America's Greatest Possessions/ America's Greatest Need!

By John Stallings

Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

Humorist Will Rogers was covering the 1932 presidential campaigns. At one national convention a reporter cynically said to him; “Will, I’m covering the serious side of the convention. If I see anything humorous I’ll let you know.” “Thanks” said Rogers, “And if I see anything serious I’ll let you know.”

Though America has problems, what Abraham Lincoln said of her still stands; “America is the last best hope of the earth.”

Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

In our U.S Constitution, our Founding Fathers drew up, if not the greatest, certainly one of the greatest documents mankind has ever produced. The following is an excerpt showing what they envisioned in the six fundamental functions of the federal government;

“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

TODAY WE FACE POLITICAL CHAOS

One day a surgeon, an electrician and a politician were discussing which one of their professions was the oldest. The surgeon said, “When God formed Eve out of a rib in Adam’s side, that was the work of a surgeon.” The electrician said, “Yes, but on the first day of creation the world was in a state of chaos and God said, “Let there be light,” and that was the work of an electrician.” “Yes” said the politician, “but who do think created the chaos?”

LET’S LOOK AT SOME OF AMERICA’S BLESSINGS

1. FREEDOM

The Bible says, -Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom... 2. Cor.3:17. Whenever we champion freedom we’re doing the will of God. God sent Moses to Pharaoh with the command--Let my people go. Ex.5:1. The Liberty Bell bears an inscription from Leviticus: Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants’ thereof.—Lev. 25:10

I don’t need to tell you how precious it is to breathe the rarefied air of freedom. Juda & I just got through watching “Hotel Rwanda” a movie about the civil war that devastated the country of Rwanda in the mid-nineties leaving over one million corpses. It has been called an African Schindler’s List. The movie highlights some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind but in an era of high-speed communication & round the clock news the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world.

This was the second time we’d watched the movie but still we were profoundly moved by the cold, barbaric way the innocent men, women & children of that little nation were treated during that blood-bath.

As we watched, we were reminded again how blessed our lives have been by virtue of the simple fact that we were born in the U.S.A. I rise every day & after I tell Jesus good-morning, I thank Him that I haven’t lived a day of my life under the jack-boot of a tyrannical regime’.

It isn’t my job or my calling to endorse a candidate for president nor would my endorsement carry much weight outside a few of my immediate family. Nor is it my intention to glorify any man.

Having said that, I’d like to ask you a question; do you remember the seventies? Do you remember as I do how bad things were? There were gas lines, interest rates were through the roof & we lacked the level of national pride that had always been an American hallmark.

One of the reasons I remember it so well was I voted for the first time in a national election at the end of that decade. I took a snack & stood in a long line to vote that year. Let me ask you another question; what was wrong with us back then? Why were we so frustrated & unhappy? IMHO it was the fact that our national soul was suffering. We looked at the Soviet Union & wondered what to do about them. As I traveled the country I heard people asking if there was any hope for us. Maybe you didn’t see it like I did but looking back; we almost collapsed as a nation during the seventies.

How did we get through it? I can answer that in four words; The Lord & Ronald Reagan. I’m not saying that from a political point of view as much as I’m saying that Ronald Reagan, though certainly not perfect, was God’s man for the hour for America.

What did Reagan do for us? I believe he simply gave us new hope & sense of national pride. As he was delivering his inaugural address, the Americans who’d been held hostage in Iran for a year were winging their way back to America. He said, when asked how he saw the Russian situation, “It’s simple. We win, they lose.” I like that don’t you? It gave me chills then & it gives me chills now. He went to East Berlin & called to the leader of Russia, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” when the State Department had taken those words out of his speech four times. You will remember that a short time after that, the Berlin wall fell without a shot being fired.

One of my very favorite patriotic songs is; “God bless the U.S.A.” I doubt very seriously if that song could have gotten popular during the 70’s. This may surprise you, but I doubt seriously if Lee Greenwood introduced that masterpiece right now, if it would be that great a hit in today’s national funk. I could be wrong but I doubt it. Though we are now in a state of chaos, I believe God has another leader for this great republic who will come on the scene & help to defeat the specter of despair that once again threatens to engulf Americans. Another great possession that America has is;

2. FAITH

Let’s face it, nations die. But America has stood because she was founded on principles of Scripture & Christian faith.

George Washington said, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God & the Bible.”

John Adams said, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

America was founded on the belief that Christ is the answer to every problem. John 14:6. Yes, there are many religions but there is only one Savior.

William Penn [1644-1718,] English Quaker & founder of Pennsylvania, stated, “If we are not governed by God we will be ruled by tyrants.”

Psalm 20:7 says, --Some trust in horses & chariots but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Politicians in modern day America have long had to face the fact that love for God & religious traditions run deep in this country & aren’t about to go away. You probably noticed that July 5th when Barak Obama vowed to expand President Bush’s emphasis on Faith based programs. That’s a definite move to the middle for him, although I’ve never been as interested in “right wing” or “left wing” as I have in the whole bird flying straight.

We’ve seen nothing but decline in our public schools since the Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that prayer & Bible reading in schools were unconstitutional. Please understand me here; I don’t believe school prayer was important because it somehow would force religion into the schools. Certainly the kids could & should pray at home. In my mind its importance lay in the fact that it would cause our youth, regardless of their religious belief or lack of, to stop for a brief moment each day & give consideration to a power beyond themselves. This could have done no harm but would have beyond a doubt lent dignity to human life in the minds of the students. Minus that prayer, we can easily date & chart the downfall & desolation of our public schools.

Thankfully our Supreme Court made what I believe to be a good ruling recently when they handed down the opinion in favor of individual gun rights. But they made a bad one in late June when they rejected the death penalty for child rape.

There’s much to be positive about but there’s still work to do in our great country. Remember, Jesus called Christians the “salt of the earth” not the salt of the church. We need to stay involved & understand that every time we stand up for Christ we’re standing up for our Country. The third thing America possesses is;

3. FULLNESS

Think of how differently we live than people do in other regions of the Planet. The poorest individuals today in America live better than kings lived centuries ago. We sit in our comfortable homes with our TVs, DVDs & computers & ride to local grocery stores stocked with an unbelievable array of food choices. We are reaping the rewards of 230 plus years of hard work & sacrifice in this country & we have more than any nation that ever existed on the planet. God has indeed blessed America with fullness.

Our free market system is another marvel & works because it’s based on competition to achieve higher levels of excellence. It rewards work with greater profits & punishes laziness. It’s based on supply & demand but its danger is greed & oppression of the working man & woman.

Socialism stifles creativity & fails to reward hard work which leads to communism & we saw the effects of that on Eastern Europe during the 20th century.

A student at Columbine High School shared these words about life in America shortly after the tragic shooting that occurred on the school campus in Colorado.

“The paradox of our time is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints, we spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy it less; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; we’ve added years to our life, but not life to our years.

We’ve been to the moon & back but have trouble crossing the street to meet our neighbor. We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudices. We have bigger incomes, but lower morals; we’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men & short character; steep profits & shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. It is a time when there is much in the show window & nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can bring this letter to you & a time when you can choose either to make a difference---or just hit delete.”

[The authorship of this writing is attributed to Dr. Moorehouse & was published in 1995 in his book—Words aptly spoken.]

LET’S LOOK NOW AT AMERICA’S GREATEST NEED

1. LOOK CLOSELY AT THE MEANING & IMPLICATIONS OF THE WORD “CHANGE.”

Words are used both to reveal & conceal information. Change has become a new buzz word but we need to learn all we can about what is meant by change. Have you noticed that a lot of fairy tales start with the words, “If elected I promise….?” One humorist said, “It might end up meaning we’ll all have nothing but change jingling in our pockets.” It also could be a “Freudian slip,” describing a politician’s ability to change his mind & policies every other day.

What do you think about more taxation, the right to privacy, Government infringement, rising gas prices, drilling for oil, searching for alternative energy sources, energy independence, protecting the environment, & the protection of marriage as a sacred relationship between one man & woman? What do you think about illegal immigration, protecting our borders, social medicine versus personalized medicine, & the right for our kids to pray in school? What do you think about giving amnesty to 14 million illegal aliens & rewarding them with the same Platinum Heath care our Congressmen have? The list is almost endless, giving us much to study, think & pray about.

Every candidate is different & certainly none is perfect, so you & I must look at the bigger picture, & weigh the importance of issues in the light of the fate & future of our Republic.

I don’t know about you but I’m not wise enough to have all the information I need but the Holy Spirit can give us wisdom, guidance, discernment & insight.

2. GET INVOLVED IN THE LIFE & FUTURE OF YOUR COUNTRY.

Vote your convictions. Again, don’t look at the wing, look at the whole bird. If we don’t participate we lose our complaining rights. Early Christians didn’t have a vote under the Romans. Most of Paul’s writings are telling Christians how to exist in a pagan society. Many nations would cherish the opportunity to have free & open elections. The people of Zimbabwe have just been given a presidential election with only one man’s name on the ballot. People around the world have undergone terrible intimidation tactics & violence to prevent them from a real democratic election.

You may say, “I’m only one vote.” But in 1776 it was one vote that gave America the English language instead of German; in 1845, one vote brought Texas into the union; in 1868 one vote saved President Andrew Jackson from impeachment; in 1876, one vote gave Rutherford B. Hayes the U.S presidency; and in 1923, one vote gave Adolph Hitler control of the Nazi Party.

3. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY FOR AMERICA

Pray for God to guide us & to provide Godly leaders. We need & God can give us politicians like Joseph in Egypt & Daniel in Babylon.

Proverbs 21:1 says,--The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord & He directs it like a watercourse wherever He determines.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 says, I urge then first of all that requests, prayers, intersession & thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings & all those in authority that we may live peaceable & quiet lives in all godliness & holiness.

Maybe this is the greatest challenge of all;

If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin and heal their land.—[2 Chron. 7:14]


Blessings,

John

Riddle Me This........

By John Stallings

I’m a part of you that is more you than any other part, but you’ve never seen me. In fact you’ll never see me, because I’m invisible. I am the repository or collector of all your experiences, & attitudes but I’m more than that. Much more.

I’m way stronger than you’d ever think yet I’m also very vulnerable & tender. I’m affected by your health, emotions & thinking patterns yet I can stabilize or sabotage all three.

Though I freely admit it was the union of your mother & father that brought you to this earth, they didn’t create me. God did. And because God created me I’ll outlast the Universe. Without me the others parts of you, the totality of you would make no sense at all.

If I’m not taken care of & properly nourished, everything else you do will end in hollowness & despair. If you become wealthy & famous but don’t use honorable methods to do it, or strive for unworthy goals, or in general leave me unnourished, sooner or later in your darkest hour, I’ll whisper in your ear; “So what?-- It’s all meaningless.”

I’m the part of you that integrates mind, will & emotions. I’m the part of you that can get restless, bored or blindsided by guilt at the height of pleasure or success, because, really, pleasure & success don’t satisfy me. Love, peace, true joy & significance do.

As a matter of fact, I’m the part of you that’s controlling your life as you read this piece & for that matter, anything else you do. Like your car engine, if I’m not running right, it doesn’t really matter how many accessories the car might have, or how big & shiny it is, nothing is going to work.

Of course the reason I’m talking to you like this about me, is, one day you’ll have to give account for me to the one who made me, God.

The only Manuel I know for my care & feeding is The Bible. I can also tell you that the information is extremely accurate because it was written by the one who made me. I know what it is to feel intense pain & the book that talks the most about my pain is Psalms.

David & the other Psalmists can provide lots of help in categorizing the different situations that can cause me elation or agony. The Psalms give great insight into my needs & experiences. In this book alone I’m mentioned 141 times.

Have you figured out yet who am I? - O.K I’ll tell you my identity. I’m your soul.

Now that you’re wise to my riddle,

LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CARE & FEEDING OF THE SOUL.

Talking about the soul is as hard as any topic I can possibly think of. What is the soul? How do you care for the soul & what does it mean to-- love God with all your heart, soul, strength & mind…..Luke 10:27

Thinking about the soul brings to mind thoughts of the deepest dimensions of human experience. We don’t hear the soul talked about much in our society because of its invisibility. A surgeon doesn’t have to cut around it in doing major surgery. When a person dies we can’t see the soul leaving the body. We tend not to put much focus on things we can’t see & touch. Some think the soul might be real but not as real as the things they can see & touch.

SPIRIT AND SOUL ARE DIFFERENT

If you go to a rally on the 4th of July & wave a flag, that would be your spirit. Spirit is enthusiastic & exuberant. Spirit bubbles over with joy & excitement. Soul is different, deeper. Soul shows up on Memorial Day when the president lays a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. No one waves a flag on that day because its representative of struggle, hurt & loss. That’s soul, & so is Gettysburg, & 9/11/01.

Spirit is when you get the promotion you’ve worked so long & hard for. You got your picture in the paper because you represent the best in your line of endeavor & your life’s plan is finally coming together. Soul is when you look around & realize the money you’ve made & the name you’ve made for yourself have failed to make you happy. You’re surprisingly empty & miserable & you think there has to be more to life than this.

You shrug it off as a passing mood until a few months later it returns to knock on your door like a homeless waif & you ask, “What do you want?” That’s soul. Soul won’t be satisfied with a cliché’, it wants truth from you. Soul wants you to face the truth.

The soul is often shy & tentative but will show up when you least expect it. It will jerk you awake in the middle of the night to tell what’s not working in your life. The serious person may need to listen to a soul that wants to laugh & sing a bit & the jokester may hear his soul saying, “let’s get serious for a while.”

Though people don’t think & talk about much about the soul, in God’s economy it’s the most important subject. Jesus emphasized the importance of the eternal soul when He said,

“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world & loses his own soul. Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?-Matt.16:26

I realize I write a lot about Joseph but to me he’s the perfect example of a man who truly grew a great soul. His story begins with spirit & joy. He’s a youngster reveling in his fathers love. He has dreams & visions & he’s the star in all of them.

But Joseph’s brothers grew jealous of him & went into a murderous rage. Joseph suffers in the pit. He suffers in Egypt & he suffers in jail. At the end of Genesis Joseph becomes a leader in Egypt & saves his family & much of the world from starvation. Through all of it he embraced the life God had given him. He blesses his family & forgives them because he turned all his suffering into wisdom. That’s soul.

The best comparison I can think of is the root system of a tree. The part we see may be impressive but it’s nothing without roots. Cut a tree off from its root-system & its dead. It may hang around for a while but it will eventually dry up, get hard, stop producing fruit & rot.

If a 100 foot tree has the root system of a sapling, when the strong winds come, POOF! It’s going down! In fact the tree’s stability & survivability in a storm are a testament to its root system.

When David had people determined to destroy him he said, My soul is full of trouble. Not many people talk about their soul do they? But Jesus also talked about His soul. He said,--My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death. Matt.14:34.

Sometimes life has a way of crushing your soul. Sin is the soul’s number one enemy. Sin like cancer replaces healthy tissue with diseased tissue. Jealousy & envy are diseases of the soul. Moving from one sexual partner to another damages the soul. A piece of the soul is left with each promiscuous partner. That combined with guilt can do a lot of damage.

When we put money, success, pride, friends, pleasure, our appearance, or anything before God it ultimately affects the health of our soul.

At Calvary, Jesus made it possible for our souls to find what they need; forgiveness & soul-cleansing. If we neglect proper care of our souls we become cynical, critical, self-pitying, discouraged irritable & driven. When our souls are healthy we’re light-hearted, passionate, loving, forgiving, trusting, hopeful, peaceful, resilient, and transparent & have close friendships.

It’s important to remember that God loves & treasures your soul & He wants you to take care of it. He knows the joy, peace & security we all want so much for ourselves comes from having a healthy soul. A philosopher once said, “There’s a god-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which can’t be filled by anything but the creator Himself.”

Jesus said, -- If anyone thirsts let him come unto me & drink.-John 7:38-9. Of course He was speaking of soul-thirst.

Have you ever gone to Jesus & invited Him to fill that vacuum in your life & really experienced the slaking of your soul-thirst He was talking about?

In the whole of Psalm 42, a wonderful vision of the processes of the soul is presented. The Psalmists says;

Vr.1--As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee O God….

Vr.5—Why art thou cast down O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

In Psalm 103:1, 2 --David actually talks to his soul & gives it instructions;

Bless the Lord O my soul; & all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord O my soul & forget not all His benefits….

In the New Testament we read of the surety of God’s promises---that they are unbreakable & never fail;-

Which hope we have as an anchor for our souls.—Hebrews 6:19

HOW DOES GOD CARE FOR OUR SOULS?

I love the 23rd Psalm because it gives us good a description of the way God satisfies our souls.

1. HE STARTS WITH OUR RESTLESSNESS & TENDENCY TO WANDER.

23:1—David says, The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.

What are the I WANT issues of your life? If you’ll let God be the care-giver & doctor of your soul He’ll take care of all those issues.


2. GOD DEALS WITH THE SECOND NEED OF THE SOUL-PEACE

Psalm 23:2—He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still water.

Peace isn’t the lack of ambition it’s the sense that all is well. Do you know what its like to have peace at the core of your life?

Sheep experts tell us their very health is dependant on the rest they get. The basic needs of sheep are food, rest, the feeling of being safe, not being driven crazy by insects & being at peace with the other sheep. Isn’t that interesting?

HOW’S YOUR PEACE QUOTIENT THESE DAYS?

Being too busy is the greatest enemy of spiritual growth. We have to make time for God & sometimes it’s a sacrifice but one that pays dividends.

I’ve always being intrigued with the wording; -He makes me lie down…. If you’ve ever raised children you understand that they occasionally resist going to bed. We literally have to make them lie down & rest because sometimes they’re too tired to sleep. Have you ever been so tired you got silly & really didn’t feel like going to bed? That’s why God has to make us lie down.

3. SOMETIMES THE SHEEP NEED RESTORATION

A sheep can get into a situation where he gets down & can’t get up. If a sheep is too full or pregnant, & it happens to roll over on its back, & its wool gets wet or they’re just plain fat, the Shepherd will have to come “restore them.” If the Shepherd doesn’t find them in time & get them on their feet & restore them, they die.

