Flashback Friday - Fall Back Not Under - Martin Wiles

Fall Back, Not Under

Germany and its World War I Allies began the practice on April 30, 1916, as a way to conserve coal. America soon followed suit.

When I was a child, I relished the extra daylight hours Daylight Savings Time provided. There was more time to play outside with my friends. But in the fall, I loathed the long hours of darkness.

As an adult, the “falling back one hour”—along with the decreased amount of light, often leads me and hundreds of others into a gloomy and sometimes depressed mood physicians have labeled the “winter blues”—and in its more severe form SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). I find myself out of energy and struggling to make it through the day. My body craves more light…more vigor. Read more...

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Light but Heavy Influence - Martin Wiles

You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Matthew 5:13 NLT

“I can’t believe something so small could make such a loud noise.”

My wife and I lay in the tent. The rains had held off. The only sound was the oscillating fan we had brought to provide noise and to keep us cool in the July heat. Darkness invaded our tent, so thick we couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces, literally.

The first rays of dawn had not yet infiltrated our tent, but we lay awake listening to the silence of the night. No birds had begun their chorus. Even the campground rooster had not awakened. Then, we heard a loud whoosh.

“What was that?” my wife asked. By this time, dawn was breaking, and I saw what had made the sound.

“Just a leaf,” I said, comforting her, before remarking how something so light could be heard so loudly. She snuggled against me and went back to sleep.

I thought of what Jesus said about His followers' influence: that we were the salt of the earth and the light of the world. As He was. He brought flavor to a legalistic world, reinterpreting the wrong interpretations the religious leaders had made of His Father’s Word. He loved the unlovable and pointed others to the true way to be restored to a right relationship with the heavenly Father. His influence was light, but heavy.

Our influence is often more than we imagine. Not everyone circulates in a wide area of the world. Our worlds appear small, but the influence we have in our small worlds can be great, especially by using technology. The people we influence with our love, acts of kindness, and testimony for Christ may go on to influence others … or be the one person God chooses to use in a worldwide way. We never know what God wants to do in others’ lives—or even in our own.

God controls where we make our influence. That place may not be our place of choice, but God knows what’s best. Since God orders our influence, we should never negate what He might do through it. We don’t have to have a testimony of how bad we were before God saved us for our testimony to mean something to others. That God kept us from that type of living is a wonderful testimony in and of itself.

Like the leaf gracing our tent, choose to make an impact on others. You never know what God will do through your influence.

Prayer: Father, give us the courage to impact the lives of others.

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No Leak - Martin Wiles

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me. John 10:28 NLT

For six hours, the rain pounded our tent.

My wife and I couldn’t have asked for a better four-day July camping trip. Temps hovered much lower than normal for this time of the year, and apart from a few light mountain showers passing through, we enjoyed fair weather. But things changed on the last night of our trip.

We made our way to the bathhouse and decided to check the weather while we were close to the Wi-Fi. A line of strong thunderstorms marched our way. Although it was 11:30 p.m., we decided to pack the outside stuff, leaving only what remained in our tent.

At two a.m., the rain arrived. Not much thunder and lightning, but pounding rain. Rain that still fell when we awoke at daylight the next morning. I lay, listening to the beating on the tent. If it did not stop by eight a.m., I planned to shove everything in the car, wet or not.

Yet, I was more worried about the wet on the inside of the tent than I was on the outside. Several times during the night, I shined the flashlight around the inside to make sure things were dry. No leaks. Pretty good for a moderately priced tent.

Jesus talked about another kind of leak. One His children don’t have to worry about. When in His arms, His children are safe. They won’t perish, and no one can take them away from Him.

While God is the father of all—in that He created everyone—He is not the Father of all. He is only the Father of those who choose to make a decision to follow His Son. This happens by accepting what Jesus did on Calvary’s cross. There, He made payment for our sins.

Making that decision doesn’t make me perfect, but it does make me safe. I’ll still sin … occasionally … but I won’t habitually as I did before I met Christ. He gives me power to overcome. And He always forgives when I mess up. He places no limit on His forgiveness. He simply wants me to confess and repent.

Once in His care, Christ won’t throw me away, nor can anyone steal me from Him. His love doesn’t leak. I’m safe there, as my wife and I were in our tent. Things may pound against us, but God’s love won’t let them overcome us.

If you haven’t received God’s love, do so today. Then, rest in the security found there.

Prayer: Father, thank You for holding us securely in Your loving arms.

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Throwback Tuesday - Reflections - Martin Wiles

Reflections

As I walked through my office, dusting every shelf, I realized life had become too busy.

