Do you struggle with keeping things in focus? I am not talking about being able to see well, I am talking about being able to concentrate on something until it is complete. I have often called the lack of focus “being distracted by shiny objects.”
Many times we start a project and before very long we have forgotten all about it. We walk away and become involved in something else that has caught our attention. I have had this happen to me often. I will start to do some research and come across something of interest that catches my attention and I am gone! I have started to do some cleaning or straightening and come across something that catches my attention and I am gone!
I have also found this to be true in my walk with God. I will be in the midst of a spiritual battle when things ease up and something else catches my attention and I am gone. I have purposed I will put forth extra effort to accomplish some spiritual objectives, I make some head way and then something else catches my attention and I am gone.
God knows human nature! When Israel was getting ready to go into, Canaan Moses was giving them directives from God about how to conquer the land and to live there. One of the things he was adamant about was the conquering of their enemies. In Deuteronomy twenty God instructs them to conquer the nations they would be living close too. When they conquered other nations, they were to kill the men and make servants of the women and children. However, when they conquered those nations that God had given them for an inheritance they were to completely destroy everything that had breath! The reason for this was so the enemy could no be an influence on them for evil.
Many times in our battles we get a small victory and walk away thinking it is all over. Later we find ourselves fighting this same battle again and again. Why? Because we fail to completely destroy the enemy that lives among us. God has given us the victory, He has delivered the enemy into our hands but we fail to completely destroy it. We give it opportunity to once again influence our lives toward sin.
Let me encourage you to be a victor! Let us completely destroy those things that we are battling against so that we don’t have to fight them again another day.
It’s just a thought! God Bless . . .
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I Didn't Like What She Said!
Have you ever been told something that you didn’t want to hear? Have you ever been told something that just irritated the “life” out of you? Maybe you have even been told something that just plain made you mad! It doesn’t matter if it is true or not, it makes you mad! It doesn’t matter if you need to hear it or not, it still has got you upset! It doesn’t even make a difference if it is going to improve your life, you just don’t want to hear it. Have you ever been there? I have! I’ve been there, done that and bought the tee-shirt.
I was called into my supervisors office, several months back, and handed a handful of papers. They were the paper work for a Department of Transportation physical examination that was being required of all of the drivers where I work. So, with a heart full of dread, I went to see the company’s doctor for the physical examination.
I have to be really honest, I don’t like doctors and make it a practice to stay as far away from them as I possibly can. I have only seen a doctor on two different occasions in my life because I was sick and those two occasions were 39 years apart. The only other times has been work related or because of an injury. I have been very blessed to have never spent the night in a hospital as a patient. I was not taking any medication and only took some allergy medicine when I absolutely had to. So even though I hadn’t been feeling really good, for a while, I did not want to see the doctor.
They poked me, then they prodded me and all of the other things that make you feel uncomfortable. After doing all of that the nurse left me sitting in a room for the longest time, all by myself! Finally the door opens and into the room walks a person, whom I assumed was the doctor, with a frown on her face. My first thought was, “Oh no! I am really about to hear it!”
For the next five minutes or more this doctors proceeded to tell me, in no uncertain terms, how bad my health was. She wasn’t nice! She wasn’t gentle! She didn’t seem to care if I liked what she had to say or not! She didn’t even seem to care if I liked her, she just laid it out for me to hear. She then sent me on my way with a warning I had better take care of some things if I wanted to live a while longer and to be honest I was wondering if I would live long enough to get to the car.
Now I don’t know if this has ever happened to you or not, but it did happen to me. My reaction to what she said and how she said it was simple, I got mad! I looked at the paper work I had been given to take back to my supervisor and she wasn’t nice in what she had written. Didn’t she know someone might read this? I did not like what she said about me at all. I became even more angry! My feelings were hurt! I was embarrassed! Actually I even felt humiliated! How dare she talk to me like that and to write those awful things about me?!
