The title of our new Sunday School study is Out of Commission: Getting Every Christian Back to the Great Commission. As you have seen in a previous post, the picture of an old truck graces the front cover of the book. The author says, “The old, out-of-commission truck is an example of the cost of neglect. What had once been a useable truck was put out of commission simply through neglect. It is also an example of the possibility of repair. The neglect can be reversed.” (p. 5)
This week, Wayne “put his thoughts to paper” like he did last week Have Ya Got the Time and has written a home-spun piece about this subject of neglect. With joy and the hopes you will take it heart, I share what the Lord gave him early in the morning on his back porch.
Neglect does not usually take place over-night. Take the old country store in the photo. It is located in Washington County Tennessee, but could be in any part of the United States.
Please, indulge me as I exercise some “literary liberties.” Think back 100 years. It is the year 1914.… This is the country store. The nearest town is 18 miles away, the road is dirt and the transportation of choice is a team and wagon or the mule. The store is the center of the community. In one corner is the beloved Post Office. A 4’by4’ squared dedicated to the United States mail. The shelves are lined with items that cannot be growed or made on the farm. You can also buy farm tools, shot-gun shells and sewing notions. Everything from Anvils to Zippers.
It had a front porch at one time, its gone now. Neglect. The roof is saggin’ and the walls are cavin’ in. Neglect. It is not safe to go inside now. Neglect. What we see is a visible application of neglect. …
Our Sunday School classes at our church are beginning a study on neglect. The neglect of God’s command in Matthew. The command we call the Great Commission….Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (Matt 28:19).
Can you see what happens when we neglect?
This, neglect, can also take place in the life of a believer. Our lives become un-useful as a testimony of God’s grace. When we don’t spend time with God in his word, the front porch, where we can talk and fellowship with Him, begins to rot away and disappear. When we don’t spend time with Gods people,… Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Heb 10:25).…we allow the “vines” of the world to take over and eventually consume us. Very soon, we come to the place as the old country store, out of place.
So, remember the words of Jesus……..The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly…(John 10:10).
If we continue to do the things we’ve always done, we’ll continue to get the results we’ve always got.
Ponder on that, and don’t NEGLECT!
Scripture For Today: Amos 6:1-7; Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 12:35-48; 1 Timothy 4:14 (Read it, meditate on it, pray it back to God, put yourself in the passage, and obey it.) Be sure to have your study questions answered and be ready to give your whole heart to class discussion and the Great Commission!!
From A Pastor's Heart 