December 1981

Spiritual SensitivityImmanuel, God with us

December 1981

Spiritual Sensitivity Immanuel, God with us

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Not very long ago,names meant some-thing. Many of us still"look for the label."

There was a time when personalnames described the character ofthe bearer. People in some cul-tures didn't receive their per-manent names until they hadreached some degree of maturi-tv, so that their names would bea"n accurate designation.

In Bible times the names ofpeople were taken seriously.

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EDITORIALGod changed Abram ("exaltedfather") to Abraham, "father ofa multitude"-and sure enough,Abraham became a father of na-tions. Moses was named becausehe was "drawn out" of thewaters and he "drew out" a na-tion through the waters of theRed Sea. The name of Jesus ourLord signified that He would"save" or "deliver" His people.

Isaiah, the great Old Testa-ment prophet, had two sons,Shear- Jashub and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (he had enough namesfor several sons.) They maysound like unusual names to us,but to those who understoodHebrew, these names sent astrong message. Shear-J ashubmeant "a remnant shall return"and Maher Shalal-Hash-Bazmeant "swift to plunder." Inshort, Isaiah's sons were signs toIsrael that judgment was comingswiftly, but a faithful remnantwould survive and return to theland. Can you imagine someone

saying to Isaiah, "Those are twofine looking young men. Whatare their names? Oh ... uh, I'msorry I asked." These childrenwere signs to the nation ofIsrael.

It was this same Isaiah whospoke of another child to be bornwhose name would be Immanuel,who also would be a sign. Hewould be born of a virgin as asign to all nations that "God iswith us."

Just as the names of Isaiah'ssons predicted, judgment didcome; a remnant did return toIsrael to serve God-but then, aspromised, Immanuel was bornof the Virgin Mary. The angelscalled Him Jesus.

Certainly Jesus was and istrue to His name. He made acovenant with His disciples inHis body and blood to be faith-ful to them, promising, "I amwith you always, even to the endof the age." And so He was, andso He is.

Upon ascending, Jesus toldHis disciples to go to the upperroom and receive the Holy Spir-it. As they obediently gatheredthere to pray in one accord, theHoly Spirit came mightily uponthem. Then they rememberedthat Jesus had said, "I will notleave you as orphans; I willcome to vou." And indeed Hewas with 'them in the Spir"it andin power to such an extent thatthe works He had done they nowdid!

We know that we have butone Lord, who has but oneSpirit-and yet we are a veryfragmented people. Do you sup-pose God is more willing to be"with us" than we are to betogether? If Jesus were with ustodav in His incarnation I won-der \~hether His fellowship withsome people would cause Him tobe unacceptable to others. Justas His willingness to be with cer-tain people during the days ofHis incarnation perplexed Hisfollowers and onlookers, it con-tinues to perplex me when I seethe Spirit of God bless someonewith whom I have a problem.Condoning my personal objec-tions on theological or moral

grounds still doesn't help to ex-plain why my Lord would begracious to those I might view asopponents, while at the sametime He continues to be graciousto me.

It occurred to me on one oc-casion that I was judging all menand women by my own con-science. \Vhat I could not prac-tice mvself, I could not toleratein oth~rs. But finally I realizedthat I had to distinguish be-tween what I could practice inconscience before God, andwhat I could tolerate in otherswhile trusting God to judge.Our willingness to be withothers must exceed our ability toagree with them, for our Lo;d isa demonstration-a sign, if youplease-that God's willingnessto be with us extends beyond Hisapproval of us. To be sure, Heexpects us to obey Him and tochange our behavior, but evenso, it is love and fellowship thatmakes this possible.

As we approach Christmas-the time when most of us agreeto celebrate Immanuel, "Godwith us"-can we continue toerect our own private mangerscenes, or is our willingness to betogether the evidence that Godis truly with us?

New Wine is grateful for thehigh honor of being allowed byGod to share ministry withEvangelicals, Catholics, Protes-tants, Orthodox, charismatics,non-denominationals, liberalsand conservatives. We are debt-ors to all true believers in the oneLord and one Spirit. This is atime for renewed sensitivity tothe one Lord and the one Spiritwho is with us. We must beguided in crucial times such asthese by more than our respec-tive dogmas-we must be guidedby Him.

, Good ideas need examples, notjust advocates. May we all be asign that God is with us. May weall be the sign of Immanuel.

Charles V.Simpson

DECEMBER 1981

December 1981 This Month Vol. 13, No. 12

other featuresEditorial 2The Lighter Side 6Did You Know? 8Tips for Fathers 20Intercessors Report 21Administrator's Letter 28The Word 30Dear New Wine 35

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4. Spiritual Sensi-tivity: A Matter ofSurvivalby Charles SimpsonHearing God's voice willenable us to see with Hiseyes and to have the mindof Christ.

10. Wise Men StillAdore Himby Rousas JohnRushdoonyIn every age, the Spirit ofGod gives true wisdom tothose who seek Him.

12. The ChristmasTradition: ThreeApproachesinterviews with GlenRoachelle, McCreadyJohnston and JohnBeckettA look at how three familiescelebrate the birth of Jesus.

16. Knowing When GodHas Spokenby Bob MumfordReceiving guidance dependsprimarily on our ability torecognize the voice of God.

22. A King Should BeWelcomed Homeby Paul ThigpenA Christmas story for youand your children aboutspiritual sensitivity.

31. "The Boy IsHealed"a testimony by Dr. PaulSeversonA doctor's eyewitness ac-count of God's miraculoushealing power.

NewWine.

Spiritual SensitivityImmanuel, God with us

magazine staffBOARD OF DIRECTORS

Charles Simpson. Chairman; Don Basham. President; Derek Prince.Vice President; Bob Mumford. Secretary; Ern Baxter. John Duke

Joseph Garlington. Terry ParkerEDITOR

Don BashamPUBLISHING ADMINISTRATOR

George P. GundlachMANAGING EDITOR

Dick LeggattEDITORIAL ASSISTANTS

Bob Robinson. Nita Steffanic. Catherine Girod.Curtis Forman. Paul Thigpen

PRODUCTIONMark Pie'. Art Director;

Cynthia Smith. Production AssistantACCOUNTING

Mike Coleman, Comptroller; Joy Murray. Leola SyputaDATA AND MAIL PROCESSING

John Bigger. Manager; Natalie Vaughan, Dot Bouldry, SelenaEvans, Kathy Coolbaugh. Jennifer Beebee

ADMINISTRA TIVE SERVICESBill D.Turk. Assistant Administrator; Laura Basham.

Elsie Spencer. Kathy ReinigNEW WINE TAPE OF THE MONTH

Toni CurriePURCHASING AND SHIPPING

Timothy LeBlanc. Manager; Syd HouseknechtCONFERENCE COORDINATOR

Kenneth E. Veltz

Other publications and ministries assooiated withNew Wine Magazine;

Fathergram; Integrity Publications;Life Changers by Bob Mumford; Derek Prince Publications;

Intercessors for America; Vlno Nuevo Magazine;Restore Magazine

@1981 by Integrity Communicatione. All rights reserved. New Wine[ISSN 0194-438X] [USPS 382-520] is published monthly, except forcombined July/August issue. by Integrity Communications. P.O. BoxZ. Mobile. Alabama 36616. Second-class postage paid at Mobile. AL.and additional mailing offices.

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Spiritual Sensitivity:Matter of Survival

y Charles Simpson

Some of the last instruc-tions Jesus gave His

disciples were theteachings about the Holy

Spirit-His office, His roleand what He would do.

Some of the richestteaching on the HolySpirit in the entire Bibleis in John chapters 14,

15 and 16, where Jesus says,"The Spirit of truth is coming.He will take all that the Fatherhas, and He will show it to you."

The essence of what Jesus saysin these passages of Scripture isthis: "I have become one of vou. Ihave heard you on earth a~d I'mgoing to speak for you in heaven.But One is coming who will hearthe Father's counsel in heavenand He will bring it to you. He

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will speak on earth. The worldhas seen me and has heard me inthe natural, but it will not beable to either see or hear the Onewho is coming. You must hearHim as I have heard Him, if youare to do My Father's will."

The evidence that Jesus' min-istry was a success is the fact thatwhen He left, His disciples did infact hear the voice of the HolySpirit. Had they not beenbrought to a place where theycould hear the Spirit of God,Jesus' ministry would have beena failure as far as they were con-cerned. But He took men whoknew nothing about spiritualthings, nor about who He was,nor even about Scripture. Ap-parently they had just enoughspiritual revelation to followHim-yet within three and ahalf years they could worship,fellowship with, and hear a Godthey could not see. When very

few others could hear or seespiritually, they were able toknow and do the will of God-and that was the crowningachievement of Jesus' ministry.His ministry hung on His abilityto give the disciples a seeing eyeand a hearing ear.

The transition period fromchildhood to adulthood is themost sensitive period of develop-ment. The children are movinginto a place of increased respon-sibility where authority restsmore clearly upon their shoul-ders. At such a time, the father'sand the mother's heart cry is"Son, daughter, we've taughtyou in the best way we knowhow. But since we won't alwaysbe with you now, we hope thatyou have learned more than justobedience-we hope that youhave picked up our spirit. Wepray that as you move on now,our spirit and our teachings will

DECEMBER 1981

be with vou."Jesus 'came to this same place

with His disciples-a time oftransition when authorit\. andresponsibility for all the;. hadheard would rest upon them.The \Vord had been made fleshand dwelt among them, but thetime was coming when His livingexample would be gone. Theyhad gone through a season whenGod's manifestation was so realthey could see it and respond to itin the natural realm. But nowGod in the flesh would leaveright before their eyes, taken upinto the clouds. In His placewould be the Holy Spirit that noone could see or hear with nat-ural eyes or ears. Jesus knewwhat would happen, and in thisdelicate time of transition He wassaying to them, ''I'm leaving, butAnother is coming, and He willtake vou into truth I have not vetshow'n you. He will open to youthe deep things of God, the hid-den things of God, and thosethings will assure your survival ina world that is changing."

Hindrances to SensitivityIf learning to hear the voice

of the Holy Spirit is so essentialto us, why are we often so insen-sitive to God? Great revelationsaside, most people fail to developan everyday sensitivity to God'sinstuctions and to what the Spiritof God is doing in the events thatsurround us. I believe there areseveral primary hindrances tospiritual sensitivity.

1. Busyness. In the parable ofthe sower recorded in Markchapter 3, Jesus said that a manwent forth to sow, and someseed fell on the path. To me,"the path" indicates a hearthardened by busyness or preoc-cupation. One of the things thatkeeps us from hearing God isbusyness.

Busyness is probably thenumber one reason for insensi-tivity in Americans, because weare busier than most societies.Not only are we busy in what wedo, we are busy as well in ourspirits. We are a highly verbalsociety, and consequently ourminds and spirits are packed and

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hardened by verbiage. The airaround us is literally full ofwords and pictures-all we needis a receiver to plug into millionsof words surrounding us. \Ve areso addicted to words that wecannot endure quietness. Wemust take radio and televisionwith us everywhere we go toavoid even a moment of silence.

2. Shallowness. Again in theparable of the sower, Jesus saidthat some of the sower's seed fellon shallow ground. It sprung upquickly, but it withered in theheat. This speaks to me of ashallow spirit, a response to Godthat has little depth. My fatherused to privately comment to mewhen someone made a "gaudy"religious display, "He's shallow."I have come to understand thatmany people either muster up aresponse to God that is not bornout of the depths of their spirit,or they respond without count-ing the cost. When the richyoung ruler heard Jesus teach,he loved everything he heardand said, "Good master, whatmust I do to inherit eternal life?"Jesus, who was spiritually dis-cerning, heard the young man'squestion and might have said toHimself, "He's shallow. Howcan I touch him where he reallylives? How can I get my wordsdown deep into his spirit?" SoJesus told him to go sell every-thing he had. But the youngman went away sorrowful in-stead, because he couldn'tfollow Jesus to that extent.Shallowness prevents us frombeing sensitive to God becausewe are afraid that if we trulylisten to God, He will deal withan area in us that we wouldprefer He leave alone.

3. Thorniness. In the parable,some seed fell on thorny ground,and the thorns choked it. Thorn-iness, I believe, is having acrowded spirit-a spirit thatperhaps has good potential, but istoo full of distractions. Many ofus battle the Martha syndrome:we want to serve God, but thepot is on the stove, the kids arecoming home from school, theboss is on the phone and the carneeds fixing. Although God is

talking, it is difficult to get ourpriorities right and make room inour spirits.

4. Pride. Pride keeps us fromhearing God. To hear God onemust be humble, and to hearGod is humbling. When Jesussaid to Peter, ''I'm going to washyour feet," Peter objected, "Oh,no, Lord; you can't wash myfeet." He couldn't hear thatword from God because it dealtwith his proud nature. It was aword of humility he could notreceive. Jesus said, "If I don'twash your feet, you have no partwith me." Then Peter said,"Wash me all over." Peter'sresponse sounded humble, but itwas simply rebellion turnedanother way. Often we cannothear because we are too proud tolisten-we think we have a bet-ter idea.

5. Pre;udice. At times Godspeaks through instruments thatare not to our liking. Philip saidto Nathaniel, "We've found theMessiah; He's from Nazareth."But Philip answered, "Can anygood thing come out of Naza-reth?" Often it is difficult to hearGod because God has chosen avessel which we ourselves wouldnever have chosen.

