DeSoto County Newsroom.com

Southaven,Ms

By: Mike Upchurch

Lengthy Columns

From time to time, I get people who graciously say my columns are too long. They say that they just don’t have the time to read them. Well, I do know my columns are not two sentences that you can read as you scroll down News Feed, and I do know we’re all busy. I get that. But if the things I teach and write about could be said with brevity and they could be condensed down to a few sentences to accommodate our microwave society, then wouldn’t I do that? Wouldn’t I condense “how to be an overcomer” to 16 words, a comma, and two periods? And wouldn’t you be living a victorious Christian life if two sentences that you read every week would do it for you? Wouldn’t you have all the knowledge you need if you could just scroll news feed and have the answers in a few seconds? Of course you would. And you would be a victorious Christian pleasing God in all the things that you do, and you wouldn’t need to study the Bible anymore either! You would have all you need because you spent 42 seconds reading all you need to know!

The truth is there is no shortcut to living for Christ. There is no Reader’s Digest condensed version on how to be victorious in Christ. There is no paragraph written that sums up all you need to know. There is not one single verse that gives you all the knowledge you need to live for Him. If you need to be saved, then Romans 10:9,10 will tell you how to do that. But what about baptism, communion, healing, prayer, faith, fasting, overcoming sin, walking in love, living with power, etc? What about the rest of the information you need?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…..

“Knowledge is power, information is how you get that knowledge!”

I do apologize for being lengthy, but there just are some things that can’t be taught in a paragraph or two! If that were true, we’d all write columns and we’d all have the answers to life, because we read them this morning on Facebook. Bear with me…..I do get carried away some times, but honestly, when the Holy Spirit starts inputting information to me, instructing me in the subject matter I’m writing about, I can’t just say “ok, I got it, that should be enough.” Archive some of these columns and try reading them later when you do have more time. I think you’ll find something useful in some of them.

Chances are you may not have time to read the Bible either, if you’re as busy as it seems, so at least get your information from someone who has read and studied His word. Listen to someone who has been where you are trying to get to or needing to be.
These are my weekly sermons if you will, and if you don’t like my style of preaching or writing, I completely understand that and I’m not offended. There are plenty of other outlets to get information you need on how to live as an overcomer rather than me, so find someone who writes shorter blogs, and get the information you need to win!

And that’s the way I see it!

Pastor Mike