Across the Miles

 

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hanksgiving 1983 will be indelibly etched in my mind as the only Thanksgiving to date that I was unable to be with my family.  From September, 1983 until June, 1984 I lived in France, studying at a university there with over twenty fellow college mates.  We went to Europe as part of our college's Junior Year Abroad study program which emphasized living in a foreign country to learn the language, its people and its culture.  Spending this Thanksgiving away from family taught me many things I might not otherwise have learned.

In order to celebrate the holiday, our director had taken the liberty of pre-ordering all the ingredients we would need to prepare a Thanksgiving feast.  We decided to invite our host families and professors for a little taste of Americana, à la française!!!  We cooked turkey, made dressing, prepared the vegetables, and we even had a recipe for pumpkin pie.  We had a wonderful time and, I think, our French guests did as well.

Just prior to this holiday, I received several cards and letters from family and friends back in the States.  Each of the cards and letters wished me a Happy Thanksgiving and expressed thoughts and prayers for me while I was absent from my family.  One card in particular stands out in my memory.  This card came from the parents of a very good friend of mine at college.  Across the front of the card appeared the words, Across The Miles at Thanksgiving!  I thought it was the neatest card because it stressed to me that no matter the distance, family and friends were still very much a part of my life and still connected to me.  Earlier that day, my parents and I had Thanksgiving on the phone and, although somewhat awkward, it was a good holiday because for the very first time, I knew what it was to be truly thankful for all I had.

As I hung up the phone it occurred to me that, even though my family was thousands of miles away, we were inseparable.  The distance made me no less their son and brother as it made them any less my parents and siblings.  This must have been the sentiment Paul was conveying to the believers in Rome.  The eighth chapter of Romans is a wonderful and powerful chapter.  Today's scripture verses come from there and remind us very plainly how near God is to us.  Paul writes, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."(Romans 8:38-39)

Presently, we are in this world and we may wonder where God is at times?  When difficult circumstances surround us, he is there.  When emotional stress and strain weigh down on us, he is there.  When we are pressed by financial worries, family challenges, the loss of a loved one, or health problems, he is there.  At no time in our walk with him is God ever separated from us.  At no time is he unaware of the circumstances and obstacles we face.  At no time, does anything, and I do mean anything, touch us without his knowledge or approval.  That is how precious we are to him.  That is how much he loves us.

In France that year, I learned the true meaning of Thanksgiving.  Although I longed for home, my circumstances would not permit it.  However, I was able to make contact with my family and express my love for them.  I was also able to share our traditions with new friends and explain to them the true meaning of thanksgiving.  Psalm 100 admonishes to enter into God's gates with thanksgiving.  Although we are not home yet, we can still express thanksgiving to God for all he has done for us.  We can make contact every day with him and we have many opportunities to share his love with those around us. 

So today, as you continue your walk with God remember that no distance too great, no mountain too steep, no challenge too difficult, no request too large, no gulf too wide will ever keep us from our Heavenly Father.  We have his word on it!

Water Water Everywhere

 

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ne of my favorite movies of all time is The Hunt for Red October, a movie based on the Tom Clancy novel by the same name. The story is rather straightforward.  During the height of the Cold War a Russian admiral decides to defect to the United States.  The whole thing is complicated by the fact that the admiral has stolen the latest and most advanced submarine in the fleet and intends to turn it over to the United States when he defects. His actions prompt the Soviets to track him down with the goal of destroying him while theUnited States desperately tries to locate him and give him political asylum. 

In order to avoid detection, the Russian admiral orders his crew to take the submarine to great depths. As they descend, the vessel moans and groans as it acclimates to the pressure changes it encounters on the way down.  The deeper the vessel sinks, the greater the pressure on the outside hull.  Although the submarine makes noises, the metal skin holds, protecting the men inside.  They go about their business, knowing they are safe within the protective arms of the submarine.

The Christian life is exactly like this and the Apostle Paul knew it only too well.  After his conversion to Christianity, Paul had several opportunities to experience the kind of persecution he himself had inflicted on the followers of Jesus.  He was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, rejected, and hunted throughout his life.  He knew what it was like to be tired.  He knew what it was like to be in great pain.  He knew what it was to have plenty and he also knew what it was like to live with nothing. Paul understood the pressures and the demands that walking with Jesus can require of his followers. And he was all too glad to suffer all things for the cause of Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, Paul shares his faith and confidence in Christ with his readers.  He writes,“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”  What a resounding statement of faith this is.  Paul wants his readers to understand that we are simply jars of clay.  Paul wants them to understand that whatever is accomplished in his life, it is accomplished by the Spirit and the power of God.

But notice the wonderful list of opposites that follows.  Paul says that he is hard pressed from every direction.  The mounting pressures of life are all around him.  There are those who seek his life and there are those in the churches he founded who are doing their best to cause upheaval and discord.  Yet, Paul is not crushed.  He finds it difficult to understand the why’s and how’s of his situations but he is not in despair.  Even in persecution he clings tight to Jesus’ promise never to leave or forsake his own and although he is struck down again and again, Paul refuses to be destroyed!

