40 Days Closer to Christ

What if they decided to hold a concert and every member of the orchestra showed up with their instruments tuned anyway they wanted? I’ve been to a few middle school concerts and I have to tell you that it wouldn’t be good. There must be some standard to which all the instruments are tuned, or else you end up with a cacophony. But not only do the instruments need to be tuned, but they need to be tuned to a Master note.

In my house I have three guitars. (Actually since my kids played rock star with one of them only two are playable, but for illustration purposes lets suppose all three can be played.) If I tune one of them to with a pitch pipe or with an electronic tuner than I am pretty sure that it is conditioned for optimal performance. Now I can go to the second guitar and tune it by the first one. And I can get around to tuning the third one by using the second. Theoretically, all three should be tuned up just right. But if I strum a note on the third one, and check it with the tuner, more than likely it will be a little flat or a little sharp. It is just not quite in tune. No matter how good my ear is, a little variation sneaks in as they get tuned down the line. All three guitars have different tones and pitches but if they are all tuned with the electronic tuner and to the same standard then they sound good together.

It is the same way with us. We can get pretty close to where we should be in our spirituality, in our righteousness, and in our walk with God by sharpening ourselves against each other, but we will always be a little off. We need to go back to the Master to make sure that we are where we need to be. It is Christ alone who is the standard by which we measure ourselves. And it is by Him alone that we will be able to perform as we should. That is why we take forty days leading up to Easter and use it to draw closer to Christ and to reestablish our discipleship.

Forty days is the optimal period to form a new habit, to establish a new practice, and to change the pattern of your life. 40 Days – Closer to Christ is an activity (we won’t use the word program) that can change your life.

Forty is a significant number in the scriptures. When God brings about change, the scriptures often represent a significant event as having a forty day duration. Noah’s world was changed forever in forty days. Moses saw God face to face and in forty days received the word which is still the basis for law and government. The city of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes and turned away God’s wrath in the space of forty days. David became a hero after all Israel cowered under Goliath’s forty day challenge. Elijah lived by faith for forty days after God sustained him with one meal. The disciples were given the mysteries of the kingdom as they were taught by the Lord during an intensive forty day seminar after the resurrection. Jesus prepared with a forty day fast for a ministry which culminated in the salvation of mankind.

We can grow closer to the Savior as we study His life and His appearances throughout scripture. We become the people we should as we strive to lead a life of diligent discipleship. In these forty days we can review and renew the vital things that bring us to the Lord. We can refresh our memories and recall the eternal truths of who God is, who we are, and how we can have a close relationship with Him. 40 Days – Closer to Christ is an opportunity to more fully develop that relationship, so that we may see as we are seen and know as we are known.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Day 25 ~ Mediator (1 Timothy 2:5)


It was a frustrating week.

Tuesday: Early in the evening my oldest son informs me that he can't connect to the internet. Not a problem, just unplug the modem and wait for about half a minute then plug it back in. That always seems to work. Nope, Dad, it didn't work. OK, save whatever you're working on and restart the computer. Nope. Didn't work. Perhaps the network is down. We'll try again later.

Wednesday - Check the IP configuration. Release all license, reacquire, still nothing. Check all connections. Make sure DSL filters are secure on all phone lines. Frustration.

Thursday - Ignore problem - pretend everything is fine. Get reacquainted with Minesweeper.

Friday - Still no internet connection. Not good - the connection is needed for work. Kids inform me that they have a big project on Tuesday and they need to do research on the web. Call Verizon Support. Wait on phone for first available rep. Watch two TV shows while on hold. Finally someone comes on the line, I can't understand half of what they're saying - Indian accent too thick. Evidently, somehow the tech rep deduces that the problem is resolved, he thanks me for being a customer and hangs-up. Call back. Enjoy SportsCenter, check the weather, and watch part of Alias. Get another tech on phone. She has her mic so close to her mouth that it sounds like the speaker at a fast food drive-thru. She has no clue either - she finally declares that my IP address has been revoked and gives me an 888 number to restore privileges. I hang-up and call the 888 number - which is no longer in service. I try to do a reinstall of the Internet Explorer. It is a desperation move, but who knows? No success. Move on to bigger desperation and bigger re-install. Pull out Recovery Disks and do a complete application restore. That doesn't work. The reward is that next time we shut off computer it will not reboot. It freezes during the Windows load. I start PC on DOS prompt. Go through Boot and Startup configurations. Can't figure it out. Hair noticeably thinner.

Saturday - Take entire computer to store and ask "Geek Squad" what the startup problem is. After taking a look, no less than five "Geeks" can't see what problem is - suggest hard drive reformat. "It's the only solution." No, it's not. I haven't done a backup in about four months and all the pictures of the new baby are on the hard drive. They are the only copies we have. So I buy a new hard drive and make it the master, and use the old drive as the slave. Windows works wonderfully. All data on the old drive is accessible. But wait, the internet connection still will not work. Consider hammer.

Sunday - Not really ignore the problem. I just realize that whatever I might do at this point would probably be a sin. I have no control over my temperament. I believe that I could probably claim temporary insanity - but why risk it?

Monday - Buy a new 10/100 LAN card, who knows? It could work. Nope. I leave for work a newly converted Luddite.

On Monday night I call my wife from the road and suddenly on the line comes all this static and noise. "Wow, what is that?" asks my wife. "It's not on my end," I reply. On the line comes my seven year old daughter's voice, "Hello Daddy." Why was the line so bad? Where was she talking from? Suddenly the blinding light of revelation was upon me. It turns out that my 10 year old son had received a small cheap five dollar phone for his efforts in a school fund-raiser. Anxious to use his phone he had found an empty phone jack in the basement and plugged it in. And when had he done it? It was last Tuesday night, of course. His phone had so much static that it interfered with the digital signal of my internet connection. Disconnect his phone and Bingo Bango Bongo the internet access is fully restored.

All of us have five dollar phones in our lives. We want to connect to Heavenly Father, but in spite of all we do there is something amiss that disrupts the connection. His side is perfect, but we have something – sometimes things we aren't even aware of - which prevents us from "connecting." Jesus Christ is the Mediator between us and The Father. He is the intercessor. He fixes our "five dollar phone" problem and makes it possible to communicate with our Heavenly Father.
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