Minute Meditations

The following copy appeared in an advertisement in Newsweek magazine sometime ago: ”It wasn’t the Goths that defeated Rome. It was the free circuses! Luxuries, power, indulgence had made the once tough Roman people soft. To stay popular, their emperors gave them more and more of the ease they craved, free bread, free circuses, easier living. So the Romans softened up themselves for the ambitious, hard working barbarians.” The firm that paid thousands of dollars to run this ad in Newsweek is justifiably alarmed by the soft life and easy living of today. They fear that the enemy will be able to overcome and conquer the United States because of this internal weakness.

True soldiers of Christ should be justifiably alarmed also. Not because we fear an outside enemy, for we know God’s plan and purpose with this earth. We know that no mortal will be successful in his attempt to set up the fifth universal kingdom because God has declared that the fifth one will be Divine. Nevertheless we should be alarmed because this soft life that caused the destruction of the Romans could very well lead to our personal destruction. God is not pleased with those who serve self instead of Him. Jesus told us, ”if any man come to me, and. hate not his own life, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Now comes the uncomfortable question. How do we spend our time? Pleasing self by indulging in the free circuses which today have their counterpart in television, radio, golf, baseball, bowling and on and on. The list is endless and if we spend our free time indulging in these things that please us, are we not following the example of the Romans? What are Christ’s true soldiers supposed to be doing?

Paul tells us that ”No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life.” Why not, Paul? He tells us plainly, ”that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” And now the powerful lesson, ”Therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” And this brings us to the second uncomfortable question. What hardness have we endured and are we enduring for Christ? What do we do that we don’t like to do, but we do it for Christ’s sake? What would we like to do but do not do it, for Christ’s sake? If we can’t take a sheet of paper and compile a long list, then we’re in trouble. It means we aren’t enduring hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. It means that we, like all the people around us, are living too soft a life, spending too much time to the gratification of the flesh.

Huxley said, ”The most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do when it ought to be done whether you want to do it or not.” It is this thought that motivated the ad in Newsweek. It is this thought that should motivate all Christ’s soldiers to get up and get busy. Turn off the television and read the Bible. Climb out of the easy chair and go visit the sick. Cancel the golf date and go make some personal calls on those interested in learning the Truth. It can be boiled down to the subject of love. It all depends on who we love most. If it is self, then we shall continue to cater to ourselves and die in our sins as did the Romans. If we truly love God with all our heart, soul and mind, then we like Christ, will be up and doing and we will become a living example of Christ’s words, ”Not my will, but thine be done.”