A Special Moment from Brazil

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the woman that caught my attention. She sat unemotionally quiet with the other women, not interacting with anyone. She appeared to be around 30 years of age. I wasn’t sure she’d listened to a word I’d said through my interpreter that afternoon. As I spoke to the women of a drug and alcohol rehab clinic in Goiania, Brazil, the woman’s expression was apathetically distant.

During my message about Jesus lifting up and redeeming troubled women in the Bible, I noticed another young woman becoming emotional, quietly sobbing to herself, while others around her tried to comfort her. It was obvious that God’s word was touching her heart, and I wasn’t surprised to have her respond during the invitation to receive Christ. But the whole time I was speaking, my attention kept being drawn back to the first woman. The more detached she seemed from my message, the more my attention was drawn toward her.

 

The weeping young woman was the only one that came forward during the invitation. We celebrated the new sister in Christ with a commitment prayer and song. Pictures were taken and her once downcast, tearful face was now beaming brightly with the joy of a new Savior, and new life in Christ. But the quiet woman didn’t take part in the celebration. Instead, she sat quietly off by herself, seemingly just waiting for us to leave the facility so she could continue her regular routine.

 

We gathered our things, and the international team started leaving the area, along with most of the staff and residents of the facility. I packed up my backpack and started following the others out when I noticed the quiet woman still sitting off by herself, staring ahead with not a hint of emotion. As I walked toward her, I attempted to make eye contact, wanting to acknowledge her with a nod or a smile, but she didn’t look up at me.

I walked on, but as I got to the woman, something stopped me dead in my tracks. I can’t exactly tell you the feeling I had in words, but I definitely felt a message in my head, in my heart.

 

"Don’t you walk past that woman..."

I can’t say it was the booming voice of God or something written in the sky, but it was clear and it was evident that I could not continue on with the others. Oh, by the way, my interpreter just happened to be walking past at the very moment I stopped...

"Hello, what’s your name?

 

"Eliana"

She gave me the briefest of smiles, one which revealed a past use of methamphetamine. We talked a bit about this and that, then I asked Eliana whether or not she’d ever received the forgiveness that only Christ’s shed blood on the cross could provide and she lowered her head and said, "No, I’ve been too bad." It was at that point that the once stoic woman began to sob...

The truth of the matter is, we’ve all been "too bad." We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as Romans 3:23 reminds us. But there is the hope that we find only through God’s plan of salvation through Jesus’s death on the cross. It is there and only there we find the promise of Isaiah:18:

 

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

The precious blood of Christ cleanses us from all our transgressions, no matter how high they number, or how low they bring us down.

...Eliana spoke of a life filled with sin. Shameful remorse creased her once expressionless face. Tears flowed freely as she spoke openly, confessing a life she now wanted to leave behind. I explained to Eliana that her sin was not beyond Jesus’s redemptive blood, that no matter what her past had been, God loved her and wanted her to receive the Grace of salvation.

"God would not let me walk past you today, Eliana, without talking to you. What does that tell you?"

"He loves me...and still remembers me. Yes, I would like to receive Jesus in my life...please."

I told Eliana something that I’ve told many others while on mission trips. I told her we probably would never see each other again...in this world. But, someday, we’ll both be in heaven because of what she’d received that afternoon.

 

"And when that glorious day of rejoicing comes, you come find me, we will celebrate."

During the crusade in Goiania, 2731 made commitments to Christ. That afternoon, in a women’s rehab clinic, God allowed me to witness one of those confessions of faith. It was an experience that I’ll never forget. Thanks to the many who prayed for the trip. Thanks to my international coworkers, Americans, Brazilians, and Paraguayans who served alongside me. But mostly, I give thanks to a great God that gave me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people...like Eliana.

Yes, we shall meet again, my new sister!

 

Time to Jump In

There’s an old story that I’ve heard several times about a tightrope artist who was performing his act of daring over the magnificent Niagra Falls. He’d made the perilous journey back and forth to the excited applause of the crowd that had gathered. Then, to make the feat more daring, he pushed a wheelbarrow across the falls and back. Then, putting a 100 pound sack of flour in the wheelbarrow, the daredevil proceeded to push the load again back and forth, atop the tightrope, bringing the crowd to a worked-up frenzy.

