Jesus visits a Muslim in Prison

Faith and Miracles Part VI: But If Not

Faith and Miracles Part VI: But If Not 

 www.khouse.org

Reblogged from Prophecy Update.

"But see, there's a problem when Grandma prays to be healed and she isn't healed. She thinks she doesn't have strong enough faith or that God doesn't love her. What about Grandma?" - An anonymous skeptic

"...Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Dan 3:17-18 (emphasis added)

There are many times in our lives when we say, "God, if You love me, You will do X, Y and Z." We mistakenly believe that if God doesn't answer our prayers the way we want, it's because He doesn't care about us. Remember the three young men faced with a fiery furnace; they did not know what God was going to do, but they trusted him anyway.

The Bible is very clear that God loves us (John 3:16, 1John 4:10, Jer 31:3, Rom 8:35-39). God's Word declares that He loves us more than we can possibly know, that He IS love (1 John 4:8). We can go to God with confidence in His love for us, ready for whatever glorious things He wanted to do in us and through us. That's the heart of God.

No matter what happens, we can still trust Him implicitly.

More Miracles:

In January of 1992, Tony Darmanin went for a ride with Jeremy Benson in his sweet 1973 Chevy Nova hatchback. Jeremy and his father had spent a year fixing up that Nova for Jeremy's 16th birthday, and he loved it. Jeremy hadn't had his license long, though, and inexperienced teen boys with muscle cars generally spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

On a rainy winter evening, Tony Darmanin climbed into Jeremy's Nova with Brandon Wright and Billy Walters. As soon as Jeremy started up the engine and took off, Tony knew he was in trouble. They sped down North Shore Drive in Bellingham, Washington at speeds worthy of the car, but unwise considering the weather conditions. They came to a hairpin turn, Jeremy hit the brakes, and the car naturally hydroplaned on the wet pavement.

Tony said, "So, we're not slowing down, and now Jeremy can't steer." They shot off the cliff edge and flew through the dark night air. They should have all died.

A tree at the bottom of the 40-foot deep ravine helped save the young men's lives. The car smacked the tree, which changed their trajectory just enough to keep the car from landing upside down and crushing all its occupants. Instead, the Nova smashed nose-first into the ground.

Tony dangled in the back seat by his seatbelt. The hatchback had popped open and its cover had slammed down into his neck and back. His internal organs were gashed by the force of the seatbelt, and his ankle was injured. Tony only knew that he'd never felt that much pain in his life. Billy had cracked the windshield with his head and his brain had started to swell. (After temporary blindness, he would recover.) Miraculously, Jeremy and Brandon climbed out unharmed and went for help.

Tony woke up outside of the car in the rain. He knew he had to get some help quickly, and he saw no friends around. He began to pull himself a little bit at a time out of that ravine in excruciating pain. As soon as he reached the top, flashlights shone in his face. People in a nearby house had seen the Nova's headlights fly off the cliff and had already called 9-1-1.

At The Hospital:

Tony's mother Alice Darmanin raced to the trauma unit at St. Luke's Hospital ahead of the ambulance. When they brought in Tony on the gurney, she thought he was already dead.

"He wasn't moving and he was a grey color, and my heart just sunk. Of course they couldn't tell us anything. We sat there praying and praying, and the kids were calling everybody they knew to pray. We still didn't know anything about Anthony. Finally they told us that there was so much blood in the pictures they had taken, they couldn't could tell if it was his liver, his kidney or spleen that was bleeding. They said , 'If he survives the next half hour we'll take another set of pictures.' I only heard the 'if he survives' part."

Instant Healing:

Tony was conscious as the doctor probed his stomach and felt for damage and took him in to get a CAT scan. All he knew was that there was serious internal bleeding. "If you do not go into surgery in 15 minutes, you will die," the doctor told him. "Do we have your consent to take you to surgery?"

Tony gave the doctor permission to save his life while a sense of excitement filled him. In 15 minutes he could be standing in the presence of Jesus. If they did surgery and he got better, that was great, and if he died, he realized that was also great. Tony told us, "It makes you realize the significance of 'O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? [1Cor 15:55]'" Already his veins had started to collapse and he felt pins and needles through all of his extremities.

Even as they sent Tony in for a CAT scan, though, he knew people were praying for him. "I felt their prayers. It was the first time in my life where I could actually feel the prayers of people praying for me."

