EDITORIAL
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
"Well, brother Gordon, how are you getting along, -- uh, financially. I mean?" asked a visitor recently. I suppose many more would like to know our financial status, but don't have the nerve to ask.
For all who want to know, we get a monthly check from the Veterans Administration which amounts to about 1/3 of what we need to live. From there we live strictly from "hand to mouth." I don't mean to convey the idea that we are impoverished. Not at all, for it is God's hand to our mouth.
Just recently at the supper table we were enumerating the things on the table that had been given to us. On that particular evening, we found that practically everything we were eating had been given to us by friends. I think there was only one item we had bought for that meal. The fare went something like this: meat, potatoes, string beans, bread (and butter), milk (with chocolate to add), and ice cream for dessert. So, you see, God is still in the business of supplying daily bread for His children.
God has miraculously supplied every need. When you consider that over $3000 was expended sending out "Triumph" last year, along with the expense for a family of five, indeed we must conclude the supply has been miraculous. Sometimes as we look back, it does make us wonder just how we did get along, "uh, financially, I mean." And we can only praise our God, who has led folks to contribute to our needs.
Primarily it is the "widow's mite" that keeps us going. Occasionally a larger sum comes in, but there are a number of folks, many of them elderly and on pensions themselves, very often at great sacrifice to themselves, who contribute regularly. God bless each of them. Of course it goes without saying that we do greatly appreciate the larger gifts too.
I am telling you this to give all the praise to our wonderful Lord, and to thank all of you who have obeyed His promptings and given to our ministry.
What of the future? The future is in His hands, who knows the end from the beginning. We only live from day to day, trusting Him.
"Therefore take no thought," admonishes our Lord Jesus, "saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (or, How shall we publish Triumph?) . . . for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness (which are both bound up in Christ); and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:31-33).
Your editor,
Art Gordon
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THE SHUT-IN PROPHET
The second of a series on THE SHUT-INS OF THE BIBLE
By Louis Paul Lehman
"Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died."
II Kings 13:14
SIXTY YEARS previous to this moment the farmer heard the call of the prophet, and forsaking the plough, the furrow, and the farm, had followed the "Son of Thunder" until that prophet of fire and fury had been caught away to the presence of God in a chariot of flame. The request of this follower had been a double portion of the Spirit of his master, and as the ascending man of God had been driven heavenward by steeds of glory, the fallen mantle of the old prophet had been picked up by Elisha to indicate his desire and determination to carry on the work of him who had called him as a follower.
"A double portion of the spirit of Elijah --" that had seemed virtually a reality in Elisha's opening ministry. The first fifteen years of his public appearance are marked with visible and wonderful manifestations. Honored and feared by kings and people, he performed miracles for the benefit of the whole nation and specific individuals. A spring of water was healed, and for a thirsty army he turned a valley into a place of ditches filled with water though not a drop of rain splashed on the earth and not a cloud appeared in the sky. A widow's supply of oil was multiplied, a dead son was restored to life, and a Syrian captain rode to his house in the misery of leprosy and departed in the splendors of health. He is a prophet to be reckoned with -- and then he suddenly disappears from the public scene into a forty-five year retirement and obscurity until he comes into view as a dying man. Not like Elijah does this prophet proceed into glory, but in the humbling and painful mode of other men, he fell sick and died.
The shut-in prophet is an interesting character, and I wish we knew a little more about those forty-five years of his enclosure in silence and seclusion, but this one incident of his fatal sickness is all the Word allows us to see. "Joash seems an inappropriate man to perform this weeping. He had received rebuke and reproof of this man of God, but had never bothered to obey -- why does he come to weep? It is not an unfamiliar sight: we realize how valuable men are when we are about to lose them or have already lost them. Joash remembers the times that this man has saved the nation by his guidance and help in Israel's hours of tragedy. Joash's cry, "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof," is the king's acknowledgement that this prophet and his God have been the defense of the nation beyond the defending ability of armies and chariots.
