TOPICAL SERMONS

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04600640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000066" FACE="Arial" ><B>BOOK OF JOB</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><B>    |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Content"><U>My Content</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Album"><U>Photo Album</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Favorite Links"><U>Favorite Links</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JOHNS GOSPEL"><U>JOHN'S GOSPEL</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PSALMS"><U>PSALMS</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EASTER"><U>EASTER</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SERMONS ON MARK"><U>SERMONS ON MARK</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 2"><U>MARK 2</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 3"><U>MARK 3</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 4 THRU 6"><U>MARK 4 THRU 6</U></A>   |   <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF JOB"><U>BOOK OF JOB</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 7 THRU 12"><U>MARK 7 THRU 12</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MARK 13 THRU 16"><U>MARK 13 THRU 16</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BOOK OF REVELATION"><U>BOOK OF REVELATION</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SONG OF SOLOMON"><U>SONG OF SOLOMON</U></A>   |   <B>TOPICAL SERMONS</B>   |   <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="GODS NATURE"><U>GOD'S NATURE</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="JAMES"><U>JAMES</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IJOHN"><U>IJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id34.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIJOHN"><U>IIJOHN</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IIIJOHN"><U>IIIJOHN</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>THE PRAISE OF LAUGHTER  Based on Psa. 126:1-6</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>BIRDS OF THE BIBLE</B></div> <div> <B>Based on Gen.1:20-23</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>DREAM DISCOVERY</B></div> <div> <B>BASED ON GENESIS 28:8-22</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>DREAMS CAN COME TRUE  Based on Gen. 37:2-20</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>EARTHQUAKES EXAMINED Based on Acts 16:22-34</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>ENCOURAGING TO GOD    HEB. 11:1-7</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF MARVELOUS GRACE  II PETER 1:2</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE MISSING INGREDIENT=JOY</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE GREATEST LOVE STORY based on John 3:16</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>IS MARRIAGE FOREVER?  based on Matt. 22:23-33</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE WINGS OF THE WIND   BASED ON PSALM 104:1-12</B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>TOPICAL SERMONS</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE PRAISE OF LAUGHTER  Based on Psa. 126:1-6</B></div> <div> <B>By Pastor Glenn Pease</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Have you ever praised God for the enjoyment of laughter?  Some of the greatest of God's people have.  When Theodore Cuyler, the American preacher, visited the great London preacher, Charles Spurgeon, they told each other the crazy things that happened in their respective ministries.  They enjoyed their laughter as they walked in the woods, and they were about exhausted after so many amusing stories.  Spurgeon said, "Let's kneel down and praise God for laughter."  So these two great men of God knelt together and thanked God for this gift.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     If we are to love God with our whole being, then it follows that we are love God even with our laughter.  They were praising God for the gift of laughter.  In Psa. 126 we see God's people praising Him with the gift of laughter.  The Israelites were so filled with the delight that they were no longer captives, but free citizens back in their home land.  They laughed out loud with joy.  It would be hard to laugh and sing at the same time, but verse 2 puts them together, and their mouth is filled with laughter, and their tongues with songs of joy.  Maybe they would tell stories of their joyful return, and then laugh together, and break into songs of praise for God's providential guidance in their lives.  All we know is they were a happy people, and their laughter was a part of their praise to God.  Laughter is another aspect of the physiology of praise, for it is a bodily function whereby the heart and mind manifest their feelings and thoughts.   </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Dr. Paul Rees tells of the Christian businessman traveling to St. Louis who left his hotel on Sunday morning looking for a place to worship.  He asked a policeman for direction to the nearest Protestant church.  When he gave him the information he asked why he had recommended that particular church out of several possibilites.  The policeman smiled and replied, "I'm not a church man myself, but the people who come out of that church are the happiest looking church people in St. Louis.  I thought that would be the kind of church you would like to attend."  Laughter and smiling make a statement to the world about the God we worship.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      There is one well known pastor in a large church in California who always ends his sermon with a joke.  It is so that people go out laughing.  That can seem somewhat sacriligious, and it can be inappropriate for some themes, but there is n escaping the truth that laughter is a powerful witness to the good things God has done for us.  The nations round about Israel were impressed with their laughter and joy, and they had to confess that the Lord has done great things for them.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     God is glorified among those outside His family when those inside are full of laughter and songs of joy.  Praise like this is not just for their own self enjoyment. </B></div> <div> <B>It is a powerful tool for evangelism, for people want to know a God who can bring joy and laughter into their lives.  D. L. Moody said, "If Christians are gloomy and cast down, and not full of praise, the world will reject their Gospel.  It is not good news if it does not produce praise in those who have it.  Praise, joy, and laughter are a big part of our witness to the world."  A Lord who never gives laughter to His people is not appealing, but is appaling.  He is seen more as a tyrant and task master rather than a loving heavenly Father who leads His family to enjoy the fun of life, and to laugh at the funnies of life.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There are serious times in life where laughter is inappropriate, but all to often Christians have assumed that worship is one of those times that must always be somber and solumn, and not a fun time.  Time with our earthly father can be a time of rolling on the floor, tickling and telling jokes, and having a good time.  But spending time with our heavenly Father is not to be fun, but only serious.  It seems to be irreverent to laugh and carry on with hilarious songs of joy.  Yet, these are the kinds of activities that we see in the worship songs in the Old Testament.  You have to be childlike to enjoy this sort of thing, but we have grown out of that into sophisticated adults where solemnity is the only mood we feel is appropriate.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The paradox is that the people who have used the Psalms for their hymnal have been the most solumn of Christians.  Ellen Glasgow in her autobiography tells of her father who was a Presbyterian elder who was full of rectitude and rigid with duty.  She writes, "He was entirely unselfish, and in his long life he never commited a pleasure."  Many godly Presbyterians, and other Purtian type Christians, were trained to avoid all smiling and signs of enjoyment in the house of </B></div> <div> <B>God.  Worship was serious business, and woe be the bottom of any child caught laughing.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The devil, no doubt, split a side laughing at his success in blinding Christians to the message of their own songs, which were inspired by God, and which indicated He gets the same pleasure out of His children laughing as we get out of ours.  There are few things in life cuter than a laughing child.  We know God feels the same, and Bildad was right when he said to Job in Job 8:21, "He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy."  Eccles. 10:19 says, "A feast is made for laughter..."  You cannot have a feast without a lot of food, but if everybody just sits silently eating, it is still not a feast, for there has to be merriment in conversation, and jokes that lead to laughter to make it a feast.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The Bible links laughter to joy and to feasting, and these are both vast subjects in the Bible, making laughter a major aspect of the godly life.  A study of all the Hebrew words dealing with laughter revealed 91 references to either mocking or merry laughter.  It is a major part of life, and it is a major part of the biblical depiction of life.  Let's keep in mind that laughter is not just a response to humor.</B></div> <div> <B>It is also a response to pleasure.  It may be physical pleasure, or the mental pleasure of good news, or the phychological pleasure of any positive exciting event.</B></div> <div> <B>People don't just cry at weddings, they also laugh for joy.  They laugh with pleasure when they see their team make a clever play and score.  They laugh in endless ways at that which is pleasurable.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Amazement and wonder, which are so much a part of biblical worship, are also capable of producing laughter if we let ourselves express the pleasure in such wonder.  It is not just the silly, but the sublime, that can lead to laughter.  There are records of early Christians getting so excited about the truth of Easter that they laughed, and it became a common phrase to talk of Easter laughter.  In the Greek Orthodox tradition the day after Easter was a time to gather and tell jokes and stories.  Laughter was their way of celebrating the big joke God played on Satan.</B></div> <div> <B>It was funny how God tricked Satan and conquered hell by means of death.  Satan thought the cross was his victory, but it spelled his doom, and allowed Jesus to enter His kingdom and take the keys of death and hell from him.  It was the most serious business of all history, and yet it was the basis for laughter, because God used Satan's greatest evil to accomplish His own greatest good.  </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>     Abraham and Sarah were so amazed that they could have a child in their old age that they laughed.  It was such a wonder that they named their baby Issac, which means laughter.  It was funny for a 90 year old woman to have a baby.  It was so unusal and odd that it produced both wonder and laughter.  We had an experience like this once when our grandson Jason was about 10 months old.  We had a dog named Cuddles who could leap into the air and catch a frizbee.  When Jason saw that he burst into laughter that was so deep it came all the way from his toes.  Lavonne and I exploded with laughter at his laughter, for we had never heard anything quite like it.  We kept at it until we were exhausted.  It was the perfect state of happiness.  A child's laughter had the power to produce a worshipful spirit, for it made us thankful to God for His gift of life, and he gift of love and of laughter.   It is rare when laughter can produce that kind of pleasure and gratitude to God, but Psa. 126 reveals that it is a God ordained experience.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This Psalm is not dealing with an everyday experience.  They had been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years, and they had not spent a lot of that time laughing and singing.  But now they are back home, and it is like a dream.  This is the only place in all the Psalms where the word dream is found.  They were in a state that seemed to good to be real.  After 70 years of exile where it seemed hopeless to ever return, they are now free and at home.  Pinch me, they are saying, I must be dreaming, for this can't be real.  This was a way of describing what seemed to good to be true.  Polybius described the joy of the Greeks when they were unexpectedly rescued from the Macedonians.  "Most of the men could scarcely believe the news, but imagined themselves in a dream as they listened to what was said, so extraordinary and miraculous it seemed to them."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The saying is, if it seems to good to be true, it probably isn't true.  This is a valid view to take when looking for investments, but lets not forget the Gospel itself falls into this catagory.  It is hard for people to believe that they can be set free from all their sins and guilt by trusting in Jesus Christ, and believing that His death paid the judgment they deserve.   It is like a dream to hear you can be liberated from bondage to all the sins that keep you captive to powers over which you have no control.  Many hear the Gospel and their response is, "What a joke!"  And they laugh it to scorn.  The Bible is full of this response to the things of God.  Mocking, and skeptical laughter is very common in the Old Testament, and Jesus had His share of it too.  But what we seldom see is the other side:  The laughter of belief, and the laughter of acceptance.  Martin Luther said, "The Gospel is nothing else than laughter enjoy."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There are only two kinds of people in the world:  Those who laugh at God, and those who laugh with God.  If you laugh with God, you will laugh at those who laugh at God.  From God's point of view the most rediculous thing in the universe is people who choose to fight against Him.  You would laugh too if a little two year old threatened to beat you up.  It would be rediculous in your sight.  In Psa. 2 we read of the kings who gathered together against the Lord, and verse 4 says, "The One enthroned in heaven laughs..."  In Psa. 37 we read of the wicked plotting against the wicked and verse 13 says, "But the Lord laughs at the wicked for He knows their day is coming."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     There are other verses that both God and the righteous laugh at the folly of the wicked who expect their evil ways to prevail.  Righteous laughter has two sides.  There is laughter at the undeserved joy of being in on God's grace, and there is laughter at the stupidity of those who think the way of evil is better than the way of grace.  There is no end to the things for Christians to laugh about.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The prophets are always making fun of the folly of idolatry.  The joke of the age was the idol maker who cuts down a tree, and with part of the wood he roasts his meat, and with another part he makes a god.  Human nature is silly beyond comprehension, for it will bow down to a piece of wood, and ignore the God who made the wood, and man, and all the universe.  The prophets did not hesitate to make jokes about such religious stupidity.   Elijah went so far as to be rather crude in his mockery of religious folly.  When the 450 prophets of Baal were crying out for the god Baal to hear them and send fire on the sacrifice, there was no response all morning, and they began to dance around the altar.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Elijah thought the whole scene was a major comedy of errors, and he began to mock.  I share with you the Living Bible's version of his mockery because it brings out the rudeness of the Hebrew, which most versions hide as being to offensive.  I Kings 18:27 reads, "About noon time, Elijah began mocking them.  You'll have to shout louder than that, he scoffed, to catch the attention of your god!  Perhaps he is talking to someone, or is out sitting on the toliet, or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Humor is used as a major weapon by the prophets against the folly of worshipping idols and false gods.  Laughter is a powerful weapon, and Jesus used it often in His ministry to fight the corruption that the Pharisees had brought into Judaism.  This is a vast study in itself, but let me give you one paragraph from Conrad Hyers book, And God Created Laughter.  He wrote this in 1987, and he says, "The Bible pokes fun at human pride and pretension, selfishness and greed, and the myriad other sins to which flesh and spirit are heir.  Jesus freely used humor, irony, and satire to that end.  His descriptions of the hypocrisies of the Pharisees use overtly humorous images: the blind leading the blind; straining out a gnat, then swallowing a camel; meticulously cleaning the outside of a cup while leaving the inside flithy; maintaining whitewashed tombs that are outwardly beautiful but inwardly full of dead bones; loudly honoring past prophets while plotting to kill present ones who preach the same message." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Elton Trueblood wrote an entire book called The Humor Of Christ.  He deals with the 30 passages in the Gospels where Jesus uses humor.  We hardly to never laugh at these passages because we have been conditioned to never see Jesus as humorous.  Jesus can talk all He wants to about the laughable nonsense of man-made religion, and He can talk of His joy being ours, and being filled with the spirit of joy, and that life with Him is a wedding banquet, but we have been so conditioned by tradition that we will not be able to join Him in laughter.  He is the man of sorrows to most.  But this was only a small fraction of His life.  Out of His 33 years of life, He was only the man of sorrows for a matter of hours.  These were crucial hours, to be sure, but they so captivated the history of art and theology that Christians have lost the picture of His total life, which was filled with much joy and laughter.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     The laughter in Psa. 126 is special laughter.  It is laughter that is incorporated</B></div> <div> <B>into joyful worship.  It is praise laughter.  John Calvin writes of this Psalm, "He would have the people so to rejoice on account to their return, as not to bury in forgetfulness the grace of God.  He therefore describes no ordinary rejoicing, but such as so fills their minds as to constrain them to break forth into extravagance of gesture and of voice."  This extravagant laughter is the laughter of restoration.  It is the laughter that was heard in the home of the Prodigal when he returned, and there was music, dancing, and joyous laughter, for light won out over darkness, and the son who was dead and gone is now resurrected and restored to life and family.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     This is just a taste of the eternal laughter in the Father's house, where all evil will be overcome, and there will be praise laughter forever.  This is what Jesus was referring to in Luke 6:21 where He said, "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh."  The Gospel of laughter is this: no matter how rough life is, and how much sorrow its fallenness brings to you personally, there will be victory in Christ, and eternal rejoicing and laughter.  God's people will have the last laugh, and it will never end.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     For 70 years the nations laughed at Israel, for they were in bondage, but now they are back, and they are so blest that even the nations that laughed have to admit that God has done great things for them.  The point is, you never let go of the hand of God no matter how awful and dark the path, for even if you go through the valley of shadow of death He will bring you out again into the sunshine.  He will fill your mouth with laughter and songs of joy.  Judgment is never the last word for those who cling to their heavenly Father.  The last word will always be joy.  In essense, that is the message of the book of Job.  It is a book loaded with lament, but the last word is laughter, and the happy ending of joy in God is the bottom line message of the Word of God.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Laughter is, therefore, a present taste of heaven.  It can be an appropriate way to rejoice in the Lord and praise Him for the great things He has done for us.  Yet, in spite of all the evidence of this in the Bible we just can't accept laughter as a legitimate form of worship and praise, because it has been secularized.  There are many books written on the humor of the Bible, and the humor of Jesus, but these books have little impact on Christians because we are conditioned to reject comedy as inconsistant with godliness.  Comedy, humor, and satire run all through the Bible, but God's people refuse to take it seriously, and to talk about laughter in worship is considered to be borderline sacreligious.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Surveys show that one of the key qualities that both males and females are looking for in an ideal mate is a sense of humor.  Yet, when we look to the God in whose image we are made, we are afraid to attribute to Him a sense of humor, and likewise with His Son, who was the only perfect specimen of mankind ever to live.  God and Jesus are suppose to be totally humorless and infinite in gravity, and so in all dealings with them we too are to be totally humorous and grave.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Great authors have fought this tendency all through history.  In the middle ages you have Dante's title Divine Comedy.  It is a journey from a humorless hell to a humor filled heaven.  His hell is like the modern astronomer's  black hole which swallows up all light, and is black with self-centeredness.  It is the least comic place in the universe.  But Dante moves from this black hole of hell to the light of heaven, where love and joy are all embracing.  Dante exclaims as he approaches the 8th level of heaven: "I seemed to see the universe alight with a single smile."  The nearer we get to heaven the wider the smile, and the greater the laughter.  This is an authentic biblical message.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     When Adam and Eve fell they fell from laughter by taking themselves too seriously.  Satan did not get to them by getting them to engage in enjoying their abundance to excess.  He got them to focus on their one area of denial, and become serious about this issue.  They were deprived.  They were being mistreated.  Life was unfair.  Pride was exalted, and a rebellious spirit took over.  Their deadly serious attitude lead them to lose heaven on earth, and gain a hell on earth.  Laughter is a focus on the things to celebrate about life.  Laughter is the is the guest at parties, feasts, reunions, weddings, birthdays, and holidays.  People are saying yes to life in laughter, and they are enjoying their life and their loves.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Remove laughter, and start taking all of life very serious, and you will focus on the fear, the dangers, and the risks.  Problems will grow, and obstacles will rise up to make life a mountain climb of extreme difficulty.  The less laughter in your life, the more you will make life a burden rather than a blessing.  C. S. Lewis wrote, "Humor involves a sense of proportion and a power of seeing yourself from the outside.  Whatever else we attribute to beings who sinned through pride, we must not attribute this....We must picture Hell as a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has a grievance, and where everyone lives the deadly serious passions of envy, self-importance and resentment."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     In contrast to this we look at the early Christians in the book of Acts, and we see just the opposite of this serious self-centeredness.  We see joyful otherness as they shared together, and cared about the whole body, and not jus their own life.  I was surprised when I looked up the word gladness in Acts 2:46-47.  Listen to the context:  "Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts.  They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      My surprise was this:  There are 9 different Hebrew and Greek words behind our English word gladness, but the most forceful of them all is the one in this text.  It is the word agalliasis.  It is a word of such overwhelming gladness that it can't remain just a feeling.  It has to be expressed by the body in leaping for joy.  Jesus used it in Matt. 5:12 where he says when you suffer persecution and evil because of Him, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven."  You can laugh at those who hurt you for your faith in Christ, for every pain they inflict is a deposit in your eternal bank account.  You can laugh even though it hurts, because in their efforts to make you miserable they are really making you rich.  This is one of God's jokes on a fallen rebellious world.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Peter uses this same strong word in his sermon at Pentecost as he quotes the Old Testament passage which describes the death and resurrection of the Messiah.  Listen carefully because we miss the amazing message of Peter that Jesus could laugh at death and hell, and be filled with gladness as He faced the cross, for He knew God's big joke was to be the resurrection.  The pain would be temporary, but the pleasure would be forever.  Listen to all the positive words that surround the awful death Jesus had to endure.  Remember, the word glad here means to leap for joy.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Acts 2:25-28:  "I saw the Lord always before me.  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.  Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body  also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.  You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence."  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      Jesus actually did what He said we could do.  He practiced what He preached.  When evil threw its worst at Him, He laughed and leaped for joy, for He knew His reward was eternal pleasure, not only for himself, but for all the redeemed.  The biggest joke in the universe is that God took the greatest act of evil in history, and turned it into the greatest act of salvation.  The cross was the devil's masterpiece of hate and horror, but God  made it the greatest symbol of love and victory.  We can look at the cross and laugh with God, for the cross is the guarantee that all tears will be wiped away, and sin and sorrow be no more in that kingdom where we will laugh and leap for joy forever.  It was that scene of eternal joy that enabled Jesus to endure the cross. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>      Heb. 12:2 says, " Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Jesus could endure hell for us because He could see beyond it to the laughter of heaven.  This is also the key to our enduring a fallen world.  It is the joy of the Lord that is our strength, and that joy can be manifested in the praise of laughter.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B> </B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> GEN. 1:20-23    <B>BIRDS OF THE BIBLE</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      Edwin Markham the great poet one day told his five year old boy Virgil that there is poetry in everything--a tree, a board, a stone, a cliff; in food and drink or day and dark--in everything.  Virgil stood looking out the window, and he saw a birds nest.  He urged his father to come and look, and said defiantly, "there's a bird's nest, father!  Let's see you write a poet about it!"  Markham accepted the challenge.  He sat down and wrote one of the most beautiful poems of his career.</div> <bR> <div>           There are three green eggs in a small brown pocket, </div> <div>           And the breeze will swing and the gale will rock it,</div> <div>           Till three little birds on the thin edge teeter, </div> <div>           And our God be glad and the world be sweeter!</div> <bR> <div>      This poem is  biblical in content for the Bible supports that broad statement that the birth of birds makes God glad and the world sweeter.  When God created the birds He saw that it was good, and he blessed them and commanded them to muliply on the earth.  They obeyed,  and there are now between 8 and 9 thousand different kinds of birds on the earth.  God is a lover of beauty and variety.  </div> <bR> <div>      The value of birds is not limited to their being objects of beauty to inspire poetry, however.  In Gen. 1:26 God made man to have dominion over the birds of the air.  Man has done this, and has used birds for a variety of practical values.  All through history birds have been a great help to man, and they have saved many lives.  In the ancient world of the East they were so important for clearing the land of dead animals and insects that laws were passed authorizing the death penalty for anyone to who killed them.  They were man's orginial garbage disposals.  Today they  play a health role by being used for experiments.  </div> <bR> <div>       There military value has been known for centuries.  Few people realize that birds helped the allies defeat Germany.  England had between 50 and 75 thousand birds in military service.  Every bomber carried one or two pigeons to race back with and SOS in case of trouble.  Dived bombing hawks were trained to knock German carrier pigeons out of the sky.  Others were trained to help and see rescue work, and are credited with saving many Bristish and American lives.  </div> <bR> <div>      We are all aware of the increase use of birds as pets, and of trained birds for entertainment in the circus.  The question for us, however,  is not, do birds have a variety of poetic and practical values, but do they have theological values?  That is, do they play an important enough role in God's word to justify the use of pulpit time for their consideration?  Can a sermon the the birds be Biblical and valuable in fullfilling a Biblical purpose?  The answer is, not only is a Biblical sermon on birds possible, it is essential if one is to proclaim the whole counsel of God.  Birds play a role in Scripture that is beyond the imagination of the average Christian.  There are three hundred references to birds in the Bible, and many of them with significant messages.  If we are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, then we must give  some time to the study of birds.  Many of the great Bible characters were birds lovers and much of the finest bird poetry has been written by Christians.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus was a bird lover, and bird watcher, and used these feathered friends often in His teaching.  In fact, He used them more than any other creature.  Alice Parmelee, in her book, ALL THE BIRDS OF THE BIBLE, writes, "The Bible is rich in its appreciation of nature, but it contains nothing to equal Jesus' awareness of the wonder and beauty and meaning of creation.  All nature was to him a finger pointing to God."  It is by His authority and command that we are studying the birds.  In Matt. 6:26 as Jesus sat on the hillside teaching He pointed to the birds overhead and said, "Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?" Jesus points our eyes to the birds as illustrations of God's care.  He also said not a sparrow falls without God's knowledge.  When he sought for an illustration of what he wanted His disciples to be, He urged them to be wise as serpents but harmless as doves.  He used birds in His parables of the sower and the mustard seed, and on other occasions which we shall see later.  </div> <bR> <div>      The key text is Matt. 23:37 where Jesus compares His love and compassion for Israel to the love of a mother hen.  He said, "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not."  In this verse Jesus takes on Himself the image of God in the Old Testament where wings are constantly referred to as the believers place of protection.  </div> <div> Psalm 17:8 "Hide me in the shadow of your wings" cries David as he seeks a refuge.</div> <div> Psalm 36:7 "The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings."</div> <div> Psalm 61:4 "O to be safe under the shelter of of your wings."</div> <div> Psalm 63:7 "In the shadow of your wings I sing for joy."  And there are many others.</div> <bR> <div>      Bird life and theology are linked together all through the Bible.  The Third Person of the Trinity-the Holy Spirit, is symbolized as a dove.  He took upon Himself the form of a dove at the baptism of Jesus.  The very first image we have of God in the Bible is in Gen. 1:2 where we see the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters.  The image is of a bird without spread wings fluttering over its nest protectively.  The Hebrew word here is the very same word used in Deut. 32:11 where we read of God's care for Israel.  "Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young."  This image has found its way into numerous hymns.  Under His Wings is the best known, but we sing of God's wings often.  Here are a few examples.  </div> <div> 1.  "Praise ye the Lord who ov'er all things so wondrously reigneth,</div> <div>        Shelters the under His wings, Yea, so gently sustainth.  </div> <div> 2.  "How oft in grief hath he not brought relief, </div> <div>        Spreading His wings for to shade thee."</div> <div> 3.  "Be not demayed what'er betide, God will take care of you.</div> <div>        Beneath His wings of love abide, God will take care of you."</div> <bR> <div>      We see that not only the Bible, but our hymnology also is filled with bird imagery.  </div> <div> People in Bible lands, in Bible times were more conscious of birds than we are.  They were closer to nature, and there way of life lead them to observe the birds.  In what use to be Canaan, and then Palestine, and which is now Israel, there are 360 to 400 speices of birds.  The land is only 140 miles long, and so a high flying eagle can actually see the whole length of the land from Dan to Beersheba.  The Bible has 50 different Hebrew and Greek names for birds of that land.  </div> <bR> <div>       God gave laws to His people concerning birds.  In Deut. 22:6-7 we read, "If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.</div> <div> You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that is may go well with you and you may have a long life."  God takes birds so seriously that obedience to His concern about them leads to the same blessing as respect for ones parents.  Motherhood is sacred not just in human life, but in bird life as well.  The ideas of animal sanctuaries, game preserves, and humane societies all grow out of God's love for, and compassion for birds and animals.  God even made His temple a bird sanctuary.  In Psalm 84:3-4 we read, "Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.  Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you."  Here we see birds and  believers together in the temple praising their creator.  </div> <bR> <div>      We cannot begin to cover all that the Bible says about birds, but we want to start at the beginning and go as far as we can.  This first chapter of Genesis tells us that God created birds before man, and so birds are older than man, and lived on earth before man, and this fits the facts of science.  They have seniority in time, but man was made to have dominion over them--to raise them, kill them, eat them, train them, enjoy them, for they are for man.  </div> <bR> <div>      In Gen. 2:19-20 we come upon the father of bird watchers and ornithology.  This passage says Adam gave names to all the birds of the air.  Adam had to observe and study the birds to give them fitting names.  God expected man to study all of nature for this was the only way he could have dominion over it.  As we move on the drama of the fall of man we do not see birds playing any role.  Birds cannot choose to defy God.  They remain loyal to God, and when man is put out of the garden of Eden, the birds continue to enjoy its beauty and fruit. </div> <bR> <div>       God in Jer. 8:7 contrasts the obedience of birds with the disobedience of men.  "Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration.  But my people do not know the requirements of the Lord."  God is the greatest bird watcher of all, for He gets delight from them even when men are a great disappointment.  God glories in His creation, and in Psalm 50:10-11 God says with a sense of honest pride that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and then adds, "I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine."  Don't knock the birds, for they give God pleasure, for they did not fall as man did. </div> <bR> <div>       When God's cup of wrath was filled, and He destroyed man in the flood, all living creatures had to suffer and die with man, but birds were preserved in the Ark along with man and all other creatures.  