A Fork in the Blender
I would ask, Father, that Your hand be upon me this day. Speak through me, whether on this keyboard or my mouth, as I interact with others. May You be visible above all. Amen.
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This morning, on my bus route, another vehicle approached me as I slowed down for a stop. I had my amber warning lights on, which meant I was preparing to stop and pick up a student. Usually, I appreciate it when drivers stop several feet back from my stop. It’s safer for my kids. It keeps others back, with an additional visual that others also need to stop.
The problem was that they came to a total stop several feet past my student. It was light enough that my student was clearly visible, and where they stopped, there was an open field to my right and an empty yard to my left. No one was going to pop from behind trees or an empty field. I motioned them to go on so I could pull up and pick up my student.
The driver’s heart and mind were in the right place – they were doing what they were supposed to do by stopping. They weren’t endangering my student, but they were obstructing my progress. I couldn’t get where I needed to because they were in my way.
How often in our spiritual walk with the Lord do we impede the progress that He seeks in our lives and the lives of those around us?
On Instagram the other day, I came across a guy talking about how he prayed for God’s will in his life instead of asking Him what His life was for his will. At least for me, it was a little hard on the ears. I wasn’t quite catching it, but he went on to give an example.
He prays, “God, what is Your will for my career?”
And God replies, “I need you to forgive the guy you’re mad at.”
And the guy fires back, “Woah, woah, woah, I’m talking about my career here.”
And God fires right back, “I know, but I want to talk about your heart.”
He says, “No, I want to talk about how You need to change my circumstances.”
God replied, “No, I want to change you.”
He then gave an example of him and his daughter making a smoothie when they accidentally dropped a fork into the blender. They were so busy putting the things they wanted to put in that they didn’t notice…at first! In their eagerness, they neglected to look inside the blender and see the big ol’ problem in there. So, when they turned it on, the blender went crazy – sparks and noise and smoke! He said it literally blew the fork out the side of the blender!
He then said that it made no difference what all they put in the blender because things weren’t going to turn out right unless they got the fork out.
He then prayed, “God, would You just show me Your plan for my life?”
And God said, “Would you just let My presence invade your plan? Stop trying to get the secret plan in your head and work on getting the ‘fork’ out of your heart.”
God is eager to work in our lives, and sometimes, it would work a lot better if we just get ourselves out of the way. May we pray as Jesus did, “…yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42 NIV Amen.
Mar 5th, 2024, Tues, 12:52 pm
Embrace with Total Abandonment!
We had a beautiful day, and now that the sun has set, it’s time to focus on our time together, Father. Speak through me the words You deem best. Amen.
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Today, on one of my first elementary drop-offs, I witnessed a heartwarming sight. Two brothers get off, and their father is walking the family dog down their long drive to meet them. The younger brother, a first grader, hits the ground running and, with total abandonment, embraces his father’s waist in the biggest hug you can imagine! The father eagerly and with equal enthusiasm lifts his son off the ground!
This week, I am working on a sermon for the fourth Sunday of Lent. My text is Luke 15:1-3; 11b-32 – the story of the prodigal son. As you might remember, the youngest of two sons had taken his share of his inheritance – an audaciously arrogant act – and had blown the entirety of it. When he hit rock bottom, he realized the error of his ways and, with great humility on his part, headed back home to confess his wrongdoings and beg for a place amongst his father’s servants.
His father, while he was still a long way off and filled with love and compassion…ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. v20 The son had to wait to vocalize his confession, but his father would hear nothing of it. Instead of rejection or lectures, he welcomed him home as his son!
In my mind’s eye, the father hit the ground running and, with total abandonment, embraced his son in the biggest hug you could imagine!
As I pondered these thoughts along the rest of my route, I got to thinking about the youngest son – the prodigal, the oldest son (who did everything he was “supposed” to do, minus the love for his father), and then I had the desire to be a third – middle – son. This isn’t a part of Jesus’ parable, but as one reborn into the family of God, my heart’s desire upon stepping into heaven would be for my Heavenly Father and I to run to each other with even greater eager enthusiasm than my young student. Could anything be greater? Oh, that my joy would increase exponentially as my anticipation rises all the more every day!
Mar 4th, 2024, Mon, 7:12 pm
No Rolling Stops!
I am grateful for the opportunity to meet up with my family today. What a blessing they have been and continue to be in my life. Thank You, Father, for that wonderful gift.
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One thing that I find annoying is people who bend (break is probably more accurate!) the law for the sake of convenience. Witnessing other drivers commit rolling stops is not unusual, especially on my bus routes. (By the way, I learned in my bus training that a legal stop is three seconds long.) I understand nobody likes getting stuck behind a school bus, but I don’t think it’s because I am there with my bus. People do it all the time!
Another infringement on the safety of the roadways is cutting corners. When turning onto another road, many do not enter that road squarely into their side of the road but have a bad habit of cutting diagonally across the other lane to get into it. It may save you milliseconds, but it is very reckless, especially if another vehicle is close to being in the same spot. If you are in a fender-bender, that savings of milliseconds will be multiplied exponentially into possibly hours of paperwork, and the financial end of things will blow up as well!
These kinds of things can have all sorts of negative repercussions, all for the sake of convenience or for saving minuscule increments of time in our lives.
