A pastor was going to visit a church member when he saw the big-muscled bulldog walking toward him right down the middle of the sidewalk. 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 ahead.

The pastor 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 got.”

I am thinking that we too can learn a lesson from the pastor’s experience. It seems so easy to get distracted with many things. Most are important, but they are not the main thing where the church is concerned. 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.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem (the cross and resurrection); and if we follow him, we cannot look any other way; “The cross before me and the world behind me. No turning back, no turning back.”

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 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.”