This is the life of faith and of confidence in Jesus Christ.  This is what it means to come to the end of one’s self and to know that no matter what happens we are resting safely in the hand of God.  Like sailors hundreds of feet below the surface of the ocean where the crushing pressure of the water is at its greatest, the all powerful hand of our God keeps and protects those who are firmly rooted and established in him.

We can never know just how strong God’s love and care for us are unless we plummet to great depths and endure great pressure.  When the walls of your heart moan, when you feel as if you can’t go any further, and when your prayers seem no more than mere whispers, that is when God’s presence, his power, his strength, and his love are the most evident.  Pressed on every side we may be, but we are still afloat!!! 

Whether You See It Or Not

 

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umor had it that, beginning around 10:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, a full eclipse of the moon would get underway.  It was to be the first full lunar eclipse visible in North America in three years. The newspapers talked about it, the television news rooms gave specific details about where to look and what to look for, and I even received an e-mail from somewhere reminding me not to miss out on viewing one of nature’s most spectacular displays.

But if seeing is believing, I would have to say there was no eclipse that evening.  In fact, I would be hard pressed to say that the moon or stars even existed.  I went outside on two occasions,  looked toward the east where the moon should have been, and saw only thick cloud cover which veiled the moon and its celestial dance with the earth and sun from my view.  Yep, as far as I was concerned no eclipse took place and there was absolutely no evidence out there that anything wonderful, spectacular, mysterious, or unusual was occurring.

Now anyone listening to my line of thinking would at once believe me to be just a little off center if I actually believed no eclipse occurred.  It started and ended at the precise moments predicted by scientists all around the globe.  It is preposterous to even think that nothing happened and it would be even more preposterous to stand on the rooftops and announce that everyone who believed an eclipse had occurred was somehow out of step with reality.

Yet, when it comes to professing belief in God and His son Jesus Christ, the vast majority of the secular world will cry foul!  Immediately they will spew forth one argument after another claiming there is no God because there is no physical evidence of his existence. Or they claim if God existed, he would do something about all the evil in the world.  In addition, most people think that those who do believe in God’s existence and that he actually seeks a personal relationship with them are just a little out of step with reality. 

Doubt, it seems, is just part and parcel of the world in which we live.  However, the twenty-first century certainly doesn’t have the corner on the market where doubt it is concerned.  As a matter of fact, we need look no further than a few days after the resurrection of Christ and among his hand-picked followers to find this thread of doubt sewn into our human nature.  Let’s visit a man known as Thomas, one of the twelve disciples who found it difficult to believe Jesus had risen from the dead.

Like the other disciples, Thomas had been witness to Jesus’ arrest and he knew of the events during the evening and following day that culminated in Jesus’ crucifixion.  He understood that his friend and master had been killed on a Roman cross and his heart was broken.  Now, a few days after this event, people were speaking of having seen Jesus and were talking of his resurrection from the dead. The other disciples also claimed to have seen the Lord but Thomas wanted incontrovertible evidence. In John 20:25, we find the account of Thomas’ doubt: “So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

As we said, Thomas wanted proof, unquestionable, concrete proof that Jesus was alive. He wanted to touch the wounds and see for himself that Jesus had risen again.  A week later he got this opportunity. Jesus appeared and told Thomas to touch him and when he did, Thomas worshiped him.  In John 20:29 Jesus answers Thomas’ doubt with this statement, “Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Since the time of Jesus’ ascension, the number of those believing without seeing has grown enormously.  All professing Christians today have never physically seen Jesus but they will tell you he exists and that he has made and continues to make a great impact on their lives.  When pressed for a reason for their belief they will point to their personal relationship with Christ and the wonderful sense of peace and fulfillment he gives.

The fact of Jesus’ resurrection was not based on Thomas’ acceptance of it; and Jesus’ existence was not affected by Thomas’ doubt or faith.  However, that doubt or faith made the world of difference to Thomas.  Notice that Jesus does not scold him for his lack of faith but he says that all those who believe in him without the advent of physical sight are indeed blessed.  Jesus was speaking about faith, believing when we can’t see and knowing when we have no physical proof of God’s existence.

Yes, there was a lunar eclipse on that night. The moon, earth, and sun once again danced as they have since the dawn of creation.  God continues to work in the lives of people today as he has since the dawn of time.  He is still on his throne and he exists just as surely as does the screen on which you are reading this Tidbit right now.  The truth of God’s existence is not the truth only if I believe it; it is the truth whether I believe it or not.

Wherever you are today, I pray that God’s presence and his love will be very real to you.  I pray that during your time with him you will have the opportunity to understand that he loves you, that he cares for you, and that he is real and close to you whether you see him or not!

