What Is Your Life?

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     All of us here today entered life the same way. All of us will leave it the same way. We gained access by the door of birth, we will exit through the gate of death. Our coming was not voluntary. It is likely, if we are rational at the time, our going will not be. But, between these two crises, spanning the entire distance is the greatest of all adventures, the one called life. Its success or failure is primarily a matter of volition, of personal choice. Life, at least in a relative sense, is what we make it.

     What is life? What is your life? This startling question challenged the writers of the Bible. It still challenges the modern scientist. It invades the gleaming laboratory where a white-coated researchist seeks to reproduce life from the isolated tissue in a test tube. It constantly creeps into our own intellect, interrupting our meditations and stimulating our imaginations. In its final analysis, life and death may be more closely related than we like to think. Death has been defined as separation. What we call life is but a sequence of separations. Our maturity at any stage of existence may be gauged by our response or reaction to such separations. In some respects, we die often, and by the same token, we are born frequently.

     1. Our first separation is at birth. It is appropriately called delivery. It gives us individual status. It makes us a separate entity in a vast universe. After conception we exist as an embryo, then a fetus for the period of human gestation. During this time we are in the mother, but not, in reality, a part of the mother. No human being is ever truly a part of another, but always apart from every other. Birth separates us from our sheltered abode. By it we enter the world on our own and by our own struggle. We literally fight to gain our "place in the sun."

     2. Later, comes visual separation. The toddler wanders into another room. He realizes that he is separated from his mother. Unaware how he got where he is, and not knowing how to return, he sits down and gives vocal expression to his need for companionship.

     3. Intellectual separation really begins in our democracy when the child starts to school. Often it is a distinct shock when thrown into strange surroundings, the mother leaves him and returns to the home which has been the foundation of his security. Because he is a social being, the child soon adjusts, if normal, to his new surroundings, and additional companions.

     4. More complex in its problems is the personality separation which begins in adolescence. The child is still in the home, remains under parental discipline,

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but is growing apart from the parents. He feels in the home but not of the home. Nature has contributed to the effect by physical and mental changes. The boy finds his voice changing and becoming deeper. Hair begins to appear upon various parts of his body. The girl finds her figure becoming more rounded. The menstrual cycle begins.

     Contemporary with these physical alterations occurs certain mental and intellectual processes. It is a period of overt revolt against discipline with a secret longing for its application; a period of doubting which intrudes into the religious and moral spheres. There is a recurring question as to whether the indoctrination of the parents has been correct, a fear that the past has not provided a proper basis for the future.

     Recognized for what they are, these symptoms can become a part of an enriching experience. Improperly evaluated, they provide a period of stress, strain and storm for both parent and child. Unfortunately, in too many cases, neither is qualified emotionally to render proper decisions, or to view the developing pattern objectively.

     5. Marriage is both a separation and a union. This is evident from the edict of God, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh." "Leave" and "cleave." That the term "leave" was not used in a purely geographic sense is evidenced by the patriarchal practice of establishing the married sons and their families in proximity to the rest of the clan. Actually, there can be no real mating of a husband and wife until both cut themselves loose from the mother or father image. "Mom-ism" as it is labeled by modern psychologists is clearly a sign of immaturity. It is also the basis of much marital discord.

     6. The final separation is that of the spirit from the body, the immaterial and immortal from the material and mortal, with the consequent decay and decomposition of the latter as it returns to its primal elements. We call this death, using the term in a desperately final sense. But in some respects we die often, for we die each time there is a separation. By the same token, in some sense we are born anew each time. A chapter is finished, a new one begins. But the word "finis" can never be written at the close of a human existence, for the book is never finished. Even the eternal state is but a new adventure, a new experience of the spirit, unending as the spirit itself. "Dust thou art, to dust returnest; wast not written of the soul."