That’s exactly what David is speaking of when he says,- HE RESTORES MY SOUL. - Ps.23:3

Have you ever had your soul restored? I’m not going to be a hypocrite here; I enjoy watching T.V & have always enjoyed movies if they’re decent, have a point & in short, are worth watching.

But in the last several years I’ve found that my soul is rarely satisfied with much of anything the entertainment world has to offer. This also goes, at least for me, for some of the religious programming available to watch. I certainly don’t mean that in a harsh judgmental way but rather I’m just sharing my thoughts with you.

It’s retreating to my place of prayer & study that I revel in more & more. On a daily basis I sit before the Lord & wait. Sometimes I have to wait for a while before anything happens but invariably way down deep inside I hear the voice of my Shepherd, leading me into green pastures & restoring my soul.

Its awful to have to say it but many of the people & things we’ve put confidence in & trusted in would never come looking for us if we were in need like our Shepherd will. If we lean on the arm of flesh we will almost surely be profoundly disappointed. Only Jesus the good Shepherd doesn’t kick us around. He helps us on our feet again, restores us & helps us find our way.

4. THE SHEPHERD LEADS US IN THE RIGHT PATHS

The wisest man who ever lived said these words twice in the same book, --There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to Death. Proverbs 14:12—16:25—NIV

That’s why our soul needs a Shepherd who knows the right way to guide us. Though I think I’m a pretty good judge of character & like to think I’m not easily fooled, I have been fooled by people in my life & I know the value of a good guide.

5. OUR SOULS NEED FREEDOM FROM FEAR

David said,--Though I walk through the valley of death I’ll fear no evil; your rod & your staff they comfort me. Ps.23:4

A good Shepherd carried two things besides his lunch; a big stick to clobber snakes & wolves, & a staff with a hook on it to pull sheep out of bad situations. Our soul’s Shepherd doesn’t carry sticks but He works the night shift so we can sleep.

Fear is destructive & that’s why the Bible says 365 times, fear not. Don’t be afraid.

6. OUR SOULS NEED PROTECTION FROM ENEMIES

David said,-You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

In the early spring the Shepherd would go into the table lands where the best grazing was & prepare them for the sheep. He made sure to trap predators, pull poisonous weeds—things like that. Wherever the sheep went the Shepherd had been there first.

7. ONE MORE THING OUR SOULS NEED IS HOPE.

David said, -Surely goodness & mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.—Ps.23:5-6

David is believing life will kiss him until he’s an old man. Hope is knowing all your kids will turn out fine & then, absent the rapture, you’ll die without much pain & be ushered into the presence of the good Shepherd.

8. ANOTHER THING OUR SOUL NEEDS—HOME.

David said, --And I will dwell in the house of the Lord….forever. Ps. 23:6

Let me close this with some comments that are extremely practical. The bottom line is, real soul food is TIME WITH THE LORD.

Have you ever considered the fact that a good meal shared with someone who you care about is truly one of life’s great pleasures? It’s true. Listen to Isaiah;

Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me & eat that which is good & let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear & come unto me; hear & your soul shall live……Ish.55:203

When we pause in God’s presence, the fog clears & our values sharpen. During these times we align ourselves with the commitments we’ve made to God & others. Important things come to the fore while secondary things recede into the background where they belong. The busier you are the more desperately your soul craves time alone with God.

In 2 Samuel 12, David receives word that his young son who was conceived in sin with Bathsheba was going to die. Some people read that story & marvel at how quickly David was able to get control of his emotions, get off the floor, wash, change his clothes, worship God, eat & comfort his wife. Even the people around David asked him, “Why are you acting this way?” While your child was alive you fasted & wept but now that the child is dead you get up & eat?”

The explanation for that was right under their noses but they couldn’t see it. David had lain on the floor in the presence of God for seven days. During that time in God’s presence he received God’s healing power. Not only that, he received forgiveness for his sin & gained eternal perspective regarding his son’s death. He was fortified in his soul so that he could trust God during this painful loss & could also offer solace to his grieving wife.

The Psalmist said;--Open my eyes that I might see the wonderful things in your law. Psalm 119:18. God delights in answering this prayer so when you ask, lean toward Him in anticipation. Read His Word in His presence & listen to what His Spirit might say to you.

Jesus said, -Ask & it shall be given to you; seek & you will find; knock & the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds, & to him who knocks the door will be opened.—Matt.7:7-8.

He also said,

Come unto me, all ye that labor & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you & learn of me; for I am meek & lowly in heart:

& ye shall find rest unto your souls.—Matt.11; 28-29

Blessings,

John

The Surest Test Of Character

By John Stallings


Years ago when Elvis Presley first came to prominence, I heard Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh of the U.K say something that made an indelible impression on me. I was only sixteen years old at the time.

When Prince Philip was asked what he thought of Elvis, he said, “You know, I can’t really say, I’ve never met Mr. Presley.” Something about that statement spoke to me. It spoke of good breeding. I really don’t think this next thought came to mind when I was sixteen but in retrospect it does; in all probability, this is the kind of training Royalty receives because loftier ideals & studied opinions are expected of them.

We might discount the prince’s statement & say, “Come on, he could have given an opinion about Elvis. Certainly he’d seen him on TV or at least he knew what Elvis was all about.” The reason we might think that is we’ve become so comfortable making snap judgments about people & issues we really haven’t given much thought to.

OSWALD CHAMBERS SAID-“THE GREATEST TEST OF A MAN’S CHARACTER IS HIS TONGUE.”

He was right & he has the Bible to back him up. Does that cause a little shiver to go up your spine? It certainly does mine. How much stuff have we just slung out there with hardly a thought given to the impact it would make & what it said about us? Maybe the reason we don’t hold one another more accountable for our words is we live in a culture where freedom of speech is accepted & expected & we’ve all become used to saying what we think.

But here’s the truth. We really don’t say what we think as much as say before we think --& later wish to the high heavens we had thought.

WORDS--Ben Franklin said, “A slip of the foot you may soon recover but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.” Let’s take a look at words from a Biblical perspective & get some tips for living with fewer regrets.

1. CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR WORDS.

Over the years I’ve been privy to a lot of back-stage talk among men & women from many professions, even ministers [maybe I should say, especially ministers] & there’s one thing that stands out. Most all have said things in their lives that felt right at the time that they lived to bitterly regret. Here’s the real shocker; -- by their own admission, most of them have said things that in retrospect, they feel actually hurt them in their careers. I guess they should know.

A preacher friend of mine who died way too young asked me once, “Why do I always shoot myself in the foot with what I say on important occasions?”

Think about that. People we look on as successful are actually saying, though it pains them to do so, that with their tongues they’ve damaged their lives & sabotaged good things that would have come to them if they’d better chosen their words. Hasty words, words spoken without thinking, maybe even words spoken with full knowledge that they would cut like a razor; words that have put others in the “spiritual burn unit” to try to recover from.

They felt they would have had more happiness; more acceptance as human beings, & more finances if they had only more carefully guarded the powerful bullets that zinged from their lips.

Think I’m exaggerating? I’m not! A few months back, our President, George W. Bush was badgered until he finally admitted to the mistakes he felt he’d made during his presidency. He admitted that he wished he hadn’t said some of the strong things he’d said in the early days of the Iraq war. One time he said in response to our terrorists enemies, “Bring it on.”

I have to be honest. I don’t think that was so bad. As a matter of fact many of us would have probably said more than that if we were in the position the president was in. Also, the seriousness of what an individual says in our culture will be measured, in most cases, especially by the liberal media, by which side of the political fence he’s on. Non-the-less, Mr. Bush feels his words were hasty in some cases so I give him high marks for seeing his mistakes.

As I said, most honest folk will admit that the hardest organ of their body to control is their tongue. Always!!

Proverbs 15:4 says, The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life but a deceitful tongue curses the spirit.

Proverbs 18:20-21 says --From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled; with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied. The tongue has the power of life & death & those who love it will eat its fruit.

Think about that. Fruit from your mouth & harvest from your lips refer to the consequences of your words. It’s truly wise to think of the consequences of your words. Words chosen wisely are, if nothing more, really good business.

2. CHOOSE WORDS THAT HELP HEAL

Proverbs 15:2-7 says, The tongue of the wise commands knowledge but the mouth of the fool gushes folly. The lips of the wise spread knowledge not so the hearts of fools.

Proverbs 16:21-23—The wise in heart are called discerning & pleasant words promote instruction. Pleasant words are a honeycomb sweet to the soul & healing to the bones.

Mark Twain once said, “I can go for two months on one good compliment.” Coach Vince Lombardi saw the new recruit Jerry Kramer in the locker room with his head down & patted him on the shoulder saying, “One day you’ll be the best guard in the NFL.” Jerry didn’t believe it until the coach told him but today he’s in the Hall of Fame.

If you hear something good about a person pass it on. The person might not have heard it. Compliment someone in public so others can hear it. Write notes of appreciation. Satan wants to make us think we’ll destroy someone by saying nice things to them. Nothing could further from the truth. Send congratulatory emails. You can be “ sweet to someone’s soul.” Gracious speech improves things for all of us.

3. CHOOSE RIGHT WORDS

We almost always have a choice of the words to use when we speak.

Proverbs 10:21 says, The lips of the righteous nourish many but fools die for lack of judgment.

Have you ever noticed how good it feels to listen to a wise person? But if you give a fool enough rope he’ll hang himself.