In His opening message Jesusreminded the people that Godused a widow from Zarephath tocare for Elijah. He could not findan Israelite widow for His pur-poses, so He used a widow in aforeign land. When Jesus re-minded His critics of that, theytried to kill Him for saying it.Sometimes we cannot hear Godbecause we don't like the vesselHe chooses.

6. Lack of discipline. Some-times we are undisciplined in our

Charles Simpson received his education fromWilliam Carey College in Hattiesburg, Missis-sippi, and at New Orleans Baptist TheologicalSeminary. Besides his pastoral duties and an in-ternationalministry, Charles is chairman of theEditorial Board of New Wine Magazine. Heresides in Mobile with his wife, Carolyn, andtheir three children.

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For Christmas, Lord, Mom needs some new clothes, I need some new clothes and Dad needs to lose someweight so he can fit into the new clothes you gave him last year.

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by Mark Pie'

hearing, The Bible says in Prov-erbs 18: 13 that for someone toanswer a matter before he hearsit all is a folly and a shame. Thatis to say, when we hear God saythe first word and we finish thesentence for Him, it will lead tofoolishness and embarrassment.An undisciplined spirit jumps toconclusions.

Antidotes to InsensitivityFortunately for us, there are

cures for insensitivity. TheScriptures tell us of at least sevenantidotes God has providedwhich will help us to hear.

In Proverbs 15:31-33, weread about the first four ofthem, which are closely related.

He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at homeamong the wise.

He who ignores disciplinedespises himself, but whoeverheeds correction gains under-standing.

The fear of the Lordteaches a man wisdom, andhumility comes before honor.

If a person who is God-fearing becomes insensitive toHis voice, then he will begin to

be resensitized when God mani-fests Himself. The reason for thisis that the fear of God produceshumility. If we fear God we willbe humble, not because we arecomparing ourselves to someonebetter, but simply because theholy fear of God puts us in theproper posture before Him. Andonce the fear of God produceshumility in us, humility willproduce repentance. If we hum-ble ourselves before God, wewill turn from our wicked ways.

The evidence that we haverepented is our willingness to ac-cept correction. The indicatorthat our fear of God, our humil-ity, and our repentance are gen-uine is our acceptance of "life-giving rebuke" with gladness.\Ve live today in a nation whosepeople despise correction-eventhe children. But we must notdespise correction; we shouldnot even merelv tolerate correc-tion; we should desire it. WhenGod sends a situation or personto deal with us, we are dealingwith God Himself. If we reacthaughtily or angrily, we arereacting against God-and who-ever rejects reproof is ultimatelyrejected of God. We must em-brace reproof and receive those

who reprove us as friends whoare used by God to cut away thefleshly obstructions from ourears ~nd eyes. Reproof can beGod's knife of circumcision forour attitude.

Bv faith in Christ, of course,we have alreadv had our heartscircumcised: bu't if we have faithin Christ, Christ will deal withus. He will reprove us-He willcut away the flesh that keeps usfrom being sensitive.

Another antidote for insensi-tivity is discipline. In Isaiahchapter 50 we read that Jesus hada disciplined ear and tongue:

The Sovereign Lord has givenme an instructed tongue[NAS: the tongue of disciples],to know the word that sus-tains the wearv.He wakens ~e morning bymorning,wakens my ear to listen likeone being taught [NAS: tolisten as a disciple].The Sovereign Lord hasopened my ears, and I havenot been rebellious;I have not drawn back (vv.4-5 NIV).

The disciplined tongue andthe disciplined ear belong to adisciplined person. A disciplinedear produces a disciplinedtongue. The ability to "speak aword to one who is weary andsustain him" is a product of theability to learn how to listen toGod.

We live in a communication-oriented society where peopleoften learn to speak publicly,but rarely learn to listen. Jesussaid again and again to His dis-ciples, "Be careful how youlisten," not "how you speak."And if listening is more impor-tant than speaking, then our so-ciety has its priorities confused.Almost every school has a courseon speaking, but how many of-fer a course on listening? If welisten with care, ruling thetongue will come naturally tous.

One antidote for insensitivitythat is often overlooked is rest.Nothing will take the place of

DECEMBER 1981

rest. In Isaiah 30: 15 God says,"In quietness and in confidenceshall be your strength, but youwould ha\'e none of it." Yet Hegoes on to say later that He willbe with us and our teachers willbe with us, and we will hear avoice behind us saying, "This isthe way: walk in it." In quiet-ness and in confidence isstrength-not in singing hymns,not in preaching, but in quiet-ness. Though religious activityhas its place, it cannot substitutefor times of quietness.

God instituted the sabbath increation, and I personally do notbelieve that Jesus Christ's com-ing abrogates man's need for aday of rest. One day out of sevenis meant to be a quiet day. Whyis that? We need that one dayout of seven so that our spiritscan become resensitized to thevoice of God. The sabbath lawswere not simply some religiousrules: they were meant to pro-vide rest so that we could resen-sitize our spirits to God's voice.

If all else fails, God has as Hisfinal resort one last antidote toinsensitivity: trouble. Manytexts in the Bible illustrate thisantidote, but one of my favoritesis in Psalm 40. David says there,"I waited patiently for the Lord, .. He heard mv crv. He liftedme out of the sl(my pit" (v~. 1-2NIV). We don't have much~eto do besides listen when we/a'rein the pit. Trouble resensitize's-usto the voice of God. It is better ifwe can utilize one of those otherantidotes-the fear of God, hu-mility, repentance, reproof, dis-cipline or rest-before we get in-to trouble. But often when weare insensitive to God-perhapswhen we have been too busy, ora little proud with our success,or undisciplined-God breaksthrough to us by using trouble,and we come to God with ourears and hearts open.

Seeing With God's EyesWhat happens when we

finally listen? Isaiah gives us agood example. Uzziah, the goodking of Israel, had died, andgood kings were rare. The wholenation was in mourning and the

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prophet Isaiah was in mourningas well-but he heard the voiceof the Lord in the midst of thattroubled time. God drew him tothe temple, and because Isaiahwas more spiritually mindedthan naturally minded aboutUzziah's death and the eventssurrounding it, he had a visionof the Lord.

The prophet writes, "I sawthe Lord, seated on a throne,high and exalted, and the trainof His robe filled the temple"(6: 1 NIV). He saw the glory ofGod and the spiritual worldwhich the Bible says literallysurrounds us. Like many of us,Isaiah could have become insen-sitive to the spiritual world inthe course of being so busy. ButIsaiah broke through the veil ofsorrow and looked up to see theglory of God. Like the apostleJohn centuries later, he saw adoor open in heaven. And thenhe saw himself, and said, "Lord,woe is me, for I am unclean andI dwell among a people of un-clean lips." But an angel came,took a live coal from the altar,and touched the prophet's lips,saying, "This has touched yourmouth; you've been made clean."So as a result of his sensitivitv,Isaiah saw the glory of God a~dhe saw himself in God's pres-ence, a sinner who was cleansed.

Next Isaiah heard a voice ask-ing, "Whom shall I send? Andwho will go for us?" He an-

J swered, "Here am I. Send me'"Then the Lord told him his mis-sion: "Go and tell this people:While seeing, you don't per-ceive; and while hearing, youdon't understand," Isaiah asked,"How long, Lord?" The Lordanswered, "Until the cities arewastes, without habitation-butthey will be like an oak treewhen it is cut down. The seedwill be in the stump, and a rem-nant will come forth that willsee and hear." So in respondingto the Spirit of God, Isaiah sawGod in His glory, he saw himselfclearly, he saw his mission, andhe saw the future. Listening toGod's voice will enable us ulti-matelv to see with God's eves.

If ~ve can see with God'; eyes,

we will have the mind of Christ.John saw the risen Lord, ande\'ery time he describes Him hewrites about Jesus' eyes. He saidin the first chapter of Revela-tion, "His eves were like a blaz-ing fire." I~ the second chapterhe said, "His eves were like aflame." In the fifth chapter hesaid, "I saw the Lamb .. " Hehad seven horns and seven e\'es,which are the seven spirit~ ofGod sent out into all the earth."The eyes of Jesus are the Spirit ofGod, and the Spirit was given toreveal the mind of God. If weare sensitive to the Lord, He willlet us see with His eyes-withHis Spirit-and His Spirit willmake known to us the mind ofChrist.

The Spirit of the Lord WillRest on Him

Seven hundred years beforeJesus was born, Isaiah saw Himthrough God's eyes. In Isaiah11:2-5, he writes:

The Spirit of the Lord willrest on Him-the Spirit of wisdom and ofunderstanding,

Listening to God's voice willenable us ultimately to seewith God's eyes.

the Spirit of counsel and ofpower,the Spirit of knowledge and ofthe fear of the Lord-and hewill delight in the fear of theLord.He will not judge by what hesees with his eyes,or decide by what he hearswith his ears;but with righteousness he willjudge the needy,with justice he will give deci-sions for the poor of the earth.He will strike the earth withthe rod of his mouth;with the breath of his lips hewill slav the wicked.Righte~usness will be his beltand faithfulness the sasharound his waist.

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The most important thingIsaiah says here about Jesus isthis: "The Spirit of the Lord willrest upon him." He doesn't say,"He will be submitted to theLord" or "He will be under theLord"; he says that He will havethe Spirit 0/ His Lord. The dif-ference is crucial between beingunder authority and having thespirit of that authority. Jesuswas not merely under the lord-ship of the Father; the Spirit ofthe Father was upon Him so thatthe Father was ever before Him.He could see with the Father'seyes and He could see His Lord.The Spirit of wisdom was uponHim-not just wisdom. Jesusdidn't just have wisdom; He hadeyes to see wisdom whenever Heneeded it: spiritual eyes, theSpirit that searches the deepthings of God. Jesus walked intoproblem situations and lookedinto the presence of God foranswers to them. He reached upinto the eternal with spiritualeyes and ears, bringing down

Did You Know?

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For this reason, the only people we allowto use our mailing list are Don Basham, CharlesSimpson, Derek Prince, Bob Mumford and ErnBaxter, who combined their original mailinglists to form the first New Wine mailing list.In addition, if there is a New Wine Con-ference in your area we will also allow use ofour mailing list for the sole purpose of lettingyou know the details about it.

The New Wine readers are our most valu-able asset-and you are not for sale. Wethoughtyou'd like to know.

wisdom to apply it in thosesituations. He didn't give ananswer out of what He alreadyknew: He waited on the Lord,and the Lord gave Him theanswer.

He had insight. A man likeSimon could come to Him, andHe would say, "You're going tobe Peter from now on." Hecould say to Nathaniel, "I sawyou when you were under the figtree and you have no guile."Jesus could look at James andJohn and say, "You men are sonsof thunder." He could look atHerod and say, "He's a fox." Hehad the Spirit of insight andunderstanding. He had theSpirit of counsel. His counselwas under the discipline of God.

He had the Spirit of power.He could be sitting in a roomwhile conversation was goingon, and stop and say, "Thepower is present to heal." Hehad the Spirit of knowledge. Hecould be talking with thewoman at the well and say toher, "Go call your husband."She said, "I don't have a hus-band." He said, "No, you've hadfive and the one you're livingwith now is not your husband."And He had the Spirit of fear ofthe Lord. He walked in awe.The attitude that cut away theflesh from His ears was the fearof God, and the Scripture saysHe rejoiced in it.

What we see in Jesus are notjust seven gifts of the Spirit in aseparate sense. What we see isthe sensitivity of the Son of Godto the Spirit of God.

Elisha's ExampleGod moves with us in the

natural realm until the daycomes when He must launch usinto the spiritual realm. Elisha isa good example for us. He walkedwith Elijah in the natural realm,but Elijah was walking in theSpirit. Elisha was looking formore than Elijah; he was seek-ing Elijah's God. He got beyondElijah's "press clippings" and hisreputation, and he saw GodHimself in this servant.

One day Elijah said toElisha, "You stay here, I've got

to go." But the servant knew hismaster well enough to realizewhat was going on, so he insistedon following Elijah. At thatpoint, Elisha was no longer sim-ply a natural servant; he wasmoving in the same Spirit as hismaster. When Elisha went acrossthe river with Elijah, he said,"What do you want?" Elisha re-plied, "I '~ant a double portionof your spirit." Elijah had suc-ceeded as a teacher as Jesus hadsucceeded, because His servantunderstood what the master wasabout. And when the master de-parted, Elisha's spiritual eyescame open, and God let him seethe fiery chariot coming downout of heaven. He received hismaster's mantle and a doubleportion of his spirit.

Now just across the riverwere the sons of the prophetswho saw absolutely nothingwhen Elijah was carried away.Elisha picked up his master'smantle, struck the waters andthey opened. He discovered theGod that Elijah had known.When Elisha got on the otherside of the river, the sons of theprophets said, "Where isElijah?" They were worriedabout Elijah's body-but Elishawas concerned about Elijah'sGod. He said, "I don't know." Idon't think he had given it anythought. They suggested, "Well,maybe a whirlwind droppedhim," and they had a theologicaldiscussion and a seminar aboutElijah's body. But Elisha wasmoving in the spirit and powerof Elijah with his mantle in hishand. He wasn't looking for Eli-jah's body; he had found Elijah'sGod.

