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| Volume 19 Number 11 November 2017 | Page 2 |
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| Volume 19 Number 11 November 2017 | Page 2 |
Louis Rushmore, Editor
My God is real! Since my God is real, and I am a servant of my God, I must show in my life that my God is real. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8 NKJV). Christians need to conduct themselves the way they ought to conduct themselves as a natural consequence of being Christians. If a creature quacks like a duck, walks like a duck and looks like it is a duck, it might be a duck. Likewise, Christians ought to sound like Christians, walk like Christians and look like Christians. Any behavior or speech contrary to Christian behavior and speech does not evidence that one is a Christian.
Lip service alone is hypocritical and unworthy to be associated with Christians. “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:7-9). Christians must follow through with the Gospel by implementing it in their lives. “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25). “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). A Christian must not only talk the talk, but he must also walk the walk of being a Christian.
My God is alive upon the pages of inspiration. The Bible internally (pertaining to prophetic fulfillment and unity throughout) and externally (pertaining to divine providence) proves that my God is real.
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ephesians 3:8-11)
My God had a plan for the redemption of humanity from sin that separated him from a Holy God. “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).
My God is real! Since my God is real, and I am a servant of my God, I must show in my life that my God is real. I will do this by obeying the Gospel of Christ to become a Christian (Mark 16:16). I will do this by worshipping God in His own appointed way. I will show that my God is real to me through Christian living and Christian service. I will show that my God is real to me by anticipating with joy the return of Jesus Christ to retrieve Christians. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). “Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
Is God real to you? Can others see that God is real to you by the way you talk and by the way you conduct yourself? What about your worship; does it show that God is real to you? Has your confidence that God is real led you to serve Him regularly? Do you eagerly await the return of Jesus Christ to usher in our eternal existence? If your answer to any of these questions is, “No,” perhaps you need to reevaluate your relationship with God (2 Corinthians 13:5).
Friendship
Clarence Lavender
To have friends a person must give of themselves. Compliments will not get and retain friends. The wise man said, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” When hard times come, we find our true friends.
Emerson defined a friend as “a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.” Someone else has said:
A friend is one who needs us and one whom we need. Around us may be many whose companionship we enjoy, but were they suddenly to drop out of their places, there would be no soreness, no sense of deprivation, no lack of comfort. We do not need them; neither do they need us. A friend is one to whom we cling, though many leagues of space separate us. Though days pass with no sight of their face or word from their pen, we know our friend loves us and that when we meet again we will be on the same old terms: we shall begin where we left off. A friend is one in whom we can confide. The secret chambers of our soul open to their touch on the latch.
To have and hold friends we must (1) Be friendly (Proverbs 18:24), (2) Be helpful in times of trouble (Proverbs 17:17), (3) Learn to associate with all classes of people (Philippians 2:3), (4) Be unselfish (Philippians 2:4), (5) Be tolerant (Colossians 3:13), (6) Be honest, sincere, truthful (Romans 13:13) and (7) Be stable (James 1:8).
An unknown poet said:
I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you are making of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for that part of me that you bring out. I love you for ignoring the possibility of the fool in me, and laying hold of the possibility of good… You have done it just by being yourself. Perhaps this is what a friend means after all.
God help us to make friends, but above all, be a friend (Proverbs 18:24).