Resolutions

 

Do you make New Years’ resolutions?  I do.  During the next week we will see countless commercials for Nutrisystem, Nicorette, and Peloton.  But as January rolls on, the commercials will fade just as our commitment to keeping our resolutions fades.  Jonathan Edwards, the 18^th century preacher, wrote seventy resolutions that guided his life!  Wow!  I couldn’t write that many, let alone keep that many, for an entire lifetime!  One of Jonathan Edward’s resolutions was to be “quick to hear and slow to speak.”  This was found in James 1:19, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”  If we could just follow this one resolution in 2021, we would be miles ahead in our personal relationships.  I used to tell my students that “God gave us two ears and only one mouth,” and for a good reason.  Another was, “No one has ever learned anything by talking.”  Rhetoric is a good lesson, but listening is a rare treasure.  May I listen a little more, and bite my tongue a little more in 2021, is my prayer.

Trade-Offs

 

I’ve noticed that life is made up of trade-offs.  Let me explain.  I shaved off my Santa beard which made it quicker in the shower: I don’t have to shampoo my beard.  It’s gone!  But when I get out of the shower, I have to shave, so it takes longer.  My longer Santa hair is gone, so I use less shampoo and it’s faster to shampoo short hair.  But now my neck is cold, so when I work outside, I have to take extra time to tie on a bandanna to keep my bare neck warm.  And I have to wash, dry, and fold the bandannas.  My Covid mask used to ride up with my beard.  I had to keep pulling it back down.  But with no beard, it stays down over my chin.  But now the stubble on my chin catches my mask when I talk and works it down, so I have to keep pulling my mask up.  But hey, there are some things in life that are NOT trade-offs.  When I get up in the morning, I have so much to do that I get busy right away.  I don’t seem to have the time to read my Bible and pray.  But if I read my Bible right when I get out of bed, it seems that I have much more time in the day to get everything done.  When it comes to the dear Lord, there isn’t a trade-off.  If I put God first and give Him my time first thing in the morning, God takes care of the rest of my day.  After all. He knows what the day holds … God knows what is going to happen today.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  Put God first and you’ll have plenty of time to get everything else done.  Hey, if you are reading this post (which you are) and you haven’t read your Bible yet, stop, shut down facebook, and read your Bible.  You’ll be glad that you did.  Read your Bible first THEN read my post.  Oh, too late; you’ve already read my post.  :<)

Pastor Roth with Tracts

 

The first time that I went to Romania was in August of 1990, just after the revolution.  There were four of us.  Ron Kuhns was the only one who had been there before.  He told me of their hunger for gospel literature.  I found a Mennonite publishing house in Ephrata, Pennsylvania that had hardback Romanian New Testaments for $5 each.  I bought 200 of them along with several hundred gospel tracts, which were packed into two duffel bags.  We flew into Frankfort, Germany and rented a small Opel Vectra car for the four of us.  The car was packed so full that two bags had to be strapped onto the trunk lid of the car – those two duffel bags with Scriptures in them!  We crossed borders into Austria, Hungary, and finally into Romania.  The countryside was beautiful, but the cities were crowded and drab.  As we traveled across Romania to Braila, our destination, we would stop in a town and distribute some of the literature.  We looked for a quiet park to give away tracts.  Within minutes, we would attract such a crowd that we would have to move to another location.  I have one wonderful scene burned into my memory: our pastor, Clif Roth, was a big man.  There he was with a handful of tracts and little kids crowding around him grabbing at tracts.  He had to hold the tracts above his head with one hand while handing them down one at a time with the other hand.  The children were so intent on getting their own piece of paper that they were mobbing Pastor Roth!  He was patient but frazzled.  One little boy climbed up a nearby tree crawling out onto a limb just above Brother Roth in order to get at the handful of tracts that Pastor held above his head!  What a beautiful picture of hunger for spiritual information!  Jesus said in Mark 4:20, “And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after the Word of God!  I trust that they read and understood the blessed Words of Jesus!