It was not a seat next to Eli-jah that made Elisha a truedisciple, it was his ability tomove in the same spirit as Eli-jah. He had received the spirit ofhis master. If we, too, woulddesire to be true disciples, wemust ask God to cut away fromus any hindrance to sensitivity.Learning to listen to the voice ofthe Holy Spirit will bring us to aplace where, like Elisha-likeJesus Himself-we will walkdaily in the Spirit of our Lord.

DECEMBER 1981

Sensitivitv and SurvivalIf God'should be so gracious

to sav to me, "\Vhat would voulike 'to produce in peoplei" Iwould say, "Lord, I would likefor mvself and for those with meto be ~ensitive to You'" Miraclesare needed. But the door to themiracle is hidden, a secret doorin the wall that will not be foundby our searching the wall for it.We must stand quietly in theroom until God says, "There isthe door." As we walk throughit, it will open before us, and onthe other side will be the glory ofGod.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says,"The secret things belong to theLord our God, but the thingsrevealed belong to us." Unfor-tunately, the things that arerevealed are the very things thatget in the way of the secretthings. What we already knowkeeps us from realizing that wedon't yet know all we need toknow. If we follow the Lord, Hewill always lead us to a placewhere the things we need are the

secret things. If we follow God,we will always be in a placewhere we don't know enough.And our survival is based onGod's willingness to show us thesecret path. Sensitivity for us isnot just an important matter or acase of being more spiritual-infact, it is a matter of survival.

How do we become sensitiveagain? \Ve need to confess to theLord that we have been dull attimes. At times we have grievedthe Holy Spirit, talking while Hewas trying to speak to us, inter-rupting Him in mid-sentence. Asa result, the Holy Spirit becamesilent and we didn't even knowit.

We must confess to havingscales on our eyes. We need tomake room for the Lord againthrough a sensitivity to Hispresence. We need to realizethat there are things which Godwanted to happen but didn't dueto our insensitivity. There areblind alleys whose ends we havereached because somewhere wemissed the turn .

We need to ask for the Lordto help us walk humbly beforeHim, to hear what He is sayingto the Church, because obvious-ly God has something for us upahead that we wouldn't want tomiss. \Ve need to pray that in-dividually we will hear Godspeaking to us, and that we willobey whatever He savs. \Ve mustask Him to cut awav'from us anvhardness of heart, 'arrogance ~fspirit, stubbornness or insen-sitivity, so that the new skin ofour renewed hearts would besensitive to the voice, thepresence and the ways of God ....

... 11 ' • • .... _11 __ 1 __ L __ • • • __ ... • • r ..__ C1 • , • • • • __ ... __ .. , • • , ._ ...... • • • .... _._""-_ ...._. __ • __ • __

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~

Wise Plen stillAdore Dim

by Rousas J. Rushdoony

Ph% courtesy of J/. Arms/mllg Hober/s. Philadelphia. l'e'lIIsylwnia

Who were theWise Men? In the Greek,

the word translated as"wise men" is literally

"Magi." Some modernisttranslators and commen-tators have rendered this

as "astrologers" or"Magicians," distorting

the text. The Magi werequite literally wise men.

Reprinted fromThe ChalcedollReport. @19,9by Ghalcedun,P.O. Bux 158.Vallecito, CA95251.

10

Their origins go back tothe ancient world, tothe antiquity of Baby-lon--at least to the

days of King Nebuchadnezzar.It was the custom in Babylon

to seek out very young boys,usually barely in their teens,who showed great promise withrespect to intelligence and vari-ous aptitudes. These boys werethen trained in the palace col-lege to be the "brain trust" ofBabylon. They would becomeastrollomers, various adminis-trative officers, experts in agri-culture, commerce, or militarymatters. All in all, the Magi con-

stituted a highly traincd "braintrust" for Babylon.

The dream of Babylon was tocreate a one-world order. aparadise without God: and so itwas that Babylon scattered thepopulations of the captive COlIn-

tries, seeking to destroy all theold loyalties and allegiances andmake of them one people underthe rule of Babylon. But the con-cept did not die with Babylon."\Vise" men became increasing-ly an aspect of various empireswhich followed: Medo-Persia:the Macedonian Empire of Alex-ander the Great, one of whose"wise" men was Aristotle: andRome.

Life at a Dead EndWhen Christ was born in

Bethlehem, the world hadreached a dead end. The plan-ners had planned their plans.The "wise" men of Babylon hadfailed; so had the "wise" men ofMedo-Persia, Macedonia, andnow Rome. All sense of meaningwas departing from life.

In the Roman Empire, lifewas increasingly reduced to onedimension alone, and the life ofthat day has a familiar ring: mensaw no meaning in life exceptpleasure, and the essence ofpleasure for them was sexual.Sex was seen by them not as the

love and communion of man andwife under God, but as power,as the exploitation of feeling, ofemotion, as well as of other peo-ple. There was an extensive cyn-icism. There was very little leftof which men could be proud.This was the world of the "wise"men of the day, a world of ex-perts who were steadily destroy-ing mankind and civilization.And of all the "wise" men, veryfew were truly wise.

There were here and theremen moved by the Spirit of God,who, recognizing that mankindwas at a dead end, that therewas no hope for man, that man\vas reducing everything toruins, and that the future ofcivilization was very bleak anddark, returned to the Old Testa-ment Scriptures. \Ve know therewere a few such men in the re-gion of Ancient Babylon, a fewhere and there throughout theAsiatic world as far east asChina. To certain of these menGod spoke and gave a sign; andHe rewarded their long, longprayer and search: it was revealedunto them that the Christ Childhad been born.

So thev left home. How manvof them, 'we do not know. Th~familiar song says, "We ThreeKings of Orient Are," but ac-tually the Scripture does not

DECEMBER 1981

specify the number: it simplygives the plural-Wise Men.They could have been three:thev could have been ten. Thenumber three comes from thethree kinds of gifts they brought.These were the men who weretrulv wise. Thev came fromsom'ewhere in the East, prob-ably from the region of Babylon,sometime after the birth of ourLord. We know that Christ wasno longer in the manger. Theywere now in a home.

When Herod questioned theWise Men, they indicated thatthe Christ Child had apparentlybeen born sometime previously,so that later when Herod gavethe order to slav all children inthe region of Bethlehem in hisattempt to kill the young Christ-King, he ordered that all chil-dren two years old and undershould be slain, thereby hopingto make sure that he killed thechild.

The Significance of the GiftsThe Wise Men came to the

house where Joseph and Maryand the Babe were to be found.They fell down and worshippedHim, and they presented theirgifts of gold, frankincense, andmyrrh. Gifts in ancient timeswere symbolical: a gift wasgiven in terms of the person's of-fice and station: the gift had tosuit the person to whom it wasgiven. By their gifts, these WiseMen indicated that they knewthe full meaning of the ChristChild.

Gold ... the gift for a King.Thereby they declared that theworld now had its King, Himwho was ordained to be King ofKings and Lord of Lords, Kingof creation, King of the world,King of men and nations. GivingHim gold, they acknowledgedHim to be God's King of theKingdom of God.

Frankincense ... belongs in atemple. It is used for worship.By the gift of frankincense theyacknowledged that Jesus Christwas the great High Priest, Hewho had come to make interces-sion with God for His people, tooffer up the acceptable sacrifice,

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and to make atonement for thesin of His people. By the gift offrankincense they acknowledgedthat at last the great High Priesthad come. the Priest appointedbv God, the Priest for whom allp~evious priests appointed by theOld Testament had been merelysubstitutes and stand-ins. TheBabe, therefore, was the greatPriest "after the order ofMelchisedec" (Hebrews 5:6). hav-ing no ancestry nor parentagewith regard to His office, HisPriesthood, hut receiving it likeMelchisedec, directly from Al-mighty God.

Myrrh ... was I/sed in ancienttimes for emhalming. By this giftthey recognized and acknowl-edged that Jesus Christ was notonly the great King and Priestbut also the sacrifice, that HeHimself was both Priest andsacrifice. He had come to laydown His life as a ransom for Hispeople.

Their gifts indicated that theywere indeed wi.~e men. wise inScripture, wise in the Holy Spirit.

The world around us is notunlike the world in which theWise Men lived. It is again aworld in which the experts aredestroying civilization, in whichself-styled wise men--the pseudo-wise men-are again laying plansfor a great one-world order-without Christ-a world inwhich they are dreaming filthydreams of a humanity reorderedin terms of humanism.

But wise men, who are trulywise, still adore Him. And wewho at this time give thanks un-to Almighty God for the birth ofJesus Christ, His only begottenSon, 01lT Lord, are, therefore, inthe sight of God and by HisGrace the Wise Men of our gen-eration. We know that theworld around us will crumbleand fall as surely as Romecrumbled and fell. "Except theLord build the house, they laborin vain that build it." .

Liberty, Not SlaveryThe basic remedy of the

"wise" men of the Caesars wasslaverv. Their answer to everyprobl~m of man in that day added

up to slavery. They called it thenas thev call it todav "cradle-to-grave'; secllTity, but 'the "perfect"life of seclITity is slavery. It wasin the Roman Empire that serf-dom was hegun: in exchange fortheir liberty people gainedcradle-to-grave security fromthe hands of the Caesars andbecame memhers of his house-hold, worked on his estates,worked in his shops, berame hisservants. Todav. men who arewithout Christ' are exchangingtheir liberty again for serfdom.for slaverv to the Caesars of 01lT

day. Agai'n the world is at a deadend, a dead end created by thefalselv wise men.

Wise men came and they ren-dered unto Him their adorationas their great King, as theirPriest, and their SaviollT. Theyreturned to their homes in con-fidence, because they knew theScriptllTes which de~lared Himto be the Wonderful Counsellor,the mighty God, the Prince ofPeace, also declared that thegovernment should be upon Hi.~shoulders and that of the in-crease of His government andpeace there shall he no end.

As we come today, by thegrace of God the Wise Men ofthis generation, as we worshipHim, we too can return to ourhomes in the serene confidencethat the government i.~upon Hisshoulders, and of the increase ofHi.~government and of His peacethere shall be no em!. For wehave been born not into theslavery of Caesar but into theglorious liberty of the sons ofGod, and we have this confi-dence in Him, that what He hasbegun in us, that He will ac-complish, and "If God be for liS,

who can be against us?" ...

Rousas John Rushdoony received his B.A .• J'-'f.A.and B. D. from the University of California ~~Pacific Srhool of Religion. He has served as apastor. mi.~sionary. and vire-prpsident of theChri.~tian Freedom FOl/ndation. The al/thor ofnl/merolls hooks and articles, Reo. RI/shdoony iscurrently the presidpnt of the Chalredon ForJll-dation. an edl/rational organization establishedto enrourage and pl/hli.~h Christian scholarship.

11

The Christmas Tradition: Three Approachesinterviews with Glen Roachelle, McCready Johnston' and John Beckett

Christians today approach the Christmas season in a variety of ways. some positive and some negati\'e. To get a tiny sampling ofhow this tradition is observed. we talked with three pastors and leaders about their impressions of the holiday and the meaning itholds for their families. We present the interviews here. not necessarily to provide models for celebrating Christmas. but rather to

stimulate our thinking about how we should respond to what is a significant tradition of our culture with roots in the gospel.

Glen Roachelle is the senior pastor ofthe Metrop/ex Fellowship of Covenant

Churches in the Dallas/Fort Wortharea.

Finding Jesus in the RubbleNW: n'hat are .mme general obsercatiolls you wouldmake about Christmas in our society?GR: Lately, I have sensed the Lord emphasizingour mandate to restore integrity, soundness anddefinition to the structures He has ordained. Thatprinciple can be applied to our traditions. A basicsoundness has been lost in Christmas for any num-ber of reasons we could cite-such as commercial-ization. For whatever reasons, the integrity ofChristmas has been lost.

Some might say that the meaning of Christ ismissing from Christmas. Others would say thatChristmas has pagan roots and therefore shouldnot even be observed by Christians. But I per-sonallv believe that this holidav is an excellentopportunity to proclaim and obs~rve the gospel ofthe Kingdom, because it is one of the few timeswhen unbelievers have the words of the gospel intheir mouths, such as when they sing, "Oh comelet us adore Him-Christ the Lord."

The other day, I picked up a hymnal and lookedat the words to "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" byCharles Wesley. If you just read the verses of thatsong, you'll realize that they are a powerfuldeclaration of the gospel. Unbelievers sing thesewords at Christmastime, so if people continuefaithfully to observe Christmas, who knows whenthe Spirit of God might cause this tradition tocome alive to someone, or cause the words of thesecarols to touch those who unknowingly sing them,breaking open their prison doors?

N\V: What do you think God u:ants to do ill our

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society through Christmas?GR: I believe God wants His people to observeChristmas properly, making it an opportunity tospread good will. The Scripture that is oftenquoted, "Peace on earth, good will toward men"would be more accurately translated, "On earth,peace to men of good wili." If God's people are tofulfill the demands of the covenant they must bepeople of good will. I believe God intends to use Hispeople to speak to their society on every occa-sion-and Christmas is one special occasion. What-ever God is going to say to society, He will saythrough His people.

What God wants to say to this society concern-ing Christmas is that it is a time when all of theearth should recognize that the Son of God wasborn to bring life and hope to the world.

