Road Construction

   As I’ve been traveling across the country there’s been something that’s been common in all six states I’ve been through in my travels.  Road Construction.  Even though it’s fall, it’s still warm enough for the road crews to be finishing up that summer road construction projects.  They’re a pain to drive though, as you always have to reduce your speed, and it makes the trip longer.  Occasionally you hit a project that you have to sit and wait for a pilot car.  The clock ticks away as you work your way through the construction zone at a snails pace.  No one likes it, but we all know it’s necessary.  Roads get beat up and need repairing, especially in the upper Midwest.  Our weather is so extreme on every season, and it heaves and busts up roads.

    As I was driving through yet, another road construction zone a few days ago, trying carefully not to hit any cones with my motorhome, I got to thinking how road construction relates to our lives.  Every now in then, things need to be resurfaced, or a road made wider in our lives.  The Lord is the master at knowing which roads in our lives need attention and repair.  Sometimes our road need a total make over, sometimes just a resurfacing.  Sometimes, we’re going down the right road, and we need to continue on that road, but things have become rather bumpy, and rough.  There’s pot holes and missing pavement where our road has gotten beaten up.  But Jesus has a way of making the crooked way straight and the rough places smooth.  “Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth…” Isa. 40:4

    So even though you don’t like it any more than I do, enjoy the journey, even the road construction, knowing that the end result will be better.  

Don’t forget the Bread

 

   I recently heard someone tell a story that rung true in my heart and life.

His wife had called and asked him to please stop and pick up a loaf of bread on his way home from work.  He said he’d be glad to.  Her last words before they hung up the phone was, “Don’t forget the bread.”  He chuckled, “Of course I won’t forget, that’s why I’m going to the store.”  On his way home from work, he swung by the grocery store, but soon found himself distracted  as to why he was there.  He saw some bananas, and thought that sounded good, pretty soon he found himself in the cookie isle, then the chips, and somehow wandered over to the frozen section and eyed some ice cream, that just sounded so good.  Soon his cart was filling up with all kinds of yummy sounding food, enough to comfort his soul and satisfy his hunger craving quickly.  He went through the checkout, and headed on home.  As he got home and set the grocery sacks on the kitchen counter, his wife took a peak, and said, “Did you remember the bread?”

  Oh no!  The main reason he went, he had neglected to do.  Other things got in his way and distracted him.  To quote the movie “Up” it was a “Squirrel!!” moment.

    Though this mans story was funny it was the relate-ability of it that hit home.  How many times do we set out with good intentions to do something, but get distracted by all the enticing things along the way, and then miss the main point all together. I fear I’m not alone in this trouble. I’m an easily distracted person. I often have to rein myself in, and say, “whoa!” Not what I’m suppose to be doing.

  Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35).  So don’t forget the bread!  He’s the main thing.  Life wants to distract you at every turn, but the bread is what you’re looking for.  Don’t forget the bread!! Focus on the important and the thing you really need. The bread. And that bread is Jesus!

Remember Lots Wife

     One small verse with just three words. Luke 17:32 “Remember Lot’s wife!”  In my Bible the words are in red, which means, Jesus said them.  So if this is something Jesus said for us to remember, why is it I don’t ever remember hearing a sermon preached from this verse, or even really noticed it myself in my reading.

   Jesus said there’s something I want you to remember.  Remember Lot’s wife!  So what’s up with Lot’s wife, and why should we remember her?  Did she do something great for the kingdom of God, did her faith propel her into the Hall of Faith?  Did she face giants and defeat them?  Nope, none of those. Actually what she did was, she looked back.  And in looking back she died by turning into a pillar of salt, one of the most bizarre deaths recorded in the Bible. 

   She was living in a very evil place but rich in its worldly goods.  An angel had come to her and her husband Lot, and told them to flee Sodom, and not look back.  (Genesis 19:17) The angel even took them by the hand and rushed them out of the city, showing how eminent the danger was.  He warned that if they even looked back they would be consumed with the judgement that was going to consume Sodom and Gomorrah.

    “We need to look forward to our deliverance, not back at a world passing away and ripe for judgment.”  

    I’ve heard it said, if you drive looking in your rear view mirror you’ll wreck for sure.  Your future is in front of you, so quit looking back to what you use to have, or did, or the things you miss.  There’s a future ahead of you, not behind you.  Don’t crave and desire that sinful life you were living before Christ.  It’s a new life with Jesus that’s so much better than anything you had before.  So remember Lots wife and don’t look back!

Unsubscribe

 This morning I was checking my emails, and became annoyed at all the junk email there was.  Do you get them too?  From different places you may have contacted in the past by ordering something, or checking their website, and now your email in-box is loaded with constant emails from them.  I’ve tried to keep up deleting those unwanted emails, but then keep piling up on me.  So I again started going down the list and unsubscribing.

    There are  other things in life that need to be unsubscribed to also.  How about negative thoughts, unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, etc. the list could go on and on.  Things in life that just clutter up your mind and heart, and don’t let you get to the things that are really important.  The clutter makes finding those wanted personal emails, hard to find.  So even though I unsubscribe to emails every once in a while,  without careful diligence, unwanted emails can pile up.

         I love how the Amplified Bible says it in Hebrews 12:1, ““… let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,”

‭       All those little things that entangle us, like getting caught in a net or trap.  We unknowingly step in, and slowly but surely we get more and more tangled into the mess of the trap, till we can’t get out without careful and purposeful action.  The next verse in Hebrews 12 tells us just how to untangle and unsubscribe to this mess.  “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”  Look to Jesus.  He can help you unsubscribe to those things that are weighing you down.  When we’re free of the clutter and extra weight it has caused in our lives, we can then run our race with freedom.

     So maybe today, take some time to clean out your email in-box, and unsubscribe to all that junk, and also start to click unsubscribe to a some unwanted junk in your heart.