Just Around the Corner

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 15:51-58
     My son's favorite game on the Wii is Mario Karts.  I have to admit, I really enjoy it too.  The first couple times I played, I was a very bad driver.  The graphics of the game are so incredible, but because the game is only 2D, it was sometimes hard for my undiscerning eyes to separate the background from the actual course.  I drove off every bridge, crashed into every wall, fell into every body of water.  And then there are those blind curves.  You know, those curves that you can't see what is around the corner and smack into whatever ends up being around the bend.  Yeah, did that numerous times.  It would be easy to get frustrated and give up on the game.  Fortunately, I do have a bit of a competitive side, and it rises up and won't allow me to do that.  So although, I rarely ever finish in first place in these races, I don't always finish in last either.
    "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."  We often quote this verse to emphasize the importance of being faithful to a task.  But it is really important to read the verses beforehand.  There is a reason we can be steadfast, unmoving, and abounding.  It is because Christ will return.  Christ may come within the next few seconds, as I'm typing these words, and I want Him to find me hard at work, going about the Father's business.  He's coming very soon.  That is why every Bible verse I review with my kids, every prayer I offer for a loved one's salvation, every tract I give to the grocery store cashier, is urgent.  It is not in vain.  It may be the last time I get to do those things.  Christ's coming is like the blind curves.  I can't see around the corner, so I don't know when it will be, but everyday is a little closer to the time Jesus will come back for us.  It would be easy to get frustrated and give up.  I mean, really, there is a lot in the Christian life that is discouraging.  There are days, when I wonder, what's the point?  This morning I was feeling a bit like this.  I have felt like giving up this blog, on more than one occasion.  But I am not a quitter.  I'm amazed sometimes to see that someone in a different country has read something here.  I mean, that is astounding.  Now how much was read, I don't know.  How often they read I don't know.  For me, I have always benefitted from reading the Bible and then writing about what I've read.  I just get more from my devotions that way.  In the past, I have written them in a notebook, now in the electronic age, when I learned about blogging, I decided this might be the outlet for me.  I could give it up.  I could go back to spiral-bound pages.  But Christ's coming is just around the corner, and who knows if someone might happen upon these pages and find the Lord?  I'm not saying that has or ever will happen, but shouldn't we use every avenue possible to see people saved?  I think so.  It may be that someone puts a word in a search engine, and somehow this blog shows up.  So maybe someone just takes a peek.  Maybe they will peek at a page explaining how they can know Christ.  Isn't that why God leaves us here?  To be that witness?  I need to stay faithful to the things Christ has given me. Like a Mario Kart driver, I need to follow the course to the best of my capabilities, even though I may drive into a wall, fall off a bridge, submerge my vehicle in the CG lake.  Satan will put many pitfalls in our path.  We must do our best to avoid them, because Christ's coming may be just over the hill, and if I stop my work a little early, I may neglect to point someone to Him.  If today is my last day on this earth, this minute, this hour, what words can I leave behind to direct others to Him?  That is my whole life's purpose, and I want to be faithful to it until the trumpet sounds.

Stumbling

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 1:21-31
     Three boys a messy house does make.  I have an almost two year old who will drag out nearly everything he can reach, and a four year old who will drag out everything his brother can't.  Needless to say, there is an endless trail of random things strewn around my house, no matter my best effort from trying to keep them off the floor.  Just when I have organized the shoes in the foyer for the five hundred and seventieth time, my littlest guy wants to try on every pair.  Almost as soon as I have mopped my kitchen floor, something gets spilled.  I feel like I am always putting out fires, and it never looks like anything is getting accomplished. When I am trying to stay on a chore schedule, getting my list of things done (which I don't do very well veering off my list, I want to check everything off of it) I walk right past many of the misplaced objects in my path.  If I am on a mission to tidy up the bathroom, I am not going to stop and pick up every toy in my way en route, or my destination will never be reached.  If I am intent on getting the folded laundry put away, I probably should move those items that are cluttering the stairs but am not willing to put the laundry basket down to do that at the moment.  Would it make sense to do it right then?  Yes.  Would it be wise?  If I want to avoid a fall, most definitely.  Then why on earth do I procrastinate?  Because I am too focused on the task I have in my mind to do.  I don't want to get sidelined with something that I did not have planned that day.  Of course, picking up should be my plan every day because it is never ending.  But because it is never ending, I would never get to anything else in my house. 
     "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;"
     The unbelieving Jews could not accept the cross.  It was right in their line of vision, but they had to shield their eyes from what they did not want to see.  This crucifixion that Christ went through was not on their checklist for the Messiah.  It was not in agreement with what they believed.  They would purposely have to walk around it because it was in their path.  All of their rituals, sacrifices, cleansings, pointed right to it, but they were too focused on what they wanted to believe to accept that this was something necessary for them.  If they would actually take a good look at the cross, they would understand that it fell in line with everything they believed.  But they didn't want to look.  They couldn't move it out of the way, so that meant ignoring it. 
     I've learned to ignore the lost and found items in my house.  It would be better and safer if I would just bend over and pick them up.  I'm too determined to stick to my little checklist.  Often, I'm too weary and overcome with everything else that I have to do.  And really, it is not the picking up, it is the putting away.  Every item has a different home, which means trips all over my house.  That gets time-consuming.  Maybe that is what bothered the Jews the most.  If they paid attention to the cross, they would have to fit it in somewhere.  They would have to incorporate it somehow into what they believed, and that might take some major reworking.  They weren't willing to do that kind of work.  They didn't want to give the cross a home.  Their biggest mistake is thinking that they would have to make the crucifixion work for them.  The crucifixion was the work.  They needed to discard their other thoughts and only grab onto that. 
    My house would look a lot neater if I made sure everything was in its place.  It might mean the floor didn't get mopped today.  It might mean the refrigerator didn't get cleaned out.  It might mean the bookshelves didn't get dusted, again.  But that is probably less noticeable than a room littered with misfit items.  I would do better to toss my checklist and just do the things that are immediately necessary.

