PEA RIDGE — “Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life and honor.” Proverbs 21:21 NRSV
One of my gifts in a previous Christmas was a calendar depicting the many cameras down through the years. Some of the early models were simple box designs, fully manual with nothing automatic. Yet the prints they delivered were remarkable. As I have digitized these rare prints I have discovered the remarkable clarity and detail they were able to achieve.
My father carried around a collapsible, medium format camera during World War II and brought home amazing photographs that were taken in difficult circumstances. Despite the amazing advances we have made in cameras since that time, it is an open question as to whether we have improved the finished product that much.
Too often we, in this 21st century, think that the things and ideas we have today are always better than what has come before.
And although there are many improvements, the overwhelming reality is much has been lost. The general craftsmanship of early times has mostly been lost to the need for fast results, reproduction in huge quantities and appearance over quality. Like modern cameras, there are many bells and whistles, but what is the lasting quality of the finished product?
A close companion to the photograph is the written word. Obviously, the written word is still important or you wouldn’t be reading this reflection of mine. In addition to this newspaper, millions of books are available today, and many of them claim to be the final word on the particular subject. And often that final word negates any need of an absolute truth. In fact, their “final word” often states there is no “final word.” However, just like the photograph, there is an earlier publication that declares absolute truth, and that this truth has lasting, eternal value. It has not lost the craftsmanship of truth.
And it never becomes outdated. Many have tried to find flaws in it but in the final analysis it has remained the final Word.
It is a rare find, that will not disappoint. I mean, of course, the Holy Scriptures, God’s Holy Bible, His Living Word.
Today, much of the population of our great country has abandoned the principles set forth in this uncompromising written Word. And most see no relationship between this abandonment and the growing difficulties in our nation. When I was a child you could listen to the evening news for a monthwithout ever hearing of a murder taking place in our region. Now, you hear of one everyday. Rape, child abuse, child kidnapping and everything we never imagined is reported in every newspaper or broadcast. And it seems most people do not associate the lack of rain with the abandonment of God’s principles for life. Yet 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 states, “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” I fear that the phrase “will humble themselves” is one part of the abandoned principles from which our nation has walked away. And of course, we can explain the lack of rain by a strictly man-made situation, “global warming.” Some go even further and state that only man can save himself from this global condition.
But when we look into an old “photograph” of truth, we see a totally different picture. Man is responsible before God for abandoning His truth, His final word.
I have felt the need for some time to at least help God’s people, those “who are called by My name,” to recognize that we first must return to God’s principles. If God’s people no longer believe the “final Word” then how can we expect anyone else to believe it? So, sometime this year I will leave the church I have pastored, and the people I have loved, to do a new work God is calling me to engage. This may be my last article for this paper. But this region and my faithful readers I will never forget. I pray that you, my friends, will always remember that when you accept and believe that God’s Word is truth to live by, that God will bless you mightily. Look up a copy of His Word, His Truth, and discover for yourself the beautiful picture it portrays and its eternal help!
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Editor’s note: Jim Duncan is the pastor of Mountain Bible Church, Mountain, Mo. He may be contacted at P.O. Box 146, Pea Ridge, AR 72751; or by telephone at 417-341-8504; by e-mail at james [email protected]. His Web site is www.jamesduncan-writer.net.
Church, Pages 2 on 08/29/2012