Editorial

John Stuart Mill, who lived from 1806 to 1873, is reported to have had the highest IQ of anyone since the time intelligence was rated by IQ scores. He had this to say concerning happiness. “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness.”

This is interesting in view of the fact that if we were to randomly ask people what they want most out of life, a great many would reply, “to be happy.” In spite of the fact that “to be happy” is their number one goal in life, very few of those saying this would know that the way to true happiness is to be engaged in something other than their desire to be happy.

This is no doubt the reason so many people are miserable. They are miserable because all they think about is how to be happy and John Stuart Mill was right that we need to forget about ourselves and fix our minds on some object other than our own happiness.

The wise man, Solomon, whose IQ would surely have ranked higher than that of John Stuart Mill tells us that ‘he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he.” This certainly agrees with Mr. Mill’s premise, for this happy man according to Solomon has his mind fixed on some object other than his own happiness. In this case he is busy showing mercy to the poor. This fact has been borne out by many who have found true happiness and contentment as they strobe to serve those less fortunate individuals who truly needed help.

Just how happy are we? How busy are we in service to others? The more we think of the needs of others, the more we give of ourselves to others, the happier we become and it happens without us even thinking about it. James tell us that “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” It’s another way of saying, to be happy, absorb yourselves in service to the fatherless and the widows. The Lord Jesus Christ instructed us saying, “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest.” Truly to receive the great reward from the Lord is a happy thing and it is accomplished by doing good, lending and loving our enemies.

Paul’s advice fits right in as well we might imagine it would. He says, “we 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; but, as it is written, The Reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.”

The key to true happiness is very simple though not widely known. Stop thinking about being happy and get busy serving the needs of others. In the process of losing ourselves in giving of ourselves to others we will suddenly discover that we are truly happy.

The secret of happiness is the same as the secret of life. On several occasions Jesus repeated it for us. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.”

We recently had the opportunity to take a surfing lesson. The instructor led the class, all carrying their rented surf boards down to the shore and told us to place them on the sand. Then he gave us detailed instructions just how to catch a wave and what to do once we had caught it. Then we all took our places on the surf boards and went through the various positions from lying on it and pretending to paddle, to jumping to a kneeling position after the wave has been caught and then standing upright on the board. It was all very easy to do while on the sand We soon learned that it was different out in the ocean. Although we personally were old enough to be the grandfather of the youngest members of the class everyone experienced the same difficulty in following the simple instructions of our teacher. It sounded easy when he explained what to do, it seemed easy when we did it on the dry sand, but doing it in the churning Pacific Ocean was another thing.

Life is like this. It is easy to tell one another to do what is right. It is equally easy to maintain that we would never do this or that. But it is a different story when we are in the sea of life surrounded by the waves of temptation which are trying to toss us this way and that. Peter was convinced that he would never deny his Lord even if everyone else did, but before the cock could crow two times he had denied, even swearing as he did so for emphasis, that he did not know Jesus.

We will never learn to surf with our board planted on the sand, and we will never live the truth holed up in a monastery high up on the mountain away from civilization. Jesus reached out in an effort to help those he had come to save and we must put our boards in the water and paddle for dear life. The key to becoming an expert surfer is practice. The key to becoming an effective brother and sister of Christ is also practice. We first must learn the fundamentals while on the dry sand but then we must take our boards and put them into the sea of humanity and try to keep our balance no matter what the waves around us are doing. Isaiah tells us that the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” The expert surfer balanced on his board, knows how to ride right over the raging waves. He may fall many times learning, but he will keep at it until he has mastered it. We too will fail many times but we need to get up again and keep trying. The worst mistake of all is not to try. To say we will not go surfing until we are an expert is folly. To refuse to share our good news with others until we know all the answers to all the difficult questions that we may be asked, is equally absurd.

Even doctors call what they do practice. They practice on us. It may be a difficult way to learn, but in the final analysis it is the only way to learn.

Every athlete in every sport knows that the only way to become proficient is by practice, practice and more practice. Why would we think that we can become experts at living the Truth without constant practice.

What kind of practice is necessary? We need to put our spiritual surfboard in the water, we need to take the Truth to all we meet. We need to study the word so we will know the fundamentals of our faith but then we must put what we know to use in living the Truth out on the sea of life. We are to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

When Jesus talked to fishermen he told them, “follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Had he been talking to surfers he might have said something like this. “Follow me, put your board in the sea of life, the surf is up and there are many waves to catch.”

Here is a little riddle that might help clear up some of our cobwebs. Imagine that you are getting into an unoccupied automatic elevator and pushing the button for the 12th floor only to find that the elevator stops at the 10th floor. Upon pushing the 12th floor again, the elevator promptly goes down five floors, stops and then goes up three floors and then back down again six floors. The question we need answered is: who is the elevator operator?

