Editorial

It is raining. It has been raining for days and it is still coming down. The old saying “When it rains, it pours“ certainly applies to our weather as well as to the salt that made the saying famous.

In the book of Job Elihu speaks of the weather saying “For God saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength . . . He also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud . . . He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.”

Certainly rain can both be a blessing and a curse for man. Too much or too little are equally bad. Right now we feel that we are getting too much but it is impossible for us to say whether or not it is for correction or for his land or for mercy. Certainly those who are losing their homes would not feel that it was a blessing but it could be. God often sends troubles to help teach us what He would have us know. If some family later learned the truth as the result of evacuatine their home in time of flood we would certainly call that rain a blessing although it may have brought much temporary heartache. It is our ultimate good that concerns God, not our day to day ups and downs and so if we really put our trust in Him then we can say with Paul that we believe that all things are working together for our good. It is sometimes hard to understand just why some things happen but then we are seeing through a glass darkly and He has perfect vision not only of the present but of the future as well.

If we know and believe this then we can accept with good grace what God sends to us. Certainly Job had the right attitude when he said “the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken way; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

God sends the rain as well as the sunshine and both are necessary. We may enjoy the one more than the other but both are needful. When it has been raining for days and days with no sign of the sun we need to remember that this too shall pass. David passed through many dark days but by the eye of faith he was able to look beyond and he declared “And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.” We have all experienced that beautiful morning without clouds that comes after a heavy rain.

There is a morning coming when the Sun of righteousness will arise. It is our lifelong goal to be with him in that glad morning. To be there then we should now he sowing to ourselves in righteousness so that we may reap in mercy. Hosea continues by saying “break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.”

If we want God to rain righteousness on us then we must now be letting His Word rain upon us. As His word saturates our bodies it causes us to grow. “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.”

There is a wedding coming in our family. It is all very exciting. Our family, and friends are all thinking and talking about it. The bridegroom is not here; he is coming for the wedding but at the present he is on the east coast. Although he is out of sight, he is certainly not out of mind for all the plans are being made with him in mind.

One store we visited which caters to weddings had a sign which said, “If there is no bridegroom, there is no wedding.” It is certainly true. Right now it seems that there are a thousand and one things to do and everyone is busy attending to all the details which are so important so that all will be in readiness.

All of this preparation causes our minds to be drawn to the absent bridegroom that is coming to receive his bride at the marriage supper of the Lamb. It is so important that we should all be busily engaged in our preparation for that great day.

Naturally, the bride is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom and all her thoughts are centered on preparing to meet him when he arrives. Since Christ is our bridegroom, how excited and anxious we should be as we contemplate his coming to make us his own. How are we spending our time while he is away? Are we engrossed in other things or are we getting ready for him? Normally, it is inconceivable that the bride could forget that the one she loves is coming soon.

What a glorious day is coming for us! Imagine the thrill that awaits us, to attend the marriage supper of the Lamb as the very bride of Christ! This is what we have to look forward to. To think that we are to be the bride of Christ! What an exalted position! How could we forget to prepare? Jeremiah asks the question, “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?” You can be sure what our bride will wear is very much in her thoughts. It is unthinkable that a bride could forget, yet God continues by saying “yet my people have forgotten me days without number.” Have we forgotten? Is our coming marriage on our minds? Are we getting ready for the wedding? Our bridegroom is temporarily away but he is due back at any moment. Is out of “sight, out of mind,” true for us?

We know that our bridegroom loves us and he has assured us that he will be faithful to us. He has said “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” We know he is coming and when he comes we will never be separated from him again. The one we love is coming and if we really love him, we are busy preparing for his arrival. If we have allowed anything else to detract our attention away from him, it will then be evident that our love was less than it should have been, and when he comes he will not want to marry us and take us for his own.

