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
HeartWord – John 7:24
“Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.”
Begin with a Smile
“With high-definition TV everything looks bigger and wider. It’s kind of like
going to a high school reunion.”
Daily Devotional
Joshua 9:5
“The men put worn and patched sandals on
their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread
of their food supply was dry and moldy.”
Fooled by Appearances
When Israel came from Egypt to the Promised Land they had a specific command from God that they should not make covenants with the people who lived in Canaan. Rather than associate with them, Israel was commanded to drive them out. The people of Gibeon heard about this and decided to trick Israel into letting them stay.
They loaded their donkey with “worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. The men put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us.'” (Joshua 9:5-6).
Without consulting the Lord, Israel agreed to a pact with them. Things were not what Israel thought they were. Things were not what Israel wanted them to be. These men were enemies, but Israel made an agreement to let these men to live among them.
Israel would have been well off to know what Paul told the Corinthians, “Bad company corrupts good character.” (1 Cor 15:33). Israel’s downfall in the Promised Land was that they never drove out the idol worshippers.
Why did they let they make a pact of living with the Gibeonites? The answer is that they could not see past the patched sandals and worn out old clothes. They sampled the provisions of the Gibeonites and made a decision based on appearances.
Even today we as Christians get fooled by appearances. We see things that look okay and then go along to get along. We make the same fatal mistake as Israel when they “did not inquire of the Lord.” (Joshua 9:14).
Lonnie Davis
Bible Question
What animals did Samson tie together by their tails?
Today’s Bible Chapter
is Job 8. To read it click H E R E.
Answer to the Bible Question:
Seeking revenge, Samson caught “three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails.” (Judges 15:4).