Editorial

The phone rings at two in the morning and the voice on the other end excitedly announces “Hi, Grandpa, it’s a girl.” We have never seen our new granddaughter since she was born thousands of miles from us, yet our feeling of love for this little girl is intense. She has never done anything to merit that love. We would do anything we could for her, yet she has never done anything for us except be born and she had nothing personally to do with that. As she grows older there will still be very little she can do to reciprocate the love that is showered upon her. At first just a little smile and a coo will express her love but this will be accepted by loving parents and grandparents as a great accomplishment. Later a hug or kiss and a garbled “I wub yoo” will delight us. We love her because she was born into our family, she did not have to earn this love, we just love her.

We are reminded of Paul’s words concerning the Love of God for us when he said, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Yes, God so loved us that “He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

We hope to be able to visit our little granddaughter often but some grand parents who live many miles away never see their grand children. This certainly does not prevent them from loving them. As the little child grows and receives letters and presents from grandpa, if the parents teach their child about grandpa who lives far away yet loves them, then in time, the child grows to love the grandpa even though she has never seen him.

So it is with God. We have never seen our Father which is in Heaven. Yet we are reminded every day of His love for us by the things He has done. Paul tells us that “God gives us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” In His love He has left us a handbook for life and if we read this every day we will grow to know Him better and love Him more. If we do not recognize that God’s gifts are truly from Him and if we ignore His letter then we will not love Him anymore than our granddaughter would love us if her parents just simply gave her the gifts we send without explaining they are from grandpa and never read her the letters we send. We would be a stranger to her and although we would still feel love for her, it would not be reciprocated.

Peter tells us that “the Lord is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Our Father in heaven really wants us to love Him. We are told that His angels rejoice when we do that which is right. We will be rejoicing each time we hear of the accomplishments of our little granddaughter. We will follow her activities with keen interest. David explains how our heavenly Father knows our down-sitting and our uprising. He knows our path and our lying down, and He is acquainted with all our ways. David declares “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, 0 LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.” David is so overwhelmed by this thought that he exclaims, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”

Of course, we will not be able to follow the activities of our little granddaughter like God does ours but our intense love for this little child helps us in a small way to understand our Father’s love for us.

Let us all remember the lessons Jesus taught us concerning parents and children and how if we know how to give good gifts to our children, “how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him ?” “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

“I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” This double talk saying is seen in many offices and usually produces a smile since it is true that what we think we said and what people think about what we said are so often different.

Our words are very important. Jesus said that ” by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Moses, the meekest man in all the world spoke unadvisedly with his lips and as a result was barred from entering the promised land with the children of Israel. What he said was spoken in a time of trial when the angry mob was pressing in upon him because they were thirsty. Just the same, he said the wrong thing and had to suffer the consequences. Lovable impetuous Peter was one who often spoke before he thought and as a result he wept bitterly.

It is important that we think before we speak. It is important that we speak clearly so that others will know what we mean by what we say. There was a famous entertainer who is now dead who was well known for his double talk routine. It was entertaining but it certainly did not edify. Are we sometimes guilty of double talk? Do people know where we stand and what we stand for? Is our speech “always with grace, seasoned with salt” as Paul exhorts?

The gift of speech is a wonderful gift and we are apt to take it for granted. Like many other things, we usually do not appreciate something unless it is lost or is in danger of being lost. Think a minute about John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias. He was dumb and could not utter a word for about nine months. One moment he could converse and the next not a sound would come out. For nine long months it was like this. When he could speak again, what did he say? Did he complain and go on about how terrible it was not to be able to talk? Did he ask for pity? No, he praised God. He used his voice to glorify His Creator who had struck him dumb and had opened his mouth. He lived out the truth expressed by Job, that “the Lord gives and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Zacharias followed the example of David who said, “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord. Let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.”

Do we use our breath to praise the Lord ? Are our lips constantly blessing our Heavenly Father? James tells us how inconsistent it is for our mouth to bless one minute and curse the next. He says, “out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.” We know they ought not be so, but we have to admit that they sometimes are so. James asks us a personal question. “Who is wise and understanding among you?” We don’t need a high IQ to answer this question. All we need is the sincere desire to serve God. It is not the wise of the world James is addressing, it is the simple folk who are dedicated to Jesus. James then gives a good piece of advice to everyone who will answer with a “yes” or at least with a “here am I, I’m trying.” He says to us “By your good life show your works in the meekness of wisdom.”

Let us then join in the prayer of David. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”

There is a sign hanging over a secretary’s desk which says “Oh, God help me to be patient, and please hurry.” We live in such a helter skelter world that we want to even hurry patience.

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that “ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.”

Patience is surely a virtue that has to be learned. We are not born patient. The little one wants what he wants when he wants it and lets the whole world know his impatience by a loud and lusty bellow. Little children need to be taught to be patient. In God’s eyes we are all little children and is it any wonder that “we have need of patience?”

How do we acquire patience? First of all, God helps us by sending us tribulations for we are told by Paul that “tribulation worketh patience.” So God in His wisdom allows trouble to come our way for the express reason of teaching us patience. Again we can see this in the life of a little child. If the child gets everything it wants exactly when it wants it then it has no patience at all and soon becomes miserable when going out into the cruel world where mommie and daddy are not there to supply every request. Parents are wise to teach their children patience by sometimes making them wait and no doubt from the viewpoint of the child this waiting is a form of tribulation.

God too, is teaching us to be patient by making us wait. Again Paul gives us the advice we need when he says, “The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.”

