The sun had gone down, and George and Margaret Keller were settling in for a quiet New Year's Eve inside their little brick apartment. The couple, in their 60s, were not expecting company, but about 5 p.m. George heard a soft knock at the front door.
George cracked open the door and was greeted warmly by a teenage girl he did not recognize. She asked, "Is this the Keller household? I have a blessing to deliver to you." George asked her name, but she would not answer. George then asked if she was an angel. Still no response. The visitor handed him a white envelope and said, "We prayed that this would be a blessing to you." George thanked the girl and said, "I hope to see you again so I can know your name." The girl blessed him, turned and disappeared around the corner, and has not been seen since. The gift was a $50 cashier's check. "She smiled the whole time," George says now. "When she walked away we heard nothing. There was no car. We saw nothing."
The surprise visit touched the Kellers, who have struggled emotionally and financially as a result of their son Paul's arrest for arson. Paul is serving a 99-year prison sentence for a five-month arson spree that terrorized Washington state in 1992. The 78 fires claimed three lives and $35 million in property damage, making him the most prolific arsonist in U.S. history. The siege ended when George, suspecting his son of the crimes after reading a suspect profile in the newspaper, alerted police and fire officials. He turned over evidence from his retail advertising business – phone records and gas receipts – to help convict Paul, who worked for his father. The Kellers raised three children in a Christian home and taught them from an early age, "You will never go wrong doing right." Paul's crimes put their father's words to the test, and George never wavered.
NBC Dateline aired a special on the arson spree that became its top-rated program in 1993, and two years later CBS aired a TV movie on the Kellers, "Not Our Son." While the Kellers grieved for the victims, the fallout of Paul's crimes left their own family in ruins. Friends and business clients stopped calling. Even their pastor abandoned them. Within two years the Kellers were forced to sell their business and home in Everett, Wash., and declare bankruptcy. Doing the right thing cost them everything. After the arrest, Paul admitted he had been molested at gunpoint by a volunteer fireman between ages 12-17. Additionally, medical records revealed that Paul nearly bled to death in the hospital nursery shortly after birth, possibly explaining his behavioral disorders. His parents never were told. "The days were so dark that I didn't want to live another minute," George says. "I'd put my Bible on the floor and lay flat on it. When you're hurting so bad you can't think, you can't pray, that's all I could do. I wanted God to know I was serious about believing in Him."
Today Paul is serving the Lord in prison. George has shared his testimony on Oprah, the 700 Club, Focus on the Family, and in churches across the country. Although healing has been a slow journey, George and Margaret continue to draw strength from a daily walk with Jesus Christ. Alisa and I consider the Kellers our family, and we have witnessed God carry them through horrendous trials and trauma. But the Lord has heard every cry and met every need. Today over lunch they told us about the stranger who blessed them on a cold and dreary New Year's Eve. "What it says is the Lord hasn't forgotten us," George reflects. "He says, 'I have My eye on you.' Our God is alive."
Christian authors and publishers are starting to sound like Anthony Robbins and other self-help gurus – they hold the keys to wealth, health and happiness. Just follow their boxed program or say a rote prayer and enlightenment is yours. But the one book that offers true freedom and joy – the Bible – curiously is pushed to the back of most Christian bookstores.
Is that because God's Word does not tickle the ears enough to turn a profit? I'm not against all Christian books, but I believe the answers to life can be found in the Bible alone, which in most homes is collecting dust on the bookshelf. After all, God's plan for mankind is not that difficult to discern. The Lord says in Deuteronomy 30:11 that His command is not too mysterious, nor is it far off. Verse 14 says, "The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."
So what exactly is God's purpose for our lives? Is it to build lavish cathedrals, get noticed on Christian TV or write best-selling books? Does attending church once a week and dropping a tithe in the collection plate really impress the Lord? Yeshua says in Matthew 22:37-39 that the greatest commands are to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. We can see this theme woven throughout Scripture, sometimes in a little more detail. Look at Micah 6:8 – "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" The Hebrew word for "good" is towb, meaning beautiful, best, joyful and sweet. We can see that this simple command comes deep from the heart of God.
Let's look at some more examples. Zechariah 7:9-10 says, "Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother." God's chosen fast in Isaiah 58 is to cover the naked, feed the hungry and loose the bonds of wickedness. In Hosea 6:6, God says He desires "mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." In the New Testament, James 1:27 keeps it simple as well: "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."
Unfortunately, the church has twisted God's priorities and turned the focus back on itself with a seeker-sensitive, feel-good gospel. Most TV preachers seem more motivated by money than mercy. They woo donors with give-to-get schemes, promising bountiful returns to those who sow generously to their ministries. But the apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:3, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." He exhorts believers in 1 Thessalonians 3:10 to comfort the fainthearted and uphold the weak. When the apostles release Paul and Barnabas to take the gospel to the Gentiles, Paul says in Galatians 2:10, "They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do." When was the last time you heard that heart response from the pulpit or on Christian TV? The sad truth is, you won't fill the pews or make anyone's best-seller list with such a selfless message. But without Yeshua's love and mercy, a believer's witness is nothing more than sounding brass and clanging cymbals.
