Editorial

They tell the story of the fellow trying to sleep with his feet hanging out the end of the bed, so cold that they have turned blue. Someone asked him why he didn’t draw them up under the covers and his reply was, I’m not going to put those cold things in bed with me.” The story is funny because it is so ridiculous. Our feet are so much a part of our body that what happens to them happens to us. We recently had this demonstrated to us in a very real way. A heavy object was dropped on our big toe and the pain it caused was felt throughout the body. Later as we lay in bed trying to sleep we could feel each beat of our heart by the throb in our big toe. We were painfully aware of the truth of Paul’s statement concerning the body when he said “whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.”

We had not given our big toe a second thought for years and suddenly it became difficult to think of anything else. Paul makes a beautiful comparison of the parts of our physical body to being parts of the body of Christ. Paul shows how each part of the body is necessary and how one part must not say it does not need another part. Even “those members of the body which seem to be more feeble, are necessary” says Paul.

Paul’s elaborate analogy is for the sole purpose of teaching us that there ought not to be any “schisms in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” If we really love the body of Christ as we love our own body we ought to “nourish and cherish it, even as the Lord the church.” We know what Jesus did for us. We know what we each do for an ailing part of our body. This says Paul is the way we ought to care for those members of our body who are spiritually sick. He tells us that “we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

This is exactly what we do when our big toe hurts. We don’t normally hop around on one foot holding the other with both hands, but when that toe has an infirmity that is exactly what we do. It doesn’t make much difference either how busy we think we are. We still take time out from whatever we were doing to do our little one foot dance.

Now the problem is we are not usually as sensitive to the infirmities of others as we are of our own. Those that were with us were not as concerned about our big toe as we were. After all it was our toe that was hurting.

We all need to cultivate a caring attitude for the infirmities of others. God has built into our body a nervous system so that we automatically care for the part of our body that is injured. Now we need to learn how to become sensitive to the hurts and feelings of others so that we can nourish and cherish them in their distresses.

James tells us “that this is pure religion, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keep ourselves unspotted from the world.”

Sometimes what we do for the other is really a very small thing to us but very important to them. A visit, a kind word, just reaching out a steadying hand when one is hopping on one foot can prevent a fall. We need to learn to think of others and try to do for them as we would have them do for us if we were in their situation. It truly is the thought that counts but the thought will be demonstrated by a deed for as faith without works is dead, so thoughts without actions are dead also. A cup of cold water isn’t much but if it is given in the name of a disciple, Jesus says the giver will not lose his reward.

Let us each learn to care for the body of Christ as we do for our physical body that there be no “schism in the ‘body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. Now ye are the body of Christ.”

“A nation unfamiliar with its history is condemned to live it again.” This well known quotation of George Santayoha is certainly true and it points up the fact that we should study the past so that we can learn from the mistakes of those who have gone before.

Paul tells us that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” History does repeat itself and the lesson we want to learn from the past is to avoid the same pitfalls into which our forefathers fell. If we continue to make the same mistakes of those who have gone before then we are not very wise and we will have to suffer the same consequences. Some mistakes are so costly that we cannot learn from our mistakes, for example little children need to learn not to play in the street because getting run over is too high a price to pay for this mistake.

Our young people may question why they must study history because they think it is dry, boring and irrelevant in their lives. They couldn’t be more wrong. History is about real people who just happened to be born before we were. History is being written everyday and the things happening today will be found in tomorrow’s history books.

The greatest history book off all is the Bible, for it was written by God about His people and tells us of His promises to them and to us. Without this book we would know nothing of Adam and Eve. We would know that sin existed but would not know why. We would know nothing of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and therefore we would be ignorant of the promises. Paul tells us of those who are strangers from the covenants of promise, and they are, if they have not read God’s history book. Other history books may help us to understand things from man’s point of view but only the Bible helps us to know what happened from God’s point of view. Other history books tell us what has happened, but only the Bible tells us what has happened and what will happen. The Bible is the only book that wrote history in advance and it is the only book that offers hope to a perishing world. What a pity it isn’t read.

It may be useful to know the history of the French Revolution or the pilgrims that settled New England but it is essential to know the history of Moses bringing God’s people out of Egypt and the promise to David of a son to sit on his throne. The one is nice to know, the other essential. It is like bodily exercise compared to spiritual things. The former profits a little but the latter is “profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

If all the people who study ancient and not so ancient history would only spend the same amount of time studying God’s history it would revolutionize their lives. Not only that but instead of dying at 70 to 90 they would have the promise of everlasting life in the history that is yet to come. If all the people who jog five miles a day or work out 2 or 3 hours at the gym would only spend the same amount of time in Bible study they would have a mind tuned to God which is more profitable than a well tuned body. Bodily exercise is not to be condemned unless it crowds godly exercise out of our life. Ancient history is not to be condemned unless it crowds Godly history out of our life. Many things of themselves are not evil but whatever takes us away from God and His word is wrong. Let us not be unfamiliar with God’s history else we be condemned to the fate of those who lived before who died without hope.

