Lesson From a Hobo

1 Peter 2:12 (New International Version)

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

I read this story the other day, I’m sure you will agree that it really makes you think.

It was a cold winter's day that Sunday. The parking lot to the church was filling up quickly. I noticed as got out of my car fellow church members were whispering among themselves as they walked in the church.

As I got closer I saw a man leaned up against the wall outside the church. He was almost laying down as if he was asleep. He had on a long trench coat that was almost in shreds and a hat topped his head, pulled down so you could not see his face. He wore shoes that looked 30 years old, too small for his feet, with holes all over them, his toes stuck out. I assumed this man was homeless, and asleep, so I walked on by through the doors of the church. We all fellowshipped for a few minutes, and someone brought up the man lying outside. People snickered and gossiped but no one bothered to ask him to come in, including me.

A few moments later church began. We all waited for the Preacher to take his place and to give us the Word, when the doors to the church opened.

In came the homeless man walking down the aisle with his head down. People gasped and whispered and made faces. He made his way down the aisle and up onto the pulpit where he took off his hat and coat. My heart sank. There stood our preacher ...he was the "homeless man".

No one said a word. The preacher took his Bible and laid it on his stand. "Folks, I don't think I have to tell you what I am preaching about today."

Dear Lord we pray today that our hearts and minds will be open to all those that come our way. We pray that we would be the tool that You can use to show love to them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Being Wrong?

2 Corinthians 9:8 (New International Version)

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Adam Thompson of Cincinnati, Ohio, was the first American to fill a bathtub. Doctors who heard of it predicted rheumatism and inflammation of the lungs. Some cities banned the new 'bathtub exercise'. Today a home is not complete without a bathtub or shower. The crowd was wrong.

England once had a law forbidding anyone to drive a vehicle faster than four miles an hour without a person going before them with a red flag. Today we have vehicles capable of more than one hundred times that speed. The crowd was wrong.

Musicians and critics groaned and laughed at the music of Richard Wagner. But his compositions transformed the music world. The crowd was wrong.

Westinghouse was called a fool for daring to think that he could stop a train with wind. Now Westinghouse air brakes are being used the world over. Again the crowd was wrong.

"What is radium?" the crowd jeered at Madame Curie. Today it is a valuable asset in fighting disease. The crowd was wrong.

For eleven years Goodyear and his wife worked on vulcanizing rubber. Everyone laughed at them, but today millions ride on Goodyear tyres. The crowd was mistaken.

There have been advances in medical science hailed at the time, but were later proved to be disastrous. The drug Thalidomide comes to mind. In the early 1950's the world hailed the first jet airliner, the 'Comet', which cut travelling time by half. Several crashed and many were killed. The designers were wrong about the effect that speed and altitude had on aircraft construction. They learned from that mistake and today air travel is even safer than driving the car. Publishers told Zane Grey that he had no writing ability. But his books are still being read. The crowd was wrong.

Being wrong can be a serious matter, and that applies particularly to our relationship with God. Too much is at stake. We can be wrong about many things. The world can be wrong about things - it has been through the ages.

However, we dare not be wrong about Jesus. God offers us eternal life through Jesus Christ. He so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Dear Lord we pray that we would always be positive and not give up on things when the going is tough. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Honoring Your Wife.

1 Peter 3:7 (New International Version)

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

On this special day, My wife’s birthday, I wanted to take a look at what God tells us about honoring the wife that he has given to us.

Your wife is created to need and desire a close relationship with you. But the daily distractions that we focus on as men often pull us away from giving our wives the nonsexual intimacy they truly need.

They need to feel honored and loved by us, just as much or more than we need to feel admired and respected by them. They need to be frequently reassured of our love for them. That concept has always been a little difficult for me to understand, but I know it to be true nonetheless. Women seem to value words more than men do. And so, even though I might feel like my actions are expressing my love, my wife still needs to hear me say that I love and cherish her—frequently.

Remember too that love is a decision, not a feeling. Love is an action, not an emotion. So if you do the actions and behaviors that exhibit love for your wife, your feelings will naturally follow.  Once we start treating our wife with honor, our feelings changed to ones of love almost instantly.

Let’s make it our goal today to treat the wife He has given to us  with the respect and honor they deserve.

Dear Lord we thank You today for the wife You have given to us. We pray that we will treat her with the love, honor and respect she deserves. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The Amazing Human Body.

Psalm 139:14 (New International Version)

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

   your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

It is truly wonderful the way the human body has been made. I marvel at the growth of the fetus in the womb, the body's ability to cope with the rigors of everyday life, and the capacity of the nervous system to respond to the world around us. As today's verse says, I know full well that my Lord's works "are wonderful". 

Despite the occurrence of disease and epidemics that have taken the lives of untold millions, human beings continue to survive. According to the story of the Garden of Eden, this ability to survive was engineered into the original design of our physical bodies even before human beings would be faced with harmful disease-causing microbes. Whenever a new disease appeared, many people did succumb, but others developed immunity. This immunity is brought about by millions of disease-fighting white blood cells -- macrophages -- which can recognize a pathogen, destroy it, and call upon a host of other blood cells -- lymphocytes -- to produce the antimicrobial proteins -- antibodies -- which conquer the invading pests. Some of these blood cells -- memory cells -- lie in wait for just the moment when a microbe may once again appear. It can then elicit the army of microbe fighters to destroy that pathogen even before it can cause the disease.

