if
Providential Hands
Sermon By
GEORGE T. MOORE.
Pastor, Resurrection Lutheran
Church
TEXT: Luke 11:19. 20. "And if I
«-ast out dem >nr by BrMnvxil, by
whom do your sons cast them
out? Therefore they ahull be your
judge*. Rut if i: is by the finger
t«od that I cast out demons, then
the kingdom of (lod has come up
on you."
This was the way in which Cod
spoke 2.000 years ago. Both ques
tion and answi r were prompted
by a negative rc<q>«nse to a mi
racle of healirg. According t>
I^uke. a man without speech now
speaks.'Jesus has jtist performed
about this question:
"Explosion of steam boiler;
burstInR of steam or hot water
appliances and heating systems;
fireplace smoke damage; falling
trees, weight of ice or snow dam
age, building collapse - ate these
and other losses covered by the
‘broad form' Homeowner Policy,
but not by the standard Home
owner Policy?"
C. E. War lick
III.
an exorcism, the ustii.g oul of a
demon, an evi: spirit.
Immediately Hi* is faced with
two reactions Tin* first is Misin
terpretation. They tali God's work
the work of the devil. Tin* sec
ond is Illind'icsr They fail to see
any special significance in the
miracle avid stiii ask f >r a sign.
In answer to the misinterpreta
tion Jesus gives thus* word pic
tures: lai A kingdom divided,
ibi A house divided, in A strong
man's house plundered. He is
saying that if this i.- a true heal
ing how ran ‘t lie evil? Satan is
evil. He does not help, nor does
he d i good. The cute is good and
helpful. Therefore lie is aguinst
Satan, and not on Satan’s side.
In answer to the blindness Je
sus gives th<* one. dramatic ans
wer. "If it is by the finger of God
that 1 east out demons, then the
kingdom of God has came upon
you.” The very fad of what has
lH*en done h-*re He is saying, is
the sign! Th'-» is the work of the
kingdom of God. makfcig men
whole. Then*fate, the miracle is
the evidence. the sign, that the
kingdom is here.
Jesus made this quite clear in
answer to the ouestion ol John
the Baptist, as he sent his fol
lowers to ask Jesus if Hi* was
really the Messiah. He told them
to tell John the things they saw.
that the blind receive their sight,
he lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead
are raised up, and the poor have
the Gospel preached to them. All
these were true signs of the king
dom at hand.
So it was that this miracle ol
restoring spee< h was the reality
of the great, providential hand of
God. stretched forth *n power,
proof enough o* God's presence
and tin* coming of the kingdom.
Yet. it's rather hard to aecept
God at face \atue, isn’t it? It is
hard when \%v are not fully at'
ease with this perplexing record
of “casting out demons. Note the
differenc in answers between the
first century critics and those of
ihe 2ft th ceotuiy You see, those
ancient critics didn't question the
fact of the exorcism a all! They
questioned only the FORCE be
hind it. the guiding hand which
effect!*! the cure. They accepted
Ihe fact of a cure, but they said
it was not the work of Clod. It
was the work of Satan. None of
them saw any sp<*cial significance,
whatsoever, in a demon cast out.
They were s.iyng. "So you cast
out a demotv So what? Show us
some real act of God. so that we
can .<>li<*ve. Give us some sign
from h“aven ”
And the present day critic?
"Well. I can explain that,” he
says "The spm hless man had a
mental block. He just imagined
that he couldn't speak There are
thousands of iase histories like
his. and most oi them cured by a
good specialist. Jesus was Just a
good psychiatrist. Demon*? That's
nonsense."
As long as we stick to human
reasoning and to our 2ftth. cen
tury "gods" >f science, that is the
best answer we can give. We
think in terms of ancient super
stition. saying that “demon” bit
was simply tit** ancient's wav ol
desc ribing what ho couldn't un
derstand. Primitive man didn't
know any bettor.
Perhaps all this wouldn't mat
ter so mu.-h if < ur problems were
limited to the loss of speech.
