He is not a member of the Lord’s church. He has expressed on more than one occasion his admiration for his wife who is a faithful and dedicated Christian lady. He admires her for her example and helps her find a congregation of God’s people with whom she can worship when they are out of town.
He used to go with her. He used to listen to the Bible being taught in a class environment. He used to hear Gospel lessons being preached. He used to have repeated opportunities to hear a preacher extend the invitation. He used to have to think about his spiritual condition when the “invitation song” was being sung.
None of those things is true any longer. He no longer joins his wife as she faithfully makes her way to be with her brothers and sisters in the Lord and offer worship to Him.
When I talked with him, he did not indicate that he really had anything against the church. In fact, he was very complimentary of many of the Christians he knew. He called some by name and expressed to me how much he thought of them.
As we talked about his spiritual condition and needs, I became aware of the fact that, like so many others, there is not just one reason why he no longer makes the effort to be with his wife when she worships. There hardly ever is just one reason in situations like this.
However, in most situations, there is a “tipping point.” There can be that one incident that is the “straw that broke the camel’s back.” In this man’s case, that point involved what many would consider a very insignificant event and maybe even a less significant amount of money.
He watched a man whom he knew to be a Christian and a preacher drive into a convenience store and buy $19.00 worth of gas. Instead of paying $19.00, he wrote a check in the amount of $20.00.
Do you have any idea what happened with the other dollar? What could a preacher have done with only $1.00 that could cause somebody else to think that it was not worthwhile to hear him preach? He bought a lottery ticket!
When I heard this, I thought of a couple of applications for all of us. First of all, I hear the argument from time to time that gambling should not be opposed because it is “victimless.” In the sense of somebody being killed or injured when the man bought the lottery ticket, I suppose that a case could be made for that. The case would be much more difficult to make when we consider things such as a person’s spiritual wellbeing.
The case would also be more difficult to make when we consider influence. Somebody is watching each and every one of us (not just the elders and preachers). Some action that I take, some words I use or some attitudes that I have which I do not consider to be a “big deal” may be being carefully scrutinized by some precious soul.
I do not want somebody to be able to use me as their reason for not being interested in the Lord and His church. While, is some instances, their “reasons” may be totally unjustified and based on unrealistic expectations of what a Christian is supposed to be, they are still valid to the ones who are observing our lives.
How ironic: the same person who I am sure has preached repeatedly that one soul is worth more than the entire world (Matthew 16:26) helped with one “insignificant act” push a soul further from the Lord for $1.00! I wonder how many I have had the same effect on for far less! “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity” (Colossians 4:5).
