Unimaginable
“Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.” Psalm 61:1-3
Five years ago, almost to the date, a friend of mine and I drove along a ridge covered with a mixture of snow and mud. I spied my first sightings of Ukraine as I looked across the River Prut to the north from my vantage point in Romania. The river is an offshoot of the famous Danube River of classical lore and forms an aquatic border between Romania and its neighbors, Ukraine and Moldova. The scene was fraught with idyllic memories of childhood fairy tales. Indeed, it was a memorable and picturesque sight to behold.
The recent news has evoked anxious and foreboding thoughts at the possibility of the Russian invasion into Ukraine. Each report, though, rebuffed. An old friend posted on social media this morning. The invasion happened overnight and caught their family amid the turmoil! The images were horrific and disheartening! Such a military campaign had reportedly not occurred since World War II.
I do not intend this post to be a political take on an already volatile situation. Nevertheless, the current military campaign is not warranted and should be condemned. In addition, the Word of God is quite clear in Daniel 2:41-44 that there will not be another unifying world power until Jesus Christ returns and sets up His kingdom. All other attempts are futile.
Meanwhile, this post is to extend a call to action from Christian and global citizen standpoints. When faced with such dire circumstances, our first inclination should be to pray. Pray for Ukraine! As with many disasters, both natural and fabricated, the news clips are not the end-all to the humanitarian fallout that is to result. Lives lost, families disrupted. For many, if not most, life will never be the same. Many children will face a lifetime of psychosocial disturbance as they face the traumatic aftermath of carnage and devastation in their home country. It is a call to action; yes, to pray, but also to prepare to help.
This is only the beginning.
Angels
“For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Psalm 91:11
My dogs must be half-wild. At nighttime, the coyotes come around and my dogs join in the howling to support the team as honorary members of the pack. What does this have to do with angels? A lot.
One day, I had to transport them to the veterinarian. As I was rushing, poor planning ensued, and I told myself I would secure them in their harnesses once we arrived at the veterinarian’s office. It was an uneventful ride, unlike when they were puppies and would whine about the entire trip. I arrived and knew taking both inside would be more than I bargained for, so I harnessed one and prepared to extract her from the car. The other jumped out as well. It took all I could muster to wrestle with 140 total pounds of sheer brawn, determination, and disobedience. As the struggle ensued, I realized it was a losing battle on my part. Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the nearby highway and recognized the situation could only get worse. I prayed, as did Peter, while sinking, “Jesus, help me!” Suddenly, there was a voice beside me, “Do you need any help? Are they friendly?” This was no time for sarcasm, and I promptly handed the secured dog’s leash to the stranger who stood next to me. Earlier, I had noticed him get into his truck as I drove in, but had paid no further attention. I quickly hoisted the unharnessed dog into the car and shut the door. I thanked the stranger, profusely thanked him, as I took the leash and walked, or was rather dragged, into the appointment. The receptionist rolled her eyes as she greeted and ushered us to a room. I realized we must have been on center stage as the principal attraction a few minutes earlier.
I believe in angels. No, I can’t say that I looked and the helpful man disappeared or no one had seen a man in a white truck. It was curious that he did not have animals with him–at a veterinarian’s office. It is said that angels pity babes and fools. I resembled the latter category that day, as my angel stranger had averted a definite tragedy. Yes, whether he was a veritable angel is neither here nor there, as the Bible is clear that angels exist.
There are myriad stories scattered throughout the Scriptures of angel visitations and encounters with many of those we call the Hall of Famers in Hebrews 11. We read of Elijah, described as being a “man of like passions”, meaning he was like us but had power through prayer! God will answer prayer and send angels when necessary. The Bible goes on speaking about the ministry of angels and their active role in our lives. Besides the Godhead–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, angels are celestial beings that have specific duties in heaven and on earth. One such duty is to avert the ineptitude of individuals’ poor planning.
The Bible speaks of categories of angels, as well as a divide that took place. During that divide, one-third of the angelic hosts disregarded God’s laws. God cast them out of heaven (Revelation 12:3-9). They attempt to deceive each of us into selecting a similar choice.
