A daring, but deadly desire

Paul was highly educated, spoke multiple languages, a persuasive speaker, practitioner of civil disobedience, and proficient writer of nearly half of the New Testament. Although successful by many measures, he  considered all his personal accomplishments “dung” when compared to knowing Jesus and the “power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:8-10).

Be careful what you ask for

Can anyone truly know the power of resurrection without facing death? Paul ended up facing death many times because of his faith. He was beaten, jailed, stripped of possessions, and shipwrecked (2 Corinthians 11:23-27). One time a mob stoned him, threw his body outside the city gates like a bag of garbage, and left him for dead. Some of his friends prayed over his apparently lifeless body. Paul rose again and went back into the city as living proof of Jesus’ resurrection power.

Emanuel’s Birth

In 1816, Rev. Morris Brown and about 1,000 Black worshippers left Charleston’s Methodist Episcopal Church, so that they could truly experience a sanctuary from racism. Although it was not called Emanuel yet, this is when the church was born.

Of course, any expressions of Black self-determination seems threatening to a White supremacist slave economy. In 1818, the church was raided by Whites who arrested 140 members, punishing them with whippings and fines. This was only the first of three intimidating raids intended to break their faith.

Emanuel’s First Resurrection

Denmark Vesey was a formerly enslaved man who bought his freedom after winning a lottery, but Vesey was discontent with his personal liberty. He believed that God wanted all his brothers and sisters to be free, because nobody’s free until everybody’s free. Inspired by the Exodus theme in the Bible and Haiti’s successful revolution, Vesey planned a slave revolt.

Unfortunately, the slave mindset of one man led that man to tell his master about the plot. Vesey and several other emancipation agents were then captured and executed before their freedom fight began. Because of Vesey’s association with the church, Emanuel was burned down by White Charlestonians. After they rebuilt it, worshippers met there until independent Black churches were outlawed in 1834.

Emanuel’s Second, Third, and Fourth Resurrections

The souls of Black folks kept their faith alive by meeting secretly until the end of the Civil War. Emanuel seemed to be dead for three decades but rose again in 1865. In 1886, an earthquake badly damaged their place of worship, but the body of believers raised it up again.

On June 17, 2015, the Emanuel congregation welcomed a stranger to their weekly Bible study. The passage being studied that evening was Mark 4:16-20, and is known as “The Parable of the Sower.” The would be the last Bible study for nine of the members, including Mother Emanuel’s senior pastor, Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney. The stranger shot and killed them after the closing prayer. Yet, this tragedy once again illustrated the death-defeating faith of the church.

Seeds of Love Vs. Weeds of Hate

The White Supremacist terrorist was hoping to spark a race war, but Mother Emanuel sought to extinguish it with grace. The grieving family and church members stayed true to the metaphor of that night’s Bible study. They wouldn’t let a stony-hearted hearer of the word change their narrative. The blood of the martyred believers watered their faith instead of fueling hatred. They showed the world what God’s harvest can look like when the seed is planted in good soil.

They wouldn’t let a stony-hearted hearer of the word change their narrative.

What’s your soil like?

Mother Emanuel did the unthinkable and publicly announced their forgiveness in the face of hate, death, and injustice. Ten years later, their faith is on prominent display at a memorial in the Charleston International Airport (CHS), visible to the 6.3 million travelers passing through every year.
Many people might be wayside viewers of the Word. Others might have the Word eaten by the birds or choked out by thorns. But those who slow down to allow this Word to be planted in their hearts cannot be the same.

Trouble in the Water, Again

From the Message Vault, March April 2016

#TBT #ThrowbackThursday #Whatsnext

Editor’s Note: Residents in Jackson, Mississippi suffer repeated interruptions to their  water supply that are so severe they lack water for essential uses such as fire fighting and flushing toilets. At least six U.S. cities struggle with acute water system failures due to neglect, or scarcity, or contamination. Global reserves are down because of the climate crisis, but that’s not what is happening in Mississippi where recent floodwaters overwhelmed an already failing water system. Crisis and scarcity in Flint, Michigan in 2015 and 2016 resulted from decision making. This throwback Thursday is a recurring theme with a burden upon us to pressure elected officials not just for short term relief, but but to fulfill their duties of protection for even the poor and voiceless.

At What Cost?

The wake of the Flint, Michigan water crisis highlights the vulnerability of the people. Not only did releasing the plentiful flow of dangerous water to an unsuspecting population put their health at risk, it deprived them of their basic right to human dignity. Flint’s dangerous waters came not from a storm surge, but right out of the tap.

In order to save $5 million, clear and pleasant-tasting water from Lake Huron was exchanged for cloudy, corrosive, foul-smelling water from the Flint River, with its visible contaminates. This was to be a temporary measure until a new pipeline to Lake Huron could be installed. But, from April 2014 to October 2015, the flow of untreated and corrosive water took its toll.

