A few years ago I was living in Brazil, on the foundations of a bible camp outside of the city of São Paulo. One evening, my dad and I had just arrived home and were getting out of the vehicle when a thief came out and held a gun to my dad’s head. I turned around, ran up to the man and hit him with my bag. Two men came from around the corner and hit my head. I blacked out for a seconds, and regained vision to see all three of them beating my dad. I picked up a broom and started yelling at them to go away. They told me to drop the broom and be quiet or they would kill my dad. So, I dropped everything. They continued to beat my dad, to make a point to me. My mom came out of the house; I had the audacity to tell her to go back inside, because everything would be okay. The robbers took us into our home and held us hostage for three hours while they ransacked the house, looking for a safe that we obviously didn’t have. And when they left with all our belongings, I know that despite my hellish actions, they had experienced Jesus. When my dad prayed for them, telling them that he loved them, that was Jesus speaking to them. My dad was only able to care for them because he had spent his whole life relying on the Holy Spirit to help him love people that no one could love. When my mom heard that they were hungry after waiting so long to ambush us, she offered to cook supper for them, five times. Each time they were baffled, and refused food, but each time it was Christ offering to provide for them. This was not a spur of the moment decision that my mom made, but a result of being hospitable to anyone who stepped foot into our home. What I had not realized at that time, was that peace-making is not an event choice, but a lifestyle. That is the reason I was unable to embody Christ in that high pressure situation as my parents had. I praise God for how my parents were empowered to bear witness to the Father’s love, and pray that he would foster the same reality in my own life.
I’m reading John and writing reflections on it for my leadership program at Columbia Bible College. I love when in ch.5 when Jesus tells the Jewish leaders why he has the gall to heal the paralytic on the sabbath. “I do not do it on my own, but I watch my Father, and do what he does.” Jesus claims that he is only doing what God has been doing all along. Later on in Jesus’ speech he describes how no one has ever seen God, except in how he himself has produced these signs that bear witness. The Holy Spirit empowers us, as Christ’s disciples, to bear witness about the Father, when we choose to have lifestyle that embodies that love of God, and the resurrection of Jesus. That is when people are able to see God, and see that he is good; when we are filled with his love, and manifest it in our very lives. Just as John the Elder records the signs that Christ performs so people may believe in spirit and truth, our day-to-day lives can be great signs that reveal the Father to the nations, and give people the opportunity to believe in Jesus.
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