June, 1945
For the Children G od ' s P romise to A braham G enesis 17:1-8 MEMORY VERSE: “The Lord is my helper" (Heb. 13:6). AIM: To show that God will reward those who love Him and obey Him. APPROACH: Sometimes after we have been willing to give others first place we feel that they are happier than we, and perhaps we even pity ourselves for having been so kind. If we are willing to obey the verse in God’s Word that says, “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Lk. 6:31), God will always reward us. That is ex actly what happened to Abraham after he had been willing to give Lot first choice of the land. LESSON STORY: When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, God spoke to him one day. Would it not be won derful to hear the voice of God? Abra ham must have listened very care fully so that he would hear every word spoken by that voice. God said that if Abraham would obey Him, he would have a great reward. Abraham would have many children and grand children and great-grandchildren, so many that they would have a land of their own. When Abraham heard this, he fell upon his face and worshiped God. As he lay there God talked with him again. He said that even kings would be among those who would be born into Abraham’s family in the years to come. To these thousands of people, God would give the land into which He had brought Abraham and Sarah. As'Abraham heard these won derful promises, made by God Him self, his heart must have been happy. came running through shouting, ,"The Japanese are leaving; the Stars and Stripes go up at six o’clock.” The camp went crazy. At 6:00 a.m.' the bugle blew. The Boy Scouts lined the walk; the words, “We declare you free,” sounded over the loud-speaker; over 2,000 people stood at attention, and the Stars and Stripes and Union Jack were raised together. Men stood unashamed while tears s t r e a m e d down their faces. Choked voices sang “The Star Span- gled Banner” and “ God Save the King.” That night we heard President Roose- velt give a speech to the American people over the radio. We Eat Again For one week the Filipinos brought us all the food we could eat; and then suddenly we were awakened at mid night by a voice shouting in our bar racks: “The commandant has returned. From Death to Life ( Continued from Page 211)
Keep away from all sentry boxes.” We were prisoners again! The Amer ican convoy for Lingayen had been sighted by the Japanese, and they thought the convoy was going to land near us. They fled from the South, only to find our forces had landed in the North, and then they fled back to us. Their only explanation was, “We have returned to protect you.” On the morning of February 23 the gong sounded at dawn for us to line up on the road inside the camp. We started out of the barracks, when lo, the heavens opened before us, and 150 parachute troops dropped in front of us. Filipino guerrillas (who had been surrounding our camp all night) ap peared from every direction; bullets whizzed all around us. Infantry ap peared from b e h i n d trees; tanks crashed through the fence. The Amer ican soldiers shouted to us, “Be ready to leave in five minutes. Get into the tanks.” We had no time to pack; we just fled. The paper-thin barracks were afire. Through walls of flame and whistling bullets, our tanks took 2,121 people to freedom. Some of the people of the camp had met the previous afternoon for prayer unto God for deliverance, and as our tanks w e n t o v e r hill and down dale, we joined in singing the Doxol- ogy. When we reached the lake, we thought we would be put on. barges, but to our great surprise we went right on through in the tanks. They were amphibian tractors manned with baby cannons and machine guns. The Japanese near the lake opened fire on our tank, but we returned it with more accurate fire. When we reached the other side of the lake, ambulances and trucks were waiting. We were rushed to this haven near Manila where the army was waiting with a hospital, food, and shelter. Every Japanese in our camp was killed. Three hundred of our American boys and two hundred Filipino guer rillas took part in our rescue. Every thing worked with perfect precision. The boys going to the rescue in the tanks were gathered together the day before and told that it would be a dangerous mission, and volunteers were asked. Every boy volunteered! Our soldier boys were wonderful— they have been kind and thoughtful to us, perfect gentlemen and as brave as ever a soldier was made. They make one proud to be an American. General MacArthur sent us a gift of candy and cookies (our first in three years) and with them his words came to us, “ God was with us,” and 2,121 rescued Americans answered “Amen.” The Christians from the camp gath ered together for a thanksgiving serv ice after their rescue. The theme of this service was “Great Is Thy Faith fulness.”
Word Treasures For the student untaught in Greek. By Bernard Ramni, A.B., B.D. John 1:3-5 V. 3. “All things." This expression refers to the totality of the universe. It is mòre comprehensive than the usual Greek word for the universe. "Were made/' L e. came into exist ence. This is an aorist tense indicating a specific occasion when creation took place. The aorist tense, here referring to the origin of the universe, in time stands in beautiful contrast to the im perfect, timeless tense used o f Christ, the Word, in John 1:1,2. Without inter ruption, Christ was always God the Son. Creation came into existence at a given moment. "Was made." The second occurrence of this expression in the text is to be noted. “Were made” is an aorist in dication that at a specific moment Christ created. The term “was made” is a perfect tense indicating completed action. When the last atom found its rightful place and creation thus stood complete, everything that had been made, or created, had been created by God, the Word, and by the Son. Christ not only began creation, but He fully, finally, and completely brought every thing into existence. V. 4. .."Life/* John is now relating the Word more closely to the creation. We do not believe that this “ life” here is the life received in salvation, but rath er that the source of creation is Christ; and also the life manifested in crea tion is from Christ "Life . . . the light of men." Notice the switch here from life to light. All life derives itself ultimately from Christ because (a) matter itself is life less, (b) Christ the Creator, is the Source of all life. But man, the high est creation of God, bears a special kind of life due to a special relation ship to the Word, the Creator. Al though all life comes ultimately from Christ, not all the life that comes from Christ is light. Light here, then, means the intelligence, rationality in the hu man spirit. V. 5. "The light." The definite ar ticle selects Christ out of all thè voices of the Word, and declares Him to be the LIGHT. Christ is not a light along with Plato and Buddha. "In darkness." Physical darkness is here a picture of moral ruin. "The darkness." Notice again the word “the.” The entire world is sum med up as the darkness. Here the blinding power of sin is certainly taught. "Comprehend." This word has been translated “overcome” or “under stand." For instance, blind men could not see the Light of the World no mat ter how brilliantly He shone.
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker