My Meditations of God while Mowing

Anyone who knows me knows I hate, and I say again, hate mowing the grass! I have often said that when I get up to heaven I am sure my place will have astroturf in the front lawn. I know there are some who love the smell of fresh cut grass, who love the time outside and love making there lawn picture perfect. That is all fine and dandy, but I absolutely hate doing it and if I wasn't so cheap I would pay for someone else to do it.

 Now beside me lives an elderly couple who for years had someone do there lawn. He would come by at least once a week and mow the lawn and weedeat around the shrubs and trees. Well about a year or so ago he was unable to do it, so my neighbor across the street had told this elderly couple that he would mow there lawn for them this year. However, this past winter he had passed away. Now I did not know if they had hired anyone to mow there lawn yet or not.

 As Spring came I noticed that the grass was getting higher and higher and I assumed that since we were under lockdown it might be hard for them to find someone to mow there lawn. So as I started up my lawnmower I decided to just go ahead and mow there lawn for them. I figured that was something I could do that would help them out and would be a blessing in some way to them.

So off I went to mow the lawn and while I was working on their front lawn, they came out and asked me how much they owed me for the work that I was doing. I told her that it was free of charge, I just wanted to help them out and that it was no big deal. Yes while I hate mowing, mowing their lawn is not putting me out to much, besides sometimes being a blessing to others, does cost you something. So that really was my purpose, was to just bless them by doing something they needed, and doing it out of the goodness of my heart and out of service for God.

So each week I would go and mow their lawn and they were appreciated of it. Each week the wife would come out and say "I wish I could pay you" and I would tell here it is not necessary. Well one day she had made me and my family a loaf of cinnamon bread for us, it was absolutely great! Then a week or two later she came out and insisted to give me a 20 dollar bill. Each time I told her it was not necessary to do these things, because I just want to be a blessing to her. However I  gladly accepted her offers. I am always reminded of what I was told my wife's grandfather, would say "If someone offers you something you take it, because you might be cheating them of a blessing" 

However as I was mowing their lawn with the 20 dollars in my pocket and the thought of their desire to some how, some way pay me for the work I was doing. I started to think about God and Salvation.

I began to think about how God has blessed us time and time again. How God had sent his only begotten son to die in our place that we might be saved. I started to think about how good God is. I began to think about the many blessings in my 40 years hear on this earth. How God has blessed me with a wonderful family. How God had raised me up in a christian home, with parents who loved the Lord and knew the word of God. How God had placed godly people throughout my life who have helped me to be the man I am today. I thought about the two greatest churches God  had given me the opportunity to call my home church, 7th Ave. Baptist Church, a church I grew up in, and Ashmore Baptist Church where I pastor now.  I began to think about the many different men and women in my life who God had used in different times in my life to help me. As I began to recall all God's blessings toward me, my heart became filled. How great God has been to me and really to everyone if they will take the time to think about all the blessings of God.

The thing I realized is that a lot of those things I have been given, I never asked for. I never asked God to send me the parents I had. I never asked God to place the people in my life that he did. While I did ask for God to send me to a church he would want me to pastor, I did not ask specifically for Ashmore Baptist Church, and I had no choice in the matter of 7th Ave baptist church I was going there no matter what. Last but not least, before I was even born, before my father and mother were born, Jesus Christ died for me! I did not ask him to do that, but He did that so that I may be saved. He sacrificed His life that I maybe forgiven, before I was even born!

I think this maybe the reason why so much emphasis is placed in scripture about being doers of the word. Why we are told to serve others, to give generously, to be a blessing to others in what ever ways we can. Because by doing this we are reciprocating to others the blessings we have been given. This was the reason why I wanted to help my neighbors, not for aclame or some reward, but to simply be the hands and feet of Jesus. To be a blessing to them with no thought of a return.

However I had a 20 dollars bill in my pocket.  I wanted to be a blessing to them with no desire for a reward but they insisted to pay me.  At first I felt bad that they felt like they needed to do that. I thought maybe I was not being clear enough that this came at no cost. That this is really out of the goodness of my heart. As I turned around the tree, and as the grass clippings sputtered out of my riding lawn mower, I had an interesting epiphany.

