J. Grant Swank, Jr.
He and wife decided to put a new addition onto their house.
In short, the addition became his god so that he lost out in his soul. It is that easy a slip to happen.
The
addition consumed them. It became such an all-encompassing project that
the Lord’s Day became shopping day for floor covering, tile, and so on
and so on. Lowe’s and Home Depot vied for God’s attention.
“You’re not going to keep having Wednesday evening Bible study,” he pointed adamantly to me one day.
I
had never said we were dispensing with the study. But he decided that
his word ruled. Of course it didn’t. However, in his head the house
addition was more important than mid-week Bible study. Over and out.
The rest of us continued to gather around the Word weekly. He was missing, House addition
supplanted the Word.
The
rest of us were kind enough to inquire about the addition—what colors,
what tile selections, what floor plans. After all, we wanted to be
happy with a friend who was a part of our house church.
However,
it was obvious that the addition—wood, nails, paint—were all important
in this fellow’s life. It was the beginning signs of spiritual
backsliding.
How harmless a matter as an addition onto a
house can rob the soul of God’s first place. But it happens all the
time, in one form or another for the enemy of our souls never gives up.
Several years prior he and his first wife were sliding backward
in their commitments to the Lord. As pastor I saw it and quaked. There
was nothing I could say for they would rebut every caution I would
verbalize. That’s the way it is when a Christian starts losing out with
God.
It was a snowy Monday morning
when his wife’s automobile slid into an accident that cut through in an
instant her earthly stay. She was gone. God’s mercy retrieved her soul
before she lost out completely with her Lord.
I met with him through all those hours of sorrow. I was there as faithful pastor.
Then
he married a second time. The marriage moved along with one happy
project and then another. The house addition came to the fore and
loomed higher than it should. The fellow lost sight of legitimate
spiritual priorities. The rest of us believers witnessed it and
wondered what would eventually happen with the man’s test of loyalty.
Sundays
became a quick stay for house worship and then off for more house
building supplies. Addition. Addition. House addition became his
all-in-all.
But God said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”
With the sour state of his soul, he became critical of everything that happened in worship. That’s
what happens when a person begins to pull away from the glory of the Lord. Even that which is nourishing to the faithful believers becomes repulsive to the one backsliding.
One Sunday evening
we had a most enriching worship in an elderly woman’s home. The music
was uplifting. The testimonies were enlivening. The fellowship was rich
and sincere. The Bible opened to fill our waiting spirits with new food.
However, not so with the one who had by now given his allegiance to his own selfish world.
Monday
morning he phoned me to complain about everything that occurred the
evening before. We sang too many hymns. The sermonic illustrations were
not proper. The distance driving to the elderly woman’s home was too
long. And on and on.
All I could see in my mind during his tirade was House Addition, House Addition, House Addition equals god. It was truly sad.
He
ordered me how to conduct future worships. He ordered us all when we
were to meet and how long and where. In short, his phone message was
obnoxious—but worse. It was the final sign that he had given into the
backslidden soul.
Soon
after he decided to exit the house church for his own lonely abode, his
second wife slipped while working on the house addition. She broke her
leg in multiple locations, pins having to be inserted, two months off
the use of the leg and so forth.
I have witnessed this often
when persons willfully turn their backs on God. We mortals need do
nothing. God then moves in to discipline those He loves, according to
His Word.
To this moment, the man has never apologized for the havoc he brought to God and the innocent house church believers.
Instead, he continues his way in the void promised him by the enemy of our souls.