To Make A Better Life

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ecently, while flipping through the channels trying to find something entertaining and informative to watch on TV, I stopped to watch a short infomercial.  This particular show advertised computer classes to help you get ahead in the job market and to help you make a wonderful salary.  One of the interviews was with a young man who talked on and on about how great the program was and how his increased salary had helped him afford things he never had before.  When the interviewer asked him what his motivation for taking the classes was, he didn’t hesitate one instant but answered straightforwardly, “To make a better life for my family and myself!”

I sat there and let that statement sink in for just a few minutes.  From what I could observe from the infomercial, this man had increased his salary, purchased a nice home, owned two cars, and wore beautiful clothes.   For all intents and purposes, society would say that he had definitely arrived and was in a position to improve his lifestyle as well as that of his family.  But had he really made a better life for himself?  That was the question.

When I was growing up, I remember my dad telling me that all parents wished a better life for their children.  While I knew he wanted me to avail myself of opportunities he didn’t have, I could never figure out what about my life needed improving.  I had my own bed, I had my own clothes, I had a wonderful family, I had plenty to eat, and I was warm and dry. 

As I grew older, however, I began to understand that the choices I made could determine just how good my life would be.  If I made wise selections, I would be able to enjoy life more fully than if I squandered my choices and acted foolishly.  Still, I learned that the quality of life is not based on the things we can afford to keep but on the things we can’t afford to lose!

The children of Israel had a similar choice during their Exodus from Egypt.  They had an opportunity to make a better life for themselves and for their children.  However, their success would depend on the choices they made and Moses wanted to make sure they understood how to choose wisely.

In Deuteronomy 30:18-20, Moses gives the people explicit instructions about securing and making a better life for themselves:  “I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”    

After wandering in the wilderness for forty years, the people are ready to cross over into the land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Notice the choice Moses gives the people.  It is a choice between life and death, between curses and blessings.  His advice to the people is to choose life.  It would seem that this choice was evident but given the track record of the people coming out of Egypt, Moses wanted to make sure they understood the consequences of choosing poorly.  He tells the people to choose life and continues by saying that the Lord is their life.  In other words, we choose a better life when we choose God.  This choice would not only bring life to the people but to their children as well.

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he same choice is ours today.  We are free to choose so we must choose wisely.   The only choice we have, the only choice that leads to life, is God.  We come to Him through the knowledge of Jesus Christ who promised life to all who believed in Him.  Do you want to make and have a better life?  God is waiting for you to make your decision for Him.  What choice will you make today?

The Stereo Receiver

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 was seventeen years old with a little bit of money in my pocket which I had received from family and friends for my birthday.  My intention was to hold onto the money and save it.  Ah, the dreams of youth!!!  The money lasted just over a week and then I saw something I simply had to have and I had exactly enough money to pay for it.

One of my good friends from high school and I had gone to eat and on the way home we stopped by one of the popular shopping malls in our area.  There was nothing in particular we were looking for which meant that anything we saw was game for purchase—a very dangerous prospect indeed.

We wondered into a large department store, and, as most seventeen-year-old boys do, we found ourselves looking at stereo equipment.  There were all kinds of systems on display.  Some of them could only be purchased as a complete system while others could be purchased one piece at a time allowing the owner to build and tailor the stereo to his own specific needs and wants.  For this reason, the systems were known as component systems and they represented one of the first rites of passage from teenager to adult.

In the middle of the display area, the store had a special promotion.  They were selling a receiver and speakers for just under $100.  As luck would have it, this is the amount of money I had saved and had promised myself I would hold on to but that stereo looked and sounded wonderful.  Needless to say, I buckled and gave in.  I went home, took my savings out and drove back over to the mall and purchased the receiver and the speakers.  I placed them in the trunk of my car and headed home.

It only took about 20 minutes to assemble the receiver and speakers once I selected a place for them in my room.  There were boxes on the floor, plastic wrap thrown across the beds, and speaker and antennae wires running across the room.  The place was a wreck but it sounded fantastic.  I was happy with my purchase and as time progressed my parents helped me add to the system until it was complete.

Each time a new component was added I would open the box, remove it, and wire it to the receiver.  No matter how many pieces I added, they all had to be wired to the receiver.  Without the receiver, the rest of the stereo was of no value.  Every device sent its signal to the receiver which in turn made it possible for everyone in the room---or depending on the volume, the entire house—to hear whatever music I chose to play.  The receiver was the heart and the center of my system and without it, there would have been no sound, no music, no anything.

In Acts 17:28, Luke reminds us of the important place Jesus must hold in our lives.  He underlines the importance of making him the centerpiece, the very heart of our existence.  Luke pens this reminder with the following words, “For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.”

This passage comes from Paul’s speech at the Areopagus in Athens where he was asked to explain his teaching.  Paul pointed out that the men and women of Athens were very religious.  They had erected altars to several deities, even one to “An Unknown God.”  It was this “unknown God” that Paul explained to those listening that day.  He explained that God was the creator of all things and did not live in any temple made by human hands.  Instead, He was the central point of all creation and of all existence and He was much closer than they imagined.

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rom that point, Paul continued explaining about the coming of Jesus and how he died for all men and how all those who believe in him would have life everlasting.  But the central truth Paul wanted to communicate was that Christ must be the center of our lives.  We must remain plugged into him if we are to reach those around us for God.  As long as we remain connected to Jesus, our lives have purpose and our message is communicated.  However, if we lose contact with him, if we try to send our own message without him, we become as useless as a speaker or a stereo component detached from the receiver.  Our witness simply will not work.  This leaves us but one question to consider today.  Are we connected to Christ and is his message getting out through us?

