Still Have Your "First Love"?

My Dear Children,

It has been more than 54 years now since the Lord found this poor lost sinner on the troopship, General A.E. Anderson. In the flyleaf of my Bible I carry a picture of it as it sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. This week I was invited to an “Andy” reunion in San Antonio in September. I had located some of the crew through my VFW magazine. I was one of more than 4,000 Marines aboard returning to the U.S. in 1954. I got in touch with some of the crew but was never able to locate the Marine who led me to the Lord. His name was “Jerry” and he was from Minnesota, but that is all I know.

My “first love” (Rev. 2:4) took over and I told everyone I knew, or met, about the peace I felt in knowing my sins were forgiven. From Treasure Island where we landed, I told my fellow Marines on the train going east to Quantico, Virginia. I witnessed to my Mormon buddy until he got off in Salt Lake City. Then when I arrived home in Pennsylvania, I told my Dad, Mom, and family. I witnessed to my relatives, high school friends, and prior to leaving my church I made sure the preacher, deacons, relatives, and other members had heard my testimony. I wasn’t always wise in the way I did it, and I know some were offended. I said some things I regret to this day. I could not imagine anyone not wanting what I had found, and when things were said I didn’t like, I replied in kind. I’d like to go back and do some things differently. I hurt some whom I loved dearly. Today as I was reading Letters of John Newton I came across this word of comfort.

I believe the over doings of a young convert, proceeding from an honest simplicity of heart, and a desire of pleasing the Lord, are more acceptable in His sight than a certain coolness of conduct, which frequently takes place afterward, when we are apt to look back with pity upon our former weakness, and secretly to applaud ourselves for our present greater attainments in knowledge, though perhaps (alas, that it should ever be so!) we may have lost as much in warmth as we have gained in light.

In Revelation 2:2-4, we find the Lord knew of the labor, patience, and separated stand of the Church at Ephesus. How “for His name sake” they had labored, and not fainted (even to the point of exhaustion is the meaning), and yet we find they were in danger of being rejected because they had left their “first love.”

The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen

DAD

False Saviors

Dear Children,

Lately my thoughts have been drawn more and more toward the passage in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 where we are told there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. I always smile when I think of Dr. Bob Jones Sr. telling us that the “time to refrain from embracing” in verse 5 was while we are on the BJU campus.

The time I’ve been thinking of is in verse 2. “There is a time to be born and a time to die.” At 75 I am living on borrowed time—I have already passed my “three score and ten” by more than 5 years. Then my thoughts go to my children and grandchildren who will face difficulties unprecedented in the history of our country. I feel a great responsibility not only to pray for you but to exhort you to continue in the faith, for you must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). I am reading through a series of books by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the book of Acts. I want to quote from Victorious Christianity, Vol. 3, which was written at least 50 years ago.

Oh the ugliness and foulness that is in our perverted natures as the result of the fall. You can put in new houses, but they don’t change our natures, and we may turn our homes into pig sties. You can give us learning and knowledge, but that does not change the rot that is in the soul. You can give us wealth, but it does not make us new people….That is the story of the world’s vaunted civilization, its boasting, of its understanding and sophistication.

The world is always ready to believe in saviors; it is always ready to believe in emancipators and liberators and redeemers. Rome was ready to believe in the Caesars, France in Napoleon, Italy in Mussolini, Germany in Hitler, Russia in Stalin. And this is still as true today as it has ever been….Even in recent history, we have tended to turn men into gods. We have been ready to accept leaders at their own valuation….The world is eager to bow down before such men, and while it does, it rejects the One whom God has raised up to be the one and only Savior.

Look at those it is ready to worship, praise and follow. Listen to their arrogant boasting; look at the attitudes they strike as they address the populance. Our Lord put this perfectly: ‘I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye shall receive’ (John 5:43).

False saviors exalt themselves; they give themselves titles; they set themselves up on pedestals and build monuments and statues to themselves….They plaster cities and walls with their photographs….They have their “cheerleaders” to organize applause, to tell the people when to cheer and when to stop….Fancy fooling themselves to that extent! That is the mentality of the world.

This could have been written this week! I know this is long, but I implore you to read it carefully so you can understand better what you are facing.