Pictures of deceased and living relatives sit idly on my bookshelves. Rocks from places I’ve visited on mission trips and vacations nestle closely by. Rocks from places like Colorado, Nova Scotia, and Maine. And also other mementos that belonged to family members. As the feather duster gently glided around each one, I suddenly recognized it had been far too long since I had thought about some of these important people in my life. Read more...

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Confronting the Crash - Martin Wiles

For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, “Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.” Acts 27:23-24 NLT

I opened the lid. Nothing. I clicked the mouse, rubbed my hand across the touchpad, and tapped the power button. Still nothing.

As a schoolteacher, writer, and freelance editor, I depend entirely on a computer. Without a computer, I can’t make lesson plans, take attendance, or record lunches. Nor can I check emails from fellow teachers, parents, the assistant principal, or the headmaster. Neither can I connect to the overhead projector to display work for the students. While I once taught without a computer, the days of doing so have long past.

As a writer and editor, I can’t do anything without my computer. I can’t receive material from writers, I can’t post to websites, and I can’t keep up my personal writing. Yet, here I was with a dead computer. I had used it the day before and received no warning that anything was wrong.

I sat in the tent—my wife and I were on a three-day camping trip—and looked at the black screen, wondering what I was going to do. “Really, Lord,” I silently prayed. We were in a financial pickle, so I couldn’t afford to buy another one, and I had deadlines to meet and school to prepare for.

That’s when God seemed to whisper, “Email the executive editor of the website you manage.” So I did. Within two hours, she had purchased me a new computer and had it waiting for pick up at our local office store.

Life is filled with crashes. Paul faced one … literally … when the ship he was on encountered a storm, hit a sand bar, and broke apart. I tried to follow his example.

When the crash hit, I prayed with expectation. What better thing to do in the tough times than to go to the One who has everything under control. Paul prayed as well, for his safety and for that of his shipmates.

Then I did what God told me to do: emailed my editor, the one who had power to do something about my dilemma. Nor did I question God when he impressed upon me to email her. Doing so would have called my faith into question. God told Paul he wouldn’t perish on his way to Rome, nor would his shipmates if they didn’t try to escape, but headed for shore instead.

When my editor told me she had a new laptop waiting for me, I thanked her … and God. Paul, too, thanked God for saving him.

Don’t let life’s crashes crash you. With God, all things are possible.

Prayer: Father, we thank You that You are Lord over all of life’s crashes.

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Facing the Dead Ends - Martin Wiles

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.” Psalm 32:8 NLT

We walked into the large hole, light quickly giving way to darkness, until a gated wall barred our progress—and beyond that, a granite wall.

Work began on Stumphouse Tunnel in 1853. Builders intended for a railroad line to run from Anderson, SC, to Knoxville, TN. Fifteen hundred Irish miners lived in the Tunnel Hill village atop the mountain and worked to cut through the mountain’s blue granite to build the railroad. Four shafts allowed the miners to cut through ten rock faces at one time. The mountain’s granite was relentless. At peak performance, workers only cut out 200 feet per month.

But work on the tunnel reached a dead end in 1859 when the South Carolina legislature decided not to fund the construction any longer. Clemson University acquired the tunnel in 1951 and cured blue cheese there for several years. Now, the tunnel is merely a tourist attraction managed by the city of Walhalla. A place for people to marvel over dead ends of the past … a place for pranksters to write and spray paint their names.

The psalmist was no stranger to dead ends, but the Lord assured him he would guide him along the best pathway for his life—one that wouldn’t end in a dead-end. Like the psalmist, and other before and since him, I’ve faced my share of dead-end endeavors but at the same time experienced God’s guidance.

Sometimes, dead ends come because of distractions. As construction on the tunnel continued, things heated up between the North and the South, eventually erupting into the Civil War—something more important and more expensive than a tunnel. These distractions, whether good or bad, can lead me to dead ends. What I thought might satisfy, doesn’t.

At other times, we can reach a dead end because we’ve given up. Our pursuit is too difficult. We get tired, disappointed, depressed. Perhaps, the journey wasn’t in God’s will after all. So we give up and find another tunnel to work on.

As difficult as reaching dead ends is, they provide an opportunity for God to open up new opportunities. When we reach the end of ourselves, He picks up where we can’t take another step. His wisdom is sufficient to solve the dilemma we couldn’t. And He is more than willing to give direction if we only ask.

When you face your dead end, let God show you the way out.

Prayer: Father, we believe that life’s dead ends merely give You the opportunity to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.