When the Ark came to rest, the roll of birds is maginfied.  They became the stars of the drama, and Noah was dependent on them.  Only a bird could find land and be a messenger in those unique conditions of a flooded world.  All human and animal life was helpless.  Only a bird could be of any use.  The bird, therefore, has the honor of being the first valuable servant of man after the world was destroyed.  The bird to have this honor, plus the honor of being the first mentioned in the Bible is the raven.  In Gen. 8:6-7 we read, "After 40 days Noah opened the window he had made in the Ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up on the earth." </div> <bR> <div>       Noah had become a bird watcher in the Ark, if he was not one before, for he knew the nature of the raven and decided it was the bird most likely to suceed.  It is the bird that uses its brain the most.  It can be taught to say a few words.  It can fly long distances without stopping and has no fear of storms.  It was also the bird most likely to return with something it found.  They loved to pick up things and they are very attached to their mates and remain united for life.  But the raven apparently perched on top of the Ark, going to and fro until the water dried up and never came back inside.  Some have concluded that the raven failed Noah, and even deserted him.  Stories have developed saying that the raven was once white, but was turned black as punishment for deserting Noah.  Bird lovers, however, know that the ravens sin is only in the imagination of the critic, for the Bible reveals admiration for the raven as well as the dove.  In the Song of Songs 5:11-12 we read the description of a handsome lover.  "His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.  His eyes are like doves by the waters streams, ...."  Black like a raven is a compliment like tall, dark and handsome.  </div> <bR> <div>      The proof that Noah's choice was wise and that the raven did not fail is found in the fact that when God wanted a feathered servant to do a job, he also selected the raven.  In I Kings 17 we read of God telling Elijah to hide by the brook Cherith, and in verse four He says, "You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there."  The obedience of the ravens was swift, and verse 6 says, "The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook."  The tradition of the ravens being helpful passed down even through pagan sources.  And anceint Babylonian tablet has this inscription--"A raven, the bird that helpth the Gods."  Shakespeare picked up this on this idea in THE WINTER TALE.  He has a character say as he is forced to expose an infant to death, "Come on poor babe:  Some powerful spirit instruct the kites and ravens to be thy nurses."  </div> <bR> <div>      The raven is a symbol of God's care, and it is singled out as the bird that God makes sure to get fed.  In Job 38:41 we read, "Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food."  Psalm 147:9 says, "He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call."   Most interesting of all is the fact that Jesus singles them out also, and in Luke 12:24 says, "Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no store room or barn; yet God feeds them.  And how much more valuable you are than birds!" </div> <bR> <div>        Jesus tells us to consider the raven--look at them--study them, and seek God's care for them, and learn that He cares more for you.  This makes it clear that it is right, and even a part of God's will, that ravens find food according to their habits as God made them.  It is not evil that raven eat dead and rotting animals. Their association  with death has lead to them becoming known as birds of doom.  We could spend an hour just looking at the superstitions connected with ravens.  The only negative thing in the Bible is that they are on the list of birds not to be eaten in Lev. 11:13-19.  There are 20 birds in that list which are an abomination.  This simply means they were unfit for human consumption.  They were the fish and flesh eaters, and their meat was just not good.  </div> <bR> <div>      The ravens habit of eating the eyes of its victims first has led to numerous references in literature.  The proverb is, "Nourish a raven and he will scratch out thine eyes."  Children were warned to obey their parents or the raven would get their eyes.  The origin of this is Proverbs 30:17.  "The eye that mocks a father, that scorns obedience to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley...."  This is equivalant to the saying of our day, be good or the ghost will get you.  The raven is associated with ghosts all through history.  In Swedish folklore ravens are the ghosts of murdered people who have not had christian burial.  In Russia, a witche's spirit takes the form of a raven.  Pagan folklore uses the raven for an evil symbol.  In some cases they are lucky, but are usually symbols of bad luck.  Swainson writes, </div> <div>                                    To see one raven is lucky, tis true,</div> <div>                                     But its certain misfortune to light upon two,</div> <div>                                     And meeting with three is the devil!</div> <bR> <div>      The Bible should keep Christians from having any of many foolish superstitions of the pagan world in connection with ravens.  The raven is a faithful servant of God, and the first pioneer to fly into the new world from Noah's ark.  Let us use this knowledge to stir up interest in the word of God.  Time does not allow us to study the second bird Noah let loose from the ark.  There are at least 46 references to this most famous Bible bird, the dove.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Bible is a literal aviary filled with feathered friends and facinating facts to give the Christian a foundation for speaking of God's glory at the sight of any bird.  Every wing in the sky is a flying witness to the care and providence of God.  William Cullen Bryant, as a young man, was discouraged about his future as he walked across the hills.  His eye caught a solitary bird winging its way over the horizon.  This sight inspired him and he wrote his famous poem, "To a Waterfoul."  It is long,  but one stanza goes like this--</div> <div>                           He who from zone to zone, </div> <div>                           Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,</div> <div>                           In the long way that I must tread alone, </div> <div>                           Will lead my steps aright.</div> <div>   </div> <div>      A bird spoke to him of God's providential guidence, and he was encouraged, and his faith was uplifted.  This was no accident, for God intends for birds to be His messengers.  The saying, "A little birdie told me," comes from the Bible.  In Eccles. 10:20 we are warned to be aware of evil thoughts and words, "...because a bird of the air may carry your words and a bird on the wing may report what you say."  There is just no getting around the importance of the role of birds.  God loves birds and birds love God.  There are thousands of bird lovers who could be led  to love their creator if Christians would learn more about what the Bible says about them and share it with people.  Jesus said, "Behold the birds of the air, "with the idea in mind that we would learn from them the values he intends to convey through them.  </div> <div> Let us be aware that the study of birds is not for the birds, but is for the glory of God.   </div> <bR> <bR> <div> HARMLESS AS DOVES  MATT.  10:16</div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      A small boy sat by the side of a pool fishing.  "What are you fishing for," asked a man who passed by.  "Sharks," replied the boy.  "But there are no sharks in that pool my little man,"  said the stranger.  "There ain't any fish in this pool at all," answered the boy.  "So I might as well fish for sharks as anything else."  </div> <bR> <div>     Children have a vivid imagination, and this is certainly one of the characteristics Jesus had in mind when He said men must become as little children before they can enter the kingdom of heaven.  Imagination is the eye of the soul.  Without it we are, as Beecher once said, "And observatory without a telescope."  You cannot enter into the world of great literature and poetry without imagination.  Robert Louis Stevenson discussed every sentence of Treasure Island with his schoolboy step-son before giving it its final form.  He knew that if his story was to be great he had to appeal to the imagination of youth.  Einstein said that even in science, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."  Imagination is the key to great discoveries in every realm of life, including the spiritual.  John Davidson wrote, </div> <div>           That minister of ministers, Imagination, gathers up--</div> <div>           The undiscovered Universe, Like Jewels in a jasper cup.</div> <bR> <div>       No one can begin to understand the teaching of Christ without imagination.  Jesus constanly spoke in parables, and used imagery that would leave a man in the dark who did not have the illumination of a childlike imagination.  The common people heard Jesus gladly because he did not speak in abstract theological terms, but in common pictures that appealed to the imagination.  The kingdom of heaven, he said, was like a man sowing seed, like a woman putting leven in bread, like a merchant in search of fine pearls.  Or else he would say, it is like a musturd seed, or treasure buried in a field, or like a net thrown into the sea gathering fish of every kind.</div> <bR> <div>      Jesus took His illustrations from life, and from nature, and appealed to the imagination. He did so because God made nature the greatest resource for material for visual aids in religious education. Jesus also knew what modern psychology has discovered-that the imagination is more powerful than the will. Win a man's imagination and he is your captive. Great leaders must appeal to the imagination of their followers to hold their allegiance. Napoleon said the human race is governed by its imagination. </div> <bR> <div>      On an individual level you can demonstrate this easily. Take a ten inch plank and put it on the ground and walk from one end to the other. It is simple. But put the same plank across two buildings ten stories up and you could no longer do that simple act. Your imagination would fill your head with visions of falling and it would leave you powerless. Modern psychology says that whenever the will and the imagination come into conflict the imagination always wins. This means that a mind filled with visions of tragedy and evil around the corner cannot be set at rest by good news and positive signs.  The imagination reigns and makes them pessimistic inspite of all evidence to the contrary.  On the other hand, fill the imagination with pictures of glory and victory, and all the storms of hell will not be able to blow you off the pleasant path of obtimistic assurance.  That is why the book of Revelation is so precious to Christian in persecution.  Its vivid scences of glory around the throne of God, and the victory songs of Christ and all His saints wins the imagination over and makes it a friend rather than an enemy in the battle of life.  </div> <bR> <div>      This means that a Christian generally lives on a level that corresponds with his imagination.  If it is weak, he will be like the man of whom Macaulay said, "His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich.  It enabled him to run, though not to soar."  The Christian, however, is never to be content with wings that do not lift him aloft.  We are meant to mount up with wings like an eagle.  We are to have asperations like David who wrote in Psalm 55:6, "O that I had wings like a dove!  I would fly away and be at rest."  These wings of the dove, that David longed for, are available to all believers who have the imagination to appropriate them.  Ever since the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, theology has been linked to the wings of the dove.  Spurgeon pointed out that many astounding sermons have been preached on the dove.  All history has been ransaked for facts and fables about doves, and they have been used to teach lessons of Christian truth.</div> <bR> <div>      As far back as the second century Tatian began to speak of the fall of man as the loss of his spirit wings.  These wings are restored to man when he is filled with the heavenly dove--the Holy Spirit.  The wings of the dove came to mean detachment from the world, and from the weight of flesh.  To be sanctified and separated from the world was to rise with the wings of the dove.  In the fourth century, Gregory of Nyssa developed a whole system of Christian mysticism based on the idea of the wings of the dove.  We cannot begin to cover all the references to doves in Christian theology and hymnology, but we want to look at some of the most important Biblical references.  </div> <bR> <div>      If we use our imagination we can see many parallels between literal birds and the work of the Holy Spirit.  As the Holy Spirit hovered over the dark world before it burst into life and light, so He hovers over every life in darkness eager to mother it out of the shell of sin into the world of light, and give it wings to soar.  Charles Wesley put it in poetry--</div> <div>                                         Expand Thy wings  celestial Dove,</div> <div>                                         Brood o'er our nature's night;</div> <div>                                         On our disordered spirits move,</div> <div>                                          And let there now be light.</div> <bR> <div>       After we have been hatched by the Heavenly Dove, which is another way of saying after we have been born again by the spirit of God, we are not through with the concept of the dove in the Christian life.  There is more to the dove than wings.</div> <div> It has character also, and it is the dove's character that Jesus is interested in, in our text.  Jesus is preparing His disciples for the greatest mission of their lives.  It is literally a matter of life or death, for they will face opposition and in tense hatred like they never saw before.  It is no time for light entertainment and small talk.  They need to be given some deep impressions and profound assurances.  It is in a context like this that Jesus twice uses birds to get His message across, and into their imagination.  Birds have lessons of value for the Christian, not just in the hour of gaiety, but in the most crucial hours of life.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus said to them, "Behold," --that is, pay attention to this; get the full and realistic picture of what you are heading into.  "I send you out as sheep in the mist of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent (or harmless) as doves."  The disciples had to have knowledge of four different kinds of creatures to be able to understand an obey Jesus.  He paints a word picture with animals, serpents, and birds--the crawlers, the walkers, and the flyers, all in one little verse.  With imaginative interruptation we could describe how the wolves devoured the sheep in the early centuries.  We could show how many were wise as serpents in obedience to Christ.  We could consider the fascinating fact of how Jesus selected a quality of the serpent for us to imitate even though the serpent, all through Scripture, is a symbol of Satan.  </div> <div> Jesus can find some good for illustration in every creature He has made.  This would be an interesting study, but for now we are limiting our attention to the last of these creatures--the dove.  </div> <bR> <div>      How many Christians face a crisis, and an incounter with the world, with their minds on doves?  A Christian who talked about birds at such a serious point in life would probably be looked upon as being crazy as a loon.  In reality, he would be seeking to take his Lord seriously.  Jesus says the dove has something a Christian needs.  It has a character that is harmless, innocent, blameless, and gentle.  </div> <bR> <div>      The dove is the most Christlike of all the birds.  The dove is the first bird to play a role in the life of Christ.  When Jesus was just a baby, Mary and Joseph brought Him to Jerusalem, and according to the law of Moses, it says in Luke 2:24, they offered a sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.  Doves and pigeons are of the same family.  The law in the Lev. 12:8 says that for those who cannot afford a lamb for atonement and offering of two turtledoves or two pigeons can be a substitute.  This means that Mary and Joseph could not afford a lamb, and so birds were their substitute.  What this means is that Jesus the Lamb of God is also the Dove of God, for both were offered in atonement for sin. </div> <bR> <div>       The dove became a symbol, not only of the Holy Spirit, but of Christ also.  In the middle ages the vessels in which waffers were kept for the Lord's Supper were sometimes made in the form of doves.  The dove was the bird of good news from the beginning.  It brought back the evidence to Noah that the water had departed and land was uncovered.  The ancients carried doves on their ships, for they were often literal saviours of lost men.  When a storm would blow a ship off course, they would release their doves and the direction in which they flew would indicate the way to the nearest land.  Columbus used doves on his ship.  The dove is symbolic of the Saviour in that it is a sacrifice for attonement, and it is a guide to safety.  </div> <bR> <div>      Someone might object that I am taking birds too seriously, and that I have let my imagination run beyond what the Scripture would authorize.  Let us deviate from doves for a few moments, therefore,  and see just how seriously God takes the birds.</div> <div> In Gen. 9 God takes birds so seriously that He includes them in His covenant with Noah never to destroy the world again with a flood.  In verses 8-11 we read, "Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 'I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendents after you and with every living creature that was with you--the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those who came out of the ark with you--every living creature on earth.  I establish my covenant with you:  Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."  </div> <bR> <div>      Samuel Cox, the great Bible expositor once said, "To care for birds, we may even say, is to worship God."  That sounds like a radical statement, and you might wonder if Cox is getting close to idolatry, for God clearly forbids the making of an idol of any winged creature.  On the other hand, if obeying God's commands is a part of the worship of God, then bird care is clearly included.  In Deut. 22:6-7 we read, "If you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young.  You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life."  God takes birds so seriously that He makes the same promise and warning in connection with them as He does with the command to honor one's father and mother.  To disobey God's concern for mother birds can lead to the same judgment as disrespect for your own mother.  Motherhood is sacred in bird life as well as human life.</div> <bR> <div>      The idea of conservation and animal sanctuaries, and game laws, as well as human societies are all based on God's love for His own creation.  It is God's will that man be wise and humane in his dominion over nature.  If his greed leads him to exploit nature, and drain the land of resources, and wipe out certain spieces of birds and animals, he is not just disobeying a government law, but he is defying the law of God as well.  God expects  His people to respect game laws.  Some birds are no doubt flying in Israel today only because of God's laws to protect them.  </div> <bR> <div>      God even went further than this law for the birds.  He provided a sanctuary where no bird could be molested in any way.  God made His temple in Jerusalem a bird sanctuary.  In Psalm 84:3-4 we read, "Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God.  Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you."  Birds and believers together in the house of the Lord praising their Maker, Redeemer and Protector.</div> <bR> <div>      Now all of this has been relveant to our study of the dove and what Jesus wanted us to understand about being harmless as the dove.  If God expects us to be gentle and kind to birds, how much more should we have this attitude toward all people, even to those who approach us like vicious wolves to devour us.  They are still men with a worth infinately greater than that of birds, and we are to like our Lord meet their force with love and gentleness.  The Christian has a responsibility to suffer wrong rather than to inflict it.  The best is to be like a wise serpent and be able to avoid conflict, but if no amount of wisedom can help you escape your oppressor, you are to face him as a dove.  In a showdown where you must either do wrong or suffer wrong, the Chrisitian who obeys Christ will suffer wrong and be innocent of evil.  Jesus is a perfect example of being wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.  He outwitted His foes time and time again,  but when he could no longer escape the cross without forsaking all men to their fate, He let His enemies kill Him.  He went like a lamb, or like a dove, quiet and gentle, though He could have fought and destroyed them all. </div> <bR> <div>      It is not easy to combine the wisdom of the serpent and the innocent gentleness of the dove, but Jeus did not say it would be easy to follow Him.  He said it would cost plenty.  You have to die to self to face a hostile world with the character of a dove.  You can only obey Christ, and be harmless as a dove, by the help of the Divine Dove-the Holy Spirit.  Our desire must be that of David who cried out, "O that I had the wings of a dove."  We should long even more to have the character of the dove, for the dove is the bird of love.  The dove has been the emblem of love all through history.  In the Song of Soloman the dove is used 6 times as an affectionate word for a lover.  Love, perfection, gentleness, innocence, and purity are just some of virtues connected with the dove.  The study of the natural dove can teach us these virtues, but only the Heavenly Dove can provide us with the wings necessary to rise to these ideals.  Therefore, let us sing the song prayer of George Herbert, the great Christian poet who wrote--</div> <div>                             Listen, sweet Dove, unto my song, </div> <div>                             And spread Thy golden wings in me;</div> <div>                             Hatching my tender heart so long,</div> <div>                             Till it get wings and fly away with Thee. </div> <bR> <div>      I trust that you have an imagination that is alive, and one that can be motivated by the sight of any bird to realize that God is calling you to fly; to mount up with wings like eagles, and to live on a higher level.  Of course, if you do not know the Lord of birds, you can be a lover of birds and still be lost.  If you do not have any desire to obey Christ and please Him by your life, you have no reason to believe He is your Lord.  If He is not your Lord you can love all the birds, but you will never get off the ground and soar spiritually.  The only way to get wings for time and eternity is to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.   </div> <bR> <bR> <div> DREAM AWARENESS  Based on Gen. 31:1-13</div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      Doctor Paul Tournier, the great Christian psychiatrist, tells of the child who once remarked to his mother, "Dreams are God's movies, arn't they?"  Doctor Tournier believes they are often just that.  The early Christians believed dreams were a tool God used to give guidance, but this conviction faded during the middle ages.  Then</div> <div> the modern secular world of psychiatry reopened the whole world of the unconscious.  This influenced Christians to study the subject of dreams again.  </div> <bR> <div>      Kathryn Lindskoog, in her book The Gift of Dreams, has done a marvelous job of studying the history of dreams in the Christians church.  Most of us are not aware</div> <div> that we live in an age of a dream craze.  It is just not a realm of life that we explore.</div> <div> I am amazed at what I learned in just a few weeks by getting exposed to the world of dream fascination.  Listen to what is going on.  "Dozens of dream laboratories speckle the country.  Dream study has exploded.  Dream discussion groups meet</div> <div> regularly.  Dream books clutter the shelves.  Dream articles pop up in magazines and journals more than ever.  Students flock to dream classes in colleges and universities.  There are dream clinics, dream lectures, dream retreats, dream workshops, and seminars.  You can even get dream therapy through the mail."  </div> <bR> <div>      Jacob, of course, had none of these things, but he did have dreams, and by means of them he was led to great success, and back to the promise land.  We want to look</div> <div> at the second dream of Jacob in which we see the dream as a source of insight and instruction.  First lets look at-</div> <bR> <div> I.  INSIGHT.  Jacob had a difficult time getting a fair deal out of his father-in-law.</div> <div> Laban cheated him year after year on his wages.  But God came to Jacobs aid and gave him insight into the world of genetics and heredity.  By means of a dream God taught Jacob how to raise sheep and goats in such a way that they would have the markings that made them his livestock.  He got rich by this insight he received in a dream.   His success and prosperity can be traced to his God-given dream.  </div> <bR> <div>      Morton Kelsey, the leading Christian scholar in the field of dreams, has traced the history of dream insight that made people successful in their field.  Much of the creativity that we give men credit for is really a gift of God through these individuals to the world.  Beethoven and Schumann received music in their dreams.</div> <div> Tartian's great work, The Devil's Trill, came to him entirely in his sleep.  Wagner, Tschaikovsky, Mozart, and Brahms have all described composing in a dream or near dream state where the inspiration was coming to them from another world.  </div> <bR> <div>      Now you might object that not all of these men were Christians.   Surely God does not give inspiration to non-Christians, and insights that benefit the world.  You would be wrong to have that conviction, for a good number of the dreams of the Bible are dreams God gave to unbelievers-that is, to pagan Gentiles outside of the </div> <div> kingdom of God's people.  Most notably are the dreams of Nebuchadnezzer in Daniel</div> <div> that gave the world great prophecies of the future.  There is also the brief dream of Pilate's wife in the New Testament that gave warning about treating Jesus unjustly.</div> <div> Here was a pagan male and female in high places that God spoke to in dreams.  There are others too, but the point is, the Bible makes it clear, God does not limit the insights He gives to the human race to His own people.</div> <bR> <div>      If something is good, true, and beautiful, the Christians is to appreciate it, even if it comes through a non-Christian.  God gives us gifts through those who are not His people.  Origen, the early church father, back in the 200's, wrote, "That in a dream</div> <div> certain persons may have certain things pointed out to them to do, is an event of frequent occurrence to many individuals."  Tertullian, another church father, born in 160A.D. said, "Who is such a stranger to human experience as not sometimes to have perceived some truth in dreams."  </div> <bR> <div>      As I said before, this conviction faded, and for most of us today the dream is not a source of insight, information, or inspiration.  But all through history this has been a Christian conviction.  An English doctor, Sir Thomas Browne wrote, "If there are guardian angels, they may not remain inactive while we sleep, but may sometimes influence our dreams, and many strange hints, insights, or discoveries which are so amazing to us,  may arise from that source."  You and I may not be able to think of</div> <div> any such insights we have received by means of a dream, but one of the major lessons of life to learn is never limited God to your own limited experience.  Your God is never very big if he is only the God of your experience.  He is certainly not the God of the Bible.  </div> <bR> <div>      This dream of Jacob's is purely personal, and the insights he gets were for his benefit only.  He did not get any great truth to share with the world.  There was no great music, poetry, or art that would live on forever to bless mankind because of his dream.  It was purely personal, and this is the kind of insight we should be seeking</div> <div> in our dreams.  </div> <bR> <div>      Louis Agassiz, the famous 19th century naturalist, was trying to free a fossil fish he had found, but just could not get it out of the rock.  He left it, and a few nights later he had a dream.  Three nights in a row he had this dream of a fish.  When he awoke the third time he made a  sketch of the fish, and went back to the fossil.  Using the sketch as a blueprint, he chipped at a certain spot and the stone fell away</div> <div> and the fossil was free revealing an exact replica of his drawing.  It was a unique</div> <div> specimen then unknown.</div> <bR> <div>        I do not share this thinking you can get excited about fish bones in rocks, but to illustrate again, this was a very specific problem a man had in a very specific area of interest to him, and he got insight by means of a dream that helped him solve his problem.  Such an insight could not be found in the Bible, but God could give it to him in a dream.  That is the kind of dream we see Jacob having, and the kind masses of people have had.  It is so common that I have concluded it is the legitimate to ask God to give you insight in your dreams to help you solve problems.  </div> <bR> <div>      The French philosopher Condorcet, solved a major mathematical equation in his sleep.  William Blake received a truly improved method of copper ingraveing in a dream.  James Brindley, a great engineer, would go to bed and stay there until he got an answer to his problems in a dream.  God never sleeps, and neither does your brain.  They both are up all night while you are sleeping, and there is no end to what the brain may be working on while you sleep.  </div> <bR> <div>      Mathematician Jaques Hadammd, author of, The Psychology of Invention In The Mathematical Field, says it is an absolute certainty that the brain is working while we sleep.  Many of the great discoveries of science have taken place instantly upon awakening.  Einstein's best ideas, for example, came to him the moment he awoke from sleep.  The assumption is that his brain was at work while he slept seeking answers to his problems.  </div> <bR> <div>      One night in October of 1920, doctor Frederick G. Banting was working on his lecture for the next day.  He was a young surgeon with a small practice who had to teach in order to make a living.  He studied the literature on diabetes, but it was loaded with conflicting theories.  He finally went wearily to bed only to be awakened suddenly at 2:00 in the morning.  He got up and wrote down three short sentences in his notebook and went back to sleep.  Those three sentences led to the discovery of insulin that has brought life and hope to millions of suffering people.  Where did this life saving insight come from?  Science calls it discovery, but faith calls it revelation.</div> <div> They are often the same thing-God giving gifts to mankind by means of influencing the mind through dreams.  We give credit to men for that which is really the gift of God through men and women who are open to receive His messages by means of dreams.  </div> <bR> <div>      Most dreams, however, are going to be like Jacob's.  They will be aids to solving some personal problem by insights that are not available elsewhere.  Marilyn Hevilin, in her book, When Your Dreams Die, gives a great example.  Listen to her testimony of how God, by means of a dream, solved a problem she had when her son died as a young man.  </div> <div>           After Nathan's death, one of the stumbling blocks</div> <div>      in my healing process was that I didn't have an opportunity</div> <div>      for a final good-bye.  I remember saying to God, "I am not</div> <div>      going to argue with You about You allowing Nathan to die.</div> <div>      He belonged to You before he belonged to me, and I respect</div> <div>      Your sovereignty.  However, couldn't You have at least</div> <div>      caused the hospital to allow me to see him before he died</div> <div>      or even in the first moments after his death?  Surely a</div> <div>      sovereign God could have arranged that."  </div> <div>           Within a few weeks of Nate's death I had a dream-</div> <div>      a very, very real dream.  Nate was standing at the foot of</div> <div>      my bed.  He was wearing the clothes he had on the night he</div> <div>      died.  As I reached for him, he stepped back out of my reach,</div> <div>      but he smiled and waved goodbye.  Then he was gone.  God</div> <div>      gave me my own private opportunity to  say good-bye to my</div> <div>      son.  That stumbling block was removed.  One of God's special</div> <div>      touches.  His response to a grieving mothers need. </div> <bR> <div>      The old advice that says, sleep on it, may seem superficial when you are facing a problem or major decision, but the fact is it can really lead to the answer you need.</div> <div> In essence it is saying, go to bed with it and let God guide you in your dreams.  He may just give you the insight you need to deal wisely with your problem.  We just need to have a greater dream awareness for this can lead to a greater awareness of the presence of God.  The second thing Jacob got in his dream was-</div> <bR> <div> II.  INSTRUCTION.  By instruction I mean, not just insight into problems, but actual specific information about what you are to do.  The angel of God said to Jacob in his dream, leave this land at once and go back to your native land.  This was more than an insight.  It was a clear revelation of God's will for his life.  </div> <bR> <div>      It would be wonderful if we could just go to sleep each night and dream of what we are to do the next day.  Life would be easy, and we would not have to use our own reasoning ability at all.  But this is not the way God works.  Even Jacob only got a dream like this after many years.  It is rare for God to give specific instruction in dreams, but the fact is, He does at times do so, and we need to be aware of what God may do sometimes.</div> <bR> <div>      Fyodor Dostoevsky was a Russian writer who advocated social reform in Russia.</div> <div> He was condemned to slave labor in Siberia.  God had a plan for this mans life, and as the prisoners marched past a pheasant woman's hut she thrust her Bible in his hands.  It was another futile effort of the ignorant to try and make a difference in the world.  She likely did not know that most tracts and Bibles given to people never get read.  Statistically this was a foolish waste of her resources.  But this act of a simple pheasant woman changed history.  Dostoevsky had nothing else to read for 12 years in his lonely exile.  The Bible became his most treasured possession.  He read it and fell in love with the Savior.  God began to come to him in his dreams and tell him how he could share this love of Jesus with the Russian people.  </div> <bR> <div>      He began to think up plots for novels whereby he could reach the masses with the Gospel. These dreams not only saved his own sanity, but the books he wrote because of his dreams made him one of the most famous authors the world over.  You will find his Brothers Karmazov as volume 52 of the 54 volume set of Great Books of the Western World.  Doctor Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian, who has influenced thousands of other theologians, was profoundly influenced by Dostoevsky.  The man was a sinner and a schemer like Jacob, but God used him to make a great impact for the Kingdom of God.  The point is, knowing how God has worked in history by means of dreams helps us be alert to the fact that God may work in our lives through dreams.  Even if God never speaks to you in a dream, being alert and aware will make you more sensitive to receive His instruction by whatever means He uses to guide you.</div> <bR> <div>      If history is any guide, the most frequent kind of  specific instruction God gives to  people in dreams is instruction on how to help people in serious trouble.  The record of this kind of dream are amazing, and they make you realize the reality of guardian angels.  If these angelic beings can get through to someone in a dream, there are amazing rescues that can take place.  Doctor Horace Bushnell tells of one such dream.  A Captain Yount, in California, had a dream of a company of emigrants trapped by the snow in the mountains.  