God in the Mundane--"Hey, Get Your Car Serviced!"

By David Hobbs

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I bought our ‘05 Expedition 5 years ago, back in the days when I still needed a tax write-off. It had 34,000 miles on it then, over 120,000 miles now. In all those 5 years I basically did nothing to it other than what the Jiffy Lube did: change the oil, filters, fluids checked, etc. (In the last couple of years when money’s been tight, I even quit taking it to Jiffy Lube—too expensive. Just some place cheap to change the oil.)

I had to get the air conditioner rebuilt this spring, but other than that I’ve crossed the country several times just setting it on Cruise Control, keeping the tank full, and letting it run and run. For 5 years it’s been one faithful machine, one of the best engines Ford’s ever built.
But even the modern, efficient engines need servicing some time. I thought around 100,000 miles they needed tuned up. So that was on my mind, yet another 20,000 miles had come and gone without me doing anything about it—the procrastination factor!
We were driving to Woodland for Thanksgiving when out of the blue it began missing. It only did it briefly, when I accelerated from a slowdown at a stop light. But it stuttered and the “check engine” came on briefly. Then it was back to normal.
But that was enough for me to finally get it into my mechanic, who asked me to bring all the records of what had been done to it since I bought it. He called me a day later. “This car of yours, you haven’t been keeping up with the maintenance. There’s a list of things to do at 90,000 miles, 100,000 miles, and 120,000 miles. All you’ve done is get the oil changed and changed out the fuel filter a couple of times.” Then he rattled off all the other items needing attended to: “The spark plugs need to be changed at 90,000 miles or they start building up carbon inside which makes them hard to remove. Sometimes they’ll break and pieces will fall down into the cylinder in which case you have to take the whole engine apart. You don’t want to know what that would cost you!”
The spark plugs, a couple of them, did break taking them out. But no pieces fell into the engine. We had gotten to it in time, barely.
He ended up putting about$1000.00 into the car: replacing all the fluids, spark plugs, and the many other things due and overdue for maintenance.
“Do you do much 4-wheel driving?”
“No not much.”
“Good. Your 4 wheel drive transfer case was dry.”
About the same time I was out at the church at drama practice one Sunday afternoon. When I went to start the car the battery was dead. This car, which for 5 years had never given me any trouble, wouldn’t start. But there were plenty of others around to give me a jump. Once started I drove straight to the automotive dept. of the big box store and had them put in a new battery. I got a couple of new tires as well.
It did feel good to know the car was back in good running shape. I drove it for a week around town. But on the day I drove to Sacramento and back for the capital prayer meeting: once back into Marysville I had to stop at the first stoplight. As I sat there idling, it started missing again. When the light turned green and I drove off it ran fine. But when I had to stop at a light again it began missing. “Wow, I wonder what this is? I should take it to the mechanic’s shop again. After all, it’s right on the way home. Oh but then I'll have to drop it off and leave it, find a ride home, be without it for a day....” I just didn’t want to have to deal with it right then. As I passed the mechanic’s shop, sure enough it looked like he was busy. There were a lot of cars clustered around. “That confirms it, I’ll go later,” I thought. (Once again the procrastination factor!)
But as soon as I passed the shop (without stopping), the car started going “ape” on me. It was missing all over the place; huffing and chugging and lurching; the “check engine” light came on and stayed on. It was obvious something had to be done right away. I immediately recognized the hand of the Lord. Since I hadn’t responded to His gentle prodding, He was going to make sure I didn’t miss it. “OK Lord, I get it!” I found a place to pull a U-turn and came back to the shop. I did have to leave the car, but my wife was still home, and she came out and picked me up.
“I just assumed when we did all that other work that that took care of the original problem,” the mechanic said later. “But the problem was in the third cylinder. There is this assembly above the cylinder that feeds the spark to the plug at the right time. It’s secured by a little spring. But in your case the spring was unhooked. I re-hooked it and it seems to run fine. Try it out and let me know. It’s nothing to charge you for.”
Sure enough the car ran fine from that time on.
The whole episode caused me to marvel at the working of the hand of God. He could see me procrastinating on getting the car serviced so He unhooked that little spring, causing the car to run ragged just enough to get me in to the shop. His timing at every step was perfect. It didn’t strand us or ruin our Thanksgiving outing. Even the death of the battery came at an opportune time.
Once all the work had been done, He still had to get the spring re-hooked. Again the timing was perfect—as I was returning to town after a 90 mile trip. Only when I missed His cue and decided to wait till later did He up the ante by increasing the problem enough so I had to deal with it immediately. Then it turned out to be, not another major problem, but the final touch on the old one.
Thus God watches over our lives, and helps us do what we need to do, when we need to do it. His working can be so subtle that we miss it, or attribute it to random circumstances. If you have surrendered your life to Christ, God is at work in your life as well. Pray to God that He open your eyes like He did mine, to see His work. What an exciting thing to realize that God really does love you and is busy working in your life for your good and His glory!