Official test results indicated the water was safe to drink and bathe in, while residents held up small children covered in rashes—with high levels of lead in their systems—as evidence to the contrary. Finally, someone believed them when the researchers from Virginia Tech tested and found that the water contained as much as 5,000 times the amount of lead that is safe to ingest.

Hopeful Rhetoric

When General Motors found that the same water corroded the engine parts on its assembly lines, it was afforded an opportunity to switch back. Residents of Flint, 42% of whom live in poverty, could effect no such change on their own behalf. Wading through the currents of political rhetoric these days, the safety of the shore seems so far away. I remember, however, the moment when I stuck my toes in with so much hope thinking, “maybe just maybe there is hope for us after all.”

During a 2007 democratic primary debate then Senators Hilary Clinton, Joseph Biden, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and several others proffered their ideas about health care, wage inequality, and the criminal justice system. Hurricane Katrina had ravaged our gulf coast two years earlier sending storm surge right through old levees, right into the neighborhoods of vulnerable New Orleanians, killing approximately 1,577 and leaving many sweltering on rooftops in the aftermath.

On the debate stage, Obama engaged my heart and mind with this simple statement regarding the deafness of government to the plight of the people in Katrina’s path: “[P]art of the reason that we had such a tragedy was the assumption that everybody could jump in their SUVs, load up with some sparkling water and check into the nearest hotel.”

Lower Lows

The idea that elected leaders would be proactive in planning and responsive to the vulnerable was refreshing. The thought that someone could and would see that the disadvantages of the disenfranchised are compounded because of their disenfranchisement was attractive. A champion for the underserved called us into the deep. Fast forward to our friends in Flint, and we observe not just deafness to the cries of concerned residents, but a new low in leadership.

There was the decision not to spend $100 a day for three months to prevent lead from leaching from the pipes into the water. There was the refusal to validate the views of residents—many of whom are black, many, although not necessarily the same population, live below the poverty line. There was the slow response of governor Rick Snyder because, as he told CNN, “[t]hese are very technical issues. But the lead came to my attention in October, end of September, early October of 2015.”

And, the governor’s office slammed area ministers for speaking the truth of the masses to the power in office. One pastor, head of the Concerned Clergy Of Flint, visibly confronted the government about the lack of progress in dealing with the water crisis. He seemed to have been denied a government appointment to serve on the Receivership Transition Advisory Board because of it.

We Helped Others

In 2010 the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. Clean drinking water and sanitation are “essential to the realization of all human rights.” Our bodies are approximately 60 percent water. Clean, fresh water is critical to all bodily functions, and ease of access to it promotes productivity.

As a participating state within the UN, the United States, along with many non-governmental organizations, help fund safe water infrastructure globally. Because populations are dependent upon it for life, any government that supplies it does so knowing that it holds in its hands critical building block to life. Helpless, dismissed, powerless. The Flint water crisis is more than a public health issue. It transcends the political stage. No, this is a failure to recognize the worth and human dignity of one’s neighbors.

An Ancient Dream Tells of the End

From the Message Vault, July August 2002

#TBT #ThrowbackThursday #Whatsnext

YOUNG, GIFTED, AND POWERFUL, KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR PONDERED: Will Babylon, my glorious empire, crumble into dust, or retain its glory forever? What could make life more complete than my gilded throne? He had it all — pomp, power, and every pleasure money could buy. Still, he felt that something must lie beyond the glittering pageant of human greatness.

He sensed that the vast human race, with all its restless strife, must someday confront a destiny bigger than itself. Meanwhile, what was the source of true grandeur and enduring might?

With these concerns revolving in his mind, Nebuchadnezzar, who lived six centuries before the birth of Christ, fell asleep in his royal bedchamber. During the night he had a dream that gripped and electrified his soul. Charged with cosmic significance, this dream seemed to unveil the answers to the king’s haunting questions. He awoke with a start, every nerve tingling, but the dream had utterly vanished from his mind, leaving only a powerful impression of its importance. Then he remembered his psychics and magicians. Didn’t they have supernatural insight, a channel to the upper world?

Anxiously Nebuchadnezzar summoned all his counselors, psychics, magicians, and astrologers to appear in his
court. He demanded that they tell him his dream and its interpretation. Great rewards awaited them if they could
disclose the secret, and death if they couldn’t.

Terrified, the so-called wise men protested that the task was impossible. They were forced to reluctantly admit
their lack of real knowledge in revelations of divine origin. So Nebuchadnezzar ordered their execution.

