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.
January 30, 2012
January 26, 2012
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)
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)
January 13, 2012
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.
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.
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