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A Time to Remember - Holiness Today’s November/December 2024 Issue · The Holiness Today Podcast

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Welcome to the Holiness Today podcast. On this episode, enjoy an abridged audio
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version of the 2024 November-December issue, A Time to Remember.
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In this audio production, enjoy listening to articles by Bonnie Perry,
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Horatio Reza, Mildred Bangs-Weincoop, G.B.
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Williamson, William Greathouse, and Gerald Johnson.
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Music.
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A Time to Remember by Bonnie Perry You know them well.
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They are verses often quoted, used in every conceivable context.
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There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the heavens.
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A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot.
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A time to kill and a time to heal.
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A time to tear down and a time to build.
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A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
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a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, Ecclesiastes 3, 1-5.
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The HT staff is gathering some stones in this issue.
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At the end of this very important year, a turbulent year in the world,
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in the life of the church and in the United States, where there has just been
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a presidential election, our team believed it would be a good time to remember.
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In that spirit, honoring our past and understanding that the Church of the Nazarene's
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heritage is an anchor for our future, we are gathering stones.
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In the following pages, you will find articles that represent snapshots of Nazarene
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literature in the Holiness Periodicals spanning the last 100 years.
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There were so many, too many, really, to choose from.
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For that reason, we won't title the issue the best of, but the collection represents us well.
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This is who we were. This is who we are. This is who we will be.
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For he has made everything beautiful in its time.
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Ecclesiastes 3.11 Bonnie Perry is Editor-in-Chief of Holiness Today.
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We'll be right back with the rest of this episode. But did you know you can
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The Lifelong Learning Registry provides Nazarene ministers the opportunity to
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record, and report their efforts to develop and maintain a pattern of lifelong learning.
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Every Nazarene minister is encouraged to engage in a variety of lifelong learning activities.
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This code can be utilized for this episode and any previous episode you wish to listen to.
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Thank you for being a listener and sharing in the ministry of the Church of
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the Nazarene. Now back to the rest of your episode.
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Music.
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The Church Press and the Home First issue of Herald of Holiness,
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August 17, 1912 The strategic point on the battlefield between Christ and the devil is the home.
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It has ever been the policy of our great enemy to assail the young life of the church or nation.
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Pharaoh, to perpetuate his dynasty, sought the destruction of the Jewish children
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in whom he recognize the supreme peril to his nefarious reign.
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When God commanded him by his servant Jesus to let his people Israel go,
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not the least artful among his propositions to Moses for a compromise was that
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they should leave the women and the children in Egypt and only the men enter
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the wilderness in obedience to the divine command.
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While he knew that this compromise on the part of God's people would effectually
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thwart God's purpose to found a nation of his chosen people,
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even God could not found a nation without homes.
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And there can be no homes without women and children.
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Again, God warned Joseph to arise and take the infant Jesus and flee into Egypt,
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and there remain, until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
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With this uniform testimony that childhood has ever been the point of attack
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of the enemy, we are to consider the fact that God has always jealously guarded
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childhood and provided the means for its protection.
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His people were only required to employ the means thus provided.
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The motherly instinct, the ark of bulrushes, and the daughter of Pharaoh in
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the one case, the command for separation of his people from Egypt and Moses'
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heroic purpose to obey, not leaving one hoof behind in another case,
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and finally the prompt flight into Egypt with the infant Jesus.
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These bespoke God's care for young life and his means for its protection.
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Pharaoh and Herod liltingly but feebly typed the cruelty and constancy with
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which Satan seeks to control the young life of every age.
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Never was this purpose more manifest or the agencies employed more potent than today.
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And if God needed a vigilant and unswerving Moses and an obedient Joseph through
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whom to effectuate his benign purposes of founding a nation through whom Christ was to come,
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and to preserve his infant life after he had come, he needs a spirit-filled
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ministry and a faithful parenthood in the church today, through whom to perpetuate
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and consummate his purpose of extending to final triumph the kingdom of his blessed son.
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Let Moses' unswerving firmness suggest to us needed elements in the ministry,
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and Joseph the required elements of prompt fidelity in our parenthood.
