Howard C. Wilkinson - "Spiritual Isometric Contractions" (January 27, 1963)
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Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | Last October '21, a space probing craft was sent a loft | 0:17 |
by the United States Space Agency. | 0:25 | |
And it passed by 300 miles away from the moon | 0:29 | |
on a perfectly executed trip, | 0:34 | |
which was entered into for the purpose of exploring | 0:38 | |
the moon and photographing the moon | 0:42 | |
by means of television cameras, | 0:45 | |
which were carefully built into this spacecraft, | 0:47 | |
which went by the name of Explorer 5. | 0:52 | |
When this spacecraft passed by 300 miles from the moon | 0:58 | |
it was in perfect position to take the pictures | 1:03 | |
which would have revealed more information about the moon | 1:06 | |
to American scientists and they had received | 1:09 | |
and all of the previous years put together. | 1:13 | |
This multi-million dollar project, | 1:18 | |
however, was completely frustrated. | 1:21 | |
It did not accomplish any of the things | 1:24 | |
for which it was sent aloft, | 1:27 | |
all of the money at the time research equipment | 1:29 | |
and tremendous power that went into this project | 1:34 | |
was for not. | 1:37 | |
Ranger 5 did not function at the strategic moment | 1:40 | |
for a very interesting reason. | 1:46 | |
The power which went into the rocket | 1:49 | |
which set it into orbit and finally then out of orbit | 1:52 | |
into space. | 1:56 | |
The tremendous power that was needed to guide the rocket | 1:58 | |
and make it respond to the directions | 2:03 | |
that were being sent aloft by scientists on earth | 2:04 | |
was sufficient, but the relatively small amount of power | 2:09 | |
that was needed to operate the television cameras | 2:17 | |
at the strategic time that they needed to operate | 2:21 | |
to take the pictures of the moon at the time | 2:26 | |
Ranger 5 was passing the moon, was missing. | 2:29 | |
The small batteries that were supposed to have the power | 2:35 | |
to operate the camera were dead. | 2:40 | |
This I think is a rather dramatic illustration | 2:46 | |
of the fact that great power in general can be for not | 2:49 | |
unless there is specific power to do the job. | 2:54 | |
So that all of the other work and the other power | 2:59 | |
that went into this project was quite insufficient | 3:01 | |
because the project lacked specific power | 3:06 | |
at the point it was necessary to get the job done. | 3:08 | |
Now I mentioned this at the beginning of a sermon | 3:14 | |
here in the Duke Chapel today | 3:16 | |
for the purpose of illustrating the fact | 3:17 | |
that the Christian movement in the world, | 3:20 | |
the Christian enterprise, the Christian Church | 3:23 | |
is very much like this. | 3:26 | |
The Christian Church has tremendous power. | 3:29 | |
If we were to assess the power of the Christian movement | 3:33 | |
in the world today it would stagger the imagination. | 3:36 | |
If you were to read the statistics as I have recently, | 3:40 | |
that have been compiled by the National Council | 3:45 | |
of the Churches of Christ in America. | 3:47 | |
The number of Christians of each and every denomination | 3:50 | |
in this country and in foreign countries, add them all up | 3:54 | |
and see how many people there are in the world | 3:58 | |
who named the name of Christ. | 4:00 | |
It is a staggering total. | 4:02 | |
And then if we were to consider the financial power | 4:05 | |
of the Christian movement, | 4:08 | |
that is to say not only the money that is possessed | 4:10 | |
by these people who call themselves Christians, | 4:13 | |
but the amount of money they give to Christian institutions, | 4:15 | |
it is an impressive figure. | 4:18 | |
Protestantism alone in the United States | 4:20 | |
on the dimension one branch of Christiandom in one country | 4:23 | |
contributed nearly $3 billion | 4:26 | |
to the coffers of the Christian Church during the last year, | 4:30 | |
