A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope,
encouragement and exhortation.
Daily
Encouragement on
Friday, January
18, 2019
Pennsylvania Bank Barn
Overnight we had snowfall with a storm forecast for this weekend.
We have milk and bread!
(Taken by our friend Greg Schneider)
"The
Consequences Of Forsaking God's
Pattern"
Note:
Today's message is
longer and perhaps a bit
more mentally
challenging than many
using an illustration
from engineering.
Message
summary: Let us renew
our resolve to follow
the Lord and walk in
accordance to His
pattern of belief and
His way of life.
Listen to our
message on your audio
player.
"He forsook the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in obedience to Him" (2 Kings 21:22). "Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans 1:28-32).
All this week we have been studying the concept of "pattern":
* God is pleased and honored when we follow His patterns.
* We are not to conform to the pattern of this world.
* Scripture provides a pattern for what we are to believe.
* Scripture provides a pattern for how we are to live.
Today let us
consider the
consequences of
forsaking a pattern and
to do so I use an illustration
from engineering. We
visit with many
engineers and product
designers in our role as
company chaplains.
Presently, most are
mechanical. However, all
through my ministry,
I've associated with
many different kinds of
engineers; electrical,
chemical, civil,
software and others.
Engineers apply science
to specific functions
and products. I suppose
I enjoy my engineer
associations because I
have found engineers to
be usually very
sensible. They are smart
but generally not
pretentious. I appeal to
any engineers reading
this to give me some
slack if my illustration
below is not precisely
put into the proper
terms you prefer to use.
We serve as
chaplains at Val-Co, a
company that makes watering
equipment for poultry.
Some tend to think
that getting water to
chickens wouldn't
involve any more than
a farmer using a hose
and just filling up
drinking containers
for the birds.
But in large chicken
houses the birds get
their water by tapping
their beak on a
drinker valve that
opens so that a single
drop of water comes
out and then the valve
closes completely.
It's designed so that
the bird gets adequate
water without drips
which would create
dampness in the
facility conducive to
disease.
Of course thousands of
these valves are
needed in a large
chicken growing
operation.
The machine
that makes these parts
runs very, very fast
producing thousands
each hour yet each
single part must stay
within the design
tolerance which
prompted me to discuss
with Tom the
importance of this
machine making these
parts so precisely.
The
engineering
specifications
(pattern) call for a
very specific
measurement but a very
slight acceptable
deviation is allowed.
Yesterday,
when I was visiting
with Tom, a
manufacturing
engineer, he explained
that these parts have
a design tolerance of
+or-
.0005 of an inch which
is
less than the diameter
of a human hair!
"Engineering tolerances are assigned to parts for manufacturing purposes, as boundaries for acceptable build. No machine can hold dimensions precisely to the nominal value, so there must be acceptable degrees of variation. If a part is manufactured, but has dimensions that are out of tolerance, it is not a usable part according to the design intent." (Wikipedia)
We believe in life there is a parallel. Of course none of us attain the precise design specifications as ordained by our Creator since we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Only Jesus completely lived entirely up to the design specs originally intended for the human race!
Today we want to consider the consequences of forsaking God's design specs (pattern). Both Bible and secular history abundantly demonstrate these consequences. Especially in the Old Testament we can easily recall the cycles of rejection and disobedience followed by renewal and obedience, repeated over and over. In secular history we observe the rise and fall of nations and kingdoms.
Even the "good" characters in the Bible forsook God's design specs at times, most notably David, in the Old Testament. Scripture records the life-long heartaches King David endured as a consequence of his sin. His family and others also experienced grief, conflict, and loss as a result which is often the case when a person sins. From the New Testament we consider Peter's denial of Christ, the guilt and shame it brought, and his blessed restoration.
Forsaking God's design specs always has consequences, some immediate but others delayed. Delayed consequences can lead to one's faulty thinking that it really doesn't matter since there appears, for a time, to be no negative consequence to one's choice.
One factor is how it seems as though there is a "grace allowance" (for lack of a better term) even for those who reject God's design specs, at least in the sense that life may still work and seems to be going OK. I struggle as I place these thoughts in writing lest I be misunderstood. The grace allowance for the human race is similar to the engineering tolerance. Life still works even when we don't match up to the divinely ordained specs. However, Scripture teaches us that there is a most certain judgment, if not now it will be at a future date!
Now let me seek to make a spiritual analogy: mankind as noted above has always (since the fall) failed to wholly live up to God's pattern. As Romans 3:23 famously states, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Grace provides a safety factor for those who repent and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and serve Him as Lord.
But I consider that there is also an allowable tolerance and failure factor to society as a whole even the unrepentant and those who willfully reject God in regard to God's design.
Looking at the human race as a whole we see more and more willful, open defiance of God's design specs on many issues. Consider marriage and the family, sexuality, truthfulness, responsible living, hard work and in so many other areas.
Of course the failure factor will ultimately be revealed in the final Great Judgment when Jesus separates those who receive His eternal inheritance in heaven from those who perish in hell. But since there is a delayed period between sowing and reaping many assume all is well even while charting their individual course that ultimately leads to eternal destruction.
The daily text is an obscure verse succinctly describing the life of King Amon, son of Manasseh. "He forsook the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in obedience to Him." What a sad legacy King Amon left for all to read, right down to our own generation.
