Faith Publishing House

Link	Aurthor	Article
	J. Samons	Prise
	Earl L. Martain	Friendship
	Readers	Letters
	Connie Sorrell	Effective
	Bro. Wayne	Editorials

Bringing Chrisitianity to the World!
Praise

The Bible speaks many times of the word "praise" in regard to our expression of it. In verb form the word "praise" means: to express favorably; noun: an expression of favor. The diction- ary word "express" is "to make known the feeling of."
Society has successfully taught us to repress our feelings. In learning good manners, we have become very tactful. Our basic human emotion confuses our individual personalities so that we never quite know whether to "keep it all in" or "let it all out." Sometimes, we get so mixed up about what we are to do with this inner being that we become moody, depressed or what is commonly called, "stressed out!"
Given opportunity, despite personality, each one of us wants to express our feelings. Even those who tend to be very quiet by nature have something that they will become quite vocal about. Have you ever happened upon someone like this and it really surprised you to see that they could become so expressive?
If we are Christians, what could be more exciting than our salvation? One brother in our local congregation was definitely not a conversationalist in social circles, but whenever he had an opportunity to testify in our services, he did it with fervor. His testimony was brimming with praise, and I have never seen a more contented or blessed man. He spent little time talking about his troubles, except possibly in personal prayer, but his life portrayed one who spent much time in praise and gratitude to God and to others.
Could it be that we are spending too much time on our problems and that we have crowded out the praise, honor and thanksgiving commanded in the scripture? Perhaps so many of those spiritual blessings we have been seeking, that overcoming power, or that daily victory, is being hindered because we have lost our praise.
All of us have probably observed those who can dominate a conversation with all of their personal problems and make everyone aware of their daily or weekly hassles, only to sit on the church pews in silence, except for possibly a long list of prayer requests. Sometimes, folks can become quite verbal at "prayer request" time, but backward at testimony service. Philippians 4:6 instructs us, "...With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." If we compared the time given to thanksgiving and that given to asking, I am afraid it would be unbalanced. The entire atmosphere of a church service can be affected by the spirit of devotion, praise, worship and thanksgiving.
Very often, because of physical problems, or just the burdens of life, we tend to go to church services feeling down, hoping to be cheered up. Often we do get encouragement. We will all have these times. But much more could be accomplished if we encouraged ourselves before going to services, so we could be a blessing to someone else. When we go with a song, a thanksgiving, a prayer or a testimony, we will always add inspiration to a service.
The traditions of praising God in public worship by lifting up holy hands, singing and making melody in our hearts, having a ready prayer, a spirited testimony or an exhortation, are not just things to do to hold the Church together. They are individual manifestations of personal victories from the Lord. They are an expression of that close walk with the Lord. If it is a reality, it can't help but come out! If we live privately where we are responding to the Lord and His dealings with us, when we are in public, there will be an automatic response to worship and praise of Him.
Let's not suppress those outlets the Lord has given to us so naturally. If we do, really we are missing the blessings and victories that attend them. Revelation says: "They OVERCAME by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony." Overcoming power in our lives comes by verbalizing our love for the Lord.
Don't be concerned with what others think. People make fools of themselves over many frivolous things. Be concerned with your desire to be blessed and the chance to encourage others of your brothers and sisters toward this "aliveness."
It is true that all of our public praise should be done in decency and in order. We should be careful that our timing of words and emotions are in the control of the Holy Spirit. God is not the author of confusion. It is also true that unless your personal life portrays a godly message, a public image of religious fervor will be less than impressive. It must first begin in the heart, in the home and in the personal prayer closet. If these are blessed, it will naturally extend beyond those bounds.
Each of us should consider our own contribution to the Church. To make if effective, we must each do our part. Praise is necessary. God wants it; He needs it; even commands it.
Consider yourself. Do you respond to the true message of the songs by raising heart and hands to the Lord? (This is scriptural.) Do you contribute to public prayer with a real burden-bearing spirit or do you wait for others to carry that? (Prayer is not a gift.) Do you faithfully praise the Lord through public thanksgiving, testimony and agreement of the Word at every opportunity? These are all expressions of praise to the One who is worthy to be praised!
If you find yourself coming up short, remember that "...Praise is comely." (Psalm 33:1.) Or in other words, becoming. Praise graces and beautifies the Church. It is what makes it attractive to others.
All of us have emotions that God created to be released. Let's honor, praise and worship God from the depths of our heart and watch ourselves grow and the Church prosper!