this is financial strength. | 4:35 | |
And then if we were to add up the power of influence | 4:39 | |
which Christians have in the world today, | 4:42 | |
judged by the positions of influence | 4:46 | |
that Christian people have, this too would be impressive. | 4:48 | |
The number of heads of governments who are Christians, | 4:53 | |
the number of business and industrial leaders | 4:56 | |
who are Christians, | 4:58 | |
the number of educational leaders who are Christians. | 4:59 | |
It would seem that the Christian movement in the world today | 5:02 | |
has a great deal of general power, | 5:06 | |
of whatever kind you might mention | 5:10 | |
and of whatever kind is needed. | 5:12 | |
But it is worth our while looking at the fact | 5:15 | |
that unless we have developed, and if we do not have it, | 5:18 | |
then unless we do develop specific strength at the points | 5:22 | |
where the Christian movement must make contact | 5:28 | |
with the problems of the world, | 5:30 | |
we may fail as totally to win the world for Christ | 5:33 | |
as Ranger 5 failed to execute the mission | 5:38 | |
which had justified all that went into it. | 5:43 | |
It is my opinion that the Christian movement | 5:47 | |
that is to say you and me and people like us, | 5:50 | |
are very often in the category of this space probing craft | 5:56 | |
of the American Space Agency. | 6:02 | |
We have great power in general, theological power, | 6:04 | |
ecclesiastical power, liturgical power, | 6:07 | |
but we do not have specific power | 6:12 | |
when it comes to making any effective witness | 6:14 | |
for the Christian movement in our day. | 6:18 | |
At this point, I believe there is a very helpful lesson | 6:24 | |
which the Christian movement can learn | 6:28 | |
from the athletic world. | 6:29 | |
And I would like therefore for you to think about | 6:32 | |
a recent development in the athletic world, | 6:34 | |
which has brought great benefit to athletes, | 6:38 | |
to athletic teams, and which if we were to copy and apply | 6:41 | |
to the Christian movement | 6:45 | |
would bring equally great benefits to the church. | 6:46 | |
I speak of a development that is known | 6:50 | |
by the term Functional Isometric Contraction. | 6:53 | |
Isometric contraction is a rather simple device | 6:58 | |
that was developed | 7:03 | |
mainly in the laboratories of Louisiana State University. | 7:04 | |
It has been described in a number of publications. | 7:08 | |
The principle of isometric contraction is simply this. | 7:12 | |
It involves the development of functional athletic strength | 7:18 | |
by static tension, by motionless movement, | 7:24 | |
by the development of the muscles through great exertion | 7:36 | |
in the position where greatest strength is needed. | 7:42 | |
If an athlete needs his greatest strength with his arm bent, | 7:48 | |
then the exercise is carried out | 7:54 | |
with the arm in the bent position. | 7:56 | |
If his greatest strength is needed | 7:59 | |
with his arm outstretched, | 8:01 | |
then he pushes with all his might | 8:03 | |
against an immovable object with his arm outstretched. | 8:05 | |
If his greatest strength is needed in his legs | 8:10 | |
with his legs straight, then he pushes against something | 8:13 | |
that isn't immovable with his legs straight. | 8:16 | |
And it has been demonstrated in the laboratory | 8:21 | |
that if an athlete will do this | 8:23 | |
for a period of approximately 10 seconds, 10 to 12 seconds | 8:26 | |
at the end of a general workout period, | 8:31 | |
and he will do this once a day | 8:34 | |
for a period of several months, | 8:36 | |
he will increase his efficiency and his ability | 8:39 | |
by as much as 20% and in some cases, 40%. | 8:43 | |
This is certainly very often | 8:49 | |
the margin between defeat and victory in athletic events. | 8:52 | |
If a shot putter wants to excel in throwing the shot, | 8:58 | |
it is important for him that he had general strength | 9:03 | |
to be sure. | 9:05 | |
But an athlete who wants to throw the shot | 9:08 | |
