WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?
It is good occasionally as motorists to check the motor of our car. If we don't, inevitably there will be a breakdown. For the same reason it is good occasionally as Christians to check the motivation of our Christian service. What better time for a checkup than at the beginning of a new year?
Why do we do what we do? Why do we work in the church? Why do we teach a Sunday school class, or serve as trustee or on a committee, or sing in the choir? What is our motive? Do we do what we do because there is no one else to do it, or because we were chosen and can't get out of it, or out of a sense of duty to the church, or to be seen and praised, or to please the pastor or the chairman?
Why go to church at all? Do we go because it is customary in our family and through sheer force of habit? Do we go merely to please an insistent loved-one? Do we go because it is more or less popular on a clear, cool Sunday morning? Do we go to gain social or business recognition?
Just what motivates us to our religious activities? What should motivate us? The Apostle Paul pinpointed it when he said, "The love of Christ constraineth us . . . " (2 Corinthians 5:14).
Christ's love sent Him into our sin-cursed world to redeem us through death on the cross. His love loosed the pangs of death when He arose from the grave to declare us righteous. His love carried Him back to the Father's throne to make intercession for us. His love will bring Him back again to receive us unto Himself. Christ's love for us has accomplished our eternal salvation.
And "we love him, because he first loved us." Heart has responded to heart, love to love. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." This love -- His love for us and our love for Him -- constrains us to do what we do in His service.
We teach that class to introduce our pupils to JESUS CHRIST so they too may know and love HIM. We attend church with others of like faith to praise and worship HIM and to learn more of HIM whom our soul desires. We give of our substance to maintain HIS work and to promote the knowledge of HIM around the world. All that we do, we do as unto HIM -- our wonderful LORD and SAVIOUR.
If our motivation is anything else, then our service, no matter how honorable and acceptable by human standards, is dishonoring and wholly unacceptable to God. "He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him." This "man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss."
"Whatsoever ye do," therefore, "do all to the glory of God." "That God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
-- Editor.
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"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come,
the Almighty."
-- Jesus Christ
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HIS FAITHFULNESS
By Marion Graves
As I think back over my life, I am reminded of the Scripture which expresses my personal testimony. "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23). There has been nothing of personal accomplishment worth mentioning. Rather, my testimony has one theme only -- His faithfulness!
It was of the Lord's mercies that I was reared in a Christian home and church in which I was exposed to the Gospel. In spite of these advantages my spiritual life during childhood and the teens was of the churchianity brand. Baptism, church membership, and active participation, even leadership in church youth activities, but no real, vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then when I was twenty years old a faithful God guided to my church the right Bible conference speakers and counselors and I was brought face to face with my need. As I acknowledged my lack and surrendered, for the first time I became conscious of the real and powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. The Bible became for me a transformed, enlightened Book. I was thrilled with the new empowerings given to me each day. Indeed, all things had become new.
I shall never forget the months that followed in the old home church. With a group who had experienced God anew as I had, we went out to share Him with others in street meetings, institutions, and in smaller churches as we were invited. We were blessed and God blessed others through us.
Yes, those were special, thrilling, beginning days that some said would not last. The freshness, newness and thrill of first experiencing God, they said, would later be lost in the drudgeries and problems of staid Christian living.
In a measure this was true, I had to learn, as does every newly born Christian, that God often withholds the thrills that we might learn to walk by naked faith alone, without feeling. We must be weaned from seeking first His blessings to desiring only HIM, to be selfless instead of spiritually selfish.
This lifetime process of growing to spiritual maturity has been for me a continuous manifestation of the faithfulness of God.
He was faithful in teaching me the principles of the crucified life. He was faithful in enabling me to work my way through college. He graciously supported me as I was forced to meet head-on the beginning onslaughts of my life handicap, arthritis, and later as it painfully hampered my fifteen years of public school teaching.
Even greater was His faithfulness as I was forced to quit teaching to spend thirteen years on crutches and subsequently ten years in a wheelchair. And most recently did I experience His faithfulness in leading me to become a resident in an occupational home which I believe was His will for me.
I have not always been faithful to Him. There have been those many times when I have walked more after the flesh than after the spirit, and His loving chastisements were needed to discipline me back into close fellowship.
As I reminisce, I am appalled at how slow I have been in learning the lessons He has taught me. I feel that I'm only a beginner in "knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him." I have neglected so many golden opportunities to share Him with others.
Yet, on the other hand, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is very real and precious to me. I believe He is the central figure of the universe for all times. Human history revolves around Him. Your life and my life can have no satisfying meaning without Him.
(In "The Christian League Bulletin," published monthly by The Christian League for the Handicapped, Walworth, WI)
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THE INCARNATION
I had a thought so vast, so deep
It compassed all my soul; and sleep
Was lost to me, and time was gone;
My heart cried out to make it known
To fellow pilgrims and to share
My treasure with them. Unaware
They passed me by, and so one day
I clothed my thought with words. Straightway
That thought had winged the whole world round,
Wherever hearts of men were found!
Divinest mystery ever wrought!
