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- Written by: Don Goulding
But you must return to your God,
by maintaining love and justice,
and by waiting for your God to return to you. (Hosea 12:6)
An Australian electrician took his annual holiday in the nearby Fiji Islands. He met a pretty seventeen-year-old girl named Joy and promised to marry her. She got pregnant. He ran back to Australia.
A year later, the electrician returned for another holiday of parties with minor-aged girls.
Joy confronted him. “This baby is yours, and the least you could do is help with food and diapers.”
He fled once again and left the young mother to her tears and poverty.
Dani and I tried to get justice for Joy. We met with legal counsel, waited in courtrooms, and attempted service of the summons for a paternity test. The judge berated Joy for bad decisions until she gave up in tears.
We live in a universe of absolute justice, but it is delayed justice. That electrician didn’t get away with anything and neither do I when I sin. Every misdeed is written into the books John saw in Revelation 12. We are accountable for every moment.
Joy taught me a lesson. She knew when to release her perpetrator into God’s hands. Where the human judicial system failed her, Jehovah’s great white throne will prevail. The biblical promise that every action will be judged frees me from tracking the guilt of others. I can, instead, focus on repenting from my own sins.
Joy and I have a huge advantage over the electrician. Every sin we commit is transferred to the cross of our Savior. “Unjust,” some would cry. Indeed, it is unjust that innocent Jesus suffered for guilty us. But it’s the one injustice permitted by heaven.
Prayer: Jesus my righteous Judge, I rest in your justice.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
The Hungarian countryside was like those repeating backgrounds in cartoons. In a hamlet of tile roofed houses, we negotiated a horse plodding before a cart heaped with manure. Regaining the open road, we passed a farmer and his smock clad wife pitchforking compost around verdant crops. Then the scenes repeated with humorous predictability.
The key to Hungary’s agricultural triumph is organic fertilizer. While other countries spew chemicals, Hungarians have mastered the art of repurposing animal waste. I say it’s an art because spread too thinly the plants starve, whereas an application that’s too thick burns crops under the potency.
Raising up a harvest of salvation is much the same. In Hungary, and in other places, I’ve witnessed the impact of using monetary resources to support the gospel. If insufficient funds are given, God’s message starves. If money is indiscriminately heaped on, the gospel burns under materialism.
Not too thin, not too thick, simply means that in addition to sending finances, I also work alongside the locals. I am undeservedly privileged to spend time in their world. What a blessing to know the true artists of gospel fertilizer whom I can support with prayer, finances, and encouragement.
Prayer: Lord of the harvest, it is an honor to pray and pay for workers.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)
“Eroni, don’t go so high or you’ll fall,” I said to my four-year-old pal. He was swinging dangerously high in our hammock on the porch in the Fijian rainforest.
A few minutes later Eroni hit the deck. There was a silence while he gathered air to bellow his pain.
Eroni didn’t need to hear, “I told you so.” The hard knock from his fall was reminder enough of his error. I scooped the lad up and he sniffled against my shoulder. It was his way of saying, “Forgive me.”
What the prodigal son, young Eroni, and I all have in common is that when we sin, God rushes to forgive. Even before we grasp the depth of our folly, divine pardon is applied.
Maturity in Christ means I will come to recognize my sinfulness, but the path to that knowledge starts with forgiveness. The result of grace is that when my full confession and repentance finally come, as they must, they’re genuinely from the heart.
God’s restoration frees me from hiding my guilt out of fear of judgement. Instead, I can admit my sin and resist it. There is a deep spiritual principle at work here. Forgiveness yields increased holiness where condemnation so often fails.
Prayer: Father, thank you for your swift and complete forgiveness.