The power and wisdom of God!
Paul describes Jesus as “the power and wisdom of God” [1 Cor 1:21].When you think of the people you have known, who would you choose to describe one who embodies “the power and wisdom of God”, apart from Jesus?Now, quite a number of you people reflect the “power and wisdom of God” to me but because you are sitting there I can’t talk about you!Two others come to mind immediately.The first is a man named Glen Thompson. Glen is married to Wanda and we met them in the 1980s in Toowoomba, Queensland. Glen was a Church of the Nazarene Pastor. He’d brought his family to Australia from the American midwest bible belt to serve God in Australia.We met Glen at some church event and he explained that he was an honorary chaplain at the maximum security juvenile prison. Glen invited Cheryl and me to visit the boys with him and help him conduct the chapel services on Sunday – just like our prison ministry teams do.Glen was ‘perfectly’ unassuming. Neither charismatic in temperament nor great in gifting. He was gentle, dedicated, loving, encouraging, inclusive, sincere. Then he invited us to his housewarming party……..Glen had no money. He and Wanda trusted God for their provisions. He believed God had told him his way into the community was to build a house. This is hard to explain in a few words but Glen’s house was the house the community built and God provided the materials. Glen was so genuine that people felt there was a way into real community when they were around him. They’d donate materials and help on the building. Wanda would cook sponge cakes and make hundreds of cups of tea. The Thompsons loved people and left room for the people to love and serve them back.The housewarming was amazing. To this day Cheryl and I describe it as a piece of heaven. The people there were the oddest crew: blind, lame, palsied, all manner of colours and races and creeds, the very-well-to-do and the poorest-of-the-poor – and us! In Glen they found their humble champion, a pastor and friend. Glen’s passion was to introduce them to his Best Friend; dear Wanda just kept making cakes and slices and smiling at all and sundry.Last Saturday night reminded me of that housewarming at Glen’s place. My bikie pastor friend invited all and sundry to the Longriders CMC Clubhouse to down a few bourbons and celebrate his 50th. And there they were: the lame, the blind, the dispossessed, the walking- wounded, the ‘disasters’ [humanly speaking] and the persevering saints. When the speeches started, one after another shared how the birthday boy had loved them - sometimes by slapping them or by taking the bottle away, or by opening his home or heart. And all those people said he reminded them of Jesus in some way or other - another piece of heaven, a piece of heaven that we were a part of because he had invited Chezza and me. Somehow, by the grace of God, we had been a bit of Jesus for him.If someone is like that for you, “the power and wisdom of God”, tell them. There is no time when heaven and earth come so close as when redeemed people share and dwell in that appreciative unity.BlessingsMalcolm