Throwback Tuesday - Am I On The Right Track? - Martin Wiles

Am I On The Right Track?

Series: Hey God…I Have a Question

Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. Exodus 31:2-3 NLT

When life collapses, it’s tempting to question whether we’re on the right track.

Newlyweds normally enjoy the candid shots photographers capture while no one is looking. But Dan and Jackie Anderson doubtlessly weren’t expecting the one their photographer snared at their wedding in Crosslake, Minnesota. Prior to the ceremony, the entire wedding party gathered on a weather-beaten dock to pose for pictures. Suddenly, life collapsed…in the form of the dock, sending many of the participants plunging into the water below. The spirits of the wedding party, however, weren’t dampened by the dive. In fact, the bride looked at the photographer with a smile and said, “Did you record that? Please tell me you got that on camera!” Read more...

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More Time Lost Than Found - Martin Wiles

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3 NLT

The trip was less than three hours one way, but it took longer than it should have.

Tragedy struck our family during the Thanksgiving holidays. A first cousin was playing golf with his only son the day after celebrating Thanksgiving with his family when he suddenly fell over and died. Nothing his son, through CPR, or the medics did could save him.

His younger brother called to say the family wanted me to conduct the services. I had conducted the funerals for their mom and dad. I agreed. Mom and my wife would sing at the funeral.

We loaded up our gang in two cars. Mom and my step-dad are getting up in age and having trouble negotiating the highways, but, since they were following us, we wondered what could happen. We soon found out.

Mom stopped in a town one mile from the funeral home to get a pair of socks. The ones she had on didn’t match her pants. We went on to the funeral home. Shortly after arriving, Mom called. “We took a wrong turn. I don’t know where we are. Can you please help us?”

A fifteen-minute conversation with my cousin finally led them to the funeral home. They had gone thirty minutes out of the way. On our way home, they got lost again when they got in the wrong lane to get on the interstate. This led to another out-of-way experience that cost them more time.

Nicodemus spent a large amount of time lost as well. I don’t know his age when he approached Jesus, but he was a religious leader who thought he had all the answers about how to connect to God. He was wrong. Jesus told him he had to be born again—not just meticulously obey the letter of God’s law, as he had assumed.

Vain pursuits in life can cost huge amounts of time. Time wasted. We don’t end up where we thought we would, or we don’t enjoy where we end up when we get there. Bad choices. Ones that take us places we never should have gone and keep us there much longer than we want—or should—stay.

Getting found entails being in a relationship with God through Christ and spending our time doing only what God plans for us to do. Anything else wastes our time and places us in a lost condition.

If you’re feeling lost, consult the only One who knows where you should be heading.

Prayer: Father, remind us that You always know where we are.

Tweetable: Do you feel lost more than you do found? 

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Wrestling with God - Martin Wiles

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. Genesis 32:24 NLT

As a young teen, wrestling captured his interest.

My youngest brother loved wrestling—not the kind done at school as a sport, but the kind done on television for entertainment. He knew the matches were rigged and the wrestlers—while capable of wrestling the sport way—were merely actors being paid to do what they did and say what they said. Yet, he loved the suspense and the action. And the rhetoric.

We cheered for the good guys and booed the bad guys. We followed our heroes on television and in magazines. Eventually, we watched them grow up and move on to other things or saw new guys come in and steal their place—and their popularity. Some wrestled and won, while others wrestled and lost most of the time. But all wrestled.

Jacob wrestled too. With God. His name, among other things, means supplanter or deceiver. And he lived up to it. He stole the family birthright from his brother, and, with his mother’s help, tricked his father into giving him—the youngest son—the family blessing.

After running from his brother’s death threat and spending some time in a foreign land, Jacob, at God’s command, returned home. On the way, he anticipated meeting his angry brother. What he didn’t bank on was wrestling with God. Jacob needed humbling … and focus. During the wrestling match, God dislocated Jacob’s hip. Jacob’s resulting limp reminded him of his position—and of God’s power.

I’ve had a few wrestling matches with God myself. Over why some things have happened in my life—or other’s lives. Over decisions I feel Him leading me to make that made no logical sense. The things life makes us deal with. Unwanted divorces. Financial crunches. Loss of jobs. Senseless deaths. Tragedies. Natural disasters.

In the midst of the wrestling matches, God knocks my hip out of joint just as He did Jacob’s. How I react to these matches proves my character. Do I really believe what I say I do about God—or not? Do I have faith in what the Bible says?

And just as a hip out of joint normally means having to use a walker or walking stick, so God designs the wrestling matches to teach us that we need to confess our pride and independence and instead take up dependence on Him. To acknowledge our helplessness without Him. When we’ve learned those things, then maybe … just maybe … God will let us up off the floor.

