“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

12/10/2007

How many times have we heard that said? I started to wonder who originally said it. I looked it up, and found that a man named Thomas Bertram Lance, known as Bert Lance, is given credit for that saying. Lance was born on June 3, 1931 in Gainesville, Georgia, and was an American Businessman who met Jimmy Carter in 1966. They became close friends and he served as an advisor to Carter when he became governor and later when Carter became president.

In looking up the meaning of this well-known phrase, the Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms says it means, “It is a mistake to try to improve something that works.” Another definition from Wikipedia says, “If there is no evidence of a real problem, then don’t waste time and energy (yours or anybody else’s) trying to fix it.”

So, why all this about something not being broken, and about something not needing fixing? Because, as my mind tries to get around the idea that so many struggle with the Bible, trying to fix it or improve upon it, I wonder why? It seems to me the more we read and the more we learn of God’s Word, the more we can see it applying not only to our own life but also to the lives of those we know. If the Bible ain’t broke, why are so many trying to “fix it”? Could one reason be; we question God’s Word because of some of the so-called experts on “religion”? We sometimes sit there listening to our TV, trying to wrap our minds around what an atheist wants to tell us about the Word of God, and even God Himself, when we must always remember that God’s Word says, “The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.” (John 14:17 NIV) It doesn’t make much sense to give any credence to an atheist’s so-called wisdom about God. I chuckled the other day when I read, “God does not believe in atheists, therefore atheists do not exist.” It is laughable, in a sad sort of way, to listen to those who do not know God, and then to put any weight at all into what they are telling us about God!

And so we begin…because I love to think, and I love to pray, and I love to write and see how God is going to weave this all together into the next message He puts on my heart. I truly believe this is one of the ways He teaches me and helps me to know Him more, and in doing so, perhaps in some small way it helps others too. If not, maybe it just makes for some interesting reading!

I have had the title of this message on my heart for a short while now, not knowing where it would lead us after typing the title, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” at the top of an empty page. I knew the general theme—it was that the Bible doesn’t seem broken, so why the struggle?—but it takes more than one question to fill up the usual pages upon pages of writing God allows me to pour out with each message. Maybe it was God’s confirmation that I was on the right track with this one when a series of events transpired to help me get started. I’ll explain:

A friend and I are going to start reading the book, “Where Is God When It Hurts?” by Philip Yancy. I have read this book before, but I was willing to read it once again, knowing it’s not an easy question to answer in a world with so much pain. I had already re-read the preface and the first few chapters, and then I put it down, waiting for my friend to have the time to read a bit before we got together to talk about it. Last night I received a message from her saying she had started it, so I figured I better go back and read the first part again so I would really know all that it contained. When I picked it up, lo and behold, the preface started this way:

“There’s a cardinal rule in book publishing that applies equally to brain surgery and auto mechanics: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ Since people are still buying the original Where Is God When It Hurts? I may be breaking that rule by attempting a major revision.”

I was more than a little bit surprised to see the title of this message in the first paragraph of that book! Had it always been there? Of course it had, but if I remember the sequence of events right, the idea in my mind for the title of this message began before I bought that book a week ago—but still I started to question, “Which came first, the ‘chicken or the egg’?”

After reading a bit of that book again this morning, I put it down and went to work on other things, more desiring to write than to read, but knowing it was not time yet to get started. You see, there is a certain “filling up” that happens when I write, before the “pouring out” begins. It’s hard to explain, but for me it’s just the way it seems to work most times. I don’t sit down to a blank page pondering and wondering how to fill it—most times I pick up my laptop already busting at the seams to let my fingers fly across the keyboard with the latest lessons because I’m filled with the excitement of how God works in our lives—of how He’s been working and teaching me in mine! Then, and only then, do I usually get to share these things with you. It’s not always that way though, because God can’t be put into a box, and this message is a perfect example of that. There is an excitement to writing this message, but not because I know most of what it will contain, but because I’m watching how God is leading me into it—and I’m experiencing His process of “filling me up” to do just that!

While waiting to start writing I was doing some things around here, and then God reminded me that Philip Yancy had started his book out with the very same thought that had been going through my mind about the Bible. I then knew that that was how this message was to begin, so here I am…talking about how Yancy was about to mess with something that works, a book written back in the mid 1970’s about a very difficult question about pain—physical, emotional and spiritual. What he wrote back then was a huge success,but after the original book was written, he said, “In the years that have passed since then, I have never ceased thinking about the subject.”

