I really looked forward to it. One of the organizers even paid for my plane ticket, room and board. I have never felt so honored in my life.
On Thursday, throughout the day, I visited the Grand Canyon.
The next day, we visited the offices of different elected officials to make our voices and concerns heard.
Then I went back to the local McDonald's, where I get a lot of my work done.
It was Friday night in Arizona, and another man was sitting where I used to sit. It was no big deal, since I don't own any table in any restaurant. I asked if I could sit at the same table with him, so that I could plug in my computer, my phone to recharge it, etc.
From there, he started telling me about his life. He shared with me how he had been abused repeatedly as a kid, moved from one foster home to the next. He had his first child at 15, and he married the mother.
They had since divorced.
While he was talking with me, he told me that he has seen me sitting at the same table, and said "There was something about you." He then told me that I look like his son.
His son had died, washed out in a heavy rip current along the shores of the Hawaiian Islands. Tony was the man's name, and he shared with me the pain of losing his son, who had disappeared. He spent a large sum of money searching for his son, and sent out a search team, but no one was able to find him.
Tony then opened up to me and shared "I am so angry with God." He also talked about how he had lived in a rehab center for a while, trying to get off of alcohol. At that point, I could share with him that Alcoholics Anonymous is a cult, and he needs to get away from it as soon as possible. He actually agreed with me.
When we talked more about his son, I candidly told him that I could not explain why his son was dead, how such a tragedy could strike against him; but I found myself having to correct him at great length with the following statement:
"God did not take your son. It is not God's fault!"
In fact, I went to great lengths to explain to him that death is an enemy.
Then I started reading to him from 2 Samuel, the account in which David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then the child born to David from another man's wife ended up dying.
"21Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. 22And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? 23But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." (2 Samuel 12: 2-23)
Part of the reason I share this story with you is to show that God our loving Daddy is guiding us all the time! He guided me to read the right word so that I could share God's word with Tony about his lost son and the troubles overwhelming him in this life.
I found that he frequently came back to "Look at me. Look at all the things that have happened in my life. How could it be that God allowed all of this in my life?" My response: "No matter what is happening in our lives, do not blame God. Justify God, no matter what may be happening in and around you. It's not God's fault that your son died."
In fact, because the shoreline was dangerous and the authorities had gone to great lengths to inform people of the dangers, I had to inform Tony that his son made that decision. I also asked Tony if he felt guilt about his son dying there. "He had asked me to go with him, and I didn't go because I had to take care of other things."
Very serious. It must have grieved him a great deal that he had not gone with his son, and thus he didn't see his son again after he had left for Hawaii.
I talked about the Old and New Covenants, and how God cannot operate in our lives if we trust in ourselves and our flesh rather than in God's grace. We cannot be responsible for our children's decision once they make them.
After that, I took out a CD sermon which I had purchased: "God has condemned sin in the flesh", but Joseph Prince. Tony told me that he recognized the face. I offered it to him, and he gladly received it.
After that, I prayed with him, and told him that God is our Daddy, and He is caring for us in every way. Tony felt better after all of it, and told me that he was going to go to sleep feeling so much better after all that he had been through.
Five days later, I look back on this incredible God moment and I am sharing with you now why it matters enough to me to share with all of you what happened.
Why was this man so sad? It's true that he had endured so many terrible privations in his life. It was so easy to look at all of those troubles. But then I realized that the true source of so much of his pain was "I ... I ... I."
"Look at what has happened to me!"
"How could God let this happen to me?"
"Why is this happening to me?"
I began to realize another reason why we must be established in the truth about God's salvation for us. He didn't come to make bad men good. He came to make dead men live.
He is our life. I have nothing apart from Him. Period. That is not some psychological novelty to help me bear sorrows in this dark, fallen world. This is the truth. Adam sinned, man died, and death reigned through Adam (Romans 5:12-17).
We need to accept this revelation. We need to get over the idea that we are independent from Him, and that anything we suffer is somehow a result of God's doing.
We then need to focus on how good He is, and He he is very much in the restoration business:
"25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent
among you.
"26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of
the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall
never be ashamed.
"27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am
the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed." (Joel 2: 225-27)
In fact, I read from the 2 Samuel account further to show how God makes good on the greatest griefs which we endure:
"24And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto
her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and
the LORD loved him. 25And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he
called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD." (2 Samuel 12: 24-25)
Notice God's grace to David and Bethsheba, in spite of their great sin. Their next son was Solomon, who would be the next king of Israel, and the greatest king in the nation's history:
"Where sin increased, grace superabounded" (Romans 5:20)
I shared the same revelation to Tony, and he acknowledged that he had heard that too. It is important for us to realize, too, that faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of Christ! (Romans 10:17). We need to hear it again and again for our faith to be built up in Him.
But we have to look at God and know that our redeemer lives. Even Job, despite his self-righteousness, called upon God as His redeemer (John 19:25)
And God not only redeemed Job, but provided for him double for all his losses:
"10And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed
for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before." (Job 42:10)
That same promise holds true for all of us. We need to see Jesus more than ever, and we need to see how good He is, how gracious He is!
Final Reflection
This morning, I learned something new about true godly counsel to those afflicted, in great pain. When we are confronted by the woes and hurts of others, we are not to focus on the sin, but the sin offering. The priests in the Old Testament ate from the sin offering. We feed on God's faithfulness, not man's sinfulness!
"The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the
holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the
congregation." (Leviticus 6:26)
We are to focus on Jesus, to see Him nourishing us, restoring us to wholeness no matter what pains, hurts, and sorrows we have been through. I must say that this new teaching, this greater revelation of God's grace and truth is essential for me. I spent about an hour talking with Tony about Jesus and how He overcomes all the horrors and sorrows in our lives.
I am so glad especially that I learned how much God restores in our lives, too! He is a very much a restorer. With that, I want to share with all of you that every person I have met, men and women who have lost their children, in their lives they experienced an incredible restoration. One of their other children would not only have kids, but TWINS.
This has happened to angel moms whose sons or daughters have been murdered. This happens to men and women whose spouses have died or were taken from them for unjust reasons, too. There is no need for us to live in bitterness or anger about something taken from us.
God is very much in the restoration business! Let's focus on His goodness, not the world's badness:
"Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the
land, and verily thou shalt be fed." (Psalm 37:3)
The original Hebrew reads more like "Feed on His faithfulness".
Not our sin, not the fallen world, but on Jesus, for through Him we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).
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