“GOD’S FELLOW WORKERS”
“GOD’S FELLOW WORKERS”
“GOD’S FELLOW WORKERS”
Carl Spain The Lord’s church is faced with a tremendous oppo-sition as she seeks to do the will of Christ in a sinful world. She is called to a high calling in a world of low living. She cannot use carnal weapons in contending for “the faith once for all delivered to the saints”. When persecuted she cannot retaliate. She can only pray for those who despitefully use her. While others are depending on false propaganda spoken in hate, she can only rely upon truth spoken in love. While mighty forces that oppose her are depending on their concentrated wealth and political power, she must trust in the living God, and the truth of the gospel as the only “dynamite” that she can lawfully employ against the enemies of righteousness. The apostle Paul said: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds) ; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). The following scripture is especially comforting to us as we go into all the world under the commission of our Lord:
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:31-32; Romans 8:35; Romans 8:37).
Two Great Themes In One:
Our subject divides itself naturally into two major considerations: (1) We are God’s Fellow-Workers, and (2) God is our Fellow-worker. There is a work that God has given us to do, but the Lord was careful to remind us that “without me, ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). Paul exclaimed: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Yes, in everything we are workers together with God, because it is his business.
I. Who Are God’s Fellow Workers?
The little negro boy who named himself “George Washington”, and later fell heir to the name Carver when he was a slave on the Carver plantation, stood bne day with a hand full of dirt and another full of peanuts and exclaimed, “Lord, shew me what’s in that dirt; shew me what’s in them peanuts!” To which, as the simple negro would relate it, God answered: “Nigger, you got a brain; you find out!” A beautiful garden of flowers and vegetables is a reflection of the partnership between God and man. God was careful not to do everything for man. In his wisdom he left something for the children to do. A wise parent will leave something for the child to do in order that it may learn the nobility of work. In God’s family unlike many modern families, there is a job for everyone. Jesus said: “My Father works, and I work” (John 5:17). He does not reward indolence, nor does he put a premium on laziness by promising salvation to one who is not a faithful steward. 'It has been said that piety is no excuse for stupidity. And we add just here that negative goodness which consists of vices not indulged in, will not justify one who in spiritual and physical laziness leaves the Father’s business undone and neglected. The moral and spiritual integrity of the church at Thessalonica was in danger of collapse because many members, in their misdirected zeal for the coming of the Lord, had become idle. Paul said to them: “If any would not work, neither let him eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies” (2 Thessalonians 3:10-11).
People who think of work as a penalty are very busy trying to secure more leisure time. Let us realize that before Adam and Eve had committed the first sin, God had dignified the place of work and attested to its nobility by charging them with the responsibility of dressing and keeping the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15). In the ministrations that are to be per-formed by the church he was careful to stress the nobility of work and ignominiousness of laziness. For example, look at his instructions concerning the widows to be assisted by the church, in which he warns the church to assist only those widows who were “well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have diligently followed every good work” (1 Timothy 5:10). The Master of us all said: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Matthew 24:45-46).
He also said: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them” (Revelation 14:13).
Jesus, Our Example to Work:
The Lord Jesus Christ, unhampered by physical fatigue, spends every hour of heaven’s fadeless day in busy activity in the interest of his kingdom and the performance of all the duties pertaining to his position as the head of the church. Verily, if an elder or a gospel preacher is kept busy in the work of a single congregation, answering calls for help, looking for lost sheep, feeding the flock, preaching the gospel, think how busy Christ and God must be. From his throne God rules the universe, and from his right hand Christ rules and reigns over the kingdom, with thousands of congregations and hundreds of thousands of Christians, each one asking an audience with the King, placing their problems before him and asking for his help. Not to a single one does he ever say, “I don’t have time for you and your little problems.” Wherever two or three are gathered in his name he is in their midst. Think of the appointments he must not forget! And wherever his ministers go to preach, he goes along with them. Whenever someone is saved, he must enroll their name in the Book of Life and keep a daily record of their words and deeds. If our small area of activity in the universe can provide work enough and to spare, how busy the Christ must be! And, what do you suppose he thinks about a lazy Christian or a lazy church that folds its hands in a world where so much needs to be done which is within their power to do! Let him speak his own mind: “Depart from me ye cursed, into everlasting fire . . . for I was hungry and you did not give me to eat; I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not” (Matthew 25:41-43).
