One Last Thing…

Memo to Self: The Importance of “Keeping it Right”

What we say to others regarding salvation, the Church, Jesus Christ and other Biblical matters can affect that person’s eternal destiny. More to the point, what we say about these things can resonate well into the future, even beyond our own “threescore and ten.” A good friend has said “we need to be sure we get it right.” This article is about “getting it right” and “keeping it right.”

With this thought in mind, I can’t help but wonder what erring brethren, once faithful to the teachings of the Bible, must think when they read their previous sound writings, or hear their past scriptural sermons. I am personally aware of brethren who, at one time, were “set for the defence of the gospel” (King James Version, Phil. 1:17), their “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph. 6:15), but now spread error, confusion, deception and heartbreak in the world around them. They have become as those that “soweth discord among brethren” (Prov. 6:19).

This article is a figurative seed planted in the year 2004 that may be re-discovered by its author, or others, years from now, should the Lord will, or perhaps found for the first time by some erring brother of sister who has lost their way in this life. Are you one who, like the Church at Ephesus, has “left thy first love” (Rev. 2:4)? What was it that sent you down the road of error? Was it the love of the praise of men? Was it your desire for the Church to grow at any cost, even at the expense of the truth? How could you have “changed the truth into a lie” (Rom. 1:25)? Was it not enough to “fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth” (Josh. 24:14)? Have you foolishly exchanged the glory of heaven for the temporary pleasures of this life?

If the Lord wills that this article should find its way to my desk many years from now, I hope and pray that I have not become one who has “made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch [which] he made” (Ps. 7:15). If I have, I pray that God will send someone to me who will have the courage, boldness, wisdom and sympathy to awaken me from my sleep and “shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight” (Exod. 33:13).

— JJN