If we are not careful, we can get so caught up in adding and subtracting floors that we forget that we are the only one in the elevator so we must be the elevator operator.

We can do this in life. We can get so caught up in the details and the problems around us that we forget who we are. We have been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we belong to God. We must never allow the problems, the allurements, the noise of the world around us to so distract us that we forget whose we are and whom we serve.

The world loves to lose themselves in the pursuit of worldly pleasures and many have lost their true identity because they are caught up in the hub bub of temporal things that have no lasting value.

As we enter the early months of 1985 we need to keep in mind that all these things around us are only temporal and will someday vanish away while the things that truly concern us are at the present time completely out of sight and for so many out of mind. While the world is losing themselves in the theaters and in front of the TV screen, let us make sure that we are finding ourselves by filling our minds with the daily Bible readings, by prayer and meditation upon the eternal things that will soon be made manifest at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We really are what we think about all day long and we need to be doing just the opposite of those around us. How many millions of people lose themselves every day in the fictional problems of the soap operas? While they are busy getting lost, we need to heed the wise advice of Paul who told us to think about those things that are true. These things the world is lost in are not true, and even if they were true, they certainly are not honest, or just, or pure, or of good report.

If we do not make a conscious effort to guide our thinking we will find that the world will press us down into its mold, and this is the very thing Paul told us not to do. Paul tells us to “let God re-mold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

Paul goes on to say, “As your spiritual teacher I give this piece of advice to each one of you. Don’t cherish exaggerated ideas of yourself or your importance, but try to have a sane estimate of your capabilities by the light of the faith that God has given to you all.”

The world does have exaggerated ideas of their importance. Just recently we watched in amusement as our two year old grandson ran around the room with a bath towel pinned around his neck like a cape and calling out, “I’m Superman.” This is cute at age two but as Paul tells us, when we become a man we must put away childish things.

The world around us is still identifying with their Superman and other entertainment personalities while we should be quietly meditating upon spiritual things and as Paul said, “give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”

A little boy was counting the number of times the malfunctioning clock chimed and much to his amazement, the clock struck thirteen times. He quickly ran to his mother exclaiming, “Mother, its later than it has ever been before!”

Although the clock may be incorrect, the little boy’s statement is truer than he realizes. It is later than it has ever been before. Paul put it plainly when he said, “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

As we come to the end of another year, we realize that we are nearer to the return of our Lord than we have ever been before. We’ve heard some complain when they hear talk like this and they almost parrot the words that Peter attributes to the scoffers which say, “where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

Now of course, no true believer would say this, yet if we become impatient when we hear of the coming of the Lord and say “we have heard this since we were a child and he still has not come” we might not be looking for him with the eager anticipation that Paul and Peter wanted us to have.

Actually the return of Christ is only a heart beat away for any of us and of late he has come almost weekly, for it seems we have had almost one death each week in the brotherhood in this area of late. For these who have fallen asleep, Christ has come, for their next conscious moment will be in the presence of their Lord.

We which are alive and remain, need to feel the urgency of the times and realize that there is a day “when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ.” That day is nearer than it has ever been before and we are well advised to prepare for it as if it is tomorrow.

As we count down the few remaining days of 1984, what have we done in the 300 plus days behind us that really mattered eternally? We have lost count how many times we may have brushed our teeth or the number of hours we slept away but what did we do for Jesus? When we face him at his judgment seat he will expect us to be able to answer that question. Can we answer it now ? What did we do for Jesus in 1984?

If we have trouble answering the question now, it can serve as a warning, so that we will be able to have a better answer for the days that may be ahead of us in 1985.

When Jesus says he is going to tell us what they did in Sodom just before they met their destruction, we might brace ourselves thinking we are going to hear some sordid details of sexual perversion, but instead he tells us that “they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.” This really was the problem with most of the people in Sodom. They simply filled their lives with the things of this life and had no time for God.

As we see the last days of 1984 draw to an end, can we be accused of having filled them with eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building? None of these things are a sin in themselves but they are all things that take up our time, our energies and our thoughts. If this is all we did in 1984 we had better plan to put God first in our lives in the days that are ahead or we will be no better than the citizens of Sodom.

“See then that ye walk circumspectly,” says Paul, “not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we be­lieved.”

There’s a story about a young mother who said to her son, “Be a good boy now and go make your bed and pick up your toys for mommie.” To this the young lad replied, “What will you give me if I do?” Somewhat exasperated because her son always wanted to be paid for everything he was asked to do, she replied, “Why don’t you be like your father, he’s good for nothing.”

