This message is a very cost-ly message to write for me. It's not without cost. And it's not the easiest thing in the world to do – to let an offender go and bless them, but that's exactly what I have been taught the past few days.
I lost an iPad that was given to me by my mother in the summer of this year April 2014 (summer time in the Philippines is different than in the States and other countries). I was going to work riding a shuttle van last Friday and I was the last passenger on board sitting in front. My iPad was placed on top of the van's dashboard and as I got off the van, I did not realize I stood up without it. And then an hour or so later, I finally realized to my horror I left the device in the van.
When I came back to look for it, it was already Monday (I had schedule conflicts and I couldn't get there on time to report it and I wasn't sure if they were operating on a weekend.) Believe it or not, I was having faith that the driver of the van will return it as the van is owned by a publicly operated franchise with a common dispatch point. Yesterday Monday and today Tuesday, the drivers I saw seemed willing to help me but all that I asked claimed they haven't seen it. My search just left me at a surprising finish, after one lead left me uncertain. In short, it sort of shortened the process to my dismay and I was left with a choice to release the offender, forgive and let it go.
Letting go comes with a cost to me and my family. The device was a hard-earned property bought by my parents and endowed with love as a gift offering. The offender definitely received something he hadn't worked for nor deserved (because of the manner that it was acquired), yet he still received the blessing. It just makes me think of a right view of the grace of God.
Sometimes, I often do as well, we think of grace as something that is free, which it is. But grace was given with an expense (no gift is given without an expense). It required a cost. Someone had to die for it, and that was Jesus. Someone had to pay for the grace that we received that we did not earn nor did we deserve.
This is probably the hardest blog post for me to write. I'm sure people have had their own share of more tragic stories in the hands of their enemies. And while I've shared about the cost of Christ's sacrifice on the cross frankly I feel like a number of times since I became a Christian in 2008, I'm feeling the cost while I'm writing this in a choice to release and bless an enemy.
Because that's what we were when Christ found us. We were enemies of God. Beggars in a table laden with food that symbolized His mercy and grace. Every last one of us. We were in need of grace. Sure we have been good in a number of ways, but according to the Bible, we were God's enemies deserving of wrath. And yet because of His lavish grace, we have been made alive with Christ and have been saved.
Ephesians 2:3-10 speaks of this grace:
Citing Jim Elliot, a Christian missionary to the Quechua Indians and the Huaorani tribe in Ecuador in the 1950s: "He is no fool to lose that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
The story of Jim Elliot and his wife Elizabeth Elliot was one of true courage and Christ-like passion for the lost. In 1956, Jim Elliot was demised by the people he was trying to reach – the Huaorani people. He loved the Huaorani-s so much with the passion of Christ that he eventually as well demonstrated Christ to them, dying while trying to reach them. His wife, Elizabeth Elliot, author of Passion and Purity, decided to go back to this tribe and continue to spread the gospel and love these people. The tribe eventually got reached out and became followers of Jesus themselves.
Why am I sharing this in spite of the pain (as the wound is still fresh)? Perhaps I also feel led to. I feel the message of Christ for me this Christmas is to forgive and in the process, allow Him to save each one.
I believe despite my best efforts to preserve that tablet (since summer) and having slipped just that day on a costly Friday up to today Tuesday, and even though God is not the author of evil, God is in control and can redeem what was meant for evil for His purposes.
I'm not sure that even as I write this, if people will still be able to sense the feeling of loss and pain. But praise God, I'm just a messenger after all. It's not about me. My whole life, His story, is being written right in the smack - or the whack - of it.
This is for me a true story. And God's message in it is very true as well.
As I finish this blog, here is what I feel is also the message, His Message (not mine):
"Pain can be used by God to heal a suffering, fallen (because of sin) and a broken world."
– December 2, 2014
It's only a few days after all since this incident. I may have more days to continue releasing.
Right now, this is sort of a therapy for me for my loss to share it with people what I went through.
Hope you've been blessed (though I pray I may have a more joyous message soon).
I lost an iPad that was given to me by my mother in the summer of this year April 2014 (summer time in the Philippines is different than in the States and other countries). I was going to work riding a shuttle van last Friday and I was the last passenger on board sitting in front. My iPad was placed on top of the van's dashboard and as I got off the van, I did not realize I stood up without it. And then an hour or so later, I finally realized to my horror I left the device in the van.
