First of All, Pray: Blog
Bringing Biblical Truths to Daily Life
Jesus to the rescue
The Bible says that God is longsuffering. He patiently presents His truth to us throughout our lives in a variety of ways. He is the Supreme Teacher, and He provides individualized instruction to each of us. Sometimes we “get it” and sometimes we don’t. Still, He persists in His patient pursuit. On December 29, 1974, I finally “got it”.
My testimony part 3:
Be merciful to me, O God, because of your constant love. Because of your great mercy wipe away my sins! Wash away all my evil and make me clean from my sin! Psalm 51:1-2, Good News Translation
Repentance is a funny thing. It demands that you recognize your own sin; but it is also accompanied, very often, by an abhorrence of what you have allowed, done, or become; and true repentance will birth a change of heart and behavior in you as well.
When I was in high school and quit drugging and drinking due to the heavenly “vision”, some may have considered this to be an act of repentance, but it wasn’t. Yes, I changed my behaviors; yet I, myself, remained unchanged.
Later, in college when I recognized that I had become an alcoholic, I grieved terribly about the control I had allowed drinking to gain over my life and told God how sorry I was, but even that was not full repentance. I sorrowed, but my behaviors remained stuck, unchanged.
After crying out to God in November, 1974, I continued drinking but didn’t enjoy it; I felt enchained by it and couldn’t get free. In fact, a couple of days after Christmas, once again, I was getting drunk in a bar while my friends partied away with glee. As I sat alone, absentmindedly watching the band play song after song, I noticed that many of the folks on the dance floor were swaying with their arms lifted up to the sky. Just then I heard a voice in my ear: Lifted hands are a sign of worship.
I dropped my head and said, “I’m in hell.” I had acknowledged my sin but had no idea where to go from there.
But God had a plan, and He came through for me in the most unexpected way.
Two evenings later, on December 29, I received a phone call. I took it in my parents’ bedroom on their princess telephone while standing next to their full-length mirror. (For those of you much younger than me, princess phones were quite the thing back then.) My friend on the other end wanted to know if I was planning to get drunk on New Year’s Eve. Now remember, I had gotten smashed just two nights earlier and desperately wanted to quit but felt utterly unable to do so.
Out of nowhere, I heard my mouth saying, “Haven’t you heard? I quit drinking.”
“You WHAT?!” she bellowed. I WHAT?! my mind echoed.
“What are you talking about?” she persisted.
I looked at my reflection in the mirror and gave myself a puzzled look. I also noticed a small smile tugging at the corner of my mouth.
“Drinking is so un-ecological! Think of it! You drink and drink and drink, and all those resources are just wasted! Trashed! It’s just not good for the environment!” I could feel my mind scrambling for some sort of excuse to cover for what my mouth had just announced.
“Oh man, are you ever messed up!” and with that our conversation abruptly ended.
There I was, standing before my parents’ full-length mirror, and two things happened. First, I felt something literally leave my body, making me feel about two thousand pounds lighter. Second, as I looked into that mirror, my face was glowing. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. Something very profound had just happened to me, that’s for sure, and I had a feeling that Jesus was in the middle of it.
I went to my bedroom and found a daily devotional I had just bought sometime in November to make sense of my spiritual condition. Instead of opening it to December 29, I opened it to my birthday page. And there, in bold Living Bible terminology was Hebrews 10:19-20. It said, “And so, dear brothers, now we may walk right into the very Holy of Holies, where God is, because of the blood of Jesus. This is the fresh, new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us by tearing the curtain—his human body—to let us into the holy presence of God.”
And then I saw Him. There in my bedroom, all alone, I saw Jesus opening His chest with His two hands and beckoning me to enter through Him into the presence of the Father. And as I wept in gratefulness to Him, I said, “I must be a Christian now!”
And thus my journey ended; and so my journey began.
Dorothy
“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord…” Jeremiah 29:13-14a
“…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation…for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-10, 13
© 2015, Dorothy Frick, and updated 2017.
What a terrible savior am I
Yesterday I posted an encounter I had with Jesus when I was a teen. This second of three posts describes my attempt at cleaning myself up and taking charge of my destiny. Like so many others, I decided that if I could get good enough, I probably wouldn’t need to upend my life by receiving Christ. The thing I didn’t reckon with was this: I sucked at being my own savior. Therefore, I have entitled this part “What a terrible savior am I”.
My testimony Part 2:
After Jesus appeared to me while I was in an opium-induced hallucination back in January, 1972, I decided that I needed to stop all my drugging and drinking. After all, I would be a Christian some day. This began a very frustrating, legalistic season in my life. I stopped drinking; I stopped doing drugs; I was working my way to Heaven.
This lasted a good year and a half…but then I went to college. There was no way I could attend Party School, USA, and not join in on the fun! Therefore, I compromised with my savior (who was, frankly, me, myself, and I at the time): I could drink all I wanted to, but no dope.
Quite honestly, I learned something profound through that decision. Improving myself was not the same thing as being a new creature. I had tried to be good for God; however, I was terribly bored with that lifestyle, and deep down, I knew I still wanted to party.
