Our GPS

Our GPS

 The last 2 weeks i have been at my sister’s and I have had to use a GPS every day to get where i was going.

Yesterday I went out without the gps and I made all the correct turns until the last one, I turned left instead of right. I went about 5 miles out of my way when I Knew, knew, I was going the wrong way. Before that I guessed I was going the wrong way, thought I was going the wrong way but wasnt sure until I got to an area I had never seen before.

Of course that got me thinking about a few different things.

1. Without the gps I went down the right road, but the wrong way.

2. I turned the gps off because I was good enough to get where I was going without any guidance.

3. I had the right resource at hand but failed to use it.

Psa 119:105 NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

The Word of God is our GPS through this life, how often do we err or stray from the path when we fail to open it? How often do we feel that we can go out into our day and we will be ok if we do not read it today.

2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

How often do we leave our Bible shut, our hearts closed to the Spirit as we head out into the day, ready to take on the world, yet not ready because we failed to ready ourselves for the day.

How often do we just not use the resources we have, given to us by God: The Spirit, The Bible, the Church, and the fellowship of other believers?

A GPS is there to tell you which way to go in an area you have never been in before. We use it so that we might navigate through the streets of this world, even if we do not know where we are going, we turn when it tells us to, it tells us the speed limit of the area we are in, it shows us where we are as we go, how long till our next turn, how long until the trip is over.

How did we gain so much confidence in the GPS? How did it gain so much authority and influence in our lives? Because we used it and it never led us astray.

Yet we have the very Word of God, the Word that can give life, directions, and advice. It is never wrong, never inadequate and never recalculating.

Have you ever truly wondered why we can give so much credence to the GPS, something that was just invented in the last decade or so but the Word of God that has been around for thousands of years we fail to give the time of day to?

It can tell us how to live, get your finances in order, It gives wisdom, It makes you a better person, It points the way to eternal Salvation, It makes you aware of God, His ways, His Thoughts.

We have the greatest book ever and we do not use it.

We took it out of schools and we wonder how our children are going so wrong.

We took it out of government and we wonder how they got so corrupt.

We haven taken our GPS out of our lives and we have gone astray, we have turned down the wrong roads, we have missed our turns, and we have not found a place to turn around because we know we are going the wrong way but we are not using our GPS to tell us the right way to go.

We can correct our course, we can turn around, but you must start using the GPS you have, that God gave you and me.

How else do we know we are going the right way?

The Gift of God

As we look at the Birth (Christmas), we have to remember that the Birth, death, Resurrection and ascension are all part of the same life, the same death, the same purpose: To redeem mankind.

Luk 2:11  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 

Luk 2:12  And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 

For if we have The birth of The Savior announced we must ask saved from what? Saved from poverty? Saved from disease? Saved from traffic jams? To what end does the Savior strive? Why should I care?

Christ the Lord is born in the city of David, a sign was given meaning a detail for them to know that what the messengers said was true, you will find the babe in a manger in swaddling clothes and the shepherds found exactly what they were told to look for.

Luk 2:16  And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 

Luk 2:17  And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 

Luk 2:18  And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 

When the Shepherds (yes I capitalized this for now they are Good Shepherds telling all the good News of Christ) heard saw and verified they went out telling all they saw. Then those that were told wondered at the things they were told.

A grand scale announcement made to Shepherds who were then telling all they come across of this Savior, this Gift of God to a lost and dying world.

(On a side note here, just for the sake of symmetry this field, this area where the shepherds are just outside of the city, about 5000 feet (just shy of a mile) from Bethlehem, was the very same place that David watched over his father flocks. David was a Shepherd from whose line the Good Shepherd was coming from so the shepherds of David’s town get to announce the Birth of David’s final successor to the throne.)

Yet when the Shepherds heard of this Gift they went out and told all they came across, they made known abroad, meaning they didn’t just tell the locals they went throughout the land telling of the wondrous events of that night. Of the Gift of God that was given and announced by a multitude of Angels in the sky.

The Angels announced a Savior, the Gift of God and the Shepherds took that knowledge that gift to all the world around them (as far as they could anyways).

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 

What was the Gift of God? Jesus the Savior is the gift of God. He was given why? So that we should not perish but have life everlasting. The fires of Hell, the flames, the place of eternal darkness where the worm dieth not, that place of torment eternal and unforgiving is what we are to be saved from.

Subtil

 2Sa 13:3  But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David's brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man. 

David was just told his house would never escape the sword. This is the start of that yet, here I want you to see the person used to set things in motion.

Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, the brother of David. Yet Shimeah wasn't just a friend of Amnon, he was a cousin, a blood relative.

Jonadab's whole purpose in the Bible was to start the contention, the violence in the family of David.

He was subtil.

That specific word is used 2 other times in the Bible.

Pro 7:10  And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. 

When talking of the Adultress.

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 

When speaking of the serpent in the Garden.

Not company any respectful young man should be keeping.

Jonadab's whole purpose in the Bible was to bring violence and death to the Household of David.

Every now and then we must remember that not every messenger, or adviser is a friend. Not every friend and family member wishes us well.

Jonadab was an adviser to Amnon and later we find he was also privy to the plans of Absalom. He played both sides against each other.

Jonadab set the world on fire, just to watch it burn.

A word to the wise. Watch those that are subtil.