Prayer and the Ministry of the Word

Dear Courteous Reader,

I must express my warm appreciation for Wayne Hatcher, who has been my partner slugging it out over at the new SBTC blog, with the Resolution 5 guys, who wish to add "Drink no wine" as an 11th Commandment. In addition to that fellowship, he also sent me some flower bulbs from his flower bed. When I received the box in the mail from Wayne, I was afraid it was a bottle of wine! I do not drink, nor does my wife, and we've never even had any alcohol in the house. So I was thinking, "What am I going to do with this?!?"

I apologize for my nearly two-week absence from this blog. I've had my head in theology books and sermon tapes, and just emerged for a brief respite before plunging in again. I hope you enjoy these few words.

A young man came home from the Korean War in 1952. He had sent his army paychecks home to his mom and dad, who saved it up for him. By the time he came home, he had enough money for a new car. This was a flashy guy, so he bought a flashy car, a yellow Chrysler convertible with maroon interior. So, he was quite the dashing young man around his small hometown, with his army uniform, his flat-top haircut, and his new convertible.

Shortly after he came home, he went to church on Sunday morning, and saw the most beautiful young lady he had ever seen, singing in the church choir. For the next several weeks, this young man was very faithful in church attendance! He had a hard time paying attention to the preacher, though, because his gaze kept drifting to the beautiful girl on the first row of the choir loft.

For a few weeks, he tried to get up the nerve to speak to her, but he wasn’t able to do so. Then, one day, his mother said, “Your sister and her new friend want to go up to the lake. She’s a really nice girl, and I’d like you to get to know her. Since you have that new car, would you please take them this Saturday?” He said, “Ah, Ma, I’m not taking my sister to the lake this Saturday. There are two races down at the dirt track. Dut and Sneezy and I are going to be down there all day.”

So, Saturday morning came around, and the young man was getting in the car to go to the races, when his little sister’s friend walked up to the house. And who do you suppose it was? That’s right---it was the girl from the church choir! Suddenly he forgot all about the races, and had a strong urge to go to the lake!

These lovebirds married in 1954, and celebrated their 50th anniversary before he passed away in 2005. This is the story of how my mother and father, Richard and Amy Young, met and fell in love.

For weeks my father admired my mother from a distance. There was a wonderful relationship waiting for him, and all it took was getting to know each other.

In the same way, Jesus Christ is a beautiful Savior, and he loves us very deeply already. But we need to get to know Him for us to fall more deeply in love with Him.

Consider this passage of Scripture:

(Philippians 3:7-11) But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. (8) What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (10) I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (11) and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Evidently the apostle Paul desired to know Christ better, and so to love Him more. Let us join him in the quest to know Christ Jesus.

Love in Christ,

Jeff