Recently, a friend I respect a lot was looking through the modest collection of books neatly arranged on my bookshelf. He is a man of books so; I believe his judgement on books. He pointed out two books that he felt I should read. Since I’m not a fan of big books, I started with the smaller of the two books: Finishing Strong, by Steve Farrar.
I wasn’t really prepared for what I saw in the first chapter, titled – “One out of Ten”. With confirmed statistics and examples, he revealed that only one out of ten sound gospel ministers that start the race actually finish strong. He wasn’t talking about ordinary church goers, but fire brand Men Of God. Some of the remaining nine end up as drunks; others publicly denounce the gospel, while the rest just fade away. The Bible is also awash with examples of such men: Solomon, Uzziah, Samson…
In 1945, when Billy Graham showed up on the gospel scene, Chuck Templeton and Bron Clifford were already established, packing more crowds at their meetings and doing great exploits for the Kingdom of God. By 1950, Templeton no longer believed in Jesus and by 1954, Clifford was an alcoholic. Another young minister in his twenties: John Bisagno wanted to verify this statistics and wrote names of 24 young men that were sold out for Christ. By the time he was 53, only 3 out of the 24 were still standing for Christ. It may be a good idea to do this check for yourself. Do you know anyone who has lost sight of the finishing line?
Most of these men are from different generations and lived in different parts of the world, but one strand holds them together – they never believed it could be them. From all indications they were “too defended to be victims”. Most of us actually have the same belief. Paul sounded a note of caution to the Corinthian Christians when he said: “These are all warning markers–DANGER!–in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel–they at the beginning, we at the end–and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence“.(1Cor 10: 11 – 12 MSG). If we must escape this onslaught, we must study more, meditate more and observe to do all that is written in the Word. It has never failed before. It cannot start failing now. Be encouraged!
By the way, I strongly recommend that book to you.
Chidi Ukandu's Blog 