However, that's the aproach to
all our problems. It's the idea
that evil die-sn't exist, or that a
rational, scientific approach, giv
en enough time and money, can
lick any human problem.
We have inherited a lot of that
sort of optimism from the last
eitntury. It's the foolish idea that
"every day in tvery way we are
getting better and better.” nr that
“God's in his heaven and all's
right with the world.’’ And. even
when those went sour, we wen*
still optimistic.
Strangely enough, it took the
world of literature to reveal the
facts of life, that all was not
right with the world. As Gertrude
Stein put it. "You are all • loot
(feneration." Elliott did it In "The
Waste Land." Faultier in hi*
"Sound and Fury.” O’Neill did the
tame thing on the atage in hit
"Long Day's Journey Into Night.”
Yet. the le'son didn't get
through. It took, among other
thing, two world wart, and 6 mil
lion Jews slaughtered, to make us
lvalue that the world was full of
"demons". It took the fact of the
most inhuman generation the
world has ever known to show
that man. in and of himself, is
wandering in e vast wasteland,
hopeless and helpless, if left to
his own devices.
Even now tne non-believer says
we can work it out. given enough
time. But time is fast running
out. and Cod is still the »4j|y ans
wer to a world standing on the
brink of self-destruction. The pro
vidential hand- of Cod are just
that, in that lie crimes, even in
strange ways, and shows us that
we cannot get along without Him.
We do have our demons, and
the lack of scientific proof can
not disprove the reality of them.
There are the demons of compla
cency, for example, which make
us hide our heeds in the sand, ig
noring the evil in the world about
us. They would have us think that
what is called evil is not that at
all In this mood Cod is not very
important. He is unseen and.
therefore, link?.own. Maybe He
doesn't even exist so we are
tempted to think.
There are th« demons of mis
placed values. This shows in what
wv give ourselves to in daily liv
ing. the things we deem most im
portant. Just last week a news
paper article stated that U. S.
m »ney helped raise the total to
36 million dollars, in order to re
move and relocate the ancient pa
gan gods of stone out of the way
■ >f the flood watprs of the new
dam in Egypt and the world is
still plagued by hunger and star
vation' Arc we concerned with
the important things of life, the
Cod-related things, or are we con
cerned with the worthless?
Then there ore the demons ol
SIN itself, the n -ndage of men in
sin. standing apart from Cod.
This is the separation which re
fleets itself in every act against
Cod. As Jesus said. "He who is
hot with me, ia against me." This
1* not « matt* of a lot of little
'ilM”. tt l« rr^lllai again*! God.
enslaved by the demonic force*
of evil.
In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, and.
unless thin God is the founda
tion of your tile, all is wrung.
The end is destruction. What >*
the meaning of life for you? Mon
ey? Promotion? Security? Social
recognition?
There ia the story of the dog in
the Crate, being shipped by rail
The dog chewed up the ticket on
the crate so the shipping clerk
sent the dog to the Washington
Post Office with this note: Herr
is nobody from nowhere going
noplace. That's the picture of life
without God.
But God would have it other
wise. He givbs meaning to life
He tells you that you were creat
ed in the image of God, that you
are "somebody' He s-ays there is
a glorious future for you. with
Him. He gave that meaning into
our world one with us. He cam*
to share the worst, in order tc
give us the best. The "Provider
tial Hands" of God stretched out,
at the Cross, that we might live,
free of the destructive "demons"
of our world.
What about your lift*, and the
"demons" confronting you? 11
they have been cast out by th<
finger of God. then the kingdom
has come upon you.
That’s God's message of truth
<4uit trying to do what you can
not do. for yourself. Let the pro
\1drntial hands of God enfold
you. He can, and will, set >x»u
free.
Moytovvy Assigned
To Ordnance Co.
XJ. S. Army. Europe. (AHTNO
- Army Pvt. Vernon S. Mayberry,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Jess W.
Mayberry. Kings Mountain. N. C.
was assigned to the 124th Ord
nance Company in Germany, Keb.
10.
