Carved in a Tree

 

I have always been adventurous.  I still am, except now I realize many of the terrible things that could happen, so I am a little more cautious.  Just a little.  When I was a boy, I enjoyed climbing trees in the woods behind our house.  I would climb to the top of smaller saplings and swing over to get to the lower limbs of taller trees and then climb up into the canopy.  From the tops of the big trees, I thought that I could see forever.  I would find the highest hill that I could, climb the tallest tree on that hill, and use my pocketknife to carve my name into the bark at the top of that tree.  When that tree is cut down for timber, I can only imagine the surprise of the lumberjack who found my name and the date carved in the top of that tree!  But my name is carved in a much more fantastic place.  The dear Lord has written my name on the palm of His own hand so that He will NEVER forget me!  God said in Isaiah 49:15&16, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands …”  Wow!  Just to think that the Creator of the universe remembers my name!  Oh, how he loves me!  Hey, is your name carved into the hand of God?  Do you belong to Him?  I hope you do, because He loves you so much!  Why not accept the dear Lord’s gift of salvation while He is gently calling to you?  Do it now without delay!

Stubborn

 

I had offered to pick up my grandson from school and take him home.  But on my way, traffic was backed-up.  I didn’t want to turn around and take the long way around the back-up, and traffic was still crawling, so I texted his dad and stayed in line.  The culprit was a train crossing ahead.  Then I noticed that the line was moving only because drivers toward the front of the line were giving up and turning around.  It had been ten minutes.  I thought that the holdup would be resolved soon, but as I edged closer, I saw that a train was stopped at the crossing.  I texted Bennett’s dad again.  Eric said not to worry that Bennett was in after care.  Now I was frustrated at myself for waiting.  So I set a deadline in my head.  If the train didn’t move by then, I would turn around.  The time came, the train was still stopped, so I turned around retracing my route.  I had wasted forty minutes sitting and waiting!  I had to back-track, get onto the crowded interstate and drive the long way around.  When I got to the other side of the train intersection, it had taken sixteen minutes.  That meant that because of my stubbornness I had wasted twenty-four minutes while my grandson was waiting in aftercare!  Solomon said in Proverbs 11:2, “When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”  I texted Eric an hour late that I had just picked up his son.  Hey, why had I stubbornly stayed in that traffic line?  It was because I thought that I was right: the train would move at any moment.  But it didn’t and I was wrong.  But it took me forty minutes to admit that I had been wrong.  I thought, “Bennett, I’m sorry for being late.”  And then I thought, “Dear Lord, I’m sorry for being stubborn about other things in my life.”  Hey, what about you?  Do you have a stubborn streak?  If you do, root it out!  Don’t let pride get in your way of making good decisions. 

Ants and Honeybees

 

Ants and honeybees are both social insects with similar traits.  But they can teach us about very different methods of Bible study.  Ants will show up at your picnic and in a few minutes will be carrying away crumbs off your table back to their colony food pantry.  If you have sandwiches, they will carry away breadcrumbs.  If you have potato chips, they will carry off little crumbs of potato chips.  Whatever food you have, they will use.  But honeybees make their own food.  Honeybees will gather nectar from flowers, bring it back to their colony, and make honey out of the nectar.  They make their food straight from the source.  When you study, do you read what doctor so-and-so said about the Bible, or do you read the Bible itself?  Does your doctrine reflect what your church says, or do you read the Bible yourself and let the Holy Spirit interpret the Words of God for yourself?  Are you a Baptist or a Catholic or a Presbyterian because you follow your church teachings or do you read the Bible and decide for yourself what the Bible says.  Are you a student of the Bible or a follower of a system?  John 16:13, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth,,,”  Oh, there’s nothing wrong with listening to good preaching, but does the preacher (or priest) quote the Bible or preach only his opinion??  Paul wisely said in I Corinthians 11:1, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”  Hey, close down facebook, read your Bible, and decide for yourself.