Teaching Leather to Kids

Today I had the pleasure of instructing about three dozen kids and several adults in the art and craft of leather work at our association’s church camp. I’ve done this before and I always enjoy every minute of it. But today I didn’t enjoy every minute: I smashed the tar our of my finger with a two pound mallet and the was nothing to enjoy about it! The kids were all concerned and my brothers and sisters were kind of enough to not take any jabs at me for my bad luck, even though it was a prime opportunity.

This evening I was thinking about some of the jokes that could have been lobbed at me and one sticks out in my mind: do as I say not as I do. I think this is because of the good discussion we had along this line at Wednesday night prayer meeting.

The Bible clearly teaches us that we are to live our lives in a manner that brings glory to God and reflects Jesus through our deeds and thoughts. It asks, essentially, do we practice what we preach? We are to be the light of Christ to the world. And a light won’t penetrate very far if it’s tucked away under a basket.

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Love Never Fails

I found this following story online line this evening. I found it quite thought provoking and, all too often, quite accurate. If only we were as faithful as we ought to be…

1 Corinthians 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.

Love Never Fails

When Romney, the great English artist, was young he fell passionately in love with a young lady of the North of England and they were married. But his real passion was his work. One day he heard that Sir Joshua Reynolds had said that it was a pity that Romney had married, as he had the talents for greatness as a painter, and he would not get very far if he was burdened with a wife. Consequently, Romney left his young wife and came down to London. His work was his one passion now. He made good! Portraits of the first people of the land came from his brush, landscapes, that in this day are worth many, many thousands. He was a lion in London for a time. Then he grew old and ill and, gathering his effects together, went back to his wife in the North, and she took him in and nursed him tenderly till he was laid away. And some one has rightfully said that the spirit manifested by that wife was worth more than all the pictures that Romney ever produced. We treat Jesus that way. We forsake Him and then plan to get back and die in His arms. He never forsakes us, but loves us and abides with us through all our years. (A note in Cambridge edition of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Poems)

Not Allowed

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

On Monday we took our son, daughter in law and grandson to King’s Island amusement park. We arrived early to make certain I could rent a power chair for the day so we were the first in line to get in. When the gate opened we filed into the park with me in the rear of our little entourage. I was abruptly stopped by an employee who pointed to the small metal clip on my pocket and said “You can’t bring that knife in; you’ll have to take it and leave it in your vehicle”. I was pretty shocked that she saw that small clip and more so that I had to pit the 2″ knife back in my truck but that was the rule so… Oddly, no one looked of asked about my fanny pack, which contained a box cutter. The box cutter thus went unnoticed.

One day each of us will face the Lord and have to meet up to His rules, too. None of us can pass that test on our own merit. It is only through and by the work on the Cross of Jesus that we can pass that test. And unlike the box cutter that was out of sight and unnoticed, God knows and sees all things; no sin is or will be hidden from His eyes.

If we want to make it to that place Jesus has gone to prepare for us we will have to do it one way: His way.

Making Pain Your Servant, Not Your Master

Making Pain Your Servant, Not Your Master
From the messages of Adrian Rogers

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
There are three possible ways to pray when you are hurting. First, you can pray that God will give you an escape from the pain. That’s normal—in fact, that’s how drug stores stay in business! Second, you can pray that God will give you the strength to endure the pain. And that, too, is a natural response. If we can’t escape the pain, we can pray to endure the pain. The third way we can pray is to ask God to enlist the pain in our lives for our good and His glory.

ACTION POINT:
If we pray to escape our pain, then we see pain as our enemy. If we pray to endure our pain, then pain is seen as a master. But if we pray to enlist our pain, we see it as our servant. We are able to find God’s grace to glory in our infirmities, that the power of God may be manifest in our lives.

Avoiding Spiritual Delusion

“Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22).

Matthew 7:21-23 records the tragic results of spiritual delusion. Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'”

Jesus made a clear distinction between those who merely claim to be Christians and those who truly are. The difference is, true believers do the will of the Father. In the words of James, they are doers of the Word, not merely hearers who delude themselves.

“Hearers” in James 1:22 translates a Greek word that speaks of auditing a class. Auditing students attend class and listen to the instructor but don’t do any work. Consequently, they don’t receive credit for the course. The phrase “delude themselves” speaks of being victimized by one’s own faulty reasoning.

People who listen to God’s Word but never obey it are spiritual auditors who delude themselves by thinking that hearing the Word is all God requires of them. Unfortunately, many churches are full of such people. They attend services and hear the sermons but their lives never seem to change. They’re content to hear the Word but never apply it. Like those whom Jesus condemned in Matthew 7, they’ve chosen religious activities over true faith in Christ.

How tragic to think you’re saved, only to hear, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). That will never happen if you’re a doer of the Word.

