Day 6

 

Be Careful What You Sow

 

 

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

 

Galatians 6:7

 

 

When I was a underclassman in high school, I learned how to make a modest little stink bomb by  using a ball point, a paper clip and a match. I am not going to give out the engineering details, (I try to be a responsible adult), but I can tell you that the end results were a match being lit inside the plastic pen, melting a small amount of the plastic thus causing a bad smell and a small amount of black smoke. This invention was not a science project but was used to disrupt classes I found boring (which meant everything but P.E.). I used this device for several weeks without getting caught and was quiet proud of myself.

To keep my covert operation going I needed a supply of pens, paper clips and matches. Pens and paper clips were school supplies, so I could carry them openly, but the matches I had to hide. I carried the matches in my back pocket in the case my glasses went in. I thought it was a good hiding place because I could easily take off my glasses and put them in the case and slip out a match to load my device.

One day in history we had a test with essay questions that were written on the chalk board. I read the questions and, as my habit, took my glasses off to write my essay.  I slipped my glasses into my glasses case while it was still in the back pocket of my cords. I can't be certain how it happened but what I figure happened is that the hinge on my glasses hit a match head with enough force that the match lit. The lit match set off other matches and they began to melt a hole in my plastic glasses case, which was still in my back pocket. Suddenly the same principle that made the pen stink bomb work was taking place in my pants. The foul odor of melting plastic and black smoke was coming out of the back of my pants as I prayed that the smoke would clear before the teacher looked up.

Fortunately by the time the teacher smelled it and looked up the smoke was gone. However, my fellow students had smelled it and seen the smoke coming from my pants. They probably wondered what I had eaten for lunch. I was in no danger of catching fire because there was not enough oxygen in my back pocket for that to happen, but it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, and I have a lot to choose from. I learned what the Bible says is true, "a man reaps what he sows."

I had been sowing trouble and I reaped trouble. The good news is that if you sow good things you will will receive heavenly rewards. So be careful what you sow and never, ever put matches in your back pocket.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Galatians 6:9

 

• What causes you to grow weary in doing good?
• When is the "proper time" to receive the harvest?
• What condition must we keep if we are to reap the harvest?

Day 5

 

The Eyes of the LORD

 

For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

 

 

2 Chronicles 16:9

 

Cletus Scrunchie was one of those kids who cut the sleeves out of his button up shirts. I was the smallest kid in the 7th grade, and I shared one of those black topped science desks with Cletus. Cletus was a couple of years older than me. It wasn't that I was a child prodigy that had moved up several grades because of my genius, it was because Cletus had the same IQ as the desk and had been held back a grade or two. What Cletus lacked in brain power he made up for in brawn.

 

Every time the science teacher would turn her back to the class to write something on the chalkboard, Cletus would punch me in the arm. As you can imagine this got really old and my arm got really sore. I suppose I could have told the teacher what was happening. Of course, if I had told the teacher I would have needed to give the teacher my last will and testament for safe keeping because Cletus would have surely got me for that.

 

I brought a sack lunch to school everyday and had it with me in science, which was my class right before lunch. From time to time I would get a head start on lunch by eating something in class while the teacher wasn't looking (and while I was being punched in the arm). One day I had a small box of raisins in my lunch and when I opened the raisins I saw my revenge on Cletus.

I whispered to Cletus, "Hey Cletus, do you want some raisins?"

 

"Sure."

 

"Here, eat them quick before the teacher looks."

 

Cletus quickly turned the box up to his mouth and gulped some raisins down.

"Hey Cletus," I whispered again. "Look in the bottom of the raisin box."

 

Cletus peered into the box and let out a loud scream. The raisins had gone bad and were filled with maggots.

 

When Cletus screamed the teacher turned around and asked what was wrong. "He gave me some wormy raisins and I ate them!"

 

Cletus didn't get the sympathy he was hoping for; he got a detention for eating in class. He informed me he was going to kill me. I told him, "Cletus, don't mess with me. I am smarter than you are and I will always get you back." Cletus decided to leave me alone from then on.

 

It was a spur of the moment clever plan that got me the relief that I wanted. Was it the best plan though? Did God have a better plan or were those worms God's provision? I'll never know because I never asked.

