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Doing
Nothing
By
Doug Post
Aug
15,
2004
In the 1930’s, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany marched into Austria
and Czechoslovakia. The response from most of Europe was startling.
They did nothing! France shrunk from fear, Russia tried to cut a deal,
and Italy joined forces. The Swedes and Swiss said they were neutral.
They ignored the threat and hoped the "war" would go away.
It did not. Hitler grew in power and terrorized Europe. Britain stood
alone. It was only when Britain and America stood up to evil that any
end to the war could come. Millions of men, women, and children lost
their lives due to apathy. No one wanted another world war, but only
war could stop a ruthless dictator.
Satan has deceived our schools, our media, and our courts. The
god of this world has flexed his muscles. It is more than lives at
stake; it is souls. If we do nothing, surely many will lose their
souls for an eternity. We must preach and teach and serve and love and
care, until every soul hears the Word and knows the love of God. Jesus
died on the cross and rose again from the dead to give us hope and
life. His marching orders for us is to take the message of hope, the
gospel, to every corner of the world (Mark 16:15).
To believe there’s no threat is to deceive
ourselves. We can’t be silent. If the message of Jesus has grabbed
our hearts, given us hope, relieved our guilt, and immersed us in
grace, let us not sit silent while the world remains ignorant. We
cannot be neutral about sin. We cannot bargain with or appease the
devil. All our human effort will fall flat; people need God. Only the
blood of Jesus can wash us clean. If we do nothing to tell a lost and
dying world about Jesus, then surely they will perish. Do you know
someone who needs the Lord? Don't sit quietly, doing nothing. Speak a
good word about Jesus. Tell him of His love and grace. You may open a
door to life everlasting.
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Getting
Out and Up
By Doug Post
The Postal Service of the USA issued a
stamp honoring the one hundredth anniversary of the first flight by the
Wright Brothers. The first man in powered flight was from Ohio. The
first man ever to orbit Earth was from Ohio. And the first man on the
moon was from Ohio. It Sounds like a lot of people are trying to get out
of Ohio.
And a lot of people are trying to get out of other states as
well. The
state of despair. The state of failure. The state of ruin. The state of
flat soft drinks, where nothing ever happens. The state of sin's guilt
and destruction. But fleeing these states is not done by air or space
travel. Nor by drugs or alcohol or indiscriminate sex or other attempts
to warp the space-time continuum. The latter are part of the problem,
not the solution.
Jesus came to earth, not in flight from heaven, but on a rescue
mission. To help us get out of the bad fixes we invented. I've never
spent a lot of time in Ohio, but it's probably a decent state. However,
I have been to Jesus, and I can speak authoritatively about him. And
though I've never been to heaven, I know Jesus is there, and that is
sufficient. For I'm fleeing a bad state of spirit and heading toward the
solution.
"No one has ascended into
heaven except he who descended from heaven, the
Son of Man"
(John 3:13).
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Let
God Carry The Potatoes
Virgil
Brown
The
story is told of a poor man who plodded along toward home in an Irish
town, carrying a huge bag of potatoes. A man came along in a
horse-drawn wagon and invited the man to climb inside. When the man
sat down in the wagon, he held the bag of potatoes in his arms. When
it was suggested that he should set it down, he said very warmly,
"I don't want to trouble you too much. You're giving me a ride;
I'll carry the potatoes." Sometimes we think we're doing the Lord
a favor when we carry the burden. But the work is His, and He asks us
only to be faithful. Let us permit Him to "carry the
potatoes" also.
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Who's
In Trouble? (This
is funny)
Against his better judgment, the big game hunter
is talked into taking both his wife AND her mother along on one of his
expeditions. It does not go well. The mother-in-law is, if anything,
harder to get along with in the wilds than she was in the city. And to
make matters worse, she won't even abide by the simple camp rules
designed to keep the safari safe. One night after dinner, the hunter's
wife realizes her mother is missing. Panicked, she rushes to her
husband and begs him to institute a search. He sighs, and together
they set out. But before they've gone far, they hear throaty growling.
Soon they come upon a small clearing in which the mother-in-law
stands, backed up against thick, seemingly impenetrable jungle brush,
and facing a huge male lion. The wife whispers urgently, "What
are we going to do?" "Nothing whatever," responds the
husband. "The lion got himself into this mess, now let him get
himself out of it."
(COMPASS, Crossville, TN)
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GROWING
TIRED OF THE CONGREGATION?
by
Steve Waller
Be careful before you
answer the question above! Occasionally, one may be heard saying
something like, "I am so tired of the congregation where I
worship. I want to find someplace else to go!" It's not that
there is anything wrong with the local church from a doctrinal
standpoint, or that there is any great disunity--one just becomes
bored or weary. How can we resolve this situation?
First, remember that life is usually as good or ill, happy or
unhappy as we make it. The same holds true with one's marriage! One
says, "I'm tired of this life," or, "I'm tired of my
husband." Such expressions may indicate that we fail to
understand that life, our job, and our marriage take a lot of work, a
lot of maintenance. Some think you get a job and just go to work and
one day own the company, or that you get married and the marriage just
kind of grows and takes care of itself on its own. Of course, that's
why people are bored in life, with work, and at home. Anything worth
doing or having is worth maintaining with all diligence. This is no
less true in the local congregation.
A
person or family places membership with a local church. At first,
everyone and everything is new, exciting, and challenging. The various
programs of work are different than they have experienced before, they
get to meet new people and start developing new friendships, and the
preacher and his preaching style are different from what we have had
in the past. Then, reality sets in after a while. One begins to learn
that people in the congregation are not perfect; and, we may not get
along with one of two, or some problem may arise in the church. The
programs begin to look old and we get tired of looking at and hearing
the same preacher every Sunday. In other words, the honeymoon is over.
What do we do?
Some start looking for another congregation to attend. Some
just quit. If that happened in one's marriage, and one simply decided
to seek another marriage partner or just quit the marriage, as some
do, what a tragic thing that would be! Others recognize the need for
loyalty and steadfastness where they are. They roll up their sleeves
and work more diligently. They begin working harder to apply the
sermons and Bible class lessons to their lives. They become more
actively involved in the work of the church. They start spending more
time learning more of the Bible and developing their talents to be
used in the programs of work in the congregation they now attend. They
"stretch" themselves and grow spiritually.
Brethren,
we owe the local church our loyalty, our faithful attendance at all
services (Sunday and Wednesday), our active involvement, and
participation in the various works of the congregation, and our full
expression of love in our giving. We owe it our gratitude, our words
of encouragement, and our efforts to strengthen and "talk
up" the church everywhere we go, a positive attitude toward
evangelism, and our wholehearted worship in spirit and in truth. We
owe the local church our cooperation, participation, enthusiasm, and
support in every way that is Scriptural! And, if we aren't giving it
our full and first priority (Mt 6:24,33), then we have little right to
complain, or start looking for "greener pastures." The
answer does not lie in some unscriptural "gimmick" to keep
us happy, contented, and attending! IT LIES WITHIN OURSELVES!
It's a matter of getting our thinking and priorities in line
with what God.
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