Truth Magazine

 

They read the “Journal” and the “News,”

The “Green Book” and the “Red,”

They kept the serials of the month

Securely in their head.

They went through books both old and new,

Best sellers, too, they thought;

They read the jokes and studied styles;

No item went for naught.

They read the sporting page; they knew

Each athlete by name;

They read of baseball, football, golf;

Familiar with each game.

They looked the funny paper through;

They watched the mails to seize

The magazine they like the best,

Whose columns most did please.

But in their home there was a book

With pages never turned,

Whose message of truth and hope

Was still by them unlearned 

The Book that tells of Him who came

To earth that we might know

The beauty of a sinless life,

Lived here so long ago.

 AUTHOR UNKNOWN

(From the bulletin of Westside Church of Christ, Salem, Indiana)

Guardian of Truth XL: 10 p. 13
May 16, 1996

By Norman E. Fultz

Urbanization has whittled away all but nine acres of what used to comprise the 1,000 acre White Haven plantation in St. Louis County. The beautiful old mansion which dates back to 1818 still stands and is being renovated and restored to its 1870s appearance when it was bought by then President Ulysses S. Grant from his father-in-law, Frederick Dent. Intending to retire there, this former Civil War general never realized that dream. He lost the estate in 1885 when a business venture turned sour. He died of throat cancer a short time later.

To preserve anything that might contribute to a better knowledge of White Haven’s historical past, an archaeologist, hired by the National Park Service which now owns it, is searching in and around the house for artifacts. The excavated dirt is sifted through fine wire screens which, it is hoped, will leave behind historical objects. A pile of sifted dirt that had been excavated from below the floor of the kitchen, used by the Dent’s slaves before they were freed at the end of the war, has shown that the screens do not catch everything. Several weeks after being piled outside, the dirt had a plant growing from it. “The plant turned out to be tobacco which was grown on the plantation in the mid1800s. It’s possible the seed lay dormant for more than a century and then sprouted,” according to the archaeologist, quoted in Rural Missouri, November 1995.

With a view to identifying the variety of the tobacco and to prove that “it’s in-deed a plant from the past,” the Park Service moved the plant indoors to grow it to maturity.

Well, now that’s interesting, don’t you think? But you know what? Whatever variety of plant produced that seed is the variety that will be produced by that seed even though more than a hundred years have passed and even if a hundred other varieties have been developed by the ingenuity of man since that seed fell to its protected resting place in the dry soil. From the beginning it has been the herb yielding seed after its kind” which seed will then produce “after its kind” (Gen. 1:11-12).

It is because of the law of the seed producing after its kind that the restoration principle in religion is workable. Jesus declared that the word is the seed of the kingdom (cf. Matt. 13:19; Luke 8:11). When that pure word is sown in the fertile soil of honest hearts, the result will be citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Being the “incorruptible seed” (1 Pet. 1:23), the word of God will produce the kingdom though a thousand years has transpired and even if men have, by their additions and deletions, brought forth a thousand mutations (denominations). Our task is to sow the pure seed and water it (1 Cor. 3:6). The increase is God’s end of the stick.

The God Who Sees

Mike Willis

One can make a good study of the nature of God by looking at his names (Lord, God Almighty, Jehovah, etc.). Hagar learned to know God as “El Roi”  “The God Who Sees.” The concept of God as the God who sees lingers today in our understanding of the omniscience of God  God sees all things. Let us remember how this concept of Jehovah was revealed to Hagar.

Hagar

Hagar was the handmaid of Sarah. When Sarah finally accepted that she was barren, she decided to have children through her handmaid, as was the custom of that day. Children born to a handmaid were considered heirs unless there was a natural born son, in which case he was the heir.

Sarah approached Abram about having children through Hagar and the two of them agreed to do this. They had become impatient with God, not expecting him to fulfill his promises. Therefore, they worked to help God do what he had promised. Abram went in to Hagar and she conceived a child through him.

Neither had fully considered the ramifications of their conduct. The human emotions that people have cannot be turned off and on like a faucet. Apparently, Abram and Sarah thought that Hagar could have a child through Abram and without emotional attachment. They are like those today who think that two people can co-habit without emotional involvement. When Hagar perceived that she was pregnant, her attitudes changed. She became “odious” like the maid servant that the wise man described who became heir to her mistress (Prov. 30:23).

