Church Weekly for 8 June 2008
My dear readers,
Worldliness
By William P White, DD
Editor of The King’s Business, February 1930
(Reprinted: FOUNDATION 1/2008)
WHEN THE SPIRIT OF GOD spoke through His servant John, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” He did not refer to the beautiful things that are in the world of nature. I have driven my car more than one hundred times between Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles. What wonderful things I have seen in these trips-the towering mountains on one side, some of them capped with eternal snow; the great Pacific Ocean on the other side of the road, and oh, the sunsets! But the joy these themes have given to my natural vision has not compared with the rapture of soul. While looking upon these wonderful things in the natural world, I have remembered that my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, made them all. “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.”
Now, it is not the world of nature that we are to refrain from loving. To use a colloquialism, the thing that we are not to love is "The Swim.” We speak of the swim of politics. Good men get into this swim, and they are swept off their feet in spite of themselves. We speak of the swim of business. Good men get into this swim, and they forget God, they forget their duties to their fellows, and sometimes they forget their families. Then there is the social swim that carries so many thousands of Christians out of fellowship with God, dulls their ears to the call of God and blinds their eyes to spiritual vision. There is also an ecclesiastical swim in which many servants of God lose their testimony.
This is the "world” which we are not to love. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”
"Other worldliness" is not the besetting sin of the twentieth century worldliness is the moral atmosphere in which we live; it casts its fatal spell upon us all, and the sore temptation of us all is to lay up our treasure upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break through and steal.
The reason for this prevalent and well-nigh universal sin of worldliness is spiritual short-sightedness. The prizes that “the swim” offers are plausible, tangible immediate. They engross men’s attention; they absorb their thoughts; they fill the horizon of their desires. Heaven and the smile of Christ and the “well done" of the Father seem remote, far off, unsearched. Money, pleasure, fame, banish them from the mind; and to the acquisition of these things men devote themselves, seeing only what is near.
Christian saw in Interpreter's house two boys: Passion and Patience. Passion had a bag of gold in his hand, but Patience was willing to take his governor's advice and wait for his good things until the next year; and these two boys, says John Bunyan, are typical of the worldly man and the true Christian. The worldly man, with his favorite proverb of “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” wants his good things at once, wants his bag of gold in the hand, not seeming to realize that his money must perish with him. But the Christian, in fellowship with God, is willing to do without this world's wealth and fame and pleasure because he looks not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen.
And in all this John Bunyan has shown his usual unerring insight. Most men side with Passion; they want the bag of gold in the hand; they can understand the advantage of that; and, fascinated by the prospect of that, they have no thought for heaven; they see only that which is near. The world takes men captive by the promise of quick returns. This man sees the solid advantages that wealth brings, and he lives for it, never caring to think of the day when his money will slip from his nerveless fingers. This man sees the present and substantial advantages that fame brings, and he lives for it, never caring to look forward to that time when the first will be last and the last first. And so men become absorbed by the world and live for its business, its wealth and its power and then awake to find themselves wretched and poor and blind and miserable and naked, all because they have never given a thought to heaven but have seen only that which is near.
“Lift up your eyes" is the appeal of a loving God. We need to lift them up to the things unseen and eternal, to the everlasting hills, to the everlasting city where place is determined not by wealth but by holiness; and position, not by worldly fame but by love. We need a more constant thought of heaven, a more abiding realization of eternity. We must give heaven a larger place in our speech and thought. It is only as the thought of heaven is ever with us that we shall be emancipated from the thralldom of "the swim."
There never was a more magnificent triumph over the spirit of worldliness than that which Moses achieved when he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. How did he win that triumph? Listen: "He had respect unto the recompense of the reward?” The safety of a Christian lies in the long look. Be not persuaded that the thought of heaven, and the reward yonder for service rendered in His name, is the mark of the dreamy and unpractical man.
Cultivate the long look. "Looking not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen”; enduring "as seeing Him that is invisible"; "looking away” - for so the Greek reads - "looking away to Jesus.” Follow everything to its ultimate issue, and see how it will look in the light of eternity and heaven. Bring business and wealth and fame and power and high station, and measure them all by the standard of eternity. Labor not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.
Heartlessness and Despair
The long look is not only a remedy for worldliness, but it is a remedy for hopelessness and despair. “Lift up your eyes on high,” for we despair when we see only the things that are near - the sin, the vice, the indifference and callousness of men - but we gain courage and hope when we see God. In our work for Jesus Christ we are much in need of the ability to look above our difficulties, real and near as they are, and realize the love and interest and power of our unseen Helper. "Open his eyes, that he may see,” prayed Elisha for his despairing servant at Dothan. That servant could see only the things that were near - the encircling Syrian host intent upon the prophet's destruction; but when his eyes were opened he saw the mountain was full of chariots and horses of fire round about Elisha. Oh, despairing child of God, you have seen the opposing host, but have you seen the army of celestial helpers? Take the long look about the things that are near and which work against you, to the invisible but almighty and eternal forces which are working for you.