Four young Hebrew captives, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, worshipers of the true God, held lowly rank among the wise men. When Daniel learned of the king’s death decree, which included him and his three friends, he asked
the king for time, promising to show him the dream and its interpretation. Nebuchadnezzar consented.

A Prayer Answered

Daniel and his friends prayed to the Most High God, trusting in Him to reveal the answer. That night God gave Daniel the same dream He had given to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel went before the king and, taking no credit to himself, declared, “There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days” (Daniel 2:28).

Briefly, this was the dream. Nebuchadnezzar had seen an imposing statue of a man, terrifying in its brightness and immensity. Its head was of gold, its chest and arms of silver, its abdomen and thighs of brass, its legs of iron, its
feet of iron and clay mixed. Suddenly a great stone appeared, hurtling toward the colossus, and struck its feet,
reducing it to a mass of rubble. A great wind sprang up, blowing the shattered pieces away like chaff. Then the
rock grew into a mountain and filled the whole earth.

Spellbound, the king listened intently, recalling every particular of his dream as Daniel recounted it. But what
did it mean? God had also revealed the interpretation to Daniel, who proceeded to unfold it.

Prophecy Revealed

“You, O king,” Daniel declared, “are this head of gold.”

Without any thoughts of political expediency Daniel continued, “After you, another kingdom
will arise, inferior to yours.”

Then a third kingdom of brass shall rule the world; followed by a kingdom of iron, bruising and militant, that will crush all opposing powers.

It happened as foretold. Babylon was conquered by the silver kingdom of Medo-Persia, which two centuries later was overthrown by Grecia’s Alexander the Great and his brass-helmeted soldiers. After conquering the world from the Danube to the Indus, Alexander died at 32 of a fever, leaving his kingdom in four divisions, which were eventually dominated and then absorbed by the emerging Roman Empire.

To be followed by what? Mere guesswork would suggest a fifth kingdom, but the sure word of prophecy decreed that after Rome, God would never again permit any empire to reign incontestably supreme.

Thus, after the fall of Rome in A.D. 476, history entered the period of iron and clay—the feet of the great image—signifying nations partly strong and partly weak, with Europe holding the center stage of action and influence for centuries to come.

One European tribe prevailed for a while, then another, betokening the instability that followed the collapse of imperial Rome. Papal Rome then took shape as the most powerful institution of the age. Her intrigues and ambitions for control were boundless. But Islam, with like-minded drive for supremacy, held Rome in check, as did the spiritual influence of truly faithful Christians who sought no political power but refused allegiance to false authority.

Nevertheless, forceful European rulers continually arose, attempting to unite the Continent under their scepter
and uproot all opposition. None ever succeeded in this venture. Charlemagne, the Frank, tried to revive the glory of ancient Rome and give stability to papal Rome, his great religious ally. He called his new monarchy the Holy Roman Empire. But the experiment was shaky at best, and when he died, his amalgam of diverse principalities lost political cohesiveness.

Next came the Crusades, a brutal, bungling attempt to propagate the religion of Rome and
gain control of the Middle East. The outcome of this was the cultural enrichment of Europe, which the church had
plunged into the Dark Ages through superstition and the suppression of learning. Crusaders came back with ancient
manuscripts, including the Bible in Hebrew and Greek, that contained the wisdom of more enlightened ages.

Behind the Seen

God did not bless the bloody Crusades with military success, but through the superior culture of the Middle East and northern Africa, He did expose the would-be conquerors to a wealth of learning that spawned the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe, thus paving the way for the development of the modern world. The Renaissance fostered a revival of the arts and sciences, and the Reformation restored true Bible religion, freeing Europeans in large part from paganized Christianity and priestly dominance.

True to the imagery of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the affairs of nations continued to be an ever-shifting pattern of contending powers—of nations, alliances, and empires, now strong, now weak, but none ever standing unchallenged.

Interspersed with military campaigns were ceaseless efforts to weld Europe together under one dynasty through
intermarriage, court intrigues, commercial alliances, treaties, and coalitions. Every strategy failed, however.
God’s prophetic decree, like an unscalable mountain, blocked the way to the fulfillment of these vainglorious
dreams. “They shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron
is not mixed with clay” (Daniel 2.:43).

Again and again, power-hungry maniacs tried to dominate Europe and the Mediterranean world. In the 1500s
Charles V of Spain strove to unite Europe under his crushing rule, which included war against religious liberty. He failed, and ended his days in a monastery, tired, disillusioned, and broken. In the next century Louis XIV of France also tried to eradicate Bible-believing Christians and control Europe. He made considerable headway, but
his wastefulness, venereal disease, and the strong opposition from enlightened rulers aborted his plans.