     The careful observer will see a design in these separation experiences. They are not irrelevant or unrelated. Each is a preparation for the succeeding one. The separation from the uterine abode prepares us to stand upon our own feet This, in turn, prepares us to walk out of the range of parental vision, and this makes it possible to go to school without having the parent present in the room. Thus we are freed to formulate our own thoughts, develop our own concepts, and crystallize our own views apart from parental inspection, and so we are prepared to break away from another shelter, the home, as once we struggled out of the womb. So we are prepared to form a new union, and since our only means of perpetuation on earth is by procreation, we begin new lives to continue our ideals after our bodies crumble and merge again with the dust.

     Since life is a sequence of separations, maturity at any given time is the proper reaction to such separation. None of us is ever completely mature, for the experiences in previous phases of our cycle have become imbedded or ingrained in our sub-conscious mind, and occasionally, under impulse, these float to the top and express themselves. This explains why the most brilliant executive has to be "babied" by his wife. Too, we cannot divorce ourselves from our ancestry who have provided our genes and chromosomes. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Our heredity is a bus in which all of our ancestors ride, and every now and then one puts his head out and embarrasses us."

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     We have already learned that normal separations always look to the future. They are separations for preparation! Thus, they are not meaningless or purposeless. No less is this true of the great transformation. To properly understand it, then, we must view it in a proper frame of reference. We are products of divine power. The spirit that abides in our tents of clay is a part of the Eternal One. It thirsts for God as the body does for water. Man was no more made to exist without God than to exist without water. He can never reach the apex of the purpose of his being outside of God. Nor can he ever know real soul satisfaction while God is outside of him. Man in God and God in man--working together in a harmonious symphony of finite and infinite--this is the ideal.

     But man possesses a will. Without a will he could not be a man. So essential and sovereign is that will, that even God will not trespass upon it. Man must choose to accept God as a partner in his life. God will not intrude upon a heart which rejects him. The most frightening fact about the human personality is its power to will, its right to choose--to choose God or reject him. That which makes it so frightening is the fact that once a man makes a choice he must accept the responsibility which is attendant upon it, and the consequences which accrue from it. He cannot choose the consequences. They are part of the package. Eternal destiny depends upon your choice!

     We are by nature curious beings. We want to probe into the known and the unknown. Curiosity and dissatisfaction with things as they are, these are the twins which have made possible our progress. When we were little, curiosity was primarily concerned with our origin? "Mother, where do little babies come from?" This was one of our chief queries. Now, if we are mature, we have become true philosophers, interested in the reason and purpose of our lives.

     Have you ever questioned yourself at night in the seclusion and privacy of your own room, hidden by the darkness from every eye but that of God? Why were you conceived at the very moment you were? How did it happen that, of all the ova in your mother's body, the very one from which you sprung, came into contact with the one sperm from many millions of your father's cells, which gave you being?

     Why were you born at this precise time in the history of the world? Why were you born white instead of red, yellow or black? Why were you born in an antiseptic delivery room in a hospital in the United States, instead of in a steaming shelter in the dank jungles of the Orinoco, or in a mud and wattle hut in Africa? Why do you have the privilege of going to school with capable instructors while millions of boys and girls, without even a schoolbook, sit or squat on a dirt floor, listening to a missionary as their only hope of learning anything? How does it happen that you were tucked into a warm bed with clean white sheets when millions of babies lie in their own filth and vomit, with flies crawling in and out of their ears and nostrils? Why does it happen that you can come home from school, sit down to a warm meal, and eat to repletion, when millions of earth's children are never free from the sharp, gnawing pangs of hunger, while with bloodshot eyes, blackened and cracked lips, and swollen bellies, they await death from starvation?

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     We feel that we can determine why Noah, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah and Daniel appeared upon the world scene just when they did. We can understand why, when God needed a man of world vision and indomitable courage, Saul of Tarsus would be there, lacking only conversion to Jesus to launch him upon his way--and upon God's way, for then their way was The Way. Some of us think that John Wycliffe in England, John Huss in Bohemia, and John Calvin in Switzerland, like that other John, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, appeared in God's good time. Martin Luther, in Germany, freeing the people from papal domination; and Abraham Lincoln, in America, striking the shackles from the hands and feet of helpless, cringing slaves--we can see why they were where they were when they were! But why are we here and now?

