Not in Our Budget
As this day is winding down, Father, may my mind and heart be attentive to Your direction. Amen.
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Well, this afternoon I took time to do some much-needed cleaning on my bus – #25. Though we will continue to deliver lunches through the last day of “school” – June 3rd – we were asked to have the bulk of everything tidied up by this Friday.
I have not quite finished cleaning #25 yet, in that I need to mop my floor and then thoroughly wipe down the area where my feet go when I drive – but that will have to wait. And I’m not really sure how long that wait will be.
A couple of weeks ago, the computer that takes care of the elaborate emissions components on my bus had an issue. Our fine mechanics have done everything they know to do, cleaning some parts, and replacing others as needed. But they cannot go any further. Everything they have done so far has involved communication via phone calls with International – the manufacturer of my bus. And now they’ve hit a wall. At this point, it has to be hooked up to a diagnostic computer to see what ails it. So, tomorrow morning, bright and early, #25 gets to make a trip to Zanesville. …ugh….
As I have said, we have great mechanics but without the proper software (and it is quite expensive, I am told, and not in our budget – at least not in the near future) you can only do what you know to do.
How often do we go through life only doing what we know to do? We take care of business the best we know how, but there are many things in life that we just can’t handle. We need someone with a greater understanding of the situations in which we find ourselves. What we need, is to get ourselves back to our manufacturer – our Creator. Only He can help us. It makes no difference how much experience we have; there are some things that we just can’t fix.
And before we begin thinking we can do it ourselves; we have to realize that paying for the answers to all of our life’s questions is not – and can never possibly be in our budget. Only One has paid the price and it was at great cost that He did so.
Jesus fulfills the prophecy found in Isaiah 44:22,
“I have swept away your sins like a cloud. I have scattered your offenses like the morning mist. Oh, return to me, for I have paid the price to set you free.” (NLT)
Only Jesus, our Creator, can fix what ails us because He alone was able to pay the price, and I, for one, am eternally grateful.
May 13th, 2020, Wed, 8:29 pm
A Father’s Love
As always, Father, I must express my appreciation for Your presence throughout this day. It has benefited me in so many ways.
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For whatever reason, I don’t remember a whole lot of incidents from my childhood, but a few linger in the recesses of my mind.
There was a time in my preteen years that my sister and I were under the care of a sitter. Mrs. Palmer, not too awfully far from where we lived in Mason, Ohio. Oddly enough I remember both early morning things and late evening things, though I’m sure that we weren’t there for entire days at a time.
All my memories are positive ones. I remember Mrs. Palmer, on more than one occasion, making oatmeal for breakfast and making us toast in the oven. It was good but different in that we used a toaster. I remember, too, playing out amongst the neighbor kids out and about in their yards and even on the street. One girl, Joy, lived across the street and one memory I have is that as the evening waned and the sun was setting, the streetlights would come on. I remember her mom calling to come in for supper, as our time of fun came to an end.
Thinking along these lines brought an old song to mind – Suppertime, written in 1950 by Ira Stanphill. The first verse and chorus go like this,
Many years ago in days of childhood,
I used to play till evening shadows come;
Then, winding down an old familiar pathway,
I heard my mother call at set of sun:
Come home, come home, it’s supper time!
The shadows lengthen fast;
Come home, come home, it’s supper time!
We’re going home at last.
These things all ran through my mind last night as I, with eyes closed, made my regular trek to the bathroom in the wee hours of the morning. We all have those things in life, whether they be dreams or reality, that call us to think or do or say things that we shouldn’t. It had been one of those evenings for me and I was feeling pulled. But then…I heard my Father calling me. I had spoken with Him about my struggles and in the dead of night, He reached out to me. He called to me. I prayed once more out of gratitude and as I crawled back under the warm and cozy comfort of my bed, I couldn’t help but feel warm and cozy comfort of my Father’s love and concern.
David wrote Psalm 9, and verse 10 of it says,
And those who know Your name [who have experienced Your precious mercy] will put their confident trust in You,
For You, O Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You. (AMP)
Father, thank You, for Your promises.