After a while I began to think of what she said and all of the things that she had warned me about. Realizing I hadn’t felt good for a while it started to sink in that she was right and I should pay attention. I brushed my feelings off my sleeve and pumped up my resolve! I went to work as instructed and three months later walked into her office for a second examination. This time when I walked to the door she put her hand on my shoulder and said I had done a good job getting everything in line and headed in the right direction. A funny thing is, when I walked out I was thinking to myself what a nice doctor she was. I appreciated the fact that she had gotten my attention a few weeks earlier.
The difference between the first time and the second time was simply, I was doing right. Many times I have felt the same way spiritually. I have heard the preacher preach a message and felt anger, resentment, embarrassment and humiliation over what has been said. I have thought they could have been a little nicer. They could have used a bit more tact! I am sure you get the picture.
Israel was in a serious situation. They had turned away from God and began to worship idol gods. Because of their sin God, allowed the Midianites to overwhelm them. They would come from the desert in swarms and take all of Israel’s crops, herds and animals and leave them with nothing. This had gone on for seven years. It was so bad for Israel the Bible tells us they were living in caves and hidden places to hide from their oppressors! Finally in desperation they began to cry out to God for deliverance. They needed a miracle in their lives.
God didn’t send them a miracle. God didn’t send them deliverance. God sent them a prophet with a word from God telling them what they needed to change in their lives. He wasn’t nice! He wasn’t politically correct! He didn’t worry about their hurt feelings or insecurities! He just told them the truth, what they needed to hear! In our time of oppression and desperation God doesn’t always send a miracle or deliverance. Sometimes God sends us a “Word” to tell us what we need to change in our lives.
We have become a generation that lives on the defensive. If I want to do it, what does it matter to you? Be careful how you speak to me about my wrongs, failures, weaknesses or sins because I might get hurt. Don’t judge me! Don’t be critical of what I am doing or my lifestyle. Please don’t make a suggestion that I need to change! The cry of this generation is tolerance! That is as long as it is applied to me and what I chose to do. However, don’t expect me to be tolerant of you or what you have chosen that is different from me.
This is a generation that needs a “Prophet Nathaniel” who will stand in the face of the “status quo” in your life and say, “You are the one who has sin in your life and need to repent!” This is a generation that needs a “Prophet Elijah” who will stand up to the “powers that be” in your life and declare, “Your sin is the reason for your problem!” We each need a “John the Baptist” who will declare “repentance” is our only hope for a relationship with God!
Instead of reacting in anger and offence, what would happen if we reacted with the “spirit of David?” Maybe there is something to what, is being said and God is trying to get my attention? Maybe God has tried other avenues of approach and they have failed to awaken me so now He is being more abrupt? What if I stepped back and said, “Ow, that hurt! But I need to think about what was said and pray about it. I need to allow God to have some time to speak to my spirit.”
Many years ago I prayed a prayer that I have repeated several times. I told God I wanted to go to heaven, and I wanted to be saved, no matter what the cost. I asked God to help me to accomplish this. Now, how can I be offended when He is doing His best to answer my prayer?
No, I don’t always like what I hear and sometimes have a hard time dealing with it Yes I do wish others were as tactful and kind as I am, and I say that laughingly. However, I do believe with Paul that God’s grace is sufficient for me and that Grace will help me to overcome those discomforts and apply to my life those things that will help my relationship with God. I do believe that all things work together for my good if I am loving God and allowing God to fulfill His purpose in my life. So I guess I need to once again ask Him to help me see what it is that I am needing in my life . . . even when I don’t like what I hear.
It’s just a thought!
I was called into my supervisors office, several months back, and handed a handful of papers. They were the paper work for a Department of Transportation physical examination that was being required of all of the drivers where I work. So, with a heart full of dread, I went to see the company’s doctor for the physical examination.
I have to be really honest, I don’t like doctors and make it a practice to stay as far away from them as I possibly can. I have only seen a doctor on two different occasions in my life because I was sick and those two occasions were 39 years apart. The only other times has been work related or because of an injury. I have been very blessed to have never spent the night in a hospital as a patient. I was not taking any medication and only took some allergy medicine when I absolutely had to. So even though I hadn’t been feeling really good, for a while, I did not want to see the doctor.
