Articles
Looking Strong!
Many mistake a large membership in a local church for strength. And often, even with a
large numeric membership, the actual strength of the church rests in only a few dedicated
Christians.
In the movie “Beau Geste”, the Arabs were attacking a Legionnaire fort where only four
Legionnaires were left alive. If the Arabs had known this, they could have easily taken the fort.
However, the Legionnaires devised a plan to disguise their weak condition. They set up bodies of
their dead comrades along the wall of the fort and ran back and forth, firing off the guns of their
dead friends. From the outside, it looked very convincing, but from the inside, there were only
four men.
The sad fact is that often only a few who are righteous are doing the work, and, through
teaching and encouragement, are keeping the church together. What the Lord’s church
desperately needs is not many dead bodies looking alive; she needs people committed to making
a “living sacrifice”. I am convinced that the reason there are fewer baptisms, fewer additions to
local churches lies in the fact that there are too many dead bodies and not enough live soldiers
for Christ.
~ edited from Bulletin Fodder, Valley Station church of Christ, Louisville, KY
We are quickly approaching the halfway point of the year 2018 (hard to believe we are
already into the 5th month!). Reflecting on the above article, what have you done differently for
the Lord this year than you did in the previous year? We are challenged to grow in the Lord:
“For if these qualities are yours (vss. 4-7) and are increasing, they render you neither useless
nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:8). For a child of God
to remain status quo in his life as a Christian is to completely ignore the call to grow in faith.
Sadly, there are many Christians who remain on the milk of the Word (Hebrews 5:12-14),
instead of accepting the challenge to grow and become a more active part of the body of Christ.
Opportunities abound for the Christian to grow on a daily basis. Even though teachers
and group leaders are in place for our VBS, there is always room for more helpers. Our teaching
corps for our weekly Bible classes is always in need of new teachers to help teach our young
ones (and older ones!) the word of God. These are but a few possibilities to grow in faith.
What are you doing to grow in faith and become a more active part of the Lord’s church?
~P. Mowrer