About 45 minutes after she'd first visited them, the doctor returned to the Darmanin family in the waiting room to give them the relieving and unexpected news that their son was okay. According to Alice:

"All she says is, 'Do you want to see your son?' We walked back there and he's sitting up. The doctor said, 'I don't know what to tell you, but we don't know what happened. We don't know where the blood came from. We don't know where the blood went.' There was no blood. There were no wounds. She said, 'He has a very nasty crack on the back of his neck.' Actually, he should have died from that. The crack was on the hangman's vertebrae, and we were told only one in a thousand survives that."

The doctor kept Tony overnight, For the next few days Tony had some soreness, but that was it. He never had surgery.

Pain Remains:

Tony noted:

"But even though God did that miracle and healed my internal organs, for the past 18 years I have lived every day with pain in my back and neck from when the hatch slammed into me. I've gone to chiropractors, done physical therapy and deep tissue massage, and I'm still in constant pain.

"People tell me, 'You just don't have enough faith. If you had more faith God would have healed your whole body.' And I think, 'No... I have faith.' Or they say, 'You have unconfessed sin, that's why you're not healed,' and I think, 'No... I have my faults, but I don't have unconfessed sin.'

"No, this is what I've learned. I've learned that pain is not the enemy. I have learned that God has allowed me to have this pain for His reasons and for His purposes."

God's Love In Every Detail:

A year later, Tony was at college living in the dorms when he ran out of all his toiletries at one time. "I squeezed out the last of my toothpaste. I used the very last of my shampoo and conditioner (yes, I condition) and even my deodorant had been completely used up. All on the same day."

Tony walked down to his bank to see if he could take out five dollars. When he checked the ATM, though, he had only $3.67 - too little to draw out on a Saturday afternoon.

"Well, Lord," Tony said, "If You don't want me to be stinky, please help me out here."

He walked back to the dorms. As he was heading to the door, his friend Margaret walked up to him with a paper bag in her arms. She said, "I don't want you to be offended, but while I was at the store shopping this morning, I really felt God wanted me to buy these things for you." Tony took the bag and looked inside. It held shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and deodorant.

"And after all these years," he said, "It still brings tears to my eyes. Because it told me that God really cared about me, even in the little things. And it wasn't that she gave me money. Anybody can hand you money. She handed me the very things I needed."

It's Not About Toughness:

People often think that the proper response to pain is to be tough and pony up and push through it out of sheer determination. But, that's not the heart of God. Everything He does is for good, and He desires that we learn to completely depend on His love for us, no matter what things look like. He is willing to give us all we need, down to things as seemingly small as toothpaste. Almighty God who created the stars and calls them by name cares even for the sparrows.

"But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows." - Luke 12:7

Tony said:

"The fact is that God cares intimately about me and knows about the smallest details of my life, and yet He's allowed me to live with this pain for the past 18 years. It's not that He's doing these things - He didn't cause my suffering. But, He's allowed me to suffer pain. None of us escape it. It's part of the territory of being human. What God has promised is He'll never leave us. He'll never abandon us. And He'll never let us suffer more than He can carry us through. Some people ask why does a loving God allow pain? And I've learned that it's because of God's love that I can live through the pain."

Is suffering always God's plan? Of course not. Jesus had great compassion and healed people constantly, and he promised that we would do greater things than he did (John 14:12). God wants us to know Him and He wants to form us into the image of His Son (Rom 8:28-29). He wants us to trust that He loves us, and when we go to Him for help, to go boldly (Hebrews 4:16). And whatever happens, as the Hebrew children said before Nebuchadnezzar threw them into the fiery furnace, "But if not" - But if not, we will still trust Him, we will continue to follow Him alone. Whatever He decides, we need to have confidence that nothing is able to separate us from His great and perfect love.

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." -Romans 8:35-39

TESTIMONY: GANDHI

TESTIMONY: GANDHI by Dr. T.E. Koshy (from page 74 of The Invested Life)

I had great plans to become a high-powered lawyer and reach the educated elite of my country for Christ or to become a foreign correspondent and travel the world, covering the great events shaping our times.

My destiny was not—I was convinced—on the dusty, dirty, poverty-stricken streets of India. It was in receiving a world-class education and walking the halls of power in the world’s most important capitals. In following my ambitions, I would go on to pursue and receive five college and university degrees and travel to Washington, DC, as a journalist, eventually covering President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House.

