find his cross. It’s only the disciple who follows Christ in both these respects who has a cross to take up." Now let me say, if this sounds hard and harsh and difficult and unappealing, it's because you haven’t got your values straight. Let’s be honest now. Is God right, and is the Bible right, when it says this world is passing away and is really very unimportant? Is it really “ peanuts” to us, this world in which we live and the things of it? If so, then it's the easiest thing in the world to live a Christian life. But if this world’s things mean much to you, it ’s a hard and gruelling thing to be a Chris tian. Believe me, I know that’s so, and you do too. You remember the story of the woman who went to the psychiatrist and said to him, "My friends have asked me to come to see you. They suggested that I’ve blown a fuse or something and I don’t know why." “ Well,” he said, “ what’s your trouble?” She said, “ The only thing is that I like pancakes, that’s all.” “ Well,” he said, "there's nothing wrong with that. I like pancakes myself.” “ Oh,” she said, “ you do! Well, you must come over sometime. I’ve got six trunks full of them up in my attic." Now that sounds silly to us. But do you know that is exactly what most American people are doing today? Storing up pancakes in the attic! Really! These passing temporal things, these little tran sient baubles that we are so concerned with are just pancakes, and yet that’s exactly the world we live in. We’re in a world that’s so confused, that has its values so twisted that people think you’re crazy if you don't store up pancakes in the attic as they do. Isn’t that right? But Christians, you see, have seen the Truth. They’ve seen the Light. They're not interested in pan cakes any more. ‘We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Let’s be done with nursery stuff. Let’s be done with kindergarten and with playing children’s games. We've a man’s job to do in this world. We’re co-laborers with God. Do you know what that means? We’re to supply the hands and the feet and the voices that He needs today. Every day should see us at the task of binding up the broken-hearted around us; of bringing sight to the poor sightless, blinded creatures that live next door to us; of leading thirsty men and women to the waters of Life; of bringing beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for
mourning; of bringing happiness and harmony into the desolate homes that are all about us today. You remember what the venerable Robert Moffat said after 30 years in Africa when he was asked by a little slip of a girl to sign her autograph album. He wrote in it these words:
“ My album is a savage breast, Where sorrow reigns and darkness rests, Without one ray of light. To write the name of Jesus there, To speak of worldly both bright and fair, And see that savage bow in prayer Is all my soul’s delight.”
There are savage breasts like that all around us today. They’re not naked. They’re dressed in gabar dine and nylon, but they’re just as savage as those in Africa. Are you willing to be expendable for Christ? Are you willing to count not your life dear unto yourself, willing to make friends with these wonderful people, to put up with all their irritating ways and for Christ’s sake go after them, no matter how little they encour age you? Are you willing to pray and invite them over, and pray again and invite them over again until you see the darkness lift and God’s Spirit write the name of Jesus there on that savage breast? Are you willing to do that? I’ll tell you what will happen when you try it / You’ll learn first of all the wonderful thrill of a Chris tian life! How challenging it can be. How wonderful it can be. Then you will discover how utterly inade quate you are for the job. Do you know what you’ll do then? You’ll come to your pastor or to some other Christian leader, and say, “ I tried to say something to so and so and I made an awful botch of it. Could you show me how to study my Bible so I know the answers?” You’ll be at prayer meeting because you’ll realize the power that's there to reach behind the mask of this world and open up doors that can’t be opened up by any other way. You'll become an effective Chris tian when you begin to try to live this way for Christ. Do you know what else will occur? You’ll discover what Christian separation really means! kb Ray Stedman is pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, Calif.
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THE KING’S BUSINESS
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