 

The southern kingdom of Israelites, Judah, had a problem. They were being attacked by, of all people, the northern kingdom of Israelites, Israel. Judah's king, Asa, came up with what seemed to be a brilliant solution. He took the gold and silver from the temple and his palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria to bribe him to attack Israel on it's northern border, so Israel would not be free to attack Judah on it's southern border. It was a brilliant plan and it worked to perfection. The Syrians attacked Israel, and Israel stopped harassing Judah. (2 Chronicles 16)

 

There was only one problem with the plan. It wasn't God's plan. God sent a seer to King Asa to let him know that God had a plan that included delivering the king of the Syrians into Judah's hands. Asa never knew that because Asa never asked. Out of his own cleverness Asa had solved the problem only to find out that God had a better plan.

 

That is the problem with being half-way smart. We think we can solve our own problems, and often times we do. We come up with solutions that are clever enough and work to a certain degree, but leave God out of the equation. Any solution that doesn't have God involved in some sort of way is not the best solution. You may find something that works, but it will not be what God is looking for.

 And what is God looking for? "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." (2 Chronicles 16:9) If we are always coming up with our own solutions are our hearts fully committed to him?

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Chronicles 16:1-14

• Do you think the silver and gold in the treasury of the Temple was King Asa's to distribute as he pleased?
• Did Asa have good results when he relied on God before?
• In what other matter did Asa not call on God, and what was the result?

Day 4

 

Going to the Dogs

 

"It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

 

Matthew 15:26

 

 

Both of my grandmothers could really cook. My mom's mother, who my siblings and I called Mar-Mar (don't ask how that got started because I don't know, but I do know she was proud to be called that), lived in the same city as we did so we saw her quite often. My dad's mom, T-Mar, lived a couple of hours away from where we did so we didn't see her as much. (The one we saw often was Mar-Mar so the one we didn't see as much was Two-Mar, which was somehow shortened to T-Mar. A name she proudly bore as well.) Not seeing T-Mar as much must have led her to cook prodigious amounts of food for our visits.

 

I can remember meals at T-Mar's where there was a large turkey and a large ham for nine people. Everyone would have their favorite dessert too. At any given meal there was strawberry pie, pumpkin pie, brownies, cherry pie and ambrosia (whatever that is).

 

Not only did we eat well there, her dogs ate well too. Her dogs had bacon and eggs and toast with jelly for breakfast and ate off of china. It was the old china, but it was china. They were big ol' slobbering outdoor boxer dogs named Fritz and Bozo. I didn't realize until much later when I saw other people's boxers that boxers were not supposed to be such big heavy dogs. Those dogs easily weighed more than I did as a kid.

 

T-Mar would not sit down at the table while we ate. She was always up filling some one's plate or making more food. Every night before bed she would make all us kids a milkshake like she was topping off a gas tank. One night my dad came in the kitchen as us kids drank our milkshakes and said he was going to get a bowl of ice cream. T-Mar started to get it but Dad said, "No, Mom, you've been waiting on us hand and foot. You sit down. I'll get my own ice cream."

 

He got his bowl of ice cream and sat down at the table and began to eat. He made a few faces and said, "Mom, where did you get this ice cream? It tastes kind of funky."

 

She said, "I got it at the store yesterday, so it should be good. Which carton did you get your ice cream from?"

 

"I got it from the carton on the door," my dad told her. "There wasn't much left in it so I thought I would finish it off."

 

My grandmother's reply was priceless. "Oh, that's the dog's ice cream. They eat right out of the carton."

 

In Matthew 15 Jesus has a conversation with a Canaanite woman who is requesting that her demon possessed daughter be healed. Jesus tells her he was sent to to help the lost sheep of Israel, God's people. She was not an Israelite, but she was asking for help. It is then that Jesus tells her, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

 

Let me explain something. Israelites did not like dogs. They did not have pet dogs. They called gentiles "dogs."  So when Jesus talks about the "children's bread" the children are God's children, the Israelites. The dog the bread is tossed to is a gentile. Don't get all bent out of shape about this. First of all he calls the Israelites sheep so being a dog isn't that bad. And in Greek (which the New Testament is written in) there are two words for dogs. One means a mangy old mongrel, the other means a house pet. Jesus doesn't call her a mongrel, he calls her a house pet.

