Truth Magazine

By Steve Wolfgang

Kelly Ellis departed this life on Friday morning, December 2, 1988, at the age of 75. Kelly had cancer surgery in late August, and, despite a brief post-operative return home, developed complication’s and was hospitalized from September until his .death. Funeral services was conducted in Danville on Sunday, December 4, by Earl Robertson and this writer, with interment in the Buffalo Springs cemetery at Stanford, KY, next to his beloved Claudia, who preceded him in death by one year and two weeks.

Kelly is survived by his two daughters, Sue (Mrs. Richard H. Cooper, of Stanford, KY), and Betsy (Mrs. Mike Meadows, of Cleveland, Ohio), and by five grandchildren. Other survivors include a sister, Lee Hafley, and a brother Robert.

I doubt I shall see anyone like Kelly Ellis again on this earth. Though small in physical stature, he was truly a great man – partly because he did not realize how great he was. Totally unpretentious, he was knowledgeable about a multitude of things, ranging from mathematics to the Scriptures to antiques to poetry and many things in between. But Kelly was not only knowledgeable in some arcane sense; he possessed a rare, insightful ability to communicate that knowledge to others. I have said on many occasions that if anyone today had the “gift of teaching,” it was surely Kelly Ellis.

Perhaps his greatest quality, however, was not in what he knew or could teach to others, but in his willingness to “spend and be spent” for the kingdom of God (2 Cor. 12:15). When the Danville church suggested in 1976 that he take early retirement from the public school system in order to teach in their special classes for young men aspiring to preach, Kelly consented without batting an eye – even though it meant foregoing several of the best-paying years a teacher might expect. His agreeing so readily was simply an extension of the commitment he had expressed for more than two decades prior to that. During that time, he had repeatedly done essentially full-time local work for various churches for part-time pay, while spending his “vacation” time holding meetings all over Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Meanwhile, he taught school for a living.

In this, he was following the example set by his own father, Charles Ellis. Kelly was born on September 3, 1913, near Gravel Switch, Kentucky – “down on the Fork,” as he would say. ~Those of you who don’t know where that is ought to visit there during the second weekend of October any year.) Kelly’s father, a, farmer, often would take time from his occupation to tend to his vocation – preaching. Often, young Kelly would see his father take a train on Friday or Saturday and return the following Monday, sometimes barely making enough to pay his fare.

Partly at his father’s urging, Kelly left the Fork to pursue his college education at Western Kentucky State Teacher’s college at Bowling Green. Kelly paid his own way partly with funds earned teaching in one-room rural schools after he finished his second year. Shortly before graduation from Western, he married Claudia Leber on August 13, 1940. With the exception of one year in Annapolis, Maryland during World War II, Kelly and Claudia lived in their native Boyle County all their lives. Although Kelly left teaching for a few years in the early 1950s to serve as bookkeeper for the Ford dealership in Danville, he returned to teaching in the late 1950s as the furor over “Sputnik” and the “missile gap” focused attention on the need for qualified teachers. Awarded several NDEA grants and local scholarships for excellence in teaching, Kelly continued his education at the University of Louisville, the University of Kentucky and then at Eastern Kentucky University, from which he earned a master’s degree in guidance counseling in 1962. Kelly served as guidance counselor at Boyle County High School in Danville until his retirement in 1976.

Kelly struggled with health problems most of his life. A serious abdominal infection contracted while he was teaching in Maryland during World War II – before antibiotics and “wonder drugs” – held him near death for several days. Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in the early 1950s resulted in the loss of part of his stomach. In 1973 he suffered two heart attacks, with another in 1985 and bypass surgery in 1986. It was a measure of the man that he never complained about his physical maladies, even when he was in pain. If you were not around him very much, you would never know any of the above. Kelly was not a complainer, whether his health was failing him or even when, on occasion, brethren treated him shabbily.

In fact, those of us who knew him will remember just the opposite: his deeply-ingrained sense of humor, indicated by that twinkle in his eye and the sly grin which appeared as he told one of his many “stories” – about Kentucky basketball, his weight, a former student’s misdemeanors, the perils of golfing, or, always among his best, some “preacher story.” I shall miss Kelly’s stories about as much as anything – but I hope to hear him tell other, better, stories someday.

