A man attended a church regularly for several months, but he was
always ignored. His clothes were old and worn, and the
people tended to avoid him. Because they knew nothing about him, no one ever
spoke to him.
One
Sunday as he took a seat in the church, he intentionally left his hat on. As
the pastor stood on the platform and looked out over the audience, he noticed
the man with the hat right away. Beckoning to one of the deacons, the pastor
asked him to go tell the man that he forgot to remove his hat. When the deacon
spoke to the man, he responded with a big smile and said, “I thought that will
do it. I have attended this church for months, and you are the first person who
has talked to me.”
We
must be courteous and hospitable to all people regardless of race, color,
social status, or appearance. If we reject or mistreat a person because of his
status or appearance, we are rejecting his Creator. In the eyes of God, all
people are equal regardless of social standing. Furthermore, the foot of the cross
of Christ is level ground (Kennedy A. Adarkwa).
OUR SIN DEBT WAS PAID BY CHRIST
Billy
Graham told a story about King Charles V who years ago was loaned a large sum
of money by a merchant in Antwerp. The note came due, but the King was bankrupt
and unable to pay. The merchant gave a great banquet for the King. When all the
guests were seated and before the food was brought in, the merchant had a large
platter placed on the table before him and fire lighted on it. Then, taking the
note out of his pocket, he held it in the flames until it was burned to ashes.
Just
so we have all been mortgaged to God. The debt was due, but we were unable to
pay. Two thousand years ago God invited a morally corrupt world to the foot of
the cross. Then God held your sin and mine to the flames until every last
vestige of our guilt was consumed (Billy Graham, Peace with God).
WHEN YOU ARE CONFUSED TURN TO JESUS
Rev.
Billy Graham talked about a fifteen-year-old girl who was lost in approximately
in an area in the Great Smoky Mountains. It was a sad time for the little
community because four people on board in a plane were killed on the mountain
and the girl was never found. Mr. Graham said, as his wife talked about the
tragic events of these people to a man who helps them, he told her a story from
his own experience. He was born and raised in those mountains, he said and
thought he could never get lost. The mountains were his playground as a child
and his hunting area as an adult. One day, however, he found himself groping through the brush
and clambering over the rocks hopelessly confused. He wandered and retraced his
steps and suddenly, to his relief, came upon an old man in a cabin.
He
told Ruth that he would never forget the advice the old man gave him. “When you
find yourself in the mountains, never go down—always go up. At the top of the
ridge, you can get your bearings and find your way again.” We can become lost in
the mountain of life. We have two choices: we can either go down and get caught
in drugs, depression, emptiness, and confusion, or we can keep heading up.
When
Nicodemus was perplexed he came to Jesus. That was the right thing to do. The
direction we go will determine whether we find ourselves or not.
YIELD TO GOD
Many
so-called Christians have just “enough religion to make them miserable.” They
no longer enjoy the world and they have not entered into the “joy of the Lord.”
There they stand, deprived of the “leeks and onions and the garlic” of Egypt,
and without the milk and honey and the finest of the wheat of Canaan. That is a wretched
place to be in. The way out is simple, absolute surrender to God. Then your joy
will be full.
(R. A. Torrey, How to Find Fulness of Power)
TRUSTING GOD
Now did you mean it? If you don’t trust Him now, you
will have cause to suspect whether you
ever did. If you don’t trust God in the dark, it would seem your faith is in
light or in your own eyesight. Unless we trust in God and in God alone, we don’t
trust Him at all (Winkie Pratney, The Thomas Factor).
