The Boy With The Invisible Bike

 

 

Joshua Davidson was like all the other boys in his neighborhood except for one thing. He had an invisible bike. It was great fun having a bicycle that was invisible but a great responsibility too. People could see him seemingly riding on air but what they didn't think of was the great care Joshua had to have in keeping his bike out of people's way when he wasn't on it. If Joshua just laid his bicycle down or just put it in the bike rack at school without some note that it was there then someone was sure to trip over it or run in to it not being able to see it. He also had to remember exactly where he placed his bike or he would never find it.

The joy of riding the invisible bike far outweighed the responsibilities for Joshua. Everyday he would ride his bike up and down the neighborhood streets and through the trails in the park. And everyday Stevie Everman would watch him ride by, wishing he had a bike like Joshua's.

At first Stevie had enjoyed watching Joshua ride by. It looked like so much fun. It looked like he flew, pedaling nothing but air. After a time Steve's enjoyment of watching Joshua turned to envy, then the envy turned to anger. What was so special about Joshua that he should have an invisible bike? In fact Steve was convinced that there were some things he could do better than Joshua. The only good thing Stevie could think about Joshua was simply that he had an invisible bike.

As Joshua rode by everyday Steve began to imagine Joshua crashing. His imagination then turned to scenarios of the crash being the result of some trap that he had devised. They imagining turned to wild schemes of how he could get the bike for himself. Soon enough the wild schemes didn't seem too wild. The schemes turned into plans and then the decision came to implement one of those plans. Along with the decision came a sense of excitement and anticipation. The bike would be his, if only for a while.

Steve decided the time to get the bike was when Joshua rode through the park. Steve knew Joshua's route by heart and knew the place where he could get the bike where no one would see it. He tied the rope  to the tree at what he figured was about chest high on Joshua while on the bike. He laid the rope the rope across the path and grasped it in both hands.

Joshua pedaled into sight just as Stevie knew he would and as he approached the rope Steve pulled it tight. The rope sprang from the ground, Joshua ran into it, with it catching him in the chest knocking him backwards off the bike. The rope burned Steve's hands as he watched Joshua fall back and strike his head on the ground. Joshua just laid there motionless.

Steve's plan had been to grab the rider less bike and go for a joy ride but the sight of the still silent Joshua caused a feeling of panic as he ran up to check on Joshua. Blood puddled in the dirt beneath Joshua's head as Steve stared down at what he had done. Joshua opened his eyes, looked up at Steve, then closed his eyes with a low moan.

Despair constricted Steve. This was something he hadn't planned on.  Joshua was seriously hurt and could identify him as the cause for his injury. Sorrow joined despair making it hard for Steve to breath. He was sorry that Joshua had been hurt but he was more sorry that that he had been seen and could be in big trouble. His despair jolted him to flee and run for home.  He had only taken a few quick steps when something hit him and sent him sprawling. He jumped up and looked around and saw nothing. Then he realized that it was the bike. That damned bike. There was no way he could be caught with it now so he got up and ran for home.

It was hours before Joshua was found and rushed to the hospital. He lay in the hospital, silent, not moving for three days. The fear of being caught and the sorrow that Joshua had been hurt had been working on Steve. He talked his parents into taking him to the hospital to see Joshua. His parents were pleased to take him thinking that it was nice for him to be so concerned about a schoolmate.

When they got to the hospital Steve began to wish there was some way he could tell Joshua he was sorry without anyone else hearing. Steve's parents sat in a waiting room while Steve went in with Joshua's parents to the bedside. He stood at the bedside for a while then reached and placed his rope burned hand on Joshua's shoulder. Joshua's eyes opened, he looked intently at Steve and clearly said, "I want you to have my bike. It is there in the park." With that he sighed and closed his eyes again.

Joshua's parents gasped and screamed for the nurse. The nurse and a doctor came rushing into the room. All thoughts of telling Joshua he was sorry disappeared from Steve's thoughts. The bike was his.

When Steve got home from the hospital he rushed to the park to find the bike. It wasn't hard to find because he could remember well stumbling over it. He picked up the bike and got on it and started to pedal home. The bike was really hard to pedal and Steve had to work extremely hard just to barely move at all. When Joshua rode it the bike had seemed to fly so gracefully. This wasn't fun. This wasn't riding on air. This was hard.

As Steve struggled to pedal the bike Joshua opened his eyes, smiled at his parents and drew his last breath. Steve was putting every ounce of strength into pedaling the bike. Steve agonized with each push on the pedals. He felt like he was going up a steep hill but Joshua was soaring effortlessly up into the heavens. 

Smokey

 

 

I finally got around to asking my mom how I got that scar on my hand. She told me, "You were just a toddler and you were playing in the back yard when you fell and cut that skin between your thumb and first finger clean through. Your dog Smokey raised such a racket at the back door I had to go see what was going on."

Smokey. I had completely forgotten about Smokey. Smokey had been run over by a car when I was in kindergarten and had slipped from my memory and now that he had been mentioned the memories came flooding back.

Suddenly I could see Smokey sitting right there in front of me. He was a big grey and white shaggy sheep dog looking mutt. Tears formed in my eyes as he stared back at me.

"I've missed you Smokey," I said quietly.

"You look different," he said.

"I'm an old man now Smokey."

He examined me up and down, looking right into me.

"Well," he said, "you done good."

"Thanks Smokey"

I awoke with a ache. Oh, how I loved that dog. Then it hit me. I don't have a scar on my hand. There is no Smokey.

Still I have been sad all day. I miss Smokey. He was the best dog I never had.

