Monday, May 15, 2017

"It's Where You Look"

  His name was Charles Proteus. With physical deformities he had one of the most brilliant minds in the field of electricity.  He immigrated to the United States in 1889 as a political refugee from Germany and was hired by GE in Schenectady, New York. As an engineer, Steinmetz designed the massive turbine generators used by GE. On day, without warning, those generators crashed and the plant came to a complete halt. The plant manager brought in ordinary mechanics and technicians to save GE money but they could not get the generators up and running. Frustrations were growing and with each passing hour GE was losing money. Finally it was decide to call in Steinmetz to see if he could get things up and running again. The electrical wizard came to the plant, puttered around for a few hours and threw the switch. The lights blinked for a few seconds and suddenly the turbines began turning and GE was back in operation.
  About a week went by and GE received a bill from Steinmetz for $10,000. The managers at GE were taken back. They felt the bill was excessive for the amount of work that had been done. They returned Steinmetz's bill with a note attached: "Charlie, isn't this bill a little excessive for a few hours of 'tinkering around' on those motors?" Steinmetz returned a corrected bill to GE. His note said: "For 'tinkering around' on the motors - $1. For knowing where to 'tinker' - $9,999. Total: $10,000!" GE paid the bill.
  What do we learn? Today everyone is running around looking for answers to life and drawing from every resource from "experts" rather than the One who made us and holds the answers! Sometimes people are mixing God's answers with the world's advice/teaching which waters down and voids the power of God. All of man's answers are found in Scripture, not man. There are two sources of wisdom around us. One is natural, earthly and demonic. That's the source of the world. The other source of wisdom is from God and will lead us into His life (James 3:16-18). I wonder what God thinks of man mixing His wisdom with demonic wisdom? God has provided all the power, the insight and help in Jesus and nowhere else. "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." (John 1:4) There is no part of life apart from Christ so why do we look into the world of death for answers on life? All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Jesus (Col. 2:3). I see more and more claiming Christ, speaking of God yet lifeless and trying to sustain their lives by 'positive thinking' and busy doing things thinking that is what life and spiritual looks like. Have we been blinded? "See that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness..." (II Pet. 1:3) There are too many 'tinkerers' rather than believing where to look!

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