Today’s thought:
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17)
Dave Roever was in Bible college when he received his draft notification that he was going to Vietnam. He was a young man with a young wife and was heading into the fiercest fighting of the Vietnam war. On the day he left he was at the Love Field airport in Dallas and he says, "To this day I can remember the salty tears on her lips when I kissed her." He says, "It was both the most romantic and terrible moment in my life." She asked, "Davey, will you come back?" Roever promised her, "I'll be back without even a scar." He says he does not know why he added that last part.
On July 26th, 1969, Roever was on a patrol in a fiberglass boat on a river in Vietnam when they encountered action. They ground the boat upon the shore. Roever jumped down into the boat grabbed a phosphorous grenade and raised it to throw. A phosphorous grenade burns at 5000 degrees Fahrenheit, half the heat of the sun. The grenade went off right next to his head. He says he did not know what happened until he was told about it several months later in the hospital. Apparently he jumped into the river but phosphorous can not be extinguished by water. A special chemical is needed to put the burning out. When they put him on a stretcher to load into a helicopter the stretcher caught file, burned through and he fell on his head.
It wasn't until he reached a hospital in Japan that he got a first glimpse of his face. His skin had been burnt off on one side revealing his skull. His eye had swollen up and was ash grey. His ear had been blown off. His eyelid was gone along with his hair. He had also lost his hand. He was in the hospital for a year and two months. While he was in a hospital in the States he recounts, "They let visitors come in and a woman came in to see her husband. He was in the bed next to mine. He was burned over a 100% of his body with third degree burns and he had no skin left. She walked in, threw her wedding ring on the bed, and said, "You're embarrassing." Then she walked out. I said, "Well, that's it. There's no way my teenage wife is going to love me." He says, "I was absolutely tormented. Not only in the flesh of my body being burned but in thinking that she would never love me." One day the door opened and there she stood. He says she walked up and kissed his face, the worst part of his burned body, looked at him in his good eye and said, "I want you to know that I love you. Welcome home Davey." He said, "I'm sorry I can't look good for you." She said, "You never were that good looking anyway." They stayed married and last year celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.
What incredible love that could love despite grotesque physical deformity! After all that I wonder which kiss was sweeter. The first, when Roever was whole and young, or the second when Roever was deformed, scarred and broken? I would think the second.
There are times in life when we are struggling, broken and scarred. Maybe we think God could never love me like this. We're hesitant to go to Him. We feel that if we could clean ourselves up, cover over the scares or be a better person God would love me. Romans 5:6-8 says, "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." We were grotesque in our sins, undesirably disgusting and repulsive. Nothing in us commended us to the love of God. We were powerless. That is exactly the person that Jesus died for and the person that God welcomes to Himself with the kiss of love. He wants you to know He loves you regardless of the things you've done. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mark 2:17) You think there is no way that God could love you but He does. You think, “look at me, there's no way God could want me,” but He does. You are the one He came all the way from heaven to earth to find. When he sees you coming down the road to Him He looses His dignity, runs to you and embraces you. Kissing you He says, "'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate." (Luke 15:22-24) Come as you are. It is God that changes us day by day into the image of His Son. Come as you are, but come. He waits. He longs for you. He will welcome you with inconceivable love. Then you can begin to celebrate the life God has always had in mind for you.
Prayer: Father, you love the unlovely and we praise you for that. You love even us with all our blemishes and brokenness. It is through the sacrifice of our Savior and Lord that we can come to You. You make a way where there is no way. So, help us to come to our senses and run into your arms like the errant children we are. We gratefully admit our need, our weaknesses, and accept Your promise that Your grace is sufficient for Your power is made perfect in weakness. To You be all the glory for what You have done for us in Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, Amen.
Standing in our place...