NW: Do you believe that God can use traditio1lSsuch as Christma.~ to touch people's lives?GR: Yes. When people become part of our churchhere, we try to instill within them an appreciationfor heritage and for tradition, and these carryovernaturally into Christmas. Mv own definition ofheritage' is that it is a way oF'life which has beenreceived in order to pass it on to subsequent gene-rations. Heritage by secular definition has a con-notation of inheriting physical property. But inthe lasting sense of the word, heritage is not somuch physical property as it is an intangible estateor possession that can be lost if it is not properlyappreciated and administrated.

Tradition is a vital part of heritage. It is thepractice of passing on stories, beliefs, customs andpractices, which when observed and stewardedproperly over a period of time become boundariesand laws which people come to live by. In Psalm16, David says the boundary lines have fallen tohim in pleasant places, and that surely he has adelightful inheritance. The New American Stan-dard Version says "heritage." Traditions arenecessary; they are the moorings of society. Evenunscriptural traditions will help keep a societystable until better traditions are established toreplace the bad ones.

NW: Hace you alu:ays had a positice attitudetou:ard celebratillg Christmas?GR: No. I must confess that about eight years ago, Ihad what you might call a "zealot's view" of

DECEMBER 1981

Christmas. I considered it to be a pagan holiday,arguing that Jesus wasn't even born in December.But in recent vears I have come to understand thatChristmas is ~ore than just a holiday-it is part ofa tradition in the lives of stable people I knowwhose lives and families are exemplary. As I haveseen how these people have observed Christmas ithas made me want to establish some of the samestable traditions.

NW: What caused the change in your mentalityfrom disdaining Christmas as a pagan holiday tocelebrating it and making it a family tradition?GR: I don't think it was a sudden change. For acouple of years during the time of my idealismabout Christmas, I was uncomfortable with thedegree to which my wife and children wanted todecorate the house. They didn't press me about it,but I got the message in various ways. It took me ayear to see what I was doing. The Lord let meknow that I wasn't really being fair and that this"anti-pagan" zeal of mine was rather sterile. Itwasn't at all fruitful, because it was a concept thatwas born out of reaction rather than vision. SoGod began to speak to me about vision rather thanreaction to something that I considered distastefulor unscriptural.

I have come to see that many movements startout of reaction rather than vision. vVhat many ofthese movements fail to see is that there are manvscriptural principles hidden in the rubble of man'-made tradition. Many times, in being zealous toclear away the rubble, we can bulldoze part of thefoundation away if we are not careful.

We need to go through that rubble like anarcheologist would in a dig. Rather than justthrowing it all out, we must carefully andpainstakingly sort through tradition with brushes,little air hoses and small shovels instead of withbulldozers. And it can take vears to do that.

This process took a few years for me, but Godfinally got through to me that my treatment ofChristmas was really a sterile and negative ap-proach rather than a constructive one. In essencewhat God was saying to me was "Don't get rid ofthe moorings of the tradition unless you havesomething to take its place that will be just aslasting."

As I began to sort through Christmas, I beganto find Jesus everywhere. He had been coveredover by the rubble of secularism, but He was therenonetheless. It reallv hit home with me about fouror five years ago wh~n (for some reason I have nowforgotten) I was watching the Dean Martin Showon television. God only knows why I happened tosee that show, because I normally made a pointnot to watch it-I considered it sleazy and sug-gestive. But I happened to be watching it the nightof their Christmas special, and there were all theseunbelieving television stars singing, "Hark, theHerald Angels Sing." As they were singing, "Peaceon earth and mercy mild, God and sinners recon-

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ciled," I just broke down and cried, because Godwas speaking to me through it. God was usingthose unbelieving people to bless me with thewords of the gospel, and God said to me, "What iswrong with this?" He wasn't asking, "What iswrong with Dean Martin's show and the people onit?" but rather, "\Vhat is wrong with once a year~ly causing My creation to sing about My adventto the earth?" God was using those people to speakto me.

NW: What are some specific u'ays you and yourfamily celebrate Christmas?GR: \Ve are very traditional in the way we observeChristmas. When Christmas season approaches,we decorate the house in a warm and festive way

with wreaths, Christmas cards, and the biggesttree we can find. We also play Christmas carols-the whole works. For the last few years we havehad an observance on Christmas Eve in which weeither give presents to our neighbors or bake some-thing for them. On Christmas Eve, we pay a briefvisit to each one of their homes to distribute thesepresents, wish them a Merry Christmas, and ex-press our appreciation for their being our neigh-bors. In other words, we try to spread "good wilL"

Everything that we do concerning Christmas isdone to set the pattern or custom for my grand-children as well as for my children. Because I havecome to realize the richness hidden in the Christ-mas tradition, I intend to see that the joy ofChristmastime extends to my children's children asa treasured heritage from the Lord.

Just Around the Corner:Setting Priorities

Recognizing and doing what is important

13

McCready Johnston is the seniorpastor of the Church of the New Cove-

nant in Tustin, California.

A Joy01!S and Sad OccasionN\\': What i.~the sigllijiCllllce of Chri.~tma,~ to youalld your family?MJ: We look at Christmas as more than just oneday-we look at it as a season. \Ve try to celebratethe birth of Jesus Christ in such a way that thepeople in our community and in our immediatefamily understand its significance. As you know,there is so much commercialization associatedwith the season that it essentially loses allreference to God and to His Son, Jesus. \Ve try tocounteract that by making Christmas a week-longcelebration centered around Christ.

In that respect, on the Sunday precedingChristmas we have a community Christmas ser-vice. which consists of worship and a message.This year, the Christmas message will be broughtby Ern Baxter. At that service, we also have thecovenant meal-communion-and then we havea traditional Christmas dinner-turkey and all thetrimmings.

N\\': That takes place the SUllday before Christmas?MJ: Yes. Then each following evening of the week,carolers from our group-about forty men, wom-en and children from the same families-go out in-to different neighborhoods, apartment complexesand shopping centers here in the Tustin area,presenting about a forty-minute program in eachplace. We find that people thoroughly enjoy it,and of course we are delighted to have an oppor-tunity to sing to others about Jesus and God ourFather.

On Christmas Eve, we have a community openhouse at our home, where people can drop in tosee us. Then Christmas Day is kept strictly for ourfamilies. When we get up in the morning, the firstthing we do-which has been a tradition in ourhome for about twentv-seven vears now-is tohave a little birthday ~ake anci read the secondchapter of the gospel of Luke. After that we openour gifts with the family. and then we have abrunch at about ele\'en o'clock in the morning towhich all of our immediate familv is invited. Thatis, in brief. how we celebrate Christmas.

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N\\': What are the primary elemellts you thillk Godu'ould like to see restored to Christmas throughoutsociety?MJ: I think God looks at Christmas in twoways-both joyously and sadly. His joy at the oc-casion is born out in the Scriptures where Lukespeaks of a multitude of the heavenly hosts prais-ing God and singing. "Glory to God in the highest.and peace to His people on earth."

The New American Standard translation savs,"on earth. peace among men with whom He' ispleased." That is where the sadness comes in,because I don't believe God is pleased with thestate of mankind at this point of history. I don'tbelieve He is pleased with all the greed-partic-ularly the greed manifested in the commerciali-zation of the birthday of Jesus-or with the cor-ruption, sexual perversion and drunkenness that isdisplayed at Christmastime (of course, this takesplace all year round as well). Crime is rampant atChristmastime-even people who wouldn't normal-ly commit a crime will shoplift during the holidayseason. All of this represents rebellion againstGod, and I'm sure God is not pleased with that.and that it saddens Him greatly.

But I believe God desires all of us to return toHis view of Christmas. That can't occur in just oneday, or even one week. It must come about througha total lifestyle in which we must walk more close-ly with God each day. That. of course, meansmore than just renewing a Christmas tradition-itmeans the very renewing of our lives.

John Beckett is the president ofIntercessors for America in Elyria, Ohio.

A Family HeritageN\V: What are some of the most meallingful aspectsof Chri.~trnas to your family?JB: I think there are probably three priorities forus in the Christmas season: the first is the Lord.the second is the family and the third is giving. Ineach of those areas I feel that we have developed a

DECEMBER 1981

pattern and some insights that haw been helpfulto us in appreciating the season.

Unfortunately, the secularization of our cul-ture has caused Christmas to become a materialis-tic event for a large segment of our society. Conse-quently a tremendous amount of pressure is placedon families who feel thev must observe Christmasin a materialistic rather" than in a spiritual sense.For this reason it is essential that we clearlyestablish the Lord as the center of our celebration.

One way in which we focus on Jesus in thisseason is through our tradition of having a familygathering on Christmas Eve, when we spend sometime telling the children again the Christmas storyout of the gospel. We then discuss the story andhave a meaningful time of prayer together inwhich we try to focus on the gift of the Lord to us.

Secondly, we view Christmas as a time for thefamily to be together. We have six children-threeboys and three girls, ranging in age from five tonineteen years. In addition, relatives from Canadausually come to stay with us during that time, andthese extended visits are simply times when we en-joy being together. The local family members visitback and forth in each other's homes, having din-ners or get-togethers for each other.

The third area of priority is our emphasis ongiving. We've been delighted to see the spirit ofgiving that has developed over the years in ourchildren. I can honestly say that without exceptionour youngsters are more enthused at this pointabout giving to one another than they are aboutreceiving. We have tried to encourage that, whileat the same time avoiding an emphasis on the giftsthemselves.

We've tried to encourage our children to becreative about giving, and usually several gifts willbe handmade by the youngsters for others. As par-ents we try to do a certain amount of that as well,sometimes with humorous results. I built a junglegym in our basement one year, finishing it aftermidnight on Christmas Eve. It was built in secret,and the plan was to bring it upstairs and have it inthe living room where we would celebrate Christ-mas the next morning. When I tried to bring it upfrom the basement, however, it wouldn't fitthrough the door. So we had to rearrange ourwhole Christmas, cleaning up the basement thatnight so we could have our Christmas celebrationaround the jungle gym downstairs. That kind offlexibility along with an emphasis on creativity is,I think, enriching for the children.

NW: In what ways does your family plan andprepare for Christmas?JB: Over the last several years we have planned atime early in the season when we all go out shop-ping together as a family. We go to a shopping mallthat is some distance from our home and spend thebetter part of an afternoon going out in pairs, ar-ranging rendezvous points and having a meal to-gether. We have a tremendous day of fun together.

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Another family activity we have prior to Christ-mas is the decoration of the tree-a live one-usu-ally a week or so before Christmas. As part of ourtradition of decorating the tree, we have collectedover the years quite an assortment of tree 'orna-ments that the youngsters have made themselves,and we keep those treasures carefully stored awayuntil time to decorate. Each year the tree or-naments themselves stir a number of memories ofthe time when the children who are now mucholder made them. The ornaments represent forthem our familv's continuitv and tradition. \Vedecorate the tr~e as a famiiy, and every familymember's participation makes it fun. \Ve drinkhot mulled cider, play Christmas music, and makeit a great family activity.

NW: Are there any other special Christmas tradi-tions your family observes?JB: One other feature of our Christmas that hasdeveloped over the years is an area we want tofocus on more in the future: an effort to extendbeyond our own family. We have made it a tradi-tion over the years to provide at Christmas foranother family that is needy. We have been doingthis with one particular family for several yearsnow. We take the whole Christmas meal, includinga turkey, over to them. It gives us a chance tobrighten their Christmas and it deepens the spiritualdimension of the holiday for us as well. It is an op-portunity to share the Lord's love with them.

We also have a friend in a nursing home, anelderly woman who is not a relative but a preciousperson we've come to know in the Lord. We try tomake her a part of our Christmas season by havingher in our home during the holidays while the treeis up and the family is around. In that way we ex-tend our family to include her.

NW: Do you think that your family's Christmastraditions help to enrich its spiritual heritage?JB: Yes. We view Christmas as a memorial of akind: it is a celebration, a historical reminder. Wesee the holiday as a time to consider our Christianheritage, a kind of "anchor" in our Christian ex-perience which it benefits us to observe. In thesame way, as we recall at Christmas events in ourfamily life from years past, it helps to reinforce theconcept of family heritage.

As we have tried to reassess Christmas, we havebecome aware of the complexity-the busyness-that is involved in the holiday. Our family tradi-tions certainly add to the complexity, and the factthat our family is large and growing larger makesus busier still. Yet we are realizing that our liveswill probably always be complex just because ofthe place in which the Lord has us. For thisreason, our focus, we think, should not be so muchon reducing the complexity of our Christmas cele-bration, but rather on praying for real grace tofunction in that complexity and to be able tomaintain our peace and joy in the midst of it. ....

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Knowing When GodHas Spoken

by Bob Mumford

Knowing When God Has Spoken

by Bob Mumford

---" -

Temple (1 Sam. 3:10). AlthoughI have never heard God speak inan audible voice, I have heardHim speak distinct words deepinside me. In Colombia, SouthAmerica, I was lying upon mybed when the presence of theLord came into the room andthe Holy Spirit said very distinct-Iy, "I want you to go back toschool!"

It couldn't have been anyclearer if my wife had spokenthe words right next to me. Itwas spoken straight and strongand right into my spirit. Itwasn't a demanding, urgentvoice. If it had been, I wouldimmediately have suspected thesource to be someone or some-thing other than the Lord. Thevocal impression was warm, butfirm. I knew it was the Lord.

