“From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.” Matthew 27:45

“At Urgent Care!” That was the start of a text from my son’s wife, letting me know that my son had been in an accident. Along with the text was a picture of him lying on the examination table. My son’s position was all I needed to see… to know that his body, soul and spirit were NOT in a good position. My immediate and most natural response was to run to MY Heavenly Father and PRAY!

I didn’t run to my Father and then run back out. We hung out! ALL DAY LONG. Since my son was over an hour away, I did what I could do and just kept praying. And my Heavenly Father kept on listening. And while there were no words directly from heaven, a deep sort of knowing came later, letting me know that he was going to be ok. Then, for some reason, I thought about Jesus!

This being Holy Week, I’ve spent time thinking and reading about what Jesus went through leading up, and through, to The Crucifixion. Maundy Thursday is the day we remember His appeal to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. The time when HE prayed and God listened. Jesus’ appeal was heart wrenching. Being a dad, I have NO doubt God’s heart was doing the same thing.

I can’t imagine anything my son asking me for, in a crisis situation, where I wouldn’t say yes. But while Jesus wept and poured His heart out, God the Father must have wept as well. Because the ONLY way OUT of hell for ME, was for Jesus to go THROUGH hell to save me. God HAD to let that happen. So He walked with His son, until He could go no further. Then He HAD to turn away!

God is perfect. HE cannot coexist in a same space where imperfection resides. With ALL of my sin, and the sins of the entire world, hanging on the back of His Son, God HAD to turn away. Darkness is simply the absence of light. NOT the other way around! When God turned, darkness came. And with it, the purpose of a higher agenda that NOW gives my dark days the hope and light I need.

It turned out as I was led to believe. My son was released and is going to be fine… though the scar from the stitches will remain. Just like the scars from My Savior’s dark day… on a cross… dying for ME! I’ve been told that the ONLY person carrying scars in Heaven will be Jesus. And because THOSE scars remind my Heavenly Father that MY dark days need His light, I can call on Him ANY time!

Are YOU special to Jesus and The Father? Is YOUR name priority one for Him when you are in a time of need? Are you listening to what He is trying to tell you in the dark times of life? Because it is THEN that He speaks most clear!

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” Romans 1:18-19

“Yer an idiot!” I couldn’t believe he’d said that to me! Immediately my hackles went up as I prepared to fight. Which astonished me, because I’d only been through this with this same guy at LEAST a gazillion times! So much so that, I finally just gave a sigh and dropped my fists. Having both won AND lost this battle before, I simply gave up the fight with me and asked, “what’s the point?”

It had been a good day too! There was no reason for battle or stress. I was reasonably content and wasn’t looking for something different or new. But there it was! The invitation to war. And while there were other people around me, no one else heard the shots fired… EXCEPT me. Thinking about it then, as I do now, it is the silent, stinky, deadly war that goes on inside of me… every single day!

It’s not like I don’t have a host of allies on each side! Being agathokakological, meaning consisting of both good and evil, my good side has lots of friends, and even in high places! But my bad side has history and appeal! And while NONE of that history EVER ends up well, underneath there lurks the lure of pleasure and self-gratification that, for right now, appeals to my what… BOREDOM?

Oh how I wish I could get rid of ME once and for all! Because DAILY, I feel like Paul when he diatribed against himself in Romans 7, “O wretched man that I am… who will rescue me from this body of death!” But “The Point,” God reminds me, is JESUS… Him IN me, for this very purpose! As crazy as it sounds, I was MADE for WAR! That I turned myself against myself is a tragedy the enemy loves.

So I go to, or remind myself, of God’s Words of promise to always be with me. That no enemy can or will separate me from Him ( Romans 8) and that WE, (God and I) WILL ultimately win the victory, which WILL be eternal. But today? Well… today that creep just fired off another volley and needs to be dealt with AGAIN! Besides, I can see YOU are already too busy with YOURself to pay me any mind!

Are YOU beating up your creepy self? Or is the creep beating up YOU? This, being a tag team sport, is the time to tag Jesus. It’s up to YOU… the saved one!

