Read the Instructions

 Taylor and I busied ourselves with a project of putting together something that came in multiple pieces in three different boxes this past week. For most people the project could have been completed in a couple of hours at most. Taylor and I are not normal. We labored intensively and cranked that project out not in two hours but in....wait for it. Six hours!

We had metal pieces strewn all over the room. Different sized bolts, washers and nuts. In the beginning the whole thing looked overwhelming. Then we took out the instruction manual and followed it step by step. Some of the instructions were confusing causing us to have backtrack on a few occasions undoing something we had already done. 

Six hours later, through much effort, perseverance, a few exclamations of frustrations we finished. The finished product not so much a testament to our labor but rather to our ability to follow instructions. 

I look around at people in society who never read a Bible, which is God's instruction manual. They flounder through life making mistake after mistake. They bring heartache, pain, sorrow, and destruction on themselves because they refuse to do life God's way. 

It only stands to reason that if God is the Creator of life, and I believe He is. If God is the sustainer of life, and I believe He is. Then God knows how He designed life to be lived at its fullest. To ignore His instruction manual is to invite misery on us. We may masquerade behind bravado, wealth, possessions and the prestige of power. Without God life is only an empty shell of what He intended it to be. He offers a full and abundant life. A purpose filled life created with intentional design. 

Reading the instruction manual helps us know how to handle depression, marriage, raising children, death, managing money, dealing with betrayal when wronged by people, forgiveness, and overcoming adversity. All of that and so much more is contained in the pages of that holy book. I heard a long time ago a little saying that has stuck with me. 

Show me a Bible that is worn out and I will show you a life that is not worn out. 

I see that weekly in the faces of the people of Spring Creek. Well weathered faces from aging and hard labor carrying well worn Bibles with tattered pages. I have even seen one person carrying one that doesn't even have a cover anymore. This person has endured every imaginable season of life and is still going strong. Reading the instructions navigated this one through decades of commuting to work, marriage, raising three children and serving Jesus faithfully. 

I just read that psychologists report that it takes two months, or 66 days to be exact, to engrain a habit into one's life. If a person spent 66 days reading God's instruction manual how much better off they would be. They could avoid many mistakes and find God's path and preferred way of living. Blessed will be the ones who do that. Read the instructions. 

Down in the Dust

 This past week I read the story about Jesus healing ten lepers. 9 went on their way rejoicing never to return. One came back to thank Jesus. That is when I read the biblical account of this one bowing his face to the dust in a sign of humility and gratitude. 

When is the last time we bowed down in the dust in humility before our Great King? I readily admit that there are some who cannot do so because of health issues. That certainly does not describe most of us. We are physically able but spiritually unwilling. There are more Sundays with empty altars after the sermon than there are with people on their knees. We will stand in worship. We will sit to sing. How many times do we bow before Him? 

We are a proud people. Proud people do not like to bow. Bowing means admitting that you are subservient and inferior before a superior Master. In our case Jesus. We are proud of our successes, our accomplishments, our abilities, our knowledge and our skill. All of that comes from God. Without air in lungs, blood pumping through our heart, and strength to strive forward none of these things would happen. God is opposed to proud people. That means God is opposed to many of us. Too proud to bow our knees and lower our faces in the dust. May we repent and correct this immediately. 

Are we truly a grateful people? I know we say all the right things this time of year. Are we truly thankful for the things God does? I pray with a group of men each Sunday morning before Bible study classes and worship begin. One man in particular starts his every prayer with thanks. It is easy to take things for granted. To take God's blessing for granted. For instance, when is the last time we thanked Him for sight, the ability to breathe, the ability to be mobile, the ability to think clearly. For each of those things I listed I can think of people who do not have any of those things. Things we often take for granted. 

Things like abundance of food, water, shelter, clothing, transportation, education, and the gift to wake up each day. Any of these should make us want to bow down in the dust in gratitude. What about our salvation. You may have been saved for decades or merely a few days. Are you still humbly grateful?

We should strive to be like the one thankful leper and not the other nine. I was taught it is polite to say thank you. How rude that at times we do not thank God properly. It is time to get down in the dust.