PREPARATION
No, I AM not speaking of the many hours that are spent in preparation for the worship service and the sermon that will be delivered. I am not thinking of the careful planning that goes into the thorough organization of every service of the church. I am not at this moment concerned about the preparation of the closing appeal that should be made in every service. I am thinking about the ten or more minutes just before entering a service where the Word of life is to be opened and presented to the waiting people. How precious these few moments should be. The assignment of duties, the briefing of each participant, should have taken place long before these last few minutes. This time should be spent in earnest prayer and communion with God. Common talking and laughing and joking and anything else that would take the participants' thoughts away from the sacredness of the service and the responsibility that each carries are totally out of place. If time permits, let a season of earnest prayer be enjoyed. Let the speaker of the hour have a few last moments to focus his undivided attention upon the Word of the living God and to seek the power of His Spirit to flood his soul. Let these few moments be devoted to such quiet fellowship with Christ and such close communion with Him that the face of the minister and those who accompany him may seem to the people to shine as did the face of Moses when he came down from the holy mount.
N. R. D.
LITTLE MEN—BIG SUBJECTS
"WHAT are you doing?" inquired an interested passer-by.
"I'm drawing a picture of God," replied the little fellow not even deigning to look up.
"But you can't draw a picture of God," he was told. "No one has ever seen God. How can anyone know what He looks like?"
"They'll all know what He's like when I get through," was the reply.
Self-confidence knows no limit at times, and that disease can even attack ordained flesh. It is always tragic when a minister or a teacher carries such an air of personal satisfaction that he gives the impression he has all the answers.
When we set down all we know about God and His works, it is surely insignificant, for the human mind cannot comprehend the greatness of Deity, and God's truth is also capable of continued expansion. Eternity will be all too short for us to understand the love and majesty of the One who has redeemed us. Many years ago the messenger of the Lord said, "We have no great men among us, and none need try to make themselves what they are not." "The Lord bids me counsel them to walk humbly and prayerfully with Him. . . . Be willing to be little men handling great sub jects."—Evangelism, p. 134. (Italics supplied.)
Of him who prepared the way of the Lord, we read: "John had risen to the height of self-abnegation. He sought not to attract men to himself, but to lift their thoughts higher and still higher, until they should rest upon the Lamb of God."—Gospel Workers, p. 56. And John was the prototype of this Advent Movement.
To be a minister in this movement is the highest privilege possible, but we must beware lest pride and self-satisfaction cause us to stumble. Learning the art of walking with God requires all the grace and humility possible to the human heart. "And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8).
R. A. A.
"BLOWING IN THE WIND
THERE is a well-known folk song that poses problem after problem and leaves listener and singer just as confused at the end of the lyric as at the beginning, for having filled one's mind with a variety of issues, the singer can only assure us that "the answer is blowing in the wind."
There is a well-known television quiz program entitled "Issues and Answers." After listening through the years to this highly informative program, my own conclusion is that they pose more issues than answers, and that the guests selected sometimes spend more time evading answers than giving them.
Our world is full of problems and most of us are aware of them. We need little preaching that will simply tell the world how bad it is without proposing solutions to our delinquency. The great need of the world today is for answers. The often frantic search for satisfaction in forbidden paths is but a pathetic cry of needy souls for solutions!
Thank God, the Bible does give answers and the Scriptures hold solutions. You, man of God, do you believe this? Do you believe in your message? Do you believe in your Master? Do you believe in your movement? Then in God's name give the world the answers that it seeks. It matters not that they ignore you or reject you or persecute you. Give the message you must, and now, or a million souls will rise up at the last judgment and curse you to your face.
E.E.C.
