As Pastor Johnson often says, the first rule of public speaking is that the speaker should consider his audience. Failure to observe this principle can distract from an otherwise true or compelling message to the point that not a single person remembers it afterwards. We can all recall times we sat under speakers who did not consider their audience; no doubt it makes for an entertaining story. At the same time, we can use the principle of considering the audience to answer a

Thousands of years ago, “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). In the first two days of time, the Lord set Earth into motion and crafted its self-maintaining system of weather patterns. He perfectly designed and refined the rotation of the Earth and its circuit around the sun to establish regular days, nights, and seasons. In this way “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1).

One of the reasons we have Strength for Life is to help prepare Christians for potential martyrdom. The role of Biblical pastors, in part, is to cultivate strong Christians who are deeply rooted in their Christian faith, to the point that they understand why the message of the Bible is worth dying for, and that they are committed to following and believing it if martyrdom is ever required.

Here’s a Proverbs fact for you: Chapter 16 uses the word LORD more than any other chapter of the book, except for one—the previous chapter. In Proverbs 16, the LORD is mentioned 10 times in 33 verses. This tells us something. While the work and wisdom of the Lord is obviously clear throughout the entire book, these two chapters together signal to us that we should pause to consider our highest Authority with extra care and attention.

“Follow me” is still a command for believers to obey today. Every Christian is to be a disciple. It is easy to suspect that it means we are all to permanently leave behind our proverbial nets and pursue full time gospel ministry. Before we draw conclusions, however, let us consider what the four men understood Jesus was commanding them to do.