YOU and GOD

You may have heard of the J.B.F. Wright song (1925) “Precious Memories,” the second stanza of which reads, “Precious Memories, how they linger; how they ever flood my soul. In the stillness of the midnight, precious sacred scenes unfold.”

This post, and maybe a follow-up or two in time, is a simple compilation of some of the precious ministry memories that come to me in the “stillness of the midnight.” I have written almost 400 “You and God” installments since the spring of 2020, and I do not know how many more the Lord will allow me to offer up. Some of these have featured people, some have spoken to issues, and some have been Bible lessons. This one, and surely at least one to follow, will be different. I am going to my memory bank and just listing people who come to mind, people who have been at some time significant in my ministry. I will, of course, forget some and not mention all by name. People who are still current, I may save for a future date.

I will start with my first pastorate in Wichita, KS, beginning in the fall of 1971. I can only make a brief statement about each person or couple:

Ira and Goldie Pray: He an engineer at Beechcraft/farmer; first chairman of deacons; good folk;
Gary and Leah Wickham: Loved God, supportive of our work;
Mike & Amy Maguire: Very young/in Air Force, Catholic background, could not get enough of the Word, eventually attended Central Seminary and pastored in RI.
Bob & Cheryl Poliquin: In Air Force, very young; his life verses: Provs.30:7-9; Godly couple;
Larry and Jerrie Beery: He was killed while on duty as a Deputy Sheriff; a few weeks before he was murdered, he and Jerrie sang, “We’ve Come This Far by Faith”; Larry said, “I’d like to see this auditorium filled with people one day.” It was full of Troopers from everywhere the day of his funeral. We have kept in touch with Jerrie through the years and over the miles.
Ronnie and Pat White: They loved God’s Word and encouraged this young pastor and his family in so very many ways.
John and Nancy Healey: Got excited about Bob Jones U. and moved there to put their children in the Academy; I just heard from their grandson that they both passed away this year; their son also died this past week; he was a dentist in Greenville (Matthew Healey); their grandson—a current student at BJU—is heading eventually toward a seminary in Detroit;
Fred and Lillian Liebau: She had cancer and prayed that God would allow her to see her children grown; He did and then she was graduated to glory;
Mrs. Stanley: A widow whose husband had sung in the choir; a wonderful, godly woman who prayed for us but was “inactive” because of her frail health;
Archie & Pat Conduff: Their 13-year-old son died of cancer, and as young pastor, it was my first time dealing with such an agonizing loss; it was a totally inadequate feeling but God’s grace was, as ever, sufficient.

These are some of the names and faces that pop into my mind and heart, sometimes in the middle of the night. Voices and faces out of the past. This list of Wichita co-laborers is not complete; there are many more, but these are some that are on my heart as I write today. God was so good to give us a core of committed people to assist us in our fledgling first attempt at ministry to a local church.

Next, God led us to a startup ministry in Newton, KS. There were about 40-50 people who had come together and had organized the Liberty Baptist Church, with an interim pastor, Sammy Hartzler, leading them. They assured me that they were not a split out of any other local church, but that God had led them to come together. Some of their names and a sentence or two that comes to my mind are as follows:

Wayne and Helen Partridge: His business was the largest salvage yard at that time in Kansas. He was rough around the edges but had gotten saved and totally committed to Christ, to getting the good news out to whomever—and however and whenever—he could. Wayne eventually moved his family to Greenville, SC, where he would head up the maintenance department at Bob Jones University.
Bill and Billie Krehbiel: These wonderful people lived in the neighboring town of Halstead, where Bill served as the high school football coach. They loved Christ, His Word, and the church. Bill was a World War II veteran and had fought for his country in the European theatre. They visited us several times on their way to Division reunions. Both are now with the Lord. Billie was a sweet Christian woman whose countenance exuded the love of Christ and His virtues.
Charlie and Della Mae Harr were graduates of Baptist Bible College (Springfield) in its early years. They were members of this young church, and Della Mae owned the piano keyboard. Charlie led the singing, and we made the little Methodist Chapel on Broadway in Newton ring with joyful music. The chapel was our temporary meeting place. We were there two and one-half years. The Harr’s son, Brian, was a teen-ager then; after my one-year interim pastorate at Coatesville Missionary Baptist Church in Coatesville, IN, Brian became the pastor there in 2021. He had pastored in Greenville, SC, and had been on the Bob Jones University Security staff for several years.

