Preacher’s Pen
Can You Hear Me Now?
Traveling by train is one of those pleasurable experiences. Most of you know that I like to ride the rails (inside the car). Recently I took the train to the Boy Scout Jamboree at Fredericksburg, Virginia. You leave out of San Antonio about 7:00 a.m. and arrive in Fredericksburg three days later, via Chicago and Washington, D.C. I’ve taken the train to Chicago several times, but this time I went from there to D.C. It was a fantastic trip!
Amtrak winds its way through the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Along the way you go through tunnels, parallel the historic Potomac River, and pass numerous houses built into the side of the mountains. Beautiful scenery and wonderful images of early America are reflected in the small villages
One thing missing was the use of the cell phone. Now, for some that is tantamount to being a tragedy or major catastrophe. This part of the trip took on a whole new meaning. “Can you hear me now?” was answered with, “No, can’t hear you now and for many more miles of track!” Sit back, relax, and enjoy the beautiful scenery God has provided.
But, you know who I could hear? God. He was talking to me through the cool morning of a July summer. He was being heard through the rippling waters of a cold river in the bottom of a valley of blowing tall trees and growing lush grass. He was seen in the placid glass top of a lake with its reflections of the tall scenic mountains. God was saying, “Can you hear me now?” Look around you – can you hear him now?
Lawrence Ray Smith
LOYAL TO THE LORD
When we are loyal to the Church, we are loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the head and the Church is the body, Ephesians 1:22-23. If we love Christ (and we say we do), we must also love His Church. The Bible says that Jesus gave Himself up for “her,” meaning the church, Ephesians 5:25. People often say, “You don’t have to be a member of the Church to be saved. The church won’t get you to heaven.” That little platitude is plainly wrong. The church is the saved, Acts 2:47, and if we are not a part of it, we are not a part of the saved. After all, it was Jesus Himself who built the Church, Matthew 16:18, having purchased “her” with His own blood, Acts 20:28.
Having said that, I often wonder why many are so lax in their attitude toward the Church. To some, the Church is an optional extra—going to church and assembling with the saints to them is something you do when you don’t have anything better to do. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Jesus did not give his blood for an “optional extra.” He did not build an irrelevant institution.
The well-known preacher, Charles Hodge, wrote some very insightful words in his bulletin some years ago that impact on this concept. Here is an extract from his article called, “Soldiers Not Volunteers” in italics below.
Paul was “called” by God—he was not a volunteer to Jesus. Epistles were addressed to “saints” [sanctified ones] not to “volunteers.” God in Christ on a cross called lost sinners back in a body (the church). We have been bought with a price. We belong to a kingdom.
Yes, the church is volunteer in that most are not [paid] employees. No one forces you to go, to work, to give. You come and go at will. YET! We are called, adopted, conscripted into the Lord’s Army. As volunteers little or nothing is really expected. Excellence is not expected. Volunteers are hard to recruit, serve without pay, and quit upon a whim. God calls us to serve, not [to] volunteer. We are to glorify God in our bodies giving Him our lives.
This misunderstanding is killing us. “Weekending” is killing us. Members think they can be gone 2-3 Sundays per month. Members cannot sign up to teach or to serve because they will never be there. Members change churches like changing clothes because they have no loyalty nor allegiance.
Consumerism tells us to “have your needs supplied, your problems solved.” God calls us to make saints, servants, soldiers. We are under orders. We are in the Lord’s Army. We belong to God. We are growing up to be like Jesus.
The idea of volunteerism has made us soft, spoiled and worthless. We must return to discipline, submission. Jeremiah, without response, still had “fire in his bones.” Paul preached from jail houses. We do belong to a body, a community. This is our life.
Could you imagine a hardy American Marine or a brave F-16 pilot, refusing an order to go on a combat mission because relatives were coming or because there was a movie they wanted to see first? Or, perhaps, they wanted to “sleep-in” because they had had a very late night the evening before. They would quickly discover the meaning of the words “Court Martial.” As soldiers of the Cross in the army of God, our commanding officer with all authority, Matthew 28:18, requires the following of us, “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer,” 2 Timothy 2:3-4. I would to God that all Christians would take their Christianity seriously. If we don’t, our religion becomes an ineffective “toothless bulldog”—lots of bark but no bite. May God put starch into all of us to be loyal to His Church and committed to His cause. To do less is to give Satan the victory! We want to be: more than conquerors,” Romans 8:37. Isn’t that right?
Love you all,
Al—“The Horne of Africa.”