Table of Contents
Security
(1977) 1
Love Is
Eternal 2
Though the
Nations Rage ... 3
Restlessness
and Peace. 4
In God We
Trust 5
Time and
Eternity. 6
From Here to
There. 7
Write and
Rewrite. 8
Fog. 9
Valentines
and God. 10
God and
Gideon (Judges 6) 11
Because of -
in Spite Of 12
Christ’s
Question. 13
What If It
Really Is True?. 14
People and
Hobbies. 15
What Are You
Going To Be?. 16
Prayer and
Patience. 17
Chosen. 18
First Love. 19
For The Joy
Of It 20
Novelty and
Truth. 21
Now–Do It 22
Surrounded
(Exodus 14 and Isaiah 43:2) 23
What Is
Wrong?. 24
Needs and
Answers. 25
Unity (l
Corinthians 10:16-17) 26
Life,
Liberty, Love (John 4:38) 27
Questions. 28
What Time Is
It? (Romans 13:11-14) 29
A Bad
Deal–and a Good One (Proverbs 16:25, Mathew 16:26, John 3:16) 30
Detours
(Ephesians 5:20) 31
Come Unto Me
(1980) 32
Arks and
Lives. 33
Today and
Tomorrow.. 34
Three to One. 35
Get with It 36
Statistics
and the Spirit 37
The Final
Word. 38
Nobility and
You. 39
Signs. 40
Go. 41
The Best Is
Possible. 42
Christ's
Prayer 43
Alternatives. 44
In Step. 45
More Signs. 46
Christian
Terminality. 47
Words and
Deeds. 48
Wait a
Minute. 49
Anticipatory
Prayer 50
Today's
Journey. 51
Loyalty
Revisited. 52
True Giving. 53
Born Again. 54
Mrs. Smith
and Us. 55
Certainty in
Uncertainty. 56
Life's
Bottom Line. 57
Today. 58
Conformed–Transformed. 59
What's Next?. 60
Eternal
Equity. 61
Storms. 62
Twenty-five years ago in the midst of a trying situation
that seemed more than I could bear, I relearned one of the basic facts of the
faith–God is always there in love to help, to heal, to give the victory. I
wrote the following simple poem then and it has been on my desk since to remind
me of what really lasts:
Teach me, O God.
To fix my mind on thee
And not on pain;
For this shall pass,
And only Thou remain.
My Bible opened to two pages of promises and one especially
cherished expression of love. It was early in the morning and the traffic on
the road was beginning to stretch and awaken to a new day.
Jesus said, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do
it ... I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you … Peace I leave
with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you,
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid … Ye are my friends “
There is much about love in this passage in John 14 and 15
and also in the memory pressed between these pages in my Bible. It was spring
and warm and soft and she was a tiny little girl who came to me wordlessly to
present one of the treasures of the spring. She held out a golden dandelion. My
heart received it with humility and gratitude for the love of a child and the
beauty of a dandelion combined to make a royal gift to me.
She is a young lady now. Perhaps she has forgotten her gift
of that long ago spring day, but it lives on in my heart, and it marks this
page of promise in my Bible.
I am thankful that there is love, that it can be expressed
so beautifully and that it is forever because it is of God.
In these dog days of human history when the atmosphere is
heavy with impending storms we lift our souls to the drift of the wind and are
afraid. We do not know what is about to happen but we sense deep currents of
potential danger as occasional flashes of violence stab across the dark sky.
The predominant state of mind today is anxiety.
None of this is new to God’s Word; none of it takes God by
surprise and it should not surprise us either. In Psalm 2:1-2, 4 we read, “Why
do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the
earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,
and against his anointed ... He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the
Lord shall have them in derision.”
The great destructive storms of history are real and there
are storms just over the horizon, but the little winds of man’s pride and
discontent are ripples on the surface of a vast and quiet sea compared to the
deep quietness and peace of God. We are right in sensing the drift of history
but we are wrong when we despair. It is a matter of proportion.
God is greater than all; in him every Christian–every single
one–is greater and has more permanence than history itself. We are going to
outlive the storms we sense about us; even though the nations rage we shall be
held by His hand and we need not fear, for deliverance is both certain and
soon. Psalm 2 concludes logically, “… Blessed are all they that put their trust
in Him.”
It is obvious to everyone that this is a restless day.
People everywhere on every level are searching frantically for–something.
The search for this something is made more difficult
by the accelerating rate of change. Before we can grasp the meaning of an
experience it is replaced by another which demands our attention. Our lives are
caught in a tightening spiral of experience and we cry out for–something.
We search in dusty attics and grubby gutters, we collect
antiques and polish our possessions, or we give them all away. We affirm
tradition or discard it, we are radical, conservative, or in between, but
through all of this seemingly contradictory confusion there is one common
denominator. We are searching for the something that will bring life
together and give us meaning.
Psalm 46: 10 gives us a needed hint for our search, “Be
still Matthew 11 :28 gives us God’s and know that I am God . invitation, “Come
unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
We are not searching for something, we are really searching
for someone–for God. He will put it all together for you.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are
perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not
destroyed.” (II Corinthians 4:8-9) Paul knew in firsthand experience the
ultimate dimensions of suffering. He gives a partial list of his suffering
experiences in II Corinthians 11:25-27, “Thrice was I beaten with rods, In once
was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck . journeyings often, in perils of
waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by
the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in
the sea, in perils among false brethren ... in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness.”
Paul’s reaction to his hard way was gloriously unusual. “Blessed
be God ... the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.” (II Corinthians
1:3-4) “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust
in ourselves, but in God Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth
deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.” (II Corinthians 1:9-10)
As the possibilities for disaster grow, let us fix our minds
on the “God of all comfort” who has delivered us so many times from such
desperate situations, and let us “trust that he will yet deliver us.” Let us as
Christians make “In God we trust” a living reality, not just a monetary motto.
One of man’s most insistent problems rises from his sense of
eternity contained within his experience of time. It seems to be a basic
contradiction in man’s nature. Everything changes with frightening rapidity and
yet down deep we know that we are creatures of eternity.
The answer to the dilemma is God. The God who created us and
redeemed us is the God of eternity, “the same yesterday, today and forever.” It
is only as we are aware of changeless reality that we can grasp the existence
and significance of change.
Since our source and purpose as well as our destiny lie in
eternity we can live well in time only as we live each day in time with God’s
will and in fellowship with God’s people. The Trinitarian Congregational Church
service for the reception of new members says, “The Church is of God, and will
be preserved to the end of time.” Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my
church and the powers of darkness shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew
16:18)
The Church is the only affiliation in time that has an
eternal charter; it is our visible link with the forever that is now beyond our
sight. The Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of
time as a refuge and a reminder for men seeking eternity in the midst of time.
I believe it is a volume of Ogden Nash’s poetry that bears
the title, You Can’t Get There From Here. Not infrequently we feel
ourselves to be trapped where we are with an unreachable destination
How does one get there from here? How does one
move from dreams to reality, from defeat to victory, from misery to joy? It
would seem logical to identify the desired destination clearly, determine the
best route and then begin–take the first step.
We must know where we want to go and have a route in mind,
but the secret of the whole business lies in taking the first step. Without
that there can be no progress, no hope–no departure and, therefore, no arrival.
Actually, you can get there–the there of personal
fulfillment. John 14:6 gives us the route. Jesus said, “l am the way.” The
secret lies in the first step of belief. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you will be saved,” (Acts 16:31) which is God’s way of saying you can get there
from here.
If we want to write a polished piece of prose that says
exactly what we want to say we write and then we rewrite. Life, however, does
not permit us to rewrite. Once the lines of our lives have been written they
are forever fixed, and one of the saddest thoughts of every one of us is what
might have been if we had written differently. All of which should lead us to a
careful first writing.
God does give us new chances to write new lines–lines
straighter and truer than those we have written before. Such a chance, a new
chance, is being given to us today, The lines we write will become history for
good or for ill and either way not subject to correction or rewrite. Let us
make certain that as we inscribe our commitment to God’s work, God’s hand will
guide ours.
A little boy peered intently into the fog and said to his
mother, “It is hard to see the morning.” He expressed the difficulty we all
have when life shuts us in and cuts us off from all of the familiar landmarks
of our soul.
It is not hard to be overwhelmed by life when the
checkpoints disappear in a fog of doubt and it seems there is no way to turn.
Usually that is the moment when our strength becomes as weakness and we are
deserted, desolate, and in despair.
Psalm 61 speaks to the problem, “Hear my cry, O God; attend
unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart
is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than l. For thou hast been a
shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.”
Our lives do get foggy now and then and we are unable to see
the way, but God is never blinded by our fog–He sees us. He knows the way and
He always provides a place of shelter. His love always dispels our fog.
When I was in grammar school it was customary to have an
exchange of valentines in the classroom during school hours on that saint’s
birthday. One could place as many valentines as he wished in the big cardboard box
on the teacher’s desk. We did this when we arrived at school, and the
excitement would grow as the hours passed until the teacher began to remove the
messages of love from the box one by one and announce the name of the
recipient.
Some children received many, some few, but everyone, even
the least popular, received at least one, no doubt the anonymous work of the
teacher. If the truth were known, more than one child hedged the possibility of
a low popularity rating by sending valentines to himself. There is something
terribly wistful about that.
We need so desperately to be loved, and yet we are so unsure
of being loved and so afraid that others may find out that we are forever
sending ourselves valentines–messages of love. When children do it, it is a wistful
prophecy of the future; when adults do it, it is a terrible fulfillment.
