A NEW YEAR
Another year has past into history.. For some it has been a year of hardship, suffering, and sorrow. It is enough to make the most stalwart soul weary of life. And we all get weary at times, do we not? I think everyone will sigh a muffled "Amen" to that.
And even a new year doesn't look any too promising. Some are weary of it before it begins. And so it goes. However, there is a reminder in the Word of God, given to us by Isaiah, which exhorts: "Let the peoples renew their strength" (41:1).
The beginning of a new year is the time to renew our strength.
But how?
We go back one verse in Isaiah and read: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint" (40:31).
We go ahead a few verses and read: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee. Be not dismayed; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness" (41:10).
But can God do all that?
We go back a few verses again and read: "Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? . . . He giveth power to the faint; and to those who have no might he increaseth strength" (40:28,29).
Do I hear a more hearty "Amen"?
We are often weak and weary with our load in life, but that is good. For this drives us to our God who is never weak or weary, but is almighty, and He has promised to minister to our need.
Paul rejoices over God's abundant grace, "For which cause," says he, "we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16).
"Be content with such things as ye have," says the writer to the Hebrews, "for he (God) hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). And Jesus promises: "I am with you always, even unto the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19).
So at the beginning of this new year, 1969, let each of us renew our strength by "LOOKING UNTO JESUS, the author (or, originator) and finisher (or, perfecter) of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising (looking lightly upon) the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
"FOR CONSIDER HIM that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:2,3).
"They that wait upon the LORD SHALL renew their strength."
Let's learn to go right to the Source.
-- Editor
**********
"For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."
I Thessalonians 5:9-10
**********
THEY REJOICED IN
A GREATER MIRACLE
A week-long conference was held at Colorado, Columbia, recently to dedicate an evangelical church which during construction had been twice destroyed by Roman Catholic opposition.
About five years ago a group of believers, fruit of the work of the Inter-American Missionary Society, started to build a church. One dark night, hiding behind the barred doors of their homes, they heard shouting, clanging machetes, the sound of stones against tin. Soon the new foundations of their church lay in ruins.
"We have won again!" shouted the leader of the attacking mob. "They'll never build their church as long as I, Magdaleno Marcelo, am Inspector!"
Later, in 1965, another church building was started on a corner lot, away from the original site. "Let them build," Magdaleno boasted. "We can destroy again!"
Once again, on a dark night, when the construction was nine feet high, the streets filled with angry people shouting, "Down with the Evangelicals! Long live the Catholics!" As the chant grew louder, the noise of cement walls tumbling to the ground echoed through the night. The next morning the believers looked again upon a church in ruins.
In 1967 the church began to rise for the third time. And when the congregation celebrated the triumph of a completed building they rejoiced in a greater miracle. Among those who had given time and labor to the construction of this church was Inspector Magdaleno Marcelo. The love and concern the new pastor in Colorado had shown to him when he was ill had reached his heart, and the Inspector was now a baptized believer in our Lord Jesus Christ.
From Missionary News Service, in "Daily Devotions," published by First Brethren Church, Wooster, Ohio.
**********
THE BEATITUDES -- NO. 1
By Geoffrey T. Bull
"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
Matthew 5:3.
The world says, "Blessed is the man who 'attains,' and the man who 'obtains.' Happy is the man who can have what he wants and do what he wants." It has been well noted that true bliss is not so much in "having" or in "doing" but in "being." Here Christ is telling us that a man is blessed because of what he is; blessed because of the outcome to which his new condition leads. Real wealth lies in character.
This is the first thing we have to learn; to be able to say without hypocrisy, "I am nothing, I have nothing, and I can do nothing, but by the grace of God I am what I am." This is the joy of His reign.
