The
Lord’s Prayer
page
l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l 7 l 8 l 9 l 10 l
- 6 -
Christ mixed religion
and practical Christianity. He
preached to the people, and He fed
the multitude. He did not prepare a
banquet for them; He just gave them
what was on hand, loaves and fishes.
However, they had enough and to
spare. Matthew 15:32-39; 15:21. It
may be supposed that many of those He
fed were unworthy. They were more
interested in the loaves and the
fishes than the preaching. John 6:26.
However, this did not deter Christ
from feeding them; He ministered to
the body as well as the soul.
Some will wonder why
we should ask God for bread, when
others do not ask and yet have as
much as those who ask. In fact, some
of those who do not ask have more
than those who pray. Why, then, ask?
In asking for bread,
we recognize our dependence upon God,
not only for bread, but also for our
very existence. It is customary in
accepting an invitation of
hospitality to express our thanks to
the host. Can we do less to God, the
Giver of all good things? All may not
thank God; but whether they do or
not, God will send sunshine and rain,
and through His divine alchemy
transform the life of the seed into
the life of a soul, capable of
thinking, of willing, of doing, a
candidate for immortality. Shall such
bountiful liberality go unrecognized?
If it is crude and boorish to neglect
to thank a host, can it be any less
to fail to thank God? However we
treat Him, He will still provide for
us. However, He would appreciate
being recognized as the Giver.
As it is necessary to
have food for the body, so also is it
necessary to have food for the mind.
Without physical food the body would
shrivel up and death, ensue. So with
the mind. It needs proper food to
prosper.
The human mind is a
wonderful instrument. We need to
consider the inventions of the last
few decades to have this
demonstrated. Time and again men have
wondered if the human race would not
arrive at the ultimate, where there
would be no new fields to explore, no
more knowledge to be gained, no more
things to be invented. That outlook
has entirely changed. Men have come
to the point where they see unlimited
work before them, vast fields that
are calling for exploration. Their
work is only well begun. With the
conquering of Mount Everest, men
began to look still higher and are
seriously considering communications
with other worlds, and even visits to
them. As in the days of the Flood,
when men decided to build a tower
that would reach to heaven, so men
are having great celestial projects
in mind. Why not create a few
satellites and set them encircling
the earth, constituting bases from
which expeditions might be launched
to reach some other planets?
Will God permit men to
go just so far, as He did in the days
of the Tower of Babel, and then bring
about confusion at the time when men
are ready to climb to heaven? Genesis
11:1-9.
As science marches on
and reveals the capacity of the human
mind, the evil one is at work,
turning much of the knowledge gained
into destructive channels. Some
scientist have been perverted so as
to destroy faith in a Creator, have
substituted evolution for creation,
and have made both the Creator and
the Savior seem unnecessary.
Some men are making
weapons to destroy mankind; others
are propounding theories that destroy
belief in God. It would seem that
mankind is nearing the end of the
road and that soon God will step in
and take charge. It is high time for
God to work.
Through the three
great agencies of the press, radio
and television, the information and
knowledge are now being disseminated
at an unprecedented pace. Their
possibilities for good are almost
unlimited, and the future may see
even greater progress.
There are serious
doubts, however, that present
developments warrant an optimistic
appraisal of their eventual value to
society. A drastic change must take
place. Can the coming generations,
the children of today and the leaders
of tomorrow, remain unaffected by the
persistent portrayal of crime, lust,
and murder? Can their intellectual
diet of pulp magazines; cheap
pornographic literature, corrupting
novels, Sunday “funnies,”
and sex exposures develop the kinds
of fathers and mothers or leaders
that the world needs? Is the screen
justifying its existence as a builder
of manhood and a trainer of citizens?
The “legitimate” stage had
this redeeming feature: The admission
price was too high for children.
However, the screen has no such
impediment. Therefore, we may see
queues of children of tender age,
waiting to be admitted to shows that
should never see the light of day.
Garbage is not good food for growing
children, nor for adults.
It seems quite
inconsistent for a government to
enforce strict supervision over the
food supply of a nation, by means of
pure food and drug departments and
then permit men to fill the minds of
the children with filth, swill from
unclean reservoirs.
Has God given the
church the means to counteract this
evil, at least as far as its own
children are concerned, or are we
helpless against these corrupting
practices? Unless the church becomes
fully awake to the danger of these
modern inventions and takes adequate
measures to save our children, the
loss will be great. A world
conflagration demands heroic
countermeasures. To a prophet of old,
sensing a crisis came the message,
“Let the priests, the ministers
of the Lord, weep between the porch
and the altar, and let them say,
Spare thy people, O Lord, and give
not Thine heritage to reproach, that
the heathen should rule over them:
wherefore should they say among the
people, Where is their God?”
Joel 2:17.
The enemy has entered
our homes; he is enthroned in the
living rooms; he gathers the whole
family together and shows them
alluring pictures. He adapts his
pictures to the mental capacities of
the little ones, nor does he forget
the older members. Mealtime is
changed; bedtime is changed; the
worship hour is adjusted; children
refuse to go to bed until they have
seen their favorite production. All
are entranced. A telephone call is an
unwanted interruption; a visitor is a
disturbance; all are immoveable until
the hour is past. And by the time,
all are unfitted for worship. Never
before has such corruption been
permitted in the homes, and never
before has the danger to the young
been so great. The time has come to
weep between the porch and the altar,
and do something. Who will
show the way?
“Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God.” Matthew 4:4. Man needs
daily bread to sustain life; he needs
food for his mind; but most of all he
needs spiritual food for his soul. He
needs “the true bread from
heaven.” John 6:32.
The Jews to whom
Christ was speaking did not
comprehend what He was saying; so, He
explained further: “The Bread of
God is He which cometh down from
heaven, and giveth life unto the
world.” “I am the Bread of
Life: he that cometh to Me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth
on Me shall never thirst.” John
6: 33,35. It is that bread on which
Job says, “I have esteemed the
words of His mouth more than my
necessary food.” Job 23:12.
The Jews still did not
understand, so Christ explained
further, “I am the living Bread
which came down from heaven: if any
man eat of this bread, he shall live
forever: and the bread that I will
give is My flesh, which I will give
for the life of the world.” John
6:51. “Many therefore of His
disciples, when they had heard this,
said, this is a hard saying; who can
hear it?” “From that time
many of His disciples went back, and
walked no more with Him.” Verses
60,66.
It seems strange that
many of His disciples had so little
spiritual conception of Christ’s
word that they should become offended
and walk no more with Him. Yet, many
today seem equally dull of
perception. They are so engrossed in
the things of this world that
spiritual things are a closed book to
them. Whether they know it or not,
they need food for the soul even more
than they need food for the body.
The Bible is our chief
source of spiritual food. There are
green pastures and the still waters.
There our soul may be restored. There
the table is spread in the presence
of enemies. There we may safely rest,
and we will have no want.
We may find spiritual
food at the Communion table, in the
hour of divine worship, in quiet
meditation and prayer. We may find it
in the family circle as in morning
and evening worship the incense of
Christ’s righteousness ascends
with the prayer to the throne of God;
we find it in the devotional books
indited by God; we find it in
reverent contemplation of God’s
handiwork in nature, in the heavens
above and in the earth beneath. We
find it in the communion of the
saints, in the ministry of the needy,
at the bedside of a loved one. We
find it as we face life’s dark
moments, as we give spiritual
consolation to one entering the
valley of the shadow of death.
page l 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5 l 6 l 7 l 8 l 9 l 10 l
- 6 -