For those who follow this blog, I am working on writing another book, about walking in the Spirit. This blog post will be in it as one of the many stories where God has worked supernaturally in my life, as part of the chapter on "mundane things." DH

The Essence of Christianity

By David Hobbs

Some time ago I went around town to various lodges such as the Elks and Moose to see what it would take to join their group. In every case it was ridiculously easy: fill out an application, pay dues, go through initiation… you’re in!
“Well what do I have to affirm or believe to become a member?”
“Here’s a brochure about who we are, and the benefits of becoming a Moose/Elk/Lion.” The Moose especially had a very attractive plan—a big retirement place in Florida you could go to: golf, fishing, cut rate medical benefits, wow it sounded great!
There were no special beliefs you had to ascribe to. You should attend meetings and be part of the group, give alms to “Mooseheart” (a facility for orphaned children back east). But it was pretty simple.
How does that compare with becoming a Christian? Well as a Christian there is more you are required to believe—the Nicene Creed spells it out nicely: all the doctrines of orthodox Christianity. And there is more change of lifestyle “demanded” of you—don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t cuss, don’t run around with floozy women, etc. That's more requirements than becoming a Moose. But the benefits are comparatively greater as well: eternity in heaven, provision on earth, a smooth transition to the other side…. If you stop and consider it, not too much to ask.

Just like the Moose you are expected to attend meetings and financially support the group, and try and get others to join.
And that’s the way many look at Christianity: you join a local church, ascribe to their beliefs, attend meetings, give financial support, and someday reap the benefits. That’s the americanized version. The biblical one is quite different.
The biblical pattern is to encounter God at some (crisis) point in your life, like the jailer in Acts 16:27+ who rushed into the jail where Paul was imprisoned, fell trembling at Paul’s feet and implored of him and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Or Paul himself, many years earlier on the road to Damascus, who was knocked to the ground and blinded by the encounter and could only ask, “Who are you Lord?” (Acts 9:5).
It was not a question of joining a group, it was having a life-altering encounter with Jesus that left you forever changed. As for benefits, God promise to Paul was: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my Name.” (Acts 9:16).

Luke’s Gospel tells the story of a group of ten lepers who were miraculously healed on their way to be examined by the priests (Luke 17:11). One came back and threw himself at Jesus’ feet in gratefulness while the others vanished. Where did they go? Probably to get the rest of their lives back together. “I wonder if my wife is still waiting for me? I wonder if can get my job back? I wonder what happened to the apartment I was living in? Leprosy had taken away their lives and now they suddenly had them back and it was a rush to re-enter life as usual and get back what had been lost in the interim.
It can be exactly the same when we get saved. We’re in a heck of a bind, about to be destroyed…. But that terrible situation drives us to Jesus and we end up getting saved and He rights the ship of our life. If we’re not careful, we can go back to the things we were pursuing before we got into the trouble that drove us to Jesus.
We can think, “Great! I’ve finally got that area of my life nailed down; I’ve gotten eternity taken care of, I’ve got somebody I know I can call on if I get into trouble again. Now I can go back to the other things I was pursuing; now I can go back to getting a wife, getting a job, securing my place on the corporate ladder, finishing my education…. All those worldly goals I was pursuing before I met Christ and became a Christian."
But that’s not how it’s supposed to be. When we meet Christ and are “born again,” our old life is dead. It’s over; it didn’t work; it was taking me down; but thank God He saved me out of it. We were saved off the deck of the Titanic just before it went under. Now why would we want to go back to it, to perhaps find a safer place to hang out there? The whole ship is going down, with everyone on board. The same can be said for this world—the whole thing is doomed to destruction, so why would we want to go back and try a different tack to making it in this life?
But that’s not even my point.
When we get saved, and our eyes are opened to see the truth, we realize we were in deception all along. We thought we were all right, but we were really on our way to hell without realizing it. And even if we had realized it, there was nothing we could have done about it—no person can save himself! It was in this helpless condition we were saved, but oh what a price had to be paid! God Himself had to become one of us, live His life among us being despised and rejected, and suffer terribly including the most cruel death imaginable, to win our release from our death sentence. He saved us from death, saved us from eternity in hell, and gave us an eternity of ecstasy in “heaven” with Him, but only by taking upon Himself the most cruel, unimaginable suffering, even unto death. And not for any good thing we had done, but only because of His love for us.
In view of all that, what should our response be? “Wow, I’m glad I have eternity taken care of. Now let’s see what I can do for myself in this life?” That’s the very selfish, sinful attitude that drove Him to the cross to save us. Now, saved and delivered, we’re going to take it up again?
The only reasonable response is total surrender of our lives to the will of God; surrender to that great love that suffered so much to rescue us from ourselves. When we were in charge of our own lives we made a mess of them—what else can we say? Our lives were total disasters when we were at the helm! The only way they could be saved was for God Himself to die on the cross for us. Now we want to try again and hope we can do better? No! A million times no! Self-life is dead. It’s over; it failed; it’s gone; end of story. The only reason we are still alive is because of Him. “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I but Christ liveth in me.”
We all know the importance of faith in Christianity. We are saved by faith, made righteous by faith, etc. But do we really believe that Christ died for us to save us? “Sure we believe.” But is it real faith or just a mental assent to a religious doctrine? “Here’s what you have to believe to be a Christian: Christ died for our sins,” check; “Jesus was the Son of God,” check; “Father, Spirit, Son,” check.”
If we really believed Christ shed His blood, was crucified and killed because it was the only way we could be spared an eternity in hell, we would be so blown away we would sit in prayer for hours at a time: incredulous, blown away, overwhelmed. We would experience crushing bouts of guilt, agonizing despair at our total depravity, but also overwhelming joy, ecstasy, giddiness, awestruck wonder at what He’s done and why He’s done it…. We would want to shout it from the rooftops, “I’m saved! I’m saved!” We would be praying, “Lord you’ve done so much for me, what would you like me to do for you? How can I please you? How can I repay you for your sacrifice?” Everything would be focused on him, on what He’s done.
The fact that most of these things don’t happen and aren’t happening means what? It means we don’t really believe! It’s become a religious doctrine instead of a living reality--a platitude we repeat over and over with no real meaning while we, like the other nine lepers, go on about our lives trying to put the rest of the pieces together.

