Heaven's Kanban or What I learned from LinkedIn Learning

I wasn’t sure if taking the courses offered by LinkedIn would be worth my time, but on greater thought I decided it would not hurt. I began with a job related course like Lean Six Sigma Fundamentals and learned quite a lot about managing waste on the job. Then I took a course on using the audio program Audacity and learned about a lot of the functions I did not know about before. Recording audio for my podcast and other interests will go a lot smoother now.

And then I took a course by Chris Croft called, “Process Improvement Foundations”. I received some very good insight from across the pond that made my time doing the courses all worthwhile. All the others were good but I would like to share a little insight I got from the last one.

At work we call the “parts cage” the “kanban”. This was the first time I had ever heard this name used for parts storage and asked others at work what it meant. No one on my pay level knew. I thought maybe it was German, since the company I work for was a German owned factory. No clue from any German language app or other source. So I let it drop and just accepted it.

Then while Chris Croft spoke,on the pull system, the word kanban popped up. It turned out to be a word, that in its simplest form, described how on an assembly line parts are keep in a storage area until called for on the line. The area was called the kanban. Although our setup is not a true kanban system, it made a whole lot of sense. There was a lot more on the course that I learned and saw that some of the systems I had used before and just did not know what they were called.
Now as for the insight I received from the course, I would like to share with you. On the factory floor, it is bothersome to have more parts than you need while doing a job. So all the extra parts should be kept back until they are needed. As with things we pray for, believing we need them now, God “pulls” the Grace we need at the time we need it. I heard a story of a man who had taken a plane trip one day and while flying the plane started to fall and everyone thought it was going to crash. The man prayed out to God to save him and became very afraid. The pilot pulled the plane out and they landed safely. Later the man grew ashamed and asked God why had he become so afraid to die and where was the grace that He had promised in times of death. God replied to the man, “you were not dying”.
The things we need in life that we seek God for and wonder why we do not get them may be things that we are not ready for or we do not need altogether.
Let me share this piece of scripture with you,
”Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)

If you find yourself needing something. You may not even have a clue what it is. I urge you to pray (send in a kanban tag request) to the Father God and ask him for the Grace that is offered to you free of strings. Grace, which is the unmerited favor of God offered through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ. Tap into Heaven’s kanban and receive life. Product cannot be released without all its parts, so also you will not be fulfilled without that missing part you secretly yearn for. Jesus!

What Are You Doing with God’s Grace?

Grace is an amazing word to know for living today. Looking into my Nave’s Topical Bible, I found many verses that use the word, but I would like to share a parable that illustrates its meaning. The word has evolved in today’s language to mean forgiveness, blessing, or just to give someone a break. We use the word in our Church name, “Grace Harvest Church” and before this we were called, “Grace Chapel”. So we have always liked the name, mainly because we were in such need of it. When I looked up the verses from my Topical Bible in the Amplified Version, the word was translated as, “state of favor”. So to be in God’s grace or to have grace is to be in a state of favor with God.  This is where I want to be. We men spend a lot of time trying to gain the favor of our Fathers, but in the end we realize that favor from our Heavenly Father is the only favor we need.

Now I would like to share a little story that the lord Jesus used to illustrate forgiveness to Peter and the Disciples. But it also illustrates Grace in a way that amazes me. In Matthew 18:23-35 we read,
 “23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, 'Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. 28 But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, and ‘Pay me what you owe!' 29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.' 30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. 35 So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."