The wisdom from above isalways peaceable and pure.When God speaks, there is al-ways a sense of peace deepwithin our spirit, even if wedon't like what He's saying.

I didn't like it when I wastold to go back to school. I hadalready graduated from one Bi-ble college. I had a wife andchildren to support, and Iargued with the Holy Spirit.Three days later, however, therewere further instructions: "1want you to go to the ReformedEpiscopal Seminary in Philadel-phia, Pennsylvania."

It didn't seem logical to me atthe time for a Spirit-filled Bibleteacher to go back to seminary,but the voice that spoke to myspirit was indeed the voice ofGod. He didn't speak to mymind, emotions, or will. RatherHe spoke to my inner being-that me which is spirit alone.And so I said, "Lord, I'm will-ing. Now please arrange the cir-cumstances. "

He did, and we went. Manytimes across the years we haveseen the fruit of our obedience.

The Holy Spirit can and doesspeak sometimes in distinct, un-derstandable words. On occasionthis may be external and audible,but this is the exception. Mostoften it is internal, subjective,but perfectly clear and distinct.

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Receiving guidance dependsgreatly on our ability to recog-nize the voice of God when Hespeaks to us. It was importantfor Philip to recognize and obeywhen the Holy Spirit spoke tohim. It is important that we dotoo.

Our textbook for this kind ofdirect guidance is the book ofActs. Here we find countless ex-amples of the Holy Spirit givingspecific instructions to the dis-ciples: "Go here-don't gothere. " Earlier Jesus Himselfhad told the disciples where togo and what to do. Jesus told Hisdisciples that He would soon goto the Father, but that theyshould not grieve: "I assure youthat it is a good thing for youthat I should go away. For if Idid not go away, the divinehelper would not come to you.But if I go, then I will send himto you ... he will guide you intoeverything that is true" (In.16:7, 13 Phillips).

After Jesus' resurrection, Heshowed Himself to the disciples,and before His ascension He em-phasized that they were to stayin Jerusalem and wait for thefulfillment of the promise:"Before many days are passedyou will be baptized with theHoly Spirit ... you are to begiven power when the HolySpirit has come to you" (Acts1:5,8 Phillips).

At Pentecost, tongues of firedescended from heaven and theassembled followers of JesusChrist were baptized in the HolySpirit, just as He had promised.This introduced the disciples in-to a brand-new realm of experi-encing the presence and powerof God. It also opened them tothe influence of other spiritualpowers, and in reading the bookof Acts we see how the discipleshad to leam the skill of knowingthe voice of God, often by trialand error.

In our lives the baptism inthe Holy Spirit opens the doorfor us to receive God's power. Itis our tool kit, but we must learnto use it. This can be likened tolearning to play the piano or theaccordion or learning to use the

typewriter. At first you hunt andpeck, thinking you'll neverlearn. A sense of failure or in-ability nags until you pass a cer-tain point at which time faith re-sponds and you realize that youcan-you will be able to learn.

On several occasions I havefollowed what I thought was theleading of the Holy Spirit only tofind myself in a blind alley.

"Go down this street; there'sa brick house on the right. Gothere. The man needs Jesus." Idrive down the street but there'sno brick house! However, I'mlearning! And at least I'm will-ing to be obedient and am en-couraged by the fact that thedisciples didn't always recognizethe leading of God either.

Restrictive GuidanceOften we find that the Holy

Spirit restrains us from a certainaction. This wouldn't be neces-sary if we went in the right di-rection in the first place. Theapostles, being human, had thesame experiences. Paul and Silaswere on their way throughPhrygia and Galatia, "but theHoly Spirit prevented them fromspeaking God's message in Asia"(Acts 16:6 Phillips).

It seems strange that the HolySpirit would ever forbid anyoneto preach the good news any-where. Shouldn't we preach theWord to everyone, everywhere?

No-there is a time to speakand a time to refrain from speak-ing. This is especially good advicefor people who try to cram reli-gion down everybody's throat.

"But I feel led to stand on thestreet corner and preach about t;Jesus Christ," one man told me. \ ~"I ask everybody who comes by , 'if he knows Jesus as his Savior."

Bob Mumford completed his studies jor theBachelor oj Divinity degree at the Rejormed Epis-copal Seminary in Philadelphia. He has served asdean oj Elim Bible ITlStitute and as a pastor,evangelist and seminar teacher. Bob has also writ-ten many books on various aspects oj the Christianlije. He is a member oj New Wine's EditorialBoard and has recently moved his office toMobile, Alabama, where he resides with his wije,Judy, and their jamily.

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That's good if the Holy Spiritcommissioned you to do it. But ifyou're down there on the cornerbecause you have a strong urgeinside you, no peace, and you'vegot to do something to satisfyyour restlessness, then it isn't theHoly Spirit's direction. It's simplyyour own undisciplined humanspirit. Such "ministry" does in-calculable harm to the spreadingof the gospel. God knows theperfect timing. He knows whenhearts and minds are tender andready to receive His Word. WhenHe sends you, people listen and aharvest is reaped ....

When Paul and Silas came toMysia they tried to enterBithynia, "but again the HolySpirit wouldn't permit them."They still didn't know whereGod wanted them to go. Theywanted to get at the teemingmillions of Asia, but God said"No," He was leading them byrestrictive guidance.

I once thought that Paul,Silas, and the other apostles

wore halos over their heads. Ithought they were able to dis-cern instantly what God wantedthem to do. I was glad when Idiscovered in practice thiswasn't the case.

In Bible college I had a pro-fessor whom I respected greatly.Once in class he told us, "Thismorning I got up to pray and Ifell asleepl"

Spontaneously I said outloud, "Glory'"

Everyone in the class turnedto look at me. The professorgrinned and said, "What's thematter, Mr. Mumford? Are youglad to find out that I'mhuman?"

Embarrassed, I confessed,"To tell you the truth, sir, I am.I sometimes fall asleep duringmy morning prayer time, but Ididn't think anybody else did,"

When I first started listeningto the prompting of the voice

within, I often went in thewrong direction, but I wasn'taware that anvbodv else did. Iwas relieved \~hen 'I discoveredthat Paul and Silas and the otherapostles had the same problem.So do our present-day spiritual"giants"!

Remember the occasion whenthe disciples crossed the Sea ofGalilee and Jesus said, "Bewareof the leaven of the Pharisees"?

Reasoning among themselvesas to what He meant, one of thedisciples said, "He must haveforgotten the lunch." This, ofcourse, had nothing to do withwhat Jesus was seeking to im-part. Their inability to perceiveis comforting to me in two ways.One, it shows that all good dis-ciples are a little thick and, two,

that the Master is always rich inpatience as He teaches us Hisways. In fact, it's because of ourthickness that God is forced touse more dramatic forms of guid-ance (visions) to impress His willupon us.

\Vhat would have happenedif Paul had persisted in going in-to Asia? Possibly, the wholecourse of history could havebeen changed by this one man'sfailure to follow his guidance.Paul wasn't able to discernwhere God wanted him to go,but he did know God wantedhim to go somewhere. He prob-ably reasoned:"There's a realneed in Asia; I think I'll gothere," How did the Holy Spiritrestrain him? It mav have beenby an audible voic~, but morelikely it was by upsetting Paul'speace. He tried preaching inAsia, but suddenly the peace ofGod inside was upset, and heknew he was on the wrong track.This trial-and-error method con-tinued until Paul finally was inposition to hear the positiveguidance of the Holy Spirit.

Get MovingThere are people who sit still

waiting for God to speak. "God,if you want me to go to churchthis Sunday, speak to me." ButGod wants us on the move. It isvery difficult to turn the steeringwheel on a stopped car. Get itmoving and you can turn thewheel easily. Likewise, you canturn the helm of a docked ship,but nothing happens. It's onlywhen the ship is on the movethat it responds to the helms-man's touch on the wheel.

If I can't seem to get anydirect guidance from God aboutwhere I'm to go or what I'm todo next, I use my best judgment,my sanctified intellect, and getmoving. I've already surren-dered my will to God and askedHim to lead me or restrict me ifI'm heading the wrong way. Ikeep my inward ear listening forthe prompting of the Spirit, andas I go I let Him guide ....

A young man who showedgreat promise in school gradu-ated from Bible college with me.

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He was married, had three chil-dren and was living in one of thesmall cottages provided for mar-ried students. A couple of monthsafter graduation I went to seehim.

"\Vhat are your plans?" Iasked.

He said, "Well, I haven't hadany leadings from the Lord soI'm just going to stay right hereuntil Jesus tells me what to do,"And there he sat until the "un-spiritual" faculty helped himmove out to give room to an-other family just starting toschool.

"What should he have done?"you ask. Even without specificleading he could have used hissanctified intellect and at leastbegun to move.

''I'll find a home for my fam-ily and start traveling as anevangelist .... " If he receivednegative guidance from the Lordhe could have changed direc-tions. ''I'll find employment andat least assume the responsibilityof providing for my family."That's one thing he could be sureGod wanted him to do. If youwalk in the little light you have,God will always supply morelight.

As long as you move with asincere desire to do God's will,He will guide you into the rightplace. But if you sit still and tryto sweat God out, you'll find thatHe will not yield. I've tried it!

God will not be manipu-lated, and it's useless to try tofigure Him out. Guidance in-volves principles to be learned-not techniques to be mastered.

I once knew a fellow whowanted to learn all about heal-ings. He studied every incidentof healing in the New Testa-ment. He thought that by figur-ing out the technique Jesus andthe disciples used, he would tapthe secret of their power. Muchto his dismay he discovered thereweren't two healings alike. Theonlv common denominator wasdependence upon the Father-which, incidentally, is the secretof the power of our Lord JesusChrist.

Guidance is like that. Learn-

ing to discern the voice of God isa skill, and it can be learned, butthere are no two circumstancesalike.

The Restraining Hand of GodWhen the Holy Spirit speaks

He may speak in positive guid-ance, or He may use negativeguidance. And negative guid-ance, which often manifests it-

As long as you move with asincere desire to do God'swill, He will guide you intothe right place.self by the disruption of innerpeace, may be a preventiveguidance to keep us away fromharm which we'll never knowabout (unless we fail to heed theguidance) .

While I was Dean of a Biblecollege in New York, my wifeand I started on a trip toDelaware to interview some pro-spective students. We hadn'tplanned the trip or prayed aboutit. The farther I drove down thefreeway, the more upset I be-came deep inside.

"Lord, what's the matter?" Iasked.

Inside I felt the response,"You'd better stop right now."

I said to my wife, "Honey, doyou sense something wrong?"

She said, "I certainly do." Iput on the brakes and pulledover to the side of the road.

"Let's just stop and see whathappens," I said. As soon as westopped the car, the unrest andheaviness lifted. I said, "ThankYou, Jesus," and turned the cararound.

When we started back in theother direction, the glory of theLord filled that car, and we be-gan to worship Him. What hadwe been heading for? God onlyknows. But whatever it was,God's negative guidance had

Remember: Friday, December 4, is anational day of prayer and fasting,

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disturbed my peace and warnedme not to go farther. It is impor-tant that we learn to recognizethe restraining hand of God.

Sometimes we wonder if thenegative guidance could beSatan's method of keeping usfrom doing God's will. Remem-ber, though, that Satan cannotimitate the peace of God. Whenthat peace is disturbed, takecare.

\Ve may hear an inner voicesaying, "You're not prayingenough. You need to pray more."Surelv Satan wouldn't tell you topray( Sure he would. The~e are

Tips for Fathers

In the spring of 1977, Dadand I spent a lot of timediscussing the needs of the

family, and fathers in particular.Our conclusions were: 1) thatfamily roles are in an upheavaland in serious need of redefi-nition; 2) that the role of a fatherhas become vague, often totallylacking, or severely distorted; 3)that the role of a father is essen-tial to producing identity, securi-ty and stability in society; 4) thatwhat was needed was a continu-ing effort, not just a "one-shot"approach.

After praying and talking withother Christians, we decided towrite a letter to fathers on aregular basis. We knew that theletter had to be practical, filledwith relevant news, tips and re-source material, not just saying"you ought to," but rather "howto." That's the way Fathergram-a service to fathers-came intobeing. -Charles Simpson

"Tips for Fathers" are excerpts from J'athergram.If you would like to be added to their ma1l1nglist,write: J'aChergram, P.O. Box Z, Mobile. AL36616.

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two ways Satan can trap us:either b;.: leading us into obviouswordly sin or by pushing us over-board on some spiritual tangent.Sometimes God wants us to act-not pray. Satan can quote scrip-ture also, talking about spiritualthings, impressing upon us greatreligious fervor.

I counseled with a ladv whohad come under coun'terfeitspiritual pressure. Voices weretelling her to fast and pray, de-prive herself of sleep, wear longblack dresses, never read thenewspaper or listen to musicalinstruments. She was undergreat duress, and she was forcedto take another look and see thateven "spiritual" guidance cancome from Satan.

The Voice of PeaceOne wav we can tell the dif-

ference between the voice ofGod and a counterfeit is thesense of peace. The voice whichspeaks peace is of God; the voicewhich speaks urgency is either ofSatan or comes from your ownhuman nature. God leads; Satanpushes.

