Month: November 2018

There are some pieces of poetry that affect a person’s life. The philosophy of this poem is worth remembering.

 

Pray don’t find fault with the man who limps

or stumbles along the road,

unless you have worn the shoes he wears

or struggled beneath his load.

There may be tacks in his shoes that hurt,

though hidden away from view,

or the burden he bears, placed on your back

might cause you to stumble too.

Don’t sneer at the man who’s down today

unless you have felt the blow

that caused his fall or felt the shame

that only the fallen know.

You may be strong, but still the blows

that were his if dealt to you,

in the selfsame way, at the selfsame time,

might cause you to stagger too.

Don’t be too harsh with the man who sins

or pelt him with word or stone,

unless you are sure, yea, doubly sure,

that you have no sins of your own

for you know perhaps if the tempter’s voice

should whisper as softly to you

as it did to him when he went astray,

it might cause you to stumble too.

Rama Muthukrishnan

The Christmas season is upon us. When I was a child I started seeing calls for “Let’s put Christ back in Xmas.” Since some people shorten the name of Christmas to Xmas,  thought this was a call to quit spelling the name without the use of Christ in front of “mas,” i.e. CHRISTmas. Some folks might have meant this, but the deeper meaning was to quit focussing on presents, lights, and parties and think more about Christ during the Christmas season. It is like the saying, “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

Growing up, there were many more misconceptions I had about Christmas. I used to see cards and pictures of the birth of Jesus with the star overhead shining down on the baby in the manger. I heard the story of the wisemen who came searching for him. When the wisemen got to Jerusalem they inquired from King Herod about the location of baby Jesus. It always puzzled me. Why didn’t they just follow the light shining down from the star? Of course I now know there was no beam of light shining down on the manger. The magi (wisemen) were astronomers who could read the skies like a sailor at sea and therefore with the aid of prophesy deduced where the Christ child was born. Such a feat would take education and training and a knowledge of both the skies and prophesy. King Herod was not able to follow the star leading to Jesus.

Years later I found out there many more fallacies about the birth of Jesus. Here are listed just three of them.

1. Jesus was born on December 25.

It is not impossible for Jesus to have been born in the middle of the winter, but it is extremely unlikely. The Bible does not specify a day or month. The Bible does say that shepherds were “abiding in the field” at the time of Jesus’ birth. Winter is a cold time of the year and thus the fields were unproductive for grazing. The normal practice was to keep the sheep in the field at night only from Spring to Autumn. This makes it likely that Jesus was born during a warmer time of the year. December does not fit for the birth of Jesus.

2. There were three wise men. “We Three Kings of Orient”

Maybe there were three or maybe there were ten. No one knows. The number three probably comes from the three gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Somehow we have just assumed there were three “kings” because there were three gifts. They were not kings at all, but rather wise men or “magi.” They were men who spent their days studying prophesies and their nights studying the stars. They did not necessarily bring three gifts, but rather gifts of three kinds. They may have brought any number of gifts.

3. Mary rode to Bethlehem on a donkey.

Maybe she did and may she did not. The Bible does not say. Read for yourself the accounts given in Matthew 1:18-25; 2:1-12 and Luke 1:26-80; 2:1-20. The Bible only says she came with Joseph. In connection with this I had the image of Mary and Joseph getting into Bethlehem just as Mary went into labor with Jesus. I always pictured Joseph running from place to place hunting for somewhere Mary could give birth. the Bible does not say they got into Bethlehem just in the nick of time. Now I feel confident that Joseph as a wise and thoughtful husband made sure that Mary made the trip weeks before her due date.

I really don’t care if people think there were three wisemen or that Mary rode on a donkey. I don’t even car if people think of December 25 as the day Jesus was born. I just found these interesting and though you might benefit from knowing these things.

Lonnie Davis

At 14, her life seemed out of control. She was making bad grades, bad decisions, and bad friends. She was not uncooperative but certainly did not understand what was to be gained from counseling.

I asked her, “Have you ever seen a car driving down a  Texas highway on a hot day in August and with their windows rolled down?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Why are the windows down?” I asked.

“The air conditioning  is broken,” she answered.

“Why don’t they fix it?” I asked.

“They don’t have the money,” She answered.

There is one more question, “Why don’t they have money?”

Let me answer that question for the reader. There are some who have bad luck, but for the great majority that is not the real problem. The real problem is that we spend money on things and stuff and junk, then when an emergency arises, we are out of funds. That is a rule.