How many Christians and how many churches have buried their talent of responsibility and hidden it away under a heap of excuses? To how many of us will Christ say: “Thou wicked and slothful servant!” 'How many of us will hear our eternal doom sealed when he says to his angels: “Cast ye out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness” (Matthew 25:26; Matthew 25:30)? Our duty is to preach the gospel in word and deed, that through precept and example we may work with God in bringing men to repentance, transforming them by the renewing of their minds, that they may prove what is “the good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
God’s Power in Us:
The gospel is God’s power to save (Romans 1:16). The exceeding greatness of the power is of God and not of ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:7). But God has called us to the work of taking this transforming power into all the world, to every creature (Mark 16:15). This gospel is the seed of the new birth (1 Peter 1:23-25). Without a new birth no man can enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). Hence, brethren, the urgency of the Lord’s great commission: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Furthermore, brethren, the above helps us to realize why Paul was in such earnestness of spirit when he warned us hot to pervert this gospel, the seed of the new birth, nor to add to or take from it (Galatians 1:8-9; see also Revelation 22:18-19). It is just as dangerous for Christians to pervert the gospel by their lives as it is to pervert it from the pulpit! In either case, it is a perverted gospel and it will not save.
Thus is our job! It starts with the neighbor next door and extends to our neighbor around the world. We must give ourselves to the unsaved within our reach, and we must give our moral and material and spiritual support to fellow Christians who are within reach of others. “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abun-dantly above all that we ask or think, accorclinci to the 'power that worketh in us, unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21). The Work of the Ministry:
God’s definition of a full-grown man is “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). To achieve this growth in man God has called the church to the great work of teaching. He charged us not only to baptize the nations, but also to “teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). The church does not use enough hours of each week in this work. Our expensive building facilities go unused too much of the time. But, in addition to such facilities, the work of teaching must be done at ihome. All the houses where Christians live, with all their rooms, must become an integral part of the Bible School facilities of the church. Each parent must become a teacher, with the kitchen and the living room and the rest of the house as a Christian school where the way of Christ is taught, demonstrated and experienced. Not until the child’s first school, the home, is more dedicated to the teaching of God’s word—not until then can the church really accomplish the great work of moulding Christian character. The work of the ministry cannot be done by one man in each congregation. God’s purpose cannot be achieved except through the effective operation of God’s plan. May the Lord deliver us from the narrow concept of the “Ministry” which includes only the preacher, and lead us into the glorious ministry of Ephesians 4:11-13, where “the work of the ministry” is assigned to evangelists, elders and teachers. When an elder enters upon his work of oversight as a shepherd, he enters the ministry ordained of God. The same is true of a teacher who enters the classroom to teach. The Christian ministry must be expanded to the proportions that God first gave it. All the excitement about Phoebe being a mere “unofficial servant” or a “Deaconess” (Romans 16:1) will subside when we come to understand the meaning of the word “minister” which is here rendered “servant”, and free it from the narrow limits of its popular connotation. The Power of an Idea:
The power of the gospel can be partially explained by a simple recognition of the power of an idea. Though we have never seen an idea, just as we have never seen the soul of man or the life in a grain of corn, and can never see one through the strongest microscope, yet we know what tremendous power 'dwells in an idea. An idea can cause a man who is sitting quietly at home to leap suddenly from his chair and rush out the door and down the street. He just thought of something! But, how it makes him move. An idea can make men happy or miserable. An idea can damn a man or save him. It can bring peace on earth and good-will to men, or it can turn this earth into a scene of bloody strife. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Communist Russia seeks to control the mind of her people in order to achieve through them certain goals. An idea in the mind of a Hitler caused world conflagration. But the church believes that a good idea is as pow-erful as a bad one. God taught us to believe this. A word is the means of conveying an idea. When the word of God became flesh (John 1:14) in Bethlehem, a transforming and redeeming idea was sent forth into the world. Through the word God speaks to us, conveying his thoughts to us, that we may be changed into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). Jesus is God’s word, and through him he speaks to us in these last days (Hebrews 1:2). We challenge all Christians to become teachers, so that our Lord Jesus Christ may rule and reign in the hearts and lives of men. Take your choice. Our only other alternative is to leave education to the forces of anti-Christ, and they will use it to lead this world to deeper ruin and damnation.
