Anchor 1: A well broken-in Bible

Anchor 2: Calloused Knees

Anchor 3:

WORN OUT SHOES – Romans 10:15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of them who bring good news…”  Are you seeking to tell others about the Lord Jesus?  He is the only Savior anyone can ever have and they cannot have Him unless they are told about Him (Romans 10:13-14).  When you tell, you have to leave the harvest in the hands of God.  You sow the seed.  You don’t make it grow.  Not ready to tell?  Then make a list of people you think need the Lord that you wish you could tell. Don’t tell anybody (yet).  Now put some calluses on your knees for the people on this list.  Sometime you might begin saying, “Lord, please give me the opportunity to tell (a particular person) about Christ.  See what happens.  Get trained in faith sharing.  Call Clay Smith’s office (clay@shandon.org or 782-1300 x186) and ask for help in doing so. 

Anchor 4: Well worn Church Clothes

In my first post, I talked about the first of five helps to anchor your life in Christ.  As a reminder, these steps don’t do the anchoring; only a relationship the Lord Jesus Christ can.  However, practicing these 5 things great greatly influence the level of anchordness (is this a word?) that you feel.

Step 1 – a Broken-In Bible

Step 2 - CALLOUSED KNEES 

 Talking is relating and relating requires talking.  Prayer is talking to God and is absolutely essential to a relationship with Him.  At my college roommate’s funeral, I had the privilege of talking with Pat Conroy.  He related that several times a year his grandpa, Pete, would stay at their home for a month at a time.  When he did, he always slept in the bottom bunk and Pat in the top.  He said every night his grandpa would review his day with the Lord.  “Lord, you know that today I tried to talk with that woman at the store about You and …” I think sometimes we try too hard to be profound when we pray when all we need to do is talk with God.  Do you?  How often?  About what? 

Next Post: Worn Out Shoes

Over the next week or so, I will publish 5 things that can help to anchor your life.

           Before I tell you about these anchors and how they look, let me make sure you don’t think these keep you anchored to God.  He anchors Himself to you and the anchor line cannot be broken.  These are the things you do because they deepen your sense of being anchored but do not create it.  This past Saturday I gave Patty 12 red roses because I love her like no one else on earth and because she is my wife.  The gift did not cause me to be either married to her nor to be more married to her.  They did enhance my joy in a marriage we already had.  These disciplines will do that for your commitment to God, and that is all they are designed to do.

 Help 1 - A BROKEN-IN BIBLE 

You must become a Bible reader.  It is God’s Word to anyone who reads it.  Your Bible should be a broken-in, well-used book with the feel of something used regularly.  Problems I hear people have that prevent them from having a well-read Bible are:

1.   I don’t understand it.
2. My mind wanders.
3. I don’t see the point of parts of it.

             ANSWERS:

1.  I don’t understand it all either, but I understand it much better as I read it than I do when not understanding it is my excuse for not reading it.
2.  My mind wanders when I fish, watch a movie, talk with Patty, or talk to myself.  So what?  I still go fishing because a wandering mind doesn’t stop the enjoyment of fishing. The same goes for Bible reading. 
3.  I don’t see the point of roses, but Patty does, so I give her roses.  I don’t see the point of genealogies, but African ancestor worshippers who are brought to Christ are more blessed by the genealogies in the Old Testament than by any other part of the Book.  Since when does anything have to mean something to me to be worth my time or money?  Read in faith that it’s in there for a reason and keep at it.  You need to learn to do that about a lot of things – might as well start with Scripture.

Next Time: CALLOUSED KNEES

Every Christian is meant to experience God.  The book of 1 John speaks to ways we experience Him.  In my last two blogs, we saw that one way we experience Him is that we have a new relationship with sin.  In chapter two we see we achieve stability as a ship at anchor is stabilized.  John doesn’t use the term “anchor” in 1 John 2, but the Christian life is certainly described here as anchored.

             Notice all the affirmative statements in 2:12-14.  “Your sins are forgiven.”  “You know Him.”  “You have already overcome the evil one.”  “You are strong.”  “The Word of God abides in you.”  Anchored, solid, and stable.  What a contrast to the hyper spirituality of the heresy of Gnosticism which said you need to know more and more and be more and more pure but could never tell them how much more of either.  For them the carrot of God’s love and approval was always within reach but never in the mule’s mouth.  For the Christian, God in His grace hands the carrot to His people.

             The promise of stability is a wonderful promise in a world as unstable as ours.  I hope you are growing in being anchored, but I warn you.  Unless you get anchored rightly, when things in your world get better, the anchor of Christ can start to feel like a ball and chain.  Remember, rightly anchored doesn’t mean just staying in the same place all the time.  It means you are willingly connected to Christ by faith and surrender and are being drawn to Him by the work of the Holy Spirit.  If this is not the nature of your anchoring, it may not feel like a blessing to you the way it should.

 Anchored Rightly…and NOT

             The worst possible way to be anchored is when you are rowing like crazy in another direction.  When we are dishonest, immoral, or drugged, yet we have honestly accepted Christ as our Savior, His Spirit, Word, and church are annoyances to us.  They’re more like a dog barking when we’re trying to sleep.  The problem for you is God is always right.  If you ever get right with God, you’ll be glad He didn’t say, “Oh, it’s ok.  You go ahead.  I understand.” 

             Another unhelpful way to be anchored is when Christ is like a heavy weight on the bottom that keeps you from going anywhere.  This keeps you from harm but also keeps you from growing and having any Christian dynamic about your life.  This, unfortunately, is what too often passes for Biblical Christianity.  It feels stable to us but looks stuck to others and to God.  The old song, “I Will Not Be Moved” meant I will not be shifting constantly.  It did not mean I will not change as God leads me.

             Christ, our anchor, functions in our lives like the ancient anchor post.  These were found at the ends of piers in the ancient world.  A rope passing through the anchor post was fastened to a ship so that it both kept the ship from danger and thereby made it stable but also drew it home, changing its position.  Our lives are designed to be both stable and changing.  What a reassuring and excitingly dynamic relationship with the Lord this proves to be.  In the next blog please look for anchors that are available to us that produce both stability and dynamic.