The Glory Of Forgiveness

The Theft

Back in late 2002 to early 2003, I had bought a severely fire damaged house from a guy. It was a wreck and I got it for next to nothing but it needed a ton of work done on it. I worked on it for several years but the first year I spent gutting out what was left of the interior and rebuilding and adding on to it. I use to leave my tools there locked in the house because it was a hassle picking them up every day. I only lived a mile away.

One morning I got there and there was a broken basement window and, upon entering, I found a whole bunch of my power tools missing. On top of that I found that my digital camera I had put in the desk I kept there was missing as well. I was devastated. Some of you know that helpless, frustrated feeling you get when you've been the victim of a robbery.

I called the police and they sent out an investigator who did the usual taking of fingerprints, etc but he said the guy was good at it cause it was all carefully wiped clean. While he was doing his thing, I went outside and I found a muddy shoe/boot print on a piece of construction paper on the ground and I took it in cause it wasn't mine. The inspector said that was not a common type of shoe but was a rather expensive certain brand of hiking boot. He took photos of it and told me that it was unlikely they would find out who did it.

After he left I got an attitude in me like, "I'm gonna save this boot print and I am going to catch this guy!" I was angry and frustrated. So, I kept that boot print with me all the time thinking I am going to nail this guy when I find the boot that fits this print. It was over a thousand dollars of tools, the camera, not to mention I had to replace the window that was broken. I couldn't afford that. It took over 3 months to replace those tools. My neighbor did tell me later that he saw a guy walking down the street with a cardboard box that I was missing and that he was struggling to carry it. Nothing ever really came of it but I kept that boot print with me just in case.

The Mercy of God

Late one day towards evening after working on the house all day I was driving home and was stopped at a stop sign when the Holy Spirit spoke into my heart to go to Taco Bell. Well I was tired and I really didn't WANT to go to Taco Bell. I just wanted to go home and relax. Well some of you know how that goes. I really couldn't leave that stop sign until I somewhat grudgingly said "yes." It was only a few blocks out of my way. No big deal right? As I arrived there and was walking to the entrance, He spoke again to me clear as a bell, "Buy two meals." Well, by then I was a little more cooperative so I went in and did just that.

So I sat down at a table wondering about all this and started to eat my meal. There was a young guy sitting across the aisle and down the way a bit and somehow we ended up in a conversation. That was awkward at a distance so I invited him over to my table to continue the conversation (which quickly and effortlessly turned to being about Jesus). I could tell he was hungry so I told him God had nudged me to buy two meals so it was pretty obvious it was for him.

There is something about receiving the mercy of God that if we "don't forget what manner of man we were," we end up carrying the mercy of God for others in us. He had a pretty good christian background but he confessed that he was struggling with falling back into a drug addiction. We had a great time talking and their was such a bond forming there. God's love poured out among us is an incredible thing. It never ceases to amaze me.

The Thief

After a while I noticed that we had been there for over an hour so I told him, "Wow, we should go outside to make room for other customers." When we got outside, we were standing there talking and I told him how my house had gotten ripped of a bunch of tools. While telling him that, the Lord spoke to me to give him $20.00 so I pulled out a twenty and told him what came to my mind. After having such wonderful fellowship and seeing him perk up and be encouraged so much, I was surprised that he suddenly looked so very sad and uncomfortable. He was practically stuttering saying, "I-I-I can't take that money". At that point he looked like he was going to burst into tears. Then, out of nervousness I guess he lifted up his leg to scratch his shin with his boot facing me and there was that boot print I'd saved all those weeks right there on the bottom of his boot.

He was so devastated. That's what drug addiction can do to you. You end up doing things you wouldn't even imagine doing normally. And he was so sorry and I could see that sorrow went deep inside him. And then an amazing thing happened inside me. I knew that God had help me find "that thief" but now I also knew that "thief" was my struggling brother in the Lord. I reached out and squeezed his shoulder and put that 20.00 bill in his pocket, gave him a big comforting hug. "I love you brother..."

I walked away from that meeting with a million dollars worth of God's love coursing through my veins and he walked away knowing that God knows all he was going through and was really there not condemning him but walking with him... I used to tell other brothers in the Lord about that story for quite a long time after that and the biggest smile would come to my heart as I would tell them,

"That is the best thousand bucks I have ever spent!"

God's Glory Revealed In His Forgiveness

See Jesus spent a whole lot more than that to purchase the forgiveness of God in our lives. He shed his own blood and died for us so we could be reconciled to God.

"I came not to condemn the world but to save it."
"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
"Christ died for ALL sin, for ALL men, for ALL time."

Is there any part of "ALL" that we don't understand???

Are you SURE?????

They Lived In Tents

There has been something rumbling around in me for a while now and I can't seem to put my finger on it. I don't know why yet so I just keep giving it up to God and waiting on Him to show me what it is.

As I was contemplating this rumbling inside me this morning in between chats with two Ugandan brothers (who have lived there all their lives) that I know, I found myself thinking about a time in our lives back in Hawaii about 25 years ago.

Under circumstances that were not entirely under our control, we ended up buying (on payments) an acre of light forested land and living in a tent - a very large military tent. Before that I had heard about an older widow from one of the christian gatherings whose house in town was falling apart so badly that it was deemed by the county to be unsafe and they informed her that it needed to be torn down. She was very poor and couldn't afford to do that. I felt led to help her and I carefully dismantled the house. It was very dangerous work.

