Learning to Trust God

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:33:04 -0600

About ten years ago, I was selected as the next Drum Major of my high school band, and I was quite proud of myself. One of the benefits of being drum major was getting my own special uniform. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive in time for our pre-season pictures, which would appear in publications throughout the football season. Two days before the pictures, I insisted that my mother make a uniform for me for the photo shoot.

I was trying on the pants to see if they fit, and my mom asked me to turn around. I tried a new “two-step” about-face maneuver that involved pivoting on my heel. My heel landed right on a glass shard that was on the floor. Instead of pivoting, I ground the shard right into my heel, and immediately shrieked in pain as blood started to gush out of my foot. I hobbled to the bathroom, and brought my foot up onto the sink, so the blood wouldn’t get all over the floor. I was running water over my punctured heel, thinking the glass had not gone deep in my foot, but every time I tried to grab it to remove it, I couldn’t get ahold of it, It just caused more pain. Tweezers couldn’t get it, and after half an hour of pain, blood and tears, my mother had had quite enough of my caterwauling; she offered me a needle, and went off to bed.

I sat in the dark, sobbing, trying to decide whether to attempt to use the potentially painful needle to remove the already painful glass splinter, and realizing that I couldn’t go the rest of my life with a glass shard in my foot, I decided to pray, “God, will you please get this splinter out of my foot?” The next conversation was astounding, as God had never communicated with me in so direct a way before. For those of you who have heard the Holy Sprit, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, it’s not like hearing a sound: It’s like hearing a thought, and it went something like this:

“Pick up the needle,” God said.
“Whoa, needles are painful, and I’m already in pain. Isn’t there a way you can get this thing out without pain?” I asked.

“Pick up the needle,” God said.
I was unsure that there would be less pain God’s way, so I decided to ask for pain so small that God wouldn’t agree to do it (and I wouldn’t have to use the needle).
“Ok, I’ll pick up the needle, but only if You promise it won’t hurt,” I demanded.

“Ok, pick up the needle,” He said.
Now, this has got me in quite a quandary: was God actually offering to remove a glass splinter, that caused immense pain at the slightest touch using a sharp, (probably also painful) needle? Was He really agreeing to my request that it not hurt? Was this going to be one of those “there’s no pain in the Lord” kind of pains, or was it really not going to hurt at all? I decided to ask for something so outlandish it would make him renege: “Ok, I’ll pick up the needle, but only if you promise to stop the bleeding, too.”

“Ok, pick up the needle,” He answered once more.
Well, this was just wasn’t what I had been hoping for - using the needle. But I figured that either God would come through on His promise, or He’d turn out to be a liar, so His reputation was on the line. So I figured whether I actually trusted Him or not, I’d give it a go. I picked up the needle.

What happened next was quite clear to me: the Holy Spirit entered my hand, the right one, and began to brush the needle in small strokes in a wide circle around the glass splinter - and it didn’t hurt! I couldn’t even feel the needle! About half way around I realized what was happening: the shard was much larger than I had realized, and God (through my hand and the sharp needle) was cutting off a flap of skin that was keeping it in my heel. Oh, and the bleeding had suddenly stopped!

I decided God’s solution was absolutely brilliant, and I thanked Him for it. I told Him that I was ready to take over—now that I realized what the solution was. I took back control of my hand, and the next stroke I made caused pain in my foot like the entire evening combined! God didn’t have to explain it to me: His promise wasn’t that I could use the needle without pain, it was that He could use the needle without pain!

A moment again with the pain and I realized that God had in fact come through on His promise, and that I had brought myself more pain by trying to take over His miraculous work. I decided to let Him complete the work, and the Spirit, back in my hand, continued stroking the needle, each stroke completely painless. When He finished, the flap opened, the glass shard fell out, and there was absolutely no blood. Zero. God had worked a miracle in my foot, through my hand and a dreaded needle, fulfilling His promise that He would cause no pain and there would be no bleeding. But He wasn’t done yet.