“Oh Sovereign LORD, help me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.” Psalm 109:21-22

“How do ya turn this stupid thing OFF?!” And I was not happy when I said it! The ‘this’ referred to the ‘Lane Assistance’ button that is pre-programmed into both of our new vehicles. The first time I encountered its existence was VERY unwelcome and uncomfortable. When ‘it’ is engaged, it is STILL NOT WELCOME! Luckily for me, ‘it’ can be turned off with a touch of a button. So I did!

The lane-departure warning system uses sensors and cameras to detect the edges of the lane that I’m in. If the system thinks I’m about to cross a line unintentionally, it’ll warn me by, very briefly, stopping my steering capability. But even a nanosecond is too long for me and I come unglued. The way I see it, if I NEED assistance to stay in a lane, I shouldn’t even be behind the steering wheel.

My 15 year old Grandson Isaac just received his ‘Learners Permit’ to start learning ‘how to drive.’ As a LEARNER, he is REQUIRED to have all kinds of assistance in the process. Meaning that his mom or dad will be required to sit beside him and tell him what to do and how to do it… that is until such time he proves he has learned to drive alone. The process takes a year and cannot be turned off!

Programmers at car companies had a meeting one day and determined that THEY needed to tell consumers what they needed! Having driven for 52 years, I don’t feel I need a computer jerking me around while I drive around, in an endless quest to avoid people, cars and potholes! That’s NOT to say that I don’t have needs! In fact, MY manufacturer built ‘needs assistance’ inside of ME!

A lesson I’ve learned, and hate continuing to learn, is that I actually REQUIRE assistance in MANY areas of my life. Since I am not my own, my title holder has ‘built in’ safety warnings REQUIRING regularly scheduled ‘Owner’s Manual’ study time. There I learn the ‘How-to’s’ for healthy maintenance of HIS property! A life where I am ONLY a steward who WILL BE held accountable.

Giving up control of my life is naturally hard. It became hard when sin entered and became man’s ‘life-blood.’ Learning that I am poor and needy with a broken heart is a wake up call that is more irritating than comforting. But I am blessed to have a Maker that completely acts and moves with MY, and His, best interests at heart! I’m still ‘learning!’

How is YOUR heart and do you regularly go to and depend upon HIM for assistance?

“Then He said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’” Matthew 9:37-38

“Where is it?” That was the question I asked 3 different store employees, 3 separate days in a row. NO ONE had an answer! At my house, our day STARTS with coffee! And coffee, for us, included Half-n-Half! Katie likes her coffee frothy on top, and the fat in the half n half makes that possible. No Half n Half… no froth! But the store has been out of it for 4 days now! I just want to know WHY???

This morning I did what I COULD have done on day 1 but, unconcerned, I didn’t take the time. After days of the dilemma, I finally Googled the question and got an answer. YES… cows have NO control over how much milk they produce! YES… cows CANNOT go on strike to hold out for more hay! YES… cows CANNOT quit working at producing product… even if they want to. But PEOPLE can!

After researching, I discovered that the problem with the Half n Half supply isn’t with cows, it’s with PEOPLE. There are simply not enough people who want to work at collecting milk to turn it into usable products. But this problem isn’t isolated to the Dairy industry… it’s LOTS of industries. Depending on the type of business and location, workers are just too hard to find these days!

The frustration over my coffee creamer has spiritual overtones. Not believing in coincidence very often, I found myself, earlier than usual, reading The Word… where my eyes fastened upon today’s Bible verse. Apparently today’s labor problem isn’t an isolated ‘time or place’ incident. Back in Jesus day, He TOO saw employment opportunities everywhere. Today, I see an even bigger problem!

I’m just coming clean here and saying what I see. And what I see… I don’t like. Peering into the spiritual world of Jesus, I not only DON’T see people who want to work, I see people who don’t even want Jesus’ PRODUCT! And THAT is a concern I don’t really know what to do about. So I am going to do what Jesus did and pray to His Father to not only send workers, but some RESPONDERS as well!

Will you join me in praying for workers AND for a Harvest? Will you join Team Jesus and get out there for Him? Cuz if there aren’t any more takers, we oughta be praying for Him to shut this whole thing down and take us home! WhatdaYOUthink? Cuz, like Him, I’m not too happy with just a Half n Half out kinda supply and demand!

