Posts Tagged "love"
The Chief and the Thief
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6 KJV)
It was centuries ago, when all of North America (what is now United States and Canada ) belonged to its Native people. One nomadic Indian tribe in the Great Plains was blessed with a chief that was beloved and respected by everyone who knew him. He was known as a man who deeply loved his people, and he showed it…and a man of absolute justice and fairness and he showed that. One day some braves brought a very troubling report to him; there had been several mysterious thefts from people in the tribe. The chief wanted to nip this kind of stealing in the bud so he announced a severe penalty for the thief. He would be tied to a post when the sun was high, his back laid bare, and he would be beaten with a whip twenty times.
Then the chief set a trap. He asked two of his trusted braves to leave some animal pelts in front of a teepee one night and to watch all night from another tepee. It was the middle of the night when one of those braves awakened the chief with the news, “We’ve caught the thief.” “Then bring him in,” the chief ordered sternly.
You could see the reluctance and even the pain on the braves’ faces as they brought the thief into the chief’s tent that night. The chief was stunned to see who they had caught. It was his own mother. The next day, when the sun was high, everyone in the tribe gathered around the pole in the center of the village. There was heated discussion about what the chief would do. Would he sacrifice his love for his mother for the sake of justice and fairness? Or would he sacrifice his justice for his love? Now it was time. Very sadly, two braves marched the chief’s mother to the whipping post and they tied her there as two women bared her back for the whip. “The chief is putting his justice above his love,” the people whispered as the warrior with the whip raised his right arm to administer the first lash.
Suddenly, the chief emerged from his tepee and he shouted, “Stop! Let her go!”
As the people turned to look at their chief walking toward the whipping post, they began to say, “His love is greater than his justice. He’s letting her go unpunished for what she did.”
The chief untied the thief he loved, and then to the shock of everyone, as he removed his buckskin shirt, he said, “Tie me.” Hesitantly, the braves tied their chief to the post. Then he barked out his final command, “Begin the whipping.” There, before all his people, their honored chief took the full and painful punishment for the crimes of the one he loved.
As in our Scripture and story today, He took my place, too. Oh, what love!
Read MoreBad Turned Good
“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.” (Romans 8:28 KJV)
Evangelist Dan Ewald was called to preach at a camp at a time when he had a cold and sinus problem, and his stuffy nose was making it difficult to breathe. So he came up with a simple solution: he smeared Vicks salve onto a white hanky, folded it, and tucked in his pocket, so that if he needed some relief, he could slip the hanky out and take a good whiff of the Vicks. In his other pocket, he placed a clean handkerchief.
Those of you who’ve heard him preach know well that he perspires heavily when he’s really wound up, and wipes his brow frequently with a hanky. Well…his brow became really sweaty this one evening, and, naturally he reached for his hanky. You’ve guessed it; he grabbed the wrong one, and when he began to perspire again, the Vicks on his forehead was soon running into his eyes. His eyes began to water, and he dashed the tears away, but they continued to water. He continued to preach, though, and evidently the people thought he was weeping from the emotion of the sermon. Folks began to shout and run the aisles, while he continued to preach…and cry from the burning in his eyes. Many began to come forward to pray until the altar was lined and many victories won that night.
God will, according to His word, cause all things work for good to those who love Him. Just goes to show you that God can use whatever is handy to speak to His people.
Read MoreAn Outpouring Of God!
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20 KJV)
My heart is full as I write this. I just came from a prayer meeting initiated by the teenagers at our school that started at 12:20 (they skipped lunch and fasted) and went till 2:45 . What a wonderful time as our sophomores, juniors, and seniors poured out their heart to God asking him to give them more of a love for others and more fire and zeal for him. What a blessing as God’s presence came down and I was privileged to see them praise God, shout, run the aisles, and hug each other in an exuberance of love as well as doing some incredible praying during the prayer time. When it came time for class they were so involved in praying to God I doubt if they even had a clue it was time to go to class. I didn’t either till several minutes after class should have started. So I just canceled class, as did some other teachers and let them continue praying. Some things are just more important than others. It has been a long time since I have been in a prayer meeting just like that. When we were done, several of us just sat there totally drained physically while the spiritual part was going “WWWHHHEEEE!!!!!!”. No energy left. I had very little voice left either.
The idea for this prayer meeting started Saturday morning after a rock-a-thon on Friday night. The rock-a-thon went till 3 in the morning then they played some volleyball. After that we sat around and talked for a while. (I was the sponsor for the rock-a-thon). After I said we really needed to leave, they asked if we could read the bible and have a short devotional. I said sure. They got a Bible and God directed me to Psalm 47 and the first couple verses of Psalm 48. Those two verses make a nice chorus and we sang that. While we were singing the Lord came down and really filled the place. It wasn’t a hilarious, jump up and down time. We sat there quietly, basking in the almost overwhelming presence of a loving God. We sang a chorus softly about every 3 to 5 minutes but the rest of time we just sat, cried, and softly told God how much we loved Him. You didn’t want to be loud, it was just a time to be soft and quiet. That is the way that the Spirit was moving. That lasted for an hour then we spent another big section of time talking about spiritual things, praying, and singing. I’m not sure exactly how long that lasted. What I do know is we left the gym at 8:30 am . Exhausted in body, but thrilled in the soul. That night they set the plan up to meet for a prayer meeting Monday at noon . I agreed to join them. They didn’t have to twist my arm.
- Bill, A Christian College Teacher
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