More of God

Is it really worth it?

/ Chris Walker: Your Friend in the Car Business! / 2 Comments

Oh the stories my grandpa Jack would tell.  I do wish I could remember them all.  I could probably right a best seller book if I could remember them.  But one story I do remember I would like to share.

Jack (I call him Pap) grew up in the Centerville area of Yell County, Arkansas.  He took me there many times to go hunting and just reminiscing about growing up. He was telling me of a time on a Saturday morning, after doing his chores, of taking the family horse to “town”.  Pap and a few friends in there early teenage years were going to have a day.  Well, he was doing this out of mischief and disobedience to his pa.  This horse was the family horse and used to work on the farm.  On the way to back from town, the boys saw some girls they knew.  Well, the boys got to showing off and playing with the young ladies.  And Pap being the center of attention and “flirt” he was, had to show the girls what the “stallion” could do.  So he begins to ride the horse at a gallop and as he applied the reigns to the horse to stop it.  Those back hooves slipped from under the horse and skinned the hind end of the horse all up on the gravel.  Oh was Pap up set.  He had made a fool of himself in front of the ladies and the trip, he wasn’t supposed to make, to town would be found out by his pa.  The fun and excitement had just turned into dread and misery.

As he told me this story more than once, I began to ask him as I got older, “was it worth it?”.  And he told me, “In the moment it was all great and fun, but in the long run I wish I had listened and obeyed, pa!”

How do you live your life?  Do you live your life for the moment? Do you live your life for the fun with no consequence attitude? Or, do you live life thinking about tomorrow? Do you think about the positive or negative consequence before you act? Do you live for the rewards of the future?

You may still be asking where I am going with this.  Well, let’s do what I do now for my decisions.  Let’s take a look at what the Bible says and what hero’s of the Bible did.

Let’s start in Genesis with Adam.  Adam had it all.  God gave Adam dominion over every living creature (Gen. 1:28).  He could live with a wonderful relationship with God and the living things on earth.  He was to subdue it or control it all.  But, he gave it up when he and Eve decided to partake of the only thing God had told them to stay away from, the fruit from the tree in the Garden of Eden.  It was so tempting and so pretty.  The fruit looked so delicious and smelled wonderful.  Just how can you resist something like this right before your eyes.  But God had said, No! Do not eat of this tree.  So simply put, Adam and Eve could obey God and maintain a wonderful relationship with God, maintain dominion over all things, and never want for anything.  But they wanted this thing.  They wanted it now.  And with one bite or two. Their eyes were opened and their world turned upside down.

A little too extreme you think.  What about the children of Israel being led out of captivity by Moses and Aaron.  They were delivered from the hands of Pharaoh and saw supernatural event after supernatural event occur before their deliverance.  They saw the hand of God.  They knew God had their back.  Yet, when Moses went to the mountain to get the instruction for God and was gone, in God’s presence, for forty days and nights, the children of Israel couldn’t stand it.  They were impatient.  They questioned Moses’ legitimacy.  They talked Aaron in to building a golden calf to worship.  They wanted immediate satisfaction.  They couldn’t wait for the good stuff from God.  Those who committed sin against God were “blotted out of His book” (Exodus 32.33)

Maybe one more quick story.  In the Book of Esther, you see Haman devises a plan to do away with the Jews.  He was angry because Mordecai, a Jew, wouldn’t bow down to him.  Haman was a power-hungry man with a huge ego.  But Esther, Mordecai’s uncle’s daughter, was made queen to King Ahasuerus.  She in position to pray and petition the King for the sake of the Jews and let Haman’s plan be brought to light.  And because of Haman’s selfishness and ways, he was hanged at the gallows he had built for Mordecai.  Haman could have lived greatly the rest of his life as second to the King.  But his greed and ego overtook him.  And the Jews, God’s people, lived and were blessed instead.

So, may I encourage you to be careful as to what you choose.  Be careful where you have your eyes set.  Are you looking for an earthly reward? Or, are you waiting on the greater reward in heaven?  I choose the reward in heaven.

Bible Reference:

1.  Genesis 1:26-28 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

2. Genesis 3.

3. Exodus 32

4. Esther

Are you running on empty?

/ Chris Walker: Your Friend in the Car Business! / Leave a comment

Recently in my Sunday School class and a church service, we had a discussion and the pastor spoke on the word fill, filled, or refill.  In Sunday School, we discussed definitions of the word fill or what it meant to us.  Here are a few things mentioned: to put into as much as can be held, to bring back to capacity or a desired level, to occupy completely, to build up to the next level, and to saturate an area/object.  

As I listened to each definition or phrase for the meaning of fill, filled, or refilling, I envisioned a cup or pot and someone pouring water into it.  As the water was being poured, some spatters could be seen on the surface around the cup/clay pot. The water began rising to the top of the cup to where it reached capacity and ran over the edge.  Overflowing the rim of the cup allowed the water to join or include the spatters which had landed on the surrounding surface.

I, also, saw a cinder block sitting outside in the rain.  The longer the block sat in the rain and water.  The darker the block began to become.  The block also became heavy from being wet.  This tells me the block absorbed some of the water as a sponge would soak up water.

So when I think about John telling of Jesus miracles in the Bible.  I look at John 9:1-7 where Jesus heals the man who was blind from birth.  I think we can see a spiritual blindness with this man as well his physical blindness.  And as we see Jesus takes saliva (water) with dirt (making clay) and heals his physical blindness and spiritual blindness. The man can see.  He became a walking testimony.  And as the saliva is water and water is a type (metaphor) of Holy Spirit, the man is filled by the Spirit as he is made whole in spirit by a supernatural healing.  For the Bible also tells us in Ephesians 1:13, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”, the Holy Spirit began residing in us at salvation.  He filled you up.

Do you want to know how to fill the emptiness? Follow me down the Roman Road:

Step 1.  Realize and acknowledge you/we/all are sinners. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Step 2.  Realize and understand God loves us all.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Step 3.  Know there is a penalty for sin which is death but a gift was given for all of us.  Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Step 4. Confession is made by mouth and believe in your heart, Jesus Christ is Lord.  Romans 10:9-10, “that 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. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Reference scripture from post body:

John 9:1-7

1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
The New King James Version. (1982). (John 9:1–7). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.