Sometimes sons and daughters do not realize how valuable is a godly parent until that parent is about to die, or we may not value our praying friend until his lips can no longer pray The children of the righteous may rebel against the Bible-reading, the prayer session, and the Church going, which were necessary in their household: but often such a boy or girl comes home to weep over mother's casket or dad's dying bed the words of King Joash: "What will we do without you, you are a better strength and help that all the things of this world." Even the worst of men have their moments of honest conviction. It may take the shadow of death to bring the truth home, but they who have lived embraced in the warmth of Christian love and Christian principles will someday remember -- God grant that it be not too late -- the fact that mother's God and father's faith were good foundation on which to build.
This shut-in prophet, however, was not a sentimentalist, thinking only of the past: he was still a man of vision and challenge. Read the story in II Kings 13:15-19. Elisha instructs the king to shoot an arrow from the window, and the prophet's old hand steadies the king's hand as he directs the arrow on the bow: a symbol of deliverance from the Syrians. He instructs the king to smite the arrows upon the ground, or literally to shoot them into the ground, and when he obeys, but uses only three arrows rather than five or six and emptying the quiver, the dying prophet tells him he will strike Syria but not consume it; and Elisha is angry with him for such a lack of faith and vision.
There is a shut-in for you! Forty-five years of retirement from public life, an illness that will kill him, and sixty years of removal from the moment of his own commission and calling -- but he still sees open windows and cherishes a man of vision. Here is a shut-in who does not believe that the world has stopped moving because he is not out there pushing it, and who does not limit the purposes of God to his own house or his span of life. I have met shut-ins like that.
The shooting of the arrow through the open window was a challenge to war. Ancient customs indicate that when an army intended to conquer a nation they would shoot an arrow into the land they intended to overthrow -- it was the sign of warfare. I am often amazed to discover that through the open windows of a shut-in the arrows of spiritual defiance have been flying thick and fast. Talk to that old man, that lady who has been sick for twenty years, or that retired missionary whose life has been spent for God in some land of darkness and despair: and lo, you find yourself watching the arrows fly through the windows at his or her direction. "I have been praying that God will send someone to that point -- over there where heathenism is overshadowing every little baby born into that country."
Or it may be this, "I heard today from a certain board or a certain individual -- I am praying for God to meet the need." The people with health and good business and normal homes, oh, they are too busy to see those kind of things. They heard the missionary speak, and they received the letter from the missionary-society, but it went into the waste paper basket with the ads about furniture sales or a new insurance program: but the shut-in caught the vision. I would rather have those shut-ins praying for me and sharing my vision than any other single group of people.
Oh, the courage of this shut-in prophet! He believes that the enemy can be completely overcome, and he berates and is angry with the man who contemplates only a partial deliverance. It is often those with the least resources who have the faith to believe for the greatest in results. God give us more men of such faith and understanding, who realize that the victories of the Lord's people do not depend on what we keep in the quiver, but depend only on our vision to see and believe that God is able unto all that He has promised to do.
(From "The 'Shut-Ins" Of The Bible," copyright 1961 by the Author,
published by BIT OF HEAVEN MINISTRY, Grand Rapids, MI)
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IN EXTREMIS
The river is cold and dark, dear Lord;
The current is swift and wild;
God of the buffeting waves, help Thou
Thy struggling and sinking child!
Through the stormy night I cannot see
The lights on the other shore;
I am neither strong nor brave, dear Lord,
And my heart has failed me sore.
Then close in my very ear a voice:
"thou needest not to be brave;
My arm has not grown weak, My child
Nor short, that it cannot save.
"Let go, lean hard, trust all to Me!
Only this way canst thou know
Hoe strong and how tender is that love
That will never let thee go.
"See, I lift thee up above the waves!
Though the river is deep and wide,
I shall bear thee as though on eagle's wings
Safe to the other side."
-- Martha Snell Nickolson
It is good to be saved and know it; it is better to be saved and show it.
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My only fear is to be out of God's will.
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Brooding over blunders is like bruising a fresh wound.
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Satan doesn't care what we worship, as long as we do not worship God!
-- Dwight L. Moody
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How's Your Health?
UNLESS YOU HAVE a balanced diet containing all the vitamins in their right proportions, chances are your health will be affected. So if you're not getting the most out of life, if you're not happy and satisfied with yourself and the world, check up on yourself. Use this handy spiritual chart:
Vitamin A
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God"(Romans 3:23).
