the heartbeat of the remnant - ephrata ministries · the heartbeat of the remnant. ... psalmist...

September / October 2002Volume 8 Number 5

. . . is Fighting for the Next Generation

The Heartbeat of

The Remnant

2 The Heartbeat of The Remnant ! September/October 2002

The Heartbeat of The Remnantis published bimonthly byCharity Christian Fellowship.Copyright ©2002 by CharityChristian Fellowship.Subscription is available at nocost upon request. However,there is considerable costinvolved in printing TheRemnant. It is financially sup-ported by the gifts of God’s peo-ple as they respond to the promptings of His Spirit. We request your prayerful consideration of this need.Send subscriptions or contributions to: The Heartbeat of The Remnant, 400 W Main St Ste 1, Ephrata, PA 17522U.S.A. You can call 1-800-227-7902 or (717) 721-7775.

All material in this magazinemay be copied or reprinted inits entirety unless we used itby permission or a copyright isindicated. Please include ourname and address.

C O N T E N T SThe Heartbeat of

The RemnantPublisher

Board of Directors

General Editor

Editorial Staff

Reprint Policy

Subscription Policy

Artists

Charity Christian FellowshipPublication Office

400 W Main St Ste 1Ephrata, PA 17522

Denny Kenaston • ChairmanBen Beiler • Treasurer

Nathan Zeiset • SecretaryMose Stoltzfus • AdvisorMyron Weaver • Advisor

David Mong • Advisor

Denny Kenaston

Andrew WeaverEric Wenger • Layout

Lisa WeaverKate Rutler

Matthew Weaver • PhotographySome images © 2001-2002

www.arttoday.com

FIGHTING FOR THE NEXTGENERATION

" by Denny Kenaston "

H o m e H i s t o r i e sCHARLES SPURGEON" by Denny Kenaston "

NO RESTa Poem

WAKE UP, CHURCH OF AMERICA!" by J. Mast "

I AM RESOLVEDThe Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

The Blessing CornerFootwashing Testimony" by Jean Williams "

THE WISDOM OF WORK" by Rachel Weaver "

THE CAIN SPIRIT" by Daniel Kenaston "

Book ReviewWITH CHRIST IN THESCHOOL OF PRAYER" by Andrew Murray "

Precious Letters fromOur Readers

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September/October 2002 ! The Heartbeat of The Remnant 3

There is a giant in the picture on the cover of this issue of the Remnant.Can you find him? How we view the giants in our Christian lives deter-mines our victories and our defeats. This was true in the history ofIsrael, and it is still true for us today, three thousand years later. ThePsalmist David was a “giant killer.” He had a sanctified view of thegiants in his life. How do you see the ones that are in your life?

Some Christians do not even see the giants though they stand tall and tower over them.Some Christians see them and tremble, hiding in the rocks like Saul and his men.Some Christians see them much bigger than they really are, “We are grasshoppers in their sight.”Some Christians view them like Caleb did, “They are bread for us.”Some Christians see them lying dead on the battlefield, “No fear.”

The picture on the cover of this issue of the Remnant has a very special meaning to me. It hangson the wall of my office at Charity, where many giants have fallen. I have to admit, I have notalways viewed the giants properly. I have cowered at times as I gazed at a giant which wasdestroying someone’s life. The picture is a gift from a dear woman who had it on her wall. Imade the mistake of commenting on how much I liked the message of the picture. She gave it tome and would not let me say “No.” I don’t know who the artist is. If anyone knows, please letme know. We would like to give credit to his gifting from God. -Bro. Denny

Do You Seethe Giant onthe Cover?

September26-29 Charity Christian Fellowship

Leola, PACharity Ministries 1-800-227-7902

or (717) 721-7775

September-October30-2 Emanuel Brotherhood

Wyalusing, PAMark Kuepfer 570-247-7444

October4-6 The Church at Aiken

Windsor, SCPatrick Quill 803-266-4129

7-9 Calvary Baptist ChurchMarietta, GAT.P. Johnson 770-432-0088

10-12 Grace Christian FellowshipWoodbury, TNDaniel Rudolph 615-765-5035

14-20 Hope Christian FellowshipColorado Youth Bible SchoolLoveland, CO970-613-9718

21-23 Grace Bible ChurchPalestine, TXMike Cline 903-723-1036

25-27 Zion Christian FellowshipWellman, IAElvin Martin 319-646-2617

28-30 Millbank Christian FellowshipMillbank, SDDavid Miller 605-432-1834

November1-3 Gospel Light Christian Fellowship

Yuba, WIDarwin Hostetler 608-647-4299

4-6 Marantha Baptist ChurchLa Russell, MODon Courville 417-246-5408

8-10 Hartville Conservative MennoniteHartville, OHDavid Denlinger 330-472-7088

11-14 Bronson Christian FellowshipBronson, MIDavid Smith 517-767-4045

15-17 Calvary Baptist ChurchDanville, ILBill Benzing 217-446-8427

18-20 Old Paths Bible Baptist ChurchRochester, NYCharles Parkowski 585-723-6496

21-24 Calvary Christian FellowshipDalton, OHPhil Neuenschwander330-857-6786

KKEITHEITH DDANIELANIEL’’SS2002 P2002 PREAREACHINGCHING SSCHEDULECHEDULE


Caleb is one of my heroes in the Bible. I wantto be like him. The words recorded aboveare few but packed with meaning. God

uttered these words in the midst of an intercesso-ry prayer that Moses made for the children ofIsrael. They had failed to enter into the PromisedLand because of their unbelief. Caleb, however,was different.

God said that Caleb had another spirit with himthat was different from all the rest of the people.Caleb had a spirit of faith and victory. He was a pio-neer with a fighting spirit. The Lord said, “He fol-lowed Me fully–not halfway. He followed the full-ness of the revelation that I gave Him of My per-son.” There is a secret for us in Caleb’s testimony.

Those of us who want to go on in ourChristian life must be like Caleb. We must have a

spirit of faith that says, “Come on, let’s go. Godwill help us. Let’s go in and take some of that land.Give me that mountain! It’s mine, I want it and I’mgoing to have it.” Words like these express theheart attitude of a Caleb. The Lord gave aprophetic promise to Moses about Caleb. He said,“I will bring him into the land.” God promisedCaleb the land that he saw and walked upon. Wesee in the book of Joshua that this land was notobtained without a fight, and that is how it is inour Christian lives also.

The Lord made another statement of prom-ise about Caleb in the same verse. It holds somethrilling inspiration for us parents today. Godsaid, “His seed shall posses it.” This promise hastremendous applications for our homes thisvery day.

Fighting for the NextFighting for the NextGenerationGeneration

by Denny Kenaston

But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him,and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went;

and his seed shall possess it.Numbers 14:24


Our children shall possess what we,as parents, have fought for.

If we were to visit Hebron, the mountainCaleb possessed, in the early days of the book ofJoshua, we would hear the noise of battle. Wewould see the strain of war and hear the sound ofprayers. We would see Caleb, the man of war,standing there and leading others in a battle forthe land. We would hear Caleb saying, “God saidHe will give me this land. And bless God, by Hisgrace, I’m going to take this piece of land.” Hemight have been eighty-five years old, but he hadthe strength, fire and zeal of a young man. Weneed the same thing, brothers. We need this zealof young men.

If, however, we were to visit the mountain ofHebron twenty years later, we would find a total-ly different scene. We would find Caleb’s childrenand his children’s children there on that moun-tain, working in the fields and living in peace.There they would be, plucking olives off the olivetrees, picking grapes, grazing the sheep on thehillside, gathering the honey and milking thegoats. They would be enjoying all of the thingsGod said that they would find in the land thatflowed with milk and honey.

This is a beautiful picture, but it would nothave been so except for a man named Caleb, whowas willing to fight for his inheritance. He waswilling to fight for that land God said he couldhave. If it were not for Caleb, you would not seeall of those children living in all the good of theland. His children possessed what he fought for. Itis the same for us today. Caleb was a pioneer.There’s something very stirring about being a pio-neer. There’s something very challenging andadventuresome. There’s something adventure-some about being a first generation Christianlooking down the road and saying, “Bless God,I’m going to fight for everything I can get for thesake of the children that live in my house. I wantthem to possess what I was willing to fight for.”

I know that not everyone is a first generationChristian. A first generation Christian is one thathas no Christian heritage. You were lost. You wereundone. You had no thought of God. You foundyourself face to face with the reality of God. Youreyes were opened, and you were born again.That’s where my wife and I found ourselves twen-

ty-nine years ago. We were standing on the goodside of the river Jordan, just gazing out over theland. Ah, there it was! All that land! We had noth-ing—absolutely nothing—but we were bornagain. We saw so many things as we gazed overthe land of Canaan. We saw the beautiful land ofthe disciplined life. We saw the beautiful land oflove. We saw the beautiful land of the character ofChrist. We looked out there and saw the beautifulland of a happy marriage and a godly home, andour hearts said, “I want that mountain.”

There were preachers along the road whosaid, “You can have it! It’s God’s will! Go in andpossess.” We started our Christian life very undis-ciplined in probably every area. Marriage didn’tgo too well. We didn’t know how to be a husbandor a wife. We were not doing too well with ourchildren. We didn’t know much about raisingthem. Leadership was terrible. Finances were astruggle. I could give you a big long list of the fail-ures in which we needed to grow twenty-nineyears ago when we gazed at the land.

The children in my own home have beensaved and salvaged from so much. Some of the

We looked out there and saw thebeautiful land of a happy marriage

and a godly home, and our hearts said,“I want that mountain.”


older ones know the battles and fights that tookplace, but the younger ones—all they know is ahappy mom and a happy dad. All they know isorder in the home. All they know is sweet fellow-ship around about the table. All they know isorder, discipline, leadership and fellowship. Theydon’t even know there was a war to get thosethings, but there was a war to get every single oneof them. We fought with the enemy for everythingwe have. By the grace of God, we fought for it.The children in my home today are literally pos-sessing what we fought for. The little ones aregrowing up in a home where there is a sweet spir-it of love and kindness. They know nothing ofanger and arguments. They don’t know any ofthose things. They are just simply possessing asweet spirited home.

But, brothers and sisters, that didn’t happenby accident. We fought for every bit of it. By that Imean that we wrestled with God. We wrestledwith the devil. We wrestled in prayer. We wres-tled with each other. We argued sometimes. Itdidn’t always go the way it should have, but wesaw the piece of land. We knew that God wantedus to have it if we were willing to keep on fight-ing. By God’s grace, we do possess that land. Thechildren just grow up in the midst of it, as if thatwas the way it always was. That’s exactly howGod wants it to be. God wants our children togrow up in peaceful habitations. Yes, we can tellthem, “It hasn’t always been this way,” but theywill never know the strife, the fight, the battle andthe struggles that we went through, because theywere safely born in the midst of the things wefought for. What a beautiful truth. What stirringthought that is to my own soul.

We Set the Battle in Array

As I look back over the battles over the lasttwenty-nine years, I think about the strain. I thinkabout how the enemy tried to discourage anddestroy and try to get our eyes off the Lord.Through the years God kept drawing our hearts tokeep our eyes looking ahead at the beautiful piecesof land of a happy marriage, of harmony in thehome, of a disciplined life and of prayer that’s real.We saw the land of godly character and of lovingattitudes. We said, “I want them! I want them! Iwant that mountain! I will have that mountain!”