may have great strength in general, | 9:11 | |
but unless he has specific strength | 9:14 | |
in his arms and shoulders | 9:17 | |
at the point where it makes a difference | 9:19 | |
in throwing the shot, | 9:22 | |
someone else may win the event and he would lose it. | 9:24 | |
But by means of isometric contraction | 9:29 | |
of the muscles in the position of throwing the shot, | 9:31 | |
he can develop and increase his strength by as much as 20%. | 9:34 | |
In football, a putter who wishes to get that extra five | 9:40 | |
or 10 yards on his punt may develop specific strength | 9:46 | |
at the point where it makes a difference, | 9:51 | |
by practicing isometric contraction | 9:54 | |
of the muscles of the leg | 9:58 | |
in the position where he makes contact with the football, | 9:59 | |
he may add those extra five, 10 or 15 yards to his punt. | 10:02 | |
The difference would not be that his overall strength | 10:08 | |
would be greater, but his specific strength | 10:10 | |
at this crucial point would be greater. | 10:13 | |
The same is true of the passing arm of a quarterback. | 10:18 | |
It is true of the muscles which a guard uses in the line | 10:21 | |
when he is making contact with his opponent in the line. | 10:25 | |
In our gymnasium, there is a device that has been built | 10:30 | |
into which the guard may fit his body. | 10:34 | |
And when he is in that harness or device | 10:38 | |
he is in the position which he finds himself in | 10:41 | |
when in the line he makes contact with his opponent. | 10:45 | |
And in that harness, if he gives this isometric contraction | 10:49 | |
exertion daily over a period of several months, | 10:53 | |
he will increase his ability to move the man opposite him | 10:56 | |
in the line by as much as 20%, | 11:00 | |
this is the stuff out of which | 11:03 | |
football victories are a fashion. | 11:05 | |
A study has recently been made of the first three games | 11:10 | |
which the University of North Carolina basketball team | 11:13 | |
played this year. | 11:16 | |
They played Georgia, Clemson | 11:19 | |
and the University of South Carolina. | 11:21 | |
They won those three games. | 11:24 | |
The fact is, that the average height of the Georgia team, | 11:28 | |
the Clemson team and the University of South Carolina team | 11:33 | |
was greater than the height | 11:36 | |
of the basketball team of the Tar Heels. | 11:37 | |
But because the Tar Heel team had a particular exercise | 11:41 | |
worked out for practicing isometric contraction, | 11:47 | |
they out rebounded all three of those teams | 11:51 | |
by a significant margin. | 11:53 | |
And the out rebounding | 11:56 | |
was the difference in winning the game. | 11:59 | |
Now let some of you think that because I'm giving attention | 12:02 | |
here to the Tar Heel basketball team | 12:05 | |
instead of the Duke basketball team, | 12:07 | |
that I have a greater interest in the team from Chapel Hill, | 12:09 | |
I would point out that I do not wish to give away | 12:12 | |
any of the secrets of the Duke team | 12:15 | |
and so I'm talking about the Carolina team. | 12:17 | |
I do not mind giving away the secrets of our opponents. | 12:20 | |
The fact is, that in whatever sport you are engaged, | 12:25 | |
if you practice the development of specific strength | 12:29 | |
through this isometric contraction program, | 12:32 | |
you can very greatly increase your effective achievement. | 12:35 | |
Now it is a simple step from that, | 12:42 | |
to the realm of Christian faith and practice, | 12:47 | |
we Christians are called to be witnesses to Christ | 12:50 | |
and to the meaning of his gospel in this world | 12:53 | |
and in our day. | 12:57 | |
This is not a general call, | 12:59 | |
though it involves a general response, | 13:02 | |
that we are called upon as Christians today | 13:06 | |
to be as effective as we can in the encounter with the world | 13:09 | |
at specific points. | 13:15 | |
And though we as a Christian movement | 13:17 | |
