I Just Don't See It

Over the past few months I have observed a building under construction.

I passed by it every day during my commute.

I observed the excavation.

I saw the foundation laid.

I watched the steel girders go up.

I observed additional concrete poured.

I saw men at work inside the building busy at various tasks.

Each day I passed by I could see the progress that was being made.

What made this interesting was that I only saw this building from a corner view.

When work began on the exterior of the building, workers started on the side of the building to my left.

That phase completed they began working on the side of the building to my right.

Once that was complete, I could no longer see inside the building.

I also could not see the exterior work on the far side of the building.

Looking at things only from my perspective, it appeared that all work had stopped.

All the while work continued.

I just could not see it based on my limited view.

That is often how it is with God.

We are certainly aware of the problems in our lives.

We are also aware of some the problems in our world.

Sometimes we can easily see God at work.

Sometimes, from our limited view, it appears that no progress is being made at all.

At such times, it is very easy for us to assume that God is not doing anything about them.

In truth, He is.

We just can’t see it from our limited human perspective.

Hebrews 11:1 (NET) - Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.

God is not a distant and casual observer.

He is an active participant in all our lives.

This is also true during those times when we see no progress.

Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com/ on Friday, November 25, 2016.

I’ll be back here on Friday, December 2, 2016

Sin is Overt

There is a car dealership I pass every morning and every evening.

What is most noticeable about it during the daytime is their large sign which displays their family name of Covert.

At night, the dealership is even more noticeable.

Lights are turned on and their facility is flooded with light.

Even their sign lights up.

In this state, both the sign and facility can be seen from quite far away.

The dictionary defines the word covert as “not openly displayed”.

I find it more than a bit interesting that a place that attracts so much attention could have the word “covert” attached to it.

This forced me to consider how sin impacts our relationship with God.

Each of us, myself included, is guilty of sin.

1 John 1:8 (NET) - If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Whether a sin we commit is intentional or not, we would prefer to hide it.

Hiding it from others is one thing.

Given enough time, we might eventually be able to hide it from ourselves.

We might even think about hiding it from God.

That simply is not possible,

Sin impacts our relationship with God and there is absolutely no way to hide it from Him.

It is no more hidden from Him than that car dealership and its large sign that are both lit up at night.

That is why confession is so important.

It is confession that mends our relationship with Him.

1 John 1:9 (NET) - But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at http://otherbrotherjim.blogspot.com/ on Friday, November 11, 2016.

I’ll be back here on Friday, November 18, 2016