I look back over our experience. I used to hatechildren. I couldn’t stand them. “Get them out ofmy sight! I don’t want children around! They’re anoise, a bother. They’re just trouble.” Imagine mychildren possessing that, but they know nothingof it. They don’t even know it ever existed unlessI tell them. I used to hate old people. I would notgive them the time of day. My children knownothing of that. I fought for that piece of land, andmy children know nothing of the other. My lifewas filled with insecurities and negatives. That’sthe way I was. That’s the way I looked at life. Iwouldn’t try anything new. I was full of negatives.If the sun were shining, I wish it would rain. If itwere raining, I wish the sun would shine. Some ofmy children know what that’s all about, but thelittle ones know nothing of it. They grow up in aland filled with confidence in God, with positiveattitudes and with an uplifting anticipation ofwhat God can do today. That is all they know,because I was willing to fight for a piece of landback there years ago in my Christian life.

Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly tothem; that thy profiting may appear to all.

I Timothy 4:15

In the above verse, Paul wrote to Timothyabout this subject of advancement in the Christianlife, or maybe we should call it “taking newground.” I would like to look at one word in thisverse. It is the word profiting. That word means“pioneer advance.” What is a pioneer advance?It’s taking new ground. It’s heading down a roadthat you’ve never been down before. It’s standingthere in a covered wagon with Mama beside youand two little children in the back of the wagon,looking out over a vast wilderness out in front.And, oh, you dream of a California you’ve neverseen, but only heard about. It’s standing on theedge of that wilderness, dreaming aboutCalifornia on the other side of the mountains andsaying, “We’re going to California. Whatever ittakes.” That’s what a pioneer advance is. It’s tak-ing new ground that you’ve never taken before.That’s what the word profiting means. Considerthe context of this word.

Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an exam-ple of the believers, in word, in conversation, in


charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come,give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doc-

trine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which wasgiven thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the

hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things;give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting—thy

pioneer advance—may appear to all. Take heedunto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in

them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself,and them that hear thee.

I Timothy 4:12-16

Paul told Timothy, “Don’t stay where you are.Be an example to the believers in every area ofyour life. Give attendance to reading and exhorta-tion. Give attendance to doctrine. What do I meanby giving attendance? Meditate upon them. Whatdo I mean by meditate? Mill it over and over andover again. Give your heart wholly to the thingsyou are meditating upon, so that everybody cansee that you are advancing in your Christian life—that you are taking new ground that you neverhad before.”

Pioneers

In our Christian lives we stand lookingahead. You don’t know what’s ahead, but youread the Bible and see that there is much moreland to posses than what you already have.There you stand in the little wagon, with yourwife beside you, with a couple children in theback, and you look out ahead and say, “Let’s gofor it.” You husbands look over at your wife andsay, “Honey, let’s go for it. Let’s not stay here.Let’s go on. Let us go forward. Let us pioneer. Letus advance. Let us go in and possess. Let us goand take that little mountain over there.” Maybetoday, your marriage isn’t going too well.Brother, sister, there’s land up ahead. It’s beauti-ful land, and God wants to change that marriageof yours. And for the sake of those two childrenin the back of that wagon, go for it with all yourheart! Maybe there is chaos in your home. Thereis disarray. There is strife. There is fighting. Forthe sake of those children, you need to go ahead.Fight for that piece of land. Your children shallgrow up in the midst of that beautiful land withall of its milk and honey and with all its fruitsand grapes. They can grow up in the midst of

that, knowing nothing else, if you are willing tokeep on persevering. It doesn’t have to be theway that it is.

There is something stirring and adventure-some in that whole thought to me. As I look ondown the road of my Christian life, I realize thatthere is much land yet to possess. I want to takemy children in the good of everything I am will-ing to fight for. When it’s time for them to taketheir own little wagon, I want them to look outahead and say, “Bless God for all the land weobtained from Mom and Dad, but let’s not stayhere. Let’s keep on going.” I don’t know a betterway to teach the children on how to fight and pos-sess the land than to teach them by example. Wearen’t going to stay on the riverbank. There aretoo many beautiful things out there that Godwants us to inherit. We aren’t going to stay on theriverbanks. We are going to keep on going.

I tell you every piece is worth fighting for.Think with me. It is the will of God that our chil-dren grow up in the midst of the things that wefought for. Let it be that way. Some are just mar-ried. Go for it, newlyweds. Keep everything youhave; go for everything you can get. Your childrenwill just grow up in the midst of everything youget. They will not know anything else. “Fighting?What is that? Angry words? I don’t know whatthey are.” Your children can just grow up in themidst of the things you are willing to fight for. Idon’t know what it is. Maybe there is fighting inyour home? God wants you to possess a betterland. Maybe there is chaos? Don’t settle for that.Maybe you’re an undisciplined, lazy person?Don’t let them grow up in the midst of that. Letthem grow up in the midst of a diligent home.They can grow up not knowing anything else. It isall in your hands today.

That happy marriage you need to have, it’sworth fighting for. It will be worth strainingover. It will be worth crying about. It will beworth every struggle and every energy you putinto it. It will be worth every hour that youspend pondering what a happy marriage shouldbe. It will be worth every hour you spend pray-ing, meditating and facing your needs. It will beworth every bit of it when you look at it in lightof the children who just grow up in the midst ofthis happy home.

continued on page 19


There are times when great tragedystrikes that we must simply say,“God is sovereign.” We all

know times like these when wedo not understand why God isallowing things to happen asthey are. This also applieswhen miraculous thingshappen which defy ourunderstanding. God issovereign, and He cando what ever He wants.Spurgeon’s life is one ofthose miracles. Hepreached his first ser-mon at the age of six-teen with anointing andzeal. By the time he wasnineteen, he was preach-ing to crowds of fivethousand, turning many tothe Lord. You say, “Howcan this be?” I do not know;God is sovereign. The scrip-ture above seems to give roomfor sixteen-year-olds preaching thegospel in like manner. I must admit, Iwish we had more young men who were so

full of God and His word that they cannotbut speak.

When Charles was a young boy,he lived with his dedicated

grandparents for about sixyears. Grandpa was a preach-

er of the gospel, a pastor ofthe same church for fifty-four years. While he livedwith his grandparents,when he was about tenyears old, a very unusualevent placed an eternalstamp on his heart. Agodly evangelist wasstaying at the home for afew days and took aninterest in the hungryboy. Preacher Knill,

stirred by the amazinghunger Charles had for

Bible knowledge, broke outin intercessory prayer for the

lad. He finished by prophesy-ing that the boy would love Jesus

and preach the gospel in the largestchapel in the world. These prophetic

words set the course of Charles Haddon

Charles Spurgeon’sH o m e L i f e

by Denny Kenaston

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh:

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams....Acts 2:17

H o m e H i s t o r i e s


Spurgeon’s life. He began to dream dreams andsee visions from that day forward. His heartunited with the words of the Apostle Paul whowrote of being separated from his mother’swomb that he might preach the gospel to theheathen.

GodlyRoots

God can do anything He wants to do withanyone He wants to use. It is worthy to note,however, how many times He reaches downinto a godly family line to prepare a special ser-vant. Spurgeon is no exception to this observa-tion. Two hundred years of godly generationspreceded him. Two hundred years before him,his forefathers sat in prisons for their faith intheir native land of Holland. Those were dayswhen men and women raised up repeated gen-erations of children who followed the Lord withtheir whole heart. The Spurgeon family finallyleft Holland with desires to live and worshipGod according to their conscience, and they set-tled in free England. In the freedom of England,they continued to display solid Christian con-victions and a dedication to God that graced thefamily testimony all the way into the days oftheir famous son.

Grandfather’s House,A Special School

While we can clearly see God’s divine stampupon this vessel from an early age, it is just asclear to see that God used many human instru-ments to shape and mold this chosen vessel.Charles was one of sixteen children, born in apoor and humble setting like our Lord Jesus.Perhaps this alone explains why his grandpar-ents raised him for six years. His parents werepoor and could not afford to provide for his

needs. Whatever the human reason, God hadHis divine reasons for placing Charles under thecare of this wise old preacher. He learned theBible from Grandfather, who taught him faith-fully morning and evening. He learned aboutprayer from Grandmother, who sat before thefire in her rocking chair praying the hours awayeach day. In addition he learned his studies from“Auntie Ann” who homeschooled him faithfullyfor six years. The Lord ordered a beautiful blendof godliness for this growing preacher boy: thestrength and character of a solid defender of thefaith, the gracious love and tender care of a“Proverbs thirty-one” grandma and the ordereddiscipline of his intelligent aunt. Grandfather’shouse was a special school for a little boy whohad a holy calling on his life. Let us look at somethe classes in this school.

■ Grandpa’s StudyThe Father of Lights had His beautifuldesigns in Grandpa’s study. Charles spenthours in this room reading many commen-taries and theology books. This broughtmany questions to his inquisitive mind, andGrandpa was very willing to answer them.Imagine the natural training of a disciplinedmind that took place during the importantyears of development.

■ The Setting of a Little FarmChores for the little boy built character thatlasted all his days of public ministry. Thecows had to be milked morning andevening, and many other responsibilitiesdemanded the will to keep yielding. This isa most valuable school, one that can not bemeasured in money.

■ The Sitting RoomThis is the room where visions were born inthe heart of a young boy as he sat for hourslistening to Grandpa’s many visitors.Preachers, missionaries and young aspiringstudents of the ministry provided much dia-logue to ponder. As wise parents, we shouldprovide opportunities for this kind of inter-change. If we will honor the godly in the



hearts of our children, they will listen withreverence.

■ Bible Reading with GrandpaThis was one of Charles Spurgeon’s privi-leged responsibilities while he lived withhis grandparents. Morning and evening forsix precious years, he was called upon toread the text out loud. This taught him toread the sacred pages with meaning andawe. He also had the liberty to ask any ques-tion he had about the particular text. Whenhe was finished, Grandfather expounded onthe verses for the day.

■ Refined Character of the AgedHow many of us parents would long to giveour children a more refined, matureChristian example? Spurgeon had thefatherlike care of a loving man, coupledwith a godliness that flowed from years ofwalking with God. Grandmother’s examplewas just as clear and upright. This greatlychallenges me, as I ponder my own chil-dren. I must give them a mature example tofollow. Like produces like in all of God’screation. In the same manner, godliness ispassed on from one generation to the nextby word and example.

■ The FireplaceA healthy imagination is an important partof training and development in the life of achild. God uses many ways and means tostimulate free, imaginative thought. Threethings stand as beautiful memories of theyears at Grandpa’s house. The ripplingbrook, Grandpa’s prayer garden and, mostof all, the evenings around the fireplace. Itseems the changing images of a cracklingfire stirred Spurgeon’s imagination nightafter night. He referred to this fire continu-ally during his many years of ministry.

■ The Ordered Life of Auntie AnnMuch is recorded about the influence thatSpurgeon’s grandpa had on him, and rightlyso. He was clearly an instrument in God’s

hand to mold “the prince of preachers.”Auntie Ann, however, probably had asmuch or more influence on him, as she wasthe one who guided his young life on a day-to-day basis. A quick mind and an orderedlife were the strengths of her character.Young Charles benefited from all of this.While there were times of freedom to roamthe fields and meditate upon creation, sheprovided plenty of structure to the passingdays. The security and the stability that thisbreeds are hard to measure.

■ One Holy PictureThere was a special picture that hung abovethe mantle of the fireplace. This picture hada most profound influence upon Charles allhis days. One thousand words flowed out ofthe picture of David and Goliath. Charlesslew many giants as he sat by the firesideduring evening meditation, and many morereal giants fell at his feet during his years ofministry. Be careful about the pictures youplace before your children. They are feedingfrom the messages the picture brings.Spurgeon referred to this picture repeatedlyin sermons for forty years. Is a picture just apicture? The answer is No, for a picture hasa message in it, and our children listen to itsmessage many times.

■ Sacred SolitudeHave you ever sat in the presence of a godlyman while he was deeply engaged in medi-tation? There is a sanctified silence that ispowerful. The manifest presence of God canbe felt as the godly man ponders or silentlyprays. Charles had this privilege manytimes. At first he was a noisy little boy whodid not know what an opportunity heenjoyed. However, as time went on, heyielded to the silence and became a recipientof its glories. This happened scores of timeswhen Grandpa was called upon to watchover the lad while the ladies were away.May the Lord help us fathers to providesuch silence for our little ones.