Now the first thing I wish to point out is that the servant owed the money to the King. It was not taxes, it was money loaned to him from the King. The servant at one time had received some money from the king with an agreement to pay it back. What did this servant do with this money? The same thing that we may do with the gifts and talents Christ gives us I afraid. Anyway, back to the servant and king. The servant owed the money. The amount could be figured out to today’s value but let’s just say it was an amount that neither the servant nor his family could pay it off in their lifetime (interest on sin is high priced, I guess). The King’s answer is to sell him and his family as slaves to payback the debt. This may shock some but that was what happens in those days. If you could not pay your debts, you and your family where sold as slaves to pay it off. But it was just until you paid it off or until the year of Jubilee when all slaves where set free and all land was returned to the family that had it. So the servant had a way out, but he was going to have to work for it. We find ourselves in this condition, a slave to debt. How many of us work to pay for that new car? Or it seems we work just to pay for those kids we left behind just because we wanted to be free. When they servant saw the reality of his folly and fell to the ground and begged the king to give him time. The servant probably already had a scheme worked out to try and pay the debt, enough to appease the king. But the king surprised him with compassion, mercy and yes, grace. He forgave the servant debt. He placed the servant in a state of favor. Boy how the other servants must have looked on in awe at this servant that the King showed such favor to.
            The servant left the king feeling pretty good and went straight to another servant who owed him a little bit of money which was nowhere near the amount he had owed the king. He grabbed him and tried to get the money out of him. His answer was to sell the man as a slave to cover the debt. Sounds familiar? The king heard of this and brought the servant back and gave him a real talking to. He had lost the favor of the king. Now if only the servant had received the grace of the king and let it change his heart to become a compassionate servant just as the King was compassionate, things would have been different. He stomped on the grace given him by the king. When the king forgave him his debt, someone was going to have to pay the debt, it was owed. Who paid? The King did. The servant’s grace was very expensive but he had made it cheap. This brings up a phrase coined by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Cheap Grace”.

This brings us to the Grace or favor that the Lord has bestowed on us. It is free, but it is not cheap. Christ paid a heavy price for the Grace we have. Can you look up at the cross and see the price He paid. So many people come to Him and the Church to get what they need and not appreciate the price He paid. What does this do to Grace? It’s like standing at the cross and stepping on His spilt blood and pushing it into the mud. It’s like standing there and spitting on that blood. I did not share this when I preached this in Church, but it’s like so many are pissing at the foot of the cross and taking His clothes. How are we doing this you may ask? We do it by living our lives without giving Him all of ourselves. How grievous is this sin of cheapening the Grace of God, of stepping out of His free favor to live our lives outside his grace. When I get up in the morning and I can feel His drawing me to commune with Him in prayer and the word, but instead I choose to settle down to a movie and wash the grace He has given me. Let us look up to the Cross and accept this Grace He purchased for us, the favor of a King. As the song goes, “We owed a debt we could not pay, He paid a debt He did not owe, and Christ Jesus paid a debt, a debt we could not pay.” When the loving Lord has given us so much, we indeed deserve Hell if we reject His Grace.

God Don’t Give Socks for Christmas

Have you ever had one of those times when the Lord gave you something unexpected? Something that He used to show you that He is near and He cares. Driving in my old pickup, that I affectionately call Williford, I noticed how nice it would be to have a sliding glass rear window. Seeing I have no AC and not likely to pay to have it fixed anytime soon. I could almost feel the wind on my neck from the air blowing in. Well it was a nice dream. I did not ask for one, and it was not on my list of priorities to get. Many other things, besides a truck window, was on my NEEDS list and that was a WANT. So I removed it from my mind.
Then one day as my wife and I where coming down our neighborhood street. This was odd in itself since my wife rarely accompanies me in Williford. Then she tells me to stop and turns around and says,” There is a window beside the road that is unbroken.” That was a strange thing to hear and I did not see it. I am usually the one who sees things beside the road and have to fight to keep from picking it up. So I turned around and after she pointed it out, I saw it not in the ditch, but lying on the asphalt beside the road. I saw it and it was a rear window that had sliding glass doors and tinted. I had forgotten my desire for a window like it for my truck and immediately thought it might sell at our ministry thrift store. But when we got it home we held it up to my rear window and it was a perfect fit. I got happy that I had a window for my old pickup. I thanked my wife and I thanked God. The chances that a window for my ’89 Ford pickup was laying in the road in my busy neighborhood, unbroken, was indeed a gift from God.

We trust in the Lord to provide for our needs. They are supplied daily and sometimes get’s to be so common that we do not acknowledge them. But the Lord promises to always provide these needs as our Heavenly Father. Wants, is another story. Just as a boy loves gifts at Christmas, because it is a want that makes it special. Socks and clothes should be given during the year. And a Christmas gift is a gift of Grace. We do not deserve the gift, it is from our parents. Forget Santa Clause and the naughty and nice list. In reality children do not have to do anything to receive gifts during Christmas. Because it is a way to show children they are special and loved. Likewise God has a way of giving us gifts of Grace that we did not need or deserve. Just His way of saying, I love you and I’m here for you.” Socks are good and needed, but it’s the gifts that show us a Holy Father that goes beyond promises.