Living in a culture where people have been led to believe they can “have it all,” we suppose that there must be a way to grow to spiritual maturity without doing anything other than what we’ve already been doing. But that is folly.
Personal responsibility simply means owning our responses to what has come our way and accepting this hard truth: our character today is the end product of what we’ve been choosing since we started making choices.
It is a plain fact that we do with our calendars and datebooks precisely what we have always said was sinful to do with our checkbooks: give the Lord nothing but what is left over.
Honesty about anything requires a love of truth. In order to be adequately honest with ourselves we must want to know the truth more than we want anything else, including the maintenance of a flattering self-image (Gal. 4:16).
At least one thing would seem to be clear: I can’t pour the first and the best of what I am into pursuing what has euphemistically been called the “American Dream” and still turn around and say I love the Lord with all my heart.
There’s no denying that the presence of words written by the actual hand of the sender gives the recipient a more tangible gift than an oral or a digital communication. The sacrifice of time and expense is no small part of what makes it meaningful.
Let us give 100% of our effort to everything we do, always. In private as well as public. It is irrelevant whether any other human being is looking. Let us do everything we do “as to the Lord and not to men” (Col. 3:23).
Either the gospel is true or it is not. Whether it is true depends upon whether the apostles really did know Jesus as a person and see Him after His resurrection.
How can we say that we don’t have the time to share our faith when we spend so many more hours on things that, by everyone’s admission, are far less important?
Elders, if you go to the expense of bringing in a visiting speaker for a week (or even half a week), why not maximize your use of this speaker by using him more than just at the evening hour?
