Thoughts on Discipleship by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

THE GRASS WAS NOT GREENER, BUT DANGEROUS

As a small boy in the coal strip-mining country of south Sebastian County, Arkansas, our family had a wonderful Jersey cow. Sometimes, ole Jersey would find a way out of the pasture to get at the greener grass beyond. One evening, milking time came but there was no Jersey, Upon calling, a faint cattle cry could be heard in the woods beyond the pasture, Ole Jersey had fallen into an experimental mining hole that was filled with water, but the shaft, though deep, was small enough to wedge her body, She struggled but could not get out, Neighbor men were summoned to help, they had to cut enough trees to construct a triangle hoist support. Then with rope and belting straps placed beneath her body, they were able to lift the cow, and swing her enough to get her feet on solid ground. However her weakened condition necessitated four men to support her with two long poles beneath her body, walking her back to the barn. Her rescue was a joy and the talk of the community for some time.

How many times are God’s people guilty of Ole Jersey’s greener grass allurement! When pastors get tired of studying, they may prefer to change churches where old sermons can be repeated instead of knuckling down to study to build newer and more needful ones. Besides, the grass looks greener over there. Church members who do not always get their way, or feel that nothing exciting is happening in their church will “church hop” because the grass always looks greener over there. Godly people will sometimes yield to the allurement of financial gain that requires them to move away from the fellowship of any church because more money always makes the grass look greener. Jesus admonished His disciples to judge righteous judgment, not the kind that is predominant in the world. A move away from the fellowship of God’s people is a bad move unless you are a missionary with a specific purpose of winning people and helping to constitute a New Testament church. Think about it, and remember Old Jersey! Indeed, the grass always seems greener on the other side of the fence, but once there it has a way of turning dirty brown or sometimes even dangerous. One does well to revisit the admonition of Paul to the church at Corinth,”Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable always abounding in the work of the

Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” I Corinthians 15:58.

FOR THOUGHT: If a church is a scriptural, New Testament church, it matters not if it is large or small. The same God must be the object of worship, and the Holy Spirit must be the director. God gets glory in ways sometimes foreign to men’s thinking. How do you feel about your church? Is the grass greener somewhere else? Do you think men often seek to please themselves rather than search for, and determine, the Will of God for their life?