We put ‘check engine’ warning indicators on a car’s dashboard to tell us that something in the engine needs attention.  We put mileage stickers on our windshields to let us know that our engine oil needs a change.  A low fuel warning light informs us that we need to be in search of a gas station.  Nurses respond to a loud ‘beep’ that lets them know that an IV line is kinked or in need of attention.  An annoying ‘ding’ reminds us to buckle our seat belt, turn off our lights, retrieve the key from the ignition or close our car door.  The voice in our GPS tells us to turn around or recompute our route.  🙂

But, how do we know that our spiritual life needs attention and renewal?  There are no buzzers, blinking lights or annoying human voices.  But there are indications that we should give attention to our spiritual condition.  And some of those indicators can be identified by looking at the life experience of King Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel.

We can tell we need renewal when…

1.  Our spiritual desire is only for TEMPORARY RELIEF.  In Daniel 2, we find the King traumatically troubled by a dream—and it wasn’t the chile relleno he had for supper.  🙂  So vexed was his soul that he was ready to kill all the wise men of the area if they couldn’t tell him the content of the dream AND its meaning.  God enabled Daniel to do both and the men were saved and the king was satisfied.  BUT, by Daniel 3, the king was ordering an idol to be cast and worshiped by everyone in Babylon.  Certainly, his temporary relief did him little good.  Sometimes we only want God to make our life easier.  That does us little good, because it is only temporary relief and not real growth.

2.  Our RELIGIOUS EXERCISES are substituted for AUTHENTIC SPIRITUALITY.  If we only went by appearances, King Nebuchadnezzar’s words recorded in Daniel 2:47 would seem to suggest that he had had a ‘real’ experience with God.  But, sadly, that wasn’t the case as we see  the king saying words about God WHILE he ‘fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel’.  Think of it.  His words were about God but his actions showed that he worshiped a man.  It is amazing to hear words about God these days while so much ‘to do’ is made about ‘hipster’, ‘relevant’ or ‘successful’ pastors who fly around in jets and live lavishly off the flock.  One Texas mega church pastor recently told his church that if they had REAL faith that they would write down their bank account’s access code, give it to the church and then let the church withdraw what it THOUGHT they should give.  Really?  (I wouldn’t have believed this one unless I had seen and heard him say it on his broadcast.)

3.  Our TOLERANCE for FALSE WORSHIP exceeds our desire for TRUE WORSHIP.  The king was willing to worship an idol if he could still control the masses.  When that didn’t completely work, he sinned further by trying to kill three of his most Godward focused leaders by throwing them into a blazing fire.  Daniel 3:1-23.  It’s puzzling to watch, these days, so much compromise in worship that is tolerated so long as the masses of worshipers are satisfied and keep attending the church.   Church leaders hear their people say that they don’t really believe the ‘six days of creation’ truth of scripture, to which the leaders say ‘no problem.  Just believe what feels right to you’.  Look what’s being tolerated.

4.  Our leaders are more concerned with ‘BODIES, BUDGETS and BUILDINGS’ than they are with HUMILITY.  Daniel 4:28-30 gives us a glimpse of King Nebuchadnezzar’s pride.  He says about himself,  ‘I have built great Babylon by MY mighty power for the glory of MY majesty’.  WOW!  No sooner had he said that than God caused him to become like an ox or beast of the field.  He existed like an animal for 7 years, at which time God granted him humility and the curse was lifted and he was restored.  Inevitably, pastors conversations at meetings with each other and about each other almost always involve the questions, ‘How big is your church?’ or How much is your budget?’ or ‘How big is your campus’ or ‘How many campuses do you have now?’.  It’s all kind of intimidating, especially when you are among pastors of mega churches.  But, I wonder if we’re being wise when we equate size and true spiritual success.

The lessons continue, but this is enough to alert us to the need for renewal.  And to help meet that need, we have planned a Renewal meeting beginning tomorrow night at 7pm.  It is our desire to have you come and be with us as we seek God for true spiritual growth.

