Pastoral Resources

The town of Pisa, Italy, is famous, of course, for its leaning tower Not so well known, but far more significant, is a painting on the wall of a cemetery there The artist has depicted the last judgment, with Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Twelve Disciples, and a number of angels In this painting, groups of people are coming out of their graves, some going to the right and others to the left of the scene But there appears to be some confusion Some who thought they belonged on the right and destined for heaven, are being shifted back to the left, destined for hell-and vice versa What was the basis for their judgment? Christ said, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21) The Italian artist was inspired by his vivid imagination and the prophetic words of the 5th chapter of Matthew.

Said an archbishop to the manager of the acting group, "Tell me, how is it that you actors hold the attention of your audience so vividly that you cause them to think of things imaginary as if they were real, while we of the church speak of things that are real but our congregations take them as imaginary?" The reason is plain," answered the actor "We actors speak of things imaginary as if they were real; while too many in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary." It was said of one famous old preacher, "He showed us the fires of hell, and then he swept our souls up to the gates of heaven." When you talk about Christ, you have to believe in the transforming power of the gospel if you expect to convince anyone of its power to save.

A young lawyer, an atheist, boasted that he was going west to locate some place where there were no churches, no Sunday schools, and no Bibles Before the year was over, he wrote to a classmate, a young minister, begging him to come out and start a church "Be sure to bring plenty of Bibles," he urged "I have become convinced that a place without Christians, Sunday schools, churches, or Bibles is too much like hell for any living man to stay in."

I heard a story about a man who invited his neighbor to attend church with him On the way home, the neighbor said, "I noticed you have a new preacher." "Yes," said his friend, "We fired the old one He was always telling us unless we repented, we were going to hell." "But," the neighbor replied, "your new preacher said the very same thing this morning." "True," was the reply, "but our old preacher acted like he was happy about the situation When our new preacher says this, it seems to break his heart."

At a meeting where someone attacked missionary work, a Jewish gentleman asked if he might say a few words "A few years ago," he began, "my bank sent me to make some studies of a place in Puerto Rico It was the worst, the dirtiest city imaginable It was a real hell Two years ago I went back to that same city-it was entirely new The change was unbelievable The houses, the streets were all so clean The taverns had gone out of existence! What had happened, I wondered Did they elect a new mayor? Was the place invaded by new educators? No A Christian missionary had come to work among them and teach them about Christ I went and found this missionary and gave him a generous gift for his work I saw with my own eyes what Christ can do in just a short time."

Bishop Latimer once preached a sermon before King Henry VIII that greatly offended his royal auditor by its plainness The King ordered him to preach again the next Sunday and to make public apology for his offense The Bishop ascended the pulpit and read his text, and thus began his sermon: "Hugh Latimer, dost thou know before whom thou art this day to speak? To the high and mighty Monarch, the King's most excellent Majesty, who can take away thy life if thou offendest Therefore take heed that thou speakest not a word that may displease But then, consider well, Hugh! Dost thou not know from whom thou comest-upon whose message thou art sent? Even by the great and mighty God, who is all-present and beholdeth all thy ways, and who is able to cast thy soul into hell! Therefore take care that thou deliverest thy message faithfully." And so beginning, he preached over again, but with increased energy, the self-same sermon he had preached the week before The fear of God delivered him from the fear of man.

Have you heard about the fellow who was seriously ill? A visitor asked him if he was willing to turn his life over to God and renounce the devil "I am willing to give my life to God," he said, "But a man in my condition should not be making any enemies."

We may laugh, but we must not forget that the strength and influence of the devil is real In fact, the number of his followers is increasing Satan's church is growing and new groups are beginning Satan's Bible is available in many bookstores More and more signs of devil worship are now appearing in graffiti.

Never forget that the devil has one goal He wants your soul His desire is for all men to be in hell for eternity He is the embodiment of evil Twelve times the New Testament calls him "the evil one." He has the power to enter a person (Luke 22:3) With his craftiness, he can use even the best of people to achieve his ends (Matthew 16:23) He can trap man and take him captive (2T 2:26) He can fill the heart of man and lead him to death (Acts 5:3).