Proverbs 10:32 says –The lips of the righteous know what is fitting but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse.

Perverse means twisting good words around to mean something evil.

Going back to president Bush & his admission of saying the wrong thing when he blurted out to the enemy—“Bring it on,” if you are a careful observed of the media, you’ll remember that in reporting what Bush said, the media had him saying, “I regret some of the cowboy remarks I made.” The president never said that but of course in a day of “spinning” the news, this is kind of misrepresentation is common. This is perverseness.

Proverbs 15:28 says, --The heart of the righteous weighs its answers but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.

Think carefully before you speak. Choose the right words.

4. USE APPROPRIATE WORDS.

In all the wisdom literature of the O.T giving a wise & timely reply is highly valued.

Proverbs 15:23 says, --A man finds joy in giving a wise & apt reply--& how good is a timely word.

Saying the right thing at the right time is a joyful thing. Have you ever known a person who could always say something that fit the occasion? Do you remember how relaxed & satisfied it made you feel? Some people can rise at a wedding dinner, a beach cook-out, a prayer meeting or a funeral & always say the appropriate & uplifting thing. Others are always shooting their toes off with their words & sticking their feet in their mouth. These are the folk who’re always in need of “peppermint shoes.” Every time they open their mouth they’re replacing one foot for the other one.

Talk about saying the right thing at the right time? - listen to this verse;

If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning it will be taken as a curse. Proverbs 27:14

Is that not funny? What this verse is pointing out is poor timing. You can say a right thing at a wrong time. Look how practical that is. I’m not exactly a morning person. I need a while to nurse my coffee. If I’m getting up to go on a trip, I’ll get up an hour early to have that wake-up time. To wake me up gently & slowly is greatly & eternally appreciated.

The verse is telling us that saying cheerful things is good & praising someone is good but if you wake someone up doing it--it still sounds like you’re cursing.

Proverbs 17:28 says, Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent & discerning if he holds his tongue.

Some of the biggest mistakes we make is --jumping on something like white on rice when we don’t have all the information. There are some people who are so arrogant & narrow-minded that they have no interest in taking the time to hear the facts or anything else that contradicts their position. They jump to an assumption & build from there. Consequently they’re always embroiled in controversy.

Proverbs 18:13 says, He who answers before listening—that is folly & his shame.

5. GIVE YOURSELF TO THE STUDY & PRACTICE OF WISE WORDS.

Make a daily commitment to saying the right things, to everyone, wherever you might go. If you do that it won’t be long until you’ll see people move around, sometimes subtly to listen to what you have to say. You’ll also hear folk ask, “what did she say?” They’ll do that because they’ve noticed that when you open your mouth you usually say something that will be interesting, uplifting & truthful.

You don’t get this kind of respect by –“off the top of your head-speaking,” or-always “shooting from the hip.” It takes time & hard work to be the kind of person that people are interested in what they have to say. The righteous heart thinks how best to answer in any given situation. Sometimes we have to take the time to pray about things so that we can speak in a way that people will hear & embrace.

In her book THE HIDING PLACE, Corrie Ten boon tells about traveling with her father on a train to Amsterdam. He was a watchmaker & traveled to the city to get watch-parts. He carried with him a large heavy suitcase with tools & spare parts.

Corrie, just a child, had heard the word sex but didn’t know what it meant, so on the train ride she asked her father. The father looked non-plussed for a second or two, and then he spoke. “Corrie, will you please carry my suitcase off the train when we stop?” Corrie answered, “Dad, it’s too heavy.”

Yes my dear” he said. “And it would be a poor father who’d ask a little girl like you to carry that heavy suitcase.” It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you’re older & stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”

Words can’t express how much I admire that kind of wisdom. Corrie’s dad was a man of prayer, faith & obedience. His wisdom & words were an outgrowth of his close walk with God.

Wise words are available to us all if we covet them & give ourselves to the study of God’s Words.

Blessings,

John

A Nation On The Brink

By John Stallings


When king Uzziah died I saw the lord. -- Isaiah 6:1


Do you remember when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas Texas in 1963?

I was conducting revival services in Newark New Jersey at the time.

Some of us can remember how terrible that week felt- from the time the president was murdered all the way through to his funeral & burial in Arlington National Cemetery. No matter what your politics were in those days, you had a hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach that wouldn’t go away.

Others of us might not remember Kennedy’s assassination but they well remember the infamous date, 9/11/01 when the World Trade Center was destroyed. Churches all over America were filled to overflowing as dismayed citizens flocked back to church, searching for comfort & assurance.

Events like these have a way of driving a whole nation to their knees. Sadly that move back to God was short-lived & many churches are at present half-filled again.

This kind of collective, national grief must have been what Isaiah & all of Judah felt when their beloved King Uzziah died after a 52 year reign, all those thousands of years ago.

When no less an authority than Isaiah the prophet is deeply moved by your death, there has to be some substance to your life. In Isaiah 6:1, he says;--In the year King Uzziah died I also saw the Lord.

In the panoply of Old Testament heroes, Isaiah stands out as a superstar. He’s a major prophet, along with Jeremiah & Ezekiel because of the sheer enormity of written material that bears his name.

I’ve enjoyed reading & studying the book of Isaiah for over 50 years, partly because of the prophet’s superb command of language; its rolling cadences & great literary passages. But what intrigues me most is, -- Isaiah has the best revelation of Christ to be found in the Old Testament, so much so that the book has been called, “the Gospel according to Isaiah.” The book has also been called a miniature Bible. The Bible has 66 books & Isaiah has 66 chapters. Both books are divided into two sections. There are 39 books in the Old Testament & there are 39 chapters in the last half of Isaiah. Since chapter 40 is Isaiah’s introduction of John the Baptist, we could rightly say that’s where his “new testament” starts.

Isaiah keeps building toward “the redeemer who is to come,” until in chapter 53 Jesus steps right off the page. I especially love 53:6 because it starts with All & ends with All. We’ve All gone astray, & through Christ we’re All potentially redeemed.

The New Testament ends with the book of Revelation with its vision of the new heaven & the new earth. The book of Isaiah closes with the remarkable chapter 66 that speaks also of the new heaven & new earth God is now creating.

Old Testament prophets couldn’t apply for the job, but rather were chosen by God. They predicted the future with 100% accuracy. If they were wrong once, they weren’t to be given any credibility. Most prophets were of humble origins but Isaiah was a recognized statesman, having access to the royal court. God used him to speak to several kings including Hezekiah, Jotham, Ahaz & Uzziah.

Uzziah had been one of Israel’s better Kings. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord-consequently God blessed him. He ascended to the throne at the age of 16, & ruled for 52 years. In 52 years the United States witnessed to administrations of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. Bush, Bill Clinton & George W. Bush.

Uzziah didn’t sit on his throne eating powdered donuts; he fought for Israel. He fought all the right people for the right reasons. Uzziah protected his people from attack by building towers into the walls of Jerusalem. He developed new weaponry & also had a standing army of 307,500 men led by 2,600 officers. In doing all of this the man became prosperous & internationally famous.

Uzziah came from good stock. He was a “chip off the old block,” following after God in the same way his father King Amaziah had done who reigned before him. He built on the solid foundation his father had laid.

The main enemy of Israel in those days was the Assyrians. They were a blood-thirsty lot, bred to destroy. They reduced towns to rubble, temples to char & kings to beggars. But during his reign Uzziah made sure this didn’t happen in Judah. He was canny & tough & possessed a tactical & political shrewdness that kept the Assyrians out & his people safe. A sense of security covered the land while Uzziah was on the throne.

The story tells us that –As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him prosper. But that verse reads somewhat ominously, don’t you think? Like hearing the sound of a distant storm approaching.--AS LONG AS HE SOUGHT THE LORD…..This is the entrée verse, telling us that the time came when Uzziah no longer sought the Lord.

You see, the great king’s life didn’t end so well. Obviously lifted up with pride & a sense of importance born of the longevity of his career, one day Uzziah’s “bad side” appeared & he “blew his stack” & entered the temple, claiming the rights reserved for the priests. Azariah & 80 other temple priests tried to stop him but he became belligerent & started screaming at the priests. This was a fatal act for the old king. He was immediately stricken with leprosy, carted out & placed in, presumably a Hospice situation, where he eventually died.

With the great king dead, the balance of power in the realm seemed to tip away from hope & stability to despair & a sense of vulnerability. Everyone in the kingdom wondered what would happen now. I’d like to think they all were praying but I know one young man who did pray.

Isaiah was a young fellow with a wife & two sons just beginning his career as a prophet. He must have been confused & afraid. As a matter of fact, he’s so distraught he feels he must meet God to try to find some answers.

I can see young Isaiah early one morning as he hits the street with his collar turned up against the cold wind, heading down to the temple. He’s going to get a whole lot more than he bargained for today. As he walks into the temple he feels the whole place slightly trembling. He wonders what that’s about. Then he looks around & sees the doors are actually shaking. He probably rubbed his eyes, looked again & wondered, “Do we have a building problem to contend with?”

