What about Starting Something?
This past Sunday Dr. Lee Roberson preached at our Church. At ninety-one years of age he spoke in four different services to our assembled congregation. Our church was challenged. Our desire to accomplish something for the Lord was stirred and every saved person (Deadbeats, hypocrites, backsliders and pretenders were unmoved as always.) who heard this man of God came away wanting to do something greater for the Lord. I thank God for men whom the Lord has used over the years to stir God's people to greater exploits for the Lord. Needless to say there are many in our pulpits across the land who have much advice and great exhortations on what needs to be done; but finding those who have run a good race, kept the faith and finished the course faithfully is not nearly as easy. Perhaps the aspect that I admire more than anything else about men like Dr. Roberson, Dr. Sightler, Dr. Hyles, Dr. Bob Gray, John Waters and others of that generation was the way those men were not afraid to start things. Whether it was starting a radio station, a children's home, a Bible College, a Christian school, a newspaper, a bus ministry, a building program, a rescue mission, a camp, or any number of other ministries, these men had vision and faith, and plowing new ground and sailing through uncharted waters did not dissuade, discourage or deter them from moving out for the glory of God! Proverbs 29:18 says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Thank God for those men of vision who have challenged our lives and ministries. We are not the same because of the influence they have had on our lives.Have you ever noticed that the devil does not start anything; he only takes over what others have started. Starting something requires sacrifice, vision and commitment. That is why liberals don't start churches or much of anything else. Can you imagine a man going door to door telling people that there is no hell or that the Bible isn't the truth? Liberals and modernists don't do that. They only take over what men and women of faith and vision started. Yet it's getting harder and harder to find anyone starting much these days! We've got a dozen pat answers why we can't start a bus ministry, why building a great Sunday School isn't possible, why we need to do less and less and basically just try to hold it between the lines till Jesus comes. Our heroes would have never become our heroes if they had adopted this mindset. Surely our legacy and theirs will be quite different.
Could I encourage our Trumpet readers to get alone with the Lord and get a vision? I believe God has something for all of us to do. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. What are those good works? The work of the Lord is not for the faint hearted or the lazy. It's for the courageous and the committed. Certainly a lot of Churches would be far better off if the tired, give-out, visionless leader would step aside so someone with some backbone, a vision and some faith could lead and get something started again.
Steven E. Mays
BroMays@FaithBaptistTrumpet.org