Stories of personal encounters with the holy or good angels always intrigue me as I read the Bible. The guardian cherub in the garden of Eden, Lot’s rescuing angels, the angel that shut the lions’ mouths, are a few examples. As expected, given my interest in astronomy, one of my favorite stories recounts the star that conducted the wise men from the east. There followed the angelic messenger’s proclamation to the shepherds and subsequent angelic choir’s jubilation that illuminated the night.
I equally enjoy modern or near-modern day stories of individuals who benefited from angels. Some incidents are quite sensational, whereas some seem routine but fascinating. I know I have caused my angel to work overtime, as I have experienced life to the fullest and not always prudent in my choices. Therefore, I thank God for each breath He has blessed me with, as well as my angel. “For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.” Psalm 91:11.
Blocked
I missed it! They said this lunar eclipse would be the first of its type in 600 years and would not occur again in 600 years, and I missed it! I had all intentions of waking up and viewing it, perhaps even get a photo, but I missed it. Early morning, cold temperature, and fatigue did not make for a good viewing combination, at least for me. Along with colleagues some years ago, I witnessed a solar eclipse. A lunar eclipse is a flipped view of the same phenomenon in which the Earth casts a shadow or obscures the sun shining on the moon, blocked if you would. Both events involve the two great lights as described in Genesis 1:14-18.
That was only one disappointing highlight for the week, however.
They warned me, so I should have known better. While working on Facebook, I clicked on a link from a “trusted” friend. My “friend” later claimed someone hacked her account. In short, I ended up being blocked out of Facebook despite following their instructions for regaining access.
There was good news during that week for which I am grateful. A dear sister penned a wonderful discourse on the Holy Spirit. In it, she described the personal dwelling in the lives of believers, which occurred after Christ’s ascension (Acts 2:32,33). She used one of my favorite scriptures, “…when He the Spirit is come, He will guide you into all truth….” (John 16:13). This shows the active involvement in each of our lives that the third Person of the Godhead would relish–if we would allow Him to have the opportunity.
Indeed, the work of the Holy Spirit has been present before the beginning of time as portrayed in the Genesis creation account (Genesis 1:2), as well as vividly displayed throughout both the Old and New Testaments. There are also the unfortunate occurrences where individuals did not allow the Holy Spirit to be involved in their personal affairs and refused His counsel. A case in point is Pharaoh, the same Pharaoh mentioned in the Exodus account. The Bible points him out as having his heart hardened by God. We know, however, that God does not force the will, though He wants every individual to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3, 4). So what happened in Pharaoh’s case?
Pharaoh, as each of us, had the power of choice or free will, as ordained by God. However, he refused the truth as they presented it to him. Perhaps initially it was because of disbelief, pride, or incredulity. As the saying goes, one turn begets another. The result was a hardened heart. He had grieved the Holy Spirit; the work of the Holy Spirit was blocked.
We still have opportunities to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). Recognize and respond to the wooing of the Holy Spirit. The Bible admonishes us not to harden our hearts and block the working of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 3:7,8).
I would like to say that my Facebook account has been restored, but it remains blocked. A word to the wise, delete or ignore, but certainly do not click on suspicious links.
For the next major lunar eclipse, let’s catch it together next time! (Revelation 22:5).
Blood
There are memories from childhood that stay with you forever. Examples are your first pet, first school day, first kiss, pet’s death, or loved one’s death. You may even have remembrance of a particular event, whether good or bad. You may relate them to the seasons and relive the moments each year. For me, that season was summer.
As a boy growing up in the South, things triggered summer. School was out—hooray! Summer church meetings took place. The fireflies appeared at night—first, an occasional flicker that I chased to predetermine its next signal. I gathered as many as I could into the glass jar I carried. To my dismay, I never achieved the lantern effect I expected in my room later that night.
The primary indicator that summer arrived was that it got hot! It became hot enough to drain every drop of liquid from every pore of my body. This required incessant, often futile hydration with water or any available drink, popsicles, and other frozen treats. One drank from the garden hose and did not worry. Those days were carefree, at least for kids. Helmets or pads for riding bicycles or any other wheeled objects were unheard of, as bumps, bruises, cuts, and sometimes breaks became the unfortunate “normal” parts of growing older.
One such summer day, my most memorable event occurred. My family lived in Nashville for the summer, as my parents attended school. As we drove on our usual route, we stopped at the traffic light. A man walking on the sidewalk teetered and fell straight backwards and we watched with disbelief as the back of his skull burst on the sidewalk! Blood splattered, and he shook uncontrollably. Bystanders rushed to him, one cradling his head while applying pressure with a white handkerchief, which became saturated.
