Good morning and happy Saturday. I hope that you are having a good weekend and that you are seeking to glorify God in all that you do.
A quick update on the Life Saver Center in Haiti. Please continue to pray for Kenley and Nadege. They have both been dealing with an illness that comes and goes. The doctors have yet to figure out why they keep passing out. The home has incurred a lot of medical bills this year. Also, a water well is being dug so that they can have access to safe and dependable water. The initial phase is costing $ 2000. Lastly, they are hoping to have a VBS July 17-20 and are expecting 250 or 300 kids to attend. It is an incredible opportunity to reach them with the Gospel. Brother Jacques is hoping to provide them with a snack or some food each day. They are doing a good work in a country that is desperately poor. If you are able to help with any of these expenses, it would be greatly appreciated. You may contact me for more information.
Not a big surprise, but one day I was in a bit of a hurry as I paid some bills and worked on my budget. It’s kind of amazing but have been using the same budgeting forms and procedures for over 25 years. I first got them from Christian Financial Concepts and they have served me quite well over the years. Anyway, as I added up the totals of the individual account sheets I discovered that it did not match the total of the checkbook register. Somehow, I had managed to get off by a whopping 30 cents. I know that probably doesn’t bother some of you but a few of us won’t sleep at night until we figure out where the error occurred. Fortunately for me, after a few minutes of re-adding the numbers on the individual account sheets, I found the one with the incorrect number. At last, everything balanced and I was able to check that box off of my to-do list.
If you think about it, in that scenario, there were a few options that could have been chosen. (1) Avoid the situation altogether by never balancing the budget or checkbook, (2) Cover up the discrepancy by making an adjustment to the balance to just get it to work, (3) Seek to discover the error so that it can be dealt with accordingly. Interestingly enough, that same logic can apply to almost anything in our lives. All of us are works in progress. There are none of us that have reached sinless perfection nor will we this side of glory. Therefore, we are going to make mistakes. We will have things in our lives that aren’t quite as they should be. The Bible makes it clear that we will sin and fall short of the glory of God. The question becomes what do we do with that reality in our own lives? Using our options above, we could avoid dealing with it by ignoring the Word of God. We could cover it up by making excuses like, “everyone else is doing it”, “I’m only human” or by thinking, “at least I am not as bad as other people.” You can further ignore it or mask it by avoiding being around other Christians. The rationale being that if you avoid contact with other Christians than maybe you won’t have any conviction regarding anything. However, the demands of Scripture are such that we actively seek to discover anything in our lives that are inconsistent with the Word of God. When we do discover that there are things that aren’t quite right, we seek to remedy it quickly before it leads to something greater. In today’s economy, 30 cents is not a lot of money. Nevertheless, I took the time to discover and correct the mistake. If I wouldn’t have, the balance would have actually been incorrect from this point forward. But I wonder, am I as diligent to reflect upon, to seek out things in my life that aren’t completely in balance with the Word of God? Obviously, we will all avoid the big ones like murder and Baal worship, but what about the things that we often perceive as being minor infractions? I think sometimes we get to the point where we actually believe we have become “good enough.” But is our “good enough” really good enough when we accurately view our lives through the lens of God’s Word? May our attitude become like that of the psalmist who wrote these words in Psalm 19:
12 Who perceives his unintentional sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.
13 Moreover, keep Your servant from willful sins; do not let them rule over me.
Then I will be innocent and cleansed from blatant rebellion.
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to You, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
Love God. Love others. Impact our community. Change the world.
Pastor Larry
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