HomeLife

Though the school at Grandpa’s house wasrather impressive, Charles moved on to anotherschool no less influential. He moved from aquiet, meditative home to a busy one withmany brothers and sisters. Oh the manifoldwisdom of God! How beautifully He orders alife. Back at home, there is poverty. Back athome, there are many opportunities to share.Back at home, there is a reality of everyday lifethat will train him for life in the real world. Thecombination of these two homes is a perfectblend of his life and ministry. Two things madeSpurgeon one of the most influential men of hisday. He loved God with all his heart (the quietmeditative life), and he lived for others with allof his being (life in a busy home). His days ofsuccessful ministry expressed a beautiful blendof these two great commandments. Again wecan see God preparing a servant in these verydifferent godly homes. As parents, we can gleanfrom both of these examples. There are timeswhen we are tempted to think our large familyis a hindrance to the children. We must resistthis temptation and translate every day intolearning experiences for our children. If theyever become mighty on this earth as God prom-ises in Psalms 112:2, it will be because they havelearned to live for others.

A FewPowerful Books

As I study the homes of godly men, Irepeatedly see the influence of books. This isnot a small issue in the training of the next gen-eration. Readers are leaders, as the saying goes,but what kind of readers and leaders are wegoing to have? If we allow our children to readall the books filled with vanity, what kind of

leaders will we have? We do not lack for booksin this land of ours. However, we do lack forgood, solid books that will guide the tenderminds of our youth. Spurgeon’s father provid-ed the best books for his children to read. Hewas a poor man, but he placed a high priorityon good reading material. Charles found a life-time companion in Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress.He read it through once a year for his entirelife. His father also bought books of the mar-tyrs and current publications of evangelisticnature. It is written of Charles that he would sitand discuss theology with the men at the age oftwelve. This follows the pattern of our LordJesus, who also astounded the teachers of Hisday with His knowledge of the Holy. The par-ents of both of these children watched over theprecious, pure minds of their promising sons.We must follow their lead in this area. There isa desperate need to sanctify the bookshelves inmany of our homes.

Fatherand Mother

It is easy to see how God used the ideal set-ting of Grandfather’s house to train and moldHis servant. He also uses the less than ideal. Iam glad for this because most of our homes fitinto the second category. Spurgeon’s fatherworked full time and did the work of the min-istry evenings and weekends. Some of us knowthat this is not an easy task. There was not muchtime for his large family. (Praise God for hisfaithful wife.) Although John Spurgeon wasbusy providing for the family needs, he stillmade time for family worship, morning andevening. He was loved and reverenced by all ofhis children. They anxiously awaited his returnhome in the evening. They gathered with antic-ipation to hear the stories of the day and of hisevening of ministry.

Mother was a saintly figure in the Spurgeonhome. She brought her children before the Lord



in prayer continually. Because of her husband’sbusy life, she had to fill in the blanks with thechildren. I am sure there were times when shefelt her husband should be home more. She didnot respond with any bitterness. This wouldhave made her life and influence of no affectwith the children. Instead, she gave herself tothe task and received the reward of praise fromall of them. The example of this godly woman’slife guided the family into the way of holiness.They sat at her feet to learn and gazed at her lifeand followed.

Training for the Ministryat Home

This last point in our study comes as a shockto many a preacher who trained for the ministryin a seminary. Spurgeon did not go to a BibleCollege to prepare for his lifework of preachingthe gospel. Looking back over his life, it is veryevident that he was trained for the ministry. Thesetting, however, was not very orthodox. Heprepared at home. His father, his grandfatherand his Heavenly Father oversaw his training.That is not a bad combination, is it? God, in His

providence, would not let Charles Spurgeon goto a seminary. When others began to recognizethe call that God was placing on his life, theyquickly counseled him to get some formal train-ing. As Charles began to pray about this majormove in his life, he had no peace. This causedhim to question the leading that he was getting.He sought God more earnestly, and while hewas on a meditative prayer walk, God made itvery clear to him. In Spurgeon’s own words, “Itwas as if God spoke audibly to me. ‘Do not goto Bible College; trust me.’” That was all heneeded; he never looked back. So he set out onone of the most far-reaching ministries a manever had, without a degree. He had the HolyGhost and the Holy Word abiding in his heart.It seems that was all he needed.

We live in a day when it can be dangerous togo to seminary. There are many good thingsimparted there; however, there are many thingsthat must be unlearned after you have finished.I favor the type of training that Spurgeonreceived. We must remember that the earlychurch had no Bible college. They had theChrist within them, and that was all they need-ed. We have not matched their effectiveness intwo thousand years. Lord, lead us back to theold paths, wherein is the good way. ❏


Brother Denny is going to re-preach The Godly Home Series. Whilewriting his book, The Pursuit of Godly Seed, it became very evidentthat a more organized, updated series on the home was needed.The need for a digital copy of the series is another motivation forpreaching them again.

We Need Your HelpWe are looking for serious, earnest parents to help us in thisendeavor. We need earnest hearers who want to seek God fortheir homes for ten days. The depth of desire in the hearers willaffect the preaching of the messages. All preachers know this fact.We plan to seek God together, with fasting and prayers, for ourhearts and our homes. If you are interested in ten days of broken-ness, openness and fervent fellowship, we could use your help.

Wanted…Earnest Parents Dates: January 17-26, 2003

Services: All ten evenings, with amorning meeting on the weekends

Location: The Church at Cleveland;Cleveland, NC

Registration: Contact CharityMinistries for a registration form:

400 W Main St Ste 1Ephrata, PA 175221-800-227-7902 or (717) 721-7775

Lodging: Some lodging will be providedin homes and other options will be sentwith your registration form. All thisdepends on how many attend.


My soul is not at rest within,My heart for action calls,

For I have seen the chains of sin,Have shuddered at its galls.

The vows of God upon my life,Constrain all strength and nerve.His call has pierced me as a knife;

Him only will I serve!

The voice of loved ones, freedom, fame,Have all grown strangely dim;

My heartís desireís now informed,To fully follow Him!

He was a man of sorrows, griefHis footsteps now I trace;

Dare I search out selfish relief,While He has run the race?

But, no! I too shall fight the fightWhich He has planned for me!

No matter what the cost of right,Eíen this my cause shall be:

To tell of all His wondírous love,Salvationís call so free.

And point souls to my Lord aboveWhoís done so much for me.

You think it as a sacrificeTo leave this secure land,

Forsaking comforts oh, so niceAnd houses which are grand;

But I am thinking of my LordWho left His deity,

Upon the ground His blood was pouredPurchased salvation free.

So someday, in a far-off landMy dying eyes Iíll lift,

To gaze on Africís burning sand,My life lay downóa gift.

Then when on heavenís golden shoreThe natives sing His praise;

My heart with joy shall swell yet moreAnd there thanksgiving raise!

No Rest

-RLK-


On September 23, 1779 afamous battle wasfought and won

against all odds. America wasengaged in the RevolutionaryWar, and this battle wasfought in the North Sea.

John Paul Jones was aScotsman recruited byBenjamin Franklin andurged by the same to come toAmerica to join the war. JohnPaul, although soft spokenand of calm demeanor, hadmuch quiet strength andconfidence. He thus favor-ably impressed John Adams,who was then serving on theCongressional Committee

for the Continental Navy.Jones was eager to provehimself to the Americans,and they allowed him thefreedom to choose his ownstyle of fighting.

His most famous battletook place on September 23,1779. He was then in charge ofan old merchant vessel that herebuilt, equipped with fortycannons and named theBonhomme Richard.

In this battle Jones took ona British ship called theSerapis. The Serapis was partof a fleet of British ships bring-ing supplies to their troops inAmerica. The two ships quick-

ly engaged in battle. At firstthe Serapis was the easy win-ner due both to its superiorweapons and to an accident.Two of the largest guns on theBonhomme Richard jammedand backfired, killing many ofthe crewmembers. The Serapisquickly took advantage of theRichard’s troubles, blasting theAmerican ship until Jones andhis crew had only three bigguns left.

The Americans fought on.The two ships were very closeto each other. Finally Jonesordered the two ships to betied together, and the crewengaged in hand-to-hand com-

Wake up,Church of America!

It is time tostop playing

around and getserious about

this war we arein. Sure, you

might say thatChrist finished

the work onthe cross. Hefinished His;

now we need tofinish ours.

bat. The battle became exceed-ingly violent and bloody.

The Richard was on fireand many were dead. OneAmerican sailor beganscreaming for surrender, butJones refused to give up.When the captain of theSerapis asked if he planned toremove his flag in a gesture ofsurrender, Jones cried, “I havenot yet begun to fight!”

Now my question is this:Are we, as Christians, notengaged in warfare? Has thebattle not been fierce? Does itnot appear many times that weare outnumbered and overpowered? Don’t we feel likegiving up at times? Yet wehave the promise that theCreator of the world, who isalso the author and finisher ofour faith, will never leave usor forsake us.

Friends, let this be aclarion call to all whoare true disciples ofChrist and who havetruly forsaken all tofollow Him—we havenot yet begun to fight!

Where is the power?Where is the zeal? We are notmerely two ships engaged inbattle; we are at war betweengood and evil. This is the warthat has been raging ever sinceChrist arose from the grave.And that same Spirit thatraised up Jesus from the graveis still with us today. We aretalking about resurrectionpower! We cannot win thisfight of our own strength butby His power who conquered

death, hell and the grave.How? By humbling Himself.By being totally submissive toHis Father. With much watch-ing and praying. By fixing Hiseyes on the goal and for thejoy that was set before Him.He endured all. He steadfastlyrefused to turn back or to theleft or to the right.

If temporary freedom fromGreat Britain meant so much toJones and all Americans backthen, surely then eternal free-dom from all eternity of sin isworth everything we have!

Many don’t seem to thinkthat sin is so bad. Some evenplay around with it, enjoyingit. We expect the world to dothis because it is the verynature of the world. But manythat name the name of Christare equally as unconcerned.

Think about AIDS. It is aterrible disease, right? As faras we know nobody has everrecovered from it. As far as weknow there is no cure. Onceyou get it, get ready to die,because you will. But sin killsthe soul—forever.

It is time to stop playingaround and get serious aboutthis war we are in. Sure youmight say that Christ finishedthe work on the cross. He fin-ished His; now we need to fin-ish ours. If you think you canjust sit back and coast intoheaven, you are wrong. Thisfight is unto the death.Nobody is excluded. If you arealive, you are in this war. Isnot Jesus worth your very besteffort? He lived a perfect lifeso that He could be thesupreme sacrifice for us. Notonly is He the sacrifice for us,He is also our Savior, our

friend that sticketh closer thana brother and our mighty gen-eral. He showed us the way.Now we must follow Him ifwe would be saved from thewrath to come.

Another interesting storyfrom the Revolutionary War: Acertain man owned a house in,I think, Boston. During thewar his house was taken fromhim and occupied by one ofthe British Generals. When theAmerican army came to thattown to take it, he pointed outhis house to them and evenoffered a reward to the manwho hit it first.

Now why was he so will-ing to have his own housedestroyed? Because the enemydwelt there!

Are we willing to let ourbother in Christ take a “shot”at us to show us where weneed to improve? Have werecognized our flesh as theenemy that it is? Is heavenworth everything to us? Arewe willing to give up ourearthly house in order to gainvictory? How loyal are we toour General? Or are we sobusy pursuing the Americandream that we are actuallyholding back those who arefighting? We are either help-ing or we are a hindrance. Weare either going forward or weare going backward. There isno neutral zone in this war.

