First things first...
Neglect is a powerful force...
Terry Dashner (www.ffcba.com)
Is there a good way to destroy a garden? You can drown it with
too much water, or burn it up with too much fertilizer. You can
plow it, chop it up, burn it up, or pull up all the plants by
the roots. But why all the sweat? Just leave it alone, and the
weeds and insects will do it for you.
Is there a good way to destroy a friendship? You can telephone
everyone you know and spread malicious rumors about you friends.
You can make false accusations directly to your friend. You can
borrow from her and fail to repay. You can write her insulting
letters. But why all the sweat? Just leave her alone, and
neglect will kill the friendship. Act as if she doesn't exist.
Forget her telephone number. Look the other way when you meet
her.
Is there a good way to destroy a church? You can vandalize the
building by breaking the windows, shredding the hymnals,
painting obscenities on the walls. You can disrupt the worship
services, be rude to visitors or tell all the leaders what a
miserable mess they are making. But why all the sweat? Just live
as if your church doesn't exist. Ignore it. Don't go around it.
Don't give to it. Don't visit it. And it, too, will go away.
I think you get the point.
Yes sir, neglect is a powerful force. May I ask you if there
anything in your life that you're neglecting? Maybe you should
do an inventory of your life, assess what is important and what
is trivial. What about spiritual things. Shouldn't spiritual
matters be important enough to make the top of your list? Jesus
said that we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and then the
other things will be added. It's true. Life for the believer is
all about aligning our priorities. When we take care of the
"first things" the "second things" will follow naturally.
Remember, Jesus created us to thrive in life. He has given us
abundant life in Him. It should be a natural thing to put Him
first? But I'm afraid we neglect Him too much. We neglect God by
failing to pray, do our Bible reading, support our local church
by attendance and tithing, failing to help our neighbors in time
of need, and so on and so on? These things are important too.
Joy stands for J-Jesus first, O-others second, and Y-yourself
last. The only way to spell joy is to put the "J"
first------JESUS!
As we get involved in 2006--another new year--let's not neglect
the important stuff. Your relationship with God, family, and
friends is priority number one.
Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon!
Pastor T (Matthew 6:33)