may have very great strength of membership, of money, | 13:19 | |
of influence, theological power | 13:22 | |
of great church buildings and so on. | 13:24 | |
Unless we are strong at the points where the encounter | 13:26 | |
is made in our day, we may lose and not win. | 13:29 | |
We may be ineffective and not effective. | 13:33 | |
Now, what are some of the points | 13:37 | |
at which we need to develop specific strength as Christians? | 13:39 | |
As Christians, we need to develop specific strength | 13:44 | |
in the spiritual muscles | 13:47 | |
which we use in kneeling in prayer. | 13:49 | |
I am not here this morning to discuss certainly | 13:53 | |
to debate whether or not a person should physically kneel | 13:55 | |
when he prays. | 13:59 | |
Spiritually he should kneel, in humility and in trust | 14:00 | |
and in dedication to God in prayer. | 14:05 | |
I believe that we Christians have weakness at this point. | 14:09 | |
I believe that the people who make up | 14:13 | |
the Christian movement certainly in America today, | 14:15 | |
need to develop the spiritual muscles used in kneeling | 14:18 | |
and in rising from prayer. | 14:21 | |
I have in mind here both group prayer, corporate prayer, | 14:24 | |
such as we have in services of worship from time to time | 14:29 | |
as this morning, for example. | 14:34 | |
And I have in mind also private individual prayer. | 14:36 | |
It is very, very important that the people of God | 14:41 | |
come together regularly for group prayer. | 14:44 | |
Not only is it true that where two and three | 14:48 | |
are gathered together in the name of Christ, | 14:50 | |
there he is in their midst, but it is also true | 14:53 | |
that we gain great strength from worshiping | 14:56 | |
and approaching the throne of grace together. | 15:00 | |
I need and you need the sustaining grace and strength | 15:04 | |
which comes from worshiping God | 15:08 | |
with your Christian brothers. | 15:11 | |
Now, I know it is true as some people | 15:15 | |
continually keep us reminded, | 15:17 | |
that an individual may have communion with God in prayer, | 15:21 | |
without going to the service of worship at the church, | 15:25 | |
without joining together with others in prayer. | 15:27 | |
He can do it in the privacy of his room. | 15:31 | |
He can do it out on the golf course. | 15:33 | |
He can do it out on a walk. | 15:35 | |
He can do it driving along in his car between campuses. | 15:37 | |
It is perfectly possible that he may be telling the truth | 15:39 | |
that he can have communion with God | 15:43 | |
without joining with others in prayer, | 15:45 | |
in corporate services of worship. | 15:48 | |
I will be honest and admit to him that he can do this | 15:51 | |
if he will be honest with me and admit that he doesn't. | 15:54 | |
The person who does not come to church to worship God | 16:00 | |
very likely will not worship God solo. | 16:03 | |
And so we do need to develop specific strength | 16:09 | |
in coming together as the people of God for prayer. | 16:12 | |
Also, we need to develop specific strength as individuals | 16:17 | |
and going into our closets and closing the door | 16:21 | |
and praying under the Heavenly Father individually. | 16:25 | |
It is not a case of either, or it is a need for both end. | 16:31 | |
And what I have said about group prayer | 16:36 | |
could also be said about individual prayer. | 16:38 | |
That unless we as individual Christians | 16:40 | |
add to our group or corporate prayer, | 16:43 | |
the practice of private prayer, | 16:46 | |
it is likely that when we are present | 16:47 | |
in a service of worship with others, we will not really pray | 16:50 | |
when the prayers are being led or set. | 16:53 | |
There is a kind of strength which comes from private prayer | 16:59 | |
that does not come from anything else, | 17:03 | |
and our Lord Jesus Christ made this very clear. | 17:05 | |
The strength to stand alone, if need be, | 17:10 | |
or at least to stand with a very small group | 17:13 | |
or what you believe and know in your heart is right, | 17:17 | |