“I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19

“Do you have the keys? That was the question being asked over the phone as I listened to my voicemail. I had to play the message a couple times because I didn’t recognize the person speaking. But soon enough I put it all together and understood the what’s, the wheres and the why’s. Now, the only question in my mind was… “do I know where those particular keys ARE?” So I went looking.

Years ago I was given a set of keys to a home of one of my church members. The owner had asked if I would mind checking in on their property when they were away for the summer. Those keys went right into the consul of my truck, where I had about 40 OTHER keys. Having recently sold my truck, I had nonchalantly taken all those keys and thrown them into a box. Now I had a problem!

I really don’t know what all the keys I have, go to. Over my lifetime I have had access to dozens of doors. Some mine, some belonging to others. But as time passed, access to those doors were no longer needed or available. Keys are important because without them, access can be denied. I just don’t have the heart to throw away something that important. And it was a good thing!

The ‘voicemail person’ had left their phone number, so I called. The family had lost track of the keys to their winter home, but remembered that I had been given a set. Grabbing all the keys I had, I drove

to meet them. Thankfully, I had the key they were needing. And while the key didn’t go to anything ’I’ owned, it brought me joy to be able to help them not have to kick a door down!

Today I have the privilege of presenting ‘THE KEY’ to a group of Middle Schoolers. It is the same ‘Key’ presented to me years ago. But unlike my other keys, I make SURE I don’t misplace or lose it, because the VALUE of what THAT Key accesses, is PRICELESS! It was entrusted to me by The Master of the Universe, and it came with 2 conditions. 1. NEVER lose it. And 2. ALWAYS share it with others.

DO YOU hold ‘The Key?’ Do you know what it is? Do you hold its value above all things? Is your Key well worn and used? Do you have a habit of sharing The Key with others?

“God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are His child, God has made you also an heir.” Galatians 4:4-7

“Ohhhhhh!” is what I said! Which meant I was frustrated! While working in the garage, I had plugged in my drill… and it didn’t work! I immediately KNEW from experience that it wasn’t the drill that was the problem. The fault was in the outlet the drill was plugged into! Everything LOOKED right, but there was NO POWER! And I knew exactly why… which frustrated me even more!

This light switch, in my entryway, has 4 switches. The second one from the left is the culprit. It USED to power a light outside my entryway. Long ago I converted it to power a wall fountain for decoration. It ran for years until Katie just put a plant in it. Now, the switch runs power to an outlet that ran the light, and then a fountain. BUT… having been turned off, it WASN’T running my drill!

Since electricity is invisible, I can’t SEE if power is running to the outlet or not. The only way I can determine if the drill I am going to use will work, is to pull the trigger! If it doesn’t WHIRRRR, it’s because the switch in the entryway is turned off! I must then walk inside the house and turn it back on. With 4 switches, forgetting what goes where means that ‘on’ or ‘off’ is a random state!

I was reading Psalm 19 verses 7-11 when it hit me that the adjectives describing ‘The Law’ of God are exact adjectives that describe Jesus Christ. And why not? Since Jesus IS ‘The Word,’ His characteristics; perfect, right, pure etc., are who He IS. For He and I to share those characteristics, we must be connected. And sometimes, like my garage outlet, we are not. ‘I’ have to turn us on.

The point of this story is to admit that, the older I get, the more ‘Ohhhhhh’ I feel! Today’s verse tells me that I am His son, therefore His heir! An heir is one who gets stuff after the Father dies. But I don’t WANT His STUFF!!! I want HIM! But until He returns, I will always be fighting for connection! Oh how I look forward to the Day I can just BE with Him! “When ‘Ohhhh’ becomes “AHHHHH!”

Are YOU looking forward to continually being in the presence of Jesus? Do your prayers include the sigh of “Maranatha,” which means ‘Come, O Lord!’ Are you keeping the connection with Jesus Christ ‘ON’ and notice when it isn’t?

Reading the Word this morning I happened upon a hidden treasure or Golden Nugget that just blessed me. Romans 14:17-18 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit! I couldn’t help but think, “WHAT A PACKAGE!” Then I received this devotion from Katie and it only confirmed what I had just read! So I am sharing.

Called to Be

… fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you (Romans 12:2, MSG).

Romans 12:2 clearly shows us that, while we are called to obey God’s Word, we are also called to simply be.

