![]() ![]() I hope you feel that it is a wonderful thing to be like a tree, not like “a reed shaken by the wind” (Luke 7:24). But many of you will live three, four, five, six, seven more decades. You won’t live five thousand years on earth. “Be like a tree: old, gnarly, battered winter after winter, storm after storm - and still standing.”ĭid you know that the Fortingall Yew tree in Scotland may be five thousand years old - the oldest living thing in Britain? It’s still standing after millennia. Would it not be glorious to say that when you turn eighty-six? How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” For some of you, that would be sixty years from now. To stand like Polycarp on the day of his martyrdom in AD 155 and say, “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. It is a wonderful thing to remain a Christian for seventy years - and more. If it lay in my power, I would spare you this trendy tragedy. My guess is that the new word deconversion came into existence so that the old, foolish, tragic, heart-breaking reality could feel as trendy as the word. denying the Master who bought them (2 Peter 2:1).turning away from listening to the truth (2 Timothy 4:4).becoming disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:27).trampling underfoot the Son of God (Hebrews 10:29).turning back from following the Lord (Zephaniah 1:6).The Bible abounds with words and descriptions of some forsaking Christ: But we didn’t need the word deconversion. Words are created to name reality, not the other way around. The word deconversion is not in the Oxford English Dictionary. Will you endure to the end, or not? Be Tree-Like, Not Trendy ![]() I have been pondering, with a kind of trembling thankfulness and wonder, how God has held me fast for so long. ![]() I chose the number seventy not only because a few of you will live that long, but also because this year - 2022 - marks the 70th anniversary of my becoming a Christian. To say it another way, my aim is to sharpen your sword so that you will be able to fend off the forces that threaten to make you faithless and fruitless for the next seventy years. My aim in these next few minutes is to provide another incentive for the perseverance of your faith and your fruitfulness for the next seventy years. ![]()
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