|
HEAVEN’S RAINBOW #3
TARGETED FOR LOVE
There was a wrenching story we read the other day,
from a marvelous new book entitled Walking in Total God-Confidence, by
Donna Partow. I guess it’s written especially for Christian women, but
I’ll confess that it got a fair amount of male scrutiny and underlining,
because it is an exceptional study tool for any believer. But toward the
end, Donna tells the story of a missionary who went to serve the people
of Vietnam – and this was still during the time of the war over there.
“Then it happened,” she writes. “The Vietcong attacked
the village, pillaging and murdering, with their most vicious attacks
directed against the Church and the believers. As events unfolded, it
became clear that the village had been targeted because of the missionary’s
presence. He was, in a very real sense, to blame.”
That’s hard to take, isn’t it? According to Donna Partow,
this missionary left Vietnam “a defeated man.” Because the enemy had gone
directly after him, picking him out of the crowd, and aiming his arrows
of hate directly at him and his work.
It reminds me of that horrible, tragic story which broke all of our hearts
2 years ago last April. Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado,
of course . . . and all 15 deaths that day were a terrible waste. But
we all know how Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold specifically targeted one
particular enemy. Newsweek reporter Matt Bai provides the terrible details.
“Under another desk,” he writes, “was Isaiah Shoels,
18, one of a handful of black students at Columbine. He was a popular
athlete who liked doing yard work and planting flowers at his family’s
home in his spare time. He also had a few run-ins with the trench-coat
crowd and had even come to blows with some of them. Like the parents of
another student who had tangled with Harris and Klebold, Shoels’ father
says he had complained to school authorities about the boys. He thought
they were dangerous racists.” Now, it breaks my heart to read the rest
of this. “‘Hey, I think we got a n_____ here,’ one of the killers said
now, spotting Shoels. They shot him in the head, and when he crumpled
to the floor, they added two more bullets in the face. ‘Hey, I always
wondered what n_____ brains looked like,’ one of the boys is said to have
laughed.”
Well, friend, that’s maybe the ugliest paragraph we’ve
had to read over the air in a long, long time. And I don’t know how to
explain this except to quote from an old verse in the Bible, where it
says that Satan entered into someone. To say what they said, and to do
what they did, I don’t know how to reconcile except to think that the
devil went into those two boys.
But the evidence is clear that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had in their
minds to target black students. Athletes and blacks. Most of the other
deaths were just random choices, a roulette wheel of destruction . . .
but they were looking for the black skin on the face of this young man,
Isaiah Shoels.
None of us can go back and redo what happened on April 20. But think in
your own life about any time where you might have picked someone out to
hate. All hate is terrible, of course; God’s Word equates it with murder,
and that’s coming right from the mouth of Jesus. But when you scan the
horizon, and then pick out a target, an enemy – especially because he
or she simply happened to have been born a color you don’t like – I think
the Lord must surely consider that to be murder in the first degree.
I guess it wasn’t exactly like that in the New Testament Bible story of
Saul the Persecutor. Acts chapters eight and nine give the details about
how this young zealot picked out Christians as his enemies. He got letters
from the high priest, granting him authority to single out and arrest
just these followers of the risen Messiah. He went to Damascus just to
get them – to drag them to Jerusalem in chains. That’s who he was after.
But at least the followers of Jesus Christ had a choice in whether or
not they would join this persecuted new group.
In either case, what a helpless feeling to know that someone out there
has selected YOU to destroy, to ravage, to hurt and maim and kill. “What
have I done to deserve this?” you ask. And we think of untold stories
where innocent children, born into black homes in black neighborhoods
look up fearfully at a mom or a dad. “What did I do? Why do they hate
me?” And the parent has to say, “Honey, you didn’t do anything. They target
you because of your color. That’s all. They don’t know any better.”
Well, this concept of “targeted hatred” is painful to experience, and
even more painful to own up to. I need to examine my own soul here, and
I invite you to do the same. Have I ever just put a person into my own
cross-hairs of revenge, refusing to let them go, refusing to forgive,
refusing to attempt unity? Have I selected anyone to hate – for any reason
– but especially for a reason that person couldn’t even help?
But friend, would this be an opportunity to turn the dilemma on its head?
Would it be possible to target someone out there – and perhaps not for
any reason that they or you can help – and just plain and simple target
them with love? Just pick someone out, and then say to yourself, “I’m
going to be absolutely relentless in loving this person. Out of all the
people ‘out there,’ I’m not going to rest until I’ve been a blessing to
this person, until I’ve loved them in a way that makes a real difference.”
There are so many marvelous stories on THIS wonderful playing field –
and I wish TIME and Newsweek had more opportunities to write about them.
We’ve mentioned from President Jimmy Carter’s book, Living Faith – and
that title says a lot right there, doesn’t it? – people like Dr. Clarence
Jordan, who, clear back in the1940s, built up a community he called “Koinonia
Partners.” Why’d he do it? Specifically for the purpose of giving poor
black families a place to live and work and worship despite the strict
segregation laws of that era. Did he know these people? Generally not.
Was he obligated to help? Not by any legal code. He simply targeted them
to be the recipients of his love and kindness. “I’m going to get you,”
he said, “with the love of the Savior.”
Let me skip back for a moment to the book I mentioned at the beginning:
Walking in Total God-Confidence, by Donna Partow. Back on page 120, I
might just disagree with her the tiniest bit – and she herself confesses
that she’s “about to head into dangerous doctrinal territory.” And then
she adds: “I’m even going to reveal my latent Calvinist sympathies!” Meaning
that she then writes about the twin concepts of “predestination and election.”
Which, if you take the idea clear to the end of the street, says that
God CHOOSES who He’s going to save, and that there’s not a whole lot people
can do about their own destiny either way after that.
Well, I’ll comment on that in a moment, but then Donna goes on and beautifully
explores II Peter 2:3, which says this:
“[God’s] divine power has given us everything we need
for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His
own glory and goodness.”
“Our God is an active, initiating God,” Donna writes.
“HE is the one who seeks a relationship with us. Indeed, I believe He
yearns for a relationship with us with far more passion than we yearn
for Him. It is He who called us. He didn’t wait for you to come to Him;
He went looking for you.”
Her point is this, and I agree with her a million percent.
Friend, God has targeted you. He has chosen you. Out of six billion people
on this one planet, and out of all the stars and planets under His jurisdiction,
He set His sights on you and determined to win you over with love. Whatever
your color. Whatever your race or creed or religion. Whatever color your
face is or your faith – either one. At this very moment you are a targeted
person.
And actually, do you know something? I DO believe in predestination. I
believe God DOES predestine – or choose ahead of time – and say, “Right
there is a person I want in My kingdom.” But I will say this: do you know
how many people God predestines to save? Everybody! That’s right! There’s
a little-known verse found in John 3:16 which reads like this:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.”
Friend, maybe all your life there have been those
who targeted you for hurt and horror. They picked on you just because
your skin was colored or your GPA deficient. Or because of where you lived.
You had no choice. And it was so unfair.
But here’s another Person who has targeted you too. Targeted you for redemption,
for salvation, for a mansion in His kingdom.
And maybe you say: “That’s not REAL! My persecutors down here are REAL!
They’ve got ugly names they call me, maybe even rocks or bullets. Jesus
is a pasty-white dream in a make-believe heaven.” Listen . . . it’s your
enemies down here who are temporary shadows. They’ll be gone soon – they
really will! It’s Jesus and His targeted love for you which are the real
things, the everlasting things.
That is, if this verse, John 3:16, has anything to say about it.
|
