How to Catch a Monkey

An old tale based in Africa is a lesson in practical wisdom. Place peanuts into a hollowed-out gourd and leave it in a tree and watch. Soon a monkey will come by and smell the nuts and reach into the gourd. His fist closed around the nuts is bigger than the hole in the gourd. He has the choice to open his fist and drop the nuts onside or stay trapped, holding tight to the nuts he can’t remove. 

Dr. Jeffress, FBC, used this tale to demonstrate the choices of response when someone offends us. Reply angrily or return an offense to our offender (which puts you at the same moral level as him into an unforgiven sinner) or to remember His grace given to you and others who have done or said good things (which you may not have fully earned) and walk away remembering God said “Vengeance is Mine” and thank Him instead for all the times He Has forgiven your trespasses.

Exchanging insults or resentments will take you farther from your walk with your God, raises a barrier making it difficult for you to come freely to your Lord.  Bitterness is louder in your heart than the urge to talk to your Father. Your heart is engaged fully with the hurt you received; you have become a bondservant—a slave—to your offender. Your behavior is in his control.

 Or you can open your fist, release the hurt for God to handle and maintain that sweet fellowship with our Lord. Perhaps your offender was a fellow Christian having a bad day, causing his anger and your treatment may remind him to take his anger to the Lord to handle,  and renew his strength and relationship. Perhaps your offender does not know or to follow God’s teaching; he may continue inflicting his misery on you and/or others, but he will not go unchallenged; judgment will follow in God’s timing, the promise of heaping coals of fire upon his head

A New Testament example tells of a slave who owed his master more than he could never live long enough to repay and begged for more time and it was granted, though the king knew he would never be able to repay. Yet the slave went out to another who owed him a tiny bit of money and threatened him with prison unless he paid. When the king heard, he pointed out that the ungrateful wretch, who had been forgiven so much, had failed to forgive another so little, and condemned the ungrateful slave to prison.

Refusal to engage your enemy refrains from disturbing your status as a Child of our King and gives the offender a grace-filled span of time to change before his judgment day arrives. Will you choose to behave as a child of the King or as a monkey?

 

               If you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. but if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
–Matthew 6:14-15


            And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

The Precious Gift

 After I opened all the gifts from my friends—funny, sweet, or practical things now sating amidst discarded wrappings and clutter—I saw one more package. Stunningly beautiful Why hadn’t I noticed  it before? No tag, no clue of the sender’s name. I put it aside until my guests had gone and I could examine it more thoroughly. 

Who loved me enough to send such a beautiful package-- too lovely to cast aside such colorful, artfully decorated wrappings? I decided to leave it front and center of my coffee table to enjoy longer and admired it every day for a while.  Admiration morphed into a routine glance now and then and an occasional flick of my feather duster. When someone remarked on its beauty, asking why it remained unopened, I still insisted it was bound to be more beautiful than whatever was inside and I wanted to enjoy its mystery a little longer. 

One day, when I came home from a disappointing visit with my doctor, I lay on my couch, wondering what would become of me, My gaze fell on the gift and I picked it up. Wiping away a film of dust, I found my hands ripping away that once vividly beautiful package—no reason to save it for later when there might not be a later. 

Inside was only one pure white scroll with a title in gold lettering:  Adoption Certificate and it bore my name.  “With all costs borne by the Provider” I read, I have been named a Child of the King of All There Is. Entitled as co-heir with the Son of the Provider to inhabit the household of the Most High Creator, Provider, Healer, Loving King. 

I thought back over the months I skimped and saved, ill and needy. Barely getting by when  all this awaited me. All I had to do was receive the gift offered to me.

 

 

                                                     

   Th 

IN CASE OF FIRE---

Open Here. This new apartment has all the bells and whistles! It’s fireproof—why include am old-fashioned relic like this ancient warning from the olden days of horse-driven fire wagons? Forget that. I turned away. Still, occasionally I found myself glancing over at the box on the wall that seemed to draw my attention at nighttime, when worries seemed to invade my thoughts—rumors of a layoff looming at work and this apartment lease just signed. Pacing the floor, I eyed the box on the wall designed to provide safety. A good night’s sleep will do me more good--but do I smell a whiff of smoke? Probably someone cooking a late supper has left a pot on the stove—the apartment manager will check it out.

Definitely smoke, stronger now, closer perhaps. Maybe I’d better do something. Call the manager/ No answer! In case of fire. But there’s no fire, just smoke--but more than earlier. Why isn’t someone t taking care of this? Doesn't anyone see the danger? Ow! My door feels hot! My eyes seek the ancient box on the wall—would it even still work? I reach for the box. Maybe------

You have such an emergency box tucked away somewhere, in case your troubles get bigger than you can handle, called The Holy Bible. But why ignore a whiff of smoke until your coat tail is on fire before opening the book? Why not read some of the fire prevention teachings inside and avoid the death traps all around you? Didn’t you buy fire insurance to protect your physical dwelling? Isn’t your own life worth much more?