From the Home Place

March 14, 2026

Good morning. Well, as I said yesterday, today is a duplicate in the weather department. Starting at 23 degrees, headed for 63 with 55 mph winds. Please be praying for all of the fire fighters in this part of the country. The fires in Nebraska are a very serious issue!

Well, I did it. Yesterday Miss Deb and I drove to Scottsbluff, Nebraska to get some groceries and building supplies. We drove into a 55-mph head wind all of the way home, so fuel was required. With my mind on several other things going on in my life at the moment, I corrupted the fuel in my pickup. As such today I have to pump out the bad fuel, clean the tank and add clean fuel.

Sound familiar? Now I’m not talking fuel in a vehicle; I’m speaking of how easy it is to allow bad thinking to get us into trouble spiritually. I was focused upon one thing while doing something else and now I have a full day of work ahead of me in an effort to set things right.

I hope this is a lesson about not keeping a clear focus: the Bible tells us to “fix our eyes upon the author and perfector of life,” speaking of keeping our focus upon Christ. As such, by keeping a clear focus upon Jesus, we will have a Christ-like attitude, resulting in Christ-like actions.

The Bible also tells us that we have an enemy, who loves to uses worry to get our minds focused upon things of this world, causing us to lose our focus upon Christ-like matters, thus we make serious mistakes called sin, and sin always costs us and those whom we love.

When we lose our spiritual focus, we will end up putting bad fuel into our spiritual tank, just like what I did yesterday to our pickup. As such, that bad fuel has to be pumped out, the tank cleaned and new fuel added to the tank. Spiritually, I have to empty the bad fuel out of my take through confession and cleansing (1 Jn. 1:9), and add clean fuel, I.e. the truth of Scripture.

Allow me to use this illustration: In years past, my old pickup would run on a bad fuel mix. But in today’s culture, with all of the elements of our modern vehicles, one has to be very careful to keep the correct fuel in the tank or there can be serious damage to our vehicle’s engine.

The same is true of us spiritually. Before being born again, my spiritual life ran on junk fuel. Yet after being born again, in today’s culture, I have to be very careful of the fuel I put into my spiritual engine. If I lose focus and put the wrong fuel into my spiritual tank, I can cause serious damage to my spiritual engine often referred to as my heart. The equation is quite simple, bad spiritual fuel, bad heart.

As I learned yesterday, it doesn’t take very much bad fuel to mess up the whole tank. As the Bible clearly states, “a little leaven, leavens the whole lump.” Hopefully, you are getting the point: It is extremely easy to allow the “worries of this world” to choke out the good seed of Scripture.

I wasn’t thinking about terrible, sinful things yesterday as I added bad fuel to the pickup. I was praying for firefighters; I was visiting with the Lord about my degree of involvement concerning a conflict within a friend’s church, and just like that I contaminated the fuel in my pickup!

For sure, we are to pray without ceasing, yet we must also remain focused upon what we are doing at the moment. Lack of focus allows those good things we are thinking about to become “weeds” in our minds and the next thing you know, we are making mistakes.

Summary, apart from Jesus our fuel tank (heart) is filled with bad fuel, and our old, earthy vehicle will run just fine on corrupted fuel. But once we are truly connected with Jesus, we have to be constantly focused upon adding only clean fuel (Scripture) to our spiritual fuel tank. Worry about other things will cause us to lose focus, resulting in sin.

So, my friend, please be careful to keep your focus upon Jesus. Make sure that you do not allow the worries of this world to choke out the good seed God has planted in your heart. Oh, I heard that: someone just asked, “What is the difference between a concern and a worry?” Good question. My simple answer is this, it is good to pray about that which concerns me – the issues of importance within my realm. However, when I focus more upon those concerns than I do upon how I am living in the moment, at that moment those legitimate concerns become illegitimate worries. Worries always consume, much like the fires in Nebraska.

Pray without ceasing but keep your focus upon Christlikeness. Do good works for God’s kingdom but keep your focus upon Jesus and the task at hand. Be concerned about what is taking place within your local setting and the world around you but look at all matters through the lens of Scripture. Our Heavenly Father wants us to bring our concerns before Him, yet we must also be willing leave those concerns at the foot of the cross, allowing Him to provide the remedy which will often requiring a change in our personal life.

So, for today I have some work to do, both physically and spiritually. Thanks for your prayers.

Cleaning out the old and putting in the new with you, Neal