Today's thought:
Romans 5:6-8 tells us: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
One of the darkest moments of human history is the holocaust of WWII. Of the death camps that the Nazi’s used to eliminate various undesirable people Auschwitz was perhaps one of the worst. Prisoners at Auschwitz were given less food than needed to survive and even the strongest prisoners were on the brink of starvation and death.
In order to discourage escapes Auschwitz had a rule that if a man escaped ten men would be killed in retaliation. It was July of 1941 that a prisoner escaped. The commandant, Karl Fritsch, had all the men from that bunker turn out and line up outside. “The fugitive has not been found!” the commandant screamed. “You will all pay for this. Ten of you will be locked in the starvation bunker without food or water until they die.” The prisoners trembled in terror. A few days in this bunker without food and water, and a man's intestines dried up and his brain turned to fire.
The ten men were selected. When one prisoners name was called, Franciszek Gajowniczek, he could not help a cry of anguish, “My poor wife!” he sobbed. “My poor children! What will they do?” To everyone’s astonishment another man who had not been selected to die stepped out of line and approached the commandant, took of his cap, and spoke, “Let me take his place. I am old. He has a wife and children and I have none.”
Everyone held their breath. There was no telling what the commandant would do. To everyone’s surprise the commandant agreed and took Maximilian Kolbe, a Christian, to replace Gasanovocheck. The ten men were marched to the starvation bunker to die an agonizingly slow and painful death.
Gasanovocheck later recalled:
"I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me - a stranger. Is this some dream?
I was put back into my place without having had time to say anything to Maximilian Kolbe. I was saved. And I owe to him the fact that I could tell you all this."
Gasanovocheck lived to be 95 years old. Every year of the 53 years that Kolbe’s sacrifice gave him he returned to Auschwitz to honor the sacrifice that was made to allow him to live.
Hearing this story I cannot help but to relate. Each one of us stood condemned before the God of the universe. Romans tells us that the wages of sin is death and for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all stood condemned. If we have put our faith in Jesus Christ then when God calls our name to be judged Jesus steps forward and stands in our place having already taken our punishment. Dying a horrible death at calvary Christ died for us. We do not deserve this. We are worthless. We are powerless. That is exactly why it is grace, a free gift of life.
PRAYER: Father, we do not deserve your mercy or grace but how desperate we are for it. We stood condemned but you saved us from your wrath and so we praise You before all men. Thank you for the life you have given us. Give us the courage and strength to return that life to You lived to the full in Jesus Christ. In HIs name--Amen.
Finding an apple in paralysis...
Today's thought:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."
The Minnesota storyteller Kevin Kling was born with a birth defect—his left arm was disabled and much shorter than his right. Then, in his early 40s, a motorcycle accident nearly killed him and paralyzed his healthy right arm. While he was in the hospital recovering from the accident, Kling learned a life-changing lesson about "the three phases of prayer."
In the first phase of prayer, we pray to get things from God. In the second phase, we pray to get out of things. While he was in rehab for his accident, Kling learned the third phase of prayer—giving thanks to God. Kling says:
"I'd been through many surgeries during my six week stay in the hospital. And each day, I would ride the elevator to the ground floor and try and take a walk. That was my job. 9/11 had happened the week before. And as our country was entering trauma, I was living one. After my walk, my wife Mary and I went into the gift shop, and she asked if I wanted an apple. She said they looked really good. Now, I hadn't tasted food in over a month … I lost a lot of weight because food had no appeal. So I said, “no,” but she persisted. “Come on. Try it.” So, finally, I said all right. And I took a bite. And for some reason, that was the day flavor returned, and that powerful sweetness rushed from that apple. Oh, it was incredible.
