Your Daily Devotional for March 15, 2006

March 15, 2006

 

AWOL Christianity
by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

“And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought it not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.”

Acts 15:37-38

AWOL is a military term for Absent Without Leave. When a soldier leaves the service without notice or proper reason, he is marked as having gone AWOL. Punishment for this crime is dishonorable discharge and possible time in prison! Nobody likes a quitter—especially in the Armed Forces.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; for your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” The term “devour” means “to make disappear.” The devil is constantly seeking “whom he may devour,” or somebody that he can get to go AWOL in this spiritual warfare that is taking place in our lives. He would be thrilled to see you lose your heart for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We live in a day when many good Christians are going AWOL. I was driving with a friend of mine a while ago, and as we passed his neighbor’s house, he said, “My neighbor left his wife, and she was forced to sell the house. He got on the Internet, met another woman, and left his wife and children.”

Luke was an example of someone that had gone AWOL. Although he had a great mentor (Paul the Apostle!), and he had a wonderful opportunity to travel the world preaching the Gospel, he left Paul and Barnabas for his comfortable hometown of Jerusalem in Acts 13:13.

Perhaps you are thinking of going AWOL or have already gone AWOL—Absent Without Leave—in soulwinning, Bible reading, church attendance, prayer time, etc. There are many areas of your Christian life that you can go spiritually AWOL on. God, however, is on your side. He wants you to finish. Choose today that, no matter what happens, you’re not going to go AWOL in your Christian life.

Finally, Hebrews 12:1 encourages us, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

---

================================================
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE PLEASE DO NOT REPLY
================================================
Manage your online subscriptions at
http://www.dailyintheword.org/email/user-login.aspx

To Unsubscribe from this list please follow this link
http://www.dailyintheword.org/email/user-unsubscribe.aspx?s=4159&l=1