The Lesson of the Sponge

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ne perk of owning your own business comes from all the samples of neat stuff various salesmen try to sell you.  They enter your place of business—unannounced I must add—open their brief cases—which look more like suitcases—and pull out all types of nifty little samples of their wares.  I remember some of the things my dad used to receive on consistent basis at work.  There were pens, notepads, calendars, refrigerator magnets, you name it. 

Once in a great while, however, a salesman produced something out of the ordinary, an item that was so unique and unusually captivating that you couldn’t help but be mesmerized by it.  I arrived home from school one day to find just such an item sitting on our counter top in the kitchen.  Mom was busy cleaning the kitchen sink and right beside her was a small plastic package filled with a long yellow strip.  Mom picked up the package, tore open the plastic wrapping, and removed the slender material. By now, my curiosity was peaked.  I had no idea what the material was but I rushed to the sink to find out.

Mom threw the strip into the water.  There, right before my eyes, the yellow material began to move and grow.  What was a strip of yellow a few seconds earlier began changing into something two to three times the size.   Finally, it stopped and in the sink was a new sponge, sopping wet, fully loaded, and ready for action.  Mom reached into the sink, took the sponge, wrung out all the excess water, and began using the sponge to clean the cabinets.

I have never forgotten the image of that sponge or the lesson it taught me.  What I learned from that sponge many years ago was one of the greatest of life’s lessons.  The sponge is no good until it is plunged into water, allowed to swell to the bursting point, and wrung out, removing all the unnecessary water.  A sponge that is too dry cannot clean and sponge that is too full just makes a mess.  In order for the sponge to be effective, it has to be both soaked and wrung out.  The soaking part is the fun part but the wringing out process requires work and isn’t terribly exciting and wonderful from the sponge’s perspective.

Perhaps no one in the Bible understood the plight of the sponge better than Noah.  After all, he was plunged into a great sink of water and left there for over a year before he was allowed to exit the ark.  Sometime after his 500^th birthday, God called him to build a boat, better known as the ark.  This is proof that retirement at age 65 is NOT biblically based!!  For years Noah labored building the ark, preparing it for the day the first drop of rain would fall.  This was the soaking up part of Noah’s life.  Although he was working hard on the ark, he was gathering strength for the long journey ahead, a journey that would wring out everything but the most necessary element of his life—his faithfulness and obedience to God’s calling.

Genesis 7:23 provides an interesting window into Noah’s life after the rain had stopped. “Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.”  Thus began the wringing out process in Noah’s life.  The account of the flood in Genesis 6-9 tells us that Noah was in the ark for over a year.  During that time, Noah worked, caring for all the animals on the ark, tending to their needs, fulfilling the purpose for which God called him. 

The last sentence of this passage tells us that Noah and those with him were the only one’s left.  Can you feel God’s fingers squeezing the last bit of water from the sponge?  Noah must have felt alone, isolated, and forgotten.  While the waters were soaking the earth, God was wringing him out.  While the tide continued to swell beneath him, God’s purging of his life continued.  While everything else perished, Noah remained alive.

This is God’s way with us.  There are times when we bask in His presence, soaking up all that He has to teach us.  At times such as these, the journey is easy, the spiritual lessons we learn seem so evident, and the presence of God is so near and so real to us.  But there are times when God chooses to wring us out in order to use us for His purposes.  Like the sponge, this means God will remove all but the most essential elements of the spiritual life so that He can use us for His purposes.  At times you may feel abandoned and pressed beyond all measure.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.  God knows where you are, He understands your situation, and He is using it to wring from your life everything that keeps you from being all that He knows and wants you to be. 

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ave you experienced the lesson of the sponge in your life?  Are you soaking or are you being wrung out today?  Where ever you are in this process, take heart from another statement from Noah’s life, found in Genesis 8:1, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.” God always remembers where you are! Have a great day in Him today!

The Keyholder

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s a teenager, I was always searching from something I had misplaced around our house.  Usually it was my watch or my rings.  I would take them off, lay them somewhere, and make a mental note to retrieve them later.  As luck would have it, I remembered the part about retrieving the items but the part about their location must have been written in invisible ink.  I would run frantically through the house picking up every piece of paper, searching underneath all the furniture, and rummaging through every drawer, all to no avail.

At this point I would enlist the help of everyone in the house.  After several minutes of sweeping our home, my mom would come across the item. It took her almost no time to find it and it was usually in plain view.  Every time this happened—and it happened a lot—I would get the same advice, “Put your stuff in one place and you’ll never have to worry about where it is.”

Like most teenagers, I didn’t listen. I knew her advice was sound and I knew it was the right thing to do; I just didn’t do it.  When I starting driving, my keys joined the list of things I lost on a regular basis.  I was always looking for them and we never seemed to find them in the same place twice!  Finally, my mom purchased a key holder which dad mounted next to the back door.  Mom’s message was simple—“Hang your keys on the key holder and you’ll never have to worry where they are!”

For the first few weeks, I did just fine.  I would come into the house and hang my keys on the key holder.  When I needed to go out, I knew right where my keys were and I grabbed them on my way out the door.  I hadn’t transferred this concept to my watch or my rings.  I still lost them on a constant basis but I did know where my keys were and that was one less thing I had to worry about.  After a few weeks, however, I was back to my old tricks, failing to hang my keys on the holder and creating a stir in the house until they were found.     

The concept of the key holder has direct application to the Christian walk, especially when it comes to facing the problems and difficulties of life.  Jesus admonishes us not to worry because God will take care of our needs and provide for us.  At various times during our walk with the Lord, we find it easy to let Him carry our burdens and our worries.  He invites us to bring all our cares to Him because He knows we can’t carry them on our own.