They poked me, then they prodded me and all of the other things that make you feel uncomfortable. After doing all of that the nurse left me sitting in a room for the longest time, all by myself! Finally the door opens and into the room walks a person, whom I assumed was the doctor, with a frown on her face. My first thought was, “Oh no! I am really about to hear it!”
For the next five minutes or more this doctors proceeded to tell me, in no uncertain terms, how bad my health was. She wasn’t nice! She wasn’t gentle! She didn’t seem to care if I liked what she had to say or not! She didn’t even seem to care if I liked her, she just laid it out for me to hear. She then sent me on my way with a warning I had better take care of some things if I wanted to live a while longer and to be honest I was wondering if I would live long enough to get to the car.
Now I don’t know if this has ever happened to you or not, but it did happen to me. My reaction to what she said and how she said it was simple, I got mad! I looked at the paper work I had been given to take back to my supervisor and she wasn’t nice in what she had written. Didn’t she know someone might read this? I did not like what she said about me at all. I became even more angry! My feelings were hurt! I was embarrassed! Actually I even felt humiliated! How dare she talk to me like that and to write those awful things about me?!
After a while I began to think of what she said and all of the things that she had warned me about. Realizing I hadn’t felt good for a while it started to sink in that she was right and I should pay attention. I brushed my feelings off my sleeve and pumped up my resolve! I went to work as instructed and three months later walked into her office for a second examination. This time when I walked to the door she put her hand on my shoulder and said I had done a good job getting everything in line and headed in the right direction. A funny thing is, when I walked out I was thinking to myself what a nice doctor she was. I appreciated the fact that she had gotten my attention a few weeks earlier.
The difference between the first time and the second time was simply, I was doing right. Many times I have felt the same way spiritually. I have heard the preacher preach a message and felt anger, resentment, embarrassment and humiliation over what has been said. I have thought they could have been a little nicer. They could have used a bit more tact! I am sure you get the picture.
Israel was in a serious situation. They had turned away from God and began to worship idol gods. Because of their sin God, allowed the Midianites to overwhelm them. They would come from the desert in swarms and take all of Israel’s crops, herds and animals and leave them with nothing. This had gone on for seven years. It was so bad for Israel the Bible tells us they were living in caves and hidden places to hide from their oppressors! Finally in desperation they began to cry out to God for deliverance. They needed a miracle in their lives.
God didn’t send them a miracle. God didn’t send them deliverance. God sent them a prophet with a word from God telling them what they needed to change in their lives. He wasn’t nice! He wasn’t politically correct! He didn’t worry about their hurt feelings or insecurities! He just told them the truth, what they needed to hear! In our time of oppression and desperation God doesn’t always send a miracle or deliverance. Sometimes God sends us a “Word” to tell us what we need to change in our lives.
We have become a generation that lives on the defensive. If I want to do it, what does it matter to you? Be careful how you speak to me about my wrongs, failures, weaknesses or sins because I might get hurt. Don’t judge me! Don’t be critical of what I am doing or my lifestyle. Please don’t make a suggestion that I need to change! The cry of this generation is tolerance! That is as long as it is applied to me and what I chose to do. However, don’t expect me to be tolerant of you or what you have chosen that is different from me.
This is a generation that needs a “Prophet Nathaniel” who will stand in the face of the “status quo” in your life and say, “You are the one who has sin in your life and need to repent!” This is a generation that needs a “Prophet Elijah” who will stand up to the “powers that be” in your life and declare, “Your sin is the reason for your problem!” We each need a “John the Baptist” who will declare “repentance” is our only hope for a relationship with God!
Instead of reacting in anger and offence, what would happen if we reacted with the “spirit of David?” Maybe there is something to what, is being said and God is trying to get my attention? Maybe God has tried other avenues of approach and they have failed to awaken me so now He is being more abrupt? What if I stepped back and said, “Ow, that hurt! But I need to think about what was said and pray about it. I need to allow God to have some time to speak to my spirit.”
Many years ago I prayed a prayer that I have repeated several times. I told God I wanted to go to heaven, and I wanted to be saved, no matter what the cost. I asked God to help me to accomplish this. Now, how can I be offended when He is doing His best to answer my prayer?
