What Happens When the Rubber Hits-the-Road

 

June 15,2016

“For what credit is there if, when you sin (hit your thumb with a hammer) and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience?  But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (I Peter 2:20).  “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” (Eph. 2:26-27).

 Hey gang, I have learned, in the past two months, that these two verses go together.  I have also learned what the person who coined the saying, “if it works, do not fix it”, meant.   I have also learned that I do not have the slightest clue what to do, when one of the weird screens that I have never seen before, comes up on the computer; one that has no connection with what I am trying to do! 

 If it does not disappear when I reboot, I am dead in the water until I can call my friendly computer guru or find a six or seven year old lad or lassie who knows far more about such things than I will ever know.

 When our computer internet and phone provider, who we loved dearly and never had a lick of problems, well maybe a teeny weeny one, recently merged with another company, we were advised that we must upgrade our equipment to gain all the wondrous advantages the new company was offering and the carrot was it would cost less money per month and make it sooooooo much more convenient. 

 My question to the upgrade advocate – how much pain and agony is attached to getting all the bugs worked out and until my level of understanding is acclimated to using the new system?  Oh, no worry!  This is a tested and proven, bug- free mechanism that even an older than dirt duffer, that does not understand the “For Dummy’s books’, can become proficient within minutes.

 After several weeks and more than twenty hours of listening to a multitude of so called technicians, my bride packed up the entire system and went back to place it was purchased and announced I do not leave here until this thing is doing what you said it would do or we go back to the old system. 

 Okay, what does that have to do with the Scripture of the day?  First, I thought I had my anger totally under control and could handle about any circumstance.  Wrong!  I wanted to throw the computer down the basement stairs.  I also learned that my patience was not as secure as I thought it was.  Perhaps that is what this whole trip through the wilderness was all about.  I must confess, I did indeed go to bed very angry some nights and I must admit that my patience was at best – tarnished!

 Soooo, my young friends, keep in mind that the devil waits for his chance to set your  control mechanism on tilt and to really tick you off – if you are willing to let him.  But I also learned that, if I take a moment or two and say, “Okay God, If you can’t handle this we are both in trouble”, and admit that it helps.  He has never failed. 

 The computer is working fine at the moment and my anger has gone underground again waiting for another opportunity to destroy my patience.  But, keep in mind, when Jesus was going through His indoctrination period in the desert, Satan tested Him until he got the message;  he was waiting his time and threw in the towel.  Right!  Wrong!  It tells me Satan left but only to await a more opportune time to return and continue his devious methods. 

 That, my friends, is the reason we should make sure our armor is in place and our lamp is full of oil and we have sword (the Word of God) engrained in our heart and head- for today, in his sight is “an opportune time”.   (Luke 4:13 Read it and heed it!)

 Blessings, Gramps

Your Way or God's Way, That IS the Question!

 

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

 

 Do you know what God’s desire is for you today? “That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what the hope of His calling is, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19a). 

And how do we make this happen?  We don’t.; “It comes through the working of the strength of His (God’s) might.”  (vs. 19b).  Did you know that God is a compulsive decorator?  He is not satisfied to ut a coat of paint over the dingy house, He would far rather replace the rotten parts and do a major overhaul.   You know, like the television program ‘Home Make Over’; they completely destroy the old, decrepit house and begin with a new foundation.

I believe many folks, who hear the word and respond to the Pastor’s call to give their heart and soul to the Lord, become a casualty of the Seed Parable that tells me the many fell by the wayside. I believe they are lost because they have no ‘knobs on the head’ to hang the things of God on.   In simple language, they have no foundation or hooks in their brains to hang this new information on, so it withers on the vine.

Let me put some meat on that statement.  My niece purchased a newly built house several years ago. Suddenly it began to sink on one corner.   She called the contractor and he immediately repaired the outward appearance of the problem, but did not address the real problem, a sink hole under the foundation.  Within weeks the problem worsened due to the added weight. 

I believe that is a good analogy of what happens to many folks who respond to the word for the right reason, but try to build a house on the rock without understanding the dynamics or mechanics of what that means.  They hear a salvation message that sears their heart and they respond and, the next Sunday the Pastor presents a message that they have no foundation on which to hang his unrelated message. 

I believe I was saved in my adolescent years but, confess I was one disappointed cookie when none of the so called ‘pillars of the church’ took me under their wing and taught me what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  When I received the letter telling me I had been accepted as a future air traffic controller, they didn’t give me a date when I was to report to the Pittsburgh Air Traffic Control Center and be ready to handle a full shift of control duties. - even though I had been a radar controller in the USAF.

I did receive a letter that gave me the date I was to report to the Air Traffic Control Training Center in Norman, Oklahoma, for ten weeks of intense training. And if, at the end of that time, I was not proficient at handling minimum traffic, note minimum, I would become a member of the unemployed. 

When I went to Pittsburgh and worked my first shift, it was not as a fully checked-out radar controller handling a hundred or more aircraft every hour, but rather I worked for several months under the direct eye-ball supervision of an old salt that had many years of scar tissue on the scopes and boards.   Note: he was responsible for everything I did and said.  I was a trainee that had no status. 

Now, my friends, there are some similarities in this process that I feel are very lacking in most churches. I probably have no business giving you my opinion of these shortcomings,but I will share them anyway.  Shortcoming number one, a major related to the seed planting parable – no one took me under their wing.