But my discipler, Brother Bakht Singh, frequently challenged me. “The only thing God is building in this world is his church,” he would say. “Why write about history when you can make it? Why spend your life reporting about the lives of the rich and famous when you can invest your life helping the humble and the needy meet the God who loves them and gave himself for them? If you have no successor, are you truly a success?” Such were the questions that seemed to ring in my ears.

It took me many years to understand how I was supposed to apply the lessons I was learning from Bakht Singh to the unique plan and purpose God had for my life. For one thing, when it came to being a practicing lawyer or journalist, God made it clear to me his answer was “No.” He wanted me to go to Bible college in England and prepare for the ministry. I struggled with that, but eventually I went in obedience.

While in England, some people connected with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship who knew I’d been discipled by Brother Bakht Singh invited me to embark on a speaking tour through all the major universities of England, including Oxford and Cambridge. I couldn’t believe it.

I arrived at Oxford University to speak to a group of doctoral candidates, most of whom were not Christians. I was assigned a subject to speak on, specifically the uniqueness of Christ and the futility of philosophy. So of course, I brushed up on my reading of all the great philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. I gathered quotations from all these important people and prepared a twelve-page lecture to present the next day. At midnight, I was on my knees praying, asking the Lord to bless my presentation. After all, I had seen Brother Bakht Singh pray about everything—absolutely everything—and I was seeking to follow his example. But something happened I didn’t expect—and didn’t like.

The Lord said to me very clearly, “Throw that lecture in the dustbin.”

“What? Lord, what do you mean by that?” I asked, stunned. “Then what shall I speak about?”

“Tell them about your experience with me,” the Lord said.

“Lord,” I argued, “I came to know you at ten years old. I was not a murderer. I was not a drug addict. I don’t have exciting stories to tell these people. Lord, don’t you know? These are not Sunday school kids. They are brilliant. This is Oxford University.”

But the Lord said to me, “Listen, who knows better, you or me? If you know better than I do, why are you asking me to bless this lecture that you’ve written? If you want me to bless your talk, then tell them your experiences with me.”

“Lord, you are giving me a very hard task,” I said glumly.

I must confess, that night I had a real hard time with the Lord. Here I was on a speaking tour for him, but I didn’t want to do God’s work God’s way. All night, I wrestled with what God was asking of me, my pride battling against my faith.

The next day I arrived at the lecture hall, and the chairman introduced me—very formally, as they do in England—explaining the subject I was assigned to speak on. Imagine, then, his surprise when I stood and said, a bit sheepishly, “Yes, I was going to speak on that subject. In fact, I prepared this lecture . . .” I held it up because I wanted them to know I could do better than what I was about to do. My ego at work. “But I’m not going to deliver it.”

A hush settled over the crowd. My stomach was tied up in knots.

“As I was praying last night, the Lord asked me to tell you about my experiences with Jesus. Perhaps some of you may not like it,” I said, having little doubt about that.

I was already seeing my Waterloo, my downfall and humiliation. Okay, I thought. These fellows will never invite me back to Oxford. This is the end of it. But yes, Lord, I will obey (however begrudgingly). I continued speaking. “So I prayed and asked the Lord, ‘What do you want me to speak on?’ He said, ‘Christ the Savior, Christ the Sovereign, Christ the Sufficiency, Christ the Strength, Christ the Supplier, Christ the Security, and Christ the Soon-Coming King. He gave me the outline last night while I was on my knees.” Then I shared from my heart how the Lord had become real to me in each of these seven ways. After speaking, I just wanted to hide myself.

When it was over, the audience clapped in their traditional, formal way. The chairman of the lecture said, very politely, “Well, thank you, Mr. Koshy, for coming and enlightening us. Now, if any of you would like to talk to him about anything further, he will be available.”

Where’s the door? I thought. I was sure nobody would stay.

But no one left. To my utter astonishment, not a single student left the lecture hall. Instead, each and every one of them formed a line to ask me questions. Many teared up as they shook my hand, barely controlling their emotions, and said, “Come back again; we want to hear more of this kind of lecture.” I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears.

