Too many men had lost their lives because they weren’t paying attention to where they were going.”
              –Bobby Cavazos (The Cowboy From the Wild Horse Desert)

    “You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope.”
              –Psalm 119:114 (NLT)
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Ain’t that the truth!  Take your eyes off the road for a few seconds; take your eyes off the goal for just a little bit.  Take your eyes off heaven and…well, you get the picture.  Distractions are dangerous!  To be distracted can bring destruction–physical and spiritual.  Drive down the road just a bit and glance around and you will find that there are plenty of distractions.  Billboards, signs, lights, stores, people are all there to cause a distraction, and then there is that thing you hold in your hand that you’re constantly looking at, yep, your phone distracts.  It not only distracts if you use it when driving, but go anyplace and it is the phone that holds people’s attention.  Dangerous!  Don’t let it or anything else, distract you from getting to where you’re going; make sure your focus is on the Lord and getting to heaven.
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    One way we get distracted is through troubles we face in this life.  Another way is to get caught up in “church fads” and not understanding nor paying attention to the doctrines of the Scripture.  Guard the truth, guard the teaching of the Word; in other words, guard the doctrines.

              “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
                        –John 14:1 (KJV)

We are content to read Scripture for its general effect upon us.  We are inspired, uplifted, and it makes us feel good, but we do not take the trouble or time to study the meaning and importance of the Word.  When we read Scripture, we should take the time to reflect on stating the doctrine.  Distractions can cause us to not take the time; we are too busy.  Or we will do our duty, read a little devotion, and say I’m through for the day and go back to the phone or whatever else there may be to distract us.
    There is a great need in our world today to take time to get with the Lord.  We need to take time to be quiet before Him, reflect on His Word.  Think of the disciples.  For three years they never stopped to think on what the Lord was saying, because He was there with them and they depended upon Him.  They were troubled at His words that He was going to leave them, and He took the time to tell them not to be troubled.
    He takes the trouble to read our minds and thoughts in order to answer our questions before we have ever asked them and He gives us consolation before we have ever given expression to our needs and unhappiness.  The Lord is there waiting for us to get quiet and seek Him instead of being distracted by the things around us.  Lloyd-Jones is correct when he says, “The greatest need of men and women in this world is the need of what is called ‘the quiet heart.'”
    We have to face life.  There are certain ills, issues, problems, obstacles which simply cannot be avoided.  There are things that are bound to happen; there are the tragedies of life.  Therefore, there is a need to determine to seek a quiet heart.  The world suggests escapism, optimism, fatalism, psychology, right attitudes, cults, and a host of other things.  These things, in themselves, are distractions for the real source of our need–a quiet heart before the Lord.  The Word of God confronts us with our troubles and them calms and brings peace in the midst of them.
    The trouble is not the physical flesh, or the worrisome mind; the trouble is the spirit.  The devil and his arsenal in the world seeks to keep us distracted from seeking the Lord and dwelling deep into His Word.  Remember, “the Holy Spirit dwells within us and reveals and explains things, and energises and empowers and enables us.” (Lloyd-Jones)  The more we are into God’s Word and have the foundational truth in our hearts the easier the Holy Spirit can work in us.

The philosophy of the range is to grin and bear it.”
              –William MacLeod Raine  (The Fighting Edge)

    “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”
              –2 Corinthians 4:17 (NLT)
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Mercy, July is practically over.  What did you do with the month?  What are you going to do tomorrow or in the month of August?  If God is in charge we can plan for the future; we can begin to dream about what He has for us.  We can rejoice, for though we can’t see tomorrow we know He is in charge.  It is important to understand what one believes about the future will determine must of what he does in the present.  
    Read Hebrews, chapter 11, starting with verse 13.  People were looking toward the future.  Here are a few thoughts about the future.
         1)  The Foundations for the Future.
                 God controls the future.  We think we can control it with our plans and designs.  Take heed, as James writes you may think you will do this or that, but it is God that decides.  If we could actually see our future we would try and control it.  Most likely we would not be able to sleep at night!  The key is to do the best with the future with the light you have today.
                 Not only does God control the future, He controls your future.  (i.e., Psalm 91:1-4; Mattehw 6:25-26)  God is not surprised by the future, nor is He confused.  He is already there waiting for us to show up.  The future doesn’t frighten Him; therefore, He is not surprised by our sins.  He has enough grace for today, and He will have enough for tomorrow.  One thing that we often do is try to control God with our prayers.  Prayers are not diagrams for God’s actions in the future.  He knows what He is doing.
                 Live today according to God’s will.  Don’t worry about the future for it will be bright.  Peter writes, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.” (1 Peter 5:6, NKJV)  When is “due time”?  Somewhere in the future.
         2)  The Foundations for the Future have Meaning
                 Survival is not the only value for the future.  There is one appointment for which you’ll never be late and that is when God finally calls your name.  Death is a reality, but for the Christian it is just a transition.  There may be pain, but pain is not the ultimate liability; nothing is painful forever.  “A finale is not always the best song, but it is always the last.” (Calvin Miller)
                 Be careful of your goals and priorities.  Paul writes to Timothy,  “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, NKJV)  We need to be diligent in serving God today and plan that way for tomorrow.  Wanting the wrong things will end up tearing your soul into bits and pieces; little by little you will be destroyed.
         3)  The Foundation Allows for Us to Be People of Action.
                 Such powerful words come to us from 1 Corinthians 15:58.  Paul is exhorting us to action, today and tomorrow.  “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” (NKJV)  Every action done for the Lord in His name will be vindicated.  Read the last few words of Revelation; let them sink deep into your heart.  Victory is ours, but it is still in the future, under His control.
    Let me close today with the words from Stephen Brown.  Much of what I have written the past several Mondays were from his book:  “If God Is In Charge”.
                       “We can tell the world:  God has started something in this world.  You may not like it; you may laugh at it; you may think it is insignificant–but you can’t stop it.  Some day God is going to close the last page in the history book, and the trumpet will sound.”
    Praise, rejoice, live in today and step into tomorrow with assurance that God is in charge!

