God

Three Reasons to Pump Gas with God

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments
Pay-at-the-pump gasoline pump in Indiana, Unit...

Image via Wikipedia

            I pushed the button and the gas pump display read, “See cashier for debit card purchase”. I thought about it for half a second, screwed on the gas cap, got back in the truck and drove off in search of a less impudent pump.

            Back in the day, before pay-at-the-pump, there was no choice. You went inside the store to pay for your gas. Many people still follow that process and often take the opportunity to get a snack and a cold drink. But, I’ve developed the habit of just gassing up and going my way and avoiding a trip into the store.

            It’s usually not that far from the gas pump to the store’s checkout, so I don’t believe it’s laziness on my part. And, if you’re not filling up (and having to make the dreaded double trip), the process of going inside usually doesn’t take much more time. So it’s not from my being in a rush.

            No, I think the avoidance comes from the fact that once you go inside the store, you’re at the mercy of…people. Is the clerk more concerned with griping to a co-worker about the boss than they are about helping you? Or, is your timing perfect and you get to wait for a shift change at the cash register? Or, did you manage to hit convenience store rush hour and there is a line of customers ahead of you?

            That afternoon, not long after I headed out in search of the next gas station, I remembered a trip several weeks before. I was traveling through the farms, fields and forests of rural Georgia. It was a cold, clear, beautiful morning. When it was necessary to stop for gas, I only had one choice in the small town I was passing through. That store didn’t have an impudent pump display – it didn’t have a display or pay at the pump at all.

            So, I stopped at the pump and went inside, wondering what strange happenings would occur to delay my getting back on the road. The clerk said “good morning” and I responded and asked how he was doing. He replied something to the effect of “Great! The Lord has blessed us with a wonderful day”.

            All aggravation and impatience melted away. I began describing the beautiful sights I had seen and the thankfulness to God I had felt thus far on my morning’s journey. As I paid for the gas, we had an enjoyable conversation about the changing season and its contrast to the heat of the summer that was finally ending. I was soon on my way, feeling refreshed from the encounter.

            With the memory of that earlier trip in mind, I relaxed in my search for the next station, and thought about lessons learned:

  • We can bypass some aggravation by avoiding interaction with people. But, doing that causes us to miss many of the blessings of life. It also prevents us being “the light(s) of the world” as Jesus calls us to be. Taking that further, it’s when we are acting as Jesus says, that we truly receive the blessings. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
  • When we are given a lesson, we need to remember it.  “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.” Proverbs 3:1-2
  • And for me, personally – take a chance the next time the gas pump display tells me to do something I don’t want to.

Our Personal Rainbow from God

/ Bill Jones / 4 Comments

          As my wife, Sharon, and I drove home from the grocery store, we passed in and out of areas of hard driving rain. As we turned into our driveway we echoed each other: “Wow! Look at that!” There was a rainbow in the backyard! It was lightly raining and the sun was peeking through the clouds just enough to make a perfect combination to split the light into the different colors.

          The bow started at the blueberry bushes, arced up twenty or thirty feet and came back to the ground about two hundred feet away in the old pasture. The band of colors was at least fifteen feet across and you could clearly see the transitions from the vivid red at the top to the soft violet at the bottom.

            We marveled at the sight a few minutes and then took the first load of groceries inside. The thought struck that it might be visible in a photo so I grabbed the camera and hurried back outside. I opened the lens cover….and it fogged up. Going from the air conditioned house into the hot, humid air outside had caused a thin film to form on the lens. By the time I wiped it off enough to get a clear picture, the clouds had blocked the sunlight and the rainbow had disappeared. But, boy was it beautiful while it lasted – what a blessing from the Lord!        

          In the Bible, we read of an ancient rainbow blessing from the Lord. Genesis, Chapter 6, tells that God grieved over mankind’s continual evil to the point He determined to destroy all the living creatures off the face of the earth. In judgment, He brought the Great Flood and wiped out almost every living thing on the dry land. One of the most wonderful verses in the Bible, Genesis 6:8, tells us why the devastation wasn’t complete: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” In His mercy and grace, God saved Noah and his family by shutting them safely in the ark Himself. 

            For forty days and nights the rains came down, the waters in the earth came up, and the world was completely covered. But the ark floated safely through it all. After many months of waiting for the waters to recede, God finally told Noah to bring his family and the animals out onto the dry land once more.

            At that time, God promised that as long as the earth remained there would be seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, and day and night.  The Lord made a covenant with Noah (and us too) that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood. He told Noah that a rainbow in the clouds would be a token of His covenant.

