Category: Love

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Stable Stool in a Wobbly World

I know you have eaten in a diner where the table was wobbly because one leg was a little short (and you probably put a wad of a napkin under it.) Do you know that a three-legged stool will never wobble? A carpenter puts a diagonal brace in a structure because he transforms a rectangular object into two triangles thus stabilizing the structure.

When rock climbing or climbing a ladder, the safest way is to always have three points of contact—move only one foot or hand at a time.

You see where I am going with this, right? Something of “threes” brings stability. A three-legged stool never wobbles.

“Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12 NKJV).

In the wobbly world we live in, let’s look at the three legs of stability. In a stable society, we need three points of contact to stay secure. We need faith, family, and community.

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What Has Changed? Times or People

Recently when I was preaching, I said something that really resonated with my audience. The statement I made was this: “Often people will say that times have changed. But that is not true. Times have not changed; it is people that have changed.”

The rural community I lived in as a boy was not perfect. We had a few rough folks living among us. The little farmhouse we lived in had a screen door and wood door with the top third being three panes of glass. It had a lock, but I never saw the key to it. We never locked the front door. We would sleep inside with an unlocked door. In the summertime every window would be raised and only a flimsy screen separated us from the boogey man outside.

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Looking Into Their Eyes

I have seen some pitiful folks in my time. It is not the ragged clothes I see or their crippled limbs, but their eyes that give me a glimpse of their misery and hopelessness. I believe every person was granted to exist by God; this in itself makes me know that there is dignity in every life.

Many choose to take a path that is not God’s best, but some seem to have it thrust upon them by poverty, abuse, sickness, or where they were born. I have come to know with more awareness and certainty of the dignity of every human being. I know Christ loves them just as He loved the women He saved from a stoning, the demoniac He delivered from legions of demons, and even my wretched soul.

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Earmarked for Jesus

One of the poignant hidden gems in the Old Testament is in the Levitical law. It is one of those scriptures that is often skipped over because it “does not apply to us.” Yet in it is a moving principle of love and servitude. In the Law of Moses, if an Israelite became impoverished and was sold as a slave to another Israelite, he was to serve six years and go free in the seventh year (see Exodus 21:1-2).

There was also a provision in the law, if the servant loved his master and his situation, the servant could opt out of being free. If he decided to stay forever after his six-year term, his master would legitimize the relationship before the judges and then pierce his ear with an awl against the doorpost of the house. The voluntary slave would be “earmarked” as the master’s slave forever.

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Barking…

Being perfect is not something I have ever professed to be. I try to be quite honest with myself about my weaknesses, yet often we can be blind to our own stuff. Every day when I read the Bible, I take notice of the rebukes of scripture as it relates to my fleshly notions. When I pray and spend quiet times with God, I try to listen to the still, small voice of Holy Spirit warning me and convicting me. My desire is to be right with God and in cordial relationships with other people.

I do not believe I am a particularly difficult person, nor do I enjoy confrontation as some people tend to do. I usually take a fair amount of gruff before I bark back, but occasionally, I feel shoved over the line, and I bark. “Woof!”

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The Value of Life

People are more than globs of carbon compounds organized by DNA. We, yes, you and I, were created and designed by God, in His own image. In the second chapter of the Bible, the declaration is made, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7 NKJV).

For all of you animal lovers, yes, treat your critters humanely, but they are not equal with us. Human beings are at the apex of the creature pyramid. Our eyes are on the front of our heads which makes us a predator. A five-hundred-pound black bear is much more likely to run from us than attack.

We are not gods, but we do have the spark of divinity in us. We were created in the image of God. Just as God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so he created us as a triune being with a spirit, soul, and body.

The main point to this: We were created in the image of God with a soul, and everyone is inherently spiritual. A person is a spiritual being regardless of their morals or religious leanings, people can be spiritually righteous or spiritually evil.

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Wake Up!

If you think long and hard about sleep, the whole concept is a little weird. Your conscious self goes somewhat dormant and oblivious to your surroundings for almost a third of the day. Yeah, just admit it, it is weird, but we have done it all our lives.

Most of us during periods of our lives went through a time when we were just sleep-walking through life. We were doing the same thing day in and day out in a semi-slumber mode. Then something dramatic happens and we are awakened to a new reality.

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More Than Enough

I remember taking my beloved Christian brother, Pastor Baptiste, who lives in Haiti, to one of our American all-you-can-eat buffets. There were stations after stations of food. He was amazed at the quantity of food and that he could eat all he wanted. When I was with him in Haiti, I discovered he had told many of his friends about his unbelievable experience at the bountiful restaurant.

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