     Well, there are still wrongs to be righted. There are still slaves to be freed. God's will is not yet done on earth as it is in heaven. Perhaps even now God is asking you a question. When Elijah sat in the gloom of his cave, the Lord came to him and said unto him, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" The husbandman seeking for vintage-gatherers, said to a group at the eleventh hour, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?"

     Did you know that you are a tree, a fig tree, of God's own planting? Jesus gave a parable about a fig tree in Luke 13:6-9. The owner came repeatedly and looked for fruit, but found none. He said to his farm manager, "Behold, three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" The manager interceded. "Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it, and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down."

     This year also! How do you know this will not be your last year, your last chance? You have had sunshine, light and blessing from God, far greater blessing than millions on the earth's surface. Why? Was it just for your own benefit, ease, pleasure and luxury? Was it just for you that God gave you a shelter, ample food, a car to drive, access to educational institutions, and a land of democratic ideals? Were you planted in the vineyard just for you? Or does the Master expect some response, some fruit? Has he found fruit, real fruit, not merely attending "church services" or "going to church"--but real fruit? Or have you only been

               "Living for self, and self alone,
                    And nothing else beside 
               Just as if Jesus had never lived, 
                    As if Jesus had never died?" 

     This year also! How do you know but what the decree has gone forth, "Cut him down," and you are spared only because grace has said, "Lord, let him alone this year also!"

     What does it mean to have Christ in you? The apostle writes to the Colossians (1:27) that the mystery of God, hidden from all previous ages and generations, now revealed unto his saints is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." I take it that if this is your hope of glory, there is no means of attaining it except by Christ in you. Is Christ in you? Many of you were baptized years ago? You have long been in the church. You have been planted in the vineyard. Do you have an appreciation of Christ in you, the hope of glory?

     Perhaps it is time for another death and burial--not re-baptism. Certainly not! That is not the problem, but a death to self and a resurrection to the unselfish life--a crucifixion of material

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ambition, and a resurrection of spiritual responsibility. Only a transformed life can make a transformed world. There is a sense of urgency, for we may have just this year also!

     Has your life been fruitless, foolish and futile? Do you feel beaten, bruised and battered by the complexities and frustrations of life that pile up about you? Then let's start today--now--to do something about it. We can change things if we become changed beings. We can change the schools we attend, the congregations where we belong, the communities in which we live, the clubs and associations with which we hold membership. You can do this, through Christ in you! You need not change your job, move to a new location, or enter another field!

     What are the requirements of a life that is Christ-centered? How can we get the Savior of men to move in? He said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in unto him." The first thing is to hear his voice. The second is to open the door! Many have pretended to do both who have never done either. The church is filled with people whose lives are empty. They've come in but kept Jesus out. They have a form of religion but deny the power. If you want to test whether you are willing to hear Jesus a good place to start is with his own test of discipleship. "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."

     What have you ever really denied yourself? Money! It is no real denial if you still have a bank account! Sleep? Would you stay up all night to fish for men like you would to run a trot line? Food? Did you ever go hungry, and miss a meal, so you could send its cost to a starving person? But none of these things are really what Jesus is talking about. He is not talking about things to give up. He is talking about self. You can deny yourself sleep, money, food, and the whole bit, and never really deny self at all!

     1. Commitment. This is an emphasis on total dedication to the will of God insofar as this is revealed to us, in every avenue of common life.

     2. Ministry. This is the realization that in true Christianity every member is a minister of Christ.

     3. Fellowship. What is discovered is the redemptive quality of fellowship, especially in the small group. We have found again, as the early Christians knew, that a man cannot be a Christian in his solitariness.