And it is all so unnecessary. “For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.” God’s message of love has your name
on it.
The Children of Israel were surrounded by an enemy so
numerous they were as a cloud of grasshoppers. Their interest was evil for they
came into the land to destroy it. Then the people “cried unto the Lord.”
God made a strange reply: “The Lord sent a prophet,” and the
prophet preached a sermon with three points. He reminded them of God’s past
deliverance, he rebuked the people for their spiritual failure, and he called
on them to repent.
God then called Gideon: the poorest son of a poor family.
Gideon objected for he was hardly the hero type and he had no visible resources.
God gave him this promise: “l will be with thee.” God and Gideon saved the
people.
We have a great need for deliverance in our day. I wonder if
there are any Gideons present?
There is a difference between God’s love and ours. Our love
too often is love because of, while God’s love is in spite of. We
love because of the return to us. God loves because He is love. Thus our love
tends to be a bargaining, demanding barter sort of thing, while God’s love is a
free gift.
If we are ever to have any real impact in our world, we must
learn to love as God loves. Only that love can unlock the door to societal and
personal peace; the God-like love alone can unite different people in families
and societies in a creative harmony.
Since God loves us in spite of all that is wrong with us, we
should love others the same way. God included enemies in the list of those He
loves, and He put them on our list also.
The next time we are tempted to turn away, to be unloving
because of the unpleasing qualities or behavior of another person, it might
help to remember that while we are loving the lovable, God is loving us.
The man had been a total invalid for thirty-eight years, He
had learned to live without hope–everything he tried, every- thing he could
think of to try, was of no help. He was without hope as he lay listlessly
beside the pool of Bethesda waiting for his life to drag to its miserable end.
And then Jesus passed by. He asked the man a strange
question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Jesus referred to the physical problem and
there was no doubt about the answer to that, but I suspect He had something far
more important in mind. To be whole is, above all, to be a total person with
all of life integrated around Christ.
Jesus asks us the same question–“Will you be made whole?”
How we answer will determine the quality of the rest of our lives.
What if it really is true? The story and message of Jesus,
that is. It sounds strange to modern ears so accustomed to the glib jargon of a
hollow day. How can the scientifically oriented, educated people of today take
seriously the teaching of a first century prophet who died on a cross because
He made claims to deity?
It does not seem plausible that faith, stretched across two
thousand years and half way around the world, could change lives today and yet
there are many who will tell you it does. There are many reaching across the
whole spectrum of our society who believe the most relevant facts of history
for today happened in Israel two thousand years ago.
Jesus said He was God. He said He would die and then rise
from the dead. He claimed that anyone believing in Him would become a new
person with a new life that is both abundant and eternal. Those are big claims.
Big claims indeed, but the disciples who were there died to
testify to their truth. What Jesus claimed was that He, the Son of God, was a
divine invasion of history, that He came to save man from himself. A
preposterous claim indeed–but what if it really is true?
The scientific, intellectual approach of today would suggest
that one consider the evidence and decide.
People collect stamps, bugs, coins, string–almost every-
thing and anything. They hide their collections to protect them or display them
to enjoy them. Man is a collector, and I have read that such a hobby in a child
is an evidence of intelligence.
Since everyone should have a hobby to add dimension to his
life and since man is a collector, I would like to suggest a too little
practiced hobby–the collection and restoration of hearts. One can find them
everywhere–you might even find one in your home–and the variety is unlimited.
It is impossible to outgrow this hobby and it requires no money.
The rewards are great although to do this well one must
spend time and run a risk of hurt. It requires a sensitive heart and a loving
hand as well as a discerning eye to detect the hidden excellence and then bring
it to full beauty and joy.
Of course this is different from collecting things like
stamps or coins. One cannot mount or stuff or paste these trophies in a book.
One has them in his heart, as Paul said, and, therefore, they become part of
the collector’s eternal joy.
Discipleship is what this life is all about, I knew a man
years ago who was a disciple of money and spent all of his energies in its
worship and service until the golden walls went up around him and he died
alone. He was a faithful disciple of his dead god.
No one can escape discipleship but we do have a choice as to
which discipleship. This is life’s most important decision, for every disciple
inexorably is formed in the image of that to which he gives his allegiance.
It would be wise to notice what or whom we are following (to
what or whom we have discipled ourselves) that we might be aware of the image
being formed in us. After it is formed it is too late to choose or change. The
best results are obtained by faithful Christian discipleship.
When a person comes to me to talk about his problems, often
he cannot and so we talk about many things of lesser importance. The reason for
this is that real communication takes place only in the context of confidence
and that usually takes some time to establish. A few people are immediately
comfortable in the relationship; others take many weeks of peripheral
conversation before they feel secure enough to share their secrets.
It is not surprising then that we often are hesitant in
prayer and feel both uncomfortable and insecure as we try to talk with God.
Prayer is communication and at the most sensitive points in our lives. It is
certain that we will not feel comfortable in prayer until we have talked with
God long enough and in enough different situations to feel safe. It is a
temptation to stop prayer before we reach that point.
We need to develop a context of confidence in our relation-
ship with God; then prayer that is real will be natural. The wise counselor
will be patient waiting for the time when deep communication is possible. Since
God is infinitely patient, let us be patient in prayer.
Have you ever resented being invited to something because
someone else was unable to accept? It is not flattering to be an afterthought–to
be invited because no one else was available.
How much worse it would be if God invited us to be part of
His family because no one else cared to accept. That is not the way God works.
How He does is found in Ephesians 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world ...”
He chose His children first and then He created a world for
them. As God’s child you are not an afterthought scribbled on the margin of God’s
plan–you are what it is all about.
It has become popular today to be critical of the organized
Church. Some people even think we have grown beyond it and there is no need for
it. That the Church has faults is beyond question; after all it is composed of
people, and people in this dispensation are not yet perfect.
But two things cause me to hesitate before I become too
critical. First: Christ founded the Church and He said the powers of darkness
shall not overcome it.” I take that to mean that God has promised to preserve
the Church to the end of time itself. The Church, therefore, is the only
affiliation we have that is permanent.
And then there is another thing: without the Church and all
it has brought into my life, I would be an absolute pauper. It is the Church
that gave me the Bible and taught me what it means. The Church introduced me to
Christ. The Church played the major role in my education. Wherever there is
anything good in my life I see the combined work of God and His Church.
I love the Church because, like God, it loved me first.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame
…” (Hebrews 12:2) So often we give our gifts grudgingly, or of necessity, or
perhaps with an eye to some personal gain, and so our gifts become chains of
bondage, not wings of joy.
Jesus who had nothing to gain personally gave all on the
cross, enduring the pain, despising the shame, rejoicing in the opportunity to
give a gift of joy to lift us out of ultimate soul-sadness.
We give our gifts–do we give joy with our gifts?
“Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered
saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. He answered and said unto them,
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign
be given it ...” (Matthew 12:38-39)
“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me,
thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
(John 20:29)
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets,
and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matthew 24:24)
“Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
thy name? and in thy name have cast out demons? and in thy name done many wonderful
works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye
that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Truth, not novelty, is our business.
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave.”
(Ecclesiastes 9:10) There is both a now-ness and a whole-heartedness
in the Gospel.
Now is the day of deliverance, therefore, serve God with all
of your heart. These two themes run throughout God’s Word to warn and to
inspire. To warn: because if we wait for a more convenient day that day will
never come and the important good we could do forever remains undone. To
inspire: because if we serve God with all of our hearts–now–we know that God
guarantees success and our “labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
How often we all have contributed to the problems of the
world, and we do not like what has come to pass. But there is an answer–now
if we serve God with all our hearts surely God will bring it to pass.
Moses led the children of Israel out of their Egyptian
captivity. They had scarcely begun their journey to freedom when they were
surrounded: on either side mountains hemmed them in, behind them came the
pounding chariots of Pharaoh’s troops, and ahead lay the sea. They were filled
with fear and indecision. Moses told them not to be afraid, but to stand still
and see the salvation of God.
God gave them a command–an impossible command–“Go forward.”
They obeyed and the sea parted before them. Whenever life hems us in and cuts
us off and prepares to attack, God gives the same command, “Go forward.” When
we do the result is the same because with the order to advance comes the
promise, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.”
Something must be wrong. Read the record in every
edition of every newspaper, almost on every page. We are bruised on the rocks
of violence and pulled down by the undertow of filth [in 1977!]. Our society is
being smothered by spiritual pollution.
There must be a reason for all of this and there is–we have
eased God out of the central place in our society and we have replaced Him with
ourselves. This root perversion appears in many forms and the one that
represents the current mind-set best is the expression, “Doing my thing.”
As long as we do my thing, or your thing, or our
thing we shall continue to be in deep trouble. “Moreover it is required in
stewards, that a man be found faithful.” (l Corinthians 4:2) I looked up
the word steward in the dictionary and I found this definition: “one who
manages another’s property or financial affairs: one who administers anything
as the agent of another …”
What is wrong is this–we have forgotten that this is God’s
world and all that we have we have received from Him, and we are, therefore,
not owners but stewards. Stewardship applies to money and possessions, as we
know, but it also includes our time and our talent. Stewardship is a total
thing. All that we have, all that we are must be used for God. We must
consecrate our time, talent, substance, and influence as heirs of God and
joint-heirs with Christ.
A life that lives up to that could be what is right in the
world.