I marvel at the fact that our Creator, who laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens with His right hand (Isaiah 48:13), desires to have fellowship with an ordinary man like myself. I can relate to David’s wonderment in Psalm 8:4, "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?"
One of the most transparent and intimate accounts in Scripture of God seeking friendship with man is found in Luke 24. As two disciples are walking the road to Emmaus shortly after the death and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua, a stranger draws near and asks, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?" The men, whose eyes are restrained from the identity of the stranger, recount the arrest and crucifixion of Yeshua of Nazareth, and are puzzled why this man seems to have no knowledge of the clamor in Jerusalem. They cannot hide their disappointment that this Prophet was not the One whom they believed would redeem Israel, and they are troubled by reports that His body is missing from the tomb. The stranger responds, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Mashiach (Messiah) to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" Beginning with Moses and the prophets, He opens the Scriptures to show them that Messiah did not come the first time to be a conqueror, but a suffering servant and sacrificial lamb.
As they draw near to the village at dusk, the men – weary from a long day’s journey – are ready to retire. But the stranger is in no hurry to say goodbye. Verse 28 says He indicated that He would have gone farther. The stranger does, however, accept an invitation to come inside the house, and during the breaking of bread He reveals Himself as Messiah to the two men. At that instant, Yeshua vanishes and the stunned men say to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" The key phrase in this exchange is "He would have gone farther." I believe that still is Messiah’s heart today – He desires to draw close and talk with us intimately each day. But like the two men, we’re the ones who limit the time and distance we're willing to walk with Yeshua. We’re the ones who constrain Him. I’m just thankful it’s not the other way around.
A Christian bookstore in my hometown unwittingly gave new meaning to the phrase "sacred cow." The storefront sign reads, "Purpose Driven Life Stock," referring to the best-selling book by Rick Warren. My wife Alisa, who has an active imagination, changed the letter "f" in Life to "v" and . . . well, you get the picture. I can't drive past the store now without thinking of a herd of cattle, which shouldn't be a stretch anyway since we live in mad cow country. Moooooooo!
The Bible is a canvas in God's hands, and He uses it to paint us a picture of Himself. Depending on the translation, sometimes we don’t see Him as clearly as we should. Take, for instance, Yeshua’s words in John 14:23 – "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." It is a beautiful passage on its own, but the English fails to convey the depth of God’s love found in the original Greek text.
According to Vines Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, the Greek verb used here for love – agapao – expresses ideas previously unknown. "Inquiry into its use, whether in Greek literature or in the Septuagint, throws but little light upon its distinctive meaning in the NT," the book states. "Agape (the corresponding noun) and agapao are used in the NT to describe the attitude of God toward His Son (John 17:26), the human race, generally (John 3:16, Romans 5:8) and to such as believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." In other words, it would seem that God created a word exclusively to describe His infinite love for fallen man. The commentary explores this theme even further: "Obviously this is not the love of complacency, or affection, that is, it was not drawn out by any excellency in its objects. It was an exercise of the divine will in deliberate choice, made without assignable cause save that which lies in the nature of God Himself. . . . In respect of agapao as used of God, it expresses the deep and constant love and interest of a perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects, producing and fostering a reverential love in them towards the Giver, and a practical love towards those who are partakers of the same, and a desire to help others to seek the Giver."
Notice what it says in the last sentence – the source of agape love is God Himself. Not only does the Lord extend undeserved favor to man, He gives us the capacity to love Him in return and to seek the welfare of all. This is a pattern I see throughout Scripture: God gives of Himself so generously and asks for so little in return. In Deuteronomy 30, God promised to bless the Israelites if they would simply love Him and walk in His ways. Yeshua allowed Himself to be beaten, mocked and crucified so we could be set free of our sin and shame. All He desires in return is a surrendered heart. By receiving His gift of grace by faith, we become adopted sons and daughters of the Most High and tabernacle with Him forever. Now that's a masterpiece.
David reminds us in Psalm 139 that man cannot flee from God's presence. "If I ascend to heaven, You are there," he writes. "If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me." I received a beautiful essay via e-mail recently on the subject of God's Will. The uplifting message – penned by an unknown author – is in harmony with David's prose above:
His Will never takes you,
Where His arms cannot support you,
Where His riches cannot supply your needs,
Where His power cannot endow you.His Will never takes you,
Where His Spirit cannot work through you,
Where His wisdom cannot teach you,
Where His army cannot protect you,
Where His hands cannot mold you.His Will never takes you,
Where His love cannot enfold you,
Where His mercies cannot sustain you,
Where His peace cannot calm your fears,
Where His authority cannot over-rule for you.His Will never takes you,
Where His comfort cannot dry your tears,
Where His Word cannot feed you,
Where His miracles cannot be done for you,
Where His omnipresence cannot find you.