What Jesus taught about Friendship

Jesus has taught us about friendship by speech and by parable, by act and deed, and most of all, by becoming a Friend Himself. Jesus was a friend. Jesus had friends. Jesus is a friend. Jesus has friends. He wants to be a friend to us. He wants us to be His friends. And He wants us to be friends to each other.
Jesus had a genius for friendship-a gift for understanding the feeling of man and entering into those feelings. He did not deal in mere abstractions about friendship-He was a friend. Not a "friend of man" in the abstract conventional way that Frost has so sentimentally written of in his poem, one line of which is, "Let me live in the house by the side of the road, And be a friend of man." Jesus was not that kind of a friend. He did not choose a "house by the side of the road" but got right out where men were, mingled with the masses and with individuals, "where cross the crowded ways of life," walked the road with men, sailed the sea with men, tramped over the mountain and through the valleys with men, He sought men and women and men and women sought Him, by the well curb, in the temple, on the street, by the seaside, everywhere. They even came quietly seeking Him, Nicodemus like, as the evening shadows fell. Everywhere and always they sought Him and He sought them. And it is not in the past. He is the same way today.
He respected people. A respect for people is one of the first requisites for friendship. He respected men's personalities. He never "rushes" the human spirit. Men, to Him, are not just so many pawns in the game of life. It is not of the masses that He thinks, but of the individual. The masses appeal to Him, but it is because the mass is made up of so many individuals. "I have prayed for thee," He said to Peter. He had time to pray intensely for one individual. It gives us an idea of His gifts in friendship. He had faith in men. He believed in them. We must have that if we are to be friends. He made it clear to His followers, His friends, that He trusted them. Sometimes it seemed as though that faith was unjustified, but not so. Even in the case of Peter it proved out that Jesus was justified in putting faith in him when He gave him that wonderful name, "Peter," meaning a "rock," when at the time there seemed so little in Peter to merit such a name. If we will be a friend, and have friends, we must believe in man.
Note in His life how He gave Himself without reserve to men. He was at their disposal. He was theirs. They could talk to Him, question Him, even cross-question Him-even criticize Him. If they did not understand one of His parables, they could ask Him what He meant, and question Him until He made it plain. How necessary this is as a quality of friendship! If we will be a friend and have friends we must give ourselves to men.
Friendship requires a warm heart and a cool head. Jesus had both. There was not much method to his friendships. As Harnack said about the early church, "A living faith needs no special method"-so it is with true friendship. With Jesus, friendship was nothing more than infinite love in ordinary exchange with man. He shared His experiences with His followers and He shared theirs. That is what friendship is-a sharing of love, of help, of experiences-whether those experiences be sad or pleasant.
Friendship-it slides off our tongues and lips so easily. We talk about it so much and practice it so little. What if we should really be such a friend to men as Jesus was? What would happen?
Jesus was a friend to all. Men might be His enemy but He was an enemy to no man. He loved men. Not in the abstract-but in deed and in truth. He sought men, not for what He could get out of them, but for what He could give them. True friendship seeks not to get but to give. It is unselfish, seeking not its own but another's good. He sought men where they were, loved them for what they were and what He could make out of them. If we would be true friends we must do the same.
