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- Written by: Don Goulding
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16:27)
Inside their high tech video headquarters, white-haired B. E. Langley and a handful of twentysomething employees gathered around a computer screen. They observed Billy Anhiester as he reached for a lingerie catalog, but tossed it into the trashcan.
“I’ll give him one hundred fifty thousand for that little decency,” Langley said.
The mouths of the three employees hung open. “Whoa, I’m definitely on the wrong side of this screen,” a technician said.
Langley was a billionaire philanthropist looking to distribute excess wealth. His staff had randomly selected Billy Anhiester. Without Billy’s knowledge, they monitored his life via electronic surveillance and assigned monetary rewards for each noble action. After thirty days, the Langley Foundation would announce how much Billy unwittingly earned. Langley hoped to spur the public to integrity when it thought no one was watching.
A technician read out Billy’s running total. “That makes one award of seventy-five k for mailing a charity donation and thirteen twenty-five k awards for polite words. You gave him seven hundred k when he refused to cheat a customer, and with what we just saw, we have two instances of one hundred fifty k for moral decisions. That’s one point four million so far with fourteen days remaining.”
“Yeah, but he’ll kick himself when he realizes what he could’ve had,” another tech said.
Billy’s scenario is fictitious, but ours is not. Our deeds are recorded and our lives mean more than we know.
Prayer: King Jesus, help me use life for your glory today.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:11)
“Waisake, stand up,” I said to the six-foot-six, Fijian inmate. “You have been a fighter, but I anoint you as a warrior for God. From now on, you battle against evil instead of against men.”
As I made a cross with coconut oil on Waisake’s forehead, his tears dripped onto his orange prison smock.
Waisake was serving time for first-degree assault. Fellow prisoners feared his Herculean fists, but when he gave his heart to Jesus, a new Waisake emerged. Through counseling, the Holy Spirit set him free from the abuse he’d received as a child. The moment I put oil on his head, God changed his identity from brawler to lover. Powerful, friendly Waisake became a favorite of inmates and guards alike.
Our identity defines us. How we, and others, see ourselves influences our actions. Are you a fighter, a lover, a fanatic, a pacifist? There are a great many human labels, and we each wear several.
My identity has changed a few times. It shifted when I left the business world to become a pastor. Then, I was a foreign missionary, and most recently an author. The changes left me wondering, what am I?
Every steppingstone of identity eventually sinks. The only unmoving foundation is the love of Jesus Christ. Since he purchased my place in God’s family, that’s my identity—a child of God, and brother of Jesus. Those are the only labels I need.
Change may cause the universe to crumble around us, but for Waisake and me, our weight is on the immovable stone.
Prayer: Jesus, you are my identity.
- Details
- Written by: Don Goulding
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)
“I want to be baptized.” Thin, African, Nhamo kept his eyes on the ground as he held out the grain and cloth used in witchcraft. “I repent from ancestor worship.”
We baptized him in the lake, and decided to burn his talismans on the spot. But no one had matches, only the motorcar’s cigarette lighter. My friends searched out dried cow dung, pressed it against the red metal coils, and blew.
“Next time my mother lights a cigarette,” the owner of the car said, “don’t tell her what we used this for.”
Smoke gave way to embers, which popped into flame. We added dry grass, then the charms and fetishes burned to ash.
Three elements are necessary for fire—heat, fuel, and oxygen. Remove one, and you’ll never get combustion.
There are three similar elements necessary for spiritual fire—hunger, truth, and the Holy Spirit. When these elements combine, holy fire ignites.
Sometimes I want to shake people until they show a sign of spiritual interest. I ignore what Jesus demonstrated. When faced with the waywardness in others, he tossed a parable of truth into the firebox and walked away, knowing the real work would be completed in the hours that followed. The third element—the oxygen of God’s call—would blow on hunger and truth until they burst into flame.
The Son of Man rested in the Spirit’s work to draw folks. He carried a cute story about fertile soil, a lost coin, or a wayward son—like a grenade—into the heart. Then he left the Spirit to pull the pin.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, forgive my pride in thinking I convert others.