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Flashback Friday - Healing Hands - Martin Wiles

Healing Hands

Series: Practical Advice for Life

Little did Andy know when he traveled to a nearby town to arrest a noted publisher for failing to pay a ticket fine that he would be accused of malfeasance of office. The accusations were based on Barney's interview with one of the publisher’s reporters who disguised herself as a college kid. Telling her how Andy used the squad car for other than official business was all she needed to nail Andy. The state attorneys general saw the article and quickly presented Andy with the alarming accusation. Even more confusing was discovering that Barney was their star witness.

Andy and Barney eventually assembled the pieces of this puzzle, but Barney rose to the occasion:  “All them things I said; for example, his using the squad car for personal reasons. Sure, he was delivering groceries to Emma Watson because she was too sick to get down to the market. And that's just one example of the thing's Andy's done for the folks in this town.” (Andy on Trial 1962) Read more...

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Even Expensive Houses Get Bats - Martin Wiles

But God said to him, “You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?” Luke 12:20 NLT

I wondered how a house in this neighborhood could attract bats.

We were on a four-day camping trip with a couple from church, but the vacation doubled as a work trip. The man was a wildlife wrangler—in this case, a bat wrangler. He had recently traveled to Sapphire, NC, to rid a house of a bat colony. During our trip, he planned to return to the house and see if all the bats had left and if his trap had worked.

We turned into the subdivision—a gated community. Our friend punched in the code, and the gate opened. We drove up winding roads with steep driveways until we reached the number he looked for.

The houses astounded me. Three-story mansions with manicured yards comprised of nothing but flowers and rocks. No grass. Porches gazing out over the mountains. Million-dollar homes nestled everywhere in this mountain community. I helped my friend with the job. Sure enough, the bats were gone, and he washed their droppings off the back porch. Then it hit me: even expensive homes get bats.

Jesus told a story about a rich man who discovered something about his wealth, too. His crops produced abundantly. So much so that he had to build larger barns. After storing his crops, he planned to sit back and enjoy life. But God told him his life would end. Possessions couldn’t keep death away just as a million-dollar home couldn’t prevent bats.

Everything is temporary. In our age of technology, this truth is even clearer. Few things are made to last any length of time. We live in a throw-away society. Cheap prices, and when it tears up or breaks down, throw it away.

Just as sin affects our spirits, so it does everything in the world. Creation groans to be set free from it, just as we believers long for the day when we’ll be freed from the influences of sin. Sin corrodes … destroys … disappoints.

The house needed a screen and caulking to keep the colony of bats from returning. We need special clothing to deal with the effects of sin. The Bible calls it Christ’s righteousness. And we get it by confessing and repenting of our sin and committing ourselves to follow Christ as our Lord and Savior. Then, no matter how our house—or anything else—looks, God will protect our souls from eternal death.

Let God rid your life of the bats—and anything else—that keeps you from Him.

Prayer: Father, we invite You into our lives, knowing our relationship with You is the only thing that will last.

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Tied up in Knots - Martin Wiles

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Genesis 3:7 NLT

When I tugged on the rope, one big knot evolved.

One of my least favorite things about camping is breaking camp. Things tend to get thrown together, not neatly packed away as they are when I prepare for a camping trip.

On our last camping trip, I’d repeated my pattern. Especially with the rope, bungee cords, clips, and other tying paraphernalia. I thought, What better place to put them than in a banana box I kept in the back of my car.

And they were, but I had a problem. When I pulled one end of the rope, I got one large knot. Same thing with the bungee cords. Intertwined hooks greeted me. Untangling the rope and cords to put up the tarp, a privacy shield, and a clothesline took longer than it should have because of my knotty mess.

Adam and Eve found themselves in a knotty situation as well. God created them and placed them in a beautiful garden with everything they could possibly need. He gave only one stipulation: Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. With this one command, God tested their obedience. They failed the test and found themselves in a knot which they tried to undo with fig leaves.

When in a knotty situation, knowing the cause helps. For me, carelessness when packing the tying material caused my problem. For Adam and Eve, a desire to be on an equal level with God knotted them. They thought they could handle life just fine on their own.

If I know the cause, I’m likely not to repeat the mistake. When I packed the rope and tying material the next time, I did a better job. Adam and Eve also learned their lesson when God kicked them out of the garden.

The Bible contains the solutions for our knotty situations. For every knotty situation I encounter, the Bible has a guiding principle. The exact circumstance I face may not be addressed, but the principle is there.

And God can fix any knotty situation I face. He is an all-wise God who knows what I’m facing and can give me the solution. He gave me the common sense to fix my knotty situation, and He did Adam and Eve as well. For them, confession of their sin was the answer.

When you face your knotty situation, go to God. He can untangle whatever mess you are in.

Prayer: Father, when knotty situations arise in our lives, show us how to untangle them according to Your will.

