I can recall being disciplined with a switch. A “switch” was a flexible branch from a tree. The switch acted like a whip when it struck across my backside and really hurt! And all us kids feared the dreaded switch. I don’t know why it was called a switch unless it referred to the behavior of the kid after applying the switch to the bottom line.
I used to get as far from the switch as I could as it was swinging my way. But it didn’t take me long to learn what a mistake that was! The wisest place to be when Mom was swinging the switch was as close as I could be to her. That way, her leverage was minimized.
And so it is with God’s correction. When he begins to wield the stinging switch, Let’s move in as close as we can get. The closer we get to the Father in those times, the less it stings.
What have you learned about the switch?
Dr. Burt Nanus recalls that on his first day in engineering school in 1953, a professor advised the entering freshmen to buy the best slide rule they could afford. The professor told them, “You will be dependent on it all your professional life.” Nanus dutifully bought a slide rule. Yet after he graduated and went on to MIT, he never used it. The calculator had taken its place.
In a day when technology advances at an ever quickening rate, it seems that nothing remains the same. What was the style yesterday is already old fashioned. And yesterday’s technolgy is today’s junk. But there is one standard that has never changed because it has its root in truth: The Bible. Its stories may seem culturally irelevant in the King James Version, but the message is as fresh and relevant today as it ever was. Get a modern English version and learn about life. What have you read today?
Part of the training to be a US Secret Service agent includes learning to detect counterfeit money. Agents-in-training make a thorough study of the genuine bills – not the phonies – so that they can spot the fake currency immediately because of its contrast to the real thing.
The child of God can learn a lesson from this. While it is helpful to study false religions and be fully aware of their dangerous dogmas, the best defense against such error is to know the truth, so we will spot it at once and won’t fall for it.
Today many are being led astray because they don’t recognize how they are being deceived. So, let’s handle the real thing as often as possible.
An explorer discovered an ancient sundial. Recognizing its value, he restored it to its origianal condition and put it in a museum where it would be shielded from the elements – including the sun! Although he valued it, he never used it.
Is this a picture of how many Christians treat the Bible: valued but unused? I think many see the Bible as valuable, but as requiring a lot of effort to understand and apply. People really feel that they are reading about the long ago and far away. Most people think the Bible just can’t compete with Time or Newsweek.
Do you value the Book or do you use the Book? The real test of value is in the use. Agree or disagree?
A couple of weeks ago I shared in church the story of opening the sunroof on our new car while going through the car wash. Everyone had a good laugh at our expense. If we had only read the instruction manual first, we would’ve known which buttons to push. Come to think about it, most of our mistakes are the result of not reading the instructions first.
Much of the pain in our life could be averted if we just read the instructions in The Book first. God loves each of us with a love that cannot be measured. Because He does not want us to hurt, He gave us some wise counsel for living in the Bible.
The Book says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect [mature] thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Old Chinese proverb say: “He who ignores instructions could end up in hot water!”
There is a testimony from a dying woman that she was saved by reading a piece of wrapping paper in a package from Australia. The crumpled pages contained a sermon by British pastor Charles H. Spurgeon.
The sermon, first preached in England, printed in America, shipped to Australia, and then sent back to England as wrapping paper, was the means of converting a precious soul in London where the sermon was first preached!
What great lengths God will go to to reach a lost soul. He’s still at it, you know. What source did He use to convert your soul to Christ?