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Day 185, or July the 4th. Don't be afraid of change. Our thoughts today are rooted in

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Proverbs chapter 14 verse 4. Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength

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of an ox come abundant harvests.

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Now the big picture surrounding this verse. Our Proverbs today begin with advice for women,

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but quickly broaden out to men too. The emphasis of true godly living was a revolution then,

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and with God's help could be a revolution today too.

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And now today's action step. Churches are so much easier to manage when the same people

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attend week after week. It's only when new people come in and ask awkward questions and

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do things that are not usually done that things are stirred up. This verse from Proverbs today

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makes this point in very proverbial language. Where there are no oxen, everything is tidy and

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neat, but when oxen are introduced, we get some work done. A very good friend of mine

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who is with the Lord now would often create havoc at church meetings simply by uttering

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the word, why?

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When new people come into your fellowship, do you immediately try to make them conform?

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If you do, you risk losing the freshness of a new pair of eyes. The only time it is legitimate

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to want everyone to be the same as you or me is when we are perfect, and I don't know

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your sanctification saturation level, but I still have a long, long way to go.

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We had a volunteer worker in our walk through the Bible office some years ago who suggested

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a change in our administration procedures for new seminar bookings. My immediate reaction

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was to ask, how long have you been doing this job compared to how long I had been heading

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up our ministry in the UK? I'm glad I didn't, because his idea was a good one and improved

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our performance. Don't be like the Swiss watchmaker who, when they found out about the impending

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electronic digital watch revolution, said, that isn't how you make watches. Change isn't

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always a bad word.