But what about spiritual shortcuts? Some of those may be more obvious (I think “white” lies fall into this category, but in reality, a lie…is a lie), but many of these shortcuts are things that others might not even notice but impact our lives significantly.
I realize that it takes time and has to be a deliberate act on our part, but one big example is the importance of reading your Bible daily. When talking with my dad today, we were talking about my Uncle Stan, who we knew was on the verge of death (we found out later that he had passed last night). He was the husband of Ruth, one of my dad’s sisters, who died two years ago. One of his memories of her was her determination to have a devotional time as a young lady. Dad said it wasn’t unusual for her to have a flashlight under her covers reading her Bible – it was that important to her to maintain her relationship with her Lord and Savior.
How many of us “shortcut” that part of our life by side-stepping that time with God? We get it in our heads that our time at church is sufficient. But it truly isn’t… Cutting corners in our lives shortchanges our growth. It deprives us of growing in our faith, of becoming more like our Savior, and getting rid of those things in life that we readily accept but at the same time continue to drive a wedge between ourselves and God.
Do what is right, stop, and spend time reading your Bible and listening to what God has to tell you – no rolling stops allowed because those don’t count. No cutting corners in your relationship with Him – take time…make time. Saving those small increments of time for things as trivial as flipping through Facebook posts or watching reels on Instagram are not fair trades. Whatever your vices, examine where your time goes and adjust in the light of eternity. Invest in what is truly important. You won’t regret it.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT
I have hidden your word in my heart,
….that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11 NLT, NIV
Mar 3rd, 2024, Sun, 7:44 pm
Long-Suffering
This day has been a little everywhere, it seems. Father, I would ask that You bring my mind into order. Use me to communicate what You need to communicate. Amen.
1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (<<click here to read the passage)
We’ve not had syndicated news for quite a while now, and really, I don’t miss it. For some time, I had a couple of news-oriented network sites on the opening page of my search engine. But I grew tired of those, and now…I don’t. Recently, I have listened – some – to a local news radio station, but with clashing political stands, the abortion debate, the war between Israel and Hamas, the battle involving LGBTQ individuals, and on and on and on…I am worn out and frustrated to the max!
Yesterday, as I was inundated with all these things and the innumerable opinions on these issues, it got me thinking, why hasn’t God just thrown His hands up and bellowed throughout the cosmos, “ENOUGH! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH! THAT. IS. IT! I AM SOOOO DONE WITH YOU ALL!”
…but He hasn’t…
He could, at any given moment…but He hasn’t.
One of my favorite Biblically oriented words is long-suffering, and God is the epitome of long-suffering. One online source states,
In the Bible, long-suffering is a word that combines two Greek words: macro, meaning “long or slow,” and thumia, meaning “anger.” It literally means to be long-tempered, or to be patient and enduring, even when facing suffering, challenges, or the shortcomings of others. A long-suffering person is someone who is not quick to take retaliation or to punish.
Another source adds, “A person who is long-suffering is someone who shows restraint when stirred to anger.”
As I said, God is the epitome of long-suffering. He is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9b AMP
My Life Application Study Bible goes on to say,
World events may seem out of control, and justice may seem to have vanished. But God is in control, allowing evil to remain for a time until he sends Jesus to earth again. Then he will present to God a perfect new world.
God is sovereign. God is just. And that is the final task of Jesus: He will, in the end (or at the new beginning?), defeat evil as He has sin, death, and Satan. All will succumb to His glory and might.
Philippians 2:9-11 has this to say about Jesus and the world’s response to Him in the end.
For this reason also [because He obeyed and so completely humbled Himself], God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow [in submission], of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess and openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (sovereign God), to the glory of God the Father. AMP
Feb 29th, 2024, Thurs, 6:06 pm
His Victory Can Be Our Victory
Thank You, Father, for watching over me and the other bus drivers, teachers, and students this morning with the major storm that came through this morning.
1 Corinthians 15:12-28 (<<click here to read the passage)
I spoke yesterday of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, but there are two more things that He has (and will) overcome in setting things right for us and all creation – Satan and evil.
Satan (and I hate even typing his name) likes to have us believe that he’s powerful and unstoppable, and in reality, he has a snowball’s chance in…well, you know where. He is already defeated but does what he does, not because God Almighty supports or encourages it but because He allows it.
He has many convinced that he is that way, but Jesus, in a heated tongue-lashing of the Jewish spiritual leaders of His day, had this to say of him.
You [the Pharisees] are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths. John 8:44 AMP
Ouch! When it came to His interactions with the ones who should have known better, Jesus sugarcoated nothing!
Satan is that father of lies and half-truths, and he may have thought he won when Jesus proclaimed from the cross, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Jesus’ work was done. He had completed the task assigned Him by the Father that would save our souls and seal Satan’s fate.
First, read this encouraging passage as penned by the Apostle Paul,
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 AMP
Jesus has triumphed over Satan and his minions, and it is also true that Satan was also finished by Jesus’ victory!
He tries his best to hinder us because Satan knows his days are numbered. He hates passages like the one found in Romans 8:37-39,
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us]. For I am convinced [and continue to be convinced—beyond any doubt] that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present and threatening, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the [unlimited] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. AMP
In Christ, we are invincible! Nothing and no one can stand in our way!
Next time, we will examine Jesus’ ultimate victory over evil!
Feb 28th, 2024, Wed, 12:47 pm