The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
December 14, 2003
In
This Issue:
The
Days of Our Years
by
Fanning Yeater Tant
The
Greatest Knowledge
by
Steve Klein
And
the Life Everlasting
by
Peter Ainsworth
The Days of Our Years
"The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorry; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." (Psalms 90:10) "What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (James 4:14)
These quotations from the Old Testament and the New bring sharply into focus the brevity of human life. No man can read such words with any degree of comprehension without realizing how swift and how certain is the approach of death for every one of us. All our earthly hopes and ambitions, our plans, dreams, and fondest expectations will finally come to rest beneath a little mound of dirt over which the green grass will grow for centuries after we have returned to the elements. How futile and how silly to think we can build anything that will endure on this earth!
In view of the brevity of life, and the certainty of judgment, what manner of persons ought we to be? "Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God..." are the words used by Peter to impress our responsibility.
God's plan for redemption of the soul is simple. By the sacrifice of Christ, He has made it possible for me to escape the awful punishment which is the due recompense for my sin. Believing in Christ, I turn in penitence from sin, and am buried through baptism "unto the remission of" all sins. This brings me into covenant relationship with God, makes me a citizen in His kingdom. It then is my task to live each day in the consciousness of that relationship, to "walk worthily of the calling" wherewith I have been called.
Business ventures, family troubles, political upheavals, personal problems - how trivial! There is one problem, and only one, before every one of us: to live a life that is pleasing to God. Whether that life is lived in riches or in poverty, in political freedom or in chains and imprisonment, in domestic felicity or in misery and loneliness, is quite unimportant. Whether one receives the adulation and praises of men or their contempt and animosity matters little. If one walks with the Lord, in the full assurance of His favor, neither the flattery of friends nor the hatred of foes will count for much. The days of our years are so few, so filled with duties and labors, that we should waste little time in thinking whether our actions are pleasing to men or not. Do they please God? That is the one and only question to be considered. If yes, then with confidence we can press on; if no, then we should tremble in terror until the situation is changed.
"What is your life?" Consider it: let God's will rule your heart, and His word direct your ways.
by Fanning Yeater Tant
Condensed from an editorial in Vanguard, May 1981.
Reprinted in the Milpitas Messenger, March 1997.
We live in a time when a high value is placed on knowledge. Our young people are being assured that education is the key to a successful life. Millions of dollars are spent annually for research aimed at increasing man's knowledge of everything from diseases and their cures to the migratory habits of butterflies. Human knowledge is increasing at a rate of well over 2,000 pages of information per minute. It has been estimated that if a person read 24 hours a day from age 21 to age 70, and retained all that was read, he would still need another one and half million years to learn everything that humanity has learned. Yet humanity collectively knows but a drop in the bucket compared to what God knows. When Job was questioned by God concerning what Job really knew about this world, Job confessed, "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know" (Job 42:3).
In many respects, knowledge really is power, and obtaining it will benefit us immensely -- especially knowledge of the spiritual truths contained in Scripture. Therefore, the wise man commands, "Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge." (Proverbs 23:12). Yet, even the most ardent student of God's word would have to confess that he does not "know it all."
The point is that every one of us has intellectual limitations. It is beyond any of us to know all there is to know. But we all can know the One who knows it all. We can have a full and complete relationship with Him when we come to know His love for us. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians was that they would come "to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19).
Do you know the love of Christ? That is, have you believed that God's Son sacrificed Himself for you and your sins, and have you been baptized into His death for the remission of those sins? It matters little what else you know, if you don't know God's love. It is the greatest knowledge.
by Steve Klein
It is not something yet to be revealed-
The everlasting life - 'tis here and now;
Passing unseen because our eyes are sealed
With blindness for the pride upon our brow.
It dwells not in inummerable years;
It is the breath of God in timeless things-
The strong, divine persistence that inheres
In Love's red pulses and in Faith's white wings.
It is the power whereby low lives aspire
Unto the doing of a selfless deed,
Unto the slaying of a soft desire,
In the service of a high, unworldly creed.
And if we feel it no amid our strife,
In all our toiling and pain-
This rythmic pulsing of eternal life-
Then do we work and suffer here in vain.
by Peter Ainsworth