In the mid 1970’s, Philip Yancy was in his mid-twenties. Think back on what we knew in our mid-twenties…scary isn’t it? I’d want to go back and make some revisions on a book I’d written too! He said, “Fifteen years ago, at an age when I had no right to tackle the daunting problem of pain, I wrote Where Is God When It Hurts? He explained, “In a sense, this new edition represents a dialogue with my readers, the next step in my own pilgrimage.”

And therein lies the difference between “fixin’ what ain’t broke” in a book written by man, and not “fixin’ what ain’t broke,” in a Book that is the Inspired Word of God. God’s Word don’t need no changin’ but man’s words can always be improved upon as we learn and grow in our relationship with God through the years.

Many will argue that man wrote the Bible. We can all agree—many men did write it from Moses to David, from Matthew to Paul, and on to Timothy, including many others. Granted! No argument there. But, if we are one who believes the Bible, and that it “don’t need no fixin’,” then we are to believe what it says when it is written:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,
rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the
man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)

God wasn’t in His mid-twenties when He breathed into the first man Adam, and He wasn’t in His mid-twenties when He breathed His Words into the men who wrote His Words of Truth down for all of us to read to this day. Has the Bible changed through the years? Of course it has, because we obviously need it to be re-written into a language that we understand, whatever that language might be. And, it certainly helps even as our own language changes through the years to have it updated, using the verbiage that we are familiar with. We can see that need even in the writings of Oswald Chambers, and he only lived 100 years ago.

Here’s an example of what Oswald would have said in the early 1900’s, and how difficult it is for us to understand today compared to a new modern-day translation of the very same words of wisdom he shared with us. Here are the original words of Oswald speaking on Genesis 22:2. He wrote:

“Take now thy son…”

God’s command is—Take now, not presently. It is extraordinary how we debate! We know a thing is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it at once. To climb to the height God shows can never be done presently, it must be done now. The sacrifice is gone through in will before it is performed actually.

And then in an updated version of Oswald Chambers’ from “My Utmost For His Highest”-(Nov. 11th) it is written this way:

“Take now your son…”

God’s command is, “Take now,” not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later—it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.

Both ways of saying these things are deep thoughts from a profound man of God, but they are made clearer when put into words we understand today. It’s enough to have to meditate on what a godly man like Oswald Chambers writes and how it applies to our lives, let alone fight with the language being used. That’s why even today we have a Bible called “The Message Bible.” Most times, it is not a translation I will use, but sometimes, putting God’s Word into our everyday language brings it new clarity and light. Would God be against this? I wouldn’t think so, when God’s main aim is for us to love Him and to get to know Him. God’s aim is not for us to be so stuck in the old way of doing things—because they are seemingly more “holy”—and in so doing miss out on a deeply intimate relationship with Him.

Our own language changes through the years, that we know, but also languages from different countries can cause confusion. Not only was Oswald Chambers from a different day and age, he was also from England, where the meanings of words can be very different from the American meaning of words. When my sister came to visit us in England years ago, her plane landed in London and she needed to take a train about four hours north to where we were living. A long lined formed behind her as she bought her ticket. Why? Because, the language barrier slowed things down! As the ticket agent presented her the ticket, she was confused. I don’t remember the dates she was there, but say she was trying to buy a ticket to travel north on April 3, 1990, and return on April 12, 1990, it would have been written like this:

Departure Date– 03-04-90
Return Date – 12-04-90

For those of us in America who have been taught to write Month/Day/Year, as compared to in Europe where it is written Day/Month/Year, this would seem wrong, as it did to her! She needed to make sure that she would not be returning on December 4, 1990, but on April 12, 1990. Once that was cleared up, the ticket agent noticed the long line and said to her, “The queue is quite wild today!” In a heavy accent, using words she had heard before but not used in this way, he had to repeat himself several times until he realized she wasn’t getting his meaning at all! Finally he said, “The…LINE…is…quite….LONG…today!”

“Welcome to England,” I’m sure she thought, and so much for understanding the “English” language!!