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How necessary these elements today in the face of the attacks of the enemy on our homes.
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How unblushing the war on our Sabbath and institution inseparably allied to our homes.
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How persistent the attempt to stab family life by the shameless divorce practice so prevalent.
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More direct still are the multi-form and organized agencies for the corruption
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and destruction of our children by the vicious literature of the times.
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That fiends in human form live who devote themselves to the sole work of poisoning
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and corrupting our youth through this diabolical means is a profound wonder.
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Yet, it is sadly true. It is a business with money back of it,
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organized and pushed, with manifold agencies and agents employed for reaching
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the innocence of our homes and our children's hearts with foul and obscene publications.
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A sluice of literature, less hideous but destructive nevertheless, more openly seeks them.
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Trashy and vicious stories swarm in our bookstores and railways,
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fill many newspapers and periodicals, until a child's eye is ever in danger.
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The ruin is incalculable from these sources.
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In some cases, college presidents, to defend the pupils from these harpies,
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have had to cease publishing in their catalogs the names of their pupils.
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No home is safe. No pure young heart is beyond danger from these infamous agencies
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bent on wrecking young hopes, debauching young hearts, and despoiling our homes.
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The dangers are appalling. What are we to do?
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Let Moses be vigilant and firm. Let the ministry lift the voice of warning.
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Let Joseph obey. Let the parents shield their children in the refuge God has provided and honored.
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Let preachers and parents see to it that the homes of the church and the nation
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are permeated by a pure literature which God in His providence has provided.
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Let our publishing house send forth streams of pure literature,
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books, papers, and periodicals of all sorts to help counteract the poison which
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seeks to corrupt the young life of our land.
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See to it that every home is filled with these.
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If anyone thought has burdened our heart, and any one purpose reigns supreme
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over all others in assuming charge of this paper, it has been the desire and
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the purpose to make it another help to the homes and the children of the land.
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And this shall be our peace. Herald, December 1946.
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By Horatio Reza As my mind tries to find an appropriate passage to write about
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the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, my heart is touched by the scene over 1900
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years ago in the city of David, Bethlehem.
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I am observing the stillness of the night when the shepherds kept watch over their flocks.
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On one side was the stillness of the firmament while here on the ground hearts
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were eager to see the Messiah.
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The peace of heaven stood in significant contrast to the restlessness of earth.
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The wild animals seemed to quiet down, while the flock silently gathered as
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if they understood that something was going to happen.
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Suddenly God's clarity surrounded the shepherds with a never-experienced radiance,
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which overwhelmed them with fear.
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They saw with their own eyes an angel from heaven proclaim the tidings of great
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joy destined for all people.
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Immediately from this message of hope the word of God says that suddenly there
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was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying,
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glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.
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This is the greatest message that human ears have ever heard.
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It is the voice from heaven revealing the divinity who deigned to assume human
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frailty to lead us to God.
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Only one scene compares to this. The scene of Calvary and even what happened
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in the place of the skull is the complement of what happened 33 years ago in Bethlehem of Judea.
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Yes, it was quite a scene. the scene of human redemption, the humanized word
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being born to give his life in ransom for many.
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Oh, the glory of Bethlehem. Oh, the glory of Calvary. But have we analyzed with
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the eyes of faith the message of the angels?
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Of this message that included three different thoughts, only one has been fulfilled.
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The angels sang, Glory to God in the highest.
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This is a fact. God has always received the glory of his children around the
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world and of his creatures in heaven. And peace on earth.
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No, that has not been fulfilled. Some say we already have peace,
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and I want to accept this as true.
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But our conscience does not say that there is complete peace in the world.
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Men distrust each other. The armaments of war have always continued.
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Great nations have followed the law of might makes right. There is hatred in
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hearts, there is bitterness in human lives, and there is spite and suffering in men.
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Goodwill toward men is the least there is in the world. But I just found a very
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significant verse in Micah 5.5 that goes like this, and this shall be our peace.
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Who is this but Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Alpha and the Omega,
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the beginning and the end, he who opens what no one can close and he who closes what no one can open?
