By the Editor
Facing the Future
My Dear Friends,
We commence with this number our fortieth year as Editor of “A Message from God.” It has been God’s way of service for us for thirty-nine years. What goodness! what mercy! has followed us all these years. We are standing on the threshold of this New Year. We know not what lies before us, but we believe this year will be one of the most momentous years in the history of man. You and I, reader, stand facing the future. I want you to listen to me as I read a verse to you from Philippians 3:13,14,13Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13‑14) the words of the Apostle Paul:” This one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. “An earnest man, with an earnest purpose wrote these words,” This one thing I do.” He might have done many things. He had marvelous opportunities, and manifold advantages, but his life was completely under the control of one idea.
He had a clearly defined purpose of life before him. No more his vagrant fancy, ever seeking, and never satisfied, but the truth of his whole life at rest.
He could calmly face the future. (Can you?) He could look without a doubt into the glories of eternity. Some tell us the future is a mystery, a blank; that none can know it or reveal it. Tom Paine, the infidel, knew better, for as he faced the future, almost his last words were “Do not leave me to be alone in hell.” The Apostle Paul speaks of a “forgetting” and a “reaching forth.” He had buried his old life in the grave of Jesus. The old life of Saul of Tarsus was to be forgotten forever. He saw a vision in the skies that charmed his very soul. It was Jesus, risen from among the dead, a glorified Man at God’s right hand. The opened heavens stretch away before him with the light of God upon them. No mystery to faith, but the ineffable delight of “reaching forth,” to lay hold of the great realities of God. Reader, will you gaze into the future now? Is there any rest for you in the rest of God?
Paul speaks of a “mark” and a “prize.” He saw them and pressed towards them. No dim conception was his, but a real comprehension of the finalities of a Christian’s life. There was no mystery to be solved by his soul when winging its way to the Infinite; but a revelation made to faith now. He saw by faith the golden shores of heaven; the host of the redeemed upon the shining streets; the pinnacles of the heavenly temple not made with hands eternal in the heavens. He saw it all, and his soul was absorbed by it. He could forget, he could reach forth; he could press on, for the “mark” was Christ, and the “prize” was an eternal one. Can you, my reader, thus face the future? Can you see clearly what is hidden from the world? The natural mind understands not the things of the Spirit. Only those who are born again are in the secrets of God.