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Week 10: Outer Marker

 

Psalm 119:104 “I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. [105] Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. [106] I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.”

 

My eighth grade science teacher hated snow with a passion. He hated the wintry substance so much that he banned the use of the word from his classroom. It you did have to refer to the stuff, it had to be called “white semi-solid crystallized precipitation”. I think he figured that’d be too much effort to remember so we just wouldn’t talk about it. With some of the snowstorms I’ve been caught out in this winter, I’m starting to share his sentiment. One in particular found me creeping along through near zero visibility for over an hour trying to make it home. The roads weren’t that bad but gusting winds were kicking up clouds of fine powder, making it hard to see. I don’t know how many times I lost track of which lane I was in. Fortunately, as late as it was, traffic was pretty much nonexistent, save for the few insane people like myself. About half way home, I came up behind a semi. Using the truck’s taillights to guide me, I didn’t lose tack of the road all the rest of the way home

 

James 1:22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. [23] Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror [24] and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”

 

An Outer Marker is a constant repetitive signal beacon several miles out from the end of an airport runway. It is a sign of comfort for pilots looking for the safety of terra firma. Used in conjunction with the plane’s Instrument Landing System, it can lead you to solid ground on stormy nights when you can’t see where to land. Nevertheless, the outer marker only beeps, signaling that you are in range of the runway. The pilot must decide for himself to follow it to safety. Hang out too long at the outer marker and you will run out of gas and crash.

 

Luke 6:47 “I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. [48] He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. [49] But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

 

God has given us a beacon to follow through the storms we face in life. His Word is a roadmap for whatever obstacle in your path, but you are the one who has to read it. Not only that, but you are the one who has to actually apply it to you life. Imagine if that pilot picks up the outer marker on his instruments and then decides to go a different way. Imagine if I had decided that rather than following that truck’s taillights that I would turn and go off road. I had 4-wheel drive after all. God is the only one who sees the entire path before you set your foot upon it. The Bible is His map to you to help you around, over and through whatever roadblock you come across. The choice to follow it is in your hands.

 

Assignment:

Read one chapter per day from the book of Proverbs starting with chapter 1. Pick at least one verse out of each reading and think about how it can be applied to a situation in your life right now.