January 29, 2009

Good Morning,
I pray that the day is finding you well.

My car was iced over this morning. I am fortunate enough to live in a place where I can turn my car on with the heat going and then go back inside and wait until the car warms enough to melt the ice. I know I should just scrap the ice off but…

As I was getting ready to come to the “Y,” and waiting for the car to warm, I turned on a morning show.

Not my usual routine.

They were talking about a salmonella outbreak and that we should throw out all foodstuffs with peanuts used in them. Evidently this is a huge outbreak, one that according to the reporter that the FDA was still trying to get their hands around.

The manufacturing plant has been shutdown; over 300 people are now out of work. 8 people have died and many more are very sick.

Apparently the plant continued to ship product even though the product tested positive (This is from the reporter).

This got me to thinking.

I don’t know anyone at the plant. But I am sure they all aren’t serial killers, or sociopaths. No, I will bet that these people are just like you and me. They are people trying their best to provide for their families. They are people that want to do a good job and take pride in their work. If they are like us at all they have T.V.’s and radios. They hear the news about unemployment. They have been personally touched by someone who has lost their job. They are probably running a little scared.

I am sure that they did not really think anyone would get sick, even though people knew.

This got me to thinking again.

All of our jobs are important. If what we do is not important work than why do we do what we do? If we make excuses for doing other than our best someone will, not might, will be negatively impacted. They my not get sick but their life will not be better if we let something pass.

As a Christian am I allowing things to pass that I shouldn’t?

God is a funny God.

Yesterday I talked about justification and sanctification. Later I was in our daily devotional and this is what Oswald had to say:



Is the Word of God tremendously penetrating and sharp in me as I hand it on to you, or does my life betray the things I profess to teach? I may teach sanctification and yet exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ…All I do should be based on a perfect ones with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly. This will mean that others may use me, go around me, or completely ignore me, but if I will submit to it for His sake, I will prevent Jesus Christ from being persecuted.[1]
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, (Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 1935), January 28.


My prayer is that I do not slack as a Christian, that I do not let things “not of God” slide by me (this is an internal slip). My prayer is that I do not exhibit the spirit of Satan, the very spirit that persecutes Jesus Christ.

Blessings,
[1]Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, (Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 1935), January 28.