1902
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR
Topic For the Week Beginning Aug. 24 — Comment by Rev. S. H. Doyle.
Topic. — Freedom for service. — 2 Tim. 2:4; Gal. 5:1; Heb. 12:1-2.
God saves us not altogether for the sake of saving us, but also that our lives may be consecrated to Him. We are saved to serve. In the twelfth chapter of Romans Paul says, "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." That this consecration and this service may be performed to the fullest extent it is absolutely necessary that we should be free and untrammeled in our service. That freedom for service is necessary Paul suggests to Timothy by the illustration of the soldier. "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of life that he may please Him that hath chosen him to be a soldier." No soldier can be entangled with other affairs in life. He must give himself up entirely to the service; he must be free from worldly cares and avocations or it will be absolutely impossible for him to produce the best results as a soldier. The same thing is true of the Christian soldier. To be a good soldier of Jesus Christ we must have freedom for service.
1. We must be free from affairs of this life. There is nothing that so much interferes with active Christian service as unnecessary association with the things of this world. A spirit of worldliness crushes out a spirit of consecration and service. An unwise indulgence even in the harmless things of life seriously interferes with the faithful performance of our obligations and our duties to God. Unnecessary worries about the cares and the business pursuits of life deprive us of the power to serve God as we ought to serve Him. While in the world we are not to be of the world to the extent that our relations with the world interfere with the performance of our duties to God.
2. We should be free from false conceptions of the law. "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberties wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." The yoke of bondage here referred to was the bondage of the law. It was the conception of the ancient people of God that they were to be saved by the observance of the law. The result was that they became slaves to the law. It usurped the place in their lives that Christ should have had, and it was impossible under these conditions for them to render the cheerful and whole hearted service to God that was His due. The lives of many Christian people have been made miserable and they have been made incompetent for service by a false attitude toward the law. The early religious experiences of Martin Luther were of such a character. He was taught to look upon God as a severe judge ready to punish and to destroy him for the breaking of His law. He had no idea of God as a kind and loving Father or a realization of the fact that Christ had kept the law for him and had paid the penalty for it on the cross. The result was that his life was miserable and he was unfitted for the best and truest service. It was only "when the scales fell" from his eyes and he lived in the liberty wherewith Christ made him free that he was enabled to perform great service to God. Christians are not above the law; they are not immune from the penalties of the law, and yet in Christ they possess a freedom from it that should inspire them to better lives and should give them greater liberty for effective and whole hearted service.
3. Freedom from besetting sins. "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." All sins have not the same attractive power for all people. What tempts one man may have no temptation for another. In each one of our lives are besetting sins or sins that easily entwine themselves about us. The apostle here likens the form of such sins to the flowing robe of the Grecian athlete. We can easily understand how the runner would be hindered in the race if he had about him the loose, flowing garment of the Greek. It would wrap itself so closely about him as to hinder his every movement. Such is the result of besetting sins in the life of service. If they are allowed to have power and influence with us, they hinder us and destroy our powers for effective service. That we may be free to serve it is therefore important that we should lay aside all cares and all besetting sins and that we should look to Christ for the power to overcome besetting sins and to continue in the life of faithfulness and of patient service.
Showing posts with label study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label study. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Man Carries Bible in One Hand, Steals Shoes with Other
1920
CARRIES BIBLE; STEALS SHOES.
Terre Haute — Leo Fairbanks held his Bible in one hand while he stole a pair of shoes with the other. Leo's doing a bit of Bible study in a quiet place now.
—The Grand Rapids Tribune, Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, March 13, 1920, p. 6.
CARRIED IT BUT DIDN'T READ IT.
TERRE HAUTE — Leo Fairbanks held his Bible in one hand while he stole a pair of shoes with the other. That's what he said in the cop court here. Leo's doing a bit of Bible study in a quiet place now.
—Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, Connecticut, May 6, 1920, p. 24.
Church Needs to Keep Pace With Times
Methodists from Appleton, Neenah, Menasha and Kaukauna mobilized their forces here yesterday for a far-reaching campaign of evangelism.
In his address on "What I consider the Layman's place in the Evangelistic Movement," Prof. L. G. Schussman of Kaukauna laid bare the chief failures of the present day church.
In closing his address, Prof. Schussman stated that we cannot fool the world into changing its way of life. "They know too well," he continued, "that Christ has not yet learned to shimmy his way or to one-step along the pathway of life in His ministry of doing good. We need not hope to charm souls for the Master by the time or tune of syncopated jass. Nor are souls set up as prizes for prowess in penny-ante or rummy. The old landmarks stand to guide us. We cannot serve God and Mammon. The family altar, the closest sanctuary and the song of consecration with its never ending melody of love in daily service for the Master are the three places of strength of the layman in the great work before us."
—Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin, Feb. 9, 1920, p. 2.
CARRIES BIBLE; STEALS SHOES.
Terre Haute — Leo Fairbanks held his Bible in one hand while he stole a pair of shoes with the other. Leo's doing a bit of Bible study in a quiet place now.
