Follow the Detour

Last summer, because of my wife’s poor health, I was able to conduct only one VBS, and that was because it was local.  Well, sort of local.  It was at Faith Baptist Church in Cartersville, GA.  I drove back and forth each night traveling about an hour and a quarter each way.  One night, my wife was able to ride with me and she had sweet fellowship with the pastor’s wife.  On the way down, we received an alert from Google maps of a blockage on the highway just ahead.  We were moving right along, and I hesitated to listen to the lady on Google, but I am glad that I did.  We got off the interstate and began following a local road which snaked back and forth taking us over the interstate, which was at a standstill.  I made several turns on tiny country roads and finally eased back onto the interstate.  It was uncanny looking back as I merged onto the interstate because there were no cars coming.  Not a single one!  The road was totally blocked, not doubt because of a fatality.  Had I not followed the GPS and the detour that it suggested, I would have missed my appointment with Brother Foster in Cartersville.  Hey, has your life ever taken a detour?  Joseph’s life did in the book of Genesis.  King David’s life took a detour after he sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband murdered.  Daniel and his three Hebrew friends had a detour as teenagers in Babylon.  Hey, God knows what He is doing when we face a detour.  So, do we listen to God’s GPS that tells us the best way ahead?  Do we follow God’s leading?  Paul said it best in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  Why not let God direct your life?  He knows the best way ahead.  Trust Him.

We limit God

When I was twelve, we got our milk from a local farmer.  My mother hated to go into the house to get the milk because Mrs. Harmeyer was a talker. So, she would send me in to get the milk.  Mrs. Harmeyer would talk my ear off, and me a twelve-year-old boy.  Oh well.  We weren’t trying to go organic; it was just cheaper, and we lived out in the country.  We had to bring our own containers, usually left-over glass jars that were repurposed.  Granny Whitely got us gallon pickle jars from the cafeteria at school where she worked part-time.  But with four boys in our house, jars were always breaking, and we would often have to use ½ gallon orange juice jars or quart canning jars.  Mrs. Harmeyer would fill up our jars with milk but was limited to whatever jars that we brought to her.  Hey, we are told in Luke 6:38 to “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”  God will give back to us in the same container that we give to Him.  If we are generous to God using a big container, in return, He can be generous to us.  But if we are stingy towards God using a small container, He cannot give very much back to us in our tiny little containers.  God wants to bless us and is limited only by our own generosity … or the lack thereof.

They Didn't Expect It

At the time of Jesus’ birth, the Jews had been looking for their Messiah for centuries.  They didn’t expect Him to be born in a stable to a common Jewish couple.  They didn’t expect Him to live in a sleepy little town like Nazareth.  The Jewish authorities looked for a coming King with royal pedigree born in a palace.  They didn’t expect the people to cling to Jesus as they did and to hang on His every word.  They didn’t expect for Jesus to be arrested so easily.  They looked for a confrontation during Jesus’ trial, but He spoke not a word.  They didn’t expect Jesus to die so easily.  He didn’t even put up a modest fight.  Jesus died like one of those little sacrificial lambs that they killed at the Temple.  But mostly, they never expected Jesus to rise from the dead.  But He did.  And they certainly didn’t expect His followers to give up everything that they had to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.  But they did.  Hey, are you a follower of Jesus?  Are you giving up anything for the cause of the Gospel of Christ?  Do you share the Good News of Salvation with others?  Think about it.  Paul said it best in I Corinthians 1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”