THE TRENTON BULLETIN

THE TRENTON BULLETIN

Trenton Church of Christ, Trenton, Florida

To say that God cannot do something seems to contradict the concept of an omnipotent or all-powerful God. Jehovah, in the face of laughing at His promising an old couple that they would have a child, challenges the doubters with, “Is anything too hard for Jehovah?” (Genesis18:14.). When the Lord’s own apostles were wondering at their failure to cast out demons, Jesus looked to their “little faith” as the problem and said that if they had faith, even as small as a grain of mustard seed, they could miraculously remove mountains and “nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Matthew 17:20). Their abilities were tied to God through their faith in the One who has the power to do all wonders.

While nothing is too hard for Jehovah, even miraculously removing mountains, or casting out demons, there are things the Scriptures point to that are impossible for God to do. These are not contradictions to tear down the truth that God is omnipotent, but provide for us important facts to complete the picture of God, and really strengthen our faith.

While God has the power to do all things, there are things that are impossible for Him to do for they contradict His character. For example, God cannot lie, for in doing so He would contradict his character of always upholding the truth. Lies are the character of the Devil and form the bleak picture of darkness, which has no place in God’s character (John 8:44-47, I John 1:5).

Because it is impossible for God to lie, we can have confidence in His promises. Paul writes, “in hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie promised before times eternal…” (Titus 1:4). The passing of time should not cause us to lose confidence in the proposition that eternal life in Heaven awaits us. Like Paul, we must focus upon God’s character of Truth. God cannot lie, so we continue to hope, knowing that the promise will be fulfilled. God promised Abraham that in him would all the nations of the earth would be blessed. His promise was accompanied by an oath. The Hebrew writer refers to these two things as “immutable” and in which “it is impossible for God to lie.” (Hebrews 6:18).

Why should we be reminded of God’s promise to bless and multiply Abraham’s seed which found ultimate fulfillment in Christ (Genesis 22:16-18, Galatians 3:15)? So that “we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us; which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast…” (Hebrews 6:18-19). God “cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2: 13). His character is one of faithfulness, and to deny Himself would contradict the truth of His very being. In essence He is telling us that He exists, therefore we should remain faithful to him through life’s difficulties, trials and hardships. Man can become weak and quit “enduring” with Lord and even “deny Him” It is at this moment of doubt that we need to be reminded of what God cannot do, and rise up to serve. “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him: if we shall deny Him, He will also deny us: if we are faithless, He abideth faithful: for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:12-13).

Learning what God cannot do, we are encouraged to remain faithful, looking forward to eternal life with no doubts.

One day, a man was explaining to a younger man how he was able to determine the correct priorities. He explained to him his theory of a “1,000 marbles.” “One day,” he said, “I sat down and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about 75 years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, this is what I can expect. I then multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays the average person has in their entire lifetime."

"It took me until I was 55 years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over 2,800 Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be 75, I only had about a 1,000 of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container in my garage. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on what is really important in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

David once said that “our days on the earth are as a shadow” (1 Chronicles 29:15). Peter said that “the glory of man [is] as the flower of grass” which will wither and disappear (1 Peter 1:24). Get your priorities straight! Through your faith, repentance, confession of Christ, and baptism you can enter into a new life of righteousness.

1. Be self-centered, bestow all of your affection and care upon yourself; seek your own happiness and well-being to the point of unconcern for the needs of others. “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4).

2. Be demanding of others, tell yourself that others are obligated to you, that it is their duty to be concerned about and look after your best interest, and make no allowance for the least failure on their part to discharge this duty. “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves” (Romans 15:1).

3. Feel neglected and become absorbed in self-sympathy, convince yourself completely that others do not fulfill their obligations to you, and never allow the least doubt that you are a subject of misfortune and pity to enter your thoughts. “[Love] does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered” (1 Corinthians 13:5).

4. See only good in yourself and faults in others, for every attitude and act of unrighteousness on your part find an excuse to salve your conscience while demanding absolute perfection of others. “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye” (Matthew 7:5)

5. Look for the ways to place others in a bad light and go around with a chip on your shoulder. Act like everyone else is out of step except you. “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion” (Proverbs 28:13).

