Being at the right place at the right time
02/11/2011
change–
When I met Jesus I was seventeen. I was a mess. I can only blame it on my own choices. I would like to blame others–who wouldn’t? But I am suppose to be a “mature” adult by now. Sometimes you cannot really camouflage stupidity. I had been expelled from a Catholic school in ninth grade because of bad behavior. Then I chose the wrong companions in my new public school setting, and I ended up smoking pot, drinking booze, stealing for kicks, lying for convenience, deceiving those around me, and rebelling against my parents and many forms of authority. With all of that I had a smart mouth. Wouldn’t you like to give your daughter away to someone like that?
The night I repented, at age 17, I was in a car by myself, driving, high on marijuana. Color me very stupid. But revelation can happen to stupid people, and this repentance stuck. That night, for the first time in my life, when I arrived home, I looked all over our house for a Bible. A Bible of all things. I had to read it. Had to. Being a backslidden Catholic, I had never been well acquainted with a Bible. But something in me drove me that very night to find a Bible, and read it.
And that night, for some reason, I discovered the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5,6,7. When I read the words of Jesus I was struck. His perspective, His teaching, His thoughts were so captivating that I kept reading His words over and over. Something happened. I felt myself flooded with peace. So I read the same passages the next night and the same thing happened. I ended up reading those passages for a number of weeks because I was so taken by the truth that I read. I realized that Jesus was so unique and special that I wanted to know Him.
Fast forward 43 years. I am still captivated. Like a man who is following the trail in a great treasure hunt, I now know what I want. I want to be there when God the Father cannot wait any longer to reveal Himself. When He cannot stand waiting any longer, and He has to reveal Himself. When the moment is so special He has to make Himself known. I want to be there when He breaks His own physical laws. I am hungry for that moment.
Perfect Timing
Let me explain what I am saying. After creating the heavens and earth, “in the fullness of time”, at just the right time, Jesus appeared among His own creation. The promises, the prophecies, and the eternal scheme that were established before the beginning began, fell into place. Jesus was coming as a sacrifice, as a redeemer for the lost, for those that wanted forgiveness and new life.
So at this point in time Jesus walks down to the River Jordan. John the Baptist is doing what he does–baptizing, and yelling some very clear words for those that might be fuzzy-headed. Jesus steps into the water, and this is the point where everything freezes. Everything stops. This is the point in time, where all that has been conceived and designed in eternity by the Trinity, well, this is it. Jesus is humbly stepping into His public ministry. His mission for all men, past, present, and future. In the Jordan, unnoticed except for the Baptist and a dove.
This is the beginning of His public ministry. And the Father cannot stand it. He has waited. They have waited, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is it. He is so full of emotion and love for what His Son is doing, that the Father jumps out. He does give His Word to a prophet as He often did. He does not give His word to an angel as He did on many significant and special occasions. Nope. Not this time. He cannot stand it. He has to do it Himself.
Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,
and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.“ Luke 3:21, 22
The Father just swelled up with love for His amazing Son and let it burst. He didn’t use a man, an angel, or any created being. Jesus was too special. God the Father expressing, no, rather, exclaiming His love for Jesus.
When the Father is moved to act...
So I want to be there when the excitement of the Father comes bursting through as if He just had to intervene because the moment was too special. As in Acts 10.
This narrative details great, meticulous planning for a big event with prayer, trances, angels, and following the Spirit. OK. Hmm. What is going to happen will change the course of human history for eternity. And we don’t even see it coming. What God does, well, it shows His unbridled excitement to help usher in the most special moment.
Cornelius, the gentile, sends for Peter. Ho hum, check. The Spirit told Peter to go to with these Gentiles. got it, check. Peter brings some friends and they visit Cornelius. boring, check. (The Gentiles were outside the promises of the God of Abraham–yawn, noted). Cornelius has his family and friends, “a large gathering” waiting in his home for Peter’s arrival. check.
Peter starts by doing the safest thing: telling what he knows, and then he easily moves to the incredible story of Jesus. He is sharing about Jesus and boom! What the…? It happens: the Father doesn’t even wait any longer. It is as if He cannot stand it. He has to act. This is the huge point in time, right in the middle of eternity, for all of the people, for all of the tribes, the races, for all of the people groups of creation. This is the doorway of taking the gospel, the good news, way beyond those who have received the covenant and promises, right beyond the Jews. The plan of redemption is for everyone. It is new news now–for everyone. The Father doesn’t wait for the proper sequence: someone shares, someone responds, ministry begins. nope.
The moment is too big in the eternal plan of redemption and the Father launches out. He cannot wait:
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. (Huh?) fell on those who were merely listening.
All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. (What the…?) Acts 10:44.45
Boom. The excitement of the moment, the bigness of the moment in the plan of eternity, swells within the Father and He just has to release the Holy Spirit. And then everything, everyone, becomes different.
So, as I walk the streets of Masi, after 43 years in the hunt, I am in a good place in this treasure hunt. I recall the words of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the heart of Jesus. Because of what I have learned on my journey is that Jesus loves the forsaken, the needy, and the afflicted. He goes after these guys! He loves to make Himself known to those so beaten down by abuse and oppression, those that really need rescue. those that they never expect real goodness. Like Bartimaeus, or the woman of Samaria, or the blind man by the pool, or…
So, if I, little Mike, am at the right place at the right time, carrying the message of the Ages…in a place where the Father just has to move out of excitement to release it… Well, boom. Double boom. I’m there.
