July-August 2008

  1. The Key to life
  2. Self-Esteem
  3. Poem—Two frogs
  4. Bible Question & answer
  5. mother eve
  6. Letter to the Editor
  7. Publications
  8. Announcements

THE KEY TO LIFE

"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life?" —Proverbs 4: 23

The Key to Eternal Life is a most vital subject for every Christian. The Word tells us to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life (1 Tim. 6: 12). There is a way to lay hold on it. Of course, it must be in connection with the fight, the good fight of faith. Yet eternal life will not unlock to us unless we have the key. That key, we must each one of us have if we would attain everlasting life. It is not dependent upon our activities, nor is the key to be found in our knowledge, for the Apostle says, “Though I have all knowledge, can understand all mysteries, and do not have love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13: 2, 3). Therefore, we see that it does not depend on how much we know. We may study God’s Word. We may learn ever so much of the Truth. We may be able to answer many perplexing questions in connection with the understanding of the Divine Plan, but that is not the key that will unlock to us everlasting life. Nor is it our position. Some may feel, “Well, if I attain a great position, if I can become one of the elders of the local congregation, or if I can become an evangelist declaring the words of life to many hundreds or thousands involving many congregations, certainly that will guarantee possession of the key.”

No, that is not the key that will unlock this glorious eternal life for us. Someone might say, “If I am very, very faithful, fighting the good fight of faith to lay hold on eternal life, and if I am diligent in the little things, even the least things; if I am true also in my daily conduct in the home, if I am dedicated in attending the study meetings, and the testimony meetings, which are the most important of all, and all of the Sunday services, and the mid-week meetings, and if I take an active part in the Scripture Studies; surely then I will earn for myself a place in the Kingdom and eternal life.” We might say, “That surely will be fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold on eternal life.” Oh, yes! Those are essential elements, but in themselves they are not the key that unlocks eternal life for us. “Well, suppose that I could gain very high esteem among the brethren so that they could not find fault with anything I do and they would all esteem me most highly as one of God’s most faithful children; surely that would be the key that would unlock for me eternal life.” No. We have to say “no” to all of these. Then what is the essence?

THE HEART IS VITAL

We read of it in Proverbs 4: 23, at the head of our article: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” There we have our answer. No matter how much head you have; it does not say “Keep your head with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” No! “Keep your position in the class and among the Lord’s people, for out of it spring the issues of life.” No. That will not work. “Keep your relationship in love, in brotherly love. Keep your relationship with the brethren so that you can dwell together in peace,” for the Bible says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.” That is not the key either. The life, the eternal life finds its issues in the heart. Of course, we are not speaking of the literal heart. We are not speaking of the physical organ called the heart that pumps the blood throughout the body. We are speaking of the figurative heart; that the physical heart represents; it is that which supplies the direction of our entire being; namely, one’s inmost affections, inten­tions, motives, and one’s inmost desires. If we have the affections, the intentions, the motives and the desires fully in harmony with God, then and only then, can we find eternal life opened up to us. The Scripture does not say, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it will spring your position in the Kingdom.” Oh, no! It does not say that if we keep our hearts with all diligence we will have a place in the Kingdom. It says some­thing much more than that. “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues” of whether you are going to live in eternity or not; whether you will have any position, not only in the Kingdom, but even in the universe at all. We see then how important it is to keep the heart with all diligence! It is more important than to even gain a position in the Kingdom. It is the very vital life itself. We will not have any existence at all in the future if we do not keep the heart with all care and watchfulness.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Heb. 8: 10, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds.” It is important to have the law of God written in the mind, but that is a means to the end. What is the end? The Apostle adds, “and scribe [or write them] in their hearts.” That is true not only of the consecrated now who are walking the way of faith, that are fighting the good fight of faith to lay hold on eternal life, but that is also true of the entire human race; that God is going to write His laws in their minds—they will have to know, but that is not the end. The end is to have it written in their hearts. If they do not have it written in their hearts, they will not attain eternal life. We see that this is true, because, after He brings all of humanity in the great awakening up to perfection in the resurrection, then the law will be written in their minds, for the knowledge of the LORD shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, ocean deep and not a square inch of dry ground any place. They will all have the knowledge of the LORD. They will all have the laws of the LORD written in their minds, but the goats, those that have that goat-like disposition, who have not properly developed the heart, will fall in the Little Season when Satan is loosed for the final testing (Rev. 20: 7, 8). Accordingly, we see that the heart is the essential key that unlocks eternal life not only for the believers of the present time, of this Gospel Age, previous to the Millennial Kingdom, but then, also, during the times of Restitution for the whole human race.

