The
Monsters In Our Midst
“Never pay
back evil for evil. Never avenge
yourself. Leave that to God. For He has said that He will repay those that
deserve it.” Romans 12:17-19
Frank Sinatra sang, “Love and Marriage
go together.” We could add, “Hurts and people
go together…like a horse and carriage.” It’s no wonder that we say, “Hurt people hurt
people.” Most other things we get over
fairly quickly. If you’ve ever been
bitten by a dog, you don’t tend to hold a grudge or carry it around. Dogs don’t think about it and neither do you,
and if anything, you were probably mad at the owner. Same is true with other areas. If a building
collapses, I bang my knee on the couch or find life letting me down, I rapidly
move ahead as soon as the pain subsides.
However, chances are, if
you carry around a prolonged internal hurt, about 99% of the time, there is
most likely an individual attached to it. Yet, if we let
God take those hurts and heal them, they can have incredible purposes in
touching others.
Years ago, down the street from where
I pastored in Salem, Oregon, lived a saintly gentleman and World War II hero in
his late 80’s who I got to know and invited to share his story with our church.
His name was Jacob DeShazer. After a daring and successful 1942
bombing raid over Japan, led by Jimmy Doolittle, Bombardier Jacob DeShazer was
one of eight downed in Japanese-occupied China. The military rulers took savage revenge on
them.
Three
died by firing squad. Jacob DeShazer, in solitary confinement and consumed with
hatred of his captors, frequently fought with his guards. In return he was
cruelly beaten.
But
one day, a guard thrust a Bible into DeShazer’s hands. In the dim light of the
cell, Jake read and was gripped by the prophets, which he reread six times. Moving on, Jacob DeShazer read with mounting excitement
about Jesus. Reading in Romans 10:9,10, "If you confess with your mouth,
’Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved." Romans 10:9. DeShazer fell to his knees and prayed for
forgiveness. Jake forgave his captors as God had forgiven him. He realized that
they mistreated him because no one had offered Jesus to them. If he survived his prison ordeal, DeShazer
promised God, he would do so. Released at war’s end, he trained for missions,
returned to Japan
and over the next 30 years witnessed to thousands who flocked to see the
"Doolittle Raider."
While
in Japan,
DeShazer became acquainted with a former Japanese pilot. His name was Mitsuo Fuchida. Fuchida was one
of the pilots who led the bombing on Pearl Harbor.
This man took part in many of the major battles in the Pacific. He also was
there on the deck of the USS Missouri next to Pearl Harbor at the surrender
ceremonies at the end of the war in 1945. After the war, he became disillusioned. He was
surprised to learn that Japanese POWs were treated humanely—a sharp contrast to
the Japanese treatment of Allied prisoners. Through a divine encounter,
DeShazer, the one who hated his enemies in Japan, met Fuchida, the one who
hated his enemies in the United States.
Through Christ’s love, DeShazer would lead to the Lord, the man who led
the attack on Pearl Harbor. As He had
been changed by Christ, he changed the lives of others.
Lewis
Smedes writes in Forgive & Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don’t Deserve,
"If we say that monsters (people who
do terrible evil) are beyond forgiving, we give them a power they should never
have…they are given the power to keep their evil alive in the hearts of those
who suffered most. We give them power to condemn their victims to live forever
with the hurting memory of their painful pasts. We give the monsters the last
word."
Three
things to keep in mind:
1)
Number one: God has forgiven you
(“Forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors,” Jesus said in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:12)
2) Number
two: We will need more forgiveness in the future (1
John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
of our sins.”)
3) Number
three: It is the only way to get healthy (Hebrews 12:15
says, “A bitter spirit is not only bad in itself but can also poison the lives
of many others.”)
Just like
hurts and people go together, so does God and forgiveness go together. His power is greater than any power that
seeks to overthrow your mind or corrupt your soul. “Never pay back evil for evil. Never avenge yourself. Leave that to God. For He has said that He will repay those that
deserve it.” (Romans 12:17-19) I guess you could say, when His power is
released in the hidden closets of your heart, the monsters in the closets have
to come out.
Terry Risser
Reflections:
1) Is there an area is your life that
comes to mind that Christ wants to heal?
2) Ask for Christ’s power to let the Holy
Spirit into that place for forgiveness.
Consider reading the Word today:
Copyright 2014- Terry
Risser
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