1 Peter 5:7 reminds us that we are to “hang” our burdens on the Lord, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  Please notice that Peter does not suggest we do this; he commands that we do it.  We are to roll all our cares, all our worries, all our fears, and all our doubts on to Jesus’ shoulders.  We are to do this because Jesus cares for us.  When we hang our burdens on him, we know where they are and we don’t spend our time being anxious, running around frantically encountering and creating one problem after another. 

As long as my keys were on the key holder, I didn’t even think about them.  As long as they were hanging by the back door, there was no cause for alarm and I didn’t get stressed out over a mere set of keys.  However, if they weren’t on the key holder I grew frantic.  Everything in the house became a potential hiding place for the keys and the more I searched the more anxious and frustrated I became.

This is the secret Jesus would have us learn today. When we refuse to cast our burdens on the Lord, we leave them lying all around us.  They become sources of great frustration and strife for us because we are constantly thinking about them and confronting them.  However, if we would just hang them on Jesus, all our anxiety, all our frustrations, and all our worries would disappear.

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hy is it that we refuse to hang our cares on him?  Why is it we insist on remaining frustrated and anxious when the solution to our problem is so simple?  Have you hung the worrisome keys of life on Jesus?  He is waiting for you to do that. He’s just inside the door of your heart!  Won’t you hang those keys on him today?  If you listen closely you will hear him whispering my mom’s advice, “Hang your burdens on me and you will never have to worry about them again.”  So, what are you waiting for?

The Backside of the Desert

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n the distance the first tendrils of sunlight appeared on the horizon.  In a few moments it would be dawn with sunlight splashing over the landscape as it had for thousands of dawns before this one.  Not far away, the bleating of sheep and goats signaled that the night was indeed ending as man and beast eagerly awaited the arrival of the morning sun.

He had been lying there for over an hour, waking from a fitful sleep.  His tent was open and he stared at the vanishing stars fighting against the breaking of the dawn with all the fury and determination of someone battling for his life. The sound of the animals and the ever-brightening sky meant he needed to start his day.  It would be a busy one as it always was when he moved the flock from one area to another.  He was tired from lack of restful sleep but tonight he knew his rest would be sweet and deep.

The flock gathered around him, eager to begin the long journey.  Although they didn’t know where they were going, anticipation filled the air.  The tents were struck, camels were loaded, and all the animals were gathered into one place.  Finally, after one last check around the campsite, man and beasts set out for the pastures found at the foot of the mountains on the backside of the desert.

The journey took most of the morning and by early afternoon they had reached their destination.  Once camp was established, it was time to visit the pastures and feed the flock.  The shepherd was finally relieved, having arrived at the base of the mountain and its pastures in record time.  He joyfully led his flock to the grasslands to graze.  That’s when he saw something he would never forget, something that shouldn’t be, something no one had ever seen, and something that would change his life forever!  What he saw defied all logic and yet it was real—a bush on fire that did not burn up!

Yes, our shepherd is Moses, the man who would stand before Pharaoh, the man who would deliver the children of Israel from slavery, the man who would use his staff to perform miraculous signs, and the man who would be known as the lawgiver.  But all of these things were in the future.  Moses’ past still haunted him.  He had fled Egypt because he had murdered an Egyptian.  He had come to the wilderness of Midian, married a woman named, Sephora, and became a shepherd for his father-in-law’s flocks.  But from this day forward, nothing would be the same.

Let us take a closer look at Moses’ not-so-usual-day-at-the-office.  Exodus 3:1 gives us the following account, “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.”  Notice that Moses is in the wilderness.  It was a remote place where he had very little contact with others.  As if this weren’t enough, the passage tells us that Moses led the flock to the backside of the desert. Now I ask you, how much more remote can you get?  Exactly where is the backside of a desert anyway?  Wherever it is, it had to be one of the loneliest and most challenging places Moses knew.

Yet it is in this very setting that God performs one of His greatest calls to ministry.  Although the story of Moses and the burning bush is well-known, we need to understand exactly what took place at Horeb, the mountain of God, on the backside of the desert.  In the conversation between God and Moses, Moses learns he is to return to Egypt.  God has chosen him to walk into Egypt and break the good news to Pharaoh that the Hebrew slaves are free and will be leaving right away!  Lucky Moses!  But it is not so much the message God gives Moses as the manner in which it is given.  Notice in verse 12 that God tells Moses he will return to this very mountain to serve God.  Notice also that Moses is leading a flock of sheep, caring for them and tending to their needs.  For the past forty years he has covered this ground, learning everything about its contours, its dangers, and its safe havens.  The time has now come for God to take all that knowledge, all that training, and all that skill, and put it to use for His divine purposes.

But in order for Him to make that point clear to Moses, God leads him to the backside of the desert.  This encounter with God forever changes the life of Moses and forever alters the future of mankind.  Where once he led sheep, he will now lead people.  Where once he fed animals, he will provide for God’s own.  Where once he traveled alone; he will now lead a multitude.  Everything Moses did for his father-in-law, he will now do for God on a scale never before imagined.

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re you wondering in the wilderness today?  Do you feel you have covered the same ground countless times and performed the same tasks over and over so that they now are just part of the routine?  Take heart from Moses.  Who knows how many times he had been to the backside of the desert?  Who knows how many times he had seen that bush in previous years?  Who knows how often he had gazed at the summit of Mount Horeb, wondering what views could be seen from its heights?  Then one day God called Moses to the far end of the desert to be His own.  Are you ready to visit the backside of the desert today?