I jumped into freshman year with gusto. Five of us—three gals and two guys—became a close-knit band, gallivanting from party to party, kegger to kegger, and bar to bar. I taught them camp songs that we sang at the top of our lungs through the streets of the campus following our nights of drinking; after that we would return to the dorm and buy chocolate milk as a chaser, always throwing the empty cartons on the roof of the dorm lobby. After the five of us parted ways for the evening, it was my practice to sit on the landing of the seventh floor stairwell and talk to God about the evening’s adventure.
Life was good; I was a good person—I wasn’t doing drugs and I was keeping the lines of communication open with God. I was pretty much in charge of life and doing a darn good job of it. And then came the summer.
I had been assigned the role of primitive camp director at my summer camp. I loved that camp, I loved the woods, I loved primitive camp, I loved the magic of it all. However, there was one problem. I made a lousy primitive camp director. I could build fires and shelters with the best of them; I could spit a watermelon seed further than most; however, I had no clue how to build a diving tower, the premier project every summer at primitive camp. You’d think I’d just tell the camp director that neither I nor the young man hired to assist me had any idea how to manage that job, but as a daughter of the seventies, “I was woman, hear me roar,” and I couldn’t swallow my pride enough to admit “WE NEED HELP OVER HERE!” Two sessions later—and no tower—sent up a big red flag back at main camp: Get a skilled male counselor over to primitive camp and do it now!
Although I felt relieved, the whole thing mortified me. No one else thought anything about it (except probably the male counselor who lost his job); however it left me feeling like a total failure. My fantasy of being a super woods-woman was crushed; frankly, by the end of that summer, I was spiraling into disillusionment and near self-loathing.
Sophomore year couldn’t come too quickly. My two female friends had joined sororities, but I still had my trusty partners-in-crime, John and Charlie. We partied our way through first semester, and on Halloween, I decided to take a little alcoholic trip down memory lane. I purchased a bottle of Boone’s Farm apple wine and a six-pack of beer—the first smorgasbord of liquor I got pass-out drunk on back in high school. Dressed as Mary Poppins, I downed all of it as I wandered the campus with Charlie, John, and a few others. And I discovered something that utterly shook my already-fragile frame of mind—I wasn’t getting drunk; I wasn’t even tipsy. I needed far more alcohol to achieve far less! And then it dawned on me—I had become an alcoholic, just like my dad.
The next morning, November first, I woke up early, fighting a growing, gnawing sense of panic—I’m out of control! I’m not in charge of my life; I’m a mess! My fantasy about my personal invincibility had been eroding rapidly ever since the diving tower fiasco; and now here I was—an alcoholic at nineteen years old. And I knew I could do nothing about it.
I grabbed a Good News for Modern Man: New Testament and Psalms which I had acquired earlier in my quest for truth and headed out to the only place of refuge I could think of—the woods toward the edge of campus.
I made my way to a creek, and with tears streaming down my face, I trudged down the dried up creek bed, ashamed to speak to the God I once thought I had all but figured out. The sense of guilt and unworthiness overwhelmed me as I carefully held the Bible, frightened of the contrast between its purity and my sin.
It fell open. Fearing to read it, but needing to with every fiber of my being, I saw the heading: Psalm 51.
1Be merciful to me, O God,
because of your constant love.
Because of your great mercy
wipe away my sins!
2 Wash away all my evil
and make me clean from my sin!
3 I recognize my faults;
I am always conscious of my sins.
4 I have sinned against you—only against you—
and done what you consider evil.
So you are right in judging me;
you are justified in condemning me.
I remembered the jury in that hallucination so long ago. I continued reading.
7Remove my sin, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
I wanted nothing more than to feel clean again.
10Create a pure heart in me, O God,
and put a new and loyal spirit in me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence;
do not take your holy spirit away from me.
12 Give me again the joy that comes from your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
13 Then I will teach sinners your commands,
and they will turn back to you.
With all my heart I desired that.
17 My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O God;
you will not reject a humble and repentant heart. (Good News Translation)
Feeling lifted but still heavy-hearted, I picked my way back out of the creek bed, through the woods, and back to the dorm.
© 2015, Dorothy Frick, and updated 2017.
Next: December 29, 1974—Jesus to the rescue
Jesus quieted the jury
My testimony Part 1:
One of the last stanzas in the carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem” asks this of the Lord:
“O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.” (Phillips Brookes, 1868)
This birth is exactly what happened within me in 1974, four days after Christmas. I want to take a few days to share with you my personal journey to both the manger and the cross. Perhaps my story is somewhat non-traditional; however, as this same carol declares:
“No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.”
I was raised in a “Christian” family; we were Presbyterian, but the church we attended in the sixties focused more on issues of social relevance than it did the state of our souls. As far as I could tell, everyone went to Heaven if they were good; Hell was likely a really bad state of mind; and the devil was either an allegorical representation of evil or a red-pajama’d fairy tale, believed in only by the weak-minded.
My mom had been raised by a staunch southern Baptist. She and her sisters married intellectual men and shunned the more “primitive” demonstration of Christianity. Whereas Mom and Dad held to the ritual of denominational Protestantism, my aunts and their spouses ran as far away from religion as they could. Grandma was the “black sheep” of the family; we visited her only because we had to; we put up with her praying over the meals only because we had to; we tolerated her “are you saved?” inquiries only because that was part of the whole package of who she was—and the rules said we had to go see her.
I didn’t mind Grandma, though; I secretly admired her persistence in the face of eye-rolling, dismissive behavior, and condescending comments.
