Month: December 2018

According to our best estimate of the calendar, it began on January 25, A.D 45. Christianity was in its infancy. The terrible Roman emperor Caligula had just been succeeded by Claudius. While Claudius made many favorable rulings for Jews and Christians, he forbade Jews and Christians from assembly in Rome. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, Claudius finally expelled all Jews and Christians from Rome.

One Christian couple expelled was Aquila and Priscilla. You probably do not know what it is like to be kicked out of a country, much less to be kicked out because you are a Christian. As Aquila and Priscilla left, they might well have lamented that “sometimes things don’t work out like you plan.”

The real problem is that we often conclude that because things don’t work out like we expect, things must be messed up. Listen to the rest of the story.

Aquila and Priscilla fled Rome and went to the city of Corinth where they set up shop as tentmakers (Acts 18:1-3). While at Corinth, a traveling evangelist named Paul came to Corinth. Since Paul shared the same occupation as Aquila and Priscilla, the Apostle stayed with them for nearly two years. When Paul left, Aquila and Priscilla went with him to Ephesus. In Ephesus they became church leaders and even hosted a house church in their home.

In Ephesus they came in contact with a mighty Jewish-Egyptian preacher named Apollos. The Holy Spirit tells us that he was “eloquent and mighty in the scriptures.” (Acts 18:24-26). The problem was that Apollos did not really know the truth about Jesus. Aquila and Priscilla taught Apollos the truth more fully and he because a great evangelist for Jesus.

Now look at the series of events

A Roman emperor expelled the Jews, including a couple named Aquila and Priscilla. 

• Things didn’t work out like they expected. They expected to be Christian tentmakers in Rome, but God had other plans for them. 
• God’s plan was for them to spend two years working and studying with the great Apostle Paul. 
• God’s plan was for them to host the Ephesians church in their home. 
• God’s plan was for them to convert one of the greatest preachers of all time.

That is not “messed up!” It was God’s plan! God also has a plan for your life.

Lonnie Davis

LI admit to being young and ignorant. I sometimes admit to being old and ignorant. Usually it does not matter, but sometimes it causes you to do stupid things. I remember this one time… Well, I remember more than one time, but one time I was especially ignorant. 

I was in the 10^th grade I did get ready for a date by painting my car. It was a beautiful autumn day and perfect for car painting. The process was simple. First, I washed my 51 Ford (I wish I still had it). I pulled it into the garage, got out cans of paint and a four inch brush. Next I painted the car. Me, the paint, and a four inch brush got the job done in a couple of hours. I was ready for the date!

On that day I learned some great lessons for my own life. I learned:

Ignorance is bliss. I drove the car into the garage, got out the cans of paint, the paint brush, and painted the car because I did not know any better. My neighbor laughed. At the time I thought it was because he thought I was resourceful. I now know he laughed because I was so ignorant.

You can do something stupid if you want. People will not live their lives running around behind you to see that you only do smart things. Your behavior is up to you.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When I was finished I was proud of the car. Others saw the paint brush ridges in the paint, but to me it was just pretty.

Even when you do dumb things real friends like you anyway. I love “anyway” friends. They are those people who love you even when you do dumb things. Your friend is someone you can relax around and just be yourself. Your friend is your friend even when you paint your car with a brush.

Wisdom comes with age. It does not always come with age. Perhaps I should say age ought to bring us wisdom. There are plenty of old people who have lived their lives doing one foolish thing after another, but walking the road once before ought to give us a little wisdom. I will never again paint my car with house paint and a brush.

Children, especially 16-year-old children, need supervision. It is ridiculous to see a 45-year-old man blame his 75-year-old father for his own behavior. At some point we all need to take responsibility for our own lives, but 16 is not the age.

We should not take life too seriously. If you paint your car with house paint it is not the end of the world. Don’t treat it like it is.

All these lessons (and more) can be learned from painting a car with house paint. If you cannot learn from your mistakes then you will never learn from anything! In fact, the smartest people are those who can learn from someone else’s failures. Now that you know my story you will never paint your car with house paint and a brush. See, you have learned from my mistake!

~Lonnie Davis

When I was about 11, I lived close to a skating rink. I remember my amazement the first time I saw someone skating backward – BACKWARD! He must have been the best skater in the world, or at least I thought so.

