He Could Always Hit The Bull's-eye

    He was known all over the county as a crack shot.  Just ask
anybody.  You could go by his place anytime and see targets that he
had fired at with the holes dead center.
    His reputation as a marksman was far and wide until an avid
sportsman decided that he wanted to see him shoot.  However, ever time
that he asked the man to let him watch him shoot, the man always found
some type of excuse to get out of it.

    Real early one morning, the sportsman hear gunfire coming from the
man's house and so he silently slipped in close so that he could
watch.  Something was wrong.  The target was blank.  Then after
firing, the man ran up to the target and started painting a big black
bulls eye around the bullet hole.  Finally the man's secret was out
and he fell into ridicule and scorn.

    Our religion is the same way.  Many people have a belief just as
there are many guns around.  It is rather what we do with it that
counts.  If a man wants to be good at shooting, then he knows that he
must practice.  In the same way, if we want our faith to grow into
something worthwhile, then we must exercise it in the smaller things.

    Jesus loved to use farming terms in explaining this principle and
said that if we have a seed and want it to grow into something, then
first we must plant it.  But even that is not enough as it needs
watering and nurturing for it to blossom and be fruitful.

    Then too, wherever people are, some are going to want to take
short cuts.  They don't want to take the time and patience that it
takes to study and try things, so they resort to shenanigans to
simulate the real thing.  At first, it looks real good, but when it is
tested, it won't hold up.  Just as the man tried to fool people with
his shooting, these characters try to present themselves as holy, but
their hearts are evil.  They are fakes.

    P.T. Barnum believed that there is a sucker born every minute and
William Randolph Hearst believed that newspapers were to entertain
rather than speak the truth.  Religion sometimes tries this, but God
is not fooled nor mocked.  Even though some fall prey to these guys,
the real thing is still there and available for those who are willing
to grab hold of it.  This is a decision that each and everyone of us
must make.  I personally like the decision that Joshua made over three
thousand years ago.  "Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in
sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers
served ... But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 
Joshua 24:14,15.

Frank Cooke