A Minute Meditation

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?” This famous question by a well-known old baseball philosopher, provokes many thoughts on the subject of growing old.

We like the grandmother’s answer to her granddaughter’s question. The young girl turned to her grandmother and asked, “Do old people think any differently than young people do?” The grandmother responded with a smile, “No they don’t, and I know, because I have asked them.”

It has been said that we are only as old as we feel and based on this, some young people evidently feel very old at times.

Probably how we feel does to a great degree determine how old we feel. We read concerning Moses, “And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.” No doubt he did not feel an hundred and twenty with health this good.

The big questions are, how old do we feel, and do we think any differently than we did 10, 20 or 30 years ago?

If we have been faithfully doing our godliness exercises, than we really should be thinking better than we did before. We realize that to some degree, physical exercise does seem to help keep the body feeling young. It just stands to reason then, that godly exercises should keep our minds spiritually alert, for Paul has told us that “bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having a promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

What spiritual calisthenics do we do every day? Every athlete knows that he must do his stretching exercises daily followed by a vigorous workout to keep his body in shape.

If this is true physically, isn’t it also true mentally and spiritually? The mind that is not stretched seems to shrink and the brain also needs to have a vigorous workout to keep it in shape.

The world is far more conscious of their bodies than they are of their minds, but we are different. We realize that we cannot by taking thought add one cubit unto our stature. Jesus said so, but by taking thought we can add great spiritual height. Paul has told us that if “Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

So our minds can be expanded by faithfully doing our godliness exercises on a daily basis. It is now up to each one of us to work up our own exercise program just as an athlete would do in training for a championship event.

We really are in training for a championship event, for we are all preparing for the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ who will determine at his coming just what kind of spiritual shape each of us is in as a result of our godliness fitness program.

Those who have faithfully kept up their spiritual exercises will be accepted by our Lord to be with him in his kingdom forever. Then it won’t make any difference how old we are, for we will be like the angels which cannot die, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

A friend at work has just purchased a new automobile and he really likes all the bells and whistles that are on it. He has expressed amazement at the thickness of the automobile manual that came with his new car. He has spent a number of evenings reading the manual so he can learn how to benefit from all its gadgets and features.

Now this man who is so willing to read his manual to learn how to operate his automobile has never found the time to read his Bible.

The Bible is also a manual, a manual written by God to help us get the most out of life. It is interesting how many people take time to read automobile manuals, computer manuals, and the like but never find time to read the manual that has the key to life eternal.

My friend believes it is to his advantage to read his manual so that he can receive the maximum benefit from his complex automobile. He is right. The question is, which is more important: to know and understand the fine features of your automobile or to know and understand the promises which are able to make one wise unto salvation?

We have yet to find a computer buff who does not pore over his manual to learn the access codes and to get his computer to do what he wants. He does not argue that any key will do (as people say any religion will suffice), that all the buttons lead to the same place, that as long as the computer operator is sincere then his computer will work just fine.

Isn’t it interesting how logical and sensible we can be about the things of the world and yet how many fail to transfer this analytical attitude to the things of God.

Is it possible for us to successfully operate a computer if we do not know the program? Can we access its data base if we do not know the command? Is the program at fault because our ignorance keeps it from functioning properly?

Is it possible for us to please God if we ignore the fact that He is the master programmer of the universe and He has made us, and He has made the laws that have been set in motion for our well-being and salvation?

The laws of God work whether we believe them or not, whether we understand them or not. If we go against His laws, we suffer. The law of gravity is a fact. We are safer to understand it than we are to defy it. Our ignorance of it is not bliss. The program of life will only work when we know it and cooperate with all the rules made by the master programmer.

We often sing, “God’s law is perfect, and converts the soul in sin that lies; God’s testimony is most sure and makes the simple wise.”

This is true but we must know God’s law to be converted; we must understand God’s testimonies to become wise.

The Lord is not willing that any should perish but most will, not because He wants them to, but because they refuse to learn His word and obey His commands.

David was a man after God’s own heart because he loved God’s law and meditated upon it all the day. He said to God, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.” If we love God, we will also love His word and strive to obey His commandments.

The computer age has given us a new way to understand our brain. The most complex computer man has yet developed has nowhere near the complexity of the human brain, and our attempts to approximate a human brain only show how inadequate human inventions are. However, computer terminology is often used to describe the operation of the brain and to make its functions easier to understand. The input is any information received by our senses. The output is our speech and actions. The software is the data that is fed into the hardware. The hardware is the physical equipment, that is, our brain and body.

When it comes to salvation, it is God who has written the software program. It is called the Bible. We, in a sense, are the hardware; and, if we are programmed by God’s software, then we produce the output that has been programmed into us by the Bible. Jesus explains it differently because he did not use computer language, but the message is the same. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” What we put in is what we get out. If bad stuff goes in, bad stuff comes out.

In the language of the computer world, it is called, G.I.G.O., i.e. “garbage in, garbage out.” When a computer is full of garbage, that garbage is on the screen and that is what the printer prints. We, the hardware, must respond to the program that is in us. If we fill our minds with the garbage of the world, there is no way that we can think, talk, or act godly. If we fill our minds with the knowledge of God, we will act accordingly.

