HOW DO YOU DO BUSINESS?

     Did you ever order anything from mail order house or catalogue?
Suppose you are ordering a suit. What do you do? Do you tell the exact
size you want the suit to be, the exact color, the exact style, the
exact material? Then, do you set forth to tell the company all the
sizes, colors, styles, and materials NOT to send?
     Do you say: "Don't send sizes 32, 34, 36, 40, 42; don't send
cotton, rayon, silk or leather?" Such would be indeed silly. You
simply state what you want and expect the mail order house to abide by
your specifications.
     "But God didn't say not to do this or not to do that in our
worship. And, if He did not say NOT to do it, it must be all right for
us to do it." "God didn't say NOT to gamble, so it must be all right
for me to gamble just a little." "God didn't tell us not to use other
organizations to do the work of the church, therefore it must be all
right." When people are not contented with doing exactly what God
demands of men, they invariably try to pull other things into religion
through the "NOThole."
     Paul told Timothy, "But abide thou in the things which thou hast
learned" (2 Timothy 3:14). In filling God's order for human service
and devotion, we must carefully read His demands, which are clearly
specified in His word. Then we must deliver unto Him precisely what He
has ordered, or He will not be pleased. He asks for nothing more. He
knows what we have and what we are. He will have no substitutes. Is
the bundle of your religion just a package of substitutions in filling
God's order, or can you go to His word and find every single bit of it
authorized and commanded by the Lord?
     How do you do business with God? Take care lest you displease Him
and lose the most important thing you possess -- YOUR SOUL.
     ---Jack Thompson, preacher for the White Park church of Christ
 
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