One way of saying it is not wrong, just as one way is not right, they are just different ways of communicating the very same things, hence, the different translations of the Bible we have available today. One Bible has not been “fixed,” while one remains “broken,” because the Bible was never “broken” to begin with! We don’t need an updated version of its promises.

Some may say, “What about the changes made when we move from the Old Testament to the New Testament?” The New Testament, which is now full of God’s grace, takes us out from underneath the written law and places us under the Law of Love through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is not a “fixing” of God’s Word, but only an updating of God’s plan for all our lives, which was perfectly set up in the Old Testament before the New Testament ever came to be! Whatever has been done, was done by God, through God, with God and it’s all about God! Everything in the Old Testament helps us understand everything in the New Testament. Even though it may seem like two different ways of the same God, it’s all one and the same—it’s all God’s plan to redeem man and lead us Home to Him one day! There is a flow to it, a purpose in it, and no corrections needed with it!

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment, for it is
an old one you have always had, right from the beginning. This
commandment—to love one another—is the same message you
heard before. Yet it is also new. 1 John 1:7-8 (NLT)

I like that the Bible cannot be improved on, and shouldn’t be, but that by reading the same words over and over as we go through this life, our lives can be improved on. It’s been the same message from the Old Testament into the New…that God is love, and He showed us how much He loves us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. (1 John 4:9)

In Hebrews it is written:

Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors
through the prophets. But now in these final days, he has spoken to us
through his Son. Hebrews 1:1 (NLT)

The stories of Jesus Christ, and all He came to earth to accomplish, have been written down for us to read. The story of Jesus will never change. When Jesus said from the Cross, “It is finished.” We can believe Him! It is!

God said to His Son:

Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.
Hebrews 1:8-9 (NLT)

Lord, in the beginning you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands. Even they will
perish, but you remain forever.
Hebrews 1:10-11 (NLT)

Don’t we all want something we can believe in? Don’t we all want something that we can hold tightly to, knowing it will always be there? Too often, we reach out for the things in this world to give us security, but they fail and disappoint us. God’s Word holds fast and true, saying this about even the heavens, “You will roll them up like an old coat. They will fade away like old clothing. But you are always the same, you will never grow old.”

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
So do not be attracted by strange, new ideas.
Hebrews 13:8 (NLT)

We will always have strange, new ideas being introduced to us. Even when Philip Yancy wrote an awesome book about the pain that we have in this life there was still so much more he had to learn about it—and when he did, he wrote about it—which is a good thing. We are here to continue to learn and grow and to share as he is doing. But, we need to know in all of that that there is nothing more our Lord needs to learn about this earth—the very earth He created. There is nothing more our Lord needs to know about all of us—the very children He designed in our mother’s wombs and saw before we were ever born. There is nothing more our Lord needs to know about His plan for our lives, since it is His plan, not ours.

The reason we have the Bible, God’s inspired Word, is because the Lord already knew everything, and in that He knows that we don’t know much at all! God wanted us to have something tangible that we could hold in our hands, read with our eyes, absorb with our hearts, speak with our lips, and cling to with all our might. He gave us what won’t fade away, what won’t be rolled up like an old coat, and what will never grow old….His Word. We have a place to go when nothing in this world contains the answers we are looking for when we are lost, and alone, and confused. God wants us to know that He alone knows…Jehovah knows.

The bindings of our Bibles will crack in time, the pages will fall out, they will be lost and discarded, and one day the Book we hold in our hands that is precious to us because it is full of our scribblings, our papers, our pictures, church programs, treasured bookmarks, etc…will be gone. It will have grown old because everything on this earth does, but Jesus Christ will never grow old as He sits in honor at God’s right hand until His enemies are humbled under His feet. (Hebrews 1:13) God’s Word contains promises that will never change because no changes are needed. God already knew the beginning from the end. Nothing needs to be re-written so that it will work with the world we live in today and the world that is to come. “God gave this unchanging truth once for all time to his holy people” (Jude 3 NLT)

Why would we want the Bible to be re-written?
Why would we want the promises of God to ever change, when they are perfect!
Maybe we need to have a better understanding of what we are clinging to?
It’s that:
We are forgiven when we believe in Jesus Christ!
We are guaranteed eternal life, with no strings attached…an eternal life in Heaven that we don’t have to work for, pay for, or be good enough for!
We are promised that we don’t have to die a martyr’s death to earn an eternity lived out with God because when we believe in Jesus Christ, we are adopted into God’s family and in that, even the angels are sent to help us!
No, we do not become angels.

