The Gas AND the Engine and the Car

1. In order to move, you have to have both
   1. Gas is useless without the engine.
   2. The engine is useless without the gas.

Devotional 4/15/26; The Car and the Engine

• • Prayer Requests
    • Nation of Israel
    • Melinda Williams' family; her Mom passed 4/11/26
    • Terri's biopsy
    • Jason's Jose - son is in hospice.
    • Kevin Potter in Michigan salvation per Deb
    • Our Nation
    • The persecuted
    • Jay & Michele
      • Nicole's operation
    • Lawrence medical issues
    • Texas Beth's new church search
    • Bill M and Glenda R
    • Bill in Hollister
  • Emergent properties;
    • "traits that individual parts lack but emerge through their interplay".
      • Tornado: Air particles follow physics, but their chaotic flow spawns a self-sustaining vortex with rotation, suction, and path independence—no specific molecule defines it, yet the tornado destroys uniquely.
      • Consciousness from Neurons: Individual neurons process signals but lack awareness; billions networked in a brain produce subjective experience, decision-making, and experience (e.g., "redness" of red). This "hard problem" resists full reduction, as brain scans explain correlations, not inner feel.
      • Life from Non-Living Matter Life emerges at the cellular level: atoms and molecules (non-living) interact to form self-replicating, metabolizing cells. No single component lives, yet the system sustains itself, adapts, and reproduces—scaling to tissues, organs, and ecosystems.
      • And a simple one: the Automobile
  • In physics, work means "the energy transferred to or from an object when a force causes a displacement in the direction of that force.
    • Holding a box is work against gravity.
    • Moving a box is work against gravity and momentum.
  • The Fuel, the engine, and the car:
    • "No gassy, no movy"
    • "No engine, no movy"
    • "No wheely, no movy"
    • "No engine, but gassy and wheely = still no movy"
    • "gassy plus engine, but no wheely = no movy"
    • Only "gassy+wheely+engine" = MOVY
  • John 15:5 I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.
  • Philippians 2:12, 13 Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).
• ^[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and ^[c]delight.
  • • Do we allow God to move us?
  • 2 Peter 1:3, 4 3 For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that lead [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [[d]full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue). 4 By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.
  • 1 Corinthians 15:8-10 8 And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one prematurely and born dead [[a]no better than an unperfected fetus among living men]. 9 For I am the least [worthy] of the apostles, who am not fit or deserving to be called an apostle, because I once wronged and pursued and molested the church of God [oppressing it with cruelty and violence]. 10 But by the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not [found to be] for nothing (fruitless and without effect). In fact, I worked harder than all of them [the apostles], though it was not really I, but the grace (the unmerited favor and blessing) of God which was with me.
    • Consider our gospel outline:
      • 1 - Why are we here?
        • A. God IS WHY
        • B. God IS AWESOME
        • C. God created us FOR A REASON
        • D. God FREELY AND WILLINGLY created us
        • E. God IS LOVE
      • 2 - Heaven is a Free Gift
        • A. God Himself is FREE!
        • B. God is full of GRACE
        • C. God created us FOR FOR FELLOWSHIP
    • 1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word—He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy].
      • Enduring is work!
      • Here's a question:
        • Since God knows everything, why does He need to test us?
          • He doesn't need it, we do
          • What happens when we are tested and fail?
            • We learn
          • What happens when we are tested and succeed?
            • We learn
    • Colossians 1:28, 29 28 Him we preach and proclaim, warning and admonishing everyone and instructing everyone in all wisdom ([y]comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), that we may present every person mature (full-grown, fully initiated, complete, and perfect) in Christ (the Anointed One). 29 For this I labor [[z]unto weariness], striving with all the superhuman energy which He so mightily enkindles and works within me.
      • The word energeian is only used by Paul (7 times), and always refers to God's supplied, superhuman power.
      • Paul worked hard because he had a reason to.
        • Paul did everything he could.
          • He warned about warnings in the word
          • He admonished about admonishments in the word.
          • He instructed on things in the word.
    • Hebrews 12:1 Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us
      • We're not alone! That "cloud of witnesses" all had lives too.
      • Some of their lives are described in Hebrews 11.
    • Isaiah 40:29-31 29 He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; 31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.
    • Ephesians 6:10 In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides].
      • How?
        • Do what God wants
        • Rember who the real enemy is - 12
        • Don't forget the armor
          • Truth
          • Righteousness
          • The Gospel
          • Faith
        • Prayer
        • Remember His Promises
        • His Word
    • Don't go it alone:
      • Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10 9 Two are better than one, because they have a good [more satisfying] reward for their labor; 10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
        • Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
        • Hebrews 10:24–25 24 And let us consider and give [a]attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, 25 Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.