Worth the Price of Admission

 

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 trip to the Holy Land is something a lot of people dream of.  What a wonderful opportunity to visit the places where Jesus walked and to see first-hand the locations of all those wonderful Bible stories we learn as children.  It is an opportunity rarely afforded most eight-year-olds and one that I turned down when I was that age. 

Our church sponsored a trip to Israel and my mother and grandmother decided they were going.  My parents both agreed that I could go and initially I was very excited about traveling.  There was enough fuel to fire my imagination for several weeks.  I dreamed of seeing Jerusalem, of visiting the Garden ofGethsemane, of seeing the walls of Jericho, and of taking a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. 

All these things got me very excited and I was very eager to take the journey.  However, there was one thing that kept me from going, shots!  Yes, when I learned I had to take a series of shots, the beauty and the romance of the trip rapidly faded.  All I could see was those needles and I decided the price of admission was just too high.

My mother allowed me to make up my own mind. She did not influence me one way or the other.  As the time approached for her to leave, I began regretting my decision.  I really wanted to go but the window of opportunity closed and the time for her to leave came.  All during her absence I imagined the places she was seeing, wishing I were with her, but the idea of taking those shots was just too frightening.  It was a price I was not willing to pay!

When mom returned home, her pictures and stories made me wish even more that I had gone with her.  For her, taking those shots, paying the price of admission, had been worth it. I promised myself that someday I would make that trip and experience the wonderful things she had seen and done. If the opportunity ever presents itself again, I'll go and, this time, the shots won't stop me.  I'll pay that price.

The Apostle Paul understood the idea of paying the price of admission.  He was imprisoned, beaten, starved, and shipwrecked.  He depended upon the generosity of others and his own industry for the daily necessities of life.  Sometime he had plenty and sometimes he had very little. But Paul knew the true value of living for Christ.  He understood that the greatest fulfillment in life is living for Jesus Christ and working to further his kingdom. 

That is why in Romans 8:18 Paul writes, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."  He knew that present trials and difficulties were no comparison for the things God has prepared for us. Paul never focused on his present circumstances but always looked to the future gain reserved for God's children.

Today, let me encourage you to keep looking forward to what God has in store for us.  Every trial, every disappointment, every unkind word spoken to us, and every impossible situation we face will be worth it.  Every setback, every tear, every frustration, and every heartache will be worth it.

For Noah, the 100 years of building the ark were worth it. For Abraham, leaving home was worth it. For Moses, the wanderings in the desert were worth it.  For Joseph, the years in Pharaoh's prison and the false accusations were worth it.  For Daniel, the lion's den was worth it.  And for us, my dear brothers and sisters, when we hear God say to us "well done," it will be worth it.  It will all be worth the price of admission!  We have his word on it!

All Along the Road

 

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s I drove the more involved, scenic route back to the Interstate, the evening sun was sinking low in the west.  It splashed everything with a wonderful wave of orange-red light that reflected off the windows of houses I passed.  The metal trailers of passing trucks looked as if they were on fire, giving the impression that the tractor trailers were pulling great plumes of fire behind them instead of metal containers filled with different goods.  As I crested a small hill, I took notice of the many telephone poles lining the highway.  Like everything else in the path of the setting sun, they wore an orange mantle, taking on the reddish color of the great California Redwoods.  But what caught my eye was not the poles themselves; it was the lines that connected them that became the focus of my attention.

All along the road, these sentinels stood guard over the Interstate, faithfully performing their mission.  Between each pole were draped several lines over which literally thousands of messages were passing.  Those wires carried news of marriages, births, engagements, and conversations of reunions between old friends.  All of these were traveling much faster than my car and the poles made sure all the messages were successfully delivered.  What type of messages, I wondered, is my life transmitting?  Is the message of Jesus Christ being faithfully communicated to all those crossing my path on a daily basis?

The Apostle John was very much concerned with the message of Jesus Christ and its successful transmission to everyone he met.  John was known as the “Beloved Disciple” and shared a very close relationship with our Lord.  John also wanted his readers to understand that there was only one message that he and the other followers of Jesus Christ wished to communicate. We find this message recorded in 1 John 1:5, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 

In this first letter, John goes to great lengths to stress to his readers that he was among those who personally knew Jesus. John heard him, saw him, and touched him.  He saw the feeding of the five thousand, he witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead, he was present at the Last Supper, and he witnessed the crucifixion.  John also encountered the resurrected Lord and saw him ascend into heaven. No wonder he wanted his readers to understand that he and the others had received this message first-hand and wanted to pass it on down the line to those who had not seen Jesus in the flesh but who believed in him through faith.

That is why John writes that they received this message from Jesus, himself.  The message is that God is light.  What a wonderful promise and truth this is.  In a world that is dark, cold, and uncertain. In a world where wrong is seemingly rewarded and right is punished, John wants us to understand that the light of truth does burn brightly and that light is found in God.  Our job is to make sure this message is passed all along the road to everyone we meet.  No matter where you are in your walk with God, the message is still the same and everyone needs to hear it.  People need the Lord; won’t you be one of the lines of communication all along the road of life today?

