Have you heard the story of the fisherman who spent all day fishing? Whenever he caught a big one, he threw it back. Whenever he caught a small one, he put it on the stringer. Another fisherman nearby noticed this and asked him why he was throwing all the big fish back. He replied, “All I’ve got is a ten-inch frying pan to fry them in”.
The fisherman limited himself. He allowed a 10-inch pan to determine the fish he’d keep. You think there might be a lesson in this story for us? Are we limiting ourselves because of our lack of education, or lack of resources, or lack of confidence?
Think about your life and the things that are limiting you. Are they real or in your mind? Jesus said, “All things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9:23). Let’s forget about our frying pans and go for the big ones in life.
Today is my birthday. I enjoy birthdays because the more you have the longer you live (Profound). I was born early on a Thursday morning at the old Souder’s Hospital in Auburn. I was the firstborn of six children. My parents had purchased an old house in Butler which had no running water. By the time I was old enough to remember anything, Dad had installed an inside toilet and lavatory in the add-on pantry. We used a rubber hose to fill an old bathtub from the lavatory. I remember there was no heat to that room and it got mighty chilly bathing in the winter, which we only did on Saturday night.
Mom used a small hand pump that was mounted in her small kitchen for water. Her kitchen was heated with a small fuel oil heater. When I got about age 6 or 7 it became my job to keep that heater filled with fuel oil using a gallon jug and making trips out behind the house where a 55-gallon drum held the oil. Pretty dangerous by today’s standards.
My humble beginnings make the blessings God has bestowed upon me even more appreciated today. How far has God brought you?
“Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices” (Ezra 3:3). This is recorded in the record of rebuilding the Altar in the Temple in Jerusalem after its destruction.
I appreciate the opening phrase ”Despite their fear of the peoples around them…“, as each of us understand its impact. Sometimes we have to do things that will bring about a negative reaction. So, we only do those things when we are pressed to do them. Ezra made it very clear that the reason for risking their lives to build the altar was “in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God” (v. 2).
God says what He means and means what He says. Let’s allow God’s written word to guide our beliefs and our actions. What does God’s word say to you today?
The great evangelist Oral Roberts told this story: “A man once said to me, ‘Oral, how does God perform miracles?’ I answered, ‘I don’t know how He does; I only know that He does.’ Then I asked him this question: ‘How does God make a black cow that eats green grass to give white milk that makes yellow butter?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, but it doesn’t make any difference just so I get the milk and butter.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘Now apply that same thinking to God’s performing miracles.'”
Jesus said, “All things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9:23). He didn’t say all things were possible if we understand, but if we have faith. Let’s believe for the impossible. Wake up your faith.
Back in the 1980s I officiated at a double wedding. This was when we were located in the small church building. The brides were sisters and wanted 14 attendants spread across the front of that little sanctuary. It was a logistics nightmare.
At the pre-marital counseling, I felt good about one couple but was concerned about the other. The bride was just too pushy about everything, and her groom disagreed but wouldn’t communicate his feelings. When the two couples lit their unity candles, one of them fizzled out by the time the couple returned to their places. The other burned on brightly. Guess which couple’s candle went out? You got it, the couple I was concerned about.
25 years later I was counseling another couple for a coming marriage. Half way through the sessions it dawned on me that she was the bride in that earlier marriage whose candle burned out. She had divorced and remarried (hence I didn’t recognize the name), and was divorced again. This time her candle stayed lit.
Do you think unity candles going out are a sign of a bad candle manufacturer, or a bad omen? Why do you believe that?
My Dad bought our first TV in about 1954. There were no local stations back then, so we had a tall TV antenna with an electrical rotor that turned the antenna different directions to pick up signals from Lansing, Toledo, Kalamazoo, and Chicago. It was a used black and white TV in a big wooden cabinet.
The earliest show I remember watching was Howdy Doody. I loved the puppet characters that brought my imagination to life: Buffalo Bob Smith, Flub-a-Dub, Clarabelle the Clown (played by Bob Keeshan), and Dilly Dally. Each week kids were in the “peanut gallery” cheering the show on. Although I was never near the studio for the live shows, I imagined myself being right there in the peanut gallery. Television had a way of making me feel a part.
That’s what church attendance should be when we come together. We can all join the New Hope Peanut Gallery and participate in what God is doing and saying, live and in living color. Rather than watch the show, we should all feel like we’re actually a part of what is happening. Because we are. We can’t turn back the hands of time, but we can live out our fantasies with God, Who brings them to life.
The Bible talks a lot about the joy of the Lord. Have you looked around lately? There isn’t much joy going on in our churches. What’s missing? How do we get the joy back?
Joy comes when we take a risk for God and see Him come through for us. We get filled with joy when we fearfully speak to someone about their faith and they positively respond. We get filled with joy when we give extra toward some project and see God coincidentally return it. We get filled with joy when we do something to demonstrate the love of God and see the bewilderment in the recipient’s eyes. That’s how we get the joy of the Lord.
So, why don’t we have this joy in our churches? Perhaps its because no one wants to take a risk; we would rather go the safe route. Remember this: No risk = No joy. Go take a risk today and trust God to protect you. It will be a joyful experience.