Recalculating

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Monday, July 29, 2019

You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world.  So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”?  Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them.  These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline.  But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.  Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.  Colossians 2:20 – 3:1[2]

Elizabeth and I were in WalMart last week looking for a front door welcome mat.  We knew it would be somewhere in the Home Décor department, but exactly where that is in a store the size of Cleveland was a muddy guess.  So, the conversation went like this:

Elizabeth:  I think it’s down this aisle over here.

Russell:  Hmmm…(to the WalMart young lady employee standing over an open carton with a price label gun):  Can you tell me where to find welcome mats?

Lady employee:  Sure….right over here.  (Meaning 3 aisles from where Elizabeth said they’d be)

Elizabeth:  (eye-rolling as she moves toward the grinning husband) Hmmm.

Russell:  (to Lady employee, rather loudly)  Never let it be said that a MAN won’t stop to ask for directions!

If you’ve ever used a GPS in your car you have heard that dreaded electronic voice informing you’ve taken a wrong turn or missed the right one…RECALCULATING! 

OK, it’s confession time; for that very reason, that one, annoying word, recalculating, I have the sound on our GPS turned off.  I hate hearing that I goofed.  Besides, that sound makes it very hard for me to nonchalantly take another twenty minutes and 800 turns to explore my way back to where I should have been an hour ago, and not have Elizabeth notice I took a wrong turn!  Let’s face it, my pride and the infallibility of an electronic device are hardly able to exist in the same room!

And that’s the whole point when it comes to Paul’s encouragement for us to recalculate, to get our eyes off the shortcomings of this earth and focus our eyes on the perfection of Heaven.  It’s like the adage that the target you stare at will be the one you hit.  Whether it’s hitting a fastball, shooting a bow and arrow, or aligning your life with Godly principles, keeping your eye on the target is a good idea!

For You Today

For a Christian the “target” has little to do with following this teacher, or that television pastor, or the latest 40 Days to Perfection fad.  You were not raised to new life by any of that.  Keeping your eyes on Jesus is the recalculation we all have as life’s supreme target.                                                                                                                

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Pixabay.com        Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] For another devotion on this topic see Holy Heart; Healthy Heart or Elevate Your Game

Life Off-Track (Part 4) Re-Routing

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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….

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