There were, of course, many other key people in this Mennonite community that became good Baptists and were part of our fellowship. That church got its permanent building built and is still a lighthouse in that community.

In 1979, after Dr. Fred Moritz went into full-time evangelism, Thompson Road Baptist Church in Indianapolis was seeking the Lord’s will about a pastor. A friend of mine, Pastor Tom Kent (Joy Baptist Church), gave my name to the pulpit committee, and in August of that year I candidated. The first Sunday after Labor Day, I began what was to become a 40-year assignment at this good church. I will share some memories of people (except those currently in the church family) that have made indelible impressions upon my mind/soul in an upcoming “You and God.”

“The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” (Romans 16:24)

I delight in remembering people who have made a difference in my life, the lives of others, and in the Body of Christ. I have written several tributes to missionaries and evangelists, and some about those with whom I have been privileged to serve alongside of in the work of ministry through the local church. This post is about a special couple that God, in His wise providence, melded together through matrimony for a lifetime of Christian service. Their names are Tripp and Shelli Grossman, and their identity has been “servants of Christ.” Tripp joined that heavenly hosts of servants in glory four years ago; Shelli continues serving, with significant physical limitations, to this date.

I met Shelli sometime after she had graduated from Tennessee Temple University, having received her degree in Education. Her parents were charter members of the Edgewood Baptist Church, which merged in the mid-1960’s with the Grace Memorial Baptist Church to become Thompson Road Baptist Church (TRBC). The Edgewood Church was founded in the late 1950’s in a garage a few houses from the current location of the church I pastored from 1979 to 2019, TRBC. Shelli’s parents were faithful members of the church, and they were the kind of people who loved ministry, missions, and missionaries, entertaining God’s servants often in their large, white, two-story house just a few blocks from their church.

When Ellen and I first met Shelli, she was a single college graduate and already involved in public education. She eventually became the Indianapolis Public Schools Supervisor of Special Education. She is a masterful educator, with a heart as big as a full moon for children, a head full of practical, common sense, and a mind wholly consumed with a desire to please her Lord and Savior.

That is why, when we met the man that she married, Tripp, we were a bit taken aback at first. She met Tripp in Nashville, IN, where he was selling leather goods he made. He had a business or two and had met Christ as His Savior while serving a prison sentence in California. He said the story of his parole amounted to a “God Thing,” as there was no way he should have been released by the parole board. Yet he went into the meeting with every confidence and assurance from God, through prayer, that he would be released. And he was! He grew up in Indy in a staunch Catholic home and had his fingers, shoulders, and head rapped many times by his nun teachers, who were trying to maintain order in their classroom. He ended up in California, was incarcerated for the crime of manslaughter, met Christ in his prison cell as he sought Him through reading the scriptures, and became a new creation in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17) We lived to see the day that we gave God thanks that Shelli did not see Tripp on their first meeting as an ex-convict but as a trophy of the amazing grace of God!

Upon moving back to his hometown in Indiana, he still had some of the trappings of his old life and had not yet found a mentor or a good, Bible-believing church in which to grow. Enter Shelli. She wanted to bring him to church and introduce him to her godly, very conservative mother (her father had gone home to Heaven already), but she told him he’d have to get his hair cut, shave, and clean up a bit before she would even entertain the idea. Why would she even pursue a relationship with this man? She was young, intelligent, attractive, etc. Tripp, though gentle, kind, and personable, was an ex-convict who had ridden with the “Hell’s Angels” before being saved. He knew by experience the seamiest side of life. There was, in the mind of any reasoning person, no way these two would ever be a match. But God!

Tripp got the haircut and shave, cleaned up nicely, and met Shelli’s Mom, Ruby (who was one of Ellen’s best friends). I cannot say for certain how Ruby responded on that first meeting, but I am confident in surmising that she was less than impressed. But, in time, Tripp and Shelli married and began a journey together with Jesus that touched literally thousands of lives for Christ.

