Instructing

 Greetings to  you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Psalm 32:8-10 says, “ I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.   Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.  Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.”

     It is always wise and good to follow instructions even when you don’t understand “why.”  I learned at an early age that you saved a lot of time if you followed instructions especially while working on a farm.  Every year, we would put up hay in the upper floor of the barn, called a “hay mow.”  The hay was baled in rectangular bales weighing around 55 pounds or so.  When it was time to use the hay for feeding the cows during milking, about five or six bales were dropped through a trap door to the main floor and then needed to be transferred to the manger for feeding the cows.  By this time, the bales were secured with baling twine which held the folds of hay together.  One day, a new worker dropped the hay through the trap door and then proceeded to cut the twine thus making each bale pop open much to the owners disgust as now each fold need to be taken by hand to the manger.  He was grumbling the rest of the night.  The new worker had not followed the instructions.

     We have in our possession a book that has a lot of instructions written down as a guide for our very lives andif followed will lead us to heaven and give us a “Godly” life while we live here on this earth.    The Psalmist in the above passage reminds us that we will be instructed by God Himself and we have that instruction in the Bible.  Do we understand all of the instructions?  We probably would admit that we don’t understand all of them but we seek to do them simply because God said so.    How would you like to have been the Levitical priest carrying the ark of God across the Jordan river and God had promised for you to do it on dry ground while t he water in front of you was raging at that time of the year?  The flow of water didn’t stop until the Levite put forth his foot to take that first step.  The Apostle Paul gave the Ephesian church the instruction on how to “walk” the life of the believer .  Five examples are given in the last three chapters of how to conduct your life in the world today.  Driving an old truck in the field was a challenge for me as I soon learned what “double clutch” meant.  If you follow the instructions, all goes well.  How are things going in  your life today?  Are you following God’s instruction manual?  Praise God today for His Word.