15 Dec How My Chainsaw is Like the Bible

So, five plus years ago, we got a small chainsaw to help manage the trees around our house. If you follow the instructions for starting it, I mean precisely, it usually fires right up. Ah, but if you don’t, it’s usually a frustrating experience.

I use the chainsaw just infrequently enough that I usually need to look at the instructions again before starting. I used it a couple of weeks ago to cut up a large portion of a tree that fell in our yard. So, when I wanted to use it to put a fresh cut in the bottom of our Christmas tree last week, I thought: “No problem! I remember how to do this!”  You can probably guess what happened next.

I didn’t remember exactly the starting sequence and it didn’t “fire right up.”  Fortunately, I remembered the instructions for when you mess up and it eventually started. I was reminded of this episode when the verse of the day feature I use was Romans 5:8. I wasn’t going to bother looking at it because it’s one of my memory verses:

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NIV)

The verse says a lot on its own. But I was then prompted to go and review all of Romans 5. What Paul is talking about in the verse above 5:8 is hope:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. Romans 5:1-7 (NIV)

Just like with my chainsaw, I skipped a step. Hope. God sending His Son, and Jesus’ work on the cross are our reasons for hope. “Love poured out into our hearts.” He then drives his point home with verse 8: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I practice my memory verses every couple of weeks. I can recite Romans 5:8 from memory. But going back to Romans 5 I was reminded that Paul is sharing the hope the love and hope that pours out from the Cross of Christ.

At Christmas, it’s natural for us to focus on the manger, the arrival of Jesus bringing hope. Paul reminds us that hope is realized on the cross. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What can be more hope inspiring than that? Going back to God’s word and rereading what I assumed I remembered perfectly (but didn’t) helped me to focus on the hope that this season inspires. And all because I pulled out my chainsaw to deal with my Christmas tree. God doesn’t waste anything!

Pastor Jerry Bader