ARE YOU HAPPY?

 

There are people who are very successful in life—they make a lot of money, live in luxurious homes, drive big cars, wear designer clothes, eat in expensive restaurants. But are they happy? Let’s hear from the words of some of the world’s most successful men. Lord Byron for example lived a life of pleasure if anyone did, but he lamented: “The worm, the canker, and grief are mine alone.” Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of money, but when about to die, he said, “I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth.” Lord Beaconsfield who enjoyed both position and fame wrote about his life: “Youth is a mistake; manhood a struggle; old age a regret.”

Dear friend, are you happy? True happiness is not superficial. Some people may look happy—they smile, they laugh, they joke—but behind that happy mask is a heart full of pain, guilt, bitterness, hatred, doubt, uncertainty, hopelessness. Do you feel this way? What is happiness? Is it something so elusive? Can I be happy in this life? How can I be happy in this world that is so full of pain and sorrow? There is one answer, and only one.

You know what happiness is if you know the meaning of life. What is life to you? Why are you here? What is life’s purpose? Most people adopt this philosophy: “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” In other words, live your life to the fullest in worldly pleasure and revelry before you breathe your last. When you die, that is the end. The worldly philosophy of life is a sure way towards misery and destruction. Consider the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, “Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:15-21).

What then should be our philosophy of life? The Bible says, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth” (Eccl 12:1). The word “remember” in the biblical sense is not passive but active. Remembering God requires us to do something about it.

When we wake up in the morning, we look at the mirror. We don’t look very good. What do we do about it? We wash our face, brush our teeth, comb our hair, and clean ourselves up. The Bible is like a mirror. It tells us what we look like spiritually. How do we look spiritually? Can you imagine a thing most ugly? That’s what we are. We are extremely deformed and ugly, wretched and wicked. Genesis 6:5 says, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it.” Romans 3:10 tells us, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Psalm 22:6 describes us perfectly, “I am a worm.”

We might think we are handsome or pretty, strong, energetic, intelligent, and we think a mighty lot about ourselves—“I don’t need God, I don’t need my parents, I don’t need my pastors and teachers, I only need myself. I only trust in myself. I believe in myself. I am my own captain. Don’t tell me what I should or should not do. I tell myself what I can or cannot do.” It is the Ego, ‘I,’ ‘I’ and more ‘I’s. This is Satanic because Satan who was called Lucifer fell from heaven because of his proud ‘I’: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” (Isa 14:12-14).

I am sure we do not want to be like Satan. We do not want to end up like him. Satan is the most wretched and miserable creature in the world. If we feel empty, lost, and unhappy in life, it is because we have chosen to follow him. Satan and all who follow him will end up in the lake of fire.

How can I get out of Satan’s grip and bondage? The only way to get away from Satan is to return to the Creator who is your Saviour—the Lord Jesus Christ—who died for your sins and rose from the dead. Remember God. Know that you have been made by Him. God created you to know Him and to enjoy Him. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”

But we have forgotten Him. We have sinned against Him. We have done things that He has told us not to do. Now He tells us to remember that He is Creator, and as Creator He is also Saviour. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17).

Let us seek His forgiveness, and ask Him to help us live the happy life He wants us to live. JK

ARE YOU A CHURCH DROPOUT?

Timothy Tow

We have many dropouts in the Church. These have left off coming to worship on the Lord’s Day. There are the backsliders who come on and off. They are living a defeated Christian life.

The troubles that hinder them may arise between husband and wife, of infidelity, leading them to separation and divorce. They may come from their disobedient children. The matter of money is a very common cause. Quarrels ensue. They may have been overspending which results in heavy debts.

Life may become so miserable that the thought of suicide comes in. The older we grow the less we have the will to live. Life, detached from the Lord who saved us, becomes more and more burdensome. Familiarity breeds contempt. Couples may sleep on the same bed, but, as the Chinese saying goes, they dream different dreams.

Seeing through the misery that encompasses dropouts and backsliding Christians, Paul beams the healing word on them, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds” (Col 3:5-9).

You who are here I hope are all living a victorious Christian life. You who attend Church regularly without missing once in the year except for illness, I am sure you are glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. It is your duty to visit the dropouts and absentees and find out what are the troubles holding them back.

Once we had a middle-aged Christian who had a loving wife and two children. He became so zealous in the service of the church that he became elected Treasurer of the Sunday School. After one or two years he resigned. From resignation of his job, he resigned from attending Church. This affected also his wife and two children. No matter what the Church did to bring him back, he refused. Later it was found out that he had succumbed to gambling.

Paul exhorts us to glorify God and enjoy Him forever explicitly in his Epistle to Titus. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit 2:13, 14). “To glorify Him” we must be a people zealous of good works and to “enjoy him forever”, we must be looking for the glorious appearing of the Saviour.

Now that we have found Jesus our Saviour, is He not become the centre of our life? Our life is hid in Him. We pray to Him day and night. We worship Him. In trouble we come to Him. He is a loving father to all. He is a husband to the widow. A lady who was abandoned by her husband found the Saviour through my counselling. She was no more sad. She said Jesus had become a husband to her. Does she not now enjoy Him forever?

To glorify God, Paul exhorts Titus to nurture a congregation zealous of good works. We are saved for a purpose. We are saved to glorify God. We are to translate glorifying God into practical terms, to be zealous of good works.

ARE YOU A BIG-GODDER OR A LITTLE GODDER?

About twelve years after Donald Grey Barnhouse had graduated from Princeton, he was invited back to preach in the chapel, and when he arrived, he noted that Wilson had taken a place near the front to hear him.

When the service was over, his old Hebrew Professor came up to Donald Barnhouse and said, “If you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach. I only come once. I am glad that you are a big-godder. When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big-godders or little-godders, and then I know what their ministry will be.” Barnhouse asked Wilson to explain. “Well, some men have a little god, and they are always in trouble with him. He can’t do any miracles. He can’t take care of the inspiration of the Scriptures and their preservation and transmission to us. They have a little god, and I call them little-godders. Then there are those who have a great God. He speaks, and it is done. He commands, and it stands fast. He knows how to show himself strong on behalf of those who fear Him. You have a great God, and He will bless your ministry.”

Source: James Montgomery Boice, Joshua (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2006), 83 cited from Donald Grey Barnhouse, Let Me Illustrate: More Than 400 Stories, Anecdotes & Illustrations (Westwood: Fleming Revell, 1967), 132-133.