"Who believes I could put a person in my wheelbarrow and push them across the falls?" he asked the excited crowd. To a person, each one of the audience raised their hands in support of the man’s obvious talents.

"Okay, who volunteers to jump into my wheelbarrow and be that person??" Not a hand was raised...

It’s one thing to say we believe in God, In God We Trust and that sort of thing. But it’s quite another to actually live our lives reflective of that belief...to actually jump into God’s wheelbarrow with our lives in His hands. Since a fantastic revival at our church last week, I’ve been unable to get a certain passage off my mind. 2Corinthians 5:7 says:

                                          For we live by faith, not by sight.

This concept has persistently tugged at me since I heard evangelist Ronnie Smith talk on the subject last Wednesday night. I’ve had to stop and ponder how much of my life do I really live in full faith and trust in God vs. how much do I live by sight, attempting to control myself?

How much of my life have I placed in God’s wheelbarrow? Is my wallet in there, how I spend my money? Do I make financial decisions independent of God’s guidance? When’s the last time I laid out my possessions and asked God to remove those things that weren’t pleasing to Him, those things that I value too much, more perhaps, than I value my relationship with Him. How about my wristwatch, is it in the wheelbarrow? Is how I spend my time a decision that I make exclusively myself, or do I say, take the time you need Lord and use me as you see fit?

I could go on and on. This concept applies to every aspect of my life. The sinful truth of the matter is that only a very small percentage of my life is actually in that wheelbarrow. Instead, I have it piled up on the shore, where I can control it. Oh, when I foul up an area of my life, I call God over and then put the mess I've made in His wheelbarrow, at least until He’s gotten it straightened out. But generally speaking, my time, my money, my life as a whole, is basically organized in way that is pleasing to...me. And in that way, I’ve brought those things to the altar of the god of...me.

Maybe you can relate. When we hold a white-knuckle grip on our lives and fail to give God complete control, we’re saying three things:
           1. I don’t trust you God, to do what You say.
           2. I don’t believe you God, that you can do what You say.
           3. And, I don’t love you God, enough to hand it over to you.
Last Wednesday night, I made a commitment to begin to hand over the keys to my life, completely to God, to get in the wheelbarrow. I want to truly live a life of faith, not sight. It’s a process, but in the end, I believe it will be a much more rewarding life than with any period I’ve yet experienced. I invite any and all of you to join me...are you willing to take the ride of your life?

As always, I invite your comments and questions. My email address is allterp@yahoo.com. Thanks for taking the time to read what God has placed on my heart.

He Said WHAT??

All the splendor of a beautiful fall morning was upon us as my wife and I tooled out and about Kansas City, stopping here and there at yard sales, bakeries, and wherever else our little Ford Escape would take us.

We’ve never been bumper sticker people, per se, but about a year ago, my wife brought home a couple of bumper stickers with the simple phrase "Read the Bible" on them. I liked the message and both our vehicles now proudly display them. Underneath the "Read the Bible" phrase is a passage reference of why we should "Read the Bible," II Timothy 3:16, which tells us:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,

for correction, and for training in righteousness...

As Christians, the passage tells us simply that the Bible is the direct word of God, and, as the phrase goes, it’s all good. But, during our Friday morning gallivanting, we encountered another driver who didn’t hold our views of the Bible.

As we were enjoying our morning outing and the beauty of the day, the peaceful bliss which enwrapped us was suddenly punctured by unexpected vileness, courtesy of the driver passing on our right. As I slowed to make a left hand turn, the man in the car next to us rolled down his window, leaned out, and stated his viewpoints about the Bible in a three word phrase that was chilling to the ear..."BLEEP YOUR BIBLE!!!" I apologize for putting a profanity in your heads, but I couldn’t think of any other way to report the incident.

