Many years ago, astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavour finally captured a wayward satellite after two near misses. Satellite owners had paid NASA $93 million to catch it and install a booster to send it into a higher orbit.
Standing on the shuttle’s robot arm, one astronaut tried twice to snag the satellite with a specially designed “capture bar.” It almost worked – but not quite. Success required going back to basics. Three astronauts went out and, at precisely the right instant, grabbed the slowly spinning cylinder with their hands!
Sometimes Christians need to go back to basics. Take evangelism for example. Multi-million-dollar projects beam the gospel all over the world, mass-mail literature, and ship crates of Bibles to foreign lands. Each of these has excellent potential, but they are effective only when coupled with personal involvement. We must go back to the basics of individual Christians teaching the way of salvation to someone else. The earliest Christians “went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).
Studying the Bible is basic but may be lost in an avalanche of alternative activities. Helpful audio and video recordings abound for nearly any Bible text or topic. Profitable books also abound. But none of these can replace the word of God. Personal Bible study is essential to spiritual growth.
Parents need to go back to basics. It’s great to send your children to Christian camps, Christian colleges, youth gatherings, and Bible classes. All of these together, however, cannot take the place of the personal training parents are obligated to provide for their children. Especially fathers must raise their children “in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Timothy’s mother and grandmother trained him from infancy (1 Timothy 1:5 & 3:15).
Creative new ideas can and should be used as long as they are scriptural; but let us never neglect the basics!
