(More Bible Studies Available @ www.marktabata.com)
To Receive These (And Other) Free Bible Studies And Updates Via Email, Contact Mark Tabata @ 606-216-1757 (Text Message) Or hazardhomecoc@gmail.com (Email)
Ezekiel 14:14 (CEV)-Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were living in that nation, their faithfulness would not save anyone but themselves.
Shortly before we moved from Hazard, I received an unusual request from one of the faculty members at West Virginia School Of Preaching (the preaching school I was blessed to attend and graduate from in 2001). He was collecting data on graduates who were still preaching God’s Word. Specifically, he was interested in challenges the preachers were facing in their located work, as well as numbers of people baptized. Now, I had thought often of challenges that we faced in ministry, but I had never really sat down and looked at the numbers of individuals I had baptized into Christ over the years. Intrigued, I went back and tallied my records. From 2014-2023, I had baptized some 83 people in ministry at Couchtown. (This number did not include those baptized in jail ministry, which I estimate around some one hundred or one hundred and fifty in that time frame).
On the one hand, that is encouraging! God’s Word had been shared with at least 83 souls who had been baptized and saved (Mark 16:16). This is exciting, and definitely grounds for great rejoicing (Acts 8:35-39)!
But on the other hand, I was struck by something else:
Only seven that I could count were still active and faithful members of the church at Couchtown.
Now, to be clear, there were about twenty or so that had moved out of the area, and there were two that had passed away.
But that still left over forty that I could number who had simply stopped walking with the Lord.
As any Gospel preacher should do, I began asking questions, looking at my failings (real or imagined) with them.
Where had I gone wrong?
Did I not teach them well enough before their baptism?
Did I not teach them well enough after their baptism?
Were there other ways that I had failed them?
What could I have done differently?
These questions were, incidentally, very similar to questions that had been raised by parents I have worked with over the years, who have struggled regarding their children who had left the faith. They often wondered if they had somehow failed in raising their children in the Lord, and what they should have done differently. Sometimes the guilt that faced with asking these questions had paralyzed them.
Now, here is the uncomfortable (but at the same time strangely liberating) truth about all of these questions:
Yes-I have failed at times.
To be sure, there are times when I have “dropped the ball” as a minister. There have been times I wish I could go back and change some things and make different decisions in the ways that I handled difficult situations. Hindsight is 20/20, as my Dad used to say. Looking back on a situation after we have gone through it helps us to see better decisions we could have made.
But while acknowledging our personal accountability and owning any errors on our part, we also need to remember that each person is responsible for his or her own actions as well.
Indeed, as I looked back at the names of those precious souls who had been baptized into Christ and who subsequently left the fold, I was struck by the number of disciples that I could count who had turned from Christ because of personal sin and hardship. Many were due to relapse with drugs. Some were offended by the Word contradicting sin in their lives. Others had given up when discouragement and spiritual warfare had been manifest. There were some that left because of pressure from family and friends who did not approve of their new Christian life, etc.
In a lot of ways, it all reminds me of what Jesus taught:
Mark 4:14-20-The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
So what do we do with all these things?
First, we devote ourselves to becoming better Christians and teachers in the present then we have been in the past. We should always be evaluating ourselves and our walk of life. That is part of growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 3:18).
Second, where we have failed, we do what we can to rectify situations. That is also a vital part of the Christian life.
Matthew 5:23-24-Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Third, recognize that you are not responsible for the actions of others (Galatians 6:1-5).
Fourth, remember that sometimes in life, people are going to reject Christ and His Word simply because they are offended by Him and His teaching. It is sometimes a matter of disliking the Message and therefore disliking the messenger.
John 6:66-69-From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” 68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
When this happens, all you can do is keep preaching and teaching the Word of God in love and hope and pray that it will lodge in a good and honest heart.
Fifth, remember that there are many people you can yet influence every day for good. I was thinking about this with “the seven” that I mentioned earlier who were still faithful members at Couchtown.. What a blessing they have been in my life!
Remind yourself that the “Good News” always outweighs the bad, even when it sometimes feels like that isn’t the case.
Finally, strengthen yourself in the reality of the amazing grace of God in Jesus that is the foundation of our hope and salvation.
Lord, thank You for Your amazing love found in Christ our Lord. Help us not to become discouraged but to keep pressing on and looking to You. We pray forgiveness for when we have failed You, and we pray for those who have left the faith. Grant them many sleepless nights until they see their need to return to You. In Christ we pray, Amen.