Simplicity In Christ

Several months ago I thought I smelled something burning in my bedroom. I was pretty sure it was the light fixture. I climbed a ladder and took the glass cover off the fixture. I unscrewed the light bulbs and didn't smell any odor of anything burning. When I tried to screw the nut onto the screw that held the cover up, it turned along with the nut and I wasn't able to get the nut tightened over the glass cover. The screw went through a plate that was fastened to the ceiling. I put the glass cover on a table in my living room, thinking that I needed to get up in the attic to tighten the entire fixture. Several days later, I crawled around in my attic trying to find the mounting bracket for the light fixture. There is no floor in my attic, so I had to walk on a small piece of plywood that I dragged over the two by six beams. I moved along the attic by standing on the plywood that I laid on top of the two by six beams. When I walked to the end of the piece of plywood, I stepped off it and onto the two by six beams and then pulled the plywood out ahead of me. Then I walked on the plywood from the rear of it to the front it. I continued to do this for about forty feet, until I got to the place where I thought I would find the mounting brackets for the light fixture. I have cellulose insulation that covers the beams and the sheetrock ceiling and that made it difficult to locate the light fixture.

A couple of weeks later, I called my neighbor's son Payton and asked if he would come over to help me. I had him stand under the light fixture and tap on the fixture so I could find it as I crawled around the attic for the second time. He kept talking to me and tapping on the fixture and I was able to locate the electric box that the light fixture is connected to. However, there weren't any mounting brackets for the light fixture. I came down from the attic and observed the fixture for the second time. I realized that the tin plate somehow must drop down from the ceiling so that I would be able to tighten the nut behind it.  I called my cousin Mike to confirm this. He told me that everything that is holding the fixture up is below the ceiling. So yesterday I unscrewed the two screws that hold the tin plate that is mounted to the ceiling. I dropped the tin plate down from the ceiling and was able to tightened the nut that screws onto the stem and holds the glass cover in place. It took me about fifteen minutes to repair the light fixture.

After I put away my tools, I started thinking about my relationship with Jesus. Paul reminded the Corinthians that our relationship with Jesus is simple based on faith and trust in Him. Jesus Christ is everything that we need to stand on. He is the Rock that is under our feet. Our salvation is in Him. Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV).

Paul was defending the gospel of grace from those who wanted to make it complicated thinking that faith in Jesus wasn't enough. Three different times the Lord spoke to Paul and said to him:

"My grace is all you need" (2 Corinthians 12: 9 NLT).

The gospel is grace by faith in Jesus Christ. We need to keep it as simple as that.

Oh yeah and the burning smell that I thought was coming from the light fixture, turned out to be a plastic bag that I had in the room which had the smell of garlic in it.