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

HOPPING KANGAROOS: HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?

“But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.” Acts 26:25

After Calvary Baptist Church, Duncan, Oklahoma sent their endorsed missionary to Australia to open that field of witness to the churches of the American Baptist Association, they later sent Laura and me there in 1972 to help search out an appropriate building site and possibly arrange financing. International currencies were fluctuating wildly, and the Australian Dollar was actually worth more than the U.S. dollar.

In consultation with the president of Commonwealth Bank in Campbelltown, New South Wales, it became apparent that financing would have to be done in the United States. However, the jolly fellow offered this possible help for fundraising. His chain of banks had ordered 10,000 Kangaroo coin banks for advertisement, but they did not meet their specifications, and were rejected. He suggested that those banks might be bought for ten cents each instead of the original one dollar cost.

I thought it a great idea. After contacting the company that made them, they offered to sell them to us at just that price: ten cents each. It was a deal if they would be responsible to ship them to America. They agreed! About three months later, I received a phone call that my shipment was in port at New Orleans. A local pastor walked them through customs and had a freight company ship them to Oklahoma.

So, do you know how many 10,000 kangaroo banks are? Somehow I did not. Instead of a regular delivery truck with a couple of boxes, a tractor-trailer truck arrived with a lot of huge boxes. Kangaroo banks were everywhere in the church house: classrooms, hallways, etc. Then to top it all off, the ladies auxiliary thought I had lost my mind when I asked them to put stickers on each one, but they did it anyway, and enjoyed the fellowship while doing it.

Then in 1973, I pulled a large U-Haul trailer to the ABA meeting in Little Rock and provided a large sack of banks to every church messenger who would agree to use them. They were asked to have Sunday School classes fill a bank with coins at least one time, and mail the offering to us. After that, they could use the banks for their own fundraising projects.

Before it was over, those who may have initially thought I had lost my mind were smiling because God’s people responded, and funds began rolling in to pay for a two acre plot of ground known as Mountain View, overlooking Campbelltown from the Lumeah area, a suburb of Sydney, Australia.

Today, a beautiful church plant sits on the property where a fair sized congregation meets to worship regularly. Most of the time, the Lord’s provisions come in unusual ways, giving all the more reason to rejoice. Hopping Kangaroos! If this is losing one’s mind, it would be such a pleasure to do it all over again!

FOR THOUGHT: Think of some unusual ways God has answered your pressing need or your prayers? How did that make you feel? Are you better prepared to trust His guidance as a result?

HOW BAD IS ONE LITTLE SIN?

A considerable amount of conversation over the years has involved two phrases: a little white lie, and a big black lie. Is there a difference? Think with me about it.

It is the propensity of folks to categorize right and wrong by degree without any evidence of divine support. Admitting, propagating, and proceeding on such a foundation of thought is what the Bible calls iniquity. It is a viewpoint of sin coming from depraved hearts and/or carnal minds. Stay with me!

Consider the sinful, global mess of men. Initially, God set Adam and Eve in a beautiful, pristine garden under absolutely ideal conditions. His one obligation was to refrain from eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now, hang on! The fruit of that tree is not identified, but something is known about it. It was pleasant to the eyes; it was good for food; it was desirable to make one wise. This is the triune temptation the apostle John wrote about saying, “For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:16.

Now just how bad can the decision be to eat beautiful, luscious fruit from a tree in a garden given to your care? It is supposed that the entire world would say the decision seemed to be wise, and should be done, but how very wrong they would be.

So, that little white sin of simply eating what was forbidden brought down the entire cosmos into the laws of sin and death. Not just to Adam and Eve, but to all their posterity, and to the creation over which they were given lordship.

The conclusion is inescapable! There is no little sin, certainly no little white sin. Neither is there a little black sin, but all sin is big and black. Moreover, one sin admits the presence of sin, and not one sin will be present in the cosmos of God after judgment occurs.

A dear friend is old now, and has never professed Christ Jesus as his Savior. I pleaded with him to turn to the Lord. His reply was: “Well I have lived a pretty good life. I will just take my chances.” Those words tore my heart! I replied, “My dear friend, you mean so much to me, and you mean so much to our Lord that He died to save you. So, I am telling you here and now that without Him in your heart, you do not have a single chance. Hell will be your eternal home if you depart as you are right now. I continue to pray that he will open his heart to God. Little sins are big sins. One must stop worldly comparisons and see the righteousness of the Son of God as the only righteousness acceptable to the Heavenly Father.

FOR THOUGHT: To commit one sin is to become a sinner, having broken the righteous laws of God. What is the difference between a chain being broken by the might strength of giant machines, and one being cut in two pieces by a little lady with a pair of lock cutters? Is the result not the same? So it is with sin! What are some of your “Little sins”? How does God see them?