It's Day By Day

God’s vehicle is His church. It has a unique transmission in it: You have to throw it into reverse to go forward. –DA

A single mistake in reasoning can be the doorway into a stadium of error. Although absolutes exist where even criminals rely on mutual trust, the whole of the stadium’s operation has nothing to do with the outside world of truth. –DA

Preachers who fail from the pulpit to root out sin are like mothers who call their children in from their mud holes only to invite them straight to the supper table. That mother’s message is, “Repent (as it were in some measure), or be lost (as it were to some extent). –DA

“Truth is always strong, no matter how weak it looks, and falsehood is always weak, no matter how strong it looks.” —Phillips Brooks

“Insanity is when you think that doing more of what you are already doing will lead to a different outcome.” –Albert Einstein

“Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: His glory shall not descend after him…man that is in honor, and understand not, is like the beasts that perish.” –Psalm 49:16,17,20.

Time is applied mercy. It is volition’s opportunity to obey and return to Eden. Our beginning and ending are held apart by Divine love’s merciful provision. But judgment and retribution wait poised at the door. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3). –DA

Every strategy Satan ever devised has as it’s core element, surprise. –DA

“God is from everlasting to everlasting. In that is the answer to every question, the solution to every problem.” –Dr. Henry M. Morris, creation scientist

It is impossible for our logic-based minds to reason beyond where the sequence disappears into the veil of the absolutely incomprehensible; you cannot get sound argument out of any reason rooted in an unanswerable question. –DA

A mind whose superior intellect is fed by pride in itself cannot bear leaving a mystery where it has been. Error is always on it’s heels. –DA

God’s law of sowing and reaping (Gal. 6:7) is exactly like God’s law of gravity. It is always in present tense. It is forever on the cutting edge of NOW. Step off a cliff and you don’t fall yesterday or tomorrow or later this afternoon., but instantly, NOW. It is always active. Our entire lives are governed by it’s constant existence. We are either blessed by it or cursed by it according to our obedience to it. Just so, God’s law of sowing and reaping requires that even as we sow our life’s seeds we are reaping what has already been sown. It pays young and old alike to be diligent to sow good seed where good seeds belong, and not cast “pearls” to swine. –DA

I can’t resist sharing a very curious observation about the Apostle Paul, his evangelistic efforts, church history, as well as world history. If one looks at a world globe, we see north and south are divided by lines called meridians, while east and west lines are called parallels. The equator is the 50^th parallel, the middle mark between north and south. North of the equator lies the 38^th parallel. A Gospel phenomenon surrounds the history of this parallel. If we were to turn that one into an arrow, Divine purpose would have it pointing westward.

We note that all key events of Gospel movements followed in very close proximity westward along the 38^th parallel. For instance, Paul’s birthplace, Tarsus, lies close to it. Paul’s evangelism ranged westward. Ephesus, Athens, and Corinth lie almost on the 38^th parallel. Paul was martyred at Rome, not that far north of the 38^th parallel. He spoke strongly of going to Spain with the Gospel, and probably did. Southern Spain is divided by the 38^th parallel.

Christopher Columbus, explorer extraordinaire and great Christian launched his ships from close proximity to the 38^th parallel. The Mayflower and it’s Pilgrims, with Bibles and Christian heritage in tow, made landfall and began evangelistic efforts among the Indians near the 38^th parallel. Came then the wagon trains westward with the settlers, virtually Christians all to some extent, bringing their Bibles with them along the 38^th parallel. Saint Lewis, Missouri, with it’s giant arch symbolizing “The Gateway to the West” and the “Jumping Off Place” to the west sits not far from the 38^th parallel.

By far the busiest port of America’s west coast is the great San Francisco Bay, spanned by the mighty Golden Gate Bridge, lying just south of the 38^th parallel. From here multitudes of ships and aircraft were launched in war and peace, blazing trails, opening closed doors to the Gospel in the Pacific islands and the vast Orient, until today the greatest voice of Christianity in the entire Orient radiates from South Korea, home of possibly the largest Pentecostal church in the world, located in the city of Soul, very close to the line of demarcation between North and South Korea which closely follows the 38^th parallel.

West, it seems, is God’s favored direction over north, east, and south, because movement of humanity toward reuniting with our Creator has gravitated westward, including the travels of ancient Abraham. God’s earth rotates eastward causing the sunlight for humanity to travel westward. The Scripture declaring the removal of our transgression “As far as the east is from the west…” (Psalm 103:12) plants the west as the reference point in describing how far east is from it, not the other way around. Prophesying of His coming again (Matt. 24:27) Jesus likens it to the lightening coming out of the east, traveling westward. In fact, we might humorously ask, Is Heaven west?

The east has always had reference to beginnings, with west as future hope and excitement, a welcome of something better. Indeed, the prophet Malachi said, “The sun of righteousness [shall] arise with healing in his wings” (Mal. 4:2), and so the Wisemen saw His star in the east which led them westward toward hope.

We might well ask, does all of this curiosity have meaning? Perhaps. For now, though, the real meaning appears to be hidden in the folds of God’s eternal purpose and pleasure, to be revealed in his own good time. –DA