Day 80

 

Contemplating the Waters

 

You don't have, because you do not ask God.

 

James 4:2

 

You have probably heard the story about the man who when he died wanted his ashes to be spread around Wal-Mart. That was the only way he could be sure his wife would come visit his grave site.

I was at a Wal-Mart, not spreading some one's ashes, and walked into the men's restroom. There was man and his young son in there talking to another man. The boy clearly needed to go to the restroom but one stall was out of order and the other occupied. The boy had that anxious look in his eyes and was prancing around the floor eager for his turn.

The conversation between the boy's father and the other man went something like this:

"Are you sure there is someone in that stall?"

"Yes. A little boy went in there a while back and hasn't come out yet. I've been waiting about 10 minutes."

"Well, I don't think my son can wait much longer."

In fact they did not wait much longer. The three of them left, presumably in search of another restroom.

When I left the restroom there was a little girl standing outside the door of the men's room and the girl's mother came up to her and said, "Are you still waiting for Timmy?"

"Yes," she said rolling her eyes. "He's been in there for 15 minutes!"

The mother asked, "Sir, would you mind seeing if there is a little boy named Timmy in there?"

I assured her I would be happy to check. I did have a good idea where Timmy was. I went back in the restroom and tapped on the stall door.

"Timmy, are you in there?"

"Yes," came the weak reply.

"Your mom says it is time for you to come out."

"Okay."

The stall door immediately opened and out came Timmy fully clothed. Evidently he had been in there the last 15 minutes contemplating the peaceful waters of the commode. There was no telling how long he would have stayed in there. Some little boys do seem to be fascinated with toilets.

The point is this: That mom and sister could have waited until one of them had a birthday and Timmy might have still lingered in that bathroom stall. They could have taken matters into their own hands and barged right in the men's room. But what they did was to ask for help. When they did that there problem was solved.

In James 4:2 we are told we don't have simply because we do not ask. Sometimes the things we need are just a heart felt prayer of faith away. Yes, God knows what we need before we ask. He also knows it is important for our spiritual growth for us to learn to ask.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read James 4:1-6

• What paths do some people take, besides prayer, to get the things they want or need?
• What is a reason, James tells us, that we don't receive the things we pray for?
• James quotes Proverbs 3:34, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Do you think that sometimes we don't ask God for what we need because we are too proud and want to do it on our own?

 

 

 

 

 

 





Day 79

 

A Remembrance Book

 

Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name.

Malachi 3:16

 

I write my son's birthday letter every February. It is a birthday tradition. Every year since he could read  (4 years old) I have written him a letter for his birthday. They are simple letters, never much more than a page. I tell him how proud I am of him, that I love him and encourage him to live the Christian life. I don't know how much it means to him now but I do know it will mean a lot more in the future. Now that he is in his twenties and grown I have thought about stopping but I haven't yet. They are all saved and placed in his remembrance book.

 

His remembrance book is not a scrap book, though it may appear to be that to others. I started it after his mother died. It contains pictures of his mom when she was a child and samples of her school work. It explains who Cathy was and what was important to her. There are pictures from her battle with cancer, from when we were dating and of our marriage. It tells him of our life together. There are pictures of him being held by her when he was a baby and also newspaper articles announcing the birth of the "miracle boy." It tells him of her courage in facing death and has letters sent to me that are testimonials to the remarkable person that she was. And it has all those birthday letters.

 

It was good therapy for me to put it together but it was meant for him. I can remember Cathy but he was only a 1 year old when she was died and it is the only way he can remember his mom. He is a fortunate young man to have a mom who loved him so much that she risked her life so that he might be born and also have another mom who has loved and sacrificed so much to see that he has grown to be the fine Christian young man that he is. These are things he needs to know and remember.

 

Malachi tells us about another remembrance book - God's remembrance book. In a day when people were claiming it was pointless to serve God, a few faithful people gathered together to encourage one another to keep the faith. God looked down on them and heard them and had a remembrance book written down for them. It wasn't so God would remember them because he memory is infallible. The book is for them. It is a testimonial to them. I like to picture them up in heaven right now, sitting at the feet of God as together they go through that book, look at the pictures and remember.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Malachi 3:13-18

• What harsh things had some said against God?
• Besides the remembrance book what else is in store for the faithful?
• Who does God compare the faithful to? 



Day 78

 

Imitation

 

You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

 

1 Thessalonians 1:6

 

Ethan and I had to kill a large rat. When I say it was large I mean it was the Godzilla of rats. He was carrying a Chihuahua in his mouth. I'll spare you the gory details of the killing but I was in the back yard when I saw the malicious beast and managed to pin him to the side of the house with a stick and hollered for Ethan to come out and help me finish him off.

Ethan came to my aid brandishing a pitch fork in a menacing fashion and said something I found very amusing. He said, "I feel like an angry villager."

I appreciated the wit. It is not the first time he had displayed his ability to make insightful and humorous remarks. There was a teenage girl who went to Peru with us on a mission trip and she got altitude sickness which is easy to do when you go from sea level in Lima, Peru to a mile and a half high in Cajamarca, Peru. Later that summer on another mission trip in Tupelo, Mississippi the same girl got sick again. Ethan commented that this time she had low altitude sickness.

Where does this sense of humor come from? Well, from the time he could talk I taught him to tell jokes. On one vacation we were in the hills of North Carolina with some friends and we were in this empty barn arena. We sat in the stands and a then 5 year old Ethan took the stage and did his stand up comic routine. He told jokes like: "Where did Napoleon keep his armies? In his sleevies, of course."