Let’s be a people who, at all costs, seek God in sincerity and truth out of a pure heart.

When Rick and I began to make plans for our ride across Wisconsin, I stopped by a local bike shop to begin investigating optimum bike ‘set-ups’ (types of bikes, racks, bike bags, energy drink holders, etc.) and began assessing my physical/mental preparedness.  The shop owner was kind and interested in our goal.  During our conversation, he made one remark that stuck with me.  After asking about my bike, a Giant Hybrid, and tire type and size, 700 x 40, he said, ‘One thing you’ll need to take into consideration–with that set up you’ll be pedaling the whole time’.  This remark caught me somewhat off guard.

Shirley and I and some of our children and the church youth group had done portions of the Sparta/Elroy Bike Trail: a portion of the trail Rick and I would ride on our trip.  Like many trails in Wisconsin, this trail follows the path of an abandoned Rail Road track bed.  The inclines are usually little more than 3 % grade, but even at that I thought I’d find places to coast.  The shop owner disagreed though and reminded me that the larger tires on my bike which were perfect for the crushed limestone trails were somewhat less desirable because of their ‘drag’ on the road.  They would keep me safe from most trail debris, but they could not be inflated enough to reduce the effort it took to traverse the gravel trail bed.  It didn’t take long, once we began our ride at Onalaska, for me to notice that the shop owner was correct is his appraisal.  Others around me were coasting while I was pedaling.  Indeed, as the shop owner had warned, I PEDALED THE WHOLE WAY.

Two weeks after we finished our ride, I began to consider putting smaller tires on my bike in order to deal with the ‘drag factor’.   Just a week ago, I put on tires that were several sizes smaller around and which carried 40# per square inch more pressure in them than the ones that were originally on my bike.  The bike shop worker where I got the tires said that I would notice a big difference.  Wow, was he right.  The lowered resistance due to the smaller profile of the tire and higher pressure that increased their efficiency combined to give me significant improvement on my bike rides.  I still notice a daily improvement as I continue to bike.

The whole experience has taught me some valuable lessons that I’ll pass along to you in this article.

1.  Increased pressure can be of significant advantages at times.  Inflating my tires from the old 60 psi to the new 100 psi and stretching the tires/tubes to their limit means remarkable improvement in my bikes performance.  In a similar way, though we do not always welcome its presence, spiritual pressure can often be of benefit to us as well.  Our Gracious Father has factored pressure into our spiritual experience and has promised that that pressure can turn out to be of significant value to us.  He said in Matthew 5:11-12, ‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven…’!  In this regard, pressure on earth brings priceless treasure in Heaven.

2.  Increased effort needed to propel the old tire setup, provided the resistance needed to strengthen my legs so that under the new setup, my leg strength enabled me to bike at greater speeds with less effort.  Becoming aware of this reality, I recalled the words of Luke 22:41-44, ‘And He (Jesus) withdrew from them about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.  And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground’!  Jesus’ strengthening under pressure enabled Him to respond to the spiritual events around Him with even more vigor.  This will be true for us as well.

3.  The increased effort in earlier rides has strengthened me and enabled me to achieve goals that before I could not even imagine were possible.  The ‘old strength’ kept me from even being able to imagine what my biking experience might be, just like a weakened faith can keep us from even imagining what God can do.  Once strengthened, we can believe God for what He says He can do in and through us.  As emphasized in Ephesians 3:20-21, ‘Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Amen’.

Let’s resolve to be a people who after being strengthened by His power in times of strain, pursue Him more passionately during times of  service.

By now you may have learned that Rick and I finished our ‘Bike Across Wisconsin’ trip.  We completed 199.1 miles in bits and pieces of 4 days.  The weather was great and we had encouraging help from John S., Ben R., Shirley and Lydia.  Without their help, the trip would have been much more difficult.  I especially thank Rick for helping me reach an ‘old man’s goal’.  I benefited much from his help on the trip.  Our longest day was our first day as we pedaled out of the Mississippi River bottom roads and finished at Reedsburg.  My bike computer had us covering 83 miles.  When we finished our last section of 29 miles, near Milwaukee, I took time to calculate the number of revolutions my bike crank turned during our ride.  Taking the average mph, with the average gear setting, multiplied by the average number of revolutions my crank makes per mile, I totaled an amazing 73,667 times my pedal crank turned during our trip.

