Truth Archive

Cois expressed what I’m sure we all feel. We wish we didn’t have to leave. We wish this wasn’t already the last meeting. But we have to leave, and when we leave, we are going through the door of responsibility. We are going to be responsible for what we have heard, and especially we are going to be responsible for what we have said in our own testimonies. So as you can see we workers are going to be in the most trouble!

In a convention in America, a brother got up, and in his testimony he said, “Every year when I have been coming to Convention, I’ve been aiming and aiming and failing to do better. But this year, I am going to go home and I am going to pull the trigger.” So that is what we need to do.

I don’t know if you are like me – we are mostly made of the same stuff. But after Convention we go out and we are so filled with a zeal and a new purpose, that for a while we are like a jet plane. But it is not so very long, it may be a few weeks, and sometimes it’s only a few days, and we are back like an old creaking ox wagon. It seems to happen time and again, but we don’t want that to happen again.

So, I wonder if I may make a little suggestion? If we don’t want that to happen again, remember what Paul said: “I don’t fight as one that is beating the air.” Know what it is that you are hitting. Not just, ‘I am going to do something’ vaguely, or that ‘I am going to do better’. But aim at something. Know what it is that you are going to hit. Aim at something.

Could we suggest something that you are going to aim at? I think that everyone at convention has been conscious that God has been pressing especially on one thing. One special need in your life – one area where you really need to be different. I am sure every one of us has felt that, that God has specially been putting his finger on one thing. So, now let us aim at that. And as you leave this convention, concentrate on that and make up your mind that that ONE THING, if I do nothing else, I am going to take care of that ONE THING. If you do, you are going to find there’s going to be a big difference. You will also find that each victory will help you some other time to win.

I just want to read one verse that’s in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and verse 4. It says, “If the spirit of the ruler rises up against thee, leave not thy place, for yielding pacifieth great offences.” If you will excuse me, I would like to tell you what this says in the Afrikaans Bible, because it means a lot more to me. It says, “Bedaardheid voorkom groot foute.” That’s what I want to speak about today – Bedaardheid voorkom groot foute. Now that word, we don’t have a good word for it in English, I don’t think? But if we put a few words together, maybe we can get it? It’s keeping calm, sensible, collected in our minds, and not impulsive; not doing anything by impulse. Calm and sensible. So, we will just use one word, and I think you will understand what I mean more than that word, but we are going to use this word STEADY. Calm, steady, not impulsive – steady. We sang in that hymn, and that’s why I wanted to sing that verse again, “sure and steady in the race.” Luke 21:19 Jesus said, “in your patience you are going to win your souls.” Keep steady.

I thought of Job. If there was ever a man who had every reason to lose his balance, it was Job. When you think of the things that happened to him, we can hardly imagine it. Sometimes we have one tragedy after another and we wonder how much more? But think of Job. He said, when his wife even said to him, “After all this, can you still keep your faith? Curse God and die, man.” He said, “Thou speakest as a foolish woman speaketh. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? God gave; He has the right to take it away again.” At one time he said, “When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” So in it all, he had enough faith to believe that “all this that God is allowing, is not because he has this against me. It’s not because I have done any terrible sin, that all He is allowing is only refining the gold.” If there is somebody sitting here today perhaps, and a lot of things have happened, and it seems like one tragedy after another, and one difficulty after another, and you wonder if you can take any more, and you hardly think you can take this, and you wonder, “Is God against me? Have I sinned so badly?” No, no. If Job were here today he would whisper in your ear: “It’s not because you have sinned. It is not because God is against you. He is only refining the gold.”

I was writing a letter one day, and a little ant started crawling over the page, and I did exactly the same as what you would do if the ant crawled over your page. I tried to blow him away. But I was quite surprised. You know, I couldn’t blow that little ant off the page! I don’t know if I looked under a microscope, what claws he would have had? But honestly, I tried harder, and to him it would have been a veritable hurricane, but he stayed there. You know, I learned a very valuable thing from that little ant. You know what I learnt and noticed? Every time that hurricane came, he didn’t worry about trying to make progress. He just clung fast, that is all. He wasn’t worried about trying to go forward, trying to make any progress. I learnt an important thing from that little ant. You know, there are times when we maybe feel we are not getting anywhere, but, if you are just holding fast – Hold fast thy confidence. If you are only just holding fast, that’s no small thing.

