XV_Speed

XV
Speed
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other
and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
– 1 Thessalonians 3:12

A young and successful executive was travelling down a neighbourhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared.

Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?" The young boy was apologetic.

"Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop...." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.
"Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the pavement toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:
"Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!"
God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts.

Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.
We all try to take life at 100 mph, in the fast lane, racing along, knowing that if we get there 5 minutes earlier the whole situation will be better, whereas if we hold back, slow down, we will probably get there as quickly, but less stressed.

May we consider the words above, how God looks down on us with love, and may our love flow out for each other.

XV_Mist

XV
Mist

‘Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift of grace

leads us to being made right with God’ – Romans 5:26

‘I willingly have become what I unwillingly find myself to be’
These words from St. Augustine, written hundreds of years ago are not comfortable words. I’m speculating, but I wonder whether looking back at the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve mulled over words similar to those above, ‘How did we let ourselves get into this situation?’....’how did we get led astray and let anything get in between us and God...?’ If you’re like me – i.e. flawed – then you may well have asked those questions of yourself at times.
I read somewhere that the reason the stories in the bible resonate with us so much is because they are our stories...it happened then and it happens now. I doubt I’m the only to have read a story like the Genesis account and seen myself in it. I think that that is because Adam and Eve’s story is our story.
I know that I have lived that story out. Things are going great, life is good, God is blessing me, we’re communicating, I can see Him, draw strength from Him, and I can see the landscape of His world and my place in it. But then slowly...something enters my mind...something comes along in my day that knocks me off course, gently leading me away from the path I was on...it whispers in my ear, catches my sinful heart and watches as I run eagerly in the opposite direction to God. Adam and Eve don’t seem too far away now.
It’s like a mist slowly descending around me. It obscures the way ahead...things aren’t so clear any more...my defences seem weaker, my judgement is clouded, short-sightedness and fear replace faith and patience. Do any of these feelings sound familiar? Have you been there? Is that a story you’ve lived out?
What does Jesus say in this situation? When the way ahead is cloudy, when we can’t see him face to face, when we’re worried that we might be overcome with temptation or fear?
Praise God for giving us His word, for it gives us the simple loving response. In Hebrews we are told that ‘this High Priest of ours (Jesus) understands our weaknesses, for he faced all the same testings we do, yet he did not sin’ (Hebrews 4v15). Jesus faced it all. He knows what it is like to be human, to be fragile, to be tempted, to be tired, and surrounded. He also knows that God is bigger than all that.
But there is more to come, as Hebrews goes on to say that we can ‘boldly come to the throne of our gracious God...for there we will receive his mercy, and we will find Grace to help us when we need it most’.
What an invitation! What words of comfort and hope! What better answer could we have hoped for?! This grace God offers through Jesus can shine through the oppressive clouds and storms of life; the light of the cross’s victory over sin can blast through the mist that seeks to overwhelm us – God’s love is stronger! Oswald Chambers said that ‘the cross of Christ is the supreme evidence of the love of God’. Today, wherever we are, let us absorb that promise, believe it and know that this redemption, this free grace, this glorious truth is also our story. How does the song go...‘Amazing Grace...how sweet the sound....’