Old Records

 

I have been cleaning out my two-car garage (which has never held a car, only stuff).  I think that when I turn off the lights at night, junk multiplies to fill all available space.  I had twenty boxes with my old tax records in them.  Mr. John, my tax guy, said that I only need to keep tax records for the last three years.  So, I got three industrial strength garbage bags and started dumping seventeen boxes of tax records to shred.  I began dumping boxes and boxes of years and years of old bills, cancelled checks, and receipts.  Half-way through the second box I realized how good God has been to me over the years!  Thousands of dollars of medical bills, piles of electric bills, water bills, car payments, house payments, and … well you get the picture.  As I threw away hundreds of old checks, I saw many cancelled checks to the church and to mission projects.  I have often thought that if I take care of God’s business, God will take care of my business.  And He has.  God has been so good to me!  Jeremiah said in Lamentations 3:22&23, “It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”  Hey, has the good Lord been faithful to you?  Can I get an Amen?!

Utility Trailer in the Ministry

 

Years ago, my daughter found a utility trailer and bought it for me.  I used it to reroof my house and made several trips to the dump with the old shingles.  I have used it to help friends move, to clean up around the church, and to haul long timbers for building projects.  But three years ago, I built a 2X4 and OSB platform on that trailer to use in the Ringgold Christmas parade.  On the side was painted, “The Greatest Gift of All,” and on top, a big package labeled, “Jesus”.  The next year, I added two snow-making machines with booms to reach each side of the parade route, and the kids loved it!  So, over the past three years, we have handed out Ziplock bags of candy with a gospel tract inside numbering 600, 900, and 2500 each year!  My daughter had no idea that the trailer would be used to distribute 4,000 pieces of gospel literature!  What a blessing!  And today, I was reminded of Revelation 14:13, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”  When someone reads one of those tracts and becomes a believer, my daughter will be remembered in heaven for her part in their transformation!  And what if this new believer has children who trust in Jesus as their Savior?  And what if one of those children becomes a preacher or missionary?  And what about all of the folk who believe in Jesus because of that preacher or missionary?!  It goes on and on … and all because of a little utility trailer!  Hey, get involved in God’s plans and programs.  You’ll never be sorry that you did!

Forgetful

 

Growing older has its problems, but forgetting stuff is the worst problem of all.  Friday, I washed a load of clothes that had my dress pants and my favorite blue dress shirt in it.  I put the load into the dryer but got busy working outside and forgot the clothes.  When I remembered, I hurried inside, but it was too late.  The heavy load of dry clothes had smushed the wrinkle-free shirt into a wrinkle-set shirt.  So, I got all of the dry clothes out except the pants and shirt and threw the damp white clothes in on top and started the dryer.  I felt so clever … until I got busy again.  The dryer had stopped with the dress shirt under all of the dry white clothes.  So, I got a cup of water, soaked one of the just-dried towels, added it to the shirt and pants and started the dryer.  But this time, I set the stopwatch on my cell phone, and went back outside to work.  My alarm went off, I came inside, and removed my precious blue shirt (looking great).  I would have felt clever, but this was the third time for the pants and shirt in the dryer … but at least the shirt and pants felt so soft.  Wonder why?  Ha, ha!  Sorry, I just couldn’t make a spiritual application.  Hey, can you help me out?

100 Points

 

I heard a good one this week: A man died and went to heaven.  St. Peter met him at the pearly gates and said, “You must have 100 points in order to get into heaven.”  The man thought a moment and said, “Well, I gave a tithe to the church each week of my life.”  “2 points.” St. Peter said.  The man was taken aback, but went on, “I donated a kidney to a complete stranger.”  St. Peter said, “3 points.”  The man was getting more and more nervous, and said, “I adopted an orphan and gave half of my inheritance to the poor.”  St. Peter said, “4 points.”  The man, in utter hopelessness said, “The way this conversation is going, the only way that I’ll ever get into heaven is by the grace of God!”  “Bingo!” St. Peter said, “100 points!”  Often, we think that we can earn God’s favor.  We do our best to please the dear Lord and work hard to help our fellow man.  But salvation is a gift that can’t be earned.  Paul said in Ephesians 2:8&9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”  Nothing that we do will impress God.  God is only interested in our faith in Him.  He alone can save us, and salvation is a gift, always given, never earned.

Cooperation

 

When my wife and I got married, we spent the first decade trying to change each other.  I didn’t fold towels the right way and she didn’t fold tee shirts the right way.  She put the toilet paper on backwards and I didn’t put the toilet seat back down after I used it.  She didn’t turn her dirty clothes right side out when she put them into the clothes hamper, and I didn’t replace the twist tie on the bread wrapper after I got a slice of bread out.  But, after fifty-two years of marriage, we realized that we just need to get along with one another in order to get life done.  Nehemiah had our problems too.  He had to get the wall of Jerusalem rebuilt without any stonemasons, he only had amateurs!  And somehow, Nehemiah got them all to cooperate and to work together.  Nehemiah 4:6, “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.”  Hey, if you want to get a job completed, you must decide to work together with others.  Put aside your differences and cooperate!  Just “get ‘er done!”

Dream

 

My wife had a dentist appointment Thursday at nine thirty, so she told me the night before to wake her up about seven in the morning.  I woke up early (5:45) but was able to get back to sleep and had some very vivid dreams. I dreamed that my family was in this huge mansion in a very old area of town with old-growth forest behind the house.  We were strolling the grounds and discovered several huge oak trees.  I began to climb the largest.  It was easy to climb because it had gnarly bark sticking out with ample dead limbs for handholds.  As I got higher, I climbed out onto a huge limb the size of a full-sized tree itself.  Looking down, I realized that the limb extended over a cliff, and I could see a well-manicured field hundreds of feet below.  There was another house with trees and shrubbery below, but they were so far below that they looked miniature.  But then I slipped off the limb and began to fall.  But it was so far to the field below that I had plenty of time to think.  And I remember clearly and calmly thinking, “So this is how it is at the moment of death.”  And I extended my arms and legs to slow my fall to give me a few more seconds to think.  Hey, when your moment of death comes, will you be prepared?  The writer of the book of Hebrews said in Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”  And when your moment of death comes, you must be ready, because it will be too late for any preparations.  Those preparations must be made before that moment.  Hey, can I encourage you to get ready for that moment because it is coming to all of us!

Missing the Sensor

 

Wednesday afternoon, I pulled into the left turn lane on Battlefield Parkway to go into Lowe’s.  There was a car in front of me, but the man had pulled up so far ahead of the line that he was beyond the sensor in the turn lane.  I hate it when rude drivers pull out so far into the intersection that the cross traffic has a hard time getting past them.  But this driver was a victim of his own anxiousness, and had I not pulled in behind him and activated the senser wires in the pavement, he would have sat there forever waiting for the light to change (actually, his turn light would never have changed).  When the turn lane signal light changed, he turned not thanking me or even knowing that I had helped him.  How often do we neglect to thank the blessed Holy Spirit for His help in our lives?!  We work hard, make our own good luck, and pat ourselves on the back thinking that we have done it all.  What we don’t realize is that God is behind us smoothing out our way helping us to make it through life!  And we think that we did it all!  Paul realized the providence of God and said in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”  Hey, we should see the hand of God working in our lives!  And if we don’t, we should still know that God is working His will on our behalf … behind the scenes.  Hey, why not thank the Lord right now for protecting you today.  After all, that’s exactly what He is doing!