But the angels are only servants. They are
spirits sent from God to care for those who
will receive salvation. Hebrews 1:14 (NLT)

Why in a world that’s so confusing to begin with would we want to complicate what God has made plain, and simple, and easy, and so inviting? Even the fact that angels are here to serve us, that God has placed our importance above even them? Why is it not good enough for us? Why do we feel the need to have something more when God’s given us everything we need? Is it because we’re not embracing it fully, believing it with our whole hearts, giving our entire lives up to God’s ways? Is the little bit we hold back, even as believers, keeping us from all that God desires for us to have? Is that why so much of the time we are we missing what’s right there for the receiving? And are we missing it because we start to look elsewhere for it instead of looking deeper into the very Words of the One Who created us? Why does it sometimes make sense to go elsewhere to fix what’s broken in us when there’s only One who truly knows us inside and out, and He alone knows how to bind us up and make us new again?

Now, I’m not saying there are not great complexities in the Bible. It can work both ways, we can keep it as simple as uttering the name of Jesus when we need help, or we can go as deep as the mind can probe…trying to read Revelation and understanding all that it contains! What I’m saying is, when we get to the bottom line of what the Bible is telling us—that Jesus came to this earth so that we could have our sins forgiven through Him, that when He died on the cross His work was finished, and when He rose again, we could know eternal life was ours…why would we want or need something more than that to give us the Hope we all need in the core of our being? I know, know, know there are many difficulties in life. There are many things that wear us down and out, and push us past what we think we can possibly bear—but when we can know the bottom line, the ending to the story and the Hope we have waiting in Heaven when all this is over, let’s start there. Let’s not give that Hope away for something less hope-filled, replacing it with what man sometimes designs rather than what Almighty God has designed. When we start with the foundation of Hope that comes from our Savior, no matter the storm that blows, we need not be destroyed!

It is written:

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—
Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For
only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the
power of death. Only in this way could he deliver those who have lived
all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. Hebrews 2:14-15 (NLT)

Doesn’t this deal with all of our greatest fear? At least most of us? The fear of dying? That’s where Satan will strike hard to shake the foundation of Hope we have, which then has a ripple effect into every other area of our lives. That’s why Satan doesn’t want us to know and be secure in what God’s Word tells us, especially about death. Satan’s plan is to hold us captive in fear, and he knows if he can make us question God’s word on our own death, we won’t be set fully free from any of our fears until we meet Jesus face to face. Satan won’t give up until that day comes in our life—but we don’t have to play his game. We don’t!!

Just last night I was given a new revelation about our own son’s death concerning this. In talking through Phil’s last days on earth with a very sick friend, we were talking about the fear of dying. I was reading to my friend out of the “90 Minutes In Heaven” book, and relating it to some of the things Phil told me when he was given a glimpse of Heaven before leaving this earth. I have always known that God gave me the one thing I needed most from Phil’s experience and that was that once Phil arrived in Heaven, he would want nothing more to do with this earth—God helped me to know that Phil would be perfectly happy in Heaven. This was a great comfort in the aftermath of his death because when I missed him the most and thought I’d never recover from such a devastating loss, at least I knew Phil wasn’t missing me and that he was okay. As a mom, I needed that!! What I didn’t realize until last night in talking about this once again, was that in the glimpse of Heaven Phil was given, he also received the one thing he needed most, to know that he didn’t need to fear dying. Phil had never expressed to me what he was most afraid of in that ordeal. It wasn’t the leaving here that he feared, because Phil wanted to go Home—he even said to me, “Mom, I feel selfish but I just want to go.” He was tired after 5 ½ years of being sick. But what Phil feared the most was that it would hurt to die, that it would be painful to make that transition from life to death. He never told me that. When Phil came back from seeing Heaven, his fears were relieved—and he said to me, “The devil has been lying to me…it doesn’t hurt to die.” God had given my son the one thing I could not give him in all my encouragement to him. I could only give Phil the Truth I knew, but God could give him even what he needed beyond that. I had encouraged Phil about Heaven and that he would be going there when he left here because he loved Jesus and Jesus would welcome him when the time came. I had even told Phil that he would not miss us when he got there, as well as many other things as we spent those final days together…but what I could not know, what I could not tell him, was what it felt like to actually die—only God could give Phil an answer to his fearful question about that…and God did. God knows our greatest fears and our greatest needs.

