Apples of Gold
Radio Script for April 7, 2008
“Jesus Reaches Another Lost Sheep”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
This is a broken, messed up world.
Honestly, sometimes I just grieve for the hurt and pain people go through.
No, I don’t cry about it. Not yet. I just stuff it in my backpack, zip it shut, and keep walking.
What can I do anyway? I am just one man.
Well, there are two things I do. First, I pray for people. I’m not sure what good it does, or exactly how it works, but I believe there is something to it, that God exerts His influence when we pray.
And second, I promote Jesus. Jesus is the cure-all. For all the hurt and pain in this world, Jesus is the answer. There is not much I can do for people, but Jesus can.
Have you ever read the story of author Anne Lamott? She is not exactly a fundamentalist, conservative Christian.
Her parents were atheists, and they drilled it into her that there is no God. She became a writer, and an alcoholic. She used drugs and slept around. Life was spiraling downward.
Now get this. One night it crossed her mind to call a Christian pastor.
Why did that happen? Who knows, but I can tell you what I imagine. I imagine people praying for Anne Lamott, and God responding to those prayers by whispering to her that she should call this pastor.
So she met with the pastor. At one point she said, “I wanted to fall to my knees, newly born, but I didn’t. I was not willing to give up a life of shame and failure without a fight.”
Meanwhile, she got pregnant and had an abortion.
Some Sundays, hung over from alcohol or cocaine, she would walk to a flea market, and nearby was a church. She was drawn by the music and would stand in the back of the church and listen, but she always left before the sermon. To her, Jesus didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t rational, and she didn’t want to hear about it.
I love the way she describes the effect of the Gospel music. She said, “Something inside me that was stiff and rotting would feel soft and tender.”
One night, a week after the abortion, she had serious bleeding. She was very drunk, and was too ashamed to ask anyone for help.
After the bleeding stopped and she finally settled down, she had a cigarette, turned out the light and laid there in bed. Then she said, “I became aware of someone with me, hunkered down in the corner. The feeling was so strong that I actually turned on the light for a moment to make sure no one was there – of course, there wasn’t. But after a while, in the dark again, I knew beyond any doubt that it was Jesus.”
“I was appalled,” she said. “I thought about my life and my brilliant hilarious progressive friends, I thought about what everyone would think of me if I became a Christian, and it seemed an utterly impossible thing that simply could not be allowed to happen. I turned to the wall and said out loud, ‘I would rather die.’”
“I felt him just sitting there on his haunches in the corner of my sleeping loft, watching me with patience and love…”
“This experience spooked me badly,” she said. “I thought it was just an apparition, born of fear and self-loathing and booze and loss of blood. But then everywhere I went, I had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in. But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk, and then it stays forever. So I tried to keep one step ahead of it, slamming my houseboat door when I entered or left.”
The next week she went to the church. She was so hung over she couldn’t stand for the songs, but she did stay for the sermon. At one point she began to cry and left before the benediction. She said, “I raced home and felt the little cat running along at my heels.”
She opened the door to her houseboat, stood there for a minute, hung her head…and said to Jesus, “All right. You can come in.”
Don’t you love that story? To me, that is so Jesus!
I’ve heard thousands of testimonies like that, and I’m always amazed. It’s just like the parable in Luke 15. The Good Shepherd goes out looking for lost sheep, and when He finds them, He joyfully puts them on His shoulders and brings them home!
So, yes, there is a lot of hurt and pain in this old world, but there are a couple of things we can do. We can pray for people. And when we get the chance, we can promote Jesus. He can do what we are powerless to do. He will reach out to them no matter their condition, and save them.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
Anne Lamott’s story is from her book, “Traveling Mercies.”
© 2008 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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