Tag: salvation

Hidden Headlights

This Christmas season, I have done a bit more thinking than I normally do about the Christmas season as a whole…the Christmas lights and tree and other decorations, the original reason for our celebrations, the way Christmas has become so commercialized in the last few decades, the way we take for granted that everyone we celebrate with this year will be here to celebrate with us next year.

Many years ago I drove a gorgeous, black, 1980-something TransAm. It had all the options, gold ground effects, nice wheels, and T-tops, of course. I loved that car. I looked good driving that car. I did have one problem with it, though. After I had driven it for a while, the headlights started to stick. They would turn on, but they wouldn’t open out of the hood like they were supposed to. I had lights, but no one could see them. I may as well not have had any lights at all.

This Christmas season, I have done a bit more thinking than I normally do about the Christmas season as a whole…the Christmas lights and tree and other decorations, the original reason for our celebrations, the way Christmas has become so commercialized in the last few decades, the way we take for granted that everyone we celebrate with this year will be here to celebrate with us next year. I have thought a lot about the loss of both sets of my grandparents, the loss of a close friend of my boyfriend, the loss of another friend’s father, and the many people I know who are feeling the recent loss of a close relationship. We’ve all heard the old saying, “We don’t know what tomorrow may bring;” but we don’t always take it seriously until it is too late.

In Matthew chapter 5, versus 14 through 16 Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” If you are a forgiven child of God, you have a light in the form of the Holy Spirit living in you. Do you let that light shine so the people around you can see it? Do you, instead, keep it “under the hood” and hidden most of the time? Do the people closest to you know you are a Christian? Do you play it safe in this difficult political climate our nation is in and keep your light private so only you and those closest to you can see it?

We really don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know if the people around us will be here in another year, month, week, day or even hour. We have been instructed by Jesus to keep our light shining so that those around us can see it and come to know God by seeing His light in us. If your light cannot be clearly seen, take the necessary steps to uncover it and make it shine brightly. Just like I had to have someone work on my car so the lights would open out of the hood and be seen, we should take our hearts to the One who can make sure we are shining like a headlight on the narrow road.

Don’t be Found Sleeping

I work in finance in a medium sized public service organization. Last week, in the last five minutes of the workweek, I took some information that concerned me to my boss. Something wasn’t balancing as it should which meant that somewhere, somehow an error was been made. More than likely, this error will be simple to fix, but it may take me some time to locate the error and make a correcting entry. I was already disappointed in myself for not noticing this problem weeks earlier; but when I saw the disappointment on my boss’ face and heard it in his voice my disappointment turned to something closer to dread. I was very upset with myself for letting my boss down. I hate letting anyone down, but my boss is a good boss and I really, really hated letting him down.

This evening I pulled out the women’s devotional book I have been studying. Today’s reading was about being a good steward and giving wisely. The suggested reading was the end of Mark chapter 12; but when I was through with those verses I continued through chapter 13. Verses 32 through 37 practically jumped off the page at me. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away; He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.”

My boss didn’t find me sleeping. I found myself sleeping and then had to explain to him how I had let him down. I didn’t like admitting it, but I had no excuse. I allowed myself to be distracted by other things. The other things were important as well, but those tasks should not have taken all of my focus so that I did not see this error until now.

While reading Mark chapter 13 this evening, I realized I let Someone down every day – Someone much more important than my boss. I read my Bible, I attend small group Bible studies, I listen to Christian music; but if God chose tonight to send His Son in all His power and glory to gather His children, He would find that this child has slept way too much lately. I have watched for the signs that many people recognize  – wars, persecution of Christians, famine, earthquakes,  etc. – but I have allowed these signs which are on the news quite regularly to distract me. Instead of serving Jesus, I have been focused on the signs of His return. I cannot imagine the dread I would feel if He showed up when I wasn’t paying attention – while I was sleeping. Oh, what a horrible feeling that would be!

