Trenton Bulletin 11 February 2001

The Bear Who Really Was A Lion (Kent Heaton)

A hunter raises his rifle and takes careful aim at a large bear. When about to pull the trigger, the bear spoke in a soft soothing voice, "Is it not better to talk than to shoot? What do you want? Let us negotiate the matter." Lowering his rifle, the hunter replied, "I want a fur coat." "Good," said the bear, "that is a negotiable question. I only want a full stomach, so let us negotiate a compromise." They sat down to negotiate, and after a time the bear walked away alone. The negotiations had been successful. The bear had a full stomach, and the hunter had his fur coat!

Satan says to you, "Let us negotiate." But there are some things that cannot be negotiable. We cannot compromise the church with the world. Christ and His church deserve our very best and utmost loyalty. Matilda Edwards wrote a poem entitled: The Church Walking With The World. It goes like this:

The Church and the World walked far apart on the changing shores of time. The world was singing a giddy song, and the Church a hymn sublime. "Come, give me your hand," said the merry World, "and walk with me this way!" But the good Church hid her snowy hands and solemnly answered, "Nay, I will not give you my hand at all, and I will not walk with you; your way is the way that leads to death; your words are all untrue."

"Nay, walk with me but a little space," said the World with a kindly air. "The road I walk is a pleasant road, and the sun shines always there. Your path is thorny and rough and rude, but mine is broad and plain. My way is paved with flowers and dew, and yours with tears and pain. The sky to me is always blue, no want, no toil I know. The sky above you is always dark, your lot is a lot of woe. There's room enough for you and me to travel side by side."

Half shyly the Church approached the World and gave him her hand of snow. And the old World grasped it and walked along, saying in accents low, "Your dress is too simple to please my taste, I will give you pearls to wear. Rich velvets and silks for your graceful form and diamonds to deck your hair." The Church looked down at her plain white robes, and then at the dazzling World. And blushed as she saw his handsome lip with a smile contemptuous curled. "I will change my dress for a costlier one," said the Church, with a smile of grace. Then her pure white garments drifted away, and the World gave, in their place, beautiful satins and shining silks, roses and gems and costly pearls while over her forehead her bright hair fell crisped in a thousand curls.

"Your house is too plain," said the proud old World, "I'll build you one like mine. With walls of marble and towers of gold, and furniture ever so fine." So he built her a costly and beautiful house most splendid it was to behold. Her sons and her beautiful daughters dwelt there gleaming in purple and gold. Rich fairs and shows in the halls were held, and the World and his Children were there. Laughter and music and feasts were heard in the place that was meant for prayer. There were cushioned seats for the rich and the merry, to sit in their pomp and pride. But the poor who were clad in shabby array, sat meekly down outside.

"Go, take your money," said the World, "and buy rich robes, buy horses and carriages fine. Buy pearls and jewels and dainty food, buy the rarest and costliest wine. My Children, they dote on all these things, and if you their love would win - you must do as they do, and walk in the ways that they are walking in." So the poor were turned from her doors in scorn, and she heard not the orphan's cry. The Church drew her beautiful robes aside, as the widows went weeping by. Then the sons of the World and Sons of the Church walked closely hand and heart. Only the Master, who knoweth all, could tell the two apart.

Then the Church sat down at her ease, and said, "I am rich and my goods increase; I have need of nothing, or aught to do, but to laugh, and dance, and feast." The sly World heard, and he laughed in his sleeve, and mockingly said, aside- "The Church is fallen, the beautiful Church; And her shame is her boast and her pride." The angel drew near to the mercy seat, and whispered in sighs her name. Then the loud anthems of rapture were hushed, and heads were covered with shame; and a voice was heard at last by the Church from Him who sat on the throne. "I know thy works, and how thou has said, 'I am rich, and hast not known that thou art naked, poor and blind, and wretched before my face." Therefore from my presence cast I thee out, and blot thy name from its place."

Will we be as close to the world as we can be or will we seek to stay ever close to God? You see, the world is moving away from God. The closer we stay to God, the farther from the world we will be. If we try to negotiate with Satan, we will be devoured. Resist his influence - don't let the bear devour you!

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." (1 Peter 5:8)

The Green Wood (Kent Heaton)

As Jesus was being led away to be crucified, "a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts which never nursed!' Then they will begin 'to say to the mountains, Fall on us! And to the hills, Cover us!' For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?"

In the final hours of His life, Jesus offers a proverbial pronouncement upon the sadness of the world around Him. Mankind was about to kill the Son of God - to murder an innocent victim of jealously, greed and lust of power. The creature was killing the Creator; the servant was destroying the Master. How tragic and how sad for the world when based upon the whims of jealous men, an innocent man was put to death.

The Roman government (as represented by Herod and Pilate) had found no fault in Jesus (Luke 23:14,15). Pilate suggested that he would beat the poor man and release him. The people cried more, "Crucify Him, crucify Him." Luke 23:22 records the final plea of Pilate: "Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go." The Jewish crowd would have no such thing - they demanded the death of the man of Nazareth ... and they led Him away to the place called Calvary.

Jesus reflection, "If they do these things in the green wood (tree - KJV), what will be done in the dry?" ask the question of what the Jews think the Romans will do when the wrath of the Roman power is turned against them. There will come a day when they will wish they had never been born nor their children. The wrath of the Roman army will come down upon them in a most horrible manner. While the scene of death at the cross of Jesus was tragic, how sad when Jesus knows of the events that will unfold for the Jewish nation not many years away.

Matthew 24 tells of the horrible nature of the coming destruction upon Jerusalem. In the short space of forty years all this would come about. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman armies, under the command of Titus in A. D. 70. Josephus (a Jewish historian) recounts the bloody massacre when the city was taken: "And now, rushing into the city, they slew whomsoever they found, without distinction, and burned the houses and all the people who had fled into them; and when they entered for the sake of plunder, they found whole families of dead persons, and houses full of carcasses destroyed by famine, then they came out with their hands empty. And though they thus pitied the dead, they had not the same emotion for the living, but killed all they met, whereby they filled the lanes with dead bodies. The whole city ran with blood, insomuch that many things which were burning were extinguished by the blood." [Jewish Wars, b.vi.ch8; ch9]

While the Jewish leaders led their captive away to death with rejoicing at their greed and jealousy, the very government allowing them to do so would turn and rend them in a great destruction. Jesus is the only answer we have in our lives. Psalm 118:8 says, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." Amen.