The Gospel for the Outcast - Encouragement When You Lose Your Wealth
What woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.[1]
How much money would be required to induce you to forsake your marriage vows? What price do you place on morality and decency? A popular movie some years ago was entitled Indecent Proposal. Apparently, the movie presented a sordid story of an offer of one million dollars from an older man to induce the wife of a struggling young executive to prostitute herself and sleep with him. The movie attempted to explore the couple’s relationship in the aftermath of the acceptance of the proposal.
Not being a habitué of movies and being able to count the number of videos I have viewed on the fingers of my hands, I confess that I never saw the movie. Neither does this particular movie rank high among those which I would consider required viewing. I seriously doubt that in the brief moments allotted the film that adequate exploration of the responses of the parties could be provided. Consequently, I am unprepared to comment on the social impact or value of this particular movie.
I did take note of the film, however, as it was the subject of numerous editorial columns in various newsmagazines. Apparently, couples throughout North America, after viewing the film, were reported to frequently be engaged in deep discussions concerning whether one or other of the pair would commit adultery for a price; and if they would betray marriage vows, questions were being raised as to what price was sufficient. The printed discussions interested me because they reflected significant changes in the social fabric of modern society. The general conclusion of numerous commentators and observers of the social scene was that for the right price anything is for sale, which is a sorry commentary on the values of our western democracies.
Perhaps at a more fundamental level the movie raised a question as to what is the most precious possession anyone can hold. What do Canadians hold most precious? Cut out the verbiage, slice away the pious language, and what remains are core values of life. Core values are those principles which are unalterable at any price. Those aspects of life which we consider most precious are those which are not for sale at any price. What are the core values of your life? What are the most precious aspects of life for you?
We Christians profess to love Christ above all else. We would each avow that pleasing Christ is the most important endeavour for our life and our service. We claim that His will reigns supreme in each life. What we profess will be either verified or nullified by our actions; and when our actions are exposed to public and/or divine scrutiny, what is the most precious accomplishment of our life?
This is a question that only you, as an individual can answer; and before God, each of us shall give an answer. For the Word of God is quite clear in its declaration that we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad [2 Corinthians 5:10].
Wealth is a “hot” issue, even if it is not frequently discussed seriously or at great length. Few issues generate deeper emotions or spark hotter debates, than money. Money holds an emotional attachment far greater than we might dare confess. Many people would rather lose a spouse or their children than surrender their wealth. Others leave the distinct impression that future generations and even their homeland can crumble into disrepair if only they are able to secure their own personal portfolio. Without question, many professing Christians are willing to sell their influence for good, their personal witness, and even their relationship with the Father, for a “little more.” Without apology, the message this day is a challenge to carefully consider what is most precious in your life and ensure that your actions demonstrate the professed focus of your heart.
What Did Jesus Say? And Why Did He Say It? You no doubt will recall the context in which this story was related, if for no other reason than that we reviewed it last Sunday. A quick review is perhaps in order, however.
Outcasts of society were constantly crowding around Jesus to hear what He had to say. Having lived on the margins so long, perhaps they were relieved to discover that He warmly welcomed them—and warmly welcomes them to this day. Though Jesus never once condoned sin, He did accept the persons of sinners. That openness to fallen men and women as fellow humans opened a door to receive the message He presented.
Perhaps, just perhaps, His incisive presentation of the righteous demands of Holy God resonated within their lonely, seeking hearts. I suggest that His pointed confrontation of sin with the love of God shining against the dark backdrop of promised judgement still finds a ready hearing among seekers on the margins.
If there was a down side to Jesus’ new-found audience, it was that the religious leaders were offended. This was not a small problem, for they appeared capable of hindering His ministry. As events unfolded, they proved capable of murder to protect their image of what religion ought to be. Some things never change. Religious leaders are often prone to protect their image even at the expense of violating righteousness.
At this point in time, however, the religious opponents of Jesus only grumbled. Grumbling would demonstrate their displeasure to His disciples so that He would get the message indirectly, if He were not too obtuse. Grumbling is actually a powerful tool of coercion which usually works to bring mavericks into line. Often, dark looks alone are sufficient to bring nonconformists into line with the party theme; but if dark looks will not suffice, grumbling assuredly works—except in the case of men of conviction.
