iLonnie.com

Archive for July, 2009

The drive from my house to the church building is a beautiful drive. Every day I get to drive a couple of miles through a state park and year round it is beautiful. In the winter, the snow can hang onto the tree limbs that outline the road. In the spring the new growth is amazing. In the fall, the changing of the colors is a site to see. I love it.

A couple of weeks ago something happened to ruin it – well, at least a part of it. Someone accidentally ran over a skunk. I know it was an accident because no one would ever do such a crazy thing on purpose.

For the past few days, when I drive down that beautiful road there is a section of the drive that stinks. Over the past two weeks it has gotten a little better, but it still stinks.  I have seen policemen pull over and remove the bodies of dead animals from the highways, but no one has removed this dead skunk. During these two weeks, I have been reminded of several truths from this incident.

1. A mess is a mess, even when it is an accident.

Many people excuse every terrible thing they have done with a "I didn’t mean to." Children think that an apology is all it takes to make everything okay. I sometimes appreciate an apology, but a stink is still a stink. Do not focus on the word "sometimes" in the last sentence. A true apology is always appreciated, but there are people who apologize, but never try to fix anything. That is not a real apology.

2. Sometime things happen in life that you can’t fix.

No one wanted to clean up the mess, so we just have to wait till it goes away on its own. David asked for forgiveness from his sin. God forgave him, but the sword never departed from his house. Jacob wrestled with an angel till the angel touched him in the hip and for the rest of his life he limped. Even with forgiveness there are often consequences.

3. The smell will eventually go away.

Right now it may seem like you will never get past your problem. Don’t be impatient, this too will pass. I love the fellow who was asked what his favorite Bible verse was and he quoted "it came to pass." What ever your hard spot is, it will pass. It always does. The phrase "it came to pass" is found 453 times in the KJV.

This skunk too will pass.

Lonnie Davis

I’ve traveled highway 45 between Houston and Dallas so many times that I know where things are by the mile markers along the way. My son still makes this journey often and when he calls me to tell me he is “going to Houston,” I always ask him what mile marker he just passed. Mile marker 178 is Buffalo, Texas and marker 118 is Huntsville. For me, I am in Houston when I hit mile marker 64.

Highways are not the only mile markers. Our spiritual lives have markers along the way. The presence or absence of these markers tells us where we are in the journey. If we do not see the marker of prayer in our life, we are not on the right spiritual track. Worship and giving are two more spiritual markers in our journey.

Forgiveness also has mile markers along the way. Jesus said, “If you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matt 6:14-15). If you want God to forgive you of your sins, you must forgive others when they hurt you. Presence or absence of my forgiveness of those who hurt me is a clear marker of God’s forgiveness of me.

Such a thought can be heavy on our hearts. In our desperation to have forgiveness, we make try to fake forgiveness for others. Fake forgiveness is saying we forgive, but not really forgiving. Listed below are four mile markers for real forgiveness. These markers all involve our prayers for the offending person (we’ll call him Bill). Obviously if you are not willing to pray for Bill, you have not truly forgiven him.

1. The first prayer of forgiveness:
   “Lord, please be with Bill and help him see how much he has hurt and wronged me.”
2. The second prayer of forgiveness:
   “Lord, forgive Bill of his sin.”
3. The third prayer of forgiveness:
   “Lord, bless Bill that the rest of his life will be better.”
4. The real prayer of forgiveness:
   “Lord, I thank you for being with Bill. I am so happy that his life is blessed by you. Please continue to bless him.”
   

You know you have forgiven when you no longer pray for Bill to repent, but instead thank God for the blessings He has bestowed on Bill.

If you want to be forgiven, forgive. If you want to know if you have forgiven, pray. The tone of your prayer and the emotion in your heart will tell you where you are in your process of forgiveness.

Lonnie Davis

Usually when I get a phone call from a stranger who is asking spiritual questions it will end up with asking for money. I do not mean to sound cynical, but that is how things usually happen. Not this time. This time she started with question that I had difficulty understanding. She seemed incoherent and confused. She finally got to her real question, “How can a God who loves us allow such terrible things to happen in our lives?” Her question went way beyond this, but that was the heart of her question. She even quoted a Scripture, Jeremiah 29:11

“I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

After quoting the verse, she lamented her troubles. Homeless, abused, neglected and rejected, she questioned how she could possibly believe in a God who says He loves her and then allowed all of those circumstances.

She really did not want to listen to anything I had to say. She saw herself as a victim and just wanted to rant. I listened for a while, never learned her real story. She might really be a victim of many terrible events, but seeing oneself as a victim never leads to a solution. Here are the truths that lead to solutions:

• God is on your side.
  
• God does have wonderful plans for you.
  
• Whether you live in a mansion or a cardboard box. For those who love Him, God can give you a joyful ending. (See the story of Lazarus – Luke 16).
  

Like so many people, the lady on the phone had pulled out a part of a text and left the other unread. Listen to the rest of the verse that she quoted:

“‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord.” (vs 12-14)

It is not enough to just believe that He has great plans for us. We must read the rest of the story. We must call upon Him. We must seek Him with all our heart. Then, and only then, do we have the promise that we will find Him.

Lonnie Davis