THE LORD’S HOUSE

Would we like to have eternal life? Yes, that is what we desire. It is very important that we look for the key and to see that we have got that key that really fits the lock that opens up to us everlasting life. There is much to be considered in connection with it. Who would not want to dwell in God’s home forever? Jesus says to the Church “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places and if it were not so, I would have told you” (John 14: 2), The Church replies, “Yes, we want to dwell in that house.” In the 23rd Psalm the Lord tells us of many dwelling places; we want one of those dwelling places in God’s home throughout eternity that we may enjoy eternal life at His hand. The Psalmist relates it this way: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the

house of the LORD forever.” But you must have the key. You can not have life at all in that house and there will not be any life except in that house, the great house of God, unless you have the key. It is some­thing like wanting to buy a home here for your present life and you come to a house that is for sale. “Oh, yes! I want to look at this house.” So the real estate agent takes you to the home and you say, “Yes, this suits me. It is just right for my family, the size of the rooms and there are just enough rooms. This is just what I want. Everything is properly arranged and the conveniences and everything are just where I would place them. I can not think of anything better! I think I would like to have this home.” Very well, the agent says the price is $220,000. “I haven’t got two hundred twenty thousand dollars.” Well, then you cannot have the key. If you do not have the wherewithal to buy this home, no matter how beautiful it is and how wonderful it is and how much it suits you, you do not get the key unless you meet the purchase price. As a result, we recognize that there is a great deal to this matter of having the key to life; of having the right heart that is kept with all diligence in order to be fitted for life at all, at any place, in any position in God’s great universe.

IS YOUR HEART RIGHT?

Some will say, "Yes, I think I have the key. My heart does not condemn me. I think I have a good, honest, sincere heart." Well now, let us see; there are many, many people that think that way, that have not the key at all. They think that their heart is right when it is wrong. Take for example the arbitrary terrorist activity entered into by the followers of Muhammad who are exhorted by their Islamic religion to seek to harm and even kill any who are of different religious belief, especially Christians who follow the teachings of Christ and those of the Bible. These fanatics have in the past strapped large amounts of high explosives to their bodies and gone into crowded market places, etc., and set them to explode, killing not only themselves but scores of innocent people. Others have loaded TNT into a vehicle only to explode it among a great crowd of people and these assassins expect, according to their religious instruction, to have a place provided for their eternal blessing in heaven for all such heroes. These same deplorable morals motivated the terrorists who flew planes loaded with American travelers into the Twin Towers in New York City and into the Pentagon on 9/11.

If you were to ask these mentally confused terror based assassins if they were of good heart, were their motives of high ideal, do they believe that they are serving the Almighty by entering into such activity I am sure they would say "Yes certainly."

PAUL’S JUDGMENT

I JUDGE NOT MY SELF

Now, notice what the Apostle states in 1 Cor. 4: 3, 4. He goes right on to say after he says it is a small matter that he be judged of any man’s judgment, he says, “I judge not mine own self for (here’s the reason) for I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified, but He that judges me is the Lord.” Now, there is something wrong with this text. It is very obvious: “For I know nothing by myself.” What is the matter, Apostle Paul? You know nothing by yourself at all? You are not aware when you are awake and when you are asleep? You are not cognizant as to if you attend a service and when you do not? You know nothing by yourself? You don’t even know who your own mother is or who your own father is? Oh, no! Paul would say, “Oh! I know those things.” But the text is not translated correctly in our King James Version. Here is the way it should read as in the Greek; “For though I know nothing against myself, yet am I not thereby justified.” (The New King James Version translates it correctly.) Oh, how deceptive the heart can be if we are not careful, if we are not on our guard! So Paul says, “Well, I know nothing against myself. As far as my information is concerned I am not aware of anything against myself, so I am not thereby justified.” What is that? Let us get that straight. We are not justified just because we are not aware of anything against ourselves, “But He that judges me is the Lord.” Ah, here is the standard then! It is the Lord’s standard that judges us. It is not our standard.

