Listen, My Son

What she would say to her son tonight had been rehearsed in her heart and mind for many years. Over and over, word for word, she had pondered every event, every conversation, every response. He was now eight years old, and he was beginning to ask questions she could no longer gloss over.

The evening started like most. The younger boys were put to bed. Father, too, was sound asleep after a long hard day hewing timbers. They trimmed the lamp brightly, and rolled out a scroll to read. She had to beg the Rabbi to borrow a different scroll every few weeks. The scroll they were reading together this night was the writing of the great prophet, Isaiah.

The boy began to read. "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch will bear fruit." Mother reached over and put her hand on her son's hand and moved it to cover the scroll. He turned slowly to look into her eyes, anticipating full well the importance of what was to transpire. They turned to face each other and she held his precious little hands.

She began. "Listen, my son. So many things that you read are written about you. You have begun to suspect this, to realize it. Your questions clearly tell me that God's Spirit is revealing much to you already. I want to help explain. You are the one prophesied who would come from the root of Jesse. Joseph is not your real father. Your father is God. Jehovah. Yes, the God of our fathers, the great God of all eternity. I know this is difficult to understand, but I was a virgin when you were conceived. An angel from the Lord came to me to explain that you would be Emmanuel, God with us. He told me to name you Jesus. The angel also came to Joseph and told him to take me as his wife and to be your earthly father. The angel told him, also, to name you Jesus. Your name means Savior. It is through you, Jesus, that God intends to save his people from sin. I do not understand how, but your Father will show you in time".

"It confuses me that none of the religious leaders know or understand that you are the Christ. When the shepherds came to the manger on the night you were born they told us that the angels had said you would bring peace, and joy, and salvation to God's people. We thought that they would be only the first of many who would celebrate and rejoice at the coming of Messiah. When we presented you at the temple, though, only two people, Anna and Simeon, knew that you were God's son. Neither of them were of prominent stature, but their words were from heaven. They both confirmed that you are the redeemer, the savior, and a light to the Gentiles."

"Jesus, I have pondered all these things for years. Humbly I have come to the conclusion that I do not understand God's ways. But this much I do think I understand. You were born out of love. Indescribable love. God created mankind so that he might have a beloved. You are here by his great and loving plan to save us from the sin that keeps us from His great love. As you grow up I know that your Father's great love will become your own His love and your love will become one. And that love will help you to fulfill your Father's eternal plan. Love created man. Love brought you to the manger. Where love will lead you in the years ahead I do not know. Simeon said to me in the temple, though, that many would speak against you, and that my heart would be pierced. I do not understand. But I trust God's love. And you will, too, I know."

Then silence. Their eyes dropped. Heads bowed. After some time Mary took Jesus into her arms. Quietly, she tucked him into his bedroll. Angels stood amazed. The Father smiled upon the young boy, Jesus, His beloved son.

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only beloved son..."

Love changes hearts. Truth changes direction.

Satan The Sifter

It took me a while to figure out the many ramifications of his misplaced statement, but it finally came to me. We were discussing the concept of how Satan can influence our thoughts, and how we must take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. And Peter was one of the examples we were discussing. The story was cited where Jesus said to Peter, just prior to his arrest and trial, “Satan has asked to sift you, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail” (Lk 22:31-32).

The comment was made, then, “That’s interesting, because Peter did go ahead and deny Jesus three times. So the prayer of Jesus was not answered.” I immediately challenged the presumption that Peter’s failure was what Jesus had prayed for. I said, “The temptation to fear and cowardice, and the ensuing failure of denying Jesus three times was not the sifting of Satan which Jesus prayed about. Jesus knew Peter would fail, and even told him so. We all fail him. What Jesus was concerned about was that Satan would move in immediately after and begin to mess with Peter’s emotions and thoughts, bringing on shame, guilt, despair, hopelessness, self-loathing, and possibly getting Peter to consider going out and killing himself, as Judas did.” After all, Satan’s ultimate goal is to deceive and destroy. (I Pet 5:8)

Satan the sifter wanted to separate Peter from Jesus, to tear down the trust relationship and cause his faith to fail him. Three full years of discipleship were put to the test that night. The failure of denying Christ was only the catalyst, not the test. The true test was whether Peter trusted Jesus to love him, to forgive him, to restore him. Or would he feel that his failure was cause for despair, believe Satan’s lie, and revert back to hopeless self-condemnation. And to what end would that lead him? However far Satan could take him. That’s why Jesus prayed for him.