While You Were Out

 

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he stack of papers on my desk indicated that a bevy of activity had taken place during the brief hour I took for lunch.  Honestly, the desktop covered with pink slips of paper and the computer’s monitor covered with notes, reminded me of the movie entitled, “Pretty in Pink.” 

As I gingerly approached my desk, I grew more and more enthralled with the amount of paper placed their by my co-workers.  Although each note carried a separate message, they all had one thing in common.  The top of every note was imprinted with the same message:  While You Were Out!  From the looks of my desk and the number of messages to which I needed to respond, it would have been better not to have gone to lunch at all.  However, instead of bemoaning the number of calls I had to make, I started at the top of the pile and began to work my way through the messages.

Since I was working in the counseling center of a local community college the calls were mostly academic in nature.  Most of them were from students requesting an appointment to discuss their transcripts for transfer to a particular university.  A few notes were from students requesting a conference to discuss prospective career choices and others were requesting general information about our programs.  The time required to complete these follow-ups was more than the time I had spent eating lunch.  Although I had been gone for only an hour one thing was abundantly clear.  The work had not ceased during my absence; in fact, it had continued full force and there was ample evidence pointing to that fact.

All of us in the work-a-day world have had similar experiences.  We find our desks covered with important items requiring our attention and we find ourselves snowed under with work.  This is especially true when we return from a nice, relaxing vacation.  We enter the office, or open our mailbox at home, only to find that the work didn’t stop in our absence and the bills just kept on coming despite our escape from the daily grind.  The stacks of papers and mounds of items requiring our attention testify to the fact that the work of life goes on all around us whether we are in or out!

It is not too far a jump to apply this situation to our walk with God.  No matter where we are, no matter what we face, and no matter the time of day, our Heavenly Father is constantly working, continuing to draw men and women to him for salvation; constantly caring for the needs of his children.  Jesus made this point abundantly clear in John 5:17, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."  There is both great truth and great comfort in Jesus’ words.  Let’s consider for a brief moment the implications of his statement.

Jesus says that God is always working.  The proof of this is as close as your wrist.  If you place the fingers of one hand on the opposite wrist you will feel your pulse.  This is evidence that your heart is beating yet you can do nothing to keep it going.  Every beat comes from God and he alone keeps it pumping.  While you are out, away from your family, he keeps them safe until you return to them at the end of the day.  While you are out in the hectic world, he keeps vigil over the number of hairs on your head, the number of breaths that you take, and he even keeps record of the tears you cry.

When you are asleep, out of the mainstream of life and away from consciousness, even there God works keeping your body functioning properly and giving you the rest you need.  Before the day starts, God is already working, making sure all your needs are met in accordance with the promise He has made to you.  Yes, while you are out, God is working.  He is working every moment of the day and in every hour of the night, turning trials into triumphs and difficulties into dramatic victories.  This is the kind of God we serve, one who does not stop working when we check out and one who knows all about us and loves us anyway.  What has God done while you were out today?

Everythng's Upstairs

 

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othing tests a family’s mettle more than going through a remodeling project.  I should know because I survived three such projects at our home on Main Street.  Every time our family grew, the house grew right along with it.  We added rooms, divided rooms; carpeted, painted, wall papered, enclosed porches, and added a driveway.  For the twenty five years I lived there though, no change was more dramatic than our last remodeling project.

This project involved enclosing a carport to make a den, enclosing our sundeck to create a sunroom, installing a bay window in our living room, installing a spiral stair case to connect the upstairs and the downstairs, and remodeling the front room of our basement into a bedroom for me.  The house also received new carpet and new paint from ceiling rafter to floor joist.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, was overlooked.  This was a complete overhaul of our home and when we were finished it looked much different from the house I grew up in.

Finally, after twenty-five years, I had my own room and my brother had his.  We shared a room through college but when this last project was completed, I had control of the downstairs.  The front room of the basement, converted into a bedroom, was mine and the new den was adjacent to it.  The backdoor provided me with my own entrance and with the exception of a bathroom and a kitchen; I had my own little apartment.

The novelty soon wore off, however, because every time I needed something, I had to climb the stairs.  If I wanted to eat, I had to go upstairs to the kitchen or the pantry.  If I wanted to see my parents, I had to go upstairs to their room or to the sunroom to talk to them.  My brother’s and my sister’s rooms were on the main floor so I had to climb the stairs to pay them a visit.  When I needed a shower, I went upstairs and so on and so forth!

You get the picture don’t you?  Everything I needed was upstairs and I spent the vast majority of my time working out on that spiral staircase.  It really wasn’t that bad.  I enjoyed my time downstairs but several times during the day, I had to go upstairs in order to take care of all the necessities of life.  Food, relationships, and provisions were all upstairs which meant I spent a lot of time there!

There is a great lesson to be learned from my childhood home.  It is a direct parallel to life and the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father.  Far too often we are content to live our lives on the ground-level of existence, comfortable and content with the circumstances life has afforded us.  The sad part is that everything we need, all our necessary provision, the need for relationship, and the very staples of life are to be found upstairs!

