June, 1989

Dear Timothy:

Beginning at the time we knew of your conception, your father and mother prayed that God would by His grace call you to preach the Gospel of His Son. However, you must not enter upon the Christian ministry because it is the will of your parents: the ministry is not a profession or a career, but a calling.

While your mother was carrying you in her womb, we would sing hymns, and read God’s Word to you. We taught you to read using the McGuffey Readers, and throughout the years, we have labored that you might have knowledge of God.

We settled upon your name within hours of your birth. We chose to name you after the same Godly minister that I was named after, and whose first name was a Bible name. Timothy Dwight was President of Yale College from-1795 until his death in January 1817. He was used of God to bring revival to that great institution during the Second Great

Awakening in this country. The name "Timothy" is from the Greek, and means, "honoring God."

Now that you are graduating from high school, it is time for you to remember certain things:

First, remember the words of William Penn --"Right is right, if everyone is against it; and wrong is wrong, if everyone is for it."

Second, remember the advice of Richard Edgeworth to his daughter -- "Maria ...a man cannot be good for anything who is very popular."

Third, remember that you are not to strive to be great, but to be good.

Fourth, remember how Cotton Mather urged his daughter to godly behavior and stated that he had written a book about ungodly children in the conclusion of which he had said that his book would be a terrible witness against his own children, if any of them should be ungodly. As the Scriptures say, "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." (Luke 12:48) It is also a great truism that a man is known by his children.

And fifth, remember that as a Christian you are a stranger and a pilgrim on this earth. This world is not your home: your citizenship is in Heaven. Be honorable and honest, even as a child of God.

It will only be natural that in the next few years you will seek a wife. Pray now for her that God, in His mercy would give you a proper mother for your children.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind... (and) thy neighbor as thyself." (Colossians 3:16; Matthew 22:37,39)

In the words of Johann Sebastian Bach, "May God Smile On You."

Sincerely,

(signed)

THE PROMISED FAMINE

Text: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." (Amos 8:11,12)

A famine is coming. It is already on the way. It will not be a famine of bread, or a drought of water but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. It is here promised to be a famine of great proportions for people will wander from sea to sea and from the north to the east in search of the good word of God –and shall not find it; for this will be a famine sent by God!

People will run to and fro seeking the Word of the Lord, but it will not be found. In both Hebrew and Greek, the future tense speaks of certainty: the famine thus prophecied will certainly come.

The days of Amos were much like our own. They were days in which there were many prophets. In Israel, Jonah, Hosea, and Elisha were active. In Judah, Micah, Isaiah, and Zechariah were contemporaries. The people were thus afforded abundant opportunities to hear the Word of God.

Today, people have become connoisseurs of religion. They can pick what they want to hear, and from whom they want to hear it. They can choose from ‘high’ and ‘low’ churches. They can devote themselves to denominational churches with either a reverent or an irreverent atmosphere. But hereafter, God will deprive them of this privilege.

It happened before in the days of Eli that "there was no open Vision" (I Samuel 3:1), but "ere the lamp of God went out," God spoke to Samuel. (3:3) And again, in the days of Asaph, we read "There (was) no more any prophet." (Ps. 74:9) But there is coming a time when the Word of God will be eclipsed, and men shall "run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it."

God is sending a judgment upon the earth in the form of a scarcity of hearing God’s Word. Even now, psychology has supplanted the Gospel as preaching has given place to counseling.

Today, there are those who will demonstrate against social and moral evils who will not proclaim the fierce anathemas against them that are found in God’s Word. Many will write their congressmen who will not repent of their sins, but a change of legislation does not necessarily indicate sorrow for sin.

Today, there is no short supply of pulpit entertainers and reputation seekers, but where are the prophets, faithful ministers who will cry out in warning? Men who are interested in acquiring a reputation for themselves cannot teach the right ways of the Lord. Until preaching is once again piercing, the boils of moral corruption cannot be drained.

When men reject the Gospel, they do not choose faithful ministers, but hire them who are according to their liking. God has therefore promised to send a famine in the earth --one of gigantic proportions. The kingdom of God will be taken from among them.

A famine of bread or a drought of water is horrendous, but a famine of hearing the good Word of the Lord is far more serious. The former affects men in this life; the latter affects them even in the world to come.

Since men will not defend the Word of the Lord, and will not teach it to others that it may be preserved in the earth, there is coming a time when there shall be no ministers to preach the Word: God will not call them who would preach. The Word of God will be left to be misunderstood; it will be left unable to give comfort. Water will be in the well, but there will be no one to draw it out.

One day the Word of God shall be precious because it will not be found. As reverence for God’s Word makes men noble and virtuous, so it elevates nations; but when the Word of the Lord is removed, virtue is humbled, honor is shamed, and that which is noble is degraded.

The Word of the Lord is God’s greatest blessing to people so the removal of His Word is the most obvious sign of His anger. God must certainly be angry with people when He no longer speaks to them. And, when the Almighty will abandon people to their ruin, He simply withholds His Word from them.

The day will come when men will run in search of God’s Word and yet they will be unable to find it. While many find no reason to grieve at the loss of it now. The day is coming when men will feel the loss, and will travel far to hear it: but they shall not hear it. The Lord Himself will have sent this dearth in the earth.

The day is coming when the earth will see a strange sight: men who sorrow because they have sinned away the day when they could have heard the Words of the Lord. But like Esau, they will not be granted the grace of repentance, although they seek it carefully with tears. (Hebrews 12:16,17)

Men will seek the Word of God like Saul who turned to Samuel, but only after he was dead. Like those who will garnish the tombs of the prophets, they will not appreciate their Gospel privileges until there is none to convict them of their sins. But the candlestick of revelation is removable. (Revelation 2:5)

Solomon prophesied of old --

SMALL PAPER -- SHORT ANSWERS

The word "tempted" has two meanings. James tells us "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed..." (James 1:14) Was Jesus "drawn away of his own lust and enticed?" Certainty not: He had no sinful nature.

The second meaning of the word is to be "tested" or "tried." In His humanity, Jesus was tried and put to tests.

The purpose for Jesus coming was "to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10) The question really being asked is "Could the plan of the Almighty and All-Wise God go awry?" "Was it possible Heaven could have been empty? That the best laid plan of God could have been foiled and salvation fumbled?" The answer depends whether one thinks God is  incompetent.