Good Saint Nic

LIFE!  I thought it was supposed to slow down as you approached retirement age but that doesn't seem to be the case here.  Recently I realized that I need to re-do my bucket list because there are still so many things I want to do!

But that's another lament for another time.  At this moment I just want to put down for posterity another beautiful treasure I found this week in the pages of that dusty old book called the Bible.  Here goes!

There's this guy named Leroy.  We share a ride to or from our closest large city every now and again.  He's an elderly gentleman who drives slow and enjoys good conversation. He's sharp and loves to talk about the Bible and things in Scripture.  It's always an enjoyable ride.

Last week we chanced to be together again and got to talking about Nicodemus.  If you're not familiar Nicodemus is the guy who came to Jesus by night asking (my paraphrase) "WHO are you???" It was blowing the old teachers mind that this young roughneck was doing such miracles.  Plus I think he remembered a 12 year old boy who was left at the temple by some neglectful parents some years before and wondered if it was the same guy.   Whether by omnipotence or memory or both, Jesus obviously knew who he was. . . . all speculation on my part but the the pieces fit the puzzle.  Regardless, that question started the conversation that led to the most famous verse in the Bible:  John 3:16.

I have long believed from Nic's actions following that encounter that he truly came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. One of the reasons is that he so tenderly and lavishly cared for the body of our Lord after the crucifixion.  Seriously.  Who dresses the wounds of a dead man??  They didn't have open casket funerals back then.  The best you could do was slow down the smell long enough to get them sealed up or buried.

So when I was studying some stuff putting together a children's lesson I bumped into a fascinating message about the immutability of God. Immutability is that characteristic where God Never Changes.  Even if He changes his mind about something, it will be in keeping with His character.

Anyway . . . Acts 2:24   . . . "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." Why would Peter say it was impossible for Jesus not to raise from the dead?  Because the Bible had already said it!  Psalm 16:10: " For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."  That verse was a statement of God's character, a prophecy and a promise.  My paraphrase again:  "you're not going to leave me in the grave just like you're not going to let your Holy One rot in a grave!"

BAM!  There you go!  Nick knew that verse.  The old teacher guy who had taught the Old Testament all his life knew that body wasn't going to stay there cause God had said so years before and Nic knew God meant exactly what He said.

I didn't know all that during the drive with Leroy.  We had to agree that my belief about Nicodemus  was a personal conclusion since it wasn't specifically spelled out in the Bible.

But I've got the goods now and I can't WAIT to ride with him again and share this!

Don't Judge a Book by its Cover

Well, when I first saw the guy I was assigned to sit by on the plane I thought "terrorist".  Middle Eastern, skull cap, beard, black robes. Turns out he even had an accent.  Other  people were trying to avoid looking at him -  I could tell they were uncomfortable.  So I smiled real big and pointed to the seat between him and the window.  He jumped up,  helped me wrestle my bags into place and let me in.

During all this I saw the ornate wooden cross around his neck so I knew something else was up.  After struggling internally a few minutes I jumped in with both feet - "So you're obviously a  man of the cloth -  tell me about yourself."

And he did. This soft spoken gentle man and I had a nice chat about church history, persecution of believers in the Middle East, life, faith, cultural bubbles, scripture, seminaries and teaching tools.  I even recommended a place he may consider as a retreat for the seminary students he teaches.

So that was part of my very interesting day coming home.  I have my doubts  whether an hour beside a crazy Baptist lady will have any impact for him and in the long run, probably not for me either.  But I did see him soften when I told him about "our people" praying for "his people" and I now have a face to go with my brothers and sisters in the Middle East who know better than I what it is to suffer for the Cross.

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Side note added  later.  For the record, six months after this event in February 2015, 21 of "his people", Egyptian Coptic Christians, were captured by Isis in Lybia and beheaded.