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"Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.' Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God" (1 Corinthians 15:33,34). "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).
We have been on many mountain roads over the last week, the most notable one as we were coming down from Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee, which is over 6,600 feet to Gatlinburg at 1,200 feet. I frankly didn't give it much thought at the time but we're sure glad our brakes worked!
Yesterday we toured the Bristol Speedway and Dragstrip. This was one of the best tours I've ever been on. The tour guide took us down the drag strip hitting a nerve-racking* 60 mph at the ¼ mile mark and thankfully stopping (without a parachute) before we hit the bluff at the end. The real dragsters go over 300 mph in that distance and have a parachute to brake or else! The speedway tour also included several laps around the highly banked race track where drivers rely on their brakes functioning properly or they would be in real trouble.
That sure got me thinking. I'm confident that not one of you would venture out on the road in your car today if you knew that your brakes didn't work. Even though your intent was to get to a particular destination and value the accelerator petal, all through the trip, and certainly at the end you expect to apply your brakes. If you've ever had a brake malfunction you know what a blessing stopping is!
My most heartpounding brake experience took place over 30 years ago. I drove a school bus to supplement our income when we planted a church in northern Pennsylvania which is a very mountainous region. Mostly I drove kids to and from school but I was asked to make a special trip driving an adult fellowship from the Shiloh Presbyterian Church to a Penn State football game in State College. A designated bus was used for these longer trips but I received no special training on how to drive it.
As I was going down a long grade on a mountain I pumped the brakes as I was accustomed to doing on my other bus. But this bus had air brakes and the more I pumped the less brake power I had until I lost them completely. To this day I still can't explain how I was able to stop the bus short of divine intervention without having an accident, but that experience is a lasting reminder of the blessing or should I say necessity of brakes!
Let us consider the blessing of another type of brake in regard to our spiritual life. We may very well find it annoying, slowing us down or stopping us in places where we would rather see a green light. Tragically the vast majority are charging right through the red lights as they completely disregard the God-ordained brakes that He so wisely and graciously provides, such as this passage from I Corinthians 15:34: "Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning."
1) The brake of Scriptural commands and prohibitions. God's Word has both "go" and "stop" commands. When facing temptation from the enemy we do well to recall the stop commands. Our text today states, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." This is speaking about the knowledge of God and His Word. So many disregard this knowledge and we see our society racing headlong to most certain judgment. The faithful church and ministry will continue to "devote themselves to the apostles' teaching" (Acts 2:42) and "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 3).
2) The brake of Godly counsel. Solomon wrote, "My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity" (Proverbs 3:1,2). We need to heed the counsel of the wise and esteem the elderly who have gone on before us. Wisdom has been defined as "knowledge rightly applied."
3) The brake of Holy Spirit guidance. The Holy Spirit not only compels us to move forward but at times will lead us to stop. Paul was intending to continue his mission work in Asia Minor when he had his Macedonian vision where the Holy Spirit essentially stopped him and led him in another direction. "When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to" (Acts 16:7). As we walk with the Lord, in sensitivity to His Spirit, we need to rejoice in both the goes and the stops!
4) The brake of tradition. This point is most difficult to develop since many have developed a negative attitude toward tradition and even the Scriptures speak out against tradition in some circumstances. Certainly, tradition for tradition's sake needs to be evaluated carefully. But it seems to me that an attitude prevails in the church among more than a few that "different" is seen as better, cooler, more appealing to a current generation. Good practices developed over years can be too quickly shrugged aside in favor of the new, without considering what significance is lost in the process. When we have Communion in our church and I am sure it is somewhat different than the New Testament Church which commemorated this God-ordained sacrament. Yet I hope there are more similarities than dissimilarities as we seek to hold true to the command of Christ who told His followers: "Do this in remembrance of me."
Today let us thank God for the blessing of brakes. When He flashes the yellow light of caution we need to slowly, carefully, and Scripturally assess the situation. When He flashes the red light we need to STOP!
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father, it is because of Your wise, loving ways that You teach
us about the wiles of our adversary, the devil, and his cunning ways.
We are not caught unaware but recognize his strategy as we regularly
read Your Word and store it up in our hearts. Your knowledge is
powerful as it opens the eyes of our hearts. Your precepts are right
and because of that we hate every wrong path. Direct our
footsteps according to Your Word so that we are in pace with You,
observing the yellow lights of caution and stopping at the red lights
of danger. As we do so we will not allow sin to rule over us. Amen.
* Just kidding about the nerve-racking, but she really did step on it!
The Weber family at the 2011 reunion.
All four of us Weber kids were able to attend this year.
Stephen's first cousins
Our tour included a visit to the very posh Burton Smith owner's suite.
The banks at Bristol Speedway are famously steep, among the steepest in any NASCAR racetrack. It was quite a chore to climb them!
The winner drives up to a checkered rooftop on the speedway infield for ceremonies.
The speedway holds 160,000.
Yesterday afternoon we saw this old railroad steam engine in Strasburg, VA
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
"Slow Down" Video Chuck Girard This is a very thoughtful song I recall from my earliest days as a Christian.
Bristol Motor Speedway
"The Blessing Of Brakes"
"Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.' Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God" (1 Corinthians 15:33,34). "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).
We have been on many mountain roads over the last week, the most notable one as we were coming down from Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee, which is over 6,600 feet to Gatlinburg at 1,200 feet. I frankly didn't give it much thought at the time but we're sure glad our brakes worked!
Yesterday we toured the Bristol Speedway and Dragstrip. This was one of the best tours I've ever been on. The tour guide took us down the drag strip hitting a nerve-racking* 60 mph at the ¼ mile mark and thankfully stopping (without a parachute) before we hit the bluff at the end. The real dragsters go over 300 mph in that distance and have a parachute to brake or else! The speedway tour also included several laps around the highly banked race track where drivers rely on their brakes functioning properly or they would be in real trouble.