You don’t really notice that you’re accumulating that many repetitions, but once or twice my old knees asked if we were going to be done soon.  🙂

We saw some beautiful scenery and not a few gophers digging at the edge of and sometimes IN the pathways.  For the most part, the trip was uneventful except for a couple of mishaps.  One came during our ride through one of the tunnels on the Sparta-Elroy Bike Trail.  It’s amazing how a completely dark tunnel, along with the presence of a few bikers can throw off your equilibrium.  The other came when I didn’t notice a ‘washout’ just as I exited one of the other tunnels.  Before I could stop or swerve away, my front wheel was already down in the crevice and the bike was giving me a feeling somewhat similar to the feeling I got the first time a horse bucked me off.  I held on, but my seat stung for a few hundred yards.  At first I wondered why that gulley hadn’t been fixed.  Then I began thinking of it as an illustration of how subtle ‘washouts’ can occur in our spiritual lives and quickly  develop into an empty, fractured, spirit-robbing and faith eroding collapse.

Recently, I sat down and considered at least six current trends that contribute much to what the Bible calls a ‘shipwrecked faith’.  Listed in random order, these tendencies include…

1.  FRAILTY OF LOVE:  Jesus said that because of the ‘increase of wickedness’ the love of most would grow cold.  True love is the ‘energetic and beneficial good will that stops at nothing for the good of the beloved object’.  This God calls agape love.  It’s the love of Calvary.  But our expression of it is so emaciated that even the slightest offense or smallest inconvenience sends us careening away from each other.  This erodes away many families and church fellowships.  We have replaced ‘OTHERS FIRST’ with ‘ME FIRST’.  We are making far too much of ourselves.

2.  FASCINATION WITH DESIGNER CHURCH:  It seems that increasingly we look at church as if it’s a place to pick and choose different program offerings in hope of crafting a church experience that suits our modern religious appetite and our own peculiar desires and habits.  We look at a church’s programs and select from those programs as if we were searching Trivago for a hotel room.  If the search does not turn up an acceptable fit for me, we’ll just search another church’s offerings.  Fleeting are the days when we viewed church as that place to which we go to sacrifice to our God in honor of Jesus in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.  Has church become a place where we shop instead of a fellowship which we serve?

3.  FAWNING OVER CULTURE:  It is amazing how familiar church goers are with cultural icons like Beyonce, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Oprah or Dr. Oz and how unlikely it is to find anyone who knows or cares what John Huss, John Wycliffe, Abel and Jesus all had in common.  We seem to be more at ease talking about the fictitious characters on a reality TV show (which has little to do with reality) than we are considering how to build up the members of the Church we attend.

4.  FREQUENT DALLIANCES WITH SIN:  For believers, the frailty to succumb to a besetting sin should, with time, become further apart in occurrence, shorter in duration and more shallow in involvement.  It seems that we are becoming more tolerant of sin, more friendly toward its associates and more insensitive to its effects.

5.  FORSAKING TRUTH:  In our pursuit of knowledge, marked by our incessant use of digital devices, we seem to have concluded that Old Testament/New Testament truth is passe.  But shouldn’t the words that will dominate our future in heaven occupy of attention here on earth?

6.  FEAR OF FAITH:  Seemingly, we are becoming uneasy with walking in the objective reality of faith.  Biblical faith shows, whether it’s in the lives of Joshua and Caleb, Moses and Aaron, Boaz and Ruth, Aquila and Priscilla, Paul and Barnabas or you and me.  By definition, faith is the objective evidence that my trust has been unconditionally and completely given over to Jesus.  God said, ‘Do not love in WORD but in DEEDS’.  The faith reality is that God sometimes gives us what we do not want and sometimes He takes from us what we want to keep.  But faith says–If the Lord wills–.  Lead on O King Eternal because I am yours.  Have your way with me.  By YOUR GRACE I will follow.  I’ll be what you want me to be and do what you want me to do.  May you be praised.