Human need comes in a variety of colors, shapes, and models
and too many of them seem to be the large economy size, but there is not a
bargain in the lot. Eliphaz was right when he said “man is born unto trouble as
the sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:7)
But that is not the final word on suffering. “For I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us ... And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose If God be for us, who can be against us? ... What shall separate
us from the love of Christ? ... I am persuaded that nothing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8)
God’s answer is bigger than your need.
One of the greatest problems in the world of today,
expressed in a hundred different ways, is lack of unity.
Our world, our nation, our families, our own personalities
seem to be fragmenting, splitting apart. People everywhere are searching
frantically for the answer we must find.
But we need search no longer. The answer is represented in
the symbolism of the Lord’s Suppers “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it
not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not
the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and body:
for we are all partakers of that one bread.”
Christ we already are one. We just need to live that
way.
“No man is an island” is an obvious truth to all who look
closely at man. It is just as true that no day is an island set apart from
other days. It is much more like a section of a river that is totally dependent
upon what precedes it for its existence and meaning and upon its future for its
fulfillment. You can never understand a river by studying a hundred yard
section. You must know its source and its destination.
All that we have we have received–life, liberty, love–and we
owe a living debt of gratitude to those who have transmitted these treasures to
us. We also have an obligation to our children and our children’s children, for
their hope of life, liberty and love depends entirely on our use and protection
of our uncommon heritage.
There is a spirit of historic isolation abroad in the land
that refuses to recognize gratitude to the past or obligation to the future.
This is the most certain way of losing the significance and even the enjoyment
of today. Let us have done with this shallow parochialism, this empty, pseudo-
intellectualism, and let us dedicate ourselves to that part of the American
dream that can yet make our land blessed.
“Other men have labored, and we are entered into their
labors.” We ought to remember with gratitude those who have sacrificed so much
for us, but the task is not finished. Let us also “enter into their labors.”
Let us take up the cause of truth and freedom for which they sacrificed that
this nation and its freedom might not perish from the earth.
Never have we had so many questions and been certain of so
few answers. Pressing questions are shouted at us from every direction with a
terrible urgency for if we answer incorrectly the results will be disastrous.
There are the old questions that are still new: What is man?
Who am l? Where am I going? Does it all matter? If I die shall I live again?
Does life have any meaning? What is truth?
The publishers of books inundate us with volumes propos- ing
answers and more answers, but it seems that most of the answers create more
questions than they answer and more problems than they solve.
One book is an exception to this–the Bible. Every basic
question we ask is answered in God’s letter to us–that is precisely why He gave
it to us. That presents another question–why are we not more eager to find the
answers, why do we fail to study the Bible? That leads to a practical
suggestion. If you are asking questions you have a chance to find the answers
in God’s Word; but you must find the answers by study. Try this: Begin reading
the Bible any place in the New Testament and read, just read, until a passage
speaks especially to you. Then stop reading and apply the passage to your life.
Do this every day and your life will change as questions are erased by God’s
answers.
We need to spend less time with today’s books that tend to
be paraphrases of yesterday’s errors and more time with yesterday’s book that
answers today’s questions with timeless truth.
What do the hands on history’s clock tell us? Is it bright
morning filled with promise, or fruitful afternoon with its fulfillment? Or is
it twilight? Each one of us has an opinion and only God knows, but He does have
a word of advice for us. “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
Out Of sleep.”
Whatever the hour is, it is time to wake up, to rouse out of
our spiritual somnolence and get to work at God’s task. He gives us a reason
and it is not the one we would expect. for now is our salvation nearer than
when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” It is not “Work
for the night is coming” but “Work for victory is at hand.”
Faust made a bad deal. Because he was old and despaired of
solving the problems of life he sold his soul to the devil for “The pleasures
of youth.” The devil delivered, but the end was unrelieved disaster.
As I watched the dramatic lift of the opera I was aware of
God’s Word tugging at the back of my mind. “There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25) “What
is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
Satan is still offering trifles for souls, and people like
Faust are making bad deals, but there is a good deal available: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
A radio listener who has been through excruciating trials
wrote, “l have even been able to be thankful for the detour.” That is not an
easy thing to do. When one is rolling along a smooth superhighway at high speed
and is suddenly shunted off to a rough, dusty detour where it is almost
impossible to make any time, it is not easy to be thankful.
The listener explained the reason for the thankfulness, “There
was some nice countryside that appeared along the way–God meant it for good.” I
remembered back across many years to a day when I was bumping along a back
country detour. The window was open and I heard the lilting song of a bird. I
offered my thanks to God who gives a song for every one of life’s detours. It
is impossible to hear a bird’s song if one is driving sixty miles an hour.
Life’s detours give us our best opportunities to see God’s
beauty and hear His song of joy. It seems we need to slow down if we are to
arrive quickly at God’s best. Let us then give “... thanks always for all
things unto God ...”–even for detours.
What is it all about,
This business of life?
Weariness, confusion, failure, doubt?
Or flashes of joy and
Moments in the sun
When life's pieces
Fall into patterns
Of success?
Accusal or acclaim?
Light or shadow?
Acceptance or rejection?
Add the positive,
Subtract the negative;
What is the answer?
There stands the cross.
“This,” says Jesus to us,
“Is my body, my blood
Broken and given for you,”
And He adds, in a whisper
That makes everything right,
“Come unto me,
And I will give you rest.”
God said to Noah, “Build an ark.” That was a considerable
shock to Noah, who had never thought of such a thing. I have often wondered
what we would say and do if God, observing the violence in the world in our day
as He did in the day of Noah, were to say to us, “Build an ark.”
Of course it would not be an ark, no matter how long the
rainy spell, but it just might be something else as difficult and as demanding.
Can you hear God saying, “Build a life,” or perhaps, “Build a family,” or “Build
a church”?
He would say, “Build it long and deep and strong. Use only
the best materials and make them fit together perfectly so that there will be
no failure when the storm comes.”
He is saying this and much more, and he expects as much of
us as He did of Noah. If we obey as Noah did, He guarantees that the results
will be just as good.
God says, “Build.” Let us be good workmen and let us sing
with joy as we work.
Whatever happened to my world? I often wonder, and if you
are anywhere near the middle of life you no doubt also do. Things are so
different now, so fractured, so divided, so tense, and so frightening.
Anxiety has become the predominant mood in a society at war
with itself. White against black, black against white, and each against its own
members. Once hate is unleashed it attacks without discrimination or reason.
What can the future hold if it is to be the projection of
the present? Will it simply be an enlargement of the evils that haunt today, or
can we do something creative that will produce a new day bright with promise?
It depends on us, for without doubt tomorrow will be built
out of the living stones we shape today. God gives us the necessary guidelines:
“Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm
127:1).
God builds nations out of individual lives–yours and mine.
Our part is to square our lives with his truth, then share our faith. There is
hope–but the time is short.
Jesus gave his disciples the parable of the sower in Matthew
13:3-23. The seed sown was the same, but the results were vastly different. It
is more than interesting to note that in three instances there was failure,
while success occurred just once. It would seem that the odds are three to one
against a good spiritual harvest.
Three kinds of bad soil failed to produce: casual, wayside
soil exposed the seed to the birds that devoured it; stony soil lacked depth;
soil with thorns choked the growth.
Jesus gave this interpretation. Wayside folk hear but do not
understand, and the wicked one steals the seed of the Word; stony, shallow
people hear and receive and show instant growth, but lacking depth they die
back under the first difficulty; thorny hearts hear, but the growth of faith is
choked by concern for the things of this world.
There were others who received the Word in good, clear, deep
soil. They understood and practiced the Word. All such bring forth a harvest of
abundance, “some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Three-to-one odds are not good, but a hundredfold return is,
and the odds are all in your favor if you are willing to be God's seedplot. God
is greater than the odds.
I have seen some strange bumper stickers, but the one that
made the greatest impression on me was a simple one that stated STOP
TAILGATING. The message is sound, and no reasonable person could argue with it.
In fact, it is so obvious one wonders why anyone would bother to print it or
paste it on a bumper.
Actually it was not the sticker's message that made the
strong impression on me; it was the way the car was being driven. It was
travelling about twenty-five miles an hour in a fifty-five mile an hour zone.
The reason for the sticker was as obvious as the inevitability of tailgaters
behind that car.
There is a moral. We have a high-powered faith and we live
in a jet age, but too often we crawl along devoid of vision and dedicated to
nothing greater than shooing away tailgaters. We clutter up God's throughway
with our hesitant faith.
I was in a hurry and, although I was amused, I would like to
have made a suggestion to the driver of that car-something like, “Get with it
or get out of the way.” I wonder if God feels that way about us?
As we huddle in our little Christian groups we like to
repeat Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.” Vance Havner suggests that too often when we
do we are more aware of the absence of the many than we are of the presence of
the Lord.
There is an opposite danger that appeals to the contemporary
mind–the worship of statistics. It is easy to equate numbers with spiritual
success, but we ought always to remember that Jesus never committed himself to
a crowd and often reduced the statistics to a minimum.
There are, of course, those who believe that unless you have
a small number you have departed from the truth. This is a form of spiritual
snobbery and psychological reassurance on the basis of being part of an
imagined inner ring with God.
The truth of the matter is that where any number is gathered
together in Christ's name and in the recognition of his lordship there He is in
great power. It is not the number of the worshippers but their quality and,
above all, the presence of Christ.
Power. That is what the world seems to be all about. It is
nation against nation, with power blocs and counter blocs. Conventional
firepower and nuclear power races dominate peace negotiations. We are, it would
seem, power mad.
