Tuesday, March 30, 2021

HOW AM I DOING, LORD?


Our life is a gift with one chance to do it right.  An accident on my regular bike ride last week brought some soul searching. How am I doing, Lord? 

It could have been much worse, but I realized after it that one second can change everything.  It was the regular twenty-mile route on a clear, perfect day.  A chain-link covered ramp was just ahead.  I hurried up because a biker waited for me at the top.  It is a covered bridge across a river.  But at that moment as I reached her, my handlebar touched her handlebar and maybe her hand as well.  The next second I was hitting the chain-link fence at the top of the ramp head on and went down hard.  It took a second to realize that it really happened.  I got up, turned and faced the other biker and said, “It was my fault.  Are you alright?” She said the same thing to me twice.  I was fine; she was, too.  She rode down the ramp and was gone.  I turned to my bicycle still jammed against the fence, picked it up and coasted down the other side, but the chain was off, the gears had “jammed” and the front tire was damaged.  My next decision was to turn around, try to make it home without being rescued by my permanent, dependable rescuer.  Eric, my husband, has rescued me a few times.

This time, I managed to move the chain back on and limped the five or six miles home.  The bike was not totaled, the shop mechanic assured me…but the wait for it to be assessed and fixed and returned emphasizes my incident that changed everything.

I wondered out loud to my husband today, “Was God saying something to me?” “It could be.” But what I know is that life can turn a corner when you least expect it.  Incidents can happen that change the future, even the present.

A couple of places in Scripture came to me that night. They are contrasts.  One is a warning, one a mystery.

In Matthew, just before John baptized Jesus, he confronted Scribes and Pharisees who put on a false pretense of getting right with God (their hearts were deeply opposite).  John the forerunner of Jesus told them, “Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” Matthew 3:10. How am I doing, Lord?

But a mysterious verse in Ezekiel 47:12 lifts the spirit to hope. “And all trees for food shall go up by the torrent, on its bank on this side, and on that side. Its leaf shall not fade, nor its fruit fail. It will bear by its months because its waters come out from the sanctuary. And its fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for healing.” Does my life “bear good fruit”?

So, to end this introspection here is a thought.  Live every day with dependence on our Creator, Jesus Christ.  He has promised “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He will go ahead of me and come behind me.  I am His.

"Do not fear, nor be dismayed, for the LORD God, my God, will be with you. He will not fail you nor leave you."  (I Chronicles 28:20).

Monday, March 1, 2021

ARE YOU BORN AGAIN?


Are you born again?  "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..." (Titus 3:5)

When a friend told me, “I don’t think people in our Church know how to be born again” I was taken aback.  It took a few months to realize the seriousness of her statement.

Then I thought about another Church we were part of.  For two years, the Class we participated in seemed to grow cold, meaningless.  I wondered why.  Another friend told me after we left that the Teacher had given a pop quiz, and nobody knew anything.

 There is eternity ahead for every person.  This is the most important truth in your life. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:20) All of us “are in the same boat.”

 But you can be born again! 

 Do you know that Jesus, Son of God, came as a perfect sacrifice, died for your sins and mine, rose again (proving He is God)  He showed Himself to 500 at once after He rose from the dead.  "And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, ‘All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth, therefore go and teach all nations...’" (Matthew 28) “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life…” (I John 5:13) 

 Believe your God and Savior, Jesus Christ… “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9).  Believe in Jesus: that is faith.

Then, eternity with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is yours…forever.