SANCTIFICATION

Notice how we are built up; how we can get the right heart. We read in 1 Cor. 6: 11, “And such were some of you [like the world in general] but you were washed.” That is justification. We are washed. We are justified; in other words, cleansed by the blood of Christ. Then he adds, “But you are sanctified.” That is consecration. You see, to be justified is not enough; by Christ’s blood of course, not self-justification. By Christ’s blood we stand before God without any condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Then we are sanctified; “I beseech you therefore, my brethren, [who are washed, who are justified] that you present your bodies a living sacrifice” that is sanctification (Rom. 12: 1)! He gives us here first the washing, and then the sanctification, and then He adds, “You are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,” not by your own doings; not by self-righteousness. Oh no! But “you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God.” Unless we have the spirit of God, we cannot receive eternal life. That is how we can judge our hearts. It is in our justification, our sanctification and to remember that we are sanctified “in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God.”

SACRIFICING TO GOD

We want our sacrifices, our offerings to be acceptable to our Heavenly Father, do we not? How important, then, it is to watch carefully and to be very cautious that we remove any of that pride, that haughty look, in the heart. Pride is probably our worst enemy and we must keep watch for it. It is the hardest fault for which to ask forgiveness. Yes! Pride is the worst enemy that we have for which to ask forgiveness. Why? Because the proud are not even humble enough to see that they have pride, let alone ask forgiveness for it. It takes humility to see our faults, and if that fault is pride, how can you see it if you are not humble enough to recognize it? And so it is a very, very subtle opponent and a very difficult enemy to subdue. Let me give you one or two illustrations. Suppose that someone says, “I have been attending this class for some long time, but the leader has never yet called on me for prayer” and that becomes a test. Some might have that pride without even recognizing it. They might feel slighted in some way. Or if they are called on for prayer they might endeavor to offer a flowery prayer that everyone would approve of; now, it is all right to use good language in prayer, and all right to use good logic in prayer and to be careful of what we pray for, but not to be seen of men, and the Lord warns us against such. We are to pray to the Heavenly Father from the heart, not just from the intellect, nor just from the lips, and surely not to be seen and praised of others; but that prayer must come from the heart and if it doesn’t come from the heart it is not acceptable and God will not answer it.

We may do a right act with a wrong motive and God cannot accept it. It is a service of the wicked and it is sin. We may do a wrong act with a right motive and God says, “Good.” Is God judging the act or the heart? Is He judging the outward appearance? No! Man looks on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart and He can accept our fumbling, our mistakes that we all make. He looks on the intent of the heart.

DONATION TO THE GOSPEL MINISTRY

A dear brother told of an experience and he was so deeply moved by it. He said, “I took Pastor Russell to the station after a convention (1910) and on the way I was so much impressed by the meetings and with his sermon that I said, “Bro. Russell, I just wish I had a million dollars!” Bro. Russell said, “Well, what would you do with it, brother?” “Oh, I would put it all in this wonderful work of heralding the Truth.” It was called the tract fund in those days. “I would put it all in the tract fund.” Bro. Russell said, “Well, now listen brother, if you had a million dollars, you know you would not have to put it all toward furthering the Gospel. If you wanted to, you could keep out maybe $50,000 or something for your own expenses and needs. You could keep surely a few thousand dollars for yourself.” “Yes, Bro. Russell, I know I could. I know it is not compulsory. I know that it would be a free gift, a free will

offering, but I have enough that I can get by, and if I had a million dollars I would really donate it all.” Bro. Russell said, “Now, watch carefully. All? Every bit?” “Yes, every bit. I would put it all in the Lord’s work.” Then Bro. Russell said, “Brother, when you go home tonight you may credit yourself with $1,000,000 to the tract fund.” The brother was astonished! He said, “But Bro. Russell, I didn’t put $1,000,000 in the tract fund!” “Oh, yes you did. That is just what you did. You put a million dollars in the tract fund. Now, the Lord does not need your money. All the gold and silver in the world are His and the cattle on a thousand hills. He needs not your money. Oh, he could easily hand you a million dollars. He could easily see that you get a million dollars and then you could hand it back to him. But instead of under­going all that transaction which is really needless, He is looking on your heart and you may credit yourself with a million dollars to the tract fund.” Oh, isn’t that thought wonderful, brethren? How many of you have put a million dollars in the Lord’s work, in your heart I mean, not your pocket­book. Your pocketbook is not what will give you eternal life; it is the heart that is the key that will give you eternal life. Not part of it—your whole essence of the heart.