Windswept

Today's passage:  Isaiah 64
     Chicago is not called the Windy City because of it's strong winds, although, we have some pretty windy days.  In a survey a few years back, Chicago actually ranked 10 among the windiest cities.  When we do have them, the gale that pulls off Lake Michigan can be pretty powerful.  I've had my share of days trying to walk into the wind and feeling like I will never get to my destination.  The wind can be so forceful that I have to plant myself before I take another step or I will be pushed back three.
     A very powerful wind can not only push a person back, but topple him over or even carry him away.  "...and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.  And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee:  for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities." The wind has swept me away and as hard as I try, I can never reach the Lord, because the wind is too great.  This verse tells me that my sins are like a windstorm.  My sins are so grievous that no matter what I try to do, they will keep me from the Lord.  I will never be able to reach Him on my own.  It will take One who told the wind, "Peace be still".

Jesus calms the sea saying  Peace, be still--Taken from The Children's Friend (Part 2)
By Mrs. Adelaide Bee Evans
Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1911, 1928

     Verse 7 tells me that I would never be willing to call upon the Lord myself.  I would never take it upon myself to seek Him out.  Compare this verse to I Corinthians 2:9-10 and I discover that it is God that brought me to Him.  His Spirit worked in my life and heart and then I was able to come to Him.  He revealed Himself to me.  Then I had to be willing to accept what I had heard.  I had to humble myself and admit that He is Lord.  This challenges me to be a better witness.  If a person is never presented with God's Word in any fashion, how is His Holy Spirit supposed to work in that person's life so that he can know God?  A person will not seek out the Lord unless the Spirit prompts him.  Our sin is so great and burdensome it will sweep us away.  If a person has not been presented with God's Word or a Godly person, he will never recognize who God is.  What am I saying?  If my friends never darken a churchhouse, if they never hear or see a TV or radio broadcast about Christ, if they never are presented with a gospel tract or a Godly witness in their lives, how will the Spirit ever work in their lives?  How can the Spirit bring them to God, if they never have the Spirit anywhere near them?  
     I have often wondered at people who never seem to account for God in anything that they do.  They wake up from a hangover, go to work, hang out at the bar or club, stay out late only to wake up from another hangover.  They have no issues with sharing their virtue with every stranger, cursing at the kids they produced because of this sin, or letting those same kids be involved in adult activities at a tender age.  They laugh and mock anything that has to do with religion.  They lie, cheat on their spouses (if they have one), gamble at casinos while their babies are left with an older sibling or at the casino daycare.  These things absolutely boggle my mind and I think to myself, "Do you never, ever think about God?"  And then I wonder, has anyone ever told them?  Has anyone presented them with a tract?  Has anyone invited them to church?  Has anyone read their Bible on their work break so they can see that there is an alternative to the life they are living?  Has anyone turned the conversation to spiritual things when they both had their kids in the swings at the park? I haven't done some of these things.  If I really want to see people changed, it is not going to happen with a lifestyle Christianity.  It is going to take the Word of God and the Spirit of God.  My lifestyle may prompt questions, and that is when I need to plunge in and present the Gospel.  My lifestyle alone will not save them, because they can not see that they are lost, they can not comprehend that they are being pushed away with every step by the powerful wind of their sins.  Can I help bring them to the One who told the winds to cease?  Help me do that today, Lord.

Blind in Nazareth

Today's passage:  Isaiah 61/Luke 4:18-21
     Jesus quotes the first two verses of Isaiah 61 when He teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth.  It was early in His ministry, shortly after His temptation in the wilderness.  The account of reading the actual verses is only recorded in Luke.  There are some slight differences in wording when Jesus reads from the book of Isaiah and the book of Isaiah in my Old Testament.  I am not questioning the validity, because they are all God's Words, I just find it curious that there is a whole phrase that I don't see in Isaiah 61:1 and what Jesus read in Luke 4:18.  The phrase is "....and recovering sight to the blind..."  The rest of the verse is almost word for word.  If Jesus added it, it is His right, because they are His words, and He can add what He wants to.  Did He add it in for this particular occasion, because he was talking to a hometown audience?  Was He trying to emphasize that the Nazarenes were blind?

