The Pastor’s Piece – January 26,2020

Fellowship of Christian Farmers

By Kevin Cernek

January 26, 2020

 

Well, here we are in the last few days of January already.  Perhaps the winter blues have set in.  The mornings are still dark and night comes way too early.  It’s too soon to predict what kind of winter we’ll have because it’s not even February yet.  It’s a long way to spring.  One doesn’t want to wish his days away, it’s just that sometimes this time of year, we begin to count the days until spring arrives.  It might be a little early to be saying this, but they say after you see the first robin in the spring, there will only be three more snowfalls.  I’ve been wondering why do they come back so early?  Why not wait until there are no more snowfalls?  We all know how brutal a late season winter storm can be.

The way I see it, there’s one of two ways we can look at this winter thing. One, we can get all down in the dumps and depressed about it and grumble our way through each day.  Or, two, we can be thankful that every mild day we have in January is one less harsh day of winter we have to face and thank God for it.

What obstacles are you facing today?  I won’t pretend I know because everybody’s obstacles are different.  Some are physical, some are emotional, some are both.  Some we can control, some we can’t.  One thing is certain, we all have them.  So the question becomes, how do we handle them?

Here’s how one person handled his:  a shepherd boy named David was in a situation that was causing despair and pessimism in the camp of Israel, but he turned the very threat itself, Goliath the giant, into triumph for himself and his people.  Every day that enemy (Goliath) came out and taunted and mocked God’s people.  Every day God’s people cowered in fear and retreated.  Then one day David came onto the scene and his faith in an indwelling, all-adequate God changed everything.  Gloom and despair had spread like a cancer throughout the whole camp of Israel because one man of towering stature and strength, was holding the entire army of God immobile and helpless.  But when David came along, he saw something that no one else could see.  He asked his people: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that dares defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26).  Even though his sight, like the others, was fixed on Goliath, David’s faith was fastened onto the living God who was able to meet every circumstance no matter what it was, when it came, or how it occurred.  And he said, “In the face of those Resources, who is this?”  That quiet faith worked the miracle by which the very one who threatened became the ground of victory, triumph, and blessing.

It is similar to the way the law of aerodynamics uses the law of gravity to make an airplane fly.  When I travel by plane, and before I board a jet, I do not go to my wife and say, “Look dear, we are going to board the plane, but I promise you that all the way to our destination, I will try my best to hold it up in the air and make sure it flies.  I will sit in my seat and hang onto the armrests and give my whole attention to this situation.  All the way there I will struggle to keep the plane flying.”  No, if I said that, she wouldn’t let me go!

We know that the law of gravity continually pulls on an airplane as it flies and no one has ever made the mistake of thinking that gravity has stopped working.  I have never, in the middle of a flight, gone to the flight attendant and said, “I am tired of riding in here, I think I’ll get out and walk.”  If I did,  (if that was even possible) I would discover very quickly that the law of gravity is still in effect.

But a plane operates by a higher law, which opposes and yet uses the law of gravity.  If it were not for the law of gravity, the law of aerodynamics would not work.  Comparably, if it were not for the law of sin and death, there could be no victory in our Christian experience.  If our faith was not continually challenged to grow, we would not know the joy of hope and victory that comes when we realize that God has provided a way out – not a way out of our circumstances necessarily, but a way out of defeat from those circumstances.  There is great relief when that truth overwhelms our minds.  We don’t know how it will work out, but by faith we know God is working and those things that want to defeat us, will be completely broken, and we will be free.  Victory is guaranteed, by the way – Romans 6:14 says: “For sin shall not have dominion over you.”