This was Paul's testimony and God gave him the Kingdom, till the world empire of Rome trembled beneath the final force of his ministry. He was a man "having nothing" but "possessing all things"; a solitary and despised figure in the world arena, yet a chosen vessel mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. The Kingdom that he served in poverty and weakness is the only Kingdom that will remain. Though men laughed him to scorn he was undismayed for as poor in spirit he knew the Kingdom was already his from God.
Rich is the pauper who has access to the King of kings; poor is the millionaire whose only resource is his gold; destitute indeed, the politician left to his own devices in a ruined world.
This however spells nonsense to humanity at large. "You've got to stand on your own two feet," they will say. "If you don't stick up for yourself, nobody else will. You've got to fight your way through; show weakness and you're finished! You've simply got to give to others as good as they give to you. Who are they anyway? You're as good as they are!"
This is the talk on the shore, but we are come to the Summit and to Jesus, and we have to make our choice. It is with the poor in spirit His blessedness begins.
"Sky is Red," Moody Press.
**********
"I CRIED, 'THANK YOU, GOD' !"
By Lenore Martin Grubert
After my usual long morning nap, I had finished dressing and was waiting for my husband to return from church. There was a sharp knock on the front door. A voice called. Using my walker, I slowly reached the door where our pastor and another man with his wife greeted me. Not my husband -- just his hat on top of his neatly folded top coat!
"Don't be alarmed," the minister said, "Al fainted in church but he seemed alright when they took him to the hospital."
From then on my prayers were thus: "Dearest God, I thank You that my loved one is alive; please bring him safely home to me; nevertheless, not my will but thine be done."
The woman asked, "What can I do to help you?"
"Dinner is in the over," I replied. "If you'll take it out, put it on a plate, I'll be O.K. Because of multiple sclerosis I live on rest and quiet. I'll keep busy praying; God will give me quietness of heart."
The Benediction of the morning service was most assuredly upon me:
"The Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee, the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace."
Around two-thirty in the afternoon, I heard the front door open. Again I came from the bedroom. "Oh, my dear, you're back," I cried, "Thank You, God."
My husband told me the story: "The pastor had just given the Benediction, 'May the Lord bless you and keep you . . . ' We were about to sing the closing hymn. I felt extremely nauseated and began to perspire freely. The hymnal went back in the rack; the bulletin was put in a pocket; I intended to rush out. Instead, I blacked out. When I came to I was sprawled on the floor of the pew.
"An ambulance came quickly and took me to the hospital. Before the physician arrived, an electrocardiogram, a blood sugar test, and a blood count had been made. Well, it turned out to be a violent virus attack."
The next few days, there was a sacred obligation and a joyous desire to thank God overtly. Many telephone calls were made to tell of the loving care that God had shown us. (Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. Psalm 50:23).
From concerned observers, this miraculous tale was pieced together. When my husband fell sidewise, he struck a woman who was bulwarked by three other adults. Thus the fall was broken. A man said, "He slid down like on a greased pole." If the fall had been in the opposite direction, the aisle with its nearby wall would have given no protection. It wasn't luck. Nothing happens which God does not control; which He either allows or sends.
What a blessing that there was no heart attack; that there were no ill effects from the head bump; that his unrimmed glasses stayed put and didn't break to cause cuts. (" . . . there shall be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26).
"It was a blessing that you were not there," a mother told me. "My daughter sat directly behind your husband. She was shook up; her father died of a coronary in one such moment!"
In an atmosphere of subdued pandemonium, ushers, hurried to the person in distress in a front pew, three nurses at hand responded quickly, a policeman arrived with an oxygen mask, the organist was blissfully unaware of the commotion below. The choir and the congregation sang valiantly the six stanzas of "I Think, When I read, That Sweet Story of Old." The Story told in part is:
"In that beautiful place He has gone to prepare
For all who are washed and forgiven . . .
I long for the joy of that glorious time . . ."
Interspersed with the words of the closing hymn was a current of whispers as heads turned to inquire or to relay the news: "Who is it? It's Mr. G . . . Pray for him; pray for his wife; pray!"
