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Are You Outsourcing Your Soul? I am not
sure when the term , outsourcing, was first used but businesses do it a lot.
According to Dictionary.com outsourcing is when a company or organization
contracts with another source to provide some product or service. Let us say a
business that makes computers may contract with another company to fix those
computers that have problems. Or a business that sells books may outsource its
bookkeeping to an accounting firm. This got me
to thinking of all the outsourcing that is being done today in areas that is our
personal responsibility before God. For
instance, a lot of people are outsourcing their children. The Bible directly
tells fathers to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord, Ephesians 6.4. Yet, a lot of men seem to think this is below them so they
give this task to somebody else. Whether it is the church they attend or the
preacher or whoever else they can palm their children off on, they are giving
this duty to someone else. Another area
of outsourcing is providing for one’s family. “But if anyone does not
provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied
the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5.8). “If anyone will
not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3.10b). There are certain
circumstances where a person is unable to work and needs help, but that should
be a rarity and not the rule. However, a lot of people expect our government to
take care of them. This really means they expect everybody else to pay their
bills because the government is us. In this case, those paying the taxes that
will pay for all these social programs are working people that take care of
themselves, their families, and everybody else. You want
another area of personal outsourcing? How about outsourcing our soul? People
want to be religious, but don’t want to make the effort. Therefore, they rely
on the “pastor” or priest to tell them what God wants them to do. Singers
become a specialized group of people so we don’t have to do our own singing.
Evangelism is turned over to the evangelism board so we don’t have to teach
anyone ourselves. Those trying
to outsource their salvation will be lost. Why? Because each of us will stand
before God to answer for the deeds we have done, 2 Corinthians 5.10. No
one else can save us. We can not borrow righteousness from the righteous. In the
business world, outsourcing is done to improve efficiency. In religion,
outsourcing is not possible. We must come to God in obedience if we want to be
saved. “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation
to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5.9). Most people that are trying to outsource
their salvation are doing so because they are either lazy or ignorant. Neither
excuse will work with God. We are told to work out our salvation with fear and
trembling, Philippians 2.12. This requires me to study and rightly divide the
word of truth, 2 Timothy 2.15. Fortunately for you and me, the Bible was written
so we can understand the will of God, Ephesians 5.1 7. In our case, outsourcing
will lead to our doom and not our salvation. If you are
ready to study the Bible and do what God says, we want to help. We will sit down
and open our Bibles to see what it says. We are ready, how about you? – Dennis
Tucker |