comes mainly from this kind of private encounter | 17:20 | |
with God in prayer, | 17:23 | |
in which bridges are built between God and you, | 17:24 | |
which enable you to realize in the midst of any situation | 17:28 | |
that no matter how small the number with which you stand, | 17:32 | |
you stand with the majority because you stand with God. | 17:36 | |
Do you know the name of a man Raymond Sullivan, | 17:42 | |
does it mean anything to you? | 17:45 | |
Last week I read about Raymond Sullivan. | 17:49 | |
A man who worked at a truck checking station | 17:52 | |
at Washington DC. | 17:55 | |
And one day, early in last year, | 17:58 | |
a Ford truck pulled into this checking station | 18:02 | |
and Raymond Sullivan checked it. | 18:05 | |
It did not meet his specifications. | 18:08 | |
And the difficulty was not that the truck | 18:12 | |
was out of adjustment. | 18:14 | |
Raymond Sullivan decided after looking at the truck | 18:17 | |
and checking it that the truck was made wrong, | 18:20 | |
that the design of the truck was bad. | 18:23 | |
And that this truck, | 18:27 | |
if allowed to drive even in good condition, | 18:29 | |
would almost certainly cause a wreck | 18:33 | |
and someone would be killed. | 18:35 | |
But this is crazy. | 18:38 | |
Here is one man working in a truck checking station | 18:41 | |
who seems to be saying, that the entire resources | 18:44 | |
of the Ford Motor Company | 18:47 | |
have been brought to bear upon the creation of a truck | 18:50 | |
and it has been made wrong. | 18:53 | |
Well, surely a man would doubt his own senses | 18:58 | |
under those circumstances, wouldn't he? | 19:00 | |
Because everything that comes out of the major | 19:01 | |
automobile manufacturing companies today | 19:04 | |
has been tested and tested and tested in their laboratories, | 19:06 | |
on the roads, by their engineers, | 19:10 | |
by their scientists, by everyone. | 19:11 | |
Who is one man working at a truck checking station to say | 19:14 | |
that all that multi-billion dollar power | 19:18 | |
of a great corporation has made a big mistake, | 19:21 | |
but he said it and he called up the Ford dealer | 19:27 | |
in Washington and said, "Come out here." | 19:30 | |
The dealer came | 19:32 | |
and he pointed out to him what he had noticed. | 19:34 | |
The dealer said, "I believe you're right." | 19:37 | |
And they called the Ford officials in Detroit | 19:38 | |
and the officials came down and looked at the truck | 19:40 | |
and they said, "You're right." | 19:42 | |
And they took that truck back to Detroit. | 19:44 | |
And they took out of circulation all of those models | 19:45 | |
of the trucks that had already been put out for sale. | 19:49 | |
And they withdrew the entire issue, stop production on it. | 19:52 | |
And at a cost of $5 million corrected the mistake, | 19:56 | |
which this one man caught | 20:00 | |
at a checking station in Washington, | 20:02 | |
after all their experts had missed it. | 20:04 | |
Now I ask you in the moral realm, | 20:08 | |
what kind of courage does it take to stand up | 20:10 | |
against the crowd, like Raymond Sullivan stood up that day? | 20:14 | |
There are times when you and I have to do this or else | 20:19 | |
be unfaithful because the light that is within us, | 20:23 | |
but this kind of courage as Jesus said, | 20:26 | |
comes not except by prayer. | 20:28 | |
And we in the Christian movement today | 20:31 | |
are going to have to develop specific strength | 20:34 | |
in the muscles spiritually, | 20:37 | |
which enable us to kneel in prayer. | 20:41 | |
There is another set of spiritual muscles | 20:45 | |
that we need to develop | 20:46 | |
and in which we need to gain specific strength. | 20:48 | |
I refer to the muscles which we use when we reach out | 20:51 | |
to clasp the hand of our Negro brothers. | 20:54 | |
It is not enough for the Christian movement | 21:00 | |
to deal in pious platitudes and in wonderful generalities | 21:02 | |
about the brotherhood of man and equality and justice. | 21:05 | |
