Monday, December 12, 2005
~NE BITES ARTICLES~
For all to know how to bite the devil
Readiness Is Key
-Readiness Is Not Meant To Be Emphasized In The World Only -
Imagine yourself stepping into a restaurant. The waiter came up to you & hands you a menu. However, when you pointed to a dish & asked about it, whether is it fried, deep fried, steamed etc, the waiter then give you a blank look. He continues by suggesting various answers. Finally, the waiter scratches his head (figuratively) before disappearing for help.
How would you feel? Disgusted? Turned off at the poor service? Regretful that you ever stepped in? Carving in your heart that you would never ever enter this restaurant again? As a result of that waiter who was not prepared to handle queries about the menu, the restaurant lost a customer.
The point of this article is not about the economic implications of that waiter ‘s poor service. The illustration above shows us the importance of being prepared. Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 urges us to “be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Christians are like running a business spiritually. In the world, losing one customer may not have big implications. In contrast, if we are not ready to share God ‘s love to our “customers”, we will
lose a precious soul, one that Jesus loves to the extent of death. God shows in Ezekiel 3:18 how precious a soul is to Him, “When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.”
Therefore, we should all be prepared to share the Gospel at all times, “in season or out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). We must not just solely rely on special services but we must be ready to just share the Gospel anytime & anywhere since we never know what may happen the next day. The pre-believer may be
open one day, but unresponsive the next. We cannot give the devil a chance to tempt us that since we are not prepared, we can be excused from sharing the love of God.
In addition, not just must we be ready to preach the Gospel, we must also be prepared “to correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). We never know when will Satan strike our flock. As shepherds, we must be vigilant in spotting any issues or problems bugging our flock & resolve them effectively. The only way to be effective is to know at the back of our palm the solutions to different problems. Otherwise, the devil would be able to win them over to
his side with ease.
To sum up, I would use the best illustration I can think of-the watchman. Let me briefly list some of the roles of a watchman. The watchman stands on the walls of cities, ever alert. Thus, when danger threatens the city, the watchman would sound the alarm & call everyone to arms to combat the threat. Another role of the watchman is to ensure enemy spies do not infiltrate the city. Many medieval cities employed watchman to police the streets at night. In ancient Rome, the watchman not only kept peace & order in the city, they also double up as firemen.
In our context, the city is like the people we are taking care of. We ensure that they are
spiritually protected from
external influences by filtering out the unbiblical values/doctrines/influences they received in the day. In addition, we “police” their lives to ensure that
internal heart issues do not entangle them from knowing God. Another role I would add for the watchman, which may not exist, is to protect foreigners. In context, foreigners are the pre-believers. Our role is to
bring them into this city of refuge to know our Lord & King.
Before I conclude, let me reiterate the importance of readiness. In recent years, in the light of terrorism & natural disasters, we have seen countries all over the world churning out plans to minimize the consequences of such events. For example, after the tsunami in 2004, every household was encouraged to own an emergency disaster kit. If the world can realize the need for readiness, why not us?
Be a watchman this Christmas. Be ready to turn all kinds of circumstances, good or bad, into opportunities to touch the people around us. Be prepared to share the Word inside or outside the context of our special Christmas services. At the same time, keep a close watch on your sheep, ensuring that while new people come, current ones would still stay.
Being prepared foils the devil ‘s evil plans. And gives him a nasty bite too.
YK
Author ‘s Words:
-This article is written especially for NE so I sincerely hope you all had enjoyed this little article.
-Any comments/improvement points, kindly tag or email me. Would also appreciate any ideas for future articles (:
; northeast ROCKS!
-9:44 AM
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