Apples Worth Thinking About

A wise man once pointed out to me, "Any careful man can count the seeds in an apple.  Only God can count the potential apples to come from just one seed."  

As I opened my email this morning I found the story below.  It was sent by my lovely neice who is the kind of Registered Nurse you would like to tend to you in the event you were to be in hospital.  While I know she might have written it, because she is quite busy caring for people I suspect she received it from someone else.  Whoever originated it captured a very important bit of revelation that is well worth pondering.

   

Apples... 

 
A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago .. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly-missed boarding... 

ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. 

He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. 

He was glad he did. The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one to care for her plight. 

The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. 

When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?"She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly." 

As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?" 

He stopped in mid-stride .... and he wondered. He gently went back and said, "No, I am nothing like Jesus - He is good, kind, caring, loving, and would never have bumped into your display in the first place. 

"The girl gently nodded: "I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him - only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Mister." 

Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?" 

Do people mistake you for Jesus? 

That's our destiny, is it not?To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace. 

If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day. 

You are the apple of His eye even though you, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit. 

OUCH -- That Hurt

Do you remember that verse ?  "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a great fall."  

Just a few days ago I commented on my Facebook page that I was about to take a nap in the airport.  If I recall correctly it was while I was passing through Singapore and had an 11 hour layover in the airport.  One of my loving friends pointed out the  dangers of taking airport naps.  He was concerned that he might miss his flight because he slept through the boarding time.

How silly, I thought.  No one would ever do that.

Clearly, Papa God thought I needed to not be so quick to dismiss the wisdom of those that love me.  This morning, I fell asleep.  And I was so deeply asleep that I did not notice that the time to board my plane had come and gone.  

By God's grace it turned out to be a simple problem to solve.  Papa's fine for my foolish pride was only 190.00 Euros.  By his grace it did not even change my arrival time in Sczcecin where my friend plans to meet me at the airport.  It only moved 2 hours of my waiting time from Warsaw to Paris.  But, the foolish pride might have cost much much more.

I am so grateful for a Father's love that teaches us gently when we are willing to learn.  It is better to be disciplined by a warning than by a difficulty.  I could have learned from the warning sent through my friend.  It is also better to be disciplined by a difficulty than a disaster.  I pray I will remember this lesson and not require Father to teach it on a harsher level.

How do you choose to have Papa discipline you?  Every son whom he loves he disciplines.

His, thus Yours,

Stuart

Weapons of Our Warfare -- Maintaining Balance

Weapons of Our Warfare

MAINTAINING BALANCE

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. II Cor. 10:3-4 

Imagine 2 boxers in a ring.  One is able to keep his balance.  The other keeps getting over extended one direction or another and loses his balance.  Which one is more likely to be victorious ?

In most of the martial arts, students are taught to use the momentum of the opponent against him.  Thus, if an attacker lunges at you, you do not attempt to stop him and push him back.  Rather you move to the side and grasp your attacker to pull him in the same direction he was already moving.  This puts him off balance and precipitates his fall.

Remember, that which is visible is made from that which is not visible.  The physical world gives us clues about how things work in the spriritual realms.

By every appearance Satan's greatest victory was when he seduced and deceived men into the horror of crucifying the first born son of God.  And yet, that was in fact Satan's greatest defeat.  A defeat verified just 3 days later in the resurrection of Jesus the King in whom all the fullness of God is now pleased to dwell.

Over the past couple of days I have been able to observe something I never before was really able to put into words.  

For those who do not know me well, a bit of background.  I generally dislike excessive displays of emotions.  In part because I was raised in a family that tried to be logical not emotional.  This aspect of my personality is especially triggered when the excessive display takes place in ministry situations.  In my view such displays are most frequently triggered by: either an imposter spirit of religion; by a self centered pride which wants attention focussed on the individual creating the display; or by a demon within the one receiving ministry which wants to create a distraction so that the sons of God will not cast him out.  Yes, I know that sometimes these are just natural expressions of the emotions that are being experience in the moment.  But, sadly, my experience is this is the least frequent cause.

With that background, here in Benin where I am currently serving the saints, I have noticed that such emotional displays are extremely common.  Last night as I was loving on some of the people, I kept seeing these displays.  It was tempting to allow myself to be irritated by them.  It was rising to the level of distracting me until Holy Spirit whispered to me, "What business is that of yours?"

It was only then that I began to recognize the scheme of Satan.  He saw that this stuff irritated me.  So he stirred it up to the point that I wanted to fix what was bothering me instead of focussing on what Father sent me to do.  Satan knew that if he could get me to do that I would extend myself in a direction where I would have no support.  Then all he would need to do is reach in and give a little tug on me.  I would have gotten so off balance that just a  little tug would precipitate my fall.