Several generations later Napoleon came as close as any man to dominating Europe. Through statecraft and conquest his power extended from Sweden to Egypt. But the tide of events went against him at Waterloo, and he too went down in defeat. Exiled and dying in his early 50s, Napoleon ruefully exclaimed, “God has been too much for me.”

One century later his fate was shared by another would-be absolute ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. His scheme of world conquest ended in the flaming, twisted wreckage of total defeat in World War I. Hitler, a corporal in that war, attempted to achieve what his emperor failed to do. Responsible for the death of millions and the desolation of Europe, he died by his own hand in his palatial mountain retreat a decade after rising
to power. In short order Nazism’s boasted thousand year reich became smoking rubble.

What blocked the path to success for all of these power-crazed conquerors? Certainly not lack of drive, determination, or skill. But, like a military guard, standing in the way of their resolve to forge the nations into one vast empire, were the seven unconquerable words of God:

“They shall not cleave one to another.”

Repeatedly the wicked confederacies of men have been broken to pieces, giving extended opportunity for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed worldwide (see Matthew 24:14).

Next

What’s next in the flow of events? The war on terrorism and the ceaseless conflict among nations and within their own borders is pushing us to the brink. Everything is in flux. World financial markets are shaky. World leaders have spotty records and erratic plans. Genocidal rage flashes its ugly fangs. Crowded cities are seething cauldrons of vice, crime, and corruption. Advanced education is an extension of big business. Organized religion is infested with money-mad, sex-crazed, power-hungry leaders, leaving the impression that true morality is all but extinct.

Our civilization of iron and clay is crumbling. Our steel-reinforced concrete towers of pride, wealth, and boundless ambition have begun to crash into ruins. Today’s experts, trapped in faulty assumptions, are as baffled in their attempt to discern the future and constructively shape it as were Nebuchadnezzar’s wise men.

Few will admit the truth of God’s Word, which reveals that the human problem is beyond human solution (see Isaiah 47:10-15; Romans 3:10-22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). So what lies ahead? The sure word of prophecy
answers: “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed:
and the kingdom shall not be left to other people” (Daniel 2:44).

The scepter of rulership shall not be passed to the hands of men who shed blood, take bribes, or lift the inebriating cup.

Rather, all power will pass into the hands of Christ: hands that do not smite, but restore;
hands that do not grab for wealth, but dispense bounty to the poorest of the poor; hands that heal the sickest of
the sick; hands that wipe away tears from the most sorrowful eyes; hands that love and uphold and bless. Hands that were willingly spiked to Calvary’s cross by the vicious hands of those He came to save from sin.
Christ’s coming kingdom will not exist side by side with regimes that give His righteousness short shrift. His kingdom will not be a confined oasis of decency in a desert of injustice and misrule.

Do not join the ranks of mighty men, weak men, unprepared men, who will beg in that day, “Mountains
and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne” (see Revelation 6:14-17).
Instead, heed the prophecy of Daniel 2, and accept its accompanying invitation to prepare for citizenship in
Christ’s eternal kingdom of righteousness.

Soon He will appear in triumphant glory. Get ready. Be waiting for that greatest of events.

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

[Editor’s Note: When this article was published 20 years ago, BRIAN D. JONES, PH.D., had been a pastor for many years, currently and was the director of Bibleinfo.com.]

Check It Out

• God reveals His important plans for the human race
  through His prophets (Amos 3:7).
• Fulfilled prophecy proves the truth and reliability of
  God’s Word (Isaiah 46:9, 10).
• God gave prophecy by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to holy men (2 Peter 1:21).
• No prophecies or prophetic symbols are subject to private interpretation but are all explained in Scripture (2 Peter 1:20).
• All the Bible prophets, inspired by the same Spirit, are in agreement with each other (1 Corinthians 14:32, 33).
• Jesus’ first and second comings are the central themes of prophecy (Luke 24:25-32, 44, 45; Acts 3:20-26; 26:22, 23).
• God gave prophecy primarily to help us have a firmly anchored faith in Jesus as the Savior and to fully accept His rule in our lives (John 13:19; 14:29; 2 Peter 1:19).
• Those who reject the prophecies of Scripture or tamper with their content are rejecting their own salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:19-21; 2 Peter 3:1-5; Revelation 22:16-19).
• The best way to benefit from Bible prophecy is to study it “believing-ly” and obey the instruction connected with it. Only those who are willing to live godly lives shall truly understand and be blessed by prophecy (Daniel 12:8-10; John 7:17; Revelation 1:3; 22:7).

The Sabbath is God’s special present to the working people, and one of its chief objects is to prolong life and preserve sanity. The savings bank of human existence is the weekly Sabbath.

#ThrowbackThursday #Sabbath #HappySabbath

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the May/June 1980 edition of Message. We adapted it today to reflect gender inclusive language.

