Pearls of Wisdom: Paragraphs
By: Dr. Charles Killian, Asbury Theological Seminary Professor 1970-2004
Although not confessing to be a Christian, Dr. Albert Einstein wrote this about the Church:
“Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came, I looked to the Universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted their devotion to the cause of truth; but no, the Universities were immediately silenced.
Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the Universities, were silenced in weeks.
Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly.”
Thank God for the Church! In one way or another, every last one of us is a custodian of the Truth. May that message bear fruit in all of our lives to the everlasting glory of God.
I came across a story about a boy who was trying to open a flower bud with his fingers. Being unsuccessful he asked his mother, “Why, when I try to open the bud does it fall apart, but when God opens the flower it is beautiful?” The boy unwittingly answering his own question.
I guess the point is when you try to change the flower from the outside you discover that God and nature changes it from the inside.
That is the picture the Apostle Paul paints when we hear his word about transformation—do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly.
The Lenten Season is coming to a close with the advent of Holy Week. As we experience this momentous ‘event’, the central figure of it all shows us the awesome combination of His two natures—the divine and the human.
Henry Clay Morrison puts it this way:
“As we follow Him there is no doubt that He is God manifest in the flesh. We behold His humanity when He lay sleeping in a boat, and His deity when He arises and rebukes the wind and storm.
He weeps like a man at Lazarus’ tomb, but with a Godlike voice He breaks the power of death and brings him back alive. As a man, He sits hungry at the well’s mouth; and like a God He breaks a few loaves and fishes and feeds a multitude. He walks the waves of the sea of Galilee and stands transfigured as a God in garments whiter than light.”
God came down to rescue us. The Gospel is the story of God’s downward mobility. How far down will this God come to save you and me? That is the Easter theme of our redemption.
Check it out—He just might show up looking for you! All because the“Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The best reason for going to worship!
During the tenure of the great orator, Henry Ward Beecher, a visiting minister once substituted for the popular preacher.
A large audience had already assembled to hear Beecher, and when the substitute pastor stepped into the pulpit, several disappointed listeners began to move toward the exists.
That’s when the minister stood and said loudly, “All who have come here today to worship Henry Ward Beecher may now withdraw from the church. All who have come to worship God, keep your seats.”
What do you think?
Leave a Reply