"I Want a Principle Within"--but Please Permit Me to Be Human!

A few weeks ago Rev. Josh Davis spoke at our church for Friday night youth rally

and for both services on Sunday.

His wife and he sang as a duet together the beautiful old hymn by Charles Wesley,

"I Want a Principle Within."

I have not been this impressed with a young couple in a long time.

I loved this couple's sincerity, simplicity, honesty and uniqueness, and yes,

their delightful un-coolness. 

(Josh graduated ten years ago from Penn View--yay for Penn View!--after driving his teachers crazy before he really was transformed by the power of Christ).

They actually sang an old hymn for the special.

"I want a principle within of jealous, godly fear,

A sensibility of sin, a pain to feel it near.

Help me the first approach to feel of pride or wrong desire,

To catch the wandering of my will and quench the kindling fire."

"From Thee that I no more may stray, no more Thy goodness grieve,

Grant me the filial awe, I pray, the tender conscience give;

Quick as the apple of an eye, O God, my conscience make!

Awake my soul when sin is nigh, and keep it still awake."

"Almighty God of truth and love, To me Thy power impart;

The burden from my soul remove, the hardness from my heart.

O may the least omission pain my reawakened soul,

And drive me to that grace again, which makes the wounded whole."

****

Bro. Josh preached that Friday to the young people from the lives of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,

about our need to be willing to stand alone for right 

even if everyone around us is bowing.

 And so that was a very sobering and convicting message.

But then that Sunday evening he brought a different theme, and a fresh perspective on how Satan can trouble us about our humanity until we feel like we can't be witnesses for the Lord.

He was talking about Satan's tactics and how he will try to keep us from being fruitful Christians.

About the time we recognize an opportunity to share Christ with someone,

Satan will quickly remind us that we didn't read our Bible that morning,

or had to rush off without having our prayer time.

This is the first preacher I have ever heard who was honest about the fact that as a father of three young children and a pastor who worked a full time construction job,

he just simply isn't able to always without fail read his Bible and pray every single day.

He said, "Our goal should be to read our Bible and pray every day," but if in the reality of life, 

we miss a Bible reading here or a prayer time there,

and have times when we only do it three or four days a week instead of seven,

that is no reason to tuck our tails between our legs and let the devil tell us we can't be a faithful witness and a fruitful Christian!

 Or, Bro. Josh said,  Satan will use another tactic.

Just when we feel we should share Christ or be involved in some kind of witness for Him,

Satan will quickly remind us how we got aggravated with our spouse or with our kids that morning!

 This is the first preacher I have ever heard who admitted from the pulpit 

that if you don't get aggravated at your kids,

you aren't even human!

May his tribe increase.

I gasped, "Thank you!" right out loud in the middle of all these people listening.

So, yeah, now everyone knew I am this horrible mom that isn't sanctified well enough to not get aggravated with my kids.

 I have heard people testify who apparently never got aggravated with their kids again

after they were saved, not to mention sanctified.

An egg could get squashed on the carpet, and they would not be troubled.

Well, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year Year, and Hallelujah!
God's plan is not that we be justified, sanctified, petrified, and wimpified. 

 Perhaps if you are retired and have all day to pray, read and play at your hobbies,
or if you only have two or three kids and they are in school all day, you could clean up three dozen eggs off the carpet and not be troubled.

 Try raising the chickens and eggs, too,

and butchering your own beef...

and your own pork,

 and home school ornery kids all morning,

and then take them up to the nearby lake to go fishing,

 and help your hubby with his office work

and still try to fit in a Sunday morning and afternoon where you take your kids to a little inner-city mission church in Denver

where the new young pastor and his wife (also from Penn View) are working single-handedly
 with 26 children and a few adults,

and you come home half dead,

and the hay falls off the four-wheeler 

or egg falls out of the fridge or your kids start squabbling,

well, if you aren't aggravated, I just say Merry Christmas!

May your Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Columbus Days be multiplied. 

I'm more human than that, and live my days during the rest of the year.

 It was incredibly refreshing to hear a holiness pastor say so, too.

He clarified that we cannot get out of control and still think we are in the power of the Spirit,

but there is a point where we are just human and respond to difficult situations

in less than angelic feelings

and in maybe a less than sweetsy way. 

He told of a time when during a game at Bible College another young man apparently got mad at him and slugged him in the back.

Josh whipped around and laid that young man on the ground.

That night he agonized and wept over it. 

But the Holy Spirit let him know that he had not been out of control when he dealt with that slug.

He was a young husband and father who was responsible for taking care of a wife and family

and could not permit another person to wreck his back and put him out of commission.

I have never in my life heard this kind of truth

and this kind of honest, fearless admission that left me feeling so incredibly strengthened. 

I go home from that feeling like a huge burden is off my back.

I'm less frustrated, less burdened,

less weak and less worn,

and I feel like I can actually work on the patience thing and the perseverance

and the faithfulness and the learning to rejoice in tribulation--

 

because if I am human,

I'm just that!

HUMAN!

Thanks, Bro. Josh, for permitting us to be human and humane,
and for giving us a picture of a Christ Who is not just lifeless, listless, and lovey-dovey.
This truth needs to be lifted up about Jesus Christ, the real Christ with a heart of love for the repentant but with blazing eyes for the rebellious and unbelieving,
the One who "looked with anger" at the hypocritical, unmerciful Pharisees when they were more interested in keeping their own laws rather than God's,
Who called them out to their faces
and drove money changers and racketeers out of the temple so that it could again be a house of prayer.

Thanks to our pastor for giving Josh the pulpit for truth that is real rather than surreal.
And thanks to Penn View for being patient with a once-rebellious young student
who was transformed at that Bible College through the power of God's grace,
and turned out a balanced young preacher with actually a head on his shoulders,
someone that Miss Frances Stetler, who nearly banned him from her class due to (in his own words) "infectiously" bad attitude, but at the last minute kept, by the providence of God,
 would now be proud of.