Here's the first reason you're not feeling right and aren't right in the sight of God. You're a sinner, and sin has control of you -- that's God's Word. But here's the way to make up that deficiency:
"All we like sheep have gone astray (from God), we have turned every one to his own way," but "the Lord has laid on Him (Christ) the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6).
When a man asked Bishop Taylor Smith one day how to become a Christian, he replied, "I haven't time to talk to you now, but read Isaiah 53:6. Go in at the first 'all' and come out at the last one." "All" includes you. Do it, friend.
Vitamin B
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts16:31). Americans are suffering from a lack of vitamin "B" in their diet, doctors tell us. The Bible tells us that all men will suffer from a lack of this essential "B" in their spiritual diet, for "he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). Believe, receive Him today!
Vitamin C
"Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures . . . " (I Corinthians 15:3). Here is the most necessary vitamin in your spiritual diet, for "there is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
God's last sermon in the Bible is contained in one word, "Come" (Revelation 22:17). This is another vital "C." You may hear and believe the gospel as a fact, but unless you come to Christ, who died for your sins, and claim Him as your personal Saviour, you will never have eternal life and a passport to Heaven.
When you have come, Christ will meet the deepest needs of your soul, satisfy your heart-hunger with the bread of Heaven and the water of life, and balance your spiritual diet according to God's plan.
Are you concerned about your spiritual life? Take God's provisions for that life. Abandon your own diet of good works or self-righteousness, and try this diet of life in Christ. Remember -- your soul is of infinitely greater worth than your body. Look to your spiritual diet first, now! Take Christ as your Saviour today, for "He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9).
(Reprinted by permission of Good News Publishers, Westchester, IL.)
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WORRY
By George Headley, Jr.
DID YOU KNOW that worry is a killer?
Yes, habitual worry injures the brain cells beyond repair which in turn injures other cells in the body, making them weak and highly susceptible to disease.
Dr. Alverez of Mayo Clinic says, "80% of all stomach disorders have been caused by worrying."
A noted psychiatrist has been quoted as saying, "Worry is at the root of 90% of all nervous breakdowns."
A medical doctor in the same article writes: "Worry is a major contributing cause to other ailments such as heart disease, asthma, allergies, diabetes, and head colds."
Considering this, we must admit that, truly, worry is a killer!
Are you prone to be a worrier? If so ask yourself this question -- "Is this thing I am worrying about worth dying for?"
Worry for the Christian is S-I-N!!!
It reveals lack of faith and trust in our heavenly Father. Oh, yes, we have faith enough to believe that God has saved us from our sins, but not enough to believe that He is watching over us day by day.
Worry is dishonoring to God's name.
God's Word exhorts: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart."
Worry is everything that is contradictory to the Christian life and profession.
So, Christian friend, stop worrying!
How often this advice has been given -- but, what is the cure?
The most profound cure and yet the simplest is found in God's Word.
Acts 2:25 -- "For David speaketh concerning Him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved."
God's promise is the basis for "not worrying"
To Christians, the promise is that Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Friend, is always with us.
What a Friend we have in Jesus!
He is a permanent Friend -- "I foresaw the Lord ALWAYS before my face." He has promised to never leave nor forsake us.
He is a personal Friend -- "(He is) before MY face." Not only the Saviour -- but my Saviour. He knows and cares for me.
He is a powerful Friend -- "He is on my RIGHT HAND, that I should NOT BE MOVED." The problems, cares, distresses, and experiences in life should not move me, because Jesus is with me to give strength in and through these experiences.
Take all your worries, list them in one column on a sheet of paper. Then in the other column write out the words of Philippians 4:6-7 --
"Be careful for nothing (i.e. worry about nothing); but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Begin by listing the problems over which you do have control, then the ones over which you have no power, and cast them all upon the Lord and forget about them . . . as the hymn writer says, "Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there."
God's solution for worrying is given by the Psalmist in Psalm 37:3,5,7 --
1) "Trust in the Lord."
2) "Commit thy ways unto the Lord."
3) "Rest in the Lord."
May God deliver you today from this killer.
(Rev. Headley pastors Grace Baptist Church, Russellville, PA.)
