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"Step Forward, Please!" 10/27/02 Past/Future Articles |
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"Step Forward, Please!" 10/27/02 Past/Future Articles |
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Once, when five volunteers were needed to undertake a dangerous mission, a General lined up his men and asked that all those willing to volunteer take one step forward. During the process, he said he would turn his back. When he refaced his men, the line was intact. As he expressed his disappointment that not a single man of the entire group was brave enough to volunteer for the task, a corporal interrupted him saying, “We all stepped forward, sir.”
Think what it would mean to the church if this was the attitude of our people. In spite of all the good that is being done in congregations throughout the brotherhood, we know that it is still being done by a very small percentage of those who are members. Perhaps that is why Jesus said, “Many are called but few are chosen.” Too many people wish just to be “counted” a worker in the church. For that reason, someone else must carry the load that they should carry.
Only a few are willing to really work for the Lord. Others allow weeks to pass into years without doing more than worship once a week and not even once a week if something comes up that they desire to do. They neither advertise nor attend gospel meetings, much less invite and bring visitors. Thousands die every day without the gospel, but it is not any of their concern. Religion has never meant anything to them, except as an escape from hell, and they are not using it enough to do that.
But suppose all of our people should step forward at once.
The story would be much different. It is our hope and prayer that
some day all of us will desire to be really loyal and work as the Master
commanded. Have you stepped forward for the Lord? Tyner
~Charlie Turner, Elder
aven (James 3:5-10).
Things like the more faith we have, the more we will believe. The more goals we will set, the more we will achieve.
Things like true Christianity will cause a male to be a man and a female to be a woman. It teaches a man to be a gentleman and a woman to be a lady. True Christianity is not only reading the Bible each day of our lives, but studying it as well. It lets the Bible lead us all the way through life. We then can hear the Master say “...Well done, good and faithful servant,...enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:23).
One thing we will all do, “...every tongue shall confess to God” (Rom. 14:11).
Sin can wreck homes, destroy lives and even destroy nations if it is left unchecked. Sin will separate friend from friend. But even worse, it separates a man from his God (Isaiah 59:1-2). Jesus said that if we die in our sins, we would not enter the place called heaven. If sin could enter heaven, it would soon be like the world in which we live.
What can be done about those things that exist in our lives and the sin that creeps in? We can depend on the fact that God sent His only begotten son to the world in order to save it, not condemn. Jesus had to suffer and die for our sins. This is why we must speak out against drugs, illicit sex, crime and false doctrines of man, all of which are sinful. Jesus is the only answer. Only Jesus can save. On this we can depend.
~ Charlie Turner, Elder