No Big Secret

I heard recently about a “big city” boy who was preaching in a small country town. He wanted to learn everything “country” so that I could fit in. As he was searching for Widow Jones’ farm, he got lost on the back roads. He saw a farmer walking into his barn so he stopped for directions.

The farmer was just beginning to milk his cow but took time out to tell the preacher how to get to the Jones’ farm. “By the way, ” the preacher asked, “Do you know what time it is?” The farmer leaned in to the udder of the cow and said, “12:30.”

The preacher started to leave but he just HAD to know. He told the farmer, “Hey, I’ve just moved from the city and I really want to know the ways of the country. How could you tell what time it was?”

“Sit right here on this stool, son.” The preacher did.

“Now, grab hold of that udder.” He did.

“Now lean into the cow and lift up on the udder.” The preacher did.

“Lean over and look right over there on that wall. See, that’s a clock. When the little hand is on the 12…”

Sometimes it appears that other Christians have a special “secret” to be able to do what they do or to know what they know. But the truth is, there’s no secret. The story is told about someone coming to Gus Nichols, a great preacher, and saying, “Brother Nichols, I’d give my life to know the Bible as well as you do.” It is reported that Nichols’ reply was, “That’s exactly what it took.”

There’s no secret to knowing the Bible — just a determination to spend time studying the Word of God. There’s no secret to always having time to devote to the Lord’s work — you just have to make the time. There’s no secret to developing spiritual maturity — it’s a lifetime commitment to growing up in Christ.

There’s no secret: “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Alan Smith