Shelli is an excellent interpreter for the deaf in the American Sign Language. Tripp was a bus driver and picked up children (along with many adults) on one of our church busses, bringing them to Sunday School. Shelli taught many of these little ones in our Church-Time Children’s ministries, with Tripp assisting. They pursued the hearts and souls of the littlest and least amongst us for many years this way. When Shelli was not teaching the children in Church-Time, she could be found interpreting a message being delivered from the TRBC pulpit to one of our deaf attendees. For several years, we had two members who were deaf and blind. Shelli and some of the other interpreters were able to “spell” into the palms of the deaf-blind the messages preached. It was an amazing service done out of love.

Tripp and Shelli bought a house east of the city and made it their home for about 20 years. It had been, I believe, a house where Jehovah Witnesses met. Well, they fixed it up with skillets, pots, and pans hanging from the rafters, old vintage machines of all kinds, and two or three beautiful big dogs watching “guard” over the place. To visit their house was like going to a Cracker Barrel. Their door was always open to guests, friends, and church members, and they had a place for bonfires, church picnics, go-carts, trap shoots, and you name it. Shelli’s mother became sick one December night when Shelli had prepared and planned for a traditional after-church (Christmas Cantata) party at their place. When the ambulance arrived to take Ruby to the hospital, she told one of the EMS workers she was “going home.” The EMS attendant assured her that they were taking her to the hospital. Ruby assured him that she was “going home,” and she did! Before they had reached the Emergency Room, Ruby was in heaven. Shelli had gotten word that her mom had “gone home,” and she hosted the party start to finish.

Tripp drove busloads of kids to camp in the summer, often with his golden retriever by his side. He loved to see these boys and girls, many of them from the inner-city, run and play, splash in the lake, and eat three meals a day—some of them like they had never eaten before. It was at these camps that a young lady from our church, serving as a counsellor, Michelle Young, was further prepared for a life of missionary service. She and her husband, Harrison Banda, are serving (and have served multiple terms) in Zambia, building lives for His Kingdom there.

I have shared some snapshots from the lives of two of His choice servants. Shelli still serves, still teaches junior church, and still teaches the Bible in our Perry Township Religious Education outreach. It has been, for Ellen and myself, a profound honor to have been fellow servants of Tripp and Shelli these past many years. To God be all the glory and all the praise.

“Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Eph.3:21)

“Four-year-old Susie had just heard the story of ‘Snow White’ for the first time. Excited she came home and retold her mother the fairy-tale. After relating how Prince Charming had arrived on his beautiful white horse and kissed Snow White back to life, Susie asked loudly, ‘And do you know what happened then?’ Her mother replied, ‘Yes, they lived happily ever after.’ ‘No,’ Susie said, ‘they got married!’ Susie in her child-like innocence got it right! Getting married is not synonymous with living happily ever after.” (Strike the Original Match, by Chuck Swindoll)

(I am sharing some truthful tidbits on the subject of marriage in this post. Hardly anything here will be original. But this is like some needed, practical “nectar” that I have gained in years of reading, and I hope something of what you read in this and maybe in a follow-up post will be helpful to you. I will cite the source when I can.)

Ed Wheat in Love-Life for Every Married Couple: “These ties are not like the pretty silken ribbons attached to wedding presents. Instead, they must be forged like steel in the heat of daily life and the pressures of crisis in order to form a union that cannot be severed.”

Someone added, “Even if marriages are made in heaven, man is responsible for the maintenance.”

John MacArthur in his sermon “Divine Guidelines for Marriage,” offers ‘How could God command you to marry and not provide the right partner?’ But, listen to me people, if you’re not the right person, you’ll never meet the right partner. That’s the whole key. If you’re not the right person, you’ll never meet the right partner. So instead of looking for the right girl, start being the right man. And girls, instead of looking for the right man, start being the right woman. And then, the right man will start recognizing the right woman.”

Or, as Howard Hendricks, late eminent professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary for more than fifty years, put it: “Marriage is not finding the person with whom you can live, but finding that person with whom you cannot live without.” (BTW, that was a favorite quote of my dear mother!—and thankfully, I did find that person in Ellen Beshears!)

George Clinebell in Intimate Marriage, says, “Marriage has been described as the relationship of ‘Two reasonable human beings who have agreed to abide by each other’s intolerabilities.”

