By Joe Widick
I don’t make a habit of following girls in convertibles, it just happened on one of those warm spring days. I had been to visit my parents and was returning home. A blue convertible with four teenage girls in it passed me. They were laughing and having a good time. Their hair was blowing in the breeze, but seemingly it did not bother them. They were stopped at a red light and I pulled up behind them. The driver was looking in the rear view mirror (not at me), and began immediately to get her hair neat. The other three girls miraculous pulled little mirrors from purses (I guess), and began to work on their hair also. The light turns green and off they go again, hair blowing every which way. We came to the next red light and were once again stopped. You can guess what took place. Out came the mirrors once again and the hair straightening started all over. This happened for three red lights before our paths took us in different directions.
Have you ever found yourself determining within yourself not to go back and repeat a sin. Maybe you found yourself in a situation where you felt the only way out was to tell a “little lie.” You tell the lie the situation ends and all is well! But then you stop to contemplate what you have done. You did not stand-up for the truth. You compromised your values. You did exactly what you knew was wrong. You talk to God and ask for His forgiveness and He is faithful and gracious and forgives you. The next day starts and you allow the pressures of life to get the best of you and once again you do that which is wrong, and you find yourself once again going to God asking for strength and forgiveness. As the girls in the blue convertible went down the road, they had little concern for their hair. When they stopped and thought about it, they felt a need to get their hair back in order. I do not know about you, but I would like to do better than what I do. I want to be a child of God, who serves to my very best, not making the same mistake over and over again. Wouldn’t it be grand to end our day and go to our father and instead of asking him to forgive that oft repeated sin, to be able to say, thank you Lord for giving me the strength and wisdom to avoid that same mistake. I believe that God would smile down on us and say to Himself, “well done my child.” What a joy it is to one of his children and to know that he is looking out for us.
By Joe Widick
I once read a story about a bloodhound that was doing what bloodhounds do—track. As the story went, the bloodhound started out chasing a white-tail deer but as fate would have it a red fox crossed his path, so the bloodhound veered off and began chasing the fox instead. The chase continued until a rabbit came on the scene and crossed in front of the bloodhound causing the bloodhound to once again change direction. Finally a little field mouse came across the path and the old blood hound and the hound began to chase the little mouse into his hole. The hound, which had begun his hunt on the trail of a magnificent deer, ended up watching a mouse hole!
Most who read this simple story would simply stop and laugh say how foolish the hound was. He was on the trail of a magnificent deed but would up peering into a mouse hole. If we stop to think, and are honest with ourselves, we realize that often we too are easily distracted. At times we may even be sidetracked from following Christ. It is so easy for most of us to start off well, but then run after other things that cross our paths. I started this article when I came across the story of the hound. As brief as the article is, I stopped once to go to the doctor, stopped again to talk to someone, and I even stopped a third time to make coffee.
Take a moment to consider the words of the apostle Paul. See what he is saying as he tells Timothy to focus on the real purpose of his life and ministry. (II Timothy 1:6-13; 2:1-2,22-26; 3:14-17). Timothy was urged to tell others about Christ and to warn them not to turn aside. As I continued to think about this challenge I had to reflect on the past week. One week ago we were blessed to have Brother Jerry Tallman speak to us about something we all know about, yet so many times we fail to share the story of Jesus with others. Think about your Christian walk! If you are like most, becoming a Christian was an important step to take. There was an air of excitement about your decision. Has this old world worn you down and caused you to lose focus on things that are really important. Do you think that just maybe you might not “finish well.” The values of this world can easily influence us, tempting us to despise “sound doctrine” and accept what is false. So we need to know and proclaim God’s word, persevere through hardships and always keep the faith. With God’s help, you and I can keep our eyes on Christ, the cross that He went to and the sacrifice He made. As we do this it will help you and I to stay close to Him and finish well. We can all remember that if finishing well is our goal, we can’t turn our back on Christ if we keep our eyes on Him. One day at a time is my goal. To wake up each morning and focus on what is really important. To keep before me the life of Christ as an example for the way I need to live. With God’s help, I believe I will be able to cross the finish line.