I started to cry, cry for the first time in years. The tears flowed and as the anesthesia and antibiotics flushed through my tears, it burned my eyes. And between the sweetness of that apple and the burning for my tears, it felt so good to be alive. I blurted out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for this life." And that's when my prayers shifted, again, to giving thanks. (1)"
"Give thanks in all circumstances," Paul tells us. If the command was coming through another it might feel like a weightless platitude. But Paul knew suffering. In 2 Corinthians 11 we get a run down of some of the suffering Paul has endured for the Gospel. Prison, floggings, beaten with rods, whipped, stoned, shipwrecked; just one instance of any of these catastrophes in our lives would be a life altering tragedy. Paul could have cursed God and hid in a hole. Instead he rejoices, prays and give thanks. He finds the apple in the midst of the paralysis. And if we were honest, whatever we are suffering in our lives, most of us are sitting on a bushel of apples. It is an attitude of gratitude that sees the apples in the midst of the suffering. Again, in Philippians 4:6-7, Paul talks about this third phase of praying, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." There's always an apple to find and a peace that transcends all understanding waiting for us when in gratitude we go to God with thanksgiving and praise on our lips.
Prayer: Thank you oh God for your many blessings. Thank you that even when things are tough, difficult, painful that every cloud has a silver lining, every paralysis has an apple. Transform us into the kind of grateful, praise filled, joy enriched people who see Jesus as enough of a reason that even in our struggles and pain we see reason for thanksgiving. Grant us His peace and we will face what lies before us knowing that even the worst circumstances you can work out for good (Romans 8:28). In Jesus name—Amen.
1. [Kevin Kling, "Prayer, Once a Last Resort, Now a Habit," NPR (1-10-07); On Being, "The Losses and Laughter We Grow Into," American Public Media (3-7-13);]
Keep your fork...
Today's thought:
2 Corinthians 4:17-18: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Glen Wheeler, a preacher in Ohio, tells the very personal remembrances of his wife Evelyn. Evelyn died a few years ago. Glen says, “Do you know what I miss about Evelyn? Not the big things, but the routine little things. Like after I was finished preaching and everyone would leave we would turn off the lights and lock the front door of the church. I’d walk to the car and she would always slip her arm in mine and whisper to me, “You’re a good man Glen Wheeler.” You know what else I miss?” He says, “I miss her cooking.” And you look at Glen and know he loved to eat. She was such an excellent cook, but what I liked is that after a delicious meal she’d come around and take my plate and say, “Keep your fork Glen.” Oh, I loved to hear her say, “Keep your fork Glen.” I knew the best was yet to be.” He says, “You know what? Sometimes late at night when I am really lonely and fighting back the tears it’s then I can hear the voice of the Lord say, “Keep your fork Glen. Hold on, the best is yet to be.””
We are bound to have troubles. This world is full of hurt and troubles. Some may seem overwhelming, like loosing a spouse and finding your suddenly all alone. Financial troubles. Relationship troubles. Child troubles. Parent troubles. Job troubles. Yes, there is bound to come trouble but Paul is giving us the secret to dealing with these troubles. What we need is not a solution or an answer but a change of perspective. It is a certain perspective that says everything I see around me is only temporary but what is yet to come is eternal and thus real. How do we change our perspective? By focusing “our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” Focusing our attention on what is to come instead on what trouble we are dealing with changes our perspective about almost everything we face. We focus on Jesus and the victory that is ours in Him. As the the old hymn says, “And the things of this earth will grow strange and dim in the light of His glory and grace.” Listen to the words of Jesus, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
PRAYER: Father, help us to focus our eyes of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Place a real vision of heaven in our mind and heart so that we are reminded not on what is but what is to come. For what is can only be passing and temporary but what is to come is eternal. Let this perspective encourage us in our moment of trouble and struggle. We thank you that the best is yet to come. In Jesus name--Amen.
How fast can I get to Galilee...
Today's thought: On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played University of California in the Rose Bowl. In that game a man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he became confused and started running 65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, outdistanced him and downed him just before he scored for the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety which was the ultimate margin of victory.
That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question: "What will Coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riegels in the second half?" The men filed off the field and went into the dressing room. They sat down on the benches and on the floor, all but Riegels. He put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby.