It was jolting, to say the least. Initially, I felt angry indignation toward the offender. I wanted to follow him and find out exactly what his problem was. That feeling quickly changed to one of confusion and finally sympathy. Here was a man who was obviously spiritually lost, not knowing the joy of salvation that comes only through knowing Christ as Lord and Savior. Instead, hatred had moved into his heart, and it spewed out of his mouth that day.

I have a member of my own family who’s a self-proclaimed atheist, and displays the type of resentful anger toward Christianity that the poor driver demonstrated Friday morning. I’ve been praying for him for years. To date, his heart remains hardened toward God or, for that matter, anything spiritual. In his own way, he’s saying the same thing that the driver said toward me, as are so many who hear God’s calling, but refuse to respond. They are the folks, "whose minds the god of this age (Satan) has blinded, who do not believe..." (2Corinthians 4:4)


As Christians, we are to continue to pray for and pursue the lost. It isn’t always easy, but we can’t become derelict in our duties. God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4) By His Holy Spirit living in us, we have to have the same desire in us. Something I need to work on...how about you?

Seeing the Light

I suppose everyone’s heard the old Hank Williams song "I Saw the Light," released in 1948. Hank Williams is considered one of the great country singers of all-time, but he led a troubled life, cut short by the ravages of alcoholism at the age of 29. My father had a couple of Hank Williams records, and I grew up listening to his unmistakable sound.

The simple lyrics to " I Saw the Light" begin:

I wandered so aimless life filled with sin                                     
I wouldn't let my dear Savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord I saw the light.

Light is a common theme throughout the Bible. A quick search turns up hundreds of usages of the word light. None more clearly and simply defines the Light of the Bible more than Psalm 18: 28:

For You will light my lamp; The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness

Without Christ in my life, I was in darkness. As Christians, we are mandated to bring others to the light. I’ve named my blog "Reflecting the Light," because that’s what I want to do, reflect the Light of God’s love for me, expressed by His sacrificing his own Son, Jesus, for the sins of the world.

Before we were Christians, we didn’t necessarily know we were in darkness. Ephesians 5:8 tells us:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

We are mandated here to "walk as children of light" first and foremost to give glory to God, but also to bring others to that same light that we walk in. Last week, I wrote about losing my money at a crooked carnival game. I’m also reminded of a time when I entered a carnival spook house as a kid. It was basically just a pitch-black maze which you had to weave yourself through. There were a lot of eerie sound effects playing and people screaming in fear. I wanted out badly, but couldn’t find my way on my own. Every once in a while the exit door would open, and a slither of light would appear throughout the maze. The key to finding your way out of the darkness was to keep following that light. The closer you got to the light the brighter it appeared.

That’s pretty symbolic of where we are without Christ in our lives, stuck in the darkness. As Christians, we are to shine the Light through our lives for others to see, helping them come out of their darkness. It has to be done in a loving way, not a blinding way. A preacher I heard in Minnesota last week likened it to using a flashlight to help someone find their way. You don’t shine the light directly in their eyes, blinding them. That would turn them away from the light.

But that’s what we do, sometimes, trying to beat the Gospel over someone’s head. Instead, we should try to shine our Light lovingly, in a way that displays Christ’s love for us. Now, go, and shine the Light of Christ for someone today, and show them the Way to their salvation.

Step Right Up...

"All ya gotta do is take this ball and knock all three milk bottles out of the circle and ya take home a BB gun, whatta say, kiddo? Fifty cents a throw, wanna give it a go? Lemme show ya how easy it is..."

And with that, the carnival barker took a ball and tossed it at the small pyramid of bottles, knocking them out of the chalk circle that they’d been stacked inside. 

"See how easy that is, bud? I’ll even let you have a practice throw for free, Whatta ya say?"

Sure, why not take a practice throw, see if I could do it. I was a pretty good little league ball player and that old barker had done it. So taking dead aim at the bottles, I wound up my twelve year old arm and let fly. Sure enough, all three bottles flew out of the circle. The barker claimed it was the best throw he’d seen in weeks. Now, my dad had warned me not to play any of the games, that they were rigged so that you couldn’t win. Obviously he was wrong about this one.

