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Garmin sells a GPS they call “DriveSmart.”  It is one of those “navigation systems” for your car that tells you how to get where you are going.  This deluxe model does more than that.  It also gives you traffic updates and suggests alternate routes to get you to your destination with as little trouble as possible.

Our outfit, the church, offers guidance also.  We call our deluxe model, “the Bible.”  It has many features and is indispensable to get you to your destination.   

There are similarities between what we offer and Garmin offers.  The Bible has plenty of warnings in it.  The most famous is the Ten Commandments.  But there are plenty of other kinds of guidance.  Our life navigation system, the Bible, also contains warnings.  “Do not store up treasures on earth where moth and rust consume,” for example.  Or “Don’t build your house on sand.”  Instead build your house on the rock which is the Word of God.  “Beware the leaven of the Pharisees.”  “Do not worry so much.”  Don’t cheat in business.

The Bible tells you how to get to your destination.  What is your destination?  The kingdom of heaven.  How do you get there?  With Jesus.

There is one promise the Garmin GPS makes that the Bible cannot.  The GPS will get you to your travel destination avoiding trouble.  Sometimes following the Bible thrusts us right into the middle of trouble!  How many people have given their lives because of their faith?  How many people have been sent to prison because of standing for what God demands?  The apostles were jailbirds!  The got arrested and locked up for trouble they caused with their preaching and healing.  The Bible is dynamite!  It calls itself a razor sharp sword.  In Hebrews we read, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”(ESV)  God’s Word is like the surgeon’s scalpel.  It opens us up and reveals what is wrong inside.  But more than a scalpel it is a sword, attacking us and piercing us until we at last turn to God for mercy, healing and – yes – direction!  Handle with care.  Don’t pick up this book if you don’t want to change. 

My GPS is mounted to my windshield by my rearview mirror.  I only need it when I drive.  But I need the Word of God every minute of every day.  And I yearn for the fulfillment of God’s promise in Jeremiah 31 that he will write his law on our hearts. 

And remember that in the gospel of John, Jesus himself is called the “logos,” the Word of God.  And Jesus is with us always – and will remain so till the close of the age when we shall be forever with him.  Till then, God’s Word is lamp our feet and a light to our path and we live to know Jesus, follow Jesus and serve others in Jesus’ name. 

Want to pray with me?  “Guide us, heavenly Father.  As we make decisions and go about our lives, stir us within with your Holy Spirit and show us your will.  Help us to avoid mistakes which dishonor you.  Jesus promised that he stands at the door and knocks and would come in and be with us.  Help us to open that door.  He promised “ask and you will receive.”  Help us to know how to ask.  And thanks, God, for the Bible.  Write its words on our hearts we pray.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.”