Garage Sale!

I guess you can find a good bargain at a garage sale. I found a good wheelbarrow at a neighbor’s garage sale. He even inflated the front tire for me. Most of the time, though, I walk away from a garage sale wondering why the stuff for sale wasn’t trashed. After all, who wants a size-10 combat boot paired with a size 12? Why buy a rusty grill that can’t stand straight and is full of holes? What does anyone want with an 8-track player? And what good is a rake that’s missing a dozen teeth?

Strange, isn’t it the value some people attach to junk?

Before becoming a believer, the apostle Paul (Saul of Tarsus at the time) valued religious junk highly. He thought God did too. He was proud of his religious pedigree, seminary training, and devotion to religious works and ceremonies. But one day he saw how worthless his religious “treasures” were, so he walked away from them and embraced the Cross. He put his trust in Jesus for salvation. He wrote: “I count them [his religious credentials and efforts] as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. 3:8).

Martin Luther understood Paul’s value system. He said, “Man only needs Jesus Christ.” Like Paul, Luther stopped trusting his religious affiliation and efforts to save him and, instead, trusted in the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary.

Ephesians 2:8 and 9 teach that God saves us by grace not works. Religious deeds fit the sinner’s need about as well as a mismatched pair of combat boots fit his feet.

Our on the Salt!

A few protestors are objecting to the emblem attached to the hospital at Fort Carson Army Post. It shows a cross in front of the mountains and the Latin motto, "Pro deo et humanitate," meaning “For God and Mankind.” The emblem must go, the protestors insist, because it violates the principle of separation and state. This is just another indication that secularists might be happy if all Christian symbols were removed from public property.

Perhaps those symbols will be gone someday, but Christians will still be present unless the Rapture removes them. In the final analysis, Christians must serve as salt to preserve our nation and influence non-Christians to believe on the Savior. It is good that Christians live in communities across all across the United States, work in a wide variety of industries, and attend numerous schools. God has shaken the salt everywhere.

The powerful influence of lives that reflect God’s saving grace cannot be capped, muffled, or silenced. Let’s keep the salt level high so people will thirst for God.

Where Have I Been?

Where have I been? Right here, but I have been too busy to write a blog. In the past three weeks I have

• preached three Sundays;

• completed a week of devotionals for a publisher;

• completed a Bible edit for a Sunday school curriculum quarter;

• completed a week of devotionals for a publisher;

• written discussion questions for a publisher;

• completed a week of devotionals for another publisher;

• written an assigned 18,000-word inspirational journal; and

• mentored writing students on line.

The Lord gives enough strength and wisdom for each day as we serve Him.

Yesterday, I received the results of two heart tests that were performed last week: a resting echo of the heart and an echo of the carotids. It had been a year since I had a nuclear stress test and three years since I had an echo of the carotids. The cardiologist reported that I am doing well. Nothing had changed since the previous tests.

I am thankful for a good health report. Walking daily and keeping my weight under control are significant health factors, but ultimately the Lord holds my days—and yours—in His hands. He keeps us here until He wants us there!

No One Died When Jesus Was Present

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Martha spoke these words to Jesus upon the death of her brother Lazarus. Was she right?

She was. No one ever died in Jesus’ presence. Death and Jesus, the source and giver of life, are mutually exclusive. When Jesus heard that Lazarus of Bethany was sick, He did not go to Bethany immediately, but stayed another two days where He was. He went to Bethany after Lazarus had died.

After arriving in Bethany, Jesus promised Martha that Lazarus “will rise again” (John 11:23). He also assured her that He is the resurrection and the life (v. 25). Accompanied by Martha and her sister Mary and other mourners, Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb. There, he instructed the mourners to remove the stone that blocked the entrance to the tomb. Then He summoned dead Lazarus to come forth (vv. 39-43). Still bound in graveclothes, Lazarus hobbled out of the tomb—alive!

But didn’t two thieves die on crosses alongside the cross that held Jesus? Yes, but Jesus died before they did. Furthermore, He voluntarily dismissed His spirit after declaring, “It is finished!” (Read John 19:28-33.)

Jesus’ death on the cross was the ultimate act of amazing grace. He, the Prince of Life, died to give us life—eternal, blissful life. The apostle Paul exclaimed, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20, 21).

Death is every human being’s enemy, but “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).

Have you claimed the victory by believing in Jesus Christ?

Hungry for the Bread of Life?

Between college and my first pastorate I worked as a retail bread salesman in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Gloria and I were newlyweds then. Soon we will celebrate our 52nd Anniversary. I worked long hours in Niagara Falls, six days a week, and earned about $100 per week. Finally, in November of that year (1958) a church called me to be its pastor. In December I stopped selling bread and began to break the bread of life to members of the church that had called me to be its pastor. Suddenly, my salary went from $100 per week to $50 per week, but the privilege of serving a congregation on behalf of the Savior was priceless. Now, 52 years later I still consider ministry a priceless privilege.
Times have changed since 1958. When I sold bread in Niagara Falls, an 18-ounce loaf cost 12 cents and a dozen donuts cost 28 cents. Now a loaf of bread may cost 3 or 4 dollars and one donut costs more than a dozen cost in 1958. Of course, salaries have risen too. However, occasionally I drive many miles to preach, and then I return home with only the satisfaction of having shared the bread of life with hungry believers. I have often said I would rather preach without pay than be paid not to preach; a few congregations have tested that philosophy.
Bread has always been a staple food and probably always will be. It seems consumers are willing to buy bread at any price. I just wish there was a heavy demand for the bread of life throughout the land. It seems many believers want to see a national revival, but how many hunger for the bread of life? We may have a revival someday, but I don’t think it will happen until first we have a reBible.