PTL! You Won't Believe It

But every word I write here is true.

We saw a miracle today. A REAL, Genuine miracle.

This morning was rough. When Little Boy Blue was pulled out of bed after being given chances to do it himself he was asked to stand by the garage door. Why there? I don't know, except it was in the sunshine and he needed a little brightening and it's close the kitchen so I could monitor things. He proceeded to pee his pajamas, spit, snot, everything. Each display of anger was dealt with a consequence and pretty soon he stopped and just stood there. Eventually I asked him if he was ready to make his bed and he proceeded to do most of his morning jobs because he was quite ready to eat breakfast. Except he did not get dressed. I didn't push it. I took him to town in his pj's. He was distant, but quiet. When we arrived home he wanted to play - but that was not in the plan and I had him stand by me in the kitchen. When asked to carry out the compost he once again had a total melt down. The whole time I was asking for guidance from the Lord and I believe He answered in a special way.

At the melt down over carrying a little bowl of garden scraps to the compost heap I told him he had to do it regardless of how he felt and there would indeed be a consequence, but first he had to go and do what I had asked.

When he came back he was screaming in my face, but I got on my knees and held his hands and looked him right in the eye and said, "You know, your way isn't going very well for you because 'the way of the sinner is very hard.' You know you are being naughty. And actually, you are quite a bad little boy and I don't know if you know this, but you could be always be a very, very bad boy for the rest of your life. Even if you wanted to be good, you couldn't be. None of us are good. No one is good, except Jesus. You are a sinner. All this discipline  is to help you see that you are a sinner. You couldn't be good if you tried and like we just said, the way of the sinner is so HARD and so your whole life is going to be HARD . . .

UNLESS

Unless you ask Jesus to take your naughty heart and give you HIS clean heart. You can have Jesus' goodness. He would be happy to give it to you. The Bible says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. You can trust Him to give you His goodness and you will be so much happier than you are now. All you have to do is ASK."

Right away he said he wanted to ask for Jesus clean, good heart.

"BUT"

I said, "You still have a consequence coming because of your unwillingness to help and  carry out the compost. Just because you do what I am telling you now will not get you off scott free. I know very well that you could be saying 'yes, I'll pray' to get out of your consequence, so first the consequence and then when you are through call me and I will be happy to pray with you."

He burst into more wailing because he really thought he had found a way out... But then he decided to just get it over with and he did call me and he prayed a beautiful prayer of repentance and asked for a new heart.

He was still on restriction and was told to stay by me, but I had several jobs that needed doing and I finally gave him a choice of two. He chose to clean the bathroom and he very carefully and cheerfully went down the checklist and did a very good job. Next he did odd jobs for other people and most surprising of all, when I mentioned that I needed someone to put the vacuum away, he got up from the couch where he was looking at a book and quietly went and put it away. I was in SHOCK! I had not even asked him. I just said it in passing. He has never, ever, ever offered to do anything he wasn't point blank asked to do. He smiled a huge smile at my surprise.

I said, "You know, I do believe the LORD is really working on your heart! I see the goodness of Jesus displayed in your actions right now!"

We got in the car later and he was being cheerful and kind and I said, "This is the Holy Spirit working in your life James... It's kind of like you were driving your own truck but you kept crashing and getting in wrecks and then you asked Jesus to take over the wheel and He knows how to drive!!!" The illustration had just popped into my head, but it totally resonated with him. He loved it.

From one thing to another he was helpful and cheerful and chatty. When he had a chance he brought out his Bible and turned to Ephesians 6. It's amazing to see all the teaching that we have done over the months all come together. He was "reading" children obey your parents out loud and then he brought out his little drawing of the Armor of God. He was talking about the fiery darts of the devil being, "Selfinish" and "Mad" and "Screaming". So I brought out a felt set I have had hidden away that he never had seen before of the Armor of God. Both kids loved it and we went over the Bible texts and used the felts and it made a big impression on both of them. Except, Missy said, "I not bad. I be good all day!!" and in James prayer he said something that sounded like "thank you God you help us with the devil's fiery farts..."

It's amazing. ALL the teaching we have been doing this kid has soaked it in. He knows a LOT! If he can only have a meaningful experience with Jesus all the nonsense could be history. If you could have seen him before he made his decision in contrast to what he was after his decision you would be blown away!

Thank the Lord.

I did talk to James about how he could get hit with one of Satan's darts and he could have his old heart back, but if he chose Jesus' new heart moment by moment, every single day, he never had to have the old way back. The old Devil is tricky, though, so it had to be his conscious choice to have Jesus.