I never had the opportunity to thank him for his counsel. Many times he would invite me into his office for a serious talk, usually after I’d pulled some boneheaded act. He died before I was mature enough to understand what he was trying to accomplish in my life. He was my high school principal who had spent some of his youth as a medic, looking after marines who are known to often find themselves in danger.

Now I try to thank those who have given me good counsel and there are many.

What I am today is a result of good counsel.

The Psalmist put it like this:

Psalms 32:8-10

  I will instruct (counsel) you and teach you in the way you should go;
         I will guide you with My eye.
 Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
         Which have no understanding,
         Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
         Else they will not come near you.

The Bible makes it clear we should seek good counsel from His Word.

Think about it.

Gary

“Behave.”   I think it was one of the first words I started recognizing as a toddler. By the time I started school, this word was repeated to me regularly. It followed me through school and didn’t disappear after I graduated. It seems to pop up occasionally in my wife’s vocabulary.

I can visualize myself in the nursing home and some poor, overworked CNA using that exact word to my chagrin. I’ll never get away from it in this life.

However, did you know that Paul used it when counseling Timothy about church order?

1Timothy 3:15

 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to behave  themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 

By the way, I was instructed about conducting myself in church when I was young. I didn’t always take it to heart, but I do now.

Give Timothy a read and give this devotional some thought.

Gary

“All right.”  Sounds good, doesn’t it? Question is, when will anything be all right?  The dictionary states the meaning of “all right” as satisfactory but not especially good; acceptable. I don’t consider myself to be all right. The world is not all right and life is not all right. However, I guess I’m acceptable, the world is acceptable and life is acceptable.

It seems like we should leave room for flaws in each other, our environment and life in general.

The good news is there is a day coming when it will truly be all right.

1 Corinthians 15:24

Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.

Things are not all right in the kingdom, but they are acceptable. Don’t lose hope; the day is coming when God is going to bring all to a conclusion. He started it. We messed it up. He’s going to finish it.

Give it some thought and try to accept some things that are far from perfect.

Gary

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