The nearest and most obvious facts are the facts of sin and wrong and vice and selfishness, and they are terrible enough to make anyone despair. But faith in God gives one a long look, for he looks up and away, and he sees in the place of supreme authority and dominion the Sacrifice of Calvary with the nail-prints still in His hand and the spear-gash still in His side, the Man who died … and seeing Him, he cannot despair. The burdens of life are heavy but “all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” The governments of the world are fast drifting to destruction, but he sees One coming whose name shall be called “Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.” (End of Article)
Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Sr Pastor
Weekly supplement 8 June 2008
My dear readers,
Pastor Pang Kok Hiong has written his eye witness account from Sichuan, on the ‘quake situation. All members are urged to pray. Please read Pastor Pang’s letter.
God bless you.
Lovingly yours,
Dr SH Tow
Christian Relief in Sichuan – Part 1 (2 June 2008)
Dear brethren in the Lord,
1. The faithful local house churches need our help in providing funds to host Christians from other provinces who are involved in “Christian Relief”. They are renting apartments to house the brethren.
2. to rent or buy a used van to do the job of transporting food, tents, and relief to the areas urgently. This effort is going to last at least another two to three months. After these three months, the van can be used for missionary outreaches to the towns and villages.
3. to buy Bibles, CDs, DVDs and printed materials to be distributed later after making contact with the people when they send the relief to them.
4. to support missionaries (teachers) to be with the people and to minister to them. We foresee that churches of Jesus Christ will be established in the years to come with the funds we provide now.
Please consider prayerfully how and where we should donate. Ultimately, our money is God's money. We must faithfully use the funds the Lord has entrusted for His glory. Amen.
In His bond and service,
Kok Hiong, 1st June, 2008, Sichuan, China
Christian Relief in Sichuan – Part II (3 June 2008)
Dear brethren in Christ,
Today (2nd June), I went with one of the Christian teams to Du Jiang Yan city, the quake centre of Ying Xiu Town of Wen Chuan county and other towns and villages from 7A.M. to 9 P.M.
Just as the news media had reported, the whole area was like a war zone! Military trucks, jeeps, rescue and relief vehicles with 4 wheel-drive were roaming between big cities and the disaster areas. By the grace of God, relief vehicles like ours with a Red Cross sticker were not stopped at checkpoints or roadblocks. The followings are my observations:
1. The house church group has established two temporary schools in two villages where the school buildings were destroyed. In the next few days, the brethren will be preparing to teach by recruiting Christian teachers, buying textbooks, and equipping themselves to minister to the children in these two areas. More schools will be established so that Christ’s love may be shown to these surviving children and their parents. The donations collected from believers everywhere can be used in rebuilding the lives of these poor victims who are still staying in tents for fear of aftershocks.
2. The government of China and the Red Cross are doing an excellent job of rebuilding the infrastructure and sending relief supplies into the disaster areas. However, we observed that there were some victims who had migrated from other provinces or counties that were not given the same treatment as the ‘locals’. The brethren have decided to care more for these under-privileged people.
3. The leaders and Christians who come from other places also need to be supported financially to continue their relief efforts. These “temporary” or local missionaries should be cared for even though they may be there only for a few weeks. Some have to return home as they have run out of money to help others.
4. The rebuilding is going in at the disaster areas at full swing. Christians and churches must seize the opportunity now to pave the way for the gospel so that the people in Sichuan and other provinces will repent and accept the one true Saviour.
In conclusion, we remain convinced that churches and Christians should give their donations to faithful churches and leaders to advance His Kingdom.
Yours faithfully,
Kok Hiong, 3rd June, 2008 at 2 A.M.; Sichuan, China
3 June 2008
Dear Dr Tow,
Greetings in the name of our great God!
In every thing that we do, it should be for the glory of God. Our 6-day DVBS has ended last Saturday, May 31, 2008. With a huge number of young people, our 8x16 meter area seemed to be small. We praise the Lord for allowing us to minister to the children and be able to present the gospel in a week span. Although we did not have enough funds, the Lord again has shown His grace to our church even in small ways. Our teachers prepared very well and they really enjoyed serving the children for the glory of God.
Our ministry to the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is moving forward. The PNP Regional Training School Region 5 (RTS-5) will have their graduates deployed this week. They will be distributed to the whole region. Let us continue to pray for this, because another batch (280-300 trainees) is coming this June. The highest PNP training officials of our country, who are also believers in Christ, have required all the police trainees to attend their morning and evening devotions. Please pray for the salvation of Bicol. God is doing great things. We need God’s love, mercy and grace.
The renovation is almost done. We just have to work out the two stairs and the railings, and also the ceiling. All of us are witnesses of how the Lord provides for this project. We are so glad to share with you the fruit of your labors and prayers for our church here in Bicol.
I do pray that the Lord would continue to bless us as partakers and partners in the ministry that He has set before us. Thank you very much.
The Lord is coming.
EMMANUEL
Pastor Leoncio Dignadice
Legaspi City, Bicol, Philippines