I’ve been a Christian for 54 years. I met Alice when I was a university student, and I began going to daily campus devotionals with her and attended worship and Bible study classes with her, too. As a result, I was converted. I grew up in a very active religious family that was of the Pentecostal faith. My folks were good people and lived good, clean lives. They were hardworking dairy farmers who were the kind of neighbors we would all love to have. I loved them dearly, but they wouldn’t listen to what the Bible said! They could read and understand, but they just wouldn’t change and practice religion the way God said.
Since I became a Christian, I’ve seen many types of religious materials on how to convert more folks to Christ, and some of these are good. I just always remember the saying my five uncles who served in WW2 said many times: “Never sign anything while the band is playing.” Perhaps they had learned that the enthusiasm of the moment might not be the time to make a decision. There is a lot to be said for not allowing ourselves as Christians to be overcome by emotionalism or enthusiasm that is sometimes conveyed by some of these written materials that are available.
“Mission statements” come and go. There is only one mission statement for Christians, and it comes from God’s Word. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen” (Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV). The passage says to go teach, baptize and teach some more – or at least, that’s the course to pursue according to other New Testament Scriptures (1 Corinthians 3:6; Acts 18:26-27). That’s simple, and many would pervert the simplicity of God’s Word to make it more enticing and to suggest more appealing ways of teaching the Gospel.
Some have been good enough to share with me some knowledge of a new book that is on the market. I appreciate those who have shared some thoughts about this book with me, and I applaud the literary efforts of the brother who penned the words. When the book was mentioned to me, I was a bit slow about responding and usually just say that I tend not to read that kind of book. My point is that I spend my reading time in the Bible itself, trying to understand what God’s intention for me really is in a given passage. I do recommend that kind of Bible reading. Recently, I read an article written by James Randal Matheny, entitled, “The Fellowship Room.” That got my attention, and I want to share one of his statements with you. He said, “Understanding God’s plan of salvation is not difficult. Following the Way, however, does present great challenges. The doing, not the knowing, is hard.”
We can share the Gospel message with someone in a few minutes, and, in a few hours, almost anyone can learn enough about the plan of salvation to obey it. That is fairly easy, but arising from the baptismal grave to walk the changed new life will require a lot of hard work. Satan will resist, and Christians must always carry “the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Ephesians 6:16). It takes dedication, commitment and motivation to remain faithful. Believers must study to know how to obey biblical principles beyond the “first principles” that led to obedience and get past “the pure milk of the Word” (1 Peter 2:2) to the “meat” (KJV) or “solid food” (NKJV).
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14)
When we fail to do so, we leave ourselves vulnerable to being led astray out of our ignorance.
The hard job of being Christians is to avail ourselves of the opportunity to learn God’s will for us. It will require a lot of help from His Word to find, know and do His will. The apostle Paul said it this way.
And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)
God bless you in knowing and doing God’s will!
