Since that fancy-smancy word means
things like a medley, an assortment or a mixture, we’ll just call today’s
efforts an editorial stew. Hope you like it and deem it helpful.
Well, the gifting season
has just ended and I would hazard a guess (based on recent experience) that the
most prevalent gift given this season was “gift cards.” I like the
concept of them, although the giving of them seems to take the personal aspect
out of gift-giving. But, in other ways, I do like them. Mainly
because I don’t have to run around to numerous stores and try to find something
a loved one might want or need. Just give them a card and let them make
the choice as to what they want.
And that’s what my brief
lesson in this segment of the “stew” is about - choices. And, about some
“gifts” that are far more valuable than any gifts that we can bestow. I’m
speaking about the “gifts”
which God has given us. He’s given us the gift of His “grace.” Check Romans
5:15 and Ephesians 2:7-8 for verification of this “gift.”
He also gives mankind
the “gift of righteousness”
and you can read that in Rom. 5:17. However, the greatest “gift” He gave the world is
His Son and I say that because it is through His Son, Jesus Christ, that the
final and ultimate “gift”
is received - “eternal life.”
Note what Paul writes in Rom. 6:23. “For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.”
The next ingredient in
our mixture today stems from something I heard said the other day. I
thought it so apropos (another fancy word for relevant) that I immediately
wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it. And, I’m going to attempt to tie
it in with a spiritual thought.
Everyone is aware that
much of our news for the past 15 years comes from the war and battles being
fought in the middle East, particularly the country of Iraq.
Geographically speaking, this area is the region known in the Bible as “Mesopotamia.”
And I’m sure that you’ve seen many pictures of that area and I want you to have
those images in mind as I give you the statement I heard. The speaker
simply said: “Mesopotamia is
the cradle of civilization and they are still in the cradle.”
What picture is painted
by that statement? To me, one of something that had a great beginning and
then just seemed to stall. I mean, those there are still living in mud
huts and herding goats. They ceased to advance or to grow. This
might be a stark representation of a Christian who began with the “sincere milk of the word”
like “newborn babes”
and just stayed at that age. (1Pet. 2:2).
Perhaps that writer of
Hebrews said it best by saying (and I paraphrase) that there comes a time when
we’re suppose to advance from being Christian babies to being adults. To
not remain feeding on “milk”
but able to eat “strong meat.”
In other words, we’re supposed to grow in “The
Word” in the likeness that we grow physically. Let’s learn a
lesson from Mesopotamia and “not
stay in the cradle.”
On a lighter note, some
of my stew ingredients include some things that tickled my funny bone that I
also relate to a Biblical application. The first one I’ll mention comes
from a political announcement a few weeks back. It seems that a woman who
claims to be a “psychic” was running for a political office in the state of
Kansas. She had to drop out due to “unforseen problems.” Made me
think of what God told “His
people” in Deut. 18:10-12. In a word - don’t have anything to
do with these sort of people.
The next item that
tickled me is also sort of sad when you think about it. It’s the
epitaph written by the widow of a man who died many years ago. It’s not
the death of the man that made me laugh because death is not a laughing matter
and it’s something that all of us have to face. The Psalmist succinctly
pointed this out in Psalms 89:48.
But, the epitaph penned
by his widow did make me laugh. Here’s what she wrote: “Sacred to the memory of my husband,
John Barnes, who died January 3, 1803. His comely widow, aged 23, has
many qualifications of a good wife and yearns to be comforted.” Perhaps
she couldn’t afford both an obituary and a personal ad too.
And, speaking of life
and death, here’s something I read that speaks volumes in a few short
words. It’s a short little poem that I found in my archives (fancy word
for stacks and folders of pieces of paper). It reads: “There’ll be two dates on your
tombstone, And all your friends will read’em, But all that’s going to matter,
Is that little dash between them.”
And here’s our closing
thought, our last ingredient. We just finished a series of lessons on
some of the great characters of the Bible. In that study we saw both
their greatness and their humanness. They are both examples of how we
should live our lives and be righteous, and also things that should not be in
our lives.
In metaphor, their lives
show us both sides of the ledger. The one side of their actions where we
learn how to please God and the other side that warns us of what not to
do. Of actions that we should avoid. So, with our Bible characters
we have both examples and warnings. With that in mind, I’ll close with
this thought.
If your story was to be
found in one of the books of the Bible, would you be an “example” or would you
be a “warning”?
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Covey
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