Ordinary

 

When I was in middle school, I worked off and on for Leonard Briney, a farmer friend of my dad’s.  He was fair with me, but I earned every dollar that he paid me.  One day, I was finished with the job that he had given me to do, so I went looking for him.  He was sitting up in the gabled grain room above the dairy barn with his old .22 rifle in his lap.  The room had a low ceiling and was full of shucked ears of corn on one side and husked wheat on the other side.  I began to explain to Mr. Briney that I was finished with my job, when he quietly raised the rifle and shot a rat about 20 yards away.  The grain attracted vermin and Mr. Briney had to exterminate them once a week.  The rats were huge and the barn cats were afraid to tangle with them.  But the rats were no match for Mr. Briney’s little .22 rifle.  The stock was loose, and the barrel was rusty, but the barrel bore was clean, and the action was well-oiled.  And Mr. Briney never missed!  The rats perished not because of the quality of the gun, but because of the skill of the marksman.  Paul said in I Corinthians 1:26,27&29, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; That no flesh should glory in his presence.”  Just like Mr. Briney using an ordinary rifle, God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things so that He will get the glory.  Hey, it’s not about us; it’s all about God.

Scars

 

My brother Phillip was two years younger than me.  When he was about a year old, he was anxious for supper, so he toddled over to the stove where he knew that his food would be coming from.  He reached up on top of the stove to help himself and pulled at a scalding bowl of green peas.  The hot peas spilled down on top of him burning his neck and causing a scar that Phillip carried for the rest of his life.  Hey, accidents happen and often scars are the result.  The same is true in our spiritual lives.  We may be forgiven of terrible sins, but their scars remain.  Divorce, jail time, fractured relationships - all these can be forgiven, but the scars remain.  Oh, my dear friend, how much better to have never had those scars!  But there are scars that are beautiful!  Isaiah prophesied of the Lord Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”  Our spiritual scars may be a source of embarrassment, but the scars of Jesus are beautiful scars because they are testimonies of the grace of God for us.  How beautiful they are for our behalf!

Elephant Ears

 

This summer, I had the hugest Elephant Ears near my back deck.  I connected a length of PVC pipe to the air conditioner condensate, and the extra water did wonders for the plants.  The shade of the house and trees gave just the right amount of indirect sunlight, and my Elephant Ears lived up to their name.  But when the first frost hit, it was obvious that Elephant Ears were a tropical plant.  They just seemed to melt after a freezing night.  I was reminded of Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”  Some things last just for a season, but others are more permanent.  Grass, flowers, and Elephant Ears pass away, but the Word of God is rock-solid ... it is eternal.  Hey, if you want something beautiful for a few months, Elephant Ears are fine, but if you want something that you can depend upon when hard times come, the Bible is all that will do.  Hey, have you read it today?  No?  Well right now might be a good time to start.  “A proverbs a day keeps the devil away.”  Proverbs has 31 chapters, so you can read the chapter that corresponds to the day of the month.  Today would be Proverbs 28.  And tomorrow and tomorrow and …