At home, however, with Mom and Dad, religion—especially talk of relationship with God (and even worse, with Jesus)—was taboo. If you wanted to see over-the-top discomfort, just drop the J-bomb. Talk of Jesus was fine at church—where it was safe—but you didn’t bring Him into the conversation at home unless you wanted to be branded a religious fanatic like Grandma.
One snowy night late in January of 1972 after a high school basketball game, my date and I planned to go to a party. He took a detour to a park where he showed me two joints that he wanted to share with me. I was game, but told him that they would likely have no effect on me—I’d smoked pot eleven times before without any noticeable results. (Have I ever mentioned that one of my quirks is an OCD tendency to count things?) He assured me that these were different—they were laced with opium.
When we got back to his car after puffing them down to nothing, I said to him, “I told you these would have no effect…” And then my words echoed back at me, again and again.
As he drove to the party, I was in a virtual echo-chamber. I could see nothing but flashes and sparkles. He commented to me as he was driving, “That tree just turned into a pine cone.”
Unconcerned about having a hallucinating chauffeur driving me around the streets of our town, I replied, “Give my regards to its mother.” I was too busy in my echo-chamber to give much thought to safety.
And then a series of hallucinations happened that resulted in a type of “line in the sand” between the Lord and me. First, as I looked out of the big windshield on that dark January night, I saw my mom’s loving face filling a brilliant blue sky. I became terribly convicted, realizing that I was breaking massive rules, potentially hurting her very deeply. Then her face was gone, and I saw the dark expanse of the starry heavens and thought, “God can see me!” so I ducked below the dashboard in an attempt to hide from the Almighty.
What happened next forever changed the way I viewed Jesus. Immediately I was at my trial on Judgment Day (not a popular topic in the particular mainline denominational church I attended). I was about to be sentenced to Hell by a raging jury; they shouted at me with faces filled with fury, pounding their fists. I stood with my head hung down knowing I deserved no mercy. And then Jesus approached. He was robed in white with a gold cord around His waist and radiated a golden liquid love. He first turned to the jury, raised both hands and then lowered them in a gesture of silence. Begrudgingly, the jury quieted as the Lord turned to me.
I will never forget the love I saw in His face as He gazed into my eyes while speaking to the jury. “This is My own dear daughter whom I love very much. She wants to be with Me. I think she will.”
With that, the hallucination/vision faded. I was back in the car, in a vehicle driven by someone who had just smoked the same stuff I had—and I was very aware of the dangerous position I was in. But a deep sense of peace and God’s protection came over me as I said to myself, “I’ll be a Christian someday.”
© 2015, Dorothy Frick, and updated 2017.
For Thy pleasure [Updated 2017]
Christmas Series table of contents
Merry Christmas!! I am presenting my Christmas Series again this year. If you want, go to the categories menu and click on the “Christmas” link on the right and look around.
Or, if you prefer, here is a table of my Christmas Series blogs to look through.
- The Most Wonderful Time of the Year http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7668
- O Holy Night http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7674
- The Forerunner http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7676
- According to Your Word http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7678
- Joseph http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7680
- Emmanuel http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7683
- The government http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7686
- Bethlehem http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7689
- O Little Town of Bethlehem http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7695
- No room http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7697
- Shepherds http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7699
- Interview with the magi, part 1 http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7702
- Interview with the magi, part 2 http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7704
- Interview with the magi, part 3 http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7706
- Heaven greets earth http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7708
- For Thy pleasure http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=8114
- Faithful, joyful, and triumphant http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=8107
- Christmas Eve http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7713
- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=7715
May God bless you and keep you safe and sound throughout this holy season, and may you bring honor to Him in your life every day.
Warmly,
Dorothy
Four life-changing insights from Luke 11
Jesus is the most profound, well-grounded Human in the history of the planet, and Luke 11 is chock-full of His wisdom. The fifty-four verses in this chapter reveal a universe of Truth; here’s a sampling:
Insight # 1: Developing a deeply personal, intimate prayer life isn’t as tough as you think.
…Lord, teach us to pray…Luke 11:1b
The disciples had a ringside seat to the compassion-packed power and wisdom of the Master. Wherever He went, amazing things followed; whenever He was absent, they knew He was off praying. As a result, it wasn’t surprising when they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray like You do.”
His answer was simple but powerful; the expected in-depth dissertation never came. Instead He shared a short set of priorities for them to pray about, and with this, the well-known Lord’s Prayer was launched. He told them:
- Honor God as your Father and treat Him and His name as holy (vs. 1).
- Ask for God’s will and kingdom to be established in your life and in the world around you (vs 2).
- Ask Him to provide your daily needs (vs. 3).
- Acknowledge your need for forgiveness in the specific areas where you’ve fallen short (vs. 4).
- Purposely forgive others who have wronged you in the same way you’ve asked God to forgive you (vs.4).
- Request that He lead you away from the things that tempt you (vs. 4).
Realize this: Jesus never expected His disciples to rattle off this little prayer, line by line, day after day, clocking in and clocking out. The Lord didn’t present this targeted outline to be used as a magic spell, mantra, or fix-it elixir. Instead, He provided these simple prayer points as springboards by which anybody could launch into prayerful intimacy with God, just by talking to Him about these things. And in this way, He opened the door for His disciples to get as personal as they possibly could with their Father.