If you have played football, you know that a coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during half time. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels. Then the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time. Coach Price looked at the team and said simply, "Men the same team that played the first half will start the second." The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He did not budge. The coach looked back and called to him again; still he didn't move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, "Roy, didn't you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second." Then Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with a strong man's tears. "Coach," he said, "I can't do it to save my life. I've ruined you, I've ruined the University of California, I've ruined myself. I couldn't face that crowd in the stadium to save my life." Then Coach Price reached out and put his hand on Riegels’ shoulder and said to him: "Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over." And Roy Riegels went back, and those Tech men will tell you that they have never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half.
It would have been easy for Riegels to give up and disappear. Easy. He didn’t. Riegels knew that when you receive a second chance in life you take it no questions asked. You take the second chance and run with it. How many second chances does this life afford anyway? Not many.
Peter was a loud-mouthed fisherman who sometimes spoke before he thought. He was passionate. Sometimes his passion would lead him to overstate his commitment. That happened one night in an upper room while Jesus was speaking with his Disciples. Jesus never minced words. “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written: “‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” (Mark 14:27) Jesus spoke fact but Peter takes it as a challenge. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” (Mark 14:31) Here is Peter’s brazen confidence. Here is Peter’s pride. It is the first indicator of his future trouble. The Proverb writer says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” The fall of Peter is equally painful to watch as Riegels failure was. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”” (Mark 14:30) In the turmoil and confusion of the night I even wonder if Peter remembered these words of Jesus. It was not till the rooster crowed that it came back. When it came back it was like his heart was smashed upon the anvil of his failure. Luke adds an interesting tidbit. In Luke 22:61a it says, “The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.” What passed in that look? Knowledge. Peter had failed. He knew it. Even more painful, Jesus knew it. “Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 26:75)
He went out and wept bitterly. We would say, “he cried like a baby.” Wouldn’t you? I would. I have. I have failed Jesus. I denied Him by doing something I know He wouldn’t approve of. I have said things that I would never say in front of Jesus only to realize He is listening and in that moment of looking into His eyes I must confront the reality that I have denied Jesus. He knows it and I know it. I have failed. We have all failed in life. One way or another we have made a mess of things and we wonder how we are going to get out from underneath the weight of our failures. Our guilt enfolds us like a thick blanket or like the darkness of Peter’s heart as he ran out weeping bitterly. Yet, that wasn’t the end of the story for Peter and it doesn’t need to be the end of the story for us. Two words. That is all the Bible needs to express more grace, forgiveness and hope than we or Peter ever deserve. Because of two simple words—a gem in the gospel of Mark I had probably read over time and time again and never truly saw--we can know that our God is the God of second chances. After Jesus is crucified and laid in the tomb the women go to visit the body to prepare it as was the custom. They were surprised to find the great stone rolled aside and an angel before them. The angel said, “He is not here, he is risen.” These are beautiful words; our faith centers around these words. The angel went on: “But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee.” (Mark 16:7) Two small words—did you catch them? Let me paraphrase what the angel said, “Don’t stay here,” the angel tells the women, “go tell the disciples,” the angel pauses, then a smile, “and especially Peter, that he is going before you into Galilee.” It is as if all of heaven watched Peter fall and it is as if all of heaven wanted to help him back up again. “Be sure and tell Peter that he’s not left out. Tell him that one failure doesn’t make a flop.”
Maybe today you are sitting on a failure of gigantic proportions. Size doesn’t matter. Perhaps your heart is in a million pieces and the tears are thick like a summers rain. There is forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) You went the wrong way. You failed. You know it. Jesus knows it. Here the angel says the words again and insert your name in the place of Peter’s: “But go, tell his disciples and [insert your name] that he is going before you into Galilee.” The angel is saying to you, “Jesus waits to forgive you. He waits to restore you. We waits to use you for His purposes.” All I want to know when I hear the angel say those words is how fast can I get to Galilee.