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What's Wrong With This Picture?
Perhaps you have seen the puzzle-like pictures where you have to find what is wrong. In the puzzle, something is askew -- it just doesn’t fit in with the whole picture of things. Some of those puzzles are easy to solve while others require scrutinizing.
Brother Kenny Moorer used an illustration in a sermon about sitting at the back in an assembly of Christians in a “devotional” setting and reading a newspaper. One of the men finally came back to him and said, “We are Christians and we are trying to study the scriptures.” There is a certain incongruity evident where people are studying the scriptures and worshipping while one person is occupied with reading the sports page of the newspaper – something doesn’t fit.
We invited brother Moorer to come and preach. We agreed to support him financially and share in the work of teaching the Word of God. We announced for months in advance the time for the meeting and encouraged everyone to arrange their schedules so they could come. Particularly, we wanted to address some issues that would be instructive and encouraging to our young people. Brother Moorer came prepared and did his job. But there was something wrong with the picture.
In my judgment, the solution does not require special, puzzle-solving skills. Parents in this congregation talk about the needs of their children and they appear to be concerned about their eternal well being. They see the dangers of lax morals and the appeal of intellectual modernism. Many parents demonstrated their care for their children and the many children clearly evidenced their spiritual mindedness. But picture this in your mind – fathers and mothers who say they love their children but who chose recreation, sports, fun, etc., over being at the meeting where special instruction was being given to help them spiritually. Just as surely as a young man sitting in an assembly reading the sports page where scripture was being studied was out of place, there is something wrong with the above mentioned picture. Something doesn’t fit! – Jim R. Everett
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