It is not old-fashioned or anti-intellectual to believe in a living, powerful person of evil Perhaps we need to see more vividly the contest in which we are participants "I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me" (Acts 26:17-18).

Instead of joking about him, perhaps we need to restore a custom of the early church Tertullian, (A.D 155-222) recounted how converts not only confessed the Christ, but also said, "I renounce you Satan and all your service and all your works."

We may not be a member of Satan's church but we can still be his follower (1T 5:15) This is because we serve him by default If we do not totally and wholeheartedly serve the Lord, we automatically become servants of Satan "Do not you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:16).

The old dragon, the serpent, is not all-powerful In fact, we can fight against him and win if we will seek divine assistance (Romans 8:13, Romans 8:26) We can resist him and flee his influence (James 4:7) Our weapons and strength are mighty, and we can fight against him and triumph (Ephesians 6:13-18).

With such strength, we need not fear the devil Yet we must constantly be alert to his schemes and devices He wants us, he is powerful, but he can only win if we let him "For we are not unaware of his schemes" (2 Corinthians 2:11).

A pastor in New York urged an intellectual but dissipated man to become a Christian The man replied, "I cannot believe in the inspiration of the Bible, in the deity of Christ, or in prayer." "Do you believe in your own sins?" asked the pastor "Oh, yes," replied the honest soul; "there is no doubt about my being a sinner and sometimes I am in hell!" "Are you willing to bring your sins to Christ for forgiveness and let Him, whatever you think of Him, take your guilt?" "But," he said, "I cannot believe in the inspiration of the Bible, or in the deity of Christ, or in prayer." "Just now," persisted the wise pastor, "I am not asking you to believe these things You know you are a sinner, and in sin there is a taste of hell Now, I offer you Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin Will you accept Him as such, and leave all questions that puzzle you for future solution?"

The man went to his home, and that night he accepted the Christ he knew as his Savior, and came to the meeting the next night to tell the people the joy of forgiveness that was in his soul After several days of testimony which led others to Christ, the pastor gently asked, "What do you think now of the deity of Christ?" "Such a Savior," he said, with great emotion, "must be divine; if He were not divine He could not have done what He has done for me!"

St Basil was a great man of God, one of the greatest of the Church Fathers One of his noble orations is dedicated to the memory of forty martyrs of Sebaste who were ordered by the officers of Licinius, in the year a.d 320, to offer sacrifices to heathen idols These were soldiers who had proven to be excellent in every respect But Licinius the emperor issued a decree that they must renounce Christ or else their lives would be in danger Those who refused to give up Christ were submitted to indescribable brutalities and tortures.

"The torturers were called forth The first was ready and the sword was sharpened Then some of the persecuted Christians fled, others succumbed, others wavered, and some before even being submitted to the tortures, were afraid because of their threatenings Some, when facing the tortures, became faint Others entered the battle, but were not able to persevere to the end in suffering the pains, and in the middle of the martyrdom they renounced Christ.

"However, the invincible and gallant soldiers of Christ proceeded visibly to the middle, at the time when the judge was showing the decree of the king and was asking them to submit to it Without being afraid of anything which they saw, nor losing their heads as a result of the threatenings, they confessed that they were Christians.

"These Christians soldiers were offered money and honors in order to induce them to join the ranks of the heathen To earthly honors they would not yield Then came threats of indescribable tortures What an answer these Christian soldiers gave: 'Do you have blessings of equal value to those you endeavor to deprive us of, to give us? We hate your gift because it will mean our loss We do not accept honor which is the mother of dishonesty You offer us money which remains here, glory which fades away We have despised the whole world Those things which we see in the world do not have for us the value of the heavenly things which we hope and long for We are afraid of only one punishment, the punishment of hell We are here ready to be tortured for you to twist our bodies and to burn them.'

