| Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net Nature abhors a vacuum. This is more than just a physical principal, it is really a law. You’ve all seen the movies about an airliner at thirty five thousand feet suddenly experiencing a compromise in the fuselage; or the other extreme where a submarine plunges out of control to the bottom of the sea where the overwhelming external pressure crushes the hull. What makes water travel up hill when you dip the corner of a paper towel into a bowl? It is capillary action. The paper towel is filled with little hollow chambers (capillaries) that draw the water into themselves, and then each neighboring chamber in succession. God has been using this in plants for thousands of years. How did you think the water got to all of the limbs (extremities)? You can also see this born out if you have an empty lot, and try to keep it that way. Someone will doubtless come along and put things there (with or without your permission). Why? Nature abhors a vacuum. Let’s turn the Spiritual Switch. It has been said that every man, woman, boy and girl has a “God sized” vacuum in their heart. We try to fill it with everything from drugs, sex, success (by worldly standards), toys, notoriety; all of which will wax old and pass away. Illustration: A few years back, the logging industry was experiencing a very bad time - about 1982. Consequently, I was behind on my mortgage and worrying my self sick about it. My wife asked: “Who lived here fifty years ago?” I thought to myself: “that’s a stupid question that doesn’t help a thing”, but I answered: “I don’t know”. Then she asked: “Who will live here fifty years from now?” I knew she was going somewhere with this but I couldn’t see where. “Do you think in fifty years, (she continued) whoever lives here will care that we lived here now?” Finally my light came on. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:” - Matt. 6:19-20. We exhaust vast quantities of time and energy filling our vacuum with every imaginable thing the world supplies, all the while not listening to a word God has to say. Consider this. Are you even remotely frightened by current events? Does the world seem to be going to hell in an accelerated fashion? Listen as God describes the problem, then prescribes the solution. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.” - Jeremiah 2:11-12. What might He do? “Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.” - Judges 10:13-14. Sounds kinda lonely at best, even dangerous. But with every condemnation is a cure, and His name is Jesus, but you must come to Him on His terms, not yours. Who/what is your God anyway? |
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