They were perishing with the cold and hunger, and the specific place was so real with its white rock cliff.  He woke up profoundly impressed with the reality of his dream.  But he went back to sleep and dreamed the same dream again. </div> <bR> <div>       In the morning he could not get the dream out of his mind.  He shared it with an old hunter friend of his.  His friend said he recognized the scenery of his dream as the Carlson Valley  Pass.  This motivated the Captain to get some men, mules, and provisions, and head for that pass.  His neighbors laughed at such folly, but he had to follow his dream.  When they got to the pass they found just what he had dreamed.  They were able to rescue the trapped families who would have died had they not come.  Here was very specific instruction that had to be acted on.  It is rare, yet surprising how often God has given such dreams.  </div> <bR> <div>      The odds are that you will not win the lottery, but somebody does.  The odds are you will not have such a dream, but somebody will.  Maybe more dreams would have meaning and instruction if we were open to them as a means of heavenly communication.  Hood wrote, "Some dreams we have are nothing else but dreams, </div> <div> Unnatural and full of contradictions; Yet others of our most romantic schemes, Are something more than fictions."  </div> <bR> <div>      If you read on in this 31st chapter of Genesis, you will read about another dream that the bad guy had.  Laban is the father-in-law of Jacob.  He had been robbing Jacob of his wages and treating him unjustly.  He was coming after Jacob to do him great harm when he heard he was returning to his homeland.  As far as he was concerned, it was an act of war, and he was going after Jacob to fight him.  In verse 24 we read that God came to Laban in a dream.  He gave him specific instructions not to say anything to Jacob.  In verse 29 Laban shares this dream with Jacob as the reason why he has not attracted him.  By means of a dream God providentially spared the life of Jacob.  Laban was a bad man in many ways, but he had the good sense to listen to God when God spoke to him in a dream."</div> <bR> <div>      The Captain of the S. S. Vestris also had the good sense to pay attention to a mysterious message he received in 1828.  His ship was headed for New Brunswick.</div> <div> His first mate, Robert Bruce, had a strange vision of a man writing on the Captain's slate in his cabin.  He ran to the Captain to report it, and they went to his cabin, and there they found the words-STEER NORTH WEST.  The Captain accused Bruce of writing this and had him write the words so he could compare the handwriting.  It did not match.  Every man on board was made to write these words, but none of the handwriting matched.  The Captain said, "I am a God-fearing man.  There must be some hidden meaning to the message, some providential force at work.  We'll steer North West for a while and see what happens."  </div> <bR> <div>      What happened was that they found another ship that had been wrecked by hitting and iceberg, and it was helpless.  They were able to rescue many survivors who would not have lasted much longer.  They owed their lives  to a man who listened to the unusual as a possible message of instruction from God.  Jacob got specific instruction of what to do in a dream, and Laban got specific instruction of what not to do in a dream.  </div> <bR> <div>      In the New Testament we read in Acts 10 that Peter was waiting for a meal when he fell into a trance.  He saw a large sheet coming down from heaven full of animals, reptiles, and birds.  A voice told him to get up and kill these creatures for his meal.</div> <div> Peter resisted and said he had never eaten anything unclean.  Three times God gave him this vision, and when he awoke there were Gentiles at his door from the Italian Centurion Cornelius.  Peter was told by the Lord that he should not hesitate to go with them.  He was given specific instruction to forsake his prejudice against Gentiles, and to go and be a guest in his house.  God helped Peter do this by means of a dream.  </div> <bR> <div>      Plato, the Greek philosopher, said there are three valid sources of knowledge.</div> <div> 1.  The five senses which we share with the animal kingdom.</div> <div> 2.  Reason which sets us apart from the animals.</div> <div> 3.  The spiritual world of supernatural communication.</div> <bR> <div>      Aristotle, his disciple, eliminated this third source and said knowledge comes only by the senses and reason.  He rejected dreams as a source of knowledge.  The western world has followed the thinking of Aristotle, but the Bible and history support Plato.</div> <div> Here is another example of how we are often more influenced by our culture than by Scripture.  God works nights as well as days, and if we are open to it He can give us insight and instruction even in our dreams.  </div> <bR> <div>      Martin Luther King Jr. was a sinner and schemer like Jacob, but he was also a man who had a dream.  It even cost him his life, but he never stopped dreaming even when his dreams were so often shattered.  In his book, Shattered Dreams, he refers to Paul who longed to get to Spain, but never did, but he never stopped dreaming of reaching that part of the world for Christ.  He died never having gotten to that edge of the world, but his letters reached Spain and changed that nations history completely.  God went way beyond Paul's dream.  Doctor King writes, "You must honestly confront your shattered dream.....Ask yourself how may I transform this liability into an asset?  How may I, confine to some narrow Roman cell and unable to</div> <div> reach life's Spain, transmute this dungeon of shame into a haven of redemptive suffering.   Almost anything that happens to us may be woven into the purposes of God."  </div> <bR> <div>      Jacob did it; Paul did it; and Doctor King did it, and all of us can do it if we dare to dream and ask God to make us sensitive to His working in our lives by all means,</div> <div> including that of dream awareness.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>DREAM DISCOVERY</B></div> <div> BY GLENN  PEASE  </div> <div> <B>BASED ON GENESIS 28:8-22</B></div> <bR> <div>      When dreams are shattered the call of God is always-dare to dream again.  Our </div> <bR> <div> dreams are often shattered because we live in a fallen world and we have so little </div> <bR> <div> knowledge of what God may permit us to suffer.  David Seamands in his book Living  </div> <bR> <div> With Your Dreams, tells of the dream he had to see shattered on the way to fulfilling </div> <bR> <div> God's will for his life.  As a teenager he felt called to be a missionary to India where he </div> <bR> <div> grew up with his missionary parents.  He met Helen in college who also desired to be a </div> <bR> <div> missionary.  It was perfect and they could not wait to marry.  But both sets of parents </div> <bR> <div> persuaded them to wait until they finished college, and so they did.  They graduated at </div> <bR> <div> noon and were married at four o'clock.  After finishing seminary they sailed for India in </div> <bR> <div> July of 1946.  It was a dream come true.  But as soon as they arrived he became ill with </div> <bR> <div> amebic dysentery and lost all energy.  For months is was a struggle just to learn the </div> <bR> <div> language.  In May of 1947 David Jr.  was born.  He was the first son and grandson in the </div> <bR> <div> family.  David by then was feeling stronger and went on a two week evangelistic tour.  </div> <div> Helen pleaded with him not to go because she had a dream that little nine month old </div> <bR> <div> Davey died.  He ignored her emotional appeal for it was not logical.  Davey was in </div> <bR> <div> perfect health.  However, the very next night David got a call to return home because his </div> <bR> <div> son was severely ill.  By noon the next day he was dead  and they buried him in the tiny </div> <bR> <div> cemetery on the mission compound.  So many dreams had been smashed in so short a </div> <bR> <div> time.  Soon other dreams faded as India fought for independence and the nation was in  </div> <div> turmoil.  </div> <bR> <div>      They felt like Joseph the great Bible dreamer who ended up in a pit and then a prison no doubt wondering, what good is a dream when you have live a nightmare?  They did not pretend to understand why their dreams were shattered but they dared to dream again.  They persisted in their faith that would use them and they pressed on and God  did indeed give them a great ministry both in India and the U. S.  They have ministered to thousands, including myself.  </div> <div>      The story is repeated over and over in so many lives.  Charles Colson is a great contemporary example.  A man with high political dreams caught in a scandal and sent to prison with all his dreams a pile of dust.  It was a nightmare he had to endure in prison.  But Colson found faith in Christ and was enabled to dream again.  By the grace of God this man has become one of the leading Christian spokesman of our day.  He is seeing dreams come true that he never dreamed of dreaming until his old dreams were shattered.  </div> <div>      The point is, don't cry over spilt milk or broken dreams.  Pour another glass of milk and dare to dream again.  For the Bible makes it clear, God loves to make dreams come true for those who dare to dream again.  </div> <div>      The example we want to focus on is Jacob.  He was a schemer and a dreamer.  He was so much more clever than his twin brother Esaw who spent most of his life out hunting.  Jacob was into planning for the future.  One day he saw a way to get the birthright from Esaw.  He played let's make a deal and ended up with the birthright for a bowl of red stew.  </div> <div>      I can identify with Jacob for I too was able to swindle my older brother.  If he would hurt me when we were playing roughly, I would hold my breath until I turned red.  He would feel compassion for me and promise me anything if I would breathe.  He would promise me his hunting knife or to go out and trade comic books for a week.  I got a lot of stuff out of my brother just like Jacob did.  There always seems to be one sibling who is clever enough to get things out of the others.  </div> <bR> <div>   </div> <div>    Later, Jacob and his mother Rebekah joined forces to cleverly deceive Isaac into giving Jacob the final blessing that belonged to Esaw.  This clever schemer was on his way to the top.  He was mom's favorite and he had the blessing and the birthright.  He was on top of his world and his dreams were being fulfilled.  </div> <div>      But as is so often the case, dreamers who are schemers do not see the negative side of crushing others on their way up.  Esaw, the outwitted brother, felt like a postal employ in our day who had been bypassed by a more clever competitor.  He was determined that as soon as dad died he would Jacob in the family plot along side of him.  He was the great hunter and he knew how to kill.  Mommy's boy, Jacob did not stand a chance in any duel and so he had to flee for his life.  </div> <div>      All his dreams of taking over and being the big shot operator of dad's ranch were shattered.  His dreams of making mom proud of him as the manager of the family fortune were down the tube.  He was sent fleeing to relatives far away to start from scratch.    </div> <div>      This dreamer of shattered dreams found himself in an isolated place and the sun had set so he stopped for the night.  Verse 11 tells us he took one of the stones and used it for his pillow.  Stone pillows never have caught on even though they are biblical.  Jacob was a hard-headed character and he went to sleep on that stone.  With a stone for a pillow and the stars for his night light you would expect him to have a nightmare but not so.  This is when Jacob had that famous dream of the ladder or stairway to heaven with angels ascending and descending. </div> <div>      This dream was the basis for the old spiritual still sung today-We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder.  It was also the basis for Sarah Adams when she wrote, Nearer My God To Thee.  Let me share one verse-"Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down, darkness be over me, my rest a stone, yet in my dreams I'd be nearer my God to Thee."  </div> <bR> <bR> <div>      This dream of Jacob brought him nearer to God  and changed his life forever.  God spoke to Jacob in that dream and promised to be with him wherever he went.  This dream was the turning point of this life.  </div> <div>      We have good reason to be skeptical of dreams for they can be caused by indigestion and the power of suggestion.  They are often pure nonsense and the Bible even warns us about listening to dreamers.  Yet we cannot escape from the Biblical and historical record-God does speak to people in dreams</div> <div>      The world of fiction uses this theme because the world of fact is filled with it.  Charles Dickens in the Christmas Carol , has Scrooge transformed by a dream.  He had the heart of a clam and did not like people.  He was a miserable miser who made others feel very uncomfortable.  But then he had his dream and when he woke up the whole world was changed.  It was beautiful, and  people were wonderful, and children were a delight.  He was saved by a dream.</div> <div>      This is what  happened to Jacob.  He woke from his dream and he was a changed man for in his dream he became aware of the presence of God in his life.  This isolated place where he slept was the house of God, the very gate of heaven and this was a life changing discovery.  Jacob was a self-centered man who depended on his own wits to achieve his goals and this is where it got him-alone in exile from his family.  Now he realized he could depend on God who was present in his life.  He could begin to dream again of achieving goals that would make his life count for the Kingdom of God.  Most such conversions take place when people are awake.  Paul's vision, for example, took place when he was wide awake but God sometimes comes to people in a dream.  </div> <div>      Doctor John Henry Jowett, the great preacher, tells of a dear friend whose father was converted  by a dream.  His father dreamed he was a rabbit being chased by hounds.  They were gaining on him so he headed for the rocky heights.  Suddenly he became aware that his pursuers were not hounds but  his sins.  He saw a cave and dashed into it terrified.  He looked back at the entrance and it was flooded with light.  A cross stood in </div> <bR> <div> the middle protecting him from the hounds-or his sins.  When he woke he was aware of the truth of his dream that only the Christ of the cross could save him from his sins.  He surrendered to Christ and  was saved.</div> <div>      This may not be God's way of dealing with you or me, but he does it often enough in the Bible and in history to make us aware that dreams are a method God uses in people lives.  You will not get new revelation that is not in the Bible but God can give you insights and warnings and messages for personal guidance.  You would be surprised at how many books have been written by Christian Scholars on the power of dreams to change your life.  </div> <div>      G. Campbell Morgan, that prince of expositors, asks the question, Does God speak in dreams today?  Then he answers-" Let me assure you that the day for even that method of God has not passed away.  Even in these days of hours, if we did but understand it, God will ....appear to men in dreams, and through them speak to the soles of men.  If you are not of that particular temperament, then God has other ways of speaking to you."  I do not feel I am of that temperament but after my study of dreams of the Bible and comtemporary research, I am convinced God still speaks to people in dreams.  Helen Keller for example, blind and deaf,  learned to talk in her dreams before she did in her waking hours and she became a great public speaker.         </div> <div>      Experts on dreams agree that everybody does dream but often they do not remember.  The ones most likely to be remembered are the nightmarish type.  Robert Wernick describes this typical type dream  " The professor dreams he has arrived in class not  </div> <div>                                 only without his lecture notes but with no knowledge</div> <div>                                  at all of the subject he is to lecture about.  The athlete</div> <div>                                  dreams he has wandered off for a Coke at halftime             </div> <div>                                   and can't get back into the stadium, and they are about</div> <div>                                    </div> <div>                                   to kick off without him.  The lady of high degree dreams</div> <div>                                   that she advances to greet her guests and only notices</div> <div>                                   too late that she is stark naked."</div> <div>      Clearly the things we most fear and feel anxiety about can come out in our dreams.</div> <div> Dreams are the brain dealing with fears you have given it during the day.  When you go into what is called D-Sleep, the deepest form of sleep, that is when the brain currents speed  up their intensity.  It is as if the brain has so little to do to keep the body functioning that is not has time to check out all the memory banks and that is when you dream.  The brain has a vast storage of information for dreams both good and bad.  You have to feed your brain lots of good information and thoughts to have pleasant dreams.  Paul in Phil. 4:8 says Christians are to fill their minds with what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.  This is giving your mind good things to work with for pleasant dreams.</div> <div>      You have some control over what you dream and can decide in your conscious use of your brain what it will do when you are unconscious.  Positive thinking leads to positive dreaming.  Some studies reveal that dreaming is a vital part of mental health.  We need our brain to dream good dreams or we can get depressed.  Three days with poor sleep is also three days with poor dreams  and this can lead to depression.  It is all a complex matter of chemicals and thoughts, but the fact is good sleeping and dreaming is a part of the good life.  </div> <div>      History of full of examples of how discoveries have come to people in dreams.  The mind can be very creative in the dream state.  God can work in the mind to reveal things and guide you to discoveries. Robert Louis Stevenson said he wrote his famous stories in the morning based on the dreams he had in the night.  He learned to dream  by choice and start the next night where he left off.  Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde are products of dreams.</div> <div>      </div> <div>      Young Marconi had a dream of communicating long distances by means of electricity.  His father was skeptical but gave him the money he need to experiment.  At first he could only send his message a mile, but then he got to three, and then eight, and sixteen, and then in 1879 he sent a message from France to England.  It was a complex goal he sought to achieve but he kept dreaming it could be done.  Then in December of 1905 he sent a message by electric signals across the Atlantic  and in 1909 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.  The point is, you need a dream to motivate you to achieve high and hard goals.  </div> <div>      Thomas Edison was impressed by Marconi as a young dreamer and he said, "I would like to meet that young man who had the monumental audacity to attempt and succeed in jumping an electric wave across the Atlantic."  Marconi was a young man and we tend to think that is where the real dreamers are.  But some of the greatest dreamers  have been older people.  The prophecy that Peter quotes in Acts 2:17 reveals that God does not discriminate by sex or age when it comes to dreams he says, "In the last days, God says. I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams."  In the Bible God gave dreams to both men and women, to both Jews and Gentiles and to both youth and the aged.  Anybody can dream the dreams God wants them to dream.  </div> <div>      Jacob was a middle age man when he had his dream.  In it he discovered that God was more involved in his life than he ever dreamed.  "Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it."  Jacob became more aware of the unseen world all about him.  Sometimes we need to escape from the visible world to become aware of the invisible.  Sometimes God has to come to us in  a dream because we will not listen when we are awake.</div> <bR> <div>      Martin Niemoller was one of the great preachers in Germany under Hilter.  He was in prison for eight years and it was not until the seventh year that God came to him in a dream.  He saw Hilter pleading before the judgment bar of God.  His excuse for his sins was that he did not know the Gospel.  God turned to Niemoller and said, "Were you with him a whole hour without telling him the Gospel?"  When he woke, he realized he had spent an hour with Hitler and had not witnessed to him.  He also had felt no obligation to witness to the Nazi guards that had been around him for seven years.  How blind he had become with his eyes.  But the dream opened his eyes and he became a powerful witness through the spoken and written word.  </div> <div>      The purpose in dreams is to make us aware of what we not aware of, awake-such as the Lord is in this place.  That God is never far from us but it is in him that we live and move and have our being.  Wherever you are you are in the presence of God.  Jacob became aware that God was his partner in life.  He was still the wheeler-dealer type person but not he is making his deals with God.  He makes a vow to God that if God watches over him and gives him all he needs and guides him to his home and to the fulfillment of his dream, he will return ten percent of all God gives him.  </div> <div>      Jacob is now a partner with God and a contributor to the Kingdom of God.  Before his dream he was a self-centered schemer with all his dreams focused on himself.  Now God's plan is number one in his life and God changed the course of history through him.  His self-centered dreams were shattered that he might fulfill the dreams God had for him.</div> <div>      Whatever dreams have been shattered for you, the message of God's word is dare to dream again.          </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>DREAMS CAN COME TRUE  Based on Gen. 37:2-20</B></div> <div> By Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      Vanna White, the glamorous star who shows the letters on Wheel of Fortune, was a leader in her church youth group in North Myrtle Beach, North Carolina.  Her pastor wrote about how he asked her, when she was a senior, what she was going to do after graduation.  She responded that her dream was to become a model, and so she was going to modeling school in Atlanta.  </div> <bR> <div>      This is how the pastor reacted:  "Vanna, no!"  I said.  "Don't do that!  Those schools will do nothing but take  your money.  Nobody ever gets a job at one of those places.  You have brains!  Ability!  You could be more than a model!"  </div> <div>      She thanked me politely and said, "But I have this dream of going to Hollywood and becoming an actress."  </div> <div>      "From North Myrtle Beach?"  I asked.  "Vanna, that only happens in movies.  This is crazy!"  </div> <bR> <div>      He goes on to say he is not surprised that her autobiography does not mention his ministerial influence.  He points out that Vanna makes more in one week than he makes in a whole year of giving good advice to aspiring teenagers.  His point in telling this story is to call attention to the fact that it is not wise to try and interfere with other people's dreams.  </div> <bR> <div>      A dream can be an escape from reality, but it can also be an alternative to a present inadequate reality.  A dream can provide an ideal toward which we strive and thereby change reality for the better.  In his book, Finding The Goal Posts, Lawrence Howe tells of such a dream in the life of Cecil Rhodes.  He was 22 years old when he conceived the idea of an international scholarship fund.  A plan that would bring the keenest minds from around the world to study together, and grow in their appreciation of the culture and learning of other lands.  Such a project would, of course, take millions of dollars, but with no money and a dream, Cecil Rhodes made out his will bequeathing millions of dollars to this noble cause.  Then he signed his name to his dream and went out into the world to back it up.</div> <bR> <div>      He struggled against adversity; sometimes succeeding; sometimes failing, but before long he came into possession of the great Kimberly Diamond Mines in South Africa, and he became world famous for his fabulous wealth.  He was comparatively young yet when her fell prey to tuberculosis and he knew the end was near.  He called for his will to have it read.   He did not need to add anything to it except a paragraph of instructions to his lawyers advising them how to make his wealth available to fulfill his dream.  He did not even need to sign it, for he had done that years before.  As Howe said, "He literally signed his name beneath his ideals.  He built great castles in the air, and then went out by hard work to put foundations beneath them..."  Here was a dreamer who built his castle from the top down.</div> <bR> <div>      His dream was not an escape from the real, but an ideal he sought to make a part of the real.  This kind of dream ought to be standard equipment in the mind of every Christian, young and old alike.  As Christians we are bound to be realistic, but we are not bound by reality, for our ideals are always to be far superior to the reality of what is, and they are to drive us on to change the real till it conforms to the ideal.</div> <bR> <div>      In an article titled "Dreams: Pathway to Potential," Kent Hutcheson writes:</div> <div>           A person who has dreams is filled with expectation,</div> <div>           and no obstacle seems insurmountable. He had a</div> <div>           positive attitude, is excited and is never bored.</div> <bR> <div>      This means that dreams are practically the same thing as faith. Listen to Heb.</div> <div> 11:1, "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us...." Faith and dreams are one. It is a weak faith indeed that has no dreams of being more of what God wants you to be in the days ahead. Someone printed on a piece of stationary,</div> <div> "The poorest of all men is not the man without a cent but the man without a dream."</div> <bR> <div>      In the Congressional Library over one of the entrances leading to the archives are these words:  "They build to low who build beneath the stars."  Thank God we have ideal that soars far beyond the furthest star into the very presence of God where Jesus sits at His right hand.  There is our ideal, and our dream, if it is divine, is to be conformed to His image.  This morning I want you to consider with me a dreamer in the Old Testament whose life conformed to that of Christ in many ways.</div> <div> Joseph is one of the most widely known and loved characters of the Bible.  He is one of the few great heroes of the Bible whose life is not blotted by a fall.  Like Jesus, he was tempted, but remained faithful.  Like Jesus, his own received him not, and he was unjustly persecuted, but like Jesus, he forgave and became the savior of the very ones who hated him.  We want to consider his life from the point of view of the</div> <div> three results that can come into the life of the dreamer.  </div> <bR> <div> I.  DREAMS CAN CAUSE TENSION.</div> <bR> <div>      Have  you ever wondered as you watch your children fight like animals, what good can possibly ever come of them?  Jacob must have wondered this often as he watched his 12 boys growing  up.  There would be tension enough without creating special sore points as Jacob did.  He showed such a special favoritism to Joseph that he made the other boys jealous to the point of hating him.  Joseph was the child of his first love Rachel, and he was born to him when he was 91 years old.  Jacob made no attempt to hide the fact that Joseph was special.  He broadcast it by making him a long robe of many colors.  This was the garment of an overseer-one who is superior.</div> <bR> <div>      It was perfectly natural that Joseph was not popular with his brothers. This was not his fault, but it was the fault of Jacob showing favoritism. I read of a father who heard a knock on his bedroom door and he said, "Is that you pet?" "No it isn't pet, its only me." replied a little voice quivering with sorrow. The father's eyes were opened and that was the end of pet in that family. Jacob did not see his error, however, and so tension remained in his family.</div> <bR> <div>      Then came the straw that broke the camels back. Joseph had a dream that only added fuel to the flame of hate already raging in his brothers hearts. He had a dream, and he shared it, that all his brother and even his mother and father would bow before him. It was a God given dream, of course, but the family just considered him an arrogant brat. Even his father rebuked him for such a dream.</div> <bR> <div>      A somewhat similar relationship existed between Isaac Watts, the great hymn writer and his father. As a boy Watts had such a talent for poetry that he made his general conversation rhyme. His father tried to discourage it and one day he became so exasperated by Isaac's constant rhyme, he threatened to punish him in  a very un-poetic manner if he did it again. Being so much a part of him, he unconsciously did it again and his father picked up the rod. Isaac fell to his knees and pleaded-</div> <div>                dear father on me mercy take,</div> <div>                and I will no more verses make.</div> <bR> <div>      His father was disarmed and recognized his son was born to be a poet. He recognized his sons dream was God given, and so the tension was eased. But this was not the case with Joseph's family. Things went from bad to worse and so we see, not only can dreams cause tension, but-</div> <bR> <div> II. DREAMS CAN COST TRIAL.</div> <bR> <div>      Jacob sent Joseph to see if all was well with his brothers. When they saw him coming they plotted to get rid of this arrogant dreamer. They said we will kill him and then see what becomes of his dreams. </div> <bR> <div>      The majority can never tolerate the dreams of the one who seems inferior to them. The man who dares to be different and put his dreams into practice must be prepared to face trials. When George Stephenson planned to draw a train of cars by steam at the rate of 14 miles per hour, he was regarded as a fit candidate for the madhouse, but he had a dream and he went for it. When Fulton proposed to use steam to navigate the Hudson river, men of science ridiculed him and called it  the silliest idea to ever enter a silly mind. Most scientific dreamers face the same criticism, but without these dreamers their is no progress.</div> <bR> <div>      In the realm of social reform nothing would change without dreamers. Why do we have a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday? It is because he was a man who said, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." The dream cost him his life, but it was a dream that changed our nation more than most of us can imagine.</div> <bR> <div>      When William Carey shared his great dream of bringing the Gospel to India, he was criticized by theologians and politicians. His plan was publicly denounced in the House of Commons as the "mission of a lunatic." Even after his dream began to become reality, Christians expected the wrath of God to fall on him for this interference with God's business. Sidney Smith, a brilliant man of his day called the early missionaries, "a little detachment of maniacs." Today we know Carey as the Father of Modern Missions, and one of the great heroes of Christian history. But he had to pay a price to fulfill his God-given dream. Dreams are not free if you are determined to follow them.</div> <bR> <div>                The man is called a fool or knave,</div> <div>                Or bigot plotting crime,</div> <div>                Who for the advancement of his race</div> <div>                Is wiser than his time.</div> <div>                For him the hemlock shall distil.</div> <div>                For him the ax be bared,</div> <div>                For him the scaffold shall be built,</div> <div>                For him the stake prepared.</div> <div>                Him shall the scorn and wrath of men</div> <div>                Persue with deadly aim,</div> <div>                And malice, envy, spite and lies</div> <div>                Shall desecrate his name.</div> <bR> <div>      Joseph's dream cost him 13 years of trial. He was 17 when his brothers sold him into slavery and he was 30 before his dream was fulfilled.  During those 17 years his faith in his dream was tried to the utmost by the pit, Potipher's wife, and prison. Yet in perseverance, patience and purity he held fast to his dream and God honored him.</div> <div> We tend to think it is harder to stand for our ideals in our day, but nobody ever faced greater odds against him than Joseph. He stood alone with the majority always against him. It always seems to be that way for dreamers.</div> <bR> <div>      Luther came to the point where he stood before his superiors and had to choose for safety and conformity, or for his God given convictions. He did not have an army  behind him. He stood alone and his decision changed the course of history. He said,</div> <div> "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me."</div> <bR> <div>                The fighting heart may some day win.</div> <div>                The quitter never can.</div> <div>                There's many a battle turns</div> <div>                Upon the spirit of a man.</div> <bR> <div>      No young person has ever faced more pressure to be immoral than Joseph. Potipher's wife tried to seduce him. You can talk about all the pressure of modern times to entice you to forsake your Christian convictions, but they could never be harder to overcome than what faced Joseph. It was go to bed with her or go to prison. He refused to dash his dream to pieces with the hammer of lust and chose prison. That is an awful  price to pay for holding to a dream, but he paid it.</div> <bR> <div>      In prison he got along well, but thanks to a forgetful and ungrateful butler, whose dream he interpreted, he had to remain in prison for 2 extra years. It was all so unjust and unfair, and he could have easily said phooey on the dream, but the fact is that is what was enabling him to hang in there. In all his trials we do not hear him complaining and rebelling and doubting. How could he do it? The answer is in the poem of Edgar Allen Poe,</div> <bR> <div>                That holy dream-that holy dream,</div> <div>                While all the world were chiding,</div> <div>                Hath cheered me as a lovely beam,</div> <div>                A lonely spirit guiding.</div> <bR> <div> It was a lonely road to travel, but Joseph traveled unyieldingly faithful to his dream and the God who inspired it. We have seen that dreams can cause tension and that dreams can cost trial, but the good news is our final point, </div> <bR> <div> III. DREAMS CAN COME TRUE.</div> <bR> <div>      The brothers said, let us cast him into the pit and we will see what will become of his dreams-and they did, for they saw the dream come true. Joseph never wavered through all his trials and even when the real was in utter contrast to the ideal he remained faithful until he finally came to be the prime minister of Egypt with the power of life and death. He used that power to save his family and thereby prepare the way for the great plan of God for the children of Israel.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is marvelous to see Joseph's attitude when he was in power.  What character he had.  He was faithful in prosperity as well as in adversity.  He never forsook his ideals.  No wonder the story of Joseph is one of the most popular in the world.  God entrusted His great plan in history to a 17 year old shepherd boy.  God could not have given a more clear demonstration of His faith in teenagers.  Give God a teenager who wants to build above the stars; a teenager who dreams of a life in God's will; a teenager whose ambition is to be like Christ and to be guided by Christ, and I'll show you a teenager that God is willing to use to change the course of history.  God wants teenagers, and pre-teenagers, and post-teenagers who dream inspired dreams, and who live their lives according.  </div> <bR> <div>      Anyone can sit down and list reasons why a thing cannot be done, but the dedicated dreamer will go ahead and do it.  The task of the church in winning the world is humanly impossible.  But God calls us to dream gloriously and then live for the glory of that dream.  </div> <bR> <div>                Are you laid low by dilemmas,</div> <div>                Or are you lifted by dreams?</div> <div>                </div> <div>      Dream your own dreams.  