Why did that man fall? Was he sick, drunk, or overheated? I did not have any medical science to even parlay a guess. A man fell and broke his head, which was abnormal. Even now, I remember the scene and the aroma of the restaurant nearby. Every time we drove past the site, being our usual route, I saw the blood-soaked sidewalk; a vivid reminder of what took place, which then triggered an instant multisensory recall.
One day, as we drove past, the scene changed. I could not see the blood stain on the sidewalk! The site was unmistakable, but the blood was not there, gone—clean! As I reflected on this in the recent past, it reminded me of the spiritual correlation of blood.
The theme of blood as a redemptive source ripples through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The story is told in the Old Testament book of Leviticus that blood served as the symbolic means of cleansing the Israelites from their sins. In the sanctuary service, each station represented an attribute of Christ as Redeemer. This included blood transferred from the sinner’s animal sacrifice in progressive steps to the veil that shielded God’s presence after confession of sins. Each year on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, the sanctuary became cleansed of accumulated sins after being transferred to a scapegoat. The blood no longer remained as a silent witness of one’s sins, but gone! The sinner, the guilty sinner, stood guiltless—he was clean!
Jesus Christ today offers each one of us pardon, not based on symbolic animal blood, but on the merits of His shed blood over two thousand years ago (Hebrews 9:28; I John 4:10). The Bible says that we all have sinned (Romans 3:23) and deserve to die (Romans 6:23). But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and make us clean (1 John 1:9).
Forgiveness
Forgive and forget. It is a familiar saying that rolls off the tongue to pacify another’s anger or use it as a colloquial phrase. Does it have merit for the Christian? Can one forgive and forget? Do the terms contradict or are the concepts mutually exclusive? Must I forget to forgive, or am I able to forget unless I forgive? Is it possible or is it cliché?
Each of us experiences hurt at least once in our lives. Even the posing of the scenario may bring back painful memories of emotional, spiritual, and, yes, even physical wounds. The scars are literal evidence of a life one hoped to put behind them. Believe me, as I write, a torrent of memories come to mind of my misfortunes, both received and afflicted on others. This is to become more aware of our fallacies and show humility, realizing we are far from perfect. How we wish we could undo this or that event, this or that relationship. The reality is we can’t. We cannot rewind the screenplay, but we are each given a most powerful opportunity to at least bring the resolve to our minds.
Each of us can forgive. Yes, it’s easy to say, but more difficult to carry out. I have forgiven each of my assailants until I get a Facebook request. Decline! I’ve forgiven, but not forgotten. I do not write my posts from an easy chair of complacency, with the air of having arrived. No, I live a daily struggle with the themes I write and by sharing them, hope to encourage a fellow pilgrim along the way.
So how does one forget? Well, you don’t forget, at least in my experience. What you end up doing is learning how to cope with the lingering, pervasive memories of hurt. Jesus’s sayings and Paul’s writings are replete with forgiveness themes. The apostle Paul encourages us to replace negative thoughts with positive alternatives. Philippians 4:8 and 2 Corinthians 10:5 portray this, where he counsels us to fortify our minds with things that look heavenward and build our trust in God. Build faith and don’t dwell on the mundane things of life. What results from continued wallowing in the mire of self-pity? By beholding you can become changed if you bask in the atmosphere of grace and embrace forgiveness. For God “is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Consider the powerful and inspiring testimonies of Corrie Ten Boom in her best-selling account “The Hiding Place” (Ten Boom, 1971) or Elisabeth Elliot’s “Shadow of the Almighty” (Elliot, 1958). For each of them, forgiveness embraces an added dimension that is unachievable. Sometimes “forgive and forget” may not apply if the offense recurs or is occurring. Consider those that have the fortitude to show forgiveness amid a crisis. The families of Christian Aid hostages in Haiti extended forgiveness to the abductors. These families raise the point that forgiveness not only pertains to the transgressors’ salvation, but yours.
Jesus states that if you cannot forgive your brother, how do you expect your Father in heaven to forgive you? How could any discourse on forgiveness finish without Jesus’s counsel to the apostle, Peter? Peter, wanting to score points with Jesus or show himself as nearing perfection, retorted to Jesus’ challenge with his response of seven times. Jesus countered with “seventy times seven” as a numerical expression of as many times as necessary.