Right Down The Middle

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ur backyard was filled with all kinds of wonderful things for a kid to enjoy.  We had several trees that were great for climbing.  There was a swing set where we would swing all day and where my mom used to read on cool autumn mornings and warm summer evenings.  There was also a sandbox where we played Indiana Jones, convinced there were all types of buried treasure to be found.  And last but not least, there was a woodpile that was a wonderful hiding place for games or a challenge to climb.

We didn’t pay very much attention to that pile of wood during the spring and summer.  It was more of a nuisance because weeds grew up around it and mowing the grass surrounding the woodpile was indeed a laborious task.  However, as the summer waned into autumn, the woodpile took on new significance and required constant care.

I can remember my dad bringing a huge load of logs and placing them in a large pile in our yard.  My job was to turn those logs into pieces suitable for burning in our fireplace.  This could only mean one thing—work and plenty of it!  In their original form, the logs were too long and too thick to be useful in our fireplace.  They needed to be rendered into smaller, more manageable pieces and that meant I would be spending time splitting wood.

Our preferred weapon of choice was not an ax.  My dad used one, but taught us to use a sledgehammer and an iron wedge.  The idea was simple.  The wedge was placed in the center of the log and tapped into place with the sledgehammer.  When the wedge was firmly seated in the log, heavier blows were used to force the wedge into the wood, splitting it right down the middle to form two smaller pieces.  Depending upon their size, these pieces were then stacked or split once more into usable pieces for our fire. In order to be used, the wood had to be broken.

The idea of brokenness is found throughout the Scriptures.  In fact, the word broken appears over 130 times in the New International Version of the Bible. The Scriptures speak of laws being broken, of vessels being broken, of the necks of animals being broken for sacrifice, and of hearts being broken from sin.  Being broken, it seems, is just part of the human condition and plays a role in our relationship with God.

Leviticus 6:20-22 addresses a different kind of brokenness and expresses this as something that is pleasing to God.  Let’s take a look at this passage and see what we can learn today.  "This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to bring to the LORD on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening.  Prepare it with oil on a griddle; bring it well-mixed and present the grain offering broken in pieces as an aroma pleasing to the LORD . The son who is to succeed him as anointed priest shall prepare it. It is the LORD's regular share and is to be burned completely.”

This seems like an obscure verse of scripture until we understand what the Lord is saying to us.  Aaron was being anointed as priest over all Israel.  This was the offering he was to present before the Lord on the day of his appointment as priest.  Notice the last part of the passage and what it has to say about being broken.  The grain offering serves as a pleasing aroma to the Lord only when it is broken.  Aaron would only serve as an effective priest when he was broken into small pieces, humbled and yielding before the Lord. 

The same is true for us my brothers and sisters in Christ.  Before we can be used for God’s purpose, before we can accomplish any of the plans He has for us, we must be broken into small, useable pieces.  We must allow God to take the wedge of His love, to seat it firmly in our hearts, and to split them right down the middle before we can be used for His glory.  Notice that after presenting the offering before the Lord, it was burned entirely.  God wants nothing less than our all.  We must belong to Him completely if we are to be considered a pleasing aroma before Him.

Those days spent splitting wood in the backyard paid off later in the year.  During the cold months of November, December, January, and February, we were able to enjoy the light and the warmth from the fire in our fireplace. We were only able to this because the wood had been split and broken into pieces that would provide heat and light for our family.  Without the splitting, they would have been completely and utterly useless.

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s your life a pleasing aroma before God?  Are you allowing Him to mold you and shape you for His great purposes?  When was the last time you felt God breaking a part of your life so you could serve as light and warmth in a cold world?  Where ever you are in your walk with God, don’t shy away from the sledgehammer and the wedge.  Let God take you and split you right down the middle in order to use you in a way you never dreamed possible!

Road Work Ahead

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k, I’ll admit it. I lost my cool the other day as I was driving around running errands. On no less than four occasions I encountered that little annoying orange sign which reads, “Road Work Ahead.” Is it just me or does anyone else believe the transportation department strategically places those “little signs” in order to cause the maximum amount of frustration possible? To top it all, every time I come across a construction site, no one is ever there working! Why erect a sign advertising work if there is no work taking place?

Do you feel my frustration yet? I know this seems like a small thing—and it is—but I really get bent out of shape when I am forced to take a detour just to go around the block! It wouldn’t be quite so bad if the construction were completed in a reasonable amount of time. But the signs remain in place for weeks or months on end with very little if any visible progress. For those of you working for the transportation department, please accept my apologies for getting so worked up. There is a great lesson in all this as we will now see.

OK, my little tirade is over and all the frustration is out of my system. While sitting at one of the intersections currently under construction, I had time to sit and think about the process of repairing or building road. It is quite fascinating, especially if you really observe all that goes into the laying of pavement. The ground must be prepared by bulldozing all the obstacles out of the way, by leveling the soil, and by preparing the shape the road will take. Next the workers build a form to hold the necessary components required to build a road and give it shape. They introduce gravel, steel bars, an extremely thick portion of concrete, and then they add asphalt on top. When all these steps are completed and the surface is painted, the road is open for business and cars travel back and forth, easily riding on the smooth surface that months of back-breaking work has produced.

As I sat there thinking about this, a very popular verse from the prophet Isaiah came to mind. It is one simple sentence carrying a wonderful promise about the coming of the Messiah. It also indicates that a lot of road work needed to occur before Israel was ready to receive him. The prophet writes these words in Isaiah 40:4 “Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth.’