Then I noticed one Indian—the only other Indian in the entire room—standing at the end of this long line of students waiting to talk with me. I knew this young man had to be somebody important, to have the education and wealth and influence to be here at Oxford University. I desperately wanted to meet him and talk with him. I was afraid the long line would discourage him and he might leave. But I couldn’t exactly walk away from everyone else and go directly to this Indian. What could I do?

I began praying in my heart that the Lord would constrain this fellow to stay so I could meet him, and the Lord answered my prayers. Though it took more than half an hour before his turn came, this young Indian man came and grabbed me by the hand and said, “Sir, I want to thank you for coming and speaking on your experiences with Jesus. Ever since I came to Oxford, I have been going to churches to hear about Jesus Christ. All I have been hearing have been philosophical discourses, far removed from the realities of God.”

Inside, as I listened to this enthusiastic, grateful student, I felt ashamed. For that was exactly what I was going to tell this audience. That was exactly what I had prepared. A philosophical discourse.

“But today you came,” he continued. “You spoke to us from your heart about your own personal experiences with Jesus. Perhaps many may not agree with you. But no man can refute what you said.”

“What is your name?” I asked him eagerly.

“My name is Ramchandran,” he said.

“What is your last name?” I pressed.

“Please don’t ask me that,” he replied. “The moment people hear my last name they behave as though I have no first name. I am sick and tired of that. So please don’t ask me.”

I asked him again, but he resisted.

“Please,” I implored him. “Please.”

He hesitated, but then he lowered his voice and said, “If you insist, it is Gandhi.”

I was stunned, not knowing what to say.

“You are Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson?”

“That is what I told you. See, now you are talking about Mahatma Gandhi. Now you are not interested in me.”

I was speechless.

Here was one of the grandsons of the renowned Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India, who had led the nonviolent revolution for freedom from the British and sought, though unsuccessfully, to create a sense of harmony and unity between Hindus and Muslims. And Mahatma Gandhi was this young man’s father’s father. His mother’s father was the last governor-general of India, who took the reins of power for India back from the British via Lord Mountbatten in 1947, when India became an independent country. Here I was speaking with—indeed, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with—a grandson of two of the most influential Indians of all time.

I immediately assured him that I was most definitely interested in him personally, and we continued chatting for some time. Unfortunately, however, it got late. I had to get back to my college. So I thanked Ramchandran Gandhi, and we parted ways. The secretary of the organization who invited me began driving me back to my room. He was a blue-eyed young Englishman. It was raining. I still remember that night, for as he was driving, he broke down crying.

“The moment when you got up and said that you were changing the subject and you were going to speak on your experiences with Jesus, I said to myself that I wished we had not invited you.

“But,” he quickly added, trying to hold back his tears, “that message was for me. I am a Christian. I was backsliding. That message challenged my heart.” He started weeping so hard he had to pull the car to the side of the road. Then he controlled himself, continued driving, and dropped me off at the railway station.

Some time later I received a letter from Oxford.

Will you consider coming and spending three months with us to give more lectures?

That encounter provided a formative lesson for me.

As true disciples of Jesus Christ, we must always be willing to do God’s work in God’s way. We must be willing to go where he sends us and say what he tells us to say. We must always be ready to share our faith—always ready for “divine appointments”—because we never know who is listening.

Here I had wanted to become a great lawyer or journalist to reach the influential elites of India for Jesus. I had argued with the Lord when he said no to my own plans and strategies.

But what happened? The Lord Jesus himself took me thousands of miles away from India, to Bible college in England of all places, on a speaking tour to Oxford, just to meet and share the gospel with the grandson of Gandhi.

Our God is an awesome God.

He works in mysterious ways. The question is, will we let him work that way in our lives? Or will we rebel, thinking we know better?

Some years later, I was passing through Delhi. I picked up the phone and called the home of Dr. Gandhi. His wife answered.

“Is Dr. Gandhi available?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Who is this?”

I explained who I was and said that we once met at Oxford. Suddenly the young man was on the line. “Dr. Gandhi, you may not remember me. My name is Koshy.”

This was thirteen years later. But you know what he said? “Are you the Koshy who came to Oxford and spoke on the subject of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and your personal experience with him?”

“You mean you still remember that?” I asked, amazed.

“How can I ever forget it? Do you have time to have a meal with me?”

The next day he came and picked me up and took me to a restaurant in New Delhi. We had lunch. What he said humbled me. “Jesus Christ is God’s ultimate incarnation. He alone could identify with the sufferings of the masses.” The more we talked, the more amazed I grew, for the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi had become a believer in Jesus Christ.

