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 As
a boy, I hunted quail, rabbits, and squirrel’s — and BIG
game was an occasional ground-hog. Consequently, on my first
deer hunt I expected some huge animal to come charging through
the woods — perhaps even threatening me with massive antlers.
No wonder I had trouble seeing my first shadowy white-tail slip
quietly through the brush and disappear. I hunted, but failed to
see, because I had unseen conceptions about my proposed target.
Now
it seems we may be failing in the work of the Lord because we
are not realistic about the most complex game of all — the
hearts of people. And some make a life-time safari for “numbers”
and “church image” without even realizing they seek the
wrong game. If we do not capture the heart for Christ we have
done nothing.
Those
church-members in the pews — are not hanging on every word
the preacher or teacher speaks. Ideally, they hunger for God’s
truth, and are anxious to drink the living water; but actually
many are duty —conscious and polite enough to sit quietly and
look at the speaker, while their mind copes with a problem at
home. Some are “dull of hearing” due to stunted spiritual
development; and some are mentally unable to grasp new material
rapidly stated. Many are so tradition bound as to miss a very
familiar point if stated differently — they are used to
hearing it one way only — and may think you have some new
doctrine, if they think anything.
So,
the preacher gives them a good lashing for their “hypocrisy”
“unconcerned, worldly minds” — and they wonder what has
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come over the man. We have missed again
failing to understand our targets. If we would flatly concede
that they are not the dedicated, studious, single-hearted saints
they should he, we can find no place in the line-up for
ourselves? And just what do we honestly expect??
I
believe we have a right to expect a people who want to do
better, who realize they should be more spiritually
minded than they are. We must help one-another to achieve this
goal— and that means we must reach less-than-perfect
hearts with God’s truth. The tradition-bound man would like to
be a servant of Christ, but we must reach a tradition-bound
heart to show him that he is tradition-bound. The
distracted house-wife would like to truly worship God (after
all, she did assemble with the saints) but we must get
our message about true worship into a distracted heart.
The
same principle works in reaching for people of the world. One
can not reach a vile heart with material aimed at a heart of
faith. As the story of the cross, judgement, and eternal
punishment have been neglected, so we have failed to reach the
hearts of the world. Sometimes it seems our own lack of faith in
the gospel of Christ keeps us from presenting this where it is
most needed.
A
good shot learns his rifle well, understands the “sight
picture” — and then, concentrates on the target.
We must give more attention to understanding the hearts
of people. Of what benefit is a powerful bullet — which
misses by a country mile.
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