These erosions, whether small or large, have an incapacitating effect on our faith and therefore our lives.  Sometimes, we don’t even notice their presence, let alone their destructive work.  Let us resolve to ask God for the grace to follow Him as He works to increase our faith and teach us how to pray through to victory over these influences.

By now, many of us have learned that Christian singer/song writer Vicky Beeching, the writer of songs like ‘Great is Your Glory’ and ‘Deliver’, has publicly announced that she is homosexual.  Anticipating criticism, she claimed in advance that ‘I feel certain God loves me just the way I am’.

In a way, her assertion is correct, if we only view God as a Creative benefactor bestowing gifts of love of which His creations are beneficiaries.  Twice in Psalm 145, God is said to be ‘loving toward all He has made’.  But God is more than just a Creator.  He is also a Covenant God.  Whether evidenced in His covenants with Abraham, Israel or others and especially noted in His covenant to mankind through the blood of Jesus, God is lifted up as a covenant making God.  What this means is that there is more to ‘FEEL’ and acknowledge than His love for His creation.  We must ‘FEEL’ and acknowledge His acts of saving covenant as well.  But, what does that include?

1.  We must feel and acknowledge the guilt of having willfully breached God’s standards of holiness.  These include but are not limited to acts of greed, deceit, theft, murder or sexual impurity of which homosexuality is a part.  Colossians 3:5-6.

2.  We must feel and acknowledge the shame of lawlessness that these sins generate.  Participation in them makes us ‘law breakers’ before God, regardless of what desire there may be to make them simple attempts at ‘self-actualization’.  I Timothy 1:8-11.

3.  We must feel and acknowledge the despair of coming under God’s declaration that those who do such things or approve of those who do have become ‘objects of His wrath’.  Romans 1:18-32.

4.  We must feel and acknowledge the hope of knowing that Jesus came into the world to save us from the wrath to come.  His blood sacrifice, and that alone, can atone for the sins of a person who has fallen beneath the wrath of God.  I Thessalonians 1:9-10.

5.  We must feel  and acknowledge the call of God offering us forgiveness through faith in His Son Jesus.  God graciously offers this forgiveness to those who call on Jesus’ name.  Romans 10:13.

6.  We must feel and acknowledge the need to turn from that which God abhors and turn to that which He accepts.  Be holy as He is holy.  I Peter 1:15-16.

7.  We must feel and acknowledge the humility to submit to those things that bring gladness to God’s heart and glory to God’s name, seeking His grace to help us want to do and then do what He has declared is His pleasing will.  Philippians 2:12-13.

8.  We must feel and acknowledge the joy of the Lord as it strengthens us in His ways.  Nehemiah 8:10.

9.  We must feel and acknowledge the anticipation of struggle as we fight to do  God’s will despite pressures from without and fears from within.  II Corinthians 7:5.

10.  We must feel and acknowledge the strain of reaching toward God’s goals for us regardless of what could be lifelong disappointment or endless delay.  Hebrews 11:13.

Yes, as our Creator, God loves us.  And we will feel that and should acknowledge that.   But, as the One Who ALONE offers, through His Son, to rescue us from the wrath to come, God gives us much more to feel and acknowledge.   MUCH MORE!  THAT, too, we must feel and acknowledge, if we are to have FELLOWSHIP with Him and not simply have FEELINGS about Him.

A goofy old Country Music song goes, ‘Gloom despair and agony on me.  Deep dark depression excessive misery.  If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.  Gloom despair and agony on me’.

Clinically speaking, depression can be easily defined.  But, until it’s been experienced, it is hard to understand.  This was true for me.  I had counseled, prayed with and attempted to help more than a few people deal with depression.  Hearing their descriptions of a ‘darkness that is so real, so present that you can literally FEEL it’ meant much more to me once I had felt its menacing grip.  Throughout my experience, I came to more readily understand the Apostle Paul’s comment that he ‘despaired even of life’.

