REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH — Ecclesiastes 12.1
"But. . . These Are a Necessity!”
(T h e Musings o f a M issionary)
by Fred D. Accord
P ray tell , what is wrong with our churches today? What is the matter with Christians today? Where are the young people answering Christ’s insistent call to take the Gos pel into all the world? Where are the disciples who willingly take up their cross daily and follow in the steps of the Crucified One? Where are they? I can’t find than. Can you? Today many Christians are so busy, madly dancing around the golden calf of their standard of living, that they have no time to follow hard aft er the Lord. They are like those of whom Paul wrote in Phillipians, “ All the others seem to be wrapped up in their own affairs and do not really care for the business of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:21—Phillips Translation). Their eyes are afflicted with myopia and they cannot lift them up to see the needs of others, out to the cir cumference of the world. “Things” have usurped the rightful place of Jesus Christ and the admonition of John to his “ little children” to “keep yourselves from idols” falls on deaf ears. The new home, (really to fix up the old one is to throw good money after bad, and the neighborhood is badly run down); the two cars, (but they are quite necessary); the swim ming pool, (we can certainly enter tain the young people with this!); the
new wardrobes, (but tell me, honest ly, a Christian shouldn’t look “ tac ky,” should he?); the foreign vaca tion, (Oh, it will be so educational for Johnny and Suzy, and what with the time payment plan it is within easy reach, and then too, there will be all those other Christians along for fellowship): This represents the new way of life for many believers. A pastor prays: “ Lord, I know it is the task of the church to preach the Gospel. But must we cross thousands of miles of ocean or sky to do it? Thou knowest that there is plenty to do in our own town, even in our own street. Deliver us from straining our eyes to see some special need at the ends of the earth, while ignoring the respon sibilities under our noses. Forgive the longsightedness that gets the nearer tasks out of focus. Provide men and money for all our needs at home. And please don’t call my son to be a mis sionary.” Could it be that the 19th century English poet Wordsworth put his fin ger on the problem when he wrote: “ The world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending, we lay waste our powers?” Andrew Tozer wrote: “Too much has the worldly crowd, the mixed multitude, infiltrated the church, and in all too many instances they are in control. The church has imitated the world, sought popular favor, man-
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AT ALL BOOKSTORES
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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