Why? When I began my tenure as an active controller, they gave me a manual and said memorize every jot and title of it.  Kind of like when Isaiah was told to literally eat the Word.  I had to memorize every airway, every distance, air speeds and climbing capacities of every type of aircraft, every radio aid frequency, and minimum altitudes for five states

What does that have to do with becoming and becoming an effective Christian?  In other words the salvation message gives an instant high and a feeling of utopia, but as Jesus warned, some seeds fell beside the road beside the road and the birds ate them up.  Others fell on rocky places and the hot sun scorched them to death, while others feel among thorns, and the thorns squeezed the life out of them.  (Matthew 13:3-7). 

Well, this has exceeded my expectations for today so will close it for now, but I believe there is more the Lord would have me share, so please turn in and, as Paul Harvey would say, tomorrow, the rest of the story

Blessings, Gramps

 

FLAG DAY JUNE 14

 Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Hey Gang:  I had a wonderful friend whom I respected for many years with all my heart.  I was honored when the family asked if I would do his eulogy.  When asked, who were the people in my life that impacted on my life, Bill Porteous was always among the top of my list. 

Bill was drafted into the Army during the Second World War and spent his time preparing in boot camp and when the day arrived for him to debark, as he was waiting for his turn to go up the gang plank, he became seriously ill.  After a series of tests in the hospital, it was determined that he had polio and spent the next year or more in an iron lung fighting his own personal war. 

He eventually won the battle, but it left its scars on his body.  As I sit here at this moment, I can still see Captain William Porteous at dusk lowering the flag that he faithfully raised in the morning before going to work.   I always thought he never stood taller than when he religiously, and with great loyalty, to his country lowered the colors.

My bride found the following story in a 2005 Guidepost of another person who loved the stars and stripes and originated a day that our nations should honor our flag.  I do not believe all honor or love our flag or nation as the warriors who laid down their lives to protect this once great nation. 

That saddens my heart.  I am proud to have served the United States of America.

Take a moment and put all things out of your mind and honor stars and stripes that represent the multitudes of men and women that have laid down their lives to protect its shores even though it is the day after designated Flag Day.

Tuesday, June 14,  Daily Guidepost

Scripture: And, behold, God Himself is with us…. ---II Chronicles 13:12

I doubt the Wisconsin school teacher who originated the idea of Flag Day in 1885 could have ever imagined the places he could see the Flag displayed today. (2005).  Today I saw a flag flying on a car antenna, stuck on a store window, pinned to a man’s lapel and even painted on a rock.  No doubt, early Flag Day supporters would never have imagined the flag on the surface of the moon, or held aloft by six proud men, 5 Marines and a Navy corpsman, on the Pacific Island of Iwo Jima during a world war, or raised by three New York City firefighters amid the rubble of a place of unspeakable tragedy know as Ground Zero.

Such images remind me of the song “Ragged old Flag” by the late country-music legend Johnny Cash.  A visitor to a small town notices the disheveled courthouse flag, and he is told that the wear and tear has come from a lifetime of experience – from the hole he got when George Washington crossing the Delaware River to the beating taken through several wars.  Yet it still flies, and folks remain proud and thankful for all it represents.

When I look at the flag, I see threads --- freedom, tragedy, joy, triumph, sorrow, independence, faith--- an intricate history woven together over the course of years since Old Glory’s birth.  Today, as that flag flies outside my own front door.  I pray that God will bless our Nation with strength and endurance.

Lord, on this Flag Day, wherever in the world our flag is flying, please bless that place----Gina Bridgman.

Blessings, Gramps

PS Gramps and I were blessed to be ones who sewed stitches as part of repairing this flag from Ground Zero.

Breaking the spin cycle

 

June 6, 2016

God’s Power Principle For Today: “(Satan) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him…He is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44).

 

Hey Gang:    It is important for God’s people to be aware of the practices of the evil one and keep their armor oiled and polished & on! It is also important for each of us to remember that Satan does not have the power to read our minds, but he is a real pro at reading our actions.  It is also important to remember that he is a “never giver upper”.  Satan saw he was not making progress in gaining control of Jesus in the wilderness, so he departed until a more opportune time. He will surely use the same tactic on each of us. 

 

But: What a wondrous promise we have from the very mouth of Jesus in John 10:27: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one”.  

 

God’s word is filled with power verses of protection for His children.  In this day of growing evilness, when Satan has unleashed all his powers for he knows his time is short, it is so very important that we keep our heart and mind filled with those promises and use them as weapons against the evil one and his minions.

 

Is it not fabulous that we can say as the Psalmist, “I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!”  For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark”? (Psalm 91:2-4).

 

Do you have a hard time understanding that the God of all creation literally holds all of His sheep, all those whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life in His hands?  When I think about His words and compare them to my past life, I wonder why He was not only willing to come to earth and walk in my shoes, but also to lay down His life on a hideous cross so that I can gain the wonders of eternal life with Him.

 

So my young chicks, if the way seems a little rocky, and I can guarantee you there will be times when the road will be very rocky, keep in mind that your refuge and strength never slumbers or sleeps, that our security rests only in the Lord.  He is truly your “way, truth and life” and His joy can be yours this day.  So, pray the prayer of Eliezer: “Lord Give Me Success” (Genesis 24:12) and get about being a sower of God’s seeds

 

 

Blessings, Gramps