6. Never smile and ignore others. When asked what is wrong just say “nothing.” “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (Galatians 5:22).

7. Look for the worst possible spin on every situation and place a seed of doubt in others about the actions of those to whom you are jealous. “A worthless man digs up evil, While his words are like scorching fire” (Proverbs 16:27).

8. Never talk to the person you have the problem with—always tell others how terrible this person is behaving. “A perverse man spreads strife, and a slanderer separates intimate friends” (Proverbs 16:28).

9. Observe these rules and you will attain to complete uselessness -- and perfect misery forever.

If, however, your aim is usefulness and happiness (as I trust that it is), then you must do the exact opposite. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and selfishness is among man’s most soul-condemning blunders. Selfishness has no place in the heart or actions of God’s people. God's commandments aren't prefaced with, "If you're in the mood." “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).

“The human being who lives only for himself finally reaps nothing but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies. Don't put off the joy derivable from doing helpful, kindly things for others” (B.C. Forbes).

“And Cain said to the Lord, "My punishment is greater than I can bear! Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me" (Genesis 4:13,14).

All who live in this world will have to deal with sorrow. It is inevitable. In an environment where sin is a reality, the temporal consequences of sin are unavoidable -- and since sorrow is one of those consequences, we shall have to deal with it sooner or later. The only question is how we shall do so. It's important to keep our sorrow from turning into what is called "the sorrow of the world" (2 Corinthians 7:10). This is the sorrow that wallows selfishly in its own misery. It does not confront sin in a godly way.

Two things are needed to keep our sorrow from turning into self-pity: reverence and gratitude. When we are passing through any bitterness of spirit, we must maintain a humble respect for the greatness of God as our Creator, and we must not cease to thank Him for all that is right, despite whatever has gone wrong. Even when the sun is shining, we find it challenging to be as reverent and as grateful as we ought to be. When the darkness closes in, however, keeping our thinking clear about God can seem so difficult that we despair. We give in to the "the sorrow of the world."

Failures of reverence and gratitude should be seen as failures of perspective. When pain focuses our attention on some small part of reality, we tend to lose touch with the larger truths. This is no trivial thing, however. If we refuse to acknowledge the whole truth about God, that refusal can cost us our souls (Romans 1:18-21). God is greater than our woes, and whatever the immediate cause for our sorrow, we simply can't afford to forget the clear tokens of God's greatness and goodness in the wider world.

Spenser wrote of the miserable fellow who finds himself "dying each day with inward wounds of Dolour's dart." The sorrow of the world is deadly because it indulges in self-justification. It fuels resentment and resistance to God. Like Cain, the self-pitying soul feels no genuine remorse for evil. He merely whines, "My punishment is greater than I can bear!"

“He lies pitying himself, hoping and moaning to himself; he yearneth over himself; his bowels are even melted within him, to think what he suffers; he is not ashamed to weep over himself” (Charles Lamb).

Then He spoke a parable to them: "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, 'The old is better.'" (Luke 5:36-39)

Bottles, in Eastern nations, were made, and are still made, of skins of beasts. Generally the skin was taken entire from a sheep or a goat, and, properly prepared, was filled with wine or water. Such bottles are still used, because, in crossing deserts of sand, they have no other conveyances but camels, or other beasts of burden. It would be difficult for them to carry glass bottles or kegs on them. They therefore fill two skins, and fasten them together and lay them across the back of a camel, and thus carry wine or water to a great distance. These bottles were, of course, of different sizes, as the skins of kids, goats, or oxen might be used. Bruce describes particularly a bottle which he saw in Arabia, made in this manner of an ox-skin, which would hold 60 gallons, and two of which were a lead for a camel. By long usage, however, bottles of skins became tender and would be easily ruptured. New wine put into them would ferment, and swell and burst them open. New skins or bottles would yield to the fermenting wine, and be strong enough to hold it from bursting.

This account of Eastern bottles may illustrate the following passages in the Bible: The Gibeonites took “wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up,” Joshua 9:4. “My belly is ready to burst, like new bottles,” Job 32:19. “I am become like a bottle in the smoke,” Psalm 119:83; i. e., like a bottle of skin hung up in a tent filled with smoke.