What a “Cowinkydink”

My Belief

                           

In addition to being an airline pilot I also own a crashpad in the New York area. A crashpad is simply a place where airline people crash. Pilots and Flight Attendants often live in a totally different part of the world then where they are based.  Our crashpad just consists of a house and a car that we can all use when we are in our base. It is sort of like a “home away from home”. As a crashpad owner I have gotten pretty good at dealing with all sorts of little maintenance issues. I have a whole list of service people and technicians on speed dial that take care of the house and car.  Well, not to long ago I was on a long overnight outside of the country. I was in Canada and I got a call on my cell phone about a problem some of they guys where having with the car. They called me and told me that the car would not start and it was located in a secure employee parking lot. This was a big problem for me. Not only was I in Canada where my phone costs a lot of money for international calling rates, but it would be a major headache to try to tow a car out of a secure parking lot. I was stuck! Usually, I can handle this sort of thing easily, but this was the perfect storm. I could not really use my phone to make arrangements, our car was stuck where it could not be accessed, and my fellow crashpad buddies were stuck late at night. The only thing I could do was pray. I bowed my head and told God. I’m stuck. I don’t know how to solve this problem. I need help in dealing with this because I don’t know what to do. No sooner had I finished praying when I heard my phone ringing again. I picked it up and one of the guys who was stuck said, “your never going to believe this”! I was nearly frantic to know what had happened. He told me that one of the guys had been removing his luggage from the trunk when he noticed a loose wire. He started playing with the loose wire while the other guy was trying to start the car. Immediately the car sprang to life and they were able to leave the parking lot and go back to the crashpad.

You explain it anyway that you want to, but I am 100% sure that God helped me that night. The odds of these guys stumbling on the problem and being able to easily correct it when I was without a solution had to be ridiculously small. It may seem like a coincidence, but that may be exactly how God prefers to operate. I heard a preacher say in a sermon once that coincidence is God’s way of staying anonymous. He also said, “isn't it funny that when we pray, coincidence happens, and when we don’t pray it doesn't happen.

Scripture

John 14:14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Matt 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

Application for life

God answers prayer! We have the awesome ability to pray to God all the time about everything. I do think that there are times though when God takes special attention in answering our prayers. Those times when it feels like we have no answers, and we don’t know what to do. In those times if we turn to God, then He steps up, taps us on the shoulder and reminds us He has been here all along.

The Best Prayer

My Belief

I felt tired starting a recent 4 day trip. It’s been a hard working summer for me. I feel like I have done about 4 Billion laps across the USA. Even so, I still wanted to be used by God. I wanted to share Jesus with whoever I may fly with, but I really didn’t feel like I had it in me that week. I didn’t feel energized, upbeat or like I was going to be able to start very good conversations. I was sort of in that mode where the best I could do was to simply get the job done. Well, in this situation I prayed my favorite thing to pray. It is just simply to tell God, “Please use me Lord. Please give me opportunity to do your work, whatever it may be.” Let me tell you what, God answers prayer and God takes whatever little bit we have and uses it to His Glory. 

My First Officer was a nice enough guy. In fact, he seamed really nice. He was polite and respectful and not bitter about the current economic situation. We started chatting a little and one thing led to another and he told me that he was a Christian. This was a shock to me. I never have anyone try to tell me about Jesus! Well, all my fatigue faded away and my curiosity was in overdrive. I had not told him that I was a Christian yet so I saw this as a golden opportunity to see what he really believed. I prodded him with all the common questions that I get like “What does Christian even mean? Who is Jesus? Do you really believe all that crazy stuff in the Bible? Well Jews and Muslims believe in God, are they going to Heaven too? Let me tell you what, he had trouble answering my questions. His HEART was absolutely in the right place but his knowledge of the Bible and of his faith was lacking. I was like a kid in a candy shop. I stopped him and told him that I am also a follower of Jesus and that I could help him clean up all these rough spots in his answers. Throughout the course of the 4 day trip we had great conversations about eternal security, creation vs. evolution, the accuracy of the Bible, and God’s plan for the nation of Israel. It was exactly what I needed. God not only let me do a job for Him, but He gave me one that would refresh my own spirit.  My First Officer was encouraged and fired up to share his knowledge of the Bible, and I had a new partner to help share the Love of Jesus with who ever will listen.

Scripture

Isaiah 40:31

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;
       they will run and not grow weary,
       they will walk and not be faint.

Application for Life

The very best prayer we can pray is one that brings Glory to God. When we pray with a sincere heart to be used by God, He answers that prayer. If we offer up whatever we have left to God, He will take it and do amazing and wondrous things with it.

Performance Driven!?!?

My Belief                                       

As I so often am, I was knee deep in a conversation about Jesus Christ and Salvation with a First Officer of mine. We had gotten all the way down to the deep nuts and bolts of it. I was telling him that it was all about Grace and not about anything you could do on your own. He was in disbelief and exclaimed to me this, “You mean to tell me that if a baby raping murderer confesses Jesus as Lord and asks for forgiveness he will be saved, but if a Buddhist monk spends his entire life in faithful service to his community but never finds Christ he will burn in HELL?!?!” My response was, “100%, ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!!!”

This is so important to understand in our Christian lives. We are on a GRACE system not a human performance system. We DID NOT get salvation because of our good performance and WE WILL NOT lose it because of our bad performance. God has given a FREE gift to each of us that will believe and call Jesus Lord. It is not of ourselves and not of our works so that NO ONE can boast before God. As I have said before if you stand before God and say it was 99% Jesus and even 1% you, then that is an absolute STRIKE OUT!. If you can say it is 1% or more your own effort than you can boast before God that you helped, did it, or at least gave it the “old college try”. God says that will never happen. Nobody will boast before almighty God. No one will take away from the FINISHED work of Jesus on the cross. We are undeserving and only God’s amazing LOVE has given us the GRACE to have relationship with him and hope for the future.

Scripture

1 Corinthians 3:11-15

¹¹For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. ¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Application for Life

If you sin then you need to ask for forgiveness so you can be back in relation with God. YOU DID NOT LOSE YOUR SALVATION. All of us fall short and on our best day we don’t even come close to the perfection of Christ. Nothing measures up to the standard of Jesus. That is why the Law/Word was give…to show us how far away from the mark we are! Grace means that it is all Jesus and none you. Embrace Jesus' free gift of life and forget about yourself.