Suggestions for Prayer:

Take advantage of every opportunity to respond to the Word in specific ways. Ask God for His grace to keep you faithful to that goal.

For Further Study:

Read Matthew 7:13-29.

• How did Jesus describe false prophets?
• How can you discern a false from a true prophet?
• To what did Jesus liken those who hear His words and act on them? Why?

(From Drawing Near by John MacArthur Copyright © 1993. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187,www.crossway.com.)

I Want, I Want!

Psalms 23:1 The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.

I have to admit that at this moment in time there isn’t much that I really want. But there are times that I do; for several years I really wanted a nice camera, for instance, and finally I got one for Christmas this past year. I’m thankful that the Lord provides many of my earthly “wants” and that we always have food on the table, etc. I know that a lot of folks really struggle, at least from time to time, to make it in this life. And it is these struggles that prompts some to ask “If the Bible is God’d Word and He cannot lie, why do people do without?”.

Many people have a hard time realizing that the Bible is in many aspects speaking to our spiritual side. There are whole doctrines that emphasize the physical nature of God’d Word when in reality it all isn’t geared for us on the physical level. Our primary needs are spiritual and they are the ones that we need to emphasize. The flesh (the physical body) is going to die and return to the earth from where it came. But the soul will live on eternally, either in Heaven or in Hell. Sin is what causes all suffering; Jesus makes brings us up out of the bondage of sin so we can truly say that our souls want for nothing, if we have Him.

God does promise to care for and provide for us. We just need to trust Him and know that soul takes precedent over body, spiritual over physical. What we want and what we need are not always the same thing. We need the Savior; we need Jesus.

False Security

Revelation 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Last week while riding the Harley I saw some thing that, well, kind of amazed me: a lady riding as a passenger in a passing car, slouched in her seat with her seatbelt fastened and her bare feet propped up on the dashboard, across and over the airbag. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if they had an accident? Clearly her fastened seatbelt would have been of little effect with the airbag blasting her legs back into her body, at the best. Her safety belt was nothing more than a false sense of security. This lady was obviously not prepared for an accident, no matter what she thought.

I wonder how many folks have their own false sense of security about their salvation and eternal destination? How many think they are “good enough” on their own, trusting in their own righteousness, to avoid the wrath of God? Or are trusting in their own idea of God and His judgement, making their own idol in their mind?

The Bible clearly teaches that our righteousness, our goodness, is “as filthy rags”. God’s Word tells us there is only one way to be justified and that is through and by Jesus.

Trusting in Christ and His Word alone are the is the only way to secure a spot where He has gone to prepare for us.

Dog vs Deer: The Winner?

James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

You probably remember the incident last fall when Jack, our dog, ran away and fell into a swimming pool, nearly drowning. Of all the ways for a dog to die I thought that one was about the least expected way for it to happen; in case you don’t remember he didn’t die and other than being cold and exhausted was fine. Well, Jack has just about out done himself and my imagination.

On Saturday morning Billie and I were having a cup of coffee on the back deck. Our two dogs, Gypsy and Jack, were playing in the yard. Suddenly we heard a ruckus in the yard adjacent to our’s; a young deer was stuck between the fence and some vines growing the neighbor’s yard. The deer managed to escape the tangle and jump into our yard, where the chase was on!

After all the excitement died down (Gypsy chased it into the fence, three times it bounced off, and out of the yard while Jack ran for cover with “mom and dad”) we realized Jack had been stomped by the deer; he was sporting a nasty scrape, the hair literally cut from his side. He was, and is, very sore but no worse for the wear thankfully. So, I have to admit that a dog being stomped to death in his own fenced in yard would definitely top the list for odd ways for an animal to meet his demise.

Just in the blink of and eye Jack was almost dead (again). There is no difference in how fast he could take his last breath and how quickly our earthly end could come.

God’s Word warns us to be ready to leave at any moment; we aren’t guaranteed one more breath. Think about it…

Reminiscing

John 4:14 But [Jesus said] whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Yesterday I alluded to some thing I’d like to expand upon a little today. Do you ever think about or hear others lament about how church services today just aren’t what the used to be? Do you remember people rejoicing a lot in church? Enjoying more fellowship with God and their brothers and sisters? How about the fact that so many more seemed to answer the call of the Holy Spirit when conviction came upon them? I remember and have heard many others speak of these things. So, what’s different now compared to then? The answer lies in our fathers and forefathers attitude that I spoke of yesterday: they were saturated, if you will, with that Living Water.

Culture changes; the many references to cultural change and adaptation during New Testament times are proofed in Scripture itself. God’s Word doesn’t change and indeed can’t. The difference is in us and how highly we value the Word; the generations before us held Scripture in the highest regard, as we should today.

If we want to see Spirit filled services, and Spirit filled lives we have to be fully hydrated with the Living Water, which is the Word, who is Jesus Christ Himself; that is the path we must get back to.