Then Isaiah sees that everything is different than it’s ever been before. He sees big wings everywhere, flapping about the room attached to fiery creatures. He smells smoke but it’s not the kind that sets off fire detectors. It’s a different smoke; ancient & spicy with a mysterious fragrance. He hears voices chanting the word “Holy, Holy, Holy”& it’s echoing all around him. He looks up & sees the shape of a throne & a long ephemeral cloth begins to unwind & fill the place.

The cloth is stitched like the hem of a garment but isn’t heavy. [Think Diana’s wedding gown in England; the train being so long it had to be carried behind her.] Isaiah feels more alive than he’s ever felt before. His head is spinning & he feels puny & overwhelmed with his own inadequacy. He shouted out, “Woe is me! I’m a man of unclean lips & so is everybody else around me. I’m lost & not worthy to be in God’s presence.”

Notice Isaiah didn’t say, “Woe is my spouse” or “woe is my neighbor,” he cried out, “woe is me.” It’s of interest that the angels declare God’s holiness three times. Nowhere in the bible is God called “love, love, love, or “mercy, mercy, mercy.” In Revelation 4, God’s holiness is also mentioned three times, telling us if we want to know God we must come to grips with His holiness.

By now the room is pulsating with electricity as the hem of God’s garment sweeps back & forth across the open space. Isaiah sees that the angel’s wings are getting closer, so close in fact one comes right toward him & presses a red-hot coal against his lips. He could feel the pain but pain that didn’t hurt. Rather it was a thrilling sensation.

Then Isaiah hears God’s voice just off to the side. The voice is saying, “Whom shall I send, & who will go for us?” Many bible scholars believe this voice addressing another shows us the triune nature of God. Here is God the Father addressing the Son & The Holy Spirit. The fact that holy is repeated three times by the angels would militate to that fact.

Isaiah opens his burning, stinging lips & blurts out, “Here am I, send me.” It’s strange that God would be asking the question, “whom shall I send & who will go for us,” don’t you think? Here is the God of the universe asking for volunteers. He wants willing, surrendered servants. It isn’t that God doesn’t know who the ready & available ones are but He is waiting for ready hearts to reveal themselves.

Notice also that Isaiah didn’t say, “Here I am, I will go,” but rather “here am I send me.” Isaiah wasn’t going at all unless he knew he was sent by the lord. Many will say, “here I am I’ll go” but never wait for God to send them.

So God begins to teach a man who will now become His prophet in a Nation on the brink. Perhaps the greatest lesson God taught Isaiah through this audiovisual was that no matter what happens on this earth, God is still on His throne, high & lifted up & He’ll have the last word in the affairs of man. King Uzziah is dead & his throne is vacant but God’s throne is never vacant.

Young Isaiah left the temple that day on a new mission. From that day forward he’d warn the people of the dangers of living self-absorbed lives & keep reminding them that God requires unconditional loyalty. He tells them their downfall wouldn’t come from without but within.

Ladies & gentlemen I know you can see the parallel between Isaiah’s day & ours. We are also A NATION ON THE BRINK. We face an election in a few short months that will set a new course for this nation for good or ill. Sadly many of our fellow countrymen don’t comprehend the dangers. So the question is; what do you do in times like these?

What should our response be when we have only one vote per person & after that vote is cast; it’s in God’s hands? I’m not going into a political rant in this blog because you’re as aware as I am about what’s at stake. You & I can & will vote the way we see fit in the next election. What I want to stress is what needs to happen in the spirit realm, because God is sovereign & puts leaders up & down as He wills. However that obviously doesn’t negate the awesome responsibility facing us as individuals.

I’d like to give three suggestions regarding what we should do, following the pattern Isaiah set for us in this story.

1. LOOK UP!

In the year king Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne high & exalted & the train of His robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet & with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.

At the sound of their voices the doorposts shook & the temple was filled with smoke.

When we’re going through times of stress & trial, we need to Look Up! I’ve always believed that America was placed by God safely between two oceans without enemies on our borders so we would be secure. However because of that we’ve placed too much confidence in our military & economic prowess. Now things have changed & in a real sense the world has become a “global village.” Missiles know no international boundaries & mankind now has in his hands the means to set whole cities to the torch in a matter of minutes.

However instead of looking around us or even within ourselves, we need to first Look Up to the one who sits upon that throne.

2. FESS- UP—Vr.5-7

Isaiah said, Woe to me, for I’m a man of unclean lips.

It’s refreshing to see Isaiah mention his own sins before he mentioned the sins of his neighbors. When we’re in time of danger & upheaval, we need to not only get an accurate view of God, we need to see ourselves as we really are.

Every one of us is flawed, sinful & blemished. When we get close enough to God to see how great & holy He is, we’ll also see how unworthy we are before Him. Isaiah probably had thought he was O.K but when he saw God he knew better.

I heard about a man who went to a psychiatrist’s office with a fried egg on top of his head & a strip of bacon draped over each ear & a sausage link in each nostril. “I need to talk to the doc,” he said. “It’s about my brother.” Obviously he didn’t see how messed-up he was.

Isaiah did the right thing. He became reflective in the time of tragedy. He didn’t say, “That stupid old king Uzziah. If he hadn’t tried to take over the priest’s job we wouldn’t be in this mess.” He didn’t say, “What can I expect? I live among rebellious people. I can’t blame God for bringing judgment against us.” Isaiah felt personally undone before the Almighty.

Let’s think about our present problems in America in the light of 2 Chronicles 7:14;

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves & pray & seek my face & turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & will heal their land.

Who does God restore? The repentant. Who does God bless? The humble. Who does God oppose? The proud.

The next thing we need to do in times of trouble is;

3. STEP UP!-vr.8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send. And who will go for us? And I said, here am I send me.

One of the most important things we can do especially in times of great need is have a mission in this world. Do you have a mission? We must get the focus off ourselves, once we’ve repented, & focus on what God can & is doing in the world. One of our greatest needs is to get the big picture & get on board with God’s eternal purposes.

I think you’ll agree with me that America is on the BRINK. Our economy as well as our standing in the world is at stake. Just this week Juda & I have written letters & sent emails to our Congressmen asking them to lend their efforts to allowing our people to drill for oil in Alaska, The Great Lakes & off our shores. There are some things that only the citizenry can do because in a country like ours at least for the present we wield awesome power.

We can all do something. Are you ready to STEP UP? It takes several hours a week to write these messages & I’ve wanted to stop many times but even if I encourage just a few, I feel I can do no less. I have the tools at my disposal so I do what I can.

We must step up! We must say with Isaiah, here am I send me.
Isaiah didn’t say, -“There he is send him.” God asks us to Look-up, Fess-up & Step-up.

Isaiah knew his nation was On The Brink of destruction. In response to God, he submitted himself entirely to God’s service for life.

No matter how difficult his task would be, he said, Lord, I’ll go!-- Will you?

Blessings,

John

The church in Palm Harbor

By John Stallings

Juda and I just returned from the Clearwater, Florida area where we filled the pulpit for Joe and Kathy Peterson. They pastor Christ Church, in the town of Palm harbor, just off Hi-way 19-N-juxtaposed between Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg.

The Petersons are long-time friends of ours and they hadn’t missed a Sunday in their church in eleven years. I don’t know about you but that’s impressive to me.

Joe Peterson and I met more than 35 years ago when we were both traveling evangelists. He and his lovely wife Kathy left the evangelistic field eleven years ago and assumed the pastorate in Palm Harbor with no membership and only twelve in attendance in their first service.

I was one of the dozen people present that day and drove down to be with them for in their first service for moral support. Juda and I have returned over a dozen times during the years as pulpit guests. Each time we return we see new faces and this past week was no exception. The Peterson’s hard work, prayer and their love for people has paid off in spades.

The Sunday morning service is now running at capacity, just over 150, and their mid-week service is almost filled to capacity. This is due to Brother Peterson’s dynamic preaching as well as a well rounded music and worship experience that blesses the heart, and last but certainly not least, the moving of the Holy Ghost in the services. There is definitely liberty in the house.

The church is looking for a larger building and I predict when they find other facilities they will explode with growth. Juda and I love to go to Palm Harbor because we know we won’t have to try to raise the “spiritually dead,” but are ourselves refreshed as we enjoy worshipping with these good people.

I haven’t posted much lately but will have a new message up within days that I believe will bless and inspire you.

Blessings,

John

The sin we can't hide

By John Stallings


The story is told of an African people who regarded monkey meat as a delicacy. The monkeys however were difficult to capture rarely straying from the safely of the trees.

Nevertheless the villagers found a way to get their hands on the monkeys. They fashioned crude clay bottles that were round on the bottom & curved up into long necks…..The villagers filled the bottom of the bottles with peanuts & set them out on the floor of the jungle. Then they went home to bed.

During the night the monkeys smelled the peanuts sensed that it would be safe & came swinging down from the trees to investigate.

One by one the monkeys reached down into the bottles & grabbed a fistful of peanuts. When the monkey tried to retrieve the prize however it found it couldn’t pull its fist out of the bottle. Though it strained with all its might it could not pull the peanuts from the bottle.

The next morning the people arose & walked out to the clearing in the jungle where they found the monkeys still trying to pull their treasure from the bottles. Casually the villagers scooped up the monkeys, broke the bottles & carried the animals home to provide meat for their festival.

The monkeys lost their freedom because they were not willing to let go. They refused to unclench their fists. So it is with our resentments. If we want to be set free from our resentments we most likely will have to let go of something.

