Editorial

Have you ever hung up a hummingbird feeder? Have you observed these lightning quick little creatures sipping the sweet nectar and then flying off to a nearby limb to guard the feeder from other birds? Have you ever seen a tiny hummingbird dive bomb another kind of bird who was also trying to take a sip of the sweet stuff?

The little hummingbird doesn’t know that the person who put up the feeder also has an unlimited supply of food so that however many birds may come, there will always be enough. Instead, the hummingbird worries and frets and spends needless energy warding off what he thinks are his competitors for food. Actually he could have done with a lot less nectar himself if he hadn’t burnt up so much energy protecting his supply from those he thought were his enemies.

Can we see ourselves in this? How much energy do we spend protecting what we have instead of sharing it with others? We, like the hummingbird, fail to realize that there is an unlimited supply of all that we need. Our Heavenly Father is able “to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Actually God issues us a challenge saying “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts. if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

How much fuller our lives can be once we recognize that all we have has come from God and He is not only able but willing to open the very windows of heaven to pour out blessings upon us. We think lack instead of plenty, we think we must conserve, and store and hoard instead of giving. Jesus says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.”

We think how foolish is the little hummingbird yet he is more justified in behaving as he does than we are, for he does not have the advantage of hearing God say that He will provide.

When Jesus says, “give” what is it we are to give? Our money? Yes, God gave it to us in the first place and He’s watching to see if we regard our assets as “all mine” or “His” lent to us to provide for our necessities. But when Jesus says “give” it is not limited to money. Some who are rich can give huge sums and never feel it as Jesus pointed out in the story of the widow’s mite. He wants not just our money, but us. He wants us to give of our time, He wants us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, and this means much more than just money. Let’s try giving ourselves away in His service, thinking of things to do, for Him.

Jesus said, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Let’s try losing ourselves in service to Him, forgetting what we want and what we have and begin to give of ourselves and of our substance to Him. It has to be experienced to be believed. Some will never experience it because they are like the little hummingbird, spending all their time protecting what they think is theirs, but what wonderful blessing is in store for those willing to give, to really give, not just of our surplus but of ourselves. Truly Jesus was right when He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

When we were young we had a burning desire to walk up an escalator that was going down Of course neither the store nor our parents would give their permission so we had to wait until we were alone and the store was not crowded Getting started was a challenge since the steps quickly disappeared into the floor just as we tried to mount them but once under way it was easy unless we stopped to catch our breath and then everything that had been gained was quickly lost again Looking back on it, it wasn’t all that hard but it was fun

In a sense we as Christ’s brethren are all trying to climb a down escalator The world in which we are living is all going down to oblivion and we are trying to go against the stream of humanity up towards God’s kingdom If we stop to rest a minute our course is immediately reversed and we find ourselves traveling down hill along with the world around us While we are busy climbing up we find almost everyone else quite content to go the other way The more crowded it is the harder to go up when all the rest want to go down All the effort we have put forth to climb up is quickly lost if we stop and we can go all the way from the very top of the stairs back to the bottom if we have not made that final push to step off the escalator at the very top Surely many have spent years in the Truth only to stop near the end and lose all that had been gained over a lifetime Solomon who was so wise fell for Nehemiah tells us that he “was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin”

Ezekiel explains how important it is to keep on keeping on for he tells us that “when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committed iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he bath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die ‘

There is a famous Broadway play entitled Stop the world, I want to get off ” The world isn’t stopping and we can t get off, all we can do is climb up above those who are going down There is very little traffic going our way but all the world would hinder our climb if we let them We need to know where we are going and steadily climb ea,h day towards the Kingdom We have to be going the opposite way from the rest of the world for Jesus has told us plainly that only a few will be saved for he tells us to “Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”

Jesus gives us encouragement saying “in the world ye shall have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world ” We too can overcome but we won’t do it standing still, we have to be on the move onward and upward, for as Paul exhorts us, ‘ be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good ‘

Just remember that the world is represented by the escalator going down but we are the climbers going up and we can’t stop the world and get off, we have to be in the world but not of it by overcoming for Jesus has promised “to him that over­cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am sct down with my Father in His throne”

Recently we saw a sign which said “some people only look up when they are that  on their backs.” From a purely physical point of view that’s about the only way one can look when Hat on their back. How many people look up to God when things are going well? Unfortunately very few. It has always been thus.

The Children of Israel are an outstanding example of how easy it is to forget God during good times. Over and over again the Jews became lifted up when they became prosperous. Then God would send trouble in the form of an invader and they would in their distress turn to Him again.

We are living in exceeding prosperous times. Even the people on welfare own TV’s and drive automobiles. The poorest among us are rich in comparison to those of other ages and to those in many other countries today. Inside plumbing, gas and electricity are taken for granted by almost everyone reading this page. As our lives have become softer and we have attained to more and more of this world’s goods what has happened to our heart? Certainly our hands are not as calloused as our forefather’s, what about our intestinal fortitude!

Do we think that we are better than our fathers? Elijah confessed that he wasn’t. Neither are we, and recognizing this will help us in two ways.

First of all we will acknowledge that our blessings come from God for He is the giver of every good and perfect gift, and we should daily thank him for what we have, instead of being puffed up with pride of ownership. Remember the sin of Hezekiah? He lost practically everything, even to the cutting off of the gold from the doors of the temple to give it to Shalmaneser, When God rescued him by destroying the Assyrian army, and other countries brought him gifts and presents so that once again “Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor,” then we are told, “his heart was lifted up and he rendered not according to the benefit done unto him.”

What we have has come from God and as Job said, “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” What we have has only been lent to us by God and can be taken from us in the night. God can open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on us if He wills, and if it is good for us, but we must remember that what we have is His and when we think, “is not this mine,” then we deserve to be driven out as an animal. Remember Nebuchadnezzar.

The second lesson we want to learn is that when trouble and adversity does come, it is allowed by God. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” God feels that at times He must flatten us on our backs to make sure we are looking up. Concerning Hezekiah we read, “howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.”

Hezekiah rose to the trial of the armies surrounding Jerusalem and then fell to a more subtle temptation of showing off his riches. How much we are like this We overcome a big temptation and fall to a smaller one. It means, of course, that we must be constantly on guard for sin is always just around the corner. As God told Cain, ”if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.-

The key is to always be looking up, to pray without ceasing, and not wait until God flattens us on our backs before we turn to Him. If we truly place our lives in His hands and allow Him first place in our hearts, then we shall receive “an hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”