Years ago I was part of a community service group that was trying to raise money by offering “Pictures with Santa”. I got to dress up as Santa Claus, and people would bring their small children to be photographed with Santa for a small fee.
It was interesting to see the different reactions from the kids. Some would run up to me, jump up on my lap and give me a big hug around the neck. Others would be so frightened that they would not come near me, no matter how much their parents tried to assure them it was okay. Some would even cry loudly and would not even look at me.
Have you ever noticed that people have similar reactions when it comes to facing God? Some willingly embrace the Father, while others shy away in fear. The first group sees him as loving and forgiving, while the second envisions a God of wrath who will cause them harm.
What is it that differentiates between the two groups? It’s faith.
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!…”—1 John 3:1.
The highway department recently put in a much-needed guardrail along a stretch of road near our house. My wife asked me if I had noticed it. I had not, even though I had driven by there a couple of times since it was installed. I also failed to notice the new guardrail the next couple of times I drove by. Finally, I did notice this new addition to our highway, a fine safety feature to protect people from getting seriously hurt if they happened to run off the road.
God puts spiritual guardrails in our lives that protect us even when we aren’t noticing them. The Scriptures instilled in us help to prevent us from making wrong decisions. The Holy Spirit guides us away from sin. The influence of godly family and friends keep us on the right road.
One important guardrail for a Christian is the Lord’s Supper. Regular participation in communion will keep us on the Lord’s highway and help to prevent us from suffering spiritual harm.
“On the first day of the week we came together to break bread…”—Acts 20:7.
In a recent Zits comic strip, a conversation between teenager Jeremy and his father went like this:
Jeremy: “Oh, great. We’re out of milk.”
Dad: “There’s still plenty of skim milk.”
Jeremy: “Oh. Okay…In that case, we’re just out of milk that tastes like milk.”
Dad: “Welcome to my world.”
We live in a world that is full of unsatisfactory substitutes for Jesus. Thank goodness we have the real thing!
“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”—1 Peter 2:2-3.
University of Kentucky offensive line coach John Schlarman died Thursday at the age of 45 after a two-year battle with cancer. The Wildcats wanted to pay a special tribute to their coach, who also played football for Kentucky from 1994 to 1997. So they took the field with only ten players, lining up without a left guard for the first play of their game today against Vanderbilt. After Kentucky was called for a delay of game penalty (which Vanderbilt declined to accept), senior lineman Landon Young took the field for Kentucky wearing Schlarman’s #65 instead of his usual #67. It was a very fitting tribute to their fallen coach.
Every Sunday we Christians have the opportunity to honor Jesus Christ, our crucified Lord and Savior. Whenever we take communion, we pay a special tribute to him. We remember that he died to pay for our sins. This tribute, however, is different in that we not only acknowledge his death, we also give testimony to the fact that he has risen from the grave! Our crucified and risen Savior lives! He reigns from heaven, and one day he will come back to receive all who trust in him, to take them home to heaven to live with him forever!
What a fitting tribute to our wonderful Lord and Savior!
“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”—1 Corinthians 11:26.
Mike Rowe is probably best known as the host of the television show “Dirty Jobs”, which aired for several years on the Discovery Channel. Rowe would travel to various places to give viewers a glimpse of what it is like to perform some of the most disgusting jobs on the planet. These dirty jobs included some of the nastiest chores in agriculture, industry, construction, the medical field and many other occupations. If you can picture the grossest chore imaginable, it was probably featured in an episode of “Dirty Jobs”.
What made the show interesting was that Mike Rowe was not content to merely stand behind the camera and narrate the action. No, he was always actually involved in performing the dirty work. Each episode showed him dutifully getting his hands–and usually all the rest of him—as filthy as could be.
There is a chapter in the Bible that reminds me of the show “Dirty Jobs”. It’s John 13, where Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.
In the first century, it was considered to be a common courtesy to provide the service of foot washing when a guest would enter your house. After walking in sandals on dusty or muddy roads, one’s feet would become quite dirty, making the foot washing necessary. Since this task was so unpleasant to perform, it was reserved for the lowliest servant in the household.
It is interesting that Jesus chose to humble himself by washing the feet of his disciples. Important people usually try to avoid such work. Why would the Lord of the universe stoop to perform such a task? And the context is interesting as well. Jesus is in the process of trying to prepare himself and his disciples for his upcoming sacrificial death on the cross. You would think that Jesus would have other things on his mind besides washing the feet of his disciples! But he had an important lesson to teach them, and us, about the importance of humble service in his kingdom.
Jesus wants us to know that we must practice humility. Jesus gave us an example of this when he humbled himself by leaving heaven to come here to earth. He further humbled himself by allowing himself to be falsely accused, horribly mistreated and ultimately put to death on a cruel, painful cross. By washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus was simply giving one more profound example of the humble way he came to serve mankind.
The purpose of this demonstration was to set an example for his followers to perform acts of humble service. While the need for foot washing is not as prevalent as it was in the first century, there are many modern day “dirty jobs” that we can perform for one another to show our desire to follow Jesus’ example in humble service.
Have you ever worked to unclog a toilet in the church building? Maybe you helped clean up a church building after it had been flooded or damaged by a fire. Perhaps you held a container for a friend to vomit in as they suffered from the side effects of chemotherapy. Some Christians have toiled on their hands and knees to scrub communion stains out of the carpet. Others have cleaned up messes when a child dropped a plate full of food at a church dinner. Have you ever tried to minister to a poor person who did not have the means to practice good personal hygiene?