No, I don’t always like what I hear and sometimes have a hard time dealing with it Yes I do wish others were as tactful and kind as I am, and I say that laughingly. However, I do believe with Paul that God’s grace is sufficient for me and that Grace will help me to overcome those discomforts and apply to my life those things that will help my relationship with God. I do believe that all things work together for my good if I am loving God and allowing God to fulfill His purpose in my life. So I guess I need to once again ask Him to help me see what it is that I am needing in my life . . . even when I don’t like what I hear.
It’s just a thought!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Gotta Have a Good Connection!
You gotta have a good connection! There is no other way if you are working with anything electrical and want it to work properly. If the connection isn’t good, you experience a lot of frustration until it is corrected. If the connection is good, you will find that you never think about it at all.
I have talked, in the past, about the adventure of fixing Jared’s car. We replaced the alternator and the car wouldn’t start. We replaced the battery, which had died when the alternator went out, and the car started but the battery light wouldn’t go off. We found there were fuses out and replaced those. Still the battery light stayed on and the battery would run down. We found there was a bad connection on the battery and fixed that. Still, we had the same problem. We had a diagnostic test done and found the new alternator was bad. We replaced that and drove it for a couple hours only to have the battery light come on again and the battery ran down.
Car problems are no fun! They are not even fun when your car is still under warranty and you have lots of time and money. When it is no longer under warranty and your time and money is limited car problems can be even more frustrating!
Sunday night we found the source of the problem was a small ground wire that connected to the alternator. It had become worn and frayed causing a short-circuit in the system. They just clipped the wire and crimped on a new connector. Three days later it is still working fine. All of these problems were because of a bad connection.
For some reason, at five A.M. this morning, I thought about that bad connection and couldn’t help but think about my connection to God. How much frustration have I experienced in my life because I haven’t made sure I have a "good connection" to God? How often have I struggled and became "spiritually rundown" because my "ground" wire has become frayed causing a spiritual short?
The Psalmist David wrote, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps 51:10 KJV) He spent some time talking about sin that had been in his life and asking God to cleanse him from those sins. He is exact in his request to God. He wanted a good connection, a clean heart! He wants to make sure there isn’t anything in his life that will cause a short in the circuit between himself and God.
How often have I let the things of life and sin bring a bad connection in my relationship with God? It isn’t always bad things that have caused me to have a short. It is sometimes something as simple as a distraction. So I began to ask myself what could cause a bad connection between me and my God?
One of the things that came to mind was distraction. Distractions are those things which divert your attention. Distraction comes so easy and appears in so many disguises. When Jared was young, I would tell him that he was easily distracted by shiny objects. It didn’t take much to make him forget what he was doing and he would be doing something else. I have found this to be so true in my spiritual life.
I go to pray and think of something I need to do first. The next thing I know I haven’t prayed and time is gone. I want to read my Bible but get caught up in answering an email that is important or even something else and time is gone. Pretty soon I realize it has been a while since I talked to God or allowed Him to talk to me and there is a bad connection.
I sometimes find myself struggling in my spiritual walk. I am not experiencing the joy that I know I should be feeling. My attitude isn’t really what I want it to be. Some of the "wonder" is missing in my relationship with God. When I begin to check the connections, I often find that I haven’t been as focused in giving praise to God. My worship hasn’t been as intense as it sometimes is. There is a bad connection between me and my God. It is time for me to stop coasting on what others are doing and make a good connection between me and God.
There are times I find myself stymied, at a stand still. In checking my connections I have found that I haven’t been applying the Word of God to my life. When I read His Word I need to ask Him to show me what I need to do with what I am reading. The Bible is more than a good book. It is the road map to life. If I don’t apply it and live by it the Bible just becomes another book. However, when I allow God to reveal His truth to me and begin to live truth the connection is made.
Now I don’t mind admitting that I am a "Jesus Fanatic." Just to make sure that I am, I looked up the word "fanatic" and this is the definition: Enthusiast; Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea: "rabid isolationist."