Jesus read from the Book of Isaiah--Taken from The Children's Friend (Part 2)
By Mrs. Adelaide Bee Evans
Review and Herald Publishing Company, 1911, 1928

     After He reads these verses, He sits down and declares that today the Scripture has been filled.  He was the Anointed One who would cause all these things to happen.   If I had been sitting in the synagogue that day, I probably would have regarded Jesus with the same skepticism that the Nazarenes had.  This was a man I would have watched grow up.  I would have gone to the carpentry shop and asked Him to build me a table or to repair a chair.  I would have heard Mary boast about what a fine man her Jesus was.  I would have followed Him into the synagogue each Sabbath.  I would have seen Him board up His shop, kiss His mother goodbye, and walk out of town without a single belonging.  I would have scratched my head at the strange accounts I had been hearing in nearby towns.  Accounts of miraculous healing, water turning into wine, sermons preached in the wilderness.  I would have thought, "Why not here?  If He was going to become a preacher and a miracle worker, why not here?"  When He did return, I would have listened cautiously, not with my heart but with my head, trying to analyze why He would come back now.  I would wonder why He stopped reading in the middle of verse 2.  Why didn't He finish the verse about the day of vengeance and comforting those who mourn?  After all, the Messiah would overthrow the Roman tyrants to whom I paid taxes.  He would exact revenge on those who had persecuted us. Why didn't He read about that part, if He was the Anointed One? I would grind my teeth at His suggestion that He was a great prophet, putting Himself in a category with Elijah and Elisha.  I would have helped drive Him out of the synagogue, I would have been first in line to throw Him off the high cliff.  Then I would have been amazed when He was able to push past us without being harmed.  I would have been further amazed when I heard a few days later, a demon was cast out in Capernaum. I would have taken offense that He never returned to our town, that He only sent His followers to preach.  When would my eyes be opened?  When I heard that Mary and her other children would travel to Jerusalem to witness her son being crucified?  When I heard that the tomb for Joseph's son was empty?  When a group of His followers insisted that He went up into Heaven before their very eyes?  How long would my heart be hardened?  When would I believe?  When would I recover my sight?  Only when I recognized that the Messiah was not who I thought He should be and when I acknowledged He was who God meant Him to be.  Not a political pawn, but a suffering Savior.  Then I would realize why He stopped reading in the middle of the verse.  I would remember that He said He would return, and then He would exercise judgement, then He would soothe the grieving.  I would have been blind, but my sight would be restored.  I would finally see that He was the Anointed One.

Back to the Prison House

Isaiah 42:1-25
     I think about how all of Christ's ways were perfect.  He knew how to act in every situation.  He knew what to say in every circumstance.  He didn't have to be dramatic to get attention, although many might claim that was the reason for His miracles.  He didn't have to call out like a carnival barker to gather a crowd, yet He was always surrounded.  He never had reason to be discouraged, because He knew God's plan.
     In verse 7 of this passage, I read that He would open the blind eyes, that He would set the prisoners free from their prison.   The last half of the verse says:"..and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house."  What a beautiful picture of how He rescued me spiritually!  At one time in my life, I was sitting in complete darkness, with a knowledge of God, but not really knowing Him.  Jesus released me from the bondage of sin and instead of sitting in my cell, I can walk out into the open air, into the sunlight, and know that I am free.  I am fortunate that I have never been in a physical prison.  I pray I will never know that experience.  But I do know what it is like being a prisoner to sin, trying to free myself by my own works, and never being able to achieve that.  Jesus paid the price for sin, so I could go free.  He handed Satan the key to my cell, and told him to let me go.  And Satan had to listen.  He had to let me go.  He no longer has any power over me, nor does the sin that had me shackled.  So, when we know that Jesus has released us, why do we so often return to the prison house? 

I Was In Prison--Taken from The Children's Friend (Part 4)
By Mrs. Adelaide Bee Evans
Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1911, 1928

When we return to our sin (which we will, because we are not perfect), aren't we in essence going back to that cell, handing the key back over to Satan, putting the shackles on our wrists, and closing the cell door behind us?  Fortunately, at this point, we can leave the cell anytime we want, because we have been declared innocent and Satan has no power to keep us there.  But why return at all?  The inmate who has just been released into the world  has a long rough road ahead of him.  He doesn't instantly return to his way of life before prison.  As Christians, especially when we are newly saved, everything in our life isn't going to instantly be made better.  We have to let God lead us through His Word, through praying, through church attendance, through taking an active part in our local church. The getting involved part is hands-on training.  Jesus gives us the power to have victory over our sin.  It doesn't happen overnight.  Yes, he freed us from sin instantaneously, but we still have a sin nature that will always want to keep us locked up.  I need to follow Him in every way that I can.  I don't want to go back to the prison house.