So, some of his sense of humor was taught but most of it was caught. He got it from me. He is like me in so many ways yet he is different than me in some ways too (for which we can all be thankful). It is not just Ethan, a whole lot of kids grow up to be like their parents. Some consciously imitate their parents and some do it sub-consciously. I have even known a few that did not want to be like their parents but never the less wound up a lot like them.

Paul says the Thessalonians became imitators of him and the Lord. Several times Paul encourages people to either imitate him or Christ. You have to be real certain you are living the right way if you are telling people to imitate you. And you better be real certain you are living the right way in front of your children because most likely they will imitate you.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Ephesians 5:1-2

• Whom should we imitate and what relationship is it based on?
• What kind of life should we live?
• Who is our example in living this life? 



Day 77

 

God's Timing

 

When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that the Son may be glorified through it." Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick he stayed where he was two more days.

 

                                     John 11:4-6

 



We were supposed to go on our mission trip to Honduras in July but the political situation there made it impossible. The airport in Tegucigalpa was closed and our flight was cancelled. We rescheduled for early September and things worked out this time, just the way God planned it.

We did medical clinics in the village of Lapairique. We saw 2,700 patients in 3 1/2 days. There were 161 professions of faith in Christ. It was a great week. We could sense the hand of God in bringing things together to accomplish what he wanted to do.

A woman came to the medical clinic with 2 small children. Both of the children were very sick. The youngest, just a baby, was only a few days away from death the doctors said. The children had impetigo, a skin disease that is treatable but if left untreated can lead to death. The children got the treatment they needed and their lifes were saved. If we had not been there the baby, without treatment, would have died in a few days and the older sibling might have lived for another week.

We had been disappointed when our trip had been postponed from July to September. It meant some of our team would be unable to go. God's timing was at work though. If we were there in July we would have not been in the village when the children were sick. By coming in September we were there at just the right time.

In John 11 Jesus was on the eastern side of the Jordan river with his disciples when he received a message that his friend Lazarus was sick and needed his help. Lazarus and his sisters lived on the western side of the Jordan river and a couple of days journey from where Jesus was at. From the details of the story and the distance between Bethany and where Jesus was we know that Lazarus must have died shortly after the messenger left Bethany to find Jesus. Jesus couldn't have possibly arrived before Lazarus' death. It was okay the message arrived "too late" because it was all in God's timing. God had something bigger in mind than healing a sick Lazarus. God wanted Jesus to raise a dead Lazarus back to life! The outcome of all this, Jesus tells us, was to bring God glory.

Where we saw the delay of the mission trip as a problem, God was at work. It was his timing to bring us to that village at just the right time. The end result: lives saved to the glory of God.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read John 11:1-16

• Where the disciples receptive to the visit to Judea and to God's timing?
• How can we reconcile the statement that, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus" with his waiting two days before leaving?
• Did Jesus know something the rest of them didn't know? And if so, what?

Day 76

 

My Feet

 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

 

Isaiah 52:7

 

I have beautiful feet. In fact my feet are my best feature. With my face I'm not going to win any beauty contest or be a male model. With my physique I will not be confused with a certain former governor of California. I've never won a popularity contest so I know my personality rubs some people the wrong way. What I have is beautiful feet.

 

I am not making this claim based on pride but upon years of experience in viewing feet. I worked my way through college and Seminary being a life guard and a shoe salesman. In both jobs I got to see a lot of feet. My feet are not too big or too small, a moderate size 9 1/2. My toes are not too stubby or too long and skinny. They are perfectly shaped.

 

I am really pleased that my toenails are well colored and healthy. When I was young I was afraid that as I grew older I would have toenails like my dad's. When I was a kid my dad's toenails were yellow and thick and scary. They looked like the toenails of Neanderthal man. What I didn't know was that his toenails were a sort of occupational hazard. He was a coach and constantly battled athlete's foot. It has been years since my dad coached and his toenails are fine now. He can go barefoot and not scare the grand kids. And I am grateful and proud that I had a dad who would sacrifice his feet's beauty to put food on the table for us.

 

I know that vanity is a sin and not an attractive character trait. One of the guys I sold shoes with was so vain his best friend was a mirror. In fact he would stand in front of the mirror at the shoe store every day and say, "I can't wait for tomorrow. I get better looking every day." I never spend time looking at my feet in the mirror.

 

The only flaw on my feet is that I have a small scar on one of them. When I was about 12 I jumped over a barb wire fence somewhat unsuccessfully. I hooked my ankle on a barb and had a big gash down on to my foot that was about 9 inches long. I went home and showed it to my dad. My dad believed in tough love. I didn't get a tetanus shot or stitches. He put this red medicine on the cut that really burned. It was probably picante sauce. The he put 12 regular old band aids across the cut. When it healed I had a 9 inch scar that stood up about 1/4 of an inch off my foot. Over the years the scar shrunk to where it is no longer raised up and only about an inch long. I think it gives my foot a rugged, manly quality. 

 

The Bible talks about beautiful feet. In Isaiah 52:7 it says, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'" Now that is the kind of feet I want.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Isaiah 52:7-12

• What are the watchmen to do?
• What are the "ruins of Jerusalem" going to do?
• What are those "who carry the vessels of the LORD" supposed to do?    

Day 75

 

Stones On A Plane

 

So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake he lived.

 

Numbers 21:9

 

 

Some of you may have seen the movie Snakes On a Plane. I am  not revealing any plot secret to tell you that it involves a bunch of deadly snakes at loose on a plane. I have never been attacked by venomous snakes while flying in a plane  but I have been attacked by something extremely painful while on a plane. On a flight from Miami, Florida to Lima, Peru I had my first and hopefully last kidney stone attack.

