Did you ever walk away from leading a Christian life? Couldn’t finish the course? Couldn’t say, as Paul did, that you had kept the faith?
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (2 Timothy 4:6-7 KJV)
You did step forward once, made that walk down the aisle and told the pastor that your life belonged to God. Said that you were ready to serve Him. You were active in your church, for a while.
Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. (Galatians 5:7-8 KJV)
Paul asks “who”, not “what” hinders us. Do we look back and see what hindered us from our committed walk with Christ?
For the years that I was not active in my local church, there is no one answering that “who” question except myself. I made the decisions that slowed, then altered our attendance. Sure, I could rationalize others and their impacts, but the commitment was mine, the responsibility mine.
There were life-altering decisions made. Geographic moves, career moves, leaving family, changing churches. Oh, we didn’t stop going, we just didn’t go all that we could and most certainly all that we should.
We were hindered. I wish I could say it was the same hindrance Paul faced:
Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. (1 Thessalonians 2:18 KJV)
But I believe Paul was a much more important target, requiring much more work. Rather than ‘walking away’, I simply did not walk to. Neither did I allow Him to carry me. I just sat out, on my own, and let His kingdom move forward, without me.
The real “who” question should be: “Who lost?” Again, I’m the answer. I lost out on sermons I should have heard, Bible lessons I should have learned, classes I should have taught. People I should have met, and witnessed to. God provided relief and deliverance from another that should have come through me (Esther 4:14)
I feel as though what Christ said to the lawyers would qualify for me:
ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. (Luke 11:52 KJV)
May those I hindered please forgive me.
I re-entered the course, returning to the One who first loved me (1 John 4:29), gave His son for me (John 3:16), prepared a place for me (John 14:2) and inspired a book that gives me knowledge.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13 KJV)
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: (2 Timothy 4:6-7 KJV)
You did step forward once, made that walk down the aisle and told the pastor that your life belonged to God. Said that you were ready to serve Him. You were active in your church, for a while.
Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. (Galatians 5:7-8 KJV)
Paul asks “who”, not “what” hinders us. Do we look back and see what hindered us from our committed walk with Christ?
For the years that I was not active in my local church, there is no one answering that “who” question except myself. I made the decisions that slowed, then altered our attendance. Sure, I could rationalize others and their impacts, but the commitment was mine, the responsibility mine.
There were life-altering decisions made. Geographic moves, career moves, leaving family, changing churches. Oh, we didn’t stop going, we just didn’t go all that we could and most certainly all that we should.
We were hindered. I wish I could say it was the same hindrance Paul faced:
Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. (1 Thessalonians 2:18 KJV)
But I believe Paul was a much more important target, requiring much more work. Rather than ‘walking away’, I simply did not walk to. Neither did I allow Him to carry me. I just sat out, on my own, and let His kingdom move forward, without me.
The real “who” question should be: “Who lost?” Again, I’m the answer. I lost out on sermons I should have heard, Bible lessons I should have learned, classes I should have taught. People I should have met, and witnessed to. God provided relief and deliverance from another that should have come through me (Esther 4:14)
I feel as though what Christ said to the lawyers would qualify for me:
ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. (Luke 11:52 KJV)
May those I hindered please forgive me.
I re-entered the course, returning to the One who first loved me (1 John 4:29), gave His son for me (John 3:16), prepared a place for me (John 14:2) and inspired a book that gives me knowledge.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13 KJV)
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