Almost all of the material from the house was useless but I did manage to glean from it enough to build a floor for that 16 x 32 foot tent to sit on and later, an out building later that we called the "sitting room" where we would gather. The other 1/2 of it we called the "bath house"... Later we had a "temporary" power hookup installed when I started to build the first "module" of a "permanent" house (kitchen/dining) on the property. We had been stripped down to nothing before all this and slowly things were looking up for us.

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it was an easy life but we were alive and together. I guess you could say we were "poor"... If I left it at that, I'd have to say you were right but there was also something wonderful about that year in the tent. No, actually I'd have to say, awesome because it was an "Our God is an Awesome God and He reigns from Heaven above" kind of time. We had almost no distractions that the world normally puts on us. Recreation was singing sometimes spontaneous praise and worship songs. Late night foraging in the scriptures. The presence of the Lord would descend in our midst quite often. and sometimes visitors would get unusually touched by God.

I met an older brother in the Lord who visited us back then  and years later I was telling some brothers that this 14 bedroom house we lived in once, was the most amazing house we ever lived in. He interrupted me and said, "No it wasn't. That tent was the most amazing house you have ever lived in." I asked why and he said, "Because of the anointing that rested on the property..." (we went out back of the property to pray one day and neither of us was exactly sure where we really were in spirit during that prayer time.) If I had stated that we were "poor" at that time, I'm sure he would have argued vehemently against that as well. And I would have to agree with him on that.

Just as an example, one day some cars pulled up front of the property and out piled about 10 or so "Jehovah's Witnesses" with their bibles and all. I found myself walking quickly up our long driveway to meet them just a little ways into the driveway. One of them said, "We are Jehovah's Witnesses." and out of my mouth came the words, in no small measure of authority, "I... am one of Jehovah's Witnesses"... As soon as that came out of my mouth the Spirit of God descended upon us all and I began to tell them the testimony of how I had been drowning in a car, started to experience my own judgement (revealing of the truth) before God (whom I didn't even believe in at the time) and then by the power of God when I should have died was translated right out of the car I was trapped in.

Then I told them how a year after that accident, not knowing how one could ever survive the judgement of God, Jesus manifested Himself in Spirit when I was out in a garden and how His presence filled that garden and how overwhelmingly beautiful that was. I told them about how He spoke to me while I was standing there in awe and adoration and said, "Come into my Kingdom." and how the back injury I had suffered with for a year since that accident was instantly healed. When I said that the Spirit of God descended on us all even more so. So much so that one of the ladies whom I could discern wasn't as tied in with that group spoke up and prophesied in agreement with that testimony. One thing I might mention is that the walls that normally would accompany that kind of a "meeting" were melted away for those ten minutes or so by the presence of the Spirit of God.

There were many other times that year that the Presence of God would manifest during times of worship, prayer and bible study.

There is something about us as human beings in that in this life we crave stability and longevity. And having been around for 61 years, I can totally understand that need. In a sense, during that time in the tent, we had a measure of stability. Something to hang onto. Things were starting to look up for us. I got more work and at one point was wondering if I could get better prices on lumber if I could arrange container shipments on my own. I arranged a two week trip to Portland, Oregon to check out direct lumber prices there. To my surprise all of my business appointments were done by the end of the first week so I found myself one day walking around in some fresh fallen snow and then I suddenly realized something. I looked up at the Father and said, "You want us to move here don't you!?"

Now I've got to tell you that up until that moment, you would have had to use a five foot long steel crowbar to pry me away from the islands for any length of time much less to move to the mainland USA. But all those reservations melted off of me at that moment. When I returned to Hawaii and our tent, I told my wife about what had come to my mind and we were in agreement. Long story short but the Lord graciously confirmed all that in short order after that and provided for the tickets for us to go there. Every detail just seemed to fall in place.

Finally, the day was coming for us to leave.We took down the tent, folded it up and sold it and the dismantled floor to another family who needed it and off it went in their truck. It was that simple. Just took it down, folded it up and off it went. Just like that... No muss, no fuss, our "house" was off to it's new purpose. The purpose for the tent in our lives was over and we watched it moved on... And, we moved on as well to follow the Lord in an entirely different direction and location. Just like that! (Can you hear my finger snapping?)

Now if we had built a house and had to move it to it's new location and purpose, that might have been an entirely different story. The truth be known, we very likely would not have responded to God in His direction had that been the case. We would have been too attached to the stability and looking forward to longevity in that place.

Now I'm obviously not advocating anyone live in a tent but I wanted to establish that I have had a certain level of experience living in a tent.

There is aspect to "living in a tent" that needs to be applied to how "christians" relate to "church." It applies individually and it applies organizationally.


I do have to express one thing at this juncture:

That those that follow Jesus the Messiah as a whole would be much better at responding to God's directions and moving with Him if we were to, in the organizational sense and our still imperfect perceptions of the Truth, consider "living in tents" in the Spirit. Instead, there is the constant building of what inevitably becomes permanent organizational monuments to something God may have in fact done or partially revealed years before but has subsequently moved further on in His plan for our perfection.

It is a sad testimony to the world and to angels that we are not able to fully follow Jesus as He leads us onward towards the promised land simply because we have been tricked into thinking we have already arrived. In the process, we have left a seemingly endless string of walled cities all claiming to be "the promised land."