Now I thought of somebody who could easily have been blown away. Have you ever thought much about that Canaanite woman who came to Jesus to plead for her daughter? And the answer that she got? My, I don’t know how you would have reacted if you got an answer like that. He said, “It’s not fit to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs.” If ever there was a reason anybody could take bitter offence, calling me a dog. I am not even worthy of what the dogs have. She could have taken bitter offence. But that woman just kept her place, calm and collected and steady. She said, “But the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off the table.” Do you know why that was? I think we can learn something there too. It was because her need was so great that she could not afford to take offence. And that is where you and I and all of us are standing. We are all in that need.Our need is so great that we absolutely cannot afford to take offence. So she got the blessing she was asking for.

We have heard this before: We walk by faith, and NOT by feelings. Many years ago in Korea my young companion and I were sent to a certain area where workers had not been before. There was a tremendous army camp. We were in a little village beside that camp. I don’t know if I have ever felt so depressed in my life. I don’t usually suffer from depression, but I was depressed when I got there, because all you saw was soldiers, rough old soldiers. And talk about wind. It was the windiest place I have ever been in. And stones, nothing green, there were just stones. In those days it was like that. And bleak little grey houses, very simple little grey houses like huts. Nobody could afford paint in those days. It was the most drab and dreary looking place I remember feeling so depressed and thinking, whatever do we think we are going to do here? Well, maybe you will be surprised if I tell you that in that place I had the privilege of working one of the best missions of my life. That place was a gold mine. I never could have guessed it. We got some of the most wonderful gold nuggets out of that place. And two of them went into the Work, and since then they still are finding a lot more gold nuggets. So that was a time I learned, We don’t walk by feelings; we walk by faith. We just keep steady, calm, and collected.

One of the hard things for all of us is when time goes by and we pray, and it seems that God is not answering and we cannot find Him. We feel He has forsaken us. It’s a very difficult time to go through. I think a lot of us here would remember Uncle Mattie Stark? I remember what he told us one time. He went and he unexpectedly visited a home where he was well known. He hadn’t expected to go, but something happened and he turned up there. It was just a little while before the little girl would be coming home from school. This little girl, they knew, loved Uncle Mattie. So, before she came in Uncle Mattie hid himself. I don’t know where he hid, but in that house he found a pretty good hiding place. When the little girl came in, the mother said, “Do you know that Uncle Mattie is here? See if you can find him.” Well, she was excited and she ransacked that house and couldn’t find him. But you know, she wouldn’t give up. She just would not give up, and she looked in the most impossible places. Where could he be? But finally she did find him, and there were squeals of glee! Uncle Mattie told us, he would have been so disappointed, if she had just looked a little bit and then gave up. But she wouldn’t give up. She looked until she found him. And then he told us, “Sometimes the Lord is hiding Himself. He just wants to see how much we love Him,” if we love Him enough to be desperate and to keep on, until we find Him. I think that is good to remember. I think He is very disappointed if we say, “Oh well, He is not answering,” and we give up.  He will be very disappointed.

At Queenstown convention many years ago, when I was still very young, in one meeting I got quite a shock. Uncle George Absalom was speaking from the platform. Many of you remember him? Many, many people are rejoicing because of him. He was known as the “Hellfire preacher”. With him you either sink or swim! But he helped many people. But in this convention, from the platform, do you know what he said? He said, “There have been times when I have stood preaching the gospel and feeling that I am telling these people how to get to heaven, while I am going to the other place myself.” Can you understand that? This older worker, already with a white beard, standing and saying that! Well, it was a shock! But you know what he added? He said, “But even though I was so low, and so discouraged, I am so THANKFUL that I just KEPT ON GOING.” That was his favourite hymn. He often told us, “Help me to keep on going, with heart and purpose true.” He said, “I am so thankful that I kept on going.” Just keep on going, no matter how we feel.