Don't try to fit your life into somebody else's dream.</div> <div> The glass slipper would fit only Cinderella because that was her dream and nobody else's.  Everybody wants to be somebody, but too often they want to be somebody else.  Do not dream of being somebody else, but dream of what God can do through you, for you have the same capacity to dream as anyone else.  Why do you think Lincoln was president when our nation went through the Civil War?  It was because Lincoln had a dream of a country where all the people were free.  He never gave up that dream even though he had to endure great opposition.  He was willing to pay the price for his dream, and God saw to it that the slipper of victory fit his foot, and he became the man who set the slaves free, and saw his dream come true.  God uses dreamers of every age.  Edwin Markham wrote, </div> <bR> <div>                Ah, great it is to believe the dream,</div> <div>                As we stand in youth by the starry stream;</div> <div>                But a greater thing is to fight life through,</div> <div>                And say at the end, the dream is true.</div> <bR> <div>      Victor Frankl has become one of the great authors and speakers of the 20 th century. He survived Hitler's concentration camp, and he tells us why. "Others gave up hope. I dreamed. I dreamed that someday I would be here, telling you how I...</div> <div> survived the Nazi concentration camps.......in my dreams I have stood before you and said these words a thousand times." His dreams kept him going when the non-dreamers died in despair.</div> <bR> <div>      Dreams will never come true if we go on sleeping.  Paul says in Rom. 13:11, now it is high time to awaken out of sleep. We must wake up and get into action to make our dreams come true.  It may take days, months, even years, but if we have a dream that is consistent with God's will, we will see some, much or all of it come true, and any part of a dream coming true is far better than having no dream to aim for and achieve.</div> <bR> <div>                Hold fast your dream within your heart,</div> <div>                Whatever might befall;</div> <div>                Let others laugh, if laugh they will,</div> <div>                But keep your dream through all.</div> <bR> <div>   Jammie Buchingham tells of a young woman he visited in prison.  She had been a part of the Charles Manson gang, and had been convicted on 7 counts of murder.  She was sentenced to die in the California gas chamber, but just before she was executed her sentence was changed to life in prison.  Somebody sent her a Bible in the mail, and she just tossed it to one side and never looked at it once.  Unknown to her there were people who had the audacity to dream that such an awful person as her could become a child of God.  They prayed and sent her letters telling her of God's love.  She finally picked up the dusty Bible and began to read.  She had only known hate all her life.  When she read the life of Jesus, and saw His love for and tenderness toward the fallen, she realized that is what she had dreamed of all her life-to be loved and accepted.  </div> <bR> <div>       The Bible told her she could be forgiven and accepted if she opened her heart to Jesus.  She slipped off of her cot in that lonely cell and asked Jesus to come into her life and be her Savior.  Susan Atkins is still in prison, but she is a free woman in Christ.  She has led a number of other women to Christ in the prison, and God has made her greatest dream come true, for she is loved and she is loving-the two greatest dreams anybody can have.  It looked as if her life would end as a nightmare, but the Gospel made her dare to dream again, and she discovered what God wants all people to discover; if we will dream the dreams God dreams for us, we will see our dreams come true.</div> <bR> <div>      We have just started a new year, a new century, a new millennium and the one thing we know will be true of the future is that God will use dreamers to make a difference in time and eternity. Tony Compolo said, "Without personal dreams about the future, we are all dead." One of his goals in life is helping people dream bigger dreams.  The future for us as a church will depend upon its dreamers, and it is never too late to start dreaming. What can you do for this church? What can you do for this community? What can you do for your family, friends and neighbors? What can you do for yourself?  What can you do for the kingdom of God? What is your Millennial Dream?</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>EARTHQUAKES EXAMINED Based on Acts 16:22-34</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      It was in Santa Clara, California, in the summer of 1988 that Lavonne and I experienced our one and only earthquake.  We were in a motel and the bed began to vibrate like it does when you put a quarter in the machine at the side of the bed.  It only lasted a few seconds, but even that made an impression on us, and we felt a mild fear to be in the presence of such power.  Psychologist say earthquakes can be more destructive psychologically than natural disasters because quakes strike at our most cherished belief-that the earth beneath us is solid and steady.  Earthquakes shake the very foundation of our security.  We can imagine the awful fear that comes with a powerful earthquake, like the one that hit that same area where we were.  </div> <bR> <div>      Earthquakes are a part of this fallen world and they are going on all the time.  Some like to speculate that they are more frequent now than ever, but F. W. Borham, writing in 1918, said, there is an earthquake on the average every quarter of an hour-or about thirty to forty thousand a year.  The earth is like a flea-bitten dog which is always shaking and twitching.  Sometimes the destruction is beyond belief, but experts say we have not seen the worst yet-the big one.   But the world has already seen some really big ones.</div> <div>  </div> <div>      The greatest lost of life by an earthquake took place in 1556 in Central China when 830,000 people were killed.   The second largest loss of life was in 1976 near</div> <div> Peking, China when 655,000 people died.  There have been dozens of earthquakes with tens of thousand of lives lost.  It is estimated that about 13,000,000 people have lost their lives in earthquakes.  So there have been big ones in the past, and there will be bigger ones in the future. </div> <bR> <div>       The Bible tells us of the biggest one of all big ones.  In Revelation 16:18 we read, </div> <div> "Then there came flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a severe earthquake.  No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.  The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed."  The implication is, the biggest big one will not be affecting anyone nation only, but will be international.  So the experts and the Bible agree-we haven't seen anything yet.  </div> <bR> <div>      But what we have seen is very disturbing to Christians and non-Christians alike.</div> <div> Anything as big as a earthquake gets you into theology, for it goes beyond humanism.  You have got to think about God when you think about earthquakes.  The problem is, earthquakes seldom stimulate good thoughts about God.  Paul said whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, what is admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy-think about such things.  These kinds of thoughts lead you to praise God.  But it is hard to maintain this level of positive thinking when the world is collapsing around you, and you loose loved ones and all you possess.  </div> <bR> <div>      Earthquakes force you to confront God from a different angle, and they make you tend to blame God for all the evil that they bring.  It is hard to avoid since we have already tried God and found Him guilty.  We call such tragedies acts of God, and so He is the one to blame.  Coming to this conclusion has never been a fortifying factor in people's faith.  Earthquakes can wreck everything, including faith.  </div> <bR> <div>      In 1755, on Nov. 1, the great Lisbon earthquake hit when the churches were full of people, and over 50,000 were killed.  It was devastating to faith, and Goethe made up his mind the earth was a chaos that hopelessly out of control, and no longer in the hands of God.  Many came to this conclusion as their faith was shaken, and that is why we need to do some serious thinking about earthquakes, and tragedy in general, to know just how God fits in, and whether is valid to get mad at God, and blame Him for the tragedy.  </div> <bR> <div>      The first thing I learned about earthquakes in the New Testament is that they can be completely positive with no harmful effects.  Our text is a case in point.  Paul and Silas are delivered from prison by the violent earthquake that opened all the doors. </div> <div> Nobody was hurt in this quake.  There was no judgment on the criminals there.  Just the opposite, in fact.  It was a day of salvation for the Philippian jailer and his family.  God used an earthquake to open the doors of the prison, and the doors of the Kingdom of God, and a new family was taken into the family of God.  This family would be praising God for the rest of their lives, and for  all eternity, for the night of the earthquake.  It led to deliverance and not to destruction.  </div> <bR> <div>      That would be great if God always used the power of the earthquake for such a positive purpose.  The fact is, every earthquake in the New Testament that God deliberately caused was just such a positive power.  Come with me to the cross </div> <div> where we see another of God's directly caused earthquakes.  Listen to</div> <div>  Matt. 27:51-54.  "At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn into from top to bottom.  The earth shook and the rocks split.  The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus's resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.  When the Centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, surely He was the Son of God!"</div> <bR> <div>      Here again,  is a totally positive earthquake.  It did tear the temple curtain, but that was symbolic of God's making the way into His presence open to all in Christ. </div> <div> There is no report of injury or death.  In fact, the tomb's were open so that we have here the only earthquake on record that added to the population.  People who were dead were shaken into life.  The spiritually dead were also shaken into seeing the truth that Jesus was indeed the Son of God.  What a powerful positive impact God had with this earthquake.</div> <bR> <div>      Then in Matt. 28:2 we find another one-the Easter earthquake which accompanied the resurrection of Jesus.  Here was the best of them all.  Here is the really big one from the positive perspective.  This was the ultimate in positive earthquakes.  The kingdom of hell was unhinged, and Jesus walked away as Lord of all with the power to release everyone from the bondage of death.  </div> <bR> <div>      Now let's face this New Testament fact.  God used earthquakes to accomplish His purpose of salvation for mankind, and, therefore,  there is a wonderful and awesome</div> <div> and positive side to the earthquake.  It is important for us to see this positive side for</div> <div>  it is comforting to know that God maybe doing something of great value for mankind even in what seems to us to be very negative.  </div> <bR> <div>      Unfortunately, there are two sides to every issue, and we have to see the New Testament also reveals God's use of the earthquake as a means of judgment.  Just as a father uses his belt both for support of his pants and for discipline; and just as a mother uses  a kitchen tool for food control and child control; and just as the teacher uses the ruler to measure and to punish; so God uses the earthquake both for saving man and judging man.  All of the seven judgment earthquakes are in the book of Revelation.  They are severe in there devastation, and go way beyond the Richter Scale.  Revelation 6:12-14 says, "There was a great earthquake.  The son turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs dropped from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.  The sky receded like a scroll rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place."  Such are the judgment earthquakes that represent God's wrath on a sinful rebellious world.  </div> <bR> <div>      The interesting thing we see in the judgment earthquakes is the radically different response of those who feel God's wrath.  In Revelation 16:21, the response to the big one was the people cursed God.  But, on the other hand, back in </div> <div> Rev. 11:13 we read, " At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed.  Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven." Every earthquake gets people's attention on God, either to curse Him or to praise Him.  </div> <bR> <div>      So what we have so far are positive and negative earthquakes caused by God for either salvation or judgment.  But the negative judgment type earthquakes still leave the door open for a positive response.  They too have the potential of turning people to God and, thus, become positive tools that lead to salvation.  If this was all we had on earthquakes we would be forced to conclude that most of those we hear about are judgment type earthquakes.  The problem with this is the record will probably reveal that those who died, or suffer great loss, were not greater sinners than those who survived.  In many cases they will be very good and even godly people.  There will not be a clear, or even vague, connection between the crime and the punishment.  Therefore, to classify it as a judgment earthquake takes quite a measure of audacity.  </div> <bR> <div>      There are some records that leave little doubt about judgment.  When the quake hit Mount Pelee in 1902, it was acknowledge to be the wickedness spot in the West Indies.  Blasphemous rights and mockery of all things holy was the in thing.  On Good Friday a pig was masqueraded through the city, and then crucified.  The wickedness was deliberate and appalling.  Forty thousand inhabitants perished in what could reasonably be considered the judgment of God.  </div> <bR> <div>      But if we affix this label to all destructive earthquakes, we risk the danger of self-judgment.  We would be like Job's friends who insisted that all his suffering was due to God's judgment.  They were wrong, and they were the sinners for making this false judgment.  What then is the alternative?  The answer is, the one other New Testament earthquake that we seldom to never hear of because it is hidden in the sea.  The Greek word for earthquake is Seismos, from which we get the word seismograph.  This is the instrument by which the intensity of earthquakes is read.</div> <bR> <div>      This Greek word is translated earthquake 13 times in the New Testament.  But it is used one other place where it is not translated earthquake.  The reason is because the effects of it were taking place, not on land like all of the others, but on the sea.  So the word Seismos this one time is translated tempest by the King James Version, or furious storm by the New International Version.  It was the occasion when Jesus was asleep in the boat, and the storm became so furious that the waves threatened to sink the boat.  The disciples were fearful of drowning.  Matt. 9:24 tells us this was a </div> <div> seismos, or a storm cause by an earthquake.  This is very common, and history is filled with accounts of great tidal waves created by earthquakes.  The ancients believed that the shaking of the earth was caused by the anger of Poseidon, the brother of Zeus.  He was the God of the sea.  It was a seismic sea that was the origin of earthquakes they said.  That is the case with this one that threatened to sink Jesus and His disciples.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is obvious that God would not send an earthquake to drown His own Son and all of His hand picked men.  Here is an earthquake that clearly is not of God.  If that is the case,  who, then, is the cause of this unique event?  Just ask yourself, who would be most interested in wiping out the Messiah and His whole church in one swift storm?  The same one who wanted to drown Moses as a baby, and destroy God's plan in the Old Testament.  Satan, of course.  But do we have any reason to believe that this was a satanic earthquake?  Yes we do!  </div> <bR> <div>      For one thing, it struck suddenly when Jesus was sleeping.  It was a sneak attack when the only hope for survival would be divine power, and Jesus was deep in sleep.</div> <div> It was a clever plot that fits the mind of the evil one.  We know from the book of Job that Satan does have the power to create natural disaster.  But the key to seeing Satan is the cause of this seismic sea of destruction is the response of Jesus when He was awaken.  In Matt. 9:26, and both Mark and Luke also, we see the same Greek word to describe it.  Jesus rebuked the wind the waves. </div> <bR> <div>       This is the same word Jesus used when he rebuked the devil and the evil spirits.  He used it again when He rebuked Peter by saying, "Get thee behind me Satan."  This is a personally to personally word.  Jesus was not speaking to water and wind.  Water and wind are not persons.  They cannot be evil, but there can be an evil person behind their destructive force, and that is what we see here.  It is not Poisidon, the god of the sea, but Satan, the god of this world who is seeking to sink God's plan of salvation by means of this seismic sea.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus puts a muzzle on this sea monster, and all is calm, and Satan is foiled again.</div> <div> The point of this story is, Jesus was not rebuking His Father in heaven for this earthquake.  It did not have its origin in God's will, but in the will of Satan.  This opens up the third possibility of how we are to look at earthquakes.  It can be a satanic event designed by the evil one for his purpose, which is evil for evil's sake. </div> <div> This third option is a crucial one to avoid blaming God for every horrible thing that happens in nature.  Jesus clearly teaches this third option when he deals with the signs of the time.</div> <bR> <div>      I always assumed that the signs of the end were signs that God was to be giving.</div> <div> But I discover just the opposite is the case.  The signs are primarily of satanic origin,</div> <div> and earthquakes are one of the signs.  In Matt. 24 the disciples asked Jesus, "What will be the sign of your coming?"  Let's look at His answer, and note the author of the signs.  </div> <div> 1.  Many will come claiming I am the Christ and will deceive many.  Does this sound like God's work?  Does He send false Christs to deceive the world?  No, this is the work of Satan.  </div> <div> 2.  There will be war and rumors of war and nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.  This is also satanic,  and the source of the strife and hostility of the world has its source in evil.</div> <div> 3.  There will famines and earthquakes in various places.  These are listed in a context of signs which are of satanic origin.  Why do we blame God for famines and earthquakes when what comes before and after these signs are clearly of the evil one?  We would not dream of blaming God for all of the evil in the world, so why do we blame Him for earthquakes?  Look at number 4-</div> <div> 4.  You will be handed over to be persecuted, and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.  Does that sound like a God-designed sign?</div> <div> Does all the evil that Christians have suffered  have its origin in God?  If so, Satan</div> <div> is not even relevant as a cause of evil.  It gets even worse as we look at 5-</div> <div> 5.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  If this sign has its origin in God and not Satan, then there is no distinction between good and evil.  </div> <bR> <div>      Everyone of these signs of the end that Jesus gives us are of satanic origin.  Yet,</div> <div> we have been so blind that we have lifted one of the signs out of context and attributed to God-the earthquakes.  It is blasphemous to attribute to God what is of Satan.  The evidence supports the conviction that the vast majority of earthquakes are of satanic origin.  To blame God for an earthquake is as unjustified as assuming that false prophets are His will, and that the unjust persecution and killing of Christians is His plan, and that the destruction of His Kingdom and loss of faith is also a part of it.  Jesus said a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.  If you attribute these signs to God, you have made God divided against Himself.  </div> <bR> <div>      So what is the bottom line on all of this?  How are we to think about the terrible tragedies produced by earthquakes?  The Biblical evidence leads me to these conclusions:  </div> <div> 1.  You first of all assume that any such calamity of nature is evil in its origin.  Just as the personal tragedies of rape, robbery, and murder are assumed to be of evil origin, so the destructive power of natural disaster is to be assumed to be of evil origin.  It is just what it appears to be-evil.</div> <div> 2.  Secondly, you recognize that God is sovereign, and even where He permits Satan</div> <div> to do his evil will, He is also accomplishing His own two-fold purpose of judgment and salvation.</div> <bR> <div>      In other words, we can assume that in any calamity there will be those who are reaping what they have sown.  There will be some element of judgment.  We can also assume that God is working to bring forth repentance so that there will be fruit for eternity because of the calamity.  People will face up to their mortality, and will come to Christ, who alone can give eternal life.  So what we have in the New Testament study of earthquakes is a total picture which enables us to see any particular earthquake from a three-fold perspective.  We will see evil that is satanic, and we will see God working for good through the response of His people to the calamity.  </div> <bR> <div>      Heb. 12:26-29 sums it up beautifully-"Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.  The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken-that is, created things-so that what cannot be shaken may remain.  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." God can use the shaking of what is passing to move people to the solid rock that does not shake, and, thereby, bring good out of evil.  </div> <bR> <div>      In 1923 half of Tokyo was left in ruins, and five million people were homeless because of an earthquake.  One hundred thousand people died.  The suffering of the survivors was enormous.  Toyohiko Kagawa, a Christian with great compassion for suffering people, collected supplies and went to Tokyo to help.  He got Christians organized, and began to feed, clothe, and shelter the victims.  The government saw him at work and set up a commission, and they asked him to serve on it.  Through this commission Kagawa persuaded the Japanese government, not only to rebuild Tokyo to rid it of slums, but a number of other cities as well, which were not even touched by the earthquake.  He helped tens of thousands get decent housing.  His Christian compassion put an end to many slums, and made him one of the greatest Christians in history to have an impact on a non-Christian government.  He did great things for God and man, and it was an earthquake that opened the door for his </div> <div> great service.  </div> <bR> <div>      Disaster may come from the devil, but God will be working in the midst of it for good with those who have a compassionate heart.  We weep with those who weep, for evil is real, but we also rejoice with those who rejoice because out of evil God brings forth victory that even an earthquake cannot shake.  The goal of life is to have a foundation that nothing can shake, and that foundation is the Solid Rock-Jesus Christ.  Put your trust in Him and you will have an unshakable foundation forever.    </div> <bR> <bR> <div>       </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>ENCOURAGING TO GOD    HEB. 11:1-7</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      You might be encouraged to know that it is not only normal, but it is even Godlike, and Christlike, to get discouraged once in awhile.  God got so discouraged with the wickedness of man that Gen. 6:6 says, "The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain."  How great must be the pain great enough to fill the heart of God.  Jesus experienced this same pain filled heart over the blindness and rebellion of the leaders of Israel, and He wept over Jerusalem.  </div> <bR> <div>      Discouragement is one of the costs God was willing to risk to make a free willed creature like man.  The result has been that God has had to endure a great deal of discouragement.  His own chosen people have failed Him so often that you could reduce the Old Testament in half almost if you removed all of the lamentation and judgment God had to inflict on them for their disobedience.  It is discouraging to be an all wise God trying to get your will done through unwise and foolish men.  It is discouraging to be an all powerful God trying to get your will accomplished through weak and unfaithful men.  </div> <bR> <div>      You might think it is a snap to be God, but that is not the picture the Bible gives us.  The Bible reveals, over and over again,  how difficult and costly it is to be the Creator and Redeemer of men.  In our superficial understanding of the sovereignty of God, we think He has it made, and everything just goes His way, and He never has a problem.  The fact is, no father has ever endured a  more rebellious family than God has.  Time and time again God gave leaders to guide His people in the ways of righteousness, but  we read in Judges 2:19, "And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them:  They cease not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way."  </div> <bR> <div>      Jeremiah is one long discouraging lament as God cries out to His people through the prophet--"You have broken my covenant.  You have not inclined your ear nor harkened unto me.  Do not do this abominable thing which I hate.  Why have you provoked me to anger?"  We could literally spend hours reading the words of God's discouragement with His children, but let me close this negative aspect of reality with Ps. 81:13, "Oh that my people had harkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!"   Life and history would be different, God says, if His people would live in obedience.  There would be peace, love, joy, and righteousness, instead of judgment, with all of its attending sorrows.  If you think God is happy with history, you have not read much history.  </div> <bR> <div>      The point is, it is discouraging to God when life is so full of suffering and sorrow because of man's rebellion.  He hates it that the world is filled with strife, injustice, and wickedness of all kinds.  He got so discouraged about it in the day of Noah that He decided to wipe the slate clean and start over again.  </div> <bR> <div>      What encouraged God to start over again?  Why not just call the whole experiment with a free--willed being like man a bad deal, and scrap it completely?</div> <div> God did not do that, and the question is why?  Believe it or not, it was one righteous man who saved the whole experiment.  If Noah had not found favor in God's eyes,</div> <div> human history, as we know it, may have ended with the flood.  One righteous man who walked with God, and pleased God, gave God the encouragement He needed in the midst of all His discouragement to let human history continue.  We only know the rest of the story because God was encouraged by one man.</div> <bR> <div>      Noah was the savior of the physical world, and of all mankind.  Here was a man whose life was an inspiration to God, and kept God going in His plan to redeem man, when all others were a hindrance to that plan.  Noah has been an encouragement to millions as well.  D.L. Moody was once so discouraged because He was going through a dry spell.  There was no fruit for his labors.  He sighed in a sad prayer, "There just isn't any pleasure in working for you when there is no fruit."  A Sunday school teacher came into his office when he was in this down mood, and told him of his joy in studying the life of Noah.  He said to Moody, "If you imagine your labors are fruitless, you might just study Noah's life for awhile." </div> <bR> <div>      Moody began to read the life of Noah, and he was amazed.  Here was a man who preached righteousness for a hundred years and never won a single convert to join him in the ark.  His immediate family of his wife, three sons, and their wives, were invited by God to join him, but Noah did not win one neighbor, friend, or other relative.  You talk about futile preaching, and the irrelevance of godly living in a godless society.  </div> <bR> <div>      If the only way to please God was to get converts, and to persuade men of the truth, then Noah was the biggest flop that ever lived.  But the fact is, Noah was one of the most pleasing men to God who ever lived.  He gave God hope that man was worth saving.  He kept the dream alive of a people of God in a fallen world.  He failed to win one convert, and he failed to touch a single life in a saving way, and yet, he was the  most successful men of his age, and one of the heroes of both God and man for all time.  </div> <bR> <div>      Moody was so encouraged by this man Noah that he was renewed in his own commitment to serve the Lord, for he knew he would be far more fruitful than Noah ever was.  Noah is one of the great heroes of the Bible because he was faithful and persistent in doing the will of God, even though there was no positive result.  We do not know if he ever got discouraged.  It seems only natural that he would, but he never gave up, and he never ceased to preach God's word, and practice God's will.  </div> <bR> <div>      Noah was not a perfect man.  After the flood he got drunk with wine, and created a crisis in his family.  It was a time when there was no lack of water in the world, and yet he foolishly got drunk on wine.  The best of men can, and do, do the stupidest things, and this is discouraging.  But the fact is, an imperfect fallen man can still be the greatest encouragement to God and man.  Noah was just such an encouragement.  How can a man who never changed anything in his world be an encouragement?  How could a man who never altered the fate of a single individual in his world be an example and encouragement to us? </div> <bR> <div>      Lowell Lundstrom, the evangelist, gives us the answer out of his own experience.  </div> <div> He says the feeling of futility is what causes men to be discouraged.  They ask, am I really accomplishing anything?  And their answer is often discouraging.  Lundstrom writes, "I get this feeling every time I watch the evening news or read a daily newspaper.  There are so many great needs in the world and my efforts seem so small and futile.  I heard a commercial the other day that really helped me in this regard.  The narrator said, "You can't save the whole world, but you can save a little piece of it!"  That's all any of us can do.  Save a small piece of the world each day."  </div> <bR> <div>     That was all Noah did.  He obeyed God, and took the animals and his family inside, and he saved a small piece of the world.  But in so doing, he saved the whole world.  He saved history, and the whole plan of salvation for mankind.  He failed in just about everything he did, but he succeeded in just one thing:  In his loyal and persistent obedience to God, regardless of the fruit, he pleased God, and more than made up for all of his failure.</div> <bR> <div>      We don't have to succeed in everything.  We just have to succeed in something.  </div> <div> We just have to save some small part of the world that God has put into our sphere of influence, and that will make us successful in his book, which is the only book of success that really matters.</div> <bR> <div>      Every successful person in God's book only saved a part of the world; a small piece of the whole.  Moses never succeeded in getting the Israelites to be committed to God alone as their God, but he did get a remnant of them to be faithful.  Joshua never did succeed in getting Israel to take all of the promised land, but he did succeed in leading them to take part of it.  No leader of Israel every succeeded completely, but they did succeed in some measure, and that is all God asks of anyone.</div> <div> Even Jesus did not succeed in winning all, but He won some, and with that remnant He began a new people who have gone into all the world, not winning all anywhere, but everywhere they have gone winning some. </div> <bR> <div>       The best any child of God can do is to save some small piece of the world, and not get discouraged because they cannot save it all.  Noah is our example.  You do your best, and to God you leave the rest.  If you please Him, you don't have to worry about the results, for you have already achieved the highest success, which is pleasing Him.  Sometimes even just a word of encouragement can make a big difference in another persons life.  </div> <bR> <div>                     I've seen coals once warmly glowing</div> <div>                     Turned to ashes in the night:</div> <div>                     Glowing coals that with one blowing</div> <div>                     Would have leaped to living light.</div> <bR> <div>                      I've seen human hearts once glowing</div> <div>                      Turn to ashes in the night:</div> <div>                      Hearts one word with cheer o'erflowing</div> <div>                      Would have swept to living light. </div> <div> Can one word really do that?  </div> <bR> <div>        Irving Stone author of more than a dozen best sellers came from a poor home but his mother longed for him to go to college and escape the life of toil all her family were forced into.  It seemed impossible, but she made him save, and finally the day came and he went to the campus of the University of California.  He felt fightened and lonely, for he knew no one and felt so inequate.  Then he saw a man on horseback riding toward him, and with a warm gentle smile the man took off his hat and said in a warm tone,"Good evening sir."  He put his hat back on and moved on down the road.  Stone writes, "I stood there, literally transfixed.  No one before had ever called me sir.  It was not only that I had, by this one word, been transformed from a child into an adult, but also I had been promoted somehow from the lower middle class into a top echelon of gentlemen and scholars."  He later learned the man was Benjamin Wheeler the president emeritus of the University.  He says it was the most inspiring moment of his life, and it enabled him to go on to get his education.</div> <bR> <div>      Samuel Storms writes, "Every Christian is called upon to encourage others.  And contrary to what you may be thinking, you are not an exception.  The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is addressing the entire Christian community when he says,</div> <div> "Encourage one another daily.........."  One of the main reasons for coming to church</div> <div> is to give and receive encouragement.  Heb. 10:25 says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching."  </div> <bR> <div>      Paul writes in I Thess. 5:11, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, ....."  It doesn't take that much to be an encourager.  Someone said no matter how poorly a team plays the cheerleaders never turn on them and shout give up you bums.  They keep on yelling, "Fight team, fight!"  They can be counted on to cheer the team on, win or lose.  Every Christian should be a cheerleader, not a jeerleader who always tells people about their weaknesses and faults, which they already know about all too well.  People need cheering and that is something we can all do.  Prov. 10:21 says, "The lips of the righteous nourish many."  By words of encouragement we please others, but more important, we please God.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div>      Heb. 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God."  The ultimate success, therefore, is being a person of faith in a fallen world where it is easy to get discouraged.  None of us have ever had as much to get discouraged about as Noah did, but the fact is, every Bible hero had to overcome discouragement by faith.  Show me the man or woman who never had to fight discouragement, and I'll show you a fictional character.  </div> <bR> <div>      Abraham and Sarah were discouraged, for they were getting so old, and still had no child.   Joseph was so discouraged with his brothers who sold him into slavery, and with those who let him be unjustly imprisoned.  Moses was so discouraged with trying to lead a rebel people in obedience to God.  The prophets were all discouraged by God's people rejecting His word.  Jesus was discouraged by His rejection from God's people, and by the bickering and lack of understanding among His disciples, and by their betrayal and forsaking of Him.  