My friend, please consideryour position. If you find thatyou are lax, please don’t put itoff—get right with God now!Be willing to humble yourself.You have nothing to lose andHeaven to gain.

May God bless you.-J. Mast ❏



Being sensible that I amunable to do anythingwithout God’s help, I do

humbly entreat Him by Hisgrace to enable me to keepthese.

Resolved, if I ever shall falland grow dull so as to neglectto keep any part of theseResolutions, to repent of all Ican remember, when I come tomyself again.

Resolved, never to lose onemoment of time; but toimprove it the most profitableway I possibly can.

Resolved, to live with allmy might, while I do live.

Resolved, never to do any-thing, which I should be afraidto do, if it were the last hour ofmy life.

Resolved, to think much onall occasions of my own dying,and the common circumstanceswhich attend to death.

Resolved to be endeavor-ing to find out fit objects ofcharity and liberality.

Resolved, never to do any-thing out of revenge.

Resolved, that I will live so,as I wish I had done when Icome to die.

Resolved to live so, at alltimes, as I think is best in mydevout frames, and when I haveclearest notions of things of thegospel, and another world.

Resolved, to maintain thestrictest temperance, in eatingand drinking.

Resolved, to endeavor toobtain for myself as much hap-piness, in the other world, as Ipossibly can with all the power,might, vigor, and vehemence,yea violence, I am capable of, orcan bring myself to exert, in

Whenever we think of revival, our minds often turn to one ofthe men God greatly used in the past: Jonathan Edwards. Duringhis brief life of fifty-five years, he became known as a great thinker,theologian and pastor.

Edwards was committed to a desire and discipline unto godli-ness. He fleshed out some of his hunger for God by making person-al commitments he termed “resolutions.” These resolutions provid-ed a framework or pathway for him to follow so he would not strayfrom God and become cold and indifferent.

I believe these resolutions are appropriate for us to considertoday. We might change the terminology slightly, but not the theol-ogy. If we are to be men and women who would be used of God forthe cause of revival, we too should make these resolutions our own.

-Dr. Wynne Kimbrough

I Am ResolvedThe Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards

anyway that can be thought of.Resolved, whenever I do

any conspicuously evil action,to trace it back, till I come to theoriginal cause: and then, bothcarefully endeavor to do so nomore, and to fight and praywith all my might against thenatural of it.

Resolved, to examine care-fully, and constantly, what thatone thing in me is which causesme in the least to doubt the loveof God; and to direct all myforces against it.

Resolved, to cast away suchthings, as I find to abate myassurance.

Resolved, to study theScriptures so steadily, constant-ly and frequently, as that I mayfind, and plainly perceivemyself to grow in the knowl-edge of the same.

Resolved, to strive to myutmost every week to bebrought higher in religion, andto a higher exercise of grace,than I was the week before.

Resolved, never to speakevil of any, except I have someparticular good call for it.

Resolved, to inquire everynight, as I am going to bed,wherein I have been negli-gent—what sin I have commit-ted—and wherein deniedmyself; also at the end of everyweek, month and year.

Resolved, never to speakanything that is ridiculous,sportive, or matter of laughteron the Lord’s day.

Resolved, that no other endbut religion, shall have anyinfluence at all on my actions;and that no action shall be, inthe least circumstance, anyother wise than the religiousend will carry it.

Resolved, never to allowthe least measure of any fret-ting uneasiness at my father ormother. Resolved to suffer noeffects of it, so much as in theleast alteration of speech, ormotion of my eye; and to beespecially careful of it with therespect to any of our family.

I frequently hear persons inold age, say how they wouldlive, if they were to live theirlives over again. Resolved, thatI will live just so as I can think Ishall wish I had done, suppos-ing I live to old age.

Resolved, to improve everyopportunity, when I am in thebest and happiest frame ofmind, to cast and venture mysoul on the Lord Jesus Christ, totrust and confide in Him, andconsecrate myself wholly toHim; that from this I may haveassurance of my safety, know-ing that I confide in myRedeemer.

Resolved, never to giveover, nor in the least to slacken,my fight with my corruptions,however unsuccessful I may be.

Resolved, when I fear mis-fortunes and adversities, toexamine whether I have donemy duty, and resolve to do it,and let the event be just as prov-idence orders it. I will as far as Ican, be concerned about noth-ing but my duty, and my sin.

Resolved, not only torefrain from an air of dislike,fretfulness, and anger in con-versation, but to exhibit an airof love, cheerfulness andbenignity.

Resolved, when I am mostconscious of provocations to illnature and anger, that I willstrive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yet at such time, to

manifest good nature, though Ithink that in other respects itwould be disadvantageous, andso as would be imprudent atother times.

Resolved, that I will notgive way to listlessness which Ifind unbends and relaxes mymind from being fully andfixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it.

Resolved, when I find thosegroanings which cannot beuttered (Romans 8:26) of whichthe Apostle speaks, and thosebreakings of the soul for thelonging it hath, of which thePsalmist speaks (Psalm 119:20),that I will promote them to theutmost of my power, and that Iwill not be weary of earnestlyendeavoring to vent mydesires, not of the repetitions ofsuch earnestness.

Resolved, very much toexercise myself in this, all mylife long, with the greatestopenness, of which I am capa-ble of, to declare my ways toGod, and lay open my soul toHim: all my sins, temptations,difficulties, sorrows, fears,hopes, desires, and everything,and every circumstance.

Resolved, after afflictions,to inquire, what am I better forthem, and what I might havegot by them.

Resolved, to confessfrankly to myself all that whichI find in myself, either infirmityof sin: and if it be what con-cerns religion, also to confessthe whole case to God, andimplore needed help.

Resolved, always to dothat, which I shall wish I haddone when I see others do it. ❏



Charity Gospel Tape Ministry &The Heartbeat of The Remnant

April–June 2002 Financial Report

Greetings in the name of our com-ing King, “Lord Jesus Christ.” It ishard to believe that eight months

of the new year have alreadypassed. We have a saying at ourhouse that explains why time goesby so quickly. We say, “Life is full.”We do not say life is busy, becauseour lives overflow with beautifulblessings; so instead, we say, “It isfull.” This is a good way todescribe the work at the TapeMinistry and the Remnant publica-tion over the last months. Life isfull and running over. Blessingsabound on every hand. Souls arecoming to salvation, families arebeing transformed and God’s peo-ple are seeking higher ground. Godis raising up dozens of familiesevery week, who are marching tothe beat of a different drum. Wereceived the picture on this pagesome time ago. I have been savingit to use in one of these ministryupdates. Even the little ones spendtime gazing at the pictures in theRemnant.

We have posted the financial statement for April, May and June on the following page.We stand amazed at God’s faithful provision for this ministry. We have our ups and downsand times when we are not sure how we will make it; however, God always comesthrough. This is kind of like real life for most of us. We never lack what we need. Thankyou for all of your help. Many of you give, and many more of you pray. We are grateful forboth. We receive many letters that state how much you pray for us. Thank you. Everyaspect of the ministry is on the increase. The number of tapes we sent out is far ahead oflast year’s totals. We are at 133,000 so far this year. The Remnant subscription gains 200subscribers with each new printing. Moreover, the Charity Ministries website activity hasdoubled in the last few months. Please keep praying, there are many adversaries.

September / October 2002Volume 8 Number 4

. . . is Fighting for the Next Generation

The Heartbeat ofThe Remnant


New Tape Set

We have a new series of tapesavailable from our weekendof meetings in August.Revelation’s Timeless Doctrinesis the title of the tape set. Itwill stimulate your thinkingand challenge your end timetheology. This set offers avery practical look at thebook of Revelations. It’semphasis is not on interpret-ing the signs and symbols ofthe book, but rather on appli-cations that challenge us toget ready and stay ready. Theteaching follows the patternsof “two’s” in Revelation: twoKings, two Kingdoms, twopeople, two cities, twowomen and many more.

-Bro. Denny

04/01/02 Beginning Balance -$4,262.84

ReceiptsTape Ministry Donations $71,259.22Remnant Subscription Donations $5,439.90Total Receipts $76,699.12

DisbursementsUPS & Postage $8,276.06Tapes, Albums & Labels $32,352.26Equipment & Software Purchases $1,343.55Equipment Maint & Repairs $1,290.52Mailing & Office Supplies $1,861.72Rent, Housing & Electric $3,600.00Telephone $1,811.24Website Development & Maintenance $428.46Miscellaneous $1,297.89Payroll Expense $9,800.01Books & Catalogs $2,276.00Remnant Publishing & Mailing $6,975.22Total Disbursements $71,312.93

06/30/02 Ending Balance $1,123.35

Difference $5,386.19

We will close with the words of Caleb. He wasstanding in the midst of all of God’s people. Hewas listening to them, and they were settling forless than what God wanted them to have. Theywere struggling over the giants. They were com-plaining about how hard it was. They were eventalking about Egypt. They were saying, “Maybe itwould be better if we weren’t here. Maybe itwould be better if we didn’t follow the Lord.”

Caleb, who was victorious and had a greatheart, said along with Joshua, “The land, whichwe passed through to search it, is an exceedinggood land. If the Lord delight in us, then he willbring us into this land, and give it us; a landwhich floweth with milk and honey. Only rebelnot ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the peopleof the land; for they are bread for us: and theirdefense is departed from them, and the Lord iswith us: fear them not.”

Caleb simply said, “All the land that Godtalked to us about is everything God said it was.Let us go in and possess it. Don’t give in to thosediscouraging thoughts that are in your minds.Don’t listen to those demons, those lying spirits,who come to lie to you and fill your mind withunbelief, doubt and discouragement. They tellyou how it will not be worth it, and you cannothave it. Don’t listen to them. If the Lord’s blessingis upon thee, if heaven is open upon thee, if God’sgrace is upon thee, surely He will give you all ofthe land—all the land that you want.”

What do you want? What do you need? Whatare you willing to fight for, that your children cangrow up in the midst of the good land?

What you are willing tofight for is the heritage youleave for your children. ❏

continued from page 7, Fighting for the Next Generation, by Denny Kenaston


Dear Remnant,

I received a great blessing from thefoot washing article in the last copy ofthe magazine. I too have a story to tellabout my experience with my godlymother. It does work!

Last August my mother was put inmy care until she died. The rest of thefamily wanted nothing to do with herdaily care, such as washing her, feedingher and taking her to the doctor. Her pre-cious body had heart disease and dia-betes. Her legs were so painful that shewould stay up and read her Biblethrough most of the night. I couldn’tstand to see her like that any longer.

I took a bowl and put water and soapin it. I put it down in front of her andsaid that I felt God wanted me to washher feet every day to make them feel bet-ter. She couldn’t believe that I would dothis. Her face lit up, and she said that Icould if I wanted to. I put her preciousswollen feet in the bowl of warm waterand started washing and rubbing them.When I lifted my head to look at her, Isaw her eyes all watery looking at me.She looked so contented and so loved.

When I finished drying off her feetand putting lotion on the them, shemade a statement that changed my life.It strengthened our relationship like

nothing before. She said, “You know,Jean, your two sisters are both nursesand one has been a pastor’s wife for thir-ty years. They never did anything likethis for me before. You don’t know howgood this makes me feel.”

My dear Christian mother is in heav-en now. She died on Christmas Eve. I amso glad that she doesn’t have to be inpain anymore. I miss her so much, and Iwill never forget how much she lovedhaving her feet washed. She looked for-ward to it every day. This is a great truththat seems to be lost in the church today.

My dear mother was the greatest inthe world. She never worked outside ofthe home. She made our clothes, taughtSunday school, helped start two bigchurches in the area and took care of hersick husband. She was a widow fortwenty years, and never once did herpastor come to see her.

