Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 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. 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. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 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. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 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 Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

• John 10:7-20

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

• Ephesians 6:12

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

• Acts 1:7-8

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.  Oh, excuse me, angels have no gender, but the angel indwelled a doll named Bountiful Babs.  After seeing the angel in that form for over a year, I cannot see her in my mind in any other form.

This Week’s Question

In the last episode, Babs had talked to people at the hotel about Jesus, and someone became openly antagonistic.  She mourned how people did not want to hear God’s message of love, but I assured her that God’s sheep hear His voice.  None will be lost.

I had gotten a hotel in a central location so that I could make trips of no more than an hour in various directions to make sales calls.  The next day, I stayed in town to visit a customer.  I obtained a moderate sale, nothing to celebrate, but then again, since Babs had become my travel buddy, I never missed having a customer buy something.  But I was back at the hotel by lunchtime.  Unlike yesterday, she was dressed, and her hair was brushed perfectly.  She was ready to go out for a nice lunch in a trendy restaurant.

As Babs started digging into her huge salad, she said in an accusative tone, “You held out on me yesterday.  That passage from John 10 about Jesus being the gate to the sheep pen, and then Jesus being the good shepherd, has a lot in it that you didn’t mention.  You just went on about the sheep hearing the voice of Jesus and they are gathered into the sheep pen to be safe.  But it talks about thieves and robbers coming to kill and destroy.  And where is this other sheep pen?”

I wiped a few breaded mozzarella stick crumbs from my mouth.  “Let’s get the thieves and robbers thing out of the way first.  What does Paul tell the Ephesians about who our enemy is?”

I knew she had the entire Bible memorized, but she made a dramatic roll of the eyes, as if being put on the spot.  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

I nodded with a smile, “And while we should not put a face of flesh and blood on this darkness and evil, who is the ringleader of this evil?”

She smiled, “Satan and his fallen angels.”

“Okay, then, even if we are only distracted, not killed or destroyed, how does that relate to what Jesus says about what thieves do?”

She scrunched her nose, “What do you mean?”

I gave an example, “What if I focused the rest of my day thinking about how a customer, that rarely buys anything, bought fifty thousand dollars worth of spare parts this morning?  That does not destroy me.  I am sitting pretty.  Having that sale does not kill me, but what does it do if I think about it all afternoon?”

Babs giggled as she popped a crouton in her mouth.  “It sure kills your afternoon.  And you have such a humble way of bragging about a nice sale.  You were saying this was a tough customer.  You just don’t trust me when I tell you that you will have paperwork and a few phone calls to make this afternoon.”

I raised my eyebrows, “So, now it’s you who made the profitable sales call, hunh?”

Babs giggled even more, “No, silly, God is blessing you this year.  It is nothing that I do.  And it surely isn’t anything you are doing differently.”

“WHAT?!”

She giggled, “I thought I would get a response from that.”  Now it was all out playful laughter.

She put her hands together and bowed slightly.  “Oh, great salesman, I can see that you need to spend time glorifying God this afternoon.  Bragging about your nice sale today gets in the way of glorifying God.  Instead, it sounds like you are glorifying you.  And making a habit of thinking you are the greatest salesman ever drives a wedge between you and God.  Even if you are a special child of God, that wedge then kills and destroys your life-giving connection with God.  You are saved.  You just don’t grow, and you become useless for God’s service.”

I was impressed.  “Wow!  Now who is teaching whom?”

She was back to her giggling.  “The sheep pen!  The other sheep pen!”

I realized that the main entrée was not far away.  “Okay, Leviticus mentions the word ‘foreigner’ or ‘foreigners’ nineteen times.  Right?”

She giggled and said, “Wrong.  Twenty-two times.”

I groaned, “In how many verses?”

She made a game of it as she tilted her head one direction and then the other while her fingernails tapped each other.  I knew she knew the number without the histrionics.  Then her eyes rolled upward, “Okay, okay, nineteen verses, but you have to remember that when Moses wrote all that down, he did not divide it into verses.  So, regardless of what you have to say, I am right!”

I laughed, “But my point is that foreigners were to be protected and respected.  You might even say they were to be loved.  God’s chosen people were to show the foreigners how wonderful their God was, not worship the foreigner’s false gods.  Now, in the time of Jesus, the people of Judah are subjected to Roman authority.  The Pharisees got the idea that these foreigners were the trouble, not the Jews being tempted by the foreigners.  Foreigner is used more than twelve times as often in the Old Testament as in the New Testament, but Gentile is used only five times in the Old Testament and nearly one hundred times in the New Testament.  And mostly the Jews thought of Gentiles as unclean, horrible people.  So, where do you think the other sheep pen is?”

Babs again scrunched her nose, “With the Gentiles?”

I nodded.  “Yes, those foreigners that the Jews were supposed to show how wonderful God was would finally get accepted when Paul became the Apostle to the Gentiles.  It was all part of His plan.  Notice what Jesus says in Acts 1.  The apostles were to witness to those in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria (even though the Jews hated the Samaritans), and then to the ends of the earth.  These were ever increasing circles around Jerusalem, the Holy City.”

Babs smiled and gave me the indication that she understood, but then she started to move her shoulders to a rhythm that only she could hear.  She said, “When we get back to the hotel, we are going to dance.”

I protested, “But, Babs, the last time, you stepped on my feet a lot.  I don’t want to step on your feet.”

Babs retorted, “And why do you not wish to step on my feet?  Are you worried about breaking a bone?  I will tell you right now that I have been drinking milk at breakfast every morning.  After you drive off to a sales call, I go back for more.  My bones are strong.  You should worry about your own bones, Harold Dykstra.”  She looked at me with her determined look that she tried to make stern, but underneath the surface, it was nothing but mirth.  Then she reached across the table and held my hand.  She had come to me as a doll.  I had seen her in a large briefcase, large enough for only the plastic to be inflated and latex to form the key features, and the real human hair.  But as she held my hand, there was no warmth there, but the flesh felt real.  And I felt bones.  I started turning her hand over and tracing each bone with my fingers.”

Babs huffed, “Should I shout, ‘Man!’ or should I shout, ‘Engineer!’  A man with warmth in his heart would marvel at the beauty of the hand, the softness of the skin, the usefulness of the fingers, and the delicacy of the entire hand.  But you, Harold Dykstra, study the structural integrity of the bones.  Men!  Engineers!  I have no idea what I am going to do with you.”

The waitress leaned into her and said, “My husband is an engineer.  He does the same thing.”  Then the waitress handed me the bill.  She said, “Forget dancing in your hotel room.  I wrote the name and address of a great dance club.  They play big band music on weekdays for the older folks to dance.  The band shuts down early, since many of them are old too.  So, take her before you go to the hotel.”

When the waitress left, Babs blushed, “Sorry, I guess I talked too loud.”

I shook my head, “No.  You are beautiful, and you attract attention.  You are bubbly and fun.  That attracts attention.  And since we were so busy talking, it is well past lunchtime, and we are about the only customers in the place.  So, now that I am satisfied that your structural integrity is adequate for dancing, let’s go enjoy some big band music, Little Miss Twinkle Toes.”

And so, we did, and neither of us stepped on the other’s toes, but I cried a lot, softly, but Babs could see my eyes getting wet.  I had not gone to a club for that kind of entertainment since my wife and I were first married.

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

My wife loved to dance, but I was not a dancer.  At one point, she said that it amazed her that I was unique among all mankind.  I had three left feet.  Two left feet kept me continuously out of step, and the third left foot was there to trip over, or step on, her feet.  The last time we danced, we both played it safe.  We just swayed back and forth, hardly making a step at all.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.