Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:2 (NLT)]
Whenever I saw the swamped canoe at the swamp/bird sanctuary, I remembered the old aluminum canoe we had at our cottage. Because it remained down at the lakefront all year long, the canoe served as winter home to the chipmunks and mice. After decades of rodents taking refuge there, the critters eventually chewed up all the foam flotation blocks in both ends of the craft. Since a boat will float only as long as it weighs less than the maximum amount of water it displaces, those empty chambers didn’t affect the canoe if it remained upright and relatively dry. But, if the craft capsized, its empty chambers would rapidly fill with water and, with the extra weight, sink. Knowing how easily the canoe could sink made us extra cautious—it was used only when the water was calm, no one deliberately tipped it, and lifejackets were required.
Sometimes, however, we’re closer to sinking than we know. Several years ago, we were camping by a small lake when my son, husband, and father-in-law decided to rent a small row boat and go fishing. At noon, they pulled the boat ashore and returned to our campsite to eat. After lunch, the fellows returned to their boat and rowed out onto the lake. When their feet got wet, they realized the boat was taking on water and started bailing. The water poured in faster than they could empty it, the boat sunk lower into the water, and they quickly rowed back and pulled the boat ashore. While gathering their fishing gear, my husband discovered that the boat’s drain plug was missing. My father-in-law, who’d been hesitant to leave the boat unattended during lunch, had decided to outsmart any would-be thieves by removing its plug and sticking it in his pocket. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten to reinstall the plug after lunch. Rather than any would-be thieves, they were the ones who got wet!
Boats don’t sink because of the water around them—they sink because of the water that gets into them. In the same way, Christians are meant to live in this sinful world without any of the world’s sins seeping into us. When the world finds its way into our lives, things like fear, anxiety, immorality, deceit, anger, pride, envy, selfishness, and greed do their very best pull us down and drown us. Like the boat’s plug, God’s word can keep the world from getting into our lives and affecting us. Like the buoyancy blocks in a canoe, our faith in Jesus will keep us from sinking even when our lives turn upside down. And, like a life jacket, the Holy Spirit will keep us afloat until we safely reach shore.
Let us always remember that Simon Peter only began to sink when he took his eyes off the Lord!
So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. [Matthew 24: 42 (NLT)]
A pastor friend who’s led dozens of mission trips used to evaluate his mission’s success by the number of new believers gained during the trip. If the latest mission’s altar call stats did not exceed the previous mission’s numbers, he felt it was a failure. Like him, we tend to be number people who measure our success or failure quantitatively. Business success is gauged by the balance sheet, bottom line, and price-earnings ratio; financial success by income, the value of our investment portfolio, and the size of our house or the price of our car. Regardless of the sport, with their assorted BAs, RBIs, Yds, Gs, PPRs, FT%s, and GOAT points, stats seem to evaluate every athlete’s success. Social success is assessed by the number of holiday cards we send or receive, how many “friends” we have on social media, and how many “likes” we got on our latest post. Intellectual success is measured by IQ, SAT, ACT and GPA numbers. A pastor assesses his success by Sunday’s attendance (or the offering), the teacher by the standardized test results of her students, and the author by his book’s ranking on the best seller list. I’m no different; I often check my website’s stats to see the number of followers, visitors, and views.
When speaking to the Pharisees, Jesus delivers what could be called the ultimate good news/bad news scenario. The good news is that, no matter how evil, vicious or long-lasting the sin, any sin (even blasphemy) is forgivable. The good news, however, comes with a “but” when Jesus says blasphemy against the Spirit will never be forgiven.
Every Friday, I’m emailed a “weekly wisdom” consisting of two pithy sayings like, “Don’t just trust God for things; trust Him in things,” or “You can’t enjoy today if you’re worrying about the past or the future.” Last week’s wisdom really hit home with, “Not every good idea is a God idea!” More than once, I’ve looked back with regret while saying, “It seemed like such a good idea at the time!”
Shortly after accusing the Pharisees of being more concerned with appearing righteous than being righteous and warning them that God knew what was in their hearts, Jesus told them a story about a rich man (who probably appeared quite righteous) and a beggar named Lazarus. The leprous and destitute Lazarus sat by the rich man’s gate and begged for scraps from the man’s table while mangy dogs licked at his wounds. The rich man ignored the beggar; to him, Lazarus probably was a little more than a piece of trash to step over before entering his home. When Lazarus died, he was carried by angels to a heavenly banquet and seated in a place of honor beside Abraham. When the rich man died, however, he ended up in Hades or Sheol, the realm of the dead. The mention of “torment” and “flames” there indicates that the rich man was in what Jewish tradition called Gehinnom (a place of fire and anguish).
Devotions of the Heart 