It appears to me anyway....that the Apostle John was closing in on 100 years old....and still preaching Jesus Christ. There would have been a prefect of the emperor or some such magistrate who may have had mercy on the old man....and just sent him to off to an island to die. (There are plenty of theories while the Bible is silent on the apostle's death) The magistrate was probably confident that at least there would be no more preaching this Jesus by this revered apostle....but John was given....and then penned....on that Island....a book that would be read millions of times over two thousand years. It was the capstone....or maybe just the culmination of God's Word to humanity. So much for sending the old man off to obscurity.
Billy Graham quite possibly would have labored in near-obscurity had not William Randolph Hearst put out a 'memo' to all his papers to....'puff Graham.' I wonder where he got that idea? Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones....(medical doctor)....frustrated....saw himself helping men get well so that they could continue to reject God....so he chose to attempt to heal their souls instead. I wonder where the Doctor got that idea?Elijah had been in a spiritual battle his whole ministry.....and now he knew that he was going to die....oh well....he tried. He once fretted that he was the only one standing up for God's truth....but along came Elisha....to be given a double portion of the spirit of Elijah....working twice as many miracles than his teacher....(that we know of)....but then God may not be done with Elijah?
It has been said often....phrased differently I'm sure....that if you are not experiencing opposition.....that maybe there is a problem somewhere. Surely....if you are causing problems with the enemy.....then you are getting problems back. How can it be any other way. Spurgeon and Luther....and many others.....had greats bouts of depression. J. Gresham Machen....(don't know who he is....you should find out)....was defrocked....defrocked by his own denomination....for being true to God's Word. Jonathan Edwards got kicked out of his own church! I could go on. This phrase comes to mind....'it comes with the territory.'
It was December of 1963. My mother took me Christmas shopping in downtown Pittsburgh. It was snowing as I remember. It would be a year until Petula Clark gave us that hit single Downtown. We bought my Christmas presents that night....a 45 rpm record....the Beatles'....She Loves You.....and a hundred and ten pound weight set. (I still have that weight set....I don't throw anything away....much to my wife's chagrin) I have thoroughly enjoyed lifting weights since then.....almost (57) years now....and I go to the gym regularly....early in the morning.
I often wake up mistakingly thinking that I'm the only one who sees some of the problems that we have today....but I force myself to the gym....and I walk the treadmill and work the machines....all the time....all the time....with a headset on listening to great sermons from preachers of the last century....and so I wonder sometimes if the entire Christian life is not like continuous sets of ten repetitions....with breathers in between. I surely know this though....when I leave that gym....exercised out....and having just heard the glories and wisdom and power of Christ extolled so magnificently....I can imagine the end of that long line of Christian believers heading towards the Celestial City....and I hurry to pull up the rear once again....and the Apostle John's words from the end of that book might echo in my mind...."He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)
Afterthoughts....I walk outside today rather than on the treadmill....for instead of having a half dozen silent television screens in front of me....I get to enjoy the wonders of God's creation....the field of cattails that takes me back to my youth in Cheektowaga, New York.....the sometimes billowing and sometimes dark and threatening clouds.....or the clear blue sky. There is one spot where the scent from small blue wildflowers leads me to take in deep breaths as I pass....and there is the steep drop eventually leading to the sometimes green and at other times brown Ohio River....and on the far hills is the nursing home jutting out of the trees....where my mother died five years ago. I think that my favorite part is the long white sidewalk that overlooks all of this.....where on a hot sunny day dozens of grasshoppers will wait for me only to spring away just before I reach them....as if it's a game to them. I use this to pray....every time....for all of God's creatures....and I've missed these grasshoppers the past few days as they would rather not wait for me on a cold sidewalk....but seem to have been relieved of their duties by fall caterpillars inching across at their leisure.
