FROM THE PASTOR
October 14, 2018
I had a slow leak in the rear passenger side tire of my Jeep a few weeks ago. Wasn’t a bad leak… about 6 pounds of air lost every 3 days. I’ve got an air tank so I would just fill it up and go on. Oh, every time I filled it, I looked to see if it had a nail… nothing. This went on for about a month until I finally took it back to Discount Tire where I purchased the tire.
They took it into the work area, raised the vehicle, took the tire off and started the process of attempting to locate the issue. I thought it would be a valve or even a little corrosion where the tire married to the rim. But to my surprise it was neither. After 15 minutes of looking, they finally located a brad sized nail buried almost out of sight in a slot of one of the treads. Once found they patched it, rotated the tires… no charge… and I was on the road again. Problem fixed, no need to be concerned about the “what-ifs” any longer.
Like so many times before I found myself scolding myself, “Why did you wait so long.” All that time spent filling the tire… all the worries of being stuck on the road because it finally went flat (I even started carrying one of those portable tire pumps you plug into the power outlet of the vehicle just in case) … and it was fixed in mere minutes when I finally got serious about addressing the real issue.
Here again, I find myself reflecting on my actions. How many times in my Christian life have I done the exact same thing when it comes to sin? To be honest, too many to admit. Some would call it procrastination… I call it being content with the status quo. It’s just so easy to ignore the issue of sin and be content with the way things are. Especially sin, that in our human nature, we refer to as “little sins”. Content with the status quo, on I went, even while I comprehended that the consequences had real potential of being devastating in so any ways.
This hit me square this week as we studied Gideon in Sunday School. Gideon had been chosen by the Lord to be the “one” to free his people from 7 years of oppression by the Midianites, Amalekites, and sons of the east. But first there needed to be a house cleaning beginning with his own father’s house. God’s word reads…
Judges 6:25-26 (NASB)
25 Now on the same night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it;
26 and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly manner, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down."
House cleaning is not always a pleasant task… even when we know God directs us to do so. But obedience always proceeds cleansing. Look at the next verse…
Judges 6:27 (NASB)
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had spoken to him; and because he was too afraid of his father's household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.
We should never procrastinate or be content with the status quo when sin is involved. God’s blessings are inhibited and His perfect will for our lives delayed until we clean house and do right in the eyes of our Lord. As Joshua announced… “Chose today who you will serve…”.
All that came as a reminder from one little tiny nail… how amazingly God communicates!
Thank you for your faithfulness. Pastor Larry
