When I was a boy going to the little two room schoolhouse 6 1/2 miles northeast of Frederick, Oklahoma, we always had to answer the roll call on Monday morning with a Bible verse. Sometimes I would forget to memorize one and, in such case, I would always resort to "Jesus wept," found in John 11:35. Having only the two words, that one was easily remembered, and I thought it was the only one of such brevity.
Later I found another one of the same length in I Thess. 5:16 which reads "Rejoice evermore." These are the only two verses in the entire Bible with only two words and as you have probably noticed, one talks about weeping and the other talks about rejoicing, opposite subjects. It is with the latter verse that I want to deal in this case, but before we say much about it, may I tell you about a song that was popular when I was a boy? You may have heard your mom or dad sing it. The song was called "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles."
One of the verses went like this--.
"I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air,
Some fly so high, they nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams they fade and die;
Fortunes always hiding, I've looked everywhere,
I'm forever blowing bubbles, pretty - - bubbles in the air."
I do not know who wrote that song nor what his lot was in life. I do not know what prompted him to write it but whether he knew it or not he described the longing of so many hearts. Their bubbles only burst and disappear in thin air. They seek fortune in some form, wealth, fame or whatever, only to find it always hiding and seemingly not obtainable in their case. They build towering air-castles only to see them come tumbling down in ruins at their feet. The reason for it all can be clearly seen when we understand human nature. There is an urge in every human breast impelling the individual on through various pursuits to find something to satisfy an inward craving. Whether it is a baby sitting in the floor playing with little wooden blocks, or a King on the throne trying to gain the rule of the world, each one feels the impelling force and both of them, are trying to find something to satisfy. Every form of worldly entertainment has been invented by men trying to find satisfaction, something to fill that inner hunger. Humanity makes many feverish attempts to find a panacea for the longing of the human heart.
Why is this longing there? What makes it? The answer is found when we study the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. When God created Adam and Eve, He did so that they might love Him and fellowship with Him. Man was created on a higher level than any other creature of God's vast created realm. Man was created for God. However, in that early day Adam and Eve sinned and lost their holy state. The awful results was that "By one man sin: entered into, the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" Rom. 5:12. Sin separated man from God. Every person that has ever been born into the world since that day had been born with the sin principle in his heart and until the individual finds a remedy for the sin problem through the new birth, there will always be a void there that cannot be filled. No matter what people may try, drugs, liquor, immorality, nothing will ever fill that mysterious longing for something to satisfy permanently. Their whole life will be as the song writer wrote, "Blowing pretty bubbles."
God is deeply interested in the happiness of His creation. The devil brought sorrow and death into the world. Had this not been the case, Lazarus would not have died and Jesus would never have had any occasion to weep. However God wants to give us joy and cause us to "rejoice evermore." He has put forth every effort to bring us to the place in the human program where we can do just that. May I point out here that there is a difference in "joy" and "fun." We hear people say, "Well, have fun!' We even hear people talking about it being "fun" to be saved, but this is an improper way to express it. Fun is a temporary thing that passes with the using. The theatre, the sports events, parties, etc. all may contain a degree of fun. While the entertainment is going on, the person is enjoying it all. They laugh and cheer and seem to be having a good time for the event is keeping their minds occupied and filling a vacuum in their life at that moment. However, once the thing is over with, it often leaves a sense of remorse, a lump in the throat, and a heavy heart. The person is just as empty and dissatisfied, as before. The pleasures did not fill the real emptiness of the heart.
However, joy is different. Someone has said that "Joy is a heaven born plant, which if proper conditions are met, will take root in the soul and bear the fruitage of gladness, happiness and peace with no aftermath of remorse and regret." The story is told of a drunkard who was always accustomed to coming home under the influence of drink. During his sprees he had a feeling of false security. His worries were drowned in drink and the whole world took on a new look to him. Of course when he sobered up, he had a hangover and all the "fun" he thought he was having had gone into thin air as bubbles. The fortune he had been seeking was still hiding , and he looked for another drink.
Then one night he stumbled into a little Salvation Army meeting where he came under the influence of the gospel and was saved. He hurried home to tell his family the good news and, when he went to bed ,he said to his wife, "So many times I have come home drunk, feeling high and hilarious, then I would go to sleep and wake up later to find I had lost it all and was worse off than ever. I am so happy with what I feel tonight, I am afraid to go to sleep for fear I will wake up and find it gone too. I am going to stay awake all night lest I sleep this off, also." However, sleep finally closed his eyes and the next, morning his wife, heard him shouting for joy so she rushed to his room and asked, "What is it?" to which he replied, "Oh I got so sleepy, I went off to sleep and this morning I woke up to find that I still had what I got at the meeting last night! I didn't sleep it off." That may be a feeble illustration, but it makes the point. The man on other occasions had experienced only "fun" but now he had found "JOY," something lasting and deeply satisfying, something that did not pass with sleep and time. Fun may bring laughter and merrymaking, but it will not bring the deep-seated satisfaction, the kind of rejoicing that God is talking about. Only "joy" can do that. Yes, God is extremely interested in His beings obtaining joy and happiness in Him.
When God made this old world, He certainly created a large variety of things but all of it had a nature peculiar to that particular thing. On the fifth day (a regular 24-hour solar day exactly as we have today) the scriptures tell us "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl. after his; kind; and God saw that it was good." Gen. 1:20,21.
Yes, God made everything that was made. The fowls consisted of many colors and species but every one of them had a nature that made them content to dwell in the realm for which God created them, the air. The 20th verse said to "fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."
