Book. In these frightening hours, it still says, “The morning comes and also the night.” This is a bittersweet prediction. For the Christian, good news is bad news, and bad news is good news. When they shall say, “Peace and security,” that sounds like good news, but sudden destruc tion comes. On the other hand, “dis tress of nations,” “perplexity,” “men’s hearts failing them” indicates bad news. The Christian, however, is told to look up, to lift up his head for our redemption draweth nigh. What is bitter for the unprepared is sweet for those who are ready. As bad as conditions are, they are not bad enough yet. As soon as they get this way with man at the end of his tether, completely ensnared by his own gadgets, God is going to step in and say, “You boys have had it long enough, now I’ll take over.” No man is able to put up a sign, “This way out.” The Christian can take the first letter off that sign and with assur ance declare, “His way out.” The only correct interpretation of what is going on in America as well as around the world is not learned from news commentators or histo rians, but rather from the Word of God. It is a waste of time to discuss world events with people who know nothing of the Bible and . its escha tology. It is a different language. There isn’t any dialogue there until their eyes are opened to the truth. The angels must look on in wonder at the stupidity of the human race in graduate school scientifically and still in kindergarten spiritually. Here we are trying to get to the moon when we don’t know how to live on earth. When the world is a madhouse and the inmates try to run the asylum, the man who knows his Bible finds it sweeter than honey and the honey comb. That day will not overtake him as a thief. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always.” Keep close to the bitter sweet Book, and be prepared for its message of joy, while at the same time prepared to answer its challenge to sacrifice. 13
ments are sometimes bitter to our in clinations. In our Lord’s parable of the sower there are some who hear the Word receiving it with joy, but they are soon offended and cannot take the bit ter along with the sweet. Even our Lord said, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” There is a great mistake in working with young people, giving them the Gospel and preaching Christianity as though it were just a better way to have a good time. We try to get the youth to volunteer for the Lord’s service STRESS FOR STRENGTH The tree that never had to fight For sun and sky and air and light, That stood out in the open plain And always got its share of rain, Never became a forest king But lived and died a scrubby thing. The man who never had to toil To heaven from the common soil, Who never had to win his share Of sun and sky and light and air, Never became a manly man. But lived and died as he began. Good timber does not grow in east, The stronger wind, the tougher trees; The farther sky, the greater length, The more the storm, the more the strength, By sun and cold, by rain and snows, In tree and man, good timber grows. saying, “Here am I, Lord,’! like Isaiah, but before they have first said, “Woe is me.” The latter symbol izes crucifixion and death to self. If you take the Bible seriously, and you should, you will find that when you taste it it will be sweet, but when you swallow it, it may become bitter. Too many “Bible - tasters” have never really swallowed it, mak ing it their daily food. The Bible is bittersweet as it re lates to the days in which we live. We are in the atomic age, and the watchman studies the radar screen. The best sentinel for the ramparts o’er which we watch is this old
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