Another Law

TITLE: Another Law
DATE:  August 14, 2019
TEXT: Colossians 1: 21-23a - ESV -  And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation[g] under heaven

We all know “Murphy’s Laws.” You remember things like:

• If anything can go wrong it will.
• The other line always moves faster.
• In order to get a personal loan, you must first prove you don't need it.

Today’s Devotion deals with another one of those laws:

“The day you need an item will be the day
after you threw it away because you never needed it.”

Case in point. When Apollo 11 landed on the moon, the moving pictures were transmitted to Australia’s Parkes Observatory. They recorded the historic films and sent them on to NASA. NASA they distributed the now famous lunar activities to the world. Of course, with each transmission the quality became a bit poorer.

So what to do? Go back to the original, obviously.

Sadly, Australia said, “We didn’t know you would want those videos. They’re gone. We’ve taped over them.” NASA said, ”We didn’t know anyone would want those tapes, so we sold them at a government auction of surplus goods in 1976.”
​
 It’s true, Gary George a NASA intern bought the “earliest, sharpest, and most accurate surviving video images of man's first steps on the moon: for $217.77.  Sotheby’s sold those tapes last week for $1.82 million dollars.

You know, that’s what a lot of people do with their faith and their relationship with the Savior.

They say to themselves, ”I really haven’t used it that much” or “All it does is slow me down when I’m out partying with friends” or “It really doesn't have any purpose in a modern world”... and they get rid of it. Some deliberately throw it in the trash as unwanted and unneeded. Others just sort of put it up on the shelf where it’s out of the sight and mind.

Either way, the day is going to come when they are going to need that faith.

As the Lord has promised, there is an unknown day and an unknown hour when the Savior and all the angels in heaven are going to show up. In a second, in a moment, in the blink of an eye Jesus will be here and all humanity will be divided into saved and lost.

There will be no time to retrieve that faith from the shelf or search around the dump for wherever your discarded faith had been deposited.

Which is why, like Paul, we pray

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, help us to continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that we heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation[g] under heaven. This we ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The devotion for today was inspired by various recent news articles. For further reading you may wish to go to this address: https://www.newser.com/story/278182/his-217-auction-find-sells-for-18m.html and the article written by Arden Dier .
The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html