Street Signs Show Spiritual Message

If you're like me, you've thought ahead about what this new year could hold. I admit, I wonder. Truth is, a good bit of the time, we don't know what God is up to—we just know that He says to us—trust Me.

Some work is being done in and around our neighborhood right now that I think depicts this spiritual truth of trusting God. If anyone reading lives in the neighborhood, or if anyone has lived through similar road construction, how many times did you like me keep forgetting we had a detour before you remembered we couldn't go our usual way?

I can't pass a sign that I don't think about the spiritual parallel meaning in it...so I naturally did what any blogger would do: I jumped out of my car and took pictures. Don't worry! Only once did I nearly get killed! 

I'm just kidding. ☺ I really felt there was a spiritual message for all of us shouting out in big black letters on bold orange signs. That's one way for God to get our attention!

Do you ever feel like you are wasting your time having to go the "long" way around to get to your destination? Ever wonder what on earth is going on to cause you to have to go what appears so far out of your way to get where you are going? We don't have to know what the master planner is doing to obey and take the detour, do we? 
We just have to obey and do what the sign says! The planner has an overall plan that is in our best interest, and we may have to be inconvenienced for a time for our greater good. So it is with God. He has a whole lot of people in mind in the working out of His will in our lives. Our job is to simply trust and obey.

Ever wish God could just send you a warning sign that a bump in the road was coming? Truth is eventually we all face a bump in the road. Here the driver can slow down and prepare. We too, need to prepare by abiding in Christ and slowing down to spend time with Him. That way, when the bump comes, we are not surprised, but ready and prepared for it. The same Christ who we take time to abide in as a way of life is the same Christ who stays with us as we go through the "bumps" in life.

Isn't it frustrating when you think you are headed in the right direction and suddenly the sign says, "Road Closed Ahead." My first reaction is usually, "Whaatttt? What do you mean this road is closed? It was open yesterday!" For the Christian, we don't have to pitch a fit or get overwhelmed. We can rest in knowing that God is the one who open and closes all doors in our lives. Someone once said, "God's refusals are His greatest mercies."

Sometimes don't you just want someone to tell you what to do? That is what we have in the Lord. God gave us 66 books called the Bible to show us the way. He tells us His word will be a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path. We can read His word and pray, and He will guide us. I love the verse that says, "Our God...We don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You." (2 Chronicles 20:12)

Sometimes it seems like our circumstances will never change. In some ways they will, and in some ways they won't. I remember when I worked in sales for Xerox Corporation. I had a great position with them, but I longed to be a full time stay-at-home-mother. I kept asking, "How long, Lord?" He would gently remind me to trust Him. You know what? After 14 years with Xerox, my last day finally came. God gave me the desires of my heart to be home with my little children. 
Some things though will not change until we get to heaven. God is not finished with us here on earth and He will continue to conform us to the image of His son until we see Him face-to-face.  There is much work to be done! Bad habits need to conquered, wrong attitudes need to be changed, sin needs to be rooted out. We need transformation and God accomplishes the work as we trust in Him.
One day we shall become like Him, and our faith will become sight! Then our work on earth will be over, and we shall enter glory with Jesus forever and forever! Amen!

❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧

There was one more orange sign that I saw for the first time just, today, January 15, 2013. I have never seen this sign before. I couldn't take a picture of it if I wanted to, because it was in a dangerous spot, just past a busy intersection. 

No matter anyway, I thought as I drove past it and even laughed inside at the thought of such a random sign. That sign that has absolutely no meaning in our spiritual parallel talk today—that's for sure!

Then something made me ponder that sign one more time as I drove toward our house.

It contained only three words.

"Tree work ahead."

Tree work.

He was lifted up and nailed to a tree. He was crushed for our transgressions. The Lord has laid on Him the punishment that was due us.

No, the final sign was not an irrelevant and random sign.

Some may think of Christ as completely irrelevant and totally random and pay Him no attention. Just like with the road signs—to ignore the sign is dangerous resulting in serious consequences like not getting to our destination.

So you see, the greatest work that was ever accomplished on earth was what Jesus did upon that tree. The cross was made from a tree. On that cross, he bore all the sin of the world. He bore all past sin and all future sin in human history—past and forward. He bore my sin. He bore your sin.

No, this tree work is not ahead—it's behind. Christ said on the cross, "It is finished." He finished the work the Father gave Him to do.

That was over two thousand years ago.

We live on this side of the cross! The "it is finished" side!*  

Oh that more could know that Christ is so relevant and that to ignore Him is the most dangerous decision on earth! It's like driving past the danger warning sign and then driving right off a cliff. For to ignore Him will have eternal consequences resulting in where one will spend eternity!

*Those who lived before the cross were saved by looking ahead to the cross and believing God. 

It's all about believing God and putting our trust in Him through what Christ did for us.

We don't know what 2013 holds, but we know the One who holds the future!

God doesn't send us a blueprint of what's to come in each of our lives, does He? He simply tells us two little words: trust Me.

"You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

~Psalm 16:11

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight."
~Proverbs 3:5-6

Walk by Faith,