It began in the first hour of the flight with great discomfort. In a short time the great discomfort turned to raging pain. I went to the flight attendant to inform them that something was wrong, seriously wrong with me. Evidently I looked like death on a stick because they began to search for a Doctor on the plane. They found one who asked me a few diagnostic questions and then told me what I had already guessed; I had a kidney stone problem. I had never had one before but had been informed that there is no pain like kidney stone pain.

The Dr. gave me the strongest pain killer he had with him on the plane - Tylenol with codeine. He told me it probably wouldn't help much. He was a doctor and a prophet because it didn't help at all. He might as well have given me a jelly bean for the pain. In fact a jelly bean would have been better because it would have tasted better.

I watched the seconds go by on my watch for hours in sheer agony waiting for the plane to land in Lima. I told God, "You have got to help me, I'm going here to do your work." I just couldn't fathom God having me travel all the way to Peru just to pass a kidney stone and miss out on visiting the orphanage and ministering to people in need. I knew if I was going to do anything in Peru that God would have to do something.

He did. As I buckled in for our descent into Lima I suddenly began to feel better. The pain subsided and the flight attendants informed me that I had got my color back. I don't know if God dissolved the kidney stone or postponed it for another day (I'm hoping for the former) but I do know God took care of it. Like the Israelites looking on the bronze snake with faith and living I had looked to God with stones on a plane and lived through it. I ministered to people in Peru that week before returning home without a further problem. I'm sure it is not as exciting as Snakes On a Plane but knowing that God will take care of you is pretty exciting stuff.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Numbers 21:4-9

 

• When Moses prayed did God take the snakes away?
• Did looking at the bronze snake prevent them from getting bitten?
• Does God sometimes take us through problems rather than removing them from us?

Day 74

 

The Apple of God's Eye

 

Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings.

 

Psalm 17:8 

 

Have you ever thought about the expression, "the apple of your (or my) eye?" What does it mean? And why apple? I like bananas better than apples so why can't someone be the banana of my eye?

First of all, how we use the expression today is different than its use in the Bible. When we say someone is the apple of my eye today we mean that they are someone we take great pride in or pleasure from and someone we hold dear. When the Psalmist says we are the apple of God's eye he means something similar yet different.

Often times in the Old Testament the writers would repeat the same idea in a different way to emphasize a point. A prime example of this is Psalm 119:105. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." The psalmist uses "a lamp to my feet" and restates the same truth with "a light to my path."

That is what is happening in Psalm 17:8. The psalmist asks God to "keep me as the apple of your eye" and then restates the same request as "hide me in the shadow of your wings." We know that God is spirit and doesn't have eyes (though he sees all) or wings. What the psalmist is asking for is God's protection.

The metaphor of "hide me in the shadow of your wings" is easily understood. It brings up the image of a mother bird sheltering its chicks from harm beneath her wings.

The apple of your eye means the same thing though the metaphor is not as clear. What is the most important part of your eye? The pupil is the most important part if you want to see. It is the part of the eye you must protect. The pupil is that little round apple shaped center of your eye. In asking God to "keep me as the apple of your eye" it is asking God to guard me like you do your eyesight. (see Deuteronomy 32:10)

So banana of you eye doesn't work. Pupils are shaped like apples not bananas. They also didn't have bananas growing in the Promised Land so they would didn't know what they were. We can join with the psalmist  in praying, Lord, "keep me as the apple of your eye" and know that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Psalm 17:8-15

• What is the condition of the wicked's heart?
• Where do the wicked find their reward?
• When we are righteous what will satisfy us?



Day 73

 

The Eyes Have It

 

And Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see." Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

 

2 Kings 6:7

 

A lady, who was not a church member, came to my office asking for financial help. The way churches in our community handled these requests was through  the Ministerial Alliance. The Ministerial Alliance had a set of rules we operated under, one of which was that each request needed to get the signatures of 3 different pastors in town before the request could be granted. There were several good reasons to do it that way but I won't get into that now. I started the lady in the process, got her form filled out, signed my name and sent her on her way with directions to where she might find other pastors.

She had not been out of my office 2 minutes when my son called. He had a lawn mowing business and was loading the riding mower on the trailer when a belt came off of the mower as he was loading it on the trailer.

So I left the church, drove to my house and went to my back yard where Ethan was working on the mower. I began to help him and had not been at it very long when the lady who had been asking for financial help showed up. She saw us in the yard and came back to where we were and said, "Brother Jess sent me over here with this form to be signed."

"No he didn't," I informed her.

"Yes he did. He said I could get it signed here."

"No he didn't tell you that. Brother Jess sent you to the Methodist or the Presbyterian Church to get the form signed."

"No, he told me to come to this house."

"I'm pretty sure Brother Jess didn't send you to this house because this is Brother Jess' house and I am Brother Jess."

Then, quiet to my astonishment she said, "No you're not."

I had to tell her, "Yes, I am. I spoke to you less than 10 minutes ago at the church. I am wearing the exact same clothes. I assure you I know who I am. I did not send you here because I never send anyone to my home, plus I have already signed your form."

She took some convincing but I finally persuaded her to move on. I don't know what her problem was (besides lying). Could she really not see that I was the exact same person she had talked to just minutes before?

You know a lot of people don't see things clearly. They see what they want to see and believe what they want to believe. Some people see things objectively and that is a vast improvement over seeing things subjectively. It is still not the way we need to see things though. We need to see things not only objectively but also with eyes of faith.

