While reading a blog the other day, I came across these words:

“I have decided that every Monday I will post a Faith lesson, it will be appropriate for families with children, and hopefully adaptable to other circumstances too.”

The problem is that the resolution was dated 15 months earlier and was not followed by any more postings. As a preacher I have great empathy for that want-to-be writer. I have made many public resolutions that simply faded into the landscape with nothing being done. It is a terrible feeling. I guess we all do that in some areas of our life. Sometimes it is inconsequential, but sometimes it is not.

Paul reasoned with a governor named Felix. He spoke to him of “righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.” Upon hearing Paul, he was “afraid and said, ‘That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you” (Acts 24:25). Sadly there is no record or indication that Felix ever sent for him again. Perhaps he just did not find a convenient time, but I imagine it was because he did not like what was heard.

You can put things off that are not really important, but for matters of faith, we must make time. Do not look for a convenient time to study the Bible, to pray to God, to worship, to teach your family about God. Make time!

An old man was told by a friend that he would do something when he had time. He responded, “I suppose you have all the time there is. It is just a matter of what is important to you.”

Is faith important to you? Then spend some time on matters of faith.

Lonnie Davis

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Slow and steady wins the race.” This truth is the theme of the old fable about the tortoise and the hare. If you are like me, you first read about the tortoise beating the rabbit when you were in grade school. Back then that was just a story about running a race with a rabbit or a turtle. Today this story could be used to measure a person’s maturity. The person who is able to start a task and stay with it is more mature than one who starts and quits, starts and quits and never accomplishes anything.

Six or more years ago, the tech guys at Southwest church started posting our sermons on line once a week. At first there was one sermon on the internet. It was soon two, then three. Before I knew it there were hundreds of Southwest sermons online. I sat down a few weeks ago and decided to pull down those sermons to my computer and save them for posterity.

The task was so daunting that I quit and haven’t gone back to it yet. It was certainly harder to put the sermons online than it is to pull them down, but the sermons were posted because slow and steady wins the race. They have not been saved to my computer because big tasks are hard to complete.

3,000 years ago, Solomon told us this when he said “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned.” (Ecc 9:11).

Admittedly Solomon says that “Time and chance happen to all,” but I will add that sometimes it is because some people have the power to stick to the task. Some people know that “Slow and steady wins the race.”

Lonnie Davis

No one knows what the Tree of Life looks like. Is it an oak? Is it a maple? It really is not important. What is does IS of vital importance. The Tree of Life gives eternal life to those who eat of it. There is something about that tree that stops the death process.

When Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden they were denied access to the Tree of Life. God put them outside the garden and put an angel with a flaming sword to guard the entrance lest they go back into the garden and take of the “Tree of Life and eat, and live forever.” (Genesis 3:22).

This passage from the first book of the Bible does not end the story of the Tree of Life. If we cut to the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, we find that tree again.

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. (Rev 22:14)

The Bible opens with man losing the right to the Tree of Life and closes with man gaining entrance again to the Tree of Life. The Bible opens with God putting a “No Trespassing” sign around the tree and closes with God taking it down. Christianity is the story of victory. It is the story of going home.

Whatever life is like here, whatever victories or loses we face, in the end of this life we win. In the end we get to go home and be with God. In the end we go back to the Tree of Life. We get to see that tree someday. That will be amazing!

Lonnie Davis