"The judge was infuriated by the courage of these brave Christians, and so he devised a slow and most painful way of putting them to death It was very cold He waited for the night when the wind was violent and the air freezing He ordered these soldiers to be thrown naked on a frozen lake in the center of the town to die from freezing There is no more atrocious and painful death than that These Christian soldiers did not have to be forced to take off their clothes They took them off themselves and marched on to the frozen lake As each went, he said, 'We are not merely putting off our clothes, but we are putting off "the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" ' (Ephesians 4:22) All together they shouted, 'The winter is bitter, but heaven is sweet; the freezing painful, but sweet the rest Let us persevere a little longer and we shall be warmed in the bosom of the Patriarch [meaning Christ] Let us exchange all of eternity for the pains of one night Let the leg be burned so that it may ever dance with the angels How many soldiers have died in battle remaining faithful to a mortal king, and we, for the sake of remaining faithful to the true king, shall we not sacrifice this life? We are going to die anyway; let us die so that we may live.' Their prayer was unanimous and ascended with one voice, 'Forty have we entered this ordeal, may all forty of us receive the crown of martyrdom Oh, Despot, grant that not one of our number may yield You honored this number because you fasted forty days.'

"In spite of this earnest prayer, one of their number did not persevere and gave in to the offers of the heathen persecutors Great sorrow came upon the others because only thirty-nine remained in the arena of death Their plea became even more vigorous to their Heavenly Father Forty entered the ordeal and forty wanted to see the face of the Lord The deserter came to the warm place prepared by the emperor's executioners But going from the extreme cold to the warm place, and plunging himself into warm water, he died instantly The guard, a heathen who was watching all the developments and saw angels ministering to these saints of God, on hearing their prayers, decided to answer them He took off his clothes and declared with a loud voice, 'I am a Christian, too,' and jumped naked on the frozen lake joining the thirty-nine to complete their number to forty Thus their prayer was answered, forty entered the ordeal of martyrdom and forty saw the face of Jesus Christ Now, whose memory was cursed and whose was blessed? We call the saints who persevered unto death blessed, indeed."

Attend only when convenient.

When you do attend, arrive late.

Grumble about having to attend.

Criticize the officers and teachers in front of your family and friends.

Refuse to accept any responsibility in the Sunday school If you ever do accept any, do it grudgingly and neglect it often.

Never study your lesson.

Always show your lack of interest in the lesson.

Appear relieved when the class is over Act as if you have wasted your time.

Refuse to welcome visitors; make them feel that you belong and they don't.

Criticize every new idea that is suggested.

Dominate discussions; always insist that your opinion is right.

Regard the teachers of your children as upstarts and busybodies.

Show your distrust or disapproval of teachers when they call in your home.

Never sacrifice for the Sunday school; leave that to somebody else.

Oldest Company

It happened at the noonday luncheon of the local Rotary The dishes had been cleared away, and the meeting had been called to order After the reception of new members and the introduction of visitors, the chairman asked who of those present represented the oldest company in the community.

A young man in the back of the room hesitated a moment, then arose and said: "I believe I do, sir I am a minister of the gospel The company I represent was founded some 1,900 years ago And I am happy to say that it is still flourishing." His announcement was greeted with applause, for none of those present was inclined to contradict him He did, indeed, represent "the oldest company" in the community.

It was 19 centuries ago that the Founder of this "company" had said: "Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18) How true the intervening centuries have proved His startling prediction to be! On every continent and on the islands of the seven seas, from East to West, from North to South, the company of Christ's redeemed have carried the message of salvation.

It was that "company" that the youn g minister represented-indeed, the oldest, grandest, and the largest to be represented at the meeting, a "company" that you can belong to by simple faith in Christ the Savior We are "fellow" citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19-20).

A convict, who has just finished his term of penal servitude, wishes to lead an honest life He comes to a man who has a large jewelry establishment and who requires a night watchman He is engaged to watch this building through the quiet hours of the night when he has everything under his care and every opportunity to rob his employer On the first evening, he meets one of his old companions, who questions him, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm the night watchman."

"Over this jeweler's shop?"

"Yes."

"Does he know what you are?"

"No, keep quiet; if he knew, I should be dismissed."

"Suppose I let it out that you are a returned convict!"

"Oh, please don't; it would be my last day here, and I wish to be honest."

