Always in a Hurry
Father, I would ask for Your watchcare over us this evening. You alone know what the future holds. We place ourselves into Your almighty arms. Amen.
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It seems that much of life around us is always in a hurry – to our detriment. A case in point:
This morning I traveled down a county road to pick up a student. First of all, my 15-ton bus is heading south, and a car is heading north. As we are about ready to pass one another a squirrel ran across the road. It wasn’t one of those run-stop-and-go-the-other-way kind of things, but the squirrel just flew at top speed and didn’t slow down in the slightest…at least not initially.
The squirrel cleared the car’s tires and I saw it dash toward the bus but was unable to see if it cleared my tires, too. That is until I did my turnaround and headed back north. The squirrel had cleared the driver’s side tire…but unfortunately, it didn’t clear the right front tire. 15-tons of bus pressing down on one tire doesn’t bode well for a squirrel that was in too much of a hurry for its own good.
Regrettably, we often do the same thing. How many drivers take irresponsible risks while on the road? Weaving in and out of traffic, pulling out in front of others so that others have to hit their brakes, rolling stops at stop signs and lights, etc., etc. It would be an insurmountable task for one person to keep tabs!
There are too many things in life that we fly by, many times without a second thought. But much to our chagrin, life can come to a screeching halt. Either our lives end or the lives of others, near and dear to our hearts, come to an end before we’ve done or said what we wanted to do…or even worse maybe, what we needed to do.
A couple of verses that we should take to heart,
Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. Ecclesiastes 9:10 NLT
Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. James 4:17 NLT
Lord Jesus, help us to slow it down, for we know what tomorrow may bring. May we focus on what is truly important and not just expediency. Amen.
Jan 12th, 2002, Wed, 6:35 pm
A Cross to Bridge the Great Divide
Come, let us worship and bow down.
….Let us kneel before the Lord our maker,
….for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
….the flock under his care. Psalm 95:6-7 NLT
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Today has been full and a bit hectic, so as I slipped into a pair of lounge pants and an old sweatshirt to sit and write, weariness has overtaken me.
As I read through the next passage of Scripture, a thread of thought came to me. But at the same time, a title popped into my head, a song by the same title did also.
The song is The Great Divide made popular in the mid-90s by the group Point of Grace. I love their music! A few years later, I had the pleasure of singing in a mixed trio with two talented ladies from my church. This is one of the songs we sang and, believe it or not, we sang it in the same key as the ladies from Point of Grace! Back then, I could sing quite a bit higher than I do now. (I was serving as Children’s Pastor at the time, and our well-versed Minister of Music, Virginia Cameron, noticed the kids were struggling when singing with me. She suggested that I needed to sing an octave higher – where children naturally sing – and voila! – it worked! Needless to say, it stretched my tenor voice quite a bit!)
Regardless, this is still a powerful song. One outstanding portion of the lyrics is inverted in the chorus and drives home a great message. The chorus begins with,
There’s a bridge to cross the great divide
And ends with,
There’s a cross to bridge the great divide
I read somewhere that it was an unintentional typo initially, but it sure preaches, and they left it the way it was.
Enjoy this lyric video as sung by Point of Grace!
Jan 11th, 2022, Tues, 8:11 pm
More than We Can Handle?
Thank You, Father, for the wherewithal to get through so much in my preparation for Sunday’s service. Even in the middle of the demands of life, You enabled me to focus on important things, and manage some not-so-important things as well.
Acts 2:37-41 (<<click here to read the passage)
Karen, who teaches 1st Grade, has had as many as 24 students in her classroom to handle on her own, striving to motivate them to learn and grow throughout an entire day. Currently, she has 18, which is lower than usual, but she still has her hands full.
Before Massey was born, she taught music at a Christian school in the Columbus area. She had individual classes of manageable numbers but when they were combined for Christmas programs, she had well over 300 students with which to work (and did an absolutely marvelous job, by the way!)
At present, I could have as many as 42 elementary students on my bus, give or take a few. My bus is designed to seat 72 if I had three in every seat! At that point, I would imagine things would get a little crazier than they already are some days! (Some of our drivers have quite a few more students than I do.)
Keep in mind, the majority of our buses (except for pre-school and special needs routes) have one lone adult – the driver! So, we are managing X-number of students while driving a multi-ton vehicle over hill and dale, in all kinds of weather. We also have to contend with the inpatient drivers of other vehicles, deer crossings, potentially fallen limbs, and occasionally wandering livestock, just to name off a few of the extra challenges we have! But we do it every day!
When we read verse 41 of today’s passage, it is quite astonishing!
So then, those who accepted his message were baptized; and on that day about 3,000 souls were added [to the body of believers]. AMP
That is absolutely awesome! But…the situation in which those in leadership found themselves was to train up 3,000 people in the teachings and mindset of Jesus, the Messiah.
Acts 1:15 tells us that there were about 120 believers gathered in an upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. With a group that size, I’m sure there would have been a wide variety of talents and abilities. Equally, there would probably not have been an even dispersion of Biblical training among them – and remember at that time their “Bible” would only have included what we would consider the Old Testament. Some would have followed Jesus, heard His teachings, and seen Him work amongst the people, from the beginning while others more than likely came along as time passed.