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It is Jesus the carpenter of Galilee, but the maker of the universe.
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He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, the one who turns water into
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wine, the one who drives away sickness, the one who raises the dead,
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the one who converts hearts.
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This Jesus will bring peace. He will be our peace. But how is it possible if
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the world has rejected Him?
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He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
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Yes, it is true, but to those who received him, he gave the right to become children of God.
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My heart sings in the words of the hymn, O unspeakable glory,
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O the half has never been told.
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When we accept Jesus, he gives us peace. He gives us a peace not according to
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human standards, but according to divine standards.
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He gives us true peace. He is our peace.
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The world is disillusioned because it cannot find the solution to international
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problems, but the reason for this is that they have put true peace aside.
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They need to turn their eyes to Calvary.
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They need to bathe in the crystal-clear waters of divine mercy.
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They need to feed on the bread that came down from heaven.
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Christ, being our peace, promises us peace within. The life of the sinner is
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a restless life, but the life of the Christian is pleasant.
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That of the sinner threatens death, but that of the Christian promises life.
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That of the sinner drags to hell, that of the Christian raises to heaven.
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Dear brother and sister, Christ Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.
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This is a historical fact.
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But, was he born in your heart? This is a spiritual fact.
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Do you want to find him today? Do you want to promise him fidelity and love?
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He calls you. He can also be your peace.
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Receive him, and then you will understand the meaning of the angelic song because
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it will be the same song that shelters your soul. Come to Christ today.
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What is holiness? Mildred Bang's Wine Coop, Herald of Holiness, August 15th, 1962.
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The most comprehensive and practical answer to the question,
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what is holiness, is given us by Jesus in these words,
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The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
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thy heart, soul, mind, strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
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Mark 12, 29, 31.
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Three key ideas stand out clearly, love, God, and men, constrained by love to God and neighbor.
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Love. Surprisingly, love is a most misunderstood word.
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In Japan, its erotic connotations make it difficult to use in Christian discourse
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without thoroughly disentangling it from its cultural meaning.
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In America, I found a most fruitful source of discussion in my seminary classroom
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in the question, what do we want people to do when we tell them to love God?
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To most people everywhere, love has a romantic or mystical meaning which unfits
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it for theological discussion.
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Jesus' teaching rests upon a concept of love which roots it in the most basic
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structure of humanhood, the absolute demand that a self be related to a center of interest.
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To be human is to love something to derive the meaning of life from worship
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of something, an object, idea, or person to which one is committed.
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That commitment is itself love, and no normal person is uncommitted.
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It is of interest to notice that Jesus did not require an initiation of love,
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but a criticism of the object of love. What one loves is one's God.
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One God. Since the object of one's commitment is the God one serves,
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it is significant that in the Christian faith the oneness of God should be a fundamental truth.
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All other objects of human affection to which this basic commitment is made are false gods.
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Any interest which dictates the policy of behavior and decision is a God.
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There are many such interests vying for the treasures of human loyalty,
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and these interests clash in human society, setting men against each other.
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Conflicting interests within oneself are capable of tearing apart the personality.
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The human cure is to compartmentalize the jurisdiction of these feuding gods,
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and this is the divided heart concerning which the Bible speaks.
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Uncleanness is not primarily immoral desire. It is to be an I,
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whose norms of conduct alternate between the demands of our sectional gods,
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unstable in all his ways, says James.
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Kierkegaard rightly saw that only the one Lord God could reign truly.
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A multiplicity of loyalties is uncleanness.
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Men in relationship to God. If commitment to a center of interest is love,
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if what one loves becomes his God and if there is only one true God love,
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it follows that to love him.
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Decompartmentalizes life and unites man into one wholesome spiritual entity.
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The four elements which Jesus declared must be wholly brought under the love
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of God are not separate parts of human nature, each to be considered in isolation,
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but do represent the compartments which are often permitted to divide the heart.
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To love one God with the whole being sets the norm of human conduct in the place
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where it dictates every area of life.