"Well, you have to give me some money to keep quiet."

"Very well, but don't let anyone know."

Thus the poor man would live in fear, lest it should come to the ears of his employer what his previous character had been.

Let us suppose, however, that instead of the employer's engaging the man in ignorance of his character, he went to the convict's cell and said, "Now I know you-what you are, what you've done, every robbery you've committed, but I am about to give you a chance of becoming honest I'll trust you as my night watchman over my valuable goods." The man is faithful at his post He meets an old companion who threatens to inform his employer about his past He asks, "What will you tell about me?"

"That you were the ringleader of thieves."

"Yes, but my master knows all that; he knows me better than I know myself."

Of course, this silences his companion forever Jesus Christ is the only Master who is "full of grace and truth." Jesus Christ is gracious to you and me because He knows the truth about us, that we deserve nothing but hell But through His grace heaven can be our share, if we personally and by faith appropriate His grace.

When a Brooklyn traffic officer handed a young woman a ticket, she told him, according to the press report, "You can go to hell." When she appeared in court, the magistrate dismissed the officer's complaint about her language, saying, "It wasn't a command or a wish, but a real statement of fact, for going to hell is a possibility." How terrible it is, however, that multitudes today have forgotten this possibility A humorous magazine, poking fun at "advanced theology," remarked, "Nowadays most of the churches and preachers are so advanced that it takes considerable ingenuity to get into hell."

Suppose a wealthy merchant were to charter a ship to go to some distant country and bring back a valuable cargo To encourage speed and faithfulness, the merchant offers a bonus to officers and crew if they bring the ship home by a certain date with the cargo intact The ship arrives at the foreign port, and the cargo is placed on board But unfortunately a quantity of whiskey is also taken on board, and on the way the back the officers and men indulge in it too freely They drive the ship upon the rocks, with the result that the cargo is lost They send out an SOS, and men with life-saving equipment put out from a nearby port and save them They are thus saved from death, but they have lost the bonus they might have earned Unrewarded, and with the loss of all their possessions, they return to their home port at the expense of others Likewise, some souls escape hell by the skin of their teeth, but they have lost their reward.

These are the words of Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died at the beginning of the twelfth century: "If I should see the shame of sin on the one hand, and the pain of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, I would rather be thrust into hell without sin than go into heaven with sin."

The treasures of His grace are never exhausted In the realm of the spirit there is something that stirs within man, a deep-rooted instinct for seeking God has hidden His treasures in the difficult and arduous ways of experience Experience contains precious treasures that men find only as they journey faithfully along life's hazardous road When we conquer and overcome, we find a treasure of God in the conquest of a certain sin, in the overcoming of a great temptation; we find the hidden manna which may be fresh courage, new strength to overcome another temptation that has harassed us for a long time New strength and new joy are ours through conquest In the midst of this difficult way of discovering new things about life, men learn to tackle it with new equipment and new determination The story told by a certain man can be echoed by most of us: "I wrestled," he said, "all night, in the grip of a fearful sin that was slowly dragging my soul to hell All through the night the fearful battle raged, and I felt that my soul was lost; but with the coming of the dawn there shone a light brighter than the dawn The Son of Man was at my side and the temptation was thrust from me in His strength I arose from my knees, strengthened in body and soul, and prepared to meet anything that might come my way." You and I have wrestled like that man and have found new power and new joy when we have conquered a temptation in the power of God The man of faith can find, if only he will seek, the promise of a glorious dawn even in the darkest night.

John Bate said, "Today is given us by Him to whom belong days We have the power to use it as we please; we compass our salvation or our damnation within it; we can travel twenty-four hours of time nearer to heaven or to hell We are responsible for its proper use How important that we do the proper work of today in the sphere of today That man is blessed who, at the close of his day, can look upon his finished work and anticipate tomorrow as bringing nothing but the things which legitimately belong to it Today God speaks to us in His Word that we harden not our hearts Today is the day of salvation All duties, all privileges, all trials, all joys, all sorrows; in one word, everything we have, we have today Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not, only today is ours, and only in today do we hold all our possessions."

