Thursday, February 19, 2015

Life Off-Track (Part 4) Re-Routing

Thursday, February 19, 2015

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.  It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.  God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.   2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)

We are looking this week at four operations of the Scripture that help us with our relationship with God and each other.

The first of these is TEACHING – which is Scripture helping us to understand, or being able to know the track or pathway God would have us walk; both in the way we have our relationship with Him, and with all His created order…our neighbors!

The second operation is REPROOF – how the Bible shows us we’ve slid off the track

Today’s third operation of Scripture is CORRECTION - Correction is the positive side of discipline in the life of the believer.  The word literally means to set up straight.  It's God's way to help his children learn how to get back on the pathway of living, so that we are once again blessed, and a blessing to others. 

A GPS re-routing function is a good example of life course correction, which is what Biblical guidance is all about.  If you live in Dallas, Texas and you want to visit your aunt in Bangor, Maine, and on your trip to the Northeast you encounter a road sign that says Welcome to Seattle, you are sorely in need of “re-routing”! 

(By the way – I hate that lady’s voice.  Who does she think she is, telling me to turn the other way….I know where I’m going!  Don’t I?)

The Bible word for “correction” or re-routing is “repentance”.  And it is literally a turn from one direction to another.  When you have been travelling in the wrong direction, if you have hopes of ever getting to the destination you planned, you have to stop going in the direction you’ve been traveling and head the right way!  That’s re-routing.

We read in the historical account of God’s chosen people, Israel, how they made some pretty foolish choices in their journey with God.  They made a golden calf to worship, complained about water and food, and they just constantly got off-track by rejecting God’s counsel.

At one point God was poised to wipe his disobedient tribe off the face of the earth and start over with only Moses and his family (Exodus 32).  But Moses interceded in prayer for Israel and God “repented” – he changed his mind and re-routed the actions he planned.

Often we think of “repentance” as done with a single prayer at an altar in an instant.  But that is simply a decision; genuine repentance requires follow-through, a change of behavior.  We re-rout our direction of behavior.  We turn away from the wrong destination and begin traveling the right track.

Now this begs the question – always! 

What IS the right track for me?  

What does God want from me?

Well, if you’re looking for the “general” track direction for every person, the prophet Micah nailed it thus:

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:  to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8 (NLT)

And from Genesis to Revelation the correction of God (re-routing if you will), always comes back to this concept…walk humbly with your God…be ready to be corrected in attitude and behavior.

For You Today

Pick up that holy GPS version of Scripture; see what God-corrections speak to your travel log.
Headed the wrong way?  Re-routing….



[1] Title image:  By Louise Docker from Sydney, Australia, via Wikimedia Commons

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