My grandson came home for three weeks last summer.  Good friends of ours lent us their side by side to tour the trails of northern Maine. (He drove.) Being a seventeen-year-old, he wanted to try the limits of this recreational vehicle made for rough country. I had to hold the reigns tightly because it was borrowed. Had that machine belonged to me, I wouldn’t have cared if he wrecked it, as long as neither one of us had been hurt.

Borrowing something brings with it tremendous responsibility as can be seen with the account of the borrowed ax in Scripture:

2 Kings 6:5

But as one was cutting down a tree, the iron ax head fell into the water; and he cried out and said, “Alas, master! For it was borrowed.”

My very farsighted offspring suggested that next year we would buy our own ATV, so grandfather wouldn’t have to talk like Miss Daisy.

Think about it.

Gary

I was a three-year-old and my fifteen-year-old sister lifted me unto the seat of the pickup to travel to the local store. A kid could stand up in a vehicle in those days before car seats or even seatbelts were required.  She wasn’t going to take me in, which I didn’t much appreciate, but I’m sure she had her reasons.

Not long after she went in, a teenage boy came out, opened the door, lifted me out and placed me on his shoulders to bring me into the store. In those days a kid going into an establishment that had candy, chips and soda pop was like going to heaven.

I don’t remember any more than that about the experience.  It seems like a short time after that I was home alone with my mother and she was crying. The only thing I could comprehend was that the young boy who had been so good to me had died in a jeep accident. It was my first experience with the heartache of death involving someone you knew couldn’t be replaced.

There are two types of events that will leave a long-lasting impression on an individual’s mind. One is when someone has been kind to him or her and the other is when someone has not been kind.

There is a commandment given to us as Christians that carries as much weight as the Ten Commandments:

Ephesians 4:32

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Think about it.

Gary

The old hymn, “How Great Thou Art”, was composed by Carl Gustav Boberg, in Sweden (1885). The song had to do with considering creation and how it points to a powerful Creator.

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Consider means think carefully about something, typically before making a decision.

Isaiah 42:4

This is what God the Lord says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it:

This is a word we need to take seriously when it comes to the Creator. The window of opportunity in this endeavor is closing.

Think about it.

Gary

Trucking logs in the north Maine woods in the winter months can be hazardous.  I was fully loaded with hardwood logs destined for Canada when I approached a steep hill that wasn’t sanded. Almost to the top, the truck no longer had traction. Fortunately, I was able to hold it steady as I backed down, using my west coast mirrors. Looking it over, I decided to try climbing once again… bad decision. Almost to the top again, the truck decided it had had enough of me and developed a mind of its own. Halfway down, it decided to turn sideways and roll over.

You’re right. It was a big mess. Logs were strewn everywhere. That GMC was now resting on its side with the operator shaking in places he’d never shaken before.

The road of life has many hazards and one never knows what a day might bring forth. Beware when the load is heavy and it doesn’t look like you are going to have much traction.

Proverbs 15:24

The road of the godly leads upward, leaving hell behind.

Look it over well; make an educated decision based on the Word of God, and like a trucker would say, “Keep the shiny side up.”

Think about it.

Gary

“The Class of ’57” is a song written by Don Reid and Harold Reid and recorded by American country music group The Statler Brothers. It was released in August 1972.

One stanza goes like this:

And the class of ’57 had its dreams
But living life day to day is never like it seems
Things get complicated when you get past eighteen
But the class of ’57 had its dreams

I was just introduced to this song a few years ago. No, I’m not from the class of ‘57. I was only five in ’57, but I remember it well because my grandmother went from being Grammy to being Mrs. Gardner and life was never the same after that.

Anyway, this song is about a high school graduating class where its members believed they were going out to change the world. I sat in on enumerable graduation ceremonies, and they all believed they were going out to change the world. None ever did because the system is rigged. You don’t change the world, but the world sure changes you. Listen to the song and you will find yourself in there somewhere.

Be careful of the world:

2 Timothy 4:10

for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.

1 John 2:15

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.

Use the world for the glory of God and don’t let it use and turn you into refuse.

Think about it.

Gary

Secretary of State Edward Everett delivered a two-hour speech at the Gettysburg National Cemetery, but most people only remember the two-minute speech given by President Abraham Lincoln.

It always amazes me how long it takes some people to say nothing. At one preaching service I attended, I made believe I had to go to the men’s room because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I detest it when kids do that during my service, oh well.

A well-known philosopher made the following statement:

“Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein

Trying to make sense of this world we were dropped in has buried many a philosopher. Anyone who leaves the Word of God out of the examination of life will end up in the same cemetery.

Here, take a look at what the Bible says about this subject:

Hebrews 11:3

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

We need to go beyond what is known naturally to have the equation of life come out correctly.

Think about it.

Gary

When I was very young in the 50’s, there were many movies about WW2 and the bombing raids over Germany by the U.S. Air force.  I would go into my room, fold my mattress over on itself, sit on the folded mattress with my feet on the springs, and do a bombing run over Germany. My crew would navigate for me as my six gunners would hold off the Messerschmitt 109’s while we were taking heavy flack. We always came back shot up, low on fuel and in need of an emergency landing.

I don’t know if we successfully completed our required thirty-five missions or not, but because of my expert leadership we never lost a man or plane. My only trouble was my mother’s concern for what I was doing to the bed. She didn’t realize we all had to be committed to the war effort.

I hated to leave my B-17, fellow airmen, and the war itself, but we all have to rid ourselves of imaginations as reality and maturity overtake us.

2 Corinthians 10:5

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

My imaginations were certainly far out, but what about your imaginations? Is it time to deal with them and be obedient to Christ?

Think about it.

Gary