When I came back to look for it, it was already Monday (I had schedule conflicts and I couldn't get there on time to report it and I wasn't sure if they were operating on a weekend.) Believe it or not, I was having faith that the driver of the van will return it as the van is owned by a publicly operated franchise with a common dispatch point. Yesterday Monday and today Tuesday, the drivers I saw seemed willing to help me but all that I asked claimed they haven't seen it. My search just left me at a surprising finish, after one lead left me uncertain. In short, it sort of shortened the process to my dismay and I was left with a choice to release the offender, forgive and let it go.
Letting go comes with a cost to me and my family. The device was a hard-earned property bought by my parents and endowed with love as a gift offering. The offender definitely received something he hadn't worked for nor deserved (because of the manner that it was acquired), yet he still received the blessing. It just makes me think of a right view of the grace of God.
Sometimes, I often do as well, we think of grace as something that is free, which it is. But grace was given with an expense (no gift is given without an expense). It required a cost. Someone had to die for it, and that was Jesus. Someone had to pay for the grace that we received that we did not earn nor did we deserve.
This is probably the hardest blog post for me to write. I'm sure people have had their own share of more tragic stories in the hands of their enemies. And while I've shared about the cost of Christ's sacrifice on the cross frankly I feel like a number of times since I became a Christian in 2008, I'm feeling the cost while I'm writing this in a choice to release and bless an enemy.
Because that's what we were when Christ found us. We were enemies of God. Beggars in a table laden with food that symbolized His mercy and grace. Every last one of us. We were in need of grace. Sure we have been good in a number of ways, but according to the Bible, we were God's enemies deserving of wrath. And yet because of His lavish grace, we have been made alive with Christ and have been saved.
Ephesians 2:3-10 speaks of this grace:
...Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.The grace that God gives to us is full and it's free. But it's definitely not cheap, as I feel the iPad is right now in my point of view (but God's grace is still more!).
Citing Jim Elliot, a Christian missionary to the Quechua Indians and the Huaorani tribe in Ecuador in the 1950s: "He is no fool to lose that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."
The story of Jim Elliot and his wife Elizabeth Elliot was one of true courage and Christ-like passion for the lost. In 1956, Jim Elliot was demised by the people he was trying to reach – the Huaorani people. He loved the Huaorani-s so much with the passion of Christ that he eventually as well demonstrated Christ to them, dying while trying to reach them. His wife, Elizabeth Elliot, author of Passion and Purity, decided to go back to this tribe and continue to spread the gospel and love these people. The tribe eventually got reached out and became followers of Jesus themselves.
Why am I sharing this in spite of the pain (as the wound is still fresh)? Perhaps I also feel led to. I feel the message of Christ for me this Christmas is to forgive and in the process, allow Him to save each one.
I believe despite my best efforts to preserve that tablet (since summer) and having slipped just that day on a costly Friday up to today Tuesday, and even though God is not the author of evil, God is in control and can redeem what was meant for evil for His purposes.
I'm not sure that even as I write this, if people will still be able to sense the feeling of loss and pain. But praise God, I'm just a messenger after all. It's not about me. My whole life, His story, is being written right in the smack - or the whack - of it.
This is for me a true story. And God's message in it is very true as well.
As I finish this blog, here is what I feel is also the message, His Message (not mine):
"Pain can be used by God to heal a suffering, fallen (because of sin) and a broken world."
– December 2, 2014
It's only a few days after all since this incident. I may have more days to continue releasing.
Right now, this is sort of a therapy for me for my loss to share it with people what I went through.
Hope you've been blessed (though I pray I may have a more joyous message soon).
Advance Happy Holidays and be on the alert as well during this Christmas season. :-)
May God lovingly protect, encourage, bless and give you His grace of eternal life and sufficient to overflowing for every need. May He bless your humble labor for the cause of Christ. May He establish you ever deeper in the faith. May He guard us, heal us, redeem us and use us as He sees fit. And may our knowledge of His grace and love increase and may it overflow by grace to those in need.
God is my saving grace and we are all co-heirs to it, to those who receive His grace by faith.
To receive His life-saving grace this Christmas, if you haven't already, kindly view this blog post written in August 2012 and pray to receive Jesus Christ into your life.
Thank you for listening and may God richly bless you.
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