By Joe Widick
This week we are going to have an opportunity to learn more about being evangelistic. I look forward to the time we will have to listen and reflect on things that really matter. Recently I have listened to one too many stories about the exploits of TV stars and sports stars. All the attention that the media gives them seems to be going overboard. Wouldn’t it be good to have just a few stories about good things. Maybe it would be good to know about a give-away here at the building, or the work of some teenagers in Honduras, or a medical brigade that had a huge impact in Namasegue. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear a story about a special visit to someone in the hospital and the difference that visit made. It would be exciting to be a fly on the wall and learn of the positive impact that is being had in our children’s Bible classes. The list of good things would go on and on. My guess would be that if we listened more to the good things instead of listening to the exploits of “superstars” we would feel a lot better each and every day.
There is another story that needs to be told. Each of us have a story. It is a story of our conversion. Some would be simple stories yet glorious to the angels in Heaven. Some stories would cover years of prayer and study that eventually led to a conversion and the angels rejoiced. Each journey that has been made or will be made, is different; each very important. Conversions vary. The apostle Paul had a crisis encounter with the Savior that turned him from a persecutor into a preacher of the gospel. In contrast, Timothy was quietly nurtured in the Scriptures from early childhood, resulting in his salvation (II Timothy 3:14-15). No two journeys are identical. But each has the common element of turning from the ways of the world to the Lord Jesus in faith. Then to be able to come in contact with the blood of Christ.
My story is simple. Allen Pettus was my teacher and the lesson he taught one Sunday caused me to think about my relationship to God. The following Sunday I was baptized. The day became even more special because my father was baptized that same hour. Can you retrace the steps that God helped you take in coming to Christ? What’s your story? How easy would it be for you to share that story with someone who was searching for the truth. Let each of us try to focus on that which is good. We all have a story to tell.
By Joe Widick
I take too many things for granted. I live in the Bible belt and find comfort in knowing so many Christians. I worship at a wonderful congregation and am blessed to have many Christian friends. God is truly good to me. Recently I read a skeptics article about the Christian faith. In the article the skeptic proposed that the Christian faith is nothing more than a crutch. His reasoning was that if Christians claim to trust in Jesus is shows that they are weaklings who have to come up with “religion” in order to get by. In times of trouble they pull out the crutch of trusting/faith and lean on it to get them by. They are not strong enough to face the troublesome times.
It is hard to imagine people thinking that way. I would guess that the skeptic who wrote the article never considered many past and present events that would probably prove him wrong. There is the story of a doctor in one of the far Eastern countries who spent over two and half years in jail being as he called it; “reeducated” because he professed faith in Christ. Not surprisingly he was re-arrested because he left his jail cell and continued his efforts at his church. Was his trust that God would care for him and watch out for him a “crutch” or a “conviction?” The skeptical writer probably did not look deeply into the lives of the early Christians. He may not have even heard of the apostle Paul. You know the story how he trusted Christ to be with him through all adversity. He was arrested, flogged, mocked and even shipwrecked (II Corinthians 11:16-29). Was his trust a “crutch” or a “conviction?”
I can not see that these believers were looking for a crutch. My thinking is that they had something deep and essential in their hearts. They had a personal relationship with God—a relationship born of faith in the work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. Because of that, they had freely given their life over to the King of Kings. As that relationship grew, they became more and more eager to sacrifice everything for the privilege of proclaiming Him. They were in no way limping along life’s journey looking for something to hold them up.
A crutch? Never—faith in Christ is not about safety and caution. It’s about believing Jesus and trusting Him no matter what. It’s about taking up a daily cross and living for the savior. Our goal then becomes: since Jesus bore the cross for us, we willingly take it up for him.
