[238 words]
“Do all things without complaining and disputing” (Phil. 2:14).
When the children of Israel left the bondage of Egypt one of the first things they started to do was complain. If you recall God did not deal kindly with such actions, He put them to death! Do we think that the judgment of God will be any less severe on Judgment Day?
Some must truly believe that anything and everything must come under their scrutiny. That they must be pleased regardless. Such people will not accept the notion that they are not going to be placated and pampered. If such is not forthcoming they will find a congregation where they can rule the roost.
Most often those people cannot be corrected. They start with the notion they are right and you are wrong. Such an attitude fosters division in the Church. What is sad, other then their eternal fate, is that their complaining is oft en over matters of no real consequence.
All too often children raised in that kind of atmosphere leave the Church. How can anything be good if mother and daddy find fault with all the things that the church does? If the Elders are not right, and the song leader isn’t right, and the preacher isn’t right, then how can the Church be right? The old motto is still true, “If you cannot say something good, then don ‘t say anything at all.”
Floyd C. Johnson
Huntington Park Church of Christ
Shreveport, LA