The demanding voice says,"Quit your job right now. Don'twait for tomorrow. You're dis-obedient if you don't!" If wefollow such advice we're in trou-ble, because God seldom speakslike that except in emergencies.

The Greek word for god istheos. This is the same root thatour word "enthusiasm" comesfrom. The ancient Greeks lookedat someone who was entheos assomeone who was possessed by agod and transported into ecsta-sy. \Ve need to recognize the fineline between genuine spiritualenthusiasm (which like deepwater in a river mav run fast butwithout froth and 'foam) and akind of demonizing that leads usto play frantically the role of areligious cheerleader withoutany inner peace. As far as I amconcerned, enthusiasm in reli-gious realms can be a symptomof spiritual disease .... Buildingprograms and personalities arenot an adequate substitute for thepresence of God to keep God'speople "enthusiastic" about

"religious things." Mountainpeaks of enthusiasm can be just asdangerous as deep valleys in ourwalk with God.

\Vhen we come to know theabiding peace of God deep in ourspirit we have reached a balanceand a stability that cannot beupset by circumstances or urgentvoices speaking to our mind oremotions. Nor can we be fooledby counterfeit guidance, becausewe've learned to recognize thevoice of God. Receiving divineguidance involves learning cer-tain principles.

There are multitudes of peo-ple who have come into a rela-tionship with Jesus Christ andbeen baptized in the Holy Spirit,but they go through life withoutpracticing and developing theskill of following God's dailyleading. They are like one whoreceives as a gift a beautiful con-cert piano, but is satisfied toplay with only one finger.

The baptism in the Holy Spir-it potentially brings with it thepromise of divine guidance, butwe must understand the need forpractice and development inreceiving it. The author ofHebrews writes: "At a timewhen vou should be teachingothers 'vou need teachers vour-selves 't~ repeat to you the'ABCof God's revelation to men. Youhave become people who need amilk diet and cannot face solidfood! For anvone who continuesto live on milk is obviously im-mature-he simply has not grownup. 'Solid food' is only for theadult, that is, for the man whohas developed by experience hispower to discriminate betweenwhat is good and what is bad forhim" (Heb. 5: 14 Phillips).

The only way to develop theabilitv to discriminate betweenthe ~oice of God and othervoices is by experience, by use.There are manv voices clamor-ing for our atte~tion. More thanever before in history it is impor-tant that we learn to know thevoice of God. 'Y'

Adapted from Take Another Look atGuidance bv Bob Mumford. <91971 byLogos Inter~ationa\. Used by permission.

DECEMBER 1981

Intercessors Reportby

John Beckett

A mounting attack is be-ing aimed at conser-vative Christian leader-ship in America. The

principal target has been theRev. Jerry Falwell, the MoralMajority, and "moral majoritytypes." The latter categorybroadly identifies those who arechallenging the status quo withan agenda that includes con-cerns about abortion, human-ism, homosexual rights, prayerin public schools, the spread ofpornography, crime, our posi-tion with respect to Israel andnational defense. Opposition hasmounted, it seems, in direct pro-portion to the effectiveness ofChristians in "setting the agen-da" for national debate and in-fluencing national and localelections.

The attack is coming fromtwo directions: inside and out-side the Church. From within theChurch, the primary concern isfrom those who have set a differ-ent agenda-one which includesnuclear disarmament, humanneed, indignity, injustice andour endangered environment.Many Christians with this agen-da are motivated by biblicaltruth and deep conviction. \Vemust respect the particular bur-dens they feel, and be sensitiveto what the Lord is saying aboutthese issues. In the same way,these Christians need to be moretolerant of those who believe, asIFA has maintained, that thereis no higher priority in Americatoday than to halt the killings ofinnocent human life throughabortion and the paralleldisintegration of moral values inalmost every segment of our na-tional life.

Outside the Church is a risingchorus of attack from journal-ists, television commentators,and educational and politicalleaders who are openly atheisticand suspicious of any agendalinked to God. Terms being usedto describe Bible-oriented Chris-tian leaders are "religiousbigots," "the religious newright," and "right wing nuts."For example, Norman Lear's

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counter-group, "People for theAmerican \Vay," has targetedmen like Falwell and evangelistJames Robison, the Roundtableand of course the Moral Majori-ty, by accusing them of "teach-ing people to hate, but in a'Christian' way."

Many of us, particularly inleadership, are becoming targetsof the increasing invectiveagainst "the religious newright." What should be ourposture? How should we con-duct ourselves in the face of suchopposition? Please consider thesesuggestions and the accompany-ing scriptures:

1. Be careful of our own walkbefore God. We are sinnerssaved by grace. We need to beclothed daily, not in our righ-teousness, which is as filthyrags, but in God's righteous-ness. We must keep our spiritswashed with the pure waterof the Word, and not adoptthe "wavs of the world,"regardles~ of how successfulthey may appear (Is. 64:6;Eph. 5:26; Rom. 12:2).2. Seek proper relationshipswith other Christians. Thosein "lone ranger" ministriesare particularly vulnerable todeception, and many effec-tive Christian works havecrumbled under the spiritualpride of leaders who wereunable to receive the correc-tion and balance that comesfrom accountability to otherbelievers (Eph. 5:21; Lk.21:8; Pr. 15:32).3. Stay open to adjustment.While God doesn't change,the Holy Spirit, God's ad-ministrator on earth, movesas the wind, changing em-phasis from "season to season"in the Father's timetable. Weneed to follow His agenda(Heb. 13:8; J n. 3:8, 6:38).4. Don't be surprised at op-position or insult, for as longas "the Spirit of glory and ofGod rests on you," this can beexpected, and can be a mea-sure of both God's refinementand His blessing (l Pet. 4: 12).5. Stand fast if God has placed

you on a particular battlefield."If thou faint in the day ofadversity, thy strength issmall" (Pr. 24:10). "Strengthenye the weak hands, and con-firm the feeble knees. Say tothem that are of a fearfulheart, fear not" (Is. 35:3, 4).6. Remember that we are inspiritual warfare and thatbattles will be won throughprayer that will not be wonany other way. Our respon-sibility is. to give ourselves tothe Lord and His cause. Thebattle is the Lord's and He isresponsible for the outcome(Eph. 6:12; 1 Sam. 17:29; 1Sam. 18:47).7. Pray for the leadership Godis giving us. Men like Dr. Fal-well are in a place where fewof us could be, and our prayerwill enable the Lord's protec-tion and anointing to rest onthem (Pr. 29:2; Heb. 13:7).

Finally, we need to keep ourfocus on God's ultimate goal,which isn't limited to any of the"agenda" items listed above butis much more profound. God isgathering to Himself a redeemedcommunity of believers who arevoluntarily and whole-heartedlysubmitted to His lordship andare prepared to reign with Him,now and in eternity. Our goalmust be to let our characters beso conformed to His purpose forus that we can truly enter intothe high place to which He iscalling us.

If you wouldlike to receir;ethe Intercessorsfor America:'\ewsletter,write:

1/1tercessors forAmericaP.O. Box 1289Elyria,OH44036

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A King Should BeWelcomed Domeby Paul Thigpen

A Christmas story for you and yourchildren about spiritual sensitivity.

~

PIalachi sighed and leaned against the stable wall, his ear brushing against a spider web. Even for a donk'ey,. the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem is long and dusty. And what a load he had carried! His master's wife

was a small woman, but she was heavy with a child who would be born very soon now. Malachi had felt as ifthe whole world were riding on his back. He was glad it was time to rest.

The little beast shut his eyes, but he couldn't sleep. Over and over again Malachi heard the words that Joseph,his master, had spoken to his wife: "This child will be born the King of Kings." For months now Joseph had actedstrangely; he rarely slept and spoke often of dreams. All his talk about angels was more than a simple donkey couldunderstand. But Malachi knew that his master was a good man, and very wise. If he said that a king was coming, thenit must be true. And that much even a donkey could understand.

If a king is coming, Malachi thought. someone should be here to welcome him. He looked around at the noisy,dusty stable-hardly a place for a king. "This is a place for beasts," he said to himself. "Will people come to greet aking in such a place as this?"

Suddenly an idea was born between his two furry ears. "People may not visit a stable, but surely animals would.A stable is a home for beasts, and if a king comes to visit a stable, then it is the beasts who should greet him there.Wherever it is he comes to dwell, a king should be welcomed home!"

Proud of his grand idea, Malachi pranced toward the stable door. "I must find other animals to greet the king!We will welcome him home!" And with the kind of stubborn determination that only donkeys have, Malachi set outdown the street.

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The first animal he met on his way was a young, royal-looking stallion. Hewas in the large corral at the edge of town where the Roman soldiers kepttheir horses, but he was standing apart from the others, facing away fromthem. The little donkey could hardly see more than his underside, because thehorse was tall and kept his head in the air. Looking at him, Malachi felt veryclose to the ground. It took him a moment to get up his courage, but finally hespoke.

"Excuse me. My name is Malachi. May I speak with you?"The horse waited so long to answer that the donkey thought he hadn't

heard. But just as he was about to ask again, the tall creature looked downwith a cold stare.

DECEMBER 1981

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"My name is Claudius. I am a Roman, and you may address me as 'Sir.' "Malachi felt even smaller and wanted to run away. He was afraid. But he had made up his mind, and he was more

stubborn than he was afraid."Sir," the donkey said, almost whispering, "1 have important news for you."Claudius swatted a fly with his tail and yawned. "Important news? Nothing important ever happens in this town.

Now in Rome, where the Emperor lives, really important things happen. Kings ride in and out like ants in an anthill.But not here." .

The donkey's eyes brightened. "Have you ever been ridden by a king?""/ have never been ridden by anyone." Claudius stuck his nose in the air. "Though, perhaps, I might possibly

allow a king to ride on me-if he were well behaved.""Well, Sir-that's what I came to tell you. A king has come to town today. Comewith me and you can welcome him!"Claudius snorted rudely. "And how did this king arrive? In a chariot? In a parade? I heard no trumpets.""No, Sir," Malachi replied. "1 carried him on my back."The horse snickered. " You carried him? A donkey? Then he is no king. Kings do not ride on donkeys; kings ride

on horses-and Roman horses at that." Claudius ended the conversation by swishing his tail in Malachi's face as heturned away and trotted over to another empty corner of the corral.

Malachi hung his head. He felt small and silly. But he was too stubborn to give up. The little beast shook the dustoff his hooves and headed down the street. "Wherever it is he comes to dwelL" he said firmly, "a king should bewelcomed home."

Just off the streetMalachi spied a tired old ox,yoked to the grinding wheelof a mill. Round and roundshe walked, turning theheavy stone, grumbling toherself above the creaking ofthe wheel. Malachicame closeand shouted over the noise.

"Excuse me! My name isMalachi! May I speak withyou?"

The ox kept turning thewheel and answered glumlywithout even looking up."Can't you see I'm busy?"

The donkey was puz-zled. "But no one is here driv-ing you," he said. "You'realone. Why are you workingwhen your master has gonehome for the evening?"

She continued her path around and around. The grain in the mill had been ground to a fine dust long before, butstill she labored.

"What do ( care if my master is lazy?" she mumbled. "( have work to do, and the sun will soon go down."Malachi realized that he wouldn't get very far trying to talk from where he stood, so he began to walk along

beside the ox as she turned. "What is your name?" he asked."Marta!" she bellowed. "Now go away! You're slowing me down." But Malachi was persistent. He continued to

walk around, though it made him tired. But he had made up his mind, and he was more stubborn than he was tired.He tried again.

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"I have important news for you, Marta. You must stop grinding and come with me. A king has come to town to-day. Come with me and you can welcome him!"

For a moment the old ox looked as if she would stop. She slowed down a little, lifting her shoulders up under heryoke as if to throw it off. But finally she lowered her head and began to walk faster again.

"I can't go anywhere while I'm bound to this wheel-except in circles. My yoke is too heavy." She munched astalk of wheat and then added with a bitter smile, "But I don't suppose a king would know anything about yokes,would he?"

Malachi thought a moment and then answered. "My master is a carpenter. Perhaps the king could learn fromhim to make a lighter yoke."

"A lighter yoke!" Marta spat the wheat stalk on the ground. "I want a king who will break my yoke, not give mea lighter one!" She tried to kick the donkey, but he moved out of her way. Her anger made her turn the wheel fasterand faster. until the stones were grinding themselves. Marta went back to her grumbling.

Malachi hung his head once more. He felt as weary himself as the ox, just from being around her-and he wassad as well. But he was too stubborn to give up. The little beast shook the dust off his hooves and headed down thestreet again. "Wherever it is he comes to dwelL" he brayed, "a king should be welcomed home!"

The sun was setting, and Malachi looked up at the glory of the western skies. Heaven was dressed in scarlet andgold-to greet the king, he thought. Suddenly he spotted some movement in the clouds above his head. It was a largecrow, climbing and diving and looping through the air. Malachi called to him.

"Excuse me! My name is Malachi! May I speakwith you?"

The crow was in the middle of a somersault,chattering to himself. when he heard the donkey'scall. Without even turning right side up again, heplunged downward toward Malachi. Before the littlebeast could get out of the way, the bird had landedupright on Malachi's head.

"Pretty fancy, huh?" The crow brushed hiswings off. "Phinehas is the name. Did you saysomething?"

