SIGNS OF LIFE….

Some of the funniest things in life are often the most obvious. Take signs for instance. Some of my favorite over the years have been road signs. Like the sign beside the road that you see at the bottom of a very high hill in Kentucky that says “Kingdom Come”. Or the sign underneath the warning sign for curvy road ahead that some very innovative state employee strategically placed saying “Good Luck!” Church signs are great as well, like “What the economy needs is not more cash, but more sense!” Or how about “Don’t let worries kill you, let the church help”. Here’s a good one, “If evolution were true, Mom’s would have three arms!” I love em all! Signs are important whether they make us laugh or simple give us needed direction in life. Some are there to help us, some to protect us, some to lead us and some perhaps to inform us. I was in a local grocery store recently and observed a little girl who was diligently walking behind her grandmother collecting all the little red sale shelf stickers she could. She had been at it for a few aisles already when I spotted her hard at work in the cereal aisle. She must have had a hundred or so in her little play purse she was carrying! I happened to be just ahead of them when Grandma caught site of her little darling’s project. “Oh My Goodness Sally Ann, What are you doing”, She shrieked. I just crept around the corner looked up and thanked the Lord again for my deliverance from retail!

Signs are a necessary part of life; in fact signs sometimes bring life. I have been thinking of the wise men in scripture. Remember, we just recently read of their travels during the Christmas season. What brought them toward Bethlehem in the first place was a sign. The sign led them first to Jerusalem where they found the scriptures. The scriptures then pointed them to Bethlehem where they found Jesus. Did you get the progression here? The sign, the scripture, the savior. That’s how we find Jesus as well if you think about it. Something gets our attention in life, a sign. We are led to the scriptures, through preaching, teaching, or song. Then we find the savior at last. Are signs important? You bet!

As we began to move from 2008 to 2009 I found myself studying the story of the young nation of Israel’s progression into a new land in Joshua chapter three. Because of their unbelief, Israel was sentenced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Those years have now expired and the children of Israel are poised to enter Canaan Land.  They are ready to claim their inheritance in the land of promise. However, before they can enter Canaan, they must first get by the one final, major obstacle: the Jordan River. Normally, this would not have presented much of a problem, since the Jordan is only 100 feet wide at Gilgal where they crossed. However, it seems God always does things in such a way that no man can boast of having done it on his own. You see, God brought them to Jordan at the time of harvest. Those who have been there during the time of Harvest tell us that during that time it swells to an impassable width of 1 mile! Kind of like the bottoms between Portsmouth and West Portsmouth when it’s flood season! There was no way they could cross this river on their own! They needed help. Let’s listen in… “ And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore” Did you catch the last line? You have not been here before! You know as we journey into a new year perhaps we would be wise to listen to God’s advice to Joshua and crew. In these four verses The Lord says to them three important things. First, he tells them to watch. “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it,”. That ark represented God in their midst, so he was saying keep your eye on me. Pretty good advice eh? Notice secondly he tells them to follow. “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.” In other words, when you see where I am going, follow after me. So they were to watch God, follow God and thirdly they were to honor God. “Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore” A space, why a space? Because it was God that was going to perform a miracle and get the through the waters, not them. He was to receive the honor for what was about to happen and they could in no way take credit for it. God would be honored as they put him first in trust and faith. Watch, follow and honor the Lord. Not bad advice moving into a new year is it?  So what kind of signs are you following into a new year?  I think Yogi Berra had it right, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else!”