Mayberry, an instrument re
pairman in the company near
Stuttgart, entered the Army in
June 1963 and completed bask
combat training at Fort Gordon.
Ga.
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(SB
Pharmacists
To Meeting
Chapel Hill Pharma, i.sts iio
; *11 sections of North Carolina \\:II
be in Chapel Hill on March 11 12
for a two • day speech ti.n: in
program.
i Sponsored b\ tile Ninth Cato
lina Pharmaceutical Association
in cooperation with tin* <|»i -h
Training Servhe ,.f Smith Klim
& Kritnch La oratorio of I’hila
ddphia. ih« pharmacist. w 11 n
jceive profe-sional instruct, n •
how to give speeches, how to pre
, pare ami illurtrate th»*m. and
how to organic and operate ,i
{speakers bureau. The ti..ir.irig
will consist of formal instruction,
drill in which registrants deliver
practice speeches and co In, t
mulated quest’Oil anti itiswcr
|ieriods for evaluation of t... h
nique, and a final valed ct«.r\ .ul
dress.
Graduate's .if SKI's speech
training service have giver :v, ve
than 7.000 speeches in re.i *.t
iyears. The speech trainm; pro
gram at Chapel Hill will he lie !
ed hy six members of SKI'*
speech training servi.-e from !"• |
adelphia. Following completion <>t
the program, a Pharmaceutical
Speakers Bureau will he «.sta
i Wished under direction of w ,j
Smith. Executive Seen ar\ ,f
the NCPA.
Charles P. PlanSon Jr. K.'.ic*.
Mountain. A. H Cornwell ,,i Lin
••olnton. Truman Hudson of »;a«
tonia. and W. |j. Houser of eh. t
ryville are among the pharma
eists registered for th, -f.,s h
training program.
I n«- A i. mu.it) w;i> invented in
• lermanj nt IS22. But similar in
struments ttnc known to the
'hinese tor mans, ronturiis before
that >oar. .ii-mnlin^ to the lio* >k
of Knowledge.
Group Health
Insurance Plan
Is Surveyed
Almost no ore who comes un
der croup h'-a'th insurant* pro
slay pays the rntiiKVU
of his health can* |>ri't<v(io,l, *e
cording io the Health Insurance
Institute's survey of g-oup insur
ant- plans written in 1963 by In
surance companies.
The provisions of the plans are
decided upon ty employers or
through management-union nego
tiati ns. said flu Institute.
The survey tixik in 3M.382
w-orkeis and their estimated
s«;i i«ni dependents protected tin
•ler group health insurance poll
cies issued by |7 insurance com
panies in 1963. 'These companies
accounted tor 71 9 per cent of the
croup health insurance premiums
written hy insurance companies
in 1962 •
After study, the Institute found
that only 12 [nr cent of the em
ployees ;n he .survey paid the en
tile cost of their health care pVP
lection while I5.f. per cent had tile
full cost of their protection piald
by the employer, aiid 33.2 per
ent shared the cost with the em
ployer.
In contrast, the Institute's 1962
survey tmind .3.9 per ivnt of the
employes- under n«-w group plaite
tit.it year paid the lull cost Of
tneir health care protection and
11 2 per rent hr.d their protection
paid in full by the employer, while
:>t9 pet .-ent shr.red the cost with
the employer.
The Institute noted that inmost
large type group policies- '‘larj^"
indicating films of .VXl or ipor*
employees the cm pi -yer pnsrid
ed a greater portinyi of the cost
for employees' health rare .ptp
. tection. • .. ;
-—
^ HARRIS £%irum/ &&me
KINGS MOUNTAIN. NORTH CAROUNA
Dear friends,
In the absence of pr*?.
arrangement, the next of
kin alone lias the right to
choose the funeral director
and to decide the funeral
arrangements.
No one should attempt t*
Influence or usurp this right
of choice.
Advice should be given
only when asked, as the
selection of a funeral
director is a very personal^
matter. ,
*'*' Respect fully,
- ■ (LJ. l ... t^]as-, t.»
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