She deserved to have her feet washedby every Christian who knew her. It is ashame that we cannot see that this hum-ble act brings such joy and relief to theweary. I just wish I would have done itsooner. It brought our hearts together inher last days like nothing else.

God bless you and your paper. Keepup the great work.

-Jean Williams

D R U G P R O B L E M

I had a drug problem when I was a young per-son and a teenager.

I was drug to church on Sunday morning. Iwas drug to church on Sunday night. I wasdrug to church on Wednesday night. I wasdrug to Sunday School every week. I was drugto Vacation Bible School.

I was drug to the family altar to read the Bibleand pray. I was also drug to the woodshedwhen I disobeyed my parents.

Those drugs are still in my veins. And theyaffect my behavior in everything I do and sayand think. They are stronger than cocaine,crack, or heroine.

If our children would have this drug problem,the world would certainly be a better place.


Dear Mother Friends,

It seems so long since I havechatted with you. I am agrandma now twice, and

my little band of followers hasbecome much smaller. The old-est two are married. Onedaughter is often gone to helpother mothers cope and sur-vive, and our son is out on hislawn-mowing job. Once againour children at home daily arefourteen, twelve, nine, sevenand four years old. How quick-ly the ten years have passedsince the last five were that age!How many lessons we havelearned.

Reflecting over my twenty-five years of marriage, I can seethings we could have done dif-ferently. But I also see lots ofjoyful, happy times and manybeautiful memories. Stop andsavor each minute that youhave. Smile, sing, smell theroses, cuddle your little onesand work beside your growingup ones. I see many hiddenblessings in the principle ofhard work. When we mothersseek to instill this in our chil-dren, it has a way of multiply-ing our time. Anybody outthere need more of that?

The wisdom of work is so

fruitful. It is a practical themebuilt upon a spiritual principle.Ecclesiastes 9:10 says,“Whatsoever thy hand findethto do, do it with all thy might.”In another place, in the NewTestament, Paul says we shouldwork “heartily as unto theLord.” Proverbs mentionsmany things that an industri-ous women can and should do.The principle of working withour hands is found all throughthe Bible and is a major themein the life of the Proverbs thirty-one woman.

WorkingTogether

It is up to us whether ourchildren are going to be able tocarry out these commands joy-fully. We, as parents, are theirteachers and role models. Thebest way for them to learn isright beside us.

First, and foremost, wemust like to work ourselves.There is a tremendous satisfac-tion in a job well done. A clean,neat house is a blessing and anaccomplishment. If we do notenjoy rolling up our sleeves

and filling the sink with hot,soapy water and leaving thekitchen shining, then we mustbegin with ourselves. Who canhope to have children whowork with a will and sing asthey scrub, if they do not setthat example themselves?

So dear mother, if you arestruggling with this, stop andconsider. No one taught youthe joy of a job well done. Noone trained you to clean upyour mess before making thenext one. Here you are, twelveto thirty years later, and themess has multiplied. You stilldo not like to work but yourwork has multiplied. What thencan be done?

I believe that you need toseek the Lord seriously and cryout to Him to help you change.Study the Lord’s instructionsabout working. Memorizethem. Then realizing that youcannot teach that which you donot enjoy, set out earnestly toget rid of these hindrances.

Take a close look at the timewasters in most of our homes.We all recognize the phone as amajor one. With your hus-band’s consent and blessing,plan a one hour slot everymorning and evening when

The Wisdomof Workby Rachel Weaver

you take the phone off thehook, or use the answeringmachine, so that you are free towork with the children.

Make 7:30-8:30 a.m. yourclean up time (you set the hour)and list the tidy-up morningchores that should be complet-ed. At our house they look likethis. Everyone helps.

♥ Check to see if beds aremade.

♥ Do dishes.♥ Shine refrigerator, counter

and stove.♥ Sweep floors, vacuum rugs.♥ Empty all trash.♥ Clean and shine bathrooms.♥ Put in a load of laundry.

Comb little girls’ hair.

Then when these chores aredone, you could stop and reada story to the children for halfan hour from that interestingbook you just purchased. Youwill be amazed at how fast theycan whisk away the chores withonly a small incentive. If yourepeat the process immediatelyafter lunch and again after sup-per, varying the chores to suitthe time of day, you will findthat the house begins to stay abit neater.

Limit your phone time allthe time. You will have moretime to work with the children.If you must talk, try setting atimer for fifteen minutes andexcuse yourself when it rings.Use a cordless phone and walkfrom room to room picking upthings and putting them away.Teach your children, by yourexample, to be tidy.

The computer is also a hugetime thief. It was not availablewhen our older children were

small. There was no email orInternet. Now I watch manyyoung mothers (and older ones,too) glued to the screen onemail loops and surfing the netfor information. No matter howgood the communication orinformation, no matter howmuch good you think you areserving, if you are not meetingyour first responsibility, you aremaking a mistake. No one elsewill teach your growing daugh-ter how to make a good mealand keep a neat, tidy house. Noone else will teach your youngson to pick up the broom whenthe meal is over and quicklyand neatly sweep the floor andempty the trash. The day maycome when you may have thetime for the phone and comput-er, but you do not have it now. Ido not have it now. As much asI love to read and write, I amnot on email loops. I do nothave the time. These children ofmine are only here for a shortwhile. I see this more keenlynow than ever.

It is up to me to create manyof the good work habits in mychildren. If I teach them to feelcomfortable living in a messwith jobs half done, who willteach their children? Many,many mothers in the last fortyto fifty years had a professionas their priority. They were notin engaged in making mothersand homemakers. They hadescaped that drudgery. Youmay be the fruit of this profes-sional mothering. No onetaught most of you to bakefresh, crusty homemade breador even keep a tidy kitchen.Now five, or even eight, chil-dren later you are throwing upyour hands in despair.

Although it will be apainful process, I believe youcan change this. How specialit would be if each of you dearsisters could have an oldermom come and show you howto do this for a few weeks, butit simply cannot be done.Most of us are still trainingour own nest full. Perhapswith my paper and pen, I caninspire you and show you theway, bit by bit.

TheFreedom of a

Schedule

Schedules are a real help atour house. Let me share withyou what usually works for me.Sometimes I need to re-evaluateand change things a bit. Youmay need to use different timesor add other chores. I am fondof saying, “My schedule is onlya framework. It is adjustable.”It gives us a comfortable goal towork for. It is a proven fact thatthose who use a schedule canget more work done than thosewho do not.

We eat our breakfast at 7:00A.M. since our daddy works athome. Then he sits down andhas worship with us. After that,each of us gets a chore to do.

7:45 to 8:00 a.m.

♥ 7-year-old does the dishes.♥ 9-year-old cleans and shines

the bathrooms.♥ 12-year-old sweeps the

floors and vacuums therugs.

♥ 14-year-old works with thelaundry and combs hair of


7-year-old.

Mom oversees, picks uphere and there and in generalworks beside the children. Imight rinse and stack a fewdishes for the seven-year-oldand check on the bathroomsand floors. Often I help a bitsorting wash or hanging updresses in the laundry. By 8:15-8:30 we are done, and the houseis neat. Remember, there wasnot a big mess to start with. Ifyou do have a big mess, youmay need to stop everythingfor a few days. No using thephone or computer. Simplifymeals and concentrate on get-ting things back into order.Then begin to try and keepthem there.

♥ 8:30 A.M. Finds us ready forschool or projects, depend-ing on the time of year.

♥ 12:00 Lunch.♥ 12:30 We go through the

clean-up routine all overagain.

♥ 1:00 Free time for everyone,usually quiet reading orprojects while Mom and thefour-year-old take a rest.

♥ 2:30 Time for school or proj-ects.

♥ 5:30 Supper meal.♥ 6:00 Rerun chore time.♥ 7:30 Read aloud story.♥ 8:00 Bedtime for little ones.♥ 9:00 Bedtime for fourteen

and up.

Afternoon chores also havea bit of order according to theday of the week.

♥ Monday: always a big washday, boys work for Dad.

♥ Tuesday: project day: sew,bake, landscape and mulch.

♥ Wednesday: odds and endsof jobs, stop early for prayermeeting.

♥ Thursday: clean bedrooms,remake beds with freshsheets, clean upstairs bath-room.

♥ Friday: clean main floorand windows, dust and dolaundry.

♥ Saturday: clean out refrig-erator, bathe children, layout Sunday clothes, preparefood for Sunday.

We try to wash every dayexcept Wednesday. Sometimeswe even do then. We always doa huge wash of about eightloads on Monday. Tuesdaythere are usually one or twoloads. Thursday there are quitea few if we wash the bed sheets,and often there are five loadson Friday. If we do this consis-tently we can keep our headsabove water and “MountWashmore” seems more con-querable. This means thetwelve or fourteen-year-oldspends a lot of time doing laun-dry. I help some. We all helpwith folding. The littlest onesfold table napkins and wash-cloths. The next one folds dishtowels and towels. We sort thewash into piles by owner as wefold. When the laundry is com-pleted our “UPS men” deliverthem to the right rooms for theowner to put away. In reality,laundry is a huge chore for bigfamilies. It is lots more fun todo it, fold it neatly and put itaway, than to have smelly pileslying around or clean washheaped here and there unfold-ed. That is downright depress-

ing. Our laundry person (8-14)is supposed to start one loadwhen she rises in the morning(sometimes I do it for him orher). That way, after breakfast,a new load can be put in andwe are on the way.

You Do NotHave to be

Perfect

Our house is not spotless,mind you. Sometimes I drop bywith friends whose familiesstarted when ours did, and theyhave four or five children. Theirhomes are spotless. There areno toys or little shoes in sight.The window panes are notsmudged or the wash overflow-ing. I still have little folks whoflatten their noses on the win-dows and leave sticky hand-prints on the door. They lovebug collections and pressedflowers. Sometimes they do notsweep in the corners or washthe dishes clean. They forget totake a load of dresses out of thedryer and hang them uppromptly. They track in dirt.But we are learning, and wewill get it accomplished. I mustremember that this too willpass.

Day after day, I must trainmy children gently, consistentlyand patiently. That is where therubber meets the road for me.The gentle, patient part. It hasbeen a lo-o-ong day. I amweary—and, oh no—someonehas finished sweeping andthere are still crumbs under-neath the table. Do I comeunglued? Or do I patientlyteach and train again? God has


been working in my heart theneed to be a more patient moth-er, blessing as I train. When Iam joyful, the children joyfullyrespond to me. When I am crit-ical and demanding, theirresponse is very poor.

Join me in learning to loveworking with your children. Doit enthusiastically. Sometimesmake a game out of it. Makechores a family-together timewhen possible. Bless the chil-dren for their efforts. Overtime, you will find your work-load lightened and your home amore tidy, restful place to be.

Take the phone off thehook, shut off the computer,and you will be amazed at howmuch more time you have inyour day. Try it for a week,maybe two. You may neverwant to go back to being“plugged in” again.

God is so patient with us.He teaches us again and again.He leads us on so gently. Let usstrive to be like Him as weteach our small bands of fol-lowers. Let us lift up our eyesand our hearts and be joyfuland bless His name.

A JobWell Done

Childhood is your goldenopportunity to teach them toenjoy the satisfaction of a jobwell done. My husband’s moth-er always said, “Let the childhelp you when he wants to (heis usually very young). Then bythe time he is old enough to dothe job well, he already enjoyshelping.”

I find this is so true. Four-

year-olds can do breakfast dish-es by making a big mess, butthey love it. When they areseven, they can be depended onto do them pretty well.

