Pride

Have you ever been sitting in church, heard a great message, and thought, “Wow!  Brother So-and-So should be here!  He really needs to hear this!”?  If you have, I’m sorry to inform you, but that’s pride.  The Holy Spirit is actually speaking to YOU but you think that He should be speaking to Brother So-and-So.  So, now you think that you know more than the Holy Spirit.  Strike two.  Why is it so easy to see the faults of Brother So-and-So when you make excuses for the same faults in your life?!  Paul warned me to beware.  He said in I Corinthians 10:12, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”  Today, at church, I just realized that I have been grousing about two dear friends as if I am Mr. Perfect.  But today, I realized that my grumbling about them was MY problem, not theirs.  I need to take care of MY pride and let the dear Lord take care of their problems.  “Thank you, dear Lord, for speaking to me today.”

Fishing

 

Brother Nick preached a message this morning about Luke 5 and Jesus calling His disciples.  When Jesus preached at Capernaum, He used Peter’s fishing boat as a pulpit.  And when He finished preaching, Jesus told Peter to launch out and catch a draught of fish.  Peter protested saying that he had been out all night and had caught nothing.  Translation: “I am the fisherman, you are the carpenter, you leave the fishing to me, and I’ll leave the hammering to you.”  But Jesus was more than a carpenter.  He had created the Sea of Galilee and the fish that were in it, and Jesus could call the fish over into Peter’s net anytime that He wanted to.  And He did.  I remember dip netting on Bush River with my dad and my uncle on the brackish side of U.S.40.  We fished at night when the whiting were running (they fished; I watched).  I enjoyed the bonfire on the bank as much as the fishing.  Each time that they brought up the net, I was excited to see if we caught a fish.  Hey, every time that I hand out a Gospel tract, I am excited to see what the Lord will do with His written Words.  I may not know the results on this side of eternity, but the dear Lord is keeping the score.  Paul said in I Corinthians 3:6-8, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.”

Paper Towel Dispenser Experiment

 

When I taught middle school, we had ratchet type paper towel dispensers in the bathrooms.  As I stood outside of the boys’ bathroom, I would hear them cranking out the paper towels wasting so much paper.  So, one day I conducted an experiment.  I made it a big deal, and the kids loved it.  One boy held open the bathroom door so that all could see.  Next, I had a boy wash his hands, then pump the paper towel dispenser three times and wipe his hands on the dispensed paper towel.  His hands were still wet for all to see.  So, I had him wash his hands again, but use four pumps.  His hands were still wet.  He used five pushes on the paper towel dispenser and his hands appeared dry.  To be sure, I had him wash his hands one more time and dry them on six pushes of the paper towel lever.  This time, the paper towel had dry places on it proving that, although his hands were dry, paper toweling had clearly been wasted.  The class determined that five pumps was the optimum paper towel usage where the hands were dried, but no paper toweling was wasted.  So, from that day forward, the boys had a decision: do I waste paper towel or not.  From that day forward, they knew how much paper toweling they needed, and they knew when they were wasting paper toweling.  Hey, the same is true of us in our spiritual lives.  When we hear a great sermon at church and our sins are exposed, we are no longer in ignorance.  Now we know.  We’ve been told.  And James said in James 4:17, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”  So now it is no longer a matter of knowing or not knowing, it is a matter of obeying or refusing to obey.  And rebellion against God is a big deal.  A really big deal.  And don’t you forget it, because from this day forward, you know.  And I know that you know, because I told you.