Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

• Isaiah 30:12

He must become greater; I must become less.”

• John 3:30

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

• Philippians 1:21

“When we look back we get either hopelessly despairing or hopelessly conceited. The difference between the natural backward look and the spiritual backward look is in what we forget. Forgetting in the natural domain is the outcome of vanity-the only things I intend to remember are those in which I figure as being a very fine person! Forgetting in the spiritual domain is the gift of God. The Spirit of God never allows us to forget what we have been, but He does make us forget what we have attained to, which is quite unnatural. The surest sign that you are growing in mature appreciation of your salvation is that as you look back you never think now of the things you used to bank on before. Think of the difference between your first realization of God’s forgiveness, and your realization of what it cost God to forgive you; the hilarity in the one case has been merged into holiness, you have become intensely devoted to God who forgave you.”

• Oswald Chambers, Daily Thoughts for Disciples (February 25, from Conformed to His Image)

What did it cost Jesus to obtain our salvation?  His life.  An agonizing death.  He did not die while sleeping peacefully.  I have wondered about that since my wife passed away in the middle of the night.  Was she aware?  Did they awaken her to tell her she was going to get a pacemaker?  Or was she already in the arms of Jesus and they experienced an occasional fantom heartbeat?  She wanted to go peacefully, but Jesus did not have that choice.  The criminals with Him had their legs broken, but Jesus was already dead.  With the beatings early that day, He could not take as much torment on the cross as the others did.

I say that because Rev. Chambers asks the question.  Should our salvation cost us much less than what it cost Jesus to obtain it?

But what is our focus?  When we write blog posts, to whom are we writing the posts?  Are we showing what we think or are we trusting God to use us as a conduit so they can hear the message in words that they understand?

The day that I wrote this, I was keeping up with disasters around the country.  I had a doctor visit – no problems at all, just a checkup.  And I got drenched in a popup storm while grocery shopping.  I was so overheated that I took an unplanned nap.

But the rest of the day, I was thinking about the writing projects in my mind.  I was doing a lot of typing.  And I was doing a lot of praying.

That might not look like conforming to Christ’s Image, but I was not burying my head in the television, watching old reruns.  Yet, my first prayer of the morning was that I was tired.  No one would notice if I just took one day off.  Maybe the aches would be less tomorrow.

Then I told God that I did not think those ideas came from Him.  If I took one day off, it would be easier to take tomorrow off.

And then the thought came to mind.

Without my writing, I would be watching television and playing solitaire, sudoku, and crossword puzzles on the phone.  And within six months, I would probably not be around anymore.

We never get too old to do God’s will on this earth, we just make excuses about how hard it might be.  But it is that struggle against the difficulty that keeps us going.  Without that resistance, what is left to live for?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.