Our Heavenly Father wants us to live life on a higher level than the ground floor.  His plans for us are so much larger and greater than we can ever imagine.  The provisions He has for us are far beyond our ability to imagine and the relationship He longs to share with us is far deeper and richer than anything we have ever known before.

Jesus spoke of this in Chapter 5 of John’s gospel.  In one of his many conversations with the Pharisees, Jesus stated very plainly that he had come to bring life but that men refused to come to him to receive it.  In John 5:39-40, Jesus says the following, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” 

There is a determined sadness in this statement.  The Pharisees were the religious leaders of their day. No one knew the Scriptures better than they and no one should have been more aware of the Messiah than these learned men.  Yet for all their searching of the Scriptures, for all their knowledge of God and His ways, they completely missed the boat.  They searched the Scriptures diligently, looking for signs of the Messiah’s coming and all the while he stood before them. 

The real tragedy here is that these learned men refused God’s invitation to have life.  They were content to live on the ground floor while God had so much more waiting for them upstairs.  With the coming of Jesus, God installed a staircase which allowed them direct access to all His provisions.  All they had to do was climb the stairs but they refused to do so.  All they needed was standing there, staring them in the eyes, and they refused to accept God’s invitation.

My mom and dad have built a new home and moved away from Main Street.  However, when I am home, I ride by the house and look through the windows.  The people living there don’t know me and I don’t know them.  Yet I wonder if they ever stop and think how important that spiral staircase in the back of the house is.  I wonder if they realize that without it they would have no access to any of the provisions necessary to life in that house. 

Then my thoughts turn inward and I ask myself if I understand the importance and the significance of the staircase God has provided in Jesus Christ so that I can have direct access to the throne of grace.  Am I content to live on the ground floor of life or do I understand that everything I need is on the next level?  All I have to do is climb the stairs.  I think I’ll do that right now!  How about you?

The Steeple Chase

 

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hurches dot the landscape around my home in North Carolina.  It is almost impossible to drive in any direction without passing a church.  There are large churches, small churches, churches made of brick, others made of wood, some old, some new, some occupying street corners while others are surrounded by rolling hills and pastureland.  Some have large congregations, and some have very small ones, some have graveyards while others don’t.  But no matter the church, large or small, brick or wood, in the city or in the country, they all have one thing in common—a steeple.

As a small boy, I can remember seeing these various churches, most of which look the same as they did then, from the front seat of my parent’s car. I could always tell when we were approaching a church because I could see its steeple towering above the tree line or surrounding buildings, assuring everyone that God was still at work despite the hustle and bustle of the city or the remoteness of the countryside.

Atop most of these steeples was a cross, the constant reminder of the price God paid for man’s sin.  In addition to adorning the tops of these churches, the cross served another purpose—a lightning rod!  Since the steeple was the tallest portion of the church, it served to attract lightning strikes, protecting the building by taking the full force of a strike and dissipating it to the ground so the structure and all inside would remain safe and unharmed.  Without that lightning rod, the church building remained at risk for certain damage.

I have thought many times what a wonderful picture of salvation those lightning rods represent and how they serve as a reminder that Jesus took upon himself the full brunt of God’s judgment so that we could be saved from sin’s deadly curse.  In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul reminds us of this fact, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Do you see God’s lightning rod at work in this passage?  The cross lifted Jesus, suspending him between God and man.  When God’s judgment fell, Jesus, himself, bore the full brunt and took upon himself the punishment for our sin.  How fitting and proper it is that we should affix crosses to the steeples of our churches, using them as lightning rods, to serve as the constant reminder of God’s love for mankind and the provision he made to save us from our sins.  The next time you pass a church with a cross on its steeple, slow down and remember what that cross represents. Are you under the protection of the cross today?

Guranteed Stain Remover

 

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ecently, I waged war against an unwanted enemy in my bathroom.  My opponent entered by stealth, took up residence in a very remote corner, and gradually began recruiting reinforcements.  After a few days, its presence was very noticeable and it became very evident that I would need to enlist the help of a very powerful ally if I was to rid my shower, once and for all, of the presence of this unwanted and unwelcome houseguest.

  

The enemy was not a person, but a stubborn and persistent presence of mildew that had attacked the grout in my shower with full vigor.  At first, I jumped in and began to scrub with all the gusto I could muster.  However, the harder I worked, the more I scrubbed, and the more effort I poured into this project, the more entrenched the mildew became.  All my effort, all my work, and all my good intentions were no match for the mildew setting up housekeeping in my bathroom.  I needed a strong cleaner, one that would not only clean the mildew but one that would eradicate it at the source.

