Once again we met in Xenia for a home study with several families. We love these “round table discussions” or in this case, family room circles where the environment is open and relaxed. We shared several songs together and then Bro Joe read a short lesson on “Three Necessary Rations” taken from the book Heart Talks by C. W. Naylor. This little devotion talked about the importance of being balanced in our walk with God. Three things we need to possess as a Christian:

Aspiration – the desire to do something for God
Inspiration – divine direction and calling
Consideration – wisdom to keep us in the center of God’s will and not too liberal or too fanatical.

Truly we want to be led of God. In all our desires and zeal we need to continually check to make sure God is leading.

There is a work to be done for God and we aspire to do it. How easy it is though to lose focus of that work and get sidetracked on something else. If God’s church can be compared to a lifeboat and lost souls to “shipwrecked” people floating on the sea of life, let’s rescue the souls instead of making sure that our lifeboat is just so-so. Too much effort is placed on the boat – its looks, its condition, its name - instead of using it for the work it was meant for. Ironically, we may even be guilty of worshipping the lifeboat instead of the owner of it!

As Mrs. Cowan said in Springs in the Valley:

Ye who stand upon the shore and wrangle about the number of the waves, there is meantime a work for you to do, and to do together. There are ship-wrecked voyagers out yonder, crying and calling…Shall they wait till you have counted the billows that consume them? Shall they stand shivering in the storm while you are disputing the name of the lifeboat? What matter how we name the lifeboat if only we each believe in it?...They will not ask you the name of your lifeboat; even Jacob’s angel had no name.