November 2013 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter

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November 2013 Signs of the Times Email Newsletter

The Signs of the Times newsletter is a collection of stories and quotes from past issues of Signs and These Times.

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Many years ago when John G. Paton, the great missionary in the New Hebrides Islands, went to the southwest Pacific to carry the gospel to the natives, he faced a tremendous task. The people had no written language. In order to translate the New Testament, Paton had to listen to the natives as they conversed, putting their words and ideas into written form.

Finally, when he thought he had a large enough vocabulary to begin, he started to translate the New Testament. But soon he realized that he had no word for “belief,” no word for “faith” and “trust.” It seemed that he was stymied. He hardly knew what to do. Then one day he and a native went on a hunting trip. On the trip they shot a large deer, and the two men carried the animal down the mountain to Paton’s house. It was a hot day. When they reached the veranda, they laid the deer on the grass and dropped exhausted into two chairs on the porch overlooking the sea.

The islander exclaimed impulsively “My, but its’ good to stretch yourself out here.” He used a word for “stretch yourself out” that Paton had never before heard. Paton wrote it down right away. Later, when he had completed the translation of the New Testament, people discovered that for “belief” and “trust” he had used the expression “stretch yourself out.”

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever stretcheth Himself out on Him (the Saviour) should not perish but have everlasting life.” “Stretch yourself out on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved and your house.”—By Kenneth H. Wood, Jr., These Times, November 1961.

Quote: “The secret of your life and the meaning of your life—its priorities, its values, its orientation—may be found in what you are willing to suffer for; for what purpose or for what person.”—By Harry E. Chase, These Times, January 1967.

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Don't miss the December 2013 issue of Signs of the Times: To order Signs, call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/signs-of-the-times-magazine-yearly-us-subscription.html

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There is a legend about an enchanted forest in which was a sundial bearing the strange inscription, “It is later than you think.” Travelers in this forest often tarried long before the sundial to read its cryptic message and to meditate thereon.

In the wilderness of this world there is also a sundial—the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation it bears for us the timely warning: “It is later than you think.” In these hectic times there are still a few who pause before this eternal timepiece to read its solemn message.—By Billy Graham, These Times, March 1968.

Quote: “Habit is a cable. We weave a thread of it every day, and at last we cannot break it.”—By Horace Mann, These Times, January 1967.

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Thakur Dass was a devoted Christian in the days of the great mutiny in India. The Indian converts were counted as traitors by the mutineers and were ordered to be slain. Dass said he was too old to flee from his village, just outside Agra. “I will stay here,” he said, “and trust in God.”

He was taken the day of the Agra battle. “Put him to death,” was the order.

Dass asked as a last favor to be allowed to pray.

History says: “The favor was granted, and while he was yet in the act of prayer, a loud cry was heard, ‘The English are coming!’ This created a panic, the would-be murderers fled, and left the old man bound, on his knees. He was soon let loose, and returned to his house unhurt, and lived years after this to preach the gospel.

“Now mark the strange working of Providence. It was not our soldiers who caused this panic, but fugitive rebels defeated in the Battle of Agra, who, rushing away for their lives, were thought by the people to be our troopers coming out to chastise the villagers. It was this mistake that saved the good man’s life. Truly, God can deliver out of the lion’s mouth.”—By W. A Spicer, Signs of the Times, March 4, 1941.

Quote: “The Almighty finds it hard to answer the prayer, ‘Make me rich and keep me good.’ “—Unknown, Signs of the Times, May 10, 1910.

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Place this in your church bulletin or newsletter: Would you like to win a friend or neighbor to Jesus? Share a GIFT that will reach out to them all year long. Send a subscription to Signs of the Times. Order from your Adventist Book Center. To order call: 1-800-765-6955 or online at: http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/signs-of-the-times-magazine-yearly-us-subscription.html

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“According to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed.” 2 Corinthians 10:13.

There lived forty years ago a shoemaker, who had a habit of speaking harshly of all his neighbors who did not think quite as he did about religion. The old pastor of the parish in which the shoemaker lived heard of this and felt that he must give him a lesson.

He did it this way: He sent for the shoemaker one morning, and when he came in, said to him, “Master, take my measure for a pair of boots.”

“With pleasure, pastor,” answered the shoemaker, “Please take off your boot.”

The clergyman did so, and the shoemaker measured his foot from toe to heel, and over the instep, noted all down in his pocketbook, and then prepared to leave the room.

But as he was putting up the measure, the pastor said to him, “Master, my son also requires a pair of boots.”

“I will make them with pleasure, pastor. Can I take the young man’s measure?”