Now is the time to prepare. Jesus told us a story about ten virgins and he warned us that five of them were foolish. They professed a love for the bridegroom hut while he was away they did not get ready for him. How terribly foolish! When the bridegroom came they wanted to go to the marriage but they were refused. Right now is the time to be getting ready for the wedding. We should be preparing as a bride adorned for her husband. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. . . . Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

The old song, “School days, school days, dear old golden rule days” is being re-enacted across the land as literally millions are returning to the class room. The long lines and the rush to get to school is not limited to the young as many adults go back to school to get their diplomas each year. We often read of someone in their seventies getting their degree after so many years. There must be thousands who graduate each year who are over forty.

Regardless of their age, each student is attending school in order to learn something that they did not know before. Many students complain that they are required to take courses that will be of little use to them upon graduation. When we consider the number of hours consumed studying subjects that will have little value, the total is staggering. Solomon said hundreds of years ago that “of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” When he said that the printing press had not yet been invented and although it was true when he said it, the number of books now in existence must number many billions more than when Solomon penned these words.

If we spent a lifetime doing nothing but reading we could not begin to put a dent in all the books written. This means we must put our individual priorities on the things we want to learn and concentrate on what we believe is important. What is important?

If we could find five people who were each the foremost authority in each of their five fields such as say economics, medicine, physics, ancient history and music, what would we have? Well certainly we would have five experts who knew more about their chosen field than anyone else in the world, but how would we feel if we knew that each of these experts had one thing in common. They were all terminal cancer cases. Now they might be rich and famous, they might feel a sense of accomplishment, but not necessarily so, but let’s say that each one has achieved all that heart could wish in the way of success. Certainly we would have to admit that their knowledge had proved beneficial in helping them rise to the top in their field. But now that they are going to die, what can they take with them? Certainly not their money or their knowledge. When they draw their last breath all that learning is gone. David rightly assessed the situation when he said, “Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased: For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.”

There is a knowledge that is able to make one wise unto salvation. With all the learning that is going on in the world, let’s make sure that we are acquiring this kind of knowledge for it is the only kind that will have any lasting effect.

It is our desire that you will “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” When Jesus spake these words to professional fishermen they “straightway left their nets and followed him.”

Recently we have had the good fortune to spend some time fishing with some brethren who are real experts. It is interesting to notice how the modern day fisherman is so well equipped. He often has a boat or kayak, he has expensive fishing poles, reels and a tackle box chuck full of all kinds of hooks, lures, sinkers, etc., all designed to help him catch the big one. In addition to being fully equipped, he is also knowledgeable of the habits of the fish he is trying to catch. He knows just what type of lure or bait to use for each kind of fish, where they are apt to be, and the time they are most likely to be biting. An avid fisherman thinks nothing of rising long before day break and traveling sometimes great distances over land and water to be at what he hopes will be the right place at the right time to accomplish his goal, i.e.: catching his limit.

Now when Jesus told us that he would make us fishers of men, he certainly would expect us to be as diligent in knowing the habits of those we want to attract to the Truth as the fisherman is in knowing the characteristics of his fish. Paul tells us he was all things to all men and he did this in an effort to catch men for Christ.

We can imagine the complaints we would get if we asked brethren to get up at 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to preach the Truth, yet the fisherman does this gladly. This may not be the best time to go preaching but the point is, nothing is too hard when a man loves to fish and nothing must be too hard for us in our desire to serve Christ.