Don’t try to win your wrestling match with God. Just learn what He’s trying to teach you.

Prayer: Father, as we wrestle with You, teach us those things You desire that we learn.

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Flashback Friday - How Can I Know Christianity Is the Only True Religion? - Martin Wiles

How Can I Know Christianity Is the Only True Religion?

Series: Hey God…I Have a Question

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6 NLT

Why can’t choosing a religion be like many other things in life? Many options…none wrong…some with just better benefits?

As a teacher, I’ve noticed most students tend to score higher on multiple-choice tests than they do on short answer or fill in the blank. Recognizing answers is easier than producing them completely on my own. Multiple-choice tests also allow one to use the process of elimination. One answer is clearly wrong and normally easy to eliminate. If I can find one small error in two of the other answers, then I can select the correct choice. Read more...

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Here Today, Gone Today - Martin Wiles

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Hebrews 9:27 NKJV

He was here—and then he wasn’t.

Jack* was my first cousin, eight years my senior. But he had a brother who was the same age as I, and we were good friends. I wished we had lived closer to him so we could have spent more time together, but we got together as often as we could.

Jack and another first cousin loved to aggravate us, but they also taught us how to defend ourselves and how to hunt. Jack was like the big brother I never had, since I was the oldest child in my family.

All of our lives took separate courses. By the time we had reached adulthood and had families of our own, I rarely saw Jack except at Christmas or perhaps Thanksgiving. When the call came that he had died, it had been two years since I had seen him.

Jack had enjoyed Thanksgiving with his family. The next day, he and his only son had gone to do what they loved: play golf. As Jack prepared to putt, he suddenly looked up and fell over backward. His son performed CPR on him and the medics arrived within five minutes, but Jack had died. In today’s world, he died a young man at 66.

As with Jack’s mom and dad—my aunt and uncle—the family asked me to perform the service, which I was honored to do.

As people my age, and near my age begin to die, I realize anew what the writer of Hebrews said: we must die. Not a pretty picture, but reality.

When I was a young boy, time seemed to last forever and everything seemed so large. During the summer, we played outdoors for what seemed longer than twenty-four hours. Now the weeks, not just the days, pass quickly. Each week, before a week has appeared to pass, I say to my wife, “Well, tomorrow is Friday.”

I remember Dad giving me a funeral outline for my first funeral service: life is short, death is certain, and eternity is sure. I have found the first two to be true, and I’m trusting by faith in the third.

What God calls me to do, I need to do … now. My priorities are important … and so is my relationship with Christ. I’m not guaranteed another breath, and each breath I take could be my last—as with Jack.

I hope Jack was ready to meet His Maker, and I hope you are too.

Prayer: Father, may we live each day, ready to meet You.

*Name changed to protect privacy.

Tweetable: Have you considered the brevity of life? 

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Those Ugly Labels - Martin Wiles

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12 NLT

I took the label and went on my merry way.

Mid-term elections arrived. Although I don’t normally vote in them, I decided to vote this time. Several candidates were on the ballot who I wanted to cast my vote for. As I waited in line at my precinct, an older lady stood by to give to or paste on a sticker for those who voted.

My turn arrived, and I walked to the booth. After casting my ballot, I walked away. The elderly lady greeted me. I opened my coat, and she attached the sticker to my shirt. Then, I was off to work.

Later that day, a co-worker asked, “Did you take your grandchildren with you to vote?”

“No,” I said.

“I just wondered,” she said, “after what your sticker says.”

I looked at the sticker. It read, “Future Voter.”

I suppose everyone got the same label as I had. Maybe some of them were asked the same thing. How the mix up happened, I’m not sure, but I had been labeled something I wasn’t.

According to the gospel writer, anyone who trusts in Christ as their Savior is labeled a child of God. Welcomed into His family. No more an outcast … or an orphan. But a child, and a co-heir with Christ.

Labeling seems to be the human way. Divorced. Abused. Orphan. Homeless. Poor. Rich. Middle Class. Nice. Mean. Stuck up. Short. Fat. Blonde. The list is endless, and when we run out of labels, we invent more to fit the situation.

Labels aren’t necessarily bad … unless we develop stereotypes and then start treating people based on those stereotypes. This leads to unjust judging, which Jesus condemned. 

Child. Now, there’s a worthy label. I belong to someone—hopefully, parents who love me. And when we’re children of God, we don’t have to worry about the love, concern, and care. God loves His children, presently and eternally, and will give them all the essentials of a love relationship that they can’t find anywhere else. Further, He’ll provide all we need to accomplish His plan for us.

The old chant was wrong: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” They can, but only if we forget who we are in Christ.

