Editorial

There is a story about a little boy walking down a deserted street in his neighbor­hood when he sees three of the biggest bullies in the area coming towards him. He realizes that he is in big trouble, it’s too late to run for they can all outrun him, so he tries to smile and bravely walk past them. The biggest of the bullies ,grabs him and shoves him to the ground. As he is getting up and dusting himself off, the bully scowls and says, ‘l’m gonna give you a whuppin’ you’ll never forget.” He says this while rolling up his sleeves and cocking his arm for the first blow. The little boy quickly stoops down and with a twig draws a straight line between the boys and himself. He then rises to his full height, which is about half of theirs, and says boldly, “I dare any of you to cross over that line.” The biggest bully promptly jumps across the line and glares down at him and says, “And now whaddya gonna do about it?” The little boy smiles, reaches out and shakes the big boy’s hand and replies, “Congratulations, now we are on the same side.” The big bully looks down on him in amazement and begins to laugh; he turns to his former allies and says to them, “Yeah, now I’m on his side.” The other bullies look surprised and frightened and turn and run, for neither of them want to take on the biggest bully of the neighborhood.

The little boy, probably without even realizing it, had demonstrated the truth of many Bible lessons. He had proved that a “soft answer turneth away wrath.” He had also followed the wise advice of Jesus who said, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilest thou art in the way with him.” He had also proved the truth of the lesson taught by Solomon when he described the incident of the little city with few men within it, “and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and by his wisdom delivered the city;” Solomon’s conclusion was that “Wisdom is better than strength.”

This certainly proved true for the little boy. Are we as wise as the little boy? It was Jesus who told us, “be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” Sometimes we get this backwards and we are about as wise as a dove (bird brain) and we are as harmful as a serpent.

The little boy made no attempt to fight or defend himself. Do we? Defending ourselves is not limited to the physical but more often it is done verbally. Peter tells us that Christ “when he was reviled, reviled not again;” It was Jesus who told us to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite fully use you, and persecute you.”

These are words we all know but are they words we all obey? When was the last time we actually prayed to God for someone who was mistreating us? “Pray for him?” we may ask in amazement, but Jesus not only told us, he did it on the cross.

Why is it we know so many facts intellectually but we do not actually put them into practice in our everyday lives? ‘think of the good that would come to the brotherhood if only all those who are so busy squabbling would stop, and instead pray for those with opposing views and positions. If we all really practiced what Jesus said, we would become part of that group that Jesus described as “blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.”

The lines we draw are all human lines. Let us pray that when Christ comes we will be found on his side of the line, for Jesus has told us that “he that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”

There is a story about a young man who wanted to come to America many years ago. He worked hard and saved every cent he could for the passage on the ship from London to New York. When he finally had enough to buy his fare, he had almost nothing left, but he decided to go anyway and try to make his way in the new world. Since he was almost broke, he bought several boxes of crackers and packed these in his bag and boarded the ship for his voyage to New York.

Each day he would walk the decks and look longingly into the dining room as he watched the other passengers enjoying their meals, and then he would go below to this room and eat a few crackers and drink plenty of water. On the last day, as the ship was sailing past the Statue of Liberty, he was standing at the rail when one of the members of the crew addressed him and asked him why he had not eaten his meals in the dining room with the other passengers. The poor boy grew embarrassed and explained that he spent all his money for his fare and had nothing left over to buy food. The crew member looked astonished and said, But all the meals were included in your fare.”

This young man was starving for food he was entitled to receive and he had done without through ignorance. He did not need to be ignorant. Had he read the fine print on his ticket, he would have learned that the meals were included in his fare.

How many people today are doing without that which they could have due to their own ignorance. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Yet, how many do without the gracious gift that God has so willingly offered us, due to ignorance? As Isaiah tells us, “To everyone that thirst­eth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

We feel sorry for the young man who did without food on his voyage from England to America but his loss cannot be compared to those who do without the bread of life because they are ignorant of the covenants of promise, “the sure mercies of David.”

Peter speaks of those who are “willingly ignorant.” They don’t know that they are ignorant, even as the young man did not know he was entitled to three good meals a day until it was too late. He learned his lesson the hard way, that it pays to read the ticket and learn the benefits one is entitled to receive.

Do those who are missing out on God’s gracious offer of everlasting life realize that they, too, could e included in the covenants of promise if only they would read the book that God has provided for us, the words which are able to make us wise unto salvation?”

No, they, like the young man, do not realize that it is their ignorance, their refusal to read the rules that is standing between them and the spiritual nourishment that they so sorely need.

Could we be like the young man ? When Nathan told David a story about a certain man, David was quick to condemn him. Nathan then had to inform David of the fact that, “Thou art the man.”

