Security Gives Freedom

John 4...The Woman at the Well..
I read a lot of good things in Matthew Henry's commentary regarding Jesus' encounter with this woman. But what sticks in my mind are her own words to the towns people, perhaps Council Men, "Come and meet a man who told me everything I ever did! Can this be the Messiah?" What an astounding statment from this woman, a woman of bad reputation, scorned, looked down upon. She must have been oldder, having had 5 husbands. She probably had spent her whole life trying to lood good in the eyes of others, trying to cover up and keep hidden what she really was. She went to the well not with the other women or at the times they went but by herself, an outcast. She may have even been religious, she was aware of the dispute between Samaritans and Jews about where to worship God. Perhaps she tried to hide behind her religious knowledge. I guess I could speculate a lot about what her life was like and what her thoughts were. But then she met Jesus, someone who knew all about her, knew all the things she had tried to keep hidden. And in meeting Him and His unconditional love and unending grace she was able to face what she was and be free! I can see the chains of her bondage falling off as she ran from the well to the village and told everyone, "I met a Man who could look at my deepest need, this gaping wound in my soul and He didn't condemn me or turn me away. He healed me with Himself. You need to meet Him too!"
I know of nothing else but the grace of God that enables me to face myself for who I am and who I am not and enables me to move on, again all by His grace. I need this grace every day of my life. I never outgrow my need of it. And what a message of hope for others; not 'be like me or do what I do but there is One who wants to meet you right where you are. He will love you, accept you just as you are, forgive you, clean you up, dress you in spotless garments of white and set you on your feet to continue walking in that grace.' That's a security that comes unconditionally from Him and isn't based on my performance! It's freeing! Without chains!
"Oh Sweet Jesus I can't thank you enough for your nothing-else-like-it kind of grace that I can never use up. Please help me to extend that grace to myself today and to others as well, just one old beggar telling another one where to find food. I love you."
'O Cross of Christ, forever sweet, here I may fall at mercy's feet, a beggar, vile and full of shame, and rise a Princess in Jesus' Name' Psalm 113:7,8

Since the beginning of summer I've been helping with Children's church so have missed our Pastor's teaching and to be quite honest I feel like I'm starving. So a few weeks ago I picked up Matthew Henry's commentary on the Gospel of John. Some of it is pretty heavy sledding but if I pay close attention I usually can come away with some very rich vittles.

Here's some comments on Christ's humility from John 1.

"John 1:14 "He was made flesh"

This implies not only that He was really and truly man, but that He subjected Himself to the miseries and calamities of the human nature. Flesh implies weakness, Christ was crucified through weakness. Flesh implies mortal and dying and Christ was put to death in the flesh. Flesh speaks of man tainted with sin and Christ, though He was perfectly holy and harmless, yet appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh and was made sin for us. Wonder at this, that the eternal Word should be made flesh, when flesh was come into such an ill name; that He who made all things would Himself be made flesh, one of the meanest things, and submit to that from which He was at the greatest distance.

"He dwelt among us"

He dwelt among us, here in this lower world. Having taken upon Him the nature of man, He put Himself into the place and condition of other men. The Word might have been made flesh, and dwelt among the angels; but, having taken a body of the same mould with ours, in it He came and resided in the same world with us. He dwelt among us, us worms of the earth, us that He had no need of, us that He got nothing by, us that were corrupt and depraved and revolted from God. The Lord God came and dwelt even among the rebellious. He that had dwelt among angels, those noble and excellent beings, came and dwelt among us that are a generation of vipers, us sinners.
He was in the world, not as a wayfaring man that tarries but for a night, but He dwelt among us, made a long residence. He dwelt here in very mean circumstances, as shepherds that dwell in tents. He did not dwell among us as in a palace, but as in a tent; for He had not where to lay His head."

The Son of God became a Son of man, that the sons and daughters of men might become the sons and daughters of God Almighty.

All true believers receive from Christ's fulness; the best and greatest saints cannot live without Him, the meanest and weakest may live by Him. This excludes proud boastings, that we have nothing but what we have received."


Perhaps the writing is a bit old-fashioned but when I think of all Christ gave up and endured for me it makes me want to love and trust Him more.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Mom

We’ve had the wonderful blessing of having Gracia in our area this past week. Dad and I picked her up at the airport last Tuesday evening Sept 21 at 10:45. She was with us the next day as our last class of the summer Hot washed their outdoor exercises. And then she spoke for just a few minutes at Graduation that evening. The next day she talked to our staff with Q/A that lasted for a couple of hours. That evening she spoke for about an hour and a half at the Real Life Church in Pinehurst. She spent the week end in Spokane and returned to the valley Monday evening and stayed up at Slabaughs. Tues she was in our office and did an interview by phone with a newspaper reporter and a live interview for a radio show. Wed she just relaxed up at Slabaughs and then she treated Nancy and I to hamburgers at the Tall Pine. Jeremy and his wife and baby were there so we all got to see them too. When she paid for our meal she gave the waitress in training a tip of $12 or more. The girl’s mouth just dropped. Then I drove her to the Ramada next to the airport where FSA had gotten her a room I was so blessed to have so much time with her .She’s off to a whirlwind of activities in South Dakota, North Dakota, Ohio. So while it is still fresh in my mind I wanted to write down some of the things I took from this time that I hope get imbedded in my heart.