The fisherman is careful to offer the fish the kind of bait that the fish love best. When the fish has swallowed the hook the fisherman’s job is not over, in fact, the fun has just begun. Now he carefully plays the fish allowing it to run, and reeling in at every opportunity. If he does not do his job well, the fish will get away. He is very patient to play the fish until he can land him. The good fisherman is intent on doing this to the very best of his ability and he would look with scorn on someone who had a good fish on the end of the line and failed to make an attempt to reel him in. Why is it that we are sometimes so unskillful in our fishing for men? Someone asks us “What is a Christadelphian, what do you believe?” and we proceed to tell them that “we don’t believe in the Trinity, we don’t believe in the Devil, we don’t believe in an immortal soul, we don’t believe in going to heaven when we die.” No doubt the person asking the question wonders why we told him all the things we don’t believe when he asked us what we do believe. As a fisher for men we should develop as much skill as possible in first attracting him with the right kind of bait and then playing him carefully when he begins to show interest. To do this requires that we know as much about him as possible just as the fisherman knows the habits of the various kinds of fish in the lake, river or ocean. It next requires us to use skill and tact in drawing him near to us rather than scare him away with a whole lot of negatives. He would much rather hear that we do believe in the coming Kingdom, peace on earth and good will among men, the end of war, the end of sorrow and pain and death, and the glories of the coming age. When our listener acquires a little more knowledge and love for the Word there will be ample time to discuss the fact that his dead grandmother that he thinks is in heaven is peacefully asleep in the grave.

Every fisherman knows that if he wants to catch fish he must go to them. No one ever caught a fish sitting in his living room. If we want to fish for Christ then we must go where they can be found. This may mean the use of television, radio, newspapers, door to door, open air and talking the truth at lunch time in the company cafeteria. We can’t sit back and wait for them to come to us anymore than the fisherman can. The good fisherman has a well stocked tackle box filled with goodies that attract fish and the good fisherman for Jesus has a well marked, well thumbed Bible. He also studies so that he will have an answer for the hope that is within him. The fisherman doesn’t wait until he is an expert to begin, he casts his line and learns from his mistakes. Whoever we are and wherever we are, let us begin today to fish for Christ. Don’t wait until we know everything, or we will never begin. “Be not afraid, neither be dismayed: for the Lord our God is with us whither­soever we go.” God knows where the fish are even as Jesus instructed his disciples where to cast their nets and if we ask God to guide us then he will bless us and give the increase. Remember “he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”

The hummingbirds have stopped coming to our feeder. We have been away and evidently the feeder went dry in our absence and now the birds ignore it even though it is full of sweet nectar again.

Human beings often act like the little hummingbirds. How often have we seen someone pray and because God did not answer the prayer immediately and exactly as requested they gave up and simply stopped praying. Certainly God hears prayer but God works things out His own way and in His own time. Look how long Abraham had to wait for his promised son to be born. No doubt he prayed for this daily year in and year out. What would have happened if he had given up on God like our little hummingbirds did on us? It would appear that sometimes we twist the words around that the young boy Samuel said and instead of saying with him, “Speak Lord for thy servant heareth” we appear to say “Listen Lord for thy servant speaketh.” We seem to think that God should give us what we want when we want it and if He doesn’t, then we will stop praying and decide that he does not regard our prayers.

Man is in such a rush. God is not. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” God does not execute His work speedily. Because he does not, many are led to thinking that He is dead. God told Abraham that the “iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” When it was full and it took hundreds and hundreds of years for it to happen, God sent His children into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. Evidently the iniquity of the Gentiles is not yet full but when it is God will bring His children into the promised land under the leadership of Jesus. In the meantime those who are not wise think that God is either dead or doesn’t care.

Peter predicted that men would say “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” Because God does not respond when man thinks He should many doubt if He ever will, but “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Habakkuk tells us “the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” The writer to the Hebrews tells us “for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.”

God has His own timetable and He is working things out for our ultimate good. The important thing for us to remember is to keep on trying and continue to pray fervently although it may seem that our prayers are not being answered.

It was foolish for our little hummingbirds to go away from the feeder when it is now full of the sweet nectar they like, but in their case they will find food somewhere else. If we go away from the well of living waters where shall we go? There are no other living waters to go to, only sin and death. When some of Christ’s disciples went back and followed him no more He looked upon his chosen twelve with sad eyes and asked “will ye also go away?” Peter gave the answer we all want to remember, “Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”

Even though God may appear to be ignoring our prayer we know He hears it and what is happening is for the best, for “all things work together for good to those who love the Lord to them who are the called according to his purpose.”