Heed instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. +

In preparation for our son’s wedding, Barb and I went online and ordered a tent canopy for the rehearsal dinner. It arrived in several boxes. The instructions indicated we’d need about 6 people to set it up.

On the setup day I didn’t have 6 people. Only 3. What to do?

“How hard can it be?” I thought. “We’ll make do with what we’ve got.”

Halfway into assembling the tent I realized why the instructions called for 6 people. The canvas has to be installed onto the roof frame and then the entire roof structure of the tent must be lifted up as a unit while the legs are attached.  It was clear that if we we tried it with only 3 people we would bend the frame and ruin it. Once again, the person who wrote the instructions knew better.  After I followed the instructions, it ended up looking quite nice.

What’s the point?  Well, the Lord has shown me something about myself that needs some attention: I don’t mind following instructions when they make sense. But if I’m asked to follow procedures without understanding why, I tend to resist the instruction and do things my own way.

I’m not pleased about what this reveals — it’s nothing more than a self-sufficient, prideful spirit. And it stems from believing that I have an adequate grasp of the situation and can chart the best path myself.

The Lord is prompting me to adopt a default position that heeds instruction,takes hold of it, and will not let go. Rather than challenging it.

How do you receive instruction?

[The world] will see “your good works,” Jesus said.

Like what?

They will hear your courtesy.

They will detect your smile.

They will notice that you stop to thank them.

They will hear you apologize when you are wrong.

They will see you help them when they are struggling.

They will notice that you are the one who stopped along the road and gave them a hand.

They will see every visible manifestation of Christ’s life being normally lived out through you. They will see all that and they will glorify your Father who is in heaven.*

Blessings,

*  taken from Charles R. Swindoll, Wisdom for the Way

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one

who will save it.

(Luke 9:23-24)

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

(Phil 2:3-4)

And it’s not just the bride and her mother expending all this time! What if you were to add up all the hours invested by the circle of friends and family? And the paid help. And the guests. It’s staggering, really, how much time we routinely invest in celebrating the marriage of a man to his bride.

It seems to be a sociological thing for all humans, not just Americans. All across the globe weddings are the high-water mark of a culture’s celebrations. History tells us it’s been like this from the earliest of days. The biblical account indicates wedding feasts often lasted for days!

I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps God has hard-wired us not only to come together in marriage, but also to celebrate marriage in second-to-none fashion.

With all this as back-drop, do you think it mere coincidence that God’s end-of-ages-wrap-up is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? That His elect, whom He has “betrothed to Himself” are collectively called the Bride of Christ? That the dowry of this marriage is the gift of the Holy Spirit?

I am slowly realizing that this no-holds-barred celebration of marriage was put in us by God, and that it is witness to His dogged determination to be with His followers in a loving, living, inseparable relationship for all eternity. To that end, no amount of planning for this event is overdone. No expenditure of resources will be considered outlandish. After all, it’s a wedding!

If this be so, “what sort of people ought [we] to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?”

Blessings,

Collateral damage is “damage that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome.”

The truck driver never intended it, but after his tire blew out several cars impacted the tread carcass and experienced collateral damage. My son David was a few cars back. The car in front of him ran over the blown tire and threw it up in the air. It landed on the front end of his car. $1700 worth of collateral damage.

When summer heat and high speeds conspire to destroy tires, hoods and bumpers and grilles often pay the price.

How true to life! Whenever you or I succumb to temptation, we don’t just blow a tire. Our sin ends up impacting people all around us withcollateral damage. It may have been unintended or incidental, but it’s damage all the same. And the price-tag to others is often quite high.

Just another reason this summer to “be very careful, then, how you walk, not as unwise but as wise… because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16).

Blessings,

Dear Woodland Hills Family,

Blessings,

Dear Woodland Hills Family,

You may have heard in the news this week: physicists are celebrating the discovery of the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that scientists believe gives mass to matter. It’s big news in the world of physics. So big that some people have nicknamed it the “God particle” because they feel it explains the monumental questions about matter and how the subatomic universe works, and why matter inexplicably holds together as mass instead of falling apart.

Interestingly, the man who first proposed the Higgs boson’s existence, Peter Higgs, isn’t all that amused by the nickname “God particle,” since he’s an avowed atheist.
But as I read of this scientific discovery, God’s amazing creation strikes me as even more impressive! Back in the 1960s Peter Higgs and other scientists theorized the existence of these subatomic particles.  And now, all these years later, two teams of 5100 scientists have concluded we have “extremely strong evidence of a new particle.”

God’s awe-inspiring universe continues to astound! And I say the headline should read, Higgs Boson Declares God’s Glory! For in Christ “all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together: (Col 1:16-17).

Blessings,

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