When Sarah was sufficiently alienated by Hagar’s attitude, she complained to Abram and he told her, “Do with her as it pleaseth thee” (Gen. 16:6). Sarah dealt harshly with Hagar and Hagar fled from her; she be-came a runaway slave.

God Appeared to Hagar

The angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar by a fountain of water in the wilderness. Hagar explained that she had fled from her mistress. The Lord instructed her to return to Sarah and promised her that she would bear a son named Ishmael who would prosper (because the Lord heard her affliction). After hearing the Lord’s promise, Hagar called the name of the God who spoke to her as “Thou God seest me” (El Roi). She named the well at which the Lord appear to her Beer-lahai-roi (“the well of him that lives and sees me,” Gen. 16:14). Harold G. Stigers wrote,

Hagar’s reaction is one of consciousness of God’s presence at her deep need, for He is near to point out responsibility and offer aid in assuming it. She memorialized the event in the characterizing of Yahweh as He who sees, i.e., who sees and succors. At the same time in offering her His help, He restores her feelings of being and affirms His impartiality to all His creatures so that, though a slave, she may hope in Him (A Commentary on Genesis 162).

After the miraculous appearance, Hagar knew that God cares for and looks after her because he is a God who sees man’s needs and responds to meet them.

God’s All Seeing Eyes Watches You

How sad that we have so emphasized God’s omniscience in knowing all of man’s sins (a truth that does not need to be minimized) that we may have neglected giving proper attention to the positive truth revealed in this passage. Consider these truths about the God who sees:

1. God knows my needs. Jesus emphasized this in his Sermon on the Mount. He said,

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things (Matt. 6:25-32).

Jesus knows my every need. How comforting is the knowledge that God in heaven lives and knows and cares for me.

2. God responds to meet my needs. He is the God who hears prayer (Ps. 65:2). Like he met the needs of Hagar, he will respond to my needs as well. There is nothing that I need for salvation that he has not provided. He watches over me to make sure there is a way of escape in the hour of temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). How comforting is the knowledge that God will act to meet my needs.

3. God knows our works. This is the oft repeated message to the seven churches of Asia (see Rev. 2:2, 9, 13, 19; 3:1, 8, 15). He walks amidst the lamp stands (churches) and knows what occurs among them. He promises help and encouragement to the faithful who faced sore trials and tribulations.

4. God knows our special circumstances. He wrote to the church at Pergamos, “I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth” (Rev. 2:13). These brethren faced some difficult circumstances because they lived where “Satan’s seat is.” The Lord promised them the help they would need to stay faithful.

Conclusion

Don’t lose heart. God knows your needs and cares for you. The same God who has watched over and cared for you through the years until now, will stay with you to help you through those that remain. Whatever your circumstances and problems may be, don’t forget that God sees and cares.

Guardian of Truth XL: 10 p. 2
May 16, 1996

By Dan King

Every teacher has experienced difficulty with class control at one time or another, possibly many times. Students like to get the teacher off on peripheral or incidental matters in order to avoid having to do some assignment or to slow progress so as to minimize work on their own part. Discipline on the part of the teacher is necessary to keep things on the right track. Otherwise, neither teaching nor learning will be accomplished, and the whole teaching-learning process will have broken down. A teacher must first decide what is vital, and then determine to remain with vital things. Both self and class control will be essential to assure success.

Like all teachers from time immemorial, Jesus met with pupils who wanted to divert attention from some immediate doctrine or principle which he considered essential, to something of less import. He could have chosen to spend much time and many words pursuing such incidental questions and subjects. But it would have meant that he was turning away from his high purpose to “chase his tail,” so to speak. Jesus refused to waste precious time and effort upon what was of so little consequence. When he was challenged by the Samaritan woman at Sychar about the Jewish insistence upon centralized worship in Jerusalem, he turned the challenge into an opportunity for instruction on what the Messianic reign would bring:

“Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain (Gerazim), nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father . . . the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; the Father seeks such people to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must do so in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-24).

He refused to be led away into a debate over the legitimacy of Gerazim or Jerusalem. His kingdom would exalt neither one as primary. So, why pursue the matter at all? It was not vital, so he did not.