     4. Voluntary discipline. This is the recognition that all power needs discipline. It must be harnessed to be effective.

     These are all very vital. Each could well become the theme of an entire day's discussion. I must limit myself to the first--commitment. Dr. Trueblood correctly states that rightly understood this could effect a spiritual revolution. A half-hearted, inexpensive Christianity which does not demand our time, talent and treasure, is cheap and worthless. Commitment does not start with giving money. It does not begin with taking part in the program. Paul says of the Macedonians that they did not give their money first, but "first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God."

     If you try giving your money and talent before you give yourself, it will be a burden. You will groan, complain, moan and cry about the way the money is spent, although you never give your fair share of it. You'll resent having to study and appear on the program and murmur about hiring someone else to do it. All of these are signs and symptoms. Just as a man can be in the world and not of it, so he can be in the church and not really of it. And just as the truly converted man presents a problem to the world, so the uncommitted man presents a problem to the church. Lukewarm discipleship is really not discipleship at

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all. It wants to belong to Christ and keep what it has. It wants to eat its cake but still have it.

     Suppose that today, sitting right here in this audience, you suddenly, seriously and soberly--you who have been baptized into Christ--decided that from now on you would be God's man or woman. Suppose that today was your Damascus Road, and you came face to face with Jesus who was knocking at your door. One can do that in the presence of others you know. Saul of Tarsus did. Those who were with him saw no man. Suppose you suddenly realized how drab, disconsolate and disturbing your Christian experience had been, how humdrum and hopeless and helpless your life has been. Now, you mentally throw open the door and let Jesus come into your heart, so that you have "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" What differences would occur?

     I do not know, of course, for each life is different, but I venture to suggest a few things. The first great alteration would be in the matter of important decisions which affect your whole life and character. You are a girl! You want to marry, to love and be loved, to have a home, to give birth to babies, to nourish, cherish and rear them "to women good, and men!" But now, in your choice of a husband you are not motivated so much by the fact that one is tall, dark and handsome, that he drives a beautiful and expensive car, that he has a number of stylish suits and is a good dresser. You are committed. Christ is in you! Perhaps you make your decision on your knees.

     You do not ask if you will have a modern ranch house with wall-to-wall carpeting, or if you'll be able to show off your new ensemble in fall and spring. Instead you say, "Dear Lord, is this the man I want to father my children? Will he sit beside me in meetings because he honors you, and not just out of respect for my wishes? Will he go with me to visit the sick and sit up with the dying? Will he open up his arms to take in a helpless little orphan to grow up with our own little ones? Will he read the Bible with me, share his confidences with me, and be a real daddy to our little ones? Or, will he be more concerned with golf and sports than with persons and souls? Will he turn to the sport pages and never to the sacred pages. Help me, dear God, to make the right choice, for your sake as well as for mine!"

     You are a boy! You are in school and you must choose the course of study which will shape your future. There is money to be made in the field of electronics, aeroplane designing, or structural engineering. If you choose these fields you may become wealthy, famous, respected, and see your name in headlines. But in the deep recesses of your heart there is a call to serve the helpless and underprivileged of the earth, to share our learning and discoveries, to share the Christ with the distressingly ignorant in remote parts of the globe. So you study agriculture that you may qualify to go to Laos, Burma, Africa, or somewhere else where farmers toil to wrest a living from eroded and enfeebled soil. And as you prepare to show them how to produce more bread you break unto them the bread of life.

     Perhaps you decide to study the Russian language and still develop technical skills so you will be ready when God knocks down the iron curtain and says, "You who are ready, enter in!" And you choose for a wife, not a cry baby, or a mama's girl, but a brave, consecrated woman who is not afraid to spend and be spent for the Lord's sake. When the day comes that we are truly committed, out of such a filled auditorium as this there will go forth an apostolate of the fellowship of the concerned ones to the far-flung reaches of the earth, so that letters will filter back with strange stamps and peculiar addresses from "Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strand."

     Suppose that you are older, and now, this very morning, face to face with destiny, you truly commit yourself. You are already established in your vocation. What will happen to you? Great things!