"We murmur 'Where is any certain tune
Or measured music in such notes as these?'
But angels learning from the golden seat,
Are not so minded; their fine ear has won
The issue of completed cadences,
And smiling down the stars, they whisper -- 'SWEET.' "
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
As the congregation left the sanctuary in great solemnity, someone was heard to say: "There, but for the grace of God, am I." And the Holy Spirit must have pierced specific hearts with the warning of Luke 12:20, " . . . thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee . . . " A lesson was taught: respond quickly to God's invitation to eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Redeemer.
In "The Christian League Bulletin," published by the Christian League for the Handicapped, Walworth, WI.
**********
CHRIST'S GARDEN
By Charles H. Spurgeon
"I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse."
-- Song of Solomon 5:1.
The heart of the believer is Christ's garden. He bought it with His precious blood, and He enters it and claims it as His own.
A garden implies separation. It is not the open common or public park; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, "Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that," thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity.
A garden is a place of beauty, it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ's garden ought to produce the best flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor compared with Christ's deservings: let us not put Him off with withering and dwarf plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls His own.
The garden is a place of growth. The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above.
A garden is a place of retirement. So the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in which He can manifest Himself, as He doth not unto the world. O that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha, with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary had, and do not sit at His feet as we should.
The Lord grant the sweet showers of His grace to water His garden this day.
In "Morning and Evening," published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI.
**********
Our circumstances vary; they may be of joy or of sorrow; and, though we could naturally prefer the former, the latter may be far safer to us; for in joy we may be forgetful of God, whereas in sorrow we are made to feel that we cannot do without Him. But whatever our circumstances may be, God uses them to our schooling; He disciplines us through them. The end of His discipline is that He may be better known in our souls, and the provision of His love may be appreciated and enjoyed.
-- J. Revell.
**********
"I WILL HELP THEE"
By Henry G. Bosch
"Fear thou not; for I am with thee . . . I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
Isaiah 41:10.
We all need to be strengthened when the prospects in life strike fear into our heart. Therefore, the Lord assures us that in time of need we may ever depend upon Him to help and uphold us.
Spurgeon told the story of a preacher friend who was moving his study from downstairs to an upper floor in his home. He began to remove his books and commentaries but was interrupted by his very small son who insisted on helping him. The father told the child that the large concordance he wished to carry would be beyond his strength, but the youngster insisted that he could manage to handle it. When he got halfway up the long stairs, he faltered, sat down, and began to cry. He realized he couldn't manage to carry this big book all the way up, so he was very disappointed and unhappy. His father had a loving heart and immediately came to the child's rescue. "Pick up the book, my boy, and we will make it together," he said. Thus the youngster took the book and the father carried both him and it. The child's dismay was turned to joy. Commented Spurgeon, "So, when the Lord gives us a work to do, we are glad to do it; but frequently our strength is not equal to the task. Then we often sit down discouraged and begin to cry and lament. However, our blessed Father, seeing that the burden is to great for us, undergirds us and carries the work and us too, and then it is all done gloriously." Spurgeon concluded by saying that this simple illustration had frequently comforted desponding hearts, for many have burdens which admittedly seem beyond their capacity to bear alone.
Christian, if some task or trial is weighing you down and seems too heavy to carry, then His word to you this day is, "Be not dismayed . . . I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee!"
In "Our Daily Bread," copyright 1968 by Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, MI.
**********
VICTORY
"But thanks be to God, who leads me on from place to place in the train of His triumph, to celebrate His victory over the enemies of Christ; and by me sends forth the knowledge of Him, a steam (a diffusive, filling the atmosphere) of fragrant incense, throughout the world. For Christ's is the fragrance which I offer"
(Conybeare, 2 Corinthians 2:14,15).
When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, yet you can smile and inwardly glory in the insult because you are thereby counted worthy to suffer for Christ . . . THAT IS VICTORY.