Inspire your younger child(six and down) by makingsome chores fun. They love tobecome mailman and deliverpicked up items to their properplaces. They enjoy becoming ahorse and pulling the wagonup the drive to dump the trash(keep the bags small). Everythree to five-year-old loves tostand at the sink and washbreakfast dishes. This is oursmallest pile of dishes. We folda towel over the edge of thesink and put a plastic apron onthe child so he doesn’t get total-ly soaked. I show them how towash cups, and I come backevery so often to rinse (andwash!) and stack them to dry.Then we work at the silver-ware. It takes a long time, but itoccupies them so well. Whenwe are done, we wipe everything dry. Sometimes we evenend up changing Johnny’sclothes, but he had fun. Whosays work isn’t fun? Andalways, if possible, let themstretch to do a chore that isalmost too big for them. That isthe one they usually want todo. Then praise them for a jobwell done. Our dishwasher canhardly wait to clean the bath-room. Our bathroom cleaner isso anxious to graduate to doingthe laundry. Each step up indi-cates a growth in character andperson. When they beg to betransferred, we tell them, “Assoon as you can do this jobcheerfully and withoutreminder, you can move up.” Itis amazing what an incentive

that is. By the time they arefourteen, they can run thehouse fairly well even if Momhas a special day off. They loveto show me they can do it. Theyhave everything clean andeveryone happy when I comehome.

Blessing a child for a jobwell done is a great incentive. Iremember very clearly mychildhood from ten to twelve.My mother was not well, and asthe oldest of the five children, Ihad to go ahead. She often saysto me now, “I wish you wouldnot have had to work so hard.”I am thankful that I did. I neverreally minded it. Mother wasalways so grateful for what weaccomplished that we felt spe-cial.

♥ Teach each child to clean uphis own mess. Even at two, hecan be trained to pick up hisDuplos or put away hisPlaydough. When he is donewith a project, require him toput away his scissors, glue andcolors. There can be penaltiesfor projects that are not cleanedup. Be innovative. Just be sureyou teach it. Do not let themthrow their caps and coats onthe floor. Be sure there is aplace for them and requirethem (as young as two) to putthem there. Never let themthrow candy wrappers or othertrash on the floor. These go inthe waste can. You may thinkthis goes without saying, butthis is not always so.

♥ Teach them to wipe up theirown spills as soon as they canrun for a towel. Be there andhelp them, but let them do it.This minimizes carelessness


and sticky messes. Whengarbage is on the counter,empty it. Do not let it set thereovernight to smell and drawflies.

♥ When dishes are dirty, washthem. We expect our cook andbaker to clean up their dishesand bowls when they are donebaking. This is part of their job.We do not let it for the nextmeal. This cuts down on majorkitchen messes.

♥ When we have a big cook-ing, canning or baking day, wedo have a big mess. But our dayis not completed until the dish-es are done and the floor iswashed.

♥ Teach each child to makehis own bed, hang up his night-clothes and dispose of his dirtylaundry properly. Work togeth-er weekly to clean up outside.Pick up trash and sweep thesidewalks and porches. Pullweeds together. Pick beanstogether and sing while youwork.

Children work better withyou than alone. There is a secrethere. They do a better job, andit is more fun to do it together.The prophet says, “And thepeople had a mind to work.” Ifind this happens much moreeasily when we do it as a fami-ly. Sometimes we will make ameal for someone, and we alltake part. The smaller ones dolittle jobs, and someone makesthe dessert. We all get involvedin cutting, chopping and frying.We enjoy it so much that occa-sionally the children will plan aspecial meal with lots of festive

dishes and invite a few familiesover to join us. Perhaps we willserve an Indian feast or aMexican fiesta meal. Or maybewe will just have a baked pota-to bar with lots of toppings. Ofcourse it takes time to get it allready, but we spend a wholeday of fun doing it. Then wespread the table with a nicecloth and cut fresh flowers for acenterpiece. We have an excit-ing evening of fun and goodfood. The children will belearning to work, and theywon’t even know it. Sometimeswe will take an afternoon offand go help another mother.Each child gets his marchingorders, and because we areblessing someone, floors, dish-es and laundry seem like fun.

What Canthe Children

Do?

There are so many thingsthat children can do, if we willput our mind to work on it.Here is a list compiled by KarenJohnson taken from VintageHousekeeping for the 20th CenturyChristian Woman. It is brokendown into categories of age.You can see at a glance thatthere are great possibilitieshere. You can make your ownlist by taking some time to docreative thinking.

18 Months to 3 years

♥ Help pick up and put awaytoys.

♥ Fold and put away wash-cloths.

♥ Run get and put items as

directed.♥ Set spoon and cup on high

chair for meals.

3 to 5 years

♥ Dress self.♥ Fold and put away clothes.♥ Empty small garbage into

bigger pails to take to thedumpster.

♥ Take laundry to washerfrom hampers.

♥ Finish straightening pillowsand coverlet.

♥ Feed and water family pet.♥ Bathe self with some help

(hair and back).♥ Set table for meals.♥ Clear table after meals.♥ Empty silverware from

dishwasher without sharpknives.

♥ Clean spots from floor.♥ Stack books for bookcase.

5 to 7 years

♥ Make bed completely.♥ Change sheets.♥ Vacuum room.♥ Dust room and lower furni-

ture.♥ Wash, rinse and dry general

dishes.♥ Sweep and mop small

rooms or entryways.♥ Fold towels.♥ Sort and load washer.♥ Straighten drawers and

closets.♥ Care for personal care

unsupervised.♥ Fold top bed blankets,

afghans, etc.♥ Take buttons off old gar-

ments.



Iam sitting down to sharethese thoughts with you aday later than I had

planned. I must say that myalready full heart has beenfilled even fuller by the cir-cumstances that God hasallowed to intervene. I willcome back to the subject ofthose unexpected circum-

stances in a moment, but fornow let me share a bit aboutthe subject that God has laidon my heart. This month, as iscommonly the case, I am shar-ing with you out of the thingsthat God is doing in my heartand life. My life is filled withmy responsibilities as a mis-sionary to a largely unreached

tribe. The things I write areheavily influenced by thescenes that meet my eye every-day and by the burden that Icarry for my people, theKonkombas. I am not and donot try to be “balanced” in mywriting, as I lean heavilytowards the work of Godamong the forgotten and least-reached peoples of our day. Iknow that balance is essentialin this as in every other area. Ihope that my sharing as avoice from afar, tilted though Iam in one direction, can be achallenge and a blessing toyou there. I hope that it canpossibly help keep us not onlybalanced but in line withGod’s heart that is bleeding forthe world.

I am writing all of this toexplain why I continue tocome back to the same bur-dens over and over again inthese articles. The burden thatmotivates them is with meconstantly, and I cannot getaway from the realities thatsurround me. If you can bearwith me, I would like tounburden my heart once againconcerning the millions ofChrist-less people that todaypass on the road towards helland share most specificallyconcerning our response tothat plight. I ask you to bearwith me, because you do notstand where I stand. Our per-spectives are different. I amtrusting that God can use theview I have from here to be achallenge to you there, even asHe has used you to be a chal-lenge and an encouragementto me here. I believe it wasDavid Livingstone who said,“I have seen the smoke of a


Where is your brother?

The Cain Spiritby Daniel Kenaston

thousand villages.” The landon which the Konkombas arespread is too vast and the ter-rain is too flat to allow mesuch a view, but theKonkomba tribe alone fills twothousand villages. I have notseen or been in them all, but Ihave been in many. What Ihave seen and felt in them hasgiven birth to these thoughts.

“And the Lord said unto Cain,Where is Abel thy brother? And

he said, I know not: Am I mybrother’s keeper? And he said,

What hast thou done? The voiceof thy brother’s blood crieth unto

me from the ground.”Genesis 4:9-10

These verses were on myheart yesterday as I preparedto sit down to write this arti-cle. Over the previous weekor so God had been layingthem on my heart every time Iwas in a village. Now I wassearching for a way to putinto words the burden I wasfeeling.

Just before I was to beginwriting, I noticed a little clus-ter of men coming up the trailto our compound. I could tellby their demeanor that theyhad something they wished tomeet with me about. I took abench outside and greetedthem, as is customary beforeinquiring about their purposein coming. They camerequesting that I take theLand Rover to a nearby vil-lage and carry their sickbrother home, as he was neardeath. As is usual, I inquiredinto the facts surrounding thecase. I found out that theyoung man had been sick for

some time and had gone to anumber of hospitals withoutbeing cured. The last resorthere is to take a case like thisto the local juju doctor/herbal-ist for treatment. That iswhere the young man wasnow, in the home of one suchmedicine man in a village afew miles north of us. I agreedto help them in this way assoon as I was certain that hewas too sick to be carried on amotorcycle. We set off with acouple of his relatives.

When we arrived at thehouse of the “doctor,” weagain went through all of thegreetings before we wereinformed that the young manhad died only thirty minutesbefore we arrived. The rela-tives sat there in silence for acouple of minutes beforegoing into the room wheretheir brother lay. A few min-utes later they carried him out,wrapped up in a cloth, andlaid him in the back of theLand Rover. We said goodbyeto the medicine man and head-ed home. The village wherethe young man was beingtreated was from anothertribe. I noted with the interestof a cultural learner thatthough they showed almost noemotion in the village, as soonas we got in the car they beganmoaning softly, especially theyoung man’s mother, who waswith him when he died. I havebeen at a number of funeralsamong our people, but sincethese are held at a later datethan the death and burial, Ihave rarely experienced theirinitial response to death.

We drove slowly back theten miles or so to their home

village, mostly in silence withan occasional word of grieffrom the boy’s mother or oneof his brothers. As we nearedthe village, I thought about thefact that the village expectedus to be bringing home a sickyoung man rather than acorpse. I wondered what theculture dictates as a rightresponse in such a situation.

We drove up to the youngman’s house. His father wasstanding there watching ourarrival. We parked the vehicalunder the tree by the gate,and the brothers, who were inthe car with me, got out andwordlessly removed thecorpse. They carried it intothe big round room, whichserves as a family room in aKonkomba house. The fatherlooked on with not so muchas a blinking eye to signal thathe was understanding thescene before him. That is theemotional reserve of aKonkomba man. The mother,however, climbed out of thecar and walked into the fami-ly compound to meet her fel-low wives and daughters. Assoon as she crossed throughthe gate into her own com-pound, she began to wail. Thewomen and girls of her com-pound picked up the wail. AsI stood there for a few min-utes surrounded by stoic,silent men, the informationwas quickly carried through-out the village, evidenced bythe men who began streamingtowards the house and by thewail which arose from eachhouse as the sad newsreached the women in it.

I sat silently with thefather and brothers of the


deceased for a few minutes,and my mind went to theverse in Ecclesiastes chapterseven, “It is better to go to thehouse of mourning than to goto the house of feasting.” Sofor a while I did that. I sat insilent mourning with thosewho silently mourn. I pon-dered over the burden of whatI would have been writing hadthe call not come to go to thehouse of mourning. I knew asI sat there that this interrup-tion was not a coincidence, forthe young man who had justdied was a Konkomba. As faras I know the sorrow that Iwas observing was not onlyKonkomba sorrow, but it alsowas the sorrow of those thathave no hope. I shared a fewwords of sympathy with thefather, asked permission toleave and headed home againwith a heavy heart. I could nothelp but think about the dif-ference it would have made inmy heart and in the hearts ofthe grieving had we had theassurance that the deceasedwas not permanently dead butonly resting in God’s care,awaiting the resurrection. Ifear the reality was far fromthis for these idol worship-pers, and the only solace that Icould give were mere words ofsympathy.

