New Hope Christian Fellowship

We recently went on a trip to visit my parents in Sioux Falls, SD. We flew through Denver along the way and I saw a very interesting sight. I looked out the window and as we were coming in to land and low and behold, there was another plane. It was level with us and seemed to be getting closer. However, I knew that major airports, like Denver, have multiple runways and, of course, planes will be landing at around the same time. It struck me that at that moment, the life of my family and myself was in the hands of the air traffic controlers and the pilots in those planes. And moreso, I was ok with that.

It started thinking me about trust. It was not hard for me to trust absolute strangers with my life, but how hard is it sometimes to trust God, who we know and have experience with? Honestly, though, we should trust Him more. A person can make a mistake. God can’t. A person could have a bad day. God doesn’t. A person could be tired or upset. God never is. We need to trust God more than the people around us, because He never fails.

“Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.” Psalm 37:3

Yesterday I was installing a ceiling fan in my daughter’s room and I was just about done when the glass globe I was tightening the screws on dropped. Instinctually, I reached down to catch it. However, the globe hit the top of the stool I was standing on and shattered. My hand came down onto the shattering globe and I slashed my pinkie finger on my left hand open. It really didn’t hurt at this point as I washed it out and held some paper towl to my hand. My brother-in-law took my to Kaiser and I went through the whole emergency room/minor injury clinic process. Throughout that my hand felt fine. Finally, I was taken in to have my hand fixed. The first step was to rinse out my wound with some very cold saline. My hand didn’t bother me until the nurse started spraying that water into the wound. It started to sting and hurt and much to my surprise, I started to get nauseous. The nurse, noticing my discomfort, asked if I was ok and asked if I wanted to lie down. I told her I was ok, trying to be macho. As my stomach felt worse and worse and starting to feel like I was about to throw up, I thought to myself about why was I sick. I shouldn’t be sick. I can take this. It’s no big deal. Then, as I felt worse, I decided that I didn’t want to barf and listened to the nurse and laid down. As my body calmed down, I did feel better and I acknowledged the nurse was correct. And, to finish the story, I now have six nice stitches as a symbol of my lesson.

In Christianity, we quite often display macho of our own. We think we can do it on our own. We look at ourselves and think things are no big deal and that we can handle it ourselves. In reality, that is being macho. Our God is a wonderful God and He can do a much better job than we can of fixing things. Sometimes, we have to listen, realize what He is telling us is best, and just do it. No trying to do it ourselves. No trying to tough it out. No macho.

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

Something recently happened to my brother that bothered my greatly. Several people, several ministers that my family has known for years and years, acted in a decidedly unchristian way. I admit that I was very disappointed as I looked up to these people greatly and felt they should have known better, particularly as they are ministers of the Gospel.

As I think back through my life, I can think of several times that I was let down by people I felt should know better. Now on the flip side, I am a Bible college graduate and I know that being a minister does not make a person perfect. And, I know some people that if it were up to me, they wouldn’t be ministers. I know that everyone makes mistakes, even ministers. But even still, what happened bothered me . . . a lot.

Let’s come out a say it. People will let us down. That is a fact of life that we simply must accept. There will come times when people we look up to will make mistakes. I think we can’t let ourselves get hung upon that. It is not a representation of God, but proof that we are human and the flesh still gets in the way.

What we can rest assured in is God is true. He doesn’t lie. He is consistent and a shelter in a time of storm. When people let us down, God will not. In those moments when life is battering us and it seems like everyone has abandoned us, God is and will be there. God is the ultimate safety net. There may be times we can’t trust people, but we can trust God unflinchingly.

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:17-20

On Sunday, my wife and I had our two kids sitting with us. Now, they are more attached to their mom than to me and she was holding my son and my daughter was standing beside her. My son kept trying to push his sister away from him and so, in an attempt to calm things down, I moved my daughter to my other side and kept right on signing. A few moments later I looked at my daughter and she stared back at me with tears in her eyes. I realized she didn’t understand why I had moved her and she thought it was because she had done something wrong. So, I had to sit down and explain to her why I moved her and that she wasn’t in trouble.

Many times as a parent we have to act in our child’s best interest and we don’t always explain why. That explains the old “Because I told you so,” asnwer. Our kids want to know why and may disagree with our decision but they follow our instructions many times beacuse we are the parent, but their feelings are hurt. However, in most instances, we have acted in their best interest.

God, as our Heavenly Father, will give us instructions and guidance that we may not understand or even like. However, we can trust that He does truly have our best interest at heart. Even if we disagree with what He is telling us, we need to do as we are told because God does indeed know best. God loves us and will not let things happen without a reason. We need to trust Him in everything that He leads us through.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 (KJV)

I was talking with a friend of mine and he was telling me how things were going. He told me that due to the economy, the number of hours he was working had dropped and that his wife had been unfairly terminated from her job and they are expecting a daughter in a few months. Now, what struck me as awesome was that in spite of all this stuff, he was very clear that he was putting his faith in God. You could hear the confidence in his voice that no matter how crazy things got, he knew that God would take care of him and his family. It reminded me of the scripture verse in Proverbs 3:5 and 6. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understandings. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” God will provide. We may not see it or have any idea how He will do it, but He will provide.