When your good is evil spoken of, your wishes are crossed, your taste offended, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you take it all in patient loving silence . . . THAT IS VICTORY.
When you are beckoned to an "evil imagination party," but in Jesus' name reject the sly invitation . . . THAT IS VICTORY. (2 Corinthians 10:5).
"Satan tempts us not;
It is we who tempt him,
Beckoning his skill with opportunity."
When you can lovingly and patiently bear with any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance . . . THAT IS VICTORY.
When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, either to record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown . . . THAT IS VICTORY.
When you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it all as Jesus endured it . . . THAT IS VICTORY.
When, like Paul, you can say from a surrendered heart, "Most gladly therefore . . . I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake," because all your suffering is a means of knowing His overcoming grace . . . THAT IS VICTORY (2 Corinthians 12:9, 10).
When you can LET GO AND LET GOD . . . regardless of consequences . . . THAT IS VICTORY.
"In ALL these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). A conqueror is one who fights and wins. A 'more than conqueror' is one who wins without fighting. (Exodus 14:13, 14; 2 Chronicles 20:17).
--- I.G.H.
From a tract published by Bible House of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA.
**********
DR. R. A. TORREY'S CONVERSION
Did you ever hear Dr. R. A. Torrey, the far-famed evangelist, tell what an awful unbeliever he was when he was a young man; how he went to the deepest depths of infidelity and scouted everything -- the Bible, Christ, God, heaven, hell, immortality -- everything like that?
His mother yearned after him, and pleaded, prayed for him.
Finally, he said to his mother, "I am tired of it all, and I am going to leave and not bother you any more, and you will not see me any more!"
She followed him to the door, and followed him to the gate, pleading and praying and loving and weeping, and then, she said her final word: "Son, when you come to the darkest hour of all, and everything seems lost and gone, if you will honestly call on your mother's God, you will get help!"
Deeper down he went.
Finally, in a hotel room, unable to sleep, wearied with his sins, and wearied with his life, he said, "I will get out of this bed, and I will take the gun there and end this farce called human life!"
As he got out of his bed to do that awful thing, his mother's words came back to him: "Son, when your darkest hour of all comes, and everything seems lost, call in sincerity on your mother's God, and you will get help!"
He fell beside his bed, and said, "Oh, God of my mother, if there is such a Being, I want light, and if Thou wilt give it, no matter how, I will follow it."
He had light within a few minutes and hastened back home.
Greeting him, his mother exclaimed, "Oh, my boy, I knew you were coming back. You have found the Lord. God has told me so!"
**********
FRIENDS
O precious friends, who hold me up
In prayer, I could not drain my cup,
I could not walk this thorny road
Did you not plead for me to God!
How sweet and strange this gift of prayer!
You know my need and voice my care
And speak for me before His throne;
He reaches down, that Holy One,
To smooth the road before my feet;
And thus the circle is complete!
Dear friends of mine, I never knew
That I would owe so much to you!
-- Martha Snell Nicholson
**********
A PHILOSOPHY THAT DIDN'T WORK
Catch phrases and songs are often popular -- but too often they are deceptive and don't work. We remember years ago when a French philosopher stormed our shores with his peculiar brand of psychology and taught our nation to say, "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better." But soon two world wars blew his theory into ten thousand remnants of disillusionment -- and neither individuals or nations got "better and better." In fact, things have turned out the way the Bible says, both men and nations on the whole are rapidly getting "worse, and worse," deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3).
In 1915 a British actor named George Powell wrote a popular ditty that made him famous. His brother, Felix Lloyd Powell, sat down at the piano and put it to music:
What's the use of worrying?
It never was worthwhile.
So, pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile!
Shortly afterwards he went to another room where he was alone -- and shot himself to death!
Freedom from worry is more than singing your worries away. The secret of freedom from both fear and worry is (1) to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and (2) to obey Philippians 4:6, 7:
"Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
In "Life Of Faith."
**********