On the other side of the battle:  Satan has a great weakness of which we often, if understanding and observant, can take advantage.  Satan is an arrogant deceiver.  Because he has so often been successful at deceiving man, he has great confidence in his ability to continue to do so.  Thus, you will often find people who have been lead into deeper and deeper levels of deception.  But when too much deception is piled on top of deception, the whole mass becomes extremely unstable.  In this situation, often just one little bit of Truth spoke into the situation will precipitate the fall of the entire Satanic scheme of deception and destruction.

By way of illustration, last night I saw a man whose entire life had been structured on a nightmarish web of fears.  Fear of failure, fear of disapproval, fear of peoples' opinions and on and on the fears built and multiplied.  When, I spoke the love of God into him,  the entire fear structure just fell apart.  He was set free from the deceptive stronghold by just one simple truth.  Satan was over extended and off ballance.  One gentle love tug crashed his scheme.

Keep your balance as you serve people.  You will be safer.  The ones you serve will be safer.  The enemy will be upset.

His, thus yours,

  Stuart

Dealing with Disagreements

It is certain.  You will not always agree with everyone with whom you are forced to interact.  You might believe that the President is perfect and has never made a mistake.  Or you might believe him a demonic leader who has never made a right decision.  Either way between 40 and 99 % of the World's population  will strongly disagree with you.  That is life.  If you are married to one who adores you, nevertheless, your spouse will strongly disapprove of some of your actions and on somedays it will appear to be ALL of your actions.  You might be working  for a time (long or short) with the most Godly person you have ever met.  Nevertheless, it is almost certain you will each from time to time find yourself not in agreement with something that has been done.

The issue in life is not how to avoid ever having a disagreement.  The issue is how do we handle the situation when we do disagree.  The apostle Paul in his letter to the Called Out Ones at Corinth noted that the outcome of such disagreements can be that those who are approved by God will be brought to light. Which are the ones approved by God?  Those are the ones who handle the conflict without destroying the relationship.  This can indeed be very difficult to do.  It becomes all the more difficult when our relationships are ones with a history of prior conflicts.  Thus, it is often difficult to know when we are approaching a tipping point when a simple disagreement will spill over into harsh and painful conflict.  This is especially true with people who have chosen to remain self-contained and hidden.  

Obviously, given that numerous books have been written on the subject of conflict resolution, this little blog entry cannot do the whole subject justice.  But, there are a few points worthy of refreshing in our recollection:

In Ephesians Paul makes reference to our forebearing one another.  A long time friend of mine, Bill Eschmann, often quipped a bit of great wisdom, "Forebearing is the four bearings that lets the church move smoothly."   Practically every human being has some mannerism that can be annoying.  I was on a plane sitting next to a newly commissioned Ensign in the U.S.Navy.  She is bright, articulate, and appropriately friendly.  However,  most of the time she was awake beside me she was continually shaking her right leg up and down in a little vibration.  Was it mildly annoying?  Yes.  Was it so annoying that I should speak about it?  No.  It was simply a little mannerism that I needed to forebear until she went back to sleep or until we parted friends at our destination.   But what if her mannerism was to strike matches and throw them on the floor, or to pull out a loaded gun and twirl it around her finger,  because these behaviors would actually endanger her and the people around her they would not be appropriate to simply forebear.  Moreover, what we can or should forebear depends also on our relationship.  If your spouse squeezes the toothpaste tube differently than you like, forebear it and go buy a second tube of toothpaste for yourself.  But, if your spouse insists on having a light by which to read and this disrupts your sleep.  You cannot simply forebear because the issue will eventually endanger both your health and your relationship.

Another issue that impacts this arena is integrity.  We can forebear many things, but what happens if the person for whom we are forebearing asks us a question.  Take my Navy Ensign friend from above:  If over the course of our flight we developed a relationship and she asks me for advice. Suppose she asks me, "Stuart, you were an Ensign once is there anything you can see that I might  improve so that I can excel in my career as an officer?"  If I answer, "No",  I have denied the truth I know.  I must either refuse to answer the question or answer her with the problem I see and the ways I see it will hurt her relationships with senior officers and with personnel who look to her for leadership.  So one of the ways to avoid causing things that would have been foreborn to break out into conflict is to not ask questions to which you are not willing to hear the answers.

But, as you know some people will give you answers to questions you were not asking.  And sometimes we receive answers to things we ask that are very different than the ones we wanted and expected to hear.  What do you do when you have been doing your very best.  Then some one asked or unasked gives you an evaluation that you have failed miserably.  Ouch, that hurts!  This is the point at which some spiritual grounding can make the difference between a minor bit of pain and major conflict which will destroy a relationship which God the Father values deeply.

When we find ourselves in this situation the single most important thing we can do is take control over that initial reaction of fear and rage.  The way to take that control is to come back to a simple but profound truth.  We are LOVED perfectly by God just exactly the way we are.  This truth is very  important to us because perfect love casts out all fear.  Yes fear is the problem here.  Fear of being guilty, of being disrespected, of being devalued etc. etc.  But God in his love values us and respects us and sets us free from all guilt etc. etc.  Our anger, our rage, our hurtness all arises not from the way others treat us but from our reactions to our own fears.  Come first back to the reality that because we are perfectly loved no one has the power to threaten our real well being.

