Editorial

There is a story about a school teacher addressing her class which was studying statistics and she informed them that somewhere in the world there is a woman having a baby every 12 seconds. Her question to the class was, “What do you think about that ?” One bright-eyed student spoke up excitedly saying, “Find that woman and stop her.”

Statistics won’t mean a thing to us if we fail to understand what they are teaching us. Statisticians throw a lot of numbers at us in order to convince us that we should buy this product or that. When it comes to the Truth, the one statistic we learn from God is that the majority is always wrong and we can never prove we are in the right by quoting the number who support this belief or hold that doctrine.

At the time of the flood there were at least one billion, thirty million people on the earth. (This is worked out mathematically using only 5 children to a family based on Genesis 5.) Of this number only eight entered the ark. When God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham hoped God would save the cities if there were 50 righteous found in them. Concerned this figure might be too high, he finally hears God assure him that he would save the cities if there were ten. Unfortunately this figure was still more than twice as many as were found there.

When they asked Jesus if there are few that be saved, his reply was, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” In Matthew’s gospel Jesus said, “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

So the fact is that while many seek to enter, only a few do. What is the difference between the many who seek and the few who find it? Certainly Christ died for all; Peter tells us that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Why then are so few going to be saved ?

The simple answer is, most will not be saved because most did not really want salvation more than anything else in all the world. The key is in the difference between seeking and striving. Jesus told us to strive, that is according to the Companion Bible, to struggle, to agonize, while the word seek has simply the meaning of desire. There is a saying in the world that “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” A beggar usually is too lazy to work hard enough to provide his own transportation, but he doesn’t mind wishing.

If we simply wish to be saved, then we won’t, but if we really strive to be saved, then we will. Jesus tells us that it is his Father’s good pleasure to give us the King­dom. We cannot earn it, but God is not going to give it to those who do not want it more than anything else in the world.

Even in this life many people are failures because they do not want success enough to work for it. We are to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.” Not that our work will earn it for as the next verse explains, “It is God which worketh in us both to will and to do his good pleasure.” God is willing to work in us and through us if we really want to receive His gracious gift of salvation.

God is not going to grab anyone by the heels and pull them kicking and screaming into the Kingdom. If we don’t want the kingdom enough to strive to enter, then rest assured, we won’t be there. On the other hand, God’s good pleasure is to give the kingdom to all who really want it with all their hearts. The one statistic to remember is this: God is not willing that any should perish. Most will. If we will truly strive to enter in at the strait gate, Jesus will be there to say to us, “Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

There is a cute little cartoon on the door of a hospital administrator’s office with the caption under the picture saying, “I can only do twelve things at once.”

This is amusing because it is so ridiculous. As we all know, we can really only do one thing at a time, but we sometimes need to be reminded of this fact. Perhaps when we have had twelve things to do at once, we have flitted from one to the other, Like a bee going from blossom to blossom, only accomplishing much less than the bee which was extracting the nectar of the flower while we simply kept everything stirred up and completed nothing.

Paul gives us the advice we need to follow when we are in this condition. He told the Philippians, “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

“This one thing I do” is the key to success. We cannot do twelve things at once, we must decide what is important and do that. Many years ago an efficiency expert was paid a fee of $25,000.00 to teach the president of U.S. Steel to make a list of all the things he wanted to accomplish during the day, then to go back through the list and number them, giving the most important task 1 and the next most important one #2 and so on. Then he was told to begin and do one thing only, the #1 task, and not to think about any of the others on the list until it was completed. “This one thing I do” was the key. This simple idea so impressed the president that he paid the extraordinary fee of $25,000.00 for the idea.

Had he read Philippians he could have learned from the pen of God’s inspired writer this same lesson.

The next point to remember is that Paul said to forget the things which are behind. Many people live in the past and think of what might have been. The past is behind us and we should not look back. Forget it, and reach forward is the advice of Paul. In sports many a race has been lost by looking back. In life, don’t look back unless you plan on going that way. Lot’s wife is a tragic example of looking in the wrong direction.

The important thing that Paul did was to concentrate on one thing. By keeping his eye on the goal, he pressed toward the mark. In sports many lose due to lack of concentration. It is amazing how much concentration is required to be successful in almost every sport. Keep your eye on the ball, think only of the goal, press on to victory, these are the battle cries of every great competitor.