But there is another power–a greater power that stands above
all of the powers of the earth and finally determines the limits and the
results of the powers of earth.
An ancient prophecy had foretold the fact that Jesus would
be born in Bethlehem. You can find it in Micah 5:2. It seemed impossible that
it could be fulfilled, for the time of birth had come and the journey was
arduous, but when the power of Rome commanded, people obeyed.
Because Caesar had ordered a census, everyone had to return
to his ancestral home to be enrolled. There was no other way, and so Mary and
Joseph travelled to Bethlehem where Jesus was born. God had said it would be
so, and it was.
God used the sovereign Roman Empire to accomplish his will.
It turned out that Caesar, in all his glory, was just a middleman, and God had
the final word just as He will in our world.
I have been thinking about nobility; it is a concept that
needs universalizing. One thinks of the great heroes of history and their faith
that moved mountains and caused them to sacrifice themselves to win impossible
victories.
However, life is like that for just a few. Most of us must
live our lives on rather level ground, with little more than molehills to
challenge us. Mountains are beyond us, and great historic deeds are the possession
of others.
However, nobility is not measured by the height of the
mountain or the difficulty of the situation facing us. Nobility is a quality of
the spirit that is as real in little folk as in mighty heroes.
Your problem is just as real and just as difficult to you as
the gigantic impossibility is to the exceptional person. The question is how
you face the problem. Do you do it with faith as well as fear, with whatever
strength you have as well as your weakness? Do you stand with God and not
alone? If so, my friend, you are one of God's noble people.
Signs are of great interest to me, perhaps because they
unconsciously reflect true human nature more clearly than our profound
philosophical statements about ourselves.
The fly-specked sign in the window of a decrepit restaurant
that states “Tables for Ladies” or “Ladies Invited” communicates the
inadvisability of any lady venturing inside. The pretentions of the proprietor
are verbal, not real: his sign is nice; his performance is not. If you are ever
tempted to have lunch in a restaurant that proclaims “Clean Lunch” in its dusty
window, resist the temptation and flee for your health.
A small house stands beside railroad tracks and in front of
a magnificent panorama of mountains. The owners of the house have given it the
title “Track View” although, as is the custom of such, they have it “Trak Vue.”
I saw a large sign on a small mailbox the other day. The
sign shouted “Universal Builders” and identified a mailbox that would hold much
less than anything universal. I guess we are better at titles than performance.
It occurred to me that the box that indicated small
expectations and the accompanying sign that proclaimed great things was a
parable of our lives. We talk about a sovereign, omnipotent God who can do all
things, and then put up a small box to receive small blessings.
Perhaps our problem is that we have fixed our attention on
the tracks that carry this world's disappointments and we have failed to fill
our souls with God's towering promises. It may all be a question of which way
we are looking. Which way are you looking?
Jesus said, “Go ye unto all the world,” but He was more
specific than that. It is not enough simply to go; we must go with a life, a
message, and a power. When we do He promises a companion.
When we go to the world it must be with a life transformed
from self to sacrifice by the renewing grace of Jesus Christ. Our message is
conveyed in the blessed words of the good news of redemption in Christ and made
evidently authentic by our service of living compassion. Our going, speaking,
living is in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the Great Commission of the church, the task Christ
gave to us. It is our supreme opportunity to succeed in everything that counts.
If we are faithful, Jesus said He would go with us “even unto the end of the
world.”
I try to keep up on contemporary trends of thought as much
as time allows. I read various magazines and newspapers and talk with people of
divergent views. To be candid about the whole business, I must admit that at
this time the strong impression I have is confusion.
Everyone has an opinion, but no one–or almost no one–seems
certain about much of anything. There is a vacuum of conviction and expectation
that holds great possibilities for evil or for good. We are rapidly drifting
into uncharted waters, and we are becoming something we have never been before.
It is clear we have passed the point of no return.
All of that gives me a feeling of uneasiness, for the
unknown is always threatening, and much of what we suspect is unsettling.
However, I believe it is too soon to give up hope, as many people are doing [in
1980].
The verse that lies at the foundation of my Ministry in
Wayland is Mark 10:27: “With God all things are possible.” God's ability is not
conditioned by our confusion or failure.
In our day, as in all other days of history, the best is
possible because God is able. Let us then live with faith and expectation, for
God is still in charge and, “with him all things are possible.”
In Ephesians 2:2 there is an interesting reference to “the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” What this spirit that
leavens those who are disobedient to the will of God? And what does this say to
us?
The spirit of the Lord is love–strong-willed, determined,
never-say-die love that goes to the ends of the earth, or to a cross, to bring
a lasting harmony between God and alien human beings. Our lives, our words, our
acts are to be like his, motivated by love and saturated with love.
The spirit that moves the disobedient is the compulsion
divide. Disobedient souls who oppose God drive wedges between people and groups
and take deep satisfaction from the effectiveness of their spirit of
divisiveness.
Ephesians 2:3 tells us that we all were once like that. It
should be clear that we, therefore, have no reason for pride simply because we
have been delivered from the dynamic of the devil. We ought, with deep
humility, to seek to avoid all temptations to again become part of the satanic
program of divide and conquer.
If we are to have any success in our world (and in our
souls, for that matter) for God, we must come together in a holy oneness that
will put to shame the ragtag cheat we witness of this world's dividers of people.
Jesus prayed for us, “That they all may be one, and I in
them and thou in me, that they might be made completed in one; and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved
me” (John 17:21-23).
May the prayer of Jesus be a radiant reality in our lives
that others may see and know.
In a sermon preached some time ago I urged the necessity of
choosing God's alternative over the seemingly easy, but actually destructive
alternatives of the world. As an illustration of a wrong choice I cited Mr.
Roosevelt's decision to pull our troops back in order to permit the Russian
army to take Berlin. This choice of a wrong alternative divided Europe and
threatens the peace of the world to this day.
A radio listener with firsthand knowledge of Communism wrote
concerning the sermon, “I feel compelled to let you know how much my husband
and I enjoyed your sermon on the theme 'There is no other, no easier Way.' You
will understand that it especially touched us, because more than 20 years ago
we came from Berlin, Germany, and we remember the days so clearly when we
waited for our American friends to come to Berlin and the disappointment of
seeing them stop at the river Elbe for Communists' sake. It was very bitter.
Now, after having experienced the best years of our life here on this continent
we must experience how everything seems to go down the drain which once was
good and great and beautiful. Those who always seek the easy way out are
destroying the country from within. It is not feasible, not understandable for
us, who experienced Communism so closely (my husband was in a Russian prison
camp from 1945 to 1949) that they do not see what they are doing.”
Since I preached that sermon, America has received a
crystal-clear warning through Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The alternatives are
clear; the choice is ours. We must worship God in truth and totality or fall
beneath the tyranny of history's most horrible oppression. We stand at the
crossroads of history's alternative–and the time is so short.
God said it all concerning personal and family failure.
Deuteronomy 29:17-18: “Ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood
and stone, silver and gold ... Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or
family, or tribe whose heart turneth away from the Lord our God, to go and
serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that
beareth gall and wormwood.”
A man or a woman or a family–the order is correct. When a
father and mother turn to false altars for their meaning, the children follow
in their footsteps, and the family becomes a storm center of bitterness and
self-interest.
The only possible foundation for a sound and creative family
is God, for He alone is bigger than the self-interest of the individuals that
compose the family.
As each member of the family walks with God in truth,
beauty, and goodness, it is almost inevitable that each will walk in step with
the other members of the family. Differences and disagreements are less
annoying as shared faith becomes greater.
It is almost impossible to be out of step with others if we
are in step with God.
My mind seems to be preoccupied with signs recently, and I
have several others to share with you today. One is highly improbable, but no doubt
accurate. It stands over a roadside building that houses a lunch counter and
service station. The sign says it all: “EAT HERE AND GET GAS.”
Another sign, with brilliant white letters on a bright red
background, stands at the street end of a driveway. It seems incomplete, and
yet the sign looks new and does not appear to be damaged, and I, therefore,
conclude it is complete. All it says is “NO.” It is at least a clear-cut
approach to everything. No one entering that drive should be in any doubt
concerning his reception.
An old New Hampshire road bears this warning, “ROAD CLOSED
SUBJECT TO BARS AND GATES.” One wonders if the sign was created for the old
neglected road or life, because that is often the way it is. Just when we get
things rolling along nicely, the road suddenly narrows and our lives become
subject to bars and gates; and we are convinced the road is closed.
God recognizes the difficulties and impossibilities of
living this life, and He is well acquainted with all of life's obstacles. He
has erected a few signs of his own: “I can do all things through Christ who
strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:14); “... all things are possible to him that
believeth” (Mark 9:23); and a hundred others that say the same thing.
God has quite a different sign posted at the place where He
meets man. There is no sign that says “NO,” there is one that says, “Come unto
me ... and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
God's signs are better than ours.
A friend from the radio audience whom I have never met has
written me several letters of encouragement. In the last one she said how
difficult it is for her to understand suffering, especially of a saint.
She told of a visit to an old gentleman who has terminal
cancer. She could think of nothing to say as she planned her visit, but, when
she saw him, he ministered to her because of his absolute faith in God. She
concluded that suffering can have vastly significant meaning and she was
certain it would be so in my case.
I wrote her and declined the honor of being elevated to
special sainthood. I just do not qualify. She had said of me in contrast to her
old friend, “Of course, you are not terminal.”
I asked, “What do you mean I am not terminal? Of course I
am, everyone is. Praise God for that!” How terrible it would be if we were
caught on an endless treadmill of mediocrity for eternity.