Elisha was a thorn in the Aramean's side. The king of Aram sent a sizable force of soldiers to deal with Elisha. A servant of Elisha woke up one morning to see that they were surrounded by Aramean troops. Objectively things looked bad for Elisha but Elisha had eyes of faith. He could see what his servant could not. He prayed that the servant's eyes would be opened to the army of angels that was protecting them. The end result was that the army that was sent to trap Elisha wound up being trapped itself.

We all need to see things clearly, objectively. We also need eyes of faith to see God at work and the wonders he can perform.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Kings 6:8-23

• Why was the king of Aram upset with Elisha?
• Who was it that was outnumbered?
• Of all the people in this story who was the only one could truly see what was happening?





Day 72

 

A Flock of Goats

 

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful!

Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead.

 

                                                Song of Songs 4:1

 

I have a confession to make. Though I have preached over a 1,000 different sermons in my life I have never preached one sermon from the Song of Songs (also known as The Song of Solomon). There is a reason for this. The reason is the same as why Bibles that are printed with illustrations never have a picture from the Song of Songs. If you have read it then you know; it is adult content.

The content makes some people uncomfortable and they try to explain it away. Some Bible experts try to tell us it is a allegory about how God loves the church. They must have been drinking Lord's Supper grape juice that had been left in the fridge too long when they came up with that one. It is the only book of the Bible that some people aren't comfortable taking literally.

Other than the amorous nature of the Song of Solomon there is another thing that strikes me about its content. Solomon must have majored in agriculture in college. He is always referring to his lover as pieces of fruit or some animal. She is compared to gazelles, doves apples and grapes. She has teeth like a flock of sheep, eyes like a dove and hair like a flock of goats.

So what are we to make of all of this? God wants us to understand that we are to love and be attracted to our spouse. In fact we are to be attracted to them either because their hair looks like a flock of goats or despite the fact that they have goat hair. Paul tells men in Ephesians 5 , "husbands love your wives." We are to love our own wife and not some other woman with sheep teeth and goat hair.

The other thing I get from this book of the Bible is: Thank God I live in a day and time where we have discovered just what conditioner can do for your hair.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Ephesians 5:21- 6:4

• Who is supposed to submit? (Eph. 5:21)
• What is the wife's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 5:24)
• What is the husband's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 5:25)
• What is the child's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 6:1)
• What is the parent's role in mutual submission? (Eph. 6:4)



Day 71

 

Don't Scrimp on the Shrimp

 

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." 

 

Matthew 6:33

 

You may have heard about the lady at the Fort Worth area restaurant that called 911. Was there someone choking at the restaurant? No. Was there a robbery at the restaurant? No. So, what was the emergency? She ordered shrimp fried rice and she didn't think there was enough shrimp in it.

I like shrimp almost as much as Bubba in Forest Gump and I would be disappointed if a restaurant scrimped on the shrimp. I can't see calling 911 and complaining though. You see, you can get in trouble for making a frivolous call to the 911 operator. 

Some people think of prayer like it is calling 911. They don't want to bother God with the little stuff; they just call on him when a loved one is having surgery or had a car wreck. God can certainly help us in times of need but he is not just a cosmic emergency response team. God doesn't get over worked or swamped with too many requests. You can call on God for the small stuff too.

Now just because God wants to hear all our requests, big or small, doesn't mean we should be praying, "Lord, I need more shrimp here." To have a conversation with God only when you need something is missing out on what prayer is supposed to be. God does encourage us to ask for what we need but that in no means makes him our supernatural waiter making more shrimp magically appear in our rice. God wants to have a conversation with us, a relationship with us.

My son asks for stuff he needs all the time but he also wants to me to listen to some new music he has recorded or talk to me about school. I give him what he needs and sometimes what he wants that is beyond his needs because he is my son and I love him and have a good relationship with him. God has  adopted us into his family and prayer is a family chat.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 6:25-34

• Does God know what we need?
• Not trusting God for what we need is a lack of what?
• Are we promised trouble free days?

 



 



Day 70

 

Indoor Hunting Season

 

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 

 

1 Peter 5:8

 

I got the phone call. An elderly man my son worked for, mowing his lawn, had a squirrel in his house and wanted someone with a BB gun to dispatch the squirrel. The man had plenty of guns in his home but didn't feel like blowing a hole in his floor with a shot gun so a BB gun was needed.

He wasn't interested in catch and release because multiple squirrels had been in his attic keeping him awake at night. As anyone who has ever had a squirrel problem knows, squirrels are just rats with a bushy tail and good PR. My son and I had been over at his house before, at his request, to try and chase squirrels out of his attic. He wanted to arm us both with shot guns and get the squirrels caught in a cross fire as they exited the attic. I may have been raised in the city and relatively inexperienced at country living but getting squirrels in a cross fire seemed more dangerous to humans than to squirrels. So the plan was altered to my son waiting outside at the squirrels exit point with a shot gun while I chased the squirrels out of the attic. I was smart enough to nix the cross fire idea but must have used up my quota of clear thinking when I willingly participated in the man's idea to chase the squirrels out of the attic. To get the squirrels out of the attic I was to crawl up in the attic and set off some firecrackers. The end result of that was that I had a ringing in my ears for 2 days and no squirrels left the attic.

But now there was a squirrel in the man's bedroom, so Ethan and I loaded up the BB gun to do a little indoor squirrel hunting. I was hoping indoor squirrel hunting season was year round. We arrived to find the squirrel cornered in a corner (where else?) behind a trash can.

My son placed the BB gun as close to the squirrel as possible, perhaps an inch away, and pulled the trigger. It was then we discovered this was no ordinary squirrel but a rare Transylvanian vampire squirrel. One shot at close range just enraged the squirrel. We needed a silver BB or holy water to combat this fiend.

