Oaks-West Church of Christ
204 Second Street • Burnet, TX 78611 • 512-756-4493
January 8, 2017
The Manana Mindset
by Dee Bowman
The word “postpone” has been around soon enough for me” (Peggy Lee and Mike
almost since there’s been English. And the Barbour).
idea has been around as long as there have
Why do we postpone things? Does God
been people to do it. It literally means “to expect better of us? What can we do to
place after,” and has become synonymous break the habit of putting things off ?
with neglect or procrastination (which
Take Bible study, for instance. Why do
literally
means
we put it off like we
“to put off until
do?
tomorrow”).
“So whoever knows the
Mark Twain is
Most
of
us
right
thing
to
do
and
fails
reported
to have
do some of it—
said,
“I
do
not like
postpone, I mean.
to
do
it,
for
him
it
is
sin.
”
work,
even
when
And mostly it’s
another
person
just a matter of
-James 4:17
does it.” Study is
what we consider
work, sometimes
important. We find
hard work. And
time to do what we want. There’s a spoof on
that’s
one
of
the
reasons
we put it off. We’d
the modern proverb, “Never put off until
rather
dread
the
coming
of it than get to
tomorrow what you can do today” which
work
and
do
it.
You
have
to
really want to
says, “Never do today what you can put
study.
In
fact,
some
translations
use “give
off until tomorrow.” You see, we even joke
diligence”
for
“study”
in
1
Timothy
2:15.
about our proclivity for postponement.
Actually, one is necessary to the other.
We all, at times (and mostly all too
One of the most repulsive of the manana
often!), say (I’m almost afraid to introduce
people
is what I call the “Bible groupie.”
any more of anybody’s lyrics), “Manana is
He doesn’t have the heart to study and
The Manana Mindset ... concluded from front page
search himself, so he just hangs around
those who do, seeking to impress somebody
with his “knowledge” on account of who he’s
with.
Another manana person is the one who
admires the truth, may even know quite a
lot about it, but, like some of the modern
theologians, truth is for someone else, not
him. Far be it from him to ever apply it.
Oh, maybe someday. After all, right now, he
doesn’t yet know enough.
And then there’s the person who is so
impressed by statistics that he has located
himself among the “average,” and that’s good
enough for him. He takes a corporate view
of religion that states, “Because I am part of
the crowd, I’m involved.” That way he’s just
as good as everyone else.
What’s wrong with this kind of thinking?
After all, it’s my business if I want to put
things off, isn’t it?
Well, there’s a lot wrong with it.
First of all, it assumes that God can be
satisfied with mediocrity. And that’s just
not so. He does not always require success,
but He does always require excellence. To
do less that you’re capable of doing is sin
( James 4:17).
Furthermore, it robs the soul of the
joy of accomplishment. To be given
responsibility—to do the job, to do it
right—is connected to self-esteem. The will
to win is in all of us. And a concerned mind
does not well tolerate laziness, indifference,
sluggardness. Procrastination is a subtle
form of laziness and laziness is repulsive,
stiffening (see Ecclesiastes 9:10).
Finally, it produces a contradiction in the
character. Intention is good, but it will not
suffice by itself. Faith without works is dead
( James 2:17). Only a hypocrite shows the
world a mask which conceals the real person.
And the man who realizes his responsibility
and continually ignores it, even if “only” by
postponement, may be the biggest hypocrite
of all.
Postponement is a kind of spiritual
delusionment. It’s the devil’s subtle way of
getting you not to do it. And it’s an efficient
strategy, because the one who continually
postpones ends up not doing the thing, just
as the fellow who never intended to.
Manana is not soon enough for anybody,
no matter what the song says. Whatever
needs to be done needs attending to today.
The Next Step Is Always
Our Most Important
by Gary Henry
“For I am the least of the apostles,
who am not worthy to be called an
apostle, because I persecuted the church
of God. But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and His grace toward me
was not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:9,10).
LIKE PAUL, WE NEED TO
FOCUS
PRIMARILY
ON
OUR
IMPROVEMENT RATHER THAN
ON OUR DISAPPOINTMENTS. What
has happened in the past is important, of
course, but it is not nearly as important as
what happens next. We may have taken
many wrong steps, but none of these matter
as much as the next step that we take.
When we’ve dug ourselves into a hole,
it does not make good sense to keep
Welcome!
When you visit our assemblies, you will be
received friendly, kindly and courteously. We
believe this to be the natural attitude of those who
truly love God and mankind. Though you may at
first be among strangers, we hope that you will
come to know us well and count us as your friends.
We offer Bible studies as well as
correspondence courses for those
interested in learning more about what
God expects of us.
Men’s Class - 10:00 a.m. January 10
Ladies’ Bible Class - 10:00 a.m. January
10 at Shirley McCoy’s home.
January Lectures - each Friday evening
in January at 7:30 p.m. at Westside in
Killeen.
Gospel Meeting - January 21-24 at
Northwest in Austin with Bubba Garner.
Winter Singing - January 27 at Westside
in Irving.
If you know of upcoming events, please
inform Darrell so they can be included
here.
digging the hole deeper. Yet that is what we
often do. Disappointed and discouraged,
we let ourselves be held captive by the
thought that we can’t change the past, and
we continue to make the same mistakes
(and maybe even worse ones). But it should
help us to remember that the next step is
our most important. Depending on what
we do next, we will either help our situation
or make it worse; we will either cut our
losses or continue to increase them. And
not only that, we’ll make it either easier
or harder to take the right steps later on.
We’re building today a momentum that’ll
either help us or hinder us tomorrow.
Despair is a vicious enemy, and we need to
take the initiative against it. We can’t afford
to sit back and simply wish we hadn’t marred
our past as we have. If our future is to be
anything we can feel good about, we must
get up and get busy. There is important work
yet to be done, and the courage to take the
next step is the key to progress. There comes
a time when we have to have enough “true
grit” to take the battle to the enemy, indignant
about what he’s already done in our lives and
determined that the damage is going to stop.
Here and now, we’re making a clean break!
If we intend to seek God, it’s necessary
that we not only think but also act in His
direction. Serving God faithfully means
going ahead and doing the good that’s
possible in the present moment. The saved
will be those who have pressed ahead —
in faith, in hope, and in love. And doesn’t
victory finally come down to this simple
thing: being dogged enough not to let
ourselves be defeated by what we’ve done
in the past? Even if, like the apostles, we’ve
slept while we should have been on duty,
our Lord would say to us what He said to
them: “Rise, let us be going” (Mark 14:42).
“Never let the sense of past failure defeat
your next step” (Oswald Chambers).
NOTES
ABOUT US
The Oaks West church of Christ is a group of
individual Christians who have been added to the
Lord’s body through baptism (Acts 2:38, 47; Gal 3:26,
27), and have joined themselves together (Acts 2:42ff)
in an effort to do the Lord’s will.
We are not a part of any larger organization – we
do not follow any man-made creeds and we do not
answer to anyone other than the Lord.
Our standard of faith and practice is the Word of
God. We believe in the God of revelation (Eph 3:1-7;
2 Tim 3:16-17) and follow his instructions in an effort
to have an ongoing relationship with him (1 John 4:711; 5:3).
Our times of study and worship are open to all,
and our members are happy to meet with interested
individuals or families for study.
Evangelist
Darrell Trammel
512-756-4493 Office
[email protected]
SERVICE TIMES
Sunday
Bible Classes. . . . . . . . . . . . 9:45 a.m.
Worship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10:45 a.m.
Worship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday
Bible Classes. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7:00 p.m.