Robert E. Speer once said, "Because Jesus sought in His friendships the good of His friends and no gain or advantage for Himself, He was fearless in dealing with those whom He loved." Rather than His friendship keeping Him from telling people what they needed to hear and know, it caused Him to tell them plainly things that, while not pleasant, were needful. Beecher said one time, "They that deny themselves of pleasure for the sake of making me better; they that incur the risk of anger and dislocation of friendship for the sake of telling me a truth that nobody else dares to tell me, and that I die for the want of hearing; they that are more choice of my soul's interior and essential good than they are of my satisfaction with the pride and vanities of life, and seek to be physician to my soul-they are my friends."
Jesus knew what was in man, and knowing this He doubtless saw many things that were not lovely or lovable, but He loved man and was a friend in spite of these things. There is a story about a boy in New York City who was sent to the House of Refuge. In class one day he was asked to spell the word, "friend." The letters came slowly, "f-r-i-e-n-d," and then the teacher asked, "What does the word mean?" The little fellow studied for a moment, and then said, "Oh-he's a fellow that knows all about you, and likes you just the same." Therein lies the beauty of Jesus' friendship. It must be a quality of ours. I do not mean that we must approve of the wrong that is in men, but we must love them in spite of their bad ways and seek to save them from those things that are wrong.
"A friend loveth at all times." Jesus' friendships were unchanging. "He loved them unto the end." His friendships were not just a passing glow, but upon real affection. Someone has said, "Friendship is love boiled down and flavored with kind thoughts, kind words and helpful deeds."
There is no greater ambition that young people can have than the ambition to be a real friend to all men. Your usefulness in the service of God will be determined by this capacity. Your sphere of influence in the work of God is limited by the circle of the friendships that you are able to make and hold. If we wish to help others we must needs live so as to attract them to ourselves, and thence to Christ. There is a friendship with the world that is enmity to God, but there is also a churlishness of spirit which unfits us to lead men to God or to do any good in the world. Cultivate that readiness to "do others a good turn" which will make our life as a Christian attractive even to those who are in sin. Show them by our acts that we love them and are a friend to them, and then we can point them to that real Friend-Jesus.
A new servant had just come into the home of Sir Bartle Frere. Sir Bartle was out for a walk. His wife wanted him to come back at once. So she told the new servant to go and find him. "How will I know him?" asked the servant. She replied, "You will see an elderly gentleman helping somebody." What a beautiful tribute-the more beautiful because unconsciously given. Why not live so that will characterize our lives? By helpfulness we may enlarge the circle of our friendships. Shall we not seek to be more like Jesus-the friendliest man that ever lived?
Why not be people of the glad-heart and the glad-hand? The grouchy heart has no glad-hand. The blunt word has a cutting edge. Grouchiness, bluntness, unkindness-these are not the qualities of a friend.
Common speech is right when it talks about "making friends." It will never do for us to sit down and whine about not having any friends. Stir yourself! Friends can be made. Get out and make them. The factory is daily life-common, everyday life. "The tools are unselfishness, humility, forgetting yourself, human interest, courage," according to one writer. To give, not to get, is its primary characteristic. The power of friendship is almost omnipotent-whether for good or for evil depends upon us. We are ready to be a true friend to man when we have come to be a true friend to Christ.