—The Grand Rapids Tribune, Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, March 13, 1920, p. 6.
CARRIED IT BUT DIDN'T READ IT.
TERRE HAUTE — Leo Fairbanks held his Bible in one hand while he stole a pair of shoes with the other. That's what he said in the cop court here. Leo's doing a bit of Bible study in a quiet place now.
—Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, Connecticut, May 6, 1920, p. 24.
Church Needs to Keep Pace With Times
Methodists from Appleton, Neenah, Menasha and Kaukauna mobilized their forces here yesterday for a far-reaching campaign of evangelism.
In his address on "What I consider the Layman's place in the Evangelistic Movement," Prof. L. G. Schussman of Kaukauna laid bare the chief failures of the present day church.
In closing his address, Prof. Schussman stated that we cannot fool the world into changing its way of life. "They know too well," he continued, "that Christ has not yet learned to shimmy his way or to one-step along the pathway of life in His ministry of doing good. We need not hope to charm souls for the Master by the time or tune of syncopated jass. Nor are souls set up as prizes for prowess in penny-ante or rummy. The old landmarks stand to guide us. We cannot serve God and Mammon. The family altar, the closest sanctuary and the song of consecration with its never ending melody of love in daily service for the Master are the three places of strength of the layman in the great work before us."
—Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin, Feb. 9, 1920, p. 2.
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Studying the Bible
1895
"Now, wholly apart from its religious or from its ethical value, the Bible is the one book that no intelligent person who wishes to come into contact with the world of thought and to share the ideas of the great minds of the Christian era can afford to be ignorant of. All modern literature and all art are permeated with it. There is scarcely a great work in the language that can be fully understood and enjoyed without this knowledge, so full is it of allusions and illustrations from the Bible. This is true of fiction, of poetry, or economic and of philosophic works, and also of the scientific and even agnostic treatises. It is not at all a question of religion or theology, or of dogma; it is a question of general intelligence." — C. D. Warner.
"Now, wholly apart from its religious or from its ethical value, the Bible is the one book that no intelligent person who wishes to come into contact with the world of thought and to share the ideas of the great minds of the Christian era can afford to be ignorant of. All modern literature and all art are permeated with it. There is scarcely a great work in the language that can be fully understood and enjoyed without this knowledge, so full is it of allusions and illustrations from the Bible. This is true of fiction, of poetry, or economic and of philosophic works, and also of the scientific and even agnostic treatises. It is not at all a question of religion or theology, or of dogma; it is a question of general intelligence." — C. D. Warner.
The Suffering Savior — Isaiah's Servant Songs
1929
The Suffering Savior
TEXT: ISAIAH 53:1-12
BY WM. E. GILROY, D. D.
The problem of suffering is one of the deepest problems of life. Sooner or later it affects every individual, but it also becomes emphasized in the community and national life and in the experience of humanity as a whole.
Why do the righteous suffer? Why are communities thru some catastrophe swept away, often without warning? Why do nations rise and fall, with what seems like historic disaster taking place upon a large scale?
These were the questions that were early faced by the religious leaders in Israel and that became particularly emphasized at the time out of which the prophecies that we are studying arose. The Kingdom of Israel had been destroyed and the Kingdom of Judah had suffered temporary overthrow with the exile of its people to Babylon. Where were the promises that were cherished by Israel, that in the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed. How could these promises be fulfilled with the children of Abraham dispersed and scattered and their national life disrupted and broken?
A WRONG SOLUTION
The first solution proposed for this problem was that suffering is simply the result of conduct, that the good prosper while those who have done wrong bear the brunt of their own wrong doing. But such a philosophy of life could not long survive the tests of reality. Thoughtful men saw that this explanation did not accord with the real facts. The sacred writer saw the wicked flourishing and "spreading himself like a green bay tree," while, on the other hand, he saw people of earnest and saintly character suffering acutely. It was this problem that was faced in the book of Job.
Even, however, when a better view of the matter had arisen in personal experiences, there was still a tendency to explain all larger events and provinces, and national experiences of welfare and of calamity, upon this basis. It is, in fact, a philosophy from which it seems difficult for the world to get far away. When some community is seriously stricken by catastrophe today, there is a tendency for many people to regard it as "a judgment of God."
Jesus protested against this view of things in his reference to those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell. He refused to believe that those who were killed in that disaster were sinners above all others in Israel and were on that account singled out for punishment.
Possibly one of the reasons why this philosophy that relates sufferings to punishments and penalties is so persistent is found in the fact that in a crude, rough way there is some truth in that philosophy. Sin does bring results of pain and penalty to individuals and to nations. But the mistake is in trying to make a philosophy that is partially true an explanation of all the facts.
The prophets, whose writings we are studying, were faced with this situation, that at a time when Israel was in exile and suffering there was probably a more earnest and genuine interest in religion than there had been for years. Out of all this situation they developed the idea which was later strongly fulfilled in the life and work of Jesus, that there is such a thing as people suffering for others and that the good who suffer are often in that suffering fulfilling the highest purposes of God.