The grumbling of the religious leaders was obvious to Jesus, even before anyone would bring it to His attention. This man, they spat out, receives sinners and eats with them! In what must have been readily apparent to all but the brain dead, Jesus met their criticism head-on, His characteristic response to such complaints. Our Lord did not shrink from confronting criticism; He exposed the roots of their grievances as ungodly and self-serving without a shred of decency or divine blessing. Jesus met this whinging by revealing Heaven’s view of a sinner returning home. Our Lord did this by attempting to relate to His dissimulators at a level even they could understand.
Our Lord first told them a story of a shepherd who lost a sheep. Hopefully, these religious leaders could understand the importance of a sheep to a shepherd? Even the loss of one sheep to a man owning a hundred would precipitate a search and rescue operation until the lost animal was found. When the lost sheep was found, wouldn’t the shepherd rejoice? If a shepherd rejoices over a sheep, how much more would all Heaven rejoice over a sinner saved?
Next, Jesus related a story of a woman who lost a portion of her wealth. Whether the wealth she lost represented her dowry, as many have supposed, or whether it was simply a portion of moneys she had reserved for some other purpose, is actually immaterial to the intent of Jesus’ story. The focus of the story is not the wealth, neither is the focus of the account the diligence with which the woman searches. The focus of Jesus’ parable is the response of the woman when she finds what was lost.
A loss of wealth, even a proportion as small as ten percent, precipitates strenuous effort; and when the wealth is recovered, the one finding what was lost rejoices. The relief and joy cannot be kept bottled up; it must be shared! Jesus was focusing the attention of the religious leaders on the thought that discovery of that which was lost causes joy! The woman was ecstatic at discovering what had been lost.
The religious leaders would instantly identify with the effort of the woman resulting from her loss and with her response at the discovery of her lost moneys. In this day which is far removed from the events recorded in Luke’s Gospel we have forgotten that the religious leaders were also the social elite of the land. Except for royalty, no one else in Israel would enjoy the social standing of these religious leaders. The teachers of the law were advisors to the political elite; and since the days of the Maccabees, the political elite was also the religious elite. These religious political leaders appear to have prided themselves as practical people, able to make decisions for the good of the people. Gradually they accepted that they were the only ones capable of knowing the will of God and of fulfilling the will of God for others.
As social, political and religious elite, these men were also relatively wealthy. They understood the value of money, and they understood the need to care for the smallest amounts. As an aside, isn’t it interesting that the winners of the lottery are never wealthy people? We always hear that a labourer, a homemaker, or an unemployed person has won the jackpot. There is a reason for this. The impoverished gamble since they feel they have little to lose. Those who have money don’t gamble with their money. They seek out conservative investments which will almost assuredly give a steady return. This is the wisdom of the world. Thus, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, being people who had money, would understand the response of the woman when she lost her one coin. Likewise, these men of wealth would appreciate that upon finding the lost money, the woman was compelled to rejoice by calling together her friends and neighbours. They would surely appreciate the joy at finding lost moneys.
Heaven’s Response to a Soul Saved is Joy! Why would Jesus tell a story such as this one? Why would He include this parable together with the parable about the loss of a sheep and a wandering boy? Jesus couldn’t have been bothered with the loss of a day’s wages. After all, Jesus deliberately discouraged would-be disciples by reminding them: Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head [Luke 9:58].
Money was clearly not a motivating factor in Jesus’ outreach to outcasts. Neither does Jesus appear to have been terribly concerned with either encouraging people to be diligent in discovering how to conserve wealth or with advising how to keep wealth. You will no doubt recall His advice to the rich young ruler when He sought Jesus’ approval. Jesus … said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” [Luke 18:22]. Wealth and the acquisitions of possessions did not motivate Jesus in His ministry.
You have no doubt at one time heard Jesus’ probing words recorded in Luke 12:34: where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. These words probe our hearts because they force us to discover our treasure. Where your mind turns when you are free to think whatever you wish to think reveals your prized possessions. That which you would most hate to lose is by default your treasure. That which occupies your greatest attention and about which you are most prone to speak and which gives you your greatest joy, is your treasure. By such criterion, is your treasure, your motivation in life, worthy of Jesus?
