Christian Living

That’s the Way It’s Supposed to Be!

/ Bill Jones

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Our church’s small sign at the corner of Highway 119 and Stilson Leefield Road was in sad shape. The paint was peeling terribly and even some of the wood had chipped away. It didn’t present a very inviting picture for folks looking for the church.

So, the sign company was called and scheduled to come get the sign and repair and paint it. Somewhere communication was mixed, and they not only removed the small sign and took it with them, but they also took a larger one that stands at the corner just up the road from the church.

As we remembered it, (since it was now gone) the larger one looked pretty good and there was some question whether we needed to spend the money to have it painted. But by the time that     conversation was held, it was too late. One of those “I thought you told them to take it. No, I figured you must have told them to take it” conversations.

The signs were fixed, painted and reinstalled. The small one in Stilson, as expected, looked fantastic. It had been obviously bad. And the bigger one near the church? It looked fantastic, too. My reaction was “Wow! It sure needed painting, too, but I didn’t notice! This is the way it’s supposed to look.”

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

We knew the piano needed tuning and mentioned it now and then when a note sounded a bit off. Even put it on the list to send an email and schedule the piano tech guy to come and tune it. But it didn’t seem that bad.

Eventually the tech guy was scheduled, and he came out and tuned the piano. I was messing around in the sound booth at the back of the sanctuary as he tinked high notes here and there on the keyboard, and poked low notes for about thirty minutes.

Then I heard him say to himself, “OK” and he strongly played and held a many-noted chord and let it resound throughout the sanctuary. The goosebumps formed on my neck and arms and I had to say “Wow! That’s the way it’s supposed to sound.” He simply replied, “that’s good” and   started packing up his stuff. It had been more in need of tuning than I thought.

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

Anytime I discuss having an asparagus garden in the backyard, I always get in the                description that when you cut some spears, take them inside, cook them and take a bite, the          reaction is “Wow, that’s the way it’s supposed to taste.” Canned or frozen asparagus isn’t close. Even what you get in the grocery store or from a produce stand isn’t the same.

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

The Book of Revelation includes a letter Jesus wrote to the church at Ephesus. He             commended the church for its diligence, labors, patience and holding to the truth. But, then in verse 2:4 Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”  With that statement we have to examine whether the “you” in his words is referring to “us.”

He then says for us to do what we used to do – love how we used to love. Get excited about Jesus and tell someone about Him. Get excited about our church and invite someone to come (or better yet, bring somebody with you.)  Go out of our way to find those in need and joyfully lend a helping hand, in Jesus’ name. And, as we love as we did at first, we will say:

“Wow, I remember! That’s the way it’s supposed to feel!”

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

Be Careful If You Think Your Bugs Will Stand

/ Bill Jones / Leave a comment

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One year in high school we had to make an insect collection, so I worked diligently finding all kinds of bugs. We lived on a dirt road with a pond and woods nearby, and I had a wide-open place ideal for finding and catching them.

I had a bunch of different beetles, crickets, butterflies and moths (I even found a huge green Luna moth dead but intact). I mounted them with straight pins on a sheet of Styrofoam covered in cloth and placed it in a large gift box lid (about 12” X 24”). It was spectacular, if I say so myself, and I knew I was on my way to at least an A, probably an A+.

We had part of Summer and most of the Fall to complete it, so I placed bugs on the Styrofoam along and along and when there was no space left for more, I left it on a shelf in our basement to turn in when it was due.

About a week before the Christmas break due date, I went to the basement to get it ready. That’s when I discovered that something living in our basement liked to feast on dead bugs. The Styrofoam and cloth covering were still there, and a little forest of straight pins was sticking up. But everywhere else there were only small bits and pieces of bug crumbs left of the spectacular collection.

I panicked. In that colder time of year there weren’t many insects out flying or crawling around. I searched every place I could think of that might have intact bugs. I checked the windowsills, took down light fixtures and emptied their contents. I examined spider webs in the basement and outside the house. Turned over every board and brick in the piles out by the garage….and

I ended up with a very non-spectacular collection. The small group of small bugs was mounted, some with straight pins, tiny ones with tape, on a much thinner sheet of cloth-covered Styrofoam placed in the lid of a box of stationery. (No, not even 8-1/2 x 11 sheet size, just the small letter writing kind.)

My teacher wasn’t impressed but, thankfully, was a bit sympathetic with the story. Instead of my spectacular A+, I got a C (and was thankful for that.)

How did I let that happen? One thing was I was smug about how spectacular I thought it was and was ready for the A+ and didn’t think of the details needed to make that happen. Another was I just left it alone and didn’t check on it anytime before I needed it. Also, I don’t remember for sure, but I can imagine my Momma and/or Daddy (with their longer time to experience life and learn from it) telling me I better cover it up just in case. I can then imagine me being lazy and smug about that, too – “what could happen to a bunch of bugs? I’m heading down to the pond.”

All that brings to mind what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:12 – “Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall.” A slight paraphrase of that—”Be careful when you close your eyes and envision a big A+ on your efforts because that’s when something will come along and eat the bugs in the basement!”

