“And they shall comfort you, when ye see their ways and their doings: and ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, saith the Lord GOD.” (Eze 14:23 AV)
The ‘they’ to which the LORD is referring is a
smaller group of faithful Israelites who were following the LORD in comparison to
the majority who were not. The chapter describes
coming judgment on the majority of Israel because of their idolatrous
ways. The LORD recounts how Israel was
brought out of Egypt and other nations, separated from their gods, and placed
in a land all their own that they might wholly follow the LORD. The judgment foretells when the people of Israel
will be carried away to Babylon for two generations and the land will remain fallow,
returning to its natural state and awaiting a repentant nation. As the prophet looks at the coming situation
from the vast majority, it would become easy to be discouraged by the
stubbornness of God’s people. He pleads
and pleads. He preaches and
preaches. There is no movement towards God. It is easy to focus on what appears to be
failures and forget there are successes.
The vast majority of the world will turn from God. It doesn’t matter what methods we use. It matters not how much time we devote. The fact of the matter is, that the gospel
will fall on deaf ears. If we allow our
eyes to see only the rejection, we will not rejoice at those who do respond –
even if their numbers are significantly lower.
Coaching an inner city baseball team is not for
the faint of heart. Most signed up
because it gained some sort of benefit.
Most did not sign up for the love of baseball, interest in sports, or
any other normal reason. Usually, our
coach recruited any and all warm bodies that were willing to practice a few
hours a week and play a game or two. Most
bodies were there to take up a seat on the bench and it also meant getting out
of a class or two. We only won one game
that season and that was a playoff game.
If it wasn’t for our pitcher pitching a no-hitter, we wouldn’t have won
that game either. Most of the players
were not even engaged in the game as we played it. Picking daisies in the outfield, carrying on
conversations with girlfriends in the stands, or simply looking around as
though there was nothing to notice; our team was an easy source of
discouragement. However, three players
actually cared and tried their hardest.
It was the coach’s goal to get these three players baseball scholarships
to any college he could find. For the
vast majority of players, they would probably not make an effort to get into a
college even if they could afford one.
It would be easy to get discouraged at the players who didn’t care a bit
because they made up the majority of the team.
It was those three players who the coach received his greatest pleasure. He worked with the others. He was frustrated at their apathy. He would even lose his cool from time to
time. We still did drills. We still practiced. He did not give up on any individual or the
team as a whole. But it was those three
who truly cared and tried their best from which he got the most enjoyment.
We live in a very sin-sick world. We see the gospel repelled at every turn. I, for one, see it every week as we knock on doors. The apathy is astounding. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that one out of every three hundred contacts will have at least a three-or-four sentence long conversation with you. One out of every five hundred may allow you to explain the gospel to them. One out of eight hundred might even ask questions to further understand the gospel. And out of the year that we have been knocking on about 75 doors a weak, there have been two who have come to Christ. Those odds are pretty horrible when you think about it. Why would we do this? First, I believe it is the primary method of soul-winning commanded in the Bible. This is not a ‘method’ reserved for a culture that did not have distance communication like phone, email, or commercials. They went door to door because God commanded them to. It is still the best way to ensure all those to whom you are called personally receive the gospel message. The thing is, we cannot get discouraged by apparent ‘failure’. We must be encouraged by the few who follow. As long as one comes to Christ, then we should be encouraged that our labor is not in vain in the LORD.
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