Monday, August 13, 2012

Nate's Perspective


It’s funny how kids can make you think about things in new ways. My five year old grandson Nate recently lost his Grandma Massey. My wife Valerie and I went to the viewing to pay our respects and help any way we could. When we got to the funeral home we visited with the family and friends that we knew, met some of their family we hadn’t seen before and generally made the rounds. When we finished I headed back to the lounge to where the rest of the kids were. Nate happened to be back there by himself playing a video game on his dad’s phone.  He looked up and said, “Hi Papaw.” I said, “Hi Nate, how ya doin’?” He said, “OK” and went back to his video game. I took a seat just to be there and keep him company. After a short time he looked up from his game and asked, “Papaw what are you doin’ here in heaben?” I said,” Nate I’m not in heaven. We’re at the funeral home not heaven.” … “Oh”, he answered, and went back to his video game.  His Mom and Dad had explained to him that Grandma Massey had passed away and now she was going away to live with Jesus in Heaven.  I guess he processed that information the same way that most five year olds do. Since grandma Massey was in the next room this must be heaven.  Five year olds have an amazing capacity to retain information for future reference they just don’t have the background to sort that info.  

You know, we adults are much the same as five year olds when it comes to processing information. If we’re not given the background on a situation we can come to incorrect or incomplete conclusions. Too many times the Gospel is given to the lost without the background necessary to come to the correct conclusion.  Much of the time they are told that all they have to do is say a simple prayer or just keep the two greatest commandments. The benefit of “accepting Christ” is explained as a matter of life enhancement and heaven after that. No mention is made of God’s absolute holiness or our absolute sinfulness. No mention is made of repentance and a changed life, or the alternative, hell. If they are mentioned it’s only in general, vague terms that don’t carry the weight or information needed to understand the gravity of their plight. Folks, we gotta start laying out the whole truth to the lost. Their hearts need to be awakened to the fact we are vile sinners in God’s eyes and in need of a savior. How do we do that? We can change the “Modern Message” back to the “Old Truth”.  What we tell them needs to have the hard edge of truth. No more sugar coating. Until we are willing to break their hearts with our words they will not be able to arrive at the right conclusion.

No comments:

Post a Comment