I. Build A Highway for the Lord:
The church today needs to catch more of the spirit of those who heard John the Baptist crying in the wilderness: “Make ye ready the way of the Lord”(Luke 3:3-6). He was calling them to the big job of building a highway for Christ. There are valleys to be filled, mountains to be moved, crooked ways to be made straight, and rough ways made smooth; in fact all that road building in a wild place demands. Of course, his figure is easily understood. Constructing a highway for Jesus, whereby all men may see his salvation, is a tremendous project in a wild world like this, where the moral and spiritual condition of the masses is in such a wild and rugged state. The moral and religious conditions that prevailed in John’s day made it a dangerously insecure world in which to live. And building such a highway called for courage and faith to remove mountains, pulling clown high places and filling up the low places. But the response of the people was good (Luke 3:10-14). When the multitudes heard John they said: '‘What must toe do, then?” When the soldiers and tax gatherers heard him they cried the same. And they were told what they could do in the construction of this smooth, straight and level highway of salvation. “If you have two coats, and your neighbor has none, give him one of yours!” Bring down the high place and fill up the low place! Again to the publicans guilty of many moral crimes: “Extort no more than that which is appointed you.” Straighten up that which is crooked. Again to the soldiers: “Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse anyone wrongfully; and be content with your wages.” Make the rough way smooth. Yes, dear neighbor, there is something we can do in this great work of the salvation of man. God has provided us with gospel dynamite to do the work. With all our very appropriate emphasis on the great question, “What Must I Do To Be Saved?”, we must also, as noble workmen, ask “What Must We Do, Then?” Too many people are interested in being saved, or riding along the highway of the Lord in peace and security to see his salvation. But, too few are interested in a job on the construction gang! They are looking in vain for salvation by faith apart from work. To become a Christian means to become God's fellow worker.
II. God is Our Fellow-Worker
With all our emphasis on the work which has been assigned to us, let us not forget that God is with us. In hours of human extremity God finds his glorious opportunity for helping those who are helping him.
We do not serve a mere mythical Santa Claus god, who comes down our chimneys once a year to fill our baskets. Nor do we serve a goddess like Athena who sits dumb and helpless in an overcrowded room in the Parthenon. Democracy is not our god, because a majority can be wrong. We do not serve the god “Science/’ nor the god, “Welfare State”. Our God is not a fallible Roman Pontiff.
Elijah! How proudly the man Elijah must have worn that name. Every time people called his name they said: “Jehovah is my God!” Every time he
signed his name he wrote: “Jehovah is my God!” And Christians wear the name “Christian” in joyful salute to the Son of God. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our God and Father! And, as amazing as it may seem, we are h'is children. It should cause us to burst into sermon and song, and say with John: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. And such we are” (1 John 3:1) He has not forsaken his children nor will he forsake them. He is not far from any one of us. No matter where we may go in this big world, whether into the depths or heights, through light or darkness, behold our God is there! Let us sing with Israel’s sweet singer, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shalt thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me” (Psalms 139:9-11).
Let us find comfort in the truth that our God is light, love and spirit, and that he is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient! The. God of all power, all knowledge, who fills the universe with his presence, (has done and will do for us all that Fatherhood requires that he do for his children. Abraham, in the hour when human faith took him as far as human strength and will could go, said, “God will provide!”
Each of us can enjoy his presence and providential care no matter where we may be on the earth. How can God be near to so many? Give three million people a compass each, containing that magnetized piece of steel, and scatter them throughout the world. Every compass will point due north, each one sustaining the same relationship to one spot on the earth. Is it strange, then, that even though Christians be scattered all over the earth, each one can enjoy the same relationship with, the one God? Our God Is Able:
Long ago and far away, there were three men who stood against all the powder of pagan religion and the strength of political dictatorship. They stood erect on the plains, while all others bowed to the graven image. They were very conspicuous as they stood there. Many Christians do not like to be conspicuous in their discipleship, especially if there is danger of persecution or ridicule. But these old heroes, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, put us to shame with the strength of their trust in God. When threatened with death in a fiery furnace made seven times hotter in the bitter wrath of their accusers, they calmly replied: “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us!” (Daniel 3:17). Whereupon they were pushed into the fiery furnace. But, when the enemy looked through the furnace door, they saw not three, but four! God was with the Hebrews in their hour of fiery trail. This drar matic event may serve as a figure or parable for.us in the Christian age. Simon Peter spoke of the fiery trials that would come upon Christians in a wicked world (1 Peter 4:12). The world still has its methods of putting Christians through fiery tests: ridicule, sarcasm, physical pain, and mental agony. But we can know that Christ is with us when the world throws us into the fiery furnace of persecuting wrath. He will not forsake us. With God All Things Are Possible :
Often we hear skeptics say: “That is impossible. It cannot be done. God can’t do it, even if there is a God.” Most of them pride themselves in their “scientific” attitude. Yet, if their logic is erroneous, how can they be scientific? Scientifically, every- conclusion must be backed by logical thinking, consisting of: major premise, minor premise, and conclusion. For example: The Jews concluded that Jesus was not the Christ. Here was their logic:
Major premise: The Christ is to be from Bethlehem.