Commentary on "Out of the Fire"--The Glory of One Soul Saved!

By David Hobbs

Psalm 49:8—The ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough

I always knew it was great to be saved, and salvation showed that God had personal care over my soul. But I never realized how much was involved until years later writing it down in my book Out of the Fire. Delving back into it has opened up the whole, wonderful world of all that happened that I never realized. One thing that really stands out is the chapter “Song in a Thunderstorm” (page 262). It was the watershed moment on my spiritual journey.
What is a watershed?
In the mountains, everything is sloped up or down. Other than that, it can all look pretty much the same. But there is this thing called a “watershed.” A watershed is an area, and it can be quite large (probably 1/3 of the United States lies within the watershed of the Mississippi River!). Within this area--though there are hills and valleys, ridges and ravines-- everything flows down to the river that drains the watershed. No matter where you start within the watershed, if you flow downhill you will end up at the mouth of the river. There is an inexorable pull that takes everything to the same place.
Yet while up in the highlands it is possible to cross over into a different watershed that will take you to a totally different destination. Sometimes in the highlands, just crossing a slight ridge is enough to rewrite the story of your destination!

As humans living here on the earth, we are born into a watershed that will take us eventually and inevitably to the river of death and then on into the netherworld of destruction and eternal damnation. No matter how well we do in life—the riches we amass, the honor we receive, the power we exercise—there is no escaping the pull of the earthly watershed we are in. It will take us--along with everyone else who may not do so well in life, even to the beggar in the river bottoms--to that same river of death and the same eternal destiny. “[I]t is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment…" (Heb. 9:27 NKJV). "For in Your sight no one living is righteous " (Psalm 143:2 NKJV).” That’s the teaching of the Bible.
But in Christ there is another watershed! That’s the Good News! And it’s possible to cross over to it, that which will take us to a totally different destination—eternal life with Christ!
On that fateful trip on I-5 from Redding to Yreka that spring afternoon in 1974, I was traveling up the Sacramento River watershed that eventually drains the whole northern part of California’s Central Valley into San Francisco Bay. But as I traveled up the river valley to Dunsmuir, up the mountain to the town of Mt. Shasta, and then over to Weed, I crossed over to the Klamath River drainage that bisects 100 miles of mountains before flowing into the Pacific Ocean just south of Oregon.
But that was only a picture of the real “crossing over” that was going on. In that fateful crash of lightning in the heart of the storm that illuminated my whole life and its total failure, a song burst forth spontaneously from my lips, a gospel song I had never sung before. As I belted it out with inexplicable fervor, I crossed over spiritually into another watershed, a watershed that would take me only a week later to meeting born-again Mike Harris and into his orb: first bunking alongside him, then hearing his testimony, listening to his tapes, getting a Bible, praying, seeing the miracles… a whole cycle that led to my salvation by the end of the summer and a new life in Christ.
Though I wouldn’t get saved for another couple of months, that trip was the watershed moment of my life. As I came down out of the mountains to the high desert around Gazelle, the clouds of the storm broke, the sun came out, and I’m sure the angels were blowing the trumpets of God, ushering me into the new, heavenly watershed that would leave death and destruction far behind. Now in this new watershed, I would shortly “come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” I would “come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.” I would “come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" [back in the earthly watershed] (Heb. 12:22-24).
What a wonderful process God used to save me! That’s why I had to write this book. But I’m convinced God uses similarly wonderful processes to save everyone He has saved. If you are saved, meditate on the process of your own salvation. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate it for you. It will give you a whole new appreciation for God’s love for you and all He was willing to do to effect your salvation. It starts at the cross, where God abandoned His own beloved Son Jesus so He would never have to abandon us; where He let Jesus “by the grace of God … taste death for everyone" (Heb.2:9), so we would never have to die. But then it culminates in the wonderful process He used to draw you to Himself, which is utterly unique for every person.
If you are not yet saved, ask God to effect your salvation in the way He has chosen for you. Commit yourself to Him through the process by
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God (Prov. 2:2-5).




Me at "The Log Pile of Salvation"