Letters

CA-As Christians we have no choice but to march to the beat of the Holy Spirit. By following the measured steps of righteousness, we please God. As I suffer in my body, I seem to remember that the stripes were put on Christ's body for the healing of mine. In prayer, my pain and discomfort take a back seat to the Holy Spirit. I listen intently and hear Him say, "No matter what happens, I will care for you."

I have much thanksgiving to God for allowing me to attend the Guthrie Assembly Meeting. I sought for the healing of my body at this meeting, and once again I was reminded that I must march to the beat of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't march to mine.

I love the Lord with all my heart and I am learning to lean on Jesus. Continue to lift my name up in prayer for strength, endurance, courage and patience. In Christian love and faithfulness,

-Loyce Davenport CA-Dear Bro. Wayne: Greetings to you in Christian love. May His strength and power be in you to speak the Word with boldness.

I have some things that I would like to relate to you. The Lord has put on my heart that perhaps there are people who need someone to encourage them in the Lord through correspondence. As I was considering this, I was grieved because I had this need myself. I began to ask the Lord why no one seems to want to do these kinds of things. I spoke to a minister and he said that a lot of times the Lord will express a need in our hearts because it is something He wants us to do. After I began to ponder what he said, the Lord showed me that I can't expect someone else to do something that I am not willing to do. So the Lord has laid it on my heart to send out an invitation to serve in this way. Maybe there are not a lot of people that want this, but maybe there is one....

I want to encourage you to continue to let the Word go forth in the power of the Spirit. Sometimes the thing that concerns me is that the people that have the truth aren't doing anything with it. They aren't proclaiming it on the housetops....

I truly believe that the Lord wants His truth to be boldly spoken. With love in Christ, -Marvin Moles Jr. H-58177, P.O. Box 8503 C5-250, Coalinga, CA 93210.

OK-Dear Saints: We have much to praise the Lord for. He has gently led us back to Oklahoma through a series of trials and victories. He has protected our family in many, many instances from serious injuries and fatalities in the past year as we moved and built our house. He has been wonderful and marvelous to us.

The Lord is really blessing the congregation here in Sapulpa, OK. We have marveled at God's presence and His blessings in the services each week. We had opportunity to go to Mexico to visit Bro. James and Sis. Charlotte Huskey and go around to different churches with preaching, testimonies and songs of the Church of God Evening Light, in Spanish. Bro. Marvin Probst and all of his family, Monica and Amber Whitson, Kasie Montgomery, Angela Sallee, Kristy Johnston, Wesley and Annette Porter, Tenai Moaning, Jenna Mathunni, Stephanie Huskey and our family traveled together in a couple of large vans Bro. Tim Huskey loaned us. We stayed in the homes of the brethren and traveled to eight different towns and had services. The Lord blessed with good messages and several were saved. We were made aware of several needs for financial support among the brethren and widows there. We appreciate so much our parents being there and giving their time and love to the poor saints. There is much to be done. Workers and support in prayers and finances are needed for the continued progress of the work in Mexico. Bro. Adelfo, from Culiacan, desires a group to come to his area for a meeting the week before Easter. This new work is worthy of our support and prayers. A more thorough report will be in the Lamp of Youth.

Thank you for all your love, prayers and patience with us as we made our move and resettled. We love you all.

-James and Tricia Bell and boys

Editorials

"I would dedicate the nation to the policy of the Good Samaritan." This statement, made by President Roosevelt in his inaugural address, indicates that the parable recorded in Luke 10:25-37 impacted his thinking. I doubt few would question the benefit to society if we were blessed with more good Samaritans. But many are still asking the question which the lawyer put to Jesus, "...who is my neighbour?" Luke 10:29.

The very fact that the lawyer made such an inquiry reveals his lack of ability or understanding on how to be a good Samaritan. It takes a Christian actively following the example of Christ, with the true love of God abiding in his heart, to fill this position.

Just a profession of Christianity won't make the grade, as the priest and Levite proved. No doubt they believed in good deeds also, as long as they could work within their comfort zone, and not violate their conscience, which was trained by the law spoken by the rabbis of that day.

When one has the love of Christ within, the question of "who is my neighbour," won't be a difficult one, for there will be an interest in every person with whom they come in contact. Unmeasured service to all mankind is the love of God.

A striking feature of this parable is that Christ dignifies the Samaritan. "Samaritan" was the name given in derision to mixed people who colonized Samaria after the deportation of the tribes of Israel to Babylon. It was a word used scornfully and with hatred. To be called a Samaritan was considered a great insult. But Christ, in this intriguing parable, rescued that word from ridicule.

Perhaps Jesus was teaching that in order for us to be able to help others as we should, we must be humble. And not with a false humility fostered by a religious creed, but one generated by a genuine feeling of being unworthy of God's love. This humility should lead us to view people in sin not as individuals to avoid, but as precious souls in need of the gospel of our Lord.

