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.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Day 5 ~ The Way (John 14:6)


Giuseppe de Venuto struggled to stay awake until he reached the fresh air. He looked back into the blackness of the tunnel. He knew what had happened. He ran as fast as he could through the early March night. He made his way through the darkness over the train tracks. He crossed trestles and ran through blacker tunnels. He arrived at the Balvano Train Station two and half hours later, scrapped and bruised, he had crawled some of the way. He immediately drew the attention of the Station Master as he entered the room. Giuseppe pointed back up the tracks from which he came. "They're all dead," he exclaimed. Then he collapsed.

There have been some spectacular train accidents. Derailments, collisions, explosions, bombings; rail history is fodder for Hollywood special effects. But one of the worst train disasters in history was less than explosive. It happened without jarring impact. It was completely bloodless. 500 people simply went to sleep.

On the night of March 2, 1944, Freight Train 8017 left Salerno, Italy. It was World War II and the train traveled without lights through the winter night to avoid the attention of enemy bombers. A cold wind was bringing freezing rain, but that didn't stop 650 people from jumping aboard the 47-car non-passenger train. 100 of these rode on flatcars in the frigid night. Many were black market opportunists. They bartered with servicemen for cigarettes, candy, and gum, and then they exchanged these commodities for farm products. To reach the farmers they stole rides on freight trains which were forbidden to carry passengers. But hundreds of people rode these trains every day, another fact that went unnoticed, officially. The excessive weight of the passengers caused the two-locomotive train to creep slowly along its way.

Train 8017 crept through the Appenine Mountains passing through several tunnels. The cover brought temporary relief to the freezing hitchhikers on top of the train. 8017 passed the station at Balvano around 12:50 A.M. on March 3rd and chugged uphill toward the next station at Bella-Muro only five miles away. Two hours later it still had not reach Bella-Muro. The Bella-Muro Stationmaster was worried but decided not to walk the tracks until morning. At 5:10 A.M. he received a call from Balvano. Giuseppe de Venuto had just passed out on the Balvano station floor.

Investigators arrived to find an eerie sight. Train 8017 had crept into the mile long tunnel named the Galleria delle Armi. Halfway through the tunnel, the drivewheels of the two locomotives began to slip. The train lost traction and stopped. As the train strained to move in the darkness, the tunnels trapped the carbon monoxide produced by the locomotives burning their low-grade coal, causing 526 people to die of carbon monoxide poisoning. The passengers just went to sleep as they sat in the darkness. Analysts surveyed the locomotives. They found that the leading locomotive was unbraked, its controls set in reverse. The second locomotive was also unbraked, but its throttle was positioned "full ahead." The two locomotives had pulled against each other, each engineer having fatally different ideas about what to do. The train was going in two different ways!

Proverbs teaches "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death"(14:12). Alternatively, "the way of righteousness [is] life" (12:28). Jesus has showed us the way. He is the way back to the Father. He is the way to forgiveness for sins. He is the way that leads to eternal life. There is no other way. And yet there are many who pull against Him. They strain and struggle to go their own way and do their own thing, even as they claim to be yoked with him. They weigh themselves down with unnecessary and often, unlawful burdens and then complain that they cannot make any headway on the journey. A wise sister in the gospel once said, Living the gospel is easy, it is half living it that is hard. Half living the gospel is like doing a spiritual cha-cha, for any two steps you take in any direction you come dancing back two steps and you wind up never going anyplace. Half living the gospel is like having your controls set in different directions as you spin your wheels in the dark. We must press forward with Christ or we may never get to where we are supposed to be going. And we will never see what's coming.
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