I realized that some people pay to have there lawn mowed. They have a need and they seek someone to help them keep there lawn mowed and they pay them to do it. However with my next door neighbor, they gave me money, not to mow there lawn, but because I had mowed there lawn.

Now I know what your thinking, that is a very simple epiphany. The sun must have been really hot or I needed to take a break and get some rest. What can I say a simple mind has simple thoughts. However there is more to that thought than meets the eye.

You see there are some who see God's blessings on there life and seek to "pay" God for his service. They wish to somehow earn Gods grace and mercy. They desire to try to gain the blessings of God for there life by doing something to earn it. They may not do it with a 20 dollar bill necessarily, although some may try to do it by giving to a church or some charity. However they may do it by trying to do something good, to do some act of service or to live a life that they feel would be worthy of God's blessing. Furthermore there are people who try to earn salvation in the same way. They feel they must do something so they could deserve salvation.

The heart of all of this is pride. They can't allow God to simply bless them or save them. They feel they must have some control, some part in their blessings or salvation. Yet the bible is clear that it is not by works that you and I are saved, but rather grace that we are saved. Salvation is truly a gift of God, and not salvation only but every blessing in our lives are gifts of our Creator God. What could finite man give and Infinite God? What could you or I ever possess that God does not have. To think that your works, your gifts are so needed that it could some how "buy off" God to bless you or save you is both a audacious and ludicrous claim from a prideful mind.

However what my neighbor was doing was not trying to "pay me off" to do the lawn work. Rather that cinnamon bread, and that 20 dollar bill was a symbol of her appreciation for the work that I did. In much the same way, me mowing the lawn was a way to show my appreciation to God for all the blessings I had been given in my life.

It is this thought that I want to land on. In our life we need to recognize the blessings of God on our lives and they are many. Furthermore as we think about those various blessings from God, let us not seek to "pay God off" but rather let us seek to "Pay it forward". Let us serve one another, give generously, be the hands and feet of Jesus. Not to gain God's approval, or to acquire God's blessings, but rather to show our appreciation to God.

As I finish up the lawn and I drive my riding lawn mower into the garage. I am reminded of one other blessing, God had given me several years ago this lawn more by the grace of someone in our church. this blessing I was given, I am now able to bless my neighbors with now. That is the purpose of our blessings, we are blessed to bless others! I turn the key to the left and the engine shuts down. I turn off the lights in the garage and close the doors and wonder "What else can I do to show my appreciation to God today.

Joseph, Slavery and why it matters today!

 For those who know me know that I love the book of Genesis and the story of Joseph is one my favorites in that book of the bible. For several weeks now the story of Joseph has been on my mind. In particular the part of the story where we see Jacob and all of his sons come into Egypt. It is here we see the climax of everything that happened in Joseph's life. We see the fulfilments of Joseph's dreams that he dreamed as a boy. We see how those years changed Josephs brothers, and we see how Joseph is able to forgive his brothers. Its just a fantastic story. 

However these are not the reasons why this story has been on my mind lately. The reason why this story has been on my mind is because I think we can see in this story certain truths that pertain to some of the things we are going through right now.

So let me begin with a simple question. How did the Israelites become enslaved to Egypt? How did all of the Egyptians fall under the rule and reign of the Pharaoh? How did all that happen.

Now we see in Exodus 1:8-11 we read "Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. and he said to his people, "Behold the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens."

So it would seem that this is when and how the Israelites were enslaved. Case closed right? Well not quite. While its true in Exodus we do see the that the king of Egypt placed taskmasters over them. The question is why did they not resist? Why didn't they just up and leave and go to a different part of the country, maybe back to Canaan? 

Well the answer is that they all were at the mercy of the King of Egypt. All of Egypt and all of Canaan were bought by the King of Egypt years before taskmasters were appointed over the Israelites. See the Israelites, that Canaanites and the Egyptians themselves were already bought by the king of Egypt. 

You can find this out for your self if you turn to the book of Genesis chapter 47 and read verses 13 through verse 27. 

But for the sake of time let me paraphrase these verses. If you are familiar with this story you will know that at this time there was a famine in the land. Joseph interpreted a dream of Pharaoh that God had given the king and the interpretation said that there would be 7 years of abundance and then there would be 7 years of famine in the land. So Pharaoh upon hearing this news put Joseph in charge of storing all the food for the next 7 years. 