The squirrel raced around the room like it's tail was on fire. It ran between my legs with Ethan shooting BB after BB at it and me dancing like I was in a cartoon western with BBs pinging around my feet. Finally the squirrel ran into the master closet, went up some coats and hid behind a suitcase on a shelf that was about eye level with me. I armed myself with a broom and instructed my son to shoot the squirrel as I moved the suitcase out of the way so he could get a clear shot.

I moved the suit case out of the way with the broom handle and suddenly the little vampire launched himself right at my face. His viscous little claws were outstretched ready to latch on to my face and his little razor sharp vampire teeth poised to sink into my flesh.

My heart stopped beating in fear. A quick move of my head and he flew right past my ear, right over my shoulder and chased my son out of that walk in closet. Once my heart started beating again it was at a highly accelerated rate.

I have never been attacked by a wild (or tame) lion before and I hope that I never will be. A crazed vampire squirrel was enough to scare the patoobies  out of me. Peter says the devil is roaming around like a lion waiting for someone to devour. I, for one, am going to follow Peter's advice and be alert. I'm not sure my heart could take a lion attack.

For the squeamish who may be reading this I will spare you the details of the squirrel's demise. No squirrel was going to make a monkey out of me. We killed him 3 times. With vampire squirrels you err on the side of caution.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 1 Peter 5:8-11

• Peter warns us to be self-controlled. Does losing self-control make you more susceptible to Stan's attacks?
• How are we to resist the devil?
• What happens to us before we are made stronger?

Day 69

 

Reliability

 

Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.

 

Acts 15:37-38

 

I read about a lady in London, England that had a cleaning business. She put an ad in the paper looking for workers and asked that only "hardworking" and reliable people apply. A government agency made her change the ad. The agency said the ad discriminated against those who were unreliable.

When Paul and Barnabas were getting ready for their second missionary journey they had a disagreement over the personnel to go on the trip. Barnabas wanted John Mark to go with them but Paul thought he was unreliable. He thought that because John Mark had quit and gone home during their first missionary trip. The missionary trips were hard and often times dangerous and Paul wanted someone he could count on. So Paul took Silas with him and then added Timothy early on in the trip. Then, right before entering Europe, Paul added another worker as Luke joined them. Silas, Timothy and Luke proved themselves to be very reliable and useful.

Barnabas did take John Mark with him and they went on their own missionary journey to the island of Cyprus. Twelve years after Paul had dismissed John Mark as being unreliable he was once again in Paul's good graces and helping Paul while he was imprisoned in Rome (Colossians 4:10). Five years after that Paul is in Rome, in prison again and writes Timothy, "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry." (2 Timothy 4:11) Somewhere along the way Mark had figured out how to be reliable.

What about you? Have you figured out how to be reliable and useful for ministry? Can God depend on you?

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Acts 13:13

• Is any indication given of a good reason for John Mark to leave Paul and Barnabas?

Read Philemon 24

• What does Paul call John Mark?

 



 

 

Day 68

 

Prayer and Change

 

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9

 

 

Ethan bought his first guitar with his own money. He was a freshman in High School and played the trumpet and piano and he wanted to try the guitar.

He had never had a lesson but it became apparent over a short period of time that he was going to be good at it. We had to encourage him to practice the piano or trumpet but we never had to encourage him to play the guitar. We did have to tell him to stop playing sometimes because it was time to go to bed. So, he quickly outgrew his beginner guitar.

He talked to some older, experienced guitar players who told him he needed to buy a Taylor guitar. He found one on e-bay, a pretty nice one that brand new would have cost about $2,000.00, but being used was about half that. He made a lot more money mowing lawns than the $2.50 per lawn that I had made when I was his age but it was still a lot of money for him to come up with. So I told him I would go halves with him. If he wanted a guitar so badly he would have to mow a lot of grass for some folks, save his money and not spend it on other things, and then I would help. And that is what happened.

I think prayer works that way some times. We pray and pray and ask God for things and he is waiting for us to do our part. He wants to do things for us but it might require some change on our part. We may be asking for some help in a relationship or with our kids and God is ready to work on the other person for us but is waiting for us to make the changes we need to make.

Paul had a "thorn in the flesh" that he wanted to be done with. We don't know what it was for certain but that detail is not really important. What is important is that God wanted to do something for Paul that wasn't exactly what Paul wanted. Paul had to come to understand what was required for him to receive what God had planned to give was for him to change his request and accept the limitation of having the thorn. When Paul made his adjustment he was then able to receive the grace and power God had planned to give.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

• Who was the author of Paul's thorn in the flesh?
• What was God using the thorn in the flesh for in Paul's life?
• How did Paul become comfortable with having this weakness?

Day 67

 

Is There Someone Else Who Could Help?

 

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, " Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

 

1 Kings 22:18

 

 

"There is a guy down here that wants to talk to the pastor," I was told. So, I hung up the phone, got in my car and went to the Tru-Value hardware store. A guy on a bicycle had showed up there with a flat tire that needed fixed and had requested a pastor. The guys at the hardware store were fixing his bicycle when I got there.

The man with the bike was insisting that they were putting his tire on backwards. He was wrong. I started talking to him and he told me that he had ridden his bike all the way from Montana to Arkansas and was headed for Florida. The guys at the hardware store were fine Christian folks and they were fixing his bicycle for free but the man looked like he could use some help of a different kind. He had a bad cold and I could see a prescription bottle and some medical papers in his jacket pocket. I also suspected that mentally he wasn't operating at full speed.