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SERMON SERIES
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER
No. 31
YOUR ADVERSARY
I Peter 5:8-11
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
IF YOU ARE a Christian, you have at least one enemy in the world. In our text he is called "your adversary the devil."
Since this evil one is in the world and since he has evil designs against us, Peter exhorts us, under inspiration, "be sober, be vigilant." This is no time for frivolity or drowsiness. Be awake to the situation, be sober-minded.
THE DEVIL
"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (8).
Let's establish it from the beginning that this one is decidedly our enemy. We are on one side; he the other. Once it could be said of us, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." But "now we are the sons of God" through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is our delight to do His will.
It is the devil's purpose, as his names "adversary" and "devil" suggest, to oppose the Christian. He appears before God to accuse us. The sad part is that too often his accusation is true, we have done something wrong. And yet, though he has us "dead-to-rights," and would have us convicted, the fact remains that Jesus Christ by His sacrifice on the cross paid for our sins in full. "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
But not only does this one accuse us, he also attacks us. " . . . the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." He first attacked our Lord. The Book of Revelation recaps in picture language his devilish activities against Christ:
"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." This refers to the nation of Israel. "And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered . . . And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron." This child is Christ who came of Israel.
"And there appeared another wonder in heaven: and behold a great red dragon . . . and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born." Here we have the one who is identified later as "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan."
We see him often in the Old Testament Scriptures striking out at the lineage through which the Christ would come, seeking thus to devour Him. But to no avail.
Then according to God's time, the Christ-child was born of the virgin in Bethlehem. Satan had been unable to prevent His birth, but maybe he can get rid of Him now. Satan's tool, "Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under." But God had forewarned Joseph telling him to "take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt."
Time and again the serpent strikes at the heel of the royal Seed. Finally on the cross, seemingly Satan has won the day, the Son of man yields up His spirit. In the grave three days . . . all is silent. But no grave can hold the Lord of life. Christ arose!!! Satan suffered defeat all along the line; now, once for all, he receives smashing defeat by the One he sought to devour. However, although he can no longer attack Christ's person, he seeks daily to devour the Christian, the disciple of Christ.
YOU
What is our only recourse when facing such a foe?
"Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world" (9).
"Resist" means "to withstand, to be firm against someone else's onset." "Steadfast" is a military term picturing a body of heavy-armed infantry formed in ranks and files close and deep. So we are to stand firm, as a well-armed fighting force, against our enemy . . . "in the faith."
Faith is our only recourse when confronted by the adversary. Firm, unyielding faith. Faith in God. Some speak of faith in a general, abstract manner, never bothering to mention faith's object, as though faith was itself the object. Such speaking may sound pious and commendable but such faith -- without its true Object -- cannot effectively withstand the devil. For it is not so much our faith, as the God in whom our faith is placed, that spells the victory. Faith is our "Amen" to all that God is and does.
Now we come to the actual roar of the lion, the specific way in which he seeks to devour us. " . . . knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world."
"Afflictions." Down through the centuries the lion has been roaring thus at God's people. Oh, it is true, sometimes he comes in other guise, for instance as "an angel of light." As such he seeks to deceive and to turn the Christian from the path of truth, and so to dishonor God. He uses cults and isms and other false teachers to this end.
But he also comes as a "roaring lion." This means affliction for the child of God. In this guise he seeks to discourage and frighten the Christian and to turn him from the path of trust, and so again to dishonor God.
Christian, in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, had to face this test, as all Christians do sometime in their life.
"Now, before Christian had gone far, he entered into a very narrow passage, which was about a furlong off the Porter's lodge; and looking very narrowly before him as he went, he espied two lions in the way. Now, thought he, I see the dangers that Mistrust and Timorous (whom he had met previously) were driven back by. (The lions were chained, but he saw not the chains.) Then he was afraid, and thought also himself to go back after them; for he thought nothing but death was before him.
"But the Porter at the lodge, whose name is Watchful, perceiving that Christian made a halt as if he would go back, cried out unto him, saying, 'Is thy strength so small? Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for the trial of faith where it is, and for the discovery of those that have none: keep in the midst of the path, and no hurt shall come unto thee.'
"Then . . . he went on trembling for fear of the lions; but, taking good heed to the directions of the Porter, he heard them roar, but they did him no harm."
