Are You Repaying What You Owe?

Are You Repaying What You Owe?
The need for people to honor their father and mother is compelling. Every parent sees the need for parental authority as expressed in Eph. 6:1, “Children obey you parents…” This is not just a control thing, but for the good of the child while he is immature and unable to provide for his own needs. Even rebellious children see later in life that their parents rules; “Don’t play with matches, don’t play in the road, don’t use drugs!” was for their own best interest. Even irreligious people can see the logic in repaying their parents(1 Timothy 5:4) as they grow older and are unable to care for themselves. I wonder how I could ever repay my mother for giving me birth, for caring for my every need as a baby, for making my life her life in my growing up years. Her love and care for me never stopped through all my years. And Dad fought in WW II for my freedom before I was born, worked long hours at a hot and difficult job, not for his pleasure, but that I could have the provisions I needed and wanted. They both sacrificed to pay the heavy expense of my college education. How could I ever forget how they went beyond anything expected? When Susan and I married, we started out buying furniture and appliances on credit. We paid on it a year and the next year were given paperwork for Christmas- a paid off bank note for our furnishings. I owe them so much. I know not all parents are like mine, but I’m convinced that most of them sacrificed far more for us than we realize. Perhaps you can see why we should pay our parents back for the love that they offered freely.
But even if your parents were not attentive to your needs, have you thought about what God has provided for you? It is amazing how so few of us see a need to even have a relationship with Him, let alone have a sense of how we can never pay him back for all he has done. David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.” Surely you realize that there must have been a creator. Many in our day are like the Romans who ignored God, as if he wasn’t there. Paul said, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:20-21). Some make fun of a belief in an “invisible” God. Do you believe that there is any “visible” force or intellect in this universe that was capable of making all that is here? Of course not! God made the heavens and earth(Gen. 1:1). You and I should worship and praise and thank Him for all that he has given us.
Paul reminded the Greeks, who had many concepts of God, the true God could not be of “gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.” (Acts 17:29). They had an idol to the “Unknown God.” Paul taught them about the true God. Which one? The one that had given them life. Consider what he said, “Acts 17:23-29, “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: [24] God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.’” Acts 17:24-28(NKJV). Yes, whether you admit it or not, he made you. You are His and he should be honored by you. He has given you all. He gave his only begotten Son that you might have life. You can learn more of this wonderful God in his book, the Bible.
Those of us who already have faith in God should not forget the all encompassing words of Paul- “in Hm we live and move and have or being.”
How wonderfully the words of the song, “He Is My Everything,” by Earnest Clevenger, Jr. capture what God should be to me:
“He is my everything, he is my all,
He is my everything, both great and small,
He gave his life for me, made everything new,
He is my everything, no how about you?
Some folks may ask me, some folks may say,
“Who is this Jesus you talk about every day?
He is my Savior, he set me free.
Now listen while I tell you what he means to me.
He is my everything, he is my all,
He is my everything, both great and small.
He gave his life for me, made everything new.
He is my everything, Now how about you?”

John recorded it this way, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.” (Rev. 21:6-7).
He should be my all- my beginning and my ending:
Thoughts of him should begin and end my every day.
Thanks to him should surround my every action.
He should be the first place I go for help and the last place I go for strength.
Ideally, His church should be the first public place I went as a baby, and the last place I am able to go before death.(Have you noticed how some can go everywhere but to the Lord’s house?) My God should the first thing I learn of as a babe, and the last thing I think of as the shadows of death creep around me. Why? Because “He is my everything, He is my all.” David Courington

Alzheimer's- A Touching Moment

Dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's over 10 years ago and as might be expected, the disease has continued to progressively take it's toll. Though he has been pretty jovial lately, in the last couple of years he had increasingly been unable to say much of anything that makes sense. He is often not able to put any kind of a sentence together. One of the hardest things has been to see Mom talk to him and him not be able to respond. Well, she was able to go the Billy's to get her hair done on Thursday and I went to pick her up and take her back to Cherry Hill. She was looking specially nice and wanted to see Dad when we got back. One of the aids was walking him to the table for lunch and Mom went over to him. He looked at her and the biggest smile came over his face you have ever seen, as if he had seen a long lost friend for the first time in a long time. She said, "Wayne, I love you." With his fullest voice, his response was certainly unexpected, "I love you too, and I always have." That teary eyed moment will live in my mind for a very long time.

A Driving Distraction

Sending text messages has become so commonplace to many that they continue to do it while driving their vehicles. This is not limited to teenagers. Even long-haul truckers who are away from home a great deal make use of texting. A new study by Virginia Tech used video cameras over a period of 18 months and found that their collision risk was “23 times greater than when not texting.” The study showed, “In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices — enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.” Rich Hanowski, who oversaw the study concluded “Compared with other sources of driver distraction, “texting is in its own universe of risk.” Wow, imagine a fully loaded 18 wheeler coming at you at 70 mph and the driver is texting his wife about what they are having for supper. Scarry.
Here is something even more scarry. All of us are careening at breakneck speed toward eternity. God’s word says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27). And we are distracted! Jesus spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 21, and the same applies to us as we face judgment,  "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.”(Luke 21:34) There are so many distractions. Some of them are sinful things, like drunkenness, but others are simply the daily cares of life. Yes, we have to have food, clothing, shelter, even rest and recreation time, but we had better make sure that we are not distracted to the neglect of the most important things in life. Nothing is more important to you than the care of your soul and where you will spend eternity. Have the distractions kept you from thinking about that? Jesus asked, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”(Matt 16:26-27).
The Bible tells us we should love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind (Matt 22:37). We must not be distracted from this most important thing. If we will come to Christ in faith (John 8:24), repenting of our sins(Acts 2:38), confessing Christ(Rom. 10:9-10), be baptized into Jesus death(Mark 16:16, Rom. 6:3-4) and be faithful to Him(Rev. 2:10), we will be saved. That is something too important to allow other things to distract us. Are you paying attention?
David Courington