The Lord invites you, too, to use the “bullet points” from the Lord’s Prayer to enter into deeply personal, very specific communications with Him. His door is always open; His welcome mat will never be pulled out from under you. And as you enter in, know that you’re praying just the way He prescribed.
Insight #2: Persistence pays off.
…because of his persistence he will…give him as much as he needs. Luke 11:8b
I’ll bet you’ve heard someone say, “I don’t want to bother God about that.” Maybe you’ve said it yourself, hoping the Lord would appreciate your humility. So you back away from praying about those needs you’ve hoped forever that God would take care of, and you tell yourself that you can get by without. And all the while you feel more and more distant from the One you long to know.
But then Jesus goes and tells a parable that flips your “don’t-bother-God” humility on its head!
You see, Jesus told a tale about a persistent man who pounded relentlessly on his neighbor’s door at midnight. A visitor had unexpectedly arrived; the man was out of bread and needed to feed his guest. The neighbor had already gone to bed; climbing out from under his cozy blankets was the last thing he wanted to do—friend or no friend. Surely Jesus was about to rebuke such loud, demanding racket; how very impudent of this man to expect his friend to get out of bed merely to help him out of a self-inflicted jam! You can feel it—you just know what Jesus’ punchline will be: “And YOU? Don’t you DARE bother God about your petty little needs! Don’t you know He’s busy running the universe?”
But wait! Jesus didn’t condemn this man’s boldness; He commended it! “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs” (Luke 11:8).
Could it be true? Is Jesus actually saying to YOU, “Don’t you dare NOT bother God about your needs! And while you’re at it, stick with it until you get your answer!”? Believe it; your bold persistence doesn’t bother Him—it blesses Him.
Insight # 3: The lit lamp and the clear eye.
The eye is the lamp of the body…watch out, then, that the light in you is not darkness. Luke 11:34a, 35
Paul once wrote, “…I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16).
Jesus said it this way, “No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar or under a basket, but on the lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light” (Luke 11:33). Why would anyone put a brilliantly glowing lamp in a cellar or under a basket? Could it be that they feel ashamed of the light?
Paul’s attitude toward the gospel was the opposite of shame; he embraced it as the power of God for salvation to everyone who believed. Jesus likewise highlighted what a normal, healthy attitude toward the Light looked like: Not hiding it; just letting it do its thing—SHINE.
Interestingly, right after Jesus taught about displaying—not hiding—the Light in your life, He said, “The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness” (Luke 11:34).
I don’t know how many times I’ve read this section in Luke, but this time, I saw it differently. Could it be that Jesus linked our approach toward letting His light shine in our lives with the health of our vision? Could our perspective about the Light of Jesus—whether we hide it or let it shine—affect the clarity of our perception?
When you allow the Light to shine brightly in your life, do you safeguard your vision? By the same token, is your vision mucked up when you’re ashamed of the very Truth that once set you free?
If you are currently experiencing overwhelming darkness, confusion, or oppression, make tracks back to the Light of the world, soak up His rays, and allow His brightness to radiate boldly once again through you. His Light is unquenchable; the only one who can block it in your life is you.
Go ahead—pull that lamp back out from under the bed or basket where you’ve been hiding it. Bring it on up from the cellar and let its beautiful radiance once again be a beacon of Life to the world around you.
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5
Insight # 4: Cleanness—major on inner; minor on outer.
When the Pharisee saw it [that Jesus had sat down for lunch without washing up], he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. Luke 11:38
Some of us seem to place top priority on how we appear to others, whether physically, socially, intellectually, or spiritually. We want to “get it right” on the outside no matter what might be happening on the inside. As long as we look good to others, that’s all that matters. Or is it?
Jesus, frustratingly so to the religious folks of His day, wasn’t too concerned at all about the externals. Oh, He nitpicked, but not about how people looked. He pointed His laser light on the inner workings of the heart—pride, ambition, kindness, and humility before God and man—motivations of the heart.
He said to them, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness” (Luke 11:39).
Imagine offering your friend a steaming cup of coffee or tea in an exquisite, sparkling cup. As they gratefully receive it and start to sip the contents, they notice crusty leftovers growing mold inside just below the lip of the cup. Then they notice something wiggling around, making figure eights in the brew. A critter surfaces and winks at them.
“What are you trying to do to me???? Are you crazy???” they yell as they toss your beautiful cup aside.
But you blink with astonishment and say, “But that cup is gorgeous! It looks so clean and sparkling in your hand!”
This is, in reality, what we are doing when we place all our focus on how we appear to others—whether physically, socially, intellectually, or spiritually. We may be a beautiful, stylish, with-it looking vessel, but beneath the surface—where it really counts—we’ve let leftovers accumulate, growing mold and attracting critters. If this describes your situation right now, don’t be surprised if someone says, “No thank you” to your offered cup of tea.
Jesus declared, “You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you” (Luke 11:40, 41).
When you pay more attention to the climate inside of you than you do to how others think you look, your outer appearance will reflect a pure heart sooner or later.
Then when you offer your cup of brew to someone, they will find its contents wonderfully refreshing and mold- and critter-free.
May you walk freely, simply, and boldly with your Friend, the Light of the world.
Dorothy
© 2017, Dorothy Frick
Concerning Jesus’ directive “sell your cloak and buy a sword”
I wrote this today on Facebook:
Bear with me while I process something.