And, “The wedding ring is that small piece of jewelry placed on the finger that cuts off your circulation.”

W.A. Criswell, who pastored First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, for forty-eight years, following the fifty-year pastorate of George Truett, said, “Two can live as cheaply as one—if one doesn’t eat and the other goes naked.”

“When Brother Andrew became engaged to his wife, Corrie, he said, ‘Corrie, we don’t know where the road leads us, do we?’ ‘But Andy,’ she said, ‘Let’s go there together.’” (God’s Smuggler) Brother Andrew

Michael McManus in Christian News, (5/26/96) spoke to the subject of cohabitation or “living together” as it has become known as rather than the original euphemism of “shaking up.” He said that it is the “greatest destroyer of marriage in America…a double cancer of marriage. In 1996 he noted that (even then) “the majority of all unions between American men and women begin with cohabitation—not marriage, according to the National Survey of Families and Households—in depth interviews of a large sample of 13,000 people by the University of Wisconsin. This is a shocking finding. Being unmarried is not synonymous with being single, the study asserts. Many who begin cohabitating believe they can screen out a risky marriage. They are wrong. Cohabiting unions are much less stable than unions that begin as marriages…Marriage is one shoe you cannot try on before buying it.”

McManus, cited above, states that 40% of cohabiting couples break up before marriage; marriages that are preceded by cohabitation have a fifty-percent higher divorce rate than those which are not. Of the 60 couples who get married (after cohabiting) 45 of them will divorce. “That means that only 15 couples out of 100 who cohabit before marriage will make it. Cohabitation is almost a guarantee for failure.”

In my home state of Iowa there stood an historic church, the Little Brown Church. Hundreds of weddings took place there every year. It is said that the preacher adopted a special farewell to the couple when, after the ceremony, he took the couple to the entrance of the little chapel and said, “Before you go, the Bride has the honor of ringing the church bell.” He placed the rope in her hands and though she pulled with all her might, the heavy bell would not budge. Then the preacher turned to the groom and asked that he lend a hand to help his bride. Together they pull and the bell rings, sending out over the countryside the news of another wedding. Then the preacher says, “As you go out into life, never forget that as long as you pull together, you can ring the bell.” (Discovery, Little Rock AR)

Again, I turn to Pastor Chuck Swindoll, married more than sixty years, for some distilled wisdom on marriage: On an article entitled “We Rent Wedding Rings,” Chuck commented, “Doesn’t that just sum up the state of our world? Seven days after our first date, I knew that Cynthia was ‘the girl of my dreams’. She was 16 and I was 19 when I proposed. Twenty months later…we said, “I do.” We could never have imagined our life together…but four kids, ten grandchildren, seven great grandchildren and a worldwide ministry later, we still say I do.”

“Cynthia will always be the girl of my dreams. But that doesn’t mean I can sit back and relax! Loving her means being the man of HER dreams. It means practicing patience, kindness, and humility. It means faithfulness and trust…love notes and a few elegant dinners for two…thoughtful words and listening ears. It means making time for prayer, coffee, and especially thunderstorms. Every time a storm rolls in, Cynthia and I press pause on our busy lives. We prefer to go out on our screened-in back porch, where we watch the Creator’s light show, together.

Contrary to popular opinion, our more than six decades together haven’t been pure bliss. Neither of us is ‘easy to live with.’ We’re together for two reasons: God’s unfaltering grace and our uncompromising commitment.”

(So there you have it. Some of the choicest statements, observations and words of wisdom about marriage that I have clipped the past fifty plus years. I hope they will bless you and maybe even help you as you work on fine tuning your marriage (I still am after 58 years!), or as you strive to encourage others who may be struggling in this first and foremost of relational ties established immediately after God created the heavens and the earth.)

I vaguely recall some course or some lessons taught in seminary on “Pastoral Ethics,” though I cannot find any notes on the subject. However, there always has been (and still is) a need for basic reminders to all who are in the ministry—especially for those whom Paul labels as “bishops” or pastors—about the matter of ethics in our labors as Christ’s servants.

