I count it a very special privilege to be here and see the work of God in the lives of His people in this land. I appreciate it because of the sacrifice of His people and servants. Before I left the U.S.A. a number sent their greetings to you all, and also from England.
1 Timothy 4 has been a help to me. Verses 7, 12 and 16. Paul wrote a special message to Timothy. Vs.12: Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. It is possible to despise youth. Paul exhorted Timothy to be an example to the believers. Timothy had a good testimony and set a good example. It’s nice to see a good example and another thing to be one. Timothy had a difficult task to perform and Paul was exhorting him to help him. Timothy was left at Ephesus to see to some matters in the church. Paul had worked the mission and left the elders and written a letter to them and now he sent Timothy to help them. In Revelation we read again of the church at Ephesus. Paul had gone and I wonder where Timothy was. God was interested in this church and He spoke through John in Revelation that they had left their first love. They did a lot of good things bur some were teaching another doctrine and Timothy was left to set these thing in order. It’s very difficult to help those who are teaching another doctrine. (set of beliefs) It takes a lot of wisdom and grace to set things in order. Timothy’s conduct had to be excellent so that they could not find fault with him.2 Timothy 2;24. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient. I need to know a great deal of this working in God’s flower garden. A lady who professed in our meetings had seven children. Six months later her husband died. She was really rough and not neat. She had got married at 15 and we tried to help her to become neat. The friends got a place for them to stay in and we had a hard time top try and get her to care for it. Later she got a widows’ pension. A new neighbour moved into the district and she had what we call a green thumb. She soon had a lawn planted and flower beds, and our friend said to her; “I wish my garden looked like that.” “It’s easy”, replied the neighbour, “I’ll help you”. And soon they had lawn and flowers planted, but our friend’s garden never looked like the neighbour’s. So she decided to watch what she did and she weeded gently with a little trowel and sprayed the water on softly. She had weeded with a hoe and damaged the roots and just poured the water over the plants, and she spoke about it in the Sunday meeting and said; “I think that’s the way I’ve been using my children.” I thought that’s the way I must be myself. More careful with God’s people. It’s taken me a long time to learn it.
Next there was an exhortation to pray for rulers, and all men. Chapter 2, verse 1 and 2. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Some rulers we don’t approve of and it’s not so easy to pray for them, but here we get instructed to pray for them. In Cuba there are not many who gather together. We have all kinds of liberty and we don’t always appreciate it. In Russia they had a little meeting and some of the friends came a long way just for the couple of days because they so longed for fellowship. Three of the friends there died recently. One of our friends got very worked up about President Roosevelt and the result was he was out of fellowship for eleven years. Verse 8. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. This is something that we men must do. One version says “hands which are unstained by wrath and doubting”. If we forgive we are forgiven. Nice to put things right before we enter the sanctuary. When the priest ministered in the sanctuary he had to wash in the laver. Times when I have prayed and didn’t get the ear of God, was because I needed to be cleansed. When we get cleansing we can have a nice spirit to all. Now we have a message for the women. Verse 9. In like manner also, that woman adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works. There’s something about people that makes them present themselves as to be admired. We’re conscious of others but it would be good to be more conscious of being presentable to God in the sanctuary. How much time do we spend to make ourselves presentable to God.
The 11th verse says “Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man but to be in silence.” There were two young sister workers in Los Angeles having Gospel meetings. About two or three hundred people were attending, the friends give us wonderful support. A Church of Christ man was attending and wanted to have a talk with them. He kept pushing for a visit. They had a premonition as to what he wanted to talk about and asked me if I would come with them. I said I would if he approved. He was red hot and said he was so glad to talk to a man. He started by saying “you people don’t believe in the Bible”. I asked him why not, and he said that these two women were usurping authority over the men. So I asked him where Timothy was when Paul wrote to him. Timothy was at Ephesus and some of the women there wouldn’t listen to their husbands. They wanted to be the boss. Sometimes it’s hard not to want to be the boss because from when we’re small we want to be the boss. It’s best to break their wills when they are small. Over fifty years ago a woman took her little fellow out of the meeting. She had five boys and the baby was only about six months old. He would squeal and she would take him out of the meeting and bring him back. But he had a lot of spunk, he would arch his back and squeal again so she took him out and spanked him. After the meeting one of the women said to me “wasn’t it terrible what Olive did?” and I replied “When you can control your one daughter like Olive controls her five boys we’ll talk again”. These five boys were real mischievous little boys. As soon as your eyes were off them they were up to tricks, but they were disciplined by their parents. They respected their parents and later their teachers and employers and they had a nice life. It’s wonderful when parents work together, but when the woman is the boss the kids don’t turn out good. Where the man is the boss and the wife is the help it turns out good. It’s what the world needs. The only way is to have the love of Christ dwelling in us. It savours what we do. Do you know a woman who is the boss? Some men want to use their wives differently from when they were going together. They forget all the promises they made when they were going together. Paul asked the wives to be in subjection to their own husbands and he asked he husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Jesus was so kind He never ridiculed people. A young couple I knew before they got married had one boy of about nine. They were ready to separate but the wife made a new stand and started to talk to me. I asked “What did you do when you were going together, what started it? Why did you want him to come again? What did you do that made him want to come again?” We talked about their courting days and how different they were, and now they won’t forgive each other. Divorce only makes it worse. A lady wrote in the newspaper that she thought divorce as the answer, but it’s made it worse.
