Editorial

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:” Whenever there is an eclipse of the sun, the newspapers always warn the public not to look into the sun with the naked eye, but to view the eclipse through very dark smoked glass. Even though the public is warned, there are always incidents of people failing to heed the warning and doing permanent damage to their eyes. It can even cause blindness.

The glass that is dark enough to view an eclipse safely is so dark that when used to look about, it is almost impossible to see anything at all. If we were to wear glasses that dark we would for all intents and purposes be blind. We do not know just how dark is the glass in Paul’s example but we can surely get the point that now in our mortal condition we do not really see anything as God sees it. In the dark, harmless figures seem frightening and we are always relieved when the first rays of dawn dispel our fears of the night.

We remember when our Lord was crucified, that there was an apparent eclipse of the sun for we are told that “the sun was darkened,” and “from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.” For the most part, those who witnessed the death of the King of the Jews were blind for Jesus said of them, “they be be blind leaders of the blind.” He went on to say that “if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” These wicked men looked upon the son of God and they were blind. We are now living some 2000 years later and as we look back upon the son, we are seeing through a glass, darkly. We do not see things as clearly as they really are but if we continue to fix our gaze upon the son of God faithfully, one day in the future, we will see him face to face. Because of our faulty spiritual vision, we do not see clearly so we cannot understand just why some things are as they are. When Jesus comes, we will be able to look back and see how all the things that are happening to us really are working together for our good, even if we we cannot understand it now.

A wise man who is blind will allow a sighted friend to lead him by the hand over treacherous terrain and we need to be wise in saying to our Heavenly Father, as we sometimes sing, “Lead me, Lord, lead me in Thy righteousness; make Thy way plain before my face: For it is Thou, Lord, Thou, Lord, only that makest me dwell in safety.”

When things happen for which we have no explanation, let us be wise and acknowledge that we do not see things now from God’s vantage point and trust Him to lead us in righteousness for He truly will make us to dwell in safety in the end in His Kingdom.

This same Paul who wisely advises us that we are now seeing through a dark glass, did not always see clearly for he was kicking against the pricks as he persecuted the disciples of the Son of God. It took a great light from heaven shining down upon him and striking him with blindness before he saw the error of his way and changed directions to follow the son of God. The question he asked trembling should be the question we all ask, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?”

This is the humble attitude we all should adopt. Let us then accept in faith the things unseen and ask the Lord to lead us in His righteousness. He will answer our prayer by making His way plain before our face and he will make us to dwell in safety for truly if we “trust in the Lord with all our heart and we do not lean upon our own understanding, if we acknowledge Him in all our ways, then we have His assurance that He will direct our paths.”

“How’s business?” This is a greeting almost as common in some circles as “Hi” or “How are you?”

It no doubt originated with an honest concern for another person’s business health just as “How are you” was asked to determine another’s physical well being. Both phrases have been so over used that the one making the inquiry often does not really want to know or care how the other person or their business is prospering.

To those in business, the answer to “How’s business” is one of the most important facts in their life. Businesses keep track of receipts or orders on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis, and they are constantly comparing this month and this year with last month and last year’s totals to determine just how business is doing.

Jesus at the tender age of twelve told his mother that he must be about his Father’s business. Are we busily engaged in our Father’s business? There are some who would answer this question with a “yes” when in fact the real answer is “no.”

This happened when Jesus held a conversation with the Pharisees while he was teaching in the temple. The Jews told Jesus, “We have one Father, even God.” They thought that they were about God’s business but Jesus corrected them by saying, “If God were your Father, ye would love me.” They hated Jesus, therefore saying that God was their Father was incorrect. Jesus proceeded to tell them who their real father was. He said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.”

In actual fact, we are all about our father’s business. It all depends on who is our father. If our father is sin, as is the case with most of the world’s population, then we will be busy in his business of sinning. The world is really an expert at this business and many put in long hours and work overtime in the sinning business.

Jesus has given us this little test to determine if God is our Father, He said, “If God is your Father, you will love me.” So do we love Jesus? There is another little test to get the true answer to this question. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” There are really a lot of people walking around saying they love God and they love Jesus, but in actual fact, their real father is sin and all their time and energy is being expended in service to him instead of the Heavenly Father.