I went to a nearby grocery store and perused all the available cleaning items designed for the bathroom.  Some promised to make the tile look like new while others guaranteed that with enough elbow grease and patience, their product would make the mildew go away.  It was a dizzying process at best.  I got so tired of looking at various bottles, cans, and cartons.  Finally, I came across one product that made only one claim.  The directions told me to spray the cleanser on the mildew and wait.  When the cleanser had removed all the mildew and its stain, I simply had to rinse the grout. 

I bought the product, raced home, sprayed down my shower, and waited.  In just a few minutes I saw a noticeable change in the grout.  After thirty minutes, the grout was completely clean with no trace whatsoever of mildew.  I was so excited!!  The cleanser was true to its word.  It contained the necessary cleaners to completely remove the mildew and it did it with apparent ease.  What I could not do in my own strength, the cleanser could do with no problem.

Psalm 51:7 serves as a wonderful reminder that only God can cleanse our hearts from sin and make us clean and whole again.  This verse, taken from David’s prayer for forgiveness after his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, simply states, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” 

In this verse, David cries out to God to cleanse him of his sin.  David knows that no amount of work on his part, no matter how well-intended, can remove the stain of his sin from him.  David knows that only God’s forgiveness and redemptive grace can remove, once and for all, the stain of sin from his heart.  He comes to God with a broken heart, a contrite spirit, and asks for his forgiveness. He knows that when God forgives, he makes the heart clean, whiter than snow. God can do this because he doesn’t simply wipe sin a way, he completely eradicates it and holds it against us no more

This is the kind of God we serve.  When there was no way mankind could obtain salvation for himself, God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for us.  This truth is often overlooked in today’s society.  We must understand that only Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary’s cross can offer us salvation. Only his blood has the power to remove all sin from our lives and to put us into a right standing and relationship with God.  The blood of Christ is the only guaranteed stain remover for the human heart. Have you applied his blood to your heart today? 

Life In The Pits

 

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 grew up in the heart of NASCAR country.  North Carolina is home to several race tracks and many successful and famous drivers and owners make their homes in the state.  Names like, Petty, Earnhardt, LaBonte, Elliot, Yarborough, and Jarrett were just part of my childhood.  The sport itself never interested me personally and I have never attended an actual event; but I have spent several hours on the couch watching a race with my dad or my close friend, David, as these drivers and many others drove their vehicles at break-neck speed around a giant oval track.

When I came to seminary in 1997, the Texas Motor Speedway was in the final stages of construction.  The speedway is located just north of Fort Worth and, like most things in Texas, is huge.  I found that racing is just as popular here as it is in North Carolina and the mystique and the aura surrounding those tracks at home migrated west as thousands of fans jockeyed for tickets and seating locations for races at the speedway.  The names I knew in North Carolina also appeared in Texas and the love of the sport is just as fervent.

Most fans will tell you there is nothing quite like attending a race in person.  The television cameras cannot accurately capture the speed of the vehicles nor the sound of the winding motors as the cars whiz by people seated in the grandstands.  But to me the most remarkable activity at a race is not what takes place on the track; it is what occurs in the pits. 

This area, small by comparison with the rest of the track, is the very nerve center and heartbeat of the race.  In the pits, the drivers receive new fuel, new tires, they exchange information, adjustments are made to the cars, and the driver receives some refreshment and a few moments of rest. After this brief stopover, the driver peels out of the area and rejoins the race, setting his eyes on the finish line.

As Christians and children of God, we need to understand the importance of life in the pits.  If anything, the daily grind and challenges of life should remind us that we cannot make this journey on our own.  We are in constant need of fuel, of adjustments, of directions, and rest.  It is impossible for us to drive through life at break-neck speed, tackling all the curves and burning up all the straight-aways without ever visiting the pits to take on fresh supplies.  When we determine to run the race in our own strength and on our own terms, we very often find ourselves broken down, parked along side the road, off the main highway, a good distance from the pits, in need of repairs and a tow.

The prophet Isaiah understood that breaks from life’s rat race are not only something to look forward to; they are an essential part of the race in life.  Long before the invention of the car and way, way before man dreamed up the idea of professional racing, Isaiah gave explicit instructions concerning pit stops.  His wonderful words of wisdom have become one of the most quoted passages of scripture and can be found in Isaiah 40:31, “But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” 

What an accurate description of life in the pits!  Isaiah admonishes his readers to wait on the Lord.  Waiting means that we cease all activity.  Waiting means that we turn off the engine.  Waiting means that we relinquish our grip on the steering wheel and we remove our foot from the accelerator.  Waiting means that we allow the One in the pit to take care of us, to supply us with new fuel, new instructions, new adjustments, and to give us refreshment for our bodies, minds, and souls.  Life in the pit is not lived at break-neck speed; it is lived in perfect stillness, waiting until we get the thumbs up from the Crew Chief that we can continue with our race!

Wherever you are today in your walk with the Lord, it is my prayer that you will take time to visit the pits.  It is there you will be re-supplied.  It is there you will be renewed.  It is there that you will be refreshed.  Life in the pits is not as fast as life on the track, but without it, the finish line will never be a reality!  Are you experiencing life in the pits today?

