Can anybody tell me what I have here? (Use a road map or book of road maps) Yes. A roadmap. Actually, this is a whole book of road maps from every state in our country. This is a really good book and I use it a lot to find my way around.

But a few times I have left home without it and that can be a problem. One time I was going fishing to a lake I had never been to before. I had heard that the fishing was really good there and I could hardly wait to get to the lake. Only trouble was, when I took the exit from the freeway I thought I was on the right road but it turned out that I wasn't. I was going out through some farm land that didn’t look anything like it would have a lake in it for miles. So I reached behind the seat to pull out my roadmap. It wasn't there! I had taken it out a few weeks before and had forgotten to put it back. "No problem," I thought. "I'll just turn around and drive back to the freeway. But it didn't work out that way. Because I was in such a hurry, I didn't pay close attention to the roads I was on. As I drove the way I thought I came in I must have missed the turn that went out to the freeway. After awhile I was headed in the wrong direction! Now I don't like to admit such things but pretty soon I realized I was lost! Finally I swallowed my pride, stopped in at a big farm shed where there were some guys working, and asked for directions back to the freeway. As they told me how to get back I listened very carefully! And do you know what? Pretty soon I was back on the freeway. I never did find that lake but now whenever I go driving like that, I take my roadmap!

God has given us a roadmap. It's not for driving though. It's for life. It is possible to make some wrong turns in life and not even know you've made them until its too late and you discover that you're lost. It's bad enough to be lost on a fishing trip. It's absolutely terrible to be lost from God!

As you go through life, always take along your roadmap - God's word - the Bible.

Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

The Bible is God's roadmap to help all of us find our way safely through life.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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