After such difficult conversations with thehorse and ox, the donkey was delighted to findsomeone so willing to talk. "Yes, I did," heanswered. "( have some important-"

"Well. then," Phinehas interrupted, "good, myboy. You see, ( had a cloud in my ear and ( wasn'tsure whether it was someone's voice or justthunder."

Malachi started his sentence again. "I havesome important news-"

"Well. ( certainly hope it's important. I love be-ing up there-close to heaven, you know-and Ihate putting my feet on the ground. It had better beimportant. "

In frustration the donkey shook his head,upsetting the crow's roost, and blurted out the restof his message. "A king has come to town today.Come with me to welcome him!"

Phinehas pulled himself back up to his perchfrom behind Malachi's twitching ear. "A king!" he

24 DECEMBER 1981

cawed. "When? Where?""Today!" the donkey brayed. "Right now! Come with-""A king!" Phinehas broke in. "With trumpets and banners? With music and dancing? With cr~wns and jewels

and gold and magicians?"Malachi hesitated. "Not exactly. He's probably wrapped up in a blanket, and lying in a-""A king!" the crow jabbered. "I must go see this wonder. Thank you, friend-what did you say your name was?

Anyway, I'm off to the palace to see the king! Now, let's see, where is the palace?" And Phinehas was off with a flutterand a chatter.

"Wait!" cried Malachi. "He's not in a palace; he's in a stable!" But it was too late. The crow was already halfwayto the next town, but he was headed toward Egypt.

Once more, the donkey hung his head. He felt confused and dizzy. And though he was stubborn-more stubbornthan anyone else-he was ready to give up. The little beast shook the dust off his hooves and headed home."Wherever it is he comes to dwell," he sighed, "a king should be welcomed home. But instead of a cheering crowd,he will have only a silly, tired, confused donkey to welcome him." And a big donkey tear rolled down his muzzle.

The way home was dark and dusty. He took a different road from the way he had come so that he wouldn't haveto pass by Claudius or Marta again. The road went just around the edge of town, next to the hills that led out to thewilderness.

The stars were coming out, and a very bright one had begun to shine like the moon. But still it was dark, andMalachi was too deep in thought to notice the broad mud puddle that stretched across the path-right in front of him.

The donkey sloshed right into the mud, and as he did his hoof stumbled onto something that moved. A squealwent up from the mud, with a great confusion that sent dirty water flying everywhere. Malachi was so terrified that hefell backwards into the puddle, his heart pounding in his muddy ears.

"Terribly sorry!" he cried. "Please forgive me!" He wasn't sure who or what it was he had disturbed. In thedarkness he could only make out the muddy form of some animal smaller than himself. "Has someone hurt you andleft you lying in the road?" he asked.

"No," the creature answered meekly."Were you sleeping, then?" Malachi asked."No," came the reply, "just listening.""In the mud?" said the donkey. He squinted to see better in the dark and got a closer look at his new acquaint-

ance. "Why, no wonder! You're a pig!""Please call me Simon," the pig said, lifting his head from the mud. "I really wasn't sleeping, you know.

Everyone thinks pigs are lazy because they lie still in the mud all day. But they're not sleeping; they're listening."Malachi was so taken back that he forgot to ask Simon what it was he expected to hear. "A pig!" he repeated.

"( know what you're thinking," said Simon. "Everyone says we're unclean. The peoplewon't even let us come near town. Donkeys probably feel the same way. " He looked

down cross-eyed at the mud on his own snout. ") guess I can understandwhy they say we're not clean. We certainly do make a mess of our-

selves." Simon dropped his head back into the mud again and sighed.

For the first time in his life, Malachi felt a little sorry for pigs. "Well, being unclean isn't all bad:' he suggested."At least you don't have to worry every day about ending up on a dinner table." But somehow that small encourage-ment failed to lift Simon's spirits.

Malachi tried to rub the mud off his muzzle, but it was already drying. "I'd best be on my way:' he said. Hedidn't like the thought of being seen in public with a pig.

"Where are you going?" Simon asked. "Surely a donkey would not be traveling around unless he had aburden?"

Malachi felt uncomfortable. "I ... I've been out to tell everyone that a king has come to town today.""A king?" Simon whispered. "A real king?""Well, he has no crown or throne-no palace or trumpets or gold or jewels.""But what about his subjects?" asked Simon. "Does he have a crowd to welcome him? No real king needs a

palace or those other things-wherever he lays his head is his palace. But does your king have a throng of loyal heartswho love him? That is what makes a king!"

26

~\\

Malachi was speechless, and his faceburned with shame. This pig, hethought-this muddy, outcast pig-is theonly beast who has listened to me, theonly one who knows what a real king is.And to think I wanted to pass him by.

The donkey's eyes filled with tears."Yes, my brother," he finally answered."He is a real king. He has subjects-he has a loyal throng, a loving crowd towelcome him. Come with me and you'llsee."

"But I'm unclean!" cried Simon."What king would want to be greeted bya pig?"

''I'm a bit dirty myself:' saidMalachi. "We both need a bath. But a realking looks beyond the dirt. Even a dustystable will do for his resting place, ifsomeone is there to greet him. Now comewith me, Simon." He pushed the pig upfrom the mud with his muzzle, and thetwo set out down the road together.

"We must hurry along," said thedonkey. "For wherever it is he comes todwell-"

"A king:' said the pig, "should bewelcomed home." ...

Paul Thigpen is an editorial assistant for New Wine.

DECEMBER 1981

A beHer magazine for a beHer way to live.

This Christmas season give New Wine Magazine.

jill. -; It'

H. ".(./10"---

••. .f-

Administrator'sLetter

Because 1982 could be one of themost significant years in New Wine's develop-

ment, I wanted to take this opportunity togive you a preview of what we believe may

be ahead and to enlist your support.

For the next vear andbeyond, there are twobasic goals that arehighest on the agenda

for New Wine Magazine. First,we want to continue to take goodcare of our current readers; andsecond, we want to reach out tomany new potential readers. Wehope to do this in the followingways:

1. In 1982, we will inaugu-rate our New \Vine Conferences.These meetings will be designedto introduce thousands of peopleto a new way of life. Through

28

these informative conferences,we hope to strengthen our cur-rent readers, find manv newreaders, and provide enc~urage-ment to the local Christian com-munity and church leadership ineach city we visit.

2. Because we live in a societysaturated with communication,

, we realize the difficulty in in-troducing New Wine to poten-tial readers who may feel theyjust don't have time to read onemore publication. We're encour-aged that 1982 will mark thefirst year that we can effectivelyface this challenge through amarketing and promotionalteam on our staff with the exper-tise to reach a broader audiencewith the vital message NewWine presents.

3. Significantly enough, Jesusdidn't approach the people ofHis day from a "religious" per-spective. Instead, He spoke thetruth in a direct way in termsthey could understand. Whilebeing careful not to water downthe truth that has been thestrength of New Wine for overtwelve years, we want to presentour message in a way that can gobeyond religious jargon, stereo-types and prejudices to speakdirectly to people at their pointof need.

4. We want to continue in1982 to give our present readersmore information on how to lead,a successful Christian life. How-ever, we don't want to be just an"information machine." We wantto help you draw closer to Godin your personal walk with Him.We believe this is central to ourpurpose as a magazine, and it isone of our most important goalsfor the new year.

In short, then, through NewWine Conferences, effectivepromotional campaigns and adirect approach to people attheir point of need, we are hop-ing to reach a wider audience.Even more importantly, we de-sire in the process to bring eachreader of New Wine Magazineinto a close dailv walk withGod ..

We're excited about 1982.The coming year could possibly

DECEMBER 1981

be the most significant one inour history as a magazine. Pleasepray for us, and when you can,help us financially. Much ofwhat we do in 1982 will be new.For this reason we will need tofund the necessary start-up costsof increasing circulation andlaying the foundation for New\Vine Conferences.

Together We CanBring Change

We take our role as pub-lishers of a Christian magazinevery seriously. In the face of in-creasing world unrest and in-stability, we realize that wemust be effective in communi-cating our message of the King-dom of God. As a part of theChristian community, our hopeis that we may be able to providepeople with "a better magazinefor a better way of life," andwith God's help, to bring changeto the world.

Here are four practical waysin which you can help:

1. AIake a commitment to readNew Wine each month.If possible read each issue inits entirety on the day it ar-rives. When you finish., usethe envelope in the center ofthe magazine to send us anote. Let us know if we pro-vided help or if we fell shortof the mark.

2. IVlake a commitment to reachout to others.A good way for you personallyto help us promote our maga-zine is to send New \-Vine to aneighbor, a family member ora friend. Each time you makeit a priority to put those youcare about on the New Winemailing list, you make an in-vestment in someone's life.(The envelope at the center ofthis magazine can be used fora gift subscription.)

3. Pray for this ministry.\Ve need your intercession onour behalf. Spiritual warfareis a realitv for us-we facedaily spiri"tual opposition inour efforts to communicatethe Word of God to our read-ers. But we are confident that

NEWWINE

with your prayer support, wewill prevail in the battle. In-clude the ministry of NewWine on your daily prayerlist.

4. Help us financially.In the same way that we needyour prayer support, we alsoneed your financial support.We encourage you to contrib-ute to this ministrv to the ex-tent you are able. "

If you can, write to let usknow your response to our as-sessment of New Wine's goals for1982. We need to know that youare standing with us as we facethe future.

We Appreciate YouThank you for helping us in

1981. We can't adequately ex-press how important your en-couraging letters are. We alsowelcome your corrective com-ments. A single letter coming atjust the right time often helps tobring about a needed correctionin our course. We read every let-ter that comes to us.

As we approach this holidayseason, let's agree to make it oneto remember. Join with us as wetry to de-commercialize and re-

spiritualize Christmas. Perhapsthese four key words can governour thinking:

Celebration-Rejoicing thatwe made it through the yearand didn't give up, but in-stead grew stronger in faith.Gratitude- Telling God thatwe appreciate His faithfulnessto us, whatever our immedi-ate circumstances mav be.Friendshfp-Expressi~g withsincerity our love, faithfulnessand commitment to thosewho are near and dear to us.Heritage- Understanding theprivilege of joining manyother generations before andafter us in celebrating the giftof God's Son.

It is our hope that this holi-day season and the years to comewiil be for you ~ time whenblessing, grace and prosperityare your reward.

Sincerely,

New Wine MagazineGeorge P. GundlachPublishing Adminstrator

The New WineEditorial Board

29

Illstructioll ill the jUlldamelltals oj the jaith is all importallt part oj our Christiall heritage. '"The WordUjeature overthe course oj the year (cill pror.;ide a systematic. seasollal study oj basic teachillgs about the creatioll alld jail oj 1/10/1. thepersoll alld (cork oj Christ. alld the lIature alld destillY oj the Church. '\Ie ellcourage our readers to use this jeature daily.both jor persollal scripture study alld jamily readillg.

IBelieve in the Apostolic Church Because ...I. Men Are Called to Fulfill God's Purpose

A. Samuel 1 Sam. 3: 1-21 Dec. 1B. Isaiah Is. 6:1-13 Dec. 2C. Jeremiah Jcr. 1:1-19 Dec. 3D. Thc Twelvc Mt. 9:35: 10:23 Dec. 4E. Paul Acts 9:1-22 Dec. 5

II. Men Are Empowered to Do God's WorkA. Joseph Gen. 41:14-45 Dec. 6B. David 1 Sam. 16: 1-23 Dec. 7C. Danicl Dan. 2: 1-30 Dcc. 8D. The Seventv Lk. 10:1-20 Dec. 9E. The Twel vc Acts 1: 1-11. Dec. 10F. Thc One Hundrcd and Twcnty Acts I: 12: 2:4 Dec. 11G. Thc Church Acts 4:23-37 Dec. 12

Ill. Men Are Authorized to Rule in God's Kingdom-The Principle of Delegated AuthorityA. Jcsus J n. 5: 19-47 Dec. 13B. The Apostles Mt. 28:16-20: ~Ik. 16:14-20 Dec. 14C. The Church Mt. 16:13-20: 18:15-20: In. 20:19-23 Oec. 15D. Peter Acts 5: 1- I 1 Dec. 16E. Paul (to Rome) Rom. 1:1-5 Dec. 17F. Paul (to Corinth) 1 Cor. 4: 14-21 Dec. 18G. Paul (to Thessalonica) 2 Th. 3:1-15 Dec. 19

IV. Men Are Recognized by Others as Chosen of GodA. Receive the Messenger as Christ. Mt. 10:40-42 Dec. 20B. Seeing Jesus in the One Sent ~It. 23:37-39 Dec. 21C. Apostles' Doctrine and Decrees Acts 2:41-47: 16:4-5 Dec. 22D. God's Word and Apostles' Word the Same l Th. 2:13-16: 4:1-8 Dec. 23E. Those Who Have the Rule Heb. 13:17: Acts 20:28 Dec. 24F. The Foundation of the Church Eph. 2: 19-22 Dec. 25G. Gifts to the Church Eph. 4: 11-13 Dec. 26

V. Men Are Portrayed as Fellow Workers with GodA. Ambassadors 2 Cor. 5:20: 6:10 Dec. 27B. Stewards Titus 1:5-9 Dec. 28C. Servants 2 Cor. 4:1-14 Dec. 29D. Fathers l Cor. 4:14-21 Dec. 30E. Co-laborers 1 Cor. 3: 1-9 Dec. 31

A monthly Bible study by Bruce Longstreth.

