I have a suspicion that when someone has an operation it temporary does something to his brain. For instance, you are visiting a friend in the hospital when suddenly he says, “yeah, the surgeon made the incision starting behind my ears all the way down to my kneecaps. You wanna see?”And before you can politely decline, there is his nasty cut, all red, swollen and bound with 3000 stitches.”Um, yeah… That’s really something.”

• Sometimes it is even kind of embarrassing but in his enthusiasm our friend doesn’t even notice. Maybe the anesthetic did something to his brain.Or maybe he’s gone through so many embarrassing tests and procedures at the hospital that all his modesty has flown away. He could walk through a nudist colony and not even notice.

  Sometimes, even years later, he still wants to impress you with his scars. “Um, yes that’s … um … nice,” you mumble.

  Time To Show Our Scars

  There are scars that we need to be showing off. Life leaves us some nasty memories and we don’t need to be afraid to show them.

  Those aren’t scars. They are medals. And honestly, showing them helps us to keep on healing.

  “Look at this one. We prayed for this person that I loved with all my heart and … Well, it seemed that God was deaf. I’ve seen Him answer so many prayers before and since, but that one took a long time to heal. Still hurts sometimes when the weather is bad.

  “You know what though? After I got through the anger, pain, doubt and some more pain, I noticed something. My heart was much softer. When I see someone hurting tears spring to my eyes. I try to help. I wasn’t always like that.

  “And I didn’t quit loving the Lord. Somehow I loved Him more.”

  Scars mean you are a warrior.

  Warrior

• Paul showed his battle scars to the Corinthians. They were being bedazzled by some sweet-speaking, good-looking, scripture-manipulating fakes who were stealing their hearts from the Lord.“Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.)“I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once.“I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes.
  “I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.“And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.

  “If I have to “brag” about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus.” (2 Cor. 11:22-29, The Message)

  Bragging About Humiliation

• Paul showed them his scars. Those fake preachers hadn’t suffered for the Lord Jesus!Young Christians need to see our scars. Sometimes they think we’ve never doubted nor sinned since knowing Jesus. They probably think we faithfully read ten chapters of the Bible each day while praying three hours, all the while spending most of our time out on the streets witnessing.They think temptation to sin never crosses our mind. And we tell stories that often seem exciting without showing them the knots on our head from what we went through.
  They need to see our scars. They need to know that we have battles too. Though Jesus won the war, we sometimes take a licking in individual battles (un raclet=take a licking).One of the most powerful healing agents for those with open wounds is to be exposed to someone with scar tissue from the same sort of wound.

  In our pain we think that healing is impossible. Then we see someone who has healed, who is like us, and we take heart and edge towards healing ourselves.

  I know Someone covered with scars and they are all exposed where we can see them and be healed. “We despised him and rejected him—a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we didn’t care.

  “Yet it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, for his own sins! But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; he was lashed—and we were healed!” (Is. 53:3-5, Living Bible)

  Don’t be afraid to expose your life scars. It might help someone else to heal—and continue the healing process in your life.

  But, um, about that scar from your appendicitis operation. I’ll take your word for it, huh? I’d rather not see it.
  _________________________________

  Hmmm …

  The way to remain in authority is to remain under authority. If I cannot obey those over me, why should I expect those under me to obey me? Leon Hiebert

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I saw a story on French television of a man 65 year old French man named Michel who had recently found his father. The father, William, was an American soldier in World War II who came through the city of Sainte Marie aux Mines in World War II during the Allies drive toward Germany.

His unit stayed in Sainte Marie for awhile and the father began a relationship with a young French lady. When William’s outfit pulled out a few weeks later the young lady was pregnant. The soldier probably never knew it. She didn’t have his address. All she knew was his name.

Nine months later Michel came into the world. At the age of five, he began to feel something missing and this gnawing in his insides followed him all through his life. If he did something, he would say to himself, “If my father had been here …” or “If my father had known about this …”

“I had to find him.” He never found a trace of him though, not until after 60 years of searching.

Recently, a French lady who lives in Florida was vacationing in France and heard about him through a local newspaper article. His story touched her. She launched a personal crusade looking for the missing former soldier, a tiny needle in the haystack of 300,000,000 residents of the United States. If he was still alive.

And she found him in Houston, Texas!

The elderly father was in a wheel chair but his mind was solid. Michel also had a brother and a sister he had never known. When he heard about it, he was shaken to the core of his being. He had a hard time sleeping and would get up at night and walk around the house and think.

A few days later, he boarded a plane heading for Houston.

When they finally met, they wrapped their arms around each other and cried for quite awhile. “To take my father in my arms was the most beautiful day of my life,” Michel says. “I’m satisfied. I have a father. I found him.”

Something in us needs a father. We need his strength, his love. We need his connection with all those of our line who’ve lived before us. There are over 1500 references to “father(s)” in the Bible.

This need for an earthly father mirrors a need that God has put into each of us for a Heavenly Father. Only this time it’s the Father who is looking for his children. He is, “A father to the fatherless …”  (Psalms 68 :5). He sent His Son Jesus to seek and to save those who are lost and bring them to Himself so that He could save them and they could call him, “Abba, Father.”

While the concept of God as Father isn’t completely foreign to the Old Testament, it’s the Son Himself, Jesus, who constantly refers to God as “Father.” And wonder of wonders, we discover that’s the relationship that He’s brought us into.

“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. ” (Rom. 8:14-17, NIV).

“Father!”

Maybe you’ve drifted away from the Father. Be smart, like one rebellious young fellow who said to himself one day,

“I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (NIV)

We need the Father.
_____________________________
Hmmm …
Be careful from whom you get your advice.

Make sure they are where you want to go
or at least headed there.

For sooner or later, their advice will take you where they are.

Make sure you want to go there.
~A MountainWings Original~