"You look like you are sick," I told him. "Do you need to see a doctor or need some medication?"

"I ain't crazy," he informed me.

I was thinking, "I know your crazy, I just want to know if you need some medicine for that cold."

He didn't want to see a doctor or get any medicine, what he wanted was for me to get him a motel room. "I can't get you a motel room but the church has a fully furnished mobile home I can put you up in."

"I want a motel room," he insisted.

"Like I told you, we have a nice mobile home. It has everything in it but a phone. We have missionaries that stay in it from time to time so we keep it nice. You are plenty welcome to stay there."

"I don't want a mobile home, I want a motel room!"

"I can't spend money on a motel room when I have a perfectly nice place for you to stay that will not cost the church anything."

While he was distracted talking to me they had finished fixing his bike. He grabbed his bike and pedaled off down the highway.

That was Saturday morning. On Sunday morning a deacon who owned a local restaurant came in laughing and told me, "This guy came in to the restaurant yesterday riding a bicycle and asked me if I would call a pastor in town for him. He wanted any preacher but the Baptist preacher."

The deacon though that was hilarious and so did I. I had to tell him why the guy with the bicycle was looking for any pastor but the Baptist one. I found out he had got in touch with the Presbyterian pastor and got his motel room.

Some people will look for any help they can get except the help that they need. They will try the most idiotic desperate things before they will come to God and admit they are sinners in need of help.

In 1 Kings 22 King Ahab of Israel was looking for some spiritual advice at the request of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. There were false prophets headed up by a guy named Zedekiah that would tell Ahab anything he wanted to hear. There was a real prophet, Micaiah, who would tell him the truth. Who does he listen to? Zedekiah, the false prophet. What happened when he followed the wrong advice? A random arrow hit Ahab right between the plates in his armor and Ahab died.

Sometimes it is painful to be confronted with the truth. Our pride can get in the way of our doing the smart thing and following the counsel of God. In the long run you will find taking the false help the world has to offer will prove disastrous.  

 

Upon Further Review 

 

Read 1 Kings 22:1-37

• Whose idea was it to seek the "counsel of the Lord?"
• What did the 400 prophets say?
• What kind of prophet was Jehoshaphat looking for? (As opposed to the 400 -see v.7)
• Why did Ahab hate Micaiah?
• What did Micaiah finally get around to prophesying?
• What happened to Micaiah when he told the truth?
• Despite his trying to avoid it what happened to Ahab?

Day 66



The Moped

 

The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

 

Proverbs 27:12

 

 

Ethan was given a moped by his grandparents. It had been sitting in their garage unused for some time and they decided that Ethan was old enough to use it. I took it down to the local hardware store so that they could get it in running condition.

When it was fixed I rode it home. The only way to anywhere in the small town we lived in was on the highway. The speed limit in town was 35 mph, though typically people went faster. The moped would top out at 35 mph on a flat surface but we lived in the hills of Arkansas. I could go as fast as I needed to keep from getting run over if I was going down hill but going up hill it would only go about 5 mph. I quickly decided that it was not safe for Ethan to ride in town even if he was wearing a helmet and body armor.

The street we lived on wasn't long and had a dead end. He could ride the moped on that but it would have been pretty boring after a while. I thought maybe he could use it like a dirt bike and ride it on the trails around our street. (There were only 3 houses on the street the rest was just woods.)

Before I sent him off riding through the woods I though it best for me to test it to see if it was safe for Ethan. I got on the moped and took of on one of the trails.

The trail was kind of rocky and went steeply down hill. The moped, I discovered, had no shocks. It wasn't long before I was going way too fast and was airborne. It was then I made some crucial discoveries:

• Brakes don't work when you are in the air. Not even air brakes.
• Riding on that trail, with that moped, was not safe for me or  Ethan or probable Evil Knevil.
• Preachers may be full of hot air but we do not float and we are still subject to the law of gravity.
• The ground is hard. Very hard. I have the scar to prove it.

I wish I could say that the moped incident was the first time I have done something so goofy. Unfortunately I have years of experience in the goofy department.

Once in my younger years, when I was a recreation director for a camp, the youth minister took the teens to this swimming hole. The big attraction was about a 10 foot waterfall we were told you could jump off of into a pool of water below.

The youth minister told me, "Jess you're the rec guy, jump off that waterfall and see if it is safe."

In a moment of sanity I asked, "And if it isn't?"

"Then we will swim somewhere else," he said.

My moment of sanity had passed because that seemed like a reasonable response. So I jumped off of the waterfall into the water below. (Give me some credit - I didn't dive.) Fortunately it was safe to jump off, though I almost got hypothermia because the water was so cold.

Proverbs 27:12 tells us, "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it."

I readily admit I have done some simple minded things and suffered a few bruises and cuts from them. How I have escaped without ever breaking a bone is the grace of God. Now that I am older and my athleticism and recuperative powers aren't what they used to be I am much more cautious. To go on putting myself in harm's way trusting God will miraculously bail me out would be more than simple minded. It would be presumptuous and wrong.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 4:5-7

• What is Jesus tempted by the devil to do?
• Did the devil make it seem like a reasonable thing to do?
• What about the situation did Jesus tell the devil was wrong? 

 

 



 

Day 65

 

A Hope That Does Not Disappoint

 

And hope does  not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

 

Romans 5:5

 

Thad called me one night when I had not heard from him in years. He had been in my youth group in years back and since that time I had moved to a different state to become a pastor. We chatted a while and caught up on each other's life. I though it odd that he would go to some trouble to locate me and call me unless something was up. I waited for him to bring something up but he never did, at least not then.

