Devotion for Today "Look Right before Left" 2 Corinthians 10:8-18
The first of the week I paid a visit to Spurgeon's College in the south of London with
two American ministry collegues. Perhaps these men had fully examined their faith, got their
house in order, and knew where they stood with the Lord because they had elected me to drive
on that venture. True, I lived in that country for over four years- but that did not mean
I knew how to drive there. Actually I must admit I did not do all that badly with a right-
hand-drive vehicle, shifting the gears with my left hand and trying my best to remember to
stay to the left. Actually I only made one mistake- a mistake that could have been fatal
had not the Lord intervened miraculously on our behalf. As we were looking for the
entrance to Spurgeon's College, I passed the entrance and realized that I needed to go back.
As there was no place to turn around in the street, I made a left turn off the main road to
make a block around. Someone suggested that I should just turn around in a drive way. I
didn't want to tell him that I had trouble getting the car in reverse, so I made another
left and then another until I came to the top of the hill to turn right and recover the
error which I had made. On this steep hill I was riding the clutch and after I stopped at
the stop sign, the car stalled. The excitement of the thought of rolling backwards down the
hill behind me threw me into a momentary lapse once I got the car started again. I looked
left for oncoming traffic. Not seeing any I turned right when suddenly an older model
Vauxhall station wagon containing an elderly gent and his wife was barreling down the hill.
When I turned into their path my passengers went pale. Fortunately the other driver
managed to stop, but not without a severe blast on the horn and flailing his hands in the
air. His wife scowled at me, and shook her finger at me as if to say, "No, no, no, no, no!"
My fear turned to embarrassment and I instantly apologized to my crew who had dived under
their seats.
"I'm so sorry!" I said, "I looked left when I should have been looking right! I know I
must have scared that poor old couple to death!"
"That's all right," said Bob Bade, European Baptist Convention's Education Director, "You
got their blood pumping! That's probably the only exercize they will have gotten all day
long!"
We had a good laugh about that and drove on and parked safely at the College. I was very
glad to have learned a good lesson- when driving in Britain, look right before left.
In our devotional text today we read in 2 Corinthians 10:8-18
8. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us
for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
9. That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
10. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak,
and his speech contemptible.
11. Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent
, such will we be also in deed when we are present.
12. For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that
commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves
among themselves, are not wise.
13. But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of
the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
14. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you:
for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:
15. Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours; but
having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
16. To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line
of things made ready to our hand.
17. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
18. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.
When God tells us something in His Word, it is not for our destruction; it is for our
edification- if not for our survival. To ignore what He says can be as deadly as my forgetting
to look right before left. Those who represent God, like Paul, are often received and
treated with disdain because man's pride does not like another telling him what he ought to
do. That was the attitude of the Corinthian believers. Perhaps they understood already
that they were in error, but they didn't like Paul telling them about it so they chafed at
what he had to say with a passion. They didn't like this little man preaching at them and
it "got their blood pumping," too. But Paul reminded them that he represented God when he
wrote and when he spoke and not himself. He came in the preaching of the gospel of Christ.
When others speak to us whom we know are representing God we ought not to tune out what they
say. They know they are not perfect just as we know we are not perfect. They do not
compare themselves to you or think they are better than you are in their stature, wisdom,
or in faith. Receiving God's Word with humility might be embarrassing for the moment, but
we will recover and learn from the lessons that God wants to teach us so that we wont make
the same mistake again because the next time our failure might well be fatal.
What about you today? Are you pleased to receive the instruction that God purposes to tell
you? Open your heart and you will have a blessed day.
Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@embarqmail.com
jcrussell@liberty.edu
Church website: http://25621.lifewaylink.com
Devotion Archives: http://www.msnusers.com/DevotionforToday