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There will be one ethic for life at home, for motivation and practice in business,
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for unseen actions in a distant city, for honesty in taking examinations,
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for the principles that guide our conversation, for the way we fill out our
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income tax forms, for the strategy we lay out in the unfolding of our ambitions.
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A once wealthy Chinese refugee in Hong Kong eked out a meager living for his
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family repairing shoes with heavy paper shoes which would not hold together for one walked mile.
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He found Christ, and after several weeks in his fellowship, he discovered that
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there could be no conflict between his love for Christ and his love for his
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family and those who bought his shoes.
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At the risk of starving his family, he quit making paper shoes.
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There can be no double standard one for church and one for business.
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This is what Jesus meant, and this is purity.
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Self and Others Isn't there a logical contradiction in Jesus' insistence upon
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total love to God and love for self and others?
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Asked one of my sharp Japanese students.
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It is precisely to avoid this contradiction that Jesus gave this word.
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In the atmosphere of a thoroughgoing commitment to God, love of self,
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so necessary to self-respect and self-identity, will not override its proper
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function and become a rival deity.
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And love for others can be maintained at the highest level of ethical responsibility
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and communion without slipping into maudlin sentimentalism, irresponsibility, or fawning hypocrisy.
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Total love for God puts every other love in its proper perspective and permits
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it to come to its highest expression and fulfillment without loss of any essential integrity.
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Everything holiness demands is fulfilled by this love. Cleanness and love are
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not different things but two sides of one thing. Holiness.
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Holiness is a love that discriminates, not between worthy and undesirable people,
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but between rival claimants for our total commitment.
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There is only one God, and when I have made him my God, there can be no other
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God for me. And I am a whole person, a unity.
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What is a man worth? Gideon B. Williamson, Herald of Holiness, February 1966.
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There are systems which employ a utility standard in the evaluation of human life.
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The only question is how useful will one be in the social structure.
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This concept is degrading to man. He is part of a mass of humanity.
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Having lost his individuality, his self-respect, initiative,
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aspiration, and sense of destiny are gone also.
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The utility measurement may even be applied in the visible church.
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A convert is worth what he contributes in tithes and offerings or in productive service.
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He may be only another name on the membership role.
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This reasoning tends to corrupt motives in evangelism and soul-winning.
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It degrades the character of the church and renders ineffective its witness
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in the world. In the sight of God, the soul of man is priceless.
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In his scale of values, there is no distinction between a neglected urchin in
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a great city ghetto, a starving Oriental refugee, a tortured victim of demon
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possession in Africa, or a millionaire.
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This evaluation of a soul sends witnesses for Christ to the savage tribes of
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the Andes, the stifling humidity of equatorial Africa, and to the frozen Arctic
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to seek the lost and bring them back to God, the Eternal Father.
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It leads devout disciples to intercession in days of fasting and sleepless nights.
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It compels them for conscience's sake to live disciplined lives that they may
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give more sacrificially.
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Probably God's love is best illustrated in parental love.
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It is seen in the tireless work of a mother for
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her family and her watchful care for their health and safety
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It is revealed as a father with throbbing
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heart and tear-filled eyes Sees his son sail
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for Vietnam A pastor father conversing about his family drew a colored tear
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sheet from a daily paper Which pictured two soldiers in military uniform and
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waited with equipment necessary to their assigned task They were behind barbed
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wire No names could be given They were obviously American soldiers in Vietnam
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The devoted father said That is my son,
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Ted Jr. We recognized his picture.
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His words came with restraint, but love spoke from his burdened shoulders,
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his serious face, and moist eyes.
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That is the way God looks at those boys, whether they are from the U.S., Saigon, or Hanoi.
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God sent his son to redeem all men, Asian, African, European, or American.
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Every human life is worth more than all the world. O God, give us the compassion
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and the compulsion of divine love.
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Help us once more to go all out for souls.
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Why God Became Man, William Greathouse, Herald of Holiness, December 15, 1983.
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The miracle and glory of Christmas was the wondrous condescension of God in becoming man.
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Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
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1 Timothy 3, 16. This truth, accepted by reason, is the key that unlocks the gospel.