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Marvelous things! Unbelievable things! You are a schoolteacher. But next Monday morning your room will have a strange appearance. It will look like a field. The familiar faces of the pupils will look like waving grain. You will lift up your eyes and look on the fields. You will see they are ready for the harvest. You will inwardly pray that God will make you a reaper, not that he will send you a reaper, but that he will send you as a reaper. You will not wonder if you should resign as a teacher to go out into the field of God. You will recognize that you are already in that field. He who teaches history as the footprints of God in human affairs; geography as the imprint of the Creator upon the material universe; or science as true knowledge seeking to know the great First Cause, is a "laborer together with God."

               A builder builded a temple, 
                    He wrought it with grace and skill; 
               Pillars and groins and arches 
                    All fashioned to work his will. 
               Men said, as they saw its beauty, 
                    "It shall never know decay. 
               Great is thy skill, 0 builder: 
                    Thy fame shall endure for aye."

               A teacher builded a temple 
                    With loving and infinite care, 
               Planning each arch with patience,
                    Laying each stone with prayer. 
               None praised her unceasing efforts, 
                    None knew of her wondrous plan; 
               For the temple the teacher builded 
                    Was unseen by the eyes of man.

               Gone is the builder's temple, 
                    Crumbled into the dust; 
               Low lies each stately pillar 
                    Food for consuming rust.
               But the temple the teacher builded 
                    Will last while the ages roll, 
               For that beautiful unseen temple 
                    Is a child's immortal soul.

     The world needs committed men and women who are scientists and salesmen; carvers of marble and cutters of meat; dentists and dredge operators; fishermen and furnace repairmen. Such men and women recognize that their true vocation is their calling--their Christian calling. They do not do these other things merely to make money, to build bank accounts, to own houses, or drive cars, but to pay expenses while carrying on their real vocation in life. They are children of a King. They are foreign emissaries, sojourning in a land which is not their own. Thus they sanctify any occupation they touch. Because Christ is in them, and they are his real temples, they bring Christ into whatever environment they come while making a livelihood.

     The truly committed soul is a witness for the Christ that is in Him. His transformed life is a constant testimony of what can happen to the surrendered life. He does not base his choice of location upon the fact that there is a "faithful church" there; he may actually feel called upon to go where there is none at all. It is a sign of our weak, diluted, watered-down twentieth century Christianity that we plaintively ask, "Is there a faithful church there?"

     The early Christians went into all the world. They deliberately chose to go where no one believed. When we restore the fellowship of the concerned, and the apostolate of the committed, men will again write to congregations they cannot find time to visit: "My constant ambition has been to preach the gospel where the name of Christ was previously unknown, and to avoid as far as possible building on another man's foundation, so that "they shall see, to whom no tiding of him came, and they who have not heard shall understand."

     How can we make the committed life serve the practical purpose which God intended. Let us assume you are from a rural or small town area. The congregation is in the doldrums. No impact is being made on the community. Once or twice a year an evangelist is imported for a week or two. Advertisements are put in the paper. Handbills are passed out. After the flurry of excitement the congregation settles back into a routine which is little more than a rut. You are a junior in high school. What can you do?

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     Let us further assume that today--right now--here in this humble and unadorned auditorium in a big city, you suddenly come to yourself. Your spiritual eyes are opened. You throw open the door and let Jesus come into your life. You recognize for the first time that he is really there. What can you do? One thing you cannot do, and that is sit in a meeting like this all of the time. It would be easy to share in God's grace but impossible to serve his purpose if you could. You have to return home. It will be different there. But you will be different also. The difference will be Jesus!

     What can you do? You will be tempted by the unconcern and indifference of others. They will laugh off your intensity as a case of "puppy love" for Jesus. They will regard it as a passing fancy, a whim. This means that you will need to pray a lot. You will have to talk it over with God, for it is likely no one else will understand or care too much. You can pray at night before you go to sleep, or silently in study hall, or on the way to school. You can do this when doubts surge in and faith ebbs out. Replenish your supply of faith by prayer!

