Jesus and His Trusty Holy Spirit Glass Ferrets Out (Shudder, Shudder)--Jonah-ism!

I can't give many details about the backstory--it might hurt some mighty fine saints--but I think I can give you the gist of what was happening in what turned out to be a shameful, modern day reenactment of Jonah 4.

My family and I were living in Mexico, living the life of Riley--serving the Lord and enjoying every minute of it. The church was going well, the Bible school was going well, the children's ministry was going well. The world was our oyster and we were having a ball. Of course, we do travel in a world that is not our home. Deserts are its mainstays, oases only the occasional refreshing from God. So of course our archenemy, you-know-who, had to stick his nasty thumb in the pudding.

There was a young lady on the ministry team at the church who had a powerful testimony of being delivered from a life of sexual proclivities that did not honor God. A newcomer came to the church, well read and well dressed, to all outward appearances a "keeper". But we started to note subtle little things that seemed to point to her trying to spin a web around the staff member, as if she were trying to entice her into returning to the life from which the Lord had rescued her.

Anyone who has worked in ministry knows that there are always problems that surface. At this point in time we were barely recovering from one such problem when this situation began to make itself known.

I am loathe to reveal this, but, overwhelmed with being faced with yet another personnel problem, I railed at my husband about the situation we saw developing. Surely there was something we could do!

"Janine," he said, "we are not the pastors. We can pray for wisdom for the pastors to address the situation but we cannot bypass the order of the church and approach these people ourselves."

"What can we do, then?"

"We can pray. That's all we can do."

He left. I harrumphed. Pray? Pray???? I wanted to do something, confront someone, give people ultimatums. Sigh ... I failed to see that I was acting just like Jesus's disciples, "Let's pray for fire to rain down on them, Lord!" If only I had remembered what Jesus had admonished them--I didn't know what spirit I was from (Luke 9:54-59).

I slumped back to my sewing, discomfited, praying halfheartedly as I stitched.

It wasn't long before I heard someone knocking at the front patio door. It was a pastor from one of our missions. He wanted to speak to Steve, but since he wasn't available ...

"Hermana (sister)," he said. "I felt I had to let you know what I have been hearing on the street. The porros of the university have taken note of Brother Steve's white truck and have said they want to take it."

I gulped as I felt my blood turn to ice. I never did quite "get" what the porros of the university were. Someone explained to me that they were a gang tied to powerful people at the university and as such were virtually untouchable. Whatever they were, the fact was that if they took your valuables, good luck getting the police to help you. In other words, if they took a liking to our truck, it was a goner.

Politely thanking the pastor for the information, though I genuinely wished he had not shared it, I retreated turtle-like into our home. Finding myself too distraught to keep working, I fell on my knees and indulged in a bona fide pity party.

"God!" I cried, "Look what these porros want to do! You gave us the means to get that truck! We sold the land Steve had in Oklahoma to pay for it. If it is taken, we don't have more land to sell to buy another! You know no one can stand against the porros! We need You, Lord! We are Your children! Help us!"

Finally, after my sobs subsided, a quiet still voice spoke to my heart. "Oh, Janine, Janine. You are so troubled about a little white truck that is here today and gone tomorrow ... how do you think I feel about my daughter whose soul is eternal?"

Paul says that God disciplines those whom He loves. I guess He must love me a lot because He sure brought me up short! I was so worried about how the church would be affected by a worker's falling away that I had totally, totally, been spiritually myopic, failing to see how very much I needed to love the worker facing spiritual danger and care for her welfare.

What was a truck in the face of the life of someone God loved? I deserved to have the truck stolen. Needless to say, I dried my shameful tears and began to pray in earnest for my sister in Christ.

The end of the story? The worker's eyes were opened to the dastardly web the enemy was trying to spin around her and she was delivered from a falling away. And the porros did not steal our truck (even though I truly deserved for them to do so). Maybe their saying they wanted to steal it was just a rumor, but, whatever it was, it was a tool God used to show me what was truly important.

It didn't "feel" good at the time, but I am eternally grateful that God took the trouble to straighten me out, as He continues to do to this day. So when God pulls your ear about something, don't get your feelings all in a knot--remember He's done the same to me as well as to all whom He loves.

It is precisely because He loves us that He takes the time to scrutinize our hearts and shows us how to make them spanking clean. Have you ever noticed how in Genesis, when God created the world and all that is in it, He uses the descriptor good, not perfect? The word perfect in the Bible is not found until Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount when He said, "Be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). Perfection is the particular purview of the Christian. It is not to be found in the things of this world. It is found in the life of the believer who yields himself to God and walks with Jesus.

I invite you, dear friend, to be a better person than the one portrayed at the beginning of this story. Yield yourself to God, let Him scrutinize your heart with His Heavenly magnifying glass and ferret out all the dross that doesn't become a child of the living King. I dare you to be perfect!

"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6).

"Take away the dross (dregs, waste) from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer" (Proverbs 25:4).