ILLUSTRATING THE POINT

Father Risks His Life for a Diamond

My father, Dr. Jack Beukema, had a diamond that was very valuable to him. It came to him 40 years ago when his parents died. My grandfather had given that diamond to my grandmother in an engagement ring. It's rather tiny, as diamonds go, and not at all perfect. My grandfather earned the money for the ring by doing hard labor in a stone quarry.

After my dad came into possession of the ring, he had a jeweler take the diamond from the setting and put it in a man's ring. My father wore that ring, with my grandmother's diamond, for nearly 20 years.

One night, after attending a conference in a city far from home, Dad went for a walk and was held up at gunpoint by two robbers. The crooks asked my father for his money, and he gave it to them, money clip and all. They asked for his watch, which had been an expensive gift from his older brother. Dad handed it over. Finally, they asked for his ring. Dad said, "You'll have to come and get it." It wasn't the monetary value of the ring, but the significance of it that motivated him to refuse.

Amazingly, they didn't shoot him. After hearing the story, the investigating officer called my dad, and I quote, "an idiot." He said, "You're lucky to be alive. The next time someone threatens you with a gun, give them everything they want."

That story makes me wonder … is there anything I possess that someone could only take by killing me? Is there anything I value more than my own life?

John Beukema, Western Springs, Illinois

THE MORE YOU KNOW

It is interesting to note that the longest speech found in the Book of Acts was not given by Paul or even Peter, but by Stephen. It was a crucial defensive speech for the New Testament church to show that God has and always desires a relationship with His creation. Upon to this point, these followers of Jesus still went to the Temple to worship and pray. Christians considered Judaism and Christianity as one and the same religion because of their belief that Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophets and the Law. Stephen’s defense was an unbelievable one. Unlike Peter, who desired people to understand that Jesus was from God and was their Messiah, Stephen directly blamed the Jewish leadership for their error in understanding who Jesus is. As such, his defense was an aggressive one that hit directly at continuing rejection of God-sent men who were pointing to the Messiah. Instead of Stephen, it should have been the generations of Jewish leadership on trial for rejecting the prophets and the Holy Spirit who spoke through them.

With this unprecedented defense, Stephen was enabled by the Holy Spirit to speak confidently against his accusers. Chapter 6 verse 15 states, “all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” This description is similar to Moses after he had been in the presence of God (Exodus 7:55-56; 34:29, 35). His description in verse 8 was that he was “a man full of God’s grace and power”. Stephen was only able to give such an uncommon defense because he had been in the presence of God and was filled with His Spirit.

I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SAY

“When you speak of heaven, let your face light up. When you speak of hell well, then your everyday face will do.” - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“When one preaches Christianity in such a way that the echo answers, ‘Away with that man, he does not deserve to live,’ know that this is the Christianity of the New Testament. Capital punishment is the penalty for preaching Christianity as it truly is.”

- Theologian Soren Kierkegaard

“Is it not a frightening truth that the free will of a bad man can resist the will of God? For He has, after a fashion, restricted His own Omnipotence by the very fact of creating free creatures; and we read that the Lord was not able to do miracles in some place because people’s faith was wanting.” - C. S. Lewis

“Worship helps people see God in the midst of their troubled lives.”- Paul Anderson