I was so excited because that is how I feel about Jesus! I am His biggest fan. I am not afraid that someone will say I go overboard in my lifestyle for Jesus. I do not go through life asking why I can’t do certain things in order to live for Him. I try to make my question, "What more can I do to have a better connection with Jesus?"
Let me encourage you to spend some time checking your connections! Go to God in prayer and ask Him to help you see the areas in your life and walk with Him that are becoming frayed and corroded. Get a good connection and watch the power flow in your life!
Remember. It is just a thought!
I have talked, in the past, about the adventure of fixing Jared’s car. We replaced the alternator and the car wouldn’t start. We replaced the battery, which had died when the alternator went out, and the car started but the battery light wouldn’t go off. We found there were fuses out and replaced those. Still the battery light stayed on and the battery would run down. We found there was a bad connection on the battery and fixed that. Still, we had the same problem. We had a diagnostic test done and found the new alternator was bad. We replaced that and drove it for a couple hours only to have the battery light come on again and the battery ran down.
Car problems are no fun! They are not even fun when your car is still under warranty and you have lots of time and money. When it is no longer under warranty and your time and money is limited car problems can be even more frustrating!
Sunday night we found the source of the problem was a small ground wire that connected to the alternator. It had become worn and frayed causing a short-circuit in the system. They just clipped the wire and crimped on a new connector. Three days later it is still working fine. All of these problems were because of a bad connection.
For some reason, at five A.M. this morning, I thought about that bad connection and couldn’t help but think about my connection to God. How much frustration have I experienced in my life because I haven’t made sure I have a "good connection" to God? How often have I struggled and became "spiritually rundown" because my "ground" wire has become frayed causing a spiritual short?
The Psalmist David wrote, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." (Ps 51:10 KJV) He spent some time talking about sin that had been in his life and asking God to cleanse him from those sins. He is exact in his request to God. He wanted a good connection, a clean heart! He wants to make sure there isn’t anything in his life that will cause a short in the circuit between himself and God.
How often have I let the things of life and sin bring a bad connection in my relationship with God? It isn’t always bad things that have caused me to have a short. It is sometimes something as simple as a distraction. So I began to ask myself what could cause a bad connection between me and my God?
One of the things that came to mind was distraction. Distractions are those things which divert your attention. Distraction comes so easy and appears in so many disguises. When Jared was young, I would tell him that he was easily distracted by shiny objects. It didn’t take much to make him forget what he was doing and he would be doing something else. I have found this to be so true in my spiritual life.
I go to pray and think of something I need to do first. The next thing I know I haven’t prayed and time is gone. I want to read my Bible but get caught up in answering an email that is important or even something else and time is gone. Pretty soon I realize it has been a while since I talked to God or allowed Him to talk to me and there is a bad connection.
I sometimes find myself struggling in my spiritual walk. I am not experiencing the joy that I know I should be feeling. My attitude isn’t really what I want it to be. Some of the "wonder" is missing in my relationship with God. When I begin to check the connections, I often find that I haven’t been as focused in giving praise to God. My worship hasn’t been as intense as it sometimes is. There is a bad connection between me and my God. It is time for me to stop coasting on what others are doing and make a good connection between me and God.
There are times I find myself stymied, at a stand still. In checking my connections I have found that I haven’t been applying the Word of God to my life. When I read His Word I need to ask Him to show me what I need to do with what I am reading. The Bible is more than a good book. It is the road map to life. If I don’t apply it and live by it the Bible just becomes another book. However, when I allow God to reveal His truth to me and begin to live truth the connection is made.
Now I don’t mind admitting that I am a "Jesus Fanatic." Just to make sure that I am, I looked up the word "fanatic" and this is the definition: Enthusiast; Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea: "rabid isolationist."
I was so excited because that is how I feel about Jesus! I am His biggest fan. I am not afraid that someone will say I go overboard in my lifestyle for Jesus. I do not go through life asking why I can’t do certain things in order to live for Him. I try to make my question, "What more can I do to have a better connection with Jesus?"
Let me encourage you to spend some time checking your connections! Go to God in prayer and ask Him to help you see the areas in your life and walk with Him that are becoming frayed and corroded. Get a good connection and watch the power flow in your life!
