March 2014 Articles

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Spiritual Corner: People of the Way

Spiritual Corner People of the Way By: Tommy Bennett
“Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” (Acts 9:1-2). In a recent sermon I looked at the life of the Apostle Paul and how he had always been one who fought for his beliefs, even if his early efforts were channeled in the wrong direction. After the service a sister asked, “What do you suppose happened to all those Christians that Paul and others captured?” My answer was, “probably everything you can imagine, and many things we don’t want to even think about.” Other places we find where Saul as he was called at the time “made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women and committing them to prison.” (Acts 8:3). History tells us that some never made it to prison and many that did were killed for sport. A history is written about each generation that passes, and I began to ask myself, if the Lord chooses not to come back during my generation, what will the history books say about us? My fear is that it will say we were a society in which the courts fought for things such as same sex marriage and abortion rights. Or it might say a very small percentage of radical individuals began a campaign and were successful in removing prayer from many public functions. It could say that we were a nation who largely believed in God, but at the same time only a small percentage attended worship on a weekly basis. I have many fears as to what could be written, but am hopeful that the record would also reflect that among the many ills of society there was always a “people of the way.” People dedicated to living for God and his eternal principles. Great, largely silent, segments of our population that respected God and in turn his fellow man. Individuals who “went about doing good.” As a nation we need to once again return to the principles upon which we were founded. The real glory of a nation will never be found in efforts of diplomacy, wisdom in the international community, the ruthlessness of warfare, or the extent of our empire. Other nations may fear us, but may we always be remembered as a nation that feared God. “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34).