In Luke 15:11-32 we read about the parable of the father & his two sons. This is one of the best known stories the Lord ever told. It’s the story about coming home. Of repentance & reformation. Of return & forgiveness. Of acceptance & restoration. Of finding what was lost.

We think of the father welcoming home his lost son. His joy at receiving back alive that which was dead. For finding, of receiving back that which had been lost. We think of his elation. Of his celebration.

But there is much more here to explore & discover. This isn’t just the parable of the prodigal son, for the first line of the parable says that there was a man with two sons. It’s a parable about two sons; an elder & a younger, & about a father.

The Prodigal son left home & wasted his money on fleshly pursuits. He woke up one day in a pen of swine & decided to return home to his father & seek forgiveness. Upon his arrival home he asked to be treated as one of his father's hired servants.

However his father was so happy his son had returned, he ordered the finest clothes to be placed on his back & a ring of honor to grace his finger & the fatted calf killed to celebrate the return of his wayward son.

But the elder brother in the story resented the way his father treated his returning brother. After all, he blew it. He’d wasting his inheritance satisfying his fleshly appetites, embarrassed the family name & hurt family business.

WHY WAS THE ELDER BROTHER SO RESENTFUL?

Let’s look at it. His attitude was; — “O.K. It’s fine for us to welcome my brother home. But let him sleep out in the barn. I have some old clothes I’m not wearing that I’ll give him. That’s good enough. Let him tough it out & maybe he’ll see just how bad he sinned & hurt this family, especially my father.”

However, the thing that really ticked off the elder brother was the party his father gave his returning brother. This party made the older brother resentful. Let him return home, but to bread & water not to the fatted calf; to sackcloth, not a new robe; to ashes, not jewelry; to kneeling, not dancing; to tears, not celebration. It was fine in the eyes of the elder brother for the Prodigal to be reunited with the family, but Oh how he resented that party.


· The woman with two children, whose husband left her for another woman & now she faces the full financial support of the family- is resentful.
· The woman who feels her husband’s company takes too much of his time & he never has quality family time, -is resentful.
· The older person whose health is failing & faces the prospect of a nursing home- is resentful.
· A person nearing retirement who watched their investments go up in smoke because of bad investments by the fund trustees –is resentful.
· A high school student who didn’t make the team…or cheerleader…or first chair band…or the lead role in a play—is resentful.
· A young child whose daddy died is resentful of their mother’s new boyfriend or husband & begins lashing out.

RESENTMENT CAN’T BE CONCEALED

When you are resentful, a major part of you closes down. You become bitter & less able to express love. You lose your joy & put up walls of protection that make life more difficult.

Letting go of resentment isn’t something you do for the benefit of the other person. Letting go of resentment is for you. When you resent someone you’ve essentially said they are the problem so you don’t have to look at yourself.

Resentment raises it’s ugly head on the first pages of the Bible with Cain & Abel. Why is resentment a sin? Because if resentment is allowed to fester, the end result will be murder in one form or another just as happened with Cain & Abel. Some time probably elapsed between the time the resentment began to grow in Cain & the fruition of his explosive action. This is called “repression.” But repression doesn’t solve anything, it only postpones. Soon- very soon it morphs into a manifestation of full-blown resentment.

Resentment by definition is-

• Anger that is re-sensed or re-felt.”
  · It is animosity just beneath the surface but it can’t go long without bubbling to the top to show itself in word & deed.
  · Unresolved anger over a negative event in our past.
  · Seething, aching emotional turmoil felt when a person or event is discussed.
  · Unresolved grief & lack of forgiveness & the inability to let go.
  · Feeling offended, sometimes silently when we believe a person or group of people has ignored or denied our request.
  · A root of depression that robs us of contentment in life.
  · A feeling of frustration after having exerted great effort to achieve something that eventually was lost to us.
  · Pouting or fuming at the mention of a name or group who has hurt or disappointed us.
  · Dreams or nightmares or distressing thoughts about the offender.
  · Anger & hostility at times for no apparent reason.
  · Speaking in a derisive manner about the offenders.
  · Becoming stuck in our efforts for personal growth.
  · Fake excitement & enthusiasm about people we’d really rather have nothing to do with.
  · Efforts to enlist others in our views & sometimes feeling they don’t except our wisdom.
  · Passive/aggressive behavior [ignoring them] toward the object of our hostility.
  · Touchy or edgy when reminded of person or persons we resent.
  · Resisting all efforts to get us to work on forgiving & forgetting past hurts.
  · Vehemently denying anger or hatred against those whom we resent.
  · A hostile, cynical & sarcastic attitude is developing now even with those who haven’t hurt us. This shows what an aggressive cancer of the spirit resentment truly is.
  · Feeling that things will never change so why try to alter the situation between us & “them.”
  · Resentment is persistent ill-will. It has been called the cocaine of the mind /spirit because it’s so addictive & destructive.

Multitudes of people live years of twisted pain because they were not willing to let go of some hurt, some injustice. They feel if they let go of their resentment, they’ll be letting the person off the hook who hurt them.

You can see & hear resentment in Barack Obama’s wife Michelle. She has called America mean & said she has only been proud to be an American since her husband has been so accepted on the presidential campaign trail. I think it’s safe to say she’s one of most disappointed & unsatisfied millionaires in the country. It’s not hard to see she’s been thoroughly indoctrinated by her pastor of twenty years. Again, the fact comes shining through that resentment can’t be hidden any more than an Elephant could hide in your bathroom.

We run into people in all walks of life who’re full to the brim with resentment & haven’t a clue that it shows in everything they do. I’m sure you’ve met these people as have I. Through the years I’ve had female servers in restaurants or department stores to treat me like a serial murderer. I finally figured out that I probably remind them of a former husband or boyfriend. Here’s a good fact to have in your mental computer when dealing with resentful people; in most instances, -- “you aren’t the target.” Someone along the way has hurt them &, their resentment can’t be & won’t be hidden.

UNRESOLVED RESENTMENT EXACTS A TERRIBLE TOLL

Dr. Hans Selye of Montreal Canada has produced some real proof of what emotions can do to jeopardize health. In an experiment he injected a group of rats with disease producing germs. In a second group, he injected poison. A third group of rats were subjected to stresses that produced great anxiety, & mental & emotional confusion. The amazing result was that the stressors of hate, envy jealousy fear & anxiety produced bodily disintegration & brought on death just as certainly as did the disease germs & the poison.

Russian scientists have conducted several experiments with Chimpanzees. If you’re an animal lover this will tug on your heartstrings but there’s a great lesson to be learned here. A young Chimp who was living happily with his family was taken away & placed in a cage close by from which he could see & hear his family but could not reach them. Screaming with rage he could only watch as his fury mounted. Within three months he was dead.

Here’s the sad but instructive result of the experiment. When the body of the Chimp was examined after death, it was learned he died of severe hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure & an enlarged heart. Even though the Chimp was justified in his feelings, he died of jealousy, rage & resentment just the same.

Resentment is just like a toxic waste. We can’t carry it without being contaminated by it & toxic waste is known to cause cancer.

THE WOMAN WHO WAS RUINED BY RESENTMENT

The story of David & Michal, the wife of David’s youth is one of the saddest in the Bible. Michal was King Saul’s daughter & she was the love of David’s life. 1 Samuel chapters 18-19 give us the start of their story & reveal that Michal loved David very much. She saved David’s life when her father was trying to kill him.

But as they grew older something started happening to the relationship. No longer did they seem to fulfill each other & they grew critical of each other. David was forced by Michal’s father Saul to flee for his life & became a fugitive for several years. In David’s absence, Saul gave Michal to another man as his wife. 1 Sam.25:44. After David ascended to the throne of Israel, he called for Michal, feeling she was still his wife. Michal had to leave her husband of many years to go again to be with David. But this time she was just one of his many other wives.

It’s not difficult to see why Michal began to grow bitter & resentful over the years. There was a terribly hostile relationship between David, the man she loved & her father that tore them apart. Then she lost both her father & her brother Jonathan on the battlefield. The circumstances of life affected Michal just as they will affect you & me & cause us, if we’re not ever vigilant to become calloused & hard in spirit.

The climax of the story of Michal comes in 2 Samuel 6, when David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant back into Jerusalem. David was overcome with emotion that day & began to dance before the Lord as the Ark came into town. Michal looked out a window & saw him dancing & Bible says –She despised him in her heart.

After that, David & Michal had a red hot altercation that peeled the paint off the walls & each told the other just what they thought. The story is really a complex one because certainly David was an extremely complex man. However it’s plain to see that Michal had so slipped into cynicism & resentment over the years that she couldn’t be a wife to David, nor could she enter into Israel’s high-worship. Michal was into the pomp & ceremony & public image & she didn’t grasp the significance of the Ark of the Covenant, or David’s emotional dance.

Michal criticized David so severely that it drove a wedge between them. The husband she started off loving with all her heart, she ended up resenting if not flat-out hating. David just quit working on the relationship & had children with his other wives & concubines but evidently never had sex with her again. David put Michal away after that. He cut her off. She remained his wife, they didn’t divorce but they never had a child together. The Bible says she was stricken with barrenness & went to her grave childless.

