Smelling a little icky!

So the other day I took some laundry out to the line and on the way I could smell something icky. I mean it was rank and I didn't have a clue where the smell was coming from. So I finished my load of clothes and headed in not knowing what that smell was that made my nose wrinkle.

A little while later I was on the patio doing something, watering the plants I think and I noticed that smell again. It was a strange smell, not at all attractive but somehow familiar.

Later I heard Johnny scolding the dog. Apparently K.D. had found a way out of the yard and had gone off to play in the world but was very safe to be back before morning. No, I'm so not kidding. She got out and did who knows what and was back by morning. Little did she know, even though she made it back to where she was suppose to be and in time she hadn't lost the smell of her jaunt in the world. She apparently had played in the little canal close to our house and then rolled in some dead remnants or something like that.

Anyhow, later in the day as she dried she still reeked of her trip out and it wasn't getting any better. 

As I was passing Hannah on the stairs I was suddenly hit with that smell. It was K. D., no, wait a minute, it wasn't K.D. this time. No, this time it was Hannah. Hannah smelled like K.D.. Hannah smelled like K.D.'s time in the world. It was awful and almost as strong on Hannah as it was on K.D.. Earlier in the day Hannah had been out in the yard hanging around with K.D.. Little did Hannah know she was being infected by K.D.'s worldly aroma.

Even though Hannah hadn't sneaked out of the yard in the night and gone swimming in the canal, Hannah still smelled like the world. She smelled just like she had partnered K.D. in her trek in the gloaming.

Wow, what a lesson learned from a dog. It's not necessary for us to go running around in the world to begin to look like the world. No, all it takes is to have a worldly friend and before long we'll look like them and even start to smell like them. We've got to be very careful about whom we run with. If we run with them you can be sure we will eventually look and smell like them too. 

Special thanks to K.D. for today's devotion!

Where will you leave holes?

Last Tuesday we stood in a snowy cemetery as we said goodbye to Dinko, our brother in Christ. Dinko was 44 years old and in good health at least that's what we all thought. He was found in his chair dead and thought to have been there for several days.

A month before we got the news that yet another brother had gone to be with Jesus after battling cancer and losing.

Lately death has really been on my mind, not that I in anyway am afraid of death, on the contrary it's gonna be glorious when it finally does happen because I'll be able to look on the face of my wonderful Savior. With all the dying going on around us I've been wondering and observing what happens to the loved ones and acquaintances left behind. What changes in their lives. Do they totally have to reorder their daily lives. Do they have to pick up the slack left from the deceased? What sorta holes are left in the lives of the ones left behind from the passing of this person. Does this death change the world in any way. Will anyone miss this person? Will things get undone because this person is gone? Were there any holes left in the world from the absence of this person?

When it's your time to physically leave this world, where will you leave holes? Will your death actually change the life of anyone other then your immediately family. Have you actually been important to anyone? Have you made a difference in the life of someone less fortunate? Have you share the blessed Hope with someone and your death will sadden their heart? Is there someone who has their day brightened just because you exist?

We never know when it's our time to go. Dinko and Bro. Vlado had no idea that they were about to go, they didn't have time to go out and make a difference. What was done was done, it was too late to think about how many people would actually care that they passed. They couldn't change how many people would be at their funeral and how many just didn't care.

Wow, my sleepy eyes have been opened. I want to make such a difference in my little world that my passing will seriously effect some folks. I want to leave all sorts of holes in the lives of my loved ones. I want to leave holes in the ministries of my church, so much so that it will momentarily cripple my church. I want to have such a crowd of souls at my funeral, souls who had their lives made better because I existed. I want to leave holes!

Making a difference isn't hard, it's actually pretty simple. It just takes a little forgetting about me and mine and thinking about others. There are enough hurting souls in this world that we could make a difference in hundreds of lives simple by being kind. Stop being so selfish with your hugs and give some to some little bus kids who don't know real love is. Stop spending your money on junk you'll never use and find someone with a need and meet it. Hey giving up coke for a week and taking the money a giving it to a needy family would make a world of difference. There isn't a better feeling in the world than giving and making a difference.

So I ask you: how many holes will you leave when you go or will you leave any???

Certainties

Michael Faraday, the famous chemist and a man of great intellect, was asked as he neared the chilly waters of death this question, "What are your speculations now?"

"Speculations?", he replied, "I have none. I am resting on certainties." He then quoted this verse,

"...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." II Timothy 1:12b

What a wonderful thing that we as born-again Christians can rest in the certainties of Christ and His eminent return.


*Taken from the Baptist Bread devotional booklet.