Ecclesiastes 12:10

  I had a college professor no matter what the lecture started on, it ended up on one of three topics. Maybe you know some preachers like that. Or it could conversation with a friend that will be constantly on the same subject. Or maybe it’s us making the same mistakes over and over.   It can be easy to get in a rut. The same choices led to the same actions, that lead to the same results. We fall into a comfortable place even if that place is very good for us to be in.   So how do we get out of the cycle?   In Romans 12:2 we are told, “ And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect .” This verse gives us a template   First, we need to escape the pattern. Break the cycle. Step out of the rut. Then we must change our minds. Instead of letting the pattern of the world determine our actions, we need to rework and ...

   In Galatians 5:7 Paul questions the church in Galatia; “ You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth ?” It might be a good question for us as well. What is hindering us?   The word here implies a thing that slows you down, something that makes it harder to do the thing you are trying to do, an item that is an obstacle to moving forward.   It doesn’t take much to impede progress. Behavioral scientists tell us that if you can delay any action even just for a few seconds it can greatly change our temptation to get something done. That’s great if you are putting the cookies in a hard place to keep you from stacking, but it can be problematic when it comes to our spiritual race.   Marshal Keble once said, “ Most people think falling away from the church is like a blowout, but in reality, it is like a leaky tire .” I think he is right. We expect a big thing to keep us from the Lord and his church but more often than not it is a small accumul...

   Leo Marks would eventually become the head of ciphers and codes at Britain’s Special Operations Executive branch, the entity that was vital in World War Two in breaking and creating codes. However, he almost never got the chance to work there since his interview seemingly went terribly.   When Marks took a codebreaking test that was supposed to take him no more than twenty minutes, it took him all day. Not very good work for a man wanting to be a codebreaker.   There was however one issue. When they gave him the code, it was supposed to include the key for translating the message. They never gave it to him. Without the key, the cipher was supposed to be uncrackable. Marks had proved it wasn’t. It wasn’t that he had failed the test, it was that he had broken it.   I wonder if we sometimes don’t treat God that way. We give him our problems yet forget to do our part that comes with correcting them. We then get frustrated with God when things don’t turn ...