Proverbs 24

Bible Passage:  Proverbs 24

Wanted:  Postmen To Deliver Good News

I spoke briefly about the 3 night evangelistic services that just passed yesterday.  There were two incidents that stuck in my mind.

First was this…. we had some invitation cards left over.  And so the person in charge decided to send some brothers out to the gates with these cards and give it to the passer-bys.  To our amazement… an Indian construction worker from next door accepted the invitation card and joined us!

The second was an elderly couple who was invited by one of our church members.  The problem was the name of our member was not familiar to all of us and the member did not turn up.  But the elderly couple was very serious in listening and if God is willing, they will definitely come again.

So the message of God gets preached… in all ways and means.

Read Proverbs 24:10-12.

But how active were we in our preaching?  Did we do anything?  Did we give out an invitation card?  Did we even open our mouths?

This being the festive period, you would see many bustling shoppers around.  Some have happy faces, some sad, some bored and some just plain tired.  But do we see them as God sees them?

God sees dying people.

If we do not share with them the love of God and His Word, they will die without Jesus and spend eternity without Him!

We need to see people as God sees them!

But with great power comes great responsibility (oopss…. wrong movie…. ok… forget it… bad joke).

Actually it is not a joke!  We have the power of Christ with us … and with the power of the Holy Spirit, it also brings along the responsibility of showing people the way to salvation.

Deliver those who are drawn toward death,
And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
Proverbs 24:11

Once our eyes are opened, we can no longer pretend that we do not know what to do.  God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know and will hold us responsible to act (v. 12).

Our church has tried a bit harder this year for Evangelism but our efforts still fall way, way short.  If I am being honest, much still needs to be done and only a few are doing.  I am truly thankful that there are some faithful ones who will share and talk to truthseekers (there were a few brothers and sisters who spent the last 3 nites chatting with our friends and relatives till late at nite and may God remember their love and labours).

But too many of us are not doing our part.

Let’s resolve to be good messengers of the gospel of peace.

A Little Problem Called …

This little problem is found in Proverbs 24:30-34.

Whenever I read this passage, I will marvel at the eloquence of the statement….

A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
Proverbs 24:33

This little problem is called laziness.  Or sometimes it is called procrastination.

And a lot of us suffer from it.  Especially me.

But the author of Proverbs warns us of the sad results if we have “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest” (see!  it rhymes so well and so perfectly… and maybe that is why it is so easy to be lazy!).

My favourite excuse of leaving everything to the last minute to do is that I work well under pressure.

But actually, this is just one BIG FAT EXCUSE not to get started.  It is as if by delaying the inevitable, what needs to be done will go away.

And all your like minded people out there … you know who you are… you will agree with me that it takes a great effort to combat our laziness.  If we do not attack this problem, poverty (both spiritual and physical) will come like a ‘prowler’ (v. 34).  And this prowler certainly sounds like the roaring lion, walking around to seek those whom he can devour (1 Pet 5:8).

So what can we do about laziness?

Nothing!  Hahaha… sorry… that is the answer I would like to give but we all know it is a wrong one.

I guess the only way to tackle this problem is to first admit that it is a problem and then resolve to get a handle on it.

Start by checking how we use our time.  If we are wasting it, work out a plan to combat the problem.

One big laziness of mine used to be reading the Bible.  I never got going.

But when we started this Bible Reading campaign two years ago, I decided that I wanted to really do it.  And so I started looking at where I could best do it.  And I found that it was either during my lunch time or after my shower at nite after dinner.

And this became top priorities in my time.  And this has been going on for almost two years now.

All it took was an honest self assessment that I was lazy and a procrastinator and that I really needed to do something about it.

And I truly learned this… if you have the heart to do something… God helps.  In ways you cannot ever imagine.  But that is for another time.

In the meantime… get preaching and redeem the time!