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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 1, NUMBER 16, MAY 20, 2001 MEETING
MUSINGS
My Spring meetings are over for this year and I know that it seems like I
have been gone a lot. Having just
started working with the congregation, I found myself wishing that I didn’t
have all of the meetings scheduled. To
be gone three weeks out of the first four months is a lot, but at least you
haven’t had time to get tired of me yet. But,
as always, there are things that happen during meetings that made a particular
impression upon me and I would like to share a few of those with you.
I never cease to marvel at the relationship that exists between good
brethren wherever we might be. The
tie that binds us together is stronger than any physical relationship could ever
be. We are tied together by blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I sit in the homes of brethren as they share their food with me and it
is as though we have known each other for years, instead of simply days.
Brethren have offered me the key to their home while they were going to
be gone, just so I could be comfortable and have privacy.
Some have shared burdens that they are enduring with me, some real
heavy-duty burdens and trials, and yet I looked out each night of the meeting
and there they would be – praising God in song and seriously listening to His
word. It is a wonderful thing to be
a Christian and a preacher of the gospel!
As I entered into one home during one of the meetings, a little five year
old girl went running behind a counter and hid behind her mother.
When her mom asked her what the problem was, she said, “I AM AFRAID OF
THE PREACHER!” That took me by
surprise because I happen to think that I am one of the least scary people that
I know. However, her mom said
something that got me to thinking. She
said, “That’s O.K., a little fear is a good thing.”
She was right. A little fear
is a good thing. I was reminded of
Hebrews 10:26 – 31, where we read, “For if we go on sinning willfully
after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice
for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and THE FURY OF A
FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone
who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or
three witnesses. How much severer
punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of
God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was
sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him who said, VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.
And again, THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.
It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
God is love. 1 John 4:8,
tells us that that is so. But many
people choose to forget that God is also just.
Romans
I was told of a sixteen year old girl who was killed in an automobile
wreck. It was her friend and lab
partner who told me about it. She
had had her license for just a week and was driving at sixty miles an hour in
the rain where there was a posted 30 mile per hour speed limit.
Evidently an animal of some sort ran in front of her car and she jerked
the wheel. Her inexperience and lack
of real preparation caused her to loose control, panic, go off the road, and end
up hitting two trees. She died on
the way to the hospital.
So often young people live their lives as though they were invincible.
Nothing is going to happen to them and they never consider death as
something that they will experience and that it could happen soon.
How do we impress upon young people the urgency of obeying the Lord and
living as He wants them to live? In
Ephesians 6:1 – 3, Paul wrote, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord,
for this is right. Honor your Father
and Mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well
with you, and that you may live long on the earth.”
I know that Paul was not saying that every obedient, faithful child will
live to a ripe old age, nor was he saying that every disobedient child will die
in childhood. However, I do believe
that he was stating a principle. The
obedient child who honors his or her parents and God does not generally
participate in ungodly and often dangerous activities.
How do we make young people understand that they are not invincible and
that there are consequences for their actions – good and bad?
I could not help but think of Solomon’s words found in Eccl. 11:9 &
10. There the bible says, “Rejoice,
young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days
of young manhood. And follow the
impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes.
Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.
So, remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body,
because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.”
Did anybody ever see an age limit on James 4:14 – 17?
James wrote, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like
tomorrow. You are just a vapor that
appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do
this or that. But as it is, you
boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to
him it is sin.” I
saw again this “meeting season” something that God’s word points out.
The wisest, most intelligent and scholarly people, do not feel compelled
to show it. Proverbs 26:12, says, “Do
you see a man wise in his own eyes? There
is more hope for a fool than for him.” Robert
Harkrider is truly a scholar among us, but didn’t he present lessons easy to
be understood? He came here to
preach the gospel, not to demonstrate how smart he is.
I did not know him before the meeting.
I knew of his work and of his knowledge.
What a humble and caring man he turned out to be!
The pull of the world is not lessening, it is getting stronger and
stronger. At least that is the
impression I get when I compare attendance at meetings now with attendance at
meetings 20 years ago. People do not
visit from other congregations like they used to and it takes a more
concentrated effort to get non-Christians to come.
But the most distressing thing of all is that it is getting harder and
harder to get the members of the congregation holding the meeting to attend
faithfully. What else
could be happening that is more important? Surely
not television, or sports, or even school events are more important than serving
the Lord and learning His word. What
about the encouragement found from being with other Christians?
What about being an encouragement to other Christians?
Leadership is vital to the welfare of a congregation of the Lord’s
people. Good, qualified, hard
working elders who lead the flock as a shepherd does his sheep can make all the
difference in the world. Elders who
try to drive the congregation or lord it over the flock, who make arbitrary
decisions and rule with an iron fist, destroy rather than build up.
There are still churches like These are just some things I have observed during this meeting season.
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