Jesus’ ministry was motivated by something far less tangible than material wealth, but no less real. If that which brought joy to Jesus is accepted as the motivating force for His ministry, then we discover that revelation of God’s character [Luke 10:21], obedience to the Father [John 15:10, 11], and the witness of His disciples [John 17:13] motivated Jesus. In short, that which causes Heaven to rejoice is inevitably identified as the source of Jesus’ greatest joy! I doubt not that each of us would say that we want to do that which causes Heaven to rejoice. However, confronted by the Word, I am equally certain that we are challenged in order to be able to state that we do consistently those things which bring joy to the heart of the Master and the Father.
As a young man, I went to college and later completed a bachelor degree and earned a Ph.D. This educational venture was primarily an effort to please my father. Left to myself, I would have been happy to be a mechanic, or pursue a career in the United States Marine Corps. My dad was a blacksmith who toiled all his days working with hot metal. He spoke rather straight to me when I had completed secondary school, urging me to forge a better life for myself. To please him, I accepted a music scholarship and went to college. He did not want to think that I would be forced to labour physically under the conditions in which he had laboured for those many years.
I think most of us can say that we endeavoured to please our parents. Almost anyone of us could say that we made some major choices in life to please our parents. We wanted to make our parents proud of us; we wanted to bring joy to their lives. If we are so sensitive to human parents, ought we not be equally sensitive to our Heavenly Father, endeavouring and labouring to do that which pleases Him and that which brings joy to Him.
If you wonder what would make God pleased with us as His children, you need but remember Jesus’ application of this parable. Focus on the final statement of our text. Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents [Luke 15:10]. The repentance of one sinner causes heaven to resound with shouts of joy, and brings a smile to the face of the Father of lights.
As a child, I often heard my father singing a glorious old hymn. To the cadence of a hammer ringing against the steel of ploughshares, he sang of heaven’s joy. The hymn was commonly sung among the churches of that bygone day. I have never heard it sung in a church since I’ve been in Canada, though the hymn is found in older hymnals.
Ring the bells of heaven!
There is joy today, For a soul, returning from the wild!
See, the Father meets him out upon the way,
Welcoming his weary, wand’ring child.
Glory! Glory! How the angels sing;
Glory! Glory! How the loud harps ring!
‘Tis the ransomed army, like a mighty sea,
Pealing forth the anthem of the free.
Ring the bells of heaven!
There is joy today, For the wand’rer now is reconciled;
Yes, a soul is rescued from his sinful way,
And is born anew a ransomed child.
That’s a glorious old hymn which is largely forgotten in this day. Furthermore, it is a hymn which demonstrates the difference in the churches of the Twenty-first Century and the churches which were suffused with revival heat in bygone days. In that distant day at the turn of the last century the churches rejoiced at the salvation of the lost and the redeemed were aggressive and active in searching out the lost. Think of the hymns which were born out of that time of active seeking, and contrast them to the songs reflecting the mind of the church of this day.
In that distant day a vibrant, witnessing church sang Rescue the Perishing, Throw Out the Lifeline and I Love to Tell the Story. The churches of this day too often sing of personal feelings and seek relationship without responsibility. In that day the church sang We Have Heard the Joyful Sound and declared We’ve a Story to Tell. Our forebears pleaded, Lord, Lay Some Soul upon My Heart and they also sang of Higher Ground. It seems that the church of this day is more concerned with creating good feelings about ourselves and about our relationship with the world; and though we claim to sing hymns of praise to God, we appear to know little of the searching heart of God or of the joy resulting from obedience to God.
How personal and pleading were the hymns of invitation in that not so distant day! Find a contemporary hymn which pleads with the outcast or which invites the wanderer home. My mind still recalls glorious hymns of invitation and pleading for the lost to be saved. Invitation hymns which were sung in every service of a bygone day—hymns such as Softly and Tenderly, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour, Only Trust Him, and the greatly loved hymn of appeal, Just As I Am. I am not suggesting there are no hymns of invitation today; I only suggest that such pleading note is rare and most noticeable by its absence.
Because the Saviour seeks and searches, and because the Father calls, and because the Spirit draws, there is great joy in Heaven at the response of one somebody to new life. Because our God rejoices at the salvation of the lost, the angels in Heaven lift their hearts in praise and joy at the salvation of one lost soul. We cannot begin to fathom the joy of Heaven; we can only observe Christ’s witness to that joy and marvel. When I witness and when I submit myself to be Christ’s instrument of grace to win a soul to faith, I bring joy to the heart of God and cause all Heaven to rejoice with a delirious sense of joy.
