“For Demas hath forsaken my, having loved this present world, and it departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia” (2 Timothy 4:10). People quit the church with varying degrees.
Some do quit the church altogether. The cause of this could be because of many some think reasons. The devil acted is some way to discourage these people so they gave up on God and what He has done for them; they quit! The devil works through people. “But he turned, and said unto Peter. Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:23). Thus the devil could have said something to someone, through someone and discouraged everybody so they all quit! The devil has fun because he won, God lost and people lose also. Have you quit? Have you let the devil win; why? You are the one who lost it all!
Some seem to quit for a short period of time. Follow the life of Peter, but the rest of the apostles were about the same. “But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled” (Matthew 26:56). “But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to se the end” (Matthew 26:58). “Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing” (John 21:3). Can you image Peter being told he would deny the Lord before the cock crew, doing that very thing and then the look of the Lord when he accomplished that feat? He would follow the Lord just close enough to “see” what was happening to Him but not close enough to be recognized as one of his disciples. Yet Peter was recognized anyway. Not know where the body of Christ was, yet knowing it was not in the grave. He was quitting inch by inch! He then went fishing and caught nothing. The Lord was not through with Peter. This is why the Lord spent so much time with Peter trying to reclaim him. He talked to Peter about feeding His lambs and sheep. Jesus asked Peter about how much he loved the Lord during this time. Peter was about to quit, but the Lord was not through with him.
When we are about to quit we need to read about Peter. The Lord still had some great things for Peter to do. Did Peter make mistakes after that? Yes he did! Paul even had to withstand him to the face because of some serious mistakes, but Peter was not going to quit! The Lord had given Peter a job to do and he was going to do it to the best of his ability. Peter was given the keys of the kingdom (Matthew 16). There were people that needed to enter into the Kingdom of God and Peter had the keys to let them in. Acts 2 we have Peter’s sermon recorded for us. The keys were used to unlock the doors into the kingdom and some three thousand entered that day. Later on Peter was given the responsibility to preach to the Gentiles and give them the opportunity to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 10). Peter again used those keys that were given to him by the Lord and the Gentiles were admitted into the kingdom! Peter never thought about quitting again.
Bad things are going to happen to us. God has told us that this is so. What we do then is up to us. We can quit; we can almost quit or we can even quit for a season, but what if death comes or the Lord comes again when we are in that condition? Let us not think of that for let us never quit serving the Lord. Let us do our part within the family of God.
Love, Keith
