1986 May/June issue Part 5

A Stone with a Broken Heart

"Do you know the lovely fact about the opal? That, in the first place, it is made only of desert dust, sand silica, and owes its beauty and preciousness to a defect. It is a stone with a broken heart. It is full of minute fissures which admit air, and the air refracts the light. Hence its lovely hues, and that sweet lamp of fire that ever burns at its heart, for the breath of the Lord God is in it. "You are only conscious of the cracks and desert dust, but so He makes His precious opal. We must be broken in ourselves before we can give back the lovely hues of His light, and the lamp in the temple can burn in us and never go out." Ellice Hopkins.

1986 May/June issue Part 4

Question and Answer
Q. Is it a sin to ask God why?
A. It is always best to go first for our answers to Jesus Himself. He cried out on the cross, "My  God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" It was a human cry, a cry of desperation, springing from his heart's agony at the prospect of being put into the hands of wicked men and actually becoming sin for you and me. We can never suffer anything like that, yet we do at times feel forsaken and cry, WHY, LORD?
The psalmist asked why. job, a blameless  man, suffering horrible torments on an ash heap, asked why. It does not seem to me to be sinful to ask the question. What is sinful is resentment against God and His dealings with us. When we begin to doubt His love and imagine that He is cheating us of something we have a right to, we are guilty as Adam and Eve were guilty. They took the snake at his word rather than God. The same snake comes to us repeatedly with the same suggestions: Does God love you? Does He really want the best for you? Is His word trustworthy? Isn't He cheating you?Forget His promises. You'd be better off if you do it your way.I have often asked why. Many things have happened which I didn't plan on and which human rationality could not explain. In the darkness of my perplexity and sorrow I have heard Him say quietly, TRUST ME. He knew that my question was not the challenge of unbelief or resentment. I have never doubted that He loves me, but I have sometimes felt like St. Teresa who said, "If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few!" Job was not, it seems to me, a very patient man. But he never gave up his conviction that he was in God's hands. God was big enough to take whatever job dished out (see Job 16 for a sample). Do not be afraid to tell Him exactly how you feel (He s already read your thoughts anyway). Don't tell the whole world. God can take it-others can't. Then listen for His answer. In the Newsletters of 1984 there were six scriptural answers to the question WHY-from 1 Peter 4:12-13; Romans 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 12:9; John 14:31; Romans 8:17; Colossians 1:24. There is mystery, but it is not all mystery. Here are clear reasons.

1986 May/June issue Part 3

Prayer

"Order private devotions so that they become not arguments and causes of tediousness by their indiscreet length, but reduce your words into a narrow compass, still keeping all the matter; and what is cut off in the length of your prayers, supply in the earnestness of your spirit; for nothing is lost while the words are changed into matter and length of time into fervency of devotion. Break your office and devotion into fragments and make frequent returnings." Jeremy Taylor (seventeenth Century).

1986 May/June issue Part 2

Teaching children

How many times between the ages of three and ten do children have to answer the only two questions adults can think of asking them: How old are you? And What are you going to be when you grow up? The second question may seem innocuous, but is it? In the first place many children may be distressed at being required to make a choice which is far beyond them. In the second place it implies that the choice is theirs. This can lead to great confusion later on. The child will grow up physically but spiritually he will not have begun until he learns that Jesus not only died to save him from sin but in order that he should not live for himself but for Him who died. (see 2 Corinthians 5:15 and 1 John

1986 May/June issue Part 1

The Heavenliness of a Little Child

( The following is from an article by Walter D. Shepard Jr. in The Convenanter, monthly bulletin of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Laurel, Mississippi.)

Andrew Murray's book How to Raise Your Children for Christ comments on Matthew 18:4-5. The disciples had come to Jesus with a questions: Who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? In answer Jesus called a little child and set him in the midst of them. In the Kingdom the humblest and most child like will be the highest.

1986 March /April issue Part 4

Letters to Readers

More then one letter has come from a reader of Passion and Purity telling me how much he or she "loved" the book, "really got a lot out of it," etc., and then proceeding to tell the long tale about how the old lifestyle still goes on, sleeping around, "but she's a really neat girl," or "he's a good Christian guy,"

1986 March/April issue Part 3

Backfire

The National Organization for womens "silent no more" campaign to encourage women who have had abortions to speak out may be backfiring as women who feel they were exploited and traumatized told their stories. The goal of the campaign is to counter the effects of Dr. Bernard Nathonson's dramatic film The Silent Scream which shows the real time ultra sound of an unborn baby recoilong and