GOD’S WORD EVALUATES

How are we to judge if our heart is right? Only by one standard and that standard is the word of God. That word will really tell us whether our heart is right or not. We cannot go by our own judgment. We must look at ourselves in the light of God’s word. We read in Heb. 4: 12, 13, “For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart” and that is the key. That is what is essential— the essence. The head knowledge of course is important. The knowledge is related, but the heart is the central feature. It is essential to our topic for it is the discerner of the thoughts and of the intents of the heart. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb. 4: 13). We are thankful for that, that nothing will escape Him that we might do, we might have wonderful development of heart qualities and if God pays no attention to them then we say, “Well, what good does it do to develop the heart qualities if God pays no attention to them?” Everything in the heart is open to Him with whom we have to do. We cannot hide anything from Him and we don’t want to, but we do want Him to judge our heart, even as the Psalmist said, “Judge my heart, O Lord.” Yes, we want to keep the heart so that He can approve of it, for that is the key to life and if we do not have His approval of the heart, there is no hope for us as far as salvation is concerned.

We may be holding our heart in full conformity to the Scriptures and to keep it so, we must then study the Word of God. We must have the knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures, otherwise, we may miss the scale on which to weigh our heart to see if and how it is deficient. We must have knowledge. We must study God’s Word to show ourselves approved; workmen that need not be ashamed; rightly separating this and that, rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2: 15).

DISCOURAGEMENT

We look back with regret and we say “stumbling stones or stepping stones, I will not do it again. I am going to try to do better.” And then maybe the next day you do it again and you say, “Oh, what is the use? I guess I better give up.” No! A just man falls seven times. How many times does he get up again? Let us then be among those that are righteous, that fall seven times, yes, we make mistakes. We do make mistakes and we use those stumbling stones as stepping stones, this is what the Lord wants. He looks at the heart. We must put the same zeal into our worship and service of the Lord that we put into our business, at least that much. I know some of the brethren that are putting more love and more zeal into their earthly business than in their spiritual dealings for the Lord; in attending the class meetings or attending the conventions, whenever it is possible. Of course, there are exceptions where people cannot come. That is understandable, but in as much as you can do these things, do them with a heart full of love and devotion as unto the Lord. Plus, it is required of a man; not according to what he has not but according to what he has.

GUARDING THE HEART

We need to guard the heart. Our text, “Keep the heart” is in the sense of guarding that heart. Hold on to what you have! You can easily lose it if you allow these enemies to come into your heart. You can lose your humility. You can lose your love and zeal if you allow selfishness to come in or love of ease to come in. Let us keep and guard the heart against enemies that would encroach and to seek to displace the good qualities of the heart that we already have.

Our Lord spoke of the beatitudes, and how in one of the beatitudes He said “Blessed are the pure in mind?” Oh, no! “Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matt. 5: 8). There is the key. That is the key that unlocks, not the mind; although the mind is important too. If you want your heart right you will endeavor to have the mind in harmony with the heart.

ENEMIES

What are our enemies? They are pride, doubt, distrust, selfishness in so many ways, love of ease. Let us watch carefully that we do not become weary of well doing. As we read in Matt. 10: 22, “He that endures,” the Lord says, “unto the end, the same shall be saved.” And we must have patience and perseverance and cheerful endurance and not be weary of well-doing.

“Keep your heart!” I am going to emphasize the word your. We have already discussed concerning keep, and keep means to guard against the enemies and to guard the heart that it does not lose the good qualities that it already has. Now consider the word your; keep your heart.

Some of us have long-handled brooms and it is so easy to sweep your neighbor’s doorstep when our own needs special attention. Jesus advised: “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then . . . remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7: 5). The Lord says, how careful we must watch to “Keep the heart.” Our text doesn’t say, “Keep your neighbor’s heart.” No! It is so easy for us to worry about this brother or about that sister; about their spiritual welfare, that we lose sight of the need of our own. “Keep your heart with all diligence.”

