THE LAST NEW TESTAMENT Recently a newly converted wom an visited a small village in Greece. A shepherd sought her out and asked pleadingly, "Please, Miss, would it be at all possible for you to give me a New Testament? I am that shepherd to whom you gave a Gos pel tract a year ago. Don’t you re member?” He took it from his pocket and showed it to her, worn with time. She felt deeply regretful that she did not have a Testament to give this seeking soul. The poor shepherd was ready to burst into tears. "Please, Miss, won’t you give me your own New Testament? I need it so much,” he begged. Persuaded that he was deeply in earnest, she gave it to him. M e a nw h ile an oth er shepherd joined them and pleaded for a New Testament, too. How her heart ached at the look o f sadness in his eyes when she had to refuse him. Only after she promised to mail him a Testament when she returned home did the shadow lift. On her return she related this in cident to our missionary and asked for another New Testament. But there was nothing he could do for that poor shepherd. There was not a single Testament left o f his supply. "My dear brethren,” this mission ary writes us, "I appeal to you in the name o f the Lord Jesus to pro vide me with the food with which to satisfy the spiritual hunger o f our countrymen. Think o f poor sinners desperately seeking for Christ’s sal vation and do- what God’s love prompts you to do.” What can we add to this except that for $5.00 you can provide 20 New Testaments or 5 whole Bibles, or a large supply o f Gospel tracts and other Christian literature? What if you were the second shepherd? Send your gifts to the American Mission to Greeks, Inc., Rev. Spiros Zodhiates, General Secretary, Dept. K, P.O. Box 423, New York 36, N .Y . (In Canada: 90 Duplex Ave., Toronto 7, Ont.)
MAN’S VERTICAL NEED by Richard C. Halverson
Come men think of Christian ity only on the horizontal plane: Man’s relation to his fel low man. It’s just a matter of morals and ethics. But this is to miss the point entirely! Because ethics is the product of Chris tianity —not the process where by a man becomes Christian. Such thinking stops with Jesus as teacher. He was a teacher—the great est in history . . . but if Jesus is nothing more than teacher to a man—that man has not begun to grasp what Jesus taught. For everything He said pointed up two basic matters: Man’s alien ation from God by sin and His purpose to reconcile man to God by the sacrifice of Himself. In Jesus’ teaching the issue was not horizontal but vertical. Not man’s broken relationship with man . . . but man’s separation from God. He spoke of a vicious malady: A malignancy in the human heart that defiled man. Jesus made it quite clear that this was the root of man’s trouble and He had come into the world to do something about it! In short, He had come to be a Sav iour— not simply a teacher. His teaching was in order that men might realize their need of Him as Saviour. The Sermon on the Mount, for example (as well as the Ten Commandments), was de signed to serve a purpose much like a mirror. Man upon look
ing into the perfect law of God would see his sinfulness and turn to Christ for help. Any man who takes seriously the Sermon on the Mount will be led to despair if he takes JesuS only as teacher because it is utterly beyond man’s ability to fulfill. Only a Christ-enabled man can begin to live up to Jesus’ ethics. There’s a subtle snare in the Jesus-as-teacher line. If He is only teacher (nothing more) it is relatively easy to keep Him at arm’s length, so to speak. One can take an academic interest in what He says and let it go at that. Ironically to follow this line is actually to repudiate Jesus as teacher for it “ takes or leaves” the teaching depending on a man’s feeling. He’s in the ques tionable spot of honoring Jesus as teacher while at the same time refusing to go along with all that He taught. The heart and core of Jesus’ message was His death. He came to die as a ransom for sin —to redeem man. He was the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” To reject this is to reject the teacher who taught it! This is central in Christian faith: Man is a sinner .. . Christ has the only adequate solution. He is the Saviour! “For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” END.
All men naturally desire to know; but what availeth knowledge without the fear of God? Surely, an humble husbandman that serveth God is better than a proud philosopher that, neglecting himself, studies the course of the heavens. — John Calvin
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