I just bought an $85 bolt

I climbed in the truck to head for work and started backing out of the driveway. Hmmm, something was wrong. I saw that the truck was tilting heavily to the right. When I climbed out for a look I found a big bolt stuck solidly in the very flat front right tire. So much for going to work on time.

 

I called the place where we usually buy our tires and they couldn’t come fix the tire until “tomorrow”.  I’m glad I was at home and not on the road. They supplied the name of someone to ask and I called, or rather tried to call. I was later told that person had left town. I tried their competitor tire place and no one would answer the phone, they “want to make things as easy as possible for their customers, please go to our website and communicate with us from there”. I called the first place again and told them to put me on their list for the next day.

 

Bright and early the next morning a gentleman was here to fix the tire. $85 please. That’s one expensive bolt and I didn’t even get to keep it.

 

So why did all that happen? Who knows. Maybe it was just a tactic to make my purse a little lighter. I suspect it is because I have known for a long time that we needed to put new tires on that truck and I kept dragging my toes. I'm sure that someday it was going to catch up with me and I was going to be out driving somewhere when a tire blew or went flat simply because it had worn out. Maybe God took drastic measures to get my attention. If so, it worked. After taking that tire off the truck and seeing how bad it actually was, I went into action. New tires are ordered and early next week they will be on the truck. On the other hand, if I had already put new tires on the truck that bolt probably still would have been in the same place at the same time and the truck would have had a flat in a new tire.  

 

So, did God cause the flat tire? Well, no, the bolt did, but God allowed it, and we can count our blessings.The tire went flat at home, not at work or on the road. The people I work with were very understanding and I had my computer at home with me so could do some work from here. The tire was fixed promptly the next morning and I didn't miss another day at work. We had the money to pay for it because God always provides for His children.

I wonder what you are going through today. Are you able to see the possibility of God's hand at work? Can you find the blessings even in hardship? Accept the challenge and give it a try, I'll bet you can if you think about it for awhile. 

Dirty Me!

I was doing just fine until I noticed that I was starting to get dirty, really dirty. The more I tried to get it off, the worse it got. One day as I looked around I realized that I also seemed to be in a prison. It was a big prison, but a prison none-the-less. My surroundings just got worse and worse with grime, sludge, garbage, stink, and I couldn’t get out because I was locked in.

It’s hard to explain but I wasn’t dirty only on the outside, it was inside as well, like it just permeated through me. Really, it wasn’t so much the garbage coming in as it was the garbage going out, starting on the inside of me and somehow seeping into my surroundings.

I would stand helplessly at the door of my prison, my head hanging in despair.  I thought things couldn’t be worse until I discovered that I was not only helplessly filthy, I was on death row. My days were numbered. I didn’t know how or why, but I was doomed.

Surely I could get myself out of this. I didn’t seem to be alone, there were others. Maybe if I tried helping someone else who was in need, said nice things or even sang some of those hymns my mother taught me, maybe that would help. Was there a guard? Maybe I could buy my way out of here. There must be something I could do. 

I tried, oh how I tried, but nothing seemed to work. I felt better sometimes but I knew everything I attempted was futile in the long run. I continued to be in my prison looking out through the bars. The garbage in and around me kept increasing.

One day I heard the most beautiful and powerful voice I had ever heard. He said “Child, I know how to take care of this. Will you let me?” I couldn’t believe it, there was hope? “Yes, please, I responded. I
need relief. I need to get rid of these dirty rags and escape this prison. I need help!”

The prison door opened and I found myself standing outside. Though I still felt dirty I knew something big was happening. When I turned back I saw the one who spoke was still holding the prison door open and someone else was going in. The one going in, like the one who opened the door and let me out, was beautiful, spotlessly clean, amazing . . . I was in awe, he seemed so . . . holy.

He is taking my place? Wait! This can’t be right. The door to the prison shut and I knew that soon the dirtiness that I left behind would cover him. I was still dirty too, some of it had come out with me. Yes, there had been progress, I was no longer locked in, but thus far we had just changed places. He was looking out and I was looking in.

Somehow he seemed to have stayed clean even though my garbage was all around him, and I had managed to stay dirty even though I had walked out free.

As I started moving away from the prison door I found myself standing at the bottom of a hill. I looked up and there on rough, splintered, wooden crosses hung three men. I squinted my eyes and looked again. No, it couldn’t be, my eyes must be deceiving me. The one who took my place on death row was hanging on the center cross. I had just left him in the prison, but it was him.

I heard that beautiful, powerful voice again. “Child, the job wasn’t done when He traded places with you. He must die for you as well. Only then will you be clean and pure. I am God and it was your sins, your rebellion against me, that made you so filthy. Only when my son dies in your place will I be able to forgive you for your sins and wash you white as snow”.

God’s son??? I stood there watching, unable to move, unable to say anything, unable to see through my tears. God’s son was so holy, so pure and clean, yet there he hung, right there where I should have
been. I heard him speak several times, I watched the soldiers gamble for his clothing, I heard some people weep while others scoffed him. The world became dark, more than the darkest of nights, darker than my filthiness, and I heard him cry out “It is finished!”. 

My heart seemed to split in two as I realized he had spoken his last words and he was gone. He took my place knowing that this would be his end. I fell near the cross at his feet and wept, and wept, and wept. Oh God, I have sinned. Please forgive me.

As tears streamed down my face I began to feel strangely odd. For the first time in my life I felt clean, really clean. It was then that I realized all of my garbage was now clinging to him. Though he went on the cross pure as snow he was now covered with my filth, and somehow I was now clean. Not just clean, but pure clean, spotless clean, holy clean.

I stood in awe. We traded. Not just his life for mine, but his purity for my filth. But now what? He was dead wasn’t he? He took my place on that cross. He died and I lived.

A short while later I stood at a tomb. It was the one where they had placed his body. I didn’t see him taken there but I knew that this was the place. I crept forward and saw a few remaining soldiers lifting their heads, looking around and fleeing. The tomb was open, the stone rolled back, and He was gone.

I heard that wonderful voice again. “My child. Remember these words of my Son: ”I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”*  Oh yes God, my Jesus, my Savior. I believe.

Dear reader, precious listener, this story belongs to all of us. We have all rebelled against God and sin has made us filthy. We have all been in Satan’s prison and our sin separates us from God. God loves all of us so much that He made a plan and sent His only son, Jesus, to rescue us. Jesus lived here among us and then in His pure, clean, perfect holiness He died on the cross in our place, took on our sin, then rose victorious in newness of life making eternal life with him available to everyone. That part of the story belongs to all of us. God told us about it in His Word, the Bible.

But the end of each person’s story? . . . well, the ending we all write for ourselves. When you and I experience the beginning of this story, and we stand at the foot of His cross, we must decide for ourselves what we are going to do with Him. Are we going to turn around in our rebellion and scorn the gift of redemption and life, or are we going to fall at His feet and cry out “Forgive me God, I have sinned, rescue me”?

My personal story ends in forgiveness because that is what I chose. Though I don’t deserve it, I have been given new life and am now part of God’s family. Jesus took my place, took my sin, and I became God’s child. I look forward to eternity with Him.

How will your story end my friend? Will you accept God’s gift of forgiveness or will you walk away from His love? The beginning is already in place, it is history and you cannot change it, but the rest of your story? Well, that’s still yours to write. Choose carefully.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” John 3:16-17

*John 11:25-26