The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1957-01-17
THURSDAY, JANUARY II, 1857
One Man Looks
At God
(By Charles w. Carlson, Pastor,
St. Marks Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Oakland Maryland)

AS | indicated last week, we will
study this week the first of ChriSt'S
struggles with Himself and His
fellow creatures 1t took place in
the form of the temptation en-
counter with Satan He went into
the Wilderness Immediately after
the announcement that He was the
Son of God at the time of His bap-
tiSm. This announcement must
have shaken Him to the core, be-
cause we must never for a moment
forget that in His divinity, He was
also completely human and so the
first temptation came to Him: IF
you are the Son of God, command
these stones to become loaves of
Bread" Note the first word IF,
you are the Son of God " this
doubt arising in His mind must
have troubled Him continuously.
And the idea that in His divine
power He could just limit His
ministry to giving bread to people.
for there were plenty who were
hungry then as now. was a real
temptation. His answer is a direct
quote from Gods Word. in Deuter-
onomy So Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word
which proceeds from the mouth of
God" How well this statement fits
our situation in Garrett county. We
see each day the chaos that results
from merely handing out free
meals, without any Word of God
to 90 with them. | wonder how
many second and third generation
welfare people we have, who have
not heard the Word of God from
another man, IF man will not
work, neither let him eat.' This
seems rather cruel at first, but
when we merely hand out, soon
people rely on the handout rather
than on their own initiative and
sense of responsibility and they
are no good to any one, least of
all themselves. No, Christ wanted
to be more than a sort of divine
bakeshop".
Then the next temptation follows
hard on the first Again the first
word is IF you are the Son of
God throw yourself down.. for it
is written. He will give his angels
charge over you >" Christ finds
Himself tempted while on the top
of the temple, to prove His divinity
by a circus trick, but He would
have none of this. His answer:
You shall not tempt the Lord
your God" 1t is mistake to think
that Christianity is a matter of
some half-bakcd idiot looking at
some poor misguided soul who is
sick in body and mind laying his
filthy hand on the persons head
and shouting. Heal Heal, Hcal!'
No, we must not put God on the
spot" For to display such out
rageous self-centeredness is con-
trary to the will of God Not only
this, it leads often to the disillus-
ionment of the poor souls who
think and hope that they are going
to be healed, and when they are
not. then lose what little faith that
they had in God in the first place.
The woods are full of men like
Oral Roberts who are constantly
putting God on the spot" de-
handing that His will become their
will, not that their will be made
the same as His. 1t is not in Gods
intent that every person with some
physical handicap be made whole
Much more important is to learn
to do the best with what we have,
and with Gods help and inspira-
ton, miracles like the adjustment
of Helen Keller to life are possible.