Just what is the business of our Heavenly Father, the business that Jesus was about even at the age of twelve years? God is in the people business. He has devised a plan whereby fallen mankind can be reconciled to Him through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God is always looking for those honest and sincere ones willing to go into business with Him. Unfortunately most of the world’s population is in business for themselves, as Paul pointed out when he said, “For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.”

To be in business with God, we must follow His son who was truly about his Father’s business and stop pleasing ourselves and start serving others. Paul put it beautifully when he told the Romans, “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let everyone of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself.”

Being in business with God is a service business and there is a real labor shortage for Jesus has told us “the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.”

We have no excuse to be unemployed but there are always many excuses why we cannot be about our Heavenly Father’s business. Jesus, in one of his parables, tells us how “they all with one consent began to make excuse.” None of their excuses were accepted. None of ours will be either. If we are not now about our Heavenly Father’s business, let’s get in it today so that our answer to “How’s business” will be the same as the answer Paul gave when he said, “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbour . . . just as I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.”

Our grandchildren have just completed their annual visit and have returned to Canada. Last year, our granddaughter, then age 6, was continually at the piano, banging away at the keys and pretending she was playing something. This past year she has been taking piano lessons and so this year her mother wanted her to practice the pieces she is learning and it was like pulling teeth to get her to the piano. Toy manufacturers sell miniature stoves, refrigerators and sinks for the little girls to play house with, and they love to pretend they are cooking, washing dishes etc. They also make toy tools and even miniature lawn mowers that output for the boys to imitate doing what daddy does, but when these children grow older and are asked to use the real sink for doing dishes and the full size lawn mower to cut the grass, then it is no longer play but work, and young ones will avoid it like the plague. Why is it that we like to do that which we are not required to do and we avoid that which is expected of us. The one is called play and the other work. Adults will take vacations from their work and travel to a ranch to work ten times harder than they ever did in the city. It is our attitude that makes the difference between work and play. Since we must work for a living, why don’t we take the attitude that we like what we are doing, since we are going to have to do it anyway.

Our little granddaughter was constantly procrastinating. She didn’t know that was what she was doing but she kept putting off the piano practicing that her mother wanted her to do. Again, we are all so much alike. How often have we put off doing something we know we must do, and as long as we are not doing it, it is on our mind nagging us but still we do not do it. We’ve also had another house guest recently, a dear sister from Rhode Island and while she was here she gave us a book entitled, Stop Procrastinating, Do It! One of these days we are going to read it. Now that makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it, to put off reading a book about procrastinating. Actually we have read it and it is very good. The author tells us, “You might have to change a mood before starting to work on a task, especially if it causes you to procrastinate.” He goes on to say, “Concentrate on spiritual things as a form of private devotion.” Now this is not a religious book, yet it is giving us some sound advice. When we lift our hearts and minds to things of God we are reminded of Paul’s advice “whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men.”

By changing our attitude towards our work, doing it heartily unto the Lord, we will find that tasks which seemed boring and tiring take on a new meaning. By changing our attitude, we can learn to tackle them with gusto for the sheer joy of seeing them behind us instead of staring us in the face.

Again the author of the book on procrastinating tells us that “you’ll get a lot more done if you can take it piece by piece. This reminds us of the well known saying, that “anything’s a cinch, inch by inch. Our young granddaughter was overwhelmed by the thought of practicing for a long period of time, but it’s only possible to play one piece at a time, and all she needs to do is change her attitude, make it fun again, and play one piece at a time. We too, can make our jobs into beautiful music instead of discordant sounds by being happy in our work.

We recall that Paul confessed that when he was “a child, he spake as a child, he understood as a child, he thought as a child; but when he became a man, he put away childish things.” Let us, too, grow up, and stop putting off the things we ought to be doing. Let us “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” and all other things in life will fit in their proper place.