You want to talk about road work!! God had so much to do in order to prepare the people for the coming of His messiah. Mountains had to be bulldozed, winding roads had to be straightened, valleys had to be filled-in, and all the rough, washboard roads had to be smoothed out. The process was ongoing. Year after year, generation after generation, and century after century it seemed the work would never be completed. At times, God seemed to be on vacation, not working as the countless years dragged on but God was working. He was on the job every day, working in and through the lives of His people until the coming of a man named John the Baptist. It was he who had the wonderful job of proclaiming the road was open and he did it with these words found in John 1:23 "I am "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Make straight the way of the LORD.”  Finally, the time for construction was over and the road was open for business.

Today, we continue to walk this road started so many years ago. At times, God still puts up road work signs, making us wait or take detours. At other times it appears as if He is not working, that He has abandoned us and left us stranded. But rest assured and know that our God is always working. The times when you can’t see His hand, it’s probably a good indication he is doing work on your foundation, making sure you are ready to bear up under the rest of the journey as you continue your daily walk along life’s road.

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he next time you see a sign labeled “Road Work Ahead” keep your cool. Use it as a wonderful reminder that God, in Jesus Christ, prepared the way for your salvation and that from time to time, when He deems it necessary, He closes your personal road to make repairs and do construction so that your walk with Him will be all He wants it be. Are you experiencing road work today?

Skid Marks On The Driveway

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onathan Blake Carpenter!  If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times….” My dad’s tone of voice and his selection of words indicated this was not going to be a pleasant conversation.  He had begun this verbal exchange by using all three of my names which for a kid was the curse of death!  

But there was nothing I could do.  I had been caught red-handed with the evidence of my crime all around me.  Saying I was innocent or that I had done nothing wrong would have given my dad more ammunition than he obviously needed to make his point!   

My crime?  Leaving skid marks on the driveway, something I had been warned against repeatedly.  I would ride my bike down Main Street, turn onto our driveway, race toward the bottom of our hill, and slam on the brakes!  This left a wonderful skid mark as the rubber from the tire was transferred to the concrete.  It was a six-year-old’s equivalent of a sixteen-year-old burning rubber in a car and it was a blast!  My dad, however, wasn’t so amused!  And now, I understand why.  Instead of clean concrete, it looked as if the Indy 500 had taken place on our driveway and I was Mario Andretti! 

My solution was simple; I would just take a cloth and wipe up the tire marks!  Wrong!  It seemed the rubber was intent on clinging to the concrete in a bond that was much stronger than my small rag and little arms could remove.  The drive way was stained; that was a fact.  Nothing short of time or a miracle could make it come clean. 

Actually, both of these elements worked to remove the evidence of my wild and crazy days as a neighborhood-driveway-bicycle-tire-rubber-laying-guru! A few weeks after this episode, with the evidence on the driveway still stacked against me, something wonderful happened.  We had an old-fashioned thunderstorm, North Carolina style!  It rained all night with heavy doses of thunder and lightning.  In the morning, the sun shone bright and clear, and the driveway was clean.  In fact, it was spotless!  There were no traces of rubber anywhere and it looked as if I had never touched that concrete with my bike! 

If you think about it, that driveway is a good representation of our lives.  We do a wonderful job of laying rubber and leaving dirty skid marks everywhere.  There seems to be no greater thrill to us than leaving as many of these marks as we can one after the other.  We even try to outdo ourselves by making sure the next skid mark is longer, darker, and more elaborate than any that have gone before.   

All this is great fun until we are called to account for our actions and to realize what we have done.  As we look over the driveways of our lives, we see mark after mark, each one representing a poor choice we made, an action we shouldn’t have performed, or a word we should never have spoken.  Bending down and wiping up these marks is not an option; what we need is a miracle, something or someone to completely remove all the ugly marks we left all over the clean concrete of life. 

Paul addressed this very issue in Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”   

This passage is taken from Paul’s admonition to couples about loving each other.  The first part of the passage—where wives are instructed to be submissive—is usually quoted without continuing on through the entire passage.  It is in the portion chosen for today that we get the full understanding of how husbands are to love their wives and how Christ loved us. 

Notice that Paul tells us that Christ loved the church, the body of believes, so much that he gave himself up for her. Not only that, his wish was to make her holy and to wash any and all stain from the church so that her body (that is every believer in Christ) would be clean, without spot or wrinkle!  Wow!  You want to talk about having your driveway cleaned!! This is how Christ loved us and consequently it is how husbands are to love their wives and how the body of Christ is to love each other! 

When we make a mess of our lives, when we constantly leave mark after mark, knowing what we are doing and continuing anyway, we end up making one colossal mess.  Jesus, however, stands ready to clean up all the marks we leave behind us.  He wants us to be holy, that means set apart, and he wants us to be without spot or wrinkle, acceptable to God.  We can only do this when we accept him as savior and lord, receiving his sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. 

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hat does the driveway of your life look like today?  Are their skid marks everywhere?  Does it seem there is more rubber than concrete and that the driveway is just one big black stain?  Please don’t give up!  There is a way that all those marks can be removed and the driveway restored to the clean condition it was meant to have.  Because of Jesus Christ, your driveway need never again be stained by the skid marks of life!  Won’t you accept his gift of salvation and forgiveness today? 

On Your Way Home

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ummertime was the most wonderful time of the year for me as a kid because summertime meant three very important things:  school was out, I could go barefoot, and I could ride my bike anytime and anywhere (well, almost anywhere) I wanted.  I would wake up in the morning and have the whole day ahead of me.  The waking hours were filled with all kinds of possibilities of things to do, places to go, and people to see.  Sounds like I was some big-time explorer with some big-time plans for making a grand discovery, doesn’t it?  Well to me, it felt pretty much like that.