The apostles were discouraged by the opposition of Israel to the church, and by the immaturity of the church leaders.  </div> <bR> <div>      The point is, if you study any of God's people you discover quite quickly that one of the inevitable obstacles they have to cope with and overcome is discouragement.  It is an element of life that is inescapable.  Some face harder cases than others, as the end of Heb. 11 makes clear in its list of heroes of the faith.  Some were persecuted, imprisoned, stoned, and even worse, it says some were sawed in two and put to death by the sword.  Some people of faith have to endure the ultimate in discouraging circumstances as they, like their Lord, are despised and rejected of men, and are violently killed by the forces of evil.  </div> <bR> <div>      But they are all in God's success book because in spite of all their discouraging experiences, like Noah, they were people of faith.  They never received all that God had promised, but they never ceased to look for it, labor for it, and trust in God.  When we sing, faith is the victory that overcomes the world, we are saying, faith is the key to pressing on, and doing the will of God no matter how many discouraging things happen, or how many things are discouraging because they don't happen.  </div> <bR> <div>      Noah is a hero because most men and women would have given up long ago if they faced his circumstances.  In fact, most of us have given up many times with far less discouragement.  We have tried some things in witnessing, and because they did not work, we gave up.  This is  not always bad, for if something is a poor strategy, then we should give it up.  It can be helpful to get discouraged if it stops you from doing what is impractical, or even foolish.  But to get discouraged and stop doing anything to reach some small piece of the world is sin.  It is an act of deliberate disobedience to our Lord's command to reach out to the whole world to reach some.</div> <bR> <div>      Paul was discouraged often by circumstance beyond his control.  He wanted to get back to the church of the Thessalonians, which he founded, but he was frustrated, and he wrote to them in I Thess. 2:17-18, "..Out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you.  For we wanted to come to you--certainly I, Paul, did, again and again--but Satan stopped us." It was discouraging, as one attempt after another was foiled by Satan, and he just could not get back to them.  But did Paul say in his discouragement, I will just forget about that church and move on?  No!  He prayed for them, and he wrote two epistles to them, and those two letters have been a blessing to millions of Christians through the ages.  Paul had to give up on his desire to see them, but he never gave up in his care for them, and in his communication with them.  The result is, he was used of God to be a greater blessing to God's people than he ever could have been had he gotten back to that church.  </div> <bR> <div>      When Paul was being taken to Rome as a prisoner, some Christians got together</div> <div> and traveled to meet him, and we read in Acts 28:15, "At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged."  Paul was a strong man, but we see here that it is not only the weak, but the strong also who need encouragement.  No one was stronger than Christ, but when He went into the Garden of Gethsemane, He asked the three disciples to watch with Him.  He needed the encouragement of human companionship and sympathy.  The old comercial says, "Nobody doesn't like Sara</div> <div> Lee."  The Bible comercial could be, "Nobody doesn't like encouragement."  The strongest of Christians need it, as we see was the case with Paul.   </div> <bR> <div>      Paul had to accept the reality that Satan can hinder some of our plans, and discourage us on some level.  But he persisted in spite of that discouragement, and the result was a greater blessing.  That is why we must never never give up in doing the will of God, no matter how frustrating it is.  Discouragement is real, and we have to live with it, but faith goes ahead in spite of it, and does what pleases God anyway, and God often blesses the alternative even more than He would have the original plan.</div> <bR> <div>                               When trouble comes as trouble must</div> <div>                               In God a man must place his trust,</div> <div>                               With all the wealth that he may own</div> <div>                                He cannot meet the test alone!</div> <div>                                And only he may stand serene</div> <div>                                Who has a faith on which to lean.</div> <bR> <div>      This was Noah's claim to fame, and so it was for all in this great faith chapter.  All it says of many is that they suffered for their faith, but remained loyal.  These are the successful people of God's history, for these are the people who are encouraging to God.  </div> <bR> <div>      Most of us have never thought about it, but it is a valid and vital question:  Are you encouraging to God?  Nobody wants to see His will done more than God, and it has to be as discouraging today as it was in the Old Testament, when it does not happen.  God is encouraged when His children obey him, and like Noah, do His will even if there is little or no fruit for their labor.  It is hard to encourage God sometimes, but it is the only way to the successful life that really counts.  </div> <bR> <div>       </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF MARVELOUS GRACE  II PETER 1:2</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      A snowstorm made it impossible for a guess speaker to get to the church where he was to preach.  Therefore, a local man was asked to come in as a substitute.  The speaker began by explaining the meaning of substitute.  If you break a window he said, and then place a cardboard there instead--that is a substitute.  After his sermon, a woman came up to him, shook his hand and wishing to compliment him said, "You are no substitute.  You are a real pane."  Unfortunately, verbal communication does not reveal how a word is spelled, and so, if he heard "pain" rather than "pane" as she intended, he would have received a message just the opposite of what she meant to convey.  We must constantly  be aware of the complications of language if we hope to effectively communicate.</div> <bR> <div>      Words can be alike and yet be very different depending on the context.  If I say you have good vision, or you have good sight, these words are very close in meaning.</div> <div> But if I say my daughter is a vision, and yours is a sight, I am in trouble, for some how they do not remain synonymous in this context. </div> <bR> <div>      When we come to the word grace, or charis in the Greek, we are dealing with one word that can mean opposite things depending upon the context.  We miss the complexity of this word because in our English translations there are 11 different English words used to translate this one Greek word.  We are not even aware most often that charis is being used.  The root idea of the word is that which is pleasing, or which gives pleasure.  From there it develops numerous connections with various kinds of pleasure and favor.  It's meaning becomes so diverse that it is hard to see how the same word can be used for so many things, and often with no apparent connection.  </div> <bR> <div>      Our English word grace has followed the same pattern in a small way.  You have a 30 day grace period on your insurance policy.  This fits the idea of unmerited favor.  They carry you for 30 days even though you don't deserve it, because you have not paid your premium.  But what has this got to do with saying grace before you eat?  You do not say unmerited favor, but you say thanks, which is your expression of favor to God.  But if you say the swan has grace, you do not mean it has unmerited favor, or that it has thanks.  You mean it has natural elegance, beauty of line and movement.  It makes a favorable impression on us by its grace.  We haven't begun to list all the meanings this word can have, but it is clear from these few examples, that the word has to be constantly redefined according to the context.</div> <bR> <div>      A man living on the boarder of Minnesota and Wisconsin was puzzled for years as to which state he actually lived in.  Finally he got around to having a special survey made.  When the surveyor reported to him that he lived in Wisconsin, he tossed his hat in the air and shouted, "Hooray!  No more of those cold Minnesota winters!"  Of course, redefining where you are located does not change the weather, but to redefine a word can change the whole atmosphere of a passage. </div> <bR> <div>       Grace is a warm and positive word usually, but it can be used in a cold and negative way.  Charis means favor, and favor can be shown to those who do not deserve it, and thus, you have unmerited favor.  Sound great doesn't it?  But what if you were a student who worked hard for a scholarship and fulfilled all the requirements, but the gift went to student x, who didn't do a thing, but whose sister was the wife of the teacher, and so got it because of connections?  Here is a form of unmerited favor which we call favoritism.  It is unjust because it favors someone at the expense of another more deserving.  Greek citizens had to swear an oath not to show this kind of charis for or against a fellow citizen.  </div> <bR> <div>      Charis, in this sense, is equivalent to the Hebrew idea of respect of persons.  The Bible makes it clear that God is no respecter of persons.  He shows no favoritism.  That is why the universalism of God's grace is stressed in the New Testament.  Christ died for all men.  This avoids any danger of reading the negative idea of favoritism into God's grace.  </div> <bR> <div>      The word is used this way in the New Testament, however.  Paul, the apostle of positive grace, was a victim of negative grace.  In Acts 24:27 we read, "Felix desiring to do the Jews a favor left Paul in prison."  Here was favor, or grace, expressed for a selfish reason, and at the expense of another--namely Paul.  In Acts 25:9 we see the same thing.  Fetus wishing to do the Jews a favor took their side against Paul.  This is the kind of grace that corrupts.  The poet put it--</div> <div>                              When rogues like these (a sparrow cries)</div> <div>                              To honors and employment rise, </div> <div>                              I court no favor, ask no place</div> <div>                              For such preferment is disgrace.</div> <div> The paradox is that there is a grace which is a disgrace, for it is the receiving of unmerited favor which is unjust, because it is at the expense of others.  </div> <bR> <div>      Now, as if this is not enough complexity, being able to mean either good or bad unmerited favor, we want to see that it can also mean merited favor.  Most often Christians define grace as only unmerited favor, but this is putting  a limit on the word which the New Testament does not do.  It should not be surprising that grace can also mean merited favor.  It is logical that favor is going to be shown toward those who merit it.  No man merits salvation, which is the greatest aspect of God's grace, but many are pleasing to God by their obedience, and God responds to them in grace.  </div> <bR> <div>      To see this in operation, we need to go to the very first reference to grace in the New Testament.  In Luke 1:30 the angel says, "Fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God."  Favor here is charis again.  Mary was not sinless, but she was pure and lovely in character, and her life pleased God.  She was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah because of her pure life.  It is obvious she did not merit this honor in the sense that she was worthy, for no person could ever be worthy to give birth to the Son of God.  On the other hand, she was not holy unfit to be Christ's mother, for she had a life pleasing to God, and the kind of life needed for His purpose.  God did not favor her because she was less pure and righteous than others, but because of her exceptional purity and righteousness.  She attracted God's favor by the beauty of her life.  </div> <bR> <div>      The clearest example of merited favor is in connection with Christ Himself.  Luke 2:52 says, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man."</div> <div> Favor is charis again.  You can see how meaningless it would be to define grace here as unmerited favor.  This would mean that Jesus was not worthy of the favor of God, but God granted it anyway.  And men, out of the goodness of their hearts, showed favor to Christ, even though he did not deserve it.  This, of course, would be sheer nonsense.  Grace here means merited favor.  Jesus by the inherent beauty, goodness, </div> <div> and harmony of his life, attracted the favor of God and man.  Jesus had a quality of character that fully merited all the favor He received.   </div> <bR> <div>      This is an aspect of grace that we are seldom aware of.  We tend to think of grace as a one way street:  God's grace toward us.  But favor works both ways in the New Testament.  If God favors us and gives us blessings, we in turn favor God, and respond with gratitude to His graciousness.  Our response is described by this same word--charis.  We respond with grace.  Listen to Paul in--</div> <div> I Cor. 15:57, "But thanks be to God who gives us the victory..."</div> <div> II Cor. 2:14, "But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph."</div> <div> II Cor. 8:16,  "But thank to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the  </div> <div>                          heart of Titus."</div> <div> II Cor. 9:15, "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift."</div> <bR> <div>      In each case, do you know what the Greek word is for thanks?  It is charis, the same word used all through the New Testament for grace and favor.  Grace be to God Paul says over and over again as he expresses his love and gratitude for God's grace.  Here is grace which is merited.  God merits our favor in every way, and therefore, all of man's grace to God is merited grace.  This, of course, is where grace gets its connection with prayer before meals.  We express our favor and thanks to God for His favor and goodness to us.  Therefore, to multiply in grace means to grow in thankfulness, among other things.  </div> <bR> <div>      There are numerous passages where grace is the root idea in thanksgiving.  The Greek word for thanksgiving is eucharist, and you see charis as the heart of it.  The Lord's Supper is called the feast of the eucharist, or the feast of thanksgiving.  It is our expression of grace for the great grace of God in giving us His Son.  Grace at the very heart of the Gospel, as it is expressed in this poetic version of John 3:16.  </div> <bR> <div>      For God--the Lord of earth and heaven, so loved and longed to see forgiven, </div> <div>      The world--in sin and pleasure mad, that He gave the greatest gift He had--</div> <div>      His only begotten Son--to take our place:  That whosoever--Oh what grace;</div> <div>      Believeth--placing simple trust in Him--the righteous and the just,</div> <div>      Should not parish lost in sin, But have eternal life--in Him.  </div> <bR> <div>      When we feel great joy because we have experienced God's grace or favor, we are experiencing a form of grace in our joy, for the Greek word for joy is chara. When we feel joyful, we are feeling graceful, which means full of favor.</div> <div> The word chara is used in the following Bible passages:Matt. 2:10, "When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy (chara)."</div> <div>    Matt. 5:12, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad (chara): for great is your reward in heaven..."</div> <div> 6Matt. 13:44 , "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hid in afield; when a man has found it, he hides, and for joy (chara) thereofgoes and sells all that he has, and buys that field."Matt. 18:13 describes the Lord's joy (chara) at finding the lost sheep.</div> <div>    Matt. 25:21, 23, "His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make the ruler over many things: enter into the joy (chara) of thy lord."We begin to see the relationship between joy and that which causes joy, namely, the favor and bounty which we receive from the Lord. </div> <div>      In the realm of redemption, all of God's grace is favor toward those who not only do not merit it, but who deserve His wrath.  In the gift of Christ, and salvation in Him, there is nothing but God's love to account for it.  There is much of the grace of God, however, that flows out to men on the basis of their obedience.  In other words, </div> <div> we can win the favor of God, and grow in grace by acts and attitudes which please Him.  Peter uses charis to refer to a clear case of merited grace in I Peter 2:19-20.</div> <div> You would never know it, however, for charis is hidden behind the English word of commendable.  He writes, "For it is commendable (charis), if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God.  But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?  But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable (charis), before God."  </div> <bR> <div>      Peter is saying, it is worthy of thanks, merit, and God's favor, if you, like Christ, suffer for righteousness sake.  Grace does not lessen, but increases as we become more Christlike.  God's grace flows forth, not only to sinners in abundance, but to the saints as well.  Milton in Paradise Lost refers to God's grace as bountiful generosity to those who serve Him.  </div> <div>                               Yet so much bounty is in God, such grace,</div> <div>                               That who advances His glory, not their own,</div> <div>                               Them He Himself to glory will advance.</div> <bR> <div>      From this idea we go on to see that grace refers to the many gifts of God to His children.  Grace is not only the generosity of the giver, and the gratitude of the receiver, it is the gift also.  The Greek for gift is charisma.  A gift is something with which you express favor, and so charis is the basic idea in the word gift.  It could be translated gracious gift.  In the well known Rom. 6:23, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord:"  Gift is charisma, or gracious gift.  Here we are in realm of redemption, and, as always, God's grace is totally unmerited.  It is in contrast to the wages of sin.  Wages imply merit or earned remuneration.  Men merit, or deserve, death and damnation.  They earn this by their life of sin.  The gift of God, however, is not earned, but is a gift of unmerited favor.  God's grace runs all through the New Testament under the word gift.  </div> <bR> <div>      God's giving does not end with salvation, however.  His grace is sufficient for all of life, and He goes on giving gifts, as aspects of His grace.  In II Cor. 1:11 Paul says,</div> <div> "You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks (eucharis) on our behalf for the blessing (charisma) granted  us in answer to many prayers."  All blessings are gifts of grace.  Some are merited, and some are not.  </div> <bR> <div>      We know the Bible says much about gifts, but we have not been conscious of the fact that these are parts of grace.  Men with special gifts of God are called charismatic.  They are full of grace.  As we multiply in grace, we grow in our capacity to be used of God, for we acquire, develop, and perfect more gifts as channels of His grace.  In I Peter 4:10 Peter says, "As each has received a gift (charisma) employ it for one another as good stewards of God's varied grace."  The whole of Christian service is an extension of God's grace.  He gives it to us, and we pass it on.  When we show favor we are being channels of God's grace.  God's grace can be experienced through us.  The giver, the receiver, the gift of power, love, joy, kindness, and innumerable other values are included in this marvelous word grace.</div> <bR> <div>      Now we can understand why Paul begins everyone of his letters with grace,ends everyone of them with grace and fills them with references to it, and builds his theology around it. Paul was the great Apostle of grace, and of the 155 references to it in the N.T., 130 of them are from his pen. Now we can understand why Peter also makes a big issue of it, and why he wants to see grace multiplied in the lives of believers, and why he in 3:18 ends his letter by urging them to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Grace is the source of all that is included in salvation and sanctification.  Everything we are, and do, and will ever be, and do, depends on our growth in grace.  Therefore, let our prayer be that which was left by the Duchess of Gordon among her papers when she died.  "O Lord, give me grace to feel the need of Thy grace; give me grace to ask for Thy grace; and when in Thy grace Thou hast given me grace, give me grace to use Thy grace."  </div> <bR> <div>      This is a prayer very consistent with the theology of the N.T. for we read in Heb. 4:16 something quite similar. "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." The point is, we need grace, not only as sinner who need to be saved, we need grace to be saints who are becoming what God wants us to be. It is cheap grace when we just trust in Christ to save us, and then do not call upon His grace to sanctify us and help us do his will.</div> <bR> <div>      I like the KJV and the RSV of our text of II Pet. better, for they translate it,</div> <div> "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.." Peter goes on to tell the Christians to add one virtue after another to their lives, but here he begins by saying don't just add grace, but let it be multiplied. The NIV means the same thing with its, "Grace and peace be yours in abundance..", but the word multiplied adds to the emphasis, and its absence subtracts from the sum that the word grace deserves.</div> <bR> <div>      A six year old boy ran home from school, and immediately went to the back of his house and grabbed his pet rabbit out of his cage. He shouted at it, 2 plus 2, and he kept it up until his mother came out and asked him what he was doing. He said, as he put the rabbit back in its cage with an attitude of contempt, "Our teacher told us today that rabbits multiply rapidly, but this dumb bunny can't even add." Their was obviously some misunderstanding here about multiplying. But there is no such misunderstanding about multiplying in grace in the N. T. </div> <bR> <div>      No word in the N.T. carries more of the content of the Gospel than the word grace. Griffith Thomas said of it, "...perhaps the greatest word in the Bible because it is the word most truly expressive of God's character and attitude in relation to man."  The Interpreter's Bible without reservation says, "Grace is the greatest word in the New Testament, and in the human vocabulary." Another author says,</div> <div> " Mastery of the Bible's teaching about Grace is the most important goal of the Christian Way of Life."To grow in grace, and to multiply grace, and have it in abundance is what the Christian life is all about according to the New Testament. To give God pleasure by our lives we need to be growing in grace, and this means giving favor, and not just receiving it.</div> <bR> <div>      The value of studying all aspects of grace is that we do not limit it to just one of its many beautiful meanings, and thereby lose much of what God wants us to receive as well as give. Unmerited favor is true and vital, but it is only one part of grace. We are to seek God's grace by meriting it as well. The whole idea of reward is based on grace. We please God by obedience and we win His grace and thus, are rewarded. His grace also covers His favor in doing all sorts of things for us that we cannot do ourselves. In fact I discovered on the internet that one author who studies grace in depth came to the conclusion that the best definition of grace is, "God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves!</div> <div> " </div> <bR> <div>      Let me share a quote from this author who calls himself brother Dan. He posted this on the internet for millions of people to read.</div> <div>      I just read the thesaurus on my word processor regarding the word"grace". Let me try to explain what I just learned. First, there were several meanings given for grace: Elegance, Kindness, Mercy, Holiness,Invocation, and Beautify.</div> <div>    Elegance is not a definition of grace we usually consider when we are discussing God's grace theology. But, let us consider the synonyms for elegance just for what illumination God may give us: polish,refinement, attractiveness, beauty, charm, and comeliness.</div> <div>    In line with this is the definition 'beautify', and its synonyms:adorn, decorate, embellish, enhance, ornament, crown, and deck.At first glance, these two definitions with their synonyms may not seem to be all that theologically significant in studying "grace".But, I believe that God would have us know that the true image of elegance and beauty are only found in His nature. He wants to polish</div> <div>  and adorn us. We are His creation. He knows what we need most.</div> <div>    God wants to refine, embellish, enhance and crown us with His Eternal,Holy and Sovereign character. When we discovered that Jesus was calling us, we were so ugly. In light of God's nature, we, like Adam, must run and hide and cover our ugly nakedness. But, God picks us up and begins to bring out our true beauty, to manifest His charm and comeliness in our broken spirits. We indeed are ornamented with the fruit of His Holy Spirit, if we allow Him to do His work in us.</div> <bR> <bR> <div>      John J. Clark wrote, "Cheap grace is grace without</div> <div>  discipleship, the cross, Jesus Christ living and incarnate.Costly Grace, on the other hand, is the treasure hidden in a</div> <div>  field.  For the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he</div> <div>  has.  It is a pearl of great price to buy which will cost us</div> <div>  everything.  It's the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will</div> <div>  pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble.  It is the call of Jesus at which a disciple leaves his nets and follows.  It is grace</div> <div>  which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked </div> <div> for, the door at which a man must knock.</div> <div> Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is</div> <div>  grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  Costly because it</div> <div>  costs a man his life, it is grace because it gives a man the only true </div> <div> life.  Costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies</div> <div>  the sinner.  Above all, costly because it cost God the life of His </div> <div> Son:  "You have been bought with a price" and what has cost God so</div> <div>  much can't be cheap for us.  It is grace because God did not reckon</div> <div>  </div> <div> his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up </div> <div> for us.  It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke</div> <div>  of Christ, but it is grace because "My yoke is easy and my burden</div> <div> light".</div> <bR> <div>      He is illustrating the paradox of grace. It is so free, from one perspective, but so costly from another. It is a most multi-faseted virtue, with multiple meanings, which we are to be busy multiplying in our lives. So let us make the prayer of the Duchess of Gordon, that I read earlier, be our prayer.  "O Lord, give me grace to feel the need of Thy grace; give me grace to ask for Thy grace; and when in Thy grace Thou hast given me grace, give me grace to use Thy grace."  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THE MISSING INGREDIENT</B></div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      Edna Ferber makes a character in one of her novels say, "I like people with a splash of splendor in their makeup."  Many people would be surprised to know that this is what should characterize every believer in Jesus.  The world often gets a perverted concept of Christ just because Christians themselves are victims of false concepts.  So many Christians are brought up to believe that godliness is such a serious matter that it is incompatible with a life of laughter and happy delight.  Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. </div> <bR> <div>       John Wesley knew what he was saying when he stated, "sour godliness is the devil's religion."  The facts of life will back that statement up, as well as the judgment of Henry Van Dyke who wrote, "The lack of vital joy in the church is the chief cause of indifference in the world.  The feeble energy, the faltering and reluctant spirit, the weariness in well-doing with which too many believers impoverish and sadden their own hearts, make other men question their reality and value of religion, and turn away from it in cool neglect."  Joy is the missing ingredient.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Biblical ideal of godliness is, in both the Old and New Testament, a life of joy.</div> <div> I counted 187 references to words like joy, joyful, and  joyous.  Haufman Kolher in the Jewish Encyclopedia says there is no language that has as many words for joy and rejoicing as does the Hebrew.  In the Old Testament there are 13 Hebrew roots found in 27 different words for some aspect of joy.  The book of Psalms alone is a treasury of joy and rejoicing, often even in the midst of great trial and sorrow.  There is not the slightest hint that God has any pleasure in the a gloomy soul.  God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all, and the more we become partakers of the divine nature the more we will be completely free from persistent sadness and depression.  Jesus told His disciples to keep their faces bright and alert even when they were fasting, and not sad and stern like the Pharisees.  </div> <bR> <div>      The New Testament has even more words for joy. There are 326 terms for joy in the Greek N.T. Paul who suffered great sorrows and hardships uses 132 of them. He practiced what he preached and rejoiced in the Lord always, even when he was miserable. Joy does not depend upon circumstances like happiness, for it goes deeper and is based on what circumstances can never change. Aldous Huxley said, "If he were a millionaire, he would finance research for the ideal intoxicant that would abolish inferiority, fill us with love for our fellow men, make life seem divinely beautiful, and enable us to wake up the morning after without any hangover or damaged constitution." The N. T. says there is not a need for such research for it is available if we just see it. Paul urged, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." The fruit of the Spirit is joy, and this joy which comes from the Spirit of Christ will enable us to be joyfilled as was our Lord.</div> <bR> <div>      Christians seldom recognize that pessimism and sadness can be sinful.  Robert Louis  Stevenson was an incurable optimist in spite of his constant suffering, but sometimes even he could not escape the snare of depression.  But listen to the way he referred to this state when in 1884 he wrote to his father:  "I fear I have been a little in the dumps which, as you know, Sir, is a very great sin.  There is no more abominable sin then this gloomy, this plaguey peevishness."  </div> <bR> <div>      There have been many famous Christians who have been plagued with a nature easily depressed, but they never accepted it as anything but an obstacle to be overcome. Charles Spurgeon, the most famous Baptist preacher, for example, was preaching to his people on the need for Christian joy, and he made this confession:</div> <div> "I am the subject of depression of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to, but I always get back again by this--I know I trust Christ."  </div> <div>                            I know that safe with Him remains</div> <div>                                 Protected by His power,</div> <div>                            What I've committed to His hands</div> <div>                                 Till the decisive hour.</div> <div> In spite of their depression, men of God have known the joy and peace of believing.  </div> <div> They have never accepted their infirmity, but fought it with joy.  </div> <div>  </div> <div>      Pessimism is never an option for the believer.  It is of the kingdom of darkness, and must be recognized as such.  Spurgeon could say after his confession, "There is an obligation upon a Christian to be happy.  Let me say it again:  There is a responsibility laid upon a Christian to be cheerful.  It is not merely an invitation but it is a command. "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous."  "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice."  In spite of the one thousand and one things that drag us down and seek to crush our cheer and silence our song, we owe to God and this sad world a radiant life.  </div> <bR> <div>      Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian said to the dead state church of his day,</div> <div> "Everybody is too serious for me, at heart the religious man is humorous."  The New Testament supports his conviction, for it is the most joy filled book in the world.  Someone wrote, "It opens with joy over the birth of Jesus, and it ends with a superb picture of a multitude which no man could number, singing Hallelujah Choruses.  No matter where you open it, amid fortunate or discouraging circumstances, you always hear the note of joy.  Even when a company of friends gather at a farewell supper, before their Leader is crucified, he says to them, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might be in you, and that your joy may be made full."  Even when their best friend had gone, the mourners 'take their food with gladness, and with singleness of heart, praising God.'  If they are flogged for their faith, the disciples depart from the council, 'rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.'  When an apostle is put in jail overnight he passes the time singing, and if you listen to him in his Roman prison, you will hear him dictating, 'rejoice in the Lord always; and again I will say, rejoice.'  There is enough tragedy in the New Testament to make it the saddest book in the world, and instead it is the joyfulest.  The religion which expresses itself in this book and which issues from it, is the most joyful religion on earth."</div> <bR> <div>      If you don't enjoy your faith there is something wrong with your faith or with you.</div> <div> It is hard to sell anything by exhibiting a poor example.  It would be hard for a dirty bum to sell soap, or for a bald man to sell hair tonic, and it is hard for  a joyless Christian to sell people on the joy of salvation.  Paul Tournier, the famous Christian psychologist says many Christian people have come to a life of sterility because of false concepts.  He writes, "All joy has been replaced by the pursuit of duty.  They have come to the point of doing nothing that gives them pleasure, as if God, who loves us never required any but disagreeable things of us!  They make incredible efforts, but win no victories.  They are always comparing themselves with those they look upon as their betters." </div> <bR> <div>      But some may be objecting in their minds, you can't be joyful all the time, for even Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  This only leads to further confirmation of the truth that the believer must always be joyful.  Jesus said that when we are reviled and persecuted we are to rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is our reward in heaven.  The Christian is to look always beyond the sorrow of the present to the glorious reward of the future, and, thereby, be joyful even in sorrow.  Jesus was no less joyful as a man of sorrows, for we read in Heb. 12:2, "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross."  Jesus was the most joyful man that ever lived, for He was joyful even as He went to the cross.  </div> <bR> <div>      One of the most laughable perversions in the history of the church is that which gives us an image of Christ as one who never laughed or told funny stories.  The way some artists picture Jesus you would think He was a sour and solemn Phariees rather than a radiant redeemer who walked among men sharing His abundant life.  He was a center of many a banquet; the common people heard Him gladly; the children flocked around Him and sat on His lap.  Wherever He went He saved and healed and left people with hearts overflowing with joy.  From His birth to His death the good news of great joy was the major theme of His life.  One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy, and Jesus was filled with the Spirit, and, therefore, was filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.  Jesus wept with those who wept.  Can we imagine that He did not rejoice with those who rejoiced?  There was no mere splash of splendor in Jesus for He was splendor incarnate.  To be more like Christ is to be more joyful.  </div> <bR> <div>      Henry Van Dyke wrote, "Every great revival of Christian power-like those which came in the times of St. Francis of Assi, and John Wesley-has been marked and heralded by a revival of Christian joy."  John tells us in verse 4 that the second basic reason for his writing this book was that believers might have fullness of joy.  In other words, joy is a very important quality in a believer, and this part of the Bible exists for the purpose of increasing this essential quality.  If the truths John writes of  in this book do not add a splash of splendor to our makeup, then we are failing to listen to the voice of God speaking through this book.  The first thing we want to look at about Christian joy is that-</div> <bR> <div> I.  CHRISTIAN JOY CAN BE COMMUNICATED.</div> <div>      </div> <div>      Christian joy is not a matter of mere feeling, but is a matter of fact.  It has its basis in knowledge that can be communicated from one person to another. It all begins with Jesus Himself on the night of His betrayal.  In the upper room that night Jesus taught His disciples much valuable and eternal truth, and He said in John 15:11, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."  That is a source of all Christian joy.  Jesus said that by His communicating these truths to the disciples they would share in His joy, and their joy would be complete.  Now John is saying that I am now relating to you what we heard that these some truths that gave us fullness of joy might be yours also, and that you too might have fullness of joy.  John is being a channel by which the truths of Christ can be communicated to us.  </div> <bR> <div>      The important thing for us to see here is that this process of communication must go on.  No link in the chain must be broken.  Jesus shared His joy with the Apostles; the Apostles shared them with the believers of their day, and believers of every age through their writings.  Now, believers of every age must continue to share with those of their generation.  Witnessing is not trying to persuade people to join a society for the promotion of solemnity, and the prevention of hilarity.  On the contrary, we are opening up the very road they are searching for-the road to joy and happiness and abundant life.  The catch, of course, is we must have fullness of joy ourselves if we are going to communicate this message to others.</div> <div>                         Thy soul must overflow if thou another soul woulds't reach,</div> <div>                         It takes the overflowing heart to give the lips full speech.</div> <bR> <div>      We sing, "If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy-let Jesus come into your heart."</div> <div> But before the unbeliever will respond, he wants to see this wonderful joy in us who have let Jesus into our hearts.  If you exhibit the joy of the Lord in your life you will need little else to convince the lost you possess what they want.  G Cambell Morgan told of a Yorkshire girl who gave her life to Christ and became radiant with His joy. </div> <div> As she was waiting for a train, she walked back and forth on the platform and several times passed the window of a wealthy and cultured lady.   The lady called the girl and asked her what made her so happy?  The girl told her simple story of her faith in Christ, and the lady who would have likely resisted other approaches was melted by the reality of joy and received Christ as her Savior.  You cannot argue with joy.  </div> <bR> <div>      "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."  Joy is the fulfillment of both of these goals at the same time.  Christian joy can be communicated, for its basis is in the reality of the historical Christ, and it is our highest obligation to the world to share this joy by communicating it in our lives and with our lips.  </div> <bR> <div>      The second thing John tells us is-</div> <bR> <div> II. CHRISTIAN JOY CAN BE COMPLETE.</div> <div>      </div> <div>      This follows as a natural result from the first point.  If Christian joy is a matter of facts, and a matter of knowing the truth in Jesus, then once one has all the available knowledge his joy is complete.  In other words, our joy in Christ is only as complete as our knowledge of Christ.  Little knowledge means little joy, and fullness of knowledge means fullness of joy.  John is writing in this book to give Christians the additional truths they need for completeness of joy.  </div> <bR> <div>      We see then that Christian joy is not a matter of feelings, but a matter of fact.  Feelings can change like the wind, but the foundation on which our joy is based is unchangeable and remains the same regardless of circumstances.  Let the Sun be put out and the stars cease to shine and it will not effect our joy, for God is still light and Christ is still Saviour, and sin can still be forgiven and we still have an advocate with the Father. John has recorded for us truths that cannot help but give fullness of joy for they are eternal and absolute. Young wrote, "Beware of all joys but joys that never can expire." The joys that John writes of here are joys in Christ and they have no expiration date on them.</div> <bR> <div>      These truths bring us into fellowship with the eternal and thereby produce completeness of joy. Joy is the other side of the coin of fellowship. You have both if you have one. He who has fellowship with God and His children has fullness of joy. He who has fullness of joy has fellowship with God and His children. If we lack joy we can trace the reason to either a lack of knowledge of what God has revealed to us in His word or to a lack of fellowship. John wrote this book to fill up both of these lacks that Christian joy might be full. This ideal is possible to attain in this life. We can be as joyful as our finite nature is capable of being. The world offers only fleeting joy that soon burns out and leaves nothing but ashes. Byron wrote, "There's not a joy the world can give like that it takes away." Man cannot be satisfied until he has a joy that is complete, and this can only be found in Jesus Christ. </div> <bR> <div>      This completeness of joy does not mean the Christian will never feel sorrow and depression, and never have bad days. We still live in a fallen world where we have to endure much that is out of God's will and is the result of sin and folly and ignorance. I think it is well for us to consider seriously the thinking of this author:</div> <div> Leo Rosten in Passions and Prejudices writes, "Once upon a time(oh blessed time!) sensible men simply knew that life, even at best, is beset with difficulties, that frustration or disappointment or defeat is natural and as inevitable as changes in the weather.</div> <div>      There was a time, in short, when we all had the good sense to realize that discontent, despair, even failure are normal, that squabbles--between men and women, parents and children-- are unavoidable; that not everybody was intended by God, or fate, or biochemistry to be contented all of the time. We even had the good sense to know that anyone who is happy all the time is nuts. One of the marks of good sense and good health is precisely the capacity to be unhappy when reality warrants it--to be unhappy soundly, without apology or rationalization.</div> <bR> <div>      All the people of joy in the Bible also had their sad times and felt negative emotions. This is legitimate and inevitable. This does not rob us of joy, when we know in our sadness that weeping last for a night but joy comes in the morning. In other words bad and negative feelings are real and we should feel them, but we sin if we let these feelings become a hindrance to our unchanging joy in the solid rock that we have in Jesus.  The N. T. is filled with Christians who had terrible times yet always had joy because they had faith and hope in Jesus, and they believed that in him they would always come out winners in the end, and often in a short time even. </div> <div> They believed the promise of  Christ to be with them always.</div> <bR> <div> "Yea, I am with thee when there falls no shadow</div> <div>      Across the golden glory of the day,</div> <div> And I am with thee when the storm-clouds gather,</div> <div>      Dimming  the brightness of the onward way;</div> <bR> <div> "In days of loss and loneliness and sorrow,</div> <div>       Of care and weariness and fretting pain,</div> <div> In days of weakness and deep depression,</div> <div>      Of futile effort when thy life seems vain;</div> <bR> <div> "When Youth has fled and Death has put far from thee</div> <div>      Lover and friend who made the journey sweet;</div> <div> When age has come with slowly failing powers,</div> <div>      And the dark valley waits thy faltering feet.</div> <bR> <div> "When courage fails thee for the unknown future</div> <div>      And the heart sinks beneath its weight of fears--</div> <div> Still I am with thee--Strength and Rest and Comfort,</div> <div>      Thy Counsellor through all Earth's changing years.</div> <bR> <div> "Whatever goes, whatever stays, </div> <div>      Lo, I am with thee all the days!"</div> <bR> <div>      The goal is not to be joyful because you have no troubles but to be joyful in the midst of all your troubles. This is what we see in the N. T. Paul writes in IICor. 7:4,</div> <div> "I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds."  And it was not just him, but ordinary Christians did the same, for he wrote of the Macedonian Christians in IICor. 8:2, "Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity." They did not have it made at all. They suffered and were poor, yet were filled with joy and were generous even in their poverty to help other Christians.</div> <div>                         Joy and deep poverty! Truly strange blending.</div> <div>                              Fulness and emptiness! Contrasting themes.</div> <div>                         Spiritual richness and temporal leanness!</div> <div>                              None but the Spirit could wed such extremes.    J. Danson Smith</div> <div> Completeness of joy does not depend upon life being free of troubles and trials and a host of things you wish were different, but on your trust in Jesus.</div> <bR> <div>                          Oh Christ, in Thee my soul hath found,</div> <div>                          And found in Thee alone,</div> <div>                          The peace, the joy I sought so long;</div> <div>                          The bliss till now unknown.</div> <bR> <div>                           I sighed for rest and happiness,</div> <div>                           I yearned for them, not Thee;</div> <div>                           But while I passed my Saviour by,</div> <div>                           His love laid hold on me.</div> <bR> <div>                           I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,</div> <div>                           But ah! the waters failed.</div> <div>                           E'en as I stooped to drink they'd fled,</div> <div>                           And mocked me as I wailed.</div> <div>  </div> <div>                           Now none but Christ can satisfy,</div> <div>                           None other name for me;</div> <div>                           There's love, and life, and lasting joy,</div> <div>                           Lord Jesus, found in Thee!</div> <div> This is what happened to the once famous athiest C. S Lewis who found Christ and wrote his autobiography callling it Suprised by Joy, for in Christ he found the joy he could find nowhere else though he searched the world over. Only in Him is there completeness of joy.</div> <bR> <div>      This then is to be our goal for the coming year: to aim for completeness of joy that we might communicate more effectively the joy of salvation to a lost world. The Westminister Shorter Catechism has this interesting remark. "There may be orthodoxy, rectitude, heritage and tithing in the church, but if the note of joy is not present it is no true church."  We want to be a true church and be authentic Christian witnesses in the coming year and this means we must grow in our joy. Billy Graham's wife Ruth urges Christians to enjoy God more and quotes Ps.37 where we are told to delight ourselves in the Lord.</div> <bR> <div>      Ray Ortland, a well-known pastor of our day writes, "We Christians are abnormal and disobedient if we are anything but joyous people. We must never think of God as rigid and emotionless. He has feelings, sorrows, and the Scriptures tell us He gets angry, has pleasure, and also rejoices. Zephaniah illuminates the heart of God Almighty to us:</div> <div>      "The Lord they God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing" Zeph. 3:17</div> <div>      Here God is breaking forth as a God of song, our singing Lord, the God of melody. So few really know Him as this.  Do you think of God this way? Many times our guilty hearts put a stern face on God. We do Him a disservice, God is not unfriendly and austere. It takes a glad God to give us glad tidings. Our Father is a God of joy."</div> <bR> <div>      The Bible clearly supports his view, for we read in Ps.16:11, "Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy, in they right hand are pleasures for evermore." Ps. 68:3 says, "Let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before  God; yea, let them exceedingly rejoice."</div> <div>      In Rom 14:17 we read, "For the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."</div> <bR> <div>      There is much more of joy in both testaments, but these are sufficient to make it clear that it is a Christian duty to be joyful, and it is a goal we should all aim for to be more joyful until our joy is complete, making us better witnesses of the Gospel of joy we are to communicate to the world. May God motivate each of us to make the coming year, regardless of its troubles and trials, a year of joy so that in our lives this will not be a missing ingredient.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THE GREATEST LOVE STORY based on John 3:16</B></div> <div> By Pastor Glenn Pease</div> <bR> <div>      One of the great love stories of English history is that of the Curfew.  A young soldier had committed some offense, and was condemned to die.  The time of his death was fixed, "at the ringing of the curfew."  Double was the sorrow, for not only was he young, but he was soon to be married to a beautiful young woman, whom he loved dearly.  She also loved him deeply.  She tried to save his life in various ways.  She even tried to bribe the old sexton, so that he would not ring the bell, but all of her efforts failed.  </div> <div>      The hour of his death drew near, and the prisoner was brought forth and prepared.  They waited for the signal, but to the astonishment of everyone, the bell did not ring.  The girl who loved the young man so much, had rushed to the belfry, and seized the tongue of the bell.   At the fatal moment, the old sexton began to pull the rope, and the bell reeled to and fro in the tower.  The brave girl, however, kept her  hold, and prevented the bell from ringing.  The sexton was old and deaf, and did not notice that the bell gave no sound.  He left, and the girl hurried to the place of execution.  She arrived just as Cromwell was sending to demand why the bell did not ring.  We then read this poetic conclusion--</div> <div>           And her brow, </div> <div>           Lately white with sorrow, glows with hope and courage now,</div> <div>           at his feet she told her story, showed her hands all</div> <div>                bruised and torn, </div> <div>           and her young face still haggard with the anguish</div> <div>                it had worn, </div> <div>           touched his heart with sudden pity, lit his eyes with</div> <div>                misty light--</div> <div>           Go, your love lives, cried Cromwell; Curfew shall</div> <div>                not ring tonight. </div> <div>      Romantic love is beautiful and powerful, but even it cannot match the beauty and power of redeeming love.  The greatest love story is not  a story of male and female, for this is not the highest level of love.  Love on this level can fail.  George Matheson was engaged to a girl he loved very dearly.  He had trouble with his eyes, and his physician told him he would in a short time lose his sight.  He felt it was only right to tell his fiancee, and give her a release from the engagement.  So great was his love for her, he felt sure she would not accept it.  He told her, and she withdrew her ring and gave it back saying, "I couldn't be tied to a blind man the rest of my life."  Matheson, plunged into darkness, sought a love that was beyond the love of any woman.  He found it in the love of God, and poured out these words we often sing, </div> <div>           O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee,</div> <div>           I give Thee back the life I owe, that in Thine ocean depths it flow</div> <div>                May richer, fuller be. </div> <div>      The one need that every person on earth has in common, is the need for love.  The good news of Christmas is the greatest news on earth, for it is the good news that every person on earth is loved.  Everyone plays a role in the greatest love story ever told.  Hollywood can come up with some impressive casts, but nothing can match God's production of the greatest love story, for the cast includes all mankind.  </div> <div>      Christmas is not just good news to Christians, it is good news to the whole world.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son...."  Christmas marks the entrance of the eternal into the earthly, that the earthly might enter the eternal.  Christmas is the greatest love story because it, and it alone, provided man with a love sufficient for time and eternity.  St Augustine said, "The chief cause of Christ coming was that man might know how much God loves them."  Love divine all love's excelling.</div> <div>      God's Christmas gift of His Son proclaims to all men everywhere that God is love.  This is the most needed message in the world.  Victor Hugo said,"The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved."  Love is the indispensable need of the human heart.  Without love men die, but with it they live.  </div> <div>      The tragic fact of modern life is that love is so scarce.  Aldous Huxley says our contemporary culture is "organized lovelessness."  We live in an impersonal world where our relationships are a surface matter, and with little depth or love.  Albert Camus in The Plague, is saying, a loveless world is a dead world.  Modern literature is echoing the Word of God that says, the world is dead in tresspasses and sin, because, though the light came into the world, men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. </div> <div>      Men do not need a revelation to know that a loveless world is a dead world, but they do need a revelation to know that God loves the world.  The love story of Christmas is the good news that there is light and life for this dark and dead world.  A refugee from Siberia, who had been a politcal prisoner of the Communists, told of being separated from his family.  He told of long days with no friends, but just dismal coldness, and hard labor.  He said the only thing that kept hope alive was the assurance "God loved me."  The difference between life and death is in whether or not one is aware of the good news of the greatest love story.  </div> <div>      A group of children in a orphanage received a present of a basket of fruit.  They promptly proceded to devour it, but one boy set his basket in the window.  When asked why, he said, "I want to keep my present so people can see that someone cared for me at Christmas."  Millions of people feel orphaned in this universe, because they do not know of God's love.  Man's greatest problem is the lack of love.  A world torn by hate and war, is a world being smothered, for lack of the oxygen of love.  Almost all  misbehavior of children and adults, can be traced to their sense of a lack of love.  Every man, woman, and child needs to hear that Christmas is the greatest love story every told, because it is the  story of God's love for them.  </div> <div>      Chuck Swindoll read one of the funniest accounts of a little boy's tough day I have ever seen.  I want to share it, for it fits the life of many. It is called,  Alexander In The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.       </div> <div>          " I went to sleep with gum in my mouth, and now there is gum in my hair--</div> <div>      when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skate board and by</div> <div>      mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running.</div> <div>      And I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad</div> <div>      day.  </div> <div>           At breakfast, Anthony found a corvette stingray car kit in his cereal box,</div> <div>      but in my breakfast cereal box all I found was  breakfast cereal.  I think</div> <div>      I'll move to Australia.  </div> <div>           In the car pool, Mrs. Gibson let Becky have a seat by the window,</div> <div>      Audrey and Elliot got seats by the window too.  I said I was being</div> <div>      scrunched, I said I was being smushed and that if I didn't get a seat by</div> <div>      the window I'm going to get car sick--no one even answered.  I could</div> <div>      tell it was going to be  a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  </div> <div>             At school Mrs. Dickens liked Paul's picture of the sailboat better</div> <div>      than my picture of the invisible castle.  At singing time she said I</div> <div>      sang to loud--at counting time she said I left out 16--who needs 16?</div> <div>      I could tell it was going to be a terrrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.</div> <div>            I could tell because Paul said I was not his best friend.  He said that</div> <div>      Philip Parker was his best friend, and that Albert Mayo was his next best</div> <div>      friend, but that I was only his third best friend.  I hope you set on a tack</div> <div>      I said to Paul.  I hope the next time you get a double decker strawberry</div> <div>      ice cream cone, the ice cream part falls off the cone and lands in Australia."</div> <div>                </div> <div>      His pathetic account goes on to tell of no dessert in his lunch, a trip to the dentist after school, a slamed door on his foot, a fall into the mud, a bawling out by mom and an accidental call on the phone to Australia.  He concludes with these words--</div> <div>      There were lima beans for supper--I hate lima beans.  There was kissing on </div> <div>      T.V.--I hate kissing.  My bath was to  hot, I got soap in my eyes, my marble</div> <div>      went down the drain.  I had to wear my railroad train pajamas--I hate my </div> <div>      railroad train pajamas.  When I went to bed Nick took the pillow back</div> <div>      he said I could keep--my Mickey Mouse night light burned out and I bit my</div> <div>      tongue.  The cat went to sleep with Anthony--not with me.  It's been a</div> <div>      terrible, horrible, no good very bad day, but my mom says, there are some</div> <div>      days like that even in Australia.</div> <div>      It is because life is often like this boy's experience that we need the assurance that we are loved, and that there is a better plan of life than what we see  in this fallen world. Many become pessimistic because all they can see is the bad days. Someone wrote a limmerick about this perspective.</div> <div>                God's plan had a hopeful beginning</div> <div>                But man spoiled his chances by sinning.</div> <div>                     We trust that the story</div> <div>                     Will end with God's glory,</div> <div>                But at present the other side's winning.</div> <div>      The power of darkness seems to capture all the headlines, and dominate the front page. What we have today is just a magnified version of the events of the first Christmas. The announcement of the birth of Jesus was made only to a few people, but all the land was aware of the horrible hatred of Herod, who killed the babies of Bethlehem. Darkness always seems to be winning. That is why the world is desperately in need of light, and why the greatest love story needs to be told. Harry Emerson Fosdick said back in 1963, "In our world now antichrist does loom, dark and terrifying. Take a good look at him-antichrist incarnate and black as midnight! Some things are being done on earth this Christmastime so hideous that the mind recoils, seared and blistered with shame, and turbulent with indignation. All the more shall we not say, still in the darkness the light shineth-in that will I believe. Christ never seemed to me so important as now when antichrist is so black."    That could have been said in todays paper, for it is as relevant now as ever. Christmas is a message of light that is stronger than the darkness. Christmas is a call to choose sides. Will you be part of the darkness, or will you be part of the light?</div> <div>    As Christians we have made our choice, but at Christmas we should examine our weapon, which is our message, and become more and more convinced that it is adequate. We need to be more and more committed to the belief that the love of God will gain the victory. John 3:16 aids us in coming to this conviction, by emphasizing two things we need to have impressed on our minds. The first is-</div> <div>      I. THE INTENSITY OF GOD'S LOVE.</div> <div>      In a world where most couldn't care less, God couldn't care more.  He so loved He gave His only Son..  There is no way to measure the infinite intensity of a love like that.  A woman who was told of God's love gift to sinful man said, "I cannot understand such love.  I have two children, and I wouldn't give one of them for the best friend I have in the world, yet you tell me that God gave His only Son for His bitterest enemies.  I can't understand such love."  God's love is beyond the measure of our finite minds.  </div> <div>                His love no end nor measure knows,</div> <div>                No change can turn it's course,</div> <div>                 Eternally the same it flows</div> <div>                From one eternal source.</div> <div>      God so loved--"so", emphasizes the intensity that is unmeasurable.  Never did two letters ever try to convey so much.  Charles Spurgeon in his typical eloquence said,</div> <div> " Come,  ye surveyors, bring your chains and try</div> <div>   to make a survey of this word 'so.' Nay, that is</div> <div>   not enough. Come hither, ye that make our national surveys, and lay  </div> <div>   down charts for all nations. Come ye, who map the sea and land, and</div> <div>   make a chart of this word 'so.' Nay, I must</div> <div>   go further. Come hither, ye astronomers, that</div> <div>   with your optic glasses spy out spaces before.</div> <div>   which imagination staggers, come hither and</div> <div>   calculate imaginations worthy of all your powers.__</div> <div>   When you have measured between the horns of</div> <div>   space, here is a task that will defy you-'God so</div> <div>   loved the world.' If you enter into that, you will</div> <div>   know that all this love is to you-that while</div> <div>   Jehovah loves the world, yet He loves you as much</div> <div>   as if there was nobody else in  all the world to</div> <div>   love."  </div> <bR> <div>      Christmas is a love story about a love that gets involved.  Nobody wants to get involved in other people's problems, but God so loved the world He jumped right into the center of man's mess.  He got so involved it cost Him His life.  Pilate could wash his hands of Jesus, but Jesus could not wash His hands of Pilate, or of anyone else.  So intense was the love of Christ that it could not stop short of the cross.  Christmas and the cross are linked, for they both represent the 'so' in God so loved the world.  </div> <div>                Here is depth I cannot fathom,</div> <div>                Here is  heighth I cannot climb.</div> <div>                Such a lofty elevation</div> <div>                Far beyond all estimation</div> <div>                No love ever so sublime.</div> <div>      Many people misunderstand, and get the perverted idea that Jesus  died for our sins, and thereby made it possible for God to love us.  This puts love on the wrong end of the Gospel.  The cross was not the cause of God's love, it was the expression of His love.  God's love was the cause of the cross.  A God who doesn't care doesn't count.  Millions in our world live with the conviction that God does not care.  This is a tragic reality, "for a loving worm within the clod, were better far than a loveless God."  The tragedy is doubled because Christians do not communicate the intensity of God's love, nor do they communicate the second aspect of it, which is--</div> <bR> <div>      II. THE UNIVERSALITY OF GOD'S LOVE.</div> <div>      God so loved the world.  It is joy to the world, not just to Israel or the church.  Christmas is the good news of God's love to all men.  The love story of Christmas is not exclusive, but is the greatest, just because it is the only love story that is all inclusive.  No one, absolutely no one, but God, loved the whole world.  </div> <div>      The main door to the famous Church Of The Nativity in Bethlehem was once a normal size door, but today it is so narrow and low, that only one person stooping can enter at a time.  The change came because of the Turks who rode their horses into the church, and trampled the sacred star on the floor.  They did this to annoy the Christians.  To end this desecration, the Christians walled up the doorway to keep horses out.  This was certainly a legitimate protective measure.  The church has to strive to exclude the world, and stop it's invasion into the realm of the sacred.  </div> <div>      It was certainly a mistake, for example, for a church to make a deal with a medicine company, allowing them to print the church hymnals for the privilege of advertising in the hymnal.  The company overdid their ingenuity for getting in commericals.  The first Christmas hymn went like this,</div> <div>                Hark! The herald angels sing,</div> <div>                Beecham's pills are just the thing;</div> <div>                Peace on earth and mercy mild,</div> <div>                Two for man and one for child.</div> <div>      The story is obviously not true, but things almost as silly take place when the church lets the world invade it.  The church goes from one extreme to another and misses the blessing of balance in relation to the world.  We are to be in the world but not of it.  That is a positive and a negative.  The conservative tends to make it two negatives, and is neither in it nor of it.  He withdraws from the world in which he is to be the salt and light, and let's it rot in darkness while he keeps safely isolated in the church.  The liberal, rightly seeing the futility of this nonsence, over corrects the mistake, and makes two positives of it.  He ends up both in the world and of it, destroying the distinction that is necessary for the church to minister to the world.  You can't lift the world if you are on the same level with it.  </div> <div>      If the greatest love story is going to continue to unfold in our day, Christians must learn to love the world without participating in it's sin, just as Jesus did.  As soon as anyone is excluded from our love, we cease to be spokesmen for the God of universal love.  Love your neighbor was the Old Testament requirement, but the New Testament enlarges the circle to include your enemies.  There is no one whom we are not to love.  All are a part of the world which God so loved.  </div> <div>                Love has a hem on it's garment</div> <div>                That reaches the very dust.</div> <div>                It can reach the stains</div> <div>                In the streets and lanes</div> <div>                And because it can; it must.</div> <div>                It cannot stop on the mountain;</div> <div>                It is bound to go to the vale;</div> <div>                For it cannot find its fullness of mind</div> <div>                Till it reaches the lives that fail.</div> <div>      A man of wealth was a great admirer of the famous artist Murillo, and longed to possess his painting of the Christ-child.  One day his search was rewarded.  He found a painting bearing the mark of Murillo with the infant Christ as king, surrounded by angels.  At once the picture was purchased.  But on examination under a glass, it was discovered that the original had been tampered with.  The surrounding host of angels was by Murillo's hand, but the child king had been cut out, and a false Christ inserted.  For many years the man searched until he found another painting, like his own, which claimed to be a genuine work of Murillo.  He bought it also, and under the glass, to his great delight, he found the Christ-child he sought.  He skillfully removed the false Christ, and inserted the true Christ from the second picture.  The picture is now hanging in an art gallery under the title, "The Restored Christ".  </div> <div>      We likewise should not be satisfied with any Christ in Christmas, but the one who represents the God who so loved the world.  He loved intensely and universally, that He might meet every man's need. </div> <div>                It's the greatest love story that ever was told,</div> <div>                The story of God's love for man.</div> <div>                It's a story that never, no never, grows old,</div> <div>                So tell it as oft as you can.</div> <div>                </div> <div>                When Christmas is over, and the new year begun,</div> <div>                The message goes on--God gave us His Son.</div> <div>                No matter what happens, this story is true,</div> <div>                God so loved the world, and He so loves you.</div> <div>      The story is told of the Christian Emperor of Persia, who wanted to find one person, and give them the best Christmas they ever had.  He disguised himself as a peasant, and wandered among his people.  He went into a factory at noon, and sat by one of the keepers of the fires, as he stopped for lunch.  He talked with the worker and the worker offered him part of his lunch.  A couple of days later the Emperor returned, and brought his  lunch to share with the worker.  Day after day he returned, and a warm affection grew up in his heart for this simple fireman.  </div> <div>      One day when they finished their lunch, the Emperor told him who he was, and produced the proof.  The fireman's face turned white with fear.  The Emperor pleaded for him not to be afraid.  He said, "I have come to appreciate you as a friend, and want to give you the best Christmas gift you have ever received."  The fireman's face lost it's fear and took on a smile.  He said, "I've thought of you as one so powerful and strong, that I trembled at the thought of ever meeting you.  I didn't know you were like this--so lovable and kind.  I have looked forward each day to your coming.  I don't want any costly gift, just give me what you have been giving me.  Come and sit down, talk to me, and be my friend."  The fireman had the best gift, the gift of the Emperor's love.  That is the best that God could give, and the best that we can receive.  John says that if we receive Jesus, we receive with Him the right to become children of God.</div> <div>                Christmas is a gift of love</div> <div>                   That can't be bought or sold,</div> <div>                It's ours just for the asking </div> <div>                   And it's worth far more than gold;</div> <div>                </div> <div>                And this priceless gift of Christmas</div> <div>                    Is within the reach of all,</div> <div>                The rich, the poor, the young and old,</div> <div>                    The greatest and the small;</div> <bR> <div>                So take God's Christmas gift of love,</div> <div>                    Reach out and you receive,</div> <div>                And the only payment that God asks</div> <div>                    Is just that you believe. </div> <div>                                                              -Helen Steiner Rice.</div> <div>      If you believe, and Christ you receive, you will be a part of the greatest love story ever told.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>IS MARRIAGE FOREVER?  based on Matt. 22:23-33</B></div> <div> By Rev. Glenn Pease</div> <div>      One of the greatest romance stories of all history is that of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning.  Elizabeth was a normal active girl up to age 15, but then life ceiling tumbled in for her.  She became an invalid, who for the next 20 years was confined to bed in a darkened room.  She was a prisoner of pain and loneliness.  Her mother died when she was 22, and she was left in the hands of a cruely stern father.  Later, her favorite brother was taken by a drowning accident.  Few people have ever written of the depths of despair as she did.  </div> <div>      In spite of her tragic and lonely life, she managed to write poetry of such quality that it was published.  She made a name for herself among the world of poets.  