It is time for me, for all of us, to wake up. We need to stop focusing on the signs that were prophesied and start serving the One those prophesies were pointing to return. We need to make sure we are ready, and we need to make sure the people around us are ready. We need to be doing the tasks He has assigned to each of us and let Him handle the rest.

Don’t just watch for His return. Serve Him while you watch.

Leading a Horse to Water…Living Water

I wonder if you have you ever heard that old saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”  I’ve heard it many, many times over the years and said it a few times as well.  I have never, however, found myself in circumstances that better fit that familiar saying than I find myself in right now.

Life has been less than fun lately.  This less-than-fun stage started because I tried to help someone.  I tried very hard to show someone something it took me a long time to learn.  I had hoped she could learn it much quicker than I did, at a much younger age than I did and that it could help her to be the person she really wanted to be.  I wanted her to see that she didn’t have to let where she came from dictate who she had to be.  She could be a wonderful person, an awesome mother and a wife any man would love to have if she would just step away from her past and step fully into her present…but she wouldn’t do it.  She chose to give her present life to her past life, and she hurt herself and so many others around her when she made that choice that most of those she hurt have walked away from her forever.  Much like the horse in the old saying, I tried so hard to get her to see the water I had led her to, but I couldn’t make her drink.  She didn’t want the water when it was in plain sight.  She would rather continue drinking from the same old puddle that has already proven it will not sustain her. 

I will never truly understand how a person could prefer to slurp water from a muddy puddle than to drink from cold, clear, purified water that is offered to them…especially when the offer has no strings attached.  But maybe I do understand because as I typed that last sentence, I realized I do the same thing all the time.  Jesus has offered us His living water; and, though I have accepted His gift to quench my eternal thirst, I still return every so often to that muddy water and take a little sip.  Sometimes I don’t realize I am kneeling in the mud until after that first sip; but sometimes I know exactly where I am going to end up as I am heading to that puddle, yet I make the conscious decision that I will just stick my fingers in the water and play in the mud a little but never really take a sip.  I know this plan never really works, but I lie to myself and ignore my conscience and get a little muddy anyway.

I am like the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well in the book of John, chapter 4, beginning in verse 7.  I have made more bad choices than I want to allow myself to remember; but, like the woman at the well, He didn’t care how much muddy water I had trudged through.  He shared His eternal living water with me without reservation. 

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

“The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’ 

“‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and his herds?’

“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ 

“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

I have drank from Jesus living water.  He has forever quenched that eternal thirst in me, but every once in a while I decide to stray off His path and find myself playing in the mud that gets deeper with every step.  Why do I do it?  I don’t know.  I’d like to say that the devil made me do it, but I know better than to listen to that deceiver.  He never makes me play in the mud.  He just makes it look a little less muddy than it really is.  Every time, I can only blame myself and then refocus my eyes back on Jesus and the living water He led me to.

“John 4:7-15.” NIV Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk through Biblical History and Culture: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005. N. pag. Print.

Pearl

I’ve always loved horses but I’ve never been able to have one. My husband had to take care of them when he was growing up and didn’t want anything to do with them as an adult. Now I have Pearl.

My son’s girlfriend introduced me to Pearl but not with the intent of Pearl becoming mine. Pearl and a beautiful Arabian horse belonged to a man who was no longer able to keep them. My son’s girlfriend was given the offer to take the Arabian as her own but there was one catch. She couldn’t have the beautiful thoroughbred unless she took the old nag, too. Both horses were taken to the vet prior to us seeing them. We were told we would most definitely need to have a vet come out to put Pearl down. She was in horrible health and it was unlikely she could recover at her age. This was our plan…at least until I saw her unload from that trailer.

Pearl was in horrible physical condition, but she carried her head with such spirit I couldn’t let the rest of my family give up on her. It’s been a slow process and rather expensive and I don’t know if she will ever fit the picture in my mind of what I want her to look like, but she’s not a lost cause.