Now the world does this to win a corruptible crown. Paul reminds us that we have an incorruptible crown laid up for those who forget the past, concentrate upon the goal and press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

In the races of this life, the winner automatically makes the rest losers, but in the race for eternal life, God is not willing that any should perish and we can all receive the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge shall give Paul at that day, but not to him only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

The key to winning is not our cleverness, not our athletic ability, but simply our desire to do one thing. That one thing is to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

“So run, that ye may obtain.”

We just celebrated our granddaughter’s second birthday, and three more of our grandchildren, ages 3, almost 2 and not quite one, all her cousins, were there for the gala celebration.

Watching the 2 year old open her presents, while being watched by her 3 year old and almost 2 year old cousins, was an interesting lesson in human nature. At this tender age, one has not yet learned to share and each could only view the event from her own viewpoint. The birthday girl had more presents than she knew what to do with, while the other two looked on with longing eyes, desiring each gift for themselves as they came out of the box. Soon all three were gathered together on the floor, each appropriating a gift to hold and each looking to see what the other had that they could grab. A good time was had by all in spite of a few tears shed here and there.

As adults watching the festivities, we could understand the wisdom of Paul when he said, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” These little girls could hardly have done any better than they did and, of course, a doting grandfather would think this way, but we need to realize that we, as adults, need to learn from their cute antics and, for ourselves, put away childish things.

Sometimes we find that adults are really just bigger children and we haven’t yet fully accomplished the goal of putting away childish things. It is still natural for us to think, “What am I going to get?” From God’s viewpoint, we must all, appear as little children squabbling over a few toys, and we need to learn patience from His example for He really is very patient with us. Jesus tells us that we should “do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; . . . and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” It isn’t natural for us to lend to people who do not pay it back, to be kind to people who will not say “thank you” or be merciful to people who do not show us —mercy. As children we may feel justified in treating others as they treat us, but as adults in Christ, we need to treat others not as they treat us but as we would that they treat us. This is really putting away “childish things.”

This is something we must learn, because it is just the opposite of what we want to do. The little children playing only do what their little minds tell them they want to do and they feel unhappy when they do not get “their way.” “Our way” is never the right way. As we sing in the hymn, “Thy way, not mine, 0 Lord, however dark it be! Lead me by Thine own hand, Choose out the path for me.” These are not just words to sing, this is a life to be lived, and it means putting away childish things and becoming mature in Christ.

This means putting God first in our lives, saying with Jesus, “not my will, but thine will be done.” This is true maturity, this is something every child of God must learn and then do. A little child just naturally thinks of himself. “Am I warm, dry, full, comfortable?” It does not occur to the very young to inquire if you are. To put away childish things then means to think of the needs of others, to serve others in­stead of one’s self. As Paul put it, “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself.” Yes, we remember even at the young age of twelve, Jesus was about his Father’s business.

It’s time for each of us to be about our Father’s business by forgetting self. “Do good . . and ye shall be the children of the Highest”

The back woods philosopher loved to sit in his old rocking chair and tell the youngins, “You can’t teach what you ain’t never lern’t anymore than you can come back from where you ain’t never been.”

Although his grammar may leave something to be desired, his wisdom and understanding shines through. It is true that you cannot teach someone something that you do not know. As brethren and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have an obligation to share the good news of the coming kingdom with those we know and meet, but we cannot teach what we have not ourselves learned. For this reason it is necessary for each of us to not only know the truth but also know how to give an “answer to every man that asketh us a reason of the hope that is in us with meekness and reverence.” (mg).

Who else does God have on this earth to tell the perishing world the truth as it is in Jesus ? If we do not do it who will ? Now it should be our pleasure as well as our duty to tell this good news to all we know.

Does everyone who knows you, know of your love for God ? Is your love of God, love of the truth so strong, so much a part of your life that it is shining through to all you meet? You maybe the only Bible some of your friends have ever read. Paul told the Corinthian brethren that they were his “epistle written in his heart, known and read of all men.” What is the gospel according to you?

