Daily Butter10/4: Unseen

First, my apologies for not being faithful to log entries the past few days/nights. The closing and moving into our house was much more traumatic than I had anticipated and while in my spirit I know that I needed my grounding in the Word in the midst of the process as much as ever, the weariness of my flesh won out and I did not remain consistent. I have no excuses, but as I told my wife, that was September and this is October. His mercies are new every morning (Lamentation 3:21-23), so I too start afresh.

My little addition to Our Daily Bread (10/4/11):

Go to the ant, you slacker!

  Observe its ways and become wise.

Without leader, administrator, or ruler,

 it prepares its provisions in summer;

    it gathers its food during harvest.

(Proverbs 6:6-8 HCSB)

Authority that is not visible is not a lack of authority nor does the failure to recognize an unseen authority negate that authority. The ants the wise teacher observed may not have had a noticeable leadership structure, but they understood the Creator made them for a purpose and faithfully continued to do the tasks they need to accomplish. As Dave Branon’s account in today’s ODB spotlighted, this view is by no means the universal in American society today. And this is not really a recent development. It has been one of my confusions for years: People driving at whatever breakneck speed they can and only slow down if they see a patrol car or their trusty radar detector goes off. With the obvious exception of changing lanes and/or slowing when they are doing their job on the shoulder of the road, the traffic laws are the same whether there is a visible enforcer of those laws or not. This especially baffles me when it is fellow Christians who are disrespectful of that authority. They should understand about unseen authority if anyone would! Trust that I am not blameless as I do catch myself getting “lead-footed” and at times give in to the crowd when I find it unsafe to go only the posted speed limits due to the speed of the traffic surrounding me. I understand though this is a personal conviction that some do not share. Apparently I am just “old fashioned,” but I’ll wear that title and continue to mind the authorities and especially The Authority.
- Andy Jentes

Whatever you do it all matters
So do what you do and don't ever forget to do

Everything you do to the glory of the One who made you
Cause He made you to do
Every little thing that you do to bring a smile to His face
And tell the story of grace as you do

From "Do Everything" - Steven Curtis Chapman