FBCJacksonville Blog

In 1913, the federal government held a fiftieth anniversary reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg.  It was held at Gettysburg and thousands of men who had survived that horrible battle and war were camped all over the battlefield once again, but now these men were in their seventies, eighties, and nineties.  The climax was a reenactment of the Pickets Charge up Cemetery Ridge.  All the old Union soldiers gathered up on Cemetery Ridge, and the old Confederate soldiers gathered in the woods along Seminary Ridge.  When they commenced the charge, they say that it was not rifles and bayonets that they were carrying but walking canes and crutches.

It was a great reunion, but on the last night as they all gathered at a restaurant to eat, a Yankee on one side of the table got into a Rebel on the other side of the table.  Harsh words were passed and the two old soldiers grabbed their forks and one was nearly fatally wounded in the fight that erupted.  Having survived one of the bloodiest battles in history, having made it through the bloodiest war America has ever fought, they came down to being nearly killed with a fork.[1]

In the Christian walk it amazes me how well we handle the big issues.  The overwhelming majority of Christians handle well faithfulness physically to their mate; it is the lustful thoughts that give us the big problem.  The overwhelming majority of Christians do not rob banks, or snatch purses, or shoplift desirable items.  However, we really struggle over stealing work hours from the employer, justifying expense account purchases, and even giving less than our best to our mates and family.

It is the small sin that does you in.  Things like procrastination, apathy, half-truths.  Years ago, I read a story about some beached whales.  Scientists were puzzled over why these whales were beaching themselves.  It was discovered that these huge creatures were chasing minnows and simply beached themselves in the process and died.  It’s the little things that get you in your walk with Christ.  It’s the little things that eventually lead to the big things that seem to sink you.

In a recent study of the great ship the RMS Titanic, scientists discovered the real reason for the unsinkable ship’s demise.  When they found the Titanic resting about 2.5 miles down on the bottom floor of the North Atlantic Ocean, they discovered that it was not a huge slice in the side of the ship that caused the Titanic to sink.  No, it was that the seams of the ship had popped apart opening the ship to the sea.  In a study made of the small rivets, it was discovered that they had been cast with a high residual of slag still in the iron.  Slag left in iron causes iron to become brittle at extreme temperatures.  When the great ship hit that iceberg, it was not that a hole was cut into the side of the ship, but that thousands of little rivets cracked under pressure.  Christian, it is the small things that get us.  Solomon says, “Catch the foxes, the little foxes that are spoiling the vineyard,” (Song of Solomon 2:15).  It is the small sin that does you in.

In 1857, Charles Hadden Spurgeon was capturing the English-speaking world by storm.  He had to move his congregation from the New Park Street Chapel to the Music Hall in the Royal Surry Gardens where he preached to more than 10,000 people every week.  You would think that this tremendous success would be all a young preacher would need to cheer his heart but on October 4, 1857 Spurgeon, preaching from Isaiah 41:14, said this:

John Henry Jowett  pastored the famous Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York. After G. Campbell Morgan died, Jowett went to pastor Westminster Chapel in London.  This pastor of great churches once wrote a friend and said:

John Knox the great Scottish Reformer prayed:

Adoniram Judson, America’s first missionary, having lost several children and then his wife while serving on the mission field, withdrew from ministry and people altogether.  He sat for days beside an open grave and just grieved.  He wrote:

David, we are told, “waxed faint.”  Paul stated that he had a thorn in the flesh, that he had been in labor and hardship, that he had seen many sleepless nights.  He also spoke of the daily pressure of the concern for the churches that weighed on him.  Then think about Moses and Elijah, the two men who met with the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration.  They were the same two men who had asked for God to let them die.

There was Jeremiah who cursed the day he was born, and there was Jonah who asked for God to take his life.  Then there was Job, who no doubt suffered to a greater degree than anyone else in the word of God except for Jesus Christ.

It is not unusual for the people of God to suffer through periods of suffering, hardship, even depression.  It is unusual if they don’t.  Job said in 3:26:

What Job was saying was, “I have no peace, and no rest.  All I have are problems and heartaches and despair.” Now maybe that is where you find yourself.  Or perhaps someone you know is in that place right now and you hurt for them.  Realize that even the most mature believers can become discouraged.  Take heart Christian, God preserved the record of Job’s grief so that through the encouragement of Scripture we might have hope.  Stay plugged into the book.  Stay plugged into prayer.  Stay plugged into Sunday School, and fellowship.  The tendency will be to disconnect from all three, and in so doing you will become obsessed with the “whys” of life.  As a Christian you and I do not live by the “whys,” of life, but we trust in the “Who.”