18 WHEELS AND A DOZEN PRAISES

I remember it like it was yesterday. Well, maybe not that vividly, but pretty well. My family and I went to a used car lot to buy a new car for me to drive back and forth to work each day. Do you get the joke? New car, used car lot. Ok, well, it was new to me. After praying first, we looked at several different cars and were about to decide that we were not going to find one there that we felt good about buying. 

That’s when we saw it. It wasn’t in the rows with the other cars. It was sitting beside the building with some other less desirable ones.

I tried it out and felt pretty good about the dependability and the price, so, after my boys climbed in, I drove it away as my wife and daughter followed.

The car was a small, blue Geo Metro. It had twelve-inch tires and only three cylinders. It only had 80 MPR on the speedometer, but I don’t even know if it could do eighty. If it could, it did one morning, about five o’clock. I was taking my kids to the babysitter on my way to work. 

We were going through town, minding our own business, and obeying the speed limit. I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw an eighteen-wheeler coming up on us pretty fast. I said something about it to the kids and they looked back just in time to see it bearing down on us. I saw that it wasn’t going to stop, or change lanes so I put the pedal to the metal. 

We were going as fast as that little car could possibly go. It was shaking all over and screaming, and so were the kids. We were only a foot or two away from being twisted up under that big highway monster. We think the driver may have been falling asleep or something. Anyway, the truck finally started slowing down and we started pulling away from it.

Thank God! We were safe again. We were so grateful to be alive and I praise the Lord for saving us that morning. I don’t mind telling you I was scared to death and so were my kids. I don’t remember praying while it was going on. It all happened so fast and it was over before we knew it. That’s one reason why it’s so important to stay in constant communication with God. 

We always prayed before we drove away to go anywhere. We would God to be with us and protect us and keep us safe there and back and we still do all these years later. I talk to God throughout the day. It’s easy when you truly know that he is right there with you constantly.

Sometimes people make the mistake of thinking he’s just up in heaven and we have to kneel and close our eyes to talk to him like we’re making a phone call. Some people even think you have to go to a church building to communicate with God, but that’s the wrong idea. We should always be reverent when speaking to our Creator, of course, but if you’ve been born again, then the Holy Spirit is living in your mind. You’re a child of God. You can talk to him any time and anywhere, in any condition and any position, whether you’re kneeling, standing, or lying down, and with your eyes open or closed. 

The important thing is to talk to him. He’s always listening and he’s always talking to us. Sometimes we let our minds drift into areas where they shouldn’t be, or neglect to take time to talk to him. Sometimes we’re angry and sometimes we may sin. In those times it becomes harder for us to hear his voice, but he’s always there. He said he would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says we should pray without ceasing. That’s constant communication. That’s how God changes us into holy people. He tells us what to do and what not to do as we listen to him. So talk, listen, and communicate with our loving God and allow him to sanctify you, and I’ll see you on the other side, at the end of our journey.

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THE VOLKSWAGEN BUG, OUR SINS, AND HIS BLOOD

It happened one evening in late summer. I still lived in the Horseshoe Bend valley. I walked up to the top of the hill to my cousin’s house like I did almost every day, but he wasn’t home. His mother told me that he had gone to buy a used car and should be back anytime now. I waited for him for what seemed like forever. Then, the sun moved behind the trees and slowly disappeared, leaving the red and yellow sky to fade into gray, then finally to black. A little while after dark, we saw two sets of headlights coming down the gravel road. The car in the rear was my uncle. He was following my cousin as he drove his new used car into their driveway.

To my surprise, he was driving an old, white Volkswagen bug. It wasn’t in bad shape at all, but the paint was scratched and faded. He wanted to do something to fix it immediately, so he had stopped and bought several cans of black spray paint. He parked as close to the house as he could so we could use the porch light to paint by. Like I said, though, it was late summer and the nights were beginning to get a bit chilly. It wasn’t bad when we started painting but by the time we finished, the dew was falling and it was getting cool. We did the best we could with spray cans and limited lighting, and it really didn’t look too bad when we finished.

The next morning I went to his house and was shocked to see what the car looked like in the daylight. It was hideous. It looked like a monkey had painted it. The dirty, white, scratched-up paint was showing through the splotches of black paint where it had been sprayed lighter and unevenly. It was a big mess.