As the story of Peter progresses, he does deny his Lord three times, just as Jesus said he would. And after the third time he remembers what Jesus had said. The guilt was immediate, and overwhelming. But Jesus’ prayer was answered. How? By Peter looking at his Lord, and Jesus looking back at him. God arranged for that prayer to be answered by putting the two of them in eye contact. Eye to eye, heart to heart, at the most critical point of Satan’s sifting.

What was communicated in the look of Jesus to Peter. Did Jesus look condemningly at him? Did his eyes say to Peter, “I told you so! You let me down.” No, not at all. Jesus communicated love, forgiveness, repentance, acceptance, restoration. He would not let Peter’s faith fail, the trust relationship was still intact, and it would carry Peter through.

Peter went out and wept bitterly. I am sure that he was terribly ashamed and so very sorry for denying Jesus. That was part of the tears. That was the bitter part. But I think that most of the weeping was the cleansing work of love. It was repentance completing its work, the repentance which Jesus initiated with his look of love. It was an unbridled celebration of grace.

Jesus was far more concerned over Peter’s response after the failure than He was about the failure itself. But the man who sees the failure as the key problem does not understand the heart of God. Jesus doesn’t keep record of failures, he waits lovingly to look at us eye to eye, in grace, so that forgiveness and repentance can restore the relationship. He wants trust to grow deeper through love so that we stand stronger.

Splinter In Her Eye

The doctor hovered over my little girl’s eyeball with a drill in his hand. I was so tense that my muscles were sore. Neck, back, arms, legs, closed fists. I was holding still for her, I guess. I thought to myself, “What if she panics, or what if she jerks her head away out of fear? And just how sure is his hand?” She was sitting in his surgical room late one evening, responding to a call from the hospital emergency room. The doctor at the hospital could see the splinter in her eye, but could not remove it himself. So he called an ophthalmologist and asked if he could meet us at his office to remove the splinter.

It all started while having so much fun. I had built a nice high tree swing alongside the house. Our daughter loved to go out in the evening and have me push her higher and higher. She was fearless. When she got going really high she would clear the fence and brush up against the leaves and blossoms of an apple tree. Night after night she loved to have her Daddy go push her on the swing, higher and higher.

I got carried away one night, pushing her higher and higher. Too high. She swung up into the apple tree far enough that a branch brushed against her face. It didn’t hurt at the time, but we slowed down a bit so she wouldn’t get hurt. When she got done swinging we went in the house to rest. She complained that her eye hurt, like something was in it. I remembered the branches of the apple tree brushing her face so I tried to look around in her eye to remove whatever was lodged in there. But I couldn’t find anything. She was tough and didn’t want to complain, but I could tell it hurt pretty bad. She was starting to cry. And I was feeling worse and worse. I looked again and still could not find anything around the edge. Somehow I noticed the tiniest little sliver in the white part of her eye, so small that I could hardly believe that it could cause so much pain. But every time she blinked it scratched her eyelid, and she was pretty miserable.

So we headed to the hospital, not knowing what else to do. It was stuck in there pretty good, because they couldn’t get it out with a cotton swab. So that’s when we headed to see the eye doctor. I expected he would have some way to clamp her head still, and use some special tweezers to get it out. But no, he told her to hop up in the chair and started showing her the little drill he was going to use to drill out the sliver. She wasn’t the least bit afraid. She was so trusting, and so very happy. She was confident that this man knew exactly how to get rid of the pain in her eye.

And just like that, he was done. She was smiling, and they were kidding around, looking at the little splinter resting on the tip of his finger.

“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” (Mt 7:4-5; Gal 6:1)

Helping my brother to remove sin’s hold from his life is likened to removing a splinter from his eye. The pain of that spiritual splinter can be intense – guilt, shame, failure, discouragement. Whoever would remove the splinter of sin, though, must be like a surgeon, filled with love, skilled in God’s truth, full of the Spirit. Love changes hearts. Truth changes direction.

