Discipleship Is Becoming a Servant John 15:14 The Lord is not interested in wall flowers nor in those who would sit on the grandstand to be spectators. The Christian life where discipleship is in volved is filled with excitement. Miracles are performed, visions are seen, power is manifested and lives are transformed. Disciples are supposed to go and keep going until they are gone. Disciples serve a risen Master. They watch His face to get His impression. They read His -Word to find His will and then with heart and soul they jump into the serv ice that is before them to accomplish wonderful things for their wonderful Lord. Servants are not thinking of vaca tions. They are thinking of the will of their master. August 26, 1951 THE "SUN " IN SUNDAY Psalm 96 Sunday is named for a heathen holi day, that being the day that the sun worshipers revealed their idolatry. They .worshiped the sun because of its heat, .its light, its power, and its mystery. The sun is the center of the earth’s sur roundings and influence. Without the sun we could not live. We welcome its healing rays and its beneficient powers. However, the sun is one of God’s crea tions and is not understood at all by men. That sun should stir our hearts to worship the Son who made it. ■ The Sun Rules in Nature as Christ Rules in Spiritual Matters Psalm 19 The sun draws plant life toward itself. The smiling pansy in the evening says good-by to the sun as it sets. During the night it turns around to greet the rising sun with _its beautiful smiling face. This is a lesson for us. From morn ing until night our faces should follow the Son of God. We say good night to Him as we retire to rest and waken in the morning to greet Him on the new day. The sun promotes life in nature and the Son of God gives the gift of eternal life to all who trust their souls to Him. The Sun Is Not to Be Worshiped for It Has No Personality Deut. 4:19 It is a Person whom we worship, not a created object. Our Father loves us but the sun does not. The sun cannot shepherd us but God’s Son is our Shep herd. We never can be related to the sun but we become children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. We cannot draw near the sun but our Lord asks us to come near. We cannot partake of the sun but we are requested to feed on the Lamb of God. We cannot have fellow ship with the sun but we are called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. We cannot go and live in the sun but we shall go and live in the pres ence of our Father.
The Sun Cannot Save Jer. 44:22
When rot develops in vegetation or in animal life, the sun is powerless to re pair the damage. Usually the sun has no power to even stop the ravage of the disease. The Lord Jesus, however, who is the Son of God has power both to stop the disease and also to remove the evidences of its corroding effect. The sun cannot put our sins away but the Son of God can do so because of Cal vary. The sun cannot make us righteous but we become righteous by faith in Christ Jesus. The sun cannot bring us to God but the Son of God can and does. The Sun Cannot Give Life Jer. 44:26 When once a tree or a bird has died the sun has no power to revive nor re store. The sun is essential in nature to strong healthy plant life and animal life but cannot maintain that life nor restore it if it is lost. The sun has a beneficial effect upon things in nature but when the great enemy strikes, its power is gone. The Son of God can give life, can sustain life, and can give the life that is life indeed, the life that is the life of God. Wednesday, May 9, 1951: Through the kind arrangements made by Senor Carlos Llosa Belaunde, Man ager of the Guano Administration, we were able to visit one of the famous bird islands off the coast of Peru. Right after breakfast, Senor Luis Gamarra Dulanto, sub-manager of the Adminis tration, called for us in a nice station wagon and took us about sixty miles north along the coast to a town called Huacho. It was a very interesting drive, with the Pacific Ocean on one side, the Andes mountains on the other, and desert sands lying between. The sand keeps encroaching on the road, and workers are busy all the time keeping the road cleared of the sand. From Huacho we traveled in a launch for about an hour and a half to Don Mar tin Island. It was a wonderful sight— the great flocks of guano birds feeding on fish from the ocean. As far as the eye could see, the birds covered the face of the water, flying low and diving for fish, or resting on the surface of the water. At the island we were met by the manager of the guano station there, and a group of his assistants, and we were feted at a marvelous six course “ lunch,” including toadfish and filet mignon! After this hearty meal, we were ready to walk over the island to see the operations there. There were all of the usual installations of offices, docks, warehouses, living quarters, and such places that one would expect, but our real interest lay on the great rock top of the island where the birds lived. ADVENTURING FOR CHRIST IN PERU (Continued from Page 23)
The island is a solid mass of guano birds When we climbed to the top there were not many birds there, but we could look out over the surface of the ocean and see the great flocks of them still feed ing. About three o’clock they started to come into the island in great long lines in which each bird followed the one ahead as they dipped up or down over waves. From all directions they came until the sea was black with low flying birds, and as they approached the island, they would circle up into the air above us until the whole horizon was also black with them. The men there told us that each bird has its own place to stand and always stands in that place. They come in in order, starting to stand in the center of the island and filling in solid all around as the black flock of standing birds grew in size. They kept coming in until by sunset time the whole island was one solid mass of standing birds, with over two and' a half million birds crowded on this one small island about one half mile long by a quarter of a mile wide. It was indeed a never-to-be-forgotten sight — thes,e birds flying unerringly to their own spot, and all moving with an order and pre cision that was marvelous to behold. They eat about four thousand tons of fish a day, and in turn produce thou sands of tons of guano fertilizer that is so needed for the economy of this coun try. Due to the pressure of business in Lima, it was necessary for some of our group to return to Lima that night, but Dr. Talbot stayed over, and the next morning had the privilege of climbing up again to see the birds start out on their days fishing. In a vast body they all moved together to a cliff at one end of the island. Then row after row took flight as they reached the edge and they were away for another day’s fish ing. After watching them depart, Dr. Talbot did likewise, as he too went fish ing but found that fish were not as easily caught by hook and line as by diving birds. Those of us who went back to Lima passed other islands where the usual white covering of guano had turned black by a solid covering of birds. We also saw a great herd of sea lions living on one of the islands. It was a most interesting day, and we trust that despite the generally cloudy weather of this district, we will have good pictures of this most unusual sight to show to our friends at home.
T H E K I N G ':S B U S I N E S S
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