A Mission Remembered
Page 24
I nodded. “Luck didn’t have anything to do with it. It was all by God’s grace. What should I call you? I’ve heard a lot of people give you names, but what do you call yourself?”
He looked at me with the same confused look as before. “You, of all people, should know.” He waited for a moment, thinking about what to say. “I prefer Bob.”
“Well Bob, I am grateful for your help.”
“Why’d you come back for me?” he asked bluntly.
I thought about my reply for a while before answering, “Because what IODINE was doing to you, to us, was wrong. No one deserves to be tortured like that.”
Bob looked at the ground and muttered, “I did, Blue Berry, you know that.” I could see the painful memories in his eyes. “What happened in that place… it was punishment for everything I had ever done. I deserved every bit of it, and much more.”
I didn't know what things were tormenting him, but I replied, “Bob, you are right, in a way. Sin does deserve punishment, but IODINE is not the one responsible to administer it. What if I was to tell you that there was someone who already had been punished for all your crimes?”
“I’m listening."
To be Continued
Author’s Note
Dear Reader, thank you for joining Arphaxad in the beginning of this journey he’s on, I’m not sure where we are going but it’s going to be a wild ride! I just wanted to, as in the last book, briefly talk about the message in the story.
I’m sure you noticed it, but there was a recurring verse throughout the story. The theme verse and really the scripture that inspired this tale, John 10:28, says, “And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
Wow, just wow. I just love the implications of this. Nothing man can do to us will ever separate us from our Lord! Which is what I wanted to champion in this story through Arf’s trials. Men try their best to entice, and even steal, Arf away from his Savior for their own purposes, but Christ’s grasp was unrelenting. It is like what Paul wrote in Romans 8:38-39, “ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So take heart believer, that no matter what mayhem you face in life, though everything dear to you be taken, you will never be taken from the bosom of your Savior or the loving care of the Father.
But from a moment, let’s consider this verse within its context. In the passage that this verse is from, Jesus is rebuking the Jews for their unbelief in that they demanded for Him to tell them if He was the Christ.
In verses 26-27, leading to our main verse, He says, “But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, My sheep know my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
I was loving this passage the more I studied. He knew us before the foundation of the world were laid, and then He instilled in our hearts to respond to His voice! When He calls, His called-out ones follow. Those who He bought with His priceless blood know His voice when He beckons them.
So with these thoughts in my head, I am compelled to ask, do you hear His voice? Oh reader! Are you of those who have been called? Have you ever heard your Shepard’s voice? “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness,” Hebrews 3:7-8.
Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” We all have sinned against God’s Law (Romans 3:23), we were like sheep scattered in the wilderness, but Christ, the good Shepard, came for His us. “As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.” Ezekiel 34:12.
But there, was a dreadful cost to gather His sheep. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” John 10:11. Though we all had wander, though we strayed, though “we were still sinners Christ died for us!” Romans 5:8. Yes, He died for us, His sheep, but He did not stay dead, for on the third day, He rose again and conquered death!
If you have heard the voice of the Savior calling you, do not refuse Him. Go to Him, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10. Repent of your sins, and seek Him out in His Word, and you will be of those sheep who hear the Shepard. Then He will give unto you eternal life, and no man shall ever pluck you out of His hand!
God’s Speed!
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[1] Isaiah 26:9
[2] Genesis 1:1
[3] John 1:1 and 1:14
[4] John 3:16
[5] Jeremiah 7:23
[6] Psalms 50:10-11
[7] Psalm 19:1a
[8] Acts 17:30-31
[9] Deuteronomy 32:35
[10] John 10:28
[11] Jeremiah 31:33
[12] Exodus 20:16