Herald of Holiness Volume 69 Number 15 (1980)
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Olivet Nazarene University Digital Commons @ Olivet Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today Church of the Nazarene 8-1-1980 Herald of Holiness Volume 69 Number 15 (1980) W. E. McCumber (Editor) Nazarene Publishing House Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation McCumber, W. E. (Editor), "Herald of Holiness Volume 69 Number 15 (1980)" (1980). Herald of Holiness/ Holiness Today. 334. https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/cotn_hoh/334 This Journal Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Church of the Nazarene at Digital Commons @ Olivet. It has been accepted for inclusion in Herald of Holiness/Holiness Today by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Olivet. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father... you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29, 31,NIV) WHEN GOD DOESN'T DELIVER We all like stories with happy wasn’t the laymen who Lord can deliver, why doesn’t endings. The Bible is full of threatened the lives of the He? them — prophets—it was the other Only God has all the specific — Daniel’s deliverance from preachers! And that’s a answers, of course. But one of the lions’ den; terrible indictment of the them must be that on occasion — David’s conquest of Goliath; clergy. death proves the validity of — Paul’s miraculous rescue This narrative contains both one’s faith more than from shipwreck. good news and bad news. The deliverance. No one could good news is that when ever deny the reality of Job’s All these and many more Jeremiah took his case to the trust in God when in the midst testify to God’s ability to turn people, they reversed the of total tragedy he could tragedies into triumphs for His decisions of the prophets and testify, “Though he slay me, people. priests. “Then the officials and yet will I trust in him” (Job But without denying this great all the people said to the 13:15). And when a Christian truth we must in all honesty priests and prophets, This dies victoriously after an face the fact that there are man should not be sentenced agonizingly long, losing battle some Bible stories that don’t to death! He has spoken to us with cancer, a watching world end so happily. One of these in the name of the Lord our must acknowledge that is related in the 26th chapter God’” (Jeremiah 26:16, NIV). salvation is more than just a of Jerem iah’s prophecy. This Truth was vindicated. creed that sounds good on is the story of two Old Jeremiah was delivered. Sunday morning in church. Testament prophets. They But the bad news is that the The other answer is that fo r were both good men. The other prophet, Urijah, didn’t God’s people, death is name of one is very familiar. fare so well. He, too, told the deliverance. Faith in Christ’s The other is virtually unknown. truth—“he prophesied the atoning death and triumphant This is proof that just being same things against this city resurrection removes the good doesn’t make us famous and this land as Jeremiah did” haunting specter of dying. — in Bible times or today. (26:20b). But instead of his Because He lives, we too shall The second similarity between deliverance his fate was death. live. While we may call the the two was that they both got That’s hard to explain, isn’t it? death of the young into trouble for telling the The truth is, both in and out of “premature,” in the strictest sense it is never untimely. truth. And it wasn’t the sinner the Bible, God’s people are Anything which delivers one who reacted negatively—it was not all delivered— some die. from sickness, sorrow, and the saint. That’s a sad Stephen did— Paul finally did tears, and ushers him or her commentary on God’s people. —the five young missionaries into the eternal joys of heaven But even more unbelievably, it to the Auca Indians did. If the and the presence of Jesus is the good providence of God. In this light we can confidently testify with the apostle Paul, “Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph by General Superintendent Eugene L. Stowe in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14). He alw ays delivers! □ HERALD OF HOLINESS ered the woman in elchair sitting by irport window. by THOMAS W. KLEWIN Crapaud, Prince Edward Island HAD JUST MISSED I asked myself why I my connection at the couldn’t find that same airport and was impa solitude here at the air Itiently waiting for the next port, or at home with the flight out. To help pass the TV and stereo turned on. I time and to relieve feelings decided that I could, if.. of frustration and anger, I if I could immerse myself walked the long corridors in the kind of delight that of the terminal. And then I woman in the wheelchair saw her. She was sitting had expressed as she fo in a wheelchair staring in cused on the creative ge tently through the window nius of God. And I won which faced the runway dered why I couldn’t find area. Trapped by the de the same kind of awed de light written on her face, I stood behind her to see light watching a child at play, or my wife gracefully what was giving her so much obvious delight. There moving around the house, or one of our house plants were no jets landing or taking off, but the sun was suddenly blossoming into a riot of color. slowly sinking beneath the horizon. So I stood there It’s a good thing occasionally to stop to “ smell the to share the sunset with her. She didn’t know I was roses.” What could be more important than finding there. As the sun finally dropped out of sight with one joy in the world God has made for us? I told myself I’d last glorious burst of color, she whispered to herself in find time to reach out and touch the people around awed delight, “ Good for You, God!” me, remembering to revel in those people God had What a lesson that was for me about the matter of allowed to come into my life. Why couldn’t I, when I priorities. I had been so preoccupied with the idea of hugged my wife or one of my children, say, “ Good for lost time because of a missed plane connection that I You, God” ? Each of them is unique, and I can find would have missed the sunset except for the woman special delight in each of them just for being, for their in the wheelchair. presence in my life, if I take the time. I’d become so involved in things that I believed had to be done, so tied to time schedules, that I was in The woman at the airport celebrated life by mar danger of missing the miracles of God’s creation, and veling at God’s creation. And 1 suddenly realized I no not finding awed delight and joy in them—including longer took the time to watch a chipmunk with filled the people who lived around me. I’d become so com cheek pouches scurrying for cover, to listen to the mitted to doing things, establishing goals, and song of a bird, to smell the green grass after a rain, to achieving tasks, that I was losing the joy of the un watch the stars fill a clear night sky with tiny, bril committed moments when I could revel in God’s liant lights, to watch a fragile butterfly glide on air creation. I was missing the miracles which could currents. prompt me to say, “ Good for You, God!” Suddenly it didn’t matter that I’d missed my As it grew darker, I sat in the terminal and thought flight. The woman in the wheelchair had taught me a about how I’d lost the power of solitude. The woman lesson on priorities. I needed time to see, hear, smell, in the wheelchair had found solitude in the midst of a and touch the wonders of God’s world, to concentrate busy airport, where thousands of people rushed by on discovering joy in the evidence of God’s creative and the sounds were constant. And in that solitude genius. I needed to find the awed delight which would she had discovered a source of joy, strength, awe, and permit a woman, handicapped in body but liberated delight. in soul, to say, “Good for You, God! ” □ AUGUST 1, 1980 3 HERALD M3HOLINESS W . E. M c C U M B E R , Editor in Chief IVAN A. BEALS, Office Editor Contributing V. H. LEWIS • ORVILLE W . JENKINS TWO BLOCKS FROM THE COM Editors: CHARLES H. STRICKLAND • EUGENE L. STOWE W ILLIAM M. GREATHOUSE • JERALD D. JOHNSON MUNITY OF HOPE,* A POLICE OF General Superintendents, Church of the Nazarene FICER WAS SHOT AND KILLED BY THE JUNKIE HE WAS TRYING TO ARREST. □ DRUG DEALING HAS BECOME AN OPEN THREAT TO IN THIS ISSUE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. ■ THERE WHEN GOD DOESN’T DELIVER ............................................. 2 ARE TIMES WHEN IT SEEMS THAT General Superintendent Eugene L.