The examples are pertinent and stem from the vivid example of Christ, our ultimate role model. Affixed to a cross, Christ had blood oozing from pores and orifices while experiencing not only the agony of physical pain, but the potential eternal separation from His Father. He looked at those who had pierced Him and interceded on their behalf. “Father”, He requested, “forgive them, for they know no what they do”. Amid dying, He paused long enough to offer forgiveness. There is no greater challenge. We seek to live, love, and forgive as Christ did.
The Bible never said it was easy, just possible.
Delay
“God answers all prayers”, my mother used to tell me. “Sometimes He answers yes, sometimes no, and sometimes wait”. Although I’ve seen Him answer in the affirmative many times, I’ve often experienced the wait, and sometimes even more vividly the “no”.
Pre-COVID I traveled and served in other parts of the United States and the world. A few of those trips subsequently ended in disaster! I don’t believe my prior presence there was a causative factor, but it is curious to me.
During a medical mission trip to Jamaica one summer, I found myself in the middle of a hurricane. As I ran down a Kingston street towards my hotel, my umbrella inverted, which I immediately released and kept running towards shelter—or so I thought. To this day, I can’t comprehend how my hotel bed became soaked with the windows closed!
In Haiti, one October, I lived in an orphanage with approximately 200 children. It was a remarkable experience where I, along with a team of various health professionals, rendered care to them and local villagers. Some of those same children nursed me back to health after I became ill from a parasitic infection. A few years later, the now infamous earthquake destroyed their village and none of the children survived.
Antigua, Guatemala, was where I lived with a local family to immerse myself in the Spanish language and culture. I enjoyed walking the ancient cobblestone streets and conversing with the locals. My school was in view of Mount Fuego—“fire mountain”, a supposedly dormant volcano. I would gaze for extended periods of time at its striking, yet ominous, allure. Only once do I recall viewing its peak, as clouds otherwise obscured it. Imagine my utter dismay as some years later, I learned of its eruption and destruction of the beautiful city in its wake.
Obviously, not all of my stories ended in peril. One such adventure hinted of disappointment, but God, in His wisdom, had other plans. It blessed me to serve with a sizable group as a lay evangelist in a country I had only read about as a child. They assigned me to a church in a small farming village. For approximately three weeks, mostly every night and twice on Saturdays, I presented a series of health lectures and preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. My host pastor translated for me. My vocabulary was rapidly expanding and I could converse in brief bouts of colloquial phrases! Yes, I had prayed and still pray for the gift of tongues.
One night, as I waited for my transport back to my hotel, I received a text from a young man who apparently had been attending the meetings. He expressed an interest in the messages and asked very pointed and probing questions. “Here is a seeker”, I thought to myself, and obliged him in our ongoing text dialogue. Though motivated, he did not commit at that point.
During my last sermon, I made a heartfelt and tearful appeal for those that had heard the messages and felt convicted by them through the Holy Spirit, to make a public declaration to continue their spiritual journey with Christ in their newfound truth. A handful of people came forward. This young gentleman did not. As I glimpsed him in the audience, I made a few targeted and prolonged appeals, doing all but calling him by name. He did not respond. A different young man came. I finally ended the sermon and sat down.
As I returned to the United States, I often prayed for my friend and kept in contact with him via social media. Eventually, he shared with me news and photos of his subsequent marriage and the birth of his children. Interestingly, he often asked when I would return to his country. Unfortunately, as customary with the passing of time and distance, my contact and prayers diminished, but God’s interest and love did not.
To my surprise, recently I received a text message from my young friend. It was now almost five years since my visit. The picture he sent showed a group of people who stood in a church sanctuary. I recognized the scene. It was the church where I had preached. However, something was different and very special about this photo. There he was, smiling and standing next to his wife, both about to be baptized by immersion as per Christ’s example (Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10)! In amazement and almost disbelief, I had to re-read his message and enlarge the picture. “Praise the Lord!”, I exclaimed.
I shared the picture and good news with my host pastor. He reminded me of the apostle Paul’s injunction found in I Corinthians 3:6. I knew and had recently read the passage. Now I understood it in a new light. “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”
All glory be to God—I’m a “farmer”!