That sure got me thinking. I'm confident that not one of you would venture out on the road in your car today if you knew that your brakes didn't work. Even though your intent was to get to a particular destination and value the accelerator petal, all through the trip, and certainly at the end you expect to apply your brakes. If you've ever had a brake malfunction you know what a blessing stopping is!
My most heartpounding brake experience took place over 30 years ago. I drove a school bus to supplement our income when we planted a church in northern Pennsylvania which is a very mountainous region. Mostly I drove kids to and from school but I was asked to make a special trip driving an adult fellowship from the Shiloh Presbyterian Church to a Penn State football game in State College. A designated bus was used for these longer trips but I received no special training on how to drive it.
As I was going down a long grade on a mountain I pumped the brakes as I was accustomed to doing on my other bus. But this bus had air brakes and the more I pumped the less brake power I had until I lost them completely. To this day I still can't explain how I was able to stop the bus short of divine intervention without having an accident, but that experience is a lasting reminder of the blessing or should I say necessity of brakes!
Let us consider the blessing of another type of brake in regard to our spiritual life. We may very well find it annoying, slowing us down or stopping us in places where we would rather see a green light. Tragically the vast majority are charging right through the red lights as they completely disregard the God-ordained brakes that He so wisely and graciously provides, such as this passage from I Corinthians 15:34: "Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning."
1) The brake of Scriptural commands and prohibitions. God's Word has both "go" and "stop" commands. When facing temptation from the enemy we do well to recall the stop commands. Our text today states, "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." This is speaking about the knowledge of God and His Word. So many disregard this knowledge and we see our society racing headlong to most certain judgment. The faithful church and ministry will continue to "devote themselves to the apostles' teaching" (Acts 2:42) and "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints" (Jude 3).
2) The brake of Godly counsel. Solomon wrote, "My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity" (Proverbs 3:1,2). We need to heed the counsel of the wise and esteem the elderly who have gone on before us. Wisdom has been defined as "knowledge rightly applied."
3) The brake of Holy Spirit guidance. The Holy Spirit not only compels us to move forward but at times will lead us to stop. Paul was intending to continue his mission work in Asia Minor when he had his Macedonian vision where the Holy Spirit essentially stopped him and led him in another direction. "When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to" (Acts 16:7). As we walk with the Lord, in sensitivity to His Spirit, we need to rejoice in both the goes and the stops!
4) The brake of tradition. This point is most difficult to develop since many have developed a negative attitude toward tradition and even the Scriptures speak out against tradition in some circumstances. Certainly, tradition for tradition's sake needs to be evaluated carefully. But it seems to me that an attitude prevails in the church among more than a few that "different" is seen as better, cooler, more appealing to a current generation. Good practices developed over years can be too quickly shrugged aside in favor of the new, without considering what significance is lost in the process. When we have Communion in our church and I am sure it is somewhat different than the New Testament Church which commemorated this God-ordained sacrament. Yet I hope there are more similarities than dissimilarities as we seek to hold true to the command of Christ who told His followers: "Do this in remembrance of me."
Today let us thank God for the blessing of brakes. When He flashes the yellow light of caution we need to slowly, carefully, and Scripturally assess the situation. When He flashes the red light we need to STOP!
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily prayer: Father, it is because of Your wise, loving ways that You teach
us about the wiles of our adversary, the devil, and his cunning ways.
We are not caught unaware but recognize his strategy as we regularly
read Your Word and store it up in our hearts. Your knowledge is
powerful as it opens the eyes of our hearts. Your precepts are right
and because of that we hate every wrong path. Direct our
footsteps according to Your Word so that we are in pace with You,
observing the yellow lights of caution and stopping at the red lights
of danger. As we do so we will not allow sin to rule over us. Amen.* Just kidding about the nerve-racking, but she really did step on it!
Some More Scenes From Our Journey
The Weber family at the 2011 reunion.
All four of us Weber kids were able to attend this year.
Stephen's first cousins
Our tour included a visit to the very posh Burton Smith owner's suite.
The banks at Bristol Speedway are famously steep, among the steepest in any NASCAR racetrack. It was quite a chore to climb them!
The winner drives up to a checkered rooftop on the speedway infield for ceremonies.
The speedway holds 160,000.
Yesterday afternoon we saw this old railroad steam engine in Strasburg, VA
In yesterday's message I shared a photo
from "Happy Days", which brought to mind a nickname I had in the
seventies
based on a character from the show. Many of you properly recalled that
it was Potsie Weber, who is at the right side in the photo!
Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources
"Slow Down" Video Chuck Girard This is a very thoughtful song I recall from my earliest days as a Christian.
Bristol Motor Speedway
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Text only version for printing: To make a text only version for printing (without photos or any of the supplemental materials)
1) Open the basic text editor that comes with all computers (known as wordpad, textpad, etc.) You can also use a program like Word and select paste text only.
2) Select and copy the text from the portion of the message you want to print.
3) Paste into the text pad. (The photos won't show up but you will have a brief text description of the photo which you can delete or just ignore.)
4) Format if you desire (change font, increase or decrease size, etc.)
5) Print!
Scripture
references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version.
© 1984 by International Bible Society; NEW AMERICAN STANDARD
BIBLE®, Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation,
New King James
Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and the
King
James Version.
Personal
Mission Statement:
"I am created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ
I have been redeemed and I make it my life's goal to please the Lord.
My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and
to prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
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Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved
Daily Encouragement Net - 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 USA
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