Minor premise: This Jesus is from Nazareth.
Conclusion: Therefore, he is not the Christ.
It is easy to see why their conclusion was wrong: Their minor premise betrayed their ignorance of his birth in Bethlehem. Again, some reached the same conclusion, based on the following logic:
Major premise: The Christ is not to be from Galilee.
Minor premise: This Jesus is from Galilee.
Conclusion: Therefore, he is not the Christ.
Again, we see that their conclusion was wrong, this time because their major premise shows an ignorance lof the Messianic teaching of the Old Testament. Now, all of that to say this: What is the logic of one who dogmatically affirms the conclusion: “That is impossible!” or “God can’t do that!” Here it is:
Major premise: All things are done by natural laws.
Minor premise: We know all the natural laws.
Conclusion: Therefore, that is impossible for man or God. A ridiculous minor premise? Yes, indeed! But the conclusion is impossible until one can say that he has discovered them all. Is there any fool so blatant in his egotism that he will affirm the minor premise? And, is there alive one so smart as to be able to do so? How can any man say what God can do or can’t do, even if he does all things through natural laws, unless we can first say that we have learned all the natural laws at God’s command? God has laws other than laws of nature. They do not necessarily violate each other. The God of the natural and the God of the spiritual is one God. Can God Answer Prayer? If So, How? Many people will not pray to God for help until they figure out just how God can do it if he decides to do so. This 'is the kind of reasoning that shipwrecks one’s faith. Jesus told of the farmer who planted the seed and watched it grow, but he knew not howl If we can plant corn in order to reap grain for bread without knowing hoiv it grows, why can we not pray for divine help, without having to know hoio God will be able to do it?
How can a Christian pray to God if he binds God to the narrow powers and limitations of man’s knowledge and power? Would his answering make it necessary for him to “violate” or “suspend” natural laws? Of course not. We do not have to “violate” or “suspend” the law of gravity to keep an expensive watch from falling to the floor. God might easily, according to superhuman knowledge and power, do something we cannot do, without violating any law he has made. The purely rational approach to matters of faith often results in complete frustration. Suffice it to say that God has commanded us, even invited us, to bring our requests to him, with the promise that he will answer in harmony with his righteous will and his love for us in giving us what is best. God will not violate his revealed will to answer our prayer. Neither will he violate his unrevealed will! (See Deuteronomy 29:29.) Our prayer must be according to his will. He has revealed all of his will for us, but he has not revealed all of his will for himself. He has limited himself in many things. He has left himself free in many other things. Ours is to pray in faith. If our request is not in harmony with his will, revealed and unrevealed, we need not expect him to, nor should we want him to answer it according to our will or wish. Our security is in the fact that God knows the present and the future, and he will answer our prayer in the way that is eternally best for us. We can believe this. We need not know all the questions of “how”. Christians accept many facts by faith, even though they do not know “how”, or even “why”. If God says so, that is reason enough to believe it and trust it (Romans 10:17).
We marvel at man’s knowledge and power and cre-ative genius when we see a jet propelled plane carry a hundred people rapidly and noisily through the sky, while the passengers themselves eat and sleep and play or work in pressurized comfort. True, they are ;in danger of death by swift destruction. Yet we do not stand in awe as we should of God’s power and knowledge, when he sends the earth through space at a speed of 65,000 miles an hour, spinning like a huge “flying saucer” at the rate of 1,000 miles an hour, with some 3,000,000,000 passengers on board, eating, sleeping, working and playing in pressurized comfort. There is no fear of collision as it slips silently through space, always on its course, always on time! Our God is so able!
We can go to the phone in this building and talk to a friend in South America. If the straight lines are busy, we can just as easily send our message through an amazing gadget in New York, where it will be fired across to England, where its diminished strength is boosted again, and fired across to South America, to a little village somewhere. And when our friend says “hello”, we hear him the split second he says it! Not by our power, but by the power of God which we have just learned to control for our benefit. Why should we find it so hard to believe that we can speak to God with the assurance that he can hear us?
We can talk to men in distant places by aiming our messages at the moon. It is possible to change the course of history in such a way and open doors of opportunity in world affairs. Why, then, do we find it so hard to believe that a Christian can, in harmony with God’s will, bring things to pass in distant places by way of the throne room of the universe? We cannot do this by our power and knowledge, but by the power and knowledge of the God of all grace. If God should answer our prayer, it would not become us to boast of our achievement. Simon Peter, in working special miracles as an Apostle of the Lamb, was careful to give God the glory in these words: “Why look ye so intently upon us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man to walk” (Acts 3:12-13). Not until we reach the measure of God’s stature in knowledge and power can we say what God can or cannot do. He has limited himself in many matters pertaining to human life and human affairs on earth. But, wherein he has not limited himself, we do not claim the power to limit him. Rather, we depend upon his superior power and knowledge, just as our children depend on us for providential help beyond their strength and wisdom.
