ARE YOU A COW?
By Cougan Collins
lgchurchofchrist@cableone.net
Cows have a tendency to follow the herd without giving any thought to where they are going. Unfortunately, many people are the same way. They find someone to follow and give little thought to where they are being led. Sometimes people are led down the pathway of drugs and crime. Other times people are led down the pathway of prejudice or pride.
Blindly following someone is not a good thing. God does not want us to be cows, He wants us to use our brains and think. He wants us to be aware of what we are doing and what the consequences of our actions will be. There is only one safe path that we can follow that will lead to heaven (Mt. 7:14) and it comes from following in the footsteps of Jesus.
We must be careful that we do not allow ourselves to be like a cow and simply follow the herd that we are in. We must always allow God’s Word to be our guide (Prov. 3:5-8) even it means going in different direction than the rest of the herd.
Far too many people have simply remained in their denomination because their parents and grandparents were part of that herd. They never lift their heads up to question what is being taught, they simply follow the herd even if what they are doing is not authorized in the Word of God. Many innovations have been added to the worship service that God never intended, which is vain worship:
Matthew 15:9 And in
vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
If we want to be pleasing
to God, we must rise up from the herd and only follow our shepherd Jesus. He is
the only one that can lead us to heaven, and He is the one we must trust. If we
love Him, we will obey His commands (Jn. 14:15) even if it means doing
something different than what our parents and grandparents did.
The question becomes, are
you willing to put God’s Word and what it clearly teaches above what you have
blindly accepted as the truth from following your herd? The apostle Paul had to
do this. He was a devoted Pharisee (Phil. 3:5) who thought he was doing the
right thing by trying to destroy Christianity. It took Jesus appearing to him
on the road to
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I
plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all
speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
The only way we can have true unity and not be divided into denominations is stop following after manmade herds. The Bible only speaks of there being one church/body (Eph. 4:4). My challenge to you is to stop blindly following your herd. Instead, see if you are following the New Testament without adding to or taking away from it (Acts 17:11). If you are not, leave your herd and find those who are. It will not be easy to do, but if you want to put God first, a change must take place. If you would like to learn more about the church you read about in the Bible, then come worship with us because our goal is to be New Testament Christians nothing more and nothing less.