They possessed a quiet purpose, a will.”
              –Elmer Kelton  (Stand Proud)

    “Hold on to instruction; don’t let go.  Guard it, for it is your life.”
              –Proverbs 4:13 (HCSB)
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Let me pass on a few thoughts from Jospeh Alleine’s book.  It has been an interesting read, An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners, first published in 1671.

          “Sin is a real sickness, yea, the worst of sickness; it is a leprosy in the head; the plague in the heart; it is brokenness in the bones; it pierces, it wounds, it racks, it torments….  Sin naturally breeds diseases and disturbances in the soul.  What a continueal tempest is there in a discontented mind!  What a corroding evil is inordinate care!  What is passion but a very fever in the mind?  What is lust but a fire in the bones?  What is pride but a deadly dropsy? or covetousness but an insatiable and insufferable thirst? or malice and envy but venom in the very heart?  Spiritual sloth is but a scurvy in the mind, and carnal security a mortal lethargy.  How can that soul have true comfort which is under so many diseases?
          “The conscience cannot be truly pacified until soundly purified.”

Try to preach about sin today and you might find an empty church, it is just not politically or religiously correct.  But then again, the Holy Spirit may come and convict and there may be a true revival.  People are not considered sinners.  They are misguided souls or just following their own way.  Ah, but we need to follow the Way, Jesus said He was the Way.
    People put their trust in politicians, psychologists, or worldly philosophers.  They will go to their analyist, whether it be the local bar or some swanky person who will charge them $100 an hour.  Put all the world’s philosophers, past and present against God an it would be a lopsided mismatch.  
           “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.  The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord.”
                    –Proverbs 21:30-31

To be a man was to be responsible.  It was as simple as that.  To be a man was to build something, to try to make the world about him a bit easier to live in for himself and those who followed.  You could sneer at that, you could scoff, you could refuse to acknowledge it, but when it came right down to it, it was the man who planted a tree, dug a well, or graded a road who mattered.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Conagher)

    “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate.  The highway to hell is broad and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way.  But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.”
              –Matthew 7:13-14 (NLT)
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                        “Work implies effort and labor, the essential idea of fruit is that it is the silent natural produce of our inner life.”
                                  –Andrew Murray

As a kid and even later in my life, I would drive the old mining roads around where I grew up:  Sunshine Canyon, Left-Hand Canyon, Boulder Canyon and the roads that linked the old mining towns together.  There is a ghost town aboved Nederland that I would go see now and again–the town of Caribou.  It lies just below timberline, a few miles from my hometown.  Abandoned mines, remnants of houses are all that is left of the once prosperous silver town.  Oh, there are a few hanger-ons, and some of the less savory characters have moved in, but for all practical purposes Caribou is a ghost town.
    There is a story I recall about a preacher of old Caribou.  To be sure these mining communities had their rough lot; there was plenty of wickedness, evil, danger, and crime, but on the other hand what group needs a preacher more than these?  There were families there and they recognized the importance of school and church.
    However, there came a time when the members of the church thought the pastor was not doing his job properly; his sermons did not do enought to get the devil out of Caribou.  One way to get rid of the preacher was to not pay him; in other words–starve him out.
    There was one miner who decided, either as a whim or joke to take up a collection for the pastor.  He started with one saloon, and of course had a drink, and proceeded to make the rounds up and down the camps of saloons, dance halls, “soiled doves,” and back up through the saloons again.  He kept his body “juiced up” as he went along the way and also gained quite a crowd.  Upon making the rounds he found he had a donation of $500.
    The miner, now quite under the spell of demon rum, started towards the church.  The last hymn had just been sung when he walked in the doors of the meeting house and he walked, fairly steadily, straight up to the pulpit.  He looked at the preacher with respect for he knew tht he had built this church with his own hands; the miner respected a man who worked hard whether it was using a hammer in a mine, building a church, or preaching a sermon.
    He gave the preacher the money he had collected and said, “Mister Preacher, here’s money to pay you for your preaching.  Since these people won’t support you in decent manner, we will.  We want you to stay here and preach to us sinners.”  Then with a few deletives he pretty much told the congregation they could go somewhere hot.
    People want the presence of the church.  Oh, they might not attend and might be foul heathens in their own right, but with a church in the community there is a sense of security.  There is a fortress that stands against the forces of evil, and it is there is they ever need it.  Yet today, we try to make the church look like just another office building; we want to sterilize it.  Do not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you never know how the Holy Spirit is working.
    By the way, with that episode of the miner, the mines of Caribou began to take one dollar a month from each man’s pay for the support of the pastor.  My, the Lord sure does work in mysterious ways!