Remember. It is just a thought!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
It's Just A Little Thing!
I love it when God takes something simple from everyday life and teaches me a spiritual truth with it. Usually it isn’t profound or deep. It is usually just something simple. That is what happened today, just a while ago. Here, let me share it with you.
Jared has been having trouble with his car for the past several weeks. The alternator went out so he saved a couple hundred dollars up and bought a new one, actually a remanufactored one. A coworker came over and they put the new one on. At this point we found out the battery had been killed when the alternator went out, so save some more money and buy a new battery. However the new alternator was bad and it took several different theories and a couple of diagnostic test (more money) to find this out. I am sure there are some spiritual truths to be learned in all of this but not the one I want to share.
Today Jared got the new part and I went out to lend a helping hand in installing it. Actually I mostly held the front-left side of the car down by leaning on it and watching him. After taking the older one out, with some difficulty, Jared was unable to get the new one back down into its place. There were several hoses and wiring in the way. He had loosened them and moved them out of the way and it still wasn’t working out. Finally he said, "I just can’t get it to go past this ‘do-ma-fligee’!" (Now a do-ma-fligee is Doranese for anything you don’t know the proper name of that is attached to the motor of a car)
I came around and looked at the obstacle only to notice there was another hose that could be moved. I pointed it out to him and when he moved it the part went right into place. It was at this moment a spiritual truth came to my attention. I told Jared, "That is the way it is in our lives so often!" I went on to explain:
There are times, in our lives, when something will try to intrude into our spiritual life. It will poke, prod and push but won’t be able to get in because there are things blocking it. We don’t pay much attention to the blocks, they are just there and have been there for a long time. We are paying attention to that which is trying to get in and we focus on keeping it out with obvious effort.
Then, one day when we are not paying a whole lot of attention, we remove the block. We have forgotten why it is there. It just seems to be a nuisance and who needs it anyway, move it out of the way. When we do that which has been trying to get in has an open door and it slides right in.
Paul tells us in Romans to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. He is warning us to be careful not to allow the flesh any opportunity or it will take advantage. In other words he is telling us not to remove the "blocks" that have been set up to keep sin out of our lives.
Today it might not seem like a big deal but somewhere down the line it will be a big deal. My father was a carpenter and he believed in the old adage, "measure twice, cut once." I loved it when he would tell me, "Don, I cut this board two times and it is still too short!" There was some advice he would often repeat and give a spiritual application to. It you are measuring and you are a sixteenth of an inch off here it might not seem like a big deal, why it is only one little line on most tape measures. However, when you get sixteen inches further along you are now an inch off, which to some folks again might not seem like much. LOOK OUT! When you are sixteen feet further long you are now a foot off and the further you go the further off you are.
How often do we look at things in our lives as not being big deals? We say they don’t really matter or make that much of a difference and yet when they are ignored they end up compounding their effects in our lives to the point they are a big deal. They open areas and give opportunities for other problems and sin to enter our lives and take a hold.
Today it was simply taking a bolt out and moving a power steering hose that allowed an alternator to slide through. What might be keeping sin out of our lives? If we remove that one simple obstacle what sin might we be opening ourselves up to?
Today it is just a sixteenth of an inch and we consider it no big deal! But, a little further on, it is the reason that the door or window doesn’t close or the wall is out of square. Today it is just a little simple matter of saying yes instead of saying no. It is no big deal but somewhere in the future it has opened the door for other things.
I have to wonder where did it start for Judas? What got him off track? He didn’t join Jesus and the disciples to betray Jesus, no that happened because something else wasn’t taken care of earlier. Have you asked where did it start for Demas? Paul said that Demas had forsaken him because he had a love for this world. He didn’t say he had backslidden and walked away from God. However, something had been removed in his life that allowed the love of this present world to grow until it became more important than his ministry. I wonder what the end of that story was? We know it was just staying home from the battle when kings go to war that put David in the wrong place at the wrong time. The result was more than just adultery, which was bad enough, it was a loss of purity in his family. He wasn’t allowed to build the temple. Murder, incest, betrayal and adultery took a stronghold in his family. All of it was the result of protection being removed.
