You are the GateKeeper!

"Who is my neighbor?' Luke 10:29

I don't know how many times I have read 

or heard the story of the Good Samaritan, 

and even seen it re-enacted in a play. 

When it comes up as a reading,

I tend to gloss over it as I know the details so well.

But today, I decided to listen to it on 

the One Touch Digital App while I painted, 

to see if I could get anything new out of it.

I found that the story is applicable 

to every day life in so many ways.
It doesn't have to be a man lying on the road 

on our way to work or school or the mall. 

 I'm thinking it can be our office mate 

burdened with so many problems, 

a sick friend in need of some company, 

a brother or sister from church fighting his own demons.

The Samaritan traveler was "moved with compassion"

 and approached the "victim", 

poured "oil and wine" over his wounds. 

OIL and WINE. 

Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, 

and we usually apply oil when we pray for healing. 

How wonderful that this man had oil with him! 

He was like the wise virgins in the story in Matthew 25! 

He was always prepared, always ready! 

This time it was to offer aid and comfort. 

But other times he would be ready with his oil 

to do what God wanted him to do. 

He can say like Jesus, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 

because He has ANOINTED me to preach the gospel, 

to HEAL the brokenhearted..."

Wine in the Bible is a necessity 

because of the scarcity of water, 

so it symbolizes sustenance and life and God's blessings. 

How wonderful that this Samaritan was 

 willing to share out of his need, not his excess.

 Lord, I know I fall short in so many ways. 

But I pray that like the Samaritan traveler, 

I will be ever ready to help those in need 

with the oil and wine You have blessed me with in my life! 

 "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, 

that I may learn Your statutes." Psalm 119:71

Many people have left the faith because 

of the mystery of suffering and pain. 

We ask how can an all powerful, all loving God allow it? 

How can the God I know to be kind and merciful 

allow the persecution around the world, the hunger, 

the wars, cancer, depression that leads to suicide 

and the hundred million irritations 

and challenges we can never avoid?

It is one of the questions that made Alex Templeton,

 a charismatic preacher in the 40s, 

who rose to fame with Billy Graham, 

leave Christianity and become an atheist 

until he died in 2001 at the age of 86. 

When we decide to follow Jesus, 

we decide NOT because ALL our questions are answered. 

Sometimes when we believe 

there are more questions than answers. 

In relation to pain, I remember the story of a young woman 

with a strange disease where she was 

congenitally insensitive to any physical pain. 

Even if she was hit by a car, she would not feel anything! 

Is that a good thing? 

Then why did her mother pray every day she would be healed?

That she would be able to feel pain?

Because her mother or someone else had to watch her constantly. 

There could be a fire behind her and she could be 

half burning before she knew it! 

 She could hurt herself on a rusty nail 

and she wouldn't realize it until perhaps 

her leg was changing size and color. 

Is it not perhaps that God uses pain and suffering 

to teach us things we would never learn otherwise? 

 Like Job in Chapter 22, let us profess: 

"I know You can do all things, 

 and that no purpose of Yours can be hindered. 

I have dealt with great things I do not understand; 

things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know."

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, 

by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, 

make your requests known to God, 

then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding 

will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." 

Philippians 4:6-7

This is one of my favorite Bible verses, 

and the following passage from St. Augustine's Confessions, 

seems to be its partner: 

"You have made us for Yourself, 

O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee."

I remember when I had no peace at all, 

little things made me cry, 

and it seemed as if everything I had done in my life was worthless. 

I would argue with everyone and 

fought with my poor mother who could not understand 

what was happening. 

It was in such a contrast to my usual state of mind 

 where I was content, thankful for everything, 

and rarely in contention with anyone. 

My mother called it my MIDNIGHT CRISIS, and so it was! 

I found out eventually there was something wrong 

with my thyroids that caused all the havoc 

with my emotions and physical well being.

Through it all, and it lasted for more than a year, 

I held on to Philippians 4:6-7. 

I would confess it, pray it, claim it, 

repeat it, and I knew that one day, 'this too shall pass'. 

And thank God, it did!

Peace is not the absence of 

problems, conflict, storms, anger...

It is the surety we belong to Someone 

who loves us and wants the best for us. 

It is the confidence that everything 

will turn out right, even in spite of ourselves.

Thank You Lord that even in a 

world full of tension and strife, 

You are the gatekeeper, 

and we can enter into Your peace!

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