By REV. EDDIE BURCHFIELD / Guest Columnist

Stop. Look. Listen. I remember getting this advice from my parents at an early age. I didn’t have input when it came to being obedient to my parents. When they spoke, I stopped, I looked and I listened.

If I didn’t, I paid the price. My parents loved me, and wanted the best for me, and had no problem with teaching me some discipline when I was defiant.

I also heard this advice when it came time for me to learn to drive. Taking this advice, I am sure, helped save my life more than once.

1 Cor. 16:13 “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” We are given the gift of time by God. What we do with it counts.

If, on the average, we lived to be 70 years old, we would spend 20 years sleeping, 20 years working, six years eating, seven years playing, five years dressing, one to two years on the phone, two and a half years partying, two and a half years in bed, three years waiting, five months tying your shoes and two and a half years for other things, including one and a half years in church. We are busy people, often too busy for the most important thing in our lives — our souls.

We need to stop, look, and listen. Paul told us to watch, to stand, to quit and to be strong. Sin is defined as anything not of faith, anything unrighteous and anything that is a transgression of God’s law. Let us stop sinning by looking to Jesus, and listening to God’s still small voice. Taking this advice will save our souls.

The still small voice of the Spirit will never contradict the inerrant, inspired word of God. I love the King James Bible. I trust it, and I recommend it for all believers in Christ.

It is so important that we listen to the right voice. Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Stay in faith, stay righteous and stay close to God’s word.

We can’t help but win. I promise you.

The Rev. Eddie Burchfield is a Pentecostal evangelist with Fresh Fire Ministries. You can reach him at rev.ed@att.net.