I’ve witnessed both sides of the issue. On the one hand, I have seen the grim faces of self-appointed guardians of the Faith, disturbed at the thought that lesser mortals whom they deem unworthy might inherit the Kingdom. The greatest fear of these flinty eyed vigilantes seems to be that some novice, some mere tyro, a spiritual neophyte, will inherit the fruits of their labours and assume control over the yields their investments have produced. Focused on buildings and institutions and the immediate aspects of this world, these dark-faced watchmen forget that the work of God transcends their little moment. They seem to have forgotten that while one plants and another waters, always it is God who is responsible for growth.
I thank God there is another side to this coin, and that I have also seen this other side. I have witnessed the genuine rejoicing which attends the lost coming to life in Christ. Likewise, I have seen the joy which follows in the wake of the witness of these new-born saints as they quickly assume responsibility for the advance of His Kingdom. I am convinced that it is these latter which have grasped the essence of Heaven’s heart as they manifest the mind of God. With open hearts and eager minds, these new believers have eagerly submitted themselves to the reign of Christ with the joy of His presence.
Theirs is worship in Spirit and in truth, for their worship is founded upon a desire to be obedient instead of merely seeking to feel-good in their religion. Their joy gives a settled evidence of the presence of Christ, smiling and rejoicing together with them as they do those things which cause Heaven itself to be filled with the sounds of joy.
Dear people, winning the lost to faith in Christ causes Heaven to be filled with holy laughter and joyous shouts before the throne of the Father. Shouldn’t our labour be to insure that the house of God is even now filled with the same holy laughter and the same shouts of joy?
What Should Be the Response of the Church to Lost Souls? One of the sad truths observed in the church during these final days of the Twentieth Century is that we appear to have forgotten our purpose. Jesus, as He departed this earth, left instructions for His disciples which have never been rescinded. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age [Matthew 28:19, 20].
Situated about the churches of this present age, and in particular living throughout this Peace Region, are men and women lost and under condemnation. The mandate of the churches (a mandate incumbent upon each individual believer) is to make disciples, incorporate these new disciples into the fellowship of the churches, and then to instruct them in the truths Christ has revealed. In short, a church which is not evangelistic is a church which is not evangelical. Underscore this indispensable truth in your own mind. That church which is not evangelistic is not evangelical!
May I suggest that our response to lost souls about us should be several-fold. First, we should eagerly serve, knowing that our Lord will transform lives through this great message entrusted to us as we witness to His grace. Lives can be transformed through the witness Christ has entrusted to us. Dr. R. G. Lee preached a message during his ministry in New Orleans. The message, Roses Will Bloom Again, was overheard by a woman who stood outside the church building at the corner of Delachaise Street. Her story is worthy of our most careful consideration.
Early the next morning, that woman burst into Dr. Lee’s office and poured out a sordid story of her shame and sin. “Do you think there is any change for a girl like me to get back, to get out of the ditch, and on the road again. Will God—will God—accept my surrendered desert and make it blossom? You said He would. Is it so?”
Lee later recalled his reaction.
The recital of things she had done seemed to daze me into speechlessness. I did not, could not, speak at first. She took my silence for reluctance and cried out, almost shrieked out, as though she wanted all the world to know: “If you don’t think so, if what you said last night is a lie, then you will read of ‘em fishing my body out of the river tomorrow, if they can find it!” Her voice had in it the wail that bordered on a snarl. She stood to her feet and was griping the corner of my desk with trembling fingers. Her whole body was aquiver.
Then I spoke. I told her that all I said that night before was so—that Christ would be fare more than words could tell to all who with repentance toward God and faith in Christ surrendered to Him. I told her that Christ would accept her surrendered desert and restore the years the locusts had eaten and make her, though smutty from contact with the devil’s pots, to be as “a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold” (Ps. 68:13).
I will simply say that she accepted Christ, knelt in prayer, and promised to “see me again.” Later I baptised her—nobody, not even my secretary, knowing of her terrible sin, knowing nothing of her having been the dirty toy of dirtier men for three years. The next day she telephoned me that she was “leaving town” to start anew.