Second remember a beautiful truth a brother taught me.  We all learn more from our failures than we do from our successes.  So if some one has dropped a bomb into the middle of your perspective, ask a couple questions.  Ones like:  "I see you have given this some thought and you are seeing things I have not really thought through, please tell me more about what you mean and what you are saying?"  It is very important to make your critic your ally to help you learn, not your enemy against whom you are marshalling a defense.  Your critics may or may not be right but one thing for certain they are seeing things from a different perspective than you are.  If you can maintain the perspective that this person is sent by God to expand your point of view, you can avoid being defensive.

Speaking of your defense:  His name is Jesus not self-justification.  We never need to defend ourselves.  We never need to defend God's works done through us.  Jesus is our sole defense.

After you have drawn out from your critic all the advice and input he/she is willing to give, conclude the conversation with a simple statement.  "Thank you for sharing your thoughts and perspective with me.  I will think these things through and take them up with Holy Spirit.  I am sure He will show me how best to apply all these ideas.  I thank you for sharing them with me I know it is never easy to say challenging things to another person."

Now let's also consider for a bit what not to do:  Never respond to criticism by attacking your critic.  For 3 reasons:  Such contention just reveals your own pride; Such contention makes your critic your enemy instead of your supporter; and, Such contention makes you blind to what God is teaching you in the moment.

If you are the critic, whether willingly or unwillingly, if the one you are criticising attacks you, DO NOT RESPOND IN KIND.  If he/she insists on remaining in the attack mode, simply withdraw from the conversation. Do not become embroiled in an exchange of accusations.

Receive PEACE from the Prince of Peace,

Love to all,

His, thus Yours,

Stuart

Musings in an Airport

I am sitting in the most beautiful airport I have ever seen. I am in Singapore.  I left Medan, Indonesia this morning.  In about 2 more hours I will head off to gate 34 to board my Air France flight to Paris for connection to Cotonou, Benin in West Africa.

A few minutes ago my newest friend, Biro, left me to go and catch her flight to Bali.  We started our conversation for the strangest of reasons.  She sat down near my luggage as I was finishing the flight check in procedure.  As I was returning, I approached from behind her and saw that she had a long graceful neck that reminded me of my wife, Joy.  When I sat down across from her I commented about that and she responded and so we continued for most of an hour.  She asked about my work.  I told her my job is to travel around the world and visit  with my friends.  She asked more about that and we began to talk about Jesus.  She is so hungry to know Him but her mind is still filled with a lot of deception.  Alas .....      The conversation ended with an invitation to her to try Jesus when she could not find peace with all her own efforts.  She responded with an invitation that she would like to see me in Bali.  Who but God knows,  I have never been there but  I have heard it is an interesting place.

For the past 10 days I have been in Medan.  Jesus let me watch Him do some wonderful things.  About a third of the congregation I talked with on Sunday morning invited Holy Spirit to come live in each of them. Then Sunday evening a lot of folks in a home meeting also invited Him.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I got to spend each afternoon sharing with a group of young men and women who are studying with an expectation that The Lord will lead them into "ministry".  I had a chance to share practical stuff with them.  We all fell in love with each other and had a joyous time together.  On Wednesday afternoon they let me lead them through a process of getting free from their past.  There were many tears as they went through the process of forgiving and releasing the people from the past who had hurt them.  But it was followed by great joy when they were free  from the demons who had harrassed them for so long.  Praise God  and WheeeHooo ! as some folks say in Texas.

My heart melted on Saturday night as the extended family gathered and after a wonderful dinner produced a beautiful birthday cake and wished me a happy 67th.  Even more I was blessed as last night after a traditional Indonesian feast from street vendors in downtown Medan, one of the older ladies in the family came and presented me with a beautifully made Indonesian batik shirt.  I am thrilled with it.  I hope when next I see you I can show it off for you. 

It was a week of many new experiences.  I had, for the first time, a large bowl of goat's head soup.  It was actually quite nice.  Contrary to what I had heard, Indonesian food is not terribly spicy-hot.  Some of it is spicy, but no more so than you would expect when eating Mexican or Tex-Mex foods.  I thoroughly enjoyed eating the regular Indonesian foods.  I am not much of one for bland foods.   

I keep discovering that I have a passion for younger people.  When sharing with older religious leaders it is a good thing.  Ah, but  when sitting out on the ground with a group of 25 people in their early 20's who are hungry to know Jesus intimately in every way they can,  wow oh wow.  That is a GREAT time.  I am beginning to understand why the pharisees and other religious leaders frustrated Jesus so much.  He was just looking for people who wanted to be his friends.

Well I think I better get up and walk about a bit so that I am ready to be cooped up on the airplane for 11 hours from here to Paris.

Love to all,

His, thus Yours,

Stuart