It is a sad fact that this little boy’s attitude carries over into many adult’s lives. Most adults are not quite so blazen as to ask, “What will you give me?” but they seem to find it convenient to be too busy to say “yes” unless we somehow make it worth their while.

The little boy should make his bed and pick up his toys because these are part of his household duties as a member of the family, not because he is being paid to do so. We also should do many things because we are members of God’s royal family.

Many years ago we had a brother in our ecclesia who only attended the Sunday evening Bible Lecture when he gave the lecture. Apparently speaking was his payoff for being there. It is so difficult to get the cooperation of some without somehow making it worth their while.

It would be an interesting experiment, although terribly expensive, to see what would happen if we were to pass out one hundred dollar bills at the door to each member of the ecclesia who attended the Sunday evening Bible Lecture. We are sure that suddenly many who had been unable to attend would somehow find it now possible to be there. Why? Because we made it worth their while. For some it might take five hundred, or even a thousand dollar bill but we can be sure that for some price, those who tell us that they cannot come would suddenly find a way.

Now we need to examine ourselves to see why we do what we do. Paul tells us that God loves a cheerful giver and this is not limited to our giving of our money but of our time and our efforts. Do we serve the Lord with gladness? Can we be counted on to support the classes, the lectures, the activities of the Lord in our area? What do we deem more important than the Lord’s work? What keeps us away? Whatever “that” is, it could be our idol. Yes, idolatry is not dead, it has simply changed form.

The world around us is bowing down before their idol, the TV set, for hour after hour. They have no time for God because they spend it glued to the idiot box. If we asked them to come to our Bible lecture with us they would say “no” because that is the time their favorite program comes on the TV. Again, for some price, we could intice them away from their first love to come to the lecture with us.

We need to have our priorities straight. We should do everything we can do to serve our Lord for he knows where we are and what we are doing at all times. He knows why we do not attend this, or help out there, because we have put some worldly idol ahead of him.

Actually our Lord is making it worth our while to put Him first in our lives but His reward is not handed out at the door of the ecclesia but rather it is laid up for us which “the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give us at that day: and not to us only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”

Are we seeking first the kingdom of God ? There is no use seeking it second or third. If our number one goal in life is not the kingdom, then it is nothing.

In Isaiah’s day the Lord asked the question, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? Then Isaiah said, Here am I; send me.” The Lord then said to Isaiah, “Go.” If we respond as Isaiah did, then Jesus when he comes will say to us, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you!”

There is a story about a wealthy man who lost a diamond cuff link in the gutter one evening outside a swank restaurant. He was down on his hands and knees looking through the debris in the gutter under a brightly shining street light. Soon others, feeling sorry for him, joined him in his search but all to no avail. Finally one of those helping him look asked him, “Are you sure this is where you dropped it ?” He replied, “No, I dropped it over there,” as he pointed to a dark part of the street about ten feet away,”But the light is much better here under the lamp post.”

The story is humorous because it is so silly. He will never find what is lost unless he looks in the area in which it was lost.

Yet how many people do this in real life looking for happiness, looking for salvation, everywhere except where it may be found.

Salvation was lost because of sin. Happiness is lost because of selfishness, greed, and covetousness. The constitution of the United States gives every citizen the right to pursue happiness and pursue it they do, at neck breaking speed, but they are looking for it in the wrong pleace. Joy, peace, happiness, and salvation are to be found in God, but like the foolish fellow looking for his diamond cuff link, most choose to look for these things everywhere except where they may be found.

It is sad that so many today look for happiness in alcohol, in drugs, in illicit sex and these do not bring happiness at all, only misery and finally death. It is a “no win situation” to look for the fruit of the Spirit which is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance” in places where God is not found.

The silly man looking in the wrong place for his diamond found a gutter full of garbage, filthy debris, useless rubbish and vile refuse. This is what the world finds in their fruitless search for happiness by going to the wrong places and doing the wrong things. They end up with all the ugly works of the flesh which are: “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, sedition’s, heresies, Envying’s, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.”

Nearly everyone if asked the question, “Do you want to be saved ?” will answer, “Yes.” Yet Paul tells us that those who look for salvation by doing the works of the flesh will not receive it even though they may say that they want it. He tells us, “I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

True happiness, true peace of mind, true joy and contentment can be obtained right now in this life, as well as the promise of living forever with Christ Jesus in his soon coming kingdom. All this can be found but only if we look in the right place for it. It will not be found in the world for John tells us to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” The Spirit of God speaking through Azariah has said, “The LORD is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”

Peace, joy, freedom from worry, all these things are available to us, right now, but only if we have sought them in the right place. “Peace I leave with you,” said Jesus, “my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Let us “draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to us.” Let us go to God in prayer and in faithful daily Bible readings and find that which we are seeking in the only place it can be found, in God.