Losing Power

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

 

Just a couple of days ago, when we thought spring had arrived, we got blasted with another big snowstorm. It happened last Saturday night into Sunday morning and made Sunday church a real challenge. We don’t ever cancel Sunday church for weather because there isn’t an easy way to do it. I know we could post on the website, and put our cancellation on TV, but not everyone would get the news. Besides, we actually got a TV “plug” on this snowstorm. One of the local news stations did a report from our parking lot showing snow being pushed and telling everyone we were open for business. We could call everyone, but that would be a huge process and we would surely miss a few, especially new people and visitors. Besides, I don’t want to get in the habit of cancelling Sunday church. We will do that with mid-week services at times, but Sunday morning is different. There is a little “disconnect” in trying to establish the passion to go into all the world and preach the gospel in spite of the opposition of our enemy, and then letting a foot of snow stand in your way of that. I get a kick out of watching the “scroll” at the bottom of the screen saying, “Church of the Open Door – Closed”. I am old fashioned in many ways, and that is one of them. I live close enough to the church that I can find a way to get there. If I show up and no one else can make it, I will just pray and thank God for his grace and go back home. We have a church of about 200, and last Sunday, 21 of us made it to church. The other 179 of us couldn’t make it, and that is fine. Those who have small children or are elderly probably shouldn’t take such a risk. We have established the culture at Crest Bible Church that you don’t have to be here every time the doors are open. We don’t count the rear ends in seats, we count the impact in lives. So if we have 21 people who get fed from the word of God, it is much better than having 2100 people who get nothing from their time invested inside the four walls of a church building.

 

Along with the storm came a power outage at our house. I just happened to wake up around 5AM to find everything dark including my alarm clock. So I had to run down a battery operated one. Once I got up for good, I had to clean up by the light of a flashlight. We always go in and out of the house through the garage, but the door wouldn’t open because the garage door opener runs on electricity and it has no back up. Good thing my car was parked outside – but then that means I had several inches of snow to clean off of it. I didn’t know if we would have to crank up the fireplace to keep the house from freezing over, but luckily they got the power back on by late morning, and everything was OK. It is amazing how dependent we are on electricity, and that knowledge comes to the forefront when a power failure brings it to our attention.

 

Two thousand years ago, my Saviour died on a cross and rose from the dead. Romans 1:4 says that Jesus was, “declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” He told us in the verses I quoted above that his power will last to the end of the world. It does not have to be generated, it is self-generating because of who he is – God manifest in the flesh. An old gospel hymn says, “The blood that Jesus shed for me, way back on Calvary, will never lose its power. It reaches to the highest mountain, and it flows to the lowest valley; the blood that gives me strength from day to day, it will never lose its power.” It is in that power that he tells us to go to a lost and dying world with the grace of his gospel message. We can rest assured that it will never fail us. Even when we are “unsuccessful” in our witness when the lost reject the truth, it is not due to a power outage from the source. Stand in his grace. Plug in to the Spirit of the living God inside you, and know that your life can be fulfilled in his power, and be used to transform the lives of others around you.

Planned Obsolescence

Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. (Psalm 119:160)

My television just went out. For most people, that would be a major disaster of life. A recent survey I read asked the question, “What is the most important thing in your house?” Over 70% said, “My television.” What a sad state of existence we have in this country. Of course, I like TV as much as the next guy, but I can live without it. We have another one in the house, so it’s not like I have been shut out from the world for the last several days. “Back in the day”, we would load up the set in the car and drive it to the local TV repair shop and get it fixed. There were even guys who would make “house calls” and fix your TV on site. Yeah, I know, the Stone Age. Now we just buy another one. I am not even sure you could find a TV repairman anymore. I would bet if you went to Best Buy and asked if they could fix your TV, they would think you were speaking in tongues. We had this TV for about 4 or 5 years. I could never prove this, but I still think that they design these things to specifically blow up in a set amount of time. It’s almost like they put a chip in there that counts down the days to warranty expiration, and then adds a few more for good measure just to keep us from raising suspicion.

 

My Bible is the most important thing in my house. If my home caught on fire and I had to get out with one thing, it would be a no-brainer. I would grab my Bible and run out the door. I have several Bibles, but my main study Bible is the one I am referring to. I bought it in 1985, so I have had it now for about 28 years. It is a “wide margin” Bible, so I have plenty of notes written in it, and I know right where everything is. I can picture verses in my mind based on what column they are in and whether they are at the top or bottom of the page. I use colored pencils to highlight certain words and phrases, and I can find things in it just by looking for certain colors based on my color code. It still works just as good as new after 28 years, and even better than new. Yes, there are a few rumpled pages and some missing pieces on the cover. But it is not programmed to fail. One day, this physical piece of leather and paper will eventually fall apart. But the precious truths of God’s words will live on forever.

 

One of the so-called “wise” proverbs of the world says, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” The reason they say that is to “diversify” so that if the basket falls and your eggs break, you still have others. That is probably a very wise investment strategy. We have all been made painfully aware that the markets are incredibly fickle and volatile, and their unpredictability has cost all of us in the last few years, even those who are not in the markets. But the “eggs in one basket” strategy does not compute with the Bible. I have all of my trust in what it says. If Jesus is not who he said he was, I am in trouble. I am not worried about that basket falling.

 

In the Christian world these days, it seems we have the same “planned obsolescence” mentality. The book God gave the English speaking world 400 years ago isn’t good enough anymore. So over the last few generations, we have had an explosion and proliferation of “updates”. It is like your computer. Every time you buy new software, they send you “updates” every month. I saw a Bible catalog a while back that boasted of “over 750 Bibles to choose from!” Like that is a benefit to the body of Christ? It is no wonder we are confused. If you went to the grocery store and found 750 different boxes of cereal to choose from, you would just stand there in a mental stupor drooling all over yourself trying to decide which one was best for your family. But we think it is just fine for the “bread of life”. As soon as they come out with a new version, it seems they have a “chip” programmed in it to make it obsolete in a month so they can give us a new revision of the update of the new revision. I have the word of God in my language. It works just fine. “Heaven and earth will pass away” (Mark 13:31) before the basket falls and it breaks.