How will you face the "roaring lion" and affliction? Will you, like Timorous and Mistrust, turn and flee, or will you, like Christian, "keep in the midst of the path" of trust in God, to "resist steadfast in the faith?" I would remind you of something not readily seen in the time of affliction. The adversary may roar savagely, and threaten to devour us, which may cause us to tremble with fear, but remember this, the lion is chained. That is, he can only go as far as God permits him. God may allow him to come uncomfortable near at times, but only that we might draw closer to Himself.
GOD
"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (10,11).
This is a beautiful note on which to end our text. The enemy may roar and stalk and threaten, but we belong to "the God of all grace." Hallelujah! If this means anything, it certainly means that He is "the God of all comfort" -- "with grace to help in time of need." For us to retreat is as much as to say that God is not the "God of all grace." This is what the devil wants. He wants us to doubt Him, and thus deny Him. He would frighten us and cause us to deny His goodness and grace.
" . . . who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus." This might better read: "who hath called us by Christ Jesus with a view to his eternal glory." Why did God call us? That we might be saved, someone says. But more than that, He "called us . . . with a view to His eternal glory." What more glorifies God than the manifestation of His grace in salvation? Once we were altogether in sin and enemies of God; God reached down in grace and called us unto Himself. The call was made effectual by the other Person mentioned -- "Christ Jesus."
It is "by Christ Jesus" that we are saved. "For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Said Jesus, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
We bring glory to God when we are saved through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we bring glory to Him as we follow through on the road of faith, trusting Him in any affliction.
Here comes the promise we have been waiting for. "After that ye have suffered a while, (He will) make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."
"After that ye have suffered a while," has reference to the comparative shortness of our time of suffering. Paul saw his suffering, though it covered half his lifetime, as only a brief moment, compared with eternity. And so it is. In the midst of it, it may seem ever so long, but in reality it is "a little while."
Afterward God promises to "make you perfect," or better, "to adjust you." When in affliction everything seems to go out of adjustment. Nothings seems related. Life as a whole seems to come to pieces at the seams. The pieces scattered in every direction. But the promise comes to us that "the God of all grace . . . after that ye have suffered a little while, will Himself adjust you." He will in His time bring together the scattered parts of your life and make them one harmonious whole. So if in your present suffering, things seem all mixed up and without purpose, take heart, God knows your circumstances and promises eventual adjustment, and that without fail.
He promises also to "stablish" you, or "confirm" you. Job's friends misunderstood his sufferings. They thought he was suffering because of secret sin in his life. In the end God revealed that such was not the case, and he confirmed the genuineness of Job's faith. Maybe you have friends who think because you are suffering affliction that you lack in faith, or are being punished for some awful sin. Be not discouraged. God's promise to you is that "after that ye have suffered a little while, He will confirm you."
He promises to "strengthen" you. Oh, how weak we feel in the midst of affliction and suffering. But He says, "My strength is made perfect in weakness." And "after that ye have suffered a little while, He will strengthen you."
He promises finally to "settle you." The same word is used in Matthew 7:25 and is translated "founded." Our Lord speaks of the wise man who built his house upon a rock. "And the rain descended . . . floods came . . . winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." So the promise comes to us in our affliction, "after that ye have suffered a little while, He will found you on the Rock, Christ Jesus." Not that the Rock wasn't there during the storm, but our perception of it wasn't as it should have been. After the storm and with God's help we shall see our Lord more clearly than ever before as our sure foundation.
Verse 10 shows us that God is good; verse 11 shows us that He is great. Verse 11 in the Greek reads: "His is the might unto the ages of the ages: Amen." This is precious. Yes, our adversary is mighty, but our God is ALMIGHTY. He has dominion. Everything is subject to Him: including our adversary, our circumstances, ourselves; everything in heaven and earth and under the earth. "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
"Unto the ages of the ages." What's to become of our adversary? -- Cast into the bottomless pit, then released to be finally and eternally cast into the lake of fire. But our God, "His is the might and dominion unto the ages of the ages." Cannot we trust such a One?
What remains to be said? Only one thing. "Amen!" I trust you can add your "Amen" to these tremendous and wonderful truths.
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"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame."
-- Romans 10:9-11
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