In time I would obey the Lord’s voice and Brother Bakht Singh’s advice. By God’s grace I was married, became a pastor, became the evangelical chaplain at Syracuse University in upstate New York, planted a church, and launched International Friendship Evangelism, a ministry to international students in the United States and around the world. My passport would be filled with many stamps, but for God’s glory, not my own.

For about eight months every school year at Syracuse University, my wife, Indira, and I, along with our ministry team, build bridges of relationships cross-culturally with students from all over the world. We host “friendship lunches” and other meals for them. We teach them conversational English. We invite them to picnics and other outings to help them make friends. We teach them about the love of Jesus Christ. We invite them to receive Christ as their personal Savior and Lord. And we disciple them one-on-one and in small groups, equipping them to go back to their home countries and reach their families, friends, and countrymen for Christ.

Then, for about three or four months of the year, my colleagues and I travel around the world, responding to requests from former students that we visit them, help them establish new churches, discover and share the joy of biblical worship, and teach them how to disciple others and train up new leaders. It has not been the life I envisioned for myself some four decades ago. No, it has been far more satisfying and, I pray, far more useful.

joelcrosenberg | September 5, 2012 at 3:32 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/piWZ7-1QF

THE LOST LITTLE LAMB - Part II

The lost little lamb Part II

Written and posted by Jean-Louis http://thelightseed.blogspot.com

Translation from the French version by the author.
To read the French version click: http://thelightseed.blogspot.com/2007/12/leons-de-laire-de-battage.html

John 10:9-18 (NIV) I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

The reality of the horrible incident was still alive in his mind, but fortunately, he calmed down immediately because the herd did not show any sign of being in an imminent danger. His only worry came from hearing the desperate bleating of the little she lamb that was standing in a corner of the enclosure. Just a quick glance around reassured him that there was no visible danger. Yet, instead of being quieted by his presence, the poor lamb continued her desperate crying. He reasoned that she was calling for her mother. But, strangely nothing nor anybody prevented her from rejoining the flock. She could have been guided on her way by responding to the others´ bleating in echoing her own.

When the young shepherd came close to her, she started jumping and running in the opposite direction. That led him in a totally useless chase, because every time he tried to run after and catch her, she would bound aside and escape him. Since he did not have much else to do, he tried several times in the afternoon to go after and capture her without success. The sun was setting and goats and sheep were on their way back to the barn. But the little lamb, stubborn as a mule was still refusing to join the flock. She spent the whole night outside bleating loudly calling for help.

This little game lasted three whole days. From time to time, the shepherd was attempting to gain the confidence of his little friend by talking to her gently and softly, but she tenaciously refused the helping hand that she so desperately needed. He loved all the animals in his charge and decided that he would bring back to safety no matter what the cost. The only thing he could not understand is that his older brother has given him this responsibility without asking the help of the children or his neighbors. Maybe he thought that since she was going to be sold or her meat put in the freezer a few weeks hence, she would find the way back by herself. After all why run after this obstinate animal that was not worth the time or physical energy that were so precious to him?

The shepherd that enjoyed solving problems resolved that he was not going to be satisfied until he returned the lamb to her mother.
On the third day in the afternoon, he thought of an idea that seemed to be feasible and could be successful. He drew from the stock of his childhood memories several episodes of cartoons in which the hero and the villain try to escape from a hot pursuit . Certainly you remember the scenes. While they are in a free fall after having jumped from a high cliff, they continue running with their legs in the air as if they were trusting the ground support on terra firma. Of course, back then, the comical scene elicited a lot of laughter. But this simple and innocent return into childhood was providing a serious answer to his problem. He elaborated a rescue plan that would put an end to the unexpected interruption in his monotonous life.

Taking advantage of the lamb being stuck in a marshy corner at the bottom of the pasture, he chose this propitious moment to put his plan into action. Facing her and moving his arms to make her move in his direction, he was getting closer to her, step by step in the soggy muck that was reaching his calves close to his knees. The little lamb frozen with fear was preparing to bounce as usual and right at the moment when facing him, launched into the air. The young shepherd let himself fall backwards in the mud catching the lamb in his open arms, while she, imitating the funny cartoons characters  was trying to run, beating the air with her short legs without any firm support.