Life runs on rules. It is a rule that if you do not save for a rainy day, then when the rainy day comes you will suffer the consequences. That is the rule of saving for a raining day (or a hot summer day in Texas).

Life has many more rules just like that. The wise person will spend the time and take note of what these rules are. If they are wise they will remember them. If they are wise they will live by them. If they are really wise they will write them down.

Remember them or write them down, but you will live by them. Each of them is a life rule that brings success or failure.  You will keep repeating the failure until you learn the lesson.

Lonnie Davis

Some years ago, my wife, my daughter, my two little grandkids and I took a short road trip. A short little 275 mile road trip. When I take one of those by myself it is short. When you take them with a wife, a daughter and two young grandkids, it is not so short. I had forgotten what it is like to travel with kids. On our trip there we stopped six times. The first time was for me to get money. The other five times were for kids.

 The next morning I took the kids down for the free continental breakfast. I got food for each kid and then went to cook a waffle. I took it to the table. I went back to cook a second waffle. I got my food and sat down. I had to get up to get syrup. Finally I sat down to eat. I didn’t know about bathroom breaks during breakfast – another interruption. Finally their mom arrived and I could eat.

 What does that have to do with the title “Passages?”

 Gail Sheehy wrote a book called “Passages.” In her work she says that life has many passages. As we grow we change. Life in our twenties is different than life in our thirties. Life in our fifties finds that we have gone through many passages. Life is different.

The wise man wrote, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” (Eccl 3:1)

 Life changes. It is okay. It is great. Joy does not come because we are in a great place. Joy comes by enjoying the place wherever we are.

 Coming back it was just Liz and me. Going down we had six stops and lots of laughter. Coming back there were no stops and no laughter. I missed the stops.

 Enjoy wherever you are in life. It is all you have. It is the passage you are in. Savor it.

~Lonnie Davis

From Victory to Victory

 Young David arrived at the battle where his older brothers were fighting. He saw the giant Goliath who had been threatening Israel. All the soldiers and even the great warrior King Saul were afraid. Though just a boy, David declared that he would fight the giant. King Saul sent for David and must have been shocked to see how young he was. David was a boy and too young to be drafted for the army of Israel.

 Saul dismissed the idea of a youth fighting Goliath. “Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.” (1 Samuel 17:33)

 It is hard to dismiss a believer and so this boy David answered him, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.” (34-35)

 David believed that he could kill the giant because with God’s help he had already killed a bear and a lion. There is a great principle here – one victory leads to another. 

Before you can kill a giant, it helps to kill a bear. Before you kill a bear, kill a wolf. Before you kill a wolf, kill a mouse. If you cannot kill a mouse, you are not ready to fight a giant. Victories grow little by little.

 Learn to win the little victories and then when you are confronted by a big battle, you will be ready. When you get ready, God will be waiting for you.

 ~Lonnie Davis

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

 – Ephesians 3:20

The last time I flew the airline expected me to pay two dollars for a can of Coke. This was after I paid $350 for a ticket. Surely they can afford to give me a can of Coke. Others must have felt the same way because I watched and almost nobody bought one. They do not serve us peanuts anymore and the seats are too close to each other.

It is easy to focus on the negatives of the day. Another way to look at it is that I live half a country away from one of my kids, but I can get into a temperature controlled car and drive to an airport. Once there, people will take my bags and put me on a 500 mile-per-hour airplane and in less than 4 hours deliver me to my children half a continent away. I am tempted to think that we live in an amazing time, but it is not the times that are amazing, but the blessings and opportunities that God has put before us.

We need to stop and think about how great we have things. Some years ago I watched an old western that had a scene which touched me. The story was set on a Colorado farm in the middle of the 1800’s. The farmer and his wife had a teenage girl. A cowboy drifter came through and stayed with them for a while. By and by, the drifter cowboy and the teenage girl fell in love. At the end of the story she married the cowboy and moved 1500 miles away. As they were leaving, the family wept and wished them well. That still happens today, but in those days that meant they probably would never see their daughter again.

I live very few miles from one of my daughters and my son. I live 1300 miles from my other kids. In less than half a day I can see all of them. I can have breakfast with my nearest children and lunch with my other child. Just a few years ago, such a feat was unimaginable. All of us can tell stories like this.

Today, take a few minutes in your prayers and thank him for all the blessings that he has given you that are “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.”