We have come upon a time when it is important | 21:09 | |
for the success of the Christian movement, | 21:12 | |
the effectiveness of the Christian witness around the world | 21:14 | |
for we white Christians to develop specific strength | 21:17 | |
in the muscles we use in shaking hands | 21:20 | |
with the Negro Christian. | 21:24 | |
Too long we have said, generalities. | 21:28 | |
Now we must develop specific strengths. | 21:31 | |
Governor Terry Sanford of the State of North Carolina | 21:35 | |
said this past week, that the time has come when businessman | 21:37 | |
must voluntarily work out specific ways, | 21:41 | |
not generalities, but specific ways | 21:44 | |
in which significant employment | 21:46 | |
can be given to our Negro citizens in this state. | 21:48 | |
And how does this apply to Duke students? | 21:52 | |
Here we are on this campus, we are not in Raleigh, | 21:56 | |
we are not in Wilmington or Asheville, | 21:58 | |
we are at Duke University. | 22:00 | |
I think one of the ways by which it applies to us here | 22:03 | |
is that the students of this university | 22:07 | |
have been calling upon other people for some time | 22:10 | |
to be Christian about race relations. | 22:12 | |
The students of Duke University for a long time | 22:15 | |
hammered away at the trustees of the university and said, | 22:17 | |
"Admit Negroes to the student body of Duke." | 22:20 | |
The trustees finally did. | 22:23 | |
The students of Duke University have been hammering away | 22:27 | |
at the downtown merchants in Durham saying, | 22:29 | |
"You folks ought to be Christian in your places of business | 22:31 | |
and we demand that you desegregate your places of business." | 22:34 | |
But now what about Duke University? | 22:40 | |
What about student organizations at Duke University? | 22:41 | |
I do not believe that we can any longer | 22:47 | |
have a clear conscience hammering away at other people | 22:51 | |
until we begin to do something about our own houses. | 22:54 | |
There are Duke University students who have carried signs | 22:59 | |
and picket lines downtown, who are members of fraternities, | 23:02 | |
which even yet will not admit a Negro student | 23:05 | |
at Duke University. | 23:07 | |
What are you going to do about that? | 23:11 | |
I believe the time has come | 23:14 | |
when the students of Duke University | 23:16 | |
who are going to have some Negro students | 23:18 | |
in the student body next year at the undergraduate level, | 23:19 | |
need to develop the muscles | 23:22 | |
specifically by which we clasp the hand | 23:24 | |
of our fellow students, whose color is different from ours. | 23:27 | |
I realized that the problems in this area are not easy, | 23:33 | |
but are the problems of Christian faith ever easy? | 23:36 | |
Do we want to ask for easy solutions and easy problems? | 23:38 | |
Specific strength at this point is very important | 23:44 | |
because we have seen what has happened | 23:47 | |
on some of the other campuses of the United States | 23:49 | |
when Negro students have been admitted | 23:52 | |
and a climate of specific acceptance has not been developed. | 23:53 | |
We have the remainder of this year | 23:59 | |
in which to develop a climate of acceptance, | 24:00 | |
in which to gain specific strength | 24:02 | |
in the muscles of the hand clasp. | 24:04 | |
Third and lastly, | 24:09 | |
we shall have time to mention here this morning | 24:09 | |
is the need for developing specifically those muscles | 24:12 | |
which we use in beating swords into plowshares | 24:14 | |
and spears into pruning hooks. | 24:17 | |
We are living in as all of us are quite aware | 24:21 | |
in a dangerous period. | 24:23 | |
When I was President Kennedy has said | 24:26 | |
and as Premier Khrushchev has said, | 24:28 | |
"Either by accident or by stupidity or by design, | 24:31 | |
the entire human race can be annihilated, | 24:35 | |
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." | 24:38 | |