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Jesus was not a man who became God. He was God revealed in human personality.
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God was pleased to have all His
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fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things.
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Colossians 1.19.20 NIV Kur Deus Homo was the great question that challenged
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the Church for centuries.
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Why did God become man? The Creed confessed, For us men and our salvation.
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First, God became man to truly reveal Himself to us.
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In Jesus, He has unveiled His very heart to us. Anyone who has seen Jesus with
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the eye of faith has seen God.
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John 14.9.11 Looking wistfully at the picture of her father away in war,
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a small child said to her mother, I wish daddy would step out of the picture
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and speak to me. That is the precise meaning of Christmas.
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God has stepped out of the frame of the cosmos and in his son spoken to us his
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revealing and saving word.
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Hebrews 1.1.3. What God is in his infinite being may forever be beyond us,
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but what he is in his true nature we know. He is the Christ-like God.
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In Christ we see the humanity of God.
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Furthermore, God became man in order to enter sympathetically into our human condition.
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The epistle to the Hebrews assures us that because of the incarnation,
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we now have one within the Godhead who is one of us.
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One who, sin alone accepted, has in every respect become as we are in our weaknesses and temptations.
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2.14.4.14.16.
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Reverently, we conclude that the incarnation in some wondrous but real way opened
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a new and deepened dimension of divine sympathy and succor for us tempted and struggling mortals.
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From within our humanity, the Son of God now intercedes on our behalf,
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while the Spirit He has sent to dwell within us pleads with groanings which cannot be uttered.
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With St. Paul we triumphantly say, If God be for us, who can be against us?
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Supremely, God became man to redeem us from our fallen state.
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Created in the image of God, we have by the fall become the pawns of Satan, sin, and death.
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But the incarnate Son of God, by his death and resurrection has bound Satan
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and destroyed sin and death, and by his ascension and gift of the Holy Spirit
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is spoiling the strong man's house in the glorious manifestation of his saving might.
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To quote Hebrews again, But now we do not yet see all things put under him.
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But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels,
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for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that he,
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by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.
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For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
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in bringing many sons to glory to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
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For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one,
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for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
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God became man, that we might be one with him forever.
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Sin is still sin. Gerald Johnson, Herald of Holiness, August 15th, 1987.
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Explanations for abnormal behavior appear to be in vogue. Deviant activity is
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simply written off as inappropriate action, an error in judgment,
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or an unfortunate decision.
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In reality, the responsible party has probably been guilty of a deliberate,
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decisive choice that resulted in a serious transgression of the laws of both God and man.
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The Bible has one word for this. That word is sin.
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This proneness to justify what in reality is immoral behavior has prompted a
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leading news magazine columnist to write on the subject, Why Nothing is Wrong Anymore.
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Her comments appear to be an echo of the famous author and psychiatrist Dr.
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Carl Menninger's bestseller title, Whatever Happened to Sin?
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Trends of society have their effect on the church. Our ministers must be on
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guard against these encroachments.
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Our people must not allow themselves to be intimidated and threatened by a lackadaisical
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attitude toward moral standards of conduct.
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A redeeming, loving fellowship need not be a compromising, condoning church.
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Whether one reads the concerns of the Apostle Paul in his addressing of issues
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to the Corinthian church or the letters recorded in Revelation to the seven
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churches, attention was demanded of God's people to recognize sin for what it is and what it does.
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The requirement in each case was to deal firmly with the one who was sinning.
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How comforting for a backslider to merely admit to stupidity and find consenting attitude in the church.
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Such a response will soon lead to a weak and ineffective ministry as far as
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that church and its leaders are concerned.
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It takes courage to admit to sin in one's life.
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Yet the path to peace, forgiveness, and restoration must include not only such
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an admittance, but also a sincere expression of godly sorrow for that which was done.
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This then shall be followed by a
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determination not to repeat the act of transgression. This is redemption.
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To this end, let us commit ourselves in ministry and fellowship.
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Then the Church, not having succumbed to societal trends, remains strong with
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a ministry that is indeed effective.
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Music.
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