One of my favorite things to do was to ride my bike.  All the kids in our neighborhood had bikes and we rode them all the time.  Most of the time, we would ride in the neighborhood, not too far from our homes.  But we also broadened our horizons, widening the boundaries of our jaunts, venturing across town to the park, or to get ice cream at one of the small convenience stores that dotted our town.

But I also enjoyed the rides I took by myself.  I enjoyed these the most because I usually ended up at the same location, grandma and grandpa’s house.  They lived only a mile away but we always described it as “clear across town,” and sometimes it seemed that their home was the furthermost outpost in the city.

Whenever I arrived, both my grandparents were always glad to see me and anything in the cabinets, the refrigerator, or under grandpa’s chair was game.  Grandpa’s chair was where the most precious of all treasures, Snickers candy bars, was hidden.  Those candy bars were always a special treat because grandpa loved them so much and he always handed me one (or two) when I went over to visit.  But the cookies, the cakes, the ice cream, and anything else were always sampled as well.

Usually, my mom would call me at grandma’s to see what time I was leaving for home.  She usually had something she wanted me to pick up on my way home from one of the local grocery stores.  She always said the same thing, “On your way home….”  Sometimes it was a loaf of bread, a pack of cheese, some sugar, or something to drink.  At other times there were several items but always there was something for me to pick up on my way home.

Jesus left the following instructions for his disciples and for all those who would become believers in him because of their testimony and witness.  In Matthew 28:19 we read these words, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” This passage of scripture is usually referred to as The Great Commission because Jesus gave his followers a big assignment.  They were told to make disciples everywhere they went and to share the truth of God’s word with all those around them.

I like to think of this passage in light of my mother’s phone conversations with me while I visited with my grandparents.  I believe Jesus wanted us to understand that on our way home, we are to pick up as many people as we can and bring them with us.  Now, what we have to understand is that we are on our way home every waking moment of our lives.  As long as we are taking in air, as long as our hearts are beating, and as long as we remain here, we are on our way home.  That means we must constantly be about the task of picking up people and telling them about Jesus and his love for us.

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s I grew older, I exchanged my bike for a car. However, whenever I visited my grandparents, mom still called and still told to me pick up things on my way home.  Since I had a car, however, I could pick up more things and carry more responsibility.  I believe it is the same with us as we mature in Christ.  We move from a spiritual bike to a spiritual car, being able to pick up more, to carry more, and to deliver more as we mature and grow in our walk with God.  Even today, one thousand miles away from 511 South Elm Street where my grandparents used to live, I still make myself a mental note to pick up certain items on my way home.  What are you picking up on your way home today?

Now For The Retainer

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ou can learn a lot in an orthodontist’s office.  I know from personal experience.  Like so many other teenagers, I wore braces on my teeth for almost three years.  I had a cross-bite that needed to be repaired and so I sat still while my orthodontist wrapped my pearly whites in tinsel and wire.  At first, they were a novelty but I soon understood why they told me to get something to eat as quickly as possible.  In just a matter of a few hours, my mouth was very sore; so sore that chewing bread was impossible.  What had I gotten myself into, I wondered?

For the next three years, I visited the orthodontist regularly and endured all the changes and adjustments he made to my teeth as we marched toward that elusive day when the braces would be removed and my teeth would at last be straight.  Finally, the long-awaited day came.  The braces were removed, my teeth were cleaned, and I was able to eat apples—not apple slices—once again.  I remember biting into a big Granny Smith apple, sinking my teeth in and pulling a huge chunk away from the core.  It felt great!!

But my ordeal wasn’t quite over. On my next visit to the orthodontist I was fitted with a retainero

I was I that I wore for the next two years.  As I understood it, the retainer’s job was to hold my teeth in the proper position, discouraging and preventing them from moving back toward the wayward condition in which we found them.  It all came down to my willingness and my faithfulness to wear that retainer.  The success of all the hard work done beforehand rested on that retainer and my decision to heed the instructions of my orthodontist.

It should come as no surprise to us that Jesus spoke about the importance of the retainer.  He knew the value of learning and retaining the truths of God’s word.  Without the retention of these truths, the Christian is tempted to move back toward the wayward condition of sin in which he existed before he accepted Jesus as savior and lord.  Jesus’ words concerning this truth are found in his parable about the farmer who sowed seed and the types of soil into which the seed fell.

This parable is found in Luke 8:1-15.  However, it is verse 15 which is the focus on today’s devotional.  In Luke 8:15, we read this explanation of believers who are considered to be good soil into which God’s word is planted, “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”  Please take a moment to read this verse in the context of the parable and then read it again by itself.  Don’t read through it too quickly but let the truth of Jesus’ words sink deep into your heart and soul.

Notice that Jesus says the good soil represents those who have a noble and good heart.  He continues by explaining just what those of a good and noble heart do.  They do three distinct things.  1) They hear the word.  Believers in this category listen to God’s word. When they pray, they focus on what God has to say to them rather than on what they to tell Him.  They enter into prayer and into their daily walk with the Lord eagerly anticipating all that He has for them both to learn and to do.  2)  Those in this group retain the word.  They don’t merely read God’s word to feel better about themselves.  They don’t memorize God’s word to impress others, quoting chapter and verse in any and every situation.  These individuals, internalize God’s word.  They meditate on it, the obey it, and they apply it to their lives.  It becomes a part of them so that instead of quoting it, they live it!  There is a vast difference in quoting the Word and in living the Word!!  3)  They produce a crop by persevering.  They trust God in all things, knowing that He is always faithful and that He is always in the process of conforming them to the image of Jesus Christ, even when life is at its most difficult and most challenging.

