I was amused by my son when his mother told him that the item he was chewing on “doesn’t go in your mouth.” His reply was “does it go in my ear?” I don’t know if he is old enough to have developed a smart mouth or if he was just curious, but it got me to thinking about how often we are told what not to do but not what to do. I see this often times in lessons designed for young people. They tend to focus on the big “Don’t”s of adolescent. As important as these are, this focus can leave kids with the impression that Christianity is a faith based on what you don’t do rather than a faith of action. The truth is a person can never do any of the “Don’t”s but still be lost. True Christian living is as much about the thing good works and action we do as it is about what we avoid. A faith that has no action is dead.
In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back. I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...
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