During the late 1940, Kelly had begun to preach on a sporadic basis, as the need arose. As more congregations heard him, he began to be widely used in meeting work, and also preached regularly for the churches in Harrodsburg and Danville, strengthening them measurably.

But Kelly himself would tell you his strength was his ability as a teacher. During the fifteen years in which the Danville church has helped young men in their attempts to preach, probably 75 students have studied with him in an intensive curriculum of Bible study which he helped design and execute. Of those men, perhaps three-fourths are now preaching in more than a dozen states, Canada, South America, and West Germany; one student, Efrain Perez, is moving to Spain early in 1989. (For a fuller explanation of the Danville “Special Classes,” see Guardian of Truth, January 21, 1988, pp. 48-49.) I wrote then, and will repeat it now: “This program would not have begun or continued to exist without the services and commitment of Kelly Ellis.”

But Kelly could not only hold his own in the pulpit or the classroom; he was as talented a writer as there is among the brethren. I wish he had written more. He did produce one full-length adult Bible class workbook, God’s Perfect Plan, which is not only an able exposition of the scheme of redemption, but also exposes many false doctrines which have been substituted for the divine plan. Adult Bible classes would do well to utilize this workbook for classroom study. Young preachers, not yet fully grounded in fundamentals of the faith, should read it.

Another sample of Kelly’s expositional writing, which I read at his funeral, is found in his comments on the familiar passages in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 2 Thessalonians 1:7. “Paul was simply seeking to comfort the troubled hearts of the saints by assuring them that their loved ones would not be left in their graves, forsaken and forgotten. . . . No greater comfort can be given, and no greater hope can be entertained than that hope which faith in these promises is able to sustain in the heart of the faithful child of God” (Kelly Ellis, “Thessalonica: Trouble and Rest,” in Centers of Faith and Faltering: Florida College Annual Lectures, 1977, pp. 129-130).

Again, “Nowhere in the New Testament does the hope of the Christian shine more brightly than in these words, ‘and to you who are troubled, rest. . .’ Their patient endurance of affliction would not go unrewarded. . . . The ‘rest’ here mentioned is that which awaits the faithful Christian, not in this life, but in the world to come. It is rest and release from all of the temptations, trials, and difficulties of this present world. It is that rest which remains for the people of God . . . it was the promise of this rest that brought comfort and encouragement to the troubled saints at Thessalonica, and this same promise has inspired all Christians in every generation to”a life of faithful service and dedication to Christ and His church.” Truly, Kelly Ellis had “served his own generation by the will of God,” and then, like David and others, “fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption” (Acts 13:36).

But, also like others, “he being dead yet speaks” (Heb. 11:4) because of what he did and what he left behind – in the influence of his children and of his own writing. Kelly was also a poet; several of his works, published in various journals, had been read and recommended by Jesse Stuart, whom Kelly so admired. Several of Kelly’s poems serve fittingly not only as the conclusion to this article, but as an epitaph to his, own life as well, and I am glad to share them with you.

Knobland Farmer

This land is mine; I paid for all of it,

With axe and plow and hoe I made it mine,

This old log house, this shade tree where I sit

And count the stars and while away the time.

I cut the timber from these rugged hills

Where oak and beech and highland poplars wave

To sun and stars and cotton clouds and rills

That carry waters to their ocean grave.

I grubbed the stumps and briars from rocky clay

And raised my crops, tobacco, corn and wheat,

From daylight to the close of Summer day

To feed livestock and earn the bread I eat.

I’ve worked and skimped and saved to have a place

To lay my head when evening time should come,

I’ve paid dues -I’ve run the honest race,

Contented now, I face the setting sun.

For I can sit out here among my hills

And touch the wind and see the twilight sky,

And listen to the frogs and whippoorwills

And be content and unafraid to die.