I am amazed at the foresight of the Engineer who prepared these bodies of ours to interact with the physical world and to deal with viruses, bacteria, and protozoan parasites -- all of which, without these defenses, would have made our species extinct. Yes, we are "fearfully and wonderfully made"!

Dear Lord we thank You for making us who we are and what we are. We are truly marvellous, and we praise You for our wonderful design. Help us to use our bodies for Your service today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The World's Show

Psalm 97:4-6 (New International Version) 

4 His lightning lights up the world;

   the earth sees and trembles.

5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,

   before the Lord of all the earth.

6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,

   and all peoples see his glory.

Did you ever stop to notice how the world puts on a show? Did you ever take a minute just to stop and watch the snow? Have you ever seen a rainbow in a droplet of God's tears? If you haven't, my good friend, you've wasted all those years.

A young Mother and daughter wasted no time at all. After the first big snow of the season, they headed directly to the local park. All bundled up and ready to go, they loaded their sleds, a few extra socks and mittens into the back seat of the car and headed to the "best place on Earth to slide!" As Mom put it.

She had grown up in a small town just a few miles from where she and her daughter now live. Going back there to ride down the hill together has always been special to her. As a little girl playing with her friends she often declared "One day I'll bring my kids here, for this is the best place on Earth."

And so she did. This year seemed extra special. Her daughter was finally old enough to take a few trips down the hill on her own. Of course Mom was always close behind. Not that this was a dangerous hill, but this was the first time Mom was beginning to let go. You know, from the first day we begin to teach our children to be independent, we begin to experience that special pain. The one that tugs at your heart every time they take another step in the direction of adulthood. This moment was far from that, but still it was a first.

They came to a rolling stop, as the two tumbled and fell into the snow laughing. The blue sky above reminded them of a bright future and the sun began to dance across the field. Next to where they had stopped were a few small evergreens. Their branches laden with snow, bowed to the very spot where they laid dreaming.

"Look, look how the snow glistens!" Mom said. Her daughter didn't move an inch.

"Mommy, you're just kidding me right?" The young girl said.

"Kidding? About what?" Asked Mom.

"I didn't know the snow had ears," the young child replied.

"Ears?"

"You said the snow listens," the child repeated as she rolled over.

Mom, being careful not to make fun of her, held back the laugh as long as she could. Then, struggling to clear things up she said, "No, honey. I said the snow glistens. See the snow on that branch there in front of you? After God sends us snow to have fun in, He sends the sunlight to dance on the snow flakes. As they melt, the snow turns into little drops of water. As they hang there the light shines through them and you can see little rainbows. It's all a part of the show," Mom explained.

The little girl stayed there for a few minutes looking around. Off in the distance they could hear the other children playing. Yet, in that moment, that precious moment that this young Mother will one day recall when she is feeling abandoned and alone, God put on a light show and life danced across their souls.

"Mom this is better than Disney World!" The child said. "And we don't have to pay to get in."

Have you ever watched a snowflake as it floated to the ground? Did you ever tumble down a hill and watch the world go round? Have you ever stopped to notice that the world is just a ride? In the amusement park He gave you, you can run and laugh and slide.

Dear Lord we thank You for the amusement park that You have given to each of us. We pray that we would stop and notice the beauty before us. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

The Universe Declares It

Psalm 19:1-4 (New International Version)

    For the director of music. A psalm of David.

 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

   night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 They have no speech, they use no words;

   no sound is heard from them.

4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,

   their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

Let’s take a moment and ponder the boundless expanse of the universe. Do so and you will catch a fleeting glimpse of His unlimited glory! In the words of David, "The universe declares it." God's creation is not limited to the earth but encompasses even the unknown universe. He arranged the stars of the heavens with His fingers. (See Psalm 8:3.) For most of us, it is difficult to comprehend the vastness of the universe.

Beside our sun, the nearest star is 4.3 light years away. So that this number does not remain just a figure, let's expound on it. Light travels at the speed of 186,282 miles per second-not per hour but per second. That is roughly 670,000,000 miles per hour. Our airplanes fly approximately 500 miles per hour.

The moon orbits roughly 239>000 miles from the earth. If we traveled by plane to the moon, it would take nineteen days. But light reaches there in 1.3 seconds!

Let's continue. The sun is 93,000,000 miles from the earth. If you boarded a jumbo jet today and traveled to the sun, your journey would take over twenty-one years! That's nonstop too! Where were you twenty-one years ago? That's a long time. Can you imagine flying that long without a moment's break in order to reach the sun? For those who prefer driving ... well, it couldn't be done in a lifetime. It would take roughly two hundred years, not including any gas or rest stops! Yet light travels this distance in a mere eight minutes and twenty seconds!