"For just 50 cents, you make that same throw and you’ll walk away a winner," the barker said, carefully restacking the bottles. It sure made plenty of sense to my pre-adolescent mind. I had a pocketful of hard-earned money from mowing grass around my neighborhood. Invest just 50 cents, win the BB gun and I’d still have plenty for cotton candy and ferris wheels. I plunked my money down and picked up the ball...

My pastor in last night’s service talked about the deceptions and distractions of the world. They can be traps that Christians often fall into, leading us to greatly harm our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Adam and Eve listened to and followed the deception of the serpent, ushering sin into the world. Sin usually takes that pattern. We listen to or see it, then we often choose to experience it. But throughout the Bible, God warns us about such deception:

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. (I Timothy 6:9)

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. (James 1:14)

In my life, there have been times that I've allowed the influence of worldly desires to lead my life astray. I look back on those periods with a great deal of shame and regret. I also take great joy in the ultimate forgiveness that I’ve experienced from a loving Father who provided His own Son to pay for those and all other sin in my life.  I cannot possibly express enough gratitude for that.

...It was a long walk home that night. I hadn’t experienced the thrill of a whirlybird ride or tasted the wonderfulness of fresh popped popcorn. I wouldn’t go to sleep that night dreaming of how high the ferris wheel had taken me or remembering the gooey sweetness of a caramel apple. Instead, I’d spent an abbreviated evening giving my money to a deceptive carnival barker, fifty cents at a time. I couldn’t imagine why I couldn’t knock those bottles out of the circle, like I had on my practice throw. Greedily and angrily, I threw ball after ball, trying to win that shiny BB gun. All I’d got for my efforts were a sore arm and a feeling of humiliation.

"Sorry kid, better luck next time."

I’m not sure where I first heard this, but this three-pronged look at sin has always stuck with me:

Sin will always take you farther than you wanted to go.

Sin will always keep you longer than you wanted to stay.

Sin will always cost you more than you were willing to pay.

My greed and anger had driven me right out of the carnival and back to my home, much farther than I wanted to go that early in the evening. I stayed at the game much longer than I’d ever intended. And with all my money spent, it certainly had cost me more than I was willing to pay.

Man on the Moon...

If you’re my age or older, you no doubt remember July 20, 1969. I had just turned ten years old and had been introduced to a new hero.  He didn’t score touchdowns or hit home runs. No, we didn’t have his card in a shoe box, or a poster of him on our bedroom walls. Instead, we just had this fuzzy television image of a man in a spacesuit descending a ladder. I ran outside when he’d taken his final step, one that he described as "One giant leap for mankind," and stood gazing at the full moon to see if I could somehow spot Neil Armstrong walking on the moon...

Neil Armstrong’s passing last week gave me cause to stop and reflect on the glory days of our space program of the 1960's and 70's.  I remembered something else that was pretty remarkable that occurred several months before Armstrong took his giant leap during the Apollo 11 mission. And while we might return to the moon’s surface some day, but I'm skeptical that we’ll ever see a recurrence of what happened during Apollo 8.



On Christmas Eve, 1968, Apollo 8 crew members sent magnificent pictures of our planet back to us from the perspective of the moon. I think it was the first time we’d seen the beauty of God’s creation from that vantage point. Then astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders did what nowadays would be unheard of.



With the largest ever television audience at that point in history watching, the three men began to read:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..."

Genesis 1. They read the first ten verses of the Bible. Could you imagine the uproar that such an outrageous act would cause today?? The next day, they did something even more remarkable, by today’s standards...they prayed.

The forces that wrestle for control of our nation wouldn’t stand for such behavior today. The ALCU and atheists organizations would see to it that such outlandish actions never occur. The sad part is, as a society, we’ve succumbed to their pressures, and no astronaut would ever think to acknowledge a creator, let alone pray to one publicly. 