We all know the story, the children know it too, of the hare and the tortoise. You know what was the crux of the whole thing? Simply just the fact that the tortoise KEPT ON GOING! The hare left him in its dust. He couldn’t run so fast. But it doesn’t matter in the end. The tortoise won, simply because he kept on going. I don’t know if you have ever had this feeling?  I’ve had it many times. You see some others, servants of God and some of God’s people. I must say there are some people who give me an inferiority complex, because when I am with them they seem so – well, you know what I mean, I don’t need to find words, and you almost feel like a worm next to them. They seem so far developed. I don’t know if you have ever felt like that – I am so far behind – feel that I am retarded? But anyway, just keep on going. Remember the hare and the tortoise. It doesn’t matter if you are left behind in the dust, but just keep on going, keep steady. Don’t get discouraged. I have to tell you this: there have been some that have been like that to me, made me feel like a worm. But today they are no longer with us. You never know, so just keep on going.  If we could leave one thought at this convention: No matter what happens and how you feel, just keep on going. You will win in the end. God will help.

I was in Canada for a convention several years ago, and there was a sister worker there named Mildred. She told us something that I have not forgotten. She mentioned the danger of choosing between two wrongs. She said, “The devil is going to try to get you to choose between two wrongs.” Then she gave the example of a man who came to her and said to her: “I know that I am just a disgrace to the Testimony. I know that my life, my actions are just a disgrace to the Testimony. So I have decided it would be more honourable of me to quit. Rather than be a disgrace to the Testimony, more honourable of me just to quit. She said, “The devil got hold of him, getting him to choose between two wrongs. It’s wrong for him to be a disgrace to the Testimony. It’s very wrong. It’s also a wrong thing to quit. And if you are choosing between two wrongs, how can you come out well?” She explained it so simply. There was only one thing for that man to do, and that was to stop being a disgrace. That’s common sense. But the devil gets us thinking we are doing something honourable when we are making a grave mistake. “Bedaardheid voorkom groot foute”. Being calm, sensible, collected, and keeping steady can save us from making some very serious mistakes.

Not long after I got to Korea I got a letter from Uncle Fred Alder, whom many would remember. I don’t know why he wrote that, but in the middle of his letter was a sentence – just one sentence – that had nothing to do with what he was writing in the rest of the letter. What he wrote was this: ‘Nothing gained from fainting, only precious time wasted.’ I’ve never forgotten that – very, very sound words.

I have had the experience myself, when I used to have to travel so much, working for the Shell Oil Company. Sometimes you are going on a long road. You get a bit tired, or you get a bit careless, and before you know it, you are traveling at high speed and you hear the sound of the gravel on the side of the road! The wheels on the gravel, and that wakes you up fast! What do you do then? You say, “Oh dear, I have gone wrong.” What do you do now? Say What is the use now? and just let go of the steering wheel? No! That makes no sense at all! What you do then is you really pull yourself together, and get a firmer grip on that wheel, and you can ease that car carefully back on the tar. Yes. That is not the time to let go. We need to be very careful. The devil would like to tell you, “You have gone wrong now, so what is the use? You may as well give up.”

I am quite sure that the devil would have been very busy with David. He would have told him, “When you have gone this far wrong, it’s finished. He went very far wrong. He wasn’t just landing on the gravel. He was right off! He went very far wrong. But he kept calm. He kept his faith. If you read Psalm 51 you will read how, from even there, wherever it was, he was able to guide that vehicle back on to the tar, so much so that he actually ended up with the wonderful testimony of being a man after God’s own heart. So you see, don’t give up. That’s the time to get a firmer grip, and you can get back on the right track again. Don’t give up. Never, never give up.

I wonder what a shock it would have been to the other disciples when they found out what Judas did. You know, that was no small thing. The Master whom they loved so much, to see this man who was supposed to be a worker. Can you imagine such a thing? This man who was in the Work with them all that time – selling Jesus for money! It must have been a shocker! But you know, they didn’t feel, because of what he did, that they were too disillusioned because of what he did, that they were going to give up. They are going to leave Jesus too. No!

