The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-10-28

3.l-4, l2-17.
Responding to God
Lesson for October 80, 1860
God is to be believed in,
trusted, adored. This is true, but
not the whole truth. If the faith
and trust and alteration stop
right there, if they never lead to
anything else, then they are no
longer what they ought to be. A
certain man used to go on a
hinge periodically. and at the
height of one Cor the bottom of
IT'D used to send his wife a large
box Of roses with an adoring
note. He may have meant it; but
he was a bad husband. His "ador-
alton" Of his wife made no real
difference with his life. He was
the same booze hound after his
marriage as before. just the
same irresponsible play-boy as
always. On the bank of a south
ern river there is a kind of con-
crete wall. several yards long but
not connected with any kind of
building. That wall was origi-
nally intended to support an end
of a bridge; but the bridge was
never built. so the concrete abut-
ment stands there, in the way of
the farmer who plows that river
side field. So faith" in God, if
1t leads to nothing, is like that
bridge-pier. only a nuisance. AS
James put it, faith without works
is dead.
Response
The life of the Christian is not,
so to speak. something which the
Christian himself starts and
keeps going by himself. It is the
teaching of the Bible from begin
ming to end, that the right life is
a life Of response. God takes the
initiative; we follow His lead.
God invites. we accept. God
speaks, we answer. Someone has
said that the single force back Of
a Christians life is gratitude.
Some people get that backwards.
Their picture of the Christian
life is: first man does something
fine that God notices; second,
God is grateful to the man for
the fine thing he has done; third,
God showers blessings on the
man by way of thanks to him.
No, it is actually the other way
around. First. God does 50 much
for q man especially through
Christ's sacrificial life and DEATH
that the man notices this; sec
ond, the man is grateful to God
for His inexpresSible gifts; third
the man offers God his life in
service, not at all by way of re-
Warding God, not in the least as
laying a claim on God, but out of
love and a thankful heart.
The frs: way this response of
man will show. is in his sense of
responsibility. He recognizes God
as the director and glide of his
life, he thinks first Of all, not
what will people think Of me?"
but What will God think of
me?" this does not come sud-
denly, it is a habit of mind that
has to be learned.) Martin Me
moller, a German minister who
had been a naval officer, ex-
planned how it was that he could
have "bucked" the all-powerful
Hitler and so risked death. "It
was simple" Niemoeller said
afterwards. II had a higher
Fuehrer than Hitler" That is re-
sponsibility. Christian RESPONSE
bility, taking orders from God
first, above all others.
AS a sense Of responsibility
grows. character grows with it.
A man does not acquire charac-
ter by thinking about it. The best
way to become a Christian char
acter is not to set aside certain
times each week for practice, as
you might practice baseball or
chess.
Responsibility and Service
In Old Testament times. people
made sacrifices by destroying the
thing they sacrificed. or at least
by withdrawing it from ORDINARY
use. Paul sets out in Romans
12) the new Christian idea. We
understand now that to sacrifice
something to God means to put
it to use for him. When Paul
spoke of our bodies as a living
sacrifice no doubt some of the
Christians at Rome may have
wondered if he could mean hui
man sacrifices on affairs. But of
course he did not. Anyone who
will take time to read Romans IL
can see how down-to-earth all
this is. Paul does not concentrate
the readers mind on great crises,
extraordinary one in a life
time opportunities for heroism
nrI r.