May 12th, 2020, Tues, 7:37 pm
No Lone Rangers
As I sit to type, Father, fill my heart, and mind with Your presence. Sweep through it, clearing all the cobwebs from all the corners. Eliminate anything that doesn’t belong in Your abode. Amen.
Luke 10:1-2 (<<click to read the passage)
I am very blessed that in my lifetime I have never once been unemployed. I have worked and served in several different places. I have been a minister of music, a minister of youth, a sales associate in a Christian bookstore, a fork-lift operator, a children’s pastor, a sales associate in a major retail chain, and now a school bus driver. But in all of those transitions, I have never had a lag time between them. Nor have I ever been laid off and needed to find some other means of income.
I realize that many cannot say that, especially in the current state of our nation’s economy. I am not special; it is just how my life has been.
From as far back as I can remember, I have felt that God called me to ministry, but if you look at the jobs I’ve had not all of them were in a church setting. What do you think of when you hear that someone is a minister? There are many words you might use to describe them but for the most part, most of our definitions would put that person into a church setting where they would “minister” to others on a regular basis. They would probably receive most of their support from said churches, as well.
I like what one of my churches had set a precedent long before I ever stepped into their building for the very first time. It was printed in their bulletins and I have continued to do so over the fourteen years that I have been their pastor.
In a box that has a header of Servant Leaders Today, following the word Ministers is the word Congregation. My name is not the sole name affiliated with that term – every believer that walks through the doors of that church (or that tunes in to the live broadcasting of our services) is a minister.
I love the very first sentence in my Life Application Study Bible about verse 2 in today’s passage. It states, “Christian service has no unemployment.”
No matter what “job” I have ever had, not once has my relationship with Jesus been set aside. And just as important is the fact that my responsibilities as a follower of Jesus do not have “Lone Ranger” attached to it. We are a body of believers. 1 Corinthians 12:12 makes it clear,
The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. (NLT)
We are one part of many. We are one minister amongst a multitude of believers.
On occasion we may need to minister alone but, as with any task, the more that join our effort the more opportunities will be had. Jesus informed the troop of disciples that He sent out and us as well that “the harvest is abundant [for there are many need to hear the good news about salvation], but He also declares, the workers [those available to proclaim the message of salvation] are few.”
And then Jesus called them, and He calls us, to pray. The more who join together to “work the fields” the greater the harvest will be.
Lord Jesus, may we be diligent in our prayers for others to join us in our efforts from Your Kingdom. It really is a life or death situation!
May 11th, 2020, Mon, 8:51 pm
Rogue and Destructive Bandits
Father, this day did not turn out that way I anticipated but You have not let me down whatsoever. May You guide me as my fingers type in our time together. Amen.
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As I said, today had a lot of twists to it. Five minutes before starting our online worship service, I discovered something wasn’t right. The problem was big enough that there was no way to “go live”. It took us out completely!
We were able to record our service another way but by the time it all came together, and we could post online, it was after noon. We’ve been touching so many lives each week since broadcasting online. Both of my churches together run between 30 and 40 each week. Estimated attendance on our virtual services has averaged almost 70! Last week we actually recorded 86 people that stepped into “church! That is awesome! I’ve never been a “numbers” pastor, but I’ve been so excited about how many lives that God is touching through our services! …and then today’s debacle.
We got word today that one of our cousin’s daughters, who is a medic in the Army Reserves is being called into active duty at a nursing home in Pennsylvania. This particular facility is dealing with an 85% COVID-19 infection rate of staff and residents. She’ll be there for at least two weeks and then will have to quarantine herself after that for two weeks. (Pray for Kara’s protection, please!)