I pondered the helplessfeeling of trying to console thesorrowing. The reality of theflames the young man hadnewly entered was ten timesworse than anything the fami-ly was able to grieve over. Tono avail was their careful han-dling of the body, for he couldknow no comfort now. To noavail were the rituals that

would be carried out over thecorpse before burial, to noavail were the offeringspoured on behalf of thedeceased and to no avail werethe all night drumming, danc-ing and drinking. For, dearones, as we know throughGod’s word, the afterlife is notdecided by such means asthese carried out after thedeath of a loved one, butrather by the faith that is or isnot in the heart of the individ-ual towards God and His Son.You and I are privileged tomove towards the precipice ofdeath, not in the grip of anunanswerable fear, but in thefirm confidence that ourSavior has gone to prepare aplace for us. We have an assur-ance that because of the bloodof Jesus we are qualified toinhabit the place prepared forus. But, alas, the young manand family of whom I am writ-ing did not have such a confi-dence. In their grief andmourning, their own fear ofthe unknown future foundexpression. The Bibledescribes them in these words,“they which have no hope.”More poignant words couldhardly be found to express theatmosphere in which I foundmyself yesterday as I sat in thehouse of mourning. No Hope!

Let’s leave this scene andgo back to the verses inGenesis. Because God is allknowing, we can be sure thatwhen He asks a question suchas He asked Cain, He is nottrying to gain information.This conversation, which start-ed with a question and endedwith one of the most seriouscurses verbalized in scripture,

was an attempt to get Cain toface up to his guilt. “Where isAbel thy brother?” Cain, as weknow, denied not only theghastly deed he had commit-ted but went further in hisinsulting answer to assert thathe was not his brother’s baby-sitter! Abel was a shepherd. Itseems likely that Cain usedthis almost like a pun as heretorted to God’s probingquestions, “Am I the keeper ofthe sheep keeper?” Notice thatGod did not answer Cain’sattempt at interrogation butrather informed Cain in nouncertain terms that He knewboth the nature and location ofthe crime. “The voice of thybrother’s blood crieth unto mefrom the ground.” Cain judgedhimself by his own words andattitude. God’s judgment ofhim was just, but it is still quitestaggering to meditate on thecurse God pronounced uponhis head, “The ground shallnot henceforth yield unto theeher strength, a fugitive and avagabond shalt thou be in theearth!”

I know and trust that noone who will be reading thisarticle would ever think ofhaving such an uncaring atti-tude and lack of concerntowards his or her brother,much less dream of carryingout a bloody murder on ablood relative. You may bewondering what the connec-tion is between the Konkombaburden I mentioned above andthe biblical story of Cain. I begyou to bear with me as I try toconnect these two in the waythat God has impressed themon my heart in the last days. Inchapter ten of the book of


Luke we find the parable ofthe good Samaritan, in whichJesus broadens the category ofneighbor to include basicallyeveryone with whom we havecontact of any sort. He did thisto break down the justifica-tions of a self-justified man,who felt that by sending anoccasional gift to the threepeople whose propertiestouched his own, he had ful-filled the law about lovingyour neighbor. Jesus pointedhim back to the spirit of lovingyour neighbor and in so doinglet him know that he had along way to go before he couldboast of perfection accordingto the law.

If Jesus redefined the con-cept of neighbor to include allthose in need of our help,wouldn’t we be not only safebut also wise to broaden ouridea of who our brother is? Iknow that we are applyingand not interpreting scripturewhen we use it in this way. Butif you will walk with methrough these verses in thisnew light, I think that you willagree that God can use an oldand familiar story from Hisword to convict and challengeus in totally new areas. I men-tioned above, my perspectiveis different than yours becausemy surroundings are so vastlydifferent. Here then is what Isee when I look at Genesis 4:9-10 in light of the scores ofKonkomba villages I have seenand in view of the hopeless-ness that I have observed atnumerous funerals in thosevillages.

God comes to the churchquite often with a question, thesame question that He asked of

Cain thousands of years ago.Now, as then, He is painfullyaware of the answer before Heeven voices the question. Theknowledge of the answermakes the question come forthas the mournful longing of afather seeking for a lost child.God finds us, the church, busywith whatever it is that wemay be busy with. But whatev-er we are doing shouldn’t real-ly matter in light of the ques-tion that is etched on the faceand heart of God as He comesto us, “Where is your brother?”We hear the voice of God clear-ly asking a question that Hehas repeated thousands oftimes, yet as He begins tospeak the intensity of Hisdemeanor could make usbelieve that we were the solesubject of His eternal interro-gation, “Where is your broth-er?” He voices the question,His eyes looking for an answerin our face, but His voicesounding more like that of ajudge pronouncing His ver-dict, “Where is your brother?”

The only thing that couldmake such a heartrendingquery more heartrendingwould be if the question andthe questioner were ignored orunheard in their moment oflonely agony. Alas, this is whatcommonly happens! Forthough God asks this questionwith an intensity born out ofintense agony and a clarityacquired through a thousandrepetitions, the noise createdby our own little kingdomwith all of its little projects isenough to banish the question-ing voice of God into thenether regions of our con-sciousness.

Alas for the questionwhich falls on unhearing ears,but a thousand times alas forthe times when the voice isfaintly heard but is brushedaside with a self-justifyingquestion in response, “Am Imy brother’s keeper?” Thetruth, horrible as it may seemwhen we are faced with it, isthat we rarely hear the ques-tion that flows like an unend-ing river from the heart ofGod. When we do hear it, weare often so blinded by ourown way of life that we do noteven think the questionapplies to us. We deign to ask,like the misguided man inLuke chapter ten, “And who ismy brother?” as if by the defi-nition of this word we canprove that we are of no rela-tion to the brother of whichthe question speaks. Even ifwe give mental assent to theidea that we are in fact broth-ers with the one in question,we easily brush off any possi-ble responsibility by sarcasti-cally asking whether we are inthe end responsible for everyaction our brother may take.We stress our brother’s freewill, as if that negates ourblood link and moral obliga-tion to care for his wellbeing.We make a great ado of thefact that we are so busy tryingto keep track of ourselves thatwe have little time to eventhink (much less actively carefor) our brother. We think thatwe remove guilt from our-selves by this confession,when in fact we only incrimi-nate ourselves still further.

Like Cain, we as thechurch may try to wiggle ourway around the question that


pounds in the heart of Godand occasionally whispers itsquery into our hearts in a quietmoment. When all of ourexcuses are exhausted and ourself-serving questions havedied unanswered, God’s ques-tion still remains, and He addsanother to it, “What hast thoudone?” You and I may preferto think of our neglect of ourbrothers in every nation assomething that we have notdone, rather than as a sin thatwe have done. We think asthough a sin of omission is lessgrave than one committedmore overtly. But in thisexchange it is God who asksthe questions that really mat-ter. He is asking what we havedone. Actually, He is not ask-ing, for He gives us no chanceto respond, knowing as Hedoes exactly what we throughour unconcerned neglect havedone. He is distinctly aware ofwhat we have done, for Hisbleeding heart has been yearn-ing and watching over our for-gotten brothers all the whilewe have been actively engagedin neglecting them. He speaksagain, “The voice of thy broth-er’s blood crieth unto me fromthe ground.”

From this point on in thestory of Cain, God announcesto Cain the curse that He hasplaced on him because of hissin. Though some part of whatis said to him may equallyapply to us, only God cantruly judge. So I will refrainfrom commenting on the cursewhich God pronounces onCain. I hope that the point ofall of these words is manifest-ly clear by now, but I will clar-ify a couple of points.

In this New Testament era,in which all humanity is oneand equal in Christ, I think wecan safely say that everyhuman being is our brotherboth by creation and by meritof the blood that Jesus shedequally for the sins of thewhole world. God is, throughJesus, redeeming or buyingback His sons and daughterswho entered the realm ofSatan through sin. Henceevery person alive is a lostchild in some sense. God’sword is clear that He is active-ly working and longing for thereturn of each one. Thechurch, as the gathering of theredeemed, bears no smallresponsibility in bringing backto the Father, by persuasionand example, our brothers stilllost in sin.

Because of this responsibil-ity—or maybe I should saybecause of our neglect of it—God’s heart is always cryingout to anyone who will listen.He is asking His lost childrenand hoping that maybe somewill join Him in His quest tofind and redeem the stillremaining millions of our lostbrothers. Historically, and incurrent reality, the church forthe most part has found waysto get around its responsibilityby being engaged or entangledwith our own little worlds. Werarely hear and even morerarely act on our duty to ourbrothers, whether they beKonkomba, Haitian, Americanor otherwise. Through theages, multiplied thousands ofour brothers have died, uncar-ed for and forgotten by thepeople who should have caredmost about bringing them

back to the Father. While Godholds them accountable for thechoices they have made, Godalso places a heavy weight ofblame on us for our uncaringinactivity in the light of suchneed. The sum total is thatalthough many of our brothersare being redeemed to theirrightful Father, many moreremain to be found. God’sheart still rings out throughtime and eternity with thequestion posed so forcefully toCain and now applied to us,“Where is your brother?”

Dear ones, I beg you tounderstand that I write notwith judgment in my heart butwith tears in my eyes. Yes,tears for my failures. Tears forthe complacency that is com-mon among you, and tears forthe inactivity of the churchbefore us that brought us tothis deplorable place. I am fartoo attached to the things ofthis world, and hence I am fartoo insensitive to the call andquestion of God. I do havesome tears for my lostKonkomba brothers and forour mutual Father, who bleedsfor my lost brothers and formy own dullness of heart.

I am watching my peopledie in hundreds of villageswithout the knowledge of theOne who seeks to redeemthem back to Himself. I amburdened. I share with a heartthat desires that we, myselfincluded, would pull backfrom our fevered activity longenough to hear God’s questionand long enough to allowsome of the burden that Godfeels to flow into our ownhearts. This burden and visionwill then drive us to care for



and be active in the finding ofour brothers, lost in sin butalready purchased withChrist’s blood.

I am praying that God willfind in us not the spirit ofCain, who looked for a wayout of his responsibility to hisbrother. I pray that He wouldfind a spirit that looks for

those to whom we are relatedby creation and blood andwillingly picks up the burdenof helping them back to theFather. My dream is that wecould one day bring joy to ourFather, who looks daily for Hislost children, by being foundnot busily engaged in our ownpursuits, but actively answer-

ing the question of the ages,“Where is your brother?” Maythose who surround us whenwe stand before our Fatherone day in heaven be ouranswer to that question!

For Our Konkomba Brothers,Daniel Kenaston and Family

❏

♥ Hang simple clothes fromdryer to hanger and on line.

♥ Make rolls from breaddough.

♥ Cut biscuits for pans.♥ Mark cook-ahead dishes.♥ Help pick up around house.♥ Hand embroidery work.♥ Sew a 9-patch quilt.♥ Transplant plants into gar-

den.♥ Weed garden.♥ Water plants.♥ Bring in wood.♥ Pick-up yard.♥ Harvest vegetables from

garden.♥ Help prepare and pack can-

ning jars.

8 to 12 year olds

♥ Cobweb inside and outsidehouse.

♥ Sweep inside and outsidehouse.

♥ Sweep and/or vacuumunder dining room table.

♥ Vacuum.♥ Water lawn and garden.♥ Rake flowerbeds.♥ Hoe garden and

flowerbeds.♥ Bring trash to curb.♥ Stack cook-ahead meals in

freezer and get daily.♥ Pour drinks for meals.♥ Start washer.♥ Put all laundry on laundry

line (expect sheets or otherbig items).

♥ Fold most clothing articles.♥ Make simple lunch meals or

cook-ahead meals.♥ Prepare and make cookies,

muffins and cakes.♥ Sew basic patterns.♥ Iron basic clothes carefully.♥ Stack wood.

For ThoseWho Have Failed

What do you do if your chil-dren are beyond the age ofexcitement and eagerness?What if work is drudgery tothem? How do you turn thetables around and enlist theircooperation?

Here a few suggestions:

♥ Learn to like work yourself.♥ Work with them. Do not

spend long hours doing otherthings while they plod along.♥ Sit down with them and

confess your faults. Tell themwhat God is showing you.

