Time for everything

The store is crowded today. I’m running behind in my schedule so I rush through the sliding doors to get ahead of several other people who were walking in front of me. While looking down at my shopping list I turn a corner sharply and bump into an elderly lady who was surveying the shelves for pickled okra. As we collide, her glasses fall to the ground.

Embarrassed, I quickly say “I’m sorry” and pick up her frames off the floor. She has a frown on her face and doesn’t seem to notice that one of her lenses is missing but I don’t have time to wait for a scolding so I hurry on my way.  

Shortly, I’m ready to leave but all lines are backed up. I rush to the only open self-serve kiosk pushing myself in front of a clean cut, young man wearing mechanics overalls. He looks a bit miffed and irritated but I’m too late to be sympathetic or courteous so I punch the English button and scan my items. As I key in my pin number, several customers begin inching their way forward practically breathing down my neck like a pack of wolves.

But I’m losing time and need to get to work, so I shoot out the door leaving my cart in front of them at the kiosk. As I rush out, I whisk past several girl scouts selling cookies at a table. On the fly they smile and ask me if I could support their troop, but I’m in a hurry so I pat my pockets and say I’m out of cash, feeling my money clip that is full of cash. One of their dad’s is dressed in his patrolman’s uniform and gives me a sullen look as I dart past. I turn around just in time to see an SUV slamming on the brakes. Then looking down at my wristwatch and back at the driver I shake my fist at them and trip over the island curb.

Shaken, I survey the parking lot and notice the elderly lady with the missing lens pushing her shopping cart into the cart corral. She misses the opening by half a cart, opens the door of her 63’ Bel Air coup and sinks down to the exact height of the dash board. Meanwhile her cart begins to slowly roll away. As the cart picks up momentum, I realize it is pointed directly at my car. I know in my mind that if I could fly I still would never make it in time.

While looking at the new dent in my door, I watch the Chevy Bel Air getting away. I begin pursuit and speed through a school zone going slightly over 45 miles an hour. Several parents honk their horns at me to slow down but I’m losing sight of the perpetrator and push the accelerator to the floor. Something catches my eye in my rear view mirror and I watch in horror as the flashing red lights of the patrol car invite me to pull over.

“Where’s the fire?” asks the patrolman with a smile as he begins writing in his little yellow ticket book. I tell him about the okra lady, the runaway shopping cart and the new dent in my door. He removes his sunglasses and glares at me “Do you know how fast you were going? No?, well I do, because I’ve been following you since you pulled out from the grocery store.”

Thirty minutes later, after the patrolman finished an impromptu vehicle safety inspection, I pull back out into traffic, down the street, around a corner and into my office parking space. I briskly ran up several flights of stairs to the main hallway. After several steps, I arrive at my office where a clean cut, young man dressed in mechanics overalls is standing in the doorway.

“Sorry mister, the men’s bathroom overflowed into your office. We are evacuating the sludge now and then will be taking out the carpet, so you won’t be able to enter for at least a couple of hours,” said the familiar face of the young man that I think I had seen earlier that day.

I didn’t even bother to ask if he would do me a favor and let me in. Sitting down in the hallway, I opened my briefcase, took out my work for that day and began working on the chapter I would be teaching on Sunday. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13.

More like Jesus!

 As I’m driving home last Sunday, after teaching at Oakzanita Springs Campground, I turned on my radio to hear Keith Green singing these haunting heartfelt words “As each day passes by, I feel my love run dry, I get so weary worn and tossed round in the storm. Well I’m blind to other’s needs and I’m tired of planting seeds, I seem to have a wealth of so many thoughts about myself. I want to, I need to, be more like Jesus. I want to, I need to, be more like Him.” The words hit me hard, piercing into my heart like one of the spikes into Jesus’ hand. 

 “I want to be more like Jesus!” I said as I continued to listen to the late songwriter as he encouraged us to deny ourselves, pick up our crosses, and serve others the way Jesus did.

 So, as these words softened my heart and the rain poured down in a solid sheet of water, I prayed inside my head “Heavenly Father, I know I have not lived up to Your holy expectations. My vessel has never really been completely emptied for only Your use. Lord, I ask that You would forgive me of my sin and cleanse my heart from within. Father God, You are so precious, much more precious than diamonds, gold or any other created thing. You alone are worthy to be praised and receive my worship. Please help me to surrender to Your will becoming more like Jesus; in His name I pray.” I realized right then that I wanted to be more like Jesus!