[Humanity] was created as spiritual beings, and God intended that we should develop the aesthetic and spiritual phases of his nature. We were to crave the inspiring, lofty association of the divine.
He wanted us to meditate upon and study into all the secrets of the world in which God had placed him.

The sum of these spiritual interests and activities were to develop our characters in all lines God had ordained. They were to make us what God intended us to be. But we had to have time to pursue these interests. We had to have time to commune with the Creator. Hence God gave the Sabbath.

Without the Sabbath we would have had a continual round of physical and mental labor, concerned solely with only our material needs. But, in observing the Sabbath, with its elevating, spiritual interpretation of life, we are changed and ennobled.

Date and Time Certain

God refers to the Sabbath as His “holy day” (Isaiah 58:13). It is as specific a part of time as the most holy place was a specific part of the tabernacle Moses built in the wilderness. As no other tent among the thousands in which Israel lived could be substituted for the most holy place, so no other part of time can be substituted for the holy time of the Sabbath. Just as the holy atmosphere of the most holy place could not be transferred to any other tent in Israel, so the sacredness of the Sabbath cannot be transferred to any other section of time in the weekly cycle.

As Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day of Creation Week, orFriday, the very first sunset they saw introduced to them the sacred hours of the first Sabbath day this planet had ever experienced. Doubtless, throughout their lives, the beauty and glory of every sunset reminded them of the first one that brought to them the sacred hours of that first holy Sabbath day and reminded them of the coming Sabbath at the end of the week.

The Sacred Record of that distant day reads in Genesis 2:2, 3: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” By virtue of these three acts of blessing, sanctifying, and resting, God made the Sabbath day.

Created by the Act of God

Let us note, however, that the act of creating the Sabbath day was entirely different from the acts of creation that God performed on the other six days.

On the first day He said, “Let there be light.” On the second, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” Then on the third, “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place.” The fourth is when He said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven.” On the fifth, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly, . . . and fowl that may fly above the earth.” Then on the sixth, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind”; also, “Let us make man in our image.”

Throughout God’s activities of the entire six days His creation was by fiat.

The psalmist says, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth . . . He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:6, 9).

The creation of the Sabbath, however, was of a different order. He did not create it by fiat. Instead, He rested twenty-four hours; He blessed those twenty-four hours; and He sanctified those twenty-four hours in order to make the Sabbath day. Making the Sabbath took all the time from that first sunset, Friday night, till sunset, Sabbath night. We may conclude, therefore, that if it took twenty-four hours to make the Sabbath, it takes the same amount of time to keep it.

Still a Part of the Program

The creation of the Sabbath was an essential, integral part of God’s creation activities during that first week of time on this planet. It comprised one seventh part of Creation Week. The making of the Sabbath was just as much a part of Creation as was the creation of light, the dry land, the beasts, or humans. The completing act was the creation of the Sabbath day. Hence the Sabbath day is just as lasting as that which was created on any other day.

Just as we are continually blessed with light, air, and other blessings of Creation Week, so we are blessed with the continuance of the holy Sabbath day. Its spiritual gifts are just as essential to us and our present and eternal good as the material things God created on the other six days. If one believes in Creation, one must of necessity believe in the seventh-day Sabbath, because the Sabbath was one seventh of Creation and an inseparable part of it.

The Sabbath day had a Godward and an us-ward significance. God knew the vital importance of placing in our program a memorial of our beginnings. Hence the Sabbath day was a memorial of God’s creation work, a perpetual reminder of His lofty and holy creation. He states, “Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: . . . that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13).

As stated above, the Sabbath was an integral part of the entire scheme of Creation. It was the capsheaf, as it were, the climax, of God’s creative work. It was as unchangeable as any other act of Creation Week.

Save the Date

The Fourth of July affords an illustration of the importance of the Sabbath. Independence Day is the memorial of a great historic event [the signing of the Declaration of Independence]. It came as a climax of a series of events. This memorial of the American Revolution is as unchangeable as the facts of history are unchangeable. In order to change the Fourth of July as Independence Day it would be necessary to blot out the entire history of the Revolution. It would be necessary to expunge from the pages of history all the events connected with it. Indeed, the entire series of revolutionary events would have to occur all over again in order to change that date. The same would be true with July 14 in France, the memorial of the fall of the Bastille, which, in French history, occupied a vital relation to their developing concepts of freedom. Again, in China, the same would be true concerning the Double Ten, the tenth day of October, their independence day, a day that was the culmination of over one hundred years of history.

These commemorative days are as unchangeable as the events to which they are related and of which they form a part. In like manner the Sabbath, being a part of the series of events of Creation Week, is also immovable and unchangeable.