That we are terminal is one of the most obvious facts of our
existence, but we do not all have the same destination, which is the reason
Christ gave for his life and death among us.
To be terminal in the Christian sense is to have a clear
destination–God's destination–and, therefore, where we get off is a lot better
than where we got on.
There is an old story about two wealthy sisters who lived in
a city devastated by a vast disaster. Both sisters were deeply motivated to
alleviate the suffering of the people caught in the tragedy. One sister said, “We
must organize a committee,” but the other sister gathered her clothes and took
them to the needy. No doubt both were right.
People who are adept at leading meetings, or doing anything
in public spiritual work, are often considered by others (and sometimes by
themselves) as superior Christians, which may or may not be true. They may just
be more verbal than their quieter Christian friends–or they may have greater
ego needs.
Such extroverted Christians are too often thought to be the
example for the rest of us, but this is wrong; Christ alone is the example for
each of us after we have received his redemption. Then each of us has his own
special, God-given gift as I Corinthians 12 makes abundantly clear.
One person is given a gift of utterance and stands
prominently before others leading in a multitude of ways, and then there are
hundreds of Andrews doing nothing publicly, but introducing many to Jesus.
Andrew imitating Peter would have been awkward and embarrassed. Peter emulating
Andrew would have alienated people. Yet they were brothers. The responsibility
of each was to be faithful and use the gift God had given.
I saw it happen. It was the early commuter rush hour on
Route 30, and the traffic was flowing rapidly and smoothly until it was
interrupted by a man in a high-powered sports car. He was, it appeared, in a
hurry.
He stopped, as the sign instructed him to do, but then,
seeing a small gap between cars, he saw his chance to use all of the excess
horsepower under his sporty hood and he pushed the gas pedal to the floor. The
car leaped forward into traffic–then gasped and died, blocking the lane. Tires
squealed and faces glowered as his fellow commuters were brought to a sudden
stop.
When I passed him, he was still trying to persuade the car
to get into the commuting spirit, with no success. I could not tell whether it
was anger or embarrassment that shadowed the man's face.
All of that is not unlike life. I have had
gracious-appearing ladies race me for a place in the supermarket checkout line
and, thereby, lose their dignity. Probably every one of us tries to leap ahead
at the wrong time.
One of the most difficult things for us to do is to wait
creatively for the right time. There is a time to wait and a time to move, and
how we acquire the wisdom to know the difference and then act on that wisdom
will determine the quality of our lives.
To avoid stalled lives and blocked traffic we must observe
the admonition of Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.”
James gives us an essential element of effective prayer. “If
any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God ... But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind
and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the
Lord” (James 1:5-7), Prayer without positive anticipation falls below the level
of divine acceptability.
Paul makes the same point in Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious
for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.” Without anticipation that weaves the
golden strands of gratitude together with the humble yarns of petition, prayer
is not prayer.
Anticipation recognizes God's good will toward his children
and rests in the assurance that God will both hear and answer, and, though He
may not give the requested thing, He will never give less than we ask.
Therefore, requests and thanksgiving are united in prayer. We watch to see what
God will do-it is never if.
Acts 1:12 contains a provocative expression: “a sabbath
day's journey.” In that day it was a specific distance–a little more than half
a mile was permitted on the Sabbath–but what is it in our day?
How far can one travel on a given Sabbath? With our modern
preoccupation with the destruction of space we can travel a few blocks or miles
or continents. Perhaps the annihilation of space by our technology is not all
good, as C. S. Lewis made plain.
Our preoccupation with faster and farther is a shallow
business unless it is balanced by deeper and better. The imperative today is to
face the frontier within us and, with God as our guide, to discover and conquer
new worlds of the spirit. Only so shall we be able to handle the problems of
the world thrust upon us.
Halford Luccock put it well when he said, “Too many globe
trotters are just like empty suitcases covered with hotel labels.” God save us
from that on onr Sabbath day's journey.
Because we, as a nation, have rejected the old virtues, we
find ourselves being strangled by fiscal irresponsibility and inundated by
moral corruption. These are the two certain symptoms of a dying society,
The solution does not lie in congressional or presidential
action. In fact, there is almost nothing government can do to solve our current
problems, and to look to Washington for solutions is to continue a fairyland
fantasy that is nothing more than a deadly anesthetic.
We must have an awakening of spiritual responsibility that
first gets us right with God and then sets right our society. There are no
shortcuts, no easy ways, no cheap ways. Only as we are loyal to God can we find
our way back to fiscal and moral solvency.
It is time to revisit Loyalty.
I listened to the broadcast of a church service a few weeks
ago, and the minister, in his prayer of dedication of the offering, said, “We
relinquish all ties to our gifts.” I was startled, which is an unusual reaction
to a prayer.
Obviously, when we give a gift we transfer ownership of the
gift to the recipient, but we do not, in fact we cannot, set aside the
implications of the gift. Every true gift is a free expression of love and
gratitude and joy. In this tangible way we express our love to another and our
gratitude that there is such a person to be loved. There is also joy, because
we have been given the opportunity to express our love through our gift. Such a
proper gift strengthens ties and makes them more enduring.
When we make our offering to God, we give our hearts with
our gifts. Our little is merged with God's greatness, and a new and deeper tie
is forged to the end of glory–God's and ours–as well as the blessing of many
others. Giving is not grim renunciation, but joyous affirmation.
He was a young man on the move. His intelligence was
superior and he had the finest education available. His connections were the
most influential and he had an almost fanatical dedication to the preservation
of the establishment. This dedication produced a confused motivational drive
that expressed itself in the adoption of any means to accomplish ends
considered to be valuable.
He was surrounded by other men of stature who shared his
views and encouraged his attempts to identify and destroy all who differed in
their commitment. Many things were done that were wrong; all were inspired by a
sincere desire to achieve the good of the people.
It seemed his entire nature was possessed by his flaming
passion to preserve and destroy–to preserve the power structure and destroy all
who threatened it. Then he met Jesus.
The merciless light of God's truth blinded his prejudiced
mind, then cut away all of the rationalizations of wrong methods and desires.
It stripped him of himself and created a new man where the old one had been. He
immediately set to work to help and to free the prisoners of this world.
Many scoffed at his conversion. “Such men never change,”
they said. Others added, “It is another of his tricks.” As time passed however,
fewer expressions of cynicism were heard, for he lived his life as one who has
been born again.
His name? The Apostle Paul.
Mrs. Smith (which is not her name) lives near Washington and
listens to our broadcast regularly. She has sent gifts to support the program
and she has written regularly. God has, in short, incorporated her into the
fellowship and ministry of our church.
She had a close relationship with her husband and they had a
good life together, but Ray died a few years ago. A letter received this week
outlines her problems. She has a most serious heart problem. Surgeons have
suggested open heart surgery, but there is no guarantee she will survive or, if
she does, that she will not be crippled for life. The problem is such that
surgery can only at best partially correct the condition.
In her letter she said, “If only Ray were here to sit,
across the table and talk to me.” In that she expresses the soul-sadness of all
men. If only there were someone in the ultimate moments of life to listen, to
care, to understand– that is the heart-cry of every one of us when we stand in
the presence of impossible situations and sense our ultimate aloneness.
She wonders whether she should have the operation, how she
can know God's will. We all wonder and we all ask our anxious questions. I
wrote to her and assured her of our concern and prayers and, above all, of
God's love and support. I told her that nothing takes God by surprise and that
He will give her the necessary guidance if she stays open and is willing to
accept his will his way, and his time.
Please pray for Mrs. Smith (God will know whom you mean) and
for us all.
Uncertainty seems to be the mark of today. Ten years ago we
could not have imagined that so many things we thought secure would topple in a
decade. Recent events have emphasized the transiency of our little structures.
However, we should not be surprised. The pages of history are littered with the
rubble of once great societies that had their moment of glory and then
collapsed.
On November 19, 1863, a lonely and embattled president said,
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a
new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men
are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”
Now we are engaged in a great civil conflict that will test
whether our nation so conceived and so dedicated can continue to exist. The
issues of today are survival issues, and the outcome hangs in the balance and
in doubt.
If we are to continue as a great nation there is much
unfinished work that we must complete, but we can never do this unless we
experience a new and deep dedication to the God of our fathers–unless we are
willing to become a people deserving deliverance and preservation.
Lincoln said, “It is for us, the living, rather, to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work ... that this nation, under God, shall be
a new birth of freedom.”
So may we dedicate ourselves this day and discover God's
certainty in the midst of our uncertainty.
I have been agonizing over my income tax returns, trying to
find the necessary facts and records, striving without too much success to
understand the intricacies of a part of our society that is a thicket of
confusion to me. There is little of the accountant in me. Because this is so, I
shall seek help from one who is familiar with all the twists and turns and
precipices of our tax laws and who can add and subtract with accuracy.
Of course, I must do my part. I must produce all of the raw
material of a year's financial activity so that my accountant may blend it
together in a proper, meaningful, and acceptable way. My guide through this
jungle can work only with what I place in his hand. Proper tax returns are not
woven out of the spider web of imagination.
Neither is life. Just as there is a tax deadline, there is a
life deadline–a closing date when the living figures are added up and a balance
is struck. The important thing in both cases is the bottom-line figure.
With all of this financial business in mind I turned to
Ecclesiastes and found some words of wisdom for life's deadline. “What profit
hath he that hath laboured for the wind?” (Ecclesiastes 5:16). If we spend our
lives for this world's treasures of wealth or wisdom, pleasure or power, we
shall arrive with startling suddenness at the bottom line of life and discover
only debt. We shall be blown away as casually as a wind drives a speck of dust
to–nowhere.
