If they had a social gospel in the days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich and he never would have gone home.

• Vance Havner

The meaning of Vance Havner’s statement was that tragedy led the prodigal to repentance and ultimately back to the father’s house. Those difficulties in life cause us to depend on God alone.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

Author unknown

God gave a principle of how to help those less fortunate and allow them to keep their dignity:

Leviticus 19:9

‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.

The Bible has some great principles because the Author is the One who put us together.

Think about it

Gary

My older brother always had a pickup because he worked for a paper company.  Depending on his mood and frame of mind, he would sometimes   let me use it, but most times he wouldn’t.  You see, I didn’t have a driver’s license. If I wanted to procure it, I would wait till he was asleep, go into his room and whisper, “Can I use your truck?”  He would grunt something unintelligible, and being me, I interpreted that guttural sound as a yes. Anyone leaving keys in vehicles in those days made deception possible.

Jacob pulled that fast-one on his father by using his father’s blindness to deceive him. There was really no need to do that and the consequences would plague Jacob the rest of his natural days.

The Bible has much to say about deception because that is a dangerous human habit:

1 Peter 3:10

For “He who would love life And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips from speaking deceit.

You understand that we are all capable of falling into this sin of deceit, but believers are warned to stay away from it.

Give it some thought.

Gary

“Get all you can, can all you get and then sit on the can.” I couldn’t tell you where that statement came from, but it is certainly a principle that many follow wholeheartedly.  It doesn’t need explanation, but just a little firing in the frontal lobe will do the trick.

The Bible has many passages to address this malady. Here’s one:

Matthew 6:19-21

 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

When Howard Hughes died in 1976, he was among the world’s richest people, and nearly everything he owned was under a legal cloud. Did you know he didn’t take a nickel with him, nor did he leave a forwarding address?

Think about it.

Gary

On one of my many hikes on Mount Katahdin, my group came across a family huddled between some boulders to escape the wind and cold. The two young girls were between eight and ten years old and their parents were probably in their early thirties. The wife had that look on her face that said to her husband, “What did you get us into?” I don’t think he had a great marital future after this particular expedition.

There have been sixty deaths on Katahdin since 1933, most often because of poor planning and lack of preparation.

That is also true of life because it also can be so unpredictable and dangerous.

The Bible says:

Proverbs 15:22 

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

This young couple made it; however, I’m not sure if their marriage did.

Think about it.

Gary

When I was young, I had the privilege of working the north Maine woods with some seasoned woodsmen.  At noon a fire would be constructed so the different crews could meet around it and have lunch together. Stories told as the fire smoldered could choke a horse, but what a privilege to be part of the logging industry in that time period.

Inevitably, a flock of Canadian jays would join us for lunch, never bringing their own food. Woodsmen, campfires, Canadian jays and food just seemed to provide the right chemistry. Many a myth has been shared in the coniferous forest over the origin and purpose of that strange bird.

My only knowledge of those fine-feathered friends is that God created them for such a time as this. Someday, I’m going to go into the deep woods with some sandwiches and make a little fire just to see if they still remember me.

Genesis 1:20

And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.”

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

Yes, I really know who made them to fly in like that and whose image I’m made in.

Think about it.

Gary

Over 1600 years ago, one of the church fathers made a tremendous statement: (No, I wasn’t there.)

• “God loves each of us as if there were only one of us” – Augustine

There’s nothing wrong with that statement because it was extrapolated from the Scriptures.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Psalm 86:15

But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,
Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

No human being can truthfully make the statement that no one loves him or her because God’s love is eternal and unconditional.

Think about it.

Gary

There was a song that came out in 1970 with the title “Indiana Wants Me.” It’s about a man who committed a crime and the law from Indiana had him cornered. You can hear the sirens in the background as he thinks about his desperate situation.

The first stanza goes like this:

Indiana wants me
Lord, I can’t go back there
Indiana wants me
Lord, I can’t go back there
I wish I had you, To talk to

No, he’s not calling out to God, acknowledging him or asking for his presence. He is thinking about his wife who can do absolutely nothing for him. His decisions led him to this moment in time when bad choices caught up to him.

Trials and temptations are woven into the fabric of life. Sometimes we are responsible for the difficulties we’re in and sometimes others are involved; however, we are called upon by God to face them.

James 1:2

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

The best course of action sometimes is to surrender and face the consequences.

Think about it.

Gary