When others label you unfairly, remember God’s label is the only one that counts.

Prayer: Father, when others label us with ugly labels, help us remember the label You give us: children.

Tweetable: Have you been labeled? 

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Throwback Tuesday - Is God Real? - Martin Wiles

Is God Real?

Series: Hey God…I Have a Question

They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” John 20:25 NLT

Some things I’m challenged to believe even when they fail every apparent test.

I have certain tests I use to determine validity. Quite naturally, they involve my senses. How do I know my wife is real? This may seem like an absurd question, but the tests I employ to test her reality are the same ones I use for more complicated issues. I see a body lying beside mine every morning, and I know I’ve seen this person before. I smell her odors…but in a pleasant way. With my ears, I hear her speak to me and others, and I recognize the voice. I can touch her. She feels like the same person I’ve touched for the last ten years. Touch lets me know she’s not an apparition. And if I’m really bold, I can nibble on her neck. When I’ve employed all these tests, I conclude, “She is real.” Read more...

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Squeezing in the Urgent - Martin Wiles

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. Psalm 90:12 NLT

“Hey, Pop, look at these three books I got from school. You want to let’s read them?”

Before I could think, I said, “Not right now. Pop’s busy.”

Then I thought better of my answer. He might be gone home by the time I finished my work. The day had been long and busy. Two times during the week, I had missed my planning period, which had put me behind on grading papers, making lesson plans, and doing other things I normally have done by the time I leave school. So my work came home with me.

When I told him, “No,” I could see and hear his disappointment. He slouched from the room. I quickly called him back. “Come on, buddy, we’ll read them now.” The smile on his face told the story.

Being familiar with so many kids who hate to read, I sure didn’t want to extinguish the love he had for it. He pulled his three small books from a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and hopped onto my lap. Several of the words in each sentence were small words he could read on his own. A picture accompanied the larger word. When he didn’t know a word, we sounded out the phonics I had taught him over the summer. Excitement covered his face when he got it right.

After we finished the first book, he retrieved the second … and then the third. What I thought I didn’t have time for only took about ten minutes, and doing it made my oldest grandson the happiest little boy in the world.

When we finished our reading time, I realized what I had to do wasn’t that urgent at all. The psalmist also recognized the brevity of life and wanted wisdom from God to live what days he had.

In my short years on this earth, I don’t have time to do everything I want to do or everything everybody else wants me to do. All I have time for is what God wants me to do. Just beneath loving Him with my entire being and carrying out His plan is loving my family and spending time with them.

I remind myself often that these grandchildren who want so much of my time now will soon be middle schoolers, teens, and adults whose lives will get busy. When this happens, other people and other things will become more important than I am. So I enjoy what little time I have with them now.

Life is brief, and some of the things that seem important aren’t that important at all. Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important in your life.

Prayer: Father, give us the wisdom to distinguish the urgent from the important.

Tweetable: How do you separate the urgent from the necessary? 

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What Sin Will Do - Martin Wiles

Series: Famous Quotes

But if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23 NLT

“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.” – Charles Stanley

She thought she had her bases covered.

This ninth-grade student had been absent the day I gave the history test, so now she came into my room while I taught another class to take her test. Her manner of dress made me suspicious. She wore a large football jersey.

As I taught, I noticed her arm lifting from the desk and then returning to a resting position. And not the arm and the hand she wrote with. I continued teaching until I was certain she was cheating. When I saw the small cheat sheet, I knew.

I stopped, walked over to her, lifted her arm, and took the small piece of paper. On it were written the test answers in letters so small I could barely read them. I said, “In the time it took you to make this cheat sheet, you could have studied for the test.” Then I told her she would receive a zero and sent her on her merry way to ponder her actions. Her sin had found her out.

As Moses and the Israelites prepared to enter the Promised Land, three of the tribes decided they wanted to settle east of the Jordan. Initially, Moses viewed this as another act of rebellion against God—until they explained that they would first help the others conquer the land before they returned to this home. Moses granted their request but warned them that if they failed to keep their word, their sin would find them out.

Sin has a way of finding us out. God designed it that way. We may hide it for years, but eventually it—along with its consequences—comes out. Either we tire of God’s conviction and confess or someone exposes us. I’ve been the confessor, the exposer, and the exposed. None are enjoyable.

God knows we will sin. He merely wants us to confess immediately so our relationship with Him isn’t damaged. But when we don’t, sin will take us into areas we never imagined, keep us chained there longer than we ever anticipated, and cost us more than we ever expected to pay. Because while we are enjoying the sin, we rarely think about the consequences.

Don’t let your sin take you where God never intended for you to go. Confess it, and enjoy God’s forgiveness.