In I Timothy 3, Paul begins a list of qualifications for a man who desires the office of a bishop with the word “blameless.” This would include, above all, a person’s morality: is he honest, trustworthy, pure, Christlike? What about his standard of ethics? The word ethics is defined as “moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.” So, applied to those in ministry—specifically, in this discussion, to pastors—does he conduct his ministry on the basis of universally accepted moral principles? Is his ministry built upon a consistent ethical standard? In a generally deteriorating culture, it is not surprising that time-tested moral principles are being “stretched” today, and in some instances set aside entirely, even by men in ministry.

Since I am a pastor—or, for 50 years, was a senior pastor—I am going to speak to pastors in this post. Those of you who are not pastors may feel free to “listen” in, but again, I am speaking as a pastor to pastors. Yet the basic ethical principles demanded scripturally of men in ministry should also govern the lives of those to whom they minister, so there is probably something by way of application for anyone who reads this article. I am going to list some areas in which pastors, missionaries, and Christian-ministry laborers ought to be blameless in:

1) Do you pay your bills in a timely fashion?

2) Do you return things borrowed?

3) When members from another congregation of like faith visit your services, indicating they are looking for a church, do you contact their pastor to inform him that some of his flock are visiting your church?

4) When a person who is under church discipline, administered by another church of like faith, visits your church, do you accept them into your membership with no questions asked?

5) Do you sign checks on any of your church accounts as the sole signature required?

6) Do you sometimes mix church/personal purchases made when using a church-issued credit card?

7) Do you label as “heretic” (or similar names) people who differ with you on matters on which good men have historically differed? For instance, on communion (open, close or closed); eternal security; pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib; mode of baptism; version of scripture?

8) Do you exercise “dictator-like” authority in your leadership of the congregation over which God has given you oversight? Is anyone allowed to differ with you, or even to criticize you?

9) When you give an evangelist or guest speaker a “free-will” offering, do you deduct any part of it for church expenses, or for any other reason, before giving your guest his offering?

10) Do you carefully protect confidentiality of those with whom you counsel?

11) Do you meet with women on church matters when there is no other person on-site while your meeting is taking place?

12) Do you cultivate friendships or relationships with members of churches you have formerly pastored because that relationship is financially advantageous to you?

13) When you sell bonds or have a fund-raiser for a project, are you careful not to use funds donated or given for said project for other pressing church needs?

14) Do you send missionaries the support you have promised to give them on a current, regular basis, or do you let several months transpire before you get around to sending them the support upon which they are dependent?

15) If you use a sermon or message that you read or heard another preacher deliver, do you give him credit for his original presentation?

16) Do you show preferential treatment in using people in your church/ministry because they are financially well-off?

17) Are you OK with the fact that you are accountable to your church through a group of deacons, or elders or advisors to the pastor?

18) Are you reticent to say “I’m sorry,” or “Please forgive me,” when it is apparent that you have offended another believer?

19) When relating to other pastors or ministries, are you genuinely interested in how God is blessing their work? Does rejoicing with them in victories come easy for you?

20) Would you accept a call to a ministry knowing that you differed with the church on a matter of faith or practice, but with the determination to bring the church in time to agree with your practice or position?

These are some questions that I have raised in light of my observations and experiences as a pastor and as a friend of pastors for half a century. Let me hasten to say that pastors, generally, are the finest people I know. Some of them are my closest friends. By far and away, those who have proven to be less than scrupulous in their ethics have been a minuscule minority. But, there are some out there who are the exception (just like undertakers, who are some of the finest people in the world—then you hear of one who has packed away scores of bodies for who knows what reason!).

So, pastor, I trust you passed the self-test above. No pastor is perfect, and we should be our own unrelenting watchdog; but, as long as we are in the body, there will be temptations. So I trust these reminders will have a positive effect upon you and your ministry so that the standard Paul set for Timothy and Titus (I Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:6), “blameless,” will not be a problem to you. God bless you as you labor in love in ministry to the chosen flock over which God has placed you as His “under shepherd,” waiting the call and coming of the “Good Shepherd,” the “Chief Shepherd,” the “Bishop of our souls,” the Lord Jesus, Head of the Church.

“And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory.” (I Pet.5:4)

We live in a success-oriented world.  Bigger is better, and biggest is best. Whether in the business world, the sports arena, the science lab, or the archeological dig site, it’s being the first—the most, the best—that motivates many to not rest until the gold chain hangs around their neck. This is not altogether bad. We ought to desire to give every task our best effort. But, only one can be at the very top, and having done our very best, we ought to be able to thank God for allowing us to serve, to compete, to participate in whatever endeavor we engage in.