What a word is to a thought,
So Jesus is to God -- the Word
Made flesh among us, seen and heard
By sinful men; the love of God
Made manifest unto the clod,
The once unknowable made known,
And plainly to the veriest stone
The heart of God laid bare! . . . Thus He
Has shown Himself to you and me.
-- Martha Snell Nicholson
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THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
( WORKS OF DEITY )
Jesus Christ is God.
Works are done by Him which only God can do.
These may be divided into past, present, and future.
In the past -- Christ created all things.
The Bible flatly states that "all things were made by him." (John 1:3 AV). John 1:10 reads -- "And the world was made by him" (AV). Colossians 1:16 -- "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him" (AV). Who but God could do this?
In the present -- these are His works:
He upholds and preserves all things which He has made. Hebrews presents Him as "upholding all things by the word of his power" (1:3). Colossians -- "in him all things consist" (1:17. The word "consist" means "hold together." This vast universe which Christ has created is held together by Him. Some would have us believe the world in which we live came about by chance and developed by evolution and is held together by an unknown physical law or force. However, the Bible declares, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"' and that "in him all things consist."
Also He guides and directs the stream of history. Of Christ it is affirmed that He has been "appointed lawful owner of everything" (Hebrews 1:2 WILLIAMS). This is in keeping with the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Him -- "And the government shall be upon his shoulder" (9:6). God alone holds this distinction.
To make it more personal, Christ's works are found also to include the fact that He forgives the sins of men and gives unto them eternal life. He made an astounding statement one day to a paralytic. "Jesus saith unto the sick (man) . . . Son, thy sins are forgiven. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak? he blasphemeth: who can forgive sins but one, even God" (Mark 2:5-7).
That is just the point. No one but God can forgive sins. Jesus thus claims to be God. And to back up His claim He healed the paralytic. On another occasion, Jesus made this statement concerning His own -- "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28). Equally astounding, if Jesus is not God.
In the future -- Christ will raise the dead. He told Martha -- "I am the resurrection" (John 11:25). To a crowd He said -- "For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will" (John 5:21). Everyone acknowledges the Heavenly Father is God; Jesus here puts Himself on an equality with the Father, attributing to Himself power to raise the dead. Who can doubt it when we hear His command at the tomb of one who had been dead four days: "Lazarus, come forth! And he that was dead came forth" (John 11:43-44).
Also He is the final Judge of the world. He has been given this office by the Father, "for neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son" (John 5:22). "He gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man" (John 5:27. Christ is the only One of the Godhead who has had the personal experience of becoming human, and thus qualified to judge humans. When we stand before God for judgment some day, it will be before One who "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
Since these are His works, proving that He is indeed very God, and since we must all appear before Him some day to give an account of ourselves, it behooves us now to believe in Him, receiving Him as our Saviour, enthroning Him in our lives as Lord. For all such, He has forgiveness of sins and eternal life. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
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The Spirit alone can show Jesus to the soul. But when He speaks the word, the despised and rejected of men is loved and adored as the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely, the one dispenser of the mercies of salvation.
-- Things Concerning Himself
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FEAR NOT
By M. R. DeHaan
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. Psalm 23:4
How many Christians profess to know Christ and yet are living in fear and doubt! The joy of the Lord depends on our knowledge of the absolute certainty of the promises of God. If we fully know the faithfulness of God we shall not fear. If we doubt Him we shall be filled with fear.
The story is told of a western traveler in the pioneer days who came one winter night to the banks of a wide river. He had to get across but there was no bridge. The river was coated with a sheet of ice but he knew not how safe it was. After much hesitation he gingerly tested it with one foot and it held. Night was coming on and he must get across. With many fears and with care he crept out on hands and knees, hoping to distribute his weight on the uncertain ice.
When he had gone some distance painfully and slowly, he heard the sound of horses hoofs and joyful singing. There in the dusk was a happy Negro driving a team of horses and a load of coal across the ice and cheerfully singing as he went. He knew the ice was safe!
Christians, do you know that you can rest the whole weight of your salvation on Christ? He has been tested by millions and the "ice will hold." Have you come to Him in faith? Then believe His promise, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." Praise Him, believer, and trust yourself fully to His promise.
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5).
(In "Our Daily Bread," copyright 1965 by Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, MI)
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PART ONE
THE TRANSFIGURATION OF TROUBLE
By Dr. G. R. Paterson
"I was in the isle that is called Patmos." Revelation 1:9.
If ever there were troublous days, these are they in which we live . . . if ever hearts were burdened and broken, surely it is now . . . if ever words of comfort and healing were needed, this is the time.
Yet, let us thank God: there is a resting place for the weary, for Christ is Shiloh, which means "resting place" . . . there is a Companion for the lonely, for Christ is Immanuel, which means "God with us" . . . there is Sufficiency for the impoverished, for Christ is Shaddai, which means the "All Provider" . . . there is Stillness of heart for the distressed, for Christ is Shalom, which means "Peace," so that if we accept Him for all that He is willing to become to us, we shall be able to say --
"Thou, O Christ art all I want
More than all in Thee I find."
Our message is The Transfiguration of Trouble. Trouble is always with us . . . for sorrowful hearts are found everywhere and are always with us . . . but today the world over, the amount of trouble is vastly increased and the nature of it is specially poignant.