As we show this pure "Good Samaritan" love toward others, it will serve as a great stimulus to us personally, and the church will prosper also.

One student of human behavior wrote, "All emotional problems could be summed up in one particular kind of behavior: It's a person walking around screaming, `For God's sake, love me! Love me! Love me! That's all!' He goes through manipulations to get somebody to love him. Love cures all, both the one who gives it and the one who receives it."

It was a great blessing to me to get to be with the saints at the California State Assembly Meeting in Pacoima the last of December. I had not been there since I was a young boy, so it was a real privilege to enjoy a mutual fellowship in the Lord. I welcomed the chance to get to know some of the saints who correspond with the Print Shop, and the opportunity to put faces to names. Our prayers are for the continued spiritual prosperity of the saints in that region of the country.

On January 7, Bro. Ken Elwell joined the Print Shop family to run the printing press Bro. Michael Smith operated before taking the pastorate at Shawnee, OK. Bro. Ken has been a part of the Guthrie congregation for some months, having moved here from Gladstone, OR. He is learning the printing trade very quickly and has been a real blessing to the work. We are thankful God has given him this burden to work for the Lord.

Some of our readers will soon be planning their vacations to coincide with different Camp Meetings. Therefore we plan to print as complete of a list of meeting dates as possible in the March Faith and Victory. If you would like your Camp Meeting to be on this list, please send the necessary information to this office by the 20th of February.

-Wayne Murphey

Effective

The bell rang wildly over my head. "Okay! It is class time! Everybody line up!" called the lower learning center supervisor. As she attempted to organize the pushing, talking children, I picked up tossed-aside winter coats, caps and mittens. How many times had we told these youngsters to put these things where they belonged? Now their winter wraps were getting muddy from the tracked in snow.

I glanced down the line of squirming children. Their hair was ruffled from their stocking hats. Some had damp clothing and some had drippy noses. Most of them had wet shoes or boots.

My eyes looked upward and I sent a silent prayer that direction. "Oh, Lord, it is a new year but with the same old problems from the last year. I need a reviving touch from You today. Please, Lord, give me patience with these children. Amen."

The supervisor had been counting noses. "Where is Ricky?" she asked me. "He wasn't with us during our chapel time," I replied. "I will call his mother to see if he is sick."

But there was no need to do so for Ricky and his dad came in the front door of the school right at that moment.

"Good morning, Ricky," I said as he tracked past me and into the gentlemen's room.

Ricky's dad spoke a few words with us while we all waited in the hallway for Ricky to join the line of fidgeting children. Finally, he emerged with a mischievous grin on his wet face. He knew we had been waiting on him and he was enjoying the prolonged attention.

"Same naughty child," I thought. "Dear Lord, please add `more love' with the patience that I just prayed for."

As Ricky walked by, his dad reached out and took hold of his arm. Everyone watched as Ricky's father gently cupped Ricky's small chin in his big hand. He bent his large frame over Ricky's little one and carefully looked for toast crumbs around the child's mouth.

Then the father bent down a little further and kissed his son on the forehead. Ricky smiled. He skipped over and joined his classmates while his father turned and quietly went out the door.

A wave of calmness rippled through the adults and down the line of children. Talking had ceased. Hands became quiet. Backs straightened and heads turned toward the classroom door as the supervisor opened it for them to quietly file through.

My eyes made contact with the supervisor's. No command for order had been given, but the children were divinely peaceful.

A simple kiss from a loving father had disciplined the children. They felt something very grand had happened.

So had I. In that touching moment I was reminded that these little children are precious in the Father's sight. He is entrusting into our care valuable jewels wrapped in fleshly bodies. A current of patience and love flowed over my soul. I lifted my eyes to heaven. "Oh, Lord, thank You for sending me Your love in such a beautiful way. Amen."

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Praise

What Jesus taught about Friendship

Letters

Editorials

Effective