WOULD YOU BE MISSED?

By Cougan Collins

lgchurchofchrist@cableone.net

 

After completing many years as a journalist, Arthur Brisbane was offered six months of paid vacation time by William Randolph Hearst, the publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. Brisbane refused to accept the kind offer because of two reasons. He said, “If I quit writing my newspaper column for six months, it might affect the circulation of the newspaper. The second reason is that it might not affect the circulation of the newspaper.”

 

Mr. Brisbane’s answer was profound. In view of his answer, let’s ask ourselves, “If I dropped out of sight for six months and did absolutely nothing for the Lord, would I be missed?” Would the Lord’s work suffer or would there be no difference whatsoever?

 

As members of the Lord’s church, we each have a responsibility in doing the Lord’s work and building up the body of Christ:

 

Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,  12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,  13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,  15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head -- Christ --  16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Also  1 Corinthians 14:26; 2 Corinthians 12:19; Ephesians 4:12).

 

We cannot hire someone else to fulfill our responsibility to the Lord (Gal. 6:4-5; Romans 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:8). We are individually accountable to God for what we do with the time He has blessed us with. Let us hear the inspired writer, Paul, as he wrote to the Ephesian brethren, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

 

I want to encourage you to become more involved in the Lord’s work, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). God has richly blessed us with time, talent, vision, and financial means. Let’s be willing to put these gifts to work for the Lord and His cause, “while it is yet day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4). We invite you to worship and study with us to learn more about first century Christianity – lgchurchofchrist.com.

 

Adapted from Mike Riley