Of these three steps, the second, I believe, is the most important.  Many people hear God’s word but go no further.  They never make it an integral part of their lives.  They never internalize it or apply it.  They simply open their Bibles, read a passage, say a quick prayer, and go about their lives.  The seed falls on the ground but never enters into the soil!  In addition, unless the word is retained, believers have no incentive or desire to persevere and produce a crop.  It is God’s word in us, applied to our lives, that is the bedrock of our very existence. It causes us to persevere and produce a crop for Him.  But no crop will grow where no seed has been planted!!  It’s just that simple.

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es, you can learn a lot in an orthodontist’s office.  The work and labor of the braces and the wires is all but lost if the patient refuses to wear the retainer to preserve all the work that has gone on before.  The same is true of the believer.  God has done all the work beforehand.    The question is are we now ready to submit to the discipline of the retainer?  The answer is either yes, or no!!

Molded Into Shape

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y kitchen is one of the busiest rooms in my home.  It seems I am always in there for something.  Either I’m making myself a quick snack, cleaning out the dishwasher, pouring myself a drink, or talking on the phone.  No matter what time of day or night, it is just a given that I will be in the kitchen at some point, even if I have no real reason to be there.

             

On the wall above my kitchen windows hangs a series of gelatin molds that belonged to my grandmother.  There are five of these molds and I brought them back with from North Carolina after my Christmas visit home.  These molds hung together in a pattern on a prominent wall in my grandmother’s kitchen.  They had been there for years and after her death, I asked my mom if I could have them. 

I wasted no time in installing the molds in my apartment.  The spot over my stove proved to be the perfect place for them and, after several attempts, I succeeded in spacing them evenly and hanging them in a straight line. When I moved into my house, the molds came with me. My mom hung them in the kitchen and they are the first things I notice when I head for a quick snack or sit down to a meal. My eyes are immediately drawn to them and every time I see them I am reminded of what is perhaps the greatest spiritual truth and reality in the whole of the Scriptures.

Have you ever stopped to consider just how a mold works?  Have you ever thought about the process that goes into the shaping of gelatin?  If you haven’t then lets briefly reflect on this process.  First, the gelatin must be changed from its powdered form into a liquid.  This requires water and heat, especially heat.  During this process, the mixture is constantly stirred until it is completely melted.  Once this is achieved, the gelatin is transferred into a mold.  The mold is completely filled to make sure there are no air bubbles inside.  Next, the mold and its contents are placed into the refrigerator and left alone for hours or overnight.  During this time, the mold is left alone, out of sight, in the dark and in the cold until the gelatin sets.  Finally, the mold is removed, placed into warm water, turned over, and the contents are dumped out.  If all has gone as planned, the gelatin bears the exact resemblance of the mold into which it was placed.

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul talks about the importance of being molded into the image of Christ.  In fact, Paul says that this is God’s main objective for all those who believe in Him and accept the gift of salvation through His son, Jesus Christ. We find this in Romans 8:28-29, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”

Most people are familiar with these verses, especially verse 28.  Notice that Paul speaks with certainty.  He knows that all things work together for good.  But it is equally important to notice what Paul does not say.  He never says that all things are good, just that they work for good.  From the perspective of the gelatin, I dare say that being thrown into a pot of boiling water is not good nor is it fun. Likewise, being placed into a mold, turned upside down, and stuck into a cold, dark refrigerator can’t be the most wonderful thing either.  But all of these steps are necessary and they work to turn that liquid into a wonderful and refreshing dessert that all can enjoy.

The second part of this passage is equally, if not more important for us today.  Paul also states that God’s purpose for all those in Christ is to be conformed to the image of God’s son.  That word conformed is a bit bothersome, isn’t it?  To be conformed means we are shaped into something else.  We undergo a metamorphosis, much like a caterpillar into a butterfly, which requires us to die to our old nature in order to put on a new one.  Although everything we encounter in life is not necessarily good, God can and will use it to conform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.  This is a lifetime process.  We are constantly being conformed into the image of Christ so that those around us will see him in our lives.

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oes it seem that God has turned up the heat on you until you feel as if you are melting?  Do you feel you have been left in the dark with no one taking notice of you or your circumstances?  Take heart, both of these are indications that God is working in your life, molding and shaping you into the very image of Christ.  When He is finished, you will bear the wonderful likeness of Christ and you will be ready to share his love with those around you.  Are you being molded into shape today?

Loss Of Signal

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ne of the most harrowing moments of manned flights to the moon were those known simply as LOS or Loss of Signal!  I remember the news commentators speaking about this phenomenon and displaying a countdown clock, informing the viewing audience of the number of minutes left until all communication with the astronauts would be lost. 

Due to the spacecraft’s traveling around the dark side of the moon, all communication was lost.  As long as the astronauts remained in view of earth, they had a direct communication link with Mission Control on the ground.  Once behind the moon, however, all signals were lost and communication was impossible until the capsule emerged on the other side of the moon.

As an avid follower and supporter of America’s space program, I watched with baited breath and keen interest every televised second of the manned trips to the moon.  When the astronauts disappeared on the far side of the moon, I began to panic and worry about their well being.  Were they scared?  Had something gone wrong?  Were they all right?  What were they doing up there?  What could they see? How did they feel cut off from everyone and everything?  These were the thoughts that raced through my mind.  I couldn’t take my eyes off the television until the space craft emerged from behind the moon and communications were restored.

