Utica Baptist Church, Utica, Mississippi

Phillips Brooks was known throughout the English-speaking world in the 19th century as "a prince of preachers." We know him as the man who wrote the familiar Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

One day Brooks was pacing the floor like a caged lion. One of his friends asked him, "What is the trouble?"　 "The trouble," replied Brooks, "is that I'm in a hurry, but God isn't."

We can certainly identify with that, can't we? And we agree with Henri Nouwen, who wrote, "God is never in a hurry." Sometimes though, if we are honest, we want to shout, "Hurry up, God!"

Oswald Chambers gave us this word of encouragement: "Watch God's way in your life, and you will find that He is developing you as He does the trees and flowers, a deep silent working of the God of Creation."

So stop pacing. He is working, and He knows exactly what He is doing.
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com

Faithful, Focused, Patient

Jeff Wall, writing in Reader's Digest a few years ago, told that as a police officer he occasionally parked his cruiser in residential areas to watch for speeders. One Sunday morning he was staked out in a driveway, when he saw a large dog trot up to his car.

The dog stopped and sat just out of arm’s reach. No matter how much Wall tried to coax him to come for a pat on the head, he refused to budge. After a few minutes, the officer decided to move to another location. As he pulled out of the driveway, Wall looked back and learned the reason for the dog’s behavior. As soon as the police car moved, the dog quickly picked up the newspaper the car had been parked on and faithfully ran back to his master.

That's funny, but it also says to me that if a dog could be that focused and that committed to his assigned task, then shouldn't we also?  To the dog, the task looked impossible: the paper was under the car and he couldn't get to it. But he didn’t do what we so often do: when we are faced with "impossible" challenges many times we just turn and walk away, saying "Oh well, maybe we weren't meant to do that."

Perhaps today we could learn something from that dog. (1) He was faithful to do what his master expected of him; (2) he was focused on the assignment and let nothing, not even a pat on the head, distract him; and (3) he knew instinctively that the car didn't belong there, and would eventually move, so he patiently waited until that happened.

Here are the lessons for us today: (1) Our Master expects us to be His Body, fulfilling His commands and sharing His Gospel; (2) we should be focused on our assignment and not be distracted by other things that come along, however good they may be; and (3) we should know instinctively that this world is not our home, and be patient as we wait for that Great Day when Jesus will return.

When Jesus said, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching," that's about as clear as it could be said. No wiggle room. No reading between the lines. No loopholes.

So…is there a car parked on your newspaper?
--Rocky Henriques, uticabc.com