I didn’t even have to put a band-aid on my heel that night as I went to bed, it wasn’t bleeding. There was just a quarter inch hole in the bottom of my foot where the glass had been.

The next morning, I woke up to discover that even the hole was gone. There wasn’t a scratch on my foot, or even a hole where the shard had been. My heel was healed overnight! I had to confirm that I had ever had a glass splinter with my mother at breakfast. She indicated that, yes indeed, I had cried like a big baby for at least half an hour before she offered me a needle and went to bed.

There’s a passage in Joshua 3:13-16. God was making a promise to the people that He would give them the land of Canaan, across the Jordan river. God promises to hold back the waters of the Jordan, but not until the priests carry the Ark up to it and step in it. They trust Him, He does it, and God delivers on His promise to win the land. It seemed similar here, he asks that we trust him enough to start on our way, and he fulfils His part.

I’d love to say that I learned my lesson that night, but the process of trusting God to come through on His promises to heal my pain through His Spirit will probably last a good bit longer.

It’s important for us to share what God has done in our lives. Send your testimony in today.

-Ben Spratling, August 1999

You have Jesus in your iPod!

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 21:21:57 -0600

Dear Ben,

I just wish to share with you how God has used that small icon of your Bible app.

I'm a piano teacher and I have these two little girls who take lessons together back to back. I use the ipod touch to keep teaching notes so I always have it at the corner of the piano. We were having lesson the other day as usual and somehow the older sister saw my ipod and got curious with it. She pressed on the home button and unlocked it. There, she saw the BibleXpress icon (I keep it at the dock for easy access) and exclaimed, "Oh! You have Jesus in your iPod!"

She pressed on that small icon and that lead her to Genesis 7 of The Message version. (Great that you've got TM in the app - easier English and the kids can understand it relatively more easily.) Then she began to ask questions about Noah. Since she could swipe to go to previous and next chapter, it really gave me a chance to tell the two little girls the Noah story, which lead to questions about who God is, why God doesn't like bad guys, what will happen to the bad guys, hell, how to avoid going to hell, Jesus, and the whole salvation scheme. They've heard about Jesus but didn't quite know who he really is and why he is related to us. Now they know. They've even learned how to pray. That lesson went overtime but the two girls were really excited to hear about God.

I hope this little story will give you some encouragement when you're working on this app. And I praise the Lord that you have written such a useful app that has brought blessings to many - not just the app users but even the little ones.

May the Lord bless you as you serve Him with this app and other things in your life.

in Him,
Joanna

Dear Joanna,
Wow, thanks. It’s great to hear how Christ can use the tiniest things to draw us nearer to Him. I’ve wondered how Christ would use that Bible icon. I designed it six years ago for a video I was planning for my Sunday School class. I was looking for a Bible that had a gold-leaf cross on the cover and I couldn’t find one, but the Lighthouse Christian Bookstore (in Opelika, AL) gave me a Bible for free that had its first several pages inserted upside down. I used gold-colored paint and hand painted the cross on the cover. I never finished making the video. I always wondered how Jesus was going to use that work. When I started work on BibleXpress, I realized that it would make a great icon for the app.
And to think, just a month ago I received an e-mail from someone asking me to remove the cross from the icon because, as he said, “my faith does not include belief in the cross.” But I disagree; I think that in today’s society, the cross stands as a symbol of Christianity, and to the Christian, the cross stands as a reminder of God’s love, power, and His desire for relationship with us, as illustrated in the following passages:
“God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - Romans 5:8
(Jesus speaking) “...I have overcome the world” - John 16:33
(Jesus speaking) “If anyone would follow after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow me.” - Luke 9:23

God plans these things; so when I got this e-mail I knew it was time to kick-off the testimonies. (I had been stalling while I tried to finish update 1.4.) So submit your testimony.

-Ben

Testimonies

Learning to Trust God

You have Jesus in your iPod!