Half Baked

I was so smart Thanksgiving evening.  Or so I thought.  I had bought a new freezer a week earlier, so when the leftovers piled up Thanksgiving afternoon, I was ready.  I portioned them into smaller freezer bags so that I could bring out a little at a time.  I had one good sized piece of turkey breast that I put into a quart-sized freezer bag.  So, yesterday, I pulled it out to use.  I put the bag into a pot of water and then on the stove to warm it up.  After ten minutes in boiling water, I got it out, but it was still frozen in the middle.  So, I put it into the microwave for a defrost cycle to heat the inside.  I got it out and cut it open only to find it was still cold in the middle.  Not very appetizing.  There is nothing worse than half-baked food.  The Lord compared the tribe of Ephraim to a half-bake cake: they appeared good on the outside but were disgusting on the inside.  Hosea 7:8, “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.”  Hey, how are you before the Lord?  Are you just as true on the inside as you look good on the outside?  May it be so!

Directions or Advice?

OK, I’ll admit it.  I’m hooked on Google maps.  When someone begins to give me directions, I stop them and say, “Hold it.  Just give me the street address and I can find it.”  I don’t want, “Turn left at the white house and go down the road until you see a big oak tree on the right.  Then look for a red brick house …”  Just give me the physical address and Google can get me there.  But now it’s more than that.  When I head to church three times a week, I say (to the Google mike on my phone) “Calvary Independent Baptist church from here.”  And Google maps automatically lets me know if there is a slowdown on the interstate.  Then it suggests a better route.  And, it’s usually right!  Hey, in your spiritual life, are you looking for a map to heaven or advice on the best way to get there?  Almost anyone can tell you where heaven is, but only the blessed Holy Spirit can show you the best route.  God can point out slowdowns.  God can show roadblocks.  God can point out dangers ahead and recalculate your life so that you can make it to your destination safely.  Solomon said in Proverbs 3:5&6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  Don’t trust your life’s destination to your own wisdom; let the dear Lord get you to heaven safe and sound.

Unimportant

Do you ever feel invisible?  I do.  Sometimes when I am walking down a busy sidewalk, I feel like no one notices me.  The whole world is walking right by me, and no one really sees me.  In a group of people in animated conversation, I start to say something, but someone else begins to talk, and all eyes are drawn to them.  My unimportant words fade like a morning glory in the hot sun.  No one wants to hear what I have to say.  Hey, when Jesus was born, no one noticed … at first.  No one cared to help the little couple from Nazareth.  Did you know that there are three hundred prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament?!  Isaiah 9:1-7 is one of them.  Why not read it today.  Verse 1 says, “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.”  Galilee (where Jesus ministered) was the least of the unimportant cities.  It was the last place that would have come to mind where the Messiah would have been found.  And in Micah 5:2 we read, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”  Bethlehem, the place of Jesus’ birth, was the least of the unimportant towns too.  But Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up in Galilee.  Before Jesus, no one knew of those tiny places … but they do now!  Hey, you may feel invisible, but take heart: God can use you too!  Just be patient and let God do His work in your life.  Just bloom where the good Lord plants you.