Pearl reminds me of so many people I’ve met in my life. We’ve all known someone, maybe many someones, the world considers a lost cause. Some of these “lost causes” take a lot of time and effort to save. It can be exhausting and sometimes we need to remember that God doesn’t always expect you to be the one to “fix” everyone. Sometimes you are supposed to sit back and pray while someone else does the work. But just as I felt it would have been inhumane to give up on Pearl, it would be inhumane to consider lost causes as forever lost.

Tired of Praying? Me, too.

Do you ever get tired from the emotional strain of praying for the lost people whom you love?  I mean the kind of tired you feel after praying for years only to see that nothing ever seems to change in that person.  You’ve tried to be a good influence.  You’ve tried to help them in any way you can.  You’ve tried talking openly to them about faith, and you were repaid with accusations that you were judging them.  You’ve tried subtly trying to show them faith by living it as best you can in a terribly fallen world, and you were called a hypocrite with all of your flaws and failures thrown in your face.  You stepped back from the situation and tried to be just a friend on the outside while you prayed fervently on the inside and were accused of not being a good friend or family member because you weren’t doing enough.  You tried all of this but nothing ever changed.  It may even seem like the situation has become worse.  I’ve been that kind of tired.  It seems like I’ve spent the last few years that kind of tired.  As tiring and emotionally draining as this seemingly-fruitless praying can be, we can’t give up.  Praying for the lost is not a simple choice we make.  It is just one battle in a Spiritual war going on all around us every day.

“Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.  They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News.  They don’t understand about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God (2 Corinthians 4:4 The Bible, New Living Translation).”  Satan first deceived himself; and ever since he first fell, he has been the deceiver to all.  There is no redemption for him, and he is determined to take as many of us with him as he can in the final Judgement.  If you are the kind of tired I am, then you, like me, know we have been given a way to escape Judgement.  John 3:16 is pretty recognizable, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life,” but John doesn’t stop there with the Good News.  “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.  There is no judgement against anyone who believes in him.  But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.  And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil and hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.  But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants (John 3:17-21 The Bible, New Living Translation).”  That very last sentence says so much.  We are not to live up to the reputation that Christianity has earned for itself throughout the years.  We are to be real Christians, believers who truly try to follow Christ’s teaching, and we are to express His love to the world so that the world will see and feel His love for all people.  This includes those people who have already exhausted us and led us to nearly give up on them.

So if we can’t give up on our loved ones and we can’t really talk openly to them because they get angry, what are we left with?  We pray and we live the best we can, and we continue to do these things until we can’t do them any more.  We learn to love them like Christ loved them.  We remember that He never stopped loving them.  We never give up.  We remember, “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth.  They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry.  It is the same with my word.  I send it out, and it always produces fruit.  It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it (Isaiah 55:11-12 The Bible, New Living Translation).”   God will use your words, actions and prayers to plant seeds.

I recently heard a story about a man who was walking down George Street in Sydney, Australia when a man stepped from a doorway and handed him a tract.  That tract eventually let him to a relationship with Christ and he eventually became a preacher.  This preacher was later counseling a woman and asked where she heard about salvation.  She told him she had recently been walking on George Street in Sydney, Australia when a man stepped out of a doorway and gave her a tract.  Some time later, the preacher was talking to another person about where he learned about Christ.  He also mentioned the man on George Street.  After hearing the same story numerous times at conventions and meeting all over the world, the man decided to look up this man who had planted so many seeds on George Street.  When he told the man about the many people he had talked to who claimed their first step toward salvation was when he gave them a tract, the man broke down in tears.  This man had given out tracts for years on George Street and never knew anyone had ever been saved because of the seeds he planted.  It has been estimated that over 100,000 people were saved because this man never gave up.  He continued to do what God wanted him to as long as he was physically capable of doing it even though he never knew he had made a difference.

Don’t give up on your loved ones.  Keep praying.  God’s words will not return to Him without producing fruit.