There was, however, an issue of more profound significance, and to this he drew attention with the words: “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know; for salvation is of the Jews” (v. 22). An essential question with a Samaritan was the issue of the place of the Messiah’s origin: which people was to be his people, the Jews or the Samaritans? This was not a subject of only peripheral interest, as the following conversation shows:

“The woman said to him, `I know that Messiah is coming (he that is called Christ); when he arrives, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, `I that speak to you am he’ (vv. 25-26).

Jesus was relentless in his pursuit of the main point of their conversation. He had in mind to convince her that he was the Messiah of the Law, promise and prophecy, and would not be sidetracked away from this fundamental didactic goal. It was vital, so it was worth further exploration.

We, as teachers today, need to develop in ourselves the same relentlessness in the pursuit of our main class goals. Preparing ourselves mentally by knowing where we are going and how we intend to get there, then focusing upon attaining this ultimate target by taking the essential steps in this direction one at a time. This is the way to avoid being taken off course. Unswerving mental “focus” is in-deed the key to getting where we want to go as teachers. This we learn from Christ.

Students, help the teacher and the entire class by pre-paring your own lesson in advance and being ready for questions and discussion. But, leave off asking irrelevant questions. Ask questions and offer discussion of matters under immediate consideration. Don’t force the teacher to embarrass you by telling you that your question is more appropriate for another time and another study. Ask “off the wall” questions in private and after the class. Jesus stayed with vital matters, so you stay with vital matters! This will help everyone!

Teachers, keep your class on track. Keep them on the subject. The only way you can do that is by preparing your material adequately in advance and then coming to class and “delivering it.” If you permit yourself to be drawn off the topic of the Bible study onto extraneous and unimportant matters, you have failed as a teacher. Remember, Jesus was flexible enough to answer questions and engage in discussion which was on the subject. But he was inflexible toward the person who merely wanted to send him off onto a “wild goose chase.” Don’t permit one or two of your students to do this to your class. The whole class suffers when you do. Jesus stayed with vital matters, so you stay with vital matters! Learn this important lesson from Jesus.

Guardian of Truth XL: 10 p. 14-15
May 16, 1996

By Jim McDonald

Preaching at Infanta, Quezon

When the seminar at Resurreccion was past, R.J. and I bade each other a sad farewell. He had given nearly three weeks of his time to the Philippine work and had been warmly received by them. Ben Cruz and his family had come to the Resurreccion lectures and R.J. returned to Manila with them. Emilio Alvarez and Rene Ignacio had come to Resurreccion and we traveled with them to Infanta, Quezon. The next four days were spent here as we preached in baranguay halls, nepa huts of Christians and in brethren’s buildings. We were greeted with much argumentation on this trip from “Iglessia Ni Christo” sympathizers. The Iglessia Ni Christo is a very powerful religious group in the Philippines and like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, affirms that Jesus Christ is only a man. But, despite their opposition, teaching continued. We preached in a fishing village called Sitio Bayan where brethren had been conducting classes for nearly a year. Once we had concluded our lesson, one of the village “elders” arose and said to the assembled congregation: “We have been hearing these brethren for several months now and know that they are teaching us the truth. It is decision time for us.” When he had finished 15 men and women expressed their desire to confess faith in Christ and to be baptized into the Lord Jesus. The sea was too turbulent that day for baptizing so brethren had to return on another day to complete the deed. A new congregation was begun on the shores of this sea when their obedience was complete. Aurelio Ruanto, an older preacher from Infanta, will go out and preach for these brethren each Lord’s Day. Aurelio needs help for transportation costs and $25 a month would be sufficient. Is there someone who will have fellowship with this brother as he helps to nurture and edify this infant congregation?

We finished our stay in Infanta by preaching at the Lord’s Day morning worship. Two more expressed a desire to be baptized; one a former Iglessia Ni Christo member.