In creating the water creatures, he made the little minnow, but He also made the mighty whale. Some fish were created for salt water and some for fresh water. Some were beautiful while, others were not, but all of them, without exception, had a nature that made them perfectly content to dwell in the realm for which God created them, the waters.
On the sixth day (another 24-hour solar system day as we still have) God said in verse 24, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so." Here we see Him making the domestic animals (cattle) and also the wild beast of the earth. There were many and varied varieties, brown ones, white ones, etc. Some were peculiar looking like the giraffes with their long necks. Some were huge like the elephant, while others were so tiny they could hardly be seen. However, everyone of them had a nature that made it perfectly content to dwell in the realm for which God created it.
It was also on that sixth day that God said, "let us make man in our own image, after our likeness," verse 26. Everything that God had created in that six day period was said to be "good." He was well pleased with all He had made. However, there was nothing made (till verse 26) in God's likeness. The other creatures were created for His pleasure and for a purpose but not one of them had the ability to love, serve, and worship God: Now in verse 26 God decides to make His masterpiece, something in His likeness, something with a living soul, something to love and worship Him forever. He chose to call that masterpiece "man." He placed a nature in that man and woman that caused them to want to live forever and to desire communion and fellowship with God. Thus He was able to come in the cool of the evening and 'walk and talk with them in the Garden. It was only when man sinned that such fellowship was lost and man fell from the realm for which God had created Him. We are not told whether Adam and Eve ever repented and turned 'back to God or not, but I have a feeling that they were never happy unless they did.
How foolish it would be to take the fish and pitch it up into the air and tell it to fly like the bird and make its nest in the treetops! A fish, created for the waters, even if it could be possible for it to live in the bird realm, would it ever be happy out of its place? Never! Suppose you took the bird and plunged it down into the water and said, "Swim like a fish; build your nest in the seas." Do you believe the bird, even if it were possible for it to live in the ocean, would ever be happy there? No! However, that is in essence what so many people are trying to do today. They want to "rejoice evermore" and be happy but they seem to feel that happiness is to be found in the foolish, tinkling things of the world. When will we ever realize that the only One where man can really be happy is in fellowship with God, the realm for which he was created.
While holding revivals for the Armenian Brethren churches of Cairo, Egypt, it was my privilege to visit the zoo there. It was early one beautiful day and the zookeepers had just finished feeding and watering the animals. My eye was drawn especially to a big shaggy lion in one of the cages. A fresh tub of water had just been placed there for him to drink and a big chunk of fresh meat was there for him to eat. Now if all "things" could make a lion happy, this one should be. Nobody was hunting him, no animal was trying to take his food from him. The food and water were adequate, and he did not even have to put forth any effort to obtain it. The weather was beautiful, the cage was large and clean, yet that lion was not happy. He was pacing up and down, up and down. He had been around that cage a million times perhaps, seeking someway of escape. He was not happy because he was not created for a cage in a zoo. He was not created to be fed and watered daily by human hands. He was created for a jungle and to make his own living. If somehow that cage could have been opened and that lion permitted to go free, you would have seen him winding his way back to the heart of the jungle and there drinking from his own familiar watering places and feeding upon his own food supply. You would have found him happy and contented for he would have been in the place God created him to be. As I look around me today, I see many similar cases. I see the highways lined with hippie-styled young men and women, packs on their back, trying to hitch ride to some other place, thinking perhaps the grass will be greener in the next town. I see young men and women hooked on dope; liquor, tobacco and about everything else. They are disoriented, dissatisfied, unhappy, trying to find something to fill that longing of the soul. They are like they are because they are out of fellowship, with God, and like the lion, they pace to and fro from one thing to the next, from one town to the next, hoping to find something to satisfy. . .
In my area of the world, we have an abundance of my favorite feathered friends, the mockingbird. In many of the northern parts of the country this bird is, not found. Suppose that I capture one of them, place it in a gold cage and fix it a platinum perch. In one end of the cage, I fill the seed holder with crushed diamonds and rubies. I fill the water tray with the finest and rarest perfumes. Now if beautiful surroundings, gems and perfumes, riches and finery could make a bird happy, I am sure you would agree that one should certainly be content.
Then suppose that I take my little bird up north to show some of my friends and I am anxious for them to hear its sweet song. When I get there, my bird will not sing. I explain that perhaps it has not yet become accustomed to everything but that in a few days all will be normal. Time goes on and still my bird does not sing, and I notice that its wings are drooping and the bird shows very little life. Suppose that I, realizing it is going to die in captivity, raise the cage door and permit it to go free. Then if I could mount on the wings of the air and follow my little bird I would find it winging its way over the corn fields of the north toward the cotton and wheat fields of the south and west, back to its own environment. Then there in the midnight hours I would hear it singing its sweet refrain, back in the realm for which God created it.
Young man or woman, you can just as easily make the fish fly in the air or the bird swim in the sea and expect them to be happy as you can take that soul of yours and fling it out on the passing, fleeting pleasures of this world and ever expect it to find contentment and to be able to rejoice evermore. The riches, the conveniences, the pleasures of this old world will only stifle you in the end and bring heartache and spiritual death. Only when you find God and God finds you can you really know happiness and satisfaction. If you are out of fellowship with Him, I can promise you nothing but trouble and remorse. When you get in the realm for which He created you, love and fellowship with Him, then and then only can you “rejoice evermore.” If you have not already done so, why not make your peace with Him now. Don’t forever blow bubbles of fun and miss out on living a joy-filled life.
(Printed September 1974)
Comments