 

The point Jesus is making is that he came to God's people first. The rest of us are just house pets that get asked to be a part of the family. Jesus heals the woman's daughter. The woman found out, like my grandmother's dogs, that being the right person's pet is better than being in the wrong person's family. And I, for one, am glad that Jesus looked down on this slobbering little kid named Jess and made me a part of his family.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 15:21-28

 

• What was Jesus' initial reaction and what was the disciples initial reaction?
• In what manner did the woman come to Jesus?
• Do you think Jesus healed her daughter because of her persistent faith?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Day 3

 

 

The Radiator

 

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."

 

Proverbs 14:12

 

 

My elementary school was heated by hot water radiators. To most kids that meant don't touch it when it is hot, but my mind worked along a different path than most. I saw the radiator as much more than a heater.

 

My plan was to place crayons on the floor under the radiator and to heat them up to where the crayons were moldable. I would take those moldable crayons and shape them into dinosaur crayons. I just knew that every kid in that class would be envious that I had little dinosaurs I could color with. (I still think I should patent the idea). I was a visionary, but a little short on the fundamentals of how it could work.

 

I had no idea what the melting point of crayons was or how long it might take the radiator to get the crayons to a moldable substance. I wasn't even sure that the crayons could ever be made to be moldable. I just knew that there was enough waxy material in crayons that heat would do something to them. Hey, the advance of science is not without it's risks. So, I placed a bunch of crayons underneath the radiator right before we left for recess.

 

I still cannot tell you what the melting temperature for a crayon is, since it happened while I was at recess. What I can tell you is that the floor around the radiator was much more colorful after recess than it was before recess. And I can tell you that the principal had a strange and painful way of showing his appreciation for my artistic attempt to advance science.

 

It had all seemed like such a brilliant idea. However like most of my wonderful schemes it had gone colorfully wrong. That is what happens when we do things our way and not God's way.

 

I cannot tell you how many times people come to me with problems of their own making. They find themselves knee deep in melted crayons (metaphorically speaking) because they though they knew a better way than God's way. God doesn't give us "thou shalt nots" because he is trying to ruin our fun. God's ways are simply what is best for us.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 1 Kings 21:1-29

• What did King Ahab want and who did it belong to?
• Did he try to acquire it the right way?
• By whose way did he wind up acquiring what he wanted?
• Did God approve of the way Ahab acquired what he wanted?
• What did Elijah tell Ahab would happen as a result of doing things the way he did?

Read 1 Kings 22:34-40

• What happened to Ahab as predicted by Elijah?

Read 2 Kings 10:1-11

• What happened to Jezebel as predicted by Elijah?
 
 

Your First Love

Day 2

 

Your First Love

 

 

"Yet I hold this against you:You have forsaken your first love."

 

 

Revelation 2:4



Do you remember your first love? There was that special someone that captured your heart. I certainly remember that first girl I fell for.

 

Her name was Sandy and she lived down the street from me. I don't really remember if Sandy was a blond or a brunette. I don't remember if Sandy was short or tall. I cannot recall what color her eyes were. Sandy was out of my league. She had something that elevated her above all others, something that made hair or eye color unimportant. What Sandy had was a Davy Crockett coonskin cap.

 

When I was a little kid Davy Crockett was bigger than the Beatles or Cabbage Patch dolls. Every kid wanted a coonskin cap. We all watched Fess Parker play Davy Crockett on TV every week. And Sandy had one of those awesome Davy Crockett hats.

 

In Revelation 2 Jesus tells the church at Ephesus that he is pleased with how hard they had been working and the deeds they had done. He was also pleased that they had stayed doctrinally sound. Then he says, "I have this against you: You have forsaken your first love." Those people were doing the right thing, they believed the right thing, but their love for Jesus had grown cold. 

                                                                                    

 It's one thing to forget your kindergarten sweetheart;  it's entirely different to forget Jesus. We believe the right things and we do the right things (because of habit), and we forget Jesus in our daily life. We take him for granted and our love grows cold.

 

Jesus said there is a two point remedy for this. He said we should remember and repent. We need to remember how Jesus loved us and died on a cross for our sins. We need to repent and turn back to Jesus being an important part of our everyday life.

    

My family moved out of the neighborhood where Sandy lived. I don't know what became of Sandy, and I confess I haven't thought about her all that much. I have often wondered what happened to that coonskin cap.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Revelation 2:1-7

• What are all the good things said about the church at Ephesus?
• What do you think is the significance of removing the lamp stand?
• What is the benefit of being an overcomer?