Prayer: Father, remind us what sin will do so we’ll be quick to confess when we fail You. 

Tweetable: Have you discovered what sin can do? 

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Flashback Friday - Why Do Tragedies Happen - Martin Wiles

Why Do Tragedies Happen?

Series: Hey God…I Have a Question

And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? Luke 13:4 NLT

Every morning while eating breakfast, I sit before the television and hear story after story of tragedies. Fire rips through an apartment complex. Twin tornadoes tear through a Midwestern state leaving destruction and death in their path. A young man is accused of rape and murder. Gangs have taken over a certain area of a city. Militant groups are attempting to overthrow a legitimate government. Twins are born conjoined, and the doctors give little hope. Read more...

Tweetable: How do you respond to tragedies? 

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I Like Dreaming - Martin Wiles

Series: Famous Quotes

“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The year was 1963, and the month was August. Thousands gathered before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Their presence accompanied the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Among them was the famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. Loved by many. Hated by many. In a segregated country, his message rang unpopular with thousands who did not favor breaking down long-held barriers that separated many Americans. 

One hundred years had passed since Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Almost two hundred years had passed since America’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Yet, all people still did not have equal rights in America, among them women and minority groups. King still had a dream it could … and would … happen.

I wish I had been old enough to hear King’s speech in person, but I was only a three-year-old child. But I have stood where he stood when making the speech. And I have walked where thousands gathered to hear his speech. 

Although I was old enough to comprehend his murder a few years later, I didn’t understand its importance. He dreamed, and some didn’t like how he tried to make his dream come true. He led, but many didn’t appreciate his style or his ideas. 

The same held true with Joseph. One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever (Genesis 37:5 NLT).

God destined Joseph for greatness and revealed this greatness to him through two dreams. In one, he saw bundles of grain—representing his family—which bowed to his bundle of grain. In the other, Joseph witnessed the sun, moon, and stars bow to him. 

Joseph’s father wondered what the dreams meant. Joseph’s brothers hated their brother and eventually sold him as a slave. They didn’t want to hear any more of his dreams. Just as a deluded individual thought he could silence King’s dream by ending his life with a bullet. But Joseph’s dream lived on despite his brother’s attempts—and so did King’s. 

Christians debate whether or not God still speaks through dreams and visions, but the issue exceeds whether or not we can put God in a box. The greater lesson is that God does have plans for His people, regardless of how He reveals them. And He has enough power to carry out those plans when we obey—regardless of other’s attempts to squash them. 

We live life at its best when we discover God’s plan and let Him use it to change others’ lives and the world through us. In some capacity, we are all leaders: at home, at work, at church, in society, in our communities. 

If you don’t know God’s plan for you, ask Him. He’ll be more than happy to reveal it.

Prayer: Father, show us your dream for us and then give us the courage to follow it. 

Tweetable: Do you enjoy dreaming? 


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What Can You Do? - Martin Wiles

Series: Famous Quotes

For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers. Hebrews 6:10 NLT

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. - John F. Kennedy

On January 20, 1961, a United States Supreme Court clerk held a large Fitzgerald family Bible and swore in John Fitzgerald Kennedy as the 35^th President of the United States of America. Deep snow, along with sunshine, provided an awe-inspiring background for the speech, which Kennedy delivered from the east front of the Capital. Challenges of the Cold War no doubt contributed to the attendance of more than 20,000 people who braved 20-degree temperatures to hear the speech.

The audience was national and international. Kennedy not only wanted to inspire the nation but also to express his hope for peace in a world marching toward the escalation of nuclear weapons and possible nuclear warfare.

Within his speech came the quote he is still remembered for. One we need to hear again in our age where we have raised a generation who thinks life entitles them to the best, regardless of their efforts.

The writer of Hebrews never says we deserve the rewards or blessings God promises to give us for our service to Him; he merely says God will not forget what we do for others. And serving others is exactly what Kennedy challenged Americans and the world to do.

God measures greatness not by how many serve us—the world’s measuring stick—but by how many we serve. The opportunities to achieve this greatness through acts of kindness abound. And we don’t have to have pleasant circumstances in order to decide whether or not we’ll serve. In the midst of trying times—and financial crunches—we can do things to relieve the hurt of others and to promote peaceful relationships in our family, community, country, and world. 

Whether or not others repay our kindness is immaterial. We serve because God has served us in the most merciful way by allowing His Son to pay our sin debt. Having been released from condemnation, God frees us to be the serving hands and feet He created us to be.

So what can you do? Ask God to show you what you can do for others. He’ll be glad to oblige.

Prayer: Father, we ask You to give us opportunities to show kindness to others.

Tweetable: Are you doing what you can do? 

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