 

The Apollo 11 mission was a demonstration of how far we’d progressed, technologically. Unfortunately, looking back on Apollo 8, we can see how far we’ve regressed, spiritually.  As we remember a true American hero, Neil Armstrong, let's also look back and repeat the prayer of Apollo 8.  The words are just as relevant today as they were in 1968:

Give us, O God, the vision which can see thy love in the world in spite of

human failure. Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our

ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to

pray with understanding hearts, and show us what each one of us can do

to set forth the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen.

 

 

 

Apollo 8's Christmas Eve broadcast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU5QwuYKIgQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=143s

 

 

Peru, Josh Hamilton, and Chick-fil-A...

I just returned from a ten-day trip with International Commission to Piura, Peru. Actually, I’ve been back for a week, but I’ve been battling a bad summer cold all week, which pretty much sidelined me for the past seven days. But God used the past week to help me focus on some interesting aspects about my trip, and the society we live in...

First of all, it was a fantastic trip. My good friend Donnie and I experienced God’s working in the hearts of the Peruvian people. We met and worked with true servants of God. Holding worship services in their church and in the streets of Piura, conducting home visits, and just talking to people in their neighborhoods.  We witnessed 97 people confess Christ during the week.  The entire crusade saw 2038 new Christians.  Praise God for each and every conversion!

There was an undeniable Spirit of love that existed almost immediately between those brothers and sisters in Christ and us. By the end of the week, though we didn’t know each other’s language, we knew each other’s hearts, and parting was very difficult.

Sharing Christ with the lost souls of Piura came very easily. The Holy Spirit had prepared the hearts of many to hear the Word and respond. Person after person, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers came to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Again, sharing Jesus in that environment came very easy...

Last night my wife and I took in a Kansas City Royals - Texas Rangers baseball game. We especially wanted to go because it was Family and Faith night at the ballpark and several Christian ball players were to speak, including Josh Hamilton, a former MVP of the Rangers.

Hamilton’s story of drug and alcohol abuse is well known.  I was moved by his testimony and message. Our seats were directly in front of the steps that he descended after he spoke.  I was privileged to shake his hand and tell him I appreciated his message.

After Hamilton spoke, another speaker, Scott Dawson, gave a stirring call to the audience, asking those who’d felt moved to receive Christ as Savior to move to an empty section of the stadium, where there were counselors waiting to speak with them. Many began to make their way toward that section. But Dawson did something even bolder. He urged the Christians in the large crowd to lean over and tell the person beside them "If you’d like to walk over to that section, I’ll be glad to walk with you..."

I’d spent a week in Piura, Peru telling everyone I’d encountered about Jesus Christ, but still, I felt a feeling of hesitation overcome me about the guy who’d I’d been sitting next to all game, chatting here and there about this and that...why was that?

In Piura, Peru, I was in tune with God’s Holy Spirit, for sure. I need to be more so in my everyday walk. That’s first and foremost. But there’s an element in our society that has put shackles on the tongues of Christians everywhere. That element reared its ugly head during last week’s Chick-fil-A ordeal. A Christian CEO on a Christian Radio station and in a Christian newspaper said simply he believed in the Bible’s teachings...and there was an outcry from the Political Correctness Police.

I was proud of the turnout at Chick-fil-A last Wednesday...but it should not have been necessary.  The same cultural atmosphere that Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy encountered by simply stating his belief in the Bible, is the same atmosphere that caused me to hesistate tapping that man's shoulder last night.  We’ve been duped into caring far, far too much of what negative response we might encounter if we share Christ with our neighbor, our coworker, our relative. Shame on us for allowing that fear and intimidation be the driving force, instead of the message we’ve been mandated to spread...

I don’t know for certain whether or not that man sitting next to me was a Christian or not. I do know a couple of things, though. He heard tremendous testimony about how Christ was working in the life of Josh Hamilton. He heard a well-presented plan of salvation from Scott Dawson.  And, though he didn’t respond to my offer, he felt me overcome my initial hesitation, tap him on the shoulder and tell him I’d be happy to walk him over to where the new believers were gathering.

Maybe it will serve as a seed and God will use another to bring him to Christ.  I pray for that.  I also pray God will continue to give me chances to tap someone on the shoulder...and the courage to do so.