"Poundland"

"POUNDLAND"

A strange subject for a "Brethren blog" no doubt! A little light-hearted too!

Yesterday I "shopped" in Poundland: for those overseas, it is a retail "chain" selling (basically) everything for one pound per item. As a poverty-stricken "brother" it is a boon, and I frequent these stores.

So then, what of yesterday? Well, I espied a wooden plaque bearing this inscription:

"The best

   memories 

  are made

   gathered

around

 the table"

It immediately caused me a wry smile and a definite desire to purchase one! It only needs some artist to "burn" a little picture of a "loaf" and a "cup" in the respective top corners of the plaque and it would be complete! 

I warned you it would be light-hearted, but go on rush out and buy one for yourself!

Zaph-Nath-Paaneah

ZAPH-NATH-PAANEAH

Genesis 41:45. 

Recently I had the privilege of giving two addresses on the earliest verse of the Epistle to the Hebrews, necessarily dwelling upon the glories of the SON! Our meditation was particularly given over to those seven-fold glories found there. On a subsequent Lords' Day morning, bowed in remembrance of HIM, I realised a correspondence, (I believed it to have been of the Spirit,) between three of those glories and the three-fold meaning of "Zaph-nath-paaneah. This was of course the name given by Pharaoh to Joseph, himself a lovely O.T. type of Christ. The first two meanings are in the Egyptian language.

Simply and briefly, Zaphnathpaaneah meant firstly, "The Reaveler of Secrets," answering to the SON as "being the exact expression of His (i.e. Gods') subsistence;" the One who "declared," that is literally, "told out" God! 

Secondly, it meant "Sustainer of Life," and the SON was the "upholder of all things, all worlds, the universe," and that by the "word of His power," whether in the manger, or asleep in the boat, or prostrate in the Gethsemane or nailed to the accursed tree at Golgotha!

Thirdly, in the Hebrew tongue it meant, "Saviour of the World! It is instructive to see how the Samaritans progressed in their appreciation of the Person of the SON; from The Christ through to the Saviour of the world. For "the Father sent the Son AS Saviour of the World!"

May these simple thoughts in relation to some of the glories of the SON, lead us on to glorify Him, as individual believers and in our corporate worship of Him.



What is an Atheist?

WHAT IS AN ATHEIST?

Just a little while ago, a recent Lords' Day evening, my wife and I went to support the preaching of the Gospel at an Assembly not too distant from us. I was not engaged in the Lords' service on that day and our Assembly Gospel service is held shortly after the "Morning Meeting" when we "Break Bread" and call to mind our lovely Saviour as we proclaim His death.

The preacher on that occasion was at pains and went to great lengths to explain what an atheist is in essence. He overwhelmed us with the magnitude of faith an atheist would need to actually be constituted such.

I was quite despondent when he seemed to invest an atheist with greater faith than any believer possessed! I an sure he did not mean anyone to feel like that, but I did!

Reading J.N. Darbys' translation of the Scriptures, I discovered the briefest, yet the fullest explanation as to the definition of an atheist. "Having no hope, and without God in the world," or "atheists." Ephesians 2:12.