Well, remember it is just a thought! God bless . . .
Jared has been having trouble with his car for the past several weeks. The alternator went out so he saved a couple hundred dollars up and bought a new one, actually a remanufactored one. A coworker came over and they put the new one on. At this point we found out the battery had been killed when the alternator went out, so save some more money and buy a new battery. However the new alternator was bad and it took several different theories and a couple of diagnostic test (more money) to find this out. I am sure there are some spiritual truths to be learned in all of this but not the one I want to share.
Today Jared got the new part and I went out to lend a helping hand in installing it. Actually I mostly held the front-left side of the car down by leaning on it and watching him. After taking the older one out, with some difficulty, Jared was unable to get the new one back down into its place. There were several hoses and wiring in the way. He had loosened them and moved them out of the way and it still wasn’t working out. Finally he said, "I just can’t get it to go past this ‘do-ma-fligee’!" (Now a do-ma-fligee is Doranese for anything you don’t know the proper name of that is attached to the motor of a car)
I came around and looked at the obstacle only to notice there was another hose that could be moved. I pointed it out to him and when he moved it the part went right into place. It was at this moment a spiritual truth came to my attention. I told Jared, "That is the way it is in our lives so often!" I went on to explain:
There are times, in our lives, when something will try to intrude into our spiritual life. It will poke, prod and push but won’t be able to get in because there are things blocking it. We don’t pay much attention to the blocks, they are just there and have been there for a long time. We are paying attention to that which is trying to get in and we focus on keeping it out with obvious effort.
Then, one day when we are not paying a whole lot of attention, we remove the block. We have forgotten why it is there. It just seems to be a nuisance and who needs it anyway, move it out of the way. When we do that which has been trying to get in has an open door and it slides right in.
Paul tells us in Romans to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. He is warning us to be careful not to allow the flesh any opportunity or it will take advantage. In other words he is telling us not to remove the "blocks" that have been set up to keep sin out of our lives.
Today it might not seem like a big deal but somewhere down the line it will be a big deal. My father was a carpenter and he believed in the old adage, "measure twice, cut once." I loved it when he would tell me, "Don, I cut this board two times and it is still too short!" There was some advice he would often repeat and give a spiritual application to. It you are measuring and you are a sixteenth of an inch off here it might not seem like a big deal, why it is only one little line on most tape measures. However, when you get sixteen inches further along you are now an inch off, which to some folks again might not seem like much. LOOK OUT! When you are sixteen feet further long you are now a foot off and the further you go the further off you are.
How often do we look at things in our lives as not being big deals? We say they don’t really matter or make that much of a difference and yet when they are ignored they end up compounding their effects in our lives to the point they are a big deal. They open areas and give opportunities for other problems and sin to enter our lives and take a hold.
Today it was simply taking a bolt out and moving a power steering hose that allowed an alternator to slide through. What might be keeping sin out of our lives? If we remove that one simple obstacle what sin might we be opening ourselves up to?
Today it is just a sixteenth of an inch and we consider it no big deal! But, a little further on, it is the reason that the door or window doesn’t close or the wall is out of square. Today it is just a little simple matter of saying yes instead of saying no. It is no big deal but somewhere in the future it has opened the door for other things.
I have to wonder where did it start for Judas? What got him off track? He didn’t join Jesus and the disciples to betray Jesus, no that happened because something else wasn’t taken care of earlier. Have you asked where did it start for Demas? Paul said that Demas had forsaken him because he had a love for this world. He didn’t say he had backslidden and walked away from God. However, something had been removed in his life that allowed the love of this present world to grow until it became more important than his ministry. I wonder what the end of that story was? We know it was just staying home from the battle when kings go to war that put David in the wrong place at the wrong time. The result was more than just adultery, which was bad enough, it was a loss of purity in his family. He wasn’t allowed to build the temple. Murder, incest, betrayal and adultery took a stronghold in his family. All of it was the result of protection being removed.
Well, remember it is just a thought! God bless . . .
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