I got my courage up and tried it for myself. I jumped up to aim backwards. Plop! Down I went. Obviously I was not talented enough to skate backward. Maybe it was a fluke so I tried again. Again I went down. I turned around and skated frontward like God intended. Over the years I saw a few others who could skate backward, but obviously God touches a few people with special talent. I was not one of them.

Many years later I stood near an ice skating rink and saw my 11-year-old granddaughter leap into the air, spin two complete revelations, and skate away. Amazing!

There is more to the story than met my eye. Upon further investigation I learned that young Gwen (the skater) spent one and a half years falling down before she was able to do the double leap. At first she fell and fell and fell and fell. One day she finally hit the trick. Over the 18 months she had fallen hundreds of time before she mastered the skill.

It made me realize that I could have skated backwards if I had been willing to fall and fall and fall. Instead I resigned myself to skating the ordinary way.

There is a great lesson for all of us – “Those who would succeed must first be willing to fail.”

Let me say that again, “Those who would succeed must first be willing to fail.” That is how you all learned to walk or cook or write or  skate. Everything great is at first difficult.

There is a great life lesson in the old adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

It is not just a theory. It marks the difference between ordinary and great.

Lonnie Davis

The hardest trip I ever took was when my oldest was about three. We went from Wichita, Kansas to Houston, TX. Well, that oversimplifies the journey. We went via NM and then El Paso, TX. We were young and thought we want too see things along the way. Because of our indirect route, it took three days of hard driving to accomplish what should have taken one day. I guess you could tell me about your hardest journey also. Some of you have much harder stories than mine.

In today’s article, I will share the story of a really hard journey. The backdrop for the journey is found in Luke 2:1,3:“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to his own town to register.”

These sound like insignificant words, but in fact are words that turned the world upside down for a young couple expecting a child. The young couple is Joseph and Mary. The decree required Joseph to take his expecting wife on an eighty-mile trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The trip was a hard week’s journey over rough and dangerous terrain. They would not return for more than two years and when they did, their world and our world would be changed. It was with these simple words that God began the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Reading the story of this journey teaches me that even hard journeys can have great lessons.

Three Lessons

 1. God works behind the scenes.

If the Son of God were going to come to earth don’t you think He would come in some grand scene on the most famous stage on earth? Perhaps he would be born in a palace to parents who were royalty. Men would might have done those things, but sometimes God works in small places and in little ways. He had His son born in a tiny town called Bethlehem to a carpenter and his teenage wife.

2. Man does not know ahead of time whether things are good or bad.

Can’t you imagine the consternation of Joseph when he heard that he had to make the difficult journey with a pregnant wife? Mary could not have been excited either. Though now we know that the trip was necessary, they may have thought it was a bad idea. God knew what was best. He still knows.

3. God’s will, will be done.

Joseph and Mary didn’t argue or complain. They obeyed and did the will of God. When faced with hard circumstances, one only needs to make sure what God’s will is and then do it. God never asks you to do a thing without giving you the means to do it. That was true for Joseph and Mary and it is true today.

The next time you find yourself needing to do something difficult, remember the journey of Joseph and Mary. As He was with them, He will be with you.

Lonnie Davis

Life was crashing on Jacob.

He thought his favorite son Joseph was dead.

He thought his son, Simeon, was lost because he was being held prisoner in Egypt.

His family had wealth, but there was no food to buy. What good is money if there is no food to buy? To make matters worse, the only place he might buy food required that his favorite son, Benjamin, be brought to Egypt before his family would be allowed to buy food. Egypt had swallowed up Simeon and now it wanted Benjamin.

Facing true starvation, Jacob finally gave permission to take Benjamin to Egypt. In a spirit of deep despair he wails, “As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” (Genesis 43:13)

Jacob’s story is a story of understandable but needless worry. We would have all felt just as he did. We all have had times when it felt as though all the world were crashing around our heads. We do not know where to turn and believe that whatever way we go will bring tragedy. For the times when you feel that way, God has given you the story of Jacob, Benjamin, Simeon, and Joseph.

Jacob loved God and all things worked together for good. It is too bad Jacob did not have enough faith to believe that truth. If he had, he would not have come to such a low point and said, “If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”

Looking back, God was working in Jacob’s life.

Looking back, God was planning to feed him and his family.

Looking back, everything was working things out wonderfully well. All of this can be understood looking back.

Looking back, life is more easily understood.

Looking back is easy. Looking forward is hard. Looking back is sight. Looking forward is faith. In our own struggles we must look forward in faith and trust that God is working things out for us. Remember, “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7)

~Lonnie Davis