One Thing You Can Not Say

There are many things that are hard to say. Like, "I'm sorry. It's my fault. Forgive me. I spoke too quickly. I spoke too harshly. It was not just the way I represented it. I volunteer. I'll go." Lots of things like these and similar ones are hard to say.

But this is one thing you or I can not say, and it is as true for believers and unbelievers alike. We find this one thing that we can not say in 1 Corinthians 12:21. None of us can say, "I do not need you." The Bible insisted that this was true centuries before the 1940s or 1950s hit song, "No Man Is An Island." The Bible says it this way in Romans 14:7: "None of us lives to himself (alone) and no one dies to himself (alone)".

However adamantly and forcefully an individual declares his total independence from other persons, it is nothing more than empty rhetoric and illogical silliness. Those who arrogantly declare that they need nobody else starkly reveal their immaturity.

The fact is that we need each other to survive, and the Apostle Paul in the 1 Corinthian scripture alluded to above goes a step further when he overtly asserts that each of us is actually but a single part of a body - a hand, a foot, a mouth, eyes, ears, a leg, etc. None of us is a "total package" as a few boastful persons like to think they are. There are no "number tens" among us, and those few who unwisely think there are - whether themselves, or others who think someone else is - eventally realize that we all need each other, and much of what and who we all are comes from those around us.

This fact is not up for debate according to this definite statement in God's Word. We can not say, "I have no need of you". A whole person is the one who discovers that he is complete in the strengths and assistances of his friend who comes along side of him in his time of need.

"Is There a Prayer Meeting Tonight?"

This question came to a Portland, Oregon pastor on Wednesday two afternoons ago, and, Thank The Lord!, that pastor could answer in the affirmative. Few can anymore, for regularly scheduled, mid-week prayer meetings have just about vanished from the American church scene these days.

I promise you that "Mrs. Prayer Meeting" has just about died in most of our churches, for there are very few professed Christians who want them, or attend them. Why would this man be calling to ask a pastor friend of mine if there were a prayer meeting at his church on Wednesday night?

It was because he had just got right with God!! And wanted to be in prayer meeting. He wanted to go to church! He wanted to be in a prayer meeting!

Turn the clock back about thirty years ago in our church when another man prayed through to a definite conversion victory in Jesus. Juan Alphonso Ramos came to repentance after mistreating his wife under the influence of alcohol. At that time, in addition to two Sunday services and a mid-week prayer meeting, we had a men's prayer meeting every Saturday night in the pastor's study. Juan came to them all, and after he attended the first Saturday night men's prayer meeting, he waited until all of the other men had gone, and asked me, "Pastor, doesn't the church have any more services?"

I have used this true illustration all through my ministry, for it reveals just how hungry new Christians are to hear the words of the Lord, and pray, and be around other Christians. Juan was not only daily employed, but was a mid manager of 200 people in a prominent electronics company, and yet, with all of the heavy demands of his excellent job, he wanted more church services, and especially more prayer meetings.

All through my ministry I have told this true story, because of the sadness in my pastor's heart that there are so few older, experienced Christians who demonstrate this hunger. Those who walk close to God still do! If we stay close to Him and His word, that hunger is still there! And whether thiry years past, or a week ago, when people really pray through and find God, they want to know "if there is a prayer meeting tonight?"