There are any number of “dirty jobs” in the kingdom that humble servants of Jesus perform every single day. When one of those jobs presents itself, let’s have the humility and the desire to jump in and get our hands dirty!
Millions of Jeopardy fans are mourning the loss of the television show’s beloved long-time host, Alex Trebek, who passed away a few days ago after a valiant battle against pancreatic cancer. Trebek seemed to have been born for the role of host of the popular TV game show. His calm, pleasant demeanor, his smooth voice and his obvious love of knowledge all contributed to his great success in hosting the show for so many years.
One of Alex Trebek’s finest qualities was the genuine empathy he had for the contestants. He rooted for all of them to do well. Alex sympathized with them when they did not come up with the proper response, and he was obviously pleased when they were correct, especially when it enabled them to win a lot of money. His caring nature endeared him to the millions of fans who watched him over the years.
Empathy is a quality that we all should try to cultivate in our lives. The more that people understand that we truly care about them, the more likely we are to be able to influence them in a positive way that will either lead them to Jesus or help them to grow in their faith.
“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”—Romans 12:15.
Today is Veterans Day, and citizens of the United States will spend time reflecting on the sacrifices made by many men and women over the years; sacrifices that served to gain and maintain the freedoms we enjoy in our great nation. While the current pandemic will curtail many of the gatherings and celebrations that had been planned, nothing will diminish our appreciation for those who have unselfishly sacrificed so much for their fellow countrymen.
Let’s spend some time today giving thanks for our veterans and saying prayers for our men and women in uniform and their families, wherever they may be.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”—John 15:13.
I have always liked the message that I saw on a T-shirt years ago—“Be Patient with Me! God Is Not Finished with Me Yet!” We Christians are indeed all works in progress. We never will reach perfection, therefore there is the need to be patient with one another.
However, I have recently had a new thought about that message. Could it be that we use the perfectly respectable request for patience as an excuse for not growing in our faith? Is it possible that we might prefer continually asking for forgiveness over exercising the discipline required to make much-needed changes in our lives?
Maybe it’s not true, but I thought it was worth asking.
“Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.”—1 Tim.4:15.
My wife and I are finally getting around to looking through the numerous boxes of things that we thought were so important that we just had to move them here when we settled into this house nearly five years ago.
Some of the things we have found are valuable to us, if not to anyone else. Many of the books, papers, pictures and little odds and ends bring back precious memories of good times spent with family and friends.
On the other hand, we have found some things that not only have absolutely no value to us now, we have to wonder what we were thinking when we acquired these objects in the first place! I can’t for the life of me figure out what purpose some of this junk was supposed to serve!
As we take inventory of our lives, it is important that we consider what our purpose is. After all, none of us wants to waste our life. Most people have a strong desire to live a life that is useful and filled with meaning. Colossians 1 talks about how Jesus is the supreme Son of God, and v.16 reminds us that all things, including us, “…have been created through him and for him.” We must always remember that our reason for existing is to live for God—this is the purpose that we must serve.
In Acts 13, we find Paul preaching a sermon about God’s plan to save mankind through Jesus. As an example of one who was a part of this plan, Paul talks about David. V.22 says, “…God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’” Later in that chapter, Paul says this about David’s death—“Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep…” (v.36).
David showed us how to serve our purpose in life, and we would do well to follow his example.
David was a man after God’s own heart. By no means does this mean that David was perfect! David sinned greatly! However, he repented of his sin, and the main focus of his life was to live for God. He was a man of prayer and worship. The psalms that he wrote show us a picture of a man whose utmost desire was to please his Creator and Redeemer. We, too, must strive to align our hearts with the heart of God. The things that please him should please us. The things that make God sad should make us sad also. Our lifelong ambition should be to become more and more a person after God’s own heart.
How do we do that? Through obedience. God said that David “…will do everything I want him to do.” (v.22). The Bible continually stresses the need to obey God. The blessings of obedience are made clear, as are the curses of disobedience. Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commands.”
It is a pure and simple truth that in order to be a person after God’s own heart, you have to do what he says. We must obey God at all times. We must obey him when it is inconvenient. We must obey him when it is very difficult. We must obey him when it is costly to do so. We must obey him even if it causes people to misunderstand us. We must obey him when people oppose us. We must obey him when it seems like it won’t make any difference. Those who follow Jesus must develop a lifestyle of doing what God says to do, over and over again.
They say that God doesn’t make any junk. I think that’s true. We are all made in his image. However, some people choose to end up on the junk heap of life by their continual disregard for God’s commands.
Don’t waste your life! Do your best every day to serve your purpose by obeying what God has called you to do in this generation.
I just read an interesting analogy about maintaining standards, and I’d like to share it with you. It was a social media post that used an example from the sports world.
In baseball, home plate is 17 inches wide. In order to get a strike called on the batter, the pitcher must throw the ball over the plate. What if the pitcher doesn’t like that standard? Does he demand that we start to use a larger home plate? If so, then how large? Would 18 inches be big enough? What about 20? Some might lobby for 30!
I think it is safe to say that baseball will not change the size of home plate. Pitchers will have to accept the standard that was set a long time ago and has been maintained over many years.
God has set certain moral standards for mankind. We are not to steal, kill, or lie, and so on. Not only are there negative behaviors to avoid, there are also positive behaviors to adopt. We must love, forgive, serve others and worship God, for example.
The world does not agree with God’s standards. However, those standards will not change. We must not demand that home plate be widened in any way!
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”—1 John 2:15-17.