Two summers ago I awoke one morning in a vacation condo overlooking the beautiful Gulf of Mexico. But my heart was full of concern; I was puzzled. You see, I had just emerged that early Wednesday morning from a dream in which I was attending a Sunday morning service at my church. In the dream my pastor was teaching something that was totally unlike his personality or anything he’s ever said before from the pulpit.
He was teaching us that with times as they are, it would be appropriate for those of us who desired to do so to carry concealed weapons into the service.
He also asserted that if anyone bragged or displayed bravado or arrogance about it, he would immediately kick them out of the church, no questions asked.
I told one of the ladies (my friend Debbie K.) with whom I was vacationing about it first thing. We had no idea what God was saying although the message of the dream was in-your-face clear. It was June 17, 2015.
Imagine my shock and grief that evening when we learned that nine beautiful worshippers were gunned down in their church–the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church–during their Wednesday night Bible study.
And today, once again we are confronted by another slaughter in a Baptist church in Texas, where perhaps twenty or so dear ones have been killed. In addition, across the country, in a Fresno, California, Catholic church parking lot, two more were shot as church was letting out.
We can debate the gun issue; in fact, I’m POSITIVE it will come up. But the dream I had just 10 hours before that weasely young man murdered nine of my brothers and sisters at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church makes me wonder if the tables may have been turned if one or two of those saints had carried a weapon along with their Bible.
I recall one of the instructions that Jesus gave His disciples before He was arrested, brutally tortured, and crucified was different than anything He had ever preached before–and markedly unlike His personality.
He said, “…if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one” (Luke 22:36).
I’ve thought about this often since my dream the morning of June 17, 2015. I’ve thought about my pastor’s stern dream-warning concerning the attitude that must attend such weapon-bearing. And I’ve sought God concerning Jesus’ goal in giving this uncharacteristic directive.
Despite the Lord’s sword-instruction, nowhere do we see any of the New Testament believers/preachers engaging in swordfights or spreading the Gospel by means of the sword. Nowhere do we see any of the believers even defending themselves by means of the sword.
Nonetheless, it’s inescapable: The Gospel of Luke records that Jesus directed His followers at the time to carry a sword.
Because His disciples obeyed Him in other matters, there is no reason to believe they disregarded the sword-directive. Jesus had commanded them to go into all the world and preach the gospel; to go into the byways and highways; to teach and preach wherever they went.
And Jesus, Who understood the future better than most people can make sense of the past, realized that His followers would be easy prey for bad actors all along the way. Therefore, in His foresight, wisdom, and great love, He made provision for them–“If you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”
And again, Jesus–Who is able read the minds and motives of men and women–knew this well: Most thugs are cowardly. If they see a sword slung around the shoulder of even the tiniest of His disciples, they would bide their time and find another–an unarmed victim–and leave the sword-bearer alone.
This is why I support the Second Amendment. I don’t like braggadocious attitudes about weapons; I DO like the idea that criminals will think twice before harming a man or a woman with a gun.
Thanks for reading.
Dorothy
© 2017, Dorothy Frick
Concerning snakes and shoes and authority
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Luke 10:19
…and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace… Ephesians 6:15
I had a ringside seat to an unthinkable feat when I was five—a literal, but very unintentional, snake-treading. And like all stories coming out of the early 60’s, this one had a happy ending…for everyone, that is, but the villain—the snake. But unlike other heroes of that era, our heroine’s “white hat” was a pair of sturdy boondockers.
Concerning snakes and shoes:
When I was a little girl, my mom took my sister and me shoe shopping. Easter was around the corner, but we weren’t looking for Easter shoes. We weren’t looking for sandals; we weren’t looking for Keds; we weren’t even looking for saddle shoes. We were shopping for what my folks called boondockers—leather hiking boots that came up over the ankles.
My parents had just leased a cabin in the woods for weekend excursions, and the land around there was “snaky”. Dad and my brother already owned boots, but we girls were bootless and needed to shop.
I remember the consternation of the salesman as he measured our feet for the boondockers. He was beside himself, trying to persuade us that what we really wanted were cute little patent leather shoes for Easter.
“No,” my mom insisted. “My girls need boondockers.” She would have been more thoughtful had she explained to the “Mr. Whipple” look-alike serving us that we needed snake protection for our country place, but I think Mom rather enjoyed shocking him. It was 1960; little girls didn’t wear such footwear.
After much hemming and hawing on the part of our flustered salesman, we were outfitted with our boots; and as we left the shoe store, my five-year-old mind imagined snakes snapping at the thick leather and I hoped they would respect the boundary at the top of my boot and politely limit their strikes to below the line.
I was faithful to lace up my boondockers every time I wandered out into snake country. Everyone in the family was. One day the five of us went out to pick the blackberries which grew wild all over the place. Each of us was armed with a cleaned out, empty paint bucket in anticipation of the bounty awaiting us. (I always ate more berries than fell into the bucket on these excursions.)
A huge patch of them twined chaotically by the side of a dirt road running down to the river. I was by Mom’s side as the family spread out, picking and plunking away, when suddenly she squealed, sucking in a lung-full of air and leaping sky high.
“I just stepped on a cat’s tail!” she gasped. “Jinks didn’t follow us out here, did he?!” She was referring to our big black and brown striped feline family member who always accompanied us on our country weekends.