            So, when we see a rainbow we can remember God’s mercy and grace in that He saved a remnant for Himself from the flood – and realize that we came from that remnant. We can be reminded that unless the end of time comes first, God will cause the sun to rise tomorrow morning and this season to pass into the next.            

            After our back yard show had ended, Sharon and I talked about the fable that says you can find a pot of gold buried at the end of a rainbow. Since one end was in the blueberry bushes we laughingly said that maybe we should dig them up. But then we agreed that the blueberry pies she makes from their fruit are worth more than the gold we might find.

            The other end had been in the grass of the old pasture next to our backyard. There were no valuable bushes or trees around to disturb, but there was also nothing in particular to mark its location. It would have required that I dig a lot of holes in hope of finding the right spot. That sounded like too much work, so we decided to forget the gold and just keep the memory of God blessing us with our own private rainbow. We gave each other a kiss, thanked the Lord for the mercy and grace he continually shows us, and went inside to put up the groceries He had blessed us with.

Comfort Food & God’s Love – Hot Stuff in Bowls

/ Bill Jones / 5 Comments

It was near freezing outside and there was a drizzling rain that made the cold seep into your bones. It was a good day to eat hot stuff in bowls, which is just what I was blessed to do! Breakfast was old fashioned oatmeal (with brown sugar and cinnamon, and actually cooked, not flakes mixed with boiling water); homemade chicken ala king at lunch (not always served in a bowl, but this was, which made it even better); and oyster stew for supper (if that one’s not to your liking, substitute your favorite chili in your thoughts).

The list of “hot stuff in a bowl” goes beyond what I enjoyed that day. How about homemade vegetable soup made with ingredients fresh from the garden, or gumbo (seafood or chicken or whatever else you like in it), or beef stew? Just thinking about those can make your tummy warm up! No wonder they call it comfort food.

Comfort food tastes good but also brings a sense of well-being. Many thousands (millions?) of bowls of hot soup (chicken and otherwise) have been served by mothers and grandmothers when their children and grandchildren had a cold. The soup itself has no healing power (I realize there will be debate on that). The taste is pleasing and the heat can clear your head and warm you from the inside, so you do feel better – thus it is a comfort. But the real sense of well-being comes from the fact that the one giving you the soup loves you. They want to take care of you…to help you feel better…to comfort you.

The Apostle Paul wrote a wonderful blessing to encourage and comfort the Thessalonians:

“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” 2nd Thessalonians 2:16-17 ESV

Our overriding comfort is an eternal one that has been given to us already – Jesus paid the price for that. Notice the focus Paul prays for in the present – he prays that God will comfort their hearts. The heart is where true comfort resides – from there our hearts can be established by God for good works and words.

Hot stuff in bowls is good on cold days. The taste and warmth make it comforting, but it only becomes true comfort food when our heart is affected by the love of others (like I was that day when my wife, Sharon, prepared it for me). However, our true comfort only comes when our heart is affected by the love of God.

God is Glorified, Even as the Garden Fades Away

/ Bill Jones / 3 Comments

         Since it’s the third cold snap of the year and all the flowers except a few mums have faded away, I thought I’d ponder the garden and gardening a bit. I’ve also added a Garden Pictures page with some of the successes this year (check it out!).

          My wife, Sharon, and I usually declare it the “year of the…”, based on whichever plant or flower stands out the most. This year there were multiple choices. Early on, it was the “year of the purple verbena”. It survived the extreme cold last Winter (at least extreme for here) and exploded with blooms at the first hint of Spring. A month later, the peach tree limbs were sagging to the ground from the weight of the fruit, so it was the “year of abundant peaches”.  Then we had two new plants later in the summer – moonflower and devil’s trumpet. Both were covered in huge, brilliant white blooms for several weeks – so it became the “year of the moonflower and devil’s trumpet.” We could call these our successes, but what they really reveal is that it was yet another “year of God’s grace and glory!”

         It’s a wonderful blessing to have the time, space and energy to do a little gardening. I sometimes get frustrated with my efforts to grow certain plants or flowers, and feel guilty when I fall behind in caring for the garden, but overall I stay amazed at God’s creation. What beauty, how intricate the process, what a marvelous variety – all pointing to the goodness and greatness of God.

Two Scriptures come to mind:

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” 1 Corinthians 3:6. Paul was writing about spiritual things, but I consider it applicable to physical work in the garden too – any “success” is from God.

“Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Luke 12:27. This is Jesus speaking in a passage that encourages us to not be anxious about everyday things. A God who would “clothe” the lilies so beautifully, even though they last a very short time, will certainly care for His Children.

     As we ponder the garden, we can be reminded of our Heavenly Father, who gives us every good and perfect gift from above. (James 1:17). The garden is one of the good gifts and the perfect gift He gave us was His Son, Jesus Christ.