Yesterday a friend of mine shared with me something that her husband had told her concerning the importance of not varying from the course—even by the tiniest bit: He said that if a pilot were to take off in a plane and his heading were off by even one degree, for every sixty miles he traveled he would be one mile off target. Therefore, if he left JFK headed for LAX, at the end of the trip he would find himself forty miles out over the Pacific Ocean. My friend’s husband concluded by saying, “[Depending on how much fuel was in the tanks,] this could mean the difference between a passenger’s making his meeting on time and using his seat cushion for a floatation device.”
In view of the turmoil we are experiencing in our country, I think that this analogy is very timely. We have all been under a lot of pressure as we have watched our financial futures, employment prospects, and basic freedoms evaporate right before our eyes. In times like these, it is natural to try to gain control of some aspect of our lives, and those of us who are Christians nearly always turn to the Church for help. It is important, however, to remember that when we are most vulnerable, Satan is most active. Our fellow Christians are also people under attack, and they, too, are trying to work out their lives during these very precarious times. It is more important than ever, therefore, to make certain that our heading is not off by even one degree, and we must always be mindful that the only way we can ensure a safe passage is to examine everything in the light of scripture.
In many churches we are now witnessing an effort to revamp the church experience in ways that, traditionally, would have never been considered. While I believe that most of the proposed changes are well-intentioned efforts to reach unbelievers and make church more “relevant” to today’s generation, I also believe that we must be more careful than ever to keep our message pure. We need to step back and view all change in the light of scripture. We have the model of the early church as to its goals, and we have a wealth of scripture that defines our roles as Christians. If these goals are allowed to vary by even one degree, we will eventually find ourselves far off course, drowning in a sea of false doctrine.
What my friend’s husband did not say is that when the pilot in the analogy crashed his plane, he would not only very likely have killed himself, he would have been responsible for the loss of the lives of his crew and passengers. That destruction would, in turn, affect the lives of the families and friends of all those who were lost in the crash.
The same is true of a spiritual crash. When we who are mature Christians allow false teaching to come into our churches, we are not only responsible for our own spiritual deaths, we are responsible for misleading new Christians who do not know God’s Word and are depending on us to stay on course. They, in turn, affect their families and friends by spreading unscriptural precepts. It is, therefore, the responsibility of every Christian to examine every policy of his or her local church in light of God’s Word and to stand against anything that does not measure up.
We are constantly being barraged by “politically correct” thinking, and we are often told that as Christians we are narrow minded. The next time someone says that you are “narrow minded” because you are unwilling to compromise the Word of God, consider it a compliment. A narrow mind will keep you on the narrow road that ultimately leads to heaven. (Matthew 7:13)
Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her story of teaching her own children from the first grade through master's degrees before their 17th birthdays is retold in Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.
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