Six Inches

             

  There are many things that come to mind when I think of half of a foot.  Six inches made the difference when the Tennessee Titans were in the Super Bowl.  If the receiver could have stretched just six more inches, then they would have won a title.  Around lunch time every day, you can see people flooding sandwich shops looking to feel their stomachs with a six inch sub.  The phone you carry is probably about six inches long (unless you are me and you need the bigger screen).  A dollar bill is around six inches long.  So in the grand scheme of things six inches is a very small measurement unless you break it down and then it becomes a pretty important part of life.

                Six inches also could mean the difference in life and death.  I have a friend that can testify to how half of a foot meant that he could tell me the story.  He was inspecting a roller coaster and fell off of it.  When he hit the ground, he broke bones and was injured, but he was alive.  The piece of ground that he fell on was about six inches from a concrete sidewalk.  Had he been over just a few inches, then his head would have hit the concrete instead of landing on the grass.  So six inches meant everything to him that day. 

                Eternal life and eternal damnation can also be measured in six inches.  When you measure the distance from your head to your heart, it measures about six inches in length.  Jesus is a very well known historical person.  You can do the research and find Him without any trouble.  All the Jewish leaders knew who Jesus was before they put Him to death.  They all used their heads and never allowed Jesus into their heart.  The disciples on the other hand got to know Jesus with their heart.  They followed Him because they wanted the relationship with Him.  They decided that the relationship with Jesus would ultimately lead to eternal life.

                The choice is the same today as it was then.  You can be like the Jewish leaders and know Jesus with head or like the disciples and know Him with your heart.  Knowing Him with your head will lead to Him telling you depart from me, I know you not.  While building a relationship and allowing Jesus into your heart will gain you an eternal life.  And you will hear the sweetest words to ever be spoken, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” 

                So six inches in worldly terms is a very small distance, but could have lasting effect on you.  But in the eternal life, six inches is the greatest gap ever to be seen.  Don’t allow half of a foot to cause you to be separated from God.  You have an opportunity today to go from knowing about Jesus to Jesus knowing you.  All you have to do is develop a relationship with Him.  He will stay closer to you than any other person you know.  He will be there when you are down and feel like no one loves you.  Even when you go through the dark times in your life, Jesus will still be right beside you.  So the real question that needs to be asked is, how big is six inches?

                Lord, thank you for putting people in my life to show me how important six inches can be.  I pray that six inches doesn’t keep anyone from the eternal life that You have promised to all of us.  Lord I pray for anyone right now that knows about You, but has not allowed You to get to know them.  I pray that the six inches between their heart and head is not what stands between them hearing well done and depart from me.  I pray that anyone reading this, which is not in a relationship with you, find someone to pray with them about their salvation.  Thank you Lord for allowing me to continue writing the things that You put on me to write.  In Your precious name I Pray, Amen.

Broke.....n

             

               In the world today, it is hard not to allow things to tear at you.  Every day you see more and more things that make you wonder if this world has completely been lost.  There are people out there doing all sorts of dreadful and cruel things to the disabled and children.  Every day people are murdered for no reason.  Protests are happening on behalf of criminals because they are “good” people.  And the list goes on for pages and pages of all the things that tear at us.  We are living in a broken world and developing broken people.

                Every now and then you have to stop and look around you to see that the people in your life are just as broken as the world.  The stress of family members battling diseases that can’t be won or families torn apart by the effects of addiction can be hidden deep within people.  The questions of how all the bills will get paid this month and how will they have enough left over to feed everyone still linger every night when they go to bed.  These people are broken, but you would never know it because they get up and hide behind a smile every day.  Brokenness is a worldly problem that has very personal connections with everyone in it. 

                With all the brokenness that is out there today, it is hard to fall back on the words David wrote in Psalm.  He talked about giving hope to people that are broken.  Psalm 34:17-18 says, “The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.  He rescues them from all their troubles.  18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.”   But with so much pressure being put on people, it is hard to follow David’s teachings and know that God is there waiting on us.  We feel like we can survive on our own without asking for help.

                No one is immune from having their spirit broken at times either.  The pressures of the world become greater than we can deal with and we are ready to give up.  We see the light at the end of the tunnel but we know that it is a train coming straight for us.  The world is about to run us over and we have nowhere to run.  We are right in the path of the destruction that is looming.  And in the aftermath of being run over by the world or our personal hell, we also have to look back to David for another verse of encouragement.  Psalm 147:3 says, “He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” 

                In the world we live in today, I hope David is right.  There are people that have been beat down and chewed up with fear, stress and every other emotion that can weigh on you that need God to heal them from within.  They need their brokenness bandaged up so they can get up with a genuine smile on their face and tell people how God brought them trough the trials of life.  The world will always be broken and people will always be pushed to their breaking point, but when they stop to catch their breath they will hear God telling them, “Be still, and know that I am God!...”(Psalm 46:10) . 

                It is time for everyone to stop and listen to God and not the world.  The world is a broken place and causes us to become broken people, but God is the healer of all things broken when we allow Him to take control. BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD!  This is something that will calm the stress that comes from being BROKEN.

                Lord, I pray for the broken. Amen.