 She, taken aback was caught in the tender trap of the shepherd´s protective arms. He, bursting into a celebrating laughter and shouting rejoicing cries of victory alerted the rest of the family that wondered what could have happened. It goes without saying that he was covered from top to bottom with foul smelling mud but it did not seem to bother him a bit. He has completed the task entrusted to him by his older brother. Not letting go, he got up and grabbing the lamb´s legs he strapped her around his shoulders, talking to her tenderly and scolding her gently.

Finally, a glorious twilight marked the happy homecoming reunion of the little lamb with her mother. Needless to say the ewe was happy to see that her run away progeny had not forgotten how to suckle at the mother´s breast.

Dear reader, if you still don´t know the Lord Jesus, here is your personal invitation. Click on this post address that will show you how to be saved or born again.
http://thelightseed.blogspot.com.br/2011/04/how-can-i-be-born-again-spiritually.html

If you are looking around for your way back to God, if you feel despondent and at the end of your strength tired of struggling against insurmountable odds without success, listen to God´s voice calling you to give you life abundant and eternal. Confessing your sins and renouncing the things that caused you to stray away from your shepherd, simply ask him and he will respond because he has promised to do so.Here

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
John 7:16-18 (NIV) 16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.


You can find spiritual help on salvation by clicking Here
 

Jean-Louis

THE LOST LITTLE LAMB - Part I

The lost little lamb. A short story. Part I
Written and published by Jean-Louis 
http://thelightseed.blogspot.com 

To read Part II click Here

John 15:10-13 (NIV) 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Luke 15:4-6 (NIV) 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

Baa… baa… baa! This heart wrenching bleating sound startled the young shepherd half asleep on the grassy knoll from which he used to keep a watchful eye on the sheep and the goats at his older brother´s farm. Still immersed in his usual day dreams, he sat up straight with a disquieted glance toward the bottom of the fenced pastures that separated the sheep from the goats. The  flock of  sheep gathered in small clusters, some resting peacefully on the grass, others swallowing the last mouthful of grass before joining the rest to ruminate. He could not exactly pinpoint the spot where the bleating came from, but he perceived that the distress call emanated from the outer edge of the farmland adjoining the forest.

While running towards the unceasing cries, gathering to a pitch level of harrowing intensity, his thoughts traveled back to the dawn of the preceding summer when around 6:00 AM, he was awakened with a start by a dreadful concert of distress calls that could signify only one thing. The goats which spent the warm summer nights outside the barn were in danger. He had yet to ascertain the origin and the gravity of their predicament.

Once he had raised the gate, he had discovered several goats with a bleeding throat not far from the protective cover of the stable that they were trying to reach, stumbling because of their weakness on the path full of scattered pools of blood. He could not believe his eyes, his favorite goats each of them known by their names and personalities were climbing the hill out of breath, apparently trying to escape a still unknown sinister danger. From looking at the throat of his animals, he concluded that it could only be the result of one thing. This was the indisputable signature of a wolf or a wild dog that jumped the fence and spread panic among the flock. The ones that had no wounds were those with horns strong and sharp enough that they used as a successful defense.

Alas, as he approached the gate left half open by the ensuing stampede , he had a hard time stemming the backed up flow of tears when he understood the reason for this carnage. Three dogs among which was his own mixed German shepherd were still running after the poor defenseless goats that were running in circles around the perimeter of the enclosure without finding the exit. In a state of disorientation, fright and exhaustion, they were falling one right after the other under the sharp teeth of the Rottweilers, as the blood coming out of their torn throats was splattered all over the green arena in the fresh morning breeze.

A sudden surge of anger took hold of him and without thinking, he had started gathering stones. As a sharp shot trained in his native country to zero in on bottles and tin cans, he was throwing them at the hungry dogs that turned around with an ugly snarl and menacing growl. He decided to drive back the predators with his faithful shepherd walking stick. Finally, seeing that the survivors had escaped, the two dogs had jumped the fence and disappeared. A total of seven goats died and many others were wounded. Later in the day, in order to stop it from happening again, he had placed a wolf trap with fresh meat to attract and capture alive the Rottweilers that had escaped from their owner´s house and were running around the country side for three days looking for food.

I hope to meet you again soon for the second and final part of the story of our young shepherd and his lost lamb.

Jean-Louis.