Buckle Up for the New Year!

As I was driving today, the red light on the dash was blinking at me.  It was warning me that I was in danger for failing to put my seat belt on.  It's obvious that it's a good thing to do to wear the seat belt because statistics prove that seat belts save lives.  The problem is that I had been affected by a rebellious streak that comes on me from time to time.  I didn't feel like wearing my seat belt!

But the red light was irritating me!  Irritating me allot!!  What was the solution?  To give in and put the seat belt on?  Or...  my thoughts went to the possibility to going to my mechanic who could easily disable the light so that I would never need to worry about that pesky warning light ever again!  I schemed for a couple of minutes, but then my thoughts went to "what if..."  What if I died in a car crash!  I would go straight to heaven, but what of my family, what of my friends, what of the people who I'm ministering to at this time if I left this planet pre-maturely!  I even thought to myself what I would say to the others in heaven when I arrived...  "um, sorry I'm early, but I didn't feel like wearing my seat belt!"

So I overcame my feeling, my irritation, my rebellious streak and I put on the seat belt.  And I determined that I will wear it and not finish this life until I'm really supposed to.

This was a silly episode, but it reflects human nature in many ways.  It seems that everyone wants to be a prophet but few want to be on the receiving end of a prophetic warning.  It seems that people like encouraging sermons, but when they hear a sermon that hits a nerve, we might not see them again.

Some time back, I was ministering in a Church as a guest and the sermon became quite direct & prophetic.  Too on point for the comfort of the Associate Pastor.  The Lead Pastor wasn't there...  At lunch, he said how blessed & challenged he was by the message personally, but that he hopes nobody was offended.  He said that if they lose people, that the leadership will be unhappy.  I have to admit that my human nature kicked in for a bit and I allowed his comments to affect me.  I went to my hotel wondering if I had somehow failed God.  After all, would God want me to share a message that would cause people to leave?  But in prayer, God assured me that I had been faithful and that I was following the example of Jesus & what  the Bible says to do..  to speak the truth in love.

Later on, I was invited back.  The same Associate Pastor said that they had lost a few people but that many were stirred to get right with God. Some of the Elders had asked specifically that I come back. In this case, the Senior Leadership was appreciative of that pesky warning light. It's not always that way...  You can look at it this way...  many in that congregation had been living their lives carelessly and at risk.  God loved them so much that He sent them a warning to buckle up!

On a personal level, I know that we all get warnings in our lives.  Some blatant on the dash and some like road signs that we can just glimpse.  Often we miss or ignore them. Sometimes they come from sources that we don't recognize or even like.  After all, that red light does irritate.  If we weren't irritated, would we act?

Was Jesus irritating?  Was Paul irritating?  Was Peter irritating?  What about Isaiah, Elijah & Elisha? You know the answer!  Some have said that if Jesus preached the way most preachers do today, that He would never have crucified. Maybe!  There is way too much ear tickling going on.  And it's not motivated by love or care.  It is motivated by kingdom building and I don't mean God's Kingdom.  A better term would be "audience building."  Were these men focused on making friends?  The Word tells us that "faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." (Prov 27:6)

When I evaluate my life & the lives of the others who I relate with, I've noticed that the greatest damage, the greatest losses have come from carelessness.  It's not that God didn't warn.  It's that we fail to heed the warnings.

In this new year, I and many in the community where I minister are fasting yet again.  We are wanting better spiritual eyesight & more.  I pray that we will become more welcoming, more cooperative, more alert towards the pesky warnings in our lives.  God has a fantastic year in store for us but we must be careful & pay attention in order to take hold of it!