Like so many others, I went through the common process of seeking medical help and attempting to win the ‘hope battle’.  For eight months, I daily wrestled with and struggled to shake the grip of this unwelcome attachment.  In the end, I had discovered three powerful antidotes to depression:  the precious presence of God, the piercing light of truth and the profound strength of the prayers of loved ones.

These three components prepared the pathway that I walked to freedom.  Please let me explain.

When my medical tests returned with normal readings–my doctor said that he wished he had MY numbers– I called the Elders of the church to pray for me.   Lovingly and gently, they came to our home repeatedly to offer love, support and prayers.  God answered those prayers and began to renew my strength, at least enough to take the next step.  Once, while sitting at a favorite spot near our fireplace, Lydia Grace, our youngest daughter, bounced into the room in her normal carefree 5 year old exuberant way and asked me directly if she could read a verse from the Bible for me.  I knew that she knew the alphabet, but I also knew that she would not be able to read a lot of verses from the Bible.  So I said, “Yes you can, but would you like to find the verse and let me read to you”?   She was happy to comply.  Now I’m not a fan of the so called ‘inspired finger’ approach to Bible reading where you let your Bible fall open, put your finger on a text and assume that God wants you to read that passage as the answer to your questions.  On this occasion, however, I wondered if God would reach out to me through her childlike faith.  Finding the place in her Bible and marking it with her finger, she brought it to me.  Looking down and with tears beginning to form in the corners of my eyes, I read the words she pointed to: ‘As a father has compassion for His children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.  For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust’.  Psalm 103:13-14.  In that moment, the light of scripture truth shone through and I realized that I had developed an ‘exaggerated’ view of the world around me with all of its troubles and an ’emaciated’ view of God within me with all of His compassion and strength.  This revelation prepared me for the experience that set my foot on the path of deliverance.  March 21st of that year, while outside splitting some fireplace wood to bring in and fix a fire, something flew close to my face.  I instinctively swatted at it as if it were a fly or something.  When it happened again, I swatted but looked to see what it was.  I could hardly believe that I was watching a monarch butterfly fluttering around my face.  I KNOW… A butterfly in Wisconsin in March with snow on the ground!  The improbability of the incident caused me to wonder what God intended to teach me through the event.  Once inside, I rethought through the process of caterpillar transformation and focused on one particular moment in its life cycle.

There is a moment when the worm becomes completely vulnerable to all elements around it: the moment it finally closes it cocoon and rests.  There it is, hanging by a thread, swinging in the breeze and open to attack with no recourse for survival.  In that moment, it must willingly or not, submit to the process of transformation that God, the Creator, designed.  Patiently it waits.  God does His Divine work and a butterfly emerges.  God’s lesson was clear: like the caterpillar, my transformation occurs as I submit to His choice of life altering events and receive the change He has designed for my life.

I can’t say, nor would I suggest, that knowledge of this truth sort of ‘turned the lights on’ and I was immediately stronger.  I wasn’t instantly changed.  However, I did have enough light shed on God’s chosen path for me that I could begin walking forward in faith.  And that is what I did.  Eventually, by God’s grace, I strengthened, grew and received victory over my depression.

Your experience will likely be somewhat different than mine.   But there are a few words of counsel that I would give to anyone that desires deliverance.  Those words come from Jeremiah 29:13-14a: ‘You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with your whole heart.  I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU…’.

Those words are for kings as well as servants, the prosperous as well as the poor, the strong as well as the weak, the healthy as well as the sick and the popular as well as the obscure.  All are told to SEEK.  And so all must SEEK.

But consider these truths carefully.  You cannot find if you only pretend to seek.  You cannot hear if you only pretend to listen.  And you don’t have faith if you only pretend to submit.