Are we doing without the blessings that God is willing to bestow upon us due to our own lack of faith? We have been promised that God is willing to “open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” If we are not receiving God’s blessing, is it His fault or ours? Was it the fault of the steamship company that the young man did without food? It was prepared, there was enough for him to have eaten his fill, yet he went hungry. God is willing to bless us, even in this life, a hundredfold, says Jesus, but it requires that we seek first His kingdom. Hosea tells us that “The LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Yet David observed that “The young lions do lack and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.”

May we have the faith to take God at His word and accept with thanksgiving His blessings which He is willing to pour out upon us.

There is an interesting story about a new employee at the local factory who joined the lunch time group who all ate their sacked lunches together. Each day he seemed to be excited about what might be in his lunch bag and would eagerly open his sack and take out his wrapped sandwich and peal back the top slice of bread to see what kind of sandwich he would have to eat. It always turned out to be peanut butter and each time he would bitterly complain that he did not like peanut butter. The other employees listened to his complaining day after day until finally they asked him how long he had been married. He replied that he had been happily married for five years The questioner then said, “Do you mean to tell me that you have been married for five years and your wife still does not know that you do not like peanut butter?” Angrily the new employee replied, “You leave my wife out of this, I pack my own lunch.”

Now there is a moral for us to learn in this silly little story. It is true that we each pack our own lunch and it is also true that many go through life complaining about the lunch that we pack and have to eat.

Perhaps a better known saying that speaks this same truth is the one about each of us making our own bed and then having to lie in it.

Probably the thing that is so surprising is why we complain so much about the lunch we pack or the bed we lie in when we were the one who packed it or made it. Yet, many go through life bitterly complaining about their situation when they are responsible for the situation in which they find themselves. “Wherever I go, there I am.” We can never get away from ourselves and so we ought to learn that we have to live with the consequences of our actions.

We all know those who find each day a battle to be fought and each person an opponent to try to defeat while others seem to find joy and happiness everywhere they go.

No doubt the happy group has learned the wise lesson Paul taught us when he said. “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

If we sow anger and hostility we naturally reap misery and if we sow the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance we find that we reap the same fruit for as Jesus told us, “a good tree brings forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”

The unhappy employee complaining about his peanut butter sandwich has not learned that we must accept the consequences of our own actions. What we put in is what we get out. This is true of our sandwiches, and our brains. The things we read, see, and think will create the things we do. It is impossible to think the wrong kind of thoughts and then do the right kinds of things. We need to be as careful of what we put into our brains as what we put into our sandwich. Solomon tells us that “the thoughts of the righteous are right,” and as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

A third grade student gave this definition of salt. “Salt, is what you don’t notice until someone forgets to put it in.”

We tend to take many things for granted until they are missing just as this student did the salt. We are wise to notice and appreciate the many unseen things in our lives that so many ignore until they are gone. The oil in our engines, the air in our tires, the water in our radiators, and the salt in our food are all necessary and we find out just how important they are when we discover they are absent.

Someone once wisely observed that if the stars shown only one night a year, that everyone in the world would see them. Because they shine every evening, many go about never looking up and discovering their grandeur.

Those who have grown children now realize how short a time we have our children ,safely tucked in their own beds in our home. The time to enjoy them is now. Too many people go through life being whenners, not winners but whenners. When this happens, then we will be happy, when we have more time, when we finish school, when we get a job, when we get a car, when we get a home, when we get our debts paid. when the children are older, when we retire then . . . The sad thing about whenners is that eventually they get old and they have missed living for they were always going to live “when.” What do they say at the end of their lives ? They talk about the good old days”when.” Unfortunately life passes the whenners by for they have not learned to live in the here and now. This is the only day we have to live for the Lord. Solomon was right when he advised us saying, “Whatsoever thy hand find­eth to do, do it with thy might.”

It has been said that we should “live neither in the past nor in the future — but let each day’s work absorb all your interests, energy and enthusiasm. The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today’s work superbly well.”

James gives us good advice when he tells us, “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

Paul knew the secret of true happiness but as he said, it was something that he had to learn. He told s “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

We too, can learn to be content right where we are, right now. We need to count our blessings every day and not take them for granted until they are gone. This is true of salt, it is true of our children, it is true of our health. Let us wake up each morning and rejoice in the day that the Lord has given us. Every morning when we awake we have been given another 24 hours to spend. We cannot spend tomorrow or re-spend yesterday but this day is ours to live to the full in the service of our Lord. The time to live is now. Be thankful for the good gifts God has given us and remember, we like Paul, “can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.”

“The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” This saying is certainly true and ties in with a couple more sayings on this same subject. “Few are better than the books they read,” and “life is too short for reading inferior books.”

