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May
2002 Monthly Letter
Dear
Partner In Ministry,
Since
many of you indicated in your birthday cards and calls to
me a great response to my last letter on faith sharing, I
am continuing that theme in this letter.
“Always
being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you
for a reason for the hope that is in you.” 1
Peter 3:15
Chris
and I were returning from hiking the gRand Canyon. We were
exhausted! It had been 5 long days of hiking 10 miles per
day, at 90°, carrying 45 pound backpacks, burning 500 calories
per hour.
In
Flagstaff we passed a massage therapy office. Looking at each
other, we smiled and both shouted, “Yes!”
During
my massage, Tess, the therapist, asked me where we had come
from. I responded, “From observing the greatest illustration
of God’s grace that I know, the Grand Canyon!”
“What
is grace?” she queried. “I am Jewish, but
to the dismay of my family, I attend an occasional Sunday
school class at a church with a friend. ‘Grace’
is mentioned a lot.”
Now,
I confess that when I am getting a massage, I do NOT like
to talk, but only relax!
I
answered her by telling Jesus’ parable of the king who
cancelled a 200,000 years’ wage debt of a servant. Because
of the king’s compassion he wrote off the entire debt!
Matthew 18:21-35 That’s grace!--like
the Canyon; magnificently beyond description.
Tess,
suddenly exclaimed, “I get it! I have a friend, Tom,
who manages a cemetery. I owe him a large sum of money. After
9/11, he called to say he was canceling my debt! He said money
often separates people and that our relationship is more valuable
than money. Now I understand what grace is!”
I
replied, “Yes, you do!. In Tom you saw what Yahweh
did for us in Yeshua, the Messiah. Tom’s comment about
money is exactly what sin does, separates us from Yahweh.
But He canceled our debt by sending Yeshua, the Lamb of God
to become our atonement. The day Yeshua died was our Yom Kippor
(day of atonement).”
Then
I sat up, looked her in the eyes and said, “I am a
goy (gentile) and have only been grafted into the root of
Jesse. You came from the root, not the graft! I am so indebted
to the Jewish people for the Old Testament and all of its
prophecies. Without them, I would have never known about God’s
grace to me through Yeshua, the Messiah.”
“Tess,
please read Isaiah 53 and ask yourself who Isaiah, the prophet,
is writing about? Could it be Yeshua, the Messiah, whom I
believe has fulfilled all of the prophecies of the Old Testament?”
She thanked me and said, “Yes, I will. I’ve never
heard this before.”
So,
be prepared to share your faith even at strange times!
Now you can imagine for yourself what I said to a server at
Pappy’s Restaurant whose name was “Destiny”!!!
Ron
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