My dad started poking in the berry brambles, “Here, Jinks! Kitty, kitty, kitty!” And then he jumped back. “Freda, you stepped on a copperhead!”
Sure enough, hidden under the blackberry brambles was a large copperhead with a squashed head. Dad poked it with a stick to make sure it was dead, and it was dead. Very dead. Terminated. By Mom—or rather, by her highly lethal, boondockered foot.
Awed, we all huddled around the carcass for a closer look. There it was, beautiful copper body with telltale dark brown hourglass-like markings up and down its spine, with a smashed—and very dead—copper head.
I am often reminded of this snapshot from my childhood. You see, I am witness to a literal serpent-treading. Mom was outfitted in the proper footwear, and although she had been unaware of the viper’s presence, she hit the bulls-eye. With one step she stopped the serpent, dead in its track.
Concerning authority in Christ:
We have authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm us. We just need to keep our feet shod with the proper footwear—our authority in Christ and the preparation of the gospel of peace. As we live our lives mindful of the truth, we will do damage to the enemy simply by obeying God.
So often we fear the “what if’s” of life and become incapacitated: “What if I miss God?”. Do you belong to Christ? Have you prayed? Are you in the Word? Do you walk in love? Then step out without fear. Your Father will lead you, and if you miss it, He’ll guide you out of that place and over to the right place. It’s far simpler than we believers of the 21st century have made it.
And I believe concerning you—an everyday Christian—that it’s very likely you have a trail of viper carcasses littering the path behind you. You have been outfitted to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and as you’ve obeyed God in your life—even in the everyday, mundane tasks—I believe there’s a good chance that you have destroyed demonic schemes without even realizing it.
Next time Satan attempts to debilitate you with “what if’s” and seeks to intimidate you away from your adherence to God, just remember my mom’s boondockered feet and the squashed copperhead: Step out, obey God, and know that He will be faithful to guide you and to bring light to your path.
But don’t forget your boots. It’s snaky out there!
Dorothy
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Romans 16:20
© 2014, Dorothy Frick
Concerning rejection of the message
Jesus was frequently misunderstood. In fact, when He taught His disciples how to deal with those who rejected His message, the strength of His directive was enormously misinterpreted by a couple of His disciples.
And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. Luke 9:1-2
Jesus commissioned His disciples to hit the road and proclaim the gospel sometime in the midst of His three year ministry. Matthew’s gospel cited Jesus’ charge this way, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 10:7).
“…As you go, preach…” Whether formally sent out by a commissioning ministry or merely on the go in everyday life, the directive from the Lord was clear: “As you go, preach.” In other words, be on the lookout for assignments from God.
… and [He] gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. Luke 9:1b
These anointings were specifically imparted to the twelve, not to everyone following Jesus at the time. However, just before Jesus ascended to the Father, He intentionally included every believer in His charge when He stated, “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover” (Mark 16:17-18).
You and I are commissioned as ambassadors for Christ. Jesus relegated that authority to you and me. As you go, preach…and these signs will accompany those who have believed. This is not meant to pressurize anyone; it is meant to inspire and direct every single believer.
And He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city.” (Luke 9:3-4)
During His ministry, Jesus charged His disciples to travel light—no money, food, or extra clothes. He was training them to trust God for their every need.
However, right before He was crucified, He adjusted this directive: “And He said to them, ‘When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?’ They said, ‘No, nothing.’ And He said to them, ‘But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one’” (Luke 22:35-36).
The only explanation He gave for this modification was this: “For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, ‘And He was numbered with transgressors’; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment” (Luke 22:37). Evidently, Jesus knew that some people’s perception about His death would make daily life tougher for His followers. And with this redirection, He continued to make provision for them.
But what about those who didn’t want to hear the message? Check this out:
And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. Luke 9:5
Not everything would be kittens and sunshine for followers of Christ. Some people would reject both the message of Jesus and those who proclaimed it. In response, did the loving Jesus admonish, “Be tolerant of the folks who don’t like My message. Try to see things their way and compromise”?
Not on your life. Instead, He told them to leave the unwelcoming city and shake the dust of that place from their feet.
Aware of Jesus’ firm stance on this issue, a couple of the disciples stepped it up even more when, on the way to Jerusalem, a certain Samaritan village refused to receive Him (see Luke 9:51-53).
When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Luke 9:5
“Hey,” they said to Jesus, “Let’s show them—let’s call down fire and watch ‘em fry!” After all, He did give them authority, didn’t He?
But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them…” Luke 9:55-56a
Wonder if—during the days of the guillotine and the stake and the handling of “heretics”—any of them ever studied this Scripture? Jesus said, “Protest, indeed; but make it short-lived—and non-violent.”
When believers are upfront but peaceful with those who don’t receive them, they leave room for God to do His thing—however He sees fit.
…And they went on to another village. Luke 9:56b
What do you do when you’re rejected as a believer? You go on your way. Don’t fixate on the rejection; leave it with the dust you shook off back in that city…and then go about your Father’s business.
Dorothy
© 2017, Dorothy Frick
Concerning rocky soil
Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture…Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. …Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. Luke 8:6, 11, 13
I have a confession to make: Whenever I read the parable of the sower, I’m not very concerned about rocky soil. Instead, my attention is usually riveted on what Jesus said about thorny ground…the type that grows lots of distractions…and worry. Yep, that’s been my personal Achilles heel. Distractions. Worry. And Jesus made it perfectly clear—those things, if not pulled out of your heart and mind as soon as you identify them, will choke God’s Word. And if the Word is choked in you…good luck trusting the Lord to move on your behalf! It is what it is.