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Throwback Tuesday - Finding the Right Path - Martin Wiles

Finding the Right Path

My wife, younger brother, and I were off for a three-night four-day camping trip in North Carolina’s Great Smokey Mountains. So we conjured up Siri on our cell phone and asked for driving directions to our destination. We arrived late afternoon but found the campground office closed. 

After finally locating the hosts and requesting information, we were told we were at the wrong campground. They suggested one a little farther down the road with the same name. Here we received the same story. Wrong  place. The host suggested yet another campground farther down the road, again with the same name. After three attempts, we finally discovered the campground where my wife had made reservations. This wasn’t the one we preferred, but evidently, I had given her an incorrect reservation number. Finding the correct campground was essential. Had we camped at the other two, we may well have been fined. That they seemed like the correct ones mattered not. Read more...

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When Life Changes in a Second - Martin Wiles

Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt. Exodus 3:10 NLT

He was there … and then he wasn’t.

My son and daughter-in-law threw a birthday for our youngest grandson and his step-brother. The same kind they’d thrown for the past two years. The same kind we hadn’t attended. A pool party.

This year differed. Our son had just ended a one-year silence with us. We had made amends and wanted to keep it that way. So we went. I watched the children carefully—as if I could have done anything had one of them fallen in.

Supper came in the form of pizza. People finished at different times while kids continued running around the pool. Several returned to the pool, including my son who held my youngest grandson.

My middle grandson thought he didn’t need holding. It took him only a second to step off the step he sat upon. My daughter and I saw him at the same time. He bobbled, gasping for air. She hollered, “Get Colton,” and my son grabbed him. He coughed a few times, but, fortunately, was okay.

Not all situations turn out so well. Children, and adults, drown every year. Natural disaster destroys property and lives. Criminal acts steal lives and possessions. Financial meltdowns melt down families and friends. Partners steal. Diseases alter the course of our lives. Life can change … in a second.

It did with Moses. Abandoned by his mother because of a cruel king’s edict, Moses was placed in a basket and set upon the Nile River. Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the little baby, adopted him, and raised him in the splendor of Egypt. Everything went well for Moses, until, as an adult, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his kin people—who. by the way, were slaves in Egypt. Moses became angry and killed the Egyptian. Pharaoh swore he’d kill him, and Moses ran for his life to the backside of a desert where he married and became a shepherd. Until his life changed when God called him to lead God’s people out of slavery.

Regardless of how or when life changes, God never does. He continues to love and protect us—from or through the pain and change. He led Moses, he led my son, and he’ll lead everyone who asks. His presence comforts, and His wisdom guides. He can do what no one else can.

When your life changes, trust the One who never does.

Prayer: Father, we trust You to guide us through the changes of life.

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When Famine Strikes - Martin Wiles

Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. Genesis 12:10 NLT

One million people died, and another million left the country.

History records it as the Irish Potato Famine, and it occurred between the years of 1845 and 1849. Since two fifths of the population depended on this crop for various reasons, the famine led to mass starvation and disease. When it had run its course, twenty to twenty-five percent of the island’s population disappeared.

Thousands of years before the Irish Potato Famine, another famine struck the land of Canaan, the land that God had called Abram to leave his homeland for … the land where God promised to make him great by giving him numerous descendants.

But when the famine struck, Abram ran to Egypt. That’s when the trouble started. Abram’s wife, Sarai, was beautiful. Abram knew the king of the land would see her, kill him, and then take Sarai as his wife. So Abram devised a plan … a half-truth. He told Sarai to tell the king she was his sister.

Sure enough, the king took her as his wife. But God wasn’t pleased. And neither was the king when he discovered he had taken a married woman. He released her and told Abram to leave his land. Famines—whether physical or spiritual—lead us to do unnatural things.

Our personal famines show up in what the Bible refers to as a sin nature. Our souls experience a dearth because we are not rightly related to our Creator. Sin separates us from Him. We long for God as those in famine lands long for food and water.

Yet, instead of eating of the Bread of Life and drinking from the Living Water as Jesus invites us to, we often turn to other things, thinking they will satisfy our hunger and thirst. They won’t, and they leave us hungrier and thirstier than we were before.

What the Irish people needed was something to replace the potato—or something to kill what was killing the potatoes. What Abram needed was to trust God and stay in the land God told him to go to. 

What we need when the famines of our souls come is to turn to God. He alone has what we need. He alone can give us wisdom for our situations. Whatever the famine has stolen, He can restore.

When famine strikes your life, go to the One who can provide for your need.

Prayer: Father, we thank You that no famine is so great that You cannot sustain us in these times of drought.

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