Testament

When destiny has fitted me for dust,

And winds of time have blown my life away,

And all my words and deeds are held in trust

And judged of you, the keepers of the day,

Lay me in native earth where I belong,

Where I have lived and loved the fleeting days,

And let there be no weeping and no song

For one who loves the earth in all her ways.

Raise then no monument of polished stone,

Let wild wind-flowers mark my resting place.

The winds will speak in leafy monotone

Strange epitaphs that time cannot erase.

Let wild fern drip her morning dews above me,

Let wild birds sing a dirge in woodland mood,

The silent stars will keep their watch above me

The while I sleep in death’s still solitude.

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 4, pp. 110-111
February 16, 1989

By Tony Ripley

Do you remember some years back when your dad took you to town to run some errands? “Oh, yeah! You could use a haircut,” he replied. Remember walking down the sidewalk? You could see that candy stripe pole for two blocks or more. And upon your arrival, you found an old tattered sign hanging by a string on a glass door, “Gone Fishin’.” Mixed emotions I guess. I don’t have to get a haircut, but I don’t get a sucker either!

There are many erring souls today who have become disinterested and have fallen away from the fold. Too many have hung out their sign, “Gone Fishin’.” I wish they really knew how much their absence hurts their brothers and sisters in Christ and how it really affects their friends and family. I wish they would notice all the tears shed on their behalf because of negligence of their spiritual duties.

I often hear excuses of “why I can’t attend.” I suppose that the oldest phrase of all time is, “There are hypocrites in that church.” Sadly enough, this is sometimes true, but the most important fact is always overlooked. The church of our Lord is perfect. He shed his blood for it, established it, and there is no greater founder than Jesus himself. On the other hand, the body of Christ is filled with imperfect people. The one pointing his finger at the hypocrites would do well to examine “self.” There are two sides to a hypocrite. One may be in the assembly and the other is out, pointing his finger. There are so many different excuses used by those who have fallen away. But by looking into the “perfect law of liberty” (Jas. 1:25), one may examine “self” and put away all excuses.

Take time to read 1 Thessalonians 5:11-14. Gathering with the saints is for edification, instruction, building up. How can we build each other up if we are too tied up in the world’s activities to be responsible enough to care for our spiritual needs? The clue is to set our minds on heaven. Just think! Every pain will be gone, every problem relieved, every burden lifted. How wonderful to stand around the throne singing praises to God with all the saints of old. What a glorious life! It’s a wonderful gift now that we can meet with the saints on the Lord’s day, Wednesday Bible study, gospel meetings, or any other gathering of God’s people. Notice, “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way or righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (2 Pet. 2:20-21).

There are those who would never miss a Jaycee’s meeting, P.T.A., children’s activities, etc. Some would neglect their duty for a mere T.V. program. And of course there are those ever popular friends of the world who would just as soon miss services and do anything but attend. So many times we hear statements such as, “I’ve been busy lately” and that “Oldy but Good,” “Nowhere in the Bible does it say that I have to attend every service.” These replies I suppose are to finalize the conversation. But when honesty exposes itself and the truth is known, all statements such as these are simply glass houses to hide in. Of course it would not be fitting to proceed without mentioning something about those brethren that have withdrawn themselves from the Lord’s church all together. I guess the author of the Hebrew letter pretty well “hit the nail on the head” when he expressed his thoughts about those rejecting God. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day aproaching” (Heb. 10:25).

I realize that there are many more phrases in which we might explore such as, “I don’t fit in” or “I’m way out of my league,” just to name a few. But brethren, our task in life is not to live up to our neighbor’s expectations nor is it to stand on top the mountain tops as some do today. There’s an old Chinese proverb that says, “He who stands on a pedestal, has nowhere to step but off.” We as Christians must humble ourselves individually, meet with the saints to build each other up, and share with each other the joy of hope for a glorious eternal home. It’s much easier if we do our job and let God do his.

The simple truth is that those which are erring are loved very dearly by all. The “Gone Fishin'” sign hurts so many people. Why not set it aside and hang another in its place? “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15).