There is a danger, though, in being the best, in being better than most, or in merely thinking we are the best or better than most. The danger is that, human nature being what it is, one can easily be tempted to succumb to pride, boasting, arrogance, and glorying in self-accomplishments. Politicians are almost across-the-board boasters; it seems to be a matter of political survival. They are not alone in this American pastime. Most who read this will never have attended a “pastors fellowship” meeting, but those of you who have might acknowledge that there was perhaps some pride in the air when Dr. So and So asked his fellow pastors how many folk were in attendance at last Sunday’s service. Pride surfaces even in such spiritual atmospheres.

Paul plainly warned that “he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (2 Cor.10:7) If a servant of Christ has anything to glory in, it is only that God’s grace, goodness, and sufficiency are always abundant—along with His mercies, which are new every morning.

We dare not glory in the works of men. Humans have accomplished unimaginable plateaus of success in science, agricultural, technology, and medicine, to mention just a few areas. But, John the Apostle puts it all in perspective when he reminds us that “the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” (I John 2:15-17)

Nor should anyone glory in the words of men. Words can move and mold the world at times. Great orators can be tools for the cause of evil (Hitler) or for the cause of good (Churchill).  Peter warns against “great swelling words of vanity.” (2 Pet.2:18) One wag quipped that oratory is the “ability to make deep sounds from the chest sound like great thoughts from the mind.”

Neither should the wisdom of the world mesmerize us. Educators, philosophers, lawyers, and even clergy can wow with worldly wisdom. But Paul admonishes that God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. (I Cor. 1:19,20,29)

Then again, the wealth of this world is nothing more than vanity. Solomon, the king that had amassed an incalculable amount of this world’s riches, said that when it was all said and done, nothing amounted to anything more that vanity, nothingness! Jeremiah summarizes what we should not glory in when he said, “Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches.” (Jer. 9:23)

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, learned this lesson the hard way. He had built ancient Babylon, a city incomparable in beauty and grandeur, and boasted: “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built…by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30) But God brought the great king to the lowest level possible. For seven years, Nebuchadnezzar groveled in the forest like a beast of the field. When God mercifully restored the pathetic sovereign to his right mind, Nebuchadnezzar said: “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.” (Daniel 4:37)

So, we must not glory in that which is temporal, worldly, man-made, and earthbound. But the Word of God specifies some things that we ought to glory in:

(1) David said, “Glory ye in His holy name.” (Ps.105:3) It is the name which is above every name; the name at which every knee shall bow, (Phil.2:10) and the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) Give glory to His name!

(2) We should glory in the fact that we can know our Creator God. Jeremiah continues his word after warning us of that in which we should not glory: “But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for these things I delight in, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 9:24)

(3) We also ought to glory in the purging process that comes our way when God is maturing us. We will have tribulations and trials in this world. Paul said, “Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope: and hope maketh not ashamed.” (Romans 5:3-5) Paul, who wrote that we can glory in tribulation, enumerated what trials he had suffered when writing to the church at Corinth. (2 Cor. 12:9ff.) He had suffered every kind of physical and mental deprivation and hardship—yet Paul acknowledged that the process ultimately produces patience, experience, and hope. We therefore can and should “glory” in tribulations.

(4) Finally, we can, and we must, glory in the cross! Paul was adamant in declaring, “But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Gal.6:14) It was on the cross—cruel instrument of shame and suffering—that Christ bore the curse of, paying the penalty for, our sins. He satisfied the wrath of His holy Father, becoming the propitiation for our sins, so that we can—and should, above all other things—glory in the cross. Jesus died for the sins of the world. He did so upon an old rugged cross. His death was substitutionary for every sinner. His death was atoning and sufficient. Calvary covers it all. Let us never cease glorying in the cross!