Arrested (Sort of) at 12

/ Bill Jones / Leave a comment
Brannen Oaks closeup

Brannen Oaks Closeup

I got arrested (sort of) when I was twelve years old. That summer my cousin, Lewis, and I spent a lot of time driving his go-kart on a dirt road near his house. One day a teenager rode by on a motorcycle and stopped to talk. Just for fun, he and I decided to have a drag race.

I stopped fifty feet into the race because the motorcycle literally left me in the dust. I was   surprised when I turned around and saw a police car’s flashing lights. The policeman lived on that road and had been sitting in his patrol car in his driveway talking with his wife for the last hour while we rode up and down the road in front of him. Our five second “race” had apparently interested him enough to leave the driveway and join us.

He “arrested” me, loaded me in the back seat of the squad car and told the motorcyclist to follow. At the police station, he took my fingerprints and “booked” me for drag racing on a city street. The motorcyclist never showed. When I called my father to ask him to pick me up at the      police station he laughed, until I assured him it was no joke.

The officer told my father the motorcyclist was his real target (“a licensed driver who should have known better”) but he also wanted to teach me a lesson so, thankfully, no real charges were made. He thought we were “daring him to do something.”

The officer was successful in teaching me a lesson, but probably not the one he planned. As I rode home in silence with my father, and since this was my first encounter with a policeman, I was sitting there thinking that police officers are apparently stupid jerks. He told his “real target” to     follow him to the station, so, the motorcyclist went the other way when given the chance – well, duh. And, I can say “daring” him never crossed my mind since he had been sitting there watching us and never said a word.

Thankfully, since then I have learned great respect for police officers and what they do. And, concerning that particular officer, stories around town and his short career in law enforcement revealed that he apparently was a stupid jerk.

I still shake my head in disbelief when I recall the incident. I’m sure it was and still is against the law to “drag race” on a city street. But all he had to do was get out of his car, tell his wife “excuse me a minute”, walk the 50 feet to where I was sitting on the go-kart and tell me not to do that because it’s illegal. Simple and done – while some 12-year-old grumbling under my breath may have come, no more drag racing would have happened.

So, what’s to learn from the story? One thing is, no matter how slow your vehicle moves, don’t race on a street, especially if there’s a police car sitting there. The other is to consider the phrase that comes to my mind a lot these days – From Ephesians 4:15 – “But speaking the truth in love…”

While the phrase has a much broader context in our following and teaching the Word of God in every situation, it often comes to mind regarding disagreements or the need for correction. And these days there are a multitude of contentious disagreements and much need for correction. But, in those situations, if our unloving focus is that we need to “teach them a lesson”, instead of being a witness for Jesus Christ, we’ll come across as just another stupid jerk.

Got Any Fallow Ground?

/ Bill Jones / Leave a comment

Break Up Fallow Ground

“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12
(For those unfamiliar with the term, fallow ground is ground that is left untended and unproductive. Breaking it up means plowing it to remove the weeds and get it ready for sowing seed and being  productive.)

Someone asked me the other day how my garden was going. I’m thinking they could have been referring to the theme I adopted for my retirement – “Break up Your Fallow Ground.” In the last couple of years, I’ve written and talked about my need to break up the fallow ground in my garden after a time of neglect.

I replied that I had thought long and hard about it but hadn’t made any progress. I told them I definitely decided I don’t need a big garden. When two tomato plants can supply all Sharon and I want for the summer, it’s hard to take the time and effort to plant and tend a row of them. Since Sharon no longer does any canning, you can apply that to most everything that would be grown in a big garden. But I still want to rebuild the raised beds, re-establish the cypress mulch paths, and grow a few things in part of the garden. So, maybe as the weather cools, I’ll make it out there to do some work.

But, I’ve discovered in the last couple of years that the most important “fallow ground” we need to break up isn’t “out there”, it’s within us. The Scripture above doesn’t say go out and plow up your backyard and plant a garden. It says that we should open our heart and renew our mind with the Word of God and that we should diligently pray. It says we should obey and follow Jesus (Love the Lord, Love your neighbor.) It says we should get rid of the weeds in our hearts and mind. As Hebrews 12:1 in  effect says ”lay aside every weight (distraction) and the sin that holds us back and run the race of life God has given us.”

I’m thankful the Lord has shown me areas of my “fallow ground” and helped me to start breaking some of them up. The largest chunk of rock-hard land he’s shown me concerns The Great Commission. Jesus commanded us to be witnesses and make disciples for Him. Yep, the dreaded “evangelism.” Our Bible Study class did a study on evangelism and it opened my eyes to what I was more or less ignoring. Other members of the class (and some not in the class) agreed they had, too.

But we’re working on that now. The word “evangel” means good news—the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s become clearer to me that while we should be ready to explain the basics of the Gospel (to evangelize) if opportunities arise, The Great Commission covers much more than that. It involves showing Christ in us to those around us. Telling of our relationship with Him—what He has done for us. It’s being part of the community and going out of our way to help others and to make friendships and build relationships, with believers and unbelievers alike, to open doors of opportunities to show and tell the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s inviting someone to Church or someone to return to Church. Or checking up on someone who’s been absent from Church. Etc. Etc.

So, if the Lord has used these words and His Scripture to reveal some of your fallow ground, pray hard, and get to work plowing it up! God will help as He promised.