Here is this noble and moving picture in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah of a suffering servant whose life seems the reverse of all that man might wish his life to be. He is despised and rejected by his fellow men. He is a man of sorrows, contemned even by those whom he is seeking to serve. Yet all this suffering is borne for others. His life, in spite of its woes, is tuned to unselfishness and service, and in his very sufferings he is fulfilling the mission of a savior of his fellow men.
VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS
Some scholars claim that this suffering servant, here described, typifies the people of Israel in their experiences of trial and bitterness fulfilling under God's purpose the mission that they had long supposed that they were to fulfill thru ease, prosperity, and comfort. Others see in this suffering servant the personification not of the whole of Israel, but of the faithful remnant of the people, while still others have seen in this suffering servant an individual, an early prototype of Jesus of Nazareth.
We who view the prophecies from the vantage ground of the New Testament and the story of the earthly life of Jesus can see that in him these conceptions found their true fulfillment. It was in the spirit of this suffering servant that he came and lived and died. It is in him that we see the good suffering with and for the guilty, and that we behold the regenerative power of the cross.
—The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, April 27, 1929, p. 4.
My review (2007): This is a really good article. Very clear and concise, steps through the subject in a thoughtful, reasonable way. The author had a great style.
The Suffering Savior
TEXT: ISAIAH 53:1-12
BY WM. E. GILROY, D. D.
The problem of suffering is one of the deepest problems of life. Sooner or later it affects every individual, but it also becomes emphasized in the community and national life and in the experience of humanity as a whole.
Why do the righteous suffer? Why are communities thru some catastrophe swept away, often without warning? Why do nations rise and fall, with what seems like historic disaster taking place upon a large scale?
These were the questions that were early faced by the religious leaders in Israel and that became particularly emphasized at the time out of which the prophecies that we are studying arose. The Kingdom of Israel had been destroyed and the Kingdom of Judah had suffered temporary overthrow with the exile of its people to Babylon. Where were the promises that were cherished by Israel, that in the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth should be blessed. How could these promises be fulfilled with the children of Abraham dispersed and scattered and their national life disrupted and broken?
A WRONG SOLUTION
The first solution proposed for this problem was that suffering is simply the result of conduct, that the good prosper while those who have done wrong bear the brunt of their own wrong doing. But such a philosophy of life could not long survive the tests of reality. Thoughtful men saw that this explanation did not accord with the real facts. The sacred writer saw the wicked flourishing and "spreading himself like a green bay tree," while, on the other hand, he saw people of earnest and saintly character suffering acutely. It was this problem that was faced in the book of Job.
Even, however, when a better view of the matter had arisen in personal experiences, there was still a tendency to explain all larger events and provinces, and national experiences of welfare and of calamity, upon this basis. It is, in fact, a philosophy from which it seems difficult for the world to get far away. When some community is seriously stricken by catastrophe today, there is a tendency for many people to regard it as "a judgment of God."
Jesus protested against this view of things in his reference to those upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell. He refused to believe that those who were killed in that disaster were sinners above all others in Israel and were on that account singled out for punishment.
Possibly one of the reasons why this philosophy that relates sufferings to punishments and penalties is so persistent is found in the fact that in a crude, rough way there is some truth in that philosophy. Sin does bring results of pain and penalty to individuals and to nations. But the mistake is in trying to make a philosophy that is partially true an explanation of all the facts.
The prophets, whose writings we are studying, were faced with this situation, that at a time when Israel was in exile and suffering there was probably a more earnest and genuine interest in religion than there had been for years. Out of all this situation they developed the idea which was later strongly fulfilled in the life and work of Jesus, that there is such a thing as people suffering for others and that the good who suffer are often in that suffering fulfilling the highest purposes of God.
Here is this noble and moving picture in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah of a suffering servant whose life seems the reverse of all that man might wish his life to be. He is despised and rejected by his fellow men. He is a man of sorrows, contemned even by those whom he is seeking to serve. Yet all this suffering is borne for others. His life, in spite of its woes, is tuned to unselfishness and service, and in his very sufferings he is fulfilling the mission of a savior of his fellow men.
VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS
Some scholars claim that this suffering servant, here described, typifies the people of Israel in their experiences of trial and bitterness fulfilling under God's purpose the mission that they had long supposed that they were to fulfill thru ease, prosperity, and comfort. Others see in this suffering servant the personification not of the whole of Israel, but of the faithful remnant of the people, while still others have seen in this suffering servant an individual, an early prototype of Jesus of Nazareth.
We who view the prophecies from the vantage ground of the New Testament and the story of the earthly life of Jesus can see that in him these conceptions found their true fulfillment. It was in the spirit of this suffering servant that he came and lived and died. It is in him that we see the good suffering with and for the guilty, and that we behold the regenerative power of the cross.
—The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, April 27, 1929, p. 4.
My review (2007): This is a really good article. Very clear and concise, steps through the subject in a thoughtful, reasonable way. The author had a great style.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
