Shade Tree Wisdom 2/19/08

Well, sunny today and pretty warm. They are having snow in the Midwest, so I imagine son Dan is getting to use his snow blower. Funny, isn’t it, how easily we get used to and accept conditions? They become so common that we don’t really see them any longer.

Maybe that’s why the Bible is so filled with warnings about the dangers that surround us every day. Conditions we live with become “there”. We see them, we know they are there, and after awhile they don’t disturb us at all. It’s something like getting used to a new car, or a new piece of clothing. The jacket or coat we used to hang so carefully gets draped over a chair or simply dropped on the floor.

Am I being unduly alarmist? What brings this up is something I read in the sports page of this morning’s paper. The writer tells of an Oregon native who elected to play for UCLA being taunted and greeted with hate filled signs when he played in an Oregon-UCLA game. And of an Illinois native playing for Indiana needing security for himself and his family to remain safe when the two teams met. Then he speaks of ancient Rome and says “Emphasis on sports drags down empires”. Suggesting when Rome reached great success their eye was no longer on civic responsibility and good for the populace, but on self-gratification in games. The poet Juvenal says of them they wanted only “Bread and Circuses.”

Peter writes, “Be self-controlled and alert.” Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know your brothers in the faith throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering”. 1 Peter 5, 8.9. Keep your eye on the goal.

In these Lenten watches keep the eye on Jesus. “I come to do Thy will, holy Father.” He said. In the Garden He prayed, “Not My will, but THINE, be done.” So that, at the end, He could cry, “It is finished.” The work is done. The cost is paid in blood. Christ’s blood.

So we are saved by His blood. Called God’s precious children, holy, righteous before Him. Our sins are forgiven because Jesus paid the price for them. So the word from Hebrew is urgent and pressing. “Hebrews 12:2 (MSG) “2 Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. May God bless the walking, and the living with eyes on the goal.

GPD 2/19/08