With your WHOLE heart, seek Him, reach out for Him and find Him.  Know that depression cannot limit God’s presence and it cannot obscure His truth.   He will be found by you and show you ‘great and unsearchable things that you do not know’.  Jeremiah 33:3.

Today, turn to Him, find Him and trust Him.  Human depression MUST give way to God’s  DEITY.

If you have ever been through the process of having a home built, having it remodeled or simply having a room renovated, then you know the frustration of having to re-do some part of it that was either done improperly or didn’t quite meet your expectation.

Once, while Phil and Becca and the kids were up from their home in Florida to vacation at ours, I asked Phil if he would exchange some work on a yard shed for Shirley’s beef stroganoff and mashed potatoes.  He readily agreed.  🙂   We enjoyed the meal together, but I finished first and went out to work while he lingered to talk, laugh and reminisce with siblings.  Perhaps he was a bit fearful that ‘dad might not get it right’ or perhaps he just wanted to ‘be there to make sure I hadn’t missed a step in the process of roofing’, but he hurried out and while jogging toward the shed hollered, “WAIT.  WAIT.  WAIT.  WAIT.  WAIT”.

I was not a little bit annoyed and somewhat frustrated by his insistence that I stop.  After all, I was just stapling down the tar paper to the roof so we could shingle it.  “What’s so difficult about that”, I thought.  “Doesn’t he trust me to get that right”?

I already had the east side and 3/4 of the west side finished and readied for shingles when he so rudely and abruptly stopped me.  And I was making such good progress.   Turning around and sitting down to face him, I waited for an explanation for his interruption.  His question gave me pause, “Did you nail down the roof sheathing before you put the tar paper on?”.  “NOW THERE’S A GOOD QUESTION”, I thought.  It hadn’t even occurred to me to check that out.   I had noticed that the sheathing seemed to be a bit loose.  But I had been too concerned with reaching my goal of a finished roof to bother myself with the nagging little thought that something might not be quite right.

Hopping up onto the roof, Phil showed me that though the sheathing was ‘tacked’ in the corners it hadn’t been properly nailed down.  He and Josiah had only set the sheets of plywood in place and responded to a call to supper.  “One good storm”, he reasoned, “and your roof could have been in the neighbors yard”.  So we tore all the tar paper off (how I hated to waste the materials and labor), nailed the plywood down, re-papered and got the shingles on just as darkness fell.  That evening, it was so comforting to sit around a quiet peaceful fire and enjoy the accomplishment of a job done right.

Sometimes life is like this.  We busy ourselves working toward a desired goal convinced that we’ll soon be rewarded.  Sedated with the prospect of how happy we’ll be to achieve our goal, we neglect that little voice that is trying to get our attention and tell us that all is not right.  Oblivious to potential consequences, we forge our way ahead, hoping to be fulfilled.  Arriving at our destination, we realize, too late, that the thing we had hoped would make us happy only disappointed us.  It had promised so much and delivered so little.

Finding ourselves at this point, we have a few options:  become cynical and depressed, re-double failing efforts or turn to God.  And though we know that turning in submission to God is the right choice, we stubbornly resist Him.  Why?  Because, I think, we feel like He’s going to ‘stop our progress, tear apart what we’ve accomplished and leave us devastated’.  But quite the opposite is true.  Listen to the words of Hosea 6:1-3: “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, THAT HE MAY HEAL US; He has struck us down and HE WILL BIND US UP.  After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will RAISE US UP, THAT WE MAY LIVE BEFORE HIM.  Let us know; let us PRESS ON TO KNOW THE LORD…”!

Through faith in Jesus Christ, let’s purpose to allow God to enable us to ‘be right before Him and live right for Him’.

The song ‘Abraham, Martin and John’ written by Richard Holler and recorded by Dion in 1968 came to mind yesterday when I heard of Robin Williams’ death, especially the question, ‘can you tell me where he’s gone’.   Like other years, we’ve heard of several ‘untimely’ deaths especially among celebrities or other notable people.  The circumstances and timing of these deaths always surprise us.  And though our hearts go out to the families, friends and acquaintances of these people, there is more to their stories than we read about or hear of in the media.