The world today is full of computer programmers. They make their living writing programs to tell computers what to do. The world is also full of those who are busy telling us what to do, and their thoughts and suggestions are as different from God’s as the heavens are high above the earth. The worldly programmers of our minds bombard our thoughts through advertising in its many forms such as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc. We are also affected by those we know through work, school, neighborhood, sports and the meetings. All of these “programmers” affect our thinking.

Whether we like it or not, the world is having an effect upon our thinking and doing. If we are not careful, their programmers will erase from our minds all the godly programs that God has created for our salvation and will replace them with garbage. Unless we vigorously resist the world’s bombardment by reading, studying, meditating, and praying, our brain will automatically absorb the world’s input. Great effort and determination are required to resist the almost overwhelming flood of input with which the world deluges us.

Since we are in control of the programs and the software that we put inside of ourselves, we had better be careful that the world does not win the battle for our minds by erasing God’s word and replacing it with the garbage that is so prevalent all around us. Let us fill our minds with the word of God so that our printout is godly rather than worldly.

“The thoughts of the righteous are right,” said Solomon and “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

An aging, once beautiful movie actress decided that she wanted a series of portraits taken by the same photographer who had shot some wonderful pictures of her some 30 years earlier. After a considerable search, he was located and commissioned to take the pictures. When he delivered the proofs to her she went into a rage and screamed out in dismay, “These pictures don’t do me justice.” The patient photographer explained that he had been 30 years younger when he took those beautiful portraits that she remembered. Then he suggested to her that she didn’t want justice, she needed mercy.

We, too, had better not demand justice, for we are in need of mercy. “If thou, LORD shouldest mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand?” asked the Psalmist. Strangely enough, we seem to have a double standard, for we want others to receive justice while we hope for mercy.

We’ve all experienced seeing another driver go right through a stop sign without even slowing down and wished that there had been an officer there to apprehend the offender. Yet who has not at some time absentmindedly driven right through one before we realized we had failed to stop. On that occasion, we hoped that no one saw what we did.

Our Lord has told us to “do to others as you would have them do to you. Be merciful, just as you Father is merciful. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

If there is one great lesson that Jesus has tried to drive home to us it is this one: he wants us to be merciful. His parable about the king who called in his servants before him to settle accounts and found a man who owed him millions but was unable to pay illustrates this point very well. Remember that when he begged, the huge debt was forgiven, yet he went out and confronted his fellow servant and demanded payment of a small debt. He even grabbed the man by the throat and choked him. Because he showed no mercy, he was re-arrested and brought before the king who said, “You wicked servant, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This, said Jesus, “Is how my Heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

The parable of the beam and the mote underlines this same important lesson. Jesus’ conclusion was, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” In some of the newer translations, the mote is called a speck and the beam a plank. Our sins so obscure our vision we cannot clearly see to correct our brother. Yet how human to focus on other’s shortcomings instead of our own.

We really are going to be judged by the same standard that we have used toward others. Based on this, we have to acknowledge that the mercy of God may be extremely limited when it comes time for us to stand before our Lord. God has told us that He has unlimited mercy, for David says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” We ourselves are the ones that limit the amount He will show toward us by how merciful we have been to our fellows.

We need not only to know this, but we need to live what we know in our daily dealings with others. “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

This time of year people begin to think of the calendar and the fact that their present well worn one has become outdated.

We are reminded of just how fast time seems to be flying by when we come to the end of the year and begin another.

Many people have made some wise comments on the subject of time. William Penn said, “Time, what we want most, but…what we use worst.”

People talk about saving time, yet it is the one thing that is never saved but always spent. William Penn was right about the fact that most of us do not make the best possible use of our time.

In fact, it will be the way we spend our time that will determine the verdict we will receive from our Lord at the judgment seat. The righteous will have used their time wisely in service to the King and the wicked will have to borrow Wm. Penn’s words, “used worst.”

Will the new year be any better, any different from the one that has just passed? It won’t be, unless we do something different.

Perhaps Carl Sandburg’s description of life would fit our feelings at this time of year. He said, “Life is like an onion, you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”

As we recall how we peeled off the days of 1990, do we weep? It is no use weeping over last year– “crying over spilled milk.” It is gone and we cannot relive it, but we can learn from the mistakes of the past and decide to do better in the future. Will we?

The world is famous for making what they call “New Year’s Resolutions.” They are usually broken as quickly as they are made.

We will be wise to reevaluate our life to see if we can profit from last year’s mistakes and face the coming year with a renewed determination to put God first in our lives.

There are so many things that seem to want to come between us and the Lord we love and serve; we need to make careful and deliberate plans to “serve Him with a pure heart fervently.”

If we don’t do something positive, then we will probably do nothing and this new year will not be an improvement over the one just past.

A time study expert came up with a catchy question which we would do well to ask ourselves over and over all day long, everyday, all year long. This is the question. “Am I making the best possible use of my time right now?”

Even while driving to work, we can listen to a tape or sing hymns to ourselves, or repeat the Bible verses we are memorizing.

Where there is a will there is a way and the way for us to please our God is to make the best possible use of our time all day every day.

Let us live, as well as sing, “Life is the time to serve the Lord, to do his will, to learn his word.”