Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Mr Penguin comes for a visit

Driving home Tuesday night, I looked down the road and was sure there was a small penguin standing in the road.
No I hadn’t been drinking and I don’t think it was a Billy Maddison Flashback, but I was certain I was about to run over a small penguin, a block from my house, on the second night of a Texas August.
But as I drove closer to the penguin, my eyes cleared and Mr. Penguin spotted me as well. It plopped back down on all fours and the black and white cat, skitted off across my neighbors lawn.
Mr Penguin reminded me of how easily deceived we can be sometimes. We trust clients, friends or family members, when they know all along they’re not being upfront and honest with us.
Many times we put our trust in men of God, only to discover they’re actually men of gods.
But why should we be surprised? Scripture tells us that Satan is the king of deception. He will use people and everything he can to deceive us.
He’ll even do his best to tell you, “You’re not good enough. God doesn’t want you. You’re full of sin and mistakes and failures. You’ll never measure up. God can’t use you and doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
But scripture also reminds us that God doesn’t care about what we’ve done in the past. God cares about today and the present. He cares about right now. What are you doing right now to get yourself on the right track.
Because when you ask, He forgives and forgets what you did instantly. He doesn’t write your mistakes down, He erases His records and puts them down at the deepest point of the sea, and moves them as far away as the East is from the West.
I was reminded this Sunday of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites, even after they forgot their commitment with Him.
Joshua 10 tells the story of how despite the Isrealites lack of commitment, God stopped the earth from spinning to keep His commitment to them.
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

No comments: