Charles Stanley tells the story of a deacons’ meeting he attended as a young pastor. The meeting was divided over an issue that involved church business. Charles made the statement that they should stop the meeting and pray about a resolution. One of the deacons responded, “Leave the Lord out of it; this is business.”

Stanley asked, “Are we going to leave the Lord out of His business?”

Luke 2:49

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

Anything that involves the church, the Gospel or believers is His business. We certainly need to be careful how we conduct His business.

Think about it.

Gary

Gordon Jensen sang the song, “When the Carpenter Came” about the renewal of our lives as Christians. The song says that He had to tear down some walls to reveal the rotten wood. The recipient of the Carpenter’s demolition wasn’t appreciative at first but later realized how necessary the project was.

The recognition of the new birth takes time and the results of the God-ordained reconstruction process is always seen in stages.

Peter describes it this way:

1 Peter 1:23
having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

What God began in you He is going to complete.

Philippians 1:6

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ

Let the Creator do His work and don’t give Him a hard time.

Think about it.

Gary

Like you, I’m sure, I’ve seen a lot of trouble in my lifetime.  Much of that has been of my own making and I have no one to blame but myself. Job said, “Man’s days are few in number and full of trouble.”  I guess at the moment he made that statement, it certainly looked like the case.

Israel had a torturous ride through the wilderness.  Sometimes they trusted God and at other times they just went off on their own. Sound familiar?

Psalm 107 relates one of those incidents when the children of Israel were in some deep kimchi. However, they found their way out.

Psalm 107:19-20

Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He saved them out of their distresses.
He sent His word and healed them,
And delivered them from their destructions.

Anytime you, as a believer, find yourself in trouble because of your decisions, remember God is waiting for your call.

Give it some thought.

Gary

They are called the ghost trains and can be found at the north end of Chamberlain Lake which is part of the Allagash watershed.  The two 100-ton steam engine locomotives are the most visible reminders of the long abandoned 13-mile railway in the middle of the North Maine Woods.

Many times I visited that spot and theorized on what life must have been like at that time. People who once lived, worked, strived, suffered, loved, grew old and died at one time walked this land.

The same thoughts plague my mind in surveying an old cemetery.  My five-year-old grandson stood in the graveyard where most of my ancestors and extended family are buried. I monitored his expression as he read from tombstone to tombstone: Gardner, Gardner, Gardner…  I said to him, “Yes, Josh, this is where we all go.” Seems like that was the first time the reality of life and death confronted him.

The apostle Paul addressed a serious misconception about death to the Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 15:32

If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

Life is not just for the flesh and its pleasures but the whole of now and eternity. God gave us a book about all of that and we should acquaint ourselves with it.

Give it some thought.

Gary

The doctor told me, before the anesthesia wore off from my cardiac catheterization, that I needed a triple bi-pass. I thought he had me mixed up with someone else because only fifty-nine years ago I was five. No, it was me with a clogged heart.

My physician said if I listened to him I would get twenty years after the operation, and if I didn’t do what I was told, only five.  My decision was to split that in half and go with twelve.

The Bible has a lot to say about the heart.

Psalm 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Someday this organ of mine is going to let me down, but at that exact moment God is going to pick me up and we’re going to enjoy eternity together.

How about you?

Give it some thought.

Gary

Jeremiah is best known as the weeping prophet. He ministered to Judah when God brought the wrath of Babylon down on Israel.  The people refused to heed his warnings, called him a traitor and embraced the false prophets and deceiving leaders of his day.

Jeremiah 10:23

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

We’re in a very similar situation today. Our leaders promise a bright and glorious future if we would only support them. The problem is that God is in charge of our future not them.  They give God a little lip service to deceive the gullible.

Truth is Jeremiah’s road was a rough one, running against the wind. To take the Word of God seriously is a difficult course; however, keeping one’s eye on eternity and not the present makes it possible.

Jeremiah has been doing fine for the last 2500 years. Some day we will meet him and he’ll tell us service to God was well-worth the trouble especially in difficult times.

Think about it.

Gary

My kindergarten teacher told me if I didn’t eat my mashed potatoes I would not be going out for recess. I kept an eye on her, and when her attention was somewhere else, I stuffed the mashed potatoes into my pocket.

It’s amazing how no one has to teach us to be rebellious. Rebellion comes naturally for all of us. We chafe under rules and authority. Sometimes it’s subtle and sometimes it’s quite blatant.

On the playground I scraped those potatoes out of my pocket. I won this one, but what a gooey price I paid. I could have eaten them and avoided the cost, but in my heart she wasn’t going to win.

The Bible has a lot to say about rebellion.

1 Samuel 15:23

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”

Don’t rebel against God. It will not be worth the price you pay.

Give it some thought.

Gary