Let's leave the sun and move on to the nearest star. We already know it is 4.3 light years from the earth. If we built a scale model of the earth, sun, and nearest star, it would be as follows. In proportion, the earth would reduce to the size of a peppercorn, and the sun would become the size of an eight-inch-diameter ball. According to this size scale, the distance from the earth to the sun would be twenty-six yards, which is only a quarter the length of a football field. Yet remember, for a scale airplane to span that twenty-six-yard distance, it would take more than twenty-one years.

So if this is the earth's and sun's ratio, can you guess how far the nearest star would be to our peppercorn earth? Would you think a thousand yards, two thousand, or maybe a mile? Not even close. Our nearest star would be placed four thousand miles away from the peppercorn! That means if you put the pepper­corn earth in San Diego, California, the nearest star on our scale model would be positioned past New York City and into the Atlantic Ocean a thousand miles out to sea!

To reach this closest star by airplane would take approximately fifty-one billion years, non-stop! That's 51,000,000,000 years! Yet light from this star travels to earth in only 4.3 years!

Let's expand further. The stars you see at night with the naked eye are one hundred to one thousand light years away. However, there are a few stars you can see with the naked eye that are four thousand light years away. I wouldn't even attempt to calculate the amount of time it would take for a plane to reach just one of these stars. But, think of it; light travels at a rate of 186,282 miles per second, and it still takes four thousand years to reach the earth. That means the light of these stars was first released before Moses parted the Red Sea, and has traveled a distance of six hundred severity million miles every hour without slowing down or ceasing since, and is just now reaching the earth!

But these are only the stars in our galaxy. A galaxy is a vast gathering of usually billions of stars. The galaxy in which we live is called the Milky Way. So let's expound further.

The closest galaxy to ours is the Andromeda Galaxy. Its dis­tance from us is approximately 2.31 million light years away! Imagine, over two million light years away! Have we reached the limit of our understanding yet?

Scientists estimate there are billions of galaxies, each of them loaded with billions of stars. Galaxies tend to group together. Andromeda Galaxy and our Milky Way are part of a cluster of at least thirty galaxies. Other clusters could contain as many as thousands of galaxies.

The Guinness Book of World Records states that in June 1994 a new group of cocoon-shaped clusters of galaxies was discovered. The distance across this group of galaxies was calculated at six hundred fifty million light years! Can you imagine how long it would take to cross such a vast distance by airplane?

The Guinness Book of World Records also states that the most remote object ever seen by man appears to be over 13.2 billion light years away. Our finite minds cannot even begin to comprehend distances this immense. We've yet to glimpse the ends of the galaxy clusters let alone the end of the universe. And God can measure all this with the span of His hand! To top it off, the psalmist tells us, "He [God] counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite" (Ps. 147:4-5). Not only can He count the billions upon billions of stars, but He knows the name of each one! No wonder the psalmist exclaimed, "His understanding is infinite."

Does this help you get a greater glimpse of His glory?

Dear Lord we thank You for knowing each of us by name.  As we think about how vast the universe is and to know that You hold it all in your hand we are thankful that you are in control. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

God Revealed in Creation

Jeremiah 10:12 (New International Version)

 But God made the earth by his power;

   he founded the world by his wisdom

   and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.

Not only are the greatness and power of God’s glory seen in creation but also His great wisdom and knowledge. Science has spent years and expended vast amounts of money to study the workings of this natural world. God's designs and building blocks remain a marvel.

All forms of created life are based on cells. Cells are the building blocks of the human body, plants, animals, and every other living thing. The human body, which in itself is an engineering wonder, contains about 100,000,000,000,000 cells (Can your arms around that number?) of which there are a vast variety. In His wisdom, He designated these cells to perform specific tasks. They grow, multiply, and eventually die-right on schedule.

Though invisible to the naked eye, cells are not the smallest particles known to man. Cells consist of numerous smaller structures called molecules, and molecules are comprised of even smaller structures called elements-and within elements can be found even tinier structures called atoms.

Atoms are so small that the period at the end of this sentence contains more than a billion of them. As small as an atom is, it is made up almost entirely of empty space. The rest of the atom is composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are found clustered together in a minuscule and extremely dense nucleus at the very center of the atom. Little bundles of energy called electrons whiz around this nucleus at the speed of light. These are the core building blocks that hold all things together.

So where does the atom get its energy? And what force holds its energetic particles together? Scientists call it atomic energy. This is merely a scientific term to describe what they cannot explain. For God has already said He is "upholding all things by the word of His power" (Heb. 1:3). Colossians 1:17 says, "In him all things hold together" (NIV).

Let’s take a minute to think about this.  The universe which is made by God can not contain Him. The universe is measured by the span of His hand, yet the detail in the design of the tiny earth and its creatures leaves modern science baffled after years of study.

Now we can understand the psalmist when he states: "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps. 139:14). You can also see, especially in this dispensation with all the scientific knowledge we have amassed to date, why the Word says, "The fool has said in his heart, `There is no God"' (Ps. 14:1).

Dear Lord Thank You for creating us and a complex place in which we live. We want to take the time today to thank You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.