The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1963-02-08
Helping God

Helping God
Lesson for February 10, 1868
Doubtless God could have
made a universe where He did
not need help of any kind. What
ever He wanted to do, would
be done, and by Him alone
Perhaps, for anything we know
to the contrary, He has exactly
that kind Of universe running
somewhere at this moment. But
not this one. For His own rea-
sons. and for our great good
God constructed this universe in
such a way that if God does
not get help in doing things, they
will not be done. Not that God
requires help in everything. Il
He had any help in creating this
universe in Nthe first place, We
cannot imagine who could have
been His assistant or His blue
print man. God had all the blue
prints of the universe in His
mind from before the begin
ming. But - once begun. while
God still reserves the right to
act at His own discretion with
out help of any one. the uni
verse = or our part Of it at
least = does not run itself.
Helping the Ignorant
Let it be repeated: this is for
our good. 1t is a wonderful
privilege to share in anything
God does. It is a marvellous act
on His part that He should lie,
any one of us be responsible
even for tiny part of the vast
realms of God. But how can we
know what Gods work is? How
do we know when we are helping
Him? There is one thing OF
which we may be sure: God is
always working against evil
He is opposed to evil In every
form. So when the Son of God
lived and toiled in Galilee, He
too was battling against evil
wherever He found it. One of
the forms of evil is ignorance
error. Not knowing, OF thinking
that ones thoughts are true
when they are not-this is dan
gerous. So one of the great &C
tlVitieS of Jesus was teaching
and he did not try to teach all
alone. He trusted certain fisher
men enough to send them out
two by two. to teach people He
would never live long enough to
see. And in helping Jesus. the
disciples were helping God.
Helping the Hungry
Another form of evil is pain,
and this has many forms, as we
all know. When first chloroform
was used to help women in
childbirth, many preachers pro-
tested. 1t was not right, they
said, to try to make child bear
ing bearable. But ministers
know better now. All OF us are
aware that much pain in the
world cannot be cured. We know
there are limits to what can be
done. But when a Christian TO-
day sees a hungry child or a
man or woman, he
dare not say to himself, as our
ancestors might have said. Too
bad, but the pain and hunger
are sent by God and we need
not try to do anything to stop
it," On the contrary, Christians
are more alert now than they
used to be. to the claims of
the suffering and the hungry and
homeless. Every person you can
help, in fact, is a living inN-
tauon from God. to be His help
er in bringing good to pass in
the place of evil.
This is a Real World
Sometimes We long for all
easier world TO live III. What
we want, we think. is a sort Of
fairy-tale world. In the old sto-
l1es. which perhaps you read
when You were young. you re-
member there often was Fairy
Godmother. When she arrived.
she took over All you did was
sit back; watch her wave her
magic wand. and enjoy what
she conjured up out of the moon
light and spider webs. w h y
doesn't GOO do like that? is our
complaint. He doesn't do like
that because He is real and
not a make-beleve fairy. He
doesn't do like that because He
wants children, not dolls: sons
and daughters, not robots. He
doesn't do like that because He
wanted universe in which He
would have helpers. On the hills
Of Gahlee Jesus fed the great
multitude with bread No one
then knew how He did It; but
hey knew how that bread got
rom Jesus TO the hungry
the disciples carried it.
Jesus did what they could not
DO; He did not do what they
could do. God Is like that. All