Unfortunately reading is fast becoming a lost art and those who do read so often read what the saying calls “inferior books.” There are many of that type, and as another wise man once said, “There is no worse robber than a bad book.”

What we read does have a profound effect upon our lives. Through the printed page we absorb into our minds thoughts and ideas which affect the very way we think and act. For example, if we are reading an exciting mystery, our mouth can go dry and our pulse can quicken as we read of the shady character creeping up the rickety stairs in the dark with the dagger in hand. Our bodies are reacting in the very same way it would if we were actually experiencing the situation we are reading about.

This is why it is so important for us to choose with care the books we read. It certainly should go without saying that the most important book of all for us to read should be our Bibles for it is the only book that reveals the very thoughts and plans of Almighty God. It is also useful for us to read good books written by those who can help us to understand what we read. We do not have a Philip to come join us as we read Isaiah, but we can turn to a Christadelphian now dead, who can guide us as we strive to unlock the meanings of the wonderful prophesies found in God’s inspired writings.

Solomon told us that “of making many books there is no end,” and he said this long before the printing press or the paper back books came into being.

We should take as much care in choosing our books as we choose our friends for they will both have a profound effect upon the way we think and act.

Charles E. Jones made a statement which we think is worth repeating. He said, “You will be the same in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

Since what we read and the people we associate with have such a profound affect upon our lives, why are we so casual in our choice of books and friends?

Some of those who lived in Ephesus realized how important it was to choose only the best books, and as a result, they “brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

Now those books might have been sold instead of burned, but they were only deserving of the fire. Do we have any books that we would be better off burning than reading? If they are books that make us burn in our lusts, then how wise we would be to follow the example of the Ephesians.

Let us choose with care what we put into our bodies. Some who are careful to eat only the right foods, feed their minds with garbage. It can come from the written page, it can come from our associates, it can come from what we see on TV. Our life is too short to waste it on trifles as light as air.

If we want our name to be written in the Book of Life then we better get busy reading the Book right now. If we want Jesus when he comes to “change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body,” then we should be busy changing our minds for as Paul said to the Corinthians, “Incredible as it may sound, we who are spiritual have the very thoughts of Christ!” This conies by reading the same scriptures that Jesus read, for again it was Paul who told the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Mary Pickford is reported to have said, “To fall is not to fail, unless you fail to get up again.” The wise man Solomon said this by inspiration many years before. For a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again.”

The people who never fall never do anything. How can you fall sitting down? A young girl practicing figure skating to compete in the Olympics was told by her teacher, “If you don’t fall while practicing then you are not learning enough to be a rue champion.” People who do things will fall but if they are true champions then they will get up again, for to fall is not to fail, unless you fail to get up again.”

David told us that “the LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that e bowed down.” What a great comfort it is to know that the Lord will help when we fall, but how :an He help those who won’t try?

Can we imagine a little baby wanting to learn to walk saying, “I’m not going to talk until I can do it without falling down. That little child would never walk. We learn by doing, by trying and falling and trying again. Nothing worthwhile was ever done without falling over and over again. Thomas Edison is reported to have told a discouraged employee who had complained that ten thousand experiments had failed, hat it was not failure at all because they now knew ten thousand ways that didn’t work and so they were that much closer to the one that would.

Babe Ruth is remembered as the “king of swat” because he hit so many home runs put he struck out more times than any other player in his day. When Carl Yastrzemski as honored for having collected his 3,000th hit, he recalled that he had been up to bat over 10,000 times. That meant, he said, “I’ve been unsuccessful over seven thousand times.”

An average major leaguer hitting 250 gets three hits for every twelve times at bat. He will probably make a salary of somewhere between $100,000 to $200,000. The superstar who bats 333 gets four hits for every twelve times at bat. He makes over one million dollars a year. Yet he only gets one more hit every three games. That may not be much more but he makes ten times more. He probably gets more hits because he swings more often.

Going back to Solomon’s description of a just man, he falls seven times and gets up seven times. The failure falls seven times and gets up only six times. Do we qualify as just persons or failures? Do we keep trying even after we have fallen? Do we put our trust in God and realize that He will always help us up if we will just try again?

Again it is Solomon who tells us how we can be of help and encouragement to one mother. He says that “two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor, or if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.”

Are we conscious of the needs of others and always willing to help them get up again when they fall? Our father-in-law ls now 101 years old and he falls frequently. He cannot get up once he is down without help. Are we conscious of the needs of others and anxious to stoop down to help lift up our fallen brethren and sisters?

If the “Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down,” how conscious we should be of one another and ready to extend our hand to lift up :hose who are down.

The lesson we need to remember is that we all fall but only failures stay down. Keep on swinging, keep on trying, keep looking to help others when they fall and ‘humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”