KEEPING THE HEART

Now, I want to notice next the word diligence. What does that mean? “Keep your heart with all keeping,” as it is in the margin. Do not keep your heart with just a little keeping once in a while, or keep your heart with fifty percent keeping or ninety percent keeping. Keep your heart with all keeping, with all diligence. You say, “I have been in the Lord’s way for many years and I have been striving very earnestly, trying to keep my heart and last year I had this experience and that experience and so forth and these are the victories that the Lord gave me to win.” Fine! Good! Amen! I’m glad for you. But that isn’t what our text urges us to do; to look back on past history and see how we kept our heart last year or the year before. It does not ask if we have kept our heart in the past, but it comes right down to the present. Keep your heart; not last year, but right now, this year. Keep it today. Now, when tomorrow comes, then keep it that day, but today, you are to keep your heart. You cannot keep it yesterday. You cannot keep it tomorrow. How important, then, to use this text in the present tense to keep your heart with all diligence; to watch carefully, perseveringly. Let us press on determinedly in taking care of this heart.

How are we to do it? Don’t forget prayer. You cannot do it in your own strength. “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zech. 4: 6) and if you lack the Lord’s spirit, you will never keep your heart. Therefore, you go to the Lord and you ask for His help and you seek to cultivate His spirit in all of its beautiful graces of gentleness, and meekness, and patience, and love, and forbearance, and you will get many opportunities to exercise them.

MEETING TOGETHER

Go to the meetings. If you want to guard your heart, keep it with all diligence. Forget not to assemble your­selves with others of like precious faith. The Bible tells us in Proverbs; that the two coals that are put together, the embers, keep each other glowing; and that is how it is, with the Lord’s people. As the Bible tells us, that two coals keep each other glowing, but if one is off alone, it usually dies out. So the Apostle tells us how important this is, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.” There are those that come to the meetings only once a year for the Memorial, or maybe twice a year for the Memorial and for the Easter service; One brother in Philadelphia that never attended the services except for the Memorial and the Easter service. One sister only came at the Memorial time. Does

that show the proper heart condition? That heart is getting cold. Hence, let us watch that we do have the right heart. It means so much to have the right heart filled with love for God and it will bring forth much zeal in our love for the brethren. We will express that zeal and that love for the brethren in joyful service. Then we will think of the good things; whatever things are good and true and noble, of good report, etc., think on these things. This will be exercise along the right line that sets our affections on those good things of the Divine Plan; it holds those beautiful things on our heart and then we are transformed in character. Accordingly, the Apostle tells us in Rom. 12: 2 that we are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. If we hold before our mind’s eye the standards of the Lord, we will learn to love them and thus we will be transformed and conformed, not to the things of this world, but transformed to the things of God.

CORRECTING WRONG

Finally, “Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life.” If you and I do something that is very good spontaneously, without forethought, that is not to our full credit. You might say, “Well, we often do good things on the spur of the moment.” Yes, that’s all right. But that is not the thing that really counts. We can do something wrong spontaneously, without thinking about the thing at all and we can do something or say something that we should not have done or said spontaneously, without forethought, accidentally so to speak, and that doesn’t specially condemn us. We say to the person, “Oh, I didn’t mean to do that.” But if we have intent of heart, even our civil laws, seek to discern what the intention behind the act was. If we have the intent of heart to do that which is harmful to someone, to get even with them, to retaliate, then there is evil in the heart. On the other hand, if it is not a spontaneous act of good, but it is something that we have desired to do that is good, that is for the blessing of others; that counts to our full credit. After all, the heart is the essential feature of development for the Christian. Our head may get very wrong on different things, but the heart—that is essential. What was the intent of the heart? Is there any hope for you? Is there any hope for me? Let us each ask, in the view of this, “Is there any hope for me that I may have eternal life; that I may keep my heart with all diligence knowing that out of it are the issues of life?” Yes, there is hope for every one of us. Now, if it had said, “Keep the head with all diligence for out of the amount of knowledge that we have acquired depends our eternal life” then I think we would all fail. For there is far more that we do not know than what there is that we do know. We could study and study, and try to learn more and more,and yet the heart could be wrong. We can all guard the heart. We can all keep that heart with all diligence, whether we are rich or poor, whether we are learned or unlearned, whether we are exalted or lowly.

May God bless each one of us in using, developing, exercising, and perfecting the heart with all the thoroughness in guarding and keeping it. When so developed and so kept, it will meet the requirements for gaining everlasting life.

May God bless each one of us to this end that we may enjoy eternity together in God’s favor.