They tell the story about two ladies who approached the golf pro with great enthusiasm. The pro says to the one, ”Would you like to learn to play golf?” to which she replies, ”Oh, no, not me. Don’t you remember, I learned yesterday; my friend here wants to learn today.”

Golf is not learned in a day. In fact, some would wonder if it is learned in a lifetime, and yet it takes only a few minutes to learn the object of the game. All one has to do is hit a little ball with a club into a hole that is some 300 yards away. Count the number of times you hit the ball, and the one with the lowest score wins. That sounds simple enough – but just try it.

They say that a little knowledge is dangerous. The lady who thinks she learned golf yesterday will be a menace on the golf course tomorrow, because she doesn’t know, and she doesn’t know that she doesn’t know.

Many people are this way with God. They think that they were saved yesterday and do not realize that they do not know His plan and purpose with the earth. It makes as much sense to think that a few words said, or a card signed, makes one saved as it does to believe that one can learn golf yesterday.

Instant foods are the rage now, and many churches have jumped on the band wagon with instant salvation.

In contrast to this, our Bibles teach us to work out our salvation, and that it will take us the rest of our lives, working every day. It isn’t that we earn salvation, for we realize that it is a gift of God – but He will only give it to those who want salvation more than anything else in the world. A student who receives a full scholarship realizes that it is a gift, but it is only given to outstanding students who have worked very hard to receive the gift.

Jesus tells us that it is his Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom, and what a wonderful gift it is! Let us recognize its true worth and live our lives accordingly.

We need to be as dedicated to our profession as the golfer is who makes his living on the pro circuit. He literally eats, sleeps, and breathes golf. He practices every day, and even when he sits in his easy chair at the end of the day he visualizes in his mind the course he has just completed. He does all this to win some prize money. In addition, he must meticulously obey all the rules of the tournament. A few years ago Doug Sanders finished the 18th hole leading all the other golfers. Instead of waiting to sign his score card, he first went into the clubhouse because it was cold, and when he emerged a few minutes later he discovered that he had been disqualified from the tournament because of his few minutes delay.

God wants us to be meticulous in obeying his commands too. It is a matter of life and death. The command may be a little one, but God expects complete obedience. People understand this principle in sports and then seem to think that when it comes to religion, it really doesn’t matter whether or not we practice every day or tend to the little details God has laid out for our salvation. The man who gathered sticks on the sabbath was stoned. We are not under the law, but this rigid observance of God’s commands is just as incumbent upon us today as it was then.

Let us remember that we didn’t learn yesterday all we need to know in order to serve Christ. Let us work at it every day so that it may be said of us that we have fought a good fight and kept the faith, for then there will be laid up for us a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, wi]1 give us at the glorious day of His coming.