His name was Bob Dowie. He was an Irishman who had immigrated to Canada in the fifties. He became an instructor at the New Brunswick Bible Institute. This individual had more Scripture memorized than any man I’d ever heard tell of.

How did he become a Christian? He encountered the gospel in the shipyards of Northern Ireland where he worked when he wasn’t drinking. An electrician taught a Bible study during the noon-hour break.  For some reason, Bob attended one of these studies and, as a result, became a believer.

For many years he would spend the last weekend before Christmas with us here at Mountain View Bible Church. He died a number of years ago and we certainly miss him.

This little account is not about Mr. Dowie, but the unnamed electrician who was so instrumental in bringing a young boozer to Christ.

Acts 13:47

For so the Lord has commanded us, saying,

“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

Life for the Christian is about where you are and what you can do for the furtherance of the gospel. This tradesman probably did more for God’s kingdom than most ministers.

Give it some thought.

Gary

“I don’t feel happy or sad. I wish I could feel something.”  He was in an institution telling me about the effects of his medication on his emotions. For the record, I was just visiting.

This led me to consider what life would be like without emotions. It is commonly stated there are 27 emotions: admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, and surprise.

Now try to imagine life without these key, motivating factors in it. Let me relate to you where they come from.

Psalm 139:13 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

Ephesians 2:10 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Jeremiah 1:5 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you

God made us as emotional beings. He put us in charge of these necessary ingredients to help us navigate the stream of life. The only thing we need to keep in mind is that we need to control our emotions and not allow our emotions to control us. Many the Bible character and fellow human being failed miserably because they had this thing reversed.

Give it some thought.

Gary

The advertisement that pops up while you’re trying to read or research something important can be very annoying.  Like the one that says, Americans over 64 can get a stimulus check. Now if you’ve lived over six decades on the planet, you should know better than to be drawn in by that. If you are pulled in, then probably there is no help for you and your greatest need is a legal guardian.

Paul gave us many warnings about being taken in by the false promotions.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Make sure you’re not mythtaken about things.

Give it some thought.

Gary

He was so good at throwing rocks that a friend of mine said, “He can hurl the projectile like a curveball.” For even if you were hiding behind the barn, the rock would hit you. The winter months proved to be no obstacle because his parents’ home had a gravel floor in the basement. He could always find a rock if he felt someone needed correction.

Some of us knew what the apostle Paul was talking about:

2 Corinthians 11:25

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,

The rocks were not directed at us for religious reasons, but for slights we threw at him. We probably deserved some of those dings, but the Apostle Paul never did.

Stones, shipwreck and drifting on the open sea were all divine elements in the life of the Apostle.

No Christian is guaranteed an easy trail. Give it some thought and, sometimes, remember to duck.

Gary

“I’d rather listen to long fingernails drag across an old-fashioned chalkboard or cats fighting outside my bedroom window at 3 a.m.or my starter grinding into my flywheel when I accidentally turn the key with the motor still running than …”

I picked that statement up from an unknown source. However, that’s exactly my feelings when I am forced to listen to a chronic complainer. If you think this relates to you, there is a strong possibility you nailed this one.

So what does the Bible say about complaining? Here it is:

1. Describe False teachers

Jude 1:16

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

2. Can lead to death

1 Corinthians 10:10

nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

3. Is a commandment given to Christians

Philippians 2:14

Do all things without grumbling or disputing,

How did you like this devotional?  God heard that.

Give it some thought.

Gary

“Give Me 40 Acres” is a song sung by the Willis Brothers in 1964. The first two stanzas go like this:

He was headin’ into Boston in a big, long diesel truck
It was his first trip to Boston, he was having lots of luck
He was going the wrong direction down a one-way street in town
And this is what he said when the police chased him down

Give me forty acres and I’ll turn this rig around
It’s the easiest way that I’ve found
Some guys can turn it on a dime or turn it right downtown
But I need forty acres to turn this rig around

I sang that song many times in my years of driving tractor-trailer. There were a few times when I was so frustrated I wanted to cry. I would say to myself, “I should have thought this thing through before I came to the end of this road.”

My brother and I would leave at twelve o’clock Sunday night and not see the sack until ten o’clock Monday night. Those winters were made up of slippery, narrow roads; heavy loads; crazy drivers; and lack of sleep.

Strangely, we both look back at those years with fondness. That’s who we were and the challenge was one we enjoyed most of the time.

Now I’m in the ministry and my study is the truck. Sometimes when I need to present a passage of difficult Scripture, I could sing, “Give me forty acres and I’ll turn this rig around.”  Ministry also has dangerous roads, heavy loads, some crazy individuals, lack of sleep and a vehicle that’s not always cooperative.

Paul told Timothy to keep on trucking:

1 Timothy 2:14-16

 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.  But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, 

1 Timothy 3:1-5

But understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

How do you drive through this situation, or how can you turn it around?

Give it some thought.

Gary

Unfortunately, many Christians don’t understand the difference between talent and spiritual gift. Natural aptitude or skill is the definition of talent. Spiritual gifts are defined as enablements or capacities that are divinely bestowed upon individuals.

Hitler had a talent for giving rousing speeches, but that didn’t come from God. Billy Graham had the gift of evangelism and that was from God.

A gift from God will benefit His church every time. A talent can be an asset sometimes and a curse oft-times.

In the context of church function, make sure what you have is a gift because, if it is only a talent, it can be dangerous. There are many talented, false teachers going around.

Paul warned the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 12:1-2

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.  You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.

Thank God for those gifts used to build His church.

Give it some thought.

Gary