One Is Never As Tall As When They Stoop

(To Help Someone in Need)

 John 13:3-17

Jesus, knowing that the Father had handed all things over to Him, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper and laid His outer garments aside; and He took a towel and tied it around Himself.

Then, He poured water into the basin, and began washing the disciples’ feet and wiping them with the towel which He had tied around Himself.

So He came to Simon Peter. He [Simon Peter] said to Him, “Lord, You are washing my feet?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not realize right now, but you will understand later.”

Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!”

 

Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no place with Me.”

Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”

 

Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet; otherwise he is completely clean. And you are clean—but not all of you.”

For He knew the one who was betraying Him; it was for this reason that He said, “Not all of you are clean.”

 

 Then, when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done for you? You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’; and you are correct, for so I am. So if I, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet."

 

"For I gave you an example, so that you also would do just as I did for you."

 

“Truly, truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."

 

Have you ever experienced such a thing as those who had their feet washed?

I am sure some of you may have. Some of you may have and not realized it. I have never been so humbled as one evening after Sunday church and Bible Study services, when two of my 20's Singles Bible Study men members surprised me with a feet washing gift. I cried with happiness and literally two weeks later, I turned the Bible study class over to one of them, as they had demonstrated to me that they were ready for that responsibility. The one to whom I turned over the Bible Study class went on to graduate from a North Carolina seminary school and twenty years later, his church, Journey Baptist Church, is one to which I still tithe.

 

Is that all I have to do?  That is easy.  It doesn't cost me a dime to wash someone's feet.Is that all there is to it?

Salvation

Think about what it really takes to be forgiven for our sins. Imagine yourself as a six to twelve year old attending a Church Revival Service when a Pastor or Revival Evangelist (in my case, the famous Evangelist James Robinson) tells a supposedly true story that reminds you that you had done the same thing that he was talking about.

"How did he know that I had gone to the sand pits just last week and sprained my knee?" I ask myself. "Oh my, the sand pits that he is talking about is just like the one that I went swimming in,." The only difference in the clear water description that the Evangelist is talking about and the one I swam in is the lack of a bed of water moccasins that was in the sand pit full of water versus the one I was swimming in."

"Just as in the speaker's story, I was swimming with a friend. The difference is that my friend did not jump into the bed of water moccasins, and my friend didn't try to warn me by screaming 'Don't Jump' at the top of his lungs before he went under, never to surface again. And the Sheriff didn't come and, paddle around the whole sand pit as he threw a grappling hook into the water to find my friend's body. And when he snagged something and brought it to the surface, found my friend with 362 pair of water moccasin bites in him."

"Man, how did that speaker ever know that I was at the sand pits in the first place?" I wondered, "He had to have gotten the story straight from Jesus, as though He was warning me not to blow this chance to ask for God to forgive my sins."

Then the Evangelist gives the "Just As I Am" challenge; you know, "The Invitation" they call it, with that music that makes you feel as mushy inside because someone says, and worse, sings that Jesus will take you just as you are. I hear this angelic music increase slowly in volume and intensity, plucking your very tender heart strings. Who cares if it didn't happen to me exactly like that? It was close enough.

 

Just As I Am 

As I was listening in horror to that snake pit story, I felt tears track down my cheek as I slowly got out of the pew and begin to walk down the aisle. "Come on down," I hear. I got to the front and someone grabbed my hand and asked  if I wanted to make a profession of faith. They never told me what that was; and after I ask, "Huh?" they tell me, "Just say yes and Jesus will take it from there." All the while, "Just as I Am" is playing in the background.

What they don't ever tell you is specifically what to do or how to be or what to believe in and why and how to live in this world with all of those who very likely do not believe, nor will they ever believe what I am trying to believe in.

That is the realization I had one lonely evening in my hotel room.

"Man," I hollered, as I threw the Gideon Bible that was in my night stand drawer across the room in frustration. After 28 years, I threw up my hands and admitted to myself, "It is no use, I give up, I just cannot please You. Heck, I don't even know how to please you," I blurt out in crying frustration, "I can't even read what is supposed to be Your Word, The Bible; and nothing ever seems to go my way. Why?"

I picked my Bible off the floor near the wall at which I threw it. Curiously, it was laying face down and open to a page. I turned it over and I saw a page that said Hebrews 10:9, and I read. And for the first time in my Christian life, I started to understand. Jesus with The Holy Spirit had been following my every misstep; They were both talking to me one on one, as my own father would have been talking to me had he been alive; and the words They said to me were crystal clear:

Hebrews 10:9-39

...then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES ARE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, THIS IS THE COVENANT WHICH I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, DECLARES THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEARTS, AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR MIND,AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL NO LONGER REMEMBER.”

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required.

I started tearing up when I realized how I had grieved The Holy Spirit by my feeble attempts in trying to please God when I had no idea how to do so. As I could hear anyone, I heard Him say, I will teach you "A New and Living Way":

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 

Let’s hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.

Anyone who has ignored the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 

I knew immediately that I was getting but another chance from my very saddened and angry Creator.

For the first time in my life, I felt the loving caress of my earthly father, who, having died when I was three, had been following my missteps ever since that rainy night on that desolate Mexican highway, watching over me for this day, when I would come to know the love I had missed all my life up to now.

Jesus was telling me through The Holy Spirit to REMEMBER how I tried and tried:

But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through insults and distress, and partly by becoming companions with those who were so treated.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.

I do remember that; I do, I really do remember as though it was only an hour ago. I remember thinking, "I don't know why I did that." But I also remember how I felt after doing it. I did not care whether anyone saw me or knew what I had done.

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE WILL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.

But we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith for the safekeeping of the soul.

"After what I have done and not done, why would you even consider giving me another chance?" I asked. And He answered me!

John 3:16-21

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him."

"The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

"And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil."

"For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed."

"But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God."

"So, how do I do this? What do I do now?" I asked. "I don't want to waste another moment."

"Has anyone ever told you about John 13:1-20, about Jesus washing the Disciples’ feet?

Surely someone had to have told you about Mark 10:13-31, to give you an idea of the difficulty you would surely have?" He asked as I noticed curiously that nobody else was in my hotel room that evening.

"No, I don't recall anything specific about them," I answered out loud as though I was talking to the wall.

And then a picture flashed before my eyes:

It's Easier for a Camel to Jump Through the Eye of a Needle

 

"Ha! Yea, I heard about the camel. But, I thought it was a joke and I didn't take it seriously."

"A JOKE? Why would you think I would ever be joking? I am not playing a game with you. You must think love and forgiveness is easy. But those things are easier said than done."

"I have been giving everyone the chance to humble themselves before Me and glorify Me by their loving service in My Name for a long, long time. I have been trying to forgive all of mankind for over five thousand years. When the Earth starts burning, it will be too late."

"People will either burn up with those thinking otherwise or they will wake up and fulfill the purposes I have for them while they still can."

When Will They Ever Learn

I remain in your grace as I await your comments to peacertnow@aol.com. I'd love to read about your reactions and thoughts.

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