God says in Hebrew 9:27, ‘And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that come judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.’

First, there is an appointment for an appearance: before God.  No masks.  No hiding.  No negotiating.  No denying.  Just God.

Next, there is an appointment for an appraisal: we each must give an account to God.    No grading on the curve.  No comparisons with anyone else but Jesus.  No second chances.  Just God.

Then, there is an appointment for adoration: every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.  It’s all about Jesus.

Finally, there is an appointment for advancement: every one will be ushered to their eternal place.  You’ll either enjoy life with God through Jesus or you’ll experience separation from God because you rejected Jesus while here.

Though I feel sorry for people who feel the trauma in life that produces the kind of despair that would drive someone into desperate sorrow, I shudder at the thought that someone would reject Jesus in this life only to be faced, in death, with the inescapable reality that that earthly rejection of Him now requires eternal separation from Him.

Let’s be people who come to Jesus by faith now!  If you hear His voice calling to you DON’T harden your heart.

When I began training for my bike ride across Wisconsin, I made a sort of covenant with myself.  I decided to ALWAYS finish my ride by biking up my drive.  Because of its length and incline, it’s no small matter to navigate it following a long ride.  As a matter of fact, it is so steep, I typically get to 25 mph at the bottom when leaving.  Because our road slightly declines away from our house, I can coast for the first 1 1/4 miles of a ride.

Once, at the conclusion of a record (then) 43 mile training session, my mind was negotiating with the rest of me to conclude the ride by walking up the drive.  Lungs heaving, sore seat, tight back, numb fingers and rubberized legs…”Yes, we’re gonna walk up”, I concluded.

As I turned onto the road in front of our house to finish the last 200 yards of the trip, I passed two women and one man on a walk.  I hadn’t seen them before, but after exchanging pleasantries, I prepared to turn onto the drive, get off and walk up.  Just as I began to coast to a stop and swing my leg over my bike to begin walking, the trio of ‘strangers’ began to chant, “Go. Go. Go.  You can do it.  Don’t stop.  Keep going.  Finish” and other similar encouragements.

I appreciated their enthusiasm, but I was a little uncomfortable.  Instead of being able to coast to the end, I now had to forcefully finish under the subtle ‘pressure of their encouragement’.

Sometimes our walk with the Lord is similar.  We feel like we’re in a place where we’ve had to work, tough it out, sacrifice or give up something of value.  All we really want to do is coast, sit down to rest or maybe even give up.  We arrive at the moment when we’ve chosen to just stop only to find two or three faithful friends urging us to “Go…go…go!  You can do it.  Don’t stop.  Finish.”

Their encouragement may not always be welcome or seem appropriate.  And the gentle pressure might even annoy us, but it is what God has prepared for us in those uncertain moments.  As He says in Hebrews 3:12-13: ‘See to it, brothers, that non of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness’.

It’s been almost a year since our down-sizing move from the home where we raised 6 children.  It has 5 bedrooms and just at 2700 sq. ft. and a playground type backyard to enjoy with all the little ones that were coming along.  We had friends who had made this transition.  Most, if not all, had a similar caution: ‘You won’t believe how much STUFF you have squirreled away that you forgot you had’.  ‘Alrighty then’, I thought casually.  My response wasn’t meant to be cavalier, but I did think I knew how much STUFF we had; that is until we began to empty out the STUFF’S SPACE.

We began with the outbuildings that held tools, yard equipment and other STUFF, some of which I had forgotten I had.  This pretty much filled the storage unit we had rented.  (We didn’t have a replacement house purchased yet so we needed space for the STUFF)  Next, we moved to the garage, which for normal people houses their car/s and related items.  For me, though, more tools.  ‘Not doing bad’, I mused.  This only half-filled the SECOND storage unit.  I consoled myself with the thought that I only had a few books in the attic.  (A full walk-in attic) 🙂  30 boxes of books and a whole lot of other STUFF later, our legs were telling us not to climb anymore steps, our backs were telling us to lay off the lifting and the THIRD storage unit was nearly full.  Now to the furniture, clothes, dishes, etc.

