From The Editor’s Notebook
The Annual Meeting
The 1976 Annual Meeting of Food for the Flock, Inc. was held on November 20th in Toronto, Canada. As always, many matters were discussed, among them the rising costs involved in continuing to publish and post Ministry in Focus magazine. Nevertheless, the members present were optimistically unanimous in the decision to continue publishing Focus, and this, in steadfast dependence upon our Lord for His wisdom and guidance. Throughout 1977 we look to Him to enable us to faithfully fulfill our statement of purpose — namely, that
MINISTRY IN FOCUS IS A PUBLICATION DEDICATED TO ENCOURAGING SOUND BIBLE STUDY, TO PROVIDING PRACTICAL TEACHING ON CURRENT ISSUES AND PROBLEMS, AND TO CHALLENGING CHRISTIANS TO A GREATER DEVOTION TO OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST.
No changes were made within the structure of the Board, the responsibility of publication being voluntarily shared by the following officers:
President: Russell Took
First Vice-president: Sydney H. Green
Second Vice-president: James T. Naismith
Secretary: Miss Lillian Telfer
Treasurer: Harry Masters
Editor: W. Ross Rainey
Associate Editor: James Gunn
All matters of an editorial nature should be sent to the Editor, 9257 Caprice Drive, Plymouth, Michigan 48170 U.S.A. All business correspondence should be directed to the Treasurer, Box 353, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada M9C 4V3. Bible study questions should be sent to Dr. James T. Naismith, 1121 Hilltop Street, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 5S6.
Last year we stated in this column our desire before the Lord to, among other things, increase Focus magazine’s circulation. Happily and thankfully, we have been able to achieve this, largely through the kindness of Loizeaux Brothers, Inc. As our readers know from our last issue, Loizeaux Brothers ceased publication of Help & Food magazine with the summer 1976 issue after ninety-three years’ ministry. One of the options given to their readers was to fill out their subscriptions with copies of Ministry in Focus. According to the latest word received from Miss Marie D. Loizeaux, over 300 of their subscribers had elected to take Focus. As a committee member of Loizeaux Brothers, the editor wishes to express on behalf of all the Food for the Flock members our sincere gratitude for their gracious gesture toward Focus magazine. And to all former Help & Food readers we extend a warm and hearty welcome to the Focus reader family.
A further decision made at the Annual Meeting is to continue the center Bible study section which our associate editor, Mr. James Gunn, has authored these past few years. Once his series on “The Bible” has run out, Brother Gunn will begin a new expository series on a New Testament book which will be announced in a future issue of Focus.
We might add that some are making good use of the current series on “The Bible.” As a case in point, one of the Lord’s servants in Mexico is translating the studies into Spanish and using them among believers in that country.
A Word of Appreciation
Although not among the original group of brethren who started Food for the Flock magazine (now Ministry in Focus), Mr. Benjamin Bradford of Miami, Florida, became a member of Food for the Flock, Inc. just a few years after the magazine was begun. Our esteemed brother, now an octogenarian (but not an octogeranium!), has been more or less “grounded” by his doctor and is no longer able to travel to Toronto for the yearly meeting, his presence being greatly missed. Nevertheless, we continue to greatly value the fellowship and prayers of our beloved brother, thanking God for his faithfulness and helpful service over the years.
In a letter Brother Bradford asked to resign from the Board, but it was the unanimous decision of the members to confer on him an Honorary Life Membership on the Board of Food for the Flock, Inc.
Thus, Brother Ben, as a little personal message from all of us, we’re simply not going to allow you to resign. And who knows but what some day we might have our Annual Meeting in Miami. This was, by the way, discussed! A-hem, in that case, though, January or February would be a better time than November, wouldn’t you agree?
Resurrection
As these lines are written, the stark deadness of winter prevails over the entire landscape, and to top it off it’s snowing. What a grim, hopeless, destitute outlook it would be were it not for the glad prospect of spring when the present drab deadness will burst into verdant life.
To me, springtime is the most glorious season of the year; it is nature’s parable on the blessed theme of resurrection. To God’s people who presently find themselves midst the dead, decaying, ever-changing, hopeless scene of this groaning creation, spring should be a reminder that some day we shall receive a resurrected and glorified body like that of our Lord Jesus Christ, never again to be subject to those ills and evils which sin has brought into our experience as members of a fallen humanity — the First Adam’s race. Thanks be unto God for the Last Adam, the Lord of Life and Glory, who someday soon is going to descend from heaven to the atmosphere above planet earth and “change our lowly body, that it may be fashioned like His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself” (Philippians 3:21).
F.E. Marsh has rightly said: “The resurrection of Christ is the heart of Christianity, which makes it pulsate with the life of God; it is the keystone to the arch of truth, which holds all the faith of the Gospel together; it is the foundation of the Church; it is the mainspring of Christian activity; it is the lever of power which shall move the world; and it is the link that unites all believers” (500 Bible Readings, p. 210).
If Christ was not raised bodily from the grave, then, as the Apostle Paul reveals in 1 Corinthians 15, there are at least seven sad, stark facts to contemplate. If Christ did not rise from out of the dead, then:
1. Christ Himself is not risen (15:13).
2. Our preaching is in vain (15:14).
3. Our faith is in vain (15:14).
4. We are Liars (15:15-16).
5. We are yet in our sins (15:17).
6. Christians who have died are lost forever (15:18).
7. “We are of all men most miserable” (15:19).
However, in 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul exclaims triumphantly, “But now is Christ risen from the dead,” and to this the believing and enlightened heart lends its “Hallelujah!” The apostle goes on to declare that all who are in Adam are doomed to death, but all who are in Christ are appointed to life. True believers are the harvest of which Christ is the “firstfruits.” The word for “firstfruits” stems from the “Feast of Firstfruits” in Israel (see Leviticus 23:9-14), and suggests the twin idea of an earnest and a sample. The fact of the “firstfruits” is the promise of the harvest. Because Christ lives, we live; because He was raised, we shall be raised.
Maranatha!