The Inside

 

About fifteen years ago I was driving home at night and I needed a snack.  It was late, so I drove through Krystal’s and bought two Krystal Chicks and a sweet tea.  I bit into the first one and thought that I tasted mayonnaise.  That was curious.  I didn’t think that Krystal put mayonnaise on their sandwiches.  So, at the next streetlight, I looked at the sandwich and noticed that the chicken was raw on the inside.  Now I can handle a medium rare steak, but I can’t handle raw chicken at all!  The chicken fillet looked fine on the outside, but it was cold and raw on the inside!  Bakers use a toothpick to test the inside of their cakes.  A cake may look done on the outside, but it must be done on the inside too.  Hey, what about your spiritual life?  You may look like a fine Christian on the outside, but are you a fine Christian on the inside too?  Jesus said in Matthew 23:28, “… ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”

Jack Mattox Recreation Complex

 

Sunday morning. I needed to go to church early because the falling leaves would be all over the church sidewalks, and someone (me) needed to blow them off.  On the way, Marleen and I passed the Jack Maddox Recreation complex.  At 8:30 on Sunday morning the parking lot was full of cars!  Ball players of all ages (and their parents) packed the ballfields on a gorgeous Sunday morning.  But nearby, there were only two cars at Philadelphia Baptist church.  And they, like me, were preparing for church.  I Timothy 4:8, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”  And in 100 years, please remember this post.  And if you happen to be in heaven, please stop by my mansion and we’ll have a chat and reminisce a bit.

God's Providence

 

I was talking with a friend from Romania in 2000 explaining biblical creationism.  He was intrigued, and we spent several hours discussing science and the Scriptures.  He said, “You need to teach this in Romania.”  So I developed a powerpoint lecture.  I began collecting replica fossils to illustrate my points.  Marleen wanted to visit her daughter and son-in-law (and grandchildren) in Cameroon, Africa, so Marleen, Kathy and I traveled to Bamenda, Cameroon in 2005.  Brother Ben made rounds visiting high schools and universities announcing that Professor Whitely would be visiting and they needed to clear their schedule for his visit.  When I arrived, Ben had 12 schools lined up with 3,000 students in attendance.  Unknown to me, God had been preparing me for just that week!  I had replica fossils and powerpoint lectures that intrigued the students and pointed them to Jesus Christ, their Creator.  What a wonderful experience!  I was able to speak to more people in that one week than I have in my whole life!  I was reminded of Mordecai’s words to Esther in Esther 4:14, “…and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  God had positioned Esther to be selected as the queen to save her people from Haman’s planned destruction.  And the Lord prepared me for that one week in Cameroon!  What a mighty God we serve!