Doug’s Testimony
For many men, Father’s Day brings back painful memories. However, regardless of the examples of our earthly fathers, our Heavenly Father’s legacy is what really matters in life.
As a young boy, Doug Hall idolized his dad. Doug’s father was a fighter pilot in the Air Force who left for Vietnam when he was only five. The death and destruction his father witnessed in Vietnam changed his life. When his dad returned from active duty, his heart had changed and he had became angry, bitter, confrontational, vindictive and verbally abusive. At the age of twelve, Doug’s father moved out of the house.
Doug grew up without a dad from the age of 13 to 37. Without a father’s guidance, Doug was broken, empty and lacked self confidence. He needed a father to give him affirmation him as a son and a young man. Even after Doug graduated from college and attained a good job with rewards that the world values, his life was still empty. His met a neighbor in Corona Del Mar where he had bought a house. She kept inviting him to church.
When he finally found the courage to accept her invitation to go to church with her, Doug doesn’t remember what the preacher said, but he remembers that in the depth of his soul, he heard the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the preacher read “Thou art fearfully and wonderfully made,” the heavens opened as if God himself were speaking.
Later he heard God’s voice that said, “Doug, you need to forgive your father.” Doug argued with the Lord, “I think he needs to apologize to me.” His dad had been a womanizer, and an alcoholic, filled with bitterness and pain.
Doug remembers that he wrote a twelve page letter of forgiveness to his dad. God reminded him that unforgivness is drinking poison and hoping that it will kill the object of your unforgivness..
As the days and years progressed, there was reconciliation between Doug and his father. When Doug finally had children of his own, he began to realize what it means to model the love of God. Gary Leachman reminded him that you can fake many things but you can’t fake showing up. Doug made it a priority to spend time with his wife and children. He keeps a framed needlepoint on his wall to remind him, “to have a child is to know the beauty of life.”
Throughout this life, Doug has discovered that the trials he endured with his dad were not wasted. He continues to learn that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the one of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
God has redeemed the years that “the locust has eaten.” When Doug’s father passed away a few years ago he was blessed to pray with him before hi died. Doug keeps alive the hope that his dad was born again and that they will see each other again in heaven.
The story of Joseph reminds him that “what men meant for evil, God meant for good.” According to Romans 8:28, all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
Forgiving his Dad was the most cathartic thing that Doug had done in his life. As the quote says, “I forgave and set the prisoner free only to find that the prisoner was me.”
Pete’s Message: Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Doug’s testimony reminds us that God reconciles us to Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation and has committed unto us the Word of reconciliation.
The beatitudes says that blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God. Peace is the result of reconciliation, of bringing together that which has been separated. There is no peace without the prince of peace. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Everything that Jesus taught was remarkable. He was outside of the norm of the world’s standards. Jesus said, “my peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Paul said, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” The gain is in living for the fourtharance of the gospel….to be ministers of the New Testament fulfilling our charge as ambassadors for Christ. Therefore we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to Christ. Our mission is to offer a peace treaty from the kingdom of heaven. The terms of the peace treaty are acceptance of God’s gift of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
The holy spirit points away from ourselves and unto Christ and the gospel message of salvation. The evil one will point us to ourselves and away from Christ. When we focus on ourselves, it makes us think that our so-called rights have been violated. The voice of the enemy will appeal to the old nature that is insidiously preoccupied with self.
However, we are a new creation in Christ. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. God through his son gives us the power to live for him….to live the remarkable life of forgetting those things which are behind and pressing forward to the things that are before….in the newness of life.
1 Peter 1:23-24 says,
23. (Jesus Christ) Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
Righteousness is not in seeking retribution, but in forgiving. Jesus said while he was being nailed to the cross said, “father forgive them for they know know what they do.”
The mark of the high calling is to be Christ centered, grace driven, and faith based.
A critical spirit will break up any relationship. According to James….the tongue is an all consuming fire, the very world of iniquity, set among our members on fire by hell…full of deadly poison.
Like the song says, “It’s only words, and words are all I have to take your heart away.” We’re called to deliver words of peace, reconciliation, love and forgiveness in light of eternity. God has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. To reconcile is to make peace in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Therefore guard your tongue. God dwells in the prayers and praises of the saints. Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of the heart are flow the issues of life.
Pete recalls the story about DL Moody who was preaching at a revival in England. As Moody preached, he noticed an older man sitting on the front pew whose ruddy face was radiant with joy. After the service DL Moody approached him and asked him why his face reflected the joy of the Lord.
The man said that he had been an officer in India for the British army. He ruled his troops with an iron fist. He was a tough officer who took pride in being a hard charging hard drinking womanizing task master. One night he had been drinking in the officers’ club. He stumbled into the barracks filled with rage in a drunken stupor. Looking for someone to vent his rage, he saw a soldier asleep who was a Christian.
He dragged the soldier from his bunk and started kicking him. He beat him and kicked him until he was lying in a pool of his own blood. The last thing the officer remembered was collapsing into his own bed and passing out.
When the officer awoke the next morning, the first thing he noticed was his boots beside his bed. His boots were so shiny that he could see his reflection. Then he realized that the soldier he had beaten had crawled though his own blood to spit shine his boots. That’s when he uttered a silent prayer, “whatever that man has, I want.”
According to Romans 12…… Recompense to no man evil for evil; be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Only when we give up the rights to ourselves can we be ambassadors for Christ.
The question is “will the real you please stand up?” The real you is Christ in you the hope of glory….his hands behind our hands, his feet behind our feet, his eyes behind our eyes and his ears behind our ears…..it is his heart behind our heart. Therefore work out your own salvation, your own healing wholeness with fear and trembling….with awe, respect, reverence and love. For it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.
There is power in the Word of reconciliation. It is his tongue behind our tongue. Therefore, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto thee, O Lord my strength and my redeemer….
…That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