Stand Still

 

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hen we were young kids, my mom used to make our clothes.  She loved to sew and I remember her working way into the wee hours of the morning, making sure everything was just right.  Easter especially saw a bevy of activity around the Carpenter household. Mom would very methodically measure us, hold the patterns up to us to make sure they were the right size, cut out the material, and then start the sewing process.  We were very involved in the process and I was more than a little impatient at times. 

Mom would encourage us to play outside, out from under her feet, so she could actually get something done.  However, she didn't want us to stray too far so we could come in and try on our clothes in order for her to make any necessary adjustments.  I remember many Saturday afternoons as I played in our backyard while mom sat in the back hallway at her sewing machine making new clothes for me to wear.  She could call me to come in for "just a few minutes" which to me were an eternity.  She would hand me the clothes and then make the most impossible and least favorite of all requests, "Stand still!"

I hated standing still and I would jiggle and shift my weight from one foot to the other.  I would crack jokes and make her laugh which meant we stayed there longer.  She finally would tell me to be quiet, another impossible feat, while she checked the length of a sleeve or pants.  The hardest part was standing still for the hemming of a pair of pants.  I had to stand perfectly still while she made sure the pants were the correct length.  She would pin the pants to the desired length and then she would let me go.  While I was sleeping, however, she was working, hemming those pants until early in the morning.  She did the same for my brother and for my sister.  Honestly, I don't know where she found the time, but I am so glad she did.  I am so glad that she taught me that sometimes it's necessary to stand still.

In the Christian life, we want to be constantly in motion. We find it so hard to be still, to be inactive, and to let God do the work while we stand by and watch.  For us, standing still seems to have no useful purpose and seems to be counterproductive.  We must forever be doing something, we think, if anything is to be done to further God’s kingdom.  Yet, this is the exact opposite of what God would have us do.  David was right when he said that the battle belongs to God, and Moses hit the nail on the head when he declared that the Lord would do battle for his children.

The Apostle Paul echoes these two great men of the Old Testament in his letter to the church at Ephesus.  In Ephesians 6:13, Paul speaks about the Christian life in terms that all people in the Roman world would have understood at that time.  "Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Rome conquered and held the known world through military might.  She did this by having the best equipped and best trained soldiers the world had ever known.  The Roman war machine was well respected and was built on the idea of the foot soldier.  Providing them with the best equipment was essential to conquering the known world.

In Ephesians6:11-17, Paul speaks about the various pieces of armor a soldier would wear.  He encourages and admonishes his readers to put on every piece of spiritual armor meticulously and, once ready for battle, he orders them to stand. He does not suggest they attack, march forward, or launch their weapons, but simply stand still.  The Roman solders wore sandals equipped with spikes in order to grip the ground and provide a firm stance.  The idea for a foot soldier is not to lose any ground but to hold position and advance when necessary as a unit.  This tactic ensured Rome's power for almost 1000 years.

Paul's advice is applicable to us today.  Every piece of the spiritual armor Paul describes is defensive in nature.  The only offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God.  The shield is used to quench fiery darts launched at us, the belt, breastplate and helmet protect vital organs; the shoes help us stand our ground.  This is Paul's command to us, to hold our ground.  God is our general, he is out in front, and he is fighting all the battles for us.  Our job is to hold the line, to keep the enemy from advancing, to lock our shields, to dig in our heels, and to hold our position.  This is the job of the foot soldier who looks the enemy in the face and doesn't flinch, who has confidence in his general, who knows that ultimately the victory will be his because he held his ground. 

So, if you feel you are making no forward progress, if you think God has left you in the line because you have no usefulness, if you feel your place is unimportant, hold on, dig in, stand firm.  It may be that the very position you are holding is preventing the enemy from encroaching on God's territory.  Your faithfulness in the fray, your willingness to be obedient, and your firm stance is what God is counting on.  Don't give up!  Hold that line! Stand still!

Life's Commas

 

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ne of the hardest parts of punctuation for me to master was the comma.  I never quite seemed to catch on to the use of that little guy and if you read closely, (there's one) you'll begin to see what I mean.  I still haven't mastered it.  I place them where they don't belong and fail to put them where they're needed.  Every time my mother would proof read something I had written, (there's another one) she would always draw my attention to the overuse or under use (but never proper use) of commas in my writing.  Well, I'm still struggling with this little curvy line that causes so much trouble for so many people.  Please be patient and bear with me.

As I progressed in school, (there's another one) my English teachers began to stress more and more the importance of punctuation.  The comma, I learned, (double whammy) was the same as a stop sign.  It meant stop, consider what has just been said, and then continue.  Once I began applying this rule to my reading, my thinking, and my writing, I began to appreciate and understand this little punctuation mark. In time I've actually come to appreciate it and have even grown fond of it.  I can't say the same thing for its cousin, the semicolon!!  That's a whole other issue!

