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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
June, 1940
ment seat, puts God in the dock, and begins to cross-question Him, if not to criticize Him for His divine permis sions! God is not on trial today. He has proved Himself at Calvary— “He spared not His Son! ’Tis this that silences each rising fear, ’Tis this that bids the hard thought disappear, He spared not His Son!” Learning from Saints Who Suffered I am never confronted in the Old Testament with a saint trusting God but that I feel self-condemned. If they could trust Him, how much more should we, with the full revelation of Him we have had in Jesus Christ, and in the completed Scriptures! Joseph as a lad of seventeen is cast into a pit, is sold to the Ishmaelites, spends ten years in slavery and three years in prison; yet twenty-three y e a r s afterward, in Genesis 45:8, when his brethren come down and are reconciled, Joseph says, “ So now it was not you that sent me hither, BUT GOD.” Joseph sees God in the pit, God in. the slavery, and God in the prison. It was easy' to see God’s hand when on the throne, but hard to see His hand in jail. It was easy for Jacob to see- the hand of God when the wagons were waiting outside to carry him to Egypt, but hard to see God in the blood-stained garment twenty-three years before. Consider Job. Job trusted God, and what is more wonderful, God trusted Job. They knew each other. After His experience with us for ten, twenty, or thirty years, would God dare accept if Satan challenged Him to put us into his hands? And what made it harder for Job ;was that he thought God Himself was putting him through such trial. Yet in unfaltering faith he said, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” If I know God’s heart at all, I know that while His bosom swelled with justifiable pride as ne contemplated Job’s unfal tering faith, He was just longing to stoop down and take His tried servant into His arms, and tell him of His ap preciation of his fidelity. Job did not know then, but he knows now, and worships more intelligently as millions of saints tell him how the record of his faith saved them from failing God in their earthly trials. As God has done with Job, He will some day do with you-—reconcile perfectly His character of infinite love and com passion with everything He has sent or permitted to come into your life. You will believe this in that day. Why -not believe it now, by faith? Triumphing Always Let us start afresh triumphing over our circumstances by trusting in our God, and viewing everything in rela
and when he seeks to. obey, bind him so that he cannot go! Reasons for Fetters: Frequently people come to me with similar inexplicable problems. A widow asks, “Why was my husband taken ? He was a soul-winner. He: was liberal in money matters with God. My children needed him.” Oh, those “why’s” which so quickly leap to- our lips! I cannot answer your “why,” but X think I can tell you why Christ fettered Paul. Had Paul been free, he might have gone afoot, and we would- have been robbed of those priceless Prison Epistles— Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Phi lemon, 2 Timothy. So by imprisoning Paul, His messenger, He has sent him fleet-footed to' speed round the world for nineteen centuries bearing the mes sage of his Lord to countless millions. When I was on by bed of illness, the Spirit of God spoke to me again and said, “If Paul could be the prisoner of the Lord, can' you not be the patient of the Lord ?” And my heart was filled with contri tion for my doubts, and as I said, “Yes, Lord, I can, ’ all was at rest—a mind at perfect peace with God and His ap pointed circumstances. Are you a John the Baptist, judging God by your circumstances and doubt ing Him, or are you an Apostle- Paul, judging your circumstances by God and trusting Him? What a tragedy it is when a saint sits down on the judg- By CLARA BERNHARDT Dear Father, hear m> prayer tonight, And teach Thy child to be The woman that my husband’s love Already sees in me. He calls me good, and gentle, Lord. Oh, may he never find That I am less than What he thinks! Lord, help me to be kind. I must have faith to meet his doubt, And strength wnen he is weak, I would learn peace for every storm, And wisdom when I speak. Lord, help me always to -maintain The standards of his creed, And give me courage, strength and love To answer constant need.
Not “ Eventually”— but NOW! - • A few days ago, a member of the Field Department of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles received from an old friend of the Institute a letter which read: “I am glad to have been re minded of my promise. I feel that my time is short on this earth, and whatever I am able to do for the upbuilding of the Lord’s kingdom, I must do now.” How much eternal blessing and honor has been lost by God’s stew ards who have allowed procras tination, that thief of more than time, to steal away an opportunity of investing wisely for eternity! Each new day and week luring re curring occasions for the exercise of wise and conscientious steward ship. And as a definite need is presented to 1a child of God, he MUST make a choice in the ex pending or withholding of his thank offering to God, The faithfulness and generosity of the Lord’s children make pos sible the maintenance of such a great institution as the Bible In stitute of Los Angeles. Nowhere else, we believe, does a dollar of the Lord’s money go further than when invested in the training of young volunteers of the high type enrolled at Biola—training that is most practical for lifetime service for Christ at home or on the mis sion field. Surely money applied to this use is invested—not merely “spent”—in the light of eternity. If you plan to do your part “eventually,” will you not do it NOW? Write The Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Incorporated, Elmer J. Peterson, Business Manager, 558 So. Hope St., Los Angeles, Calif. tionship to Him alone., If hemmed in, let us be the prisoners of Jesus Christ. If sick, let us be the patients of Jesus Christ. It employed, the servants of Christ. If out of work, the unemployed of Christ. If at college, the students of Jesus Christ. Let us Acknowledge no second causes as coming in between Him and the circumstances that con front us. And never may we attempt, like John, to judge who He is by what He permits, but judge wnat He permits by who’He is. It was the same prophet, Isaiah, who said He would open the prison to the captive who also said His name shall be called Wonderful, Coun selor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. -Shell we not trust Him with spirit and body ano health and money and family and present and future?
Dear Father! Hear me as I pray, And ever guide us in Thy way.
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