From the Message Vault

#TruthTuesdays #BibleStudy #JesusisComing #Bewareoffakenews

Editor’s Note: Eva B. Dykes, Ph.D.  was the first black woman to complete the requirements for a Ph.D. in the United States. She accomplished that feat at Harvard’s Radcliffe. She later taught English at Howard University and Oakwood College. At Oakwood  she founded the now world renown Aeolian choir. Dykes was also a regular columnist for Message where she wrote Bible studies and for the printed daily devotional calendar.  This article appeared in the May/June 1968 issue of Message.

Your Bible Speaks | New Dimensions and Fresh Adventures in Bible Study

By Eva B. Dykes

With what promise did Christ comfort His disciples, troubled about His predicted betrayal and departure?

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and preparea place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” John 14:1-4.

Where did Christ go to prepare a place for His disciples?

“Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” Acts 1:11.

What was the “manner” of His ascending into heaven?

“And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” Acts 1:9.

How will Christ return to this earth?

“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” Luke 21:27.

Note: Christ ascended in a cloud; He will return in a cloud (or clouds).

In what threefold “great glory” will Christ return?

“For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels” Luke 9:26.

What is the nature of the Father’s glory?

“And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel” Exodus 24:17.

What is the nature of the Son’s glory?

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Acts 9:3, 4.

Note: The glory of Christ was so dazzling that Paul fell to the earth. Note the same effect of God’s glory upon Ezekiel, who also fell upon his face at the sight (Ezekiel 1:28).

How great is the glory of one angel?

“His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men” Matthew 28:3, 4.

Is it possible to give the exact number of angels that
will accompany Christ at His second coming?

“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands” Revelation 5:11.

Note: The imagination is dazzled as we think of the combined glory of the Father, the Son, and the countless angels at the second coming of the King of glory.

Will the second coming be visible or invisible?

“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.”

“Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth:  behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” Matthew 24:23, 26, 27.

How many people will see Christ when He comes the second time?

“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” Revelation 1:7.

Does this coming preclude the fact of a coming to each individual?

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” Revelation 3:20.

When Christ comes in to “sup” with [us], what change takes place in the heart?

“The kingdom of God never comes by watching for it. Men cannot say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ for the kingdom of God is inside you” Luke 17: 20, 21, Phillips.*

What is one difference between this invisible individual coming and the public visible coming?

Answer: The coming into the hearts of men is not a forced entrance. Rather, it is an entrance depending upon the choice of the one at whose heart Christ knocks. (“If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.”)

What two classes of people will be on the earth when Christ comes?

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5.

What question doubting Christ’s coming will [scoffers] ask?

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” 2 Peter 3:3, 4.

What will be the attitude of some of the professed followers of Christ?

“But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; . . . the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of” Matthew 24:48-50.

What will be the attitude of the children of light?

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ” Titus 2:13.

When Milton Lang Brown, III, M.D., Ph.D., received the 2015 Percy Julian Award last September—the Nobel Prize for black chemists from the National Association for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers—he was compared immediately to the award’s namesake.

Percy Julian received more than 130 patents for synthetic drugs, leading to the industry’s producing such medications as cortisone, corticosteroids and birth control pills. In 1973, he became the National Academy of Science first black chemist inductee.

Upon closer analysis, Brown, a medicinal chemist with 38 drug patents, four start-up biotechnology companies and one un-closeted faith, lines up more like a 21st Century George Washington Carver.

Unshakable Faith

Perhaps the most striking similarity between Carver and Brown is their un-apologetic pairing of God and science. A little-known George Washington Carver factoid was his unshakeable faith in God, particularly when fellow scientists began to view science and religion as mutually exclusive. Not only did Carver dub his world-famous lab “God’s little workshop,” but also for more than 30 years, Carver taught a Sunday afternoon Bible class at Tuskegee.

Brown’s early Christian education netted him both a spiritual foundation and a spouse. In Huntsville, Alabama, he and teenage sweetheart, Sandra Roper, graduated together from Oakwood Academy (1983), and Oakwood College (1987), Seventh-day Adventist institutions. Their two daughters are following their parents by attending the latter.

When he addressed a conference of 374 seniors for The Center For Aging last year, he opened with prayer and then discussed the science. He ended his 38-minute fireside chat by saying, “I’m just blessed to have a purpose to make new medicines to impact the world.”

When the National Academy of Inventors inducted its 2015 Class of Fellows in April this year, Brown became a Fellow, or, in his lingo, “one of d’ fellas.” To read his 67-page curriculum vitae, one would think he is a highbrow academician. But outside of the Ivies, this double doctor blends effortlessly into any smack-talkin,’ fist-bumpin’ barbershop in the ‘hood. The difference? His tales aren’t fables. They are faith journeys.

The Faith Journeys: How Struggle Enhanced Genius

Upon entering University of Alabama, Birmingham, in 1989, the department chairman confronted Brown. No African-American had ever earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. Later, Brown’s research advisor and dissertation committee informed him that he must create a drug in order to graduate. Brown felt inexperienced and declared the assignment impossible. Then his wife directed him: “Go, get in the lab, and ask God to do it for you.”

With a backpack and a cot, Brown camped out there until God revealed a molecular structure in living 3-D, right before his eyes—without IMAX glasses. He leapt! He leapt, that is, until he presented his findings to his professor, who declared, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Dejected, Brown returned home only to hear his wife repeat her directive. He sent his research to the National Institute for Neurological Disease and Stroke. Four months later, the institute told him that he had made “the most powerful anti-seizure drug we’ve seen in a long time.”

During his second year of medical school at the University of Virginia, Brown—a Ph.D.—flunked his Neuroscience course and lost his full scholarship. Embarrassed and self-assigned to the rear of the class, he encountered a classmate, another flunkee. Summer “redemption” school in Vermont afforded the two a non air-conditioned, back- of-hospital, near-the-loading-dock room. While praying to God for academic redemption and cool air, two other flunkees overheard Brown and his classmate through the open window and joined them. This ad hoc prayer gathering grew to be 20 strong and was forced to relocate to the more spacious main lobby.

In 2006, Brown established the drug discovery center at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The redeemed neuroscience student was awarded a $4.5M Edwin H. Richard and Elisabeth von Matsch Endowed Chair in Experimental Therapeutics. Brown is now a tenured professor in four different departments, including Neuroscience and Oncology. His work serves as a launching pad for new medicines, including those that fight cancer, the effects of radiation, hypertension, epileptic convulsions, and nicotine and cocaine addictions.

When asked about the potential impact of his life work, he mulls the question then answers, “Each drug has the potential to save millions of lives and to have a global impact until Jesus comes.”

Originally published in Message Magazine’s JULY/AUGUST 2016 Edition by Tim Allston

Sometimes we give mental assent to the truth but neglect to act it out in our lives or let it regulate our behavior. We neglect to let it help us generously love and care about each other as members of the family of God and residents on Planet Earth. Also, we neglect to let it regulate our actions and interactions, recognizing that Christians are imitators of Christ and that we are here to develop characters in preparation for eternity. We cannot afford to neglect preparation for winter. We cannot afford to live like those who take no thought for the future, who are unmindful of the seriousness of life that is given to us by our Creator. That is why Paul admonishes us, “Besides this you know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now that when we first believed” (Romans 13: 11).

—Message, November December 2002, “Of Ants Squirrels, and Us” by Bertram Melbourne, Ph.D

This article is part of our 2022 January/February  Issue
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President Lyndon B. Johnson said recently, “There are three central places where we must begin to build the Great Society—in our cities, in our countryside, and in our classrooms. . . . Our society will never be great until our cities are great. . . . A second place where we begin to build the Great Society is in our countryside. . . . A third place to build the Great Society is in the classrooms of America. There our children’s lives will be shaped. Our society will not be great until every young mind is set free to scan the farthest reaches of thought and imagination. We are still far from the goal. Today, eight million adult Amer- icans have not finished five years of school. Nearly fifty- four million—more than one quarter of all America—have not even finished high school. Each year more than a hundred thousand high school graduates, with proven ability, do not enter college because they cannot afford it.

“If we cannot educate today’s youth, what will we do in 1970 when elementary school enrollment will be five million greater than in 1960? High school enrollment will rise by five million. College enrollment will increase by more than three million.”

It would seem, however, to be a grave mistake to imagine that even high-quality education in our public and private schools, of itself alone, can raise our society to great heights. Many of our most astute statesmen, educators, and other leaders of thought have warned that somehow there must be actively injected into the hearts and lives of our citizens those moral virtues and spiritual values which should emanate from our homes and churches. In fact, our leading educators have strongly emphasized that moral and spiritual values should be inculcated in the home.

A main objective of education in the early American colonies was the aim of making each pupil competent to read and observe the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. The colonists were in accord with the Apostle Paul, who said, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15. Most of our readers are well informed of the struggles and achievements of Mary McLeod Bethune. Speaking of the driving force which motivated her life, Dr. Bethune said, “The light I sought was learning, and . . . a chance to know and read the precious Bible.”

Of course, we are keenly aware of the American ideal of the separation of church and state. We believe that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States should never be abrogated. Yet, no one should fail to take full advantage of his educational opportunities.

To beautify the world He made
I like to think He took reflections
Of night and day in every shade
To give His children their complexions.

To some He gave a golden glow
That caught the morning sun’s warm rays;
He let the dusk of twilight flow
Upon the brown child all her days.

