The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-08-17
Persistent Love
Lesson for AUGUST 10, 1862

TCI 9J9lCI1l AOvC
Lesson for AUGUST 10, 1862.
Love" comes without reason,
goes without reason. Love can
be easily hurt, Love" washes
out in rainy day like a cheap
scarf exposed to the weather. We
put quotation marks around
love" of which that can be true;
for it is not genuine love, only a
cheap substitute invented by
teenage romancers. The Chris
tan religion is a religion of love;
but the love of which we speak
has no more resemblance to the
thing that crooners humble
about, than it has to a ham sand
Wich. Love as we meet it in the
Bible is not a merely human
word. Whatever genuine love
human beings have, is based on,
modelled on and called into exis-
tence by the love of God. The
ancient prophets. amDng them
Ezekiel. speak very strongly Of
the love God has for his people
in this world, a love which
persists in spite of all that men
do to discourage God. If you
were God. any affection you
might have felt for the human
race would have evaporated long
since; SO let us all be thankful
you are not God. His love is ever
lasting.
Blessing
In the brief passage Eek. "a ::
1881 three ideas stand out. Each
Of these points up what God S
love is. or rather how his love
is shown. God S love is not Cas
ours sometimes Isl a feeling to
be cherished in secret. 1t is al
ways made known to those
who have eyes to see.
First of the three ideas we Sc
lect for underscoring, is blessing.
The reader notices that the pro-
phet does not say, as we might
have expected him to do. Il will
give you a blessing" He says
rather, Il will make you a bless
ing Gods love comes in full
ness not to those who try to hold
it for themselves. The best way
to express our SOnShip to God is
to pass on the blessings he gives
us. Yes, but some one asks, Does
not that keep us robbed Of happi-
ness? Quite the contrary: there
is no such great happiness in
holding on to blessings as there
is in sharing them. Do people
ever thank God for YOU? You
may not be able to answer that,
because you don't know.
Peace
Another great word here is
Peace" God makes a covenant
an agreement of love with
his people. Every dealing Of God
with men is rooted and founded
in love. This cannot be other
wise if God is love. But this pro-
phet brings out the way love is
shown and one way is the
way of peace. Our God, the only
true God. is a God of peace, not
strife, anger. violence. There is
something wrong with the pic
ture when so-called and self
labeled Christians keep sniping
at one another and calling
names. There may be no pos
sibility of union between your
church and some other: but
even where that is true. you do
not manifest your Christianity by
calling names and running
down other Christians who do
rot believe just III the way you
do. Furthermore. to take another
Illustration. it ought to hurt our
cOnSclences that the SO-called
Christian nations of the world
seem to be the most violent war
makers. AS individuals, as
churches, as a nation, do we
really act as if We belonged to
the God of peace?
Security
A third great idea, third
great promise of God to his true
people. is security. We know, if
we nave any experience at all,
that God guarantees no man Sc
curity from all human and earth
~ troubles. Commentators are
not all agreed whether this re-
ference in Ezekiel to security
should be taken literally or not.
One thing should be clear. If
not even the prophet Ezekiel was
immune from troubles he lost
his wife. and mourned deeply the
fall Of Jerusalem Gods people
should not expect total freedom
from pain, Illustration and
death, not to mention other ills.
So those who think we should
take the part about security
literally, usually believe it must
mean at some time after the
last judgment. not now. How
ever this may be. the believer
in God can be assured that God
Will not let him be wholly des-
trOyed, not even h,, death tn