     You will have to read your Bible a great deal. It is food for the soul. You are probably undernourished anyhow. You ought to make it a regular, unvarying routine to read the Bible every day. Do not try to read too much at a time. Read a brief portion. Read it several times. Think it over. Get its message. Digest its content. Think about it when you are not reading. The Holy Spirit will help you and strengthen you. Inside of the consecrated, committed soul is a real powerhouse.

     Now let the inner light begin to shine forth. Let your life and works begin to leaven the community. Perhaps there is a weekly newspaper. Go to the editor and tell him that you would like to contribute a little column each week on moral and spiritual truths, that you will keep it very brief and non-sectarian, a matter of general interest which will elevate the community. This will mean that you will become an avid reader, and you'll have to cull good material from many sources for your columns.

     Start a fellowship of concerned ones in the community. There are other high school youngsters who feel the way you do. Call a meeting of them in your home and tell them about the wonderful organization called New Eyes for the Blind. These people do not ask for money, but only for old spectacle frames, old gold or jewelry which has been discarded. You collect these and mail them in, and they are worked over, fitted up, and sent all over the world to hospitals in remote areas, and everything is furnished free. Residents of old folks' homes, senile and poverty-stricken patients in our own country are furnished glasses to enable them to read or to watch television and while away lonely hours.

     If you can sing, gather together other young people who like to do so, and form a group to sing wherever there is a welcome or a need. Do not limit the personnel to one religious group in the community, but find those who are committed anywhere and ask them to share. You need not forfeit any personal conviction you may have to sing out for Jesus. Perhaps you can assist in times of sadness at a funeral service and cause broken hearts to know the balm of Gilead.

     There are aged and shut-in folk in every community. Most of them feel as if life is passing them by. A visit from young people filled with vitality and life changes the whole aspect of their existence. All you need do is to show a little interest in them, go on Sunday afternoons for 30 minutes to each home. Take some little item of food or some other small gift. You will lay up treasure in heaven.

     Take an interest in boys and girls. Little ones will make you their heroes if you have time for them. Qualify to teach the Bible classes for little children. Be humble, but anxious to help. It will surprise you what you can do when Christ is in you, the hope of glory!

     One transformed life could leaven a

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whole community. Think how much harm one boy in school can do when he is wild and undisciplined. But good is more powerful than evil. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." It is the affecting of lives through little things that makes a powerful impact. It is not holding a big meeting once per year, or having a high-powered evangelist in from a distance that will transform a community. As it is from the heart of an individual that his life is changed, it is from the heart of the community that it is transformed. External forces may help, but in the final analysis all change will be worked from within.

     We read with a high sense of adventure the tremendous feats of men like Dr. Thomas Dooley, of Saint Louis. Here was a vibrant young man who felt called upon to stay in Laos after the war, to reach the poor suffering forgotten men and women who were without medical care. This young man, denied himself the blessings of marriage and the comforts of a stateside home to train young natives to minister to the needs of others. His is a saga of real courage and bravery. We salute this young Roman Catholic physician who gave up pleasure, luxury and ease, for dedicated service to neglected humanity.

     Or, take the case of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who until the hour of his death at an advanced age, was still active and concerned about others. In his earlier days he was president of a university, but imbued with a sense of the world's need, he reached a sudden decision one night, resigned and the next morning enrolled as a freshman in the medical school of the university he had headed. He never lost sight of his mission, and when he graduated be went far up an African river to establish a medical mission in the jungle at Lambarene. So, this man who was a world authority on the musical compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach, became even more widely known as a great humanitarian. He concluded that the best way to serve God was to serve your fellowmen.