That’s the way it is when we try to hide our sins. No matter what we do, nor how hard we try, they always show through when the Light shines on them. The only way we can have our sins covered is by the blood of the Lamb. The blood of Jesus actually washes our sins away. That’s the only way we can be free from sin and enter into heaven. Hebrews 9:22 says, Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins. That’s why Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life, and died in our place, then rose again.

In Ephesians 1:7, the Apostle Paul says our sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus. Jesus said that he is the only way for us to be saved (John 14:6). He also said if we don’t believe in him, we will die in our sins (John 8:24). John tells us that IF we walk in the Light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). But, we have to confess our sins to him. Then we have the promise that he will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Don’t try to cover your sins. You can’t do it. You might hide them for a while, but they will weigh you down and torture you, then eventually, they’ll show through. Let Jesus wash your sins away with his blood. Ask him to forgive your sins and make you a new creature. He’s faithful and always keeps his promises. He wants to give you eternal life so he can be with you forever. He loves you that much. Time is growing short, though. Soon this world will end and your fate will be sealed, so don’t put it off another minute. He’s waiting to hear from you.

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LEARNING LESSONS FROM A FORD

I've told you about my first, second, and fourth cars. There’s not much to tell about my third one but I’ll share what I remember with you anyway. I was between jobs at the time and didn't have much money, so I was excited when my uncle told me I could get a car for fifty dollars. Fifty dollars! Wow! That may seem like a very small amount of money now but back then you could get a good used car from an individual between three hundred and five hundred dollars.

This car didn’t run, of course, but my uncle worked on cars all the time and he said he would get it running for me. The man who owned the car said he didn’t really know what was wrong with it. It just died one day and wouldn’t start back. I wanted it so bad that I gave him the money before I even looked at it.

I don’t remember a lot about the car. I have a picture in my mind but there’s just not much detail there. I remember my uncle taking me to get it. I remember that it was white, and I think it was a Ford. It had been sitting in an overgrown field for several years, so the paint was faded and the tires were flat.

We figured we might have to tow it to my uncle’s house so he could work on it but he wanted to see if it would start first. He raised the hood and put a battery on and hooked up the wires. After we knocked off a few mud dauber nests, he poured a little gas into the carburetor to prime it. Then I got in the car and put the key in the ignition and turned it over. It started so I kept trying.

Finally, after several tries, my uncle said, “Woah! It ain’t gonna crank, boys. There’s a hole in the motor the size of my fist. Come and look.” With my shoulders drooping from disappointment, I stepped out of the driver’s seat to take a look. Sure enough, there was a big hole in the motor on the driver’s side. It had slung a rod. No wonder it had stopped running with the previous owner. I was disappointed. There was no way to fix it short of replacing the motor, which, back then, could be done for only a few hundred bucks, but I didn’t have the money, so told the guy he could keep the fifty bucks if he would keep the car and I just left it there and went back home.

As I was thinking about the lesson that could be learned from this story, I realized there are several.

1) Sometimes we think we can fix something but find out there’s nothing we can do. In those situations, we just have to give it to God and let it go. There’s no need to get angry or discouraged. That usually only makes things worse, and it’s not good for our health.

2) Many times we want something really badly, but when we get it, we realize it wasn’t what we needed at all. That shouldn’t discourage us from going after something we want later, but we should be more cautious the next time, and not jump into something without thorough investigation. We need the grace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to make good decisions. Always ask God for guidance.

3)We should not give up on others because they may not be able to do what they thought they could do. Sometimes things just happen that no one could have predicted. My uncle couldn’t fix that car for me, but when I had problems with my next car, I called him for help.

4) Just like that hole in the car motor, there is a hole in our hearts that only Jesus can fill. Many times, we try to fill that void with drugs, alcohol, sex, work, dangerous thrills, Social media, and a number of other things. Some people spend a lifetime searching for the perfect thing to fill that empty space, not realizing there’s only one thing that will do it.

A close personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, brings peace, calms our fears, and fills the emptiness in our lives. That’s the only thing that will truly do it. Anything else is equivalent to “trying to place a square peg in a round hole.” Impossible.

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My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
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© 2018 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6