In the business world, a person with a fantastic product takes pleasure in telling all who know him of its attributes. A real sports fan loves to tell the details of their perfect game in bowling, or their hole in one, or the big fish that got away or the smaller one that didn’t.

Is our love for Jesus less than the world’s love for the things of this life? We have had a number of successful Christadelphian business men confess that they feel much more comfortable talking about their business than they do the truth. If this is true, we need to work at changing things. We all admit that the truth is the most important thing in our life but we may not live or talk like this was the case. Remembering that “you can’t teach what you ain’t never learnt”, we need to Learn how to ask leading questions that will bring the conversation we have with those of the world around to the things of the truth. We must not say that “we can’t,” of course we can, but only if we believe and know the truth and love it enough to want to share it with others.

We have experienced that questions are better door openers than statements. When someone mentions inflation, ask the question, “Have you ever heard the Bible’s description of inflation ?” You will usually get a “no” and then you can tell them how Haggai explains it as “earning wages to put into a bag with holes.” When someone mentions world conditions, ask them if they are excited about the fact that it is two down and one to go concerning the three nations mentioned in Ezekiel 38:5 that have been on the side of the western nations and now are securely in or are going into the Soviet block. When they express their amazement, you gently tell them about Persia (Iran) Ethiopia and Libya. When someone tells you of a friend with cancer or heart trouble, ask them if they are looking forward to the time soon to come when “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” They may not understand when that will be and you will have an opportunity to share the good news with them.

The more you practice, the more proficient you become. Talking to your friends and even strangers becomes an exciting experience as you look for openings in the conversation to bring out a question that will help you share the good news you know with those who don’t. If you don’t know how, learn how, be­cause you “cant teach what you ain’t never learnt anymore than you can come back from where you ain’t never been.”

As the children of Israel prepared to cross the river Jordan and enter the promised land Joshua spake unto the people saying, “Ye have not passed this way heretofore. Sanctify yourself: for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

We have just begun a new year and we too, have not passed this way heretofore. The advice Joshua gave to the children of Israel is certainly appropriate for us as we begin our journey through 1982.

We have never been in this year before and none of us know just what the Lord has in store for us in 1982. We hope it will be the year of the Lord’s return so that we, as did the children of Israel, will cross over into the promised land.

The thing we must do is to sanctify ourselves as Joshua advised. This we must do in 1982. If we truly sanctify ourselves right now, then the Lord will do wonders among us, right now.

The word sanctify means to dedicate, to set aside for holy use, and this is what we should be doing with our bodies and our lives right now. We have never been this way before and so we need to dedicate ourselves this year to God and just as soon as we do this, then wonderful things begin to happen. We would like to turn the order around and have the Lord do wonders among us and then we might decide to sanctify ourselves. But it does not work this way.

God is waiting for us. If we draw nigh to Him, then He will draw nigh to us. We are to “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;” then and only then will “all these things be added unto us.”

Many times we suffer lack and do without when the Lord is just waiting to pour out showers of blessings upon us. The key to our success in “passing this way” in 1982 is the word “sanctify.” Joshua tells us to sanctify ourselves. When we become wholly dedicated to God, when we decide to live this year unto the Lord, then He responds by doing wonders for us. The wonders God will do for us will take many forms. To those on beds of pain it may be the strength to accept our infirmities and say with Paul, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Jesus in speaking of the wonders that God will do for those who truly sanctify themselves and put God first in their lives, says “he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, (this means 1982) houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.” It sounds almost too good to be true, but it is true. Showers of blessings, now in this time is what Jesus promised. God challenges us through Malachi to put Him first and He promises to “open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

The problem with most of us, we have trouble truly sanctifying ourselves, we have trouble letting go and letting God take over in our lives, we have trouble leaving “houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for Jesus sake, and the gospels.” If we don’t put God first in our lives He is nowhere.

As we commence 1982 we have a choice of going “this way” with God in front of us, or going it alone. God will not follow behind us.

As Joshua prepared to commence his journey, God comforted him by saying, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD God is with thee whither soever thou goest.” God will be with us whither soever we go if we will but sanctify and dedicate our­selves to Him. With the LORD doing wonders for us, what a wonderful year this will be!!