“It is not necessary,” said the pastor; “the lad is fourteen, but you can make my boots and his from the same measurements.”

“But pastor, that will never do,” said the shoemaker, with a smile of surprise.

“I tell you, sir, to make my son’s with the same measurements.”

“No, pastor, I can not do it.”

“It must be—with the same measurements.”

“But pastor, it is not possible, if the boots are to fit,” said the shoemaker, thinking to himself that the old pastor’s wits were leaving him.

“Ah, then, master shoemaker,” said the clergyman, “every pair of boots must be made on their own measurements if they are to fit, and yet you think that God is to form all Christians according to your own measure, of the same measure and growth in religion as yourself! That will not do, either.”

The shoemaker was abashed. Then he said, “I thank you pastor for this sermon, and I will try to remember it, and to judge my neighbors less harshly in the future.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, March 4, 1897.

Quote. “The man who sings his own praises usually sings a solo.”—By Charles G. Bellah, Signs of the Times, September 2, 1930.

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A man once escaped from an asylum in England. While he was seated on a gate in a lane, a hunter came up with his horse and dogs. The escaped man accosted him and shouted, “How much are these dogs worth?”

“Three guineas each,” was the answer.

“How much is that horse worth?”

“Seventy or eighty guineas.”

“Where are you going with them?” asked the escaped man.

“To hunt a fox.”

“How much is the fox worth?”

“Nothing.”

“I say, you had better be moving on or they will be putting you in the place where I came from.”

That is what the pleasure seeker does. With a mind and heart capable of vast improvement, with power of serving God and blessing man, with the promise of immortal life that God declares to be worth more than the whole world, he spends his time in chasing shadows, or sells a birthright of eternal glories for a mess of pottage.”—By Ernest Lloyd, Signs of the Times, July 13, 1926.

Quote: “I have so much to do, and so little strength to do it with, that I have to pray.”—By Soren Kierkegaard, These Times, August 1969.

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During the Boer war a Dutch Christian woman was left amid the shell-wrecked battlefields in her humble home. The British cavalry were advancing. They were amazed to find, amid the wreckage, this one house intact. They entered the garden gate, and were about to break into the house when the officer ordered them back. He knocked at the door and a timid, demure little woman opened it, expecting to be taken prisoner. Her husband was fighting on the side of the Dutch, and she was alone.

“But why are you here?” asked the officer.

In broken English she replied that she put her trust in the God of heaven.

“But we are at war,” he said, “and it doesn’t seem that God has much to do with us these days.”

“Oh,” she replied, “had you been here and seen how wonderfully God has kept His promise to me you would not say that.”

The officer stepped inside to talk more with her. She brought her Dutch Bible and turned to Malachi 3:8-10.

“Then do you pay tithe?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, “and not one shell has fallen on our property, although everything around us is in ruin.”

“But tell me the name of your religion, for it sounds like my mother’s. She too pays tithe, but keeps the seventh-day Sabbath.”

“So do I,” the Boer woman replied, now enthusiastic, and even excited.

Could it be true? Was this Australian officer talking to a member of his mother’s church? Little by little she opened up the Word of God while the battalion waited outside. Yes, his mother believed that Jesus was soon to return, and she had pleaded with him to give his heart to God, but he had not done so. In fact, he had run away from home, and now God was speaking to him through this woman, an enemy by nationality. As in her simple way she told of the love of Jesus and what joy she had in His service, and because of her love for Him she kept the Sabbath and paid her tithe, somehow it came with real conviction.

The “devourer” had indeed been rebuked. Her home and even her garden had been spared. Prosperity in the midst of adversity, and a national crisis! Tears began to course down the cheeks of the officer, and there in the simple Boer home he yielded his life to Jesus. Her obedience had not only made it consistent for God to save her home, but it became the place of salvation for one who had wandered far from God.—By R. Allan Anderson, Signs of the Times, January 7, 1941.

Quote: “Every tear of penitence becomes a pearl.”—Unknown, Signs of the Times, January 27, 1914.

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Hold-Ons

Hold on to your hands when you are about to do an unkind act.

Hold on to your tongue when you are just ready to speak harshly.

Hold on to your heart when evil persons invite you to join their ranks.

Hold on to your virtue; it is above all price to you in all times and in all places.

Hold on to your feet when you are on the point of forsaking the path of right.

Hold on to the truth, for it will serve you well and do you good throughout eternity.

Hold on to your temper when you are excited or angry, or others are angry with you.—Selected, Signs of the Times, October 22, 1912.

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Compiled by Dale Galusha. Please pass this newsletter on to others.