Key Verse: Verse 11 – "If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause:"
Key Words: Come with us
How many invitations do you receive each year, and even more important than that, how many of those invitations do you accept? Do you have guidelines for invitations, accepted or rejected?
Here are some questions I would ask before letting my children accept an invitation.
- Who is the invitation from?
- Where is the invitation to?
- What is the invitation for?
- Who will be at the event?
It’s very obvious from our Bible reading that there are some invitations we need to avoid and some we need to accept.
Did you know that years ago even church invitations (altar calls) were frowned upon?
Can you imagine church members protesting an invitation after an evangelistic sermon? They did in 1825. Not only did church members object to an invitation, but so did many of the ministers. A new evangelist named Charles Finney had come on to the religious scene in America and had become quite popular by 1825. He was reaching many Americans with the gospel by implementing what grumbling critics called New Measures. Among these intolerable changes were: praying for persons by name, having an invitation after the sermon, sharing the gospel by visiting in homes, allowing women to pray and testify, holding services on days other than the usual times for worship, and preaching in an informal manner that appealed to those who attended his outlandish new idea of holding Revival Services. Finney was perceived as a radical troublemaker in 1825, but his wrong approach brought many to Christ. Change is usually threatening, yet its results can often be tremendous.
So not all invitations are bad…but be advised, apply good old common sense.
What to do:
✞ In accepting and rejecting invitations, common sense needs to be applied.
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