Grace Be With All You Who Love Our Lord Jesus Christ in Sincerity,

Dad

"Redeeming the time." Ephesians 5:16

Dear Children,

Do you remember when I used to read poems and essays in our family devotions? I credit my BJU English and Speech teachers for creating a desire to read and memorize good literature. As one who minored in speech I had to memorize long portions of Tennyson’s “Enoch Arden” and a large portion of “The Yearling.” These stick out in my mind because of the lengthy portion memorized, but I was exposed to many other poets and their works both secular and sacred. Every father wants to see his sons imitate good things they have learned from their dads, but in my case I think somewhere that love for poetry has not been passed on to my sons or sons-in-law. I’m glad that at least one grandson has memorized some of the poems I used to read to you while sitting around the kitchen table. He will be reciting “A Fence at the Top of the Hill or an Ambulance at the Bottom?” next week in a public meeting. Remember that one? (A lesson is there that would be good to learn in Washington DC.)

You dads may be thinking that reading and memorizing Scripture is all that is needed. Certainly that is primary, but taking time to read biographies of godly men like Adoniram Judson, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, John Paton, and Robert McCheyne (these names should sound familiar) and instilling a love for good poetry and other classic writings would not hurt your children.

I’m in the midst of transcribing 50 years of my diaries onto my computer. This week I noted that on May 17, 1976, “I read the kids Ronald Reagan’s March 31st message to the nation. We discussed politics for a long time.” Only 33 years left to transcribe with this finger! (I can no longer type since I can’t open my left hand.) I know you don’t have time for all this. I can appreciate that, but I also know that as you grow older time goes by more rapidly, and what can be sadder than to look back over the years with regret! While commercial fishing as a deckhand about 20 years ago I heard a grizzled old sea captain say over the VHF radio to another captain, “My biggest regret in life is that I didn’t spend more time with my kids”. Video games and the TV are a poor substitute for hands-on time with your children.

I still have a love for reading and read a poem every day but now I have the added advantage of “googling” the author. Yesterday I googled “Hannah More” (1745-1833) since I am including her treatise on “Redeeming the Time" in this letter. After a tumultuous life which included several broken engagements, Miss More was converted at the age of 40. “Her religious conversion was not a sudden event that cannot be precisely dated, it nevertheless changed her life. Two of her new friends were John Newton (Amazing Grace) and Member of Parliament Wm. Wilberforce.…Her poem “Slavery” was instrumental in the fight against slavery.…She was one of the most successful writers and perhaps the most influential woman of her day.” Her essay listed below left me convicted as I do not manage time very well in my old age.

Love, DAD

"Redeeming the time" Ephesians 5:16 by Hannah More



Christians should especially be on their guard against a spirit of idleness, and a slovenly habitual wasting of time. We must guard against a habitual frivolousness at home; and an abundance of unprofitable small-talk, idle reading, inane drowsiness, and a quiet and dull frittering away of time.

We must seriously consider--what a large portion of life we have unwisely squandered; what days and nights we have wasted, if not sinfully--yet selfishly; if not loaded with evil--yet destitute of good. In the day of judgment, the thin disguise which our treacherous heart now casts over vanity and sloth, will then be torn off.

We are guilty of the strange inconsistency of being most wasteful of what we best love--and of throwing away what we most fear to lose--that TIME of which life is made up. It is not so much a lack of time--as a wasting of our time--which prevents life from answering all the ends for which God has given it to us.

Few things make us so useful of the world, as the prudent use of our precious time. We should not only be careful not to waste our own time--but that others do not rob us of it! The "stealing of our purse" is a serious wrong to us. But the "stealing of our time" should grieve us even more! Pilfering of another's time is a felony for which no restitution can be made--for time is not only invaluable, but irrecoverable!

Every particle of time is valuable. No day can be insignificant--when every day is to be accounted for. Each one possesses weight and importance. What a scene will open upon us, when, from our eternal state--we shall look back on the use we have made of time--when we shall take a clear retrospect of all we have done, and all we ought to have done!

"Almighty God, I adore Your infinite patience, which has not cut me off in the midst of my follies. Let me no longer abuse that precious treasure, time. Let me bid adieu to all those vain amusements, those trifling entertainments and sinful diversions--which have robbed me of many valuable hours. Let me no longer waste my time in ease and pleasure, in unprofitable studies and conversation; but grant, that by moderation and temperance in my enjoyments, I may be able to give a good account of it in the day of judgment, and be accepted in and through the merits of Jesus Christ, my only mediator and advocate. Amen."