THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 6,  NUMBER 18,   MAY 7, 2006

“THESE OUGHT YE TO HAVE DONE”

             About a week and a half ago, Vicky took our car to an instant oil change place to have the oil changed.  The young men there drained the old oil and replaced it with approximately 5 quarts of new 10w30 oil, replaced the old oil filter, checked the air filters and ended up putting in a new one for the air that flows into the interior of the car, checked the air pressure in the tires, and topped off the other fluids in the car. 

            After a few days I was driving up I-75 heading toward New Carlisle, only to have the engine stall on me as I was taking an exit ramp off of the expressway.  That was exciting because it meant that the power brakes and power steering both quit working.  I could still steer and I could still stop, but both of those activities were much harder than they normally would be.  Once I coasted to the side of the road and brought the car to a stop, I was able to restart it right away and continue on my trip.

            A few days later Vicky had occasion to be I-75 and on two different exit ramps, as she decelerated, the car just stopped running.  She was able to get it pulled to the side and restarted without much difficulty, but when it is your wife and that sort of thing starts happening, it makes getting it repaired a matter of some urgency.  I made an appointment for the very next day and took the car into Tom Gile’s Chevrolet. 

            After having the car for just a few hours, the service manager called and told me what they had done.  He said that GM had sent out a bulletin about fuel injectors clogging so they cleaned those under warranty.  Then he said that he would tell me what the real problem was.  He said that someone had changed our oil – he was right about that, it was the quick change place – and in removing the filters had not properly replaced one of the hoses.   So the engine was sucking in too much air and that was causing it to stop running.

            That got me to thinking.  In order for any act of combustion to take place, and this is certainly true in a combustion engine, there has to be the proper amount of oxygen.  Everything else can be exactly right but if you do not have a fundamental necessity – the proper amount of air – that engine is not going to work properly.  Those boys at that instant oil change facility had done all of those different things; changing the oil and filters, checking air pressure and topping off other fluids, but they forgot one of the most fundamental things which rendered the car unsafe.  Those boys forgot to properly attach a hose that regulates the flow of oxygen to the engine.

            I remember a time in the last week of our Lord’s life before His crucifixion when He strongly rebuked the scribes and the Pharisees.  The account of this rebuke is found in Matthew 23.  One of the things that He said is found in verse 23.  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done; and not to leave the other undone.”

            The Pharisees were absolutely scrupulous in their observance of the requirements of the Law of Moses.  They were even more exacting than the Law required.  Tithes were to be exacted from all who reaped the harvests of corn and of fruit, but the Pharisees extended their tithing to small garden herbs like mint and cumin and anise.  Jesus did not rebuke them for their zeal in those matters.  He rebuked them for disregarding, or leaving undone, the weightier matters of the Law.  Ritualistic observance of the particulars of the Law without the proper fundamental attributes under girding and supporting such observance rendered those actions incomplete and unsatisfying to God.  An engine without the proper amount of oxygen just doesn’t work.   A life lived in scrupulous observance of the rituals and ceremonies of religion but unsupported by justice, mercy, and faith isn’t going to work either.  The rituals authorized by the Lord are important and must not be left undone.  However, if those rituals are engaged in, even scrupulously, without the proper motivation exhibited toward them and in all other aspects of our life, that is just not good enough.

                                                Greg Litmer

A POEM BY MARGIE

Our Lord didn’t promise it would be easy
Or that life would be so grand.

He promised He’d be with us
And always hold our hand.

As evidence in crisis
We never are alone.

God’s given us those who hold our hands
And make our trials their own.

So, how can one be bitter?

Oh, how can one be blue?

When God gave us His likeness
Here in all of you!

Margie Kern

What a wonderful sentiment!  Thank you, Margie.

Greg