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Lowell Brueckner

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Why This Waste?

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A woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it upon His head … the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste? For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”                                                                                Matthew 26:7-9

 

I
n a church, founded a few years ago by a good friend, Slave Valesanov, I heard the testimony of a woman, who had found Christ after the terrible conflict in Croatia. When she and her husband returned after the Serbian army left her city devastated, not even a sparrow could be heard in the streets. Their house was destroyed and they had no money for the needs of their children. They rummaged through the ruins in the neighborhood, searching for some bit of sustenance left behind and sometimes they would encounter bodies of infants. Such discoveries took a psychological toll and they began to take pills for depression. It was at that point, that the lady’s mother began to attend Slave’s church and invited her to special meetings, which Herman Williams, Tom Kyle, our son, Dan, and I were conducting by Slave’s invitation. Soon she and her whole family found Christ, but she confessed that it would never have happened had it not been for the terrible ordeal, through which they had passed. 

Natural mind against God

  The Bible makes it very clear that the natural mind of man is at enmity with the ways and means of God. Human understanding cannot be educated into loving God, but must experience a complete revolution, after a person becomes a Christian. To love God with all our minds does not mean that we fill it with learning from human institutions and the teaching of ungodly men in order to use it for divine service. The fine training and scriptural education of Saul of Tarsus led him to persecute the early church and to oppose the God, who he claimed to serve. To love God with our minds means to surrender them to His Spirit in order that He would fill them with His thoughts.

  The disciples of the Lord had serious problems understanding the ways of their Master. When mothers brought their children, seeking Jesus’ blessing upon them, the disciples opposed and Jesus was angered by their reaction. When the sinner woman poured her costly perfume upon Christ, her act brought a unanimous protest from the disciples, as they watched it drip to the floor. Judas, strengthened apparently by the attitude of his fellows went immediately to the leaders of the Jews to betray the Lord (Mt. 26:14). He had had enough. He was a thief, but his basic spiritual problem was not greed. It was an unwillingness to have his manner of thinking altered. The natural mind is an arrogant and stubborn entity. 

Humanism

  The disciples were motivated by humanistic thoughts – they put the interests of the poor over the honor of Christ. The tendency has not changed with the passage of time. In an age that champions humanistic thinking, we need to understand that it is never wasteful to glorify God. Much church and missionary effort in our day is nothing more than acts of natural compassion. To relieve the poor has no eternal value, if they are not brought to the feet of Jesus in humble submission. Those who honor Him, He will honor. The 300 days’ wages poured upon the Lord bought this woman, though she did not seek it, 2000 years of acclaim in every corner of the globe (Mt.26:13).

  The glory of God often takes a terrible toll in human lives and property. Consider the sea journey of Paul that cost the full cargo and finally the ship itself. However, 276 crew and passengers came to submit to the word of God. In Gadarea, demon powers left a man and drove 2,000 hogs over a cliff. No expense is spared to bring deliverance to one soul to the glory of God. 

God’s honor over all

  Not only does God’s honor take a toll from property, but it also can subtract years from a promising life. Joseph’s full youth was spent in slavery and prison, but there he learned the lessons that brought salvation to his people and the world. The great public ministry of the Apostle Paul was cut short by a prison sentence, but over the last 2,000 years the world has profited by the letters that he wrote from a cell.

  At 25 years of age, our daughter, Raquel, lost the use of her legs and has been in a wheelchair for almost eight years. “What a shame,” people remarked, “that this young mother should experience such a tragedy!” Shortly after that horrible accident, she and her husband visited our son, Dan, and his family in Macedonia. Dan took them to a rehabilitation hospital, where he weekly ministered to three or four young men. None of the women had attended his Bible studies, but when Raquel wheeled into the hospital, they immediately gathered around her and followed her into the Bible class. As a result, Roza Mojsovska, bitter from years of mistreatment and suffering, found the Lord. Roza now paints with her mouth and writes poetry. Magazines have printed her poems, hundreds, if not thousands, view her personal painting expositions in important public buildings and TV stations have interviewed her around the country. She has given bold, shining witness to the glory of her Lord.

  After 3 ½ years of unmatched service to mankind and healing all manner of diseases, delivering from satanic oppression and on various occasions even raising people from the dead, a mob brought a young man to a cross for Roman execution. The crowd, including his followers, watched as the blood drained from his body, streamed down the rough wood and dripped to the ground. “Why this waste?” - we might repeat the disciples question, “Think of the years He could have spent doing further good!” However, that blood was not lost. Countless souls have bathed in its stream and the awful stain of their sins has been removed, the eternal condemnation against them has been cancelled, their lives have been transformed and most importantly, they live to love and honor God for eternity. Andrae Crouch wrote:

“It reaches to the highest mountain
 And flows to the lowest valley.
The blood that gives me strength from day to day,
It will never lose its power.” 

 
 

Come into the Light

I always came to You when there was something that I needed,
But still I felt so tired, restless and defeated.
In hopelessness I came to You, knowing only You, could make it right.
You agreed and said, the only way, was to expose me in Your light.
I reluctantly uncovered and let You shine inside,
For it really couldn’t be all that bad, I couldn’t have much to hide.
But what You found was blackness, filthy, gross and hidden sin.
You wept and said, “Don’t use My name, when you hide all this within”. 

There was brightness in Your presence, I saw no darkness at all in You.
Now I know why I was defeated, for I’ve tried to mix the two.
Oh, how long You’ve tried in vain to bring me to this place.
In utter humility and shame, I lay smitten on my face.
Wretched fool that I have been, unfaithful to stay pure,
I didn’t cherish You, a precious Jewel; surely You’ll forsake me here. 

But at last, Your love reached deeply, into this awful pit of despair,
And lifted me to greatest heights, that we alone can share.
The lengths You’d go to love me, by Your death for me, You’ve shown.
Now I’m compelled to share with others, Your love make widely known.

It used to be so hard from this world to pull apart,
But now my greatest pain would be, if I were to break Your heart.
I had to lay uncovered under the Bright and Morning Star,
If You were ever going to be to me, as precious, as You now are.
                                                                 Karyn Brueckner  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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