In 1845, after her 38th birthday, a poet six years younger than her, by the name of Robert Browning, wrote to her, and asked if he could visit.  Her spirit was willing, but her flesh was weak, and she was reluctant to let any man see her frail and tortured body.  He was insistant, however, and so the day came when he entered her darkened room.  </div> <div>      The light of love altered the darkness of her life almost instantly.  They began to write letters to each other, and her health took a sudden positive turn.  She wrote later that love drew her gently back fromt the gates of death.  Her father fought this love, and forced them to carry on their friendship in secrecy.  After a year of this, with a friends help, she stole away, and was married to Robert Browning.  Her father never forgave her, and they never met again.  </div> <div>      Her wedded life was a taste of heaven.  Love lifted her from 20 years in bed to a life of adventure with her husband.  They went ot Italy, and together wrote great poetry.  She bore Robert a son, and she became famous for the poetry her love inspired.  One day she handed him a little pile of poems and said, "Read these, if you don't like them tear them up."  These were the now famous Sonnets From the Portuguese.  It is said of them, "No purer expression of a heart on fire with love has ever been written."  The most famous of all is this one which introduces us to our subject.  </div> <div>           How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.</div> <div>           I love thee to depths and bredth and height</div> <div>           My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight</div> <div>           For the ends of being and ideal grace.</div> <div>           I love thee to the level of every day's</div> <div>           Most quite need, by sun and candle light.</div> <div>           I love thee freely, as men strive for right.</div> <div>           I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.</div> <div>           I love thee with the passion put to use</div> <div>           In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.</div> <div>           I love thee with a love I seemed to lose</div> <div>           With my lost saints.  I love thee with the breath,</div> <div>           Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, </div> <div>           I shall but love thee better after death.</div> <div>      The question is, was her hope of a better love after death a vain  hope?  Is this merely poetic dreaming, with no foundation in fact?  Does love last forever?  Does death become the dividing line that divorces all true lovers?  These are not minor questions, but ones which all loving mates ask at some time or another.   </div> <div>      It is fascinating to study the marriages of great men of God, and see how the hope of reunion with their mates is such a vital force in their lives.  When William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, stood at the side of his wife's grave, he spoke these words, "I have never turned from her these 40 years for any journeyings on my mission of mercy, but I longed to get back, and have counted the weeks, days, and hours which should take me again to her side."  After some other words concerning his sorrow he said, "When I have served my Christ and my generation according to the will of God, ....then I trust that she will bid me welcome to the skies."  </div> <div>      Jonathan Edwards, one of the greatest preachers and theologians America has ever produced, did not die speaking of books and theology, but rather, of his dear wife, Sarah.  His final words were, "Give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever."  </div> <div>      The fascinating book, The Courtship Of Mr. Lincoln, ends with these hopeful words of Mary Todd, that great president's devoted wife--"The only consolation left me, is the certainty, that each day brings me nearer my loved and lost....I shall  not much longer be separated from my idolized husband, who has only gone before and I am certain is fondly watching and waiting for our reunion, nevermore to be separated."  We could go on and on quoting the hopes of lovers through the ages, both great and small.  It is a universal conviction that what the Song of Solomon says about love, is true.  In 8:6 it says, "Love is strong as death," and in verse 7 is says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."  The context makes it clear that this is the love of a man and woman.  All else may be washed away in the flood, but love endures forever.  Christina Rossetti expressed the universal hope of lovers in poetry--</div> <div>                O my love, my dove, lift up your eyes</div> <div>                     Toward the eastern gates like an opening rose.</div> <div>                You and I who parted will meet in Paradise</div> <div>                     Pass within and sing when the gates unclose.</div> <div>                This life is but the passage of a day,</div> <div>                     This life is but a pang and all is over,</div> <div>                But in the life to come which fades not away</div> <div>                     Every love shall abide and every lover.</div> <div>      This universal hope would, no doubt, be unquestioned by Christians were it not for the interference of the skepticial Sadducees, who asked Jesus the difficult question we read in our text of Matt.22:23-33.  The Sadducees were a sect of the Jews started in 250 B.C. by Sadok, a president of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Judaism. They did not believe in any resurrection at all.  They knew they couldn't convince those who believed in a restored paradise to give up the idea as nonsense, so they tried the next best thing.  They tried to make the idea look so complicated and rediculous that men would have to laugh at it.  Ridicule has always been a powerful tool in theological debate, and the Sadducees were skilled at  it.  </div> <div>      They had, no doubt, watched many a pious Pharisee squirm as they presented this problem, which seems to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of marriage forever. The Pharisees were the largest of the Jewish sects and they did believe in the resurrection. Keep in mind, the motive behind this question is not the desire to find truth, but to make the hope of the resurrection look foolish.  How amusing the whole thing was to them.  How delighted they must have been to  have thought of this example.  Imagine one wife bewildered as to which of her seven husbands she should choose in the day of resurrection.  How hilarious to imagine the other six walking away rejected to enjoy paradise alone.  Their sides must have ached from the laugher, as they reviewed their question, and it's implications.  Trying to hold back the smile, and look solemn, the Sadducee hit Jesus with this question, "Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?" </div> <div>      At first glance, the answer of Jesus seems to shatter the hopes of lovers through the ages.  In verse 30 Jesus says, "At the resurrection people will neither marry or be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven."  It would appear that the Sadducees came off with a considerable victory here.  Even if they did not destroy the hope of the resurrection, they appear to have robbed it of one of it's greatest joys.  </div> <div>      This passage had disturbed many who fear that Jesus is saying, husbands and wives will not be united in eternity, and all the hopes of eternal love are mere human sentiments, and of no interest to God in His eternal plan.  Such fears are unfounded, however, if we see that Jesus is only concerned about destroying the Sadducees basis for ridicule.  Jesus is not eliminating reunion and love, but only those aspects of earthly marriage which would make it as complicated and ridiculous as the Sadducees suggest.</div> <div>      The Sadducees have painted a picture of heaven that is filled with conflict that is worse than what we see in time. The seven husbands in time were had one at a time, and so there was no conflict. But now, in the resurrection, they are all there at once, and they will be fighting over which one is to have this woman as their wife for eternity. This picture is based on the assumption that in our resurrection bodies we will still have sexual needs, and that no man is going to want to be without a sexual partner for all eternity. Thus, heaven will be filled with civil wars, with millions of men fighting to possess a woman who was also married to another man in time. If nothing is different from time, between the sexes, then you can see the mess there will be in heaven .</div> <div>      But the answer of Jesus eliminates the problems the Sadducees forsee, that make heaven such a mess. Jesus says people will be like angels in heaven. What does this mean? It means the whole issue of sex is taken away. Angels are sexless beings, and they do not have conflict over relationships. You never read about Mrs. Gabriel, or of any angel having a mate. Their is no adultery among angels. Their is no jealousy or lust, nor any the problems that sex leads to in this life. Jesus is saying that sex is not necessary in heaven. There will be no death there and no need for reproduction to keep the new heaven and new earth populated. Sex is what makes marriage an exclusive relationship in time, and it leads to a lot of emotions that will not be a part of eternity. The Sadducees were trying to carry over all the baggage of sexuality in time, into eternity. If this was what eternity was to be, they had a point. But Jesus makes all their objections irrelevant by making it clear that the conflicts of sexuality will not exist in the resurrected bodies. James M. Campbell in his book, Heaven Opened, writes, "True marriage is something more than a civil contract, a partnership of convenience, a legalized indulgence. Where it represents only those things it has in it no element of perpetuity, and can have no existence beyond the present. But that which underlies all true marriage, the union of souls, the ever deepening companion of souls, abides. 'The children of this age' marry  in a convertional fashion only for earth, but 'the children of the resurrection,' who 'marry in the Lord,' are united forever. They are 'as the angels,' that is to say, they have reached that androgynous condition in which sex distinctions are transcended, or rather, in which the qualities of both sexes are blended together."</div> <div>      This means that the millions who have had two or more mates in this life need not worry about making choices in heaven. Their will be none of that says Jesus. The millions of singles need not worry that they will be left out, as if heaven will be a continuation of the couple oriented society of time. All angels are single, and Jesus is single, and all of the redeemed will be single. Marriage, in the sense of an exclusive relationship, will be no more. We may love millions without any jealousy on the part of others we love, for the sexual and exclusive is no more. We will be like brothers and sisters to millions with Jesus as our Elder Brother. Their will be no jealousy or envy in the family of God. All will dwell in perfect harmony in the Father's house.</div> <div>      But what about the universal hope of lovers? Does the answer of Jesus eliminate all these hopes? Not at all. It only eliminates the problems, but it does not eliminate the dreams of lovers of having a special relationship in the eternal kingdom. We shall be like the angels. Are we to suppose that this means some kind of demotion to a state where love is less than what we know in earthly marriage? Jesus is not letting the Sadducees rob heaven of love. He is telling them they are ignorant of the power of God, and they have too small a view of God's potential to see that He will make love even greater in eternity than it is in time. They have tried to limit God to their concept of love, but God is not so limited. He has a higher level of love for those in the resurrection. It will be a promotion to a love level enjoyed now by the angels. We will be moving on up to a level of love where all the problems, the Sadducees could conceive, are gone forever.</div> <div>      We are not to read into this that there will be no unique love relationships in heaven. Jesus is not saying, that in the restored Paradise, Adam will have no special relationship to Eve. Will Eve pass her former husband on the streets of gold and say to her companion, "He looks familiar but I don't know him from Adam?" If so, then all that Scripture says about reunion of families, retention of memory, and maintaining our identity is meaningless. Jesus said in Matt.8:11 "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."  But what about Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel? Is heaven to be for men only? Of course not! These couples in the Bible will not lose their identity. If they did, there would be no meaning to knowing them in eternity, for they would be a bunch of total strangers. It is the retaining of the memory of who they were in time that gives meaning to meeting them in eternity. You can eliminate conflict over sexuality and exclusiveness, but you cannot eliminate the relationship of married couples in heaven. Once you do that you destroy all that the Bible says about recognition and reunion in heaven. This makes heaven meaningless,  for then it is just a mass of beings who are in paradise, but with no identity. This is a rejection of the Biblical hope.</div> <div>      So, what do we conclude? Marriage as we know it will be no more, but the relationship of married people will not be eliminated. Just as friends and family will have a special relationship in eternity, so married people will have such a relationship. If it was an unhappy or mediocre marriage, the couple will not have to be in any relationship in heaven, even though all hostility will be gone. But for those who want to go on forever in a special love relationship, there is no reason, whatsoever, why this should not be so.</div> <div>      Rachel and Leah are not going to go on for all eternity fighting over which one gets Jacob to sleep with them, but there is no reason to doubt that they will both have a very special relationship to Jacob, which they will not have with you and me, even though we might become the best of friends in heaven. It can never be that these people were not married, and so, even though they will not be married in the sense of having an exclusive sexual relationship, they will be married for all eternity. Will marriage be forever? The answer is both yes and no. It is no, to the Sadducees limited concept of marriage, but yes, to the concept of marriage, as a quality love relationship that the redeemed want to possess forever.</div> <div>      I might find myself greatly interested in Sarah. I have preached sermons on her, and I might want to spend long hours hearing her story in heaven. She would become a special friend to me and a sister in the family of God, but she would always be the wife of Abraham. He would not be jealous of the time she spends sharing her story with me, or millions of other men, for there is no reason for jealousy, and no basis for fear that their unique relationship can be stolen. This means the marriage relationship is more secure in heaven than it could ever be in time. In time there are many things that can change the best relationships, but in eternity they will be what they are forever, with no possibility of change,  except to get better. Their is no decline of anything good or loving in heaven. Progress is forever, but regress is never.</div> <div>      This means that marriage will be forever for those who have a love they want to enjoy forever. Not all married couples have such a love, but for those who do, heaven will be the fulfillment of their hopes. Everyone will be married in heaven, in at least one sense, for all will be married to the Bridegroom, who is Christ. Matthew Henry, the great commentator, says, "The joys of that state are pure and spiritual, and arise from the marriage of all of them to the Lamb, not of any of them to one another." He may be overstating the case, and be inplying that there are no joys in any other relationship than that we will have with our Saviour, but his point is good. Just as all will love Christ without any jealousy, so any love in heaven will not present any problem as it often does in time. </div> <div>      A husband was consoling himself and his wife who was on her death-bed. He said they would meet again and be together in heaven. But she replied that she would not even notice him in heaven for she would be occupied forever in praising her Lord. This sound super-spiritual, but it has no basis in fact. We will be ever in our Lord's presence and worship will be a perpetual state of the redeemed, but to suggest that all other relationships have to be denied is going against the grain of all Christian hopes. We are to love God now with all our being, but this in no way detracts from loving others. In fact, the second commandment is to love our neighbor as ourself. God is to be our number one priority, but He expects us to love others as well. There is no reason to suppose this will be changed in heaven where we will finally be able to obey God's commands completely. We will be able to love God fully and still be able to love others in a special way, as well as love all the redeemed.  We must love others here to really love God. It will be even more so in heaven. Our total love for God will make us all the more loving to others.</div> <div>      Charles Spurgeon, considered by many to be the greatest preacher in history, had a very interesting and unique perspective on this issue. He writes, "I expect to see and know all the saints, to recognize them, and rejoice with them, and that without the slightest prejudice to my being wholly absorbed in the sight of my Lord. Let me explain to you how this can be. When I went the other day ilnto a friend's drawing-room, I observed that on all sides ther were mirrors. The whole of the walls were covered with glass, and everywhere I looked I kept seeing my friend. It was not necessary that I should fix my eyes upon him, for all the mirrors reflected him. Thus, brethren, it seems to me that every saint in heaven will be a mirror of Christ, and that as we look upon all the loved ones, gazing round upon them all, we shall see Christ in every one of them, so we shall still be seeing the Master in the servants, seeing the head in all the members. It is I in them, and they in me. Is it not so? It will be all the Master. This is the sum total of heaven."  Spurgeon saw no  problem in loving one's mate forever, for it would not be a conflict with loving one's Lord supremely.</div> <div>      The Sadducees tried to make love a problem in order to make the whole idea of the resurrection a problem. Jesus made it clear, there limited idea of love and marriage was  not the only concept of love and marriage God was capable of designing. Failure to evaluate the answer of Jesus in the context of this attack of the enemies of the resurrection has led some to conclude that Jesus rejects the idea of love forever for mates.</div> <div>      This is not so, and Christians all through history have never doubted that true loving relationships will be eternal. Charles Kingsley wrote, "All I can say is, if I do not love my wife, body and soul, as well as I do here, then there is neither resurrection of my body nor my soul." This is the conviction of many who have given this issue any thought. In the famous Pulpit Commentary, widely used by pastors, we read these words on this passage,"Our Lord says nothing here concerning mutual recognition in the future state; nothing about the continuance of those tender relations which he sanctions and blesses on earth, and in the absence of which we cannot imagine perfect happiness existing....Love will continue, purified and deepened; husband and wife, once joined together by God, cannot be put asunder." Herbert Lockyer, author of numerous Christian books, says, "What kind of home would it be if its members are to be strangers to each other for ever? ....the beautiful but broken relationships of earth are resumed in the Father's house above where, as members of the same family we dwell together in perfect harmony."</div> <div>      It is no contradiction to the words of Christ to affirm that marriage will last forever. It is probably more accurate, however, to say that the relationship and love of married people will last forever, after marriage itself has passed away. Marriage is an earthly concept, but love is heavenly and eternal, and that is what lovers want. The old puritan theology of marriage put it this way--"husband and wife are to help each other to live together for a time as copartners  in grace here, that they may reign together forever as coheirs in glory hereafter." The idea that we will be like angels ought not to cause us to reduce our concept of love. Are we to suppose for one minute that angels are less loving than we are, and that to be like them is a step down from our level of love. For all we know angels have a pleasure in love that is far superior to what we know of in sex. All we know is that there will be no jealousy and conflict in angelic love.</div> <div>                There is a land where beauty will not fade,</div> <div>                Nor sorrow dim the eye;</div> <div>                Where true hearts will not shrink nor be dismayed</div> <div>                And love will never die.</div> <div>      Marriage existed in the first Paradise and God declared that it was not good for man to be alone. God provided a partner for Adam, and Paradise was only complete when he had his partner. Certainly, the final Paradise will not be less than the first. There will be no widows or widowers in heaven. There will be no lonely singles. Not all singles are lonely, but the fact is, many are so in time. This will not be the case in heaven. Everyone will have a partner, for if it was not good for Adam to be without a partner, it certainly will not be good for anyone in the everlasting paradise to be without one. Christ will have His Bride, the Church, and every man will have a companion, if not a wife, and every women a companion, if not a husband. Nobody will be left out of a perfect love relationship in that eternal Paradise. This would be a contradiction to all we know of God in the Bible.</div> <div>      It is a problem to grasp just what the relationship of mates will be in heaven, because we are limited, like the Sadducees were, in our understanding. But it will be something special. C.S.Lewis wrote, "About the nature of the relation between spouses in eternity I base my idea on St. Paul's dictum that  'he that is joined with a harlot is one flesh.' If the lowest, most corrupt form of sexual union has some mystical 'oneness' involved in it,...the married and lawful form must have it par excellence. That is, I think the union between the risen spouses will be as close as that between the soul and its own risen body."</div> <div>      Richard Crashaw put the following epitaph on the tomb of a young married couple who died and were buried together.</div> <div>                To these, whom death again did wed,</div> <div>                This grave's their second marriage bed;</div> <div>                For though the hand of fate could force</div> <div>                Twixt soul and body a divorce,</div> <div>                It could not sunder man and wife,     </div> <div>                Cause they both lived but one life.</div> <div>      The last line is the key to the hopes of lovers. If they are one in Christ, that unity will be everlasting, but if they lack that oneness, they have no basis for eternal oneness. All oneness, and all love that will be eternal, will be so, because of a oneness in time in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is love for Christ that makes every other love eternal. That is why Christians have always known that their earthly loves will be a part of heaven. David knew that he would love his son, he lost as a child, in heaven.(IISam.12:23). Dr. Lee Roberson, the great preacher in the South, said in a message on this text, "This verse tells me that we shall see our loved ones in heaven and know them." Martha knew she would know and love her brother Lazarus, in heaven.(John 11:24). Paul expected to know his Christian friends in heaven. In I Thess.2:19-20 he wrote, "For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy." See also, II Cor. 1:14 and 4:14. How can we possibly think that all relationships, but those of mates, will continue forever? All of our problems with this reality revolve around the same issue the Sadducees saw, and which Jesus eliminated-sex. Ellicott in his commentary says, "The old relation may subsist under new conditions. Things that are incompatible here may there be found to co-exist. The saintly wife of two saintly husbands may love both with an angelic, and therefore a pure and unimpaired affection."</div> <div>      The answer of Jesus, to the trick question of the Sadducees, does not, in any way, rob heaven of one of the great hopes of Christian lovers through the ages. On the tomb of Charles Kingsley and his wife are three Latin words which give a message that millions of mates feel is true. The three words say, "We have loved, we love, we shall love." This has been the hope of Christians through the centuries. St. Augustine, one of the greatest theologians of all time, wrote a letter of consolation to Italica, a Roman lady of rank who had lost her husband, way back in 408 A.D. In it he said,  "We have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this life, but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall come to that life where they will be more than ever dear as they will be better known to us, and where we shall love them without fear of parting." This was also the conviction of Ambrose, the famous bishop of Milan from 340-397 A.D. He wrote of his brother who died, and imagines the happiness of Theodosius, "when he receives Gratian and Pulcheria, his sweetest children, whom he had lost here; when his wife Flacilla, a soul faithful to God, embraces him; when he rejoices that his father has been restored to him;...."  Recognition of, and reunion with, loved ones has been the universal hope of believers. There is no way you can leave mates out of this hope.John Greenleaf Whittier in Snow Bound wrote these famous words of the Christian hope,</div> <div>                Alas for him who never sees</div> <div>                The stars shine through his cypress trees;</div> <div>                Who hopeless lays his dead away,</div> <div>                Nor looks to see the breaking day</div> <div>                Across his mournful marbles play;</div> <div>                Who has not learned in hours of faith</div> <div>                The truth to flesh and sense unknown,</div> <div>                That life is ever Lord of Death</div> <div>                And Love can never lose its own.</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> THE STRUGGLE WITH STRESS  LUKE 10:38-42</div> <div> BY PASTOR GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      Gipsy Smith was one of the great evangelists in England in the last half of the 19th century.  He had the largest congregation in England outside of London.  They met in a building that once  housed the Imperial Circus.  One Sunday night the pre-service prayer group was meeting in a side room used by Circus people as a dressing room.  Three hundred people were there singing and praying.  All of the sudden the floor collapsed sending them spralling into the stables below.  75 people were injured with broken arms, legs, and a few skulls were fractured.  All were brusied, but not a life was lost.  </div> <bR> <div>      The people gathering in the large auditorium heard the loud crash and were terrified, but there was no panic.  Doctors were sent for, and the injured were taken home in cabs.  Gipsy Smith got himself out of the debris, and rushed back up to the platform to explain the accident, and assure people that all possible help was being rendered to the injured.  He begged them to keep calm.  Some urged him to cancel the service, for though he had no injuries his nerves were in a state of shock.  </div> <bR> <div>      He was not alone.  When he asked for the lights to be turned up, the nervous caretaker turned them out, and there was a scene of fear and confusion.  A Mr. Brown saved the situation by starting to sing the hymn, Jesus, Lover Of My Soul. </div> <div> The people calmed down and joined him in the hymn.  The lights came on and the service went on, but Gipsy Smith was so weakened by the stress of that evening that he had to be carried home.  For months after this he had after effects of fear and trembling, and many years later he wrote, "Even now, occasionally, when I am face to face with a large crowd, something of that feeling of that night comes back to me."  He went on to win thousands of people to Christ in England and America, but he never completely escaped the impact of that traumatic event.  </div> <bR> <div>      The point is, just as Christians do not escape the storms of nature, so they do not escape the storms of their human nature:  The storms stirred up by stress, tension, and anxiety.  The Christian is in the world with a physical body and nervous system just like everyone else.  When it is 99 in the shade the Christian body sweats.  When it is 30 below the Christian body freezes.  When it steps into an open elevator shaft the Christian body falls, and when the Christian feels the friction and grinding gears of a fallen world that will not run smooth, the Christian body and mind records the stress, just like everyone else.  Nobody escapes the reality of stress, and that all inclusive statement does cover our Lord as well.  </div> <bR> <div>      In Matthew 26:38 Jesus said to His disciples in Gethsemane, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."  His disciples did not say to Him what some Christians have said to others under great stress, "Christians never need to be under the circumstances, but can always live above them."  Such positive thinkers would have a hard time facing the reality that even the Son of God felt the crushing power of stress.  He was already feeling a foretaste of being forsaken by God. </div> <bR> <div>       Dr. Luke writes of this same scene of super stress in Luke 22:44, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground."  If we saw a Christian brother or sister sweating with anxiety, we would be appalled by their little faith, and would feel compelled to rebuke them, even if their sweat was just normal body moisture and not blood.  But here we have such stress that blood vessels are broken, and blood is mixing with the sweat.  We are talking about a breaking point here.  The human body has limitations as to how much stress it can bear without breaking down, and Jesus was on the edge of that limit.  </div> <bR> <div>      It makes sense that He would be, for He was facing a trial which makes all other human trials minor in comparison.  He was facing the burden of the world sin and hell:  That is separation from the Father, and He was innocent.  The only man ever to never deserve hell was going to endure it for all those who do deserve it.  We can understand that the cross puts stress on Jesus that was beyond anything we can imagine, but it is a mistake to think Jesus did not feel the stress of normal life as well, for he did.  </div> <bR> <div>      We read in John 11:33, "When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews that had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled."   The stress of the sad emotions around Him was more than He could bear, and two verses later comes the shortest verse in the Bible:  Jesus wept.  It is short, but it speaks volumes about the stress of life and what is consistent with Christlikeness. </div> <div> You have two choices:  Either stress is not a sin, or Jesus was a sinner, for He had stress.  If you are a Bible believer, you have only one choice, for Jesus was without sin, and yet He had stress, and so stress cannot be sinful.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Bible is often a puzzle to us because we try to force a Biblical precept into places where it does not fit.  For example, we see a Christian friend in sorrow and we feel an obligation to cheer them up with a, "Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice."  But we forget that the man who said those words, Paul, was also a man who felt deep sorrow, and wept with a troubled heart over the problems of believers.  We forget he also said, "Weep with those who weep," as well as, "rejoice with those who rejoice."  </div> <bR> <div>      We have gotten it into our heads that the Christian is not to feel the negative side of life, and have the down emotions that come with the stress of life.  We quote our Lord in John 14:1, "Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God, trust also in me."  We take this out of its context of rejoicing in our hope of life forever with Christ in that place where He has gone to prepare for us, and try to apply it to the Christian who is distressed over a problem in this life, and by so doing, we are going against the grain of Scripture.</div> <bR> <div>      The Greek word for troubled is the same word used by Jesus back in 12:27 to describe His own emotions.  "Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say, Father save me from this hour?  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father glorify your name."  John uses the same word to describe Jesus in John 13:21.  "Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified,  I tell you the truth one of you is going to betray me."  We take the words of Jesus, to not be troubled, which apply to worrying where we will spend eternity, and make it say, don't be troubled about anything, and that is folly, for Jesus was troubled about plenty.  </div> <bR> <div>       What all this means is that to be troubled and disturbed because you are full of anxiety about your heavenly destination is to be in a state of disbelief in the promises of Christ, and therefore, under the impact of sinful stress.   On the other hand,  if you are working with a boss who is godless, and who is just looking for an excuse to fire you if you try to have a Christian perspective about life-style, and you have a troubled spirit-this is not sinful anxiety and satanic stress, it is the normal reaction to life's frustrating pressure.  It is not good to have such stress, just as it did nothing good for Jesus to have it, but it was not sinful, and is not sinful for us.  The point I am establishing is, life is full of stress that is not sinful, and there is no need for a Christian to feel guilty for having it.  Jesus did the will of God on earth as it is in heaven, but while on earth He suffered the same stresses and anxieties that trouble us.  </div> <bR> <div>      This is important to see so that we do not get involved in the foolish effort of trying to persuade ourselves and others that we should never feel the stresses of life.  When we do this, we only add more stress to our lives, for we are trying to do something that even our Lord could not do.  To pretend we can escape the stress of life is to put ourselves above our Lord.  It is sinful to think God expects us to be more than Christlike.  God's goal is that we be Christlike, and in a fallen world that means being subject to stress that must be manifested in a appropriate manner.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is nothing but sinful pride that makes a Christian try to pretend they do not feel the normal stresses of life like Jesus did.  He got exhausted to the point of collapse.  He was heart-broken with sinners who rejected Him, and walked away into darkness.  He was deeply disturbed by those who betrayed Him.  He wept over the sadness that sickness and death inflicted on people.  A Christian who does not feel these things is like a Pharisee who stands in the temple and says, "I thank God that I am not as other men."  It is sinful not to feel the stress of compassion for the fallenness of man.</div> <bR> <div>      When Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled," He was not saying that we should cease to be caring persons, and to get our heads so far above the clouds that we can't feel the stress of this world.  Jesus came into the world to feel these very things, and to taste to the depth the reality of human stress.  There is nothing Christlike at all about escape from life's stress.  Jesus sought it, and so did Paul.  Paul gave his life to reach the Gentiles with the Gospel, and in so doing, he went through every negative emotion and stress we can imagine.  Those who preach that the Christian life can be stress free are preaching a message not found in the New Testament. </div> <bR> <div>       And that brings us to our text finally.  I know this has been a long introduction.   It is like building a five room entry way to a four room house, but all of this is important as the foundation for a valid study of stress.</div> <bR> <div>       In this home in Bethany we find three of the favorite people in the life of Jesus.  </div> <div> They were all single like himself.  The setting shatters the idea that only brothers fight and live in conflict.  Cain killed Abel, and Joseph brothers sold him into slavery, and the elder brother would not even go in to say hello to his long lost younger prodigal brother.  These and other brothers in conflict blind us to the fact</div> <div> that sisters have conflict as well, and they add stress to each others life also.  </div> <bR> <div>      It makes clear that being single is not a stress free way of living.  No family in the New Testament had to endure more tension than did this lovely trio of singles.  Lazarus was sick unto death, and the two sisters were frantic, for they knew Jesus loved him, and they knew He could heal him.  But they could not reach Jesus and persuade Him to come.  You talk about frustration and anxiety and super stress.  There is more weeping recorded in that home than any other in the New Testament.</div> <bR> <div>      But before this major crisis, we see the minor crisis of our text where it is revealed that they had to deal with the same old stresses of life everyone else has to deal with.  The stress of work, cooking, cleaning, and entertaining of guests.  The tension of different values and goals within the family.  Here are two sisters who are both very loyal in their desire to serve Jesus as their Messiah.  But their differences create a scene of stress that we want to examine, and see in it two valuable truths about stress.  The first is,</div> <bR> <div> I.  SOME STRESS IS INEVITABLE.</div> <div>      If Jesus could not escape it; if His disciples could not escape it; and if His best friends in the world could not escape it, there is something very unrealistic about any Christian who expects to escape from the stresses of being human.  In otherwords, if you are not a pet rock, you can count on stress, for it is an inevitable part of life.  Even Adam, an ideal man in a paradise could not escape stress.  It was not good for him to be alone God said.  He felt the stress of lacking companionship. </div> <div> There was stress even before sin, and so we see, that stress is inevitable in a world that is anything less than absolutely perfect.  This means stress will not end until the new heaven and new earth, which will never pass away, and where all that is less than absolutely perfect will be excluded.  </div> <bR> <div>      The good news is, if stress was a part of life before sin then there has to be a good side to it.  That is, it has a place in God's plan, for God planned for Adam to begin his life with stress.  It motivated Adam to seek for a companion, and it motivated him to do some self examination as to his own feelings.  Stress made Adam want even more from God than a beautiful, wondrous world.  It made him want love, and whatever makes us want the highest is good for us.  </div> <bR> <div>       Look again at the stress between Martha and Mary.  It grew out of love.  Martha so loved Jesus she would labor the day away to make sure He had the best hospitality a man could enjoy.  She was a fanatic for her strong point  which was domestic excellence.  That was her gift, and she wanted nothing short of the best for her Master.  But Mary loved Him too, and showed it by eager listening to the Master.   This is why stress is inevitable.  Not everybody has the same gifts, perspective,  interests, and time schedule.  The only way you can make stress not inevitable is to make all people carbon copies of each other, so they always act as one with no differences.  Since God did not choose to create a world of such carbon copy clones, and instead, made it so that even two sisters with the same parents, and the same environment are radically different personalities, stress is inevitable.  </div> <bR> <div>      But remember, it is not all bad.  A world of all Marthas or all Marys would be a bad world.  We need both, and both learning from each other, and both benefiting from each other.  The stress produced here by their differences led Jesus to point out the need for balance.  We are certainly guilty of extremism if we interpret this passage to mean Jesus expected Martha to become a Mary, or that Martha should cease to be a good cook and care about hospitality.  If you read this into the account, then you produce enormous stress.  That would mean Jesus is rejecting Marthas gift and personality, and is asking her to stop being herself, but be her sister.  Jesus is the author of individuality and not its destroyer.  He had no such intention.  His point is, </div> <div> neither should Martha expect Mary to conform to her. </div> <bR> <div>       Martha had let stress become excessive, and this was making her a problem.  Stress was good to a point, for it was making her be the best of who she was.  But excessive stress was bringing out the worst in her.  Stress is like the oil in your car. </div> <div> It is vital to the engine, but if you overfill it, it becomes a problem.  Too much of a good thing is a bad thing.   So it is with stress.  Dr. Hans Selye is considered the worlds leading authority on stress.  He has written many books and sixteen hundred articles on the subject.  He says this, "Stress is the wear and tear of everyday life; it is part of everything we do.  We can't avoid it, nor would we want to, because the absence of stress is death.  The idea is not to try to avoid stress, but to make sure we live with beneficial stress."  He goes on to explain that beneficial stress is basically the proper amount.  </div> <bR> <div>      Martha was not wrong for being under stress.  That is what made her a great hostess, and why Jesus kept coming back to her home for more.  He loved it when He could get back there for a home cooked meal.  We don't want to knock this lady whose gift gave Jesus a good taste of human pleasure.  Her problem came because she allowed stress to build beyond her level of control.  She cared so much to make this event perfect that she spoiled it.  Here is a paradox.  The one most concerned that it be perfect is the one who blots it with imperfection.  That is what stress does when it becomes excessive.  In proper amounts it is the energy to achieve your goal, </div> <div> but then when it is excessive it becomes the enemy that undermines your goal.  Stress is a dangerous necessity, for like electricity, it can bless you or burn you.  </div> <bR> <div>      Dr. S. I. McMillen was for many years a medical missionary to Africa, and later became the college physician at Houghton college in New York.  He tells of how he developed the habit of generating ten dollars worth of adrenaline over a ten cent incident.  A college nurse called him and said she was sending a girl with a dog to his office.  The dog had a fish hook in its ear and she did not know how to remove it.  Dr. McMillen says he would react with  lightening like hostility, and his head would begin to pound, and he would develop a terrible headache.  Here was  a man called to fulfill the great commission, and he was spending his time taking a fish hook out of a dogs ear.</div> <div> He was angry that people would not cooperate with his goals, but instead interrupt his life with such trivialities.  His over-reaction to stress, and the reading into this minor request a major catastrophe was a symptom of his lack of stress management.</div> <div> Stress poorly handled led him to develop a bleeding ulcer, and had  he not learned to deal with stress more wisely he could have died, or been incapacitated and out of commission in his service for Christ.  Like Martha, he cared so much to be useful that he almost became useless.  The more you care the more likely you will be excessive, and allow stress to become a friend turned traitor.  </div> <bR> <div>      Time magazine did a study of stress and discovered that the highest incidence of stress related sickness came to people who felt little sense of control in their lives.  They did not have the power to make things happen like they wanted, and the result was enormous stress.  Martha could not control Mary and get her on her band wagon and this led to her excessive stress.  The world is filled with Marthas who just cannot get the Marys of the world to do their thing.  The Marys have their own thing, and the result is frustration and stress.  </div> <bR> <div>      If you wonder why a lot of prayers are not answered, here is the reason.  Notice, Martha came to Jesus and said, "Tell Mary to help me!"  It sounds more like a command, but she was asking Jesus for help.  That is what prayer often is, a plea for help.  But Jesus did not grant her request, for she was doing what people tend to do under stress:  They want to use God to help them get control of the situation.  Mary is not cooperating with her agenda, and so shes asking the Lord to take her side and help her get control of Mary.  Such prayers are seldom answered because they are</div> <div> a selfish request to strip others of their freedom of choice.  If God answered such prayers we would all be somebody else's puppet.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus rebuked Martha for being so worried and upset about many things, and He said that Mary has made a good choice, and I will not take that which she has chosen away from her to satisfy your need for control.  So Jesus thus, taught her that some stress is inevitable in a world where nobody can always have their own way, and where others are free to choose their way.  But we see also, </div> <bR> <div> II.  SOME STRESS IN NOT INEVITABLE.</div> <div>      Martha did not have to be upset, for she had the same choice as Mary, and she could have made the better choice as well.  It was not ordained that she be a worry wart fussing over every detail of a meal and miss the joy of fellowship with her guest.  This was a choice nobody needed to make.  This is self induced stress which is so harmful to life.  </div> <bR> <div>      The fact that some stress is inevitable does not justify preventable stress.  Paul said in Rom. 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all."  The implication is clear:  A peace maker can prevent a lot of stress in life if they really work at it.  According to Dr. Selye not only does your Christian life depend on it, but your physical life depends on you being a stress preventer.  In his book, Stress Without Distress, he reveals his discoveries as the worlds leading stress researcher.  He says the evidence shows that all of us are born with an adequate supply of what he calls "adaptation energy."  It is enough for a lifetime, but it is a bank account from which you can only withdraw.  You cannot deposit, so every time you withdraw from your account you deplete it.  When your reserve is gone, so are you.  </div> <bR> <div>      It is like airplane fuel.  It is expected to be enough to get you to your destination.  </div> <div> But if you use it excessively by radical climbs and dives, you will run out before you arrive, and you will crash.  Why do Christians crash and have all kinds of problems like mental breakdowns?  One of the primary answers is, there choice to cling to stress related living rather trust related living.  In otherwords, if a Christian pilot trys to fly over a hundred and twenty gallon mountain range with only one hundred gallons of fuel he will crash.  We can all agree it was a foolish decision.  But it is what many Christians do when they go beyond their capacity and take on more stress than they can control.  People with a Martha complex, who have to have everything perfect, and everyone under their control will have a higher likelihood of a heart attack, than the Mary types who can love to work as well, but who know how to let it go and relax, and let their minds and souls be fed.  </div> <bR> <div>      Mary was living in the same stressful world as Martha, but she was spending her quota of adaptation energy moderately.  Martha was a spendthrift and was depleting her resources rapidly.  Jesus was teaching it is not necessary to handle stress like Martha.  We can choose to handle it like Mary and live the balance life where some stress in not inevitable.  We can prevent it, avoid it, and eleminate it.</div> <bR> <div>      Stress brought Jesus to the breaking point, and if you are bearing the sin of the world you have a perfect right to be so stressed.  But if you are getting all bent out of shape over a meal, or fish hook in a dogs ear, or one thousand and one other trivial things of life, you are mismanaging your stress.  Ps. 34:19, "A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all."  God does not promise escape from stress, but He does promise to help you manage stress so you can take advantage of its positive side and control its negative side.  May God help us all to be good stress managers in this stress-filled world.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THE WINGS OF THE WIND   BASED ON PSALM 104:1-12</B></div> <div> BY GLENN PEASE</div> <bR> <div>      When Columbus and his crew were being blown West by the Atlantic trade winds, one of the reasons they were so fearful was they did not know how they could get back home against the wind.  Fortunately they discovered not only a new world, but new winds that carried them back to Spain.  They returned as heroes on the wings of the wind.  </div> <div>  </div> <div>      The ancient world was almost completely dependent on wind power for travel on the sea, and all of the great adventures that began the modern era depended on wind power.  Columbus could not have discovered America without the wind, and Magellan could never have sailed around the world without wind.  </div> <bR> <div>      Dr. Luke in describing the travels of Paul makes it clear that where you got to and when was all up to the wind.  In Acts 27:4 he writes, "From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us."  In verse 7 he says,"When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete."  Then comes the long description of the hurricane force wind that swept them across the sea eventually destroying the ship.  The point is, man all through history has been at the mercy of the wind.  It is one of natures greatest forces.  It would take thousands of atomic bombs exploding every minute to match the energy of even a modest gale.  It is no wonder that man has sought for ways to harness the power of the wind.  Hammurabi, back somewhere around 2000BC, planned to use windmills to irrigate, and in the second century BC we have a record of a windmill in Alexandria, Egypt that was used to play an organ.  </div> <bR> <div>      Prov. 30:4 pictures God holding the winds of the world in His fists, and all through the Bible God is the controller of the winds that produce the music of nature as they go singing through the canyons and the forest.  </div> <div>                                God holds in His hands the winds of the East,</div> <div>                                     And the West and the South and North:</div> <div>                                And He stands in love in the skies above,</div> <div>                                     And He sends them leaping forth.</div> <div> The winds of all four directions are dealt with in the Bible, and each has its own special purpose.  This is a study in and of itself.  </div> <bR> <div>      I have been in a forest when the wind is coming through the trees, and I have heard the music of the trees.  It was somewhat scary until I knew what it was, and then it became beautiful.  I can now appreciate the words of the poet-</div> <div>                                     God is at the organ-</div> <div>                                     I can hear</div> <div>                                     A mighty music</div> <div>                                     Echoing far and near.</div> <bR> <div>                                     God is at the organ</div> <div>                                     And the keys</div> <div>                                     Are storm-strewn moorlands</div> <div>                                     Billows, trees!</div> <bR> <div>      This image of God creating music with the wind I have had in my mind before, for much of the music of man is made by wind propelled through instruments.  But not until I began to study Psalm 104 did I ever imagine God riding on the wings of the wind.  God is portrayed as being way ahead of man in His recognition of the value of wind power for travel.  This must have been a popular image in Israel for in Psalm 18:10 we read again, "He mounted the cherubim and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind."  Then in II Sam. 22:11 David pictures God soaring on the wings of the wind.  Three times the Bible tells us God rides the wings of the wind.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Hebrew mind could look up into the cloud filled sky as the wind pushed them rapidly across the heavens and imagine God using the clouds as His chariot and wind as His fuel for flying.  Our more scientific mind can only conclude that this is poetry, and that God, who is already everywhere in His omnipresence, does not need to travel across the skies.  But the Hebrews knew this too, and so we do not need to take it so literally that we imagine God jumping on a cloud and actually riding it anymore than we need to try to picture the wind with actual wings.  Of course we are dealing with poetry here, but poetry that is telling us something important about God and His relationship with nature.  </div> <bR> <div>      We know God does not need wind to travel, but who are we to say that God never enters His creation to enjoy the beauty of what He has made, and actually ride the wings of the wind?  God enters earth many times in the Old Testament. God enjoyed eating with Abraham and walking in fellowship with Enoch. He walked in the garden in the cool of the day.  Cool, by the way, is the same word for wind.  If you study wind in the Bible, you discover that the Hebrew and Greek words for wind are the same words used to describe the Spirit of God.   We cannot say that God does not literally enjoy riding the wings of the wind.  The Spirit of God is the same as the breath of God or the wind of God.  The same words refer to all of them.</div> <bR> <div>      The very first picture of God we have in the Bible is in Gen.1:2, and that is of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.  The Hebrew word for spirit is the same word for wind and breath.  It was God riding on the wings of the wind that began the process of turning the chaos into a world of order.  It all begins with the wind of God, the Spirit of God, the breath of God.  All three are the same Hebrew word.  </div> <bR> <div>      The Spirit and the wind have much in common.  They are both invisible, yet very powerful.  Wind is air in motion, and the Spirit is God in motion.  Jesus linked the Holy Spirit and the wind in His night talk with Nicodemus.  He said to him in John 3:8, "The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."  </div> <bR> <div>      The wind can lift up millions of tons of water into the atmosphere, and yet it is an unseen power.  It is doing things of enormous power all the time, but we cannot see it.  So the Holy Spirit is at work in the lives of people doing wonders in changing them and motivating them, but He is unseen.  Like the wind, His influence is seen and felt by His effects that are visible.  Wind is ever doing mighty things in the realm of the physical and spiritual.  We need both the natural and the spiritual wind more than we realize.  </div> <bR> <div>      Grace N. Crowell expressed our need for the cleansing wind in these prayer lines-</div> <div>    God keep a clean wind blowing through my heart night and day.</div> <div>    Cleanse it with sunlight, let the silver rain wash away</div> <div>    Cobwebs, and the smoldering dust that years leave, I pray.</div> <div>    God, keep a clean wind blowing through my heart: Wind from far</div> <div>    Green pastures, and from shaded pools where still waters are;</div> <div>    Wind from spaces out beyond the first twilight star.</div> <div>    Bitterness can have no place in me, nor grief stay, </div> <div>    When the winds of God rush through and sweep them away.</div> <div>    God keep a clean wind blowing through my heart night and day.</div> <bR> <div>      This is a prayer for the Holy Spirit to cleanse us from the polution of  the world and give us a clean inner atmosphere where the fruit of the Spirit can grow.  The Holy Spirit blows out the contaminated air of our soul and gives us fresh air to breathe.  The result is a revived interest in the things of Christ.  Our affections are set on things above, and not things below.  Revival comes when God rides the wings of the wind blowing away the chaff and giving us clear vision of what really matters.  </div> <bR> <div>      When the rushing mighty wind came upon the disciples at Pentecost, it was the wind of the Spirit, and they were filled with that Wind and began to declare the wonders of God.  The wind and the Holy Spirit are both message carriers.  They make sounds, and these sounds convey a message.  The Psalmist says, "He makes the wind His messenger."  The poets often refer to the winds as messengers.  Shakespeare wrote, </div> <div>                                   The southern wind doth play the trumpet</div> <div>                                   To his purposes; and by his hollow</div> <div>                                   Whistling in the leaves foretells a</div> <div>                                   Tempest, and a blistering day.</div> <div> Tennyson wrote, "A wind arose and rushed upon the South and shook the songs, the whispers, and the shrieks of the wild woods together;  and a Voice went with it, follow, follow thou shalt win."  Longfellow wrote, </div> <div>                              I hear the wind among the trees,</div> <div>                              Playing celestial symphonies.</div> <div>                              I see the branches downward bent,</div> <div>                              Like keys of some great instrument.</div> <div>     </div> <div>      At Pentecost, the wind of the Holy Spirit was playing God's song for all nations.  The Gospel melody rung out to the crowd, and the great commission fulfillment began as people from all over the world responded to the Gospel.  The power that propelled the church forward on this glorious mission was wind power:  The heavenly wind power of the Holy Spirit.  </div> <bR> <div>      Wind power has always been a part of nature, but man has been slow to capture this power and harness it for his purpose.The Dutch were the first to bring windmills to America.  In 1622 they set one up in New York for grinding grain.  By 1900 it was a ten million dollar a year business.  The first successful windmill to generate power commercially was built in Vermont in 1941.  It is on a hill called Grandpa's Knob.  It's two bladed propeller measuring 130 feet from tip to tip generated electricity for nearly 4 years.  Then in 1945 a wind so strong came up that it spun one of the eight ton blades right off the tower sending it two hundred yards.  The project was then abandoned.  Wind is a dangerous power that can get out of control.  </div> <bR> <div>      If we apply this to the Holy Spirit we see the similarity.  The Holy Spirit is ever present, but this does not mean we know how to utilize the power of this heavenly wind.  When we do discover ways to be propelled by the wind of the Spirit, we often lose control.  The Corinthians were empowered by the Spirit, but they used the power in abusive ways that did  damage to the church.  They were like a windmill coming apart at the seams, because they did not control the power.  </div> <bR> <div>      I have wind power in my car, and when I turn the blower on I can get wind of varied degrees of force and temperature.  I have to regulate this wind power or I will be too cold or too hot.  Power is available, but it has to be regulated or it becomes a problem.  So it is with the power of the Holy Spirit.  People often go to extremes with what is good,  and end up with what is bad.  Christians have gotten into all sorts of fanatical displays of power.  Power must always be used wisely or it can do more harm than good.  </div> <bR> <div>      Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he did not need to understand the wind to profit from it.  Nor did he need to understand the new birth to yield to the Holy Spirit and be born anew.  You do not need to understand power to use power wisely.  We all use electricity without understanding it.  We do not know how it works, but we make it work for us because we have channeled it to wise purposes.  If we  hold up a golf club in a storm we are inviting a bolt of power that will not be put to good use unless our goal is to be toasted.  We understand enough about this power to avoid foolish dangerous practices.  So it is with the power of the Spirit.  We must use the power wisely and avoid follies that hurt the body.</div> <bR> <div>      Power is always risky, and so every time there is a discovery of a new power source there is conflict among men to control that power.  When the windmill became popular in the 14th century, the issue arose as to who owned the wind.  Pope Celestine III laid claim to it and would only let the windmill owners use it at a price.  This led to some interesting court cases.  But wind power was in, and it changed the course of history.  Holland was almost uninhabitable, but by means of the windmill water was pumped off the land, and a whole new civilization was begun.  Descartes said, "God made the world, but the Dutch made Holland."  What he forgot was the Dutch could have done nothing without the wind, and God holds the winds in His fists.  </div> <bR> <div>      It took 51 windmills four years to empty a lake, but in 1634 it was dry and Holland's land area was greatly expanded.  It was the most startling reclamation project of the age, and all was done by wind power.  Over 9 thousand windmills lined the dikes and canals of the land.  It was the land the wind built.  The kingdom of God on earth is like this as well, for Jesus told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit-the wind of heaven.  When the mighty rushing wind came at Pentecost, the church had the wind power necessary to build a universal kingdom.  The church, like Holland, owes its existence to wind power.  God rides not only across the sky, but across history on the wings of the wind.  The wind is the source of energy that God has used in both creation and redemption.</div> <bR> <div>      How did God restore the earth after the flood so that it was fit again for man and animals.  Gen. 8:1 says, "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and He sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded."  By wind power God did to the whole world what the Dutch did to Holland.  The whole world was reclaimed by the wind.  </div> <bR> <div>       How did God save the Israelites when they were trapped between the Red Sea and Pharaoh with his army of chariots.  Ex. 14:21 says, "All that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong East wind and turned it into dry land."  God is all powerful, and could by His mere word make the river bed dry, but He preferred to use wind power.  God uses this great force to do his will in creation.  He saved Israel by wind power.  He was, that night, riding the wings of the wind, and using this natural power for His purpose.  And the message of all this is that God is immanent in His creation.  That is, He does get involved, and does in some way really ride the wings of the wind.  Some of the reasons why He does He has told us.  First of all-</div> <bR> <div> I.  TO CREATE. </div> <div>      It was the wind of God, or His breath, that pushed back the water and made the dry land possible.  It was His breath breathed into the animal world and man that gave them life, and then we read in Ps. 33:6, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, the starry hosts by the breath of His mouth."  The whole universe came from the breath of God.  The wind of His spoken word created all that is.  And everything continues as it is by the power of His breath, or wind.    Over and over again, the Bible makes it clear that if God withdrew His breath from anything it would cease to be.  </div> <bR> <div>      The whole process of natures reproduction is maintained by wind power.  If pollen and seeds were not blown by the wind all would soon be dead.  But because of the wind every nook and cranny on the planet is a place for potential life, for seeds are blown everywhere.  Lyll Watson in Heaven's Breath wrote this whole book to show that the wind is the circulatory and nervous system of earth, and that all life is dependent upon the wind.   The 5600 million million tons of air that wraps this planet is a key to life.  Each of us breaths about 10 million times a year.  We begin life with a breath and continue life with breathing.  The whole world needs to breathe to continue, and it does so by means of the wind.  Have you ever had the wind knocked out of you?  It is awful.  We need wind going down our windpipe to survive.   The wind also evaporates water from the sea and gives the whole world the drink it needs to survive.  Without the wind the world would soon be a vast desert.  The wind causes one and a half million tons of water to fall on the land of this world every second.  Life needs water and wind gets water to all of life. </div> <bR> <div>      Man is just beginning to see how the whole planet is kept in balance by the jet steam that tares around the world 30,000 feet above the earth.  It travels up to 300 miles per hour and regulates the weather all over the world.  It redistributes hot and cold air all over the world to maintain balance.  Dr. Harry Wexler of the U. S. Weather Bureau wrote, "In a windless world the tropics would become intolerably hot and the rest of the planet unbearably cold; the parched continents would become dust:  Cities would suffocate."  But God rides the wings of the wind to create balance.   Secondly, God rides the wings of the wind-</div> <div> II.  TO CLEANSE.  </div> <div>      The world is filled with corruption and pollution in the air.  If the wind did not blow this foul air away all of life would soon parish in the stagnant air.  Life depends on the cleansing power of the wind.</div> <div>                               There is ever and ever his boundless blue</div> <div>                               And ever and ever his green, green sod,</div> <div>                               And ever and ever between the two</div> <div>                               Walks the wonderful winds of God. </div> <bR> <div>      This was true even in the ideal world of Eden.  Even in a perfect world there were certain times better than others.  One of them was the cool of the evening.  The sun could still be hot in a perfect world, and so Adam and Eve could sweat and even get sun burned, and so it was a refreshing time when the cool of the evening wind would blow.  Gen. 3:8 says, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day."  The Hebrew word for cool is ruach, which is the same word for wind, breath, and spirit.  It was in that time of day that nature was providing the gentle breeze that God walked in the garden.  The heat was blown away and it was an ideal time.  The wind brings comfort and pleasure to all of us when it is hot.  Thirdly, God rides the wings of the wind-</div> <bR> <div> III.  TO COMPEL.  </div> <div>      Wind is the driving force of life.  The breath of God is what gives all that lives, life, and the ability to move.  When we lose the breath of life we are dead and still.</div> <div> It is the wind within us that compels us to think, to act, and to grow.  Everything that we do depends upon the movement of air.  The Bible says we function by wind power, and when the wind stops we stop too.  To be born anew is to born of a new wind.  The breath of God's Spirit enters us and we are compelled by this new wind to go a new direction God wants us to go.  Myra Scovel in 1969 wrote, </div> <div>                                     Where does the wind come from,</div> <div>                                          Nicodemus?  </div> <div>                                     "Rabbi, I do not know;"</div> <div>                                       Nor can you tell where it will go.</div> <div>                    </div> <div>                                       Put yourself into the path of the wind,</div> <div>                                            Nicodemus.</div> <div>                                       You will know the thrill of being borne along</div> <div>                                       By something greater than yourself.</div> <div>                                       You are proud of your position,</div> <div>                                       Of your security,</div> <div>                                       But you will perish in such stagnant air.</div> <div>  </div> <div>                                       Put yourself into the path of the wind,</div> <div>                                            Nicodemus.</div> <div>                                       Bright leaves will dance before you.</div> <div>                                       You will find yourself in places</div> <div>                                       That you never dreamed of seeing.</div> <div>                                       You will be forced into places you have dreaded</div> <div>                                       And find them like a coming home. </div> <bR> <div>                                       Put yourself into the path of the wind,</div> <div>                                            Nicodemus.</div> <div>                                       You will have a power that  you never had before.</div> <div>                                             Nicodemus,</div> <div>                                        You will be a new man!  </div> <div>                                        Put yourself into the path of the wind.</div> <bR> <div>      Dr. Jowett, the great preacher, went for a walk by the sea, and he asked a sailor if he could explain the wind.  He said, "No, I can't explain the wind, but I can hoist a sail."  Jowett realized then that we don't need to explain the wind, but we  need to simply cooperate with it and use the wind to achieve God's purpose.  We need to let it blow us in the direction He wants to compel us to go.  Fourthly, God rides the wings of the wind-</div> <div> IV.  TO CONQUER.</div> <div>      In II Sam. 22:11 God rode on the wings of the wind in order to deliver David from his foes.  By the blast of breath from His nostrils came a conquering wind.  All through the Old Testament the breath of God is a force for judgment.  Some of the great victories of history were wind victories.  </div> <bR> <div>       England will never forget the winds of God that saved them from the Spanish Armada.  The superb and towering galleons struck terror into the hearts of the English people.  They had only small ships in comparison, but Captain Drake went out anyway to do battle with these giants of the sea.  The wind became strong and the huge Spanish ships could not maneuver like the smaller English ships.  They became helpless and those that were not sunk were carried around the channel and smashed to pieces on the rocks.  By the power of the wind England won a decisive battle she could never have won without the wind of God. </div> <bR> <div>      It was four o'clock in the afternoon on April 22, 1915.  The experts told the German Generals it was the perfect time to let loose the deadly poisonous gas on the Allies.  They said the wind would blow in their direction for the next 36 hours.  The gas began to kill the allied soldiers, but then the wind shifted and came back upon the Germans and they died by the thousands.  If the wind had not shifted the Germans may have conquered the world.  Never before was there any record of the wind shifting so suddenly.  God again was riding on the wings of the wind to conquer the forces of evil.   </div> <bR> <div>      We need the wind to win.  We need God's judging  wind to create storms that bring judgment on evil.  Wind is a weapon that no man can resist.   It is a frightening power, but we need to pray that God will blow away the foul odor of man's corruption, and let us breath again the clean air of righteousness.  We cannot do this with our puny power.  We need the wind of God to conquer.  </div> <bR> <div>      Captain Ahab in Moby Dick says, "Tis a noble and heroic thing, the wind!  Who ever conquered it?  In every fight it has the last and bitterest blow.......There's something all glorious and gracious in the wind."  This is even more so when we look beyond the wind of nature to the wind of God's Spirit.  Let every cooling breeze remind you that God's Spirit is blowing to bring refreshment into your life.   Let every storm remind you that the wind of God's judgment will have the final word, and we need to be sheltered in the ark of Christ or be blown away.  Shakespeare was right when he said, "Ill blows the wind that profits nobody."  Every wind can profit the Christian if they will, like the Psalmist, look for and see God riding on the wings of the wind.  </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>