Among other things this is a cautionary story showing us the danger of allowing the circumstances of life to harden us. It’s evident that not only did Michal resent David her husband; she had also grown to resent God.

We are told in Proverbs 4:23;--Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.

One of the things that will safeguard our hearts & keep the hard knocks of life from turning us bitter & resentful is;

A STRONG BELIEF IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

By way of contrast, look at the life of Job. When you think of all Job endured in his life, you’d expect him to be a Bitter old man but it was not so. It didn’t happen because Job kept his eyes on God. In Job 13:15 he said;

Though He slay me yet will I trust Him….

In Job 23:10 Job said;

….When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.

In Romans 8:28 Paul says;

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

THE ONLY ANTIDOTE TO RESENTMENT

First of all we have to own up to the fact that we are harboring resentment & can’t deal with it in our own strength.

Job said,--To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.-Job 5:2…Living Bible

In the heat of argument a lady told her husband, “I’ll dance on your grave when you’re dead.” Upon hearing that, he specified in his will that he be buried at sea.

The American Medical Association has long suggested that over 50% of man’s illnesses are Psychosomatic Diseases. In short this means we are suffering from our own mental attitudes.

Here’s where Christianity comes in. The teachings of Christ are tailor-made for this kind of healing because they are positive & constructive & major on forgiveness & getting our attitudes right..

Medical people are all but telling us, “If you want to live a healthy lifestyle & be mentally & emotionally fit, be a Christian.” It’s rather heartening for we who are Christians to hear the highest health authorities in the land advocating the same things Jesus & Paul taught.

Paul said in Romans chapter 12, “Bless them that persecute you; bless & curse not…..

The model prayer Jesus taught His disciples was….And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Not only did Jesus teach forgiveness, He practiced it. As He was hanging on the cross dying, He said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34

As one man said, “being resentful & expecting it to hurt someone else is like drinking poison & expecting the rat to die.” Chronic resentments we carry around create deep-seated abscesses that ruin our personalities & poison our mind, producing diseased bodies.

I’ve known people who’ve developed ulcers & were told by doctors they’d soon bleed to death if they didn’t get their emotions under control. Forgiving will remove the emotional impact from the things which have happened to us in our lives.

Imagine for a moment a man standing atop some high building. While he’s standing there, someone comes along & pushes him off the building. Or maybe he is just standing to close to the edge & accidentally falls off. Or maybe the man jumps intentionally to commit suicide.

No matter what the circumstances of the man at the top of the building, regardless of whether he was pushed, he lost his balance & accidentally fell, or he jumped to commit suicide, the results on the pavement below will be the same. The man will be dead as soon as he hits the sidewalk.

Similarly, when we hold negative feelings of resentment & hatred the end results will be the same whether we’re justified for our feelings or not. Remember the Chimpanzee who died in the Russian experiment? He was right in feeling resentful but being right didn’t save him from high blood pressure & destructive stress.

How does one rid oneself of resentment? The answer is very much in this Parable of the Elder Brother. His resentment stemmed from the notion that when those who don’t “follow the rules” suddenly are welcomed into the mainstream of God’s love & forgiveness, they got there in an unfair way without “paying their dues.”

But the truth is, this fact is what gives the message of Christ its shine & its uniqueness. If only the “elder brothers” of the world could only wake up & forget themselves. If only they weren’t so selfish, so petty, & uncharitable, so lacking in humility, in compassion & the desire to serve they could rid themselves of resentment & get a party like prodigals get.

What about us? Are we the resentful elder brother?

At present there is a revival in progress in Central Florida reaching thousands of people, many of them young people. Having lived here almost all my life I can speak with some authority & say this revival is a record breaker in more than one way. To accommodate the crowds they’ve had to acquire large stadiums.

The 32 year old young man at the helm of this revival is very different. Before the revival I’d never heard of him. He has body piercings & his arms are a quilt -work of tattoos, & tattoos run up his neck to the extent that unless he wore an upturned collar, you could see them. He’s what some people would call eccentric.

The revival is being covered by “God T.V” so it’s available on our T.V screens each night. I’ve watched it some but keep in mind; I’m “Old school.” I came from the era where we had freshly cut hair & always wore a coat & tie in the pulpit.

Old Satan would delight in getting me all bent out of shape & fall into the “elder brother” trap about the revival but I’m “not ignorant of his devises.” Unless I know without a shadow of a doubt that something immoral or unscriptural is going on in that meeting, the only thing I can conscientiously do is say as Gammiel of old said, speaking of the early Christians-- “If it be of man it will come to naught. Acts 5:34.

In my view we should celebrate what God is doing in our midst, even if good things are happening to those of a different “religious stripe.” I’ve had over fifty years of ministry & so far I haven’t turned the world upside down. How can I now be petty & little spirited when I fought bias & pettiness so hard in Christians during my early years?

Let’s join the celebration, even if there are in attendance those who don’t look & act like we do. Maybe that’s a compliment to them.

When our hearts are full of gratitude there’s no room for resentment.

We shouldn’t allow our souls to become shriveled & like the prodigal’s elder brother refuse to join the celebration. Nor should we, like Michal, see all the joy drained out of our lives because of the way God is blessing someone else.

“Let go & let God.” Let’s let go of our resentment. Let go of things that can only hurt us & pull us under & join God’s great celebration.

Blessings,

John

The First Rock

By John Stallings


“It’s a terrible thing for a sinner to fall into the hands of his fellow sinners.”—F.B Myer


Recently I was shocked & saddened to learn that a pastor of a church in a city not too far from where we live was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover police woman. We ministered in this man’s church on a Sunday several years back but hadn’t heard much if anything from him in recent years.

Juda & I did have the opportunity to have a couple of meals with him & his lovely wife while we were with them in the late nineties. They treated us with kindness & respect & I have to tell you we’re still stunned over this news.

The thoughts that flood my mind are; how does a man call his wife to drive fifty miles one way to a large city & bail her preacher husband out of jail at 2:a.m, especially in the light of what he was charged with. It happened on a Friday night. How does he explain it to his wife? How does a preacher walk into the pulpit of the church he built & explain this to well over one thousand people on the next Sunday.

It’s not a “he-said-she- said” deal. There’s no plausible deniability built in here. Law enforcement had apprehended him, they had video & audio tape, they cuffed him, finger-printed him & there was one of those awful mug-shots. Caught red-handed. -- [Whatever that means.] We’re earnestly praying for this man & his wife & kids & church family.

As I pondered this the last few days, my mind went to the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery, in John 8:1-11. The religious leaders of the day, the “teachers of the law” & Pharisees brought her to Jesus & crudely threw her down at His feet as He addressed a large crowd. It’s easy to see that though these men were religious they weren’t godly & their motivations & intentions weren’t good. As the story unfolds we discover that they were proud, self-confident, arrogant, ruthless, cunning, clever, calculating, & hypocritical to the core. The Feast of the Tabernacles had just come to an end which meant that great crowds were still in Jerusalem.

This story is so popular that even those who rarely read the Bible know about it. Though its 2,000 years old the story still captures our imagination. Our culture has even picked up on the line-“Casting the first stone,” & you’ll often hear it used. No wonder the Bible is still relevant to our day; this story could have happened this week.

A woman has been caught in the very act of adultery by a bunch of rock-throwing legalists. Like the minister I spoke about, she couldn’t deny it because of the circumstances of her situation. Maybe she was sleeping with another woman’s husband or maybe she was a prostitute & earned her living from what they call “the world’s oldest profession.”

Either way she was caught in the act. She knew what it meant to be caught like this. She knew she’d broken Jewish law, she knew she was wrong & she knew the penalty. She knew she’d be taken outside the city where the whole religious community would throw rocks at her until she was dead. After all she was guilty, plain & simple.

Boy was she guilty! She’d been guilty as long as she could remember. All her friends would know how guilty she was now & the unkindest cut of all was; now they were going to tell Jesus on her. To her, [that is-up until now]-Jesus was just another religious leader.

The people who’d caught this woman were “rules driven” folk. They were all about doing the “right thing.” They were “squeaky clean.” Black is black & white is white. They couldn’t remove the sin so they were going to remove the sinner.

I’ve always had a tendency to view these people a little on the mean & cruel side. So harsh, so cut & dried. That’s true in one way but in reality, legally, they were right. They were disgruntled & hostile. The woman’s breaking of a very important law in their society made them angry & they had every right to be doing exactly as they were doing; in a manner of speaking.

So they were going to take rocks in their hands & take care of God’s business here, & if Jesus didn’t take vengeance they certainly would get the job done. They were people with a strong sense of justice & if something had to be done they were going to do it.

There was really no need for a trial here. There was no need for a jury. There was no need to wait for a verdict. She knew it & they knew it; she was dead.

But there are lots of unanswered questions here. Who was this woman? We don’t know. Was this a basically good woman who had a weakness & had just gone astray? We don’t know. Maybe she had just made some bad choices & had ended up hurting the people she loved most. Was she single, engaged, or married? We don’t know. Is she young or middle aged? We don’t know. Had she had any previous relationships with any of her accusers? We don’t know.

How did they catch her in the “act of adultery?” We can’t be sure but it’s almost certain something fishy is going on here. The law was clear that she’d committed a capitol offense but it also states it must be a detailed & precise case with two eyewitness testimonies.

