House to House Burn Pile Fuel
A lady from the local area recently called to request that she and her husband’s address be removed from our congregation’s House-to-House, Heart-to-Heart mailing list. She explained how they currently had three trash bags that needed to be taken down to their burn pile as it was, and that they really didn’t need any more unnecessary mailings only adding to that volume. (I must admit that afterward, when I had a chance to really stop and think about it, I wondered if she either had, or was going to, contact all of the other sources of flyers and mail-outs that came to her mailbox on a far more frequent basis than our little bi-monthly publication). She additionally informed me that they didn’t wish to receive them anymore because she and her husband were not members of our church, but had been (identified themselves by their denomination’s name) for fifty years.
House to House Heart to Heart is an excellent tool you should check out! https://www.housetohouse.com/
I told her where HtH is mailed in bulk to targeted areas, individual addresses within such areas could not just be selectively removed – at which point her exasperation seemed to increase. Besides, I replied, we all used the same Bible, right? And after all, I told her, we were just seeking to “spread the seed” … to which her response was actually quite revealing, and terribly chilling. Along the same lines as what the people responded with according to Matt. 27:25, she retorted to the effect that, “Well, it’s not gonna sprout here!”
How sad. How tragic. But apparently, how true. “The seed is the word of God” Jesus said (Lk. 8:11). It is the word of God which HtH seeks to point everyone back to with every outstanding issue. Hence, God’s word is truly that seed we are seeking to spread within our local community through our HtH mailings.
However, her resolutely vocalized rejection of that seed should certainly come as no surprise, but only serve as a sad validation in light of the other information she provided. For when any religious person decides to risk and devote their entire earthly and eternal life, on and to, a salvation process which is totally foreign to any of the thousands of examples of conversion to Christ we have recorded in God’s New Testament (Acts 2:37-41); to become a proud and productive part of a man-made denominational church which the apostles never taught in, though of, worshipped with, or ever authorized, anywhere, in any verse of God’s New Testament (Mk. 7:5-13; 1 Cor. 1:10); and/or to practice worship which is nowhere to be seen evidenced anywhere within the truth of God’s holy word (Jn. 4:23-24); why should it surprise us when they come right out and admit that the seed of God’s word really isn’t welcome, wanted, or ever going to sprout in their home? Isn’t that already painfully obvious?
It occurred to me as I considered her words, that (according to the Scriptures) she ought to be far more concerned with the eternally smoldering “burn pile” of the Biblically disobedient and seed-rejecting unsaved (Mk. 9:43-48; Rev. 20:10-15), than with the physical feeding of any earthly burn pile in her backyard. It also occurred to me how far she is from being alone – spiritually speaking (Matt. 7:13-27).
Brethren, please let us make this year the one that we all personally determine go out and teach some poor, lost, zealous but misguided religious soul (Ro. 10:1-3),with the life-giving seed of God’s holy truth. This, before they themselves get carried away to the disbelieving’s and disobedient’s eternal “burn pile,” all because they failed to hear, believe, repent, and obey and live the life-giving gospel – the death, the burial, and the resurrection – of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Ro. 6:1-4; 1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2 Thess. 1:7-10)! God bless… and go get ‘em (Matt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:16)!