~Lonnie Davis

[Remember this little story the next time you are tempted to see another’s problem and think it is not your problem. There are always consequences!]

 

Not My Problem!

Once upon a time a rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was horrified to discover that it was a rat trap. Retreating to the farmyard the rat proclaimed the warning; “There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Excuse me, Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The rat turned to the pig and told him, “There is a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!”

“I am so very sorry Mr. Rat,” sympathized the pig, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers.”

The rat turned to the cow. The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Rat, a rat trap! I am in grave danger. Duh?”

So the rat returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s rat trap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a rat trap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital.

She returned home with a fever. Everyone knows that you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.

His wife’s sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well. She died, and so many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when there is a rat trap in the house, the whole farmyard is at risk.

– Anon

I was coming home from work one day when I saw it coming toward me. It was an old, dirty, inexpensive car. Since I was waiting to turn I had to want on him. As he passed by I saw that he had one of those magnet signs on his car. To protect the guilty, I’ll just paraphrase what his sign said. It read, “First Call Taxi Company.”

“First Class” I laughed to myself, “then I’d hate to see second class.”

There is a great lesson in that sign. Here it is: just because someone says something doesn’t mean it is so. Even if they advertised it, it still doesn’t make it so. If you advertise a thing, live up to the advertisement.

Then I began to examine myself in light of this thinking. What am I advertising about me that isn’t so?

People judge us by what we claim. I’ve never been criticized and called a bad track star because I don’t claim that I am a good one (or even a bad one). I know I am built more for comfort than for speed. However, I do claim to be a Christian as do many of my friends. Since we claim to be Christians, we need to be certain that we live up to the claim.

I am not saying we are perfect. Even great looking, first class cars can bread down occasionally, but they get fixed and get back on track. If you have broken down as a man or woman or even a Christian, get up, fix up, and get back on track. Remember “YOU are the light of the world…let you light shine.” (Matthew 5:14-16).

Remember, we are what we do and not just what we say!

Lonnie Davis

The Eyes of the Lord

I was in the habit of playing golf with two of my elders. On one of those days, after about 30 minutes a twosome of a middle aged man and his twelve-year-old nephew walked up and joined our group. We did not know them, but it did not take long to learn about the man. After a few bad shots, he began to use curse words. I did not know him, but before long he learned that I was a preacher. He acted embarrassed and said to me, “I’m sorry that I talked like that in front of you.”

I was bothered, but it was not his foul language that troubled me. I was bothered by two attitudes of this man.

First, he was sorry about cursing in front of a grown man, but had no concern for the way he was behaving in front of his 12-year-old nephew.

Second, even if he had been concerned about the presence of his nephew, he gave no thought to the presence of the Lord.

I was bothered but not shocked. It was not the first time someone has apologized to me for bad language in my presence. Being a preacher does that to some folks.

Some folks work at behaving like a Christian when they are around other Christians. They are embarrassed when another Christ follower “catches them” acting or speaking in an unbecoming way.

Some Christians are careful to behave before other people, but forget that even when they are alone, the Lord is always present. The Psalmist said, “Where can I go from You presence?” (Ps 139). Faithful Christians know there is no place where God is not. Solomon wrote, “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch.” (Pro 15:3).

~Lonnie Davis

Not too long ago I read a great truth about prayer. It read, “Prayer is the language of faith.”

You wouldn’t like it if I wrote, “If you don’t pray, you don’t have faith.” If I wrote that, you may even stop reading. So, I won’t say that. I will instead write, “If you have faith, you will pray.”

I’m not saying you will pray three times a day while facing Jerusalem, as Daniel did. I’m not even saying you will pray on your knees for one hour every day. Everyone’s prayer routine look different. Certainly everyone’s spontaneous prayer is different. Where and how long you pray does not matter, but if you have faith, you will pray.

It is natural.

God is your Father and you are his child. Fathers and children speak to each other.

It is natural.

Here are two reason we pray.

1. In prayer you build a relationship with your Father. Of course there are some sons and daughters who never speak or have spoken to their earthly father. That is sad. I know because I never got to speak to my earthly father. We build that relationship with the Father by talking with Him in prayer.

2. You have needs that only the Father can fill. If you can help your chlld, you want to do so. Your Father can help and he want to do so. No matter what is going on, He can help.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you “- 1 Peter 5:7

 

Lonnie Davis