CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
& LIVING

CONTENTS

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• THE MARK OF THE BEAST - Tomorrow's Education by ...
  Julio Severo
  The repetition of the feast, year after year, would help educate God's people never to forget God's Word. Explaining in a simple way, that repetition was an educational method used to mark profoundly the minds of the people, so that they would always remember to recite and study God's Word. ...More than ever, today a man needs a diploma to be able to have an occupation in the marketplace, and the minimal educational demands are increasingly high, compelling children and teens to spend most of their years in the educational institutions. A human being today is only respected according to an official diploma proving he spent years studying in schools and universities. It is getting almost impossible to live without a diploma.
• "WHAT'S THE USE OF PRAYING FOR HER?" by ...
  Carol Freeman
  CARLY APOSTOL WAS CARRIED, thrashing and bellowing into the government hospital in Cauayan, Isabela, Philippines. She was swollen to twice her normal size in severe eclampsia, about to give birth. Convulsing, groaning, screeching, her tongue thrashing in and out of her mouth, her eyes rolling back desperately in her head… She was going to die before our eyes. Patients, visitors, and nurses alike gawked at her. No one knew what to do. My two older children and I were there at the hospital visiting Josie, a friend from our village who had almost died hemorraghing after giving birth to a stillborn. I didn't know Carly. I'd never met her. "Pray for her healing," the Lord said to me.
• GOD'S NEW FLOW IN PERSONAL FINANCES by ... George Foster
  I believe God wants to increase tremendously the flow of resources among His people. He wants to release large sums of money to believers so they can multiply the ministry of the local church, send missionaries to the unreached peoples of the world, and meet the needs of the poor. How does God want to do this? By progressively increasing our ability to give and our ability to receive, so we can give more and receive more, in order to give yet more and receive yet more.
• THE CASE OF THE FRAUDULENT SURRENDER by ... LeRoy Dugan
  A German officer had just buttoned his tunic, drawn up his collar to ward off the lingering cool of the morning, and headed for his regular inspection of the bunker overlooking the beach in Normandy. It was June 6, 1944. Hitler's "fortress Europe" was secure behind massive coastal fortification extending from north to south along the western margin of the occupied nations. The Germans were certain that the Allied forces would eventually launch an all-out attack. But Nazi defenses were so formidable that Hitler's leaders were convinced such an attempted invasion would be repulsed. There is a striking story in I Kings, chapter twenty, which has all the pathos of the episode in the Normandy bunker.
• JESUS LIVING IN OUR FLESH? by ... Harold Brokke
  A STRANGE CONTRADICTION exists in the mind of many believers who desperately desire to live righteous lives, but think that to claim victory over sin is heresy. What would happen if a believer testified, "I have found freedom in Jesus from the power of sin. I have walked in victory today. Jesus took charge and I had victory over all my temptations?" Many Christians would object, "That sounds like a spiritual pride and self-deception. No one can live in victory over sin - even for a day. The Bible says, 'In my flesh, dwells no good thing.' As long as we are in the flesh, we sin daily in thought, word, and deed!"
• CELESTIAL RELATIONSHIPS by ... Steve Harrison
  Later, I discovered that life did not exist on Mars and the beauty of the planets existed only at a distance. As various space probes were sent to obtain scientific data, their conclusions were clear. All the planets, except for Earth were unsuitable for life. Some were extremely hot while others were gripped with temperatures nearing absolute zero. Some showed the scars of volcanic activity and violent storms while others were alone as frozen objects entombed in deathly silence. All lacked life-giving oxygen and were permeated with various types of gases.
• FOUNDATIONS AND PURPOSES IN MARRIAGE by ... Alec Brooks
  Not long ago the roof of the Hartford, Connecticut, sports arena collapsed. It was built to be aesthetically pleasing, but it was not able to stand the pressure of the ice and snow that fell on it. There are many marriages in the same predicament. They begin with beautiful weddings and everything seems so promising, with the happy couples looking forward to happy lives together. Then come the pressures of married life and cracks begin to appear in the structure. At this point, many marriages collapse.
• A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO PASTORAL EPISTLES by ... Mike Leeming
  There are three predominate views concerning the authorship of the Pastoral Epistles.  These can be summarized as follows: 1. Paul wrote these letters in his old age. 2. The Pastorals are not written by Paul at all, but by some other church leader who lived about fifty years after Paul’s death. 3. The Pastorals are a later writing, but they contain genuine fragments of Paul’s letters. ...It is not easy to suppose that in three epistles the apostle, for example, would ignore such fundamental truths of his gospel as the fatherhood of God, the union of the believing man with Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit in the Christian experience.  The only explanation of this seems to be that the epistles were written by a disciple of St. Paul who… wrote against tendencies which threatened the later church.

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