     Many of us feel that if we could imitate such feats of moral and spiritual daring, that life would be worthwhile. But we may be called of God to serve in another way and to minister to other needs. There are still opportunities for spiritual adventure all about us. Our own community is crying for leadership. There are many who would serve if only someone took the lead. We need to develop followship as well as fellowship. Our service may be in what appears to be a humble sphere, but if we are faithful to it what a difference it will make. Perhaps the midweek service is ill-attended and often dull. What a difference it would make if one young person enthusiastically urged all of his peers to come--not merely as spectators--but as participants. A little thing? True, but it might spark a revival of flagging zeal to the salvation of the whole congregation. We cannot all be Dooleys. We cannot all be Schweitzers. But we can all be what God wants us to be.

     "If the church is to make any worthwhile impact on the surrounding community, if it is even to speak with a voice worth hearing, it must have the active committed support of all true Christians. I repeat, I do not think that the many delightful Christians whom I know have the slightest idea how they sabotage the power and witness of the Christian fellowship by their haphazard attachment to the church. Now, we have already admitted that the early church was compelled to be a close-knit fellowship in order to survive against all the forces of paganism. The forces of paganism are no less powerful today, although they are not nearly so obviously dangerous. Modern materialism, secularism, abysmal ignorance about God and His plan for life, are very real enemies on

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the side of darkness, and the lone Christian does less than nothing for the army of light when he remarks: 'I find I can be just as good a Christian without ever joining the church.' This whole question of entering fully into the worship and work of the church must be faced by all those who genuinely desire to serve God in this modern age."

     Dr. Trueblood puts it in these words: "The fourth minimum criterion of membership is the acceptance of vocation. This is a magnificent idea and requires some explanation. It means that all true members must be fountains, not cisterns. It means that each member must be willing to think of himself as engaged in the ministry, by a divine imperative. If 'member' is to regain positive significance in our vocabulary, we must think of all recruits as entering a new estate, beyond clergy and beyond laity. In the new order there are no clergymen and no laymen, but all are engaged in the same divine vocation, which means putting the claims of the Kingdom of God first, no matter what profession one may follow. The formula is that vocation has priority over profession."

     We often sing a song written by my good personal friend and respected brother in the Lord, James DeForest Murch, which goes like this:

          "The world all about me has now no allure, 
          Its pleasures bring pain; its wisdom is vain; 
          I seek a foundation, that's steadfast and sure, 
          I'll put Jesus first in my life. 

          The Lord Jesus died my salvation to win, 
          He went in my stead, to Calvary and bled; 
          Redemption impels me to give up all sin, 
          I'll put Jesus first in my life. 

          I know there's a home for the ransomed and blest 
          When death is no more, when struggle is o'er 
          For those who love Jesus and give him their best, 
          I'll put Jesus first in my life. 

          Though  earth's  tribulations  continue each day, 
          Though pleasures may call, though evil enthrall, 
          His grace will protect me forever and aye 
          I'll put Jesus first in my life. 

          In all that I say, in all that I do, 
          Throughout the world of toil and strife 
          By day and by night, through trust in His might, 
          I'll put Jesus first in my life.

     I challenge you today to mean the words of that song, to make them real to yourself.

     I challenge you to no longer regard them as mere poetic expressions set to music, but as a living and vital goal of your personal life.

     I challenge you now to seek a foundation that's steadfast and sure.

     I challenge you to give up all sin under redemption's impelling power.

     I challenge you to love Jesus and give him your best.

     I challenge you in all that you say, in all that you do, by day or by night, to put Jesus first in your life.

     First in your choice of a life companion, first in your choice of a life profession, first in your thinking, first in everything!

     If you have not yet come into real relationship with Jesus, repent and be immersed into Him; if Jesus has not yet come into you, hear his voice and open the door. We come to Jesus by his invitation, he comes to us by ours. Let him come in, fill your soul with surging power, your heart with transcendent hope, and your life with rewarding service.

          God give us men! A time like this demands
                    Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
          Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

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          Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
          Men who possess opinions and a will;
          Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
          Men who can stand before a demagogue 
                    And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
          Tall men, sun crowned, who live above the fog 
          In public duty, and in private thinking; 
                    For while the rabble, with their thumb worn creeds,
          Their large professions, and their little deeds, 
          Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps, 
          Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice
sleeps.