Read Jude 1:22–23
Tom Skinner, the gifted evangelist, penned a book with a title that won’t let me go: If Christ Is the Answer, What Are the Questions?
I appreciate that title...not only because it’s creative, but because it seems to strike a chord with the voices of many searchers in society.
Far too many sheep in the fold have turned a deaf ear to the questions of goats outside the gate. We are busily engaged in a mutual-admiration campaign, complimenting one another’s wool...or gloating over our position in the pen. The fence that separates us from the goats is all too often more like a sound-resistant, one-way glass. This “glass fence” produces two serious and sad results:
- It absorbs and muffles the outside sounds so that what we hear are not the actual questions goats are asking
- It reverberates back to the goats not only their own hopeless appearance but a distinct silence that says, in effect, “Sorry, we have no answer,” or “We’ll just ignore that, since you’re not teachable and only want to argue”
There are exceptions, of course...but you’ve got to agree with me that most sheep have stopped considering the questions and have started analyzing the answers.
Consider God’s perspective:
You must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives. (Jude 1:22–23)
My friend and mentor Howie Hendricks often said, “People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.” They’ll know you care when you start smelling like smoke from just having rescued them from the fire.
Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.
The full devotional can be purchased at https://www.tyndale.com/p/good-morning-lord-can-we-talk/9781414380681
