thumb was critical for her control of the brush strokes, as with the paint and canvas she expressed what was in her heart and what she saw with her eyes.
The lady’s husband somehow saw the point she was making and their conversation turned to discussions about the possibility of a Creator, foreign to the materialistic and evolutionary society in which they had grown and in which they had been educated.
Pastor Wurmbrand went on to tell us that through this question – “who made the thumb?” – this couple concluded there must be a Creator. As they thought about it and talked to others, they were led to acknowledge the existence of God and they accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.
For them, there was power in the thumb!
God does not need to use an earthquake or a mighty wind to be a voice in this world. Sometimes He approaches us through what at first seems to be insignificant – so insignificant that we might easily miss it. As insignificant as a thumb.
“ . . . but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice . . . and Elijah heard it” 1 Kings 19:11-13 .
It is that still small voice that says to us today . . . “remember them that are in bonds” Heb.13:3.
Bless you all ...><>
The following is from Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, Founder of the Voice of the Martyrs.
Permission has been granted to post this passage from one of Pastor Wurmbrands Book's, 'The Answer to the Athiest's Handbook', from VOM Australia.
" *God Does Exist *
Fish lay their eggs in the fjords of Norway and from these eggs come a
new generation of fish that somehow find their way across the ocean to
the Caribbean Sea. When the time comes for them to spawn in their turn,
they return to exactly the same fjords they had previously left.
A man has to spend twenty years learning to become captain of a ship and to travel across the Atlantic Ocean. Who taught these fish to travel?
When we were in prison, the swallows made their nests in our cells, and every autumn they left our country. Yet these same swallows came back from as far as Mozambique to our prison in Romania, exactly to cell number
twelve which they had left half a year before.
For those who have their eyes open, the wisdom and power of God are revealed in a million ways.
Does God exist?
The question should not even be asked.
In every true rendering of the subject predicate form, the predicate is contained in the subject. God is the ideal Being, the sum of all the highest
qualities, such as love, goodness, righteousness, omnipotence, and so
on. If He has all the perfections (which He must, or He would not be
God), He must have existence, too. A nonexistent God would not have the
sum of perfections.
To ask, “Is there a God?” is tantamount to asking,
“Is the existent existing?” God is.
With this conviction I live, and with this assertion I hope to die. I use the expression that God is, only because I am dealing with atheists. Otherwise it is senseless, a tautology, like “All bachelors are male.” When you have said “bachelor,” you have already said “male.” And when you have said “God,” His existence is implicit. .... "
...........................................><>....................................................
May these word bless all who read them, with a deepness of understanding that strengthens conviction and courage, and fills you with joy and assurance of the heavenly Father's love and care in Jesus name.
Bless you,
Br. Bear
ps...I would like to add this from VOM,
THUMBS UP!
Recently I was reading something about entertainment in bygone eras, and the old Roman Empire came in for a mention.
It was pointed out that the centre of entertainment in Rome was the amphitheatre. In books, television programs and travel brochures we see pictures of the ruins of various old Roman amphitheatres, the most famous of which was the Colosseum.
Probably most of us at times have seen movies portraying, in their own way, some of the events of the past from the amphitheatres of Rome. It was an arena where gladiators became famous, and where many were killed and mortally wounded. We also know it as a place where Christians were cruelly treated as they were held in cells under the main floor before, in mock battles, they were fed to the wild animals.
In the just released VOM-USA fortieth anniversary edition of “Foxe: Voices of the Martyrs” you can read about Ignatius of Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians. He was taken to his martyrdom at the Colosseum in A.D.110. On his way to the place where lions would tear his flesh from his body, he is quoted as saying, “Now I begin to be a disciple, I care for nothing of visible or invisible things so that I may but win Christ. Come fire and cross and grapplings with wild beasts, the rending of my bones and my body . . . only let it be mine to attain Jesus Christ.”
The gladiators fought bloodthirsty battles. Armed with daggers and swords and other weapons they fought each other and sometimes fought against unarmed opponents. They fought to the death. If a man was wounded he would make a plea for mercy by throwing down his shield and raising his index finger. It is said the crowd would then have his life in their hands – they could decide if he would live or die. If the crowd gave him thumbs up, he would live. If they gave the thumbs down, he would die.
There was power in the thumb!
I remember Richard Wurmbrand told us about some artists in Russia. A husband and wife; they were painters. They had grown up in the atheist-communist environment of the Soviet Union, and they used their talent to produce works of art as a means to eke out a living and support themselves.
Day by day they applied brush to canvas. As they painted they thought and through the medium of art they philosophised.
One day the wife suddenly stopped painting, looked at her husband and said, “Who made the thumb?” Her startled husband waited for her to continue as he wondered what this was about and what was guiding her thinking. The lady went on to explain how important the thumb was to them as artists. She expressed her view that the thumb was critical for her control of the brush strokes, as with the paint and canvas she expressed what was in her heart and what she saw with her eyes.
The lady’s husband somehow saw the point she was making and their conversation turned to discussions about the possibility of a Creator, foreign to the materialistic and evolutionary society in which they had grown and in which they had been educated.
Pastor Wurmbrand went on to tell us that through this question – “who made the thumb?” – this couple concluded there must be a Creator. As they thought about it and talked to others, they were led to acknowledge the existence of God and they accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.
For them, there was power in the thumb!
God does not need to use an earthquake or a mighty wind to be a voice in this world. Sometimes He approaches us through what at first seems to be insignificant – so insignificant that we might easily miss it. As insignificant as a thumb.
“ . . . but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice . . . and Elijah heard it” 1 Kings 19:11-13 .
It is that still small voice that says to us today . . . “remember them that are in bonds” Heb.13:3.
Bless you all ...><>
