sented as a father talking to a son. Note the oft recurring expression, my son. The Father gives instruction all through the third chapter on the secret of living hap pily. In the first six verses three ways to live happily are set forth. First, Be obedi ent to the Word, w . 1,2. The Bible is the revelation of the happy or blessed God. He tells men how to live abundantly. Jesus came that men might have His joy realized in them. No one should expect to live happily who rejects the book that reveals how men ought to live and the
IN CHRIST IS LIFE
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Does God Care About Individuals? I brilliant college student who was studying astronomy one /I day asked his roommate a life-shaking question. The ques tion: Could the God who created and controls the vast universe care about one person on this dot of a planet? Could He care whether I eat or starve, am sick or well, live or die? This is a well-thought-out question that I suppose most of us who have taken time to watch the star-strewn heavens have asked. There is a vastness here that is beyond reason. Think of light hurtling across space at 187,000 miles a second and yet taking years to reach us. Think of our earth dwarfed to microscopic littleness in a universe so expansive our minds stagger at the very thought of it. Then think of one individual struggling among billions of other individuals at this one flashing point in time. From this humbling prospective we are forced to ask whether God does care about one individual. There’s an illustration that may help our thinking. We know that it is a scientific fact that gravity is at work out in stellar space. Knowing the vastness of this operation we might say that gravity couldn’t possibly be concerned about our little watch, so we reach out and drop it! Now if gravity is concerned with one little wat'ch, then assuredly God is con cerned about one individual. But even granting that God is concerned about each of us, there still remains the problem of translating the God of this vastness into a Being man can comprehend. It’s something like making electricity available for home use. Picture a huge, high-voltage power line running across country. There could be a ranch under these mighty wires still using dim, oil burning lamps. There has to be a stepping down process before this electricity is available for human use. Isn’t this akin to God in Christ stepping down, as it were, His power to make it understandable and available to man? I think so. God is vast and He is the creator and the controller of vast things. But He is also a God of small things. He cares about this speck of dust we call earth. And He cares about you, one individual among billions. He waints you to love Him; to understand that He cares if you eat or starve, are sick or well, live or die. He cares far more about you and your plans and your hopes and your fears than you care. This is a wonderful fact. And a fact that compels us to open our lives to Him that we might enjoy in Christ the good things He has for us. He created us. Let us not hold back that which rightly belongs to Him. When we hold back we have only ourselves; lost in an unfathomable, swirling uni- verse, alone and without help and without hope. But God is Christ and we see in Him the Saviour from our empty selves, w If self has been disappointing, won’t you sincerely, honestly, openly, come to Christ and thereby experience the reality that I in Christ is life? — L.H. If you have found in this short article a way of life that you would like, we urge you now— this very moment— to yield your will to His will and in doing so find that in Christ is Life. If you have a question, or if we can be of help in any way, please write us. We shall be happy to send you a copy of the Gospel of John. It is yours free for the asking. Address: The Editors, King's Business, 558 S. Hope, Los Angeles 17, Calif.
Because You Care Because you care we are counting on you to give this special column to someone who doesn't yet know Christ. Suggestions: your post man, grocer, one you work with — or mail it. Remember this col umn will not reach that soul un less you give it out. Thank you.
Christ who makes joy possible. Second, Be kind and truthful in all thy dealings, w . 3,4. Those who live for the welfare of others live like Christ and experience His joy. Third, Trust fully in the Lord, w . 5,6. It is folly to lean on the arm of flesh when God is near-by to strengthen our weakness. More than being folly in the long run, it is fatal. Salvation is of the Lord, not in man. Also, godly living, which is essential to real happiness, is of the Lord. Therefore trust in Him. More Directions for Happy Living 4:10-15, 18, 19 The way to live happily is to receive God’s sayings. Receiving God’s sayings implies making them a part of one’s daily life. It includes obedience to His will. Such living, other things being equal, tends to long living (v. 10). Such liv ing promises unhampered progress — freedom from stumbling (v. 12). Verse 13 exhorts the reader to cling tenaciously to God’s wisdom. Make it a bosom com panion. Verse 14 warns against ever wandering into the paths of the wicked, no not even for the experience of learn ing by contrast how blessed is the way of the Lord. We are to flee from the devil and all of his wiles. Verses 18 and 19 present the contrast between the way of the just and the way of the wicked, the way of God and the way of the devil. Make sure you are walking in the right way. Helps for the Children God's Plan For Wise Living Proverbs 3 Memory Verse: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him. And he shall direct thy paths" (Prov. 3:5, 6). The young King Solomon had a vision of God one night in which God said to him, “ Ask what I shall give thee.” If someone with power and wealth said those words to you, for what would you ask? Would you ask for money, for lovely clothing, for an expensive car, for fame? CONTINUED ►
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