There’s a little symbol or icon on most computers signifying how much power you have on your laptop before you must recharge the battery. Click on it and it may say 50%, for example.  It’s one way of safeguarding, as you work on your PC, that you won’t be in the middle of doing some work on your machine and it shuts down for lack of juice !  I guess in some ways its similar to the gas gauge on your car.   But what’s your meter reading in your heart today?   That is, does the Holy Spirit have 100% of you, or less?   Have you turned complete control over to Him or are you chugging along with low spiritual power?

As Paul was wrting to his dear friends in Christ in Ephesus, he commanded them by Holy Spirit inspired force “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” (5:18).   One the one hand, the concern here is not to have “the tank” full of the wrong stuff but instead Him Who is always right and all-powerful.    Not long ago a church member was going to mow our lawn at church and he mistakenly filled the mower with kerosene instead of gasoline.  It wasn’t long before the motor was sputtering and just conked out that he realized his error.  But how much more grave when we fill our life with things other than Him, in some cases it leads to lethal consequences but always to less than ideal happenings.

And oh how easy it is to live life in my strength rather than rest in His.  It’s so easy for some of us to live with an independence that shoves the Lord to the side but as a child of God we must walk the line of doing what He wants us to while at the same time doing so with Him in charge.  When it comes to a decision, rely on His Word above all. When it comes to service, give it your best while all the time drawing from His power. When you “feel” less than wanting to be gracious, ask for His compassion to be so.  Today is a new day, make sure the battery of your heart is connected and drawing power from Him and you won’t be flat, you can then get through anything  (Phil.4:13) !!!

The snow is coming down in strong flurries here today, a stark contrast from yesterday when temperatures were in the 60’s !    Much of the country is experiencing the same radical shift in the weather but isn’t it comforting to know that God is immutable or unchanging as to His nature?   The writer of Hebrews (whoever he was !) wrote this:  “Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, and today, and forever” (13:8) !!!   This is exciting when you contemplate it especially with the shifting ways of this old world.   Malachi spoke of God, “For I am the Lord, I change not.” !! (3:6).

I just read about a man who spoke up for our second amendment right to bear arms and he raised some fascinating points. He said for years America has had a great gun culture (boy scouts could earn marksmanship badges, hardware stores would sell you a gun, etc.) and yet there wasn’t the problem with mass shootings then as now.   The cities with the strictest gun control laws (Washington, D.C. & Chicago) have the greatest rates of crime !   He concluded, rightly, that we don’t need more laws we need better morals !  The issue is not the gun itself but the people’s hearts holding them !!  We have changed as a society for the worse for we have abandonded the Unchanging One !!!!!

So what, my friend, can you do to help our nation come to the Immutable God?  You can show them a consistent testimony for Christ (pray for God to help you there), you can stay focused on Him when the winds of change blow in your life (looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, Heb.12:2), you can do what is right and follow the principles of His Word no matter what for it is a stable, sure foundation (the testimony of the Lord  is sure, Ps.19:7).  Be a steady rock by resting in Him today, you can count on Him !!!

I spoke with my father on the phone today. He’s been pretty sick and has been hospitalized for about a week now. It was a pretty good chat as he has been feeling better and he told me of all the visitors he’s had and how the pastor has taken time to come see him now a few times.  As we wound down the conversation, he said something that doesn’t often come easy for his generation telling me he loved me.  Dad loves a good western and John Wayne movies were common to watch in our home growing up.  But old “Duke” didn’t exactly wear his emotions on his sleeves !  So it was good to hear what I did for though there were some traits to admire in John Wayne, many men in the Bible give us a  far better role model to follow and one such example was the apostle John.

You may have heard the term “Apostle of Love” for John.  He was just that as he wrote of the subject much and was often encouraging fellow believers to above all, love one another !  Tradition claims that John still was attending church near the ripe old age of 100 and was often carried in to church where he would many times admonish his brethren to show the love of Christ to each other.   How often do you tell, especially your close family, that you love them? It’s easy to speak of their faults and take them for granted but God loves them so shouldn’t we also?