To some were given skins of white
To match the moon out there in space;
And from the velvet black of night
He made the dark child’s lovely face.

The swarthy ones, the pale, the tan
With love He painted all their faces.
And so, I like to think, began
The splendid rainbow of the races.

Originally published in Message Magazine’s January/February 1965 Edition by Anna M. Gasser

#FromTheVault

This tough, demanding role calls for creative partnerships.

Fatherhood, a time-honored role, is presently in such a state of flux that many men, especially black men, hardly know how to handle it effectively. The medias has greatly distorted fathering with the use of such situation comedies as All in the Family and the not-so-good Good Times. With the increased independence of women and greater emphasis on children’s rights, fatherhood in the future surely will be one of the most demanding and creative roles a man will ever play. Successful fathers must possess the following qualities: a high degree of spirituality, respect for women, a balance in career goals, and responsibility for influence.

The successful father will accept the fact that as a human he is totally unable to direct and mold rightly the lives of his children without divine guidance. In matters of morality, the media is corrupt, the government compromised, and the church inconsistent. How can a father counsel his children against pre-marital sex when the Supreme Court has declared abortion on demand to be legal? With the large number of television programs, books, magazines, and popular songs promoting compromising or immoral behavior, a father must look to others sources for moral standards.

The effective father of the future must be firmly grounded in the Word of God. He must learn about the lives of Bible characters and teach his family about their failures and successes. His children must be familiar with great Bible truths and believe that the enabling power of the Holy Spirit can help them to live out these great truths as they run the gauntlet of temptations common to youth.

Constant prayer for wisdom characterizes the daily life of the effective father. The first fact every father must accept is that he is grossly unprepared for the many decisions before him. Only by bowing in humility before the heavenly Father can there be even a remote chance of true success. Indeed, the creative solutions to tough family problems have often been resolved, not through might or money or compromise but through divine inspiration and direction.

Fathering is but half the parenting process. Mothering is the other half. Many fathers have overlooked the fact that the best mothering is done by a woman who feels her husband respects, trusts, and appreciates her. Many a marriage and home have been destroyed because the mother felt that either she was left alone to make all the decisions or that she wasn’t involved in major decisions.

It is not wise of think of oneself as a successful father if the mother is not allowed to reach her full potential. Fathering, in the sider sense, includes supporting and encouraging the mother. The roles of a mother or father, as we have traditionally learned them, in many cases have changed dramatically. It’s important that both parents seek to support each other and do what is necessary to promote, nurture, and advance the family unit.

The effective father must be grounded in the Word of God.

Fathers who understand this relationship can then find joy in the challenge of dirty diapers, soiled dishes, unwashed clothes, and messy bedrooms. Fathers who help with the constant, repetitive, and often boring tasks of keeping house allow the mother to spend quality time with the children and also allow her the have cherished moments for rest and reflection. Too few fathers know the limitless joy of marital bliss when the mother is allowed to go to bed early and the father stays up to take care of the supper dishes, give nightly baths if needed, and do other exhausting evening activities before joining her.

For many men, the most difficult area of fathering is balancing career objectives with family commitments and responsibilities. Currently, fathers are measured by society on their ability to provide creature comforts and material possessions. A man who refuses to provide for his family obviously needs counseling. However, the father who provides every material need and want, yet fails to spend quality time with his family is planting the seeds of discontent and restlessness. There is no real wisdom in being a workaholic in order to acquire that home, that business, that vacation when, after having acquired it, the family doesn’t enjoy the “thing” because they really don’t enjoy the father, who by now has become nervous, ill-tempered, and restless.

The successful father will consistently have to do what many may consider very unwise. During the family’s formative years, the father will need to balance career goals with the emotional and spiritual needs of his family. He will not take a job, regardless of the pay, if the environment is harmful for the children. He will not recklessly move to a new area if his wife’s job or objectives might be severely affected. The father realizes that jobs come and go and that his first job is to promote well-being and contentment in his family. Moreover, what is the advantage of gaining a major career promotion and losing the sense of family that the promotion was supposedly going to improve? It is better to rear a successful and well-adjusted family than to start and run the world’s largest business.

Finally, the successful father will accept responsibility for his influence on those not of his home. Through his behavior, attitudes, deportment, and philosophy the successful father must attempt to demonstrate to other fathers the potentials for successful fatherhood.

In the church, in the school, on the job, and on the playing field, he will encourage the principles of toleration, compassion, strength, kindness, and generosity. He knows that the world needs men who are true to such family principles. He will seek ways to uplift, encourage, and help those in his circle of influence, as well as direct them to his heavenly Father. A variation of a slogan used by the Marines seems appropriate here: “The world is looking for a few good fathers.” Will you be one?