Rev. Ray and Pat Amos
KEEP THE MAIN THING, THE MAIN THING
“So, I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”
Nehemiah 6:3
The preacher was walking to a member’s house when he saw the dog coming his way. It was a big-muscled bulldog walking toward him right down the middle of the sidewalk. With eyes focused, it looked neither to the left or the right. When they came close the dog seemed to not even see him, he kept a steady forward pace as though the parson was invisible. When they were a few feet apart the man stepped aside and the bulldog just plowed on through as though he was singing, “I shall not be moved.”
The pastor made his visit and returned to the parsonage; however, he could not get the canine off his mind. That night he went to his study and got down on his knees and prayed, “Oh Lord, give me whatever that bulldog has.”
I am thinking that we too can learn a lesson from the pastor’s experience. There is an expression that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” It seems so easy to get distracted with so much going on these days. As a church, our first work is to bring people to Jesus. If we do not get that right, then nothing else we do will matter in the realm of eternity.
Nehemiah accomplished a great work because he refused to be distracted. Paul got distracted with philosophers so much that he got off the subject of Jesus (and had little results). After that experience, he wrote, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He seemed to have found what that bulldog had, a determined mind.
Do you remember this hymn? “I am resolved to enter the kingdom, leaving the paths of sin; friends may oppose me, foes may beset me, still will I enter in.”
Grace and Peace, Rev Ray
Link to YouTube Video – I Am Resolved
