“Deadlines and commitments, what to leave in and what to leave out”, is a line in a country and western song. It is about the fact that life gets more complicated as we move towards the conclusion of this journey. The more relationships we develop, the more room for error arises in making decisions. The more decisions made can multiply the number of decisions we’ll have to face later.  Did you get that?

This is also true spiritually. The more years we have into this Christian experience, the greater the responsibility and the sharper the enemy’s attacks, but the stronger we should have become along the way.

James 1: 2-4

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

I hate to ask this question again, but did you get that? The stuff of life piles up and like Walter Cronkite would say, “And that’s the way it is.”

Give it some thought.

Gary

My flipper is coming off and I’m only half-way across the river. It’s still the spring of the year and the water’s high. At the time, I was probably eleven. I never feared water, but this was my first experience with flippers and something was going wrong down south.  I had enough Irish I would have fought the current to the bitter end to save that flipper.

It was just a flipper. Why did I take such a chance? It seems so foolish now.

The Bible doesn’t mention saving flippers. It doesn’t mention saving the lousewort (That’s an endangered plant which stopped a dam from being built.), condors or even the planet. However, it does say a lot about saving souls. Here’s an example:

Romans 10:1

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

Try and save the eternal things and don’t get too excited about the temporary things of this life.

Give it some thought.

Gary

A man in the television commercial declared he was pain-free after taking the medicine for three weeks. I have two doctors of pharmacy as nieces and I’m sure they would never get on TV and promote such a thing. How many with chronic pain are being taken in by such foolishness?

Unfortunately, this also happens in Christendom with false presentations of the gospel. The promotion is that if you accept their brand of Christianity, usually by sending in some money, you’ll never be sick, all your problems will be solved and you’ll become unbelievably prosperous. Of course, if that doesn’t happen, it’s because you lack faith. They have all the bases covered.

After finishing his jail sentence, one televangelist took a brand-new wife and went right back into the business of selling his spiritual snake oil.  An old friend of mine once told an acquaintance, “You should tell Gardner to go to Texas because there is money to be made in religion in Texas.”

Peter addressed it:

1 Peter 5:2

Be good shepherds of the flock God has put in your care. Do not care for the flock as if you were made to. Do not care for the flock for money, but do it because you want to.

Give it some thought and if you want to throw some money away you can direct it my way.

Gary

The man claimed that it wasn’t getting old that made him so sad, it was that it happened so fast. He could have quoted:

James 4:14

Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
You’re not playing fair at all
I’m really now upset with you
For giving your distorted view

You show my hair is turning gray,
It’s just the way the shadows play
I know that you’re not hanging straight
To make me look so over weight

The way you show a double chin
Is just the way the light comes in
I think I’m fine, but you’re so wise
To put such accent on my thighs.

I wish you’d try to be my friend
And tell me I’m a little thin
Just tell me I look good in jeans
And frilly shirts and pretty things.

Please don’t let the wrinkles show
I’d like to have a pretty glow
I see you won’t respond at all
So I’ll just tear you off the wall.

The reality is that you can’t change the inevitable. God has so designed it that most of us get plenty of physical warning that the end is just over the horizon.

How about you? Is life a joke? Every wrinkle is a new message from the Creator.

Think about it.

Gary

Coming down off a rise in St. Pamphile, Quebec, I could look over the border into the Maine mountains.  Something life-changing took place in this village that day. I had asked Christ to forgive me and I didn’t know what else to say to Him. This all took place in the cab of a logging truck. The truck engine was the same and the sun’s rays played off the snow as usual on a bright sunny day as I journeyed back. However, I felt there was a change in my life that I didn’t fully understand.

That was almost forty-eight years ago.  Over the passage of those four decades, I studied Scripture in a Bible institute in Canada, earned two degrees, pastored two different churches over a period of forty-two years and volunteered for thirty-six years in EMS. I wasn’t alone in this because God had given me a French wife and English teacher to make it all possible.

What did I learn over all of these years? God is faithful and will never place you where the grace of God can’t sustain you.

Jeremiah 29:11-12

 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

It was to work for Israel as a true promise. I can attest that it also worked for me and I am convinced it can work for you if you avail yourself of it.

Think about it.

Gary

Mark 8:27

Now Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, “Who do men say that I am?”

It was the road of contemplation. That is the action of looking thoughtfully at something for a long time. Have you taken the time from your busy, hectic and fleeting life to really consider who Jesus is?

It was the road of confrontation. Jesus was engaging them with the necessity of nailing down who He was. There were many wild and varied opinions circulating.  Peter nailed it when he stated, “You are the Messiah.” Have you come to this realization?

It was the road of confession. Romans 10:9 states that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Have you made such a confession?

We are on the road of life and now is the time to respond with truth.

Give it some thought.

Gary

In one Dennis the Menace cartoon, Dennis is shown walking away from the Wilson’s house with his friend Joey. Both boys have their hands full of cookies. Joey turns to Dennis and says, “I wonder what we did to deserve this?” Dennis answers with profound insight: “Look, Joey, Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we’re nice, but because she’s nice.” 

Can you fully comprehend how nice God is? Get a good Bible concordance and look up words like grace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy and forgiveness.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Titus 3:4

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared,

2 John 1:3

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

Colossians 1:14

in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

You see, every once in a while, Dennis would get it right and share it with a friend. Have you gotten it right? Are you sharing it with a friend?

Think about it.

Gary