Five years later—in another city—she came to my house with a young man. She stood before me at the marriage hour in our home, a fine young man beside her, a young man whose life, while in his teens, was one of awful sin. He, too, had been redeemed. Both of them told me they were getting married “without secrets,” that they had opened all the pages of both books when they talked of marriage and became engaged. They said that they had forgiven what needed to be forgiven in each other and that they were forgetting the past, starting over in beginning life together.
I saw them as they left our little home. They stopped on the edge of the sidewalk and looked up at the stars, as though they were praying to God; and then they kissed, and went away arm in arm, heart to heart, hand in hand, soul to soul. I know where they live now. Their surrendered deserts have become gardens of the Lord. And their little children are beautiful flowers in the garden.[2]
Our response should be sorrow, or even shame, at our lack of compassion for the lost. Knowing that the Master trusts us and having reviewed our own investment of energies and strength in the Kingdom, we cannot help but be grieved at our lack of obedience and at our lack of progress in this day. Without the witness of those who possess the life of Christ, how can the lost know of His grace? And how can outsiders hope to be brought into the life which is offered in Him? As I recall the times when I was silent instead of speaking boldly, when I remember the incidents when I failed to reach out in compassion to the lost, choosing instead to remain quiet, I cannot help but be ashamed of my conduct.
“Ah, Lord, forgive me for my silence. Forgive me for my cowardice. Forgive me for not loving as You have loved and for failing to speak out boldly. Forgive me for my failure to be submitted to You and for my failure to be filled with Your Holy Spirit. Nor shall I be content to merely seek Your forgiveness. Now, Master, fill me with holy boldness, even as You fill me with Your blessed Spirit. Make me a witness and reveal Your heart of compassion through my witness. Do so now and for Your glory. Amen.”
Our response should be determination to honour Christ’s confidence in this, His church. I would not urge any of us to wallow in sorrow or to remain ashamed before Him. Do you not imagine that Christ knew us—knew our weakness and our tendency to failure—when He called us into His grace and entrusted to us the responsibility to witness to His grace? Jesus our Lord knows precisely who we are and all we shall do, and yet He called us. If Christ the Lord believes this strongly in us, ought we not to determine that we shall honour His confidence in us by doing what He has commanded?
Jesus taught us that we are responsible to witness to His grace, responsible to welcome the wanderer home when that one comes to us, responsible to instruct them that they in turn will be equipped to fulfil His will. This is the promise given all disciples in Acts 1:8: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. As the believer moves about in the world, that one is commanded to make disciples—to seek out what was lost. Having found what was lost, the child of God is taught to rejoice with holy joy in the presence of God.
At last, our response should be confidence in the promise of Christ to ever be with us. I am seeking to encourage you. Ours is not a hopeless task fraught with perils many. As His holy people, ours is a task which must succeed. None other than the Risen Son of God, the One who conquered death and Hades, walks among us. Wherever the child of God goes and whenever the child of God witness, at his right side stands the Son of God guiding His beloved child to say the right words and giving strength.
Through His prophet, Isaiah, God has given us rich and glorious promises. Listen to this beautiful passage.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
[Isaiah 55:9-13]
Was I to tell you that you shall never fail when you witness, would you be willing to speak in the Name of Christ the Lord? Was I to assure you that God will empower you when you seek out His lost treasures, the wandering sheep of His flock, would you be willing to diligently seek out that which was lost? Christ is with us and He enables us to speak just what needs to be said. This is the promise of God!
With respect to the promise that God will Himself equip us to speak when we endeavour to speak in His Name, consider the words which Jesus spoke to His disciples. In them He promises that we need not weigh what to say nor how we shall speak, for we shall be given precisely words which will glorify God when we stand in need in that hour [Matthew 10:19]. Our Lord has pledged that we will receive what is necessary as we require it and that we shall prevail in His cause.
Such promises set us free to serve Christ and to honour Him. Such promises remove from us the fear that we might have said the wrong thing or spoken at the wrong time. If our heart is right, if we seek to honour Christ through seeking the lost, He guides our speech and our words to bring glory to His Name. A pastor once encouraged me, using colloquial terms, “Mike, keep your desire to speak for Christ’s sake, and in His time, God will give you a soapbox.”
