Thursday, December 1

CS Lewis: Light for the Road

Intro:
"One road leads to home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness."

CS Lewis

"All roads lead to Rome" was the somewhat arrogant statement of the Romans. So sure where they of their predominance that they thought all roads led to them. Talk about drinking the Kool-Aid.

CS Lewis helped me this week. One road leads to home. Many other roads might lead to Rome or the wilderness but our concern is finding the road that leads to home and staying on that road.

You can do it with bread crumbs if you are Hansel and Gretel. But, you know how that turned out!

There are other effective ways to stay on the road. We get some in Psalm 1.

Read: Psalm 1
1How well God must like you— you don't hang out at Sin Saloon, you don't slink along Dead-End Road, you don't go to Smart-Mouth College.

2-3 Instead you thrill to God's Word, you chew on Scripture day and night. You're a tree replanted in Eden, bearing fresh fruit every month, never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.

4-5 You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust— without defense in court, unfit company for innocent people.

6 God charts the road you take. The road they take is Skid Row.

From The Message by Eugene Peterson

Think:
The Road is found in the Word. The Word is a lamp that shines in the darkness showing our feet where to walk on the Road.

The one that finds the Road will sell all he or she has to stay on the Road. I believe the Word said that! Didn't He? The Kingdom of Heaven is like a person that finds a very expensive pearl in an unlikely place ... a field. He sells all he has to buy that field. It would be like finding a million dollars in a used book. Can you imagine how you would feel if you were at the used bookstore and picked up a copy of Orwell's 1984 only to find a million dollars in it? Imagine taking the book to the front counter. Hands shaking. Sweat forming on your forehead. "Got to get out of here with this book."

Psalm One gives us a similar picture. The Psalmist tells his hearers that the Word of God is to be the "delight" of the follower of God. Peterson says it should "thrill" us!

The believer in God, the one that stays on the road to home, is the one that makes the Word of the Lord their passion and delight. This word will keep the believer from the wilderness roads that lead to Sin Saloon, Dead-End Road and Smart-Mouth College.

This word will be the light on the road that leads to Home. This is the road that God watches over (v.6). This is the road that God has charted so you can find home.

Do:
Do you love God's Word? If so, how does it show?

Name 2 things you delight in. Think through that. Delight. That is a level of enjoyment that goes beyond happiness. What do you delight in? Do you delight in the Word of the Lord? Do you read it each day and night? Do you scan its pages in search of the face of God? Do you look for things to obey? Do you read in there your pardon and hope?

Is it your delight? Would your spouse say the Word was your delight? Would your kids? How about your friends?

DevoLink: Devotions to help you Link with God.

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