Just be Obedient

I have preached this idea for thirty plus years. I have taught it in various ways but I received an email story today that may be the most clear I have heard it explained. I hope you get out of this what I get.

A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to Push against the rock with all his might.....

So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sunup to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might!

Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: (He will do it every time)!

'You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved.' Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

Satan said, 'Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough.' That's what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of Prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

'Lord,' he said, 'I have labored Lon g and hard in Your Service, putting all my strength to do that which You have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?'

The Lord responded compassionately, 'My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done.
Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed..

But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back shiny and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard.

Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be Obedient and to push and to exercise your Faith and trust in My Wisdom. That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock.'

At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He Wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.

By all means, exercise the Faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God Who moves the Mountains.

Recently I got one of the emails that so many of us get all the time. You know what it is, “I am a friend of the president of some country and we have to move some funds….” Yeah sure! Open that bank account, give them your number and they take your money.

Today I received a new angle on the scam. GOD!, and Christian charity. Let me say that at first thought I wondered who would really fall for such a thing. Doesn’t everyone realize that if I had access to $62,000,000 dollars I have access to lawyers, financial handlers surely I have friends and the list could go on and on. I would not need to be calling for help!

I have posted part of the email here:

Dear Beloved ,

It is by the grace of God that I received Christ, knowing the truth and the truth have set me free.

Having known the truth I had no choice than to do what is lawful and right in the sight of God for eternal life and in the sight of man for witness of God mercy and glory upon my life.
I am Alty Susan Jane. I am married to Dr. Alty Michael , who worked with Chevron/Texaco for TWENTY years before he died in the year 2005.We were married for Fifteen years without a child, He died during one of the riots in IRAN. He was held hostage and slain to death by protesting youths before his death we were both born again Christians.

Since his death I decided not to re-marry. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of ($62,000,000.00.( Sixty Million US. Dollars)with ( Security Company in Dublin Ireland .) and now the management of the bank have just wrote me to come forward to receive the money or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf if I can not come over. I am presently with my laptop in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for cancer of the lungs, I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few months to live. It is my last wish to see that this money is invested and at the end of every year distributed among charity organization.

For your compensation, as soon as the money enters your account or delivered you take 30% of the total money, 5% for any expenses while 65% will be for the work of GOD. I took this decision because i know that there are a lot of poor people suffering from different kind of disease and nobody to come to their aid. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of (Security Company in Dublin Ireland) were the money is been deposited. . .

I could not believe at first that someone would use the charitable hearts of some un-suspecting Christian brother or sister to work this scam. Then I thought about all the Gospel of Wealth preachers who preach their versions of God’s blessing and material wealth; all the while asking that the listeners support them as a true sign of their faith.

The problem is that both of these scams will have good hearted Christians falling for the idea of making some easy money, or getting God’s blessing through those new houses, cars or whatever and that makes me wonder who will be judged the hardest. The Christian who seems to want more than the peace of Christ or the scammer who takes advantage of “the least of these”.

First Wrong Impressions

I hate going to the dentist! Not that I am afraid, nor have I ever been hurt by one but I just do not have great teeth. Going to the dentist is about like taking our old 1985 Toyota Tercell into the shop for a minor fix and the mechanic spending thirty minutes telling me what needed to be done. But not long ago I had to buckle down and take the trip.

After making the hour and half drive from Cotulla to San Antonio I arrived at the dental office and found a place to park my truck. As I was waling across the parking lot I crossed a man that was rather ragged and rough looking. He had shaggy hair, un-kept beard and was wearing greasy jeans with a dirty T-shirt and leather vest. He was standing on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette and drinking a coke.

We made casual eye contact and the polite nod as I passed him. I am somewhat ashamed to say that this person and I would probably not be having lunch together and would be a much rougher and tougher person than I would normally hang around.

As I checked in I was informed that I needed to up-date my personal information and was given a clip board with four sheets of questions. This was my second visit to this dentist and we had just completed all of these papers in our first. However, I was told that the date on those papers were 2008 and they needed a new year update.

I found a seat in the crowded waiting room next to an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair. He was obviously unable to care for himself and just sit and stared into space. I spoke as I sat down and he did not respond.

I started filling out the papers with my name, address, phone numbers, email, and other vital information that they would need and out of the corner of my eye I noticed the man from outside was walking toward me. With blanket in hand he addressed the old man and wrapped him gently in the blanket with the words, “are you warmer now daddy.” I do not believe I have ever heard such compassion in a voice as when this man spoke to his father.

We never know. Forgive me for my judgment!

Pop-Ups, Who Needs'em

I have the “pop-up” blocker set on my web browser. I have the “pop-up” blocker set in my Google tool bar and still sometimes one of those blasted, hated pop-ups will just simply “pop-up” and I have to deal with it, seldom read it almost always delete it.

I had actually started this blog with a certain direction in mind. However, just about the time I got to “simply ‘pop-up’” a distraction came into the room. This one was appreciated though because it was one of my nurses coming in to wrap my hip in cellophane so I could take a most wanted shower. But that reminded me that all day long we can have our personal “pop-up” blockers set to protect our time and keep us safe from distractions but somehow we will deal with “pop-ups” throughout our day. Many times it is our attitudes that will determine if we successfully deal with these distractions. Accept them; try to understand them and most of all work with them positively.

