Commitment!
Believers must be committed to the cause of Christ and to the church.
IT IS THE KEY FOR MATURITY.
Overcoming trials and tribulation.
Letting Christ to live our lives.
IT IS THE KEY FOR SUCCESS.
Success in school.
Success in marriage.
Success in ministry.
Zuizendorf said to a Moravian brother at Herrnhut, “Can you go as a missionary to Greenland?” “Yes.” Can you go tomorrow?” “If the cobbler has finished my shoes I can go tomorrow.” That was a quick, willing-hearted response.
Wesley said: “If I had three hundred men who feared nothing but God, hated nothing but sin, and were determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and him crucified, I would set the world on fire.” “Send us men,” said a heathen convert, “with hot hearts.”
IT IS THE KEY FOR PERSEVERANCE.
Commitment keeps us going.
A Negro Church in Kansas City has as its slogan:
“Wake up, sing up, preach up, pray up and pay up, but never give up or let up or back up or shut up until the cause of Christ in this church and in the world is built up.”
In October and November of 1971, The Reader’s Digest published two articles by Clarence W. Hall on the activities of the World Council of Churches. In the first article Mr. Hall made this statement: “Preaching the gospel of racial justice, the World Council of Churches is using church power and church funds to back insurrection in the United States and Africa. In the early 1970s hundreds of thousands of dollars were given by the council to terrorist groups, some of them avowedly Communists who were engaged in guerrilla activity. While supporting such radical activities, it is a well-known fact that the council did everything in its power to hinder the American government in its involvement in the Vietnam war.”
Without commitment, there’s no need for renewal.
IT IS THE KEY FOR LASTING MINISTRY.
Based on commitment to Christ.
“We will not accept into membership anyone with any reservations whatsoever,” declared Lenin, the founder of Russian communism. “We will not accept into our membership anyone unless he is an active, disciplined, working member in one of our organizations.”
The famous Oriental philosopher, Lokman, while a slave, being presented by his master with a bitter melon, immediately ate it all. “How was it possible,” said his master, “for you to eat so nauseous a fruit?”
Lokman replied, “I have received so many favours from you, it is no wonder I should, for once in my life, eat a bitter melon from your hand.” This generous answer of the slave struck the master so forcibly that he immediately gave him his liberty.