Satchel Paige, the baseball philosopher is credited with the saying, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was.” There are some fairly young people who would give an age much beyond their actual years and there are some elderly people who would say that they were in their mid-twenties. We recall one delightful lady in her late seventies who was asked by her teen-age grand daughter if old people thought differently than young people and the spry old girl replied, “No, they don’t, I know, because I have asked them.” Frankly, we still like to think of ourselves as being a Corvette but we must confess that we have a smaller gas tank than we once had. There is a clever poem about growing old that says in part, that “our get up and go has got up and went.” Certainly our stamina may not be the same in later years as it once was but our thinking does not need to slow down. Age to a large degree is a state of mind and as Satchel Paige infers, we are only as old as we think we are.

Our father-in-law has just celebrated his ninety-ninth birthday and while his body may confess to being in its one hundredth year, his mind is still fresh and sharp. He believes that the return of Christ is just around the corner and he is longing for the time when the deaf shall hear and the lame shall leap like the unharmed deer. If we keep our minds centered upon God and His word as one of our hymns says, “0 let our minds rest wholly on Thy Word,” then we can keep young in our thinking. Jeremiah tells us that the compassion’s of God fail not because they are new every morning. Our father-in-law does his Bible readings early every morning and as the Psalmist he delights in God’s statutes and he does not forget God’s word. How sad it is to see old people in rest homes who are spiritually bankrupt just waiting to die. Their lives are behind them and they have no future because they have not invested in the only thing of lasting value, the promises of God.

It really does not make much difference how old we are, what is important is what we have done for God in the years He has given us. If the answer is “nothing” then if we are old it just means that we have wasted that many more years than a younger person. Paul tells us to “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time.”

Our time is really all we have to give to God and yet with all the time saving devices at our disposal, most people think that they have no time for God. We really are “too busy” if we have no time for God. At the judgment seat will Jesus Christ have “time for us?” His coming really is just around the corner for all of us. Paul tells us, “But this I say, brethren, the time is short:” and Jesus Christ says to us in the Revelation “keep those things which are written therein (in our Bibles) : for the time is at hand.”

Our father-in-law has lived over 36,000 days. Most of us have lived a great many less than this, but the big question is not how many, but how well we have lived them. Truly this is the day which the LORD hath made:” The big question is, are we rejoicing and being glad this day in the Lord ?

“There is something in me worth saving, though I can’t find what it is just yet.” This quotation is attributed to the famous author, Robert Louis Stevenson.

We can all emphasize with this thought if we are honest with ourselves. We should indeed be thankful that there is something in us worth saving and that God has seen it and called us to Him for as Jesus said, “no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” So while there is something in each of us worth saving, we remember Paul saying that “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing.” We have nothing in us about which we may glory, but God in His mercy has seen fit to call us unto His high and holy calling. It certainly is not because we are so brilliant, for again Paul has said that “not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.”

Out of all the millions of people living on the earth, to think that God has called us ! This fact should fill us with gratitude, but not with pride. Pride is something that God hates. Solomon tells us that “these six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him.” Heading this list is “a proud look.”

God cannot use those who are filled with pride for they look upon themselves as self-made men who worship their creator. Samuel condemned King Saul, reminding him of the fact that he had changed from the time when God first called him. “When thou was little in thine own sight,” Samuel told Saul, “wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel ?” “Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king.” It is a wrong response for us to become puffed up because of our high calling. As Jesus reminded his disciples, “except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself so this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

The Jewish nation was proud of the fact that they had Abraham for their father but—Jesus rebuked them saying, “think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

Paul had to remind the Gentiles to be on guard not to let this same attitude of pride get to them. “Be not highminded, but fear,” said Paul, “for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off . . . For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits.”

We need to be thankful and grateful to our Heavenly Father for calling us but we must be on guard that this does not turn to pride and an attitude of superiority.

“There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,” yet Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth. God said of Paul, “he is a chosen vessel unto me,” yet Paul said of himself, “I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle.”

Although Moses and Paul were meek and humble, yet they did things. They did not wallow around in self pity saying, “woe is me, woe is me, I’m a nobody that can’t do anything.” They did the best they could with the ability that God had given them and God expects this from us as well. We are not a Moses or a Paul but we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us and so we had better get busy doing it now. God’s strength is made perfect in weakness so let us each show our gratitude to God for having called us by being willing to spend and be spent in the service of our King. We need to adopt the attitude of Isaiah who said to the LORD, “Here am I; send me.”