2001-11-15 - Need a Guide?

Acts 8:30-31 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. ³¹ "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (NIV)

I committed the ultimate sin for a male driver tonight. I stopped and asked for directions. You ladies are probably laughing and cheering and taunting your husbands or boyfriends. But please be gracious and know that I was good and lost before I stopped - as usual.

Why is it so hard for some people to ask for directions? Of course there are times when we simply must struggle through and try. There is simply no option but to make the attempt or fail. But this gentleman that Phillip met needed to stop and ask directions as much as I did tonight. There are points in the Bible, and in technical reading and even in the owners manual of your new whatever that are not always easy to understand. There are times when we need a Guide. There is no shame in it. The only One Who knows everything created the universe with the power of His word. When you stop learning, you start to die. So don't be afraid of asking questions.

There are times when anyone can be a Guide. When you sit in a class with a PhD who is speaking on a subject or are listening to Dr. Graham you expect to learn new things. But even children, new believers or someone brand new to a subject can have insights that refreshes a truth or connect two truths in a new way for someone. The old saying that, "out of the mouths of babes" come truths so clear that they are irrefutable is very very true. Paul admonished Titus to not let people devalue his teaching because of his youth.

Be open to learning. Continue to be humble in Spirit and pride will not get in your way. When you are sure you can not learn from someone, you are only cheating yourself. Teachers need to be humble as well. A comic who laughs at his own jokes often has an audience of one. Reach to someone at their level and in a way that the information or truth will be easy for them to understand and accept. We are all students and teachers at different times. If we learn to hear what God has to say from different situations and people, if we learn to hear the still small voice in the wind, we will have far better direction in our lives. The Master becomes our Guide.

Grace & Peace,
Mike

mhoskins@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org