Spur of the Moment is an expanded 3rd edition of the popular devotional, Spur of the Moment. Whether Laycock was standing on the shore of Lake Superior, rafting down the Yukon River or exploring caves in Papau New Guinea, she listened for the voice of God the Creator. Another author, Hugh Smith, reveals the essence of her work, "Marcia Laycock has a gift for collecting and polishing the dusty stones of everyday life." Laycock has a knack for using personal experiences to deepen thoughts about God's existence and care. Like a friend who is willing to share a private reflection with you across the kitchen table, Laycock lays out her soul for others to benefit.
Spur of the Moment helps the reader to see the Divine in the ordinary.
The devotionals are short but full of insight and wisdom
Will You Open The Gift?
Romans 6:23
Jane’s life had been hard. She had been raised in poverty and had suffered much, both as a child and as an adult. She allowed bitterness to consume her and over the years she had become emotionally unstable. Though she often acted irrationally, her daughter and son-in-law loved her and kept trying to accommodate her. It wasn’t easy. Christmas was a particularly hard time. Jane insisted she did not want presents, though she bought gifts to give each family member. The family wanted to buy things for her and knew if they did not, Jane would at some point accuse them of not loving her. So there were always gifts for her, wrapped and tied with bows, arranged with others under the tree. But Jane refused to open them. The gifts remained in a pile in her room. Eventually she would give them away, still wrapped, with her name on the tags.
One year, just after the 25th, Jane was going out. Her coat was old and thin, her gloves were torn, and her small scarf didn’t give much warmth. As she was getting ready, her daughter stopped her and said gently, “Mom, there’s a new coat in one of the boxes in your room, and new gloves and a warm wool scarf. Please, accept them.” Jane stiffened her back and turned her head away. “I don’t feel the cold,” she said. She pulled on her thin coat and torn gloves, tucked the small scarf around her neck, and left the house.
Many of us leave our gifts unopened. Because of deep pain in our lives, we refuse to trust God, we refuse to accept the very things that will comfort and heal us. We step into the world unprepared for the attacks that will come, believing we are invincible, believing we can do it on our own. If you have not accepted Jesus as your brother, your friend, your saviour, you have left a priceless gift unopened. The gift of relationship with Jesus is offered to you at no cost. All you have to do is say yes. Yes, I feel the cold of trying to make life work all on my own. Yes, I feel the cold of not knowing Jesus. Yes, I need God. Christmas is an opportunity to celebrate the gift of God’s Son. Don’t stiffen your back and turn your face away from the manger. Bend toward Him. Open the gift.
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“Though My Father Forsake Me…”
Psalm 27:10
The man’s face is handsome, but the expression is as cold as though sculpted in ice. The eyes are flat and do not move as the interviewer begins asking questions.
“How many people have you killed?”
The face does not change as he shrugs and answers. “Dunno. Hundreds, maybe.”
“You were eleven years old the first time?”
“Yeah. They gave me an automatic and told me to take down as many as I could. That was my initiation into the gang.”
The camera continues to hold on the man’s face. Throughout the interview he remains stoic, unmoving, unmoved by the horror he describes. Then the camera pans back and the interviewer leans forward to ask his next question.
“Tell me about your father. He’s a famous man.”
The camera is just in time to catch the reaction. The man’s eyes narrow, the upper lip seems to curl. “I hate him.”
“Why?”
“He was never there, all those years I was on the street. He never came, never.”
As the interviewer continues to draw out the story, the man’s face slowly changes, begins to soften, to tremble now and then. Finally, tears are slipping down his cheeks. He fights for control but loses.
As I watched this interview, I was struck by what I had just seen - a cold, hardened killer, reduced to tears because of the rejection of his father. It was a powerful picture of how important fathers are to their children, how necessary their love and acceptance, how vital their presence both physically and emotionally. In the real world, few of us have known the kind of security that exists when our fathers are present in every way. Some of us have known what it’s like to be completely without a father. All of us, at one time or another, have felt rejected or at least disappointed by our fathers. Nobody’s perfect. People will always fail us.
How we choose to respond to that pain can be a deciding factor in our lives. We can respond with rage, as the man being interviewed did, or we can choose to draw close to another source of security and love, our Heavenly Father. His love will never fail us, He will never abandon us. In Hebrews 13:5, He says it plainly, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” We can, like the Psalmist, David, declare, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me” (Ps.27:10). We can depend on God to fill the need we have for a father, to supply the love, protection and security for which we long.
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Sino’s Story
Colossians 1:13-14
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The walk to the prison was long. Sino started early, before the heat of the day, but going anywhere in the highlands of Papua New Guinea meant a long walk up and a harder walk down. She traveled through two valleys and over two mountains to visit her father in prison and bring the food that kept him alive. Her father, one of the most well known “fight leaders” in Enga province, had killed hundreds, was one of the most fierce cannibals, until law came to the highlands and the police imprisoned him. It had taken several months of visits before he agreed to see his daughter. When he finally did, Sino was almost sorry she had persisted. He was a miserable man who scowled at her and refused to talk. But he took the food.
Sino continued to visit and kept praying that he would listen and take the gift of Christ’s forgiveness too. Eventually he was willing to speak with her when she came, but when she tried to talk about God’s love and forgiveness, he became angry. Then one day, Sino thought all the months of traveling and praying might pay off. He listened without shouting at her. But when she stopped talking her father said he would never believe her God could love a man like him. “I am too bad,” he said, “I have killed too many people. I have eaten too many. Your God would never accept a man like me. Never talk about this again.”
Sino stopped talking about Jesus but she didn’t stop praying. She prayed that God would send someone who could break through the misery and pain that kept her father in a prison far more dark than the jail where he lived. She kept making the long trip, always wondering how her father would be when she arrived. Would he be calm, or raving and on the edge of madness? She always approached the door to his cell with a dread that could only be eased by praying. Finally there came a day when she was shocked into a speechless stare. Her father was smiling. In all her life she had never seen him smile. For a moment she wondered if he had gone insane.
Then he embraced her and told her a man had come to the warden of the jail and told him God had sent him to talk to someone there, but he did not know who. The warden allowed him to wander through the prison until he found Sino’s father. The visitor had been a fight leader, the killer of many, and a cannibal. He told Sino’s father God had forgiven him because of His great love and mercy. He told him how his life had changed and the joy he had now. Sino’s father prayed with the man and accepted Christ. He was released from prison in 1994 and traveled the country telling people how Jesus changed his life.
The writer of Colossians 1: 13 & 14 says – “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” That is the truth that changed Sino’s father. It will change anyone who puts his faith in Jesus.