At first, I saw God as my Observer, my Judge-keeping track of things I did to know whether I merited heaven or hell He was out there-sort of like a President I recognized His picture but I did not know Him.

Later on, when I met Christ, life became a bike ride It was a tandem bike, and Christ was in the back helping me pedal I do not know just when He suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since Christ makes life exciting.

When I had the control, I knew the way It was rather boring, but predictable It was the shortest distance between two points When He led, He knew delightful long cuts-up mountains and through rocky places-and at breakneck speeds It was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said "Pedal!" I worried and was anxious and asked, "Where are you taking me?" He laughed and did not answer, and I started to trust.

I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure And when I would say, "I am scared," He would lean back and touch my hand He took me to people who gave me gifts of healing, acceptance, joy and peace for our journey He said, "Give the gifts away." So I did to people we met And I found that in giving I received, and our burden was light.

I did not trust Him at first to control my life I thought He would wreck it But He knows how to make bikes bend to take sharp corners, jump to clear high rocks, fly to shorten scary passages.

I am learning to be quiet and pedal in the strangest places I am beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face And when I am sure I just cannot do any more-He just smiles and says, "Pedal!"

The story of Polycarp, Smyrna's bishop who studied under the Apostle John, comes to mind Adamantly committed to the saving lordship of Jesus, which left no room for bowing to the empire, Polycarp was arrested and sentenced to death Actually, he was given a chance to step out of the fire The Roman proconsul gave Polycarp the choice of cursing the name of Jesus and worshiping Caesar to save his skin or continue embracing Jesus to his death "Swear," said the proconsul, "and I will set you at liberty Reproach Christ." Polycarp replied, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He has done me no wrong How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" After the proconsul threatened him again with the specter of burning at the stake, Polycarp added, "You threaten me with fire which awaits the wicked in judgment to come and in everlasting punishment Why are you waiting? Come, do what you will." As they approached him and prepared to tie him to the stake to be burned, he shouted, "Leave me as I am, for He who gives me power to endure the fire, will grant me to remain in the flames unmoved even without the security you will give by the nails." Loosely bound, with flames flashing about him, Polycarp prayed, "O Lord God Almighty, Father of Thy beloved Child, Jesus Christ...I bless Thee that Thou has granted unto me this day and hour, that I may share, among the number of the martyrs, in the cup of Thy Christ, for the resurrection to eternal life." And so on February 23, A.D 155, Polycarp paid the price Then he went to heaven The pay off is worth the price.

Then there was Patrick Hamilton who studied under Martin Luther in Wittenberg He literally ignited the Reformation in Scotland As he burned at the stake in 1527, he said, "As to my confession, I will not deny it for awe of your fire, for my confession and belief is in Jesus Christ...I will rather be content that my body burn in this fire for confession of my faith in Christ than have my soul burn in the fire of hell for denying the same."

Luther says in one of his sermons: "The devil held a great anniversary at which his emissaries were convened to report the results of their several missions 'I let loose the wild beasts of the desert,' said one, 'on a caravan of Christians, and their bones are now bleaching on the sands.' 'What of that?' said the devil 'Their souls were all saved.' 'I drove the east wind,' said another, 'against a ship freighted with Christians, and they were all drowned.' 'What of that?' said the devil 'Their souls were all saved.' 'For ten years I tried to get a single Christian asleep,' said a third, 'and I succeeded, and left him so.' "Then the devil shouted," continues Luther, "and the night stars of hell sang for joy." One of the tricks of Satan is to make us believe that submission to God means a spiritual stupor Far from it It is a battle; it is resistance and first of all to Satan himself.

John the Baptist's message from the wilderness was not, "Smile, God loves you." It was "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come." Jeremiah was not put into a miry pit for preaching, "I'm OK, you're OK." It was for crying against the adultery, idolatry and other wickedness of his nation Noah's message from the steps of the ark was not, "Something good is going to happen to you." He condemned the world and was a preacher of righteousness Jesus Christ was not crucified for saying, "Consider the lilies, how they grow," but for saying, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites...children of hell ...fools and blind guides whited sepulchers...generation of vipers."