Where is the man, after all “it takes two to Tango.” Adultery by definition requires two people. Was this a set-up? Did they by prearrangement let the man go free? Let’s not forget, all this was done to put Jesus on the spot so they could very well have set up the adultery. They were hoping to impale Jesus on the horns of a dilemma & it might have worked with an ordinary teacher but not with Jesus.

One thing we do know; this woman was now about to be publicly exposed & her reputation was going to be dragged through the mud.

At this point Jesus enters the story. In some ways this resembles one of those T.V reality shows. Jesus was going about His business, preaching to a large crowd in the Temple when all at once this real life drama imposed itself on Him. How would Jesus respond with no preparation at all? All at once the heat is on & Jesus stands right in the middle of a drama with a woman’s life hanging in the balance.

Imagine with me for a moment that you, like the members of this mob have a rock in your hand. Feel the weight of that rock. Maybe you can also remember someone who’s hurt or humiliated you & the pain from the incident stills lingers with you. Feel that rock. Maybe your spouse cheated on you or hurt you in some other way. Maybe you’ve been abused or abandoned with more responsibility & baggage than you can carry.

You try not to hate the person but you surely hate what they did to you. Maybe you were hurt by your parents. Maybe it’s a business partner who took money from you. Maybe that’s why you’ve got a rock in your hand right now. Maybe you’d love to find some way to get back at that person & you’re going to have to make the decision to hold the rock, drop it, or throw it. Hold that imaginary rock for awhile & let’s look at what Jesus did.

Jesus doesn’t suffer from mental blocks. He’s always ready with the answer. Aren’t you glad you know Him? It would be an understatement to say that Jesus saw right through these people & knew exactly where they were coming from. They told Him what Moses’ law required & asked Him what he thought. Was this Jesus a compromiser? Maybe they could trip Him up.

Jesus knelt & started writing in the dust with His finger. As a matter of fact, during this dramatic event He knelt down twice & wrote on the ground with His finger. We don’t know what He wrote but He wrote something. Could He have been ignoring these men, hoping they’d go away? Was He trying to buy time? Did He kneel down & momentarily drop his head toward the earth because He was embarrassed for the women? Maybe He was embarrassed for this blood- thirsty mob. There was a lot for a sensitive person to be embarrassed about. Think about it; all of this happened so quickly we are left to wonder what the poor woman was wearing if much of anything.

Or could it be that He wrote a message? We don’t know but I think so. I think what He wrote was very relevant & very telling. He could have started writing The Ten Commandments, knowing these boys had broken a few of them. Or He might have started writing sins like anger, pride, greed, arrogance or lack of love. Either way, it got their attention. Then Jesus uttered one of His most famous statements; “Let those who’ve never sinned throw the first rock.”

Jesus was saying in essence, “If you’re not living in a glass house, go ahead & throw the first rock.” In recent years we have heard this statement of Jesus used to justify prominent people & the way they use it is far removed from the way Jesus used it & meant it.

Have you ever noticed that those with the least moral authority in their lives are often quickest to tear out the throats of other people? It’s as if they think no one is going to remember or point out that they don’t have the credibility for the job. That never ceases to amaze me.

In fact, in another place Jesus plainly said. “Judge not or you too will be judged.” If you want to start playing God, you’d better be sinless yourself. If we’ve ever needed forgiveness & mercy for our actions maybe that should govern the way we respond to somebody else.

CONSIDER HOW POWERFUL THE “FIRST ROCK” IS

The first rock is an extremely influential rock. It has an awesome power. If the first rock is never thrown then no stones will be thrown. The first rock isn’t going to kill the victim but it will open the door for the others to throw their rocks. I often think about the terrible violence in our public schools & wonder if the “first rock” was the violent video games that made our kids feel comfortable with violence. I believe in a way violence & sexuality in our movies, television & music are truly the “first rocks” that have opened the door to a landslide of sinful rocks that threaten to bury a generation of youth.

The “first rock” of gossip & slander often open the door that will result in a person’s life being destroyed. The first rock of criticism or unnecessary murmuring in a church will give permission to others to throw their rocks & soon unity is buried under a pyramid of broken fellowship.

The “First lie told” is often the first rock that starts an individual down the broad road to deception & hypocrisy.

The “First drink” is often the first rock that opens the door to alcoholism for multitudes of people.

The “First flirtation” sometimes opens the door to a life of sexual promiscuity. There are some things God doesn’t want us to do even once.

Ephesians 5:3 says, --But fornication & all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be ONCE named among you…..
Jesus knew the law said this woman should be stoned to death but He also knew the throwing of those rocks was, in the long run, not only going to create damage for the woman, it was also going to damage those who threw them. He also knew that behind this little vignette was more than met the eye. It wasn’t exactly an open-&-shut-case.

Jesus knew the incredible damage holding bitterness & hatred inside & trying to exact revenge takes on people. I mean, how is holding hate against someone who hurt you in the past, even though the pain is real, helping your life? Will throwing that rock bring you joy & bring more of God’s blessings to your life or will it just cause more hurt & frustration in your life & the lives of those around you?

DO YOU HAVE A ROCK YOU’RE READY TO THROW?

Here’s what I think Jesus is saying to you & me today; do you have a rock in your hand? Go ahead-- Throw it. Take vengeance, for after all you’ve convinced yourself that your cause is “righteous.” But know this. That rock, in the long run is going to create more trouble for you than it ever is for the person you hurt with it. Before you throw the rock, look at your own life, because you too will ultimately need love & grace & forgiveness for your sins & mistakes.

Let’s watch this story play out. The accusers slip away quietly, beginning with the older first & then they all went away. They dropped their rocks when they saw the damage they were about to cause & when they’d gotten a good look at their own need for forgiveness.

It’s interesting that the older ones went first. Maybe it was because the longer you hold hate & hurt & judgment the more you realize how heavy it is... The more real the pain-the more costly the price of holding it is. Hopefully there was a little more maturity in the older ones.

If that’s you & God is talking to you—drop your rock. Don’t hold it one moment longer. Let a new era of your life begin.

“NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU-GO & SIN NO MORE”
After the mob leaves it’s only the woman & Jesus standing in the middle of the crowd. He simply says, “Where are your accusers?” Didn’t anyone condemn you? Then neither do I.” I have this visual of this woman sitting on the ground, embarrassed & sick & tired of life. She’s sitting there crying & feeling guilty. Then I see Jesus lift her head & say something like, “Daughter, you’re not going to die today & not on this hill. Go & live all your tomorrows different than you lived today.”

In the eyes of Jesus, this woman looked better than the men who were accusing her. No doubt these men were troubled by what Jesus said. They saw a “slam dunk” but it all came to naught. They wanted to talk about the woman but Jesus wanted to talk about them. They wanted to talk about the law as it relates to outward behavior but Jesus wanted to talk about the law as it related to their hearts.

It’s easy to see why she looked bigger to Jesus than her accusers. She denied nothing & they admitted nothing. Jesus didn’t smooth over this woman’s sin & dismiss it as if unimportant. He forgave her but told her to get out of the sin business. If we are not walking in God’s plan for our lives, we’re in danger of damaging our souls.

Isaiah said, --Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they shall be as wool. Ish. 1:8

There is more to this story than the obvious dismissal of charges. This woman saw in Jesus an authority she had to respect though she’d never met Him before. She waited patiently for His verdict.

In Christ she saw a man who was different from all other men, a man who treated her with grace & not contempt. Why didn’t she leave when the Pharisees left? Because she knew she was a sinner & she didn’t try to hide it.

Let’s go back to that rock that you & I may be holding in our hands. As we hold the rock, lets ask a question; do we really want to be like Jesus?

If you saw the movie Forrest Gump, you’ll no doubt remember the scene when he & his lifetime love Jenny went back to the house where she grew up & was sexually abused by her father. She stood in front of the house for quite a long time with tears running down her cheeks, hurling rocks at it as if to somehow ease the pain she felt for all the years she was a helpless victim of her abusive father.

Forrest, who was supposed to be educable slow said to Jenny, “You know, sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.”

That statement showed more insight than would be expected from the not-so-smart Forrest.

And the same is true for you & me. There just aren’t enough rocks if we take vengeance into our hands for the pain we’ve known on our journey.

So let’s ponder a scripture or two.

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world…..John 3:17.

Let’s also consider….Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus..... Romans 8:1

And let us not forget the words of Jesus in this story,
Neither do I condemn thee, go & sin no more.

As we drop the rocks, let’s run to The Rock.

Whether we are holding a rock getting ready to throw it, or whether we’ve been almost destroyed by the rocks someone has thrown at us, Christ & His restoring love is our only answer.

I pray everyone who reads this will give some thought to the wonderful mercy God has shown all of us, through “The Rock Christ Jesus.”

I love Dottie Rambo’s song, “I go to the rock.”

I GO TO THE ROCK OF MY SALVATION,
I GO TO THE STONE THAT THE BUILDERS REJECTED,
I GO TO THE MOUNTIAN & THE MOUNTIAN STANDS BY ME.
WHEN ALL AROUND ME IS SINKING SAND, ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK I STAND,
WHEN I NEED A SHELTER WHEN I NEED A FRIEND,
I GO TO THE ROCK.

Blessings,

John