Time for a Makeover!
It is a Psalm kind of day!
I cry out to the Lord;
::::I plead for the Lord’s mercy.
I pour out my complaints before him
::::and tell him all my troubles.
When I am overwhelmed,
::::you alone know the way I should turn.
Then I pray to you, O Lord.
::::I say, “You are my place of refuge.
You are all I really want in life. Psalm 142:1-3b, 5 (NLT)
Luke 6:46-49 (<<click to read the passage)
I have a dear friend whose daughter, several years ago, out of necessity accepted a position in another country as an architect. She quickly found out that they do things a little differently…actually a lot differently! If I understood correctly, companies begin to build a structure and they get along as far as they can but if something comes up that stops their progress, that is when they call in an architect! Talk about crazy!
But how often do we do the same thing with our lives? We know that there is an “Architect” out there, but we think that we know what we are doing, and we can handle things. So, we start to build our lives and things may be a little off-kilter but it’s all good and we are relatively content. But then, storm clouds start rolling in. We may not even notice and continue on our merry way but then the rain starts, and the wind picks up and the waves begin to pound the shore. And before we know it our lives start taking a beating. And things start collapsing around us.
And here’s the crazy part, that is when we start calling out to the Architect for help. He is surely there for us. And we know He can help us, and we know He will help us.
I imagine it can run like this. The Architect says, “Well, what you’ve built just isn’t holding up against what life is throwing up against it. I love you but what you’ve built…it really needs to come down. See look here. Your problem is that you don’t have a foundation! No wonder everything is falling apart. Why don’t we just start over? I’ve already paid the asking price for your remodel. Really, all you have to do is let me get at it. We’ll take down the old and get the new up and going with a foundation that has an eternal guarantee! And best of all, I can have it done for you today!”
Now if we have any amount of wisdom whatsoever, we won’t pass up that offer…but we do…time and time again. We aren’t surprised at the world for building their lives that way but how many believers do the same thing? For us, we may allow Him to lay the foundation but immediately take over and begin to build what we want. Foolishness!
Lord Jesus, may we hold nothing back. May we hand over every piece of our lives to You. Build us up to be strong and loving and compassionate as You are. And when people ask us about the grand, solid structure that we have become…may we pass along Your business card. You are always looking for new makeovers! Amen.
Feb 26th, 2020, Wed, 12:32 pm
Odometers
Father, where would I be were it not for Your love? It is a never-ending love. It is undeserved. And there is no way that I can ever pay You back for all You have done and continue to do for me. I am Your bond-servant – there will never be another Master for me. I am Yours and Yours alone. May Your love for me flow through me that I may love others the same way. Amen.
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Okay, right up front, I will admit, I’m weird – especially when it comes to numbers. Because I have spent a lot of my adult life in a vehicle, either driving back and forth to work or, now, as I am driving for a living, I play mental games with my odometer.
I enjoy numbers but a lot of times it has helped keep me awake and alert instead of dozing off at the wheel. (Holiday hours at Kohl’s had me getting home after midnight lots of times!)
I am always on the lookout for palindromes, i.e. numbers that are the same forwards and backward – 123,321.
I love seeing a sequential number – 123,456 or the other way 654,321.
On my late-night drives home from Kohl’s I used to see if I could add up all the numbers on the odometer from 1 to as high as they could go. I allowed myself to add and subtract numbers from each other to get the numbers I needed. And my goal was to get it all done before I clicked over the next mile! As I said, I’m weird that way!
Anyway, I was on a sub-bus yesterday, in that my bus was being serviced, and the odometer read over 200,000 miles but the last four digits coincided with years in my life – the 1960s and up. Of course, I can’t see every number with watching kids and most importantly the road! But I saw the year I became a senior in high school, the year I got married, the year Massey was born, etc.
So why am I writing about this? Just as those miles ticked away with every passing mile, so do the years of our lives. This coming autumn it will be 40 years since I began my senior year in high school! This summer Karen and I will celebrate 34 years of marital bliss. Massey is already 27! Time flies! And there is no way to slow it down or stop it…unless we stop…permanently, and that is just our bodies, for our souls are eternal!
Life is far to short for us to let it slip through our fingers. How much time do we invest in what we think is important but, in the end, we realize it was a waste? How many times do we catch ourselves wishing away the time we have because we can’t wait for the weekend? How many years are wasted holding grudges and allowing bitterness to eat away at us when reconciliation would be such a blessing?
Today is what we make it.
Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen in your life tomorrow. [What is secure in your life?] You are merely a vapor [like a puff of smoke or a wisp of steam from a cooking pot] that is visible for a little while and then vanishes [into thin air]. James 4:14 (AMP)
Lord Jesus, help us to sort out what is important in life from what is not. May we not waste time on anger and bitterness when love is what will last…forever! Amen!
Feb 25th, 2020, Tues, 12:35 pm
Pour Forth
Father, I set Your gift to me – Monday’s post – before another group of people and they are responding! Isaiah 55:11 tells me what You will do with it! Amen and amen!
I send [my word] out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. (NLT)
Luke 6:43-45 (<<click to read the passage)
More than 30 years ago, we moved to where we now live. At that time, it wasn’t much to look at, but it sure had a lot of potential! We have invested a lot of time, energy and resources to make it the beautiful home that it now is. And of course, homes demand regular attention to maintain their beauty and quality.
When we first moved here, our only source of water was from a well. It was a good well in that even after a couple of years of not being used it was still very viable. But…we couldn’t use it. Because it had not been used, it needed to be disinfected.
We had to have our well checked for total coliform bacteria. I read, “These bacteria are good indicators of sanitary protection of the well and water system because they are everywhere on the surface of the ground, but do not usually occur past a few feet into the soil. If they show up in a water test, they can indicate that surface contamination has gotten into the water and that disease-causing microorganisms may be present. Just as disinfection kills most disease-causing microorganisms, it also kills coliform bacteria.”
