Dear Friends,
I had dinner this week with my friend Rick, a pastor and a self-described recovering rage-aholic. “I know where I’d be if Jesus hadn’t saved me years ago,” he told me. “I’d be in prison. Or dead.
Rick shared two stories to illustrate his point. The first was about his brand new pickup truck, which is currently in the shop getting repaired. Rick was rear-ended last week by a 16-year-old driver who was – wait for it – texting while driving.
“I traded in my 15-year-old truck last year for this brand new one,” Rick said. “The old truck didn’t have a scratch on it, but with 15 years and a lot of miles under the hood, it was ready for retirement. My new truck has already been in two collisions. The first happened when I was hit by a driver who was under the influence and who had no insurance. Then last week, the kid hit me.”
Rick said he saw the collision coming. That’s how he knew the driver was texting at the time. And when it happened, Rick felt the muscles in his stomach tighten. Words that ought not come into a pastor’s head were begging to be set free from his lips.
As he reached for the door to his truck, Rick said he was ready to unload on the driver of the other car. That’s when he sensed God tapping him on the shoulder, and three words popped into his head.
“Don’t embarrass me.”
Unable to shake that thought, Rick walked back to find the young driver trembling. His instincts as a father took over. “Are you okay?” he asked the visibly shaken young man, who nodded. Rick told him to take a deep breath and dig out the insurance information from his glove box. He said “call your mom or your dad and tell them what just happened. And let me talk to them.”
When Rick got on the phone with the driver’s mother, he told her her son was fine. “I did this when I was a teenager,” Rick said. “You have a fine son who did a good job getting me his information. We can get this worked out.”
By this time, the young driver was out of the car, hearing what Rick was telling his mother. Rick hung up the phone and handed it back to the young man. He said “I want you to know I’m a pastor. And I’m wondering right now if God had you run into me because he wants me to tell you about his Son Jesus. What do you say we get together next week for lunch – I’ll buy – and you let me tell you about Him?”
Rick said the boy, who had stopped shaking but had started crying, reached out and embraced him as a son would with his father, burying his head into Rick’s shoulder.
The two are scheduled for lunch next week.
Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. My friend Rick knows that his response to the wreck is not something he can take any credit for. It is God’s ongoing, sanctifying work in his life.
A second story offers additional, maybe more compelling evidence of God’s ongoing work in his life.
Rick’s youngest daughter is in college, and has been seeing a counselor to help her process issues she’s been dealing with in her soul. As a result of the counseling, a disturbing repressed memory has surfaced. This young woman has remembered an incident that has been deeply buried in her soul for almost two decades. When she was three years old, she was sexually abused by an 11-year-old boy, one of her brother’s friends, at the family home.
Rick’s daughter shared with her parents the memories that had surfaced through her counseling. Once again, Rick felt the rage begin to bubble up in his own soul. He said “I’m pretty sure if I wasn’t a Christian, I would have found a way to locate that young man. I think I would have killed him. I sure wanted to.”
As it turned out, the limits of Rick’s mercy would be put to the test. It wasn’t long after learning about the abuse that Rick was in a setting where he saw his daughter’s abuser, now a husband and father in his early 30’s. He spoke to him and asked him to swing by the church the following week so they could catch up. The young man promised he would.
When that meeting came, Rick said he locked the door behind them as the young man entered his office. And Rick didn’t waste time. He told the young man why he had wanted to meet. “I know what you did to my daughter. Don’t try to lie about it. If you do, I’ll take you down to the sheriff’s office. The main deputy is a friend of mine. You can get ready to spend a lot of years in prison. When you’re released, you’ll be a registered sex offender for the rest of your life. Good luck getting a job.”
Rick continued. “Part of me would like to kill you,” he confessed. “And I could do it. So don’t mess with me here. Tell me honestly. Why did you abuse my baby girl?”
The man broke down sobbing. He told Rick he had no idea why he had done what he had done. He said he had been tormented by the thought of what he’s done for years. “Your family was always so nice to me,” the young man said. “I can’t explain why I did what I did.”
After they talked, Rick said he looked the young man in his eyes and said “I want you to know I forgive you for what you did.”
Instead of taking him to the sheriff, Rick told the young man he wanted them to go see another friend of his. Rick followed him as they drove to a counselor’s office, where Rick wrote a check for $500 and told the counselor this was pre-payment for ten counseling sessions with this young man. He said he wanted to know if for any reason the young man did not complete the counseling.
Then he left.
Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that the seeds of murder are hidden in each of our hearts. Whether you realize it or not, there is a murderous rage resident in your heart and mine. Some of us may be by nature more easy going than others. But don’t kid yourself. Given the right circumstances, you are a step away from being the lead character in the next true crime documentary on Netflix.
We read a lot these days about professing Christians who dishonor the name of Christ by failing to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit. There are those who openly propose that Christian virtues like kindness, patience, goodness or self-control display weakness and need to be sidelined if we’re going to keep from losing additional ground in our post-Christian world.
What we don’t get to hear about are the number of men and women who, like my friend Rick, are able to respond to difficult circumstances with grace and kindness because of the deep work God is continuing to do in their soul.
It’s a deep work that I trust he is continuing to do in yours and my life as well. I can only hope that in the power of the Holy Spirit, I might be able to respond to adversity and to being sinned against as my friend Rick has been able to.
Jesus is our example of how to respond in adversity, as 1 Peter 2:20–23 reminds us:
“If when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
A reminder for those of you who are going to be part of our Date Night event this Friday. Doors and child care open at 6:00. Dinner will commence at 6:15. We’ll wrap up well before 9:00. And while it’s going to be a fancy dinner, you can wear whatever you like! (I’ve seen people in blue jeans at Arthur’s so…).
Looking forward to a great night.
There are two events coming up for students. First, the April Game Night:
And a couple of weeks later, it’s the Roots end of school year party!
Finally, in case you missed it last week, here’s a reminder from Pastor Cole about the Bibles we’re asking you to sign for our graduating seniors:
Next month, on May 19, we’ll be recognizing and celebrating the achievements of our graduating High School Seniors. This year, we will giving these seniors something special to highlight their accomplishment. You remember when you signed people’s yearbooks back in High School? Well, we have purchased an ESV Journaling Bible for each of our graduates. These Bibles are formatted to provide ample space in the margins of each page for journaling as you read through scripture.
We’ll be placing these Bibles in the church family room from April 7th – May 18th. And we’d like to ask you to add a personal note in each of the Bibles. Think of 2-3 passages of Scripture that are meaningful to you. Then in the margin in the Bible, write a brief encouraging note adjacent to the passage you’ve selected.
For example, if you selected Romans 8:1, you would underline There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus in the Bible. Then in the margin, you could write something like “Praying that you will experience God’s amazing grace throughout your life.” And be sure to sign your name after each note you put in the margin.
If you know the graduating senior, you can choose a passage of scripture that you know will encourage them as they transition into their next season of life. If you don’t know them personally, pick one or more passages that are your favorites.
We would love to see each senior’s Bible filed with encouragement from everyone in our church. On May 19th, I will personally present each Senior with his or her Bible. Your notes will be a great encouragement to them as they tangibly experience the support of their church as they take the next step in their journey.
- Pastor Cole
Are you signed up for next weekend’s Women’s Stay-treat! If not, you can still register by clicking here (https://redeemerlr.churchcenter.com/registrations/events/2218853).
Looking ahead to May, we have some special events for you to get on your calendar.
First, the monthly Men’s First Tuesday event will actually happen this month, on April 30.
On Mother’s Day, we’re inviting parents who have never dedicated their children to the Lord to sign up for our Baby Dedication portion of the service. Reach out to Jen Gurney with any questions.
If you’ve been visiting Redeemer and you’d like to know more about what it means to be a member in our church, we hope you can join us in May for our Friday Evening/Saturday Morning Church Membership Class. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about Redeemer and to get to know leaders and other people who are new to our church.
Please continue to pray that God would direct our steps and provide the funds needed for us to explore expanding our facility (starting with some additional parking spaces!). We have already received more than $9000 in donations toward the $15,000 goal. April 15 is our deadline, so if you’ve been thinking about giving to the project, now is the time! Click here (https://redeemerlr.churchcenter.com/giving) to make an online donation (please use the pull down menu to designate the giving for the building project). Or add the word “building” to the memo line of your check and drop it in the giving box on Sunday.
Also, some good news! We’ve already had funds given and committed toward expanding parking for our church. Once the master site plan has been updated and the costs have been determined, we will be one step closer to expanding our parking lot!
Now that we’ve looked closely at the seven letters from Jesus to the churches in Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3, we’re going to pull back and review all seven of these letters before we move on to chapter four. We’ll see how these letters fit together to provide guidance and encouragement for churches in our day.
And we’ll have some time on Sunday for an update from our friends Joe and Dana Neff, who we support as missionaries working with Teach Beyond worldwide!
See you in church.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Bob
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