PACKED AND READY TO GO!

My Granny from Alabama was an excellent cook.   Before, my brothers and I had gotten up from the pallets we had slept on the night before, we could already hear Granny rattling skillets.  It wasn’t long before the grown-ups were up, dressed, sipping coffee and discussing how they had slept.  In time a few whiffs of the fresh cured sausage, smoked bacon, grits, eggs, and homemade biscuits pulled us from the covers and into the den to watch TV.

By now, the grown ups had begun reading the newspaper.  Before breakfast, they had discussed the major issues of the day.   Soon everyone was stuffed.  The women begin clearing the table and once the dishes had been washed by hand; my Granny would  commence with preparing of a dinner meal, for the lunch hour.    We kids would by this time have found our way outside to toss a ball, explore a field, or watch the grass grow.   (My parent’s favorite past time suggestion for us!)   We knew the drill to come.

A delicous lunch would be followed by a rest, or short nap.   It seemed strange to  that the grown ups needed to rest when they hadn't done anything?   Rest from what we kids were never quite sure.  At any rate, by two thirty or three at the latest it was snack time.   That always consisted of a homemade cake or two, a cobbler, or fresh tarts. Our favorite was the lane cake.

I guess looking back now, it could have been the sugar high that made us so antsy.  At any rate my brothersand I always had the suitcases packed and waiting by the door long before snack time had commenced.

All these thoughts of reminiscing started me thinking the other day.    Aren’t many of us taking this same posture when it comes to going home to Heaven?   We would all like to go there one day; but just because JESUS is our Ticket, do we have to be just sitting around and waiting to go?  Doesn’t He have prayers that need to be prayed?  Aren’t there missionaries that need to be sent?   Can’t ministries still be discovered?   Won’t people all around us always need the Good news and a positive word of encouragement? 

In John 5:16  we find Jesus even working on the Sabbath.  In verse 17 His response to the Jew was simple: “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."

Jesus himself warns us in John 9:4: “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”   Too often I get tired or bored and want to take a break.  We don’t find Jesus sitting on his suitcase waiting to go back to Heaven.  In John 4:34 Jesus likens his ministry to being like the necessary food he ate just to stay alive.  Jesus honors His Father in John 17:4 as he proclaims: “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.”  

Throughout the New Testament the apostle Paul continually exhorts us to complete the work God has given each of us to do.  In 1 Corinthians 15:58 he says, “stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."   It will soon be time to go, but in the meantime there is much to be done!   

WAITING FOR DAYBREAK

This morning I sat in my truck waiting for daybreak, so I could start mowing.  Facing the east, I could see just a sliver of the white light reflecting off the moon.   It was the narrowest crescent moon I had ever observed.  Within the next ten minutes, everything had changed.   The brilliant rays of the sun had illuminated the entire sky.  Through the black silhouette of trees, I could see hues of the softest yellows mixing with orange, white and pink.  All of a sudden, that moon which had once dominated the entire black sky was now scarcely visible.  A new day had begun.

A fifteen year old student, at another local high school; had twice been a pupil in my wife’s sixth grade class.   His Mom had sung with us in the church choir before the boy was even born.   Sadly last week, his father had found the young man dead from a drug overdose.  On Tuesday at the packed funeral service, many of his classmates and best friends sat at the front of the church, coming face to face with the end result poor decisions.

Two weeks ago none of those students expected to be spending their Tuesday afternoon looking into a casket.   The young man had been in drug rehab before and knew of the horror of detox.  He knew that sobriety was possible.  Yet, for whatever reasons we will never know, this young man could not face life without a drug high.  

Life at any age is hard.   All of us need relief from the pressures and difficulties of life.   Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, to partake of the living water that will continually satisfy.   What stops us from reminding each other of the availability of living water that is always there for us to drink?   In these times of calamity, depression among all sectors and in every age group is soaring.   Untreated or undertreated depression progresses.   We each have a responsibility to encourage each other and do our best to get those in trouble the help they need.   This might often be a word of support, a listening ear, a positive word, and if necessary counseling or even confinement. 

Like the crescent moon, this fifteen year old student had only a sliver of light to help him find his way in the world that had become a dark place for him.   As Christians, Jesus has filled each of us with light.  Pray with me that we will not be afraid or ashamed to let our light flood the lives of those in need.   Lord, help us to encourage those around us that we can each live in the beauty of daybreak if we share our light!

Did I Stutter?

This is one of my son's favorite questions.  Have you ever wondered if God might be thinking the same thing?  If He took the time to get forty different authors, on three different continents; to write the Bible over a period of 1,500 years, could He wondering why we don't get it?   

The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 that "From childhood you have know the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation."  Even Jesus was constantly referring His listeners and the Pharisees back to the scriptures.  Are we or others expecting Him to give us a word that is superior to His written word in the Bible?  Perhaps we're searching for something easier or less demanding? 

I caught a snipped of a TV interview with some celebrity atheist the other night ragging on the Bible.   His major point of contention, was how God could sanction rape, incest, and brutality and then condemn us with the ten commandments?   He couldn't seem to wrap his mind around how the Bible could allow these atrocities and blast people for premarital sex, homosexuality, lying, and idolatry.   

It was obvious that this celebrity had not read the entire Bible as he had claimed.  How could he have missed that God called Abraham the friend of God?  Did he skip over the familiar 23rd Psalm that describes our Heavenly Father as the Good Shepard?  Did the celebrity miss the fact that God sent prophets to warn his people to turn from their sins, and often put up with their rebellious sinning for hundreds of years?   Maybe he somehow missed the fact that God the Father wanted a love walk relationship with each of us so much, that he provided His own son as a ransom for our sin and rebellion?

The longer I watched thisshow the more I realized what an ignorant actor this guy was.   Its so easy for us who understand the extraordinary gift of salvation.  We take it for granted that everyone understands God's love.  My prayer is that we will consider how blessed each of us have been, that God has put someone or several someones in our life to teach us the light of God's Word.  Let's make sure we are full of the light of His Word and then share that light with others.