But the comma has spiritual as well as life applications.  In life, there are pauses that make us stop and reflect on what is happening to us at a particular moment.  Sometimes the commas come to break up the every-day humdrum of life, and at other times they are used to make us wait on something else to come.

Our scripture verse demonstrates very nicely the idea of life's commas.  Jesus said in verse 10 of John 10, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  Notice the placement of the comma in Jesus' words.  He has come that we may have life.  There is a pause here for us to reflect on what has just been said.  Before the coming of Jesus, there was no life, there was only existence!!  What a powerful truth!!  That is why Jesus says of himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE "(John 14:6).  So Jesus has come that we may have him (life).  But notice that he doesn't stop here.  After the comma, he gives us the best part by saying, "and have it to the full."  In other words, we could restate this scripture in the following way, "I have come that they may have me, and have me to the full." 

This is the true secret of life, having Jesus as our savior!  Even when life places commas in your path, the best always comes after them.  There have been many commas in my life.  Some of them have been self imposed; but most of them God has placed there.  I can tell you without any hesitation that when the pauses of my life were over, I always experienced God to the full.  He is truly wonderful and worthy of all honor and praise

I trust you will never look at the lowly comma in the same way again.  Notice them for what they are, take time to pause and reflect.  Look forward to what comes after them because the fullness of God is worth any comma life places in your path.

The Great Explorers

 

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hen I was a small boy, I wanted to know everything.  I plagued my dad with questions about anything and everything I could think of. To this day, he still jokes with me about the questions I asked him.  It seems my favorite question was, "Why daddy?"  I wanted to know everything from why the sky was blue to the reason you couldn't see the wind.  And, to his credit, he attempted to answer my questions.  I was rarely satisfied with the answers he gave, especially when he said, "I don't know!"

Although I wasn't overly mischievous, I did enjoy exploring things and gaining first-hand knowledge of the world around me.  Like any normal boy, I did what I wasn't supposed to do, I went where I had been told not to go, and conveniently forgot certain things my mom and dad told me to do or not to do.  My desire to know took me on little jaunts, never too far away, but far enough away to appease my sense of adventure.

Behind our house, there used to be a drainage ditch.  It wasn't large by any means and was easily crossed with a single leap.  As kids, we never took notice of the ditch until after a good downpour of rain.  The ditch then became a roaring, torrential river, much like the Amazon.  As the rainwater from the local drainage pipes filled the ditch, it became alluring.  All the guys in the neighborhood would go home, find some old boots or goulashes, and we would change into old clothes.  Then we ventured forth to "explore" the ditch.  Although there was nothing to explore but dirty water, we were convinced we would find something of important value and set diligently about the task of finding it.

We walked for several minutes, facing torrential waterfalls, forging impossible rapids, determined to accomplish our task in the face of these overwhelming odds.  Sounds romantic doesn't it?  However, the results were far from attractive.  We had wet feet, wet cloths, and we were covered with enough slime and mud to effectively clog any washing machine drain.  When we arrived home from conquering the world, mom refused to let us into the house.  We had to strip off outside before we came inside.  The clothes, the boots, and the dirt were left outside.  The results of our great adventure prevented us from coming home and entering mom's clean house.  We had to remove all the dirt and grime before we could enter.

Does this sound vaguely familiar?  As kids we all did things and went places we shouldn't have.  However, as adults, we still do the same, especially in our walk with God.  As humans, we are constantly searching for things to satisfy our curiosity.  We want to know all that we can and sometimes that desire to know takes us into some dirty and smelly places.  Our sense of adventure causes us to wander away from God, to put on old clothes, old shoes, and go exploring in the ditches of the world.  We are so convinced we will find things of importance and things of significance that we joyfully abandon the comfort of home to go wade in a smelly, grimy, and filthy ditch.

At first, it is fun and exciting.  We see things we hadn't noticed before and we want to continue.  Finally, we realize we have wondered away from home, that there is nothing in the ditch worth searching for.  We are tired, cold, wet, smelly, and dirty.  Our condition has changed and we no longer look as we did when we were back home with mom and dad.  Jesus described this perfectly when he quoted a passage of scripture from the prophet Isaiah.  Matthew 15:7 records Jesus' words for us, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me."

Although Jesus is addressing the Pharisees in particular, his words apply to all of us in general. These people, while paying tribute to God with their mouths, were wandering away from him in their hearts.  Their words did not match their actions.  They had gone exploring in the ditches of tradition, religion, politics, power, and greed.  These ditches still exist today, along with many others, and are attractive to all of us.  However, we need to understand that they offer us nothing more than the opportunity to grow smelly and dirty.

We can always come back home, that's the good news!  The door is still open to us and our Father is ready to welcome us.  However, we must rid ourselves of the grime and filth found in the world's ditches.  We cannot enter his presence smelly and dirty.  We have to remove everything, all the dirt, all the grime, and all the filth before we come into his presence.  When we do this, we get new clothes, good food, a warm home, and a loving hug from God.  No ditch, no matter how inviting, is any substitute for that!