Paul wrote from Rome to distant Ephesus requesting that the church pray for him (Ephesians 6:19). This was not requested in order to produce a desired psychological effect in their heart and life, nor merely to obey a command of God. Paul needed God’s help in his efforts to spread the gospel. He urged them to pray to God! The Spirit’s Intercession
Christians are helped of God, not only through the intercession of fellow saints (James 5:16; 1 John 5:16), and the intercession of Christ our advocate (1 John 2:1), but also through the constant and abiding intercession of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 8:26-28, we read the following words of comfort: “And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; and he that search- eth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.”
We must never forget that we are begotten of the Holy Spirit in the new birth (John 3:5). Just as ilsaac was begotten of Abraham through a fleshly seed according to the flesh, even so we have been begotten of the Holy Spirit in a spiritual re-birth through an incorruptible spiritual seed which is the word of the gospel which was preached to us (1 Peter 1:23-25; 1 Corinthians 4:15; John 1:13). As surely as Isaac could say that he was begotten of Abraham, Christians can say that they are begotten of the Holy Spirit. Our relationship to the Spirit as children of God is as real and vital and as personal in a spiritual way as was that of father and son in a physical way.
All of this explains the abiding concern of the Spirit for Christians. Only through the word did he operate in making us children of God. This is as direct as his operation will ever be—only through the word. But, after we have become Christians, we enjoy the providential benefits of his intercession, a thing which is between the Spirit and God in words and groanings that are unrevealed to us and unknown by us. Nevertheless, our future happiness depends greatly upon the outcome of these deliberations in our behalf.
Parents provide for their children in many ways not realized nor fully understood by the children themselves. While they are asleep, or at play, or busy at work mother and father often stay awake and spend many hours in planning how they can best provide for their children for the present and for the future. Things work together for good for their children as the result of this prayerful planning. Even if the children overhear the conversation, they cannot fully understand all that their parents know so well. Many of us are beginning to realize that our present happy estate, with its abundant spiritual and material blessings, reflects much planning in our behalf back in days when we were too small to appreciate what our parents were doing for our good. When we stand serene in our heavenly home, we shall know more fully how much the Spirit’s intercessions with the Father have given to us providential blessings without which we would have been helplessly lost in the confusion of our own mistakes and poor judgment. The church of Christ must teach America and all the world the meaning of the words on our money: “In God we trust.” Especially in this day when we, like others, are beginning to trust more in the feeble security that the uncertain value of money can provide.
Babel or Pentecost?
Long ago on the plains of Shinar (Genesis 11) God’s children met to do great things: to build a name for themselves and make of themselves a great nation by building a tower to the heavens. They did not concern themselves with God’s will for their life on earth, nor did they seek his guidance and help in this matter. They were working at cross-purposes with God. God confused their language and defeated their plan and purpose. Men cannot break God’s laws. They can only break themselves in the effort.
Centuries later a small band of disciples spent many days in prayer, waiting to receive the leadership of his Spirit and the divine help he could so ably give them (Acts 1). They wanted his will done on earth as in heaven. They wanted to magnify his name and that of his only begotten Son. They were willing to be sacrificed for the glory of God and the accomplishment of his eternal purpose. They wanted to work with God and Christ in the building of that great spiritual building called the church (Matthew 16:18), that man might truly have the hope of reaching heaven. This little band could not rely upon their political influence, academic achievements and financial wealth. These are the things we trust in so much as we seek to do our part of the Lord’s work. God help us to use our educational advantages, our “political pull”, and our financial resources for his glory and honor. But may he deliver us from trusting in such things to guarantee victory.
God helped those disciples because they were doing his will. He removed the language barrier for their sake and the sake of the work they were trying to do which he had asked them to do (Acts 2). With all our new devices and helps in doing the Lord’s work, let us not forget to pray and seek his help. If what we are doing is something we cannot honestly pray to him about, or something that he would be unwilling to endorse and to help, then, chances are, we ought to leave it alone and occupy our energies with things he has promised to bless.
“Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and grace to help us in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Conclusion:
Our God has a purpose, and a plan to achieve it. He has revealed the purpose and the plan to us and has called us to work with him. He has not left it all to us, but he has placed upon our hearts and in our hands that part which he judged wise for us to do. In love for him because of the gift of his only Son, let us do with our might what hands have been given to do.
“. . . to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:10-11).