This time, however, as I read this parable I couldn’t stop thinking about the rocky soil…and I wanted to dig deeper (pun not intended).
Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy…
There’s something about rocky soil people that is wonderfully endearing. Their eagerness for new adventures and concepts just oozes out of them. When they hear about Jesus and all He provides, they don’t hesitate—they jump right in and get excited about everything they hear. Come on—who doesn’t want to share the Gospel with someone so willing to grab it up?
… and these have no firm root…
We want to see results. We want to see receptivity and growth in those with whom we share the gospel. But according to Jesus, what we see on the surface isn’t necessarily an indicator of success; even more significant is this: What’s going on beneath the surface?
Under a shallow layer of topsoil in some people’s hearts lies rock-solid hardness. The composition of that hardness varies from person to person (even as the composition of rock varies, depending upon the circumstances and environment in which it was formed—multiple types of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks exist, each formed in various ways), but unfortunately, that hardness serves as a formidable barrier to healthy root-growth. Tiny roots start to sprout, but they are restricted to the shallow upper layer of soil; the rocky ground below blocks deeper penetration of root systems.
… they believe for a while (Luke 8:13)…but are only temporary… (Matthew 13:21; Mark 4:7)
For a while: Impermanent. Momentary. Brief. Passing. Short-term. Temporary. Such an outcome of hearing the Word is, sadly, all too common…but is there a remedy? I am certain there is. But first, we need to understand the results of rocky soil faith so we can address its remedy more effectively.
…and in time of temptation fall away. Luke 8:13; … when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. Mark 4:17
We’ve all seen it; some of us have experienced this sad phenomenon in our own lives. This rocky soil faith, without intervention, will sooner or later create a case of backsliding.
Three environmental scenarios create the conditions in which our more “rocky soil” brothers and sisters fall away according to Luke and Mark.
Temptation. By grace and the Word of God, you are equipped to resist the temptations that come your way; with every one, God prepares a way of escape for you—and as you resist the devil he has to flee from you. However, there are times, for whatever reason, that you are tripped up by temptation and yield to that lust, greed, rage, self-absorption, sloth…whatever it is that you may be more vulnerable to. At some point, maturing Christians recognize their attitude/behavior as sin and ask God for forgiveness and cleansing—and then they get back up out of sin with a repentant heart…because of God’s abundant mercy.
But for our rocky soil faith friends, that’s easier said than done. Somehow the ability to access the grace of God to resist temptation or the mercy of God to receive forgiveness after yielding is found in deeper soil—soil unencumbered by rocky barriers. When temptation arises, a rocky soil person lacks the roots to withstand and trust God to make a way of escape.
And, unlike a deep soil person who has also yielded to temptation (but after facing up to it, repents), the rocky soil brother or sister starts to wonder if following Jesus is worth all the sacrifice of fun, comfort, or peer acceptance. Hence, while one believer looks to God for forgiveness, repentance, and restoration after falling into temptation, the other thinks, “Why bother?” and falls away.
Affliction. Affliction means “trouble, tribulation, oppression, and anguish”. Bad stuff. Stress. Whatever it is you don’t want to happen…like the bumper sticker back in the 80’s stated (my paraphrase!), “It happens.” Jesus said it this way, “[God] lets rain fall on [people] whether they are just or unjust” (Matthew 5:45b, GOD’S Word Translation).
Although a deep soil believer hates affliction as much as the next guy, he purposes to let his roots dig even deeper into the soil of the Word so he can draw up the strength, wisdom, and Bible nutrients to deal with whatever is coming at him. Even when trials seem to persist and afflictions grow more severe, he stands with his deep roots wrapped around Jesus Himself and he refuses to throw away his confidence in God.
But the rocky soil believer has a different experience. When affliction arises—sickness, lack, loneliness, disappointment, frustration, or pain—he falls away. The rocky soil prevents his dwarfed, dehydrated root system from obtaining the rich sustenance available to the deeper soil individual. Because of that blockade, his faith withers, and he no longer sees the sense in believing. If he doesn’t feel better immediately, then just as immediately he falls away.
Persecution because of the Word. Satan hates the Word of God; it was by the Word (“It is written”) that Jesus effectively sent the devil packing when the enemy tempted Him in the wilderness.
Because Satan hates the Word, don’t be surprised if persecution—slander, rejection, or worse—smacks you in the head from time to time. It’s just the devil, and don’t ever forget—he’s a defeated devil.
Again, no one enjoys persecution; if they say they do, I wonder seriously about their sanity! That said, when it arises, the deeper soil believer digs down into God, finding comfort and shelter under the shadow of His wings despite the chaos leveled against him. Unfortunately, the rocky soil believer finds only impenetrable hardness barricading his shriveled roots from the subterranean waters of God just below the surface; as a result, he immediately falls away.
Is there help for a believer who begins his walk of faith with a rocky soil heart? I believe so; but it will require diligence both on the part of Mr. or Ms. Rocky Soil and on the part of those believers who love them and want to help them.
When you interact with someone, you may not know for quite a while what lies beneath the surface. However, despite the type of soil upon which an individual enters the kingdom of God, we can’t forget this important Truth: We are co-laborers with God in laying foundations (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-11)…whether that ground be rocky, thorny, or good.