“For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” 1 John 3:1 (NLT)

In looking up the quote “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” God also led me to the quote below by Benjamin Franklin. Until just this minute, as it “rode” below the typing of this message, I was thinking I would probably just need to delete it when I was done because I did not see how it was going to be a part of this message, I now see it was to be placed right here. Isn’t God fun! The quote says:

In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin

But we all know this is not completely true, because not even taxes are certain…oh, we are certain to owe them, but there are ways around paying them, even if it requires time behind bars. The part of this statement that is true though, is that there is no way around this thing called death. It is certain, and we don’t like that! We don’t want to think about that! But even in not thinking about it, we can fear it, but God doesn’t even want us to be that distressed about it…He wants us to know, by reading His Word, by knowing Him, that “we who have fled to him for refuge can take new courage, for we can hold on to his promise with confidence.”

What promise?

The promise of eternal life.
The promise of His forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
God’s promise is perfect! It needs no updating, no corrections, no further re-thinking, relearning, re-anything! It is, and always will be!!

As I sat in a funeral service just this week, the Promises of God were proclaimed over and over, and eternal life was the certain focus of the day! I was gripped by it, always hungry to hear Scripture written that says anything to the effect of, “Yes, you’re going Home when all this is over. Have Hope in that!!” As I looked around at those in attendance—and there were many, most being probably closer to Heaven’s door than I am at my age—there seemed to be a boredom in some, a looking away and around and avoiding the thoughts that might be evoked by such a message being preached. I thought to myself, “People, listen up! This is important! We’re all going to die one day, it cannot be avoided. We need to know what’s waiting for us when this life is finished!”

And yet, what do we do instead? We rethink, rework, re-plan, re-strategize, and we try to come up with an even better plan than the Master Creator has given us—perhaps even avoiding it to the point that we think we’re going to live on this earth forever. And what is the result of all that? We think up ways other than Jesus’ perfect way to have Hope in this life and for all of eternity. Sometimes that means we think we have to work hard to attain it, or we have to be very good, or we have to sacrifice our life for some cause, or we have to marry the right person to get us there, or we have to wear the correct clothing to be holy, or we have to follow the correct rules for eating and drinking to not be defiled, etc… The list is endless, and we fall for it! Why? Is it because we think God doesn’t have a good enough plan, or that we’re not good enough for the great plan of God? The bottom line is, we do it because we open up the door and let in all of the ploys out there by Satan to keep us far from God and the peace He offers us in this life. God wants us to believe in what we have been given through the life of His Son, to let Him in and to rest in Him alone! He wants us to know we don’t need to fix what ain’t broke!

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things
that have come. He has entered that great, perfect sanctuary in heaven,
not made by human hands and not part of this created world. Once for
all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of
goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our
salvation forever. Hebrews 9:11-12 (NLT)

Some say we have to come back here, over and over until we get this life right. It’s called reincarnation. I was reminded of that thinking as I watched a movie just the other night with a well-known actress in it who strongly believes in reincarnation. But even that is not what God’s Word says—what His Word does say is: Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.” (1 John 4:1 NLT) To tell you the truth, I have NO DESIRE to come back here and live this life over and over until I get it right! Once here is enough for me!! When my time is over, I want Heaven!! Period! And yet some want to forsake what God’s Word says for the chance to do this life again? Why? Why would that seem like the better, wiser, more “enjoyable” choice to make when God’s Word says:

And just as it is destined that each person dies only once and after
that comes judgment, so also Christ died only once as a sacrifice
to take away the sins of many people. Hebrews 9:27-28a (NLT)

Maybe it’s that some may read that and say, “Great, judgment…see, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” but let’s read on in that part of Scripture where it says…

He will come again but not to deal with our sins again.
This time he will bring salvation to all those who are
eagerly waiting for him. Hebrews 9:28b (NLT)

We are sinners, there’s no denying that, and God knows that. That’s why He sent His Son, but God wants us to embrace the forgiveness we’ve already been given and look forward to Jesus’ return! We can “eagerly wait” for Him the Word says!! Why? Because “He will come again but not to deal with our sins again.” That’s already been taken care of, we need not fear, and cower and hide away!