30 DECEMBER 1981

''The Boy Is Healed"a testimony by Dr. Paul Severson

I am a physician andsurgical resident at Hen-nepin County ~tedicalCenter in ~tinneapolis.

Recently a nineteen-year-oldblack male was admitted to ourhospital with severe head in-juries. He and another man hadbeen involved in a minor misde-meanor and were fleeing thepolice on a motorcycle. Theother man was driving-thisyoung man was a passenger-and they were traveling down abusy street in Minneapolis atabout ninety miles per hour. Ac-cording to witnesses, the motor-cvcle crashed into the back of ac~r that was stopped at a trafficlight. The driver of the motorcy-cle was killed and the passenger,who became my patient, wasthrown ninety feet and struckhi~ head on the pavement.

1 was called to see the injuredman in the emergency room. Theexamination revealed he had acritical head injury, so we ran anemergency brain scan that woulddetermine what kind of damagehad occurred inside his skull. Theresults of the scan-obtained justa few minutes after his admis-sion-showed that he had dam-aged several portions of hisbrain, a great deal of swellingwas taking place inside the skull,and a blood clot had developedthere as ,,'ell.

\Vhen someone receives asevere blow to the head, thebrain swells, just as other partsof the body swell when injured.The critical problem with brainswelling, however, is that thebrain is restricted by the skulland has no room for expansion.Consequently, pressure developsinside the head, causing thebrain to stop functioning, result-ing in the death of the patient.

The pressure inside the headis measured by an instrumentdesigned for that purpose. Nor-mal pressure in the head is regis-tered bv this instrument as areading 'within the range of fourto eight. A reading above twentyindicates ongoing brain damage.\Vhen the pressure reaches forty,

:\'EW \\'I:\'E

the patient usually cannot livefor more than a short time.

After completing surgery toremove the blood clot and bring-ing him back to the intensivecare unit, we attached a pres-sure monitor to his head. Themonitor reading was about thir-ty-a critical level. To makematters even more grave, thiswas only the pressure occurringimmediately after the injury-and the swelling usually does notreach its peak until three to fivedays later. For this reason wewere relativelv certain that thisyoung man h~d suffered a fatalhead injury and would die with-in a short time.

"There Is Nothing More ICan Do"

1 went to tell all this to thefather of the bov. He asked mestraightforwardl)', "What arehis chances?" So 1 told himstraightforwardly, "His chancesare not good; 1 believe he is go-ing to die." The man replied,"Could we just be with our son?"and 1 consented to his request.

The father and mother wentinto their son's hospital room.The boy was lying there coma-tose-unconscious, unable to

move a muscle, on a respirator,with a number of tubes runninginto his body. The pressure mon-itor was still reading thirty.Since 1 had thoroughly explainedto this man his son's condition, 1went outside the door to my deskto write my usual orders.

We deal with so many fatal-ities in our work that this casewas not unusual. But what hap-pened next was an indication ofthe significance of the events tocome. This father went over tohis son and laid his hand on thebov's head. He lifted his otherha~d up to Cod and said aloudthe most beautiful prayer 1 hadever heard in my life. 1 droppedmy pen and listened to him as hecried out, "Father Cod, there isnothing more 1 can do for myboy. 1 just give him to You; He'sin Your hands. Please have mer-cyan him, forgive him for whathe's done and save him." At firsthe struggled to hold back thetears, but when his wife beganto weep he also began to weepopenly.

As they left, 1 felt somethingmoving deep inside me, and 1lept up from my desk, ran overto them, and blurted out with-out even thinking, "I believe

31

God is going to answer yourprayer." I don't usually dothat-I try to be "scientific" andprofessional. So then of course Ihad to explain my feelings. Isaid. ''I'm a Christian. and Ibelieve in prayer. and I willpray for your son as well." Thefather answered. "Thank you,Doctor: gi\'e me a call if any-thing changes." Then they wenthome.

"The Boy Is Healed"As I .resumed writing my

orders. I began to pray for theboy. Just a few minutes later anolder man and his younger com-panion walked into the intensivecare unit. He hobbled up to thedesk with his cane and said. "Ex-cuse me: I'm looking for theyoung boy who was in themotorcycle accident." I intro-duced ~vself as the bO\.'s doctorand took' him to his ro~m.

The older man was the pa-tient's pastor. He said. ''I'd liketo pray over the boy." Usuallywhen pastors come in they don'tsay that. The\' usuall\' ask "Doc-to~, what are 'his cha~ces?" The\'want to know the medical fact;.But this man simply said. "1want to pray over the boy." Ireplied, "Well, good: I'm aChristian and I'd like to go inand pray with you."

He agreed. so we both wentinto the patient's room. Thepressure monitor still read aboutthirty. The pastor said to theyoung man with him-his neph-ew-"Isaac, bring out the oil."Then he anointed the injuredboy with oil. We laid hands onhi~ and began to praise God.The pastor prayed in tonguesand prayed for the boy's deliver-ance. That kind of prayer wasunusual in a hospital setting.

Dr, Paul Severson is a graduate of the Universityof AJinnesota Aledical School. lie is presently asurgical resident at the Henncpin County Meeli-cal Center in AIinncapolis. Dr. Ser.;crson liues inSt. Paul. Minnesota. !eith his wife. Theresa, andtheir three children.

32

Usually chaplains are more"discreet" -that is, they don'twant anyone else to hear them.But this 'pastor didn't care if hewere heard by others-he justwanted God to save this boy.

As we were praying with ourhands on the patient, thereading on the pressure monitorbegan to fall drastically. As weprayed, the monitor droppedsteadilv-28, 22, 18, 14, 8, 6,until it hit 4-a normal reading.I must confess that at that pointI was not at all sure about theaccuracy of that monitor. I triedto adjust it. checked it over, andrecalibrated it. But the readingremained at four. The pastorturned to me and said. "The boyis healed."

The next day the patientawoke from his coma. pulled outeveryone of his tubes and triedto get out of bed in the intensivecare unit to walk around. Thenurses had to hold him down.He was discharged from the in-tensive care unit the next dayand four days later he was senthome-just ~vhen he should havereached the peak of head pres-sure from the injury.

God's Further IntentionThis was undoubtedly a

miracle of God. But significantlyenough, God's working didn'tend at that point. At the time ofthis case. a white male nineteen-vear-old had been admitted tothe hospital with severe head in-juries from a motorcycle acci-dent. The pressure in this pa-tient's head had already reachedforty and had remained at thatleve"l for some time. I called thewhole family in for a conferenceto tell them that it looked as ifwe were going to lose the boy.But I encouraged them not tolose hope, because miracles werepossible through prayer.

Word had gotten out aboutthe miraculous healing of myother patient-the nurses, pa-tients and visitors in the loungewere all talking about it. Ofcourse the father of this secondboy heard the story and began tohope that if it could happen toanother boy in a similar situa-

tion maybe it could happen tohis son as well. So he sought outthe pastor and asked him toanoint and pray for his son. Thiswas an important step of faithfor the father. It was also signifi-cant in that he was white andthe pastor was black, because hisneed was providing, perhaps forthe first time, an occasion forhim to relate in a meaningfulway to a black man.

To make a long story short,the pastor prayed for the youngman with his family, and thoughhe was not instantly healed, hisrecovery was miraculous. Wehad expected the boy to have ex-tensive and permanent braindamage because part of hisbrain-the part that controlsspeech-had to be removed, andbecause the pressure in his skullhad been at such a high level forso long. We had thought thateven after a vear or two in anursing home: he would still bejust barely functional-if he livedat all. But over a period of abouta week. the pressure began tofall. He was eventually moved toa rehabilitation unit, and I havenever in my career seen anyonerecover in the way this patienthas.

A short time ago, the sameyoung man visited my clinic. Heis now registered for the fallquarter at the University of Min-nesota-resuming his studiesright on schedule. He has nospeech defects or other problemsresulting from the accident. Heis totally healed.

These two cases of God's mi-raculous intervention demon-strate His compassion for us.They also illustrate the Lord'sintention, not only to bring peo-ple to Himself, but to bringthem together with each other.Most important of all, they serveto remind us that beyond ourhuman limitations are theunlimited power and grace ofGod, which He has chosen tomake accessible to us. Trulv God"is able to do immeas~rablvmore than all we ask or imagin~,according to His power that is atwork within us" (Eph. 3:21NIV). 'Y'

DECEMBER 1981

SECULAR

Man Striving to Be God

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1981Issues of

New WineMth

BinderTake advantage of this opportunityto have 12 months of New Wine inan attractive binder.

topics you've missed in past issues.It also makes a great Christmas gift. NewWine.

NEW READER?This is a perfect way to bringyourself up to date on the exciting

Add this study tool to your librarytoday. Since we have a limited sup-ply we suggest you order soon.

... the immediacy of a newspaper

... the longevity of a good book.

NWB-81 1981 Issues with Binder S12.95NWB Binder Only S7.9534 DECEMBER 1981

mind to what God is doing onthe earth. I am a pastor who hastaken up this parish with noseminary training and NewWille is of very great help inknowing what the Spirit is say-ing to the churches. I have writ-ten the above not to flatter youbut to encourage you in y'ourministry.

Ministers to youthJust a note to tell you how

much we appreciate your maga-zine. My wife and I have beeninvolved with youth work for afew years, and when preparingdevotions, etc., New \Ville is thefirst place we look for coverageon topical issues. We alwaysknow that your magazine isbiblically based and doesn't pur-sue tangents like so many publi-cations do. We always look for-ward to the next issue in themailbox. Keep up the great workand may God bless your ministryas you' strive to' further th~gospel.

Shirley and Ken KeelerCalgary, Alberta, Canada

Ministers to the militaryI wanted to tell you how

deeply New Wille has ministeredto me and my husband. We weregiven a gift subscription and Iquickly found out that Godspoke clearly to me through atleast one article every issue.Since we are in the Air Force(my husband flies B-52's), wefind that our mobility onlyserves to widen His Kingdomthrough our encouragement, ex-ample and witness. Often weneed encouragement and Goduses New Wille for just that andmore.

Lorena HeydenburkGrand Forks, ND

Ministers in IndiaGreetings to you all from In-

dia. Very few magazines givesuch solid meat as New Wille. Asleaders, we have been greatlyblessed by the contents of yourmagazine. It has opened our

Stanley MehtaBombay, India

It's no coincidenceEvery month I read your let-

ters and am especially impressedby those coming from readerscommenting on the perfect tim-ing of your articles. The Septem-ber issue on neighborhoods wasno exception. \Ve are membersof a community in Marylandand next month we are movinginto the neighborhood describedin Dave Nodar's article. Thisissue on neighborhoods andDave's article are especially ap-preciated by all of us.

Peter KuzmakBaltimore, MD

To the pointAs a father of nine children, I

have alwavs found New Wille auseful tooi in encouraging andexhorting myself first, then othermembers of my family.

Lately your "To the Point"feature has been very infor-mative. It confirmed many ofthe understandings we as a fam-ily practice when we go after aguide to morality-which is the"Bible."

Alfred PilongSandwich, MA

DearNew Wine,God answers prayer

Some months ago I wrote totell you we were having prob-lems. We were generally in avery bad way. Since then wehave stabilized greatly throughGod's help. Thank you for pray-ing for us. We have had muchsupport in our church as well,but I wanted to write to give youthis small testimony. I appreci-ated your response at that timeand also your willingness to sendNew Wille along even thoughwe couldn't pay for it. God blessyou and make His work in yourmagazine flourish!

[Name withheld]Minneapolis, MN

P.O. Box Z, Mobile, AL 36616The editorial policy and purpose of New Wine are (1) to pro-

claim the gospel of the Kingdom of God to all nation~, (2) towork with all Christian ministries for the maturitv and unitv ofHis Church, (3) thus making ready a people pr~pared for' thecoming of the Lord. We recognize that, according to the Scrip-tures, God uses men given as ministries to build His Church inthe earth. However, the basis of our relationship is not primarilycommitment to human personalities, but to Jesus Christ asHead, to the Holy Scriptures as the ultimate standard by whichall revelation and practice is to be judged and to God's purposefor His people in the earth at this time, as interpreted by the HolySpirit. New Wine is a non-subscription magazine supported by

NEW WINE

the voluntarv contributions of those who believe in its mission.All gifts are'tax-deductible. A tax-deductible receipt for con-tributions is available at year-end upon request. New Wine~lagazine is under the supervision of an editorial board whichmeets several times each year to provide direction and oversight.The board consists of Don Basham, Ern Baxter, Bob !\lumford,Derek Prince and Charles Simpson, who receive no remunera-tion for their service on the board. Please use the form found inthis magazine to request New 'Vine. for address changes andcontributions. All foreign contributions or payments should bemade in the form of a check for U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S.bank or International ~loney Order for U.S. dollars.

35

. '.~~.~.~~~F.:~or to us a child is born,.~~. to us a son is given,:J~ and the government will be on

:;(.J his shoulders.~:, And he will be calledJ Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty

God, Everlasting father, Princeof Peace.

Of the increase of his govern-ment and peace there will be

no end.