Enlist them to help as you bothlearn these lessons.♥ Give them time off as

rewards for jobs well done, orplan a Popsicle party when theweeds are pulled. Use yourimagination.♥ Set to work fixing one room

at a time, and then try to keep itneat. You may only get thekitchen and dining room donethe first week. Don’t forget toscrub the stovetop and cleanthe cupboards and refrigerator.Keep it neat for at least oneweek before going on to thenext room.♥ Enlist your oldest child first

and train him. Then movedown. Soon you will all beworking together.

Do not despair. Begin now.Work at it slowly, and slowlyyou will see a difference.Teaching your children to workwill take a long time, but oneday they will be your besthelpers. When you are sick,they will carry on. You will goaway, and they will cook andclean. This is what I call thereward period. It will come ifwe are diligent. When it doescome, it is a great blessing. ❏

continued from page 25, The Wisdom of Work by Rachel Weaver


Probably every honest Christian will admitto some deficiency in prayer. Some mayspend inadequate time in prayer, others

may pray too selfishly to receive an answer andstill others may pray mechanically, withoutfaith and without fellowship with God.Whatever your particular area of need, you willprobably find it addressed in the beloved classicWith Christ in the School of Prayer. Like many ofAndrew Murray’s books, this volume containsthirty-one chapters, one for each day of a monthof study. This book treats prayer as a lifelonglearning experience, the school of prayer, wherethe Teacher is none other than the Lord JesusChrist. Most of the chapters begin with aScripture containing some teaching of Christ onthe subject of prayer, and the rest of the chaptersimply expands on the words of Jesus.

An early chapter explains how our prayercan be effective only when we live in the atti-tude of a dependent child.

The prayer of a child owes its influence entire-ly to the relation in which he stands to the parent.The prayer can exert that influence only when thechild is really living in that relationship and in thehome, in the love, and in the service of the Father.The power of the promise, “Ask, and it shall begiven you,” lies in the loving relationship betweenus as children and the Father in heaven. When welive and walk in that relationship, the prayer offaith and its answer will be the natural result. Andso the lesson we have today in the school ofprayer is this: Live as a child of God and you willbe able to pray and most assuredly be heard as achild…. He that gives himself to be led by theSpirit in his life will be led by Him in his prayers,too. And he will find that Fatherlike giving is theDivine response to childlike living.

The chief lesson the Lord has for us in Hisschool centers on the name of Father. We mustlearn to say, “Abba, Father!” and “Our Fatherwhich art in heaven.” Whoever can say this hasthe key to all prayer. The Father listens in all thecompassion with which a father listens to a weakor sickly child, in all the joy with which he hears astammering child, in all the gentle patience withwhich he tolerates a thoughtless child. We mustmeditate upon the heart of our Father until our

BookReview

by Andrew Weaver

With Christ inthe School of

Prayerby Andrew Murray


every prayer goes upward on the faith of thisDivine word: “How much more shall your heavenlyFather give good gifts to them that ask Him.”

Another chapter looks at the marvelouspromise contained in the words of Jesus in Luke11:13: “If ye then, being evil, know how to givegood gifts unto your children; how much moreshall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spiritto them that ask him?”

It is impossible to conceive of God bestowingany higher gift on His child than His own Spirit.God is what He is through His Spirit; the Spirit isthe very life of God. Just think what it means forGod to give His own Spirit to His child on earth….The one necessary element in the spiritual life isthe Holy Spirit. All the fullness is in Jesus. His isthe fullness of grace and truth from which wereceive grace for grace. The Holy Spirit is theappointed intermediary whose special work is toconvey Jesus and everything there is in Him to us.He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. If we yieldourselves entirely to the will of the Spirit and letHim have His way with us, He will manifest the lifeof Christ within us.

Another amazing promise of Jesus is consid-ered in the chapter “The Faith that Takes”: “Allthings whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,believe that ye have received them, and ye shallhave them.”

The tendency of human reason is to intervenehere with certain qualifiers, such as “if expedi-ent,” “if according to God’s will,” to break theforce of a statement which appears dangerous.Beware of dealing this way with the Master’swords. His promise is most literally true. He wantsHis frequently repeated “all things” to enter ourhearts and reveal how mighty the power of faithis. The Head truly calls the members of the Bodyto share His power with Him. Our Father placesHis power at the disposal of the child who com-pletely trusts Him. Faith gets its food and strengthfrom the “all things” of Christ’s promise. As weweaken it, we weaken faith.

This book also considers the need for fastingto accompany prayer:

…Prayer needs fasting for its full growth.Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp theinvisible. Fasting is the other hand, the one withwhich we let go of the visible. In nothing is manmore closely connected with the world of sensethan in his need for, and enjoyment of, food… Itwas with bread that Jesus was tempted in thewilderness. But He triumphed in fasting…Disciples of Jesus! You have asked the Master toteach you to pray, so come now and accept Hislessons! Isn’t the prize worth the price? Give upeverything to follow Jesus in the path He opens tous! Fast if you need to! Do anything you must sothat neither the body nor the world can hinder usin our great life-work—talking to God in prayer, sothat we may become men of faith whom He canuse in His work of saving the world.

“The Power of Persevering Prayer” is achapter that deals with the mystery of needingto persevere in prayer until an answer isreceived, even though God has eternally knownboth the need and the answer.

Of all the mysteries of the prayer world, theneed for persevering prayer is one of the greatest.We cannot easily understand why the Lord, Who isso loving and longing to bless us, should have tobe petitioned time after time, sometimes yearafter year, before the answer comes. It is also oneof the greatest practical difficulties in the exerciseof believing prayer. When our repeated prayersremain unanswered, it is easy for our lazy flesh—maintaining the appearance of pious submis-sion—to think that we must stop praying becauseGod may have a secret reason for withholding Hisanswer to our request. Faith alone can overcomedifficulty. Once faith has taken its stand on God’sWord and the Name of Jesus, and has yieldeditself to the leading of the Spirit to seek onlyGod’s will and honor in its prayer, it need not bediscouraged by delay… Just as each of ten thou-sand seeds is a part of the final harvest, fre-quently repeated, persevering prayer is necessaryto acquire a desired blessing… Of course the hus-bandman longs for his harvest. But he knows itmust have its full term of sunshine and rain, so hehas plenty of patience. A child so often wants topick the half-ripe fruit, while the farmer knows towait until the proper time.



Greetings in the name ofour precious Lord and Savior.

I do apologize for not let-ting you know sooner howencouraging and uplifting TheRemnant has been to our fami-ly. It seems that when we’renot sure we are hearinganswers correctly, we receiveconfirmation through one ormore of your articles. TheLord is so good to confirm Hisword to us!

As you strive to pass onwhat the Lord has blessed youwith, may you truly receiveHis guidance and direction foryour individual lives as wellas The Heartbeat of the Remnant.

Englehart, Ontario

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We really appreciate yourmagazine and the stand youtake for the truth. God bless

your ministry. Lydia and I findThe Heartbeat of the Remnant agreat blessing. Trying to live asa part of the remnant testimo-ny has brought us into muchisolation here in England withour family. Much of what weread confirms many of ourChristian experiences andwhat we have gleaned fromthe Word of God.

Suffolk, Great Britain

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There are no “plain”churches in our area. When Ireceived The Godly Home tapeseries, I just could hardly stopcrying. I was so grateful tohear truth. Amos 8:11 speaks ofa famine of hearing the wordof the Lord. There is plenty ofgospel being preached all overthe United States (2 Cor. 11:4),but not much (that I can find)

of God’s Word. I thank God foryour ministry. It has been usedof God to bless me beyondwords.

Hernando, Florida

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We have been so blessed byThe Remnant. It has been a lightto us in a dark world. We live ina very small town with no like-minded Christians around, soyou can see why The Remnantmight be a blessing. We alwaysread it from front to back assoon as we get it. It then goeson a shelf with several othercopies of The Remnant, so thatwe may read good literature atany time. Thank you so muchfor your ministry. May Godopen the heavens and pour outa blessing.

Ashton, Nebraska

We thank God for the many letters of counsel and encouragement wehave been receiving. It is the only way we can evaluate ourprogress. Keep them coming. Our desire is to foster a free flow of

edification, inspiration and burden from us to you, and you to us. This waywe can pass some of the blessings on to the others who are reading. Wewould love to hear from you in any of the following ways:

➠ A meaningful lesson in family devotions that you can pass on to other fathers.➠ A testimony for “The Blessing Corner” of God’s blessing in some area of obedience.➠ A question that can be answered to the edification of all.➠ An area of spiritual growth, obtained by one of the exercises suggested in the magazine.➠ A word of encouragement or counsel about The Remnant, or any section of it.

Waiting to hear… --The Editors

Precious Lettersfrom Our Readers


We deeply appreciate allthe articles and seek to usethem to benefit the churchhere in China. We read and re-read everything and keep itfor review. Daniel’s illustra-tion with the U.S. embassy(May/June 2002, pg 32) was soapt—just one of the manythings we can easily identifywith in the missionary news.We’re praying for your min-istry in the Lord.

Zhejiang, China

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I am a reader of TheHeartbeat of the Remnant. I haveto say a word of thank you forthe wonderful work that youare doing. The Lord is really

touching our hearts throughthe written word—as such, Isay your labor is not in vain.

Lanet, Kenya

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Greetings from us here inthe earthly Jerusalem. BrotherDenny, it was six or sevenyears ago that I heard for thefirst time your cassettes aboutfamily life. From that time,year after year, I was in yourcongregation in my dreamsand imaginations. But prob-lems of life, finances and oth-ers avoid me from reachingPennsylvania. There is alwaysmore than something in TheRemnant that stirs my feelingsand spiritual heart to such a

degree that I feel that I missthe Lord Jesus so much.

All the Song of Songs,especially chapter five,becomes for me such a realitythat I am bathed in tears againand again. Besides this is allthe tension which comes froma nervous neighborhood, ter-ror and conditions that makelife even with Jesus a warfarethat doesn’t stop day andnight. It is a big comfort toreceive The Remnant.

Please pray for us that wewill keep the faith in the midstof chaos, rejoicing always andleading a holy life that theglory of the knowledge of ourLord will shine in our focusand be evident to everyone.God bless you.

Jerusalem, Israel

Another chapter faces more of the puzzlingquestions about prayer:

How extensive is the power of prayer? Howcan God grant to prayer such mighty power? Howcan prayer be harmonized with the will of God?How can God’s sovereignty and our will—God’s lib-erty and ours—be reconciled?… The prayers of theSon and His people weren’t included in the eter-nal decrees simply for show. Rather, the Fatherlistens with His heart to every prayer that risesthrough the Son. God really does allow Himself tobe moved by prayer to do what He otherwisewould not have done. This perfect, harmoniousunion of Divine sovereignty and human liberty isan unfathomable mystery because God as theEternal One transcends all our thoughts. But let itbe our comfort and strength to know that in theeternal fellowship of the Father and the Son, thepower of prayer has its origin and certainty.

Through our union with the Son, our prayer istaken up and can have its influence in the innerlife of the Blessed Trinity.

Many other important aspects of prayer arecovered in other chapters, and I believe everyhonest Christian will find opportunities for life-long growth in prayer. You will appreciate thatthe example of Jesus Christ’s life of prayer is theinspiration for this book, and your life can onlybe blessed as you accept the invitation to enrollWith Christ in the School of Prayer. ❏

Whitaker House30 Hunt Valley Circle

New Kensington, PA 15068Copyright 1981

continued from page 33, “With Christ in the School of Prayer” by Andrew Murray

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ìHe bowed the heavens also, and came down;and darkness was under his feet. And he rodeupon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seenupon the wings of the wind. And he madedarkness pavilions round about him, dark

waters, and thick clouds of the skies. Throughthe brightness before him were coals of fire

kindled. The LORD thundered from heaven,and the most High uttered his voice.î

II Samuel 22:10-14

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