Mindoro

We returned to Manila from Infanta on Sunday after-noon, preaching to another Manila congregation that evening. Then, we made our way to Ben Cruz’s where we were to meet brethren who would accompany us to Mindoro so that we could preach on that island. We had been at Ben’s scarcely 20 minutes before Lordy Salunga and Rick Darasin arrived. Lordy preaches for the Angeles City brethren and is one of the most able of the preachers in Luzon. He has an excellent grasp of American issues and is sound in the faith. Rick is a fledging young preacher, a convert from Catholicism through the efforts of Lordy, and is the only member of his family who is a Christian. He hails from Leyte, an island of the Visayas, and he with Lordy will make a preaching trip to his people later this year. He also accompanied me to Mindoro. On Monday morning Gady Castres (who is from Mindoro) arrived with his son and we traveled to Batangas so that we might catch a ferry from there to Calapan, one of Mindoro’s largest cities. From Calapan we went to Aurora where we preached and spent the night with Elesio Sikat, preacher for Aurora brethren. There are approximately 15 congregations on Mindoro and during the next three days we visited eight of them. On Thursday of that week we hired a jeepney and traveled 160-170 kilometers to the most remote of congregations, preaching in various places along the way. Brother Menor, aged preacher in Calapan, determined he would make this long, hard trip and although we were fearful for the drain it would make on him, he probably made the trip easier than I did! A few were baptized while we were in Mindoro as in other places.

Return To Manila

Our company returned from Mindoro with three or four Mindoro preachers traveling part of the way with us. Efren Algaba had recently moved his family to Luzon and had begun a work in South-central Luzon, an area that badly needs men like Efren. Two or three Mindoro preachers were going to his place to help him further evangelize, then they would return home to Mindoro. Those brethren who had traveled with me from Manila continued on with me to Manila where we went to brother Cruz’s and they returned to their own homes.

Brother Marrs joined me at Ben’s. It was wonderful to see him! We had been in the Philippines for almost a month but had not really worked together as on our previous two trips together. During the next two days (Saturday and Sunday, January 27, 28 we preached in three different congregations north of Manila, one of which had been badly affected by the explosion of Mt. Pinetubo in the early 1990s. This was a village called “Bettis.” Lahar (liquid lava unleashed upon the towns below by summer rains) had nearly buried the village the year before and government aides warned that the June rains would likely finish the job this year. Inhabitants were warned to get out while yet they could. Many had but many yet remain. The congregation in Bettis has lost many of its people but still a remnant remains. Funds were given to each of the families in the congregation and brother Marrs urged the preacher to be like “Moses” and lead the congregation collectively to a refugee camp provided by the government. In this area the dust was stifling. Beggars lined the sides of the roads with their hands stretched out for alms from those passing by. And yet, as inconceivable as it might seem, we could see TV antennas on the roof tops of their hastily built hovels! During these two days we preached in four different congregations, returning to Manila late Sunday night. About eight were baptized in visits to these four congregations.

Palawan

Palawan is an island southwest of Luzon about an hour distant by plane. Puerto Princessa is its capital city and is one of the cleanest cities we saw in the Philippines. Strict rules against trashing have been passed and are rigidly enforced. Local residents told of one of the national senators who was fined because he threw down a piece of paper or some similar item. Oil exploration and production exists on this island and Muslims eye the island as a prize for them to seize.

There are 16-17 congregations on Palawan. We arrived on Monday and were scheduled to leave on Thursday. First, we conducted a seminar for preachers, giving out tracts, Bibles, and sets of the Jehovah Witnesses material. The next two days were scheduled to be spent teaching churches. We met “Tony” in Palawan. “Tony” was a preacher for the Disciples of Christ, the only preacher for this group in Palawan. He preached for two congregations. He had been taught by brethren and after asking some questions, requested to be baptized. He arranged a quick meeting for us with his congregation the next day.

We traveled from Puerto Princesso to Brooks’ Point where there are three or four other congregations. But, the distance between the two cities is almost 200 kilometers and the roads were terrible. On Wednesday we preached for a congregation just 9-10 kilometers from Brook’s Point, but getting there proved to be a task be-cause we had to ford a river in whose midst our jeepney become “stuck.” There we sat while the water rushed through our jeepney, so high sometimes I had to put my feet on the dash to keep them from getting soaked. On our return we found another jeepney stuck in the same spot so we abandoned the jeepney, crossed on a walkway to the other side and hired a “tricycle” to carry us back to Brooke’s Point where we were to catch a bus back to Puerto Princesso. As the tricycle also went through swirling water it seemed for a moment that we would all be swept into the stream below but the driver managed to wrest control of his tricycle from the current and get us safely to the other side. We spent the next day talking with brethren while waiting for a plane that would carry us to Cebu. (More to come.)

Guardian of Truth XL: 10 p. 12-13
May 16, 1996