However, if we have invested our lives in the things that
endure, the bottom-line experience will be the most joyous moment of our lives.
We have choice. We can “live for the wind” or we can live for God. Deadlines
are close, and now is the time to decide.
Some time ago, it was my privilege to spend an evening with
high school young people who were honoring those who were graduating this spring.
I was asked to present a challenge to them, which presented a challenge to me.
What does one say to young people who are leaving the familiar surroundings of
home and friends to enter a life filled with new dimensions and possibilities
and so many uncertainties?
Graduation is such an important time, such a crucial one. I
was caused to ask a question of myself first, and then of them. What is the
most important time of our lives? Is it high school, or graduation, or college,
or love and marriage, middle age, or maturity? If one chooses any one he grasps
a fleeting moment and loses all the rest.
The only possible answer is now–today. Today is the most
important time for the young people, just as it is for me and for every one of
us. Too often wé try live on the thin diet of memories or anticipation. In one
case we lose today in the haze of yesterday, and in the other we wish our lives
away waiting for life to come to us in some magical tomorrow that never
arrives.
Today is all we really have. It alone has substance, and
today alone can fulfill yesterday and ensure tomorrow. We must live today; we
must invest today. We must enjoy today. We must rejoice in this priceless gift
of God. If we spend it with Him, as we should, we shall build lives of true
greatness and goodness, the result of which is joy.
Today is God's living day for each of us. Today is the most
important time of our lives.
God speaks to every person in the dynamic twelfth chapter of
Romans. No one escapes the sharp thrust of its insights into human nature, and
no one lives above the need of its assurance and guidance.
Which one of us has not been too quick to compromise and
conform to a cynical world that is saturated in superficial sophistication?
Have we not been proud and haughty, withdrawn and hypocritical? We have known
times of laziness and despair, petulance and prayerlessness. The practice of
reprisal is almost endemic, and our ego security is so insecure that we seem
always to sense a need to defend ourselves.
It is a sorry picture of what man, created in the image of
God, has become, but there is healing available to us despite the seriousness
of the diagnosis. However, a dire diagnosis requires a radical treatment. This
is God's treatment: “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect will of God.”
When we bring ourselves into parallel with the will of God,
the little gray things go away as the light of God suffuses our lives. We are
no longer so small that we need to indulge in the self-defense mechanisms of
frightened pagans. We are then free to live with verve and vitality and a joy
that passes known understanding.
Our business here today, and every day for that matter, is
to move from conformed-to-death to transformed-by-life. It could happen to you
today.
Our nerves have been stretched taut by the rapid changes
that have taken place in our society in recent years. We have seen moral
standards deserted and ethical behavior in high places and low ignored. As we
sense the building storm of society we ask, “What's next?”
No one has the answer except God, and He is not telling us.
He does assure us that no matter what comes next, He will be with us to make
certain that we come through victoriously. He has promised that He will never
let more burdens rest upon us than we can bear, and there will always be a way
of escape.
We will never be certain of what is coming next for society
or for us as individuals, but God tells us with great clarity what comes last.
Hundreds of references in the Bible inform us that history does not end in an
atomic blast or a polluted gasp, but in a shout of victory as Christ returns.
The end of history is God's final victory. We cannot know what is next but,
thank God, we do know what is last.
How often we seek opportunities after they have become impossibilities.
We wait until we have time to spend with our children only to discover that
when we have time, they have become adults. We yearn for friends after they
have died, and we are filled with regret because we squandered the time to
speak of our love until time ran out.
No doubt success in life as a person consists in using creatively
the opportunities God gives us in the short time we have at our disposal. It is
a case of invest and succeed or squander and fail. No amount of regret can
reverse the inexorable flow of time and revive the opportunities that have
vanished.
Jesus said that if we are to have eternal wealth we must make
temporal investments in his truth. If we invest ourselves in the evanescent
trinkets of this life we shall forever be paupers in eternity. Forever for us
depends on today and our faithfulness to God now.
Isaiah 55:6 gives us essential advice: “Seek ye the Lord while
he may be found, call ye upon him while is near.” Now is the day of salvation,
now is the day of submission, now is the day of sacrifice, for the Lord is near
in a new and unusual way. Now is the time to grasp the spiritual opportunities
and build a magnificent equity in eternity. The returns are guaranteed.
What a striking and tragic experience it has been to see strong
trees bend and break under the weight of unexpected snow. And how sad to see
spring flowers wither and die.
The word that strikes me with renewed force is unexpected.
We know it well, for we have experienced it often, so often in fact that it is
the most frequent theme of poetry, expressed as the evanescence of life.
Why are we then surprised? Why are we taken in our sleep
when we should have been watching for the enemy? Why does unexpected temptation
defeat us because we were unprepared or problems destroy us because we were not
ready?
Perhaps we do not really understand the forces at play in human
life, and we have not defined the battlegrounds of the spirit. Our real
struggle is spiritual, and Jesus told us in so many ways to be prepared–to
watch and pray.
The disciples had reached the midpoint in the Sea of Galilee
when a fierce–and unexpected–storm threatened to swamp their little boat. Their
predicament was extreme. In the center of the storm and the middle of the sea
there was little chance of survival, but then something else unexpected
happened. Jesus appeared and said, “It is I, be not afraid.”
In our world conflagrations and our personal storms, Christ
can still be seen coming across the unexpected waves of disaster saying, “It is
I, be not afraid.” Storms will come–but so will Christ. Be not afraid.
Eternal 2
Though the
Nations Rage ... 3
Restlessness
and Peace. 4
In God We
Trust 5
Time and
Eternity. 6
From Here to
There. 7
Write and
Rewrite. 8
Fog. 9
Valentines
and God. 10
God and
Gideon (Judges 6) 11
Because of -
in Spite Of 12
Christ’s
Question. 13
What If It
Really Is True?. 14
People and
Hobbies. 15
What Are You
Going To Be?. 16
Prayer and
Patience. 17
Chosen. 18
First Love. 19
For The Joy
Of It 20
Novelty and
Truth. 21
Now – Do It 22
Surrounded
(Exodus 14 and Isaiah 43:2) 23
What Is
Wrong?. 24
Needs and
Answers. 25
Unity (l
Corinthians 10:16-17) 26
Life,
Liberty, Love (John 4:38) 27
Questions. 28
What Time Is
It? (Romans 13:11-14) 29
A Bad Deal –
and a Good One (Proverbs 16:25, Mathew 16:26, John 3:16) 30
Detours
(Ephesians 5:20) 31
Twenty-five years ago [written in 1977] in the midst of a
trying situation that seemed more than I could bear, I relearned one of the
basic facts of the faith – God is always there in love to help, to heal, to
give the victory. I wrote the following simple poem then and it has been on my
desk since to remind me of what really lasts:
Teach me, O God.
To fix my mind on thee
And not on pain;
For this shall pass,
And only Thou remain.
My Bible opened to two pages of promises and one especially
cherished expression of love. It was early in the morning and the traffic on
the road was beginning to stretch and awaken to a new day.
Jesus said, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do
it ... I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you … Peace I leave
with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you,
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid … Ye are my friends “
There is much about love in this passage in John 14 and 15
and also in the memory pressed between these pages in my Bible. It was spring
and warm and soft and she was a tiny little girl who came to me wordlessly to
present one of the treasures of the spring. She held out a golden dandelion. My
heart received it with humility and gratitude for the love of a child and the
beauty of a dandelion combined to make a royal gift to me.
She is a young lady now. Perhaps she has forgotten her gift
of that long ago spring day, but it lives on in my heart, and it marks this
page of promise in my Bible.
I am thankful that there is love, that it can be expressed
so beautifully and that it is forever because it is of God.
In these dog days of human history when the atmosphere is
heavy with impending storms we lift our souls to the drift of the wind and are
afraid. We do not know what is about to happen but we sense deep currents of
potential danger as occasional flashes of violence stab across the dark sky.
The predominant state of mind today is anxiety.
None of this is new to God’s Word; none of it takes God by
surprise and it should not surprise us either. In Psalm 2:1-2, 4 we read, “Why
do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the
earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,
and against his anointed ... He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the
Lord shall have them in derision.”
The great destructive storms of history are real and there
are storms just over the horizon, but the little winds of man’s pride and
discontent are ripples on the surface of a vast and quiet sea compared to the
deep quietness and peace of God. We are right in sensing the drift of history but
we are wrong when we despair. It is a matter of proportion.
God is greater than all; in him every Christian – every
single one – is greater and has more permanence than history itself. We are
going to outlive the storms we sense about us; even though the nations rage we
shall be held by His hand and we need not fear, for deliverance is both certain
and soon. Psalm 2 concludes logically, “… Blessed are all they that put their
trust in Him.”
It is obvious to everyone that this is a restless day.
People everywhere on every level are searching frantically for – something.
The search for this something is made more difficult
by the accelerating rate of change. Before we can grasp the meaning of an
experience it is replaced by another which demands our attention. Our lives are
caught in a tightening spiral of experience and we cry out for – something.
We search in dusty attics and grubby gutters, we collect
antiques and polish our possessions, or we give them all away. We affirm
tradition or discard it, we are radical, conservative, or in between, but
through all of this seemingly contradictory confusion there is one common
denominator. We are searching for the something that will bring life
together and give us meaning.