He called me again the next week and finally got around to the real reason he had called. He was planning to kill himself. I pleaded with him no to do it. I offered to fly him to Arkansas, where I was living, and told him he could stay with us until he could work things out. He refused my offer and wouldn't give me any contact information.

Desperately I called the city on the west coast where he was living and told them the situation but without an address or a phone number (he was using a disposable cell phone when he called me) or even a description of his car there was not much they could do. I called people I knew that might have some information about him but no one knew a thing. Thad's parents were dead and he had been on his own for years and no one could help me.

A week later he called again, this time late at night. Tonight is the night he told me. He asked for my address because he wanted to send me a letter and had some last wishes he wanted taken care of. I pleaded with him not to go through with it. I asked as I had before what was so bad that it would drive him to this but he refused to tell me. When he hung up I called the police in his town again but with no new information there wasn't a lot they could do.

I sat awake in bed that night praying for him. About 1:45 a. m. my phone rang. It was a friend of his in that city who said that Thad had left his place a few minutes before acting strange and had asked him to mail me a package. I told him, "Call the police, tell them what kind of car he is driving and where he lives, he intends to kill himself."

The next call I received came at about 4:00 a. m. and it was the police. They had found Thad and it was too late. I talked to investigators and told them of the package and letter he wanted sent to me and that I thought it might have some information about his remaining family.

A few days later his family was tracked down and the police forwarded the letter to me. I preached his funeral. I read his letter over and over again but never found any reason why he would take his life. It seems that there was something he just didn't want anybody to know about and he had just lost hope.

Unfortunately that is not the only suicide I have had to deal with. There are people who for some reason have lost hope and think that killing themselves solves the problem. It doesn't. It does not solve a thing; it just creates heartache and problems for others. Thinking it solves the problem is like Sherlock Holmes thinking that quitting the case will solve the mystery.

I confess that I don't really understand such a feeling of hopelessness. I understand people have them, it is just foreign to me. I have had some bad things happen in my life but I have never come close to being that hopeless.

How do people get there? I don't know. I do know that there is a way out of hopelessness. In Romans 5 Paul talks of a chain of events that lead to hope. He tells us to "rejoice in our sufferings" because that suffering will "produce perseverance" (Romans 5:3). The perseverance will in turn produce character and the character will produce hope. (Romans 5:4) I guess for some people a link of that chain is broken and their suffering never produces perseverance, at least not the kind that will lead on to hope.

Paul goes on to say that the hope from God will "not disappoint us." It doesn't disappoint us because it is the love of God washing over our hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Habakkuk 3:16-19

• What was Habakkuk feeling and why?
• What is in Habakkuk's lists of things that could possibly go wrong? (v. 17)
• If all the things that could go wrong do go wrong what will Habakkuk do? (v. 19)
• How can Habakkuk do that?

Bonus Material

 

Several times after someone has committed suicide I have been asked if suicide is the unpardonable sin. The idea is that in committing suicide a person's last act is a sinful one so there is no opportunity to repent.

The answer to that is simply no; suicide is not the unpardonable sin. People die all the time, some suddenly and some lingering, where there last act is not confessing their sins. I am sure that heaven has plenty of people in it who were not "fessed up."

If confessing our sins in a timely fashion before we die was what got us into heaven it would be a salvation of works. And we know that salvation is not of works but of grace and faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). We do need to acknowledge or confess to God that we are sinners and this comes as his Spirit convicts us. But anything we do, confessing our sins or noble deeds, is pointless unless we receive the free gift of salvation that comes through Jesus Christ and his death on a cross and his resurrection from the dead. When we place our faith in his grace nothing, not the lack of confession of a particular sin, can prevent us from being saved and joining Christ in heaven.

 

Extra Special Bonus Material

 

So, what is the unpardonable sin? In Matthew 12:32 Jesus tells us, "that anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come." Speaking against the Holy Spirit or blaspheming the Holy Spirit is the unpardonable sin.

Okay, so what does it mean to blaspheme the Holy Spirit? The key to understanding what Jesus means is in the context. Jesus heals a demon possessed man who was blind and mute. Most people who witnessed this were saying, "Could this be the Son of David?" They witnessed a miracle and saw it as a sign that Jesus was the promised Messiah. The Pharisee's reaction is different. They attribute the healing to Jesus using demonic powers.

It was not the first time they had witnessed Jesus do an astounding miracle. There probably was not anyone who watched Jesus more closely than the Pharisees. They had all the information they needed to know that Jesus was the Son of God. The had seen proof of it over and over again and had to know what Jesus claimed was true. Knowing it was true, being convicted in their hearts it was true, they still rejected Jesus. They even suggested he was from Satan when they knew he was from God.

An important verse is Matthew 12:25 when Matthew tells us, "Jesus knew their thoughts." He knew exactly when they crossed that line of saying, "Yes, I believe what Jesus is saying is true but I choose to reject it." Jesus knew in their hearts they had said, "no" to the convicting power of the Spirit of God. And that is blaspheming or speaking against the Holy Spirit.

Don't miss out on something important here. When Jesus is telling us that there is one sin that cannot be forgiven he is also telling us that all others can be forgiven. Paul persecuted the church, held cloaks while Stephen was stoned to death. He was forgiven. David stole another man's wife and arranged for his death. He was forgiven. And so shall you be if you ask for forgiveness and say yes to his convicting Spirit.

 

* For a more detailed explanation of the unpardonable sin I suggest you read John Macarthur's book The Jesus You Can't Ignore. Chapter 7 of the book explains it well and you will see my explanation is essentially John Macarthur's explanation.