Loss of Signal had everything to do with position.  Radio waves can travel through the black emptiness of space but they cannot penetrate celestial objects, especially one the size of the moon.  In order for the astronauts to receive updates on their mission and vital information concerning the condition of the craft and any adjustments to be made for the return voyage, they had to have an unobstructed view of the earth.  The lines of communication had to be direct and clear with no interference and no obstacles between the space capsule and earth.

Would it surprise you to learn that long before space travel was even a passing thought, Jesus had already addressed the Loss of Signal phenomenon?  Jesus however was not concerned with losing contact with a radio transmitter; he was concerned with losing contact with God and His work.  Jesus spoke of this contact in terms of faith because what radio signals are to ground control and a spacecraft, faith is to the believer in maintaining his relationship with God.

During a visit to his hometown of Nazareth, Jesus encountered much resistance from the people of his village.  The following statement from Matthew 13:58 demonstrates how the people of Jesus hometown experienced a complete Loss of Signal with the Lord.  “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”  We need look no further than the last three words of this passage to understand how these people experienced a Loss of Signal! 

Jesus did not perform many miracles in his hometown because the people had no faith.  We must exercise faith in Jesus if we are to maintain full and unobstructed contact with God.  It is through faith that we come to God, that we please God, that we obey God, and that we relate to God.  The problem with the people of Nazareth was doubt. 

They allowed the obstacles of tradition, experience, and circumstances to dominate their thinking.  They had known Jesus from childhood and would not believe he could perform miracles or that he was the Messiah.  Because of their lack of faith, Jesus did few miracles and the people were deprived of a great blessing and opportunity for ministry.

We need to take strong warning from this short passage of scripture.  It is not necessary for us to travel far away from our familiar surroundings to experience a Loss of Signal!  When we allow the every-day obstacles of fear, doubt, pride, arrogance, and bad experiences to come between us and God we lose heart.  Our faith dwindles and we find ourselves adrift in an empty void with our communication lines garbled.  What we need is to change our position so we are in continual communication with our Heavenly Father.  As long as we receive directions from Mission Control we will find ourselves on the correct path to complete the work God has given us to do.

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re you in constant communication with God today?  Is your spiritual antenna trimmed to His signal?  When He sends instructions concerning an area of your life that needs attention are you in a position to hear Him and correct your course?  Are you successfully charting the vast regions of your life by always receiving information from your Heavenly Father?  Is there anything between you and Him that is causing Loss of Signal today?

A Look In The Mirror

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y love for books is not something I recently developed.  In fact, my fascination with books began when I was a small boy and my parents subscribed to a children’s book company that sent new editions to our home every month.  When the new book of the month came in, my mom would read it to us as we sat, captivated by the stories we heard.  I can still hear my dad reading a story entitled “Scupper the Sailor Dog” to me at night before I went to bed.  I don’t know how many times I made him read that story but each reading made me feel as if it was the first time I heard it.  Although I don’t know whatever became of “Scupper The Sailor Dog,” most of these books are packed in boxes at my parents’ home awaiting the day I can add them to my personal library.

As I grew older, my interests in reading material began to change.  I remember reading some detective stories, some mysteries, some ghost stories, a biography of Julius Caesar, and various other types of writing.  One book I distinctly remember discussed all types of science phenomena and included all types of puzzles and brain teasers.  It had pages of invisible writing that could only be seen with a special red film included with the book and it also had several secret messages written in something called mirror writing.  The messages were written backwards so that when held in front of a mirror, the writing was clear and intelligible.  I spent hours in front of our large bathroom mirror decoding the messages in that book. 

What amazed me most about this type of writing was the fact that I needed a mirror to understand the messages.  I could make out the individual letters and I thought I understood the encoded message.  However, when I held it up to a mirror the message was usually different from what I had imagined.  Working on my own, unassisted by the mirror, took time and the information was never clear when I deciphered it.  But one look in the mirror, one brief moment of submitting the text to the proper vantage point, and everything came into focus—clear as crystal!

This was Jesus’ purpose in the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5-7.  This first sermon of Jesus provides a proper perspective on the true intent of the Law God gave to Moses in the book of Exodus.  Several times in Matthew 5 Jesus uses two different phrases to call attention to a proper understanding of God’s word.   The phrases are:  “You have heard it said…” and “But I tell you that…”  The first of these phrases demonstrates a partial understanding of God’s commandment.  This is the same as looking at a piece of writing that is written backwards.  Without holding it up to a mirror to decipher the message properly, the reader is left with an approximation of what the law means.  However, the second phrase represents a proper view of the law as reflected by the words and teaching of Jesus.

Matthew 5:21-22 provides a good example of this look in the mirror. "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”  

Here, Jesus provides a clearer and more profound meaning to God’s commandment against murder.  In addition to the taking of someone’s life, being angry or insulting someone is also considered murder as well.  Before Jesus, this view point was not considered as being a part of the law.  What a difference a little reflection can make!

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here is a great lesson for us to learn here today.  Without Jesus, the Scriptures have only a partial meaning for us.  When we try to understand them apart from Christ, we come away with only a partial understanding of what God is saying.  Jesus said that he had come to fulfill the law and not to destroy it.  So it is only by seeing the Scriptures through the reflection of Jesus Christ that we come to the full knowledge God wants us to have.  The listeners on the mountainside that day went up with one understanding of the law; they came down with another.  Once they had seen God’s truth reflected in Jesus Christ, their understanding of God and of themselves was forever changed.  When was the last time read the Scriptures as reflected in Jesus Christ?  How long has it been since you took a look in the mirror?  You’ll be surprised at what you find there!