Offering Leftovers

Offering leftovers. We do that each day, don’t we? Leftovers for dinner. A few scares minutes spent with our children during a busy day. A mumbled prayer as we fall asleep. A five-miunte devotion before work. Leftovers.

We’ve heard message after message about giving our best to God. Putting Him first. But do we really take those lessons to heart?

Francis stated, “Leftovers are not merely inadequate; from God’s point of view (and lest we forget, His is the only one who matters), they’re evil. Let’s stop calling it “a busy schedule” or “bills” or “forgetfulness.” It’s called evil.” Ouch. Strong words. But let’s face it; we need to hear those strong words. We need to hear them when we are being confronted with our sin. I believe too many times our sin is being sugar coated to make it an easier pill to swallow. I’m afraid many will find, when they stand in front of their Maker, that the “sugar-coated sin” would have served them better as the bitter pill it truly is.

Mark Buchanan writes, “Physical sickness we usually defy. Soul sickness we often resign ourselves to.” Isn’t that so true? How many people walk around with deep rooted sins that they resign themselves too instead of working to purge them from their lives?

Pastor Kenric talked about the root of our sin a few weeks ago. People try to “fix” the symptoms instead of looking to what the root of the problem is in their life. I can relate because I’ve done this myself. I’ve tried for years to lose weight, without much success, but I never wanted to look at why I have a weight problem. This year, however, I did. I found my reason and now I’m working on correcting it, with God’s help of course! Is it easy? Absolutely not! But as I look to the future I know when this battle is won that my struggle with food will be behind me. I’ll be free!

Last week, my husband Rodney and I had a meeting with Kyle’s teachers at school. The meeting was set for one o’clock which happened to be the time school let out. After checking in at the front desk, we made our way across the campus to the Harvard building. Just about the time we were walking across the courtyard the final bell rung and a rolling tide of high schoolers rush toward us. I felt like a salmon swimming upstream as we weaved our way through the continual on slot of teens. I also had the feeling we were in hostile territory. The looks we were giving were ones held for the invading enemies in a foreign land. Gezzz.

I couldn’t help but think of the Christian life as we made our way to the guidance counselor’s office. Francis says, “If live is a river, then pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, or actively following Him, we automatically begin to be swept downstream….I believe that much of the American churchgoing population, while not specifically swimming downstream, is slowly floating away from Christ. It isn’t a conscious choice, but it is nonetheless happening because little in their lives propels them toward Christ.” Sad isn’t it? I don’t want to be caught floating downstream. I want to actively pursue Jesus.

How about you?

Well chapter five is behind us.  On to chapter six.  Here's the video for it.