It’s Designed to Run

 

It’s Designed to Run

 

Our two boys and I kicked the starter on that Honda 90 dirt bike until we were worn out, -- it didn’t start. Dirt bikes are fun, but they need maintenance, and this was bike fixing day.

As we rested from the kicking episode, I explained that an engine is designed to run and when we get the right ingredients in the right proportions it will run. Before it can run, it needs spark (for the sparkplug), air (through the air filter), and gasoline (through the carburetor).

To check it out, we removed the sparkplug, kicked the starter and a bright blue spark arced at the end of the plug. Spark was not the problem.

Next, we removed the air filter, it was clean, air was not the problem.

Our third check discovered the gasoline was not flowing through the carburetor. Therefore, we removed the carburetor and spread all its parts on a plastic sheet on the garage floor (we didn’t have a work bench). We blew out each fuel-jet with air pressure to remove any restrictions. Then we put the carburetor back together and mounted it on the engine.

With the carburetor in place, we turned on the gasoline and on the second kick, it started! The engine ran because that is what it was designed to do.  Two boys and Dad were incredibly happy.

This experience started me thinking about how humans are like engines. Engines are designed to run, and humans are designed to be friends with God and to live with him forever. To put this in today’s terms, God created man with three circuit boards, one to operate his physical body, one for his soul that thinks, and one for his spirit that connects to God. When Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, they fried their spiritual circuit board and their fellowship with God crashed.

God was sad that his relationship with Adam and Eve was finished. He created them for friendship and now it was gone. Adam and Eve could not repair their spirit circuit board, God knew that, and he knew all their children would be born without a working spirit circuit board.

To solve his dilemma and regain his friendship with people, God sent his son Jesus into the world to provide a free spirit circuit board to everyone that asks for one. God wants to be friends with everyone that wants to be friends with him. Therefore, when anyone asks for a new circuit board, it is installed instantly, along with all the current software and updates. A working spirit circuit board allows anyone to be friends with God and have eternal life like Adam and Eve had in the beginning.

It’s normal for man to have three circuit boards, and three are required to live with God forever. Without a working spirt circuit board man’s soul lives forever apart from God – in total darkness.

Engines and people are alike: when the right ingredients are present in the right proportions, they work as designed.