Do we believe all this? God knows we don’t, He knows we probably think it can’t be true, that He must be lying. How do we know that God knows our fears and trepidations with all of this Good News? Because, He includes Scripture in His Word to help assure us in our doubts:

God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who
received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would
never change his mind. So God has given us both his promise
and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it
is impossible for God to lie. Hebrews 6:17-18 (NLT)

It’s impossible for God to lie, and His Word is there to help confirm that Truth for us, because without being reminded of it, we’ll start to believe that all the Good News in the Bible is a lie. If we’re spending more time in the world than we are in the Word, we’ll start to listen to the lies of the world as they drown out the Truth of God, and we’ll start to sink…we can easily get caught up in a tangled web.

I’m not a big liar, I don’t like lying, I’m not good at it, and I gave up even trying to lie years ago…but just this week, I told a lie. Not a big one, not a terrible one, but a lie that allowed me to avoid something that might have been unpleasant. I was asked a question that I really didn’t want to answer, so instead of revealing what I knew, I said, “I don’t know.” It came out before I knew what had happened, but the minute I did it I felt bad about it. I knew it was a lie, and it felt wrong. I knew immediately that it could become a tangled web and come back to bite me. I felt remorse for my actions. I was still not willing to reveal what I knew to this person, but I also knew I should have been more truthful in my response to them. Later that night I confessed to God that I had lied, and that I shouldn’t have—that there must have been another way to handle this situation—but I find it interesting that even this event plays a part in this message, because usually God takes me through something before I get to write about it. God wanted me to be reminded, perhaps, of what it feels like to lie, and why we sometimes get caught up in lies. It’s easy in this world, it happens quickly, almost without thought sometimes as humans, but God is not human, He is far above this world and its ways, so He is far above us in how He handles everything. He doesn’t lie—the Word says it’s impossible for Him to lie. There’s no need for God to lie when He has everything so perfectly worked out. He is never caught off guard! We can love that about our God! We can believe that, and Hope in that! When we truly believe God, and we truly believe that He cannot lie because His Word says so, then we can start to truly believe that all that is written in the Word of God is for us, about us, there to help us, and that it contains the best Good News we could ever hear!

God has offered us the very best of the very best of all that He has for us. Yes, we have to go through some real junk down here on earth for a while, but He wants us to know that it won’t always be this way, that His eternal plans for us couldn’t be any better!! They are perfect! And sometimes when I lay in bed at night and it’s been a particularly hard day, and I know so many who are hurting beyond belief, I look forward eagerly to that day when all this will pass away. I want to have confidence in it and not get swayed by any new ideas, any strange ideas, any lies that try to convince me that I’m falling short—that start me to thinking that I have to work harder here to be able to get there, that perhaps our mistakes are not forgiven. All these thoughts are man-made ways that we come up with because we won’t accept that God “will never again remember our sins and our lawless deeds.” (Hebrews 10:17) What kind of improvement would we like to make on that? Nothing that I can think of!!

It is written:

Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter
what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you!!
Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue
to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.
Hebrews 10:35-36 (NLT)

Perhaps we get impatient, like little children, and we think it’s taking too long, so we wander off when life gets hard and confusing—but let’s encourage one another as the Word says to do as we run this race called life. “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.” (Hebrews 12:2 NLT)

Some have told me in years past, your “simple faith” is fine for you…and then they trail off in their words, but in doing so they let me know that they need something more than a childlike faith in Jesus Christ. They need something more than just one perfect book called the Bible—but as I’ve gone through some of the greatest fire that this life can ignite, the death of our own child, I can honestly say, “Jesus is everything I need.” A simple faith in a God who is anything but simple works when we admit that we’re the ones who are broken, not God. We’re the ones who need fixing, not God. And God has given us His perfect Repair Manual, and we don’t need to alter one word of it—we just need to follow what is written there, step by step, day by day, until we meet our Maker face to face. Once again, “If there is no evidence of a real problem, then don’t waste time and energy (yours or anybody else’s) trying to fix it.”

I have written these things to you because you need to be aware
of those who want to lead you astray. But you have received the
Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to
teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you all things, and what
he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So continue in what he has taught
you, and continue to live in Christ.
1 John 2:26-27 (NLT)

Until we meet again,

Diane