We stuffed STUFF in any available crevice and even forced STUFF into places where there were no spaces.  Finally, we were at a managable level of STUFF.  But we needed more STUFF space.  Kindly a son-in-law and daughter offered us a barn, friends offered us part of their basement and their garage and we finally were able to stuff the remaining STUFF into our cars, truck and trailer.  WHEW!  I was so relieved but wondered where all this STUFF had come from!  Technically speaking, I knew that I had purchased or collected it all, but when had it happened.  The answer: a little bit at a time over a long period of time.

For me, what is true of STUFF has, also, been true of sinful choices whether I do what I’m commanded NOT to do or don’t do what I’m commanded TO DO.  It’s a small compromise here or a neglected responsibility there.  We often justify ourselves that we’d only do this one thing once or we told ourselves that we would do the right thing tomorrow.  Like all the STUFF, sinful acts/habits are collected.  And they weigh us down and slow our progress in the Lord.

Just as Jesus said, ‘Be on your guard against the ‘yeast’ of the Pharisees and as God said through Paul, ‘Do you not know that a little ‘leaven’ leavens the whole lump?’.  Matthew 16:6; I Corinthians 5:6f

Let’s be a people who guard themselves against the collection of SINFUL STUFF.  After all, ‘the grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us to say NO to worldly passions…and ungodliness…and to live pure lives…’ .  Titus 2:11f

It was in the forth grade.  Our playground supervisor, Mrs. Rankin, allowed us to play catch with a football.  To say that it was unusual  for us to play with a football is not a stretch because all the other balls we ever played with were round: kickballs, softballs or basketballs.  But we never played with a football.  And in our little community school of 150 students, there was never enough interest or participants to form, furnish and fund a functioning football team.  It was all about basketball.  But on this day…the football came out.

I watched with interest as the guys tried to throw, catch and chase the oblong object that seemed to wildly careen every time it bounced.  The guys seemed to be having fun.  And I must admit it looked interesting…that is until the ball bounced near me.  As I leaned over to pick it up and politely toss it back, I noted an added element to the ‘game’.  It was called, ‘GET CHUCK.  HE HAS THE BALL’!

Instinctively, I turned to run, somewhat because it seemed the right thing to do and somewhat because I didn’t want to look like a scared girl and throw the ball down and go hide.  Quick as hungry hogs on slop, the boys were ‘on me’: literally.  One by one the ‘crush’ grew until I couldn’t breathe and there were only small snatches of light piercing between all the legs and dirty sneakers.

Fully in panic mode because of the bodies weight on top of me and the lack of oxygen inside me, I mustered a muffled scream of ‘HELP’!  Somehow through all the laughter and giggles, Leonard heard my frantic cry.  Over the raucous noise of the pile of boyhood, I heard Leonard shouting to everyone to ‘GET OFF’.  ‘HE’S SUFFOCATING’!  As he shouted, he began pulling bodies off the pile.  Soon another then another boy got the memo and began pulling off piled bodies.  An eternity later as the daytime was beginning to get dark, the last boy was pulled off and I was liberated.

I don’t remember much about the next few minutes.  By the time I was aware of what had transpired and what was then taking place, all the boys were off in another corner of the playground repeating the cycle, but with ‘bigger’ boys.  I was alone with my thoughts, except for Leonard.  He hadn’t left with the others and was somewhat preoccupied with questions like, ‘Are you o.k.?’  ‘Do you hurt anywhere?’  ‘Can you breathe alright?’

When I had answered his questions satisfactorily, he simply put his hand on my shoulder and we walked calmly back to class: together.  I didn’t need a body guard at that moment, but it sure was comforting to have him walk along with me.

I say all of that is order to say this, ‘You see, at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly [us]’…!  As one of our hymns reminds us, ‘Oh to grace how great a debtor…’! And all God’s people say, ‘AMEN’!