It’s a hard thing to understand, but there are people who do that because of what somebody else does. They take offence, and they turn their backs on God. Now, isn’t that common sense, if you have a brother or a sister, and they did something very bad, and maybe against you too. Does that mean you are going to turn your back on your father or your mother? It doesn’t even make sense. Yet that is what people are doing sometimes. We have seen that. Why turn your back on God because of what a brother or sister has done?

I like what is written in Psalm 119:165. If you’d like to look at it later, it’s very, very helpful. It says there, “Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them.” Nothing shall offend them. Do you know why? They love this Truth so much that they are willing to put in anything, just to keep their liberty in this household of God. I’ll say again, nothing shall offend them because they love this Truth so much, that they will forgive anything in order to keep their liberty in this household of God.

Sometimes we can get off balance a little bit, and quite discouraged. It’s happened to me too, I must admit. Sometimes I have got mixed up with some of these Jehovah Witnesses, They can talk the hind leg off a donkey. I must say that I have not been able to really convince them. I have come away feeling bad and thinking, “Well, I have got the Truth. Why could I not even answer when I should have answered?” Can I tell you something? If we were always able to flatten anybody like that in an argument, we would not be lambs among wolves at all. We would be lions among wolves. And Jesus didn’t send His disciples out as lions among wolves. He sent us as lambs among wolves.

I’d like to tell you a little story that might help you to understand that. There was a Jehovah Witness in Korea. He was a special pioneer and he could talk, and he was a very intelligent man. He visited a batch of one of our workers whose name was Dick Owen. He was from America, a man with an excellent spirit, but by no means a talker, and not a great brain either. I am not disparaging him in any way. He passed away many years ago, but he had a lovely spirit, that man.He had a struggle even learning the language, but what a lovely spirit. Anyway, this Jehovah Witness virtually ran rings around him, and went away feeling that person couldn’t answer anything, I suppose. But not so long after that, that Jehovah Witness was a man who studied his Bible very carefully, and he started realising that what he thought was the only Truth of God, he was finding big loop-holes in it. Big holes in it and big discrepancies in it. He became so discouraged, that he began to believe that the Truth of God is not in the world any more. “There isn’t such a thing anymore. If it’s not this, then it is nothing.” So he decided, “So what to do? – may as well enjoy life!” So of course, he left them and went out into the world and he tried to enjoy everything. But the more he tried, the more unhappy he became. He became absolutely miserable. He found no joy in anything. Finally he sat down and he had a little meeting with himself, and he came to a very sensible conclusion. He came to this decision that it is impossible for this human heart, really, to find true happiness apart from two things. The first is: you must know the purpose of life. And the second is, you must have the assurance that that purpose is being fulfilled in your life. Do you know what happened then? He remembered Dick. Do you know why? Because he had never in his life met a man with a spirit like that. That man listened to the gospel, and he professed. So you see, don’t worry if you can’t answer everything and can’t beat them in an argument. You show them the spirit of the Lamb. There is nothing more powerful than that, to draw an honest heart. It doesn’t work with arguments and winning arguments – not at all.

I might take a minute… Our hearts go out to the young people, and those who have to mix amongst other young people in the world, and at university and so on. It’s dangerous. And we have seen time and again, faithful young people in this land and other lands, faithful young people going to university and losing their balance, getting influenced by these things in the world. Things like the theory of evolution, which is now being taught as being no more a theory, being taught as a fact, and things like that. I will just tell you two little things. I am not trying to get into that at all, but I will just tell you two little things.

You have all heard of Einstein. So far the most amazing brain that ever was, as far as science is concerned. In fact, they have kept his brain on ice so that maybe someday if better medical knowledge develops further, they may find out what was the secret of his amazing insight. One day he was asked: “Do you believe in God?” Do you know what he answered? He said, “Anybody who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science must eventually come to the realisation that there is a Being manifest in the universe, with an intellect far greater than that of man, before whom we can all bow our heads.” Then he was asked the question, “Why? Why can you say that?” And he said, “I will answer this in one word: order. There’s order in the universe.” We will leave you to think about that.