All too often, we get caught in a cycle of listening to an inspirational message, doing the right thing for a week, then falling back into old patterns of behavior, trying to act our way to a good Christian life. But we are called to be.

We must let Jesus permeate the very core of our being. Otherwise, we won’t be truly transformed, but only have partial behavior modification. We’ll become actors in a drama rather than pilgrims on a journey.

Today, allow God to work in you from the inside out. Allow Him to perform the heart-work needed so He can work through you in awesome ways. Then you can just be!

TODAY’S REFLECTION
Is there a part of your heart or life you need to open up to Jesus today?

Would YOU love to have His Righteousness, Peace and Joy? Here you go!

“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Today’s the day! I’ve known it was coming for a couple months now. And now it is here. Soon, I will be transported by my daughter, placed on a gurney, and rolled into a room where they will knock me out and do some internal inspection! I made the choice to have the double procedure done to get them both out of the way. Smart planning, since I’m getting old. A 2 fer 1!

I’ve had an Endoscopy and a Colonoscopy before. After 50 you’re supposed to get them done when you have conditions like mine. That way there are no surprises like, “REALLY??? So what did he DIE FROM?” If they catch things early, prevention adds more life. So every 5-7 years I get ‘viewed’ from the inside! They’re going to put instruments into my top and bottom and check me out.

It’s not a hard process… but it’s not fun either. I wasn’t allowed to eat for 24 hours before today, and I had to drink mass quantities of icky liquid to force me to clean out my colon and bowels. Let’s just say that last night I spent a lot of time getting too close to John! Now that I’m all cleaned out, they can get a clear picture of how my insides are working. A process God uses all the time.

I WAS a dirty sinner. That is until Dr. Jesus came to my rescue. Headed for the Lake of Fire due to spiritual failure, I needed a way to get saved from that prognosis. So years ago, Jesus and I traded lives. Now He spends time with me, viewing my inside motives of mind and heart, and working on changing them to look more like His. It’s a forever kind of process that guarantees I’ll live forever!

While the doctor uses special tools and equipment, God has His ways as well. His preference is using the Word to speak to me and give me pointers and prescriptions for a healthy Spirit. He wants me fit and trim because He has work for me to do. Special stuff made only for Me. If I’m not in the fit condition, I can’t do what He asks of me. And I WANT to do what He asks.

Are YOU spending time with Dr. Jesus and getting your checkups?

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:13

THANK GOD I know a guy! It’s tax time again. And one more time, as happens EVERY year, I’m a little freaked out. Having NEVER been a numbers guy, and with my elderly ability to grasp complex matters waning, I grabbed all the info I had on hand, balled it up and took it to my savior… my guy… the one I am blessed to have met many years ago. Handing him my stuff, his smile says, “Cute!”

Everything in life has some form of measure to it. Height, weight, income, expenses, kids and even time. As the clock ticks, I sense I am running out of it in more ways than one. Thinking I am doing ok by looking around at my stuff, I count it up and it looks pretty good. Until I realize ANOTHER entity is looking at my life… and THEY have a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT measuring system than me.

Lots of things have been happening in my world. Things that make me feel kind of paranoid. Health, family, Church, society, politics and finance ALL leave me wondering if I’m living in the plus or minus column of life. To make matters even more sticky, each one affects the other! So much so, that a domino effect can topple the whole mess because of 1 error. Enter my GUY!

For taxes I have a guy who makes me feel special. In the face of the dragon, he doesn’t run. He tells me to remain calm and give him the info and he will face the dragon on my behalf. Because he is a GREAT dragon slayer, but more so because he is a friend I can trust, I don’t worry. I just do what he says. He has never failed me. In the game of life and death, I have another guy.

I met Jesus when I was 12 years old. Though 12 doesn’t seem to be an age where things can go so wrong, I realized I was in BIG trouble when it came to my sin and getting into Heaven. When my Savior introduced Himself as such, I did not hesitate to make Him my Guy for LIFE! And He has NEVER let me down! And though I know I have given Him reason to be disappointed, He never is!

How do YOU add up in the accounting and accountability problem? DO YOU have a guy you can trust? Do you give Him all your stuff? Because Jesus is standing by with a twinkle in His eye.