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LONELY EMBERS A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the one lone ember's flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and "dead as a doornail." Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. Just before the pastor was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.”” In our previous article I spoke of seeing a sermon rather than hearing one. Many times what we hear has a amazing way of not getting to our brain. It is usually more effective to show someone than to teach by telling. One of the problems too is that we do not usually have the ‘Christian supervisory staff’ to allow for everyone to get this personal treatment. Would you like the job? It is available in your local church. Remember though that there are certain requirements and responsibilities that go with the job. One of them is true love. (1 Corinthians13:4-8) Another is our judgement (condemnation). (Matthew 7:1-5) The answer is in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - “Pray without ceasing.” |