by Stephen Harper<\/p>\n
There is an old nursery rhyme that we may remember:<\/p>\n
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
\nFor want of a shoe, the horse was lost.
\nFor want of a horse, the rider was lost.
\nFor want of a rider, the message was lost.
\nFor want of a message, the battle was lost.
\nFor want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.
\nAnd all for the want of a horseshoe nail.<\/blockquote>\nThis supposedly refers to King Richard III’s death at the Battle of Bosworth, where a message intended for the king on the battlefield never reached him because of the messenger’s horse. Thus, the series of events culminated in the potential loss of the battle and kingdom. Regardless of whether it is true, it illustrates the “domino effect” a failure can have on things, events, and people we may never realize or even know about. This seems like something we should consider in spiritual matters, too. It could read like this:<\/p>\n
For want of Bible study, knowledge was lost.
\nFor want of knowledge, a teacher was lost.
\nFor want of a teacher, an opportunity was lost.
\nFor want of an opportunity, the gospel’s spread was lost.
\nFor want of the gospel, belief was lost.
\nFor want of belief, repentance is lost.
\nFor want of repentance, a soul was lost.<\/blockquote>\nI know many stories of individuals who had one-time opportunities to teach complete strangers the gospel [someone has even compiled some of these stories in a book], and those opportunities were literally life-changing and soul-saving. In each one of those stories, the ending would have been vastly different had they not spoken the gospel when they had the opportunity. But they never would have had the opportunity if they had not known the message and the need to teach others. I thank God for those who spoke when they had the opportunity. I – like the apostle Paul, seek your prayers [even as I pray for myself] – “that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel<\/em>” (Ephesians 6:19). Let us all make the greatest effort to tell the greatest story to those who have the greatest need in hearing it.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Stephen Harper There is an old nursery rhyme that we may remember: For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the message was lost. For want of a message, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[913,451],"class_list":["post-92562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-bible-study","tag-teaching"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25912,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-rider-on-the-pale-horse-appear-in-egypt\/","url_meta":{"origin":92562,"position":0},"title":"Did the rider on the pale horse appear in Egypt?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Have you seen this video?\u00a0Video: Has Revelation's 'pale rider' shown up in Egypt?\u00a0People think it's one of the horsemen, but I don't really know about that. It seems something like that wouldn't really be able to be filmed. Also doesn't this kind of tie in with only God knows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Horseman.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7764,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-is-the-rider-on-the-white-horse-in-revelation-6\/","url_meta":{"origin":92562,"position":1},"title":"Who is the rider on the white horse in Revelation 6?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the book of Revelation and it is a fascinating book. We are in chapter 6 and there were some interesting verses that I would like to get your opinion on. We had recently read chapter 6 and came across some of the verses that caused\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56497,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-needs-more-foot-soldiers\/","url_meta":{"origin":92562,"position":2},"title":"God Needs More Foot Soldiers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Thomas Thornhill At this time our nation is in a conflict taking place mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our uniformed personnel are daily placed in harm's way, facing an enemy which in many cases is often unseen until they strike. This is of course a physical confrontation in which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/12\/soldiers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":86646,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/culture-wars-and-spiritual-battles\/","url_meta":{"origin":92562,"position":3},"title":"Culture Wars and Spiritual Battles","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer It is possible to win the culture war, as it is called, and lose the spiritual battle. They are not the same. Culturally, Christians want to stand up for the right and oppose the wrong. We want to keep evil influences from being so pervasive, so we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67370,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-winning-side\/","url_meta":{"origin":92562,"position":4},"title":"The Winning Side","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death\" (Revelation 12:11). Revelation employs the imagery of the red dragon (Satan) who underlies the opposition to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45390,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-cause-saul-to-commit-suicide\/","url_meta":{"origin":92562,"position":5},"title":"Did God cause Saul to commit suicide?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There are two accounts of Saul's death in the Old Testament. Both say he committed suicide (I Samuel 31:4-5 and I Chronicles 10:14) but the latter one also says that: \"the LORD killed Saul because ...\" Why the difference? 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