Let us renew our resolve to follow the Lord and walk in accordance to His pattern of belief and His way of life.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
"Engineering tolerances are assigned to parts for manufacturing purposes, as boundaries for acceptable build. No machine can hold dimensions precisely to the nominal value, so there must be acceptable degrees of variation. If a part is manufactured, but has dimensions that are out of tolerance, it is not a usable part according to the design intent." (Wikipedia)
We believe in life there is a parallel. Of course none of us attain the precise design specifications as ordained by our Creator since we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Only Jesus completely lived entirely up to the design specs originally intended for the human race!
Today we want to consider the consequences of forsaking God's design specs (pattern). Both Bible and secular history abundantly demonstrate these consequences. Especially in the Old Testament we can easily recall the cycles of rejection and disobedience followed by renewal and obedience, repeated over and over. In secular history we observe the rise and fall of nations and kingdoms.
Even the "good" characters in the Bible forsook God's design specs at times, most notably David, in the Old Testament. Scripture records the life-long heartaches King David endured as a consequence of his sin. His family and others also experienced grief, conflict, and loss as a result which is often the case when a person sins. From the New Testament we consider Peter's denial of Christ, the guilt and shame it brought, and his blessed restoration.
Forsaking God's design specs always has consequences, some immediate but others delayed. Delayed consequences can lead to one's faulty thinking that it really doesn't matter since there appears, for a time, to be no negative consequence to one's choice.
One factor is how it seems as though there is a "grace allowance" (for lack of a better term) even for those who reject God's design specs, at least in the sense that life may still work and seems to be going OK. I struggle as I place these thoughts in writing lest I be misunderstood. The grace allowance for the human race is similar to the engineering tolerance. Life still works even when we don't match up to the divinely ordained specs. However, Scripture teaches us that there is a most certain judgment, if not now it will be at a future date!
Now let me seek to make a spiritual analogy: mankind as noted above has always (since the fall) failed to wholly live up to God's pattern. As Romans 3:23 famously states, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Grace provides a safety factor for those who repent and accept Jesus Christ as Savior and serve Him as Lord.
But I consider that there is also an allowable tolerance and failure factor to society as a whole even the unrepentant and those who willfully reject God in regard to God's design.
Looking at the human race as a whole we see more and more willful, open defiance of God's design specs on many issues. Consider marriage and the family, sexuality, truthfulness, responsible living, hard work and in so many other areas.
Of course the failure factor will ultimately be revealed in the final Great Judgment when Jesus separates those who receive His eternal inheritance in heaven from those who perish in hell. But since there is a delayed period between sowing and reaping many assume all is well even while charting their individual course that ultimately leads to eternal destruction.
The daily text is an obscure verse succinctly describing the life of King Amon, son of Manasseh. "He forsook the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and did not walk in obedience to Him." What a sad legacy King Amon left for all to read, right down to our own generation.
Let us renew our resolve to follow the Lord and walk in accordance to His pattern of belief and His way of life.
Be encouraged today,
Stephen & Brooksyne Weber
Daily
prayer:
Father,
we seek to honor You
in our lives. We don't
want our lasting
legacy to go down in
the history books like
that of King Manasseh
and his son Amon, who
forsook You, the God
of his father, King
Hezekiah. Though he
repented late in his
reign so many he had
already influenced for
evil, went on to
influence their
children and their
children's children.
Instead we want our
lives to reflect that
of King Hezekiah who
trusted in You, the
God of Israel. Thank
You, Father, for
letting us make
choices for ourselves,
but we dare not trust
our own wisdom in
making these choices.
We rely on the wisdom
of the Holy Spirit to
establish the
desirable pattern for
right living here and
now for that will also
determine our future
for all of eternity.
Amen.
Randy
is inspecting a part
he just made and
informed me his
tolerance was also
+/- .0005. Being
within this
tolerance means the
part is acceptable,
although of course
the conscientious
machinist strives to
precisely make the
part to the exact
specified dimension.However I suspect that the part would still "work" even if it was slightly lesser or greater than this accepted allowance, though there would certainly be a point when the part would fail. There's only so much margin; the next step is the failure factor.
Our friend
Joe Ulicny, who leads
the marketing team, at
Val-Co took this photo
of the part mentioned
in today's message
being used.
Brooksyne
visiting with Baba
who, for many years,
has run the machine
that "spits" out the
drinker valves
designed for the
watering systems in
chicken houses. (In
many cases with
languages we don't
know we learn their
names but probably
spell them wrong!)
It's great
to see people getting
along! Brian is a
supervisor on the
second shift who has
become great friends
with Tan, a Vietnamese
immigrant. Tan calls
Brian his big brother,
although they are only
a couple of months
apart in age. In
several weeks they are
both going to Vietnam
to visit Tam's family.
Last night
we joined the Smucker
team for a gathering
that included lots of
food, bowling and
laser tag. We didn't
care to display this photo
on the site but for
the first time in life
we actually played
laser tag! This photo
shows the prize
winners who won gift
cards from a game
played during bowling.
Today's
Suggested
Music and Supplemental Resources
"He
Has Shown You, O Man, What Is
Good" Video
Maranatha Singers
Micah 6:8 set to song
May the mind of Christ, my Savior,
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.
May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.
May the peace of God my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.
May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self-abasing,
This is victory.
May I run the race before me,
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.
May His beauty rest upon me,
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
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Personal Mission Statement: "I am created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ I have been redeemed and make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."
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