So what might the work of laying good foundations look like? How could this help rocky soil believers survive and eventually grow a decent root supply?
- Teach them foundational truths: Who God is; what He did for them in Christ; and who they now are in Christ. Teach them this concerning their new birth: The great exchange has taken place—God has removed from them a heart of stone and has replaced it with a heart of flesh.
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart (Ezekiel 36:26, NLT).
The good news is this: Rocky soil believers can learn to count on the promise that God has created a tender, responsive heart in place of the stony heart they’ve grown accustomed to. When they feel their faith shaking and can’t seem to find their way, help them to remember what God has done in them—they can take comfort and draw strength from this.
As their lifeline, the more mature Christians in their lives (including you) will likely need to be more hands on with these precious believers, walking and praying them through the inevitable shakings that arise. Keep it simple and remind them—they are God’s property now, and He will cover them. Pull out those wonderful Scriptures that remind them of who they are in Christ and who their God is. Pray with them, and then let them know you will be praying for them (and do it!).
And remind them—God’s given them that new heart, and He longs to help them with everything that concerns them.
- God’s Word is a Hammer
“Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” Jeremiah 23:29
Rocky soil is, by definition, hard, and it is a barrier to seed growth. So when you know that the Word of God is a Hammer, you can let it break down the rocky soil, while you bring comfort and support to your friend. But how?
Lead your rocky soil friend to a daily discipline of Scripture reading. Whether they start in the book of John or the Psalms or somewhere else, continue to encourage them to prioritize their Bible time daily. Perhaps you can get them a Bible-based devotional book and have them look up the Scriptures they see in it. Maybe hook them up with solid online devotionals and encourage them to stick with reading them daily. (I would recommend veering them away from Christian prophecy sites or books that are all over the place now; these rocky soil believers need the Bible itself.) All the while, the Word will be hammering away at the rocky soil, causing cracks for the tender roots to find their way down to the deeper ground.
During this process, they may be tempted to fall away, nonetheless, as pressures arise. But the Word has been hammering the rocky soil, and your prayers for them have been watering the soil. Stick with them, love and encourage them, and in most cases, they will emerge with deeper roots and a sense of victory on the other side of their trial.
- Break up fallow ground
Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12
What an excellent exhortation for every one of us! I don’t know about you, but I’ve gone through cycles of “hardness” in my Christian walk—anything from harshness and a critical attitude to dullness of heart and lethargy. And I’ll bet I’m not alone in this.
Under seasons in which we go through the motions of our Christianity, lash out judgmentally at others, cower in fear, or drift into complacency, the soil of our hearts grows hard…even for those of us who started this walk with good soil.
And like our friends, Mr. and Ms. Rocky Soil, we, too, must then go back to the basics of our first love…soaking up the truths about Who God is, what He did for us in Christ, and who we are in Him. As we feed once again on these powerful truths, the Word, as a Hammer, breaks up the hardness of our once lush soil, and restores our souls.
I have found a sure way to break up the hardness of my soil when once I recognize it. Here it is: I overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb, the Word of my testimony, and I love not my life even unto death (see Revelation 12:11).
The blood of the Lamb: I’m not in this alone! I’m not expected, by my own power, to overcome this hardening! When I realize that Jesus’ shed blood not only cleansed me of my past sins but is also my present great help and antidote in any kind of trouble, I fall in love with Him all over again. I realize that He went through agony, shedding His blood for me, so that I can walk through whatever circumstances come my way with His help, tenderizing my heart, and leading me by His Spirit.
The Word of my testimony: I have experienced times of near-devastating hopelessness and heavy depths of oppression that stubbornly refused to let go. I’ll bet I’m not alone in that, either. The soil of my heart seemed to harden by the minute. But one day, during a particularly dark season, I decided to look away from my despair to the Lord. I said to Him, “Lord, I’m going to tell you my testimony—all the things You have done for me from way before I was a Christian to now. Lord, act like You’ve never heard it before, because that’s the way I’m going to tell it. Here goes.” Then I proceeded to reach way back to the days when God started making Himself known to me and told Him my story, details and all.
And what do you know? Before I got very far, the oppression started losing its hold. I continued, and joy started bubbling up in my soul. I continued, and soon tears of gratefulness and laughter of great freedom filled my home. And the fallow ground was broken.
I love not my life even unto death: Not many of us will die a martyr’s death. But this verse, nevertheless, applies to every one of us. Remember the verse that reads, “The fear of man brings a snare” (Proverbs 29:25a)? If you refuse to let go of what others think of you, allowing yourself to let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould (see Romans 12:10, JBP) so you don’t get singled out by them as “weird”, then you may escape man’s heat momentarily, but you put yourself at odds with the Lord…and you harden your heart.
On the other hand, when you choose to obey God despite the cost to your reputation (whether outside the church or in it), He will honor, vindicate, and deliver you;—and you will have guarded the fertile soil of your heart.
God is faithful both to us and to His Word. When we are faithful to His Word, He will provide amazing support.
Trust the Lord as you minister to others to bring about depth of connection to Him in their lives; and trust Him to empower you to be wise with the soil of your own heart, keeping it broken up and prepared for His harvest.
He is faithful.
Dorothy
© 2017, Dorothy Frick