This is the promise of God! What would it be were each of us to determine that we would fear nothing, except the displeasure of our God? Would it not be glorious if each of us were to determine that we would esteem above all else the smile of our Saviour, if each of us were to determine that the greatest task in all the earth was seeking the lost and witnessing to the grace of God. May I suggest that one of us would accomplish the work of many preachers, and ten of us would be the equivalent of many churches, and all of us would discover the power of God in a manner not seen in our day.
In the quietness of the moment, in the silence of God’s presence, who today says, “God being my helper, I will seek out the lost.” The response need not be public, but if it is genuine, it will result in public knowledge. For if Christ works in your life as you surrender to seek the lost, you will soon bring precious souls to Christ. Consider this final verse, and I am done. Among the Psalms of Ascent is this gem of a thought.
Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
[Psalm 126:5, 6]
May we determine that we shall go forth, anticipating that we shall soon return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with us. “Here, Lord, is the seed. Here is the promise. Let our eyes see Your blessing as we bring precious lives to faith in Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Ring the bells of heaven!
There is joy today, For a soul, returning from the wild!
See, the Father meets him out upon the way,
Welcoming his weary, wand’ring child.
Glory! Glory! How the angels sing;
Glory! Glory! How the loud harps ring!
‘Tis the ransomed army, like a mighty sea,
Pealing forth the anthem of the free.
Ring the bells of heaven!
There is joy today, For the wand’rer now is reconciled;
Yes, a soul is rescued from his sinful way,
And is born anew a ransomed child.
Rescue the Perishing
Throw Out the Lifeline
I Love to Tell the Story
We Have Heard the Joyful Sound
We’ve a Story to Tell
Lord, Lay Some Soul upon My Heart
Higher Ground
Softly and Tenderly
Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour
Only Trust Him
Just As I Am
May I suggest that our response to lost souls about us should be several-fold. First, we should eagerly serve, knowing that our Lord will transform lives through this great message entrusted to us as we witness to His grace. Lives can be transformed through the witness Christ has entrusted to us. Dr. R. G. Lee preached a message during his ministry in New Orleans. The message, Roses Will Bloom Again, was overheard by a woman who stood outside the church building at the corner of Delachaise Street. Her story is worthy of our most careful consideration.
Early the next morning, that woman burst into Dr. Lee’s office and poured out a sordid story of her shame and sin. “Do you think there is any change for a girl like me to get back, to get out of the ditch, and on the road again. Will God—will God—accept my surrendered desert and make it blossom? You said He would. Is it so?”
Lee later recalled his reaction.
The recital of things she had done seemed to daze me into speechlessness. I did not, could not, speak at first. She took my silence for reluctance and cried out, almost shrieked out, as though she wanted all the world to know: “If you don’t think so, if what you said last night is a lie, then you will read of ‘em fishing my body out of the river tomorrow, if they can find it!” Her voice had in it the wail that bordered on a snarl. She stood to her feet and was griping the corner of my desk with trembling fingers. Her whole body was aquiver.
Then I spoke. I told her that all I said that night before was so—that Christ would be fare more than words could tell to all who with repentance toward God and faith in Christ surrendered to Him. I told her that Christ would accept her surrendered desert and restore the years the locusts had eaten and make her, though smutty from contact with the devil’s pots, to be as “a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold” (Ps. 68:13).
I will simply say that she accepted Christ, knelt in prayer, and promised to “see me again.” Later I baptised her—nobody, not even my secretary, knowing of her terrible sin, knowing nothing of her having been the dirty toy of dirtier men for three years. The next day she telephoned me that she was “leaving town” to start anew.
Five years later—in another city—she came to my house with a young man. She stood before me at the marriage hour in our home, a fine young man beside her, a young man whose life, while in his teens, was one of awful sin. He, too, had been redeemed. Both of them told me they were getting married “without secrets,” that they had opened all the pages of both books when they talked of marriage and became engaged. They said that they had forgiven what needed to be forgiven in each other and that they were forgetting the past, starting over in beginning life together.
I saw them as they left our little home. They stopped on the edge of the sidewalk and looked up at the stars, as though they were praying to God; and then they kissed, and went away arm in arm, heart to heart, hand in hand, soul to soul. I know where they live now. Their surrendered deserts have become gardens of the Lord. And their little children are beautiful flowers in the garden.
----
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright Ó 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] R. G. Lee, Payday Someday, Timothy George and Denise George (eds.), Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN, 1995, 13-14