Psalm 46: 10 gives us a needed hint for our search, “Be
still Matthew 11 :28 gives us God’s and know that I am God . invitation, “Come
unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
We are not searching for something, we are really searching
for someone – for God. He will put it all together for you.
“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are
perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not
destroyed.” (II Corinthians 4:8-9) Paul knew in firsthand experience the
ultimate dimensions of suffering. He gives a partial list of his suffering
experiences in II Corinthians 11:25-27, “Thrice was I beaten with rods, In once
was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck . journeyings often, in perils of
waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by
the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in
the sea, in perils among false brethren ... in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness.”
Paul’s reaction to his hard way was gloriously unusual. “Blessed
be God ... the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.” (II Corinthians
1:3-4) “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust
in ourselves, but in God Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth
deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.” (II Corinthians 1:9-10)
As the possibilities for disaster grow, let us fix our minds
on the “God of all comfort” who has delivered us so many times from such
desperate situations, and let us “trust that he will yet deliver us.” Let us as
Christians make “In God we trust” a living reality, not just a monetary motto.
One of man’s most insistent problems rises from his sense of
eternity contained within his experience of time. It seems to be a basic
contradiction in man’s nature. Everything changes with frightening rapidity and
yet down deep we know that we are creatures of eternity.
The answer to the dilemma is God. The God who created us and
redeemed us is the God of eternity, “the same yesterday, today and forever.” It
is only as we are aware of changeless reality that we can grasp the existence
and significance of change.
Since our source and purpose as well as our destiny lie in
eternity we can live well in time only as we live each day in time with God’s
will and in fellowship with God’s people. The Trinitarian Congregational Church
service for the reception of new members says, “The Church is of God, and will
be preserved to the end of time.” Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my
church and the powers of darkness shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew
16:18)
The Church is the only affiliation in time that has an
eternal charter; it is our visible link with the forever that is now beyond our
sight. The Church is of God and will be preserved to the end of
time as a refuge and a reminder for men seeking eternity in the midst of time.
I believe it is a volume of Ogden Nash’s poetry that bears
the title, You Can’t Get There From Here. Not infrequently we feel
ourselves to be trapped where we are with an unreachable destination
How does one get there from here? How does one
move from dreams to reality, from defeat to victory, from misery to joy? It
would seem logical to identify the desired destination clearly, determine the
best route and then begin – take the first step.
We must know where we want to go and have a route in mind,
but the secret of the whole business lies in taking the first step. Without
that there can be no progress, no hope – no departure and, therefore, no
arrival.
Actually, you can get there – the there of personal
fulfillment. John 14:6 gives us the route. Jesus said, “l am the way.” The
secret lies in the first step of belief. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you will be saved,” (Acts 16:31) which is God’s way of saying you can get there
from here.
If we want to write a polished piece of prose that says
exactly what we want to say we write and then we rewrite. Life, however, does
not permit us to rewrite. Once the lines of our lives have been written they
are forever fixed, and one of the saddest thoughts of every one of us is what
might have been if we had written differently. All of which should lead us to a
careful first writing.
God does give us new chances to write new lines – lines
straighter and truer than those we have written before. Such a chance, a new
chance, is being given to us today, The lines we write will become history for
good or for ill and either way not subject to correction or rewrite. Let us
make certain that as we inscribe our commitment to God’s work, God’s hand will
guide ours.
A little boy peered intently into the fog and said to his
mother, “It is hard to see the morning.” He expressed the difficulty we all
have when life shuts us in and cuts us off from all of the familiar landmarks
of our soul.
It is not hard to be overwhelmed by life when the
checkpoints disappear in a fog of doubt and it seems there is no way to turn.
Usually that is the moment when our strength becomes as weakness and we are
deserted, desolate, and in despair.
Psalm 61 speaks to the problem, “Hear my cry, O God; attend
unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart
is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than l. For thou hast been a
shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.”
Our lives do get foggy now and then and we are unable to see
the way, but God is never blinded by our fog – He sees us. He knows the way and
He always provides a place of shelter. His love always dispels our fog.
When I was in grammar school it was customary to have an
exchange of valentines in the classroom during school hours on that saint’s
birthday. One could place as many valentines as he wished in the big cardboard
box on the teacher’s desk. We did this when we arrived at school, and the
excitement would grow as the hours passed until the teacher began to remove the
messages of love from the box one by one and announce the name of the
recipient.
Some children received many, some few, but everyone, even
the least popular, received at least one, no doubt the anonymous work of the
teacher. If the truth were known, more than one child hedged the possibility of
a low popularity rating by sending valentines to himself. There is something
terribly wistful about that.
We need so desperately to be loved, and yet we are so unsure
of being loved and so afraid that others may find out that we are forever
sending ourselves valentines – messages of love. When children do it, it is a
wistful prophecy of the future; when adults do it, it is a terrible
fulfillment.
And it is all so unnecessary. “For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.” God’s message of love has your name
on it.
The Children of Israel were surrounded by an enemy so
numerous they were as a cloud of grasshoppers. Their interest was evil for they
came into the land to destroy it. Then the people “cried unto the Lord.”
God made a strange reply: “The Lord sent a prophet,” and the
prophet preached a sermon with three points. He reminded them of God’s past
deliverance, he rebuked the people for their spiritual failure, and he called
on them to repent.
God then called Gideon: the poorest son of a poor family.
Gideon objected for he was hardly the hero type and he had no visible resources.
God gave him this promise: “l will be with thee.” God and Gideon saved the
people.
We have a great need for deliverance in our day. I wonder if
there are any Gideons present?
There is a difference between God’s love and ours. Our love
too often is love because of, while God’s love is in spite of. We
love because of the return to us. God loves because He is love. Thus our love
tends to be a bargaining, demanding barter sort of thing, while God’s love is a
free gift.
If we are ever to have any real impact in our world, we must
learn to love as God loves. Only that love can unlock the door to societal and
personal peace; the God-like love alone can unite different people in families
and societies in a creative harmony.
Since God loves us in spite of all that is wrong with us, we
should love others the same way. God included enemies in the list of those He
loves, and He put them on our list also.
The next time we are tempted to turn away, to be unloving
because of the unpleasing qualities or behavior of another person, it might
help to remember that while we are loving the lovable, God is loving us.
The man had been a total invalid for thirty-eight years, He
had learned to live without hope – everything he tried, every- thing he could
think of to try, was of no help. He was without hope as he lay listlessly
beside the pool of Bethesda waiting for his life to drag to its miserable end.
And then Jesus passed by. He asked the man a strange
question, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Jesus referred to the physical problem and
there was no doubt about the answer to that, but I suspect He had something far
more important in mind. To be whole is, above all, to be a total person with
all of life integrated around Christ.
Jesus asks us the same question – “Will you be made whole?”
How we answer will determine the quality of the rest of our lives.
What if it really is true? The story and message of Jesus,
that is. It sounds strange to modern ears so accustomed to the glib jargon of a
hollow day. How can the scientifically oriented, educated people of today take
seriously the teaching of a first century prophet who died on a cross because
He made claims to deity?
It does not seem plausible that faith, stretched across two
thousand years and half way around the world, could change lives today and yet
there are many who will tell you it does. There are many reaching across the
whole spectrum of our society who believe the most relevant facts of history
for today happened in Israel two thousand years ago.
Jesus said He was God. He said He would die and then rise
from the dead. He claimed that anyone believing in Him would become a new
person with a new life that is both abundant and eternal. Those are big claims.
Big claims indeed, but the disciples who were there died to
testify to their truth. What Jesus claimed was that He, the Son of God, was a
divine invasion of history, that He came to save man from himself. A
preposterous claim indeed – but what if it really is true?
The scientific, intellectual approach of today would suggest
that one consider the evidence and decide.
People collect stamps, bugs, coins, string – almost every-
thing and anything. They hide their collections to protect them or display them
to enjoy them. Man is a collector, and I have read that such a hobby in a child
is an evidence of intelligence.
Since everyone should have a hobby to add dimension to his
life and since man is a collector, I would like to suggest a too little practiced
hobby – the collection and restoration of hearts. One can find them everywhere –
you might even find one in your home – and the variety is unlimited. It is
impossible to outgrow this hobby and it requires no money.
The rewards are great although to do this well one must
spend time and run a risk of hurt. It requires a sensitive heart and a loving
hand as well as a discerning eye to detect the hidden excellence and then bring
it to full beauty and joy.
Of course this is different from collecting things like
stamps or coins. One cannot mount or stuff or paste these trophies in a book.
One has them in his heart, as Paul said, and, therefore, they become part of
the collector’s eternal joy.
Discipleship is what this life is all about, I knew a man
years ago who was a disciple of money and spent all of his energies in its
worship and service until the golden walls went up around him and he died
alone. He was a faithful disciple of his dead god.
No one can escape discipleship but we do have a choice as to
which discipleship. This is life’s most important decision, for every disciple
inexorably is formed in the image of that to which he gives his allegiance.
It would be wise to notice what or whom we are following (to
what or whom we have discipled ourselves) that we might be aware of the image
being formed in us. After it is formed it is too late to choose or change. The
best results are obtained by faithful Christian discipleship.
When a person comes to me to talk about his problems, often
he cannot and so we talk about many things of lesser importance. The reason for
this is that real communication takes place only in the context of confidence
and that usually takes some time to establish. A few people are immediately
comfortable in the relationship; others take many weeks of peripheral
conversation before they feel secure enough to share their secrets.
It is not surprising then that we often are hesitant in
prayer and feel both uncomfortable and insecure as we try to talk with God.