There is another pop-up in our daily lives that is most beneficial and we often try to set up the blockers so we will not have to deal with it. I am talking about those times when God’s Holy Spirit pops into our lives and convicts us of a wrong action, selfish motive or destructive attitude. That is what the Holy Spirit does; convicts as well as encourages. When we try to ignore His working we are denying one of the greatest gifts God has to give us; a love so great that not only would He give Himself on a cross to become our sin, but a love that is great enough to continue to work with us so we might become the kind of people He wants us to be.

In short you can attempt to block web site pop-ups with good reason, you can try to protect your time when things need to get done but never, never, never attempt to block the wonderful work of the Spirit even when It pops-up at what seems to be the most inconvenient time.

Recovery, Recovery, Recovery

Today is day two of a new life with a new hip. To be honest with you I have lived in a lot of pain for the last two years as the “injury related arthritis” just kept getting worse. I was able to hand the day to day activities with little distraction because of the pain meds I was on but knew that I could not do that from now on.
Now I do not want to whine because I know there are many people in the world who are dealing with physical issues much greater than my hurting hip, but it was my hip and it was hurting and now we are dealing with its remedy.

One thing I have learned is that the better you are to the nurses they better they are to you. That has pretty much proven true again here at this hospital too. Whatever we have needed they have provided with a smile and kind heart. I can just imagine what it must be like working with people everyday who are not at their best. Sick, hurting or just not feeling good they will have a tendency to just be meaner than usual. Nurses have to have the ability to overlook that. Many do and some don’t but so far the ones I have had have been just great.

I joked with the radiologist yesterday that they must have to go through sadomasochist classes because they seem to enjoy bending and hurting parts of the body and causing more pain. He just laughed because he knew that I knew he had to get me in just the right position to get a good picture.

Physical Therapist must make you stretch and move parts of the body that are already in pain so that they will be easier to move tomorrow. In-so-doing many people do not like them, but I do. They are going to help me get up and out of here and hopefully soon riding my bike and swinging a golf club again.

Golf Balls and Rattlesnakes

One of the little farms we lived on was a pasture away from the Brownfield Country Club and Golf Course. As young boys we thought it was neat to walk along the edge of the golf course (probably the seeds of my love to play the game) and watch the “rich” folks play. I thought they were rich anyway. I knew we were not and I didn’t know anyone, especially any of my relatives, that was a member of the Country Club and players of the game.

One of the activities that we enjoyed was finding golf balls. At that time we thought it was special and that we were really doing something. Actually now I realize that when you put the average golfer together and an extreme rough (woods, water, pastures, etc.)together you get one thing; lost golf balls.

I now know that when those duffers hit balls out into the pastures most of them would not go on foot to find them because there was a real good chance they would find something else. But as young boys who were used to the pastures as their playgrounds that was just part of the adventure and to find the treasures we had to deal with the rattlesnakes.

I don’t mean to make you believe that there was a rattlesnake with every step but they were not unusual. We did not take the dangers lightly and when we heard that unmistakable warning we found the source and carefully moved away. The adventure and the opportunity to find that brand new shiny golf ball was well worth the dangers at that moment in our lives.

One thing I learned growing up on the farm is that sometimes you have to face the rattlesnakes in order to gain the prize. I wonder if that is what Paul meant when he would talk about gaining the prize and in Philippians 3:14 where he is direct when he writes, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” To “press” on meant that there would be some kind of obstacle that needed to be overcome. Paul knew that there were dangers but the prize was well worth facing them.

We face obstacles everyday in the living out of our faith. Here, in most of our communities, we do not have to worry so much about the dangers Paul had to face but we do have our fears and people who would stop us from pressing on toward the prize. Paul would tell you to “run the race to win” and “press” on because the prize is definitely worth it. A young boy easing through the brush of a panhandle pasture would tell you to find golf balls you have to face the rattlesnakes.

Fly Paper in Real Life

One thing I had forgotten about since we left Texas in 1985 was the "Fly Strips" that used to hang everywhere. I have not seen one since that time. The other day we were in the store and I was looking for the "once-and-for-all" Fire Ant killer and came across a box full of the strips. It immediately took me back to my childhood and the Cotton Gin that took up much of my youth. There in one corner, just behind one of the domino chairs hung a yellow strip of sticky (I would assume sweet)material that baited flies to land and get stuck and never again tickle the nose hairs of the napping farmers in the gin office.

I remember always being amazed that the strips would last until there was no more room on them. Flies are pretty stupid I guess. Couldn't they see that their brothers and cousins, their mothers and fathers, their sisters, aunts and uncles were all stuck and couldn't free themselves. Wasn't there some kind of Fly Strip warning signal. Evidently the sweet allure of the bait was to much to ignore and every fly that was stuck, buzzing and flapping wings in effort to free themselves were the very ones that would "get away with it". Sound familiar?

Maybe humans and flies have some things in common. How many times do we get caught in the sin trap. Maybe we just look at the sweet bait and ignore the glue (they always go together). Why don't those who are stuck already warn us (they probably do in action if not in words). Could it be that some of them love the company so no warning is given? Could it be that some are still so enticed by the sweet bait that they have yet to recognize they are stuck in sin?

Where is the "Fly Paper" in your life? Before you answer too quickly remember one of the characteristics of the paper may be the rejection of its danger. The truth is you cannot free yourself. Go ahead and try. . . pull and flap your wings all you want but you will find you need help. That is where Christ comes in. I John tells us that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (I John 1:9 NIV) The only way off the strip is to be pulled off and only Christ can do that!