September 21, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
MANY MORE NEGLECT THAN REJECT YET THE FINAL RESULT IS THE SAME
“How shall we escape, if we neglect?”
Heb. 1: 3, KJV.
“This question is so framed as to demand the answer, ‘We shall not escape.’ The danger here pointed out is not of rejecting Christ and the [true] gospel. But we are persuaded that many more neglect than reject. And it is against neglect that the apostle warns!
“Comparatively FEW definitely and finally reject God’s offer of eternal life [through the divine plan of salvation as taught in great detail by the sanctuary doctrine]. Most men intend at some time [procrastinate, put off for a ‘more convenient time’] to attend to their religious duties. But they DELAY and NEGLECT; and before they are aware of it, ‘the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and they are not saved.’(Jer. 8:20). It is always dangerous to neglect, for ‘now is the accepted time!’ [‘Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’].
“How much evil has come into this world because of neglect and delay!” M.L. Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, pp. 83, 84.
Doubtless, we all have experienced at some point in our lives where we neglected, delayed or procrastinated to say or do the right thing in defense of “the truth as it is in Jesus,” in order to indulge self or to “please” a fellow sinner and mortal, only to find out too late that the opportunity did not present itself again! Thank God for still prolonging our lives and extending our probation time, while people all around us and in the world will have breathed their last today. The only way we can “redeem lost time” is to do the very best of whatever remains, by Christ’s grace and our honest and humble due diligence!
God bless all, NMF