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.” (I Cor. 1:18)

Well, Labor Day has come and gone, but considering God’s plan and purpose for us regarding labor is always appropriate. Work was imbedded into the purposes of God for mankind from day one. His first words to Adam and Eve included a mandate to work: “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28) Further, in the expanded account of creation, recorded in Genesis 2, we read that “the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed…And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.” (Gen. 2:8,15)

Work by the “sweat of thy face” was part of the curse placed upon mankind because of Adam’s disobedience to God. (Gen. 3:17-19) So, work is righteous, for it is the will of God for those of us who are His created beings. Through work, we shall eat bread, but God announces that “in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” It is righteous, for it is God’s will; and it is honorable, for it is the designed destiny of man, and it yields life-sustaining nutrients vital to our physical well-being.

Fast forward from the Garden to 2023, or even to 50 A.D. When Paul wrote his epistles, there were those, even then, who looked upon work with disdain. Paul quoted a Cretian poet when writing to Titus of the challenges he would face as a pastor on that island, where men were commonly known as “slow bellies.” That graphic term describes men who were indolent, slothful hogs. They enjoyed filling their bellies with food, but they refused to work for their fare. The Apostle acknowledged, when writing to the church at Thessalonica, that there were people there who were known as “working not at all.” (2 Thess. 3:10-12) Of these people Paul flatly stated that if they were not willing to work, they should not be afforded the privilege of eating.

There have always been men and women who refuse to live by wise King Solomon’s counsel, as written in Ecclesiastes 9:10, which was and is: “Whatsoever thy had findeth to do, do it with all thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.” (Prov. 9:10)

The wise king affirms that labor is good—labor done with a good attitude and a right spirit. Some years back, U.S. News and World Report reported that employees, on average, spent 34% of their paid time not working. This aversion to diligent labor is expressed in the following poem: “I wish I was a rock, sitting on a hill; doing nothing all day long, just a sittin’ still. I wouldn’t eat, I wouldn’t sleep, I wouldn’t ever wash, I’d just sit still a thousand years and rest myself by gosh!”

Well, the world has changed a good bit! In the days of Thomas Jefferson, someone in Philadelphia said that the work week should be 60 hours, or six 10-hour days, rather than the 72-hour work week they were accustomed to. Even the thought of trimming the standard work week down 12 hours caused quite a stir, as the longer work week had been common since the days of the Revolutionary War.

John Wesley, the 18^th-century English preacher who founded the first Methodist church in the U.S. in 1784, knew nothing of a 72-hour work week. It is said that he preached three sermons a day for 54 years, traveling by horseback and carriage more than 200,000 miles. All the while, he authored a four-volume commentary on the whole Bible; a dictionary of the English language; a five-volume work on natural philosophy; a four-volume work on church history; histories of England and Rome; grammars on the Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French, and English languages; three works on medicine; six volumes of church music; and seven volumes of sermons and papers. He also edited a library of 50 volumes, known as the Christian Library—all of this while devoting himself to his pastoral ministry. Rising at 4 a.m., he would work solidly until 10 p.m. At age 83, he was chagrined that he could write no more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes. At age 86, he had to cut back from preaching three times a day to preaching just twice. In his 86^th year, he preached in almost every town in England and Wales, often riding 30 to 50 miles a day! (Selected)

Harlow Curtis, who led General Motors in those golden years of 1953-58, was selected as Man of the Year in 1955 by Time. Here is how he spoke of a good work ethic: “Do it the hard way! Think ahead of your job, then nothing in the world can stop you. Do it better than it need be done; next time, doing it well will be child’s play. Let no one stand between you and the difficult task; let nothing deny you this rich chance to gain strength by adversity, confidence by mastery, success by deserving. Do it better than anyone else can do it. I know that sounds old-fashioned. It is, but it has built the world.”

Jesus said, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” (John 9:4) Those who name His name as our Lord ought to cultivate His attitude toward work. We must work the works of our Heavenly Father with the urgency that He had, because the time will come when we can work no more. We dare not be “slow bellies.” We must not allow others to work for our food when we are able-bodied and can work ourselves. We should work with a thankful attitude for work to do, and for the privilege of “keeping” our plot in the garden of His world. “Work for the night is coming, work through the morning hours; work while the dew is sparkling, work ‘mid springing flowers. Work when the day grows brighter, work in the glowing sun; work for the night is coming, when man’s work is done.” (Anna Coghill, Lowell Mason)

“Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labor and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you.” (2 Thess. 3:8)