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 4, p. 106
February 16, 1989

By Tim Mize

Like it or not, we are all emotional creatures. The Bible shows us that God is an emotional God, and that he made man an emotional creature. This being the case, we ought not despise our emotional nature. Our emotions are not evil in and of themselves. However, just like every other good gift which comes from above, they can be well-used or misused.

Loving God and Hating Evil

Emotions are very hard to describe with words; truly, they are easier felt than told. Emotions are inward feelings which can stired up by various circumstances and which can motivate us into all sorts of behavior. They have often been associated with the heart, perhaps because it is around this organ that they are most strongly felt to press themselves. Our emotions, though, are better associated with the mind, the rational part of man. It is with our minds that we evaluate things as being true or false, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, and it is in this activity that our emotions manifest themselves. For not only can we know what is true, we can love what is true, and hate what is false. Not only do we see that something is beautiful, we also find joy in what is beautiful, and disgust in what is ugly.

The Scriptures commend this function of our emotions. They encourage us to develop feelings of love toward what is good, and disgust toward what is evil. First, they show us that God has such feelings. Wickedness is an abomination to him. When he sees it, it disgusts him. On the other hand, “he loveth him that followeth after righteousness” (Prov. 15:9; see also 3:32; 6:16ff; 11:1,20; 12:22; 15:26; 16:5). Second they show us that he expects us to have the same feelings. The godly person not only recognizes what is right and true, he also loves what is right and true, and hates every false way (see Psa. 119:103-104, 127-128; Rom. 12:9b). Along with this goes an emotion that God cannot feel: shame. Once we recognize our own behavior as being wrong, feelings of disgust and shame should then arise.

These emotions are important because they motivate us. Though the lusts of the flesh may strongly move us to do evil, God has given us emotions that can strongly move us to do right. It is the painful emotion of shame, the “godly sorrow,” that moves us to repentance (2 Cor. 7:8-11), as does the terror that is generated by a knowledge of the judgment to come (2 Cor. 5: 10-11). It was the zeal for what is right that moved our Lord to cast out the moneychangers in Jerusalem (Jn. 2:13-17). And it was when Paul’s dispirit was stirred in him” that he was moved to do the work given for him to do at Athens (Acts 17:16ff). It is this moving power which makes our emotions so valuable a gift.

This gift is well-used when we love what is good, and hate what is evil, but it is misused and despised when our emotions become perverted and misdirected. The deadliest “heart disease” is the calloused heart, the heart that no longer hates the evil and loves the good. Such a person will be ruled entirely by his own lust and pride (Eph. 4:17-19). Jeremiah lamented over Judah, “Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” (Jer. 6:10,15). How well his words describe the world in which we now live! Our world has forgotten how to blush at filthy talk, lasciviousness, extramarital sex, adultery, dishonesty and covetousness. But may Jeremiah’s words never describe a man of God. Whether we see sin in others or see it in ourselves, when we become so desensitized towards sin that our heart is not stirred, we are in great danger.

When I was in the first grade, there was a little girl in the back of the room who was pulling up her shirt and showing her belly and causing the kids around her to giggle. The teacher didn’t laugh, though. She made the girl stand at the front of the room and hold her shirt up so that everyone could see her belly. Funny, no one laughed then. We all felt the shame that should have been felt when she first did the deed. The fact is, if we forget how to blush at sin, God will eventually remind us how. At the judgment seat of Christ all who had forgotten will learn again to be ashamed of sin. As the Lord said to apathetic Judah, “Therefore will I uncover thy skirts upon thy face, and thy shame shall appear” (Jer. 13:26). But then it will be too late for shame to do any good.

Emotion Is Ruled By Reason

Another way that emotions are commonly misused is to allow the emotions to rule the reason, instead of the other way around. How many times have you heard someone say, “I feel this is true,” instead of, “I think this is true”? But our feelings are not given to supplant reason. Our feelings are designed to cooperate with what the mind already understands to be right. To let your feelings guide you to what is right is to ask emotions to do something which is simply not within them to do. The Scriptures do not say, “what you love is right.” They say “love what is right.”