Inculcation

I had to look it up in the dictionary when the Holy Spirit told me the word. It might as well have been in a tongue or a foreign language. But the definition in Webster’s was amply clear, and God’s direction was even clearer. He doesn’t need to say much to get across to me exactly what he wants to tell me. In response to my heartfelt prayer, His wise counsel emanated brightly from just that one word. He’s like that, over and over.

Remember Peter? Mr. Impulsive. Spirit led one moment, self led the next. Full of faith and trust, then he would turn around and fall on his face. Loyal and dedicated one day, but tomorrow found him captive to fear. When it comes to professionalism and finesse, the north country fisherman rated kind of low. But who else but Peter would you expect to get out of a boat in the midst of a storm and walk to Jesus. Trust came to him so naturally, He was so teachable. He must have been very likeable, too, the life of the party.

Jesus chose Peter. That amazes me. All twelve of his picks amaze me. Every one of them was rough around the edges, unrefined, disenfranchised. He didn’t pick a single millionaire, not one CEO type, not a single Pharisee or religiously trained scholar. Not one of them was “pedigreed”. I wonder how he knew who to pick, who to call and commission to follow him, who would respond and learn, who would be eager and zealous to fulfill His mission. He knew He was going to invest a whole lot of time and effort in twelve guys for a very limited time.

Jesus had to teach his disciples many of the same things, over and over again. They seldom understood at the first hearing. Jesus taught them patiently, and by constant repetition they learned. That is inculcation. Teaching and instilling by persistent repetition. Those broken, needy, disenfranchised men were the only ones Jesus knew could unlearn their old ways and patiently learn the new. They changed. And the world changed, too.

I was ready to give up leading the men’s group a year ago. I was discouraged, defeated, wondering if the effort was worth it. There was so much to change, so much to unlearn, and it seemed to go so slow. That’s when the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “Inculcation”.

This last week I looked around the room of ten guys, and I sat amazed, marveling at the change in their lives over the last several years. Myself included. Each one has their own unique and marvelous story. I call our group the ‘Fellowship of the broken and needy’. That might be what Jesus called his group of guys, too, at first.

“We urge you, brethren, admonish the undisciplined, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone… Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” ( I Thes 5:14, 24; NASB)

Easy To Give Away

She walked by, with her two children tagging along, and asked him for 20 pesos. With that she could buy a small bag of groceries from the orphanage, groceries and supplies that would cost 40 pesos elsewhere. He told her no, that he didn’t have any money to help her out.

After all, he reasoned, I am down here in Mexico donating a year of my time helping out with this orphanage. That is my service to the Lord. I am giving quite sacrificially already, if you understand, so why should I give more.

As the woman and two children walked off down the dirt road, away from the orphanage, he watched them. She looked very familiar, but he was having a difficult time placing where he had seen her before. Then he remembered. She had come up to the front of the crowd a few nights earlier, at the call of the evangelist. She had given her life to Jesus.

So he ran inside to get his wallet, and went running after her to give her the twenty pesos she had asked for. But he never found her. She was gone. The opportunity had passed him by.

That is when he heard the still small voice inside his heart say so clearly, “When you don’t consider the things you have to be your own you will find it a lot easier to give them away.”

About the same time that I heard this “orphanage” story another brother told me his “tax” story. He had not filed his income taxes for about four years, because he had moved out of town the first year and lost all his tax information in the move. So the ensuing years it seemed wise not to file taxes, either, if he couldn’t file for that first year.

Eventually he moved back to his home town, found the tax records, and tried to ignore them. But God told him otherwise. So he took all his tax info to his tax accountant, expecting to have to pay several thousand dollars in taxes, penalties, and interest. And that was going to hurt, desperately. His wife was in and out of the hospital, they didn’t even have their own place to live in, and now God wanted him to pay four years of back taxes.

Driving around a few days later God told him that when he got his tax refund back he was to give it all away. It took a few minutes to sink in, but he realized that he would not be having to pay out several thousand dollars which he didn’t even have, but instead would be getting a refund. Sure enough, the next day the accountant called and asked him to come in and sign the tax returns. “Oh, and by the way, you will be getting money back,” she said.

He hadn’t hardly told his wife the news when she immediately said that she knew exactly where they should give the money. He ended telling me his story by saying, “It’s easy to give away what you don’t consider yours to hold onto.”

“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” (Deut 15:11)

It’s fine that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, just fine. Just so long as they are on the next ranch, not mine, thank you.