Sooooo GEMS FROM GRACIA………

Humbleness

My overall overwhelming impression of Gracia was Humility. You can’t stand in the presence of such humbleness and cling to one dirty tattered piece of your own pride that tries in any way to say ‘Look what I’ve done or how great I am”. It all just crumbles in the face of (you might expect me to say greatness but just the opposite was true) such great genuine humbleness. A humility born not of someone who is a really good person but knows that they should be humble and self-effacing so they tack humility onto their other good qualities. No. A humbleness born from a glimpse of oneself in what they really are apart from God and seeing a very ugly picture. As she put it she got a picture of herself with all the props we use to make ourselves look good knocked out from under her. She started off by saying that at the beginning of their captivity there were two groups of people, the bad guys and the good guys. But not too long into it she came face to face with a Gracia she didn’t like; an angry Gracia; a covetous Gracia; a hateful Gracia; a despairing Gracia; an unbelieving Gracia. And she realized that in herself she was just as bad as the bad guys holding them. And to this day she counts that as one of the biggest blessings of the whole ordeal.

And her humility is expressed in thankfulness for everything, things big and little. Appreciation for every little thing given to her or done for her. Continual thankfulness.

Forgiveness

She tried and tried to forgive her captors and just couldn’t do until one day she just cried out to the Lord saying I can’t forgive them, it’s going to have to be you. And slowly the Lord worked that into her life to this point: A young guard would stand by as she was washing in the river under her ‘malong’ the big lap lap she had with his gun pointing at her always saying Hurry Hurry. One day she told him you can shoot me if you want to I’m not hurrying and she hated him. He was wounded and one day no one was able to get him to the bathroom and he messed himself. He stunk. She went up to him and asked him if she could wash his clothes for him. I heard that and thought if she can do that for that young man then there’s a few people I need to be forgiving and asking for ways to bless them
She talked a lot about forgiveness. She blamed a lot of people for the mess they were in but most of all she blamed herself. She had made the arrangements for them to be at the Resort. One day while hiking she left all their earthly possessions like the toothbrush they shared, soap, change of clothes, in the bag she carried by the road in her rush to hike again. She felt awful and told Martin how sorry she was. He said, “I forgive you Gracia, now you need to forgive yourself. The next day the first package that NTM sent in arrived and they regained everything they had lost. And she said this may sound irreverent but ultimately I had to forgive God.. (This was such a message of hope to my own heart.)

PERFECTI0N

Martin had written down some thoughts about what it would be like when they got back home and how they should treat folks who helped them during their captivity especially their families. He wrote:” Some times we’ll do it right; some times we’ll do it wrong. Just keep going.”

Some days I think I’d like to just get through one day without making a mistake. I don’t think that’s a very godly goal, do you? I think there’s an awful lot of self glorification in that. Don’t you? Rather I need to seek to be a clean vessel God can live through for His purposes and that will include mistakes. W. R. Newell wrote “To be disappointed in yourself, is to have believed in yourself.” I found Martin’s words freeing.

Lots, lots more but these things I want to become a part of me and live out of those truths by God’s grace.

PS things I hadn’t heard before
When she was shot the bullet entered the back of her leg and exited out the front. The doctors were amazed that it missed all the bone and other vital tissue surrounding it.
As I heard her tell the story again I thought what a mercy it was that when she was hit she fell out of their hammock and came to rest right beside Martin, so she was with him those last few seconds of his life.

Gems from Gracia

Thoughts on Prayer by Charles Spurgeon:
Childlike confidence makes us pray as none else can. It causes a man to pray for great things that he would never have asked for if he had not learned this confidence. It also causes him to pray for little things that many people are afraid to ask for, because they have not yet felt toward God the confidence of children. I have often felt that it requires more confidence in God to pray to Him about a little thing than about great things. We imagine that our great things are somehow worthy of God’s attention, though in truth they are little enough to Him. And then we think that our little things must be so insignificant that it is an insult to bring them before Him.

We need to realize that what is very important to a child may be very small to his parent, and yet the parent measures the thing not from his own point of view but from the child’s. You heard your little boy crying the other day. He had a splinter in his finger. While you did not call in 3 surgeons, the splinter was a great thing to that little sufferer. Standing there with eyes all wet through tears of anguish, it never occurred to that boy that his pain was too small a thing for you to care about. What were mothers and fathers made for but to look after the small concerns of little children? And God our Father is a good father who pities us as fathers pity their children. He counts the stars and calls them all by name, yet He heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds,
………………………and listens when we pray.

Hope this is an encouragement to all of you. It is to me. Love Mom

Shaking the head……

I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, especially since the present administration was voted into office. Or maybe it’s because we watch too much Fox News. But it seems with every passing week there is another story more absurd than the last one that causes me to shake my head. Last night’s was a legal immigrant who owns a diner and employs 70 workers wanting to expand and hire more but he CANNOT get a loan from any bank. The government gives bail out money and stimulus money to big bank and big businesses but will not in any way help a small business owner.