Even if you divided the 3000 evenly amongst the 120 that would have been 24 people apiece. From a strictly human standpoint, it would have been nigh impossible, but in and through the Holy Spirit it was accomplished! And in just a few short days, with a further proclamation on Peter’s part, the number of men who believed…totaled about 5,000! (Acts 4:4) And the Holy Spirit still worked in their midst and great things were accomplished on behalf of the Kingdom!
Though we often do, followers of Christ really should pay no heed to the word impossible, and we think some situations are more than we can handle. If we are in line with God’s will, there is certainly nothing that cannot be done!
Jan 10th, 2022, Mon, 7:23 pm
Cut to the Heart
Come, let us sing to the Lord!
….Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
….Let us sing psalms of praise to him. Psalm 95:1-2 NLT
Acts 2:37-41 (<<click here to read the passage)
When I preach, I try to be careful. I, first of all, want to be sensitive to what the Lord wants me to communicate. And I also strive to not make my sermons too lengthy. I always format my sermons to a font of a certain type and size (I don’t have to be able to see it quite a bit above the pulpit!) Another thing that helps in my ability to see my sermon is I use 1.5 line spacing. I find that it’s easier to not lose my place. (I single space Scripture because I read it word for word.)
So, all in all, with that layout, my sermons are usually 7-8 pages long. Sometimes they’ll get up to 9 pages, but not too often.
One thing that I never worry about is if I happen to have a lot more passages of Scripture than normal. My philosophy is that directly using God’s words has a greater impact on the hearts and minds of my listeners than anything I might add!
After Peter’s sermon, which by the way was full of Old Testament Scripture and was divinely inspired by his being filled with the Holy Spirit, his words pierced his listeners’ hearts (NLT). The Amplified Bible says they were cut to the heart. v37a
Hebrews 4:12 has this to say about God’s word,
For the word of God is living and active and full of power [making it operative, energizing, and effective]. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as the division of the soul and spirit [the completeness of a person], and of both joints and marrow [the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and judging the very thoughts and intentions of the heart. AMP
That passage is brought to life in today’s passage! It pierced them and caused them to exclaim to Peter and the other disciples, “Brothers, what should we do?” v37b NLT
I will let Peter’s response speak for itself,
“Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise [of the Holy Spirit] is for you and your children and for all who are far away [including the Gentiles], as many as the Lord our God calls to Himself.” v38-39
We can feel impacted by God’s word, but we can’t leave it at that. We must act! Just pulling a few words from the Amplified Bible points to action – repent – change – turn – accept – follow!
God’s word must motivate us! We can’t leave it at, “Ow! That hurt! Oof! Man, that stepped on my toes! Ugh! That cut ran deep!”
It may sound pretty silly but staying where we are doesn’t get us anywhere! We have to move! We have to go! We have to do! Those actions don’t save us – only Jesus’ actions can do that! – but those actions reflect that action on our hearts, souls, and minds!
Jesus, move us! Amen!
Jan 9th, 2022, Sun, 6:49 pm
Keep Your Damper Open
[The godly] will declare, “The Lord is just!
….He is my rock!
….There is no evil in him!” Psalm 92:15 NLT
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OK, I began this evening by jotting down some thoughts for my opening prayer. But then it became more than an opening prayer! So read on!
This has been one of the coldest days we’ve had in a while. Just as the warmth of the fire in our woodstove will only extend as far as we allow it in the house, so it can be with the warmth of Your Spirit, Father, in our lives.
There is a thing called a damper that retains the heat that would normally escape up our flue. It allows the heat to dissipate into the area being heated by the woodstove. Our wood stove sits in the corner of our living room.
When I need to start a fire, I place two or three logs in the bottom of the stove then place a quarter of a starter brick on top of those. (It’s basically a chunk of sawdust held together by a flammable waxy substance). I add another log or two on top of that, make sure by damper is fully opened, and light the starter brick. The fully opened damper allows the firebox to draw the most air, enabling the fire to start pretty quickly.
Now the fire has to be carefully managed or it can drive you out of the house because it gets so hot. (We learned that the hard way…but that’s another story for another time!) Once the metal casing of the stove gets hot, I usually shut the damper down to its lowest position. This allows only the most minimal amount of air to pass through – enough to keep things burning without letting it get out of control.
Did you know that we are the damper in our relationship with God? Spiritually I really don’t think there’s any reason to ever dampen the Holy Spirit’s work in and through our lives…but we are very good at shutting our dampers down to the lowest positions possible. Unfortunately, we can shut it down so low that the fire that once burned brightly in our lives is almost snuffed out.
On my woodstove there is a lever at the base that I can move left or right, controlling the amount of air allowed in the firebox. Spiritually things that dampen the Spirit’s ability to work in our lives are too numerous to name in their entirety. And they’re different for each of us. One the comes to mind is yielding to temptation. Anything that tempts us, puts a damper on our spirituality. The acts committed do that and more often than not, the amount of time we give to those temptations dampens our relationship with God as well. It takes time away from godly, uplifting activities we could be doing – reading our Bibles, praying, calling and encouraging the disheartened and downtrodden (We all know people who fit into those categories!)
But sometimes it’s not just doing bad things that hinder our spiritual walk. Sometimes it’s the good things that we are so hell-bent on accomplishing that take an exorbitant amount of time. We become so fixated that we quickly work God out of the process. We must be careful.
Lord Jesus, help us to keep our dampers open. May we allow the Holy Spirit to use us throughout each day to bring light and life to the world that is dying around us. Amen.
Jan 6th, 2022, Thurs, 7:12 pm