At that time, it was recommended that we pour a couple of gallons of chlorine bleach down the well to kill the bacteria that were present.
Here’s the point, we are born “diseased”
Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20 (NLT)
As it is written and forever remains written, “There is none righteous [none that meets God’s standard], not even one.
…since all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God… Romans 3:10,23 (AMP)
And, just like our well, if we are to become “disinfected” someone has to help us. There is no way we can do it ourselves.
While we were still helpless [powerless to provide for our salvation], at the right time Christ died [as a substitute] for the ungodly.
But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6, 8 (AMP)
And as today’s passage from Luke’s Gospel points out. There is no way to hide the state of our hearts.
A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. Luke 6:45 (NLT)
We may be able to cover up for a time but eventually, the truth will come out.
And just for the record, it works both ways.
…for where your treasure is, there your heart [your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centers] will be also. Matthew 6:21 (AMP)
Lord Jesus, help us to disinfect the disease that ravages our souls. May we allow You to bleach us as white as snow! And then may we pour forth pure and potent water from the treasury of our hearts!
Feb 24th, 2020, Mon, 1:17 pm
Sucked into the Muck!
Father, it has been a multifaceted kind of day! Good worship this morning, a wonderful rest of the day with Karen, an interesting conversation with a dear friend, and now trying to get a new modem and router to do what they need to do! All praise to You for Your loving support in it all!
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One thing that I thank the Lord for as a school bus driver is that I have never been sucked into the muck. Some of our county and township roads are pretty narrow and often we have oncoming traffic that is as big or bigger than we are – garbage trucks, dump trucks, even semis! For the most part, neither party really slows down a whole lot when we pass but both of us get over as far to the right side of the road as we can.
Occasionally on the side of the road, there may be some gravel or filler of some sort but usually, the ground just meets the pavement. Where we can run into trouble is, if we go just a little too far to the right and our tires go off the pavement and get onto the ground. If it is soupy from lots of rain or snow, with the weight of the bus, it can suck us right into where we are pulled off the road! Sometimes it is a fine line and it takes a keen eye to know how far you can push it.
I am convinced that angels have pushed on the right side of my bus on occasion! There have been too many times where I have been right on that razor-thin edge and not once have I gone too far, thank the Lord!
So, here’s my question. How many times in life do we get too close to the edge of trouble? Now there may be times where we are pushed, as such, and we get stuck where we are not supposed to be. On a bus, better stuck in the muck than getting hit by a truck!
In life, there are times when, by no fault of our own, we are pushed into potential sin-inducing situations. That, in and of itself, is not sin. If we linger or yield to that temptation in some way then we are in trouble.
The bad thing for many of us, it is not a matter of being pushed in those kinds of situations, but sometimes the problem lies in the fact that we just like playing a game of seeing how close to the edge we can get!
If I am on open road on the county and township roads of my route with nothing coming towards me and no blind curves or rises in the road with which to contend, I tend to drive closer to the middle of the road. There is no reason to take chances! The best policy is to avoid even the possibility of problems.
The same is true in my relationship with Jesus. What good is it to play around with temptation? We can rationalize all we want but it is dangerous and way too risky!
I had married acquaintance in college that used to say that he could look at other women all he wanted – and he was implying some very risky thoughts in regards to them – but he was fine…as long as he didn’t touch! That is crazy! I don’t know how he ended up but that is definitely not an attitude that helps to build one’s marriage!
So, in the end, don’t hang out near the edge! Doing so just may get you sucked into the muck!
Feb 23rd, 2020, Sun, 8:43 pm
Mudslinging
Father, please grant me an abundance of patience each day for You are surely patient with me and I can do no less for those charged to my care, old and young alike. Love and patience go hand in hand, as I have experienced under Your care. Amen.
Luke 6:41-42 (<<click to read the passage)
Our current political climate has possibly heightened this problem but all in all, it is a conundrum that plagues the entirety of our society. Mudslinging is at an all-time high on just about every front. We are a people that love to point out “specks” in other people’s eyes while all the while trying to “see past the log in [our] own eye”.
We are so quick to point out another person’s flaws but are just as quick to hide our own.
One big fallout from this mindset is that speck in your friend’s eye? It really does need taken care of.
Most of us at one time or another have gotten something in our eye, and I have yet to meet someone who can just carry on like nothing is wrong at all. Even getting an eyelash in your eye is very uncomfortable and everything else comes to a screeching halt as we take care of it!
We all need “specks” removed from our eyes and sometimes we need someone else to help us.
Our son, Massey, wears contacts and there have been times in the past when for whatever reason the contact has slipped to the back of his eyeball. It hurts! And the bad thing is, he can’t see it! Your one eye can’t see the back of your other eye! Sometimes he can feel exactly where it is laying but sometimes he needs our help to locate it.
Now if I was farsighted and refused to put my glasses on, would I be of any help to him? My trying to see things close up would be useless. Talk about the blind not being any good to the blind! I would have to make sure that my vision was clear in order to help him with his vision.
From a spiritual point of view (no pun intended!), how can God use us to help others with spiritual problems if we refuse to address our own? With God’s help we, first, need to take care of our “logs”, then He will be able to use us to our best abilities to aid others.
“It is easy for us to rationalize our sins by pointing out the same mistakes in others,” my Life Application Study Bible says. We can sling mud all day long but unfortunately…our source of mud may be ourselves.
Lord Jesus, may we see clearly our “logs” and get rid of them so that You can use us to love others as we love ourselves. Amen.
Feb 20th, 2020, Thurs, 12:18 pm