When the famine hit it hit hard, and people started coming from all over because the news was that Egypt had food. So everyone, everywhere started to buy up food from Joseph and the money was stored in Pharaoh's house. Eventually the people had no more money to buy food so they gave there livestock, which I am sure by this time was not in the best of conditions. So Joseph took the horses, flocks of sheep, the herds of cattle, and donkeys in exchange for a years supply of food (not a bad deal). 

Well at the end of that year the people had no money and no live stock to give for the food. What could they give to get the food they needed? How could they survive? Well we see what they did next they asked for the Pharaoh to buy them and there land. They willingly indentured themselves as servants of Pharaoh so they could get the food they needed to survive the famine. I want you to read verse 20-21 of chapter 47 "So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Then listen to what Joseph says in verse 23 "Behold I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you and you shall sow the land. 

As I have thought about this story these past several weeks I am left with a couple of thoughts that I think pertain to our current situation both as a state, a nation, and as a world.

1. Fear can led us to sacrifice our freedoms for safety. - Was there something to fear in this famine, absolutely! I am not denying that the famine was not real or that it was made up. These guys were starving for sure. Am I saying what they did was wrong? No not necessarily. I am sure in this situation I would have done the same thing. Is COVID-19 year absolutely. Have we sacrificed certain freedoms for the sake of safety. Yes, no doubt about it we have. Was this the right thing to do? I will leave each of you to answer that for yourself. However I think it is clear that fear can lead us to sacrifice our freedoms for safety. We see it in Genesis and we see it with our current situation with COVID-19

2. What maybe ok for one authority, may not work out so well with the other. - In Genesis we see that it was all working out. The people were feed, and they worked under Pharaoh and gave Pharaoh a fifth of their harvest to Pharaoh and were allowed to keep four fifths for food and seed for themselves. This arrangement was not a bad one for the time. They lived through the famine, and now they have full time employment for Pharaoh. In fact they were happy to do this we see they said in verse 25 "You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. Furthermore for Israel and his family specifically, this must of not been a bad deal. I am sure at the beginning they received preferential treatment. Joseph you see was second in command and as long as he was alive I am sure his family faired well. 

See the problem did not rear its ugly head until a king came up who did not know Joseph. The issue was not severe until a King came up who decided he would take his power one step further. 

I think we need to remember that some leaders who are given power may very well use that power responsibly and carefully. There are some leaders who understand that they too are under authority. However there are some leaders when they gain control of that same power, will seek to abuse it, and expand it for there own desires. During this COVID-19, in my opinion, we have seen several executive orders from the president on down to governors and mayors. Now you may you may agree with those orders, you may agree with some of them, you may agree with none of them. No matter where you land on that, know this. That the power wielded, even for the right reasons, may set a precedent for future leaders to abuse and expand for the wrong ones.

3. God is still in control - Make no mistake about it! God was incontrol when the Famine came in Egypt. God was in control when the people sold their freedom for food. Yes, God was even incontrol when a new king came and put taskmasters over the nation of Israel. The same is true today. God was incontrol when COVID-19 spread throughout this world. God is in control as our leaders make decisions, that limit our freedoms. Yes, make no mistake about it, that God is still incontrol that even if our freedoms become revoked, the constitution becomes shredded, and the bill of rights becomes a bill of suggestions. God is in control. 

Let me end with just this thought....and I am not making any kind of prediction here, but rather a interesting suggestion. 

Perhaps, just perhaps, what we see going on today is God's way of allowing all of our nations to come together in a "New World Order". Perhaps this virus is the catalyst God is allowing to spur fear in the minds of our  leaders to make decisions that will crumble all our economies and sacrifice all our freedoms. Allowing for a one economic system, and one governmental system to be introduced and implemented. Perhaps this virus is the catalyst God is allowing to spur fear among the people that they will willingly submit to being tracked by the government.

Finally, perhaps everything we are seeing happening around us, and everything we will see as the weeks, months and years go on, maybe leading us to the Lords coming. To that day when the church is raptured out of this sin soaked world. What a day that will be!

But no matter what happened,.....no matter what is going on.....no matter what will happen in the future. This ONE THING I KNOW!

GOD is in CONTROL!