"Fill 'er up!"

It strikes my that my younger readers may not have a reference point for my title today (unless they live in a place like Oregon, where self-serve gasoline is non-existent). Back in the day when all fuel was dispensed by an attendant, "Fill 'er up!" was the common expression that meant exactly what it says.

In a very real sense, I go to God each day with the request (He commands; I request) that He fill me up. Jesus' model words, "Give us this day our daily bread" indicate that God's filling station is open for business. He longs for us to pull in and fill our souls. One way I replenish is to read a devotional book. This year I happened upon Thoughts for the Quiet Hour, by D. L. Moody. So far it has brought deep encouragement and helpful instruction to me. Today's reading was so meaningful that I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy!

January 29th
The living God. Dan. 6:20.
How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of! We know it is written "the living God"; but in our daily life there is scarcely anything we practically so much lose sight of as the fact that God is The Living God; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand years since; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love towards those who love and serve Him as ever He had, and that He will do for them now what He did for others two, three, four thousand years ago, simply because He is the living God, the unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should confide in Him, and in our darkest moments never lose sight of the fact that He is still and ever will be The Living God!
—George Müller

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Who is my neighbor?

Have you noticed that kids are a lot more open to neighbors than most adults are? I remember our young kids becoming friends with Jake from down the street. Jake didn't have kids his age at home and he LOVED to play. He quickly became "best buds" with our three. Cathy and I met Jake's family, but "friends" would have been a stretch.

Jake seemed to spend most of his free hours at our house. Until... Until the day he showed up with head lice. (Are you scratching yet?) You see, we were okay with having Jake as a neighbor, but his head lice were a different story. Adding to the difficulty was that, while Jake's mom dutifully washed his hair with that lice-killing shampoo, she didn't pay much attention to the nits left behind. And, when it comes to head lice, you will go far before you find bigger nit-pickers than Cathy and me! That meant that Jake was subject to inspection at our house until his hair was completely free of all vermin evidence. And THAT meant that Jake showed up at our house for several days, only to be sent home after his humiliating examination.

Looking back, I'm pretty sure that we went way overboard in protecting our kids from Jake. No doubt he was clean before we pronounced him clean. But, like I said, kids are a lot more open to neighbors than most adults are. How can we break down our walls and become the type of neighbors Jesus described? That's our February topic as we study God's Word at Stone Ridge Church.

 

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