I want to tell you something else that I have found so interesting, almost amusing. Quite a number of years ago I found an article in the Newsweek magazine and I cut it out. I’ve still got it. It was written about astronomy. It said there, that the science of astronomy has been turned upside-down, right on its head, because they have now discovered a star, and with all their most accurate calculations, this star is older than the universe. They said, “This has thrown the whole science of astronomy into complete confusion. It is the same as discovering that you are older than your grandfather!” So you can imagine! Anyway, the writer had a bit of a sense of humour, and he added this: “It reminds me of what was written by Mark Twain: ‘The researches of many experts have thrown much darkness onto the subject, and if they keep doing it at the present rate, we shall very soon know nothing about it at all!’” I just mentioned this so perhaps you can understand why I don’t feel too bad if all these wonderful, amazing figures of billions of years old, if I take that to the big picture tonight.

Anyway, I want to tell you something about Dale Benjamin’s country. He comes from Montana in America. It’s much the same subject. But there was a young man who wanted to go to university, and he had to get this degree to become a doctor, or whatever it was that he wanted to be. He knew that the influence there was deadly. But he made up his mind: “I’m going to university and I am going to study, and I am not going to be influenced by all this.” So he went. But he found quite soon that he was a lot weaker than he had thought and the influences were more deadly than he had thought, and he was getting swept up in it in spite of himself. He was feeling miserable. One day he was sitting in the university tearoom having something to eat. He was sitting there feeling so troubled: “What can I do? I don’t want to be carried away by this university. Why am I so weak?” Another young man who was sitting at another table got up and came over and sat opposite him and he got talking about the same thing. He was not one of our friends. But he said, “I came to this university, determined that I was not going to get taken up with all this influence. I am so weak; I need help. What can we do?” Well of course, that helped our friend. He started telling him about the gospel meetings, He said, “There is help.” Howard Mooney was having meetings 30 or 40 miles from there. So he invited this boy and they started going to those meetings. Then when he heard the gospel, he said to our friend, “You know, I have other friends here who are feeling like we do. Would it be alright if they go with us?” Of course, they are welcome! Howard noticed these young people coming. But sometimes they would miss because of classes, because of the distance. Do you know what he did? Howard went and saw the Dean of that
University, and he said to him, “Listen, here you have got these young people crying out for help. Isn’t it our responsibility to help them?” The Dean said to him, “You have no idea what a headache this is to us and we do have a responsibility to protect them. But how? This is the problem, and if you can do something, we will be only too glad. Here is the auditorium free any time you like.” They started gospel meetings there, and several of them have professed, and at least one of those is in the Work. So there is help. Don’t lose your balance. Just keep steady, just keep going.

I’ve only half a minute left! There are two things that I decided long ago in my life that have helped me be steady all along. One of them is, I made up my mind, I am so small and God is so great, and in future, I am no longer going to doubt anything, simply for the reason that I don’t understand. I made up my mind about that. That has been a help to me.

Something else I made up my mind about at times when I was low. I decided this: even though I feel now that I am completely hopeless, if I go to a lost eternity at the end it is not going to be because I gave up. If God throws me out, that is it, but it is NEVER going to be because I gave up. Do you understand what I am trying to say?


So please, no matter whatever happens, and even if you feel like a worm, and even if you can’t run and can’t walk any more, you can still crawl. Don’t stop. Just keep on going. There is a big main road between the two biggest cities in Korea. Just before you get to the end, there is a big sign over the road that says, “You are nearly there now. Please keep steady right to the end.” You know, there are some elderly people amongst us here, and could we say the same to them. The devil still has a few tricks up his sleeve. We are nearly there now.


Please keep steady right to the end.  We sang in that hymn, “We will reap golden sheaves when our sowing is done, if we only keep steady and true.” Shall we sing another hymn?  We will close with 376: Be ye Immoveable