The Ohio Independent Baptist, June/July 1971

this old-fashioned virtue of patience, don't you? How about gentleness? This word could be translated kindness. And we need people who are not arrogant, harsh, unkind, discourteous. I think a little gentleness wouldn't hurt in modem society; it is a value that we ought to value. It is a missing in– gredient in modem society that men need desperately. How about goodness? Or would you prefer ugly behavior with all the little psychological cruelties that go along with it, as you get even with people you resent? A good healthy slice of old-fashioned goodness would do society a lot of good. How about faithfulness? The word is translated faith in some versions, but I think the preferable translation is faithfulness. Faithfulness or depend– ability is a necessary virtue, for not to be dependable is to frustrate our– selves and a great many other people and to impede this whole matter of good inter-personal relations. How socially destructive it is when people can't be .depended on to keep their word, or do their job, or come through with their responsibilities. Is that a traditional value that we ought to for– sake just because it was counted worth– while yesterday? How about meekness? This word is sometimes translated gentleness. The opposite of it is arrogance, rebellion . The word doesn't mean weakness . Christ was said to be meek, but He wasn ' t weak . Moses was said to be - meek, and he certainly wasn't weak. He was a leader of a great number of people who were hard to control and he had to be strong. But he was meek , that is, strong and gentle. We need tha t sort of kind , firm leadership today as much a s an y past generation. The last virtue on the li st is self– control or di cipline. We live disci– p li ned Jives, o r v-. 1 e li ve Jives out of cont rol. lt's o ne or the other. You' re ei tt1er under contro l o r out of control . ]t J1as to b e one or the other . You h a e the stea111 i n the boi ler doing a construct i!ve job, or }'OU h ave it out of the boiler scalding people. Yo u J1a, 1 e it one wa}' o r tl1e o ther . A life out of control is always destructive. And perhaps we've never lived in a ~ore destructive society than we live tn today. To say traditional values are gone and are irrelevant to modern society therefore is to talk nonsense. V-.:e need the old-fashioned simple virtues as much as any generation ever needed them, perhaps more. Now the second statement on the radio broadcast was this: "The Church should not make any declaration about the values people should believe in." Let me repeat it: "The Church should not make any declaration about the values people should believe in." In other words, don' t tell people what is true and false, what is right and wrong. Do you think they already know? Do they need no information? No knowledge? No guidance? Or is it that the Church is not supposed to know; is it assumed that the Church has no knowledge here? I suspect it's the latter. The idea is popular that all of u s are searching, groping in the dark for pin-pricks of light - all are seek– ing truth but nobody has found it. We are told that nobody ought to be so presumptuous as to talk about possessing even a portion of the truth. Well, are we indeed just groping in the dark? That may be true for some churches that have discarded their Bibles, but it is not true for those ~ ho believe the Bible. In this Book is truth ; here is a description of re– ality. Here is what the world is genu– inely like . That means you can not successfully build a life apart from these principles any more than you can violate the principles of stress and strain and erect a building that will stand . Here 1n this Book ts v.,hat is so , and here is what 1s right! Do )' OU wi sh to know what 1s valu– able? Would you like to knO\\ what is worthwhile? Fir t of all, God is! There is a reason the Bible tells yott to put nothing ahead of God. There is a reason the Bible tell s \ 'OU to seek .,. first the kingdo ,n of od . od is valt1able. , od i \VOrt l1 0111eth ing. Yot1 need J-J in1 . Yo t1 can' t 111ake it \Vitho t1t Cap ules of life The great living lesson s taught by Chri st In His parables used the common, e eryday experiences of life. His lllustrat ons and aptness of appl1cat100 came f rom t he heart that sought only good for the listener and you the reader of today. The accounts of missionary bra er and t rue incident s In t he 11 es of e perlenced Chrl t1ans characterize t he literature we publish for you. Our t 'e·home pap r re planned to co er a broad area of Christian perl nee Your church can only benefit from the reading of the e fine papers FOR MOMM AND ME, PR !MAR PA~ COURAG CHALLJENG£, CO QUE • Ord r our free mp from 1800 t1l r p i t Pr ktonBoul \'a rd • D Pl In , Ill. 0018 Him. He n1ade you for Himself and apart from Him there is no fulfillment, there is only frustration - and finall)' condemnation for willful rebellion. God is valuable. God is not a value that is gone. He is not somebody we can do without. He is not simply a hypothesis we have discarded. He is a real person who has genuine ex– istence. Do you wish to know what else is valuable? Human personality is! It is strange there is so much talk about the worth of human personality and yet there is a degradation of it. Men are despising themselves, wrecking themselves, ruining themselves. It is the Bible that values human person– ality. It is the Word of God that tell you that you are unique, that God never made anything half so valuable as a human being because God made man m His own image. There i not a glowing sun or a shining star that can begin to compare with -what ) ou potentially are \\ orth. What else is valuable? God's will is, because nothing good exist out ide of it. Not only does human histor)' demonstrate it but the Word of God authoritatively declares it. Oh. elf– will may seem temporar1l)' to be good, it may temporaril)' seem to \\Ork: but in the long run ( which i the onl) run that count ) you di cover that nothing good exist outside the \\ ill of God. So Hi v. ill 1 valuable: Ht v.·ill i \,\ orthwh1le. Heaven al o is valuable . y_· ou ma, say, '"Modern man prett) '" ell di"card– ed that concept ... o. 1t' , not a con– cept, 1t' a fact dt\ inel) re\ ealed le' there and you need 1t . If thi ltfe 1 all there 1 • ) ot1 ha\ e no rea on for li\ ing and no ha".)1~ tor n1oral1t) . nd if ) o t1 are ens1ble , ot1 '" 111 de pair bee au e nothing cot1nt 'i for n1t1ch any\, a, . 't ot1 need the di111ens1on ot eternit, \ ou need the hope of the S\\ eet b) -and-b\ . If \ ot1 are not looking f Of\\' a rd to perfec t ion and fuJfilln1ent and aci - f ac 110 11, \ o u are living on , n1err '– go- r{>ttnd, ,1nd tl1a t d <.)esn ' t bri ng either pt1rpose or ful filln1ent in life. Heaven is stil l , 1 altt 'lhle-f or \\ hat it n1ea11 to n1e 1 \\' a nd \\ ha t it'~ ~01og to n1ea1 to n1e in eternit , . ,,, ,\ the cl1t1rcl1' ft111ctio11 to ,veigh ,, h t life's val t1e are, let'~ 11ot talk n n en and tell it 1oc t ! }1 third t cen1ent n tl1e r di br ad a t ,, a : "1.,Jie cl111r Ji l,ould \ i111pl 1 11iak e people 111ore e11 iti1 e." en 1t1, 1 e t ,, hat? \\ 1 e \ r n t c Id pecifi all , b\lt th id ,, a that , e hot1l h Ip p Ill t go arottnd like 1n t \ 1tt1 tl1 1r antenna out tr} 1ng t fi11d th ir ~ a . (Cont inu d On N t P ge) JU .JUl , 197