Too many Christians for too long have relied too much | 24:43 | |
upon President Kennedy cruise shop and mousey tongue | 24:47 | |
to keep the peace. | 24:51 | |
Just how unreliable that confidence is | 24:53 | |
was shown us last fall, | 24:56 | |
when the ships of the United States Navy | 24:59 | |
were circling the island of Cuba | 25:00 | |
and the ships of Soviet Russia | 25:02 | |
were bearing down upon that circle. | 25:04 | |
And there was one particular morning when we woke up | 25:06 | |
that not a single citizen of the United States knew for sure | 25:09 | |
that he would lie down to rest in his bed that night. | 25:13 | |
And we listened to the radios, listen to the television. | 25:16 | |
We asked the people we saw on the campus, | 25:19 | |
what's the latest word, because we didn't know. | 25:22 | |
And that one day the only thing which humanly stood between | 25:26 | |
the annihilation of the human race | 25:30 | |
and the situation in which we find ourselves this morning | 25:32 | |
was the fact that Nikita Khrushchev backed down. | 25:36 | |
I asked you, how long do you think we can safely rely upon | 25:40 | |
that factor to keep the peace? | 25:44 | |
We Christians are going to have to develop specific strength | 25:50 | |
in the muscles which beat swords into plowshares. | 25:53 | |
We are going to have to take the initiative | 25:56 | |
in building those bridges and in creating those situations | 25:59 | |
which make for peace and in the Christian gospel, | 26:02 | |
there are the resources for the strengthening, | 26:05 | |
but it is up to you and me to do it. | 26:08 | |
Such projects as operation crossroads Africa, | 26:13 | |
project Nicaragua, | 26:17 | |
the short-term mission program of various churches, | 26:20 | |
the long-term missionary program | 26:24 | |
of our various denominations. | 26:26 | |
These give a clue to the kind of strength | 26:28 | |
which we in the Christian movement need to develop, | 26:31 | |
the exchange of students | 26:35 | |
from various universities centers around the world | 26:37 | |
as an important way in which we can develop the strength. | 26:41 | |
The giving of medical supplies and food | 26:46 | |
to people in other nations | 26:48 | |
is a way by which we can develop strength, | 26:51 | |
but the strength must be developed. | 26:53 | |
And if it is not, no matter how strong we may be in general, | 26:57 | |
no matter how many Christian members | 27:02 | |
we may have of our churches | 27:04 | |
and how much money we may contribute, | 27:05 | |
we shall do like Ranger 5 as it passed the moon, | 27:08 | |
there will be great, massive strength in general, | 27:12 | |
failing in its purpose, | 27:15 | |
because it did not have the specific strength | 27:16 | |
to do the needed job at the proper time. | 27:19 | |
Yes, we need to develop strength specifically in prayer. | 27:23 | |
We need to strengthen the muscles | 27:28 | |
by which we clasp the hands of our brothers of every race. | 27:29 | |
And we need to strengthen the muscles | 27:34 | |
we use in leading swords into plowshares. | 27:36 | |
Now, the Apostle Paul said when he wrote to the Corinthians, | 27:42 | |
that athletes discipline themselves and dedicate themselves | 27:46 | |
to the winning of a prize, or as he said, | 27:52 | |
as it applied in that day, | 27:55 | |
a reef that is a perishable wreath, | 27:56 | |
but we Christians are striving for an imperishable wreath, | 28:01 | |
the salvation of the world, | 28:07 | |
the conversion of mankind to the Lord Jesus Christ | 28:09 | |
and the development of a specific spiritual strengths | 28:15 | |
in our day is very important in achieving this end. | 28:17 | |
Oh God our Heavenly Father, thou has called us | 28:30 | |
to a great and holy task in this high hour. | 28:35 | |
Grant that by thy grace we may be faithful | 28:40 | |
and that our response by thy grace may be sufficient. | 28:43 | |
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. | 28:48 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 28:57 |