Good morning, everyone.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 7:41, “And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.”
Often it doesn’t take long when you bring together people from different generations for the conversation to turn to talking about how things used to be “back in the day.” My teenager might shake their head and roll their eyes when I describe how it was back then, just as I might chuckle in wonder when my dad talks about his childhood. And though one of the most obvious areas of change has been in technology, many of the most fascinating things that have passed by have little or nothing to do with our phones or the internet. Just listening to your parent or grandparent who experienced life seventy or eighty years ago can be like walking through a museum where you might have heard things about World War II or life after the Great Depression or one-room schools for all twelve grades. And it’s rather easy, and quite foolish, for any of us to look back dismissively or with disdain over how people used to live, or to feel some sense of superiority for how far we have come since then. But the truth is, no advance in technology or education has or is going to make you and me any different from the generations before us. Whether you were born in the bedroom of a sharecropper’s shack living in the middle of a farm, or in a 21st century, state-of-the-art hospital with 24-hour care, your nature still came from our fallen ancestors of Adam and Eve.
So, just because you don’t make calves out of gold and offer sacrifices to it, you are still prone to bowing down before false gods of your own doing. Even though you fully believe in God’s creative nature and His gift of saving grace and mercy, you still can place too much importance and value on what you are able to do. Despite our advances in every area known to man, nothing has come along since “back in the day” that has fixed our sin problem. If anything, the most notable effect of our progress has been to make it easier to not examine our hearts, but merely distract them with stuff. So even though you and I think we may not be doing something anymore, we’re really just doing it another way. And that’s why we must continue to come back to Jesus, who can keep your present and your future headed in the right direction.
As we seek Him today, let your past be the past, and start giving more of your present and your future to your Lord and Savior.
Have a gracious Tuesday.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
