Pastor Leon Seaton

Living Out the Love of Christ

 “Redeeming Love, the Legacy of the Deaconess Ladies” written by Mary McReynolds, tells the story of Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City. The hospital actually started out as a home for unwed mothers called the Guthrie Rescue Home in Guthrie, OK.

In illustrating the early history of the home McReynolds tells a fictional story about an unmarried teenaged girl named Mandy.  The story opens as Mandy rides in the back of their horse drawn buggy, on their way to Guthrie. She is in her early pregnancy, is lonely, nauseated and throwing up. It is early evening, and the dirt road is rough and bumpy.

At the home Mandy is shown loving compassion and accepts Jesus Christ as her Savior. Years later Mandy returns to the home for a visit; the home is now in Oklahoma City. Many years after that, her grandson writes the history of how Deaconess Hospital eventually evolved into a major medical center.

Mandy was a somewhat naive young girl taken in by a fast talking young man that takes advantage of her. Perhaps he did love her; perhaps he lost respect for her after she gave in to him. Whatever the situation, she was left pregnant and abandoned.

Her parents were in shock. Young ladies were not to get pregnant – especially 100 years ago! After all, what would the neighbors think? Worse, what would the neighbors say?

While her father still loved her, he separated from her emotionally. The pastor and wife at least came to pray with the family…hopefully they helped the family work through their grief.

The Deaconess Sisters fully represented the love of Jesus Christ as they welcomed Mandy into their home without reservations and assisted her in establishing herself as a responsible mother and introduced her to Jesus as her Lord and Savior. The physician that served with them was also a kind and caring gentleman.

            This powerful story really struck my heart because I have been guilty of passing judgment on young people that create babies out of wedlock. Sex is for married couples. One man and one woman committed for life and committed to keeping their word no matter what difficulties they face. While my theology was right, my attitude was wrong. All of us sin and come short of God’s glory – thank God He is more than willing to forgive us and restore us!

            The Christian journey gets more and more fun as I grow older. The 16/40/60 rule is much easier to understand. The 16/40/60 rule states that at age 16 we worry about what everyone thinks of us. At age 40 we really don’t care what they think. At age 60 we realize that they weren’t thinking about us at all…they were worried about themselves!

Hopefully as we mature we will get less judgmental about others. I spoke with a young pastor recently about the joy of preaching. She said, “Well, you have to tell everyone about their sins, don’t you?”

No, you don’t. That just makes folk mad. It is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin. And the Holy Spirit convicts in a loving manner.

Jesus asked the woman caught in adultery if anyone was condemning her – right after He told the accusers that the sinless one among them could throw a stone. When He said that, they all disappeared.

 She said, “No one condemns me, sir.”

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11) We are not in the condemning business; we are in the business of ministering God’s love.

The woman at the well had been married five times and was living with another man without the benefit of marriage! (John 4:18) Some of us would have had a stroke or wet our pants.  Jesus showed her love, acceptance and forgiveness… and then let her be His missionary. The disciples went to town to get food. This lady went to town to get people that needed to meet God in person.

            As believers we are to “hate the sin but love the sinner.”

            How in the world do we do that?  Let me tell you, I have often wondered about that.  But the answer is actually very simple… Of course the simple solutions are often the most difficult to find.

            Sometimes we can’t see the things right in front of us. For instance, you are busy at your desk paying bills. You have the checkbook, the calculator, the bills and stamps and all the other things it takes for the project. Suddenly you can’t find the checkbook. No one else has been in the room…where is that crazy checkbook?

            You scatter things around and finally you find it…right under your left elbow…so obvious yet so hard to see!

            The answer to reaching the world is also right in front of us, half way between your belt and your shoe tops. Your knees... Spend time in prayer. Spend TIME in prayer… so much TIME IN PRAYER that you are no longer praying just for yourself and your family. You begin to worship the Lord and start praying for the people that are starving to death. You pray for the kids that are caught up in drugs and sex and alcohol. You pray for the missionaries and the kids that have been sold into prostitution – many of whom living right here in the United States.

            As we earnestly and sincerely pray for those that are lost in sin, the Holy Spirit begins to pray through us. He lifts our thoughts far and above our own desires. Earnest, sincere prayer moves us right into the very presence of the living God.

            As we learn to pray more and more at that level, we make it more and more difficult for Satan to disturb us. ,At some point your prayer gets so intense that you tell Satan to buzz off and quit bugging your and the lost people in our nation.

            Starting this Wednesday evening, some of us will begin to pray at a different level. Roberta and I have already been sharing some of the chapters out of “E M Bounds on Prayer” and then praying afterwards. It has been dramatic.

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.                                                                                   ~Mother Teresa (http://www.quotegarden.com/love.html)

You have to walk carefully in the beginning of love; the running across fields into your lover's arms can only come later when you're sure they won't laugh if you trip.  ~Jonathan Carroll, "Outside the Dog Museum" http://www.quotegarden.com/love.html

How do we live out love? Consider the children of the dysfunctional moms that abuse their children or marry men that abuse the kids.  If these children never experience true love, they will not know how to love. I have never forgotten a 5 year old little girl that I met when I was the chaplain at the Oklahoma University Medical center in 1979.  Her mother’s boyfriend had sexually abused the little girl. The girl was admitted to the adult hospital to protect her from other kids asking questions. When I walked into the room at the request of the nurses, the mom was asking her daughter if she thought it would be okay for the man to stay in their home!  I am still stunned by the mother’s attitude!

Think of our military men and women that leave their children behind for months at a time as they defend our nation. They could get other jobs – they could draw unemployment – but in their heart is a desire to serve you and me by protecting our freedom.

Many churches live out the love of Jesus Christ by providing school lunches and school back packs for the poor…they feed the hungry and have free medical clinics for the homeless.

We support these ministries like these through prayer and money.

The most powerful thing we can do to change the world is through the right kind of prayer.  E.M. Bounds opens his book on prayer with these words: “The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon the earth. Great throes and mighty convulsions in the world have come about as a result of these prayers. The earth is changed, revolutionized; angels move on more powerful, more rapid wings; and God’s policy is shaped when the prayers of His people are more numerous and efficient.

“The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray. Indeed, we must pray so that our prayers take hold of God. The man who has done the most and the best praying is the most immortal, because prayers do not die. Perhaps the lips that uttered them are closed in death, or the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God’s heart is set on them. Prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them – outlive a generation, outlive an age, and outlive a world.

“Prayer is no fitful, short-lived thing. It is no voice crying unheard and unheeded in the silence. It is a voice that goes into God’s ear, and it lives as long as God’s ear is open to holy pleas, as long as God’s heart is alive to holy things….

“The life of the church is the highest life, and its office is to pray… When God’s house on earth is a house of prayer, then God’s house in heaven is busy and powerful in its plans and movements. Isaiah 56:7b states, “For My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (E.M. Bounds, on Prayer, © 1997 by Whitaker House Publishing: Whitaker House, 30 Hunt Valley Circle, New Kensington, PA 15068, pages 11, 12)

May 17, 2009