There is a story about a man standing by his stalled automobile hoping someone will stop and give him a push Finally a lady pulls up along side of him and asks if she can help The gentleman explains that he needs a push but adds that his car has an automatic transmission and that she will need to get up to 35 mph before his engine will start. She agrees to give him a push and backs up to get behind him. He jumps into his car and waits and waits and waits, finally he looks behind him to see where she has gone just in time to see her coming at him 35 mph Of course there is a big crash and now instead of one car needing a push we have two cars needing a tow truck.

There is no doubt the lady meant well and truly wanted to help The problem is she went about it the vv rong way. She did not know that to push another car one must get up against the bumper very gently and begin very slowly and gradually to pick up speed.

How often have we had a desire to help someone who is spiritually low and because we can see they need a push we come at them at 35 mph ? In spite of our best intentions we end up with a collision instead of a push. Paul gives us good advice when he says “The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.” We know that some do appear to oppose even themselves In fact we often hear it said that “so and so is his own worst enemy” In spite of this we must be gentle and meek in our approach to them. Of course we can see their faults as plain as the nose on their face. It is always this way with someone else’s mote. Jesus gives us good ad vice concerning the other fellow’s mote and our beam. The RSV puts it this way, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye ? Or, how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Jesus is not saying that we should not try to help our brother who has the speck in his eye but he is saying that we should first be conscious of our own log.

God in His wisdom has given us a mediator who understands our problems because he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. Jesus understands because he has gone through what we are trying to endure. When we try to help our brethren and sisters, let us pray that we too will be understanding of their problems and try to gently help them instead of coming at them at 35 mph. Just because our car will run and theirs is stalled does not give us license to ram them. In a very short time it may be that we are stalled and they are moving so let us push gently as we would be pushed. From Jesus’ story of the good Samaritan we know that we are not to just drive past them but let us be sure that when we stop to help, that what we do for them is a help and not a crushing blow.

Paul reminds Titus to “speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all men.” When troubles come up in the meeting as they invariably will, if we would only follow this advice how much good would be accomplished. If only we would obey these four rules of Paul, we would truly help instead of crush them. Remember 1. speak evil of no one. 2. Avoid quarreling. 3. be gentle. 4. show perfect courtesy.

“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

A modern day Habakkuk might say, “although our crops are failing for lack of rain, inflation has made feed so expensive we can’t feed the flock, union wages are so high we can’t afford to hire reapers, high interest rates are making it impossible to borrow money, and even if we could harvest our crops we can’t get enough for them to cover our expenses, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.”

Most modern day Habakkuk’s would say all but the last part. We don’t find many people rejoicing in the Lord nowadays. We do find people complaining about the stock market, the high cost of sugar, the shortage of gasoline, the sluggishness, of business and the high unemployment; but we do not find them expressing their joy in the God of their salvation.

Surely the lesson Habakkuk would have us learn is that we are to rejoice in the Lord in spite of the troubles we may be facing. Most people simply moan and groan about their troubles but forget to find joy in the God of their salvation.

How about us? Are we so full of the love of God that it shines through even when we are sick or out of work? Do we recognize that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away — blessed is the name of the Lord? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? How do we stand up to the troubles that come our way?

Whatever trouble comes to us is allowed by God, else we would not have it. Do we honestly believe that there has no temptation taken us but such as is common to man, and that God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that we may be able to bear it?

By studying the lives of the faithful of other ages we can get an insight into how we should act when we are faced with trials. We know that we are going to be tried, for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

Nehemiah had enemies within and without, yet the work he was doing was blessed by God. God could have struck all his enemies dead so that Nehemiah could build the wall without being hindered, but this is not the way God prepares us for that future temple of which we all hope to be a part. Jesus promises us that “he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.”

It is impossible to overcome unless there is something to overcome. Even in this life there is joy in doing the difficult. A game of tennis is no fun unless we have an opponent that can challenge us and return our serve.

As we commence a new year, let us face it confidently knowing that all things are working together for good for those who love the Lord, to those who are the called according to his purpose. We know that if God be for us there is nothing or no one that can be against us, so we can cry out with Paul, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We do not know just what 1975 will bring to us. We do know that Daniel told us of a time of trouble that is coming, and it isn’t here yet, so let us take courage knowing that “they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” These comforting words of Elisha relieved the anxiety of his servant when he saw that they were surrounded by Syrian soldiers. The angels that were present then to help Elisha are still alive and are able to deliver us if that be the Lord’s will. It is easy to be frightened when we are in trouble, but instead, let us take courage like Joshua did when he was afraid. God told him “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: For the LORD thy God is with thee wither soever thou goest.” Believing this we will rejoice in the LORD; we will joy in the God of our salvation.