Chapter 3 tells us about choosing elders. The workers choose the elders, but it’s only the Holy Spirit that makes a person an elder. When the workers are chosen, they have to have certain qualifications also, but it’s only this Holy Spirit that can make a servant of God. It’s difficult to deny ourselves daily, take up our cross and follow Him all day. That’s the struggle I have. Before I left to go into the ministry I heard my parents talking of the experience of the early workers, being hungry and tired and nowhere to sleep, and I thought that would be hard. I hadn’t so much of it but that was easy. It’s taking up our cross daily that’s hard. Ten to twelve years ago the doctor found I had low blood sugar, and put me off all sugar. I thought it would be hard to do without the nice things but I feel so much better for it that I don’t mind. But what is hard is to deny myself when someone speaks roughly to me to answer pleasantly back. Jesus said “do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. I don’t like people roaring at me so I mustn’t roar at them. You can’t roar at people tenderly. It’s so necessary so that we can have a good relationship with our Maker. I had one companion who corrected me more than any other companion, but I admired the way he did it. He told me I spoke monotone, that I had a preaching voice and a visiting voice, and I asked him how I could overcome it. He told me to speak in the meeting as I would when visiting. It’s hard to hear yourself, but I tried.
James said “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” I need this wisdom. In the Californian desert there was a church with a few people. The elder moved away and there was no-one to qualify for that position. There was one couple there with some children, but they talked about others behind their backs and were selfish. So we couldn’t put the meeting there. The other couple had three children, but the parents quarrelled terribly. Fortunately the one child was a peacemaker, or I don’t know what they would have done. They were so opposite that we often wondered how they ever got married. They were very anxious to have the meeting, but we told them they couldn’t have it under prevailing circumstances. However, they were so anxious to have the meeting that they said they would try and stop their quarrelling and we said we would try and help them. That was 35 years ago. The meeting is not there now. He’s a sick man and moved away, but that couple grew closer and closer and made a desperate effort to forgive each other. Whenever I shook hands with them I thanked God for all that He had done for them.
Paul wrote “Exercise thyself unto godliness”. How do you do that? Well, if God is love, godliness is just showing love. Paul wrote to the Galatians in chapter six “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest ye be also tempted”. I have found that it has never made a matter worse to try and help if it is done in the spirit of meekness. But when not done in the spirit of meekness it makes it worse. Paul said to Timothy he must be an example in word. In our country there are cross words, ugly words, slang words, swear words, moderated swear words. I had a young companion and he was with me his first year. The second year he had another companion and was back with me the third year. One day he used a slang word, and I just looked at him. He knew me well enough to know what that look meant. He said “I learned that from you”. I could hardly believe it, but afterwards I checked myself and found it was so. Do you get my point? He just said it once and I picked it up. I had been saying it for years and I had never noticed. That’s how we have to examine ourselves. Words should be flavoured with love and kindness. If we can be like that we will be admired. How do we use each other, are we kind, how do you react? My companion helped me to see myself. After something had blown over, he said to me “You go quiet when things don’t go as you like”. I gave him the quiet treatment. It’s not so bad if it’s just for a couple of minutes, but if it goes on all day and the next, it’s terrible. There is no communication. He took an opportunity to help me. I am supposed to be a servant. I have no right of my own at all. That is what it means to be dying daily, and that’s what will make us useful in the Kingdom.
When we were in Hawaii the weather was nice and some people took us to a hotel for a meal. While we were waiting for the rest of the party a man and his wife of about sixty came along. She slipped on a loose mat and he shouted at her “Can’t you pick up your big feet, why don’t you look where you’re going. You’ll break your neck next time.” I just wondered how he would have spoken to her forty years ago. “My dear, are you alright, did you hurt yourself?” And what has happened since? With familiarity, love, tenderness and care goes away. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about charity he told of three things that we could have and without charity it wouldn’t profit us. To speak with the tongues of men and of angels, to have the gift of prophecy and of knowledge etc. To give all we have to feed the poor and to give our bodies to be burned, but without charity it would profit us nothing. Love suffereth long and is kind. A lady who was having matrimonial problems spoke to me and told me what had happened at her home. A saleslady came to the door and she spoke to her in a friendly way, and after she left her little girl said “Mummy why do you speak so nicely to that lady and so ugly to us?” If you want a lonely, unhappy old age, just carry on like that. Love is not envious or emulous. Love has two prominent things that people in love want to do – to give and serve. I can’t tell you how it affects us when we see how people are so anxious to help us in the homes and want to give us so much. We can’t take it all because we haven’t the room in our luggage. I would like to manifest more of the spirit that Jesus has shown to me.
Once when we were looking for an opening somebody asked me if I knew a certain woman. I affirmed that I did. The person said “you didn’t know her when I knew her, but she’s a lady now.” God had changed her. One blacksmith was as hard as nails and he had a furious temper. Nobody ever talked back to him. Two sister workers had a mission and he made his choice. Twenty years later a man came to our meetings, and asked if we knew this blacksmith. He said you were the only people who could do anything for him. It wasn’t us, it was God who did it. God took him and made him all over. It matters whether we let Him work in and through us all day long and I must take up my cross and follow Jesus and at the end we’ll see Him as He is.
Truth Archive 