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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
October, 1938
Around the Kings Table By PAUL W . ROOD
Admonitions to a Young Preacher "Study to show thyself approved unto G od, a workm an that needeth not to be asham ed, rightly dividing the word o[ truth " (2 Tim. 2 :1 5 ). So far as Scripture record is concerned, the last letter that Paul wrote was address ed to his spiritual son, Timothy, who was a young preacher. This Epistle of 2 Timo thy is filled with important admonitions that should be read, pondered, and obeyed by all servants of the Lord. In the verse that is before us, we have an admonition to study. A preacher must be a student throughout his entire career. In most cases, the minister has devoted a number of years to preparation for his task before he accepts a pastorate, but if he de pends entirely upon this training and does not continue to study, he is doomed to fail ure. It is to be hoped that his preparation has taught him habits of study ¿ a t will continue as long as he lives. The reason some preachers can stay acceptably in the same pulpit year after year is that they give to their hearers fresh truth from the Word of God, mined by continual study. One reason that some are unable to con tinue to minister successfully in one pulpit over a long period is that they have become mentally and spiritually lazy. A young preacher should set aside cer tain hours every day for study. Nothing should be permitted to interfere with this program. He should gradually build a good library, even though the obtaining of the books may mean his giving up other things that seem to be necessary. These books should be carefully selected. He should dis cuss books with his fellow ministers and seek the advice of Christian leaders in whom he has confidence. It is necessary for him to keep in touch with contemporary life. He should know what people are thinking so that he can establish a point of contact. He must speak the language of the day in order that the people who live now will understand him. His illustrations should be from the life of today as far as possible. The minister must be primarily a Bible student. He must know the Bible itself and be able to expound it in an interesting and helpful way. The preachers who render the most helpful service are expository preach ers. In order to be an expositor, one must literally live in the Word of God and "rightly divide” its teachings for his con gregation. The servant of the Lord should seek the approval of God. Contrariwise, many are seeking the approval of men. They try to please everybody. No one should try to antagonize people, but sometimes it is im possible to gain unanimous consent. The preacher of the gospel must be tactful, but
uncompromising. The important thing is to have God’s approval. His thoughts, words and deeds should be pleasing to the Lord, whether men approve or not. The ambassador of Christ should be a workman. God does not call a lazy man into His service. Not only preachers, but all Christian^ as well, must make every day count for God. W e are stewards, and we must render an account of our stewardship. W e should budget our time. W e should learn to differentiate between what is im portant and what is trivial. W e must take time for rest and recreation in order to keep a healthy body, but we must be work ers and not shirkers. A preacher should so live and labor that he will not be ashamed when he faces his Lord. This necessity is voiced by the Apos tle John: And now, little children, abide in him: that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2 :2 8 ). Who will be ashamed when Christ comes? He who has neglected to read his Bible regu larly and to pray earnestly and consistently and has won no souls for Christ will be ashamed when the Lord returns. May we live and work so that we can look forward with confidence and joy to the second com ing of Christ! “By the Space of Three Years” As I approach the end of my three-year ministry at the Bible Institute of Los An geles, I find myself meditating upon Paul’s farewell message to the Ephesian elders after his three-year ministry in Ephesus. Paul went back in retrospect to these three years and rendered an account of his stewardship. Our hearts are moved as we read the account, for Paul evidently is looking upon his ministry in the light of eternity. It is not easy to make changes, and yet some changes are inevitable in the life of a minister. A pastor becomes attached to his people just as they become attached to him, and he never realizes fully how deep this attachment is until the time comes to say farewell. It was not easy to leave my beloved church in Chicago to come to Biola. When I had come to that church, my prayer was that a week should never go by without some soul’s coming to Christ. That prayer had been answered, and every week some one or several came to the Lord either through the public ministry or through per sonal work. This Lake View Church of Chicago by its generosity had opened the way for me to fulfill a childhood dream of making an evangelistic tour of the Scan dinavian countries. This trip had to be abandoned in order that I might come to Biola. Twice the call to the presidency of Biola came to me, and the second time the
call was answered in the affirmative after a night of prayer. The problems inherited were tremendous. A staggering debt, an accumulated deficit, and a heartbreaking annuity problem were staring us in the face. Many salable assets were gone, and rich donors were in heaven or had lost their riches. All of these prob lems and others too numerous to mention caused sleepless nights and horns of ago nizing prayer. These experiences were not easy to go through, and yet as I look back upon them I rest in Romans 8:28, for “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Prayer was emphasized, and days and nights of prayer have been held that brought closer to God all those who engaged in this ministry of intercession. God worked in response to believing prayer, and the ship has been kept afloat these three years when many thought it was doomed. During this period, the Torrey Memorial Bible Conference was inaugurated. The purpose of this conference was to reveal to the world that we stood for the principles for which Torrey stood, doctrinally and evangelistically. C h ild evangelism was stressed, and many Christians received a new vision of the necessity of evangelizing the 27,000,000 children of America. A course in Child Evangelism was introduced as a correspondence course to enable those who had glimpsed the possibilities for children’s work to secure adequate training. Bible con ferences and evangelistic campaigns were held in various parts of the country. At these gatherings souls were saved, new sub scribers to T he K ing ’ s B usiness were se cured, and many new friends for Biola were contacted. The fact that my contract made it necessary to spend half of my time on the field made it difficult to give detailed atten tion to administrative duties here at home during these periods of absence. Within recent months Biola has had. to face a new crisis. The story is too long and involved to relate here, but the climax of the story is that the Church of the Open Door stepped into the breach and through the dynamic leadership of its pastor raised the $25,000.00 that was necessary to aug ment the collateral that would take care of the second mortgage. This mortgage now, by the grace of God and the generosity of the Church of the Open Door members and friends, has been wiped out. The sum of $400,000.00 owed to Mrs. Lyman Stewart also has been wiped out by her generosity (the Institute accepting the responsibility for the support of the Bible Women, the value of whose work cannot be estimated), and the Institute debt on its building is now reduced to $188,000.00, a situation which of course presents a much brighter picture than the one we formerly had to face.
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