I don’t normally watch much TV but today I caught a couple of old episodes of Elementary. It is set in current-day New York City with characters loosely based on Sherlock Holmes. A big part of the last episode I saw had characters dealing with heroin addiction – somewhere in the middle of their addiction and some were in the middle of recovery. Just the squalor portrayed… the devastation of those dealing with it all… the pain… the death …the relapse of healing people unable to stop themselves. It was heart-wrenching…
I think we have a rogue and destructive bandit around our house. I’m almost sure that a resident raccoon has raided the suet in my bird feeders three times now – and my feeder holds two whole suet cakes! They are there the night before and totally gone the next morning!
Yesterday I put a small bungee cord around the suet cake compartment. It tried to get them out (bending the metal grid around them!) but was unsuccessful in getting much of the suet cakes at all! (I’m sure it wasn’t pleased!)
Now again, I’m not 100% positive – because I can’t see in the dark and haven’t caught our “friend” red-handed -but I think it has also been digging for grubs or worms or something in the mulch around the house. A good part of the front flower bed has had all the mulch pulled away from the foundation into the flower bed – some of the back, as well! The booger!
In life – especially our spiritual life – we must be very careful when things begin to dig away at our “foundation”. We are in the middle of an unprecedented time in history. We are confined, way more than normal, to our homes. Yesterday we got my in-laws out of their house and got some carry-out food and went to a local greenhouse (all with proper distancing and face masks, of course!) For the most part; they have been nowhere except a couple of medical-related trips for 6 weeks! We all know, at this point, that it wears on you!
Things like plans that don’t come together as we think they should, loved ones being called to honorably serve in harm’s way, seeing the “seedy” side of life vividly portrayed and realizing is not just fiction but reality! It all impacts us!
Those things, along with the “raccoons” in our lives can erode our ability to remain in an upright position! They can knock our feet out from under us! But…
We have a God who is not distant but who is there for us! If we abide in Him we can stand firm! Ephesians 6:13 (NIV) tells us,
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand your ground. And after you’ve done everything…stand!
Lord, help us to put on the full armor that we can find only in your arsenal! (Read Ephesians 6:10-18) May we stand firm in You! Amen
May 10th, 2020, Sun, 8:13 pm
Hold On
It was a full-plate kind of day today, Father, but we got through it! Now at the close of it, may I hear Your voice loud and clear as we come together. Amen.
Luke 9:59-62 (<<click to read the passage)
A couple of times this week, as I have been delivering lunches, I’ve seen an Amish gentleman plowing his fields with a team of draft horses. This picture only shows three but the gentleman I saw had a few more – maybe six? I didn’t drive right past him, so it was a little hard to tell.
Any person plowing with horses or even a tractor has to pay attention to what they are doing. The goal is to plow a straight line to make the most use of the acreage being farmed. Even with the development of GPS (Global Positioning System) driven tractors, the goal is the same, it is just done remotely. (They really do exist! Check out this story on The John Deere Journal)
In this passage, after several had made seemingly legitimate excuses for not following Him right then, Jesus told his disciples
“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.” v62 (AMP)
If we are truly going to follow Jesus, and if it is going to truly impact the world around us like it can, we must follow him unswervingly. To be used to the utmost for His Kingdom we can’t look back to what we’ve left behind if we are going to plow a straight line, making the most of the “acreage” in which we’re working.
When I was in college, I loved a spiritual that we had the privilege of singing with the college choir. Its title? Hold On (Keep Your Hand on the Plow). Here are the lyrics as sung by Mahalia Jackson on her 1955 album, The World’s Greatest Gospel Singer. It’s all about keeping our focus on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Hold on
Hold on
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on
Hold on
Hold on
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on
Heard the voice of Jesus say
Come unto me, I am the way.
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.
When my way gets dark as night,
I know the Lord will be my light,
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.
Hold on
Hold on
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on
You can talk about me much as you please
The more you talk, gonna stay on my knees.
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.
When I get to heaven, gonna sing and shout
Be nobody there to put me out.
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.
I know my robe’s gonna fit me well,
I tried it on at the gates of Hell.
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on.
Hold on
Hold on
Keep your hand on the plow, hold on
May 7th, 2020, Thurs, 8:26 pm