In Psalm 127: 1,2  it says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for He grants sleep to those He loves.”  

The wisdom of the wise is foolishness to God. We plan, we write books and scheme how to draw men to God but we do this in vain. God is still on the throne and His Son Jesus Christ will one day rule on the throne of His father David over an everlasting kingdom. Today, God is building that kingdom, as well as His church, one living stone at a time with perfect craftsmanship. 

If you say you are a Christian, then how do you fit into God’s kingdom? You are either helping to build, tearing it down or sitting on the fence content with watching others. The first step in any building project is to read the plans. Becoming acquainted with the job site, materials and proposed building will go a long way to see the project to completion. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God so a good start is to read your bible. 

Trusting in the designer is paramount. He is the one who has pre-fit everything together, calculated loads and made allowances for all additional work. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All who follow His precepts have good understanding.” Following good directions will always lead you to your desired destination. “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8. God is the designer and He is building according to His plan and timetable. We just need to surrender our will to Him, making sure to follow Him, as sheep following the shepherd’s voice, and He will make our path straight, our destination sure.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10. Divine appointments are opportunities that cross our path during the day or night. They were created ahead of time by God that we should participate in them. However, we have many distractions, projects and responsibilities that distract us, drawing us away from being used by God.

We might not be able to financially help everyone that crosses our path. However, we can plant seeds of encouragement, offer prayers for help and healing, feed or give someone water.

Jesus said “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”  Be more like Jesus! 

Blood moon

The world has seen a great light. It all started Sunday, September 27^th 2015 when I was watching a Blood Moon total lunar eclipse that won’t happen again in my life time. The usual full moon that should have crested over the mountains was three quarters blocked out by the shadow from the earth. It seemed to rise very quickly at first as it flew past and above the silhouette of distant mountains that were turning purple in the twilight of the sun. As the moon rose higher and higher above the horizon, it also was being eclipsed by the earth’s shadow turning into the Blood Moon that some have been anxiously waiting for. 

Soon the moon was completely covered by the earth’s shadow, casting an eerie glowing orange mask that seemed to pulsate with each solar flare. The lunar face we all know as “the man in the moon” went missing for an hour and a half as he decided to jump ship for a long deserved vacation from the billions of eyes that were fixed on him. As the sun continued to set below the horizon, an eerie orange mask turned to shades of red transforming it into the “Blood Moon” that astronomers had promised us.

Later, as I stared at the moon, there was only a small, thin crescent of a shadow left on the upper right-hand side. With each passing minute our normal full moon slowly reappeared to illuminate the night and cast a moon shadow on the ground behind me. My moon shadow seemed to follow me wherever I went like it was attached to me just like my invisible spirit. I posed with closed fists at my hips looking more like Peter Pan for the moment then a middle aged Michelin shaped man. 

In the book of Genesis 1:14, God inspires Moses to write the reason He hung all those lights up in the night sky “Then God said ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth.’ And it was so.”

So, here in the very first chapter of the bible, God explains that He would use the celestial objects, the sun, stars, moon and planets, as a billboard signaling the beginning of the end. We know that Jesus talked about heavenly signs pointing to a future period of history referred to as “the end of times” or “tribulation”. “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and waters roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Luke 21:25-28

So I don’t care what flavor of Christian you are, what denominational label you attach to yourself or even if you are an atheist because the return of the King is imminent. One day Jesus Christ will return to the earth for His bride in the same way that He left by reappearing from the clouds. It’s not just a myth or some kind of fairytale but a promise spoken from God. These prophetic events were written and recorded ahead of time for us to study and build up our faith. It does not take much for me to see God in the details; the way in which stars are born and grow older as they revolve around as clusters inside of a galaxy. But you don’t have to look to the stars to see the fingerprints of God. On a human scale, design can be observed in the way our organs heal when they are injured. The healing process is the fingerprint of a divinely loving God.

Two thousand years ago a very bright star guided the wise men to where Jesus had been born and was currently living. Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, God inspired the prophet Isaiah to write “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;” Isaiah 9:2-7

“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be on His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of his increase of His government and peace there will be no end.” Jesus Christ is the Light of the World.