Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

walked."
me"
rod."
eous and secures our forgiveness in or
der that we may
righteousness.
go forward in His
There might be an interesting dis
cussion as to whether Christ is an ad
vocate for all men, or only for
the
saved. Did He die and pay the penalty
for the sins of those who deny Him, or
only for the sins of those who through
faith receive Him Some have found
much interest in this discussion but, I
fear, little profit. The important ques
tion is, "Did He die for
We know
how we can be certain. Christ by His
death, paid the penalty for the sins of
all who believe on Him. Here is a prac
tical verse; v. 3 "And hereby we know
that we know Him, if we keep His com
mandments."
This does not mean an in
tellectual,
speculative knowledge of the
existence or prerogatives of God, as they
have been told to us by others, and as
they appeal to our reason. A saving
knowledge of God is spiritual, and comes
to us through an experience of Christ
in us, that enables us to say, "Our God,
"Our
Father,"
with consciousness
personally possessing Him. Then we will
obey Him, not because of the penalty of
disobedience, nor from a sense of duty,
but because of our love for Christ, we
accept every work gladly that He com
mands us to do and rejoice to do His
will.
of
The commandments are all summed
up in one word, love. A perfect love is
the fulfillment of the law and the com
mandments. There is one word that
covers your duty to your auto; Take
care of it. But unless you trust that
to someone else, you will need to read
a large book of instructions. But our
life,
we cannot hire it done for us. So
we need a compendium of specific rules
to tell us just how we can carry out our
duties to God and Man. So we are given
ten brief rules. Then for further study,
we have a large Book giving precepts,
examples and exercises that we should
follow daily. In addition to these, we
have a Comforter to walk beside us, and
lead us into a true understanding of
our duty as shown in our Guide Book.
Though there are many rules given us.
they all center in the Righteousness of
Jesus Christ, imputed to us and re
ceived by Faith.
"He that saith he abideth in Him,
ought himself also to walk even as He
When one sells principle for populari
ty, he is bankrupt.
He who walks with God will never
be late to his spiritual meals.
A day of worry is more exhausting
than a week of work.
March 2, 1955
Please Note: This Prayer Meeting Topic
is a week ahead of time, substituting for
the tardy one.
PRAYER MEETING TOPIC
March 30, 1955
By Rev. C. E. Caskey
GREAT QUESTIONS GOD ASKS:
"What is that in thine hand"
Psalms:
Exodus 4:2
89:8-11, Page 217
105 :17, 18, 22, 23, Page 259
78:1, 2, 9-12, Page 187
40:9-12, Page 103
References: Matthew 16:24-27; Exodus
4:29-31; 7:9-13; 7:19, 20; 8:5, 6; 8:16-
19; 10:13, 14; 14:15, 16; 17:5, 6; Num
bers 20:8-11; Matthew 6:33; Isaiah
6:8.
This is the first of four topics on the
subject: "Great Questions God Asks."
They will be taken up on the fifth Wed
nesdays of the year.
We are familiar with the setting for
the question, "What is that in thine
hand"
Moses, leading the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law to the backside of
the desert, had come to the mountain of
God, Mount Horeb. There he saw the
burning bush and came near so that
God spoke to Him out of the bush and
told him He was sending him to Pha
raoh to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.
Moses was hesitating,
and felt that the
people would not believe that the Lord
had appeared to him. Then came the
question, "What is that in thine hand"
Moses said, "A Just the equipment
of any shepherd which he used every day
in his work. Perhaps it was a little bet
ter than ordinary; as befitted a prince
and the son-in-law of Jethro, but not
much different. At God's command he
threw it down and it became a serpent,
a perfect, strong, active, terrifying,
dangerous serpent. Moses suddenly
made tracks to get out of its way! But
the Lord said to reach out and take it
by the tail. Would you have done this
Slippery, slimy, slithering, repulsive
reptile! But its repulsiveness was no
thing compared to the danger of tak
ing it by the tail. Serpents just aren't
caught that way. The death-dealing
fangs would surely sink into his flesh.
But God said, "Put forth thine hand,
and take it by the tail." Moses did, and
it became a rod in his hand. Nothing
slimy about it (they tell us snakes really
aren't, they may be cold, but not
slimy, and nothing dangerous about a
rod.
God's calls to obedience are often like
that. We think the thing
to do is disagreeable, but the only dan
we are asked
ger lies in disobedience or in partial o-
bedience. Running loose the snake was
a menace. Taken to the hand of Moses
it became a harmless rod.
We can't
touch those people! But in obedience
to God we do and find that our preju
dices were all wrong and they
are not
what we thought they were. We think we
can't do something for it would en
danger our social standing, our job, our
ease, or even our life and health. The
truth is that the only danger is in dis
obedience and not in the thing we fear.
The Lord told Moses that the people
would see this sign and the other signs
and would believe. How will people be
lieve our message When we take what
we have in our hand,
cast it from
us in obedience to the Lord's command,
follow up with complete obedience in
spite of our dislike and fear, then the
Lord blesses what we do. If we hold
on to what we have it remains just what
it is and never works any wonders. It
never overcomes
the rod of bondage
which makes people crawl like despised
serpents in the dust, dangerous to others
and debasing themselves, but who can
be set free by the rod in your hand
through the power of God.
Your rod
will swallow up the rod of oppression
from which you may flee as Moses did
from the government of Egypt. It will
become the rod that moves mountains,
divides the sea, and brings water of
life from the Living Rock.
What is that in thine hand, O Cove
nanter church A wonderful group of
young people, not very different from
the young people of other churches, en
thusiastic, energetic, restless. Often
they have more enthusiasm and even
more loyalty than older folks, and they
want to see things move. Yet in some
ways our young people may be a little
different. We strees education,
some
times to the detriment of churches lo
cated where there isn't enough oppor
tunity for their young people to use
their education. Our young people are
consecrated, as attendance at any of our
camps or conferences will show. Many
are talented as singers, and "players
upon instruments" and readers and art
ists. Furthermore they are dependable,
and not all young people are these days,
so that many of them have secured po
sitions of responsibility.
Parents, are you willing to cast these
young people from you (for so it may
seem to you) and let them lose them
selves in the Lord's service Hold them
and they are just what they
were. Let
the Lord have them and miracles are
wrought.
What is that in thine hand, O young
man What is that in thine hand, O
young woman A wonderful heritage of
Christian homes where the Bible is loved
and read and believed. The heritage of
a history
of martyrs, and of men and
women who dared to stand for the right
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