And yet, some people act as if their emotions and vague impressions are a direct telephone wire from God himself. It is common to hear religious people insist that their feelings and impressions are God’s way of communicating to them personally through the Holy Spirit. A strong feeling pressing them in one direction amounts to a command of God as far as they are concerned. As Debbie Boone expressed it, “It can’t be wrong when it feels so right. ” But where is the Scripture? Where does the Bible show us that God ever manifest his will through our feelings? In every scriptural example of God revealing his will to an individual, if it shows how he did it, it shows that he did so by means of unmistakable spoken words. For example, when Paul was called to be an apostle (1 Cor. 1:1), it was through God’s will being spoken plainly and clearly through his prophet Ananias (Acts 22:14-15), not by means of the Holy Spirit pressing his feelings in that direction (cf. also Acts 5:19; 8:26,29; 9:4-6; 10:3-6; 10:916; 12:7-8; 16:6-10; 18:9-10; 21:11; 26:15-18; 27:21-25).

Emotions alone are not a reliable guide to truth. They could just as well be caused by the Devil as by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 10:14). For this reason we must rely on the Scriptures to guide us, not our feelings. Only then can we be certain that we are being “led of the Spirit of God” (Rom. 8:14).

Conclusion

This article was not meant to be comprehensive on the subject of emotions, but was meant to remind us of the importance of using them well. We all need to understand the purpose and place of emotions, and then work to develop healthy emotions in ourselves and in our children.

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 4, pp. 105, 120
February 16, 1989

By R.J. Evans

W.E. Vine defines “patience” as “an abiding under.” Thus, patience can be thought of as “uncomplaining endurance.” We are told by the inspired apostle Peter to “add . . . to temperance patience” (2 Pet. 1:6). This grace must be added to our lives if we are going to be successful in living the Christian life. But by so doing, much effort and diligence on our part is required. The so-called patience of some can best be illustrated by the one who prayed: “Lord, give me patience and give it to me right now!”

Patience is needed in every phase and aspect of life. It is needed in youth where there is a tendency to be overly zealous and eager; it is needed in adulthood when it is so easy to lose control of the temper; and it is also essential during old age when periods of gloom can be so prevalent. The Bible has much to say about patience. But in this article we shall focus our attention primarily on situations wherein patience is needed. They are as follows:

In Well Doing

“To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life” (Rom. 2:7). This verse emphasizes the fact that we must continue on or persevere in good works if we are going to be saved in the end. The idea of being patient in well doing is also expressed in Galatians 6:9: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Much opposition will be encountered when we do good, but we must “keep on keeping on!”

In Tribulation

All faithful Christians suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). Hence, during these times of affliction, we must patiently endure it. Paul instructs us to be “patient in tribulation” (Rom. 12:12). Christ is our perfect example of one who exercised patience in tribulation (see 1 Pet. 2:21-23). The apostle Paul commended the Thessalonian brethren in this regard: “So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure” (2 Thess. 1:4).

In Dealing With All Men

“Now we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men” (1 Thess. 5:14). We must be longsuffering or patient when dealing with perverse views, defects, and the sins of men. Being “patient toward all men” involves our not being easily offended. We must bear long with all: with the lost – in hopes of seeing them led to obedience through our teaching efforts; with the lukewarm – in meekness, considering ourselves (Gal. 6:1); and with the disorderly – admonishing him as a brother (2 Thess. 3:15).

In The Race That Is Set Before Us

In the Scripture, the Christian life has been likened to a race. It is a continuous race that must be run to the end. Running this race involves hardships and difficulties which must be met. Therefore, patience is needed! “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1).

In Waiting For Our Reward

“But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Rom. 8:25). The farmer best illustrates this point. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain ” (Jas. 5:7-8). Also, we must consider the fact that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

Conclusion

We must heed God’s counsel concerning patience. By so doing, we have a good influence on others, and most importantly, it prepares us for the eternal reward in the hereafter. “For we have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise” (Heb. 10:36).

Guardian of Truth XXXIII: 4, p. 101
February 16, 1989