Bait and Switch

 

A while back, I went to Lowe’s for stuff.  You know … just stuff.  Lowe’s is my candy store.  I picked up a light switch and a cover plate and saw some orange earplugs hanging conveniently nearby.  So I grabbed them too.  But when I got to the checkout counter, I discovered that the earplugs were actually orange wire nuts.  I’m not sure if it was my aging eyes or just plain carelessness, but it would not have been a good thing to push those wire nuts into my ears!  Hey, have you ever been disappointed by something that you had mistaken for something else?  You thought you were putting sour cream onto your baked potato at the salad bar, but it was whipped cream you were piling on?!  Hey, Satan uses the “bait and switch” trick often.  You think you are getting something exciting, but it is actually a trap to enslave your soul.  Solomon knew the disappointment of Satan’s lies.  He said in Proverbs 23:32, “At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.”  Don’t be disappointed; don’t fall for Satan’s lies.  If he is selling it, don’t buy it.  Like my wire nuts for ear plugs, don’t be mistaken.  Trust the good, good Lord; He will never let you down!

Band-Aid

 

Saturday, I cut my finger making a whistle out of a poplar branch.  No big deal.  My hands are nicked, bruised, scraped, and cut at least once a week.  I just try to keep stitches to a minimum.  Neosporin and a band-aid usually take care of things.  Except Saturday afternoon, I noticed a problem.  I have fingerprint recognition on my cell phone, and the band-aid blocked my fingerprint!  Fortunately, I had a back-up pin installed as well.  My pin number is _ _ _ _.  Hey, did you really think that I am so dumb that I would give you my pin?!  And to make an application, is there sin in your life that blocks your fellowship with the Lord?  Does that sin keep your prayers from reaching heaven?  Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  Sin defiles us and breaks sweet fellowship with God just like a dirty air filter will block your heat/air unit at home.  Take a moment and come clean with the Lord.  Confess those sins and restore sweet fellowship with your Creator.  Do you have a problem with sister so-and-so at church?  Are you at odds with brother what’s-his-name in Sunday school?  Why not make it right with them and then confess it to the dear Lord?!  You’ll be glad that you did.  And, by the way, did you notice that I took a picture of my finger and phone with my phone?  How did I do that?  Simple:  The picture is of my old phone taken with my new phone.

Sorgum Mill

 

I remember my mother’s Uncle Ralph on her father’s side.  Uncle Ralph was a hard man who had a hard life in a hard place.  But Uncle Ralph was always kind to me.  As a little boy, I watched him and my Papaw (Uncle Ralph’s brother) make Sorghum molasses in West Virginia.  Uncle Ralph had a sorghum field that produced sweet sorghum stalks.  His sorghum mill was a huge set of gears that was turned by his mule, Old Jack.  Papaw fed the stalks into the gears and ducked his head when the overhead pole came around pulled by Old Jack.  Old Jack never got in a hurry, but he never stopped either - until he was told to.  He was just a steady mule.  As the stalks were drawn into the gears, clear sweet sap was squeezed out.  The sorghum juice ran down all around the gears and into a metal pan below where the ladies would scoop it out.  They had to watch out for Old Jack and his pole too.  Then over to the side was a huge, shallow cooking pan about four feet across and two inches deep.  A slow fire underneath kept the sorghum sap bubbling and thickening.  Granny would skim off the bubbling foam with a wooden paddle and dip it into a cooling pan nearby.  When it was cooled and hardened, my two cousins and I, would eat the sweet, candy-like left-overs.  After the sorghum thickened, it was poured into glass canning jars and sealed for the winter.  There’s nothing better on a winter morning than a stack of pancakes with warm sorghum molasses poured all over!  Hey, David said that the words of the good Lord were sweet to him.  David said in Psalm 119:103, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”  Hey, are the words of God sweet to you?  Are they as sweet as sweet sorghum syrup on a stack of pancakes?  I hope so.  God loves you so much and has His sweet words written just for you.  Why not read them this morning?  They’ll do you a lot of good.