Have you  let a fellow believer know in the recent past that you love them in the Lord and are praying for them? People have a great capacity to be loved having been created in the likeness and image of God for as John wrote “God is love” (1Jn.4:8 & 16) !! I tell our folks often that is the shortest theological definition of God found in Scripture.   Take some time today to verbally express your love for those around you. You do not know how long you or they will be here, so why delay in this?  Read the book of Philemon and notice how Paul is very verbal in his affection for his brethren in Christ or Romans 16 how warm his words are for his siblings in the Lord.  Ask God to give you an increasingly better and compassionate heart for folks around you and as He does, your tongue will be sure to follow !

Technology can be a wonderful thing. A couple of days ago my wife and I sat and listened on the computer to a man read some chapters in the Bible to us which we are reading as a congregation.  You can “dial up” about any chapter you want and just sit back and hear God’s Word read to you !  We can enjoy better health thanks to advances in medicine, our travel has been greatly enhanced by technology not just in the speed of getting there to our destination but even our comfort. Imagine if a person could be transported from the covered wagon days to enjoy a trip from coast to coast in a luxurious automobile with plush heated seats, movies to watch, heat and air conditioning or a plane where one can sit back and traverse thousands of miles in the sky and enjoy a meal and a nice movie !  Those pioneers would flip out !!

But as a much as technology can be a blessing it can also be a bane too !   Yesterday at church I spoke a little about this in how our PLD’s or personal listening devices where we put on headphones or the ear buds and listen to our favorite tunes and tune out the real world around us can hinder our much needed social contact for us AND those around us.  God looked around at His wonderful creation at the end of creation week and uttered it was very good with one expection,  “it is not good that man should be alone” (Gen.2:18).  We were all created in the likeness and image of God and that being the case we need the social component nurtured.  Some years back a Christian teen girl in our town was jogging with her PLD in place and while crossing an intersection was hit and killed by a car.  She never saw it coming as she was not attuned to the real world around here but immersed in her music.  Yet what tragedies await us when we retreat into a world of solitude and don’t stay in touch and in service to the real world about us?

We, as God’s children, are to be engaging those God puts in our path.  Think with me about Paul for a moment and compare to your own life’s circumstances. He was imprisoned on more than one occasion and instead of withdrawing into bitterness for adversity he didn’t deserve he chose to still reach out to his captors or anyone else to whom he could minister to !    Financial strains, medical situations, work or family trials may not be what you counted on but God has you where He wants you for a reason, remember that, and choose to be joyful, servile and content knowing that God will work all things together for good to them that love Him (Rom.8:28).  Choose to be a blessing today !!!

Our church is being encouraged this year to read some selected portions of the Bible carefully and meditate on them and apply them. We want to let God affect us well with His Word.  So to this end I was musing on “comfort zones”. We all have them !  We know we are to live by faith but sometimes launching out into the “unknown” is scary to us.  We like to live life in a nice, neat place and we resist change especially when we’re content where we’re at, yet the greatest lives ever lived are those that followed God out of the comfort zones of life !!  Such was the life of that great man of faith, Abraham.    As Moses recorded for us what’s come to be known as the “Abrahamic Covenant”, look at these familiar verses: “Now the Lord has said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.” (Gen.12:1-2).

Abraham lived in a city that was on the cutting edge of societal living. It was safe, offered many luxuries to him, his family was all there and yet God called him to a new yet unidentified place. “Oh, don’t worry Abraham once you get a move on I will clue you in, trust Me !”   And as the patriarch pulled up stakes and started on his faith trek imagine what he must’ve thought as he lifted left sandal, then right, left, then right – “Ok, Lord, I’m out of my confort zone now, so where are we going? Are we there yet?”

But Abraham had something solid. He didn’t have the slick promises of some earthly businessman but the sure oath of the God of all the universe !!   When God lets come into your life circumstances that “threaten” to wrest you out of your comfort zone, rest assured it will all turn out good.  It sure did for Abraham, didn’t it?   And yes, along the way, he did learn some great lessons. He did not always exercise the best of faith but through everything he was molded into a great, great man of faith and opened himself up for God’s choicest blessings – and so will YOU !  So what changes are looming on your horizon?  Relax and trust God each step of the way. Like Abraham, you too have the tried and true promises of God so walk by them each moment especially when you feel a little anxious. Remember, He wants to bless you and make you a blessing as He did with Abraham !!!!    Sometimes, the comfort zone is all that’s keeping us from something really great happening, so don’t be afraid, find your comfort in Him, He will never fail you !!