A legacy

I was shouting as loud as I could and only got the attention of a few of the people around me. My mother had died of cancer a few months earlier and we, my siblings and I were traveling through Chicago with my dad on our way east to meet our new mother. My dad was planning on marrying his first sweet heart, the girl he had never had the courage to follow through with the first time around. She was now fifty and had never married and she was to become our new mother. We had been riding the rail from the west coast and decided to take a break in Chicago. Dad had taken us to the old historic mission. It was testimony time and I had a testimony. I was asked to repeat it and then I was told to get up and stand on the chair and say it again as loud as I could so I bellered out "I love Jesus and Jesus loves me". That time it worked. The crowd applauded and nice comments were made from the stage, people wanted to shake my hand and I was hooked. I was going to be a preacher. It felt good, really good. But I needed a great story, you know the kind of story that makes people cry and want to get right with God. For many years I grieved about the smallness of my story....Christian kid, Christian home. (Although we did brand a kid's bare bum one day for swearing in our Christian club. We were serious about God's love).

A few weeks later with our new mother and all we were again at a revival meeting some where in Ontario. I don't remember much but when the alter call was made I slipped out of my seat and made my way by myself all the way through the stadium to the front and from there was ushered into a side room where counselors were waiting to pray with those wanting to give their lives to Jesus. I was only five years old and went completely undetected. In a corner all by myself I fell on my knees and invited Jesus into my heart. The tears flowed freely and the warmth of His presence filled the room and I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I was loved and forgiven. I now had the real story and I was going to be a preacher some day just like Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, two of our families real life heroes.

My birth mother was the first in a family of preachers. My heritage is rich. I am now looking back over these past 55 years. I have done my share of preaching and have enjoyed the applause of men and God. My story has undergone much tribulation and trial along the way. I have had to fight for it. It didn't come easy but this is my story ... this is my song. "He loves me". I fulfill a longing in His heart as does He in mine. He is satisfied in me and I am satisfied in Him. Day after day the revelation grows. He loves me isn't just a chapter in the book. It is the book and every chapter is a spin off of that one central theme. He loves me is the center and the focal point of life.

And that is the legacy I leave for my kids. That is my ceiling and their floor. Knowing that I am loved by God is the best gift I could give them. Here in is Love. Not that we love Him but that He loves us. They will have to fight for that one like I had to but hopefully not as hard. His legacy as is mine is a legacy of love. And this truth in their kids and grand kids will color and flavor this world. This testimony (God's love story) is the Power of God to Salvation to everyone who Believes.

Satisfied

God is most glorified (beautifully expressed, on display) in me when I am most satisfied in Him ( John Piper's life motto)

Lord, you satisfy me, my delight is in You, all my springs of joy are in you.

What to do with the new and improved 3D Playboy Magazine???

I used to think I only had two options, two choices. I have learned that we actually have three options, three choices.

I was watching the news last evening minding my own business in the privacy of my home and there on the screen was a very interesting proposition for every virile young man in America.... a must see proposition, new, attractive and unusual and within every one of our reach. Playboy's new and improved 3D version complete with glasses. Fresh and bold! Now these propositions are readily available any and every where we look...right in the center of our gardens.

My religious side (the elder brother) thought hmm, I must pretend like I didn't see it and look away fast especially if some one else is in the room. I must tell myself that this is very disgusting and harmful. I must suppress any more thoughts along this line and abruptly and verbally condemn the idea, as attractive as it seems. Resist! Run! Hide!

My self indulgent side (the younger brother) thought hmm, this could be interesting, I wonder what I may be missing, I should really be up on these new and improved ideas so I will know how, what, why, where and who. (of coarse to instruct any weaker brethren.) What could it hurt and who will need to know?

Now I know these first two choices very well. How am I doing so far?

The third choice (as the beloved child of our Abba father) is becoming more and more clear to me. My father loves me more than any one ever has or ever will. (He proved it by taking my sin into his own body and destroying it's power on the cross in order to fix what for so long has been broken in my relationship with my Father.) Because I am so loved by Him I can trust Him in this decision and just say no. I actually have that power to choose for His and my best interest. He knows me, He loves me, and He has empowered me to chose correctly. Every thing He desires of me is for my best. I can absolutely trust Him in this. No good thing will He withhold from me.

It is interesting that the tree had center stage in the sanctuary of the garden as it still does even in the privacy of our homes and lives. Free choice is an amazing thing. It is free and mine to make and to think that God loves me regardless of the choices I will make...Wow! I have discovered that every one of the choices above will eventually bring me closer to Him. The first two will take a little longer and have a high degree of pain or consequence. They both will effect my relationship with my loving Father whether I choose religiously or just indulge but as in the garden even wrong choices eventually bring us to the right choice, born from the revelation that God is amazingly good, He loves us and is always out for our best and completely trust worthy. It is often the self indulgent that discover that first. Suppression will definitely have some benefits but not where they count in relationship with Father. He's not impressed. He desires more than that. A relationship that flows from love is the end goal. And once I know He loves me, my obedience becomes a non issue because my trust in Him prevents me from choosing poorly.

He loves me is all I need to know to trust His will...whatever proposition the enemy of that relationship conjures up.

Should we sin that grace may abound? Sometimes that is truly what it ends up looking like as ridiculous as that idea is. (Paul said!)