How patient are we? Do we equate patience with do-nothingness ? Is the patient man the one who just sits in his chair and rocks occasionally? This is not God’s idea of patience. Jesus commended those who had “an honest and good heart, who heard the word, kept it, and brought forth fruit with patience.” That’s the idea. To bring forth fruit with patience. James picks up this theme and likens us to the farmer who “waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” Yes, the farmer must be patient. He cannot hurry the harvest, but he has to plant the seed or there will be no harvest. We must do our part. God will surely do His.

Patience involves doing. Patience means planting and watering and waiting. God will give the increase. Are we patiently continuing in well doing as Paul taught us to do ? Are we “taking the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering affliction and of patience ?” James says we should learn from their example and then he singles out Job in particular. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

We are to be patient but we are also to be busy. With the advent of the new pocket electronic calculators, the art of adding is fast becoming lost but there is one kind of adding we cannot do on a calculator and that is to “add to our faith virtue; and to virtue Knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love.” Patience is right in the middle of that addition so let’s be sure that when we add, we include patience or we will be out of balance. Remember that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Let us then learn from the patience of those who have gone before “seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

“All men were created equal but some are more equal than others.” This saying pokes gentle fun at the premise that we are all equal for of course in reality we are not. We come with varying degrees of ability in everything from athletic prowess to musical talent. God has never made two individuals alike so naturally we are not equal.

The wonderful thing is that God knows the abilities of each individual and He does not expect one to live up to the potential of another. He does expect each of us to use the talents He has given us and to increase them for Him. There is no such thing as a “no talent Christadelphian.” This would be like telling God that He made a mistake when He made us and He certainly did not.

There is one area in which we are all equal and that has to do with time. God has given us 60 minutes every hour and 24 hours every day. The rich do not have more or the poor less, each has exactly the same. Time is the one thing that we always spend. No one gets to the end of the week only to discover that they forgot to spend all of Thursday afternoon and have some time left over. We always spend every minute every day. How we spend it varies greatly but spend it, we do.

Actually the difference between those who will be in the Kingdom of God and those who will be rejected by Christ will be in the way they spent their time. How do we spend our time? It is foolish to say, “We haven’t time” for we have all there is. How much time every day do we spend for the Lord ?

When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ we will realize that so many things that took our time were just not worth it. We are wise to realize this now instead of waiting to face Jesus to see it.

Do we find time to do our readings every day? If not, we have allowed something far less important to crowd God’s word right out of our life for that day. What did we do that was so important that it took priority over the word of God ? Can we imagine a sweetheart receiving a letter from the one they love and tenderly placing it on the mantle unopened because they did not have time to open and read their love letter? If they don’t bother to read the letter they received from their sweetheart, then it is apparent that they don’t really love the one that has written to them. Actions speak louder than words and if they don’t read the letter, they don’t love the writer.

The Bible is God’s love letter to us. He so loved us that He caused His servants to write words “which are able to make us wise unto salvation.” God has taken great care to preserve His love letter down through the ages so that we might know Him and love Him.

Since He knows all things, can we imagine what He thinks as He looks down on our busy little lives and sees that we are not taking the time to read the very words He caused to be written for our salvation ? There is no use us telling Him how much we love Him and that the Truth is the greatest thing in our lives if He observes that we regularly neglect to read His love letter to us.

Our time is all we can give to God. He first gave it to us and He can withdraw His breath of life from us and we are all out of time. While we live, let us live for Him. Let us find time each day to read His word and to pray to His throne of mercy. The time we spend with God is the best time of our life.

If someone was to call us an addict, no doubt our first reaction would be to feel insulted. This need not be the case for the word addict means to devote, to give oneself up habitually. It is certainly in this sense that Paul tells us that the house of Stephenas had addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.”

Unfortunately the word today is used mostly to describe those who are slaves to a bad habit such as tobacco, liquor or drugs. These people certainly are devoted to serving these vices and so the word aptly describes their slavery. We are all a slave to something, as Paul tells us, either to Christ or to sin. What are you addicted to? How wonderful to be addicted to ministering to the saints of God. This is the kind of addiction we need.

God really does need people. He needs us to do His work for He works through His children. When God told the children of Israel to make an holy anointing oil He gave them the recipe, yet He said it was to be made after the art of the apothecary. In spite of the fact that the exact ingredients and the exact amounts of each were Divinely specified, it still required the art of the apothecary to blend it into the holy anointing oid. The art of a man was used to serve God !

Those of us who are not cooks know that it takes more than just the recipe to make a cake. We can follow it to the letter and our creation will be nothing in comparison to the cake that mother used to make from the same recipe. The art of the cook is important to the making of a delicious cake.

So it is in our work in God’s vineyard, He wants us to use our art, our skill in ministering to the saints and if we do this faithfully then we are addicted or devoted in our work. The truth does not turn out peas in a pod. God wants us to develop our individualities, our skills, our arts for Him. God does not want uniformity but unity. The four Gospels all show the personalities of the writers while telling us the story of the life of Christ. Each was true, but each revealed the life of Jesus after the art of the writer. These men were addicted to a life of service to God and yet Peter and John were as different as day and night, yet each loved the Lord and Jesus loved them both. Each served God with their whole hearts but their approach to things was entirely different. We need to remember that God made each of us different and He did not make a mistake when He made us. He made us with the capabilities of serving Him and we each need to become addicted to our work.

Let us find a work to do and do it with all our might. Let us develop our skill as did Bezaleel who God chose and filled him with wisdom and understanding in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver and in brass. Speaking of him and his assistant, Aholiab, Moses says “them hath God filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work.”

God will fill our hearts with wisdom also if we have a mind to work. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; says Solomon. Become addicted to the work of the Lord. Use your skill, your art, your energy in God’s service. May we each respond as did Isaiah when he heard the Lord saying “Whom will I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”