Prayer is communication and at the most sensitive points in our lives. It is
certain that we will not feel comfortable in prayer until we have talked with
God long enough and in enough different situations to feel safe. It is a temptation
to stop prayer before we reach that point.
We need to develop a context of confidence in our relation-
ship with God; then prayer that is real will be natural. The wise counselor
will be patient waiting for the time when deep communication is possible. Since
God is infinitely patient, let us be patient in prayer.
Have you ever resented being invited to something because
someone else was unable to accept? It is not flattering to be an afterthought –
to be invited because no one else was available.
How much worse it would be if God invited us to be part of
His family because no one else cared to accept. That is not the way God works.
How He does is found in Ephesians 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world ...”
He chose His children first and then He created a world for
them. As God’s child you are not an afterthought scribbled on the margin of God’s
plan – you are what it is all about.
It has become popular today to be critical of the organized
Church. Some people even think we have grown beyond it and there is no need for
it. That the Church has faults is beyond question; after all it is composed of
people, and people in this dispensation are not yet perfect.
But two things cause me to hesitate before I become too
critical. First: Christ founded the Church and He said the powers of darkness
shall not overcome it.” I take that to mean that God has promised to preserve
the Church to the end of time itself. The Church, therefore, is the only
affiliation we have that is permanent.
And then there is another thing: without the Church and all
it has brought into my life, I would be an absolute pauper. It is the Church
that gave me the Bible and taught me what it means. The Church introduced me to
Christ. The Church played the major role in my education. Wherever there is
anything good in my life I see the combined work of God and His Church.
I love the Church because, like God, it loved me first.
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame
…” (Hebrews 12:2) So often we give our gifts grudgingly, or of necessity, or
perhaps with an eye to some personal gain, and so our gifts become chains of
bondage, not wings of joy.
Jesus who had nothing to gain personally gave all on the
cross, enduring the pain, despising the shame, rejoicing in the opportunity to
give a gift of joy to lift us out of ultimate soul-sadness.
We give our gifts – do we give joy with our gifts?
“Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered
saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. He answered and said unto them,
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign
be given it ...” (Matthew 12:38-39)
“Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me,
thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
(John 20:29)
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets,
and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible,
they shall deceive the very elect.” (Matthew 24:24)
“Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in
heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
thy name? and in thy name have cast out demons? and in thy name done many
wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart
from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:21-23)
Truth, not novelty, is our business.
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might;
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave.”
(Ecclesiastes 9:10) There is both a now-ness and a whole-heartedness
in the Gospel.
Now is the day of deliverance, therefore, serve God with all
of your heart. These two themes run throughout God’s Word to warn and to
inspire. To warn: because if we wait for a more convenient day that day will
never come and the important good we could do forever remains undone. To
inspire: because if we serve God with all of our hearts – now – we know that
God guarantees success and our “labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
How often we all have contributed to the problems of the
world, and we do not like what has come to pass. But there is an answer – now
if we serve God with all our hearts surely God will bring it to pass.
Moses led the children of Israel out of their Egyptian
captivity. They had scarcely begun their journey to freedom when they were
surrounded: on either side mountains hemmed them in, behind them came the
pounding chariots of Pharaoh’s troops, and ahead lay the sea. They were filled
with fear and indecision. Moses told them not to be afraid, but to stand still
and see the salvation of God.
God gave them a command – an impossible command – “Go
forward.” They obeyed and the sea parted before them. Whenever life hems us in
and cuts us off and prepares to attack, God gives the same command, “Go
forward.” When we do the result is the same because with the order to advance
comes the promise, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.”
Something must be wrong. Read the record in every
edition of every newspaper, almost on every page. We are bruised on the rocks
of violence and pulled down by the undertow of filth [in 1977!]. Our society is
being smothered by spiritual pollution.
There must be a reason for all of this and there is – we
have eased God out of the central place in our society and we have replaced Him
with ourselves. This root perversion appears in many forms and the one that
represents the current mind-set best is the expression, “Doing my thing.”
As long as we do my thing, or your thing, or our
thing we shall continue to be in deep trouble. “Moreover it is required in
stewards, that a man be found faithful.” (l Corinthians 4:2) I looked up
the word steward in the dictionary and I found this definition: “one who
manages another’s property or financial affairs: one who administers anything
as the agent of another …”
What is wrong is this – we have forgotten that this is God’s
world and all that we have we have received from Him, and we are, therefore,
not owners but stewards. Stewardship applies to money and possessions, as we
know, but it also includes our time and our talent. Stewardship is a total
thing. All that we have, all that we are must be used for God. We must
consecrate our time, talent, substance, and influence as heirs of God and
joint-heirs with Christ.
A life that lives up to that could be what is right in the
world.
Human need comes in a variety of colors, shapes, and models
and too many of them seem to be the large economy size, but there is not a
bargain in the lot. Eliphaz was right when he said “man is born unto trouble as
the sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:7)
But that is not the final word on suffering. “For I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us ... And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose If God be for us, who can be against us? ... What shall separate
us from the love of Christ? ... I am persuaded that nothing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8)
God’s answer is bigger than your need.
One of the greatest problems in the world of today,
expressed in a hundred different ways, is lack of unity.
Our world, our nation, our families, our own personalities
seem to be fragmenting, splitting apart. People everywhere are searching
frantically for the answer we must find.
But we need search no longer. The answer is represented in
the symbolism of the Lord’s Suppers “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it
not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not
the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and body:
for we are all partakers of that one bread.”
Christ we already are one. We just need to live that
way.
“No man is an island” is an obvious truth to all who look
closely at man. It is just as true that no day is an island set apart from
other days. It is much more like a section of a river that is totally dependent
upon what precedes it for its existence and meaning and upon its future for its
fulfillment. You can never understand a river by studying a hundred yard
section. You must know its source and its destination.
All that we have we have received – life, liberty, love –
and we owe a living debt of gratitude to those who have transmitted these
treasures to us. We also have an obligation to our children and our children’s children,
for their hope of life, liberty and love depends entirely on our use and
protection of our uncommon heritage.
There is a spirit of historic isolation abroad in the land
that refuses to recognize gratitude to the past or obligation to the future. This
is the most certain way of losing the significance and even the enjoyment of
today. Let us have done with this shallow parochialism, this empty, pseudo-
intellectualism, and let us dedicate ourselves to that part of the American
dream that can yet make our land blessed.
“Other men have labored, and we are entered into their
labors.” We ought to remember with gratitude those who have sacrificed so much
for us, but the task is not finished. Let us also “enter into their labors.”
Let us take up the cause of truth and freedom for which they sacrificed that
this nation and its freedom might not perish from the earth.
Never have we had so many questions and been certain of so
few answers. Pressing questions are shouted at us from every direction with a
terrible urgency for if we answer incorrectly the results will be disastrous.
There are the old questions that are still new: What is man?
Who am l? Where am I going? Does it all matter? If I die shall I live again?
Does life have any meaning? What is truth?
The publishers of books inundate us with volumes propos- ing
answers and more answers, but it seems that most of the answers create more
questions than they answer and more problems than they solve.
One book is an exception to this – the Bible. Every basic
question we ask is answered in God’s letter to us – that is precisely why He
gave it to us. That presents another question – why are we not more eager to
find the answers, why do we fail to study the Bible? That leads to a practical
suggestion. If you are asking questions you have a chance to find the answers
in God’s Word; but you must find the answers by study. Try this: Begin reading
the Bible any place in the New Testament and read, just read, until a passage
speaks especially to you. Then stop reading and apply the passage to your life.
Do this every day and your life will change as questions are erased by God’s
answers.
We need to spend less time with today’s books that tend to
be paraphrases of yesterday’s errors and more time with yesterday’s book that
answers today’s questions with timeless truth.
What do the hands on history’s clock tell us? Is it bright
morning filled with promise, or fruitful afternoon with its fulfillment? Or is
it twilight? Each one of us has an opinion and only God knows, but He does have
a word of advice for us. “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
Out Of sleep.”
Whatever the hour is, it is time to wake up, to rouse out of
our spiritual somnolence and get to work at God’s task. He gives us a reason
and it is not the one we would expect. for now is our salvation nearer than
when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” It is not “Work
for the night is coming” but “Work for victory is at hand.”
Faust made a bad deal. Because he was old and despaired of
solving the problems of life he sold his soul to the devil for “The pleasures
of youth.” The devil delivered, but the end was unrelieved disaster.
As I watched the dramatic lift of the opera I was aware of
God’s Word tugging at the back of my mind. “There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 16:25) “What
is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)
Satan is still offering trifles for souls, and people like
Faust are making bad deals, but there is a good deal available: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
A radio listener who has been through excruciating trials
wrote, “l have even been able to be thankful for the detour.” That is not an
easy thing to do. When one is rolling along a smooth superhighway at high speed
and is suddenly shunted off to a rough, dusty detour where it is almost
impossible to make any time, it is not easy to be thankful.
The listener explained the reason for the thankfulness, “There
was some nice countryside that appeared along the way – God meant it for good.”
I remembered back across many years to a day when I was bumping along a back
country detour. The window was open and I heard the lilting song of a bird. I
offered my thanks to God who gives a song for every one of life’s detours. It
is impossible to hear a bird’s song if one is driving sixty miles an hour.
Life’s detours give us our best opportunities to see God’s
beauty and hear His song of joy. It seems we need to slow down if we are to
arrive quickly at God’s best. Let us then give “... thanks always for all
things unto God ...” – even for detours.