In regard to homes and country, these have been made desolate . . . ruin has taken the place of order, and ugly scenes scar the place of beauty. We may think of peoples in every walk of life . . . tens of thousands in war camps as prisoners . . . thousands upon thousands in hospitals all over the world . . . many injured beyond recovery . . . blind, maimed, and afflicted . . . mothers, wives, sisters, and brothers brokenhearted . . . children coming into contact with the sad and broken things of life.
Think of world convulsion . . . which has permanently changed the whole outlook on the globe . . . fair prospects vanished . . . projects and plans ruined . . . dreams of years lie in debris and ruin. Yes, the fact of "Trouble" is everywhere one may look. These things almost seem to point to an old prophecy being fulfilled: "Yet, once, it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the sea and the dry land . . . and I will shake nations."
Yet, there are some unshakeable things. Men, nations, and kingdoms may fall . . . civilizations may crumble . . . foundations of society and alliances may shiver and totter . . . but God does not change . . . the same yesterday, today and forever.
This message is for those who are in the Valley of Trouble . . . those who are being severely tested . . . tried in the furnace . . . those who are passing through the deep waters of pain and grief. So, let us consider the Apostle John . . . lying on Patmos, that we may learn his secret of peace, serenity, and joy.
A. THE INEVITABILITY OF TROUBLE --
"I was on the isle."
1. The Place of Trouble.
Let us regard Patmos as the symbol of trouble, and see how, through John's experience, the little isle became universalized.
2. The Nature of the Trouble.
John was on the isle . . . a little island in the Mediterranean about 15 miles in circumference . . . a wild barren spot. It was a convict settlement whither the Romans banished all criminals whom they deemed unfit for society or for the city. It was here that John, the beloved disciple was banished . . . imprisoned during the reign of the cruel Domitian.
Think of a man of John's temperament . . . his upbringing . . . his life in such a place as this. We can imagine the cruel oppression to which he must have been subjected, and how the Roman guards treated him . . . of the painful sense of captivity which must have swept his soul.
How terrible must have been his surroundings . . . with the company so sordid and the atmosphere so degrading. Add to all this his pathetic loneliness . . . so far from Ephesus . . . away from all whom he loved . . . the fellowship of the church. We can see that this was a place of great trouble.
All this was the more difficult to bear because he was there for good and not evil. Most, if not all of those around him had violated the law, and they at least had the consciousness that they deserved to be there . . . a consciousness which the Apostle John did not share. For he was banished for "the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ."
3. The Time of the Trouble.
Let us remember that the time at which this occurred was an aggravation of the trouble . . . for the Apostle was very old. Behind him lay a long and laborious life of splendid service, and it would now be difficult for him to rough it . . . yes, great was his trouble. Bad nights, bad days, bad company, bad accommodation, bad food, and under the supervision of bad men . . . all this must have been to the good and saintly old man like the spoilation of life's day at eventide.
Circumstances and experiences are of infinite variety. This is true the world over, and in every age, but we are all alike in this that we have trouble . . . trouble is inevitable to us all . . . the Scriptures everywhere assume this: -- "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." "Man is of few days and full of trouble." "O Lord, consider my trouble which I suffer." "Have mercy upon me, for I am in trouble." "We would not have you to be ignorant of our trouble," -- and having assumed it, the Scriptures run to meet it, as the father runs to meet the broken-hearted prodigal. Afflictions, distress, perplexity, pain, and grief come the way of all of us, both the saint and the sinner.
The Christian is never promised exemption from trouble in this life . .. indeed the children of God suffer more than the wicked. It was in observing this that caused the Psalmist nearly to lose his faith
"As for me, my feet were almost gone . . . my steps had well nigh slipped, for I was envious at the foolish. I saw the prosperity of the wicked . . . they are not in trouble as other men are."
As the Psalmist pondered this, he felt the foundations of his faith giving way (as many are doing today), and when he was nearly overwhelmed he took the matter to God, and received from Him a clue to the enigma:
"When I thought to know this . . . it was painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary, then understood I their end."
Trouble, or the absence of it should never be considered alone. The absence of it may be a terrible calamity . . . the presence of it a real benediction. No one can ever hope to be reconciled to trouble until he learns something of the purpose that it serves . . . until he sees, even though dimly, the end. When this is seen, and gladly accepted from the hands of a loving Father, we shall find that:
our testings can lead to triumphs,
our troubles can be transfigured.
Of course if any child of God starts with the belief that this cannot be so in the case of one particular trouble, let us be assured that for such a wrong attitude can never lead to a right end. But as we face the fact that trouble is inevitable, and realize that God's very best has come by way of trouble, and that by His grace it can be transfigured, we are able to say with joy and sincerity:
"Blessed be trouble."
"I thank Thee Lord, that all our joy is touched with pain,
That roses bloom and thorns remain."
How often we thank God for the rose of some exquisite joy and blessing . . . yet fail to thank Him for the thorns of life, and their pain, sorrow, and affliction. We should ever remember that every rose that will be in the garden of Heaven will be there because of the thorns on His brow.
(Concluded next month)
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