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Strategies to keep from falling 03
- 98914
Regularly rehearsing the consequences. I met with a man who had been a leader
in a Christian organization until he fell into immorality. I asked him, "What
could have been done to prevent this?"
He paused for only a moment, then said with haunting pain and precision, "If
only I had really known, really thought through, what it would cost me and my
family and my Lord, I honestly believe I never would have done it."
In the wake of several Christian leaders' falling into immorality, a
co-pastor and I developed a list of specific consequences that would result
from our immorality. The list (see article, "The Real and Untold Cost") was
devastating, and to us it spoke more powerfully than any sermon on the
subject.
Periodically, especially when traveling or in a time of weakness, we read
through the list. In a tangible and personal way, it brings home God's
inviolate law of choice and consequence, cutting through the fog of
rationalization and filling our hearts with the healthy, motivating fear of
God.
Winning the battle
In J.R.R. Tolkien's book, The Hobbit, there was no one seemingly more
invincible than Smaug, the mighty dragon. But then that unlikely hero, Bilbo
Baggins, found one small weak spot in Smaug's underbelly. That information, in
the hands of a skilled marksman, was all it took to seal the doom of the
presumptuous dragon. Unaware of his weakness and underestimating his
opponents, Smaug failed to protect himself. An arrow pierced his heart, and
the dragon was felled.
An exciting story with a happy ending. But when it's a Christian leader
felled, the ending is not so happy. It's tragic. The Evil One knows only too
well the weak spots of the most mighty Christian warriors, not to mention the
rest of us. He isn't one to waste his arrows, bouncing them harmlessly off the
strongest plates of our spiritual armor.
His aim is deadly, and it is at our points of greatest vulnerability that he
will most certainly attack.
We are in battle--a battle far more fierce and strategic than any Alexander,
Hannibal, or Napoleon ever fought. We must realize that no one prepares for a
battle of which he is unaware, and no ones wins a battle for which he doesn't
prepare.
As we hear of Christian leaders succumbing to immorality, we must not say
merely, "There, but for the grace of God, I might have gone," but rather,
"There, but for the grace of God--and but for my alertness and diligence in
the spiritual battle--I mayyet go."
Randy C. Alcorn is director of Eternal Perspective Ministries in Gresham,
Oregon.
Copyright(c) 1996 by Christianity Today, Inc./LEADERSHIP journal Summer 1996
Vol.XVII, No.3, Page 47
