January 21st, 2025
The Upward Look, by Jon Forrest
Forget the Duck
Max Lucado tells the story of how young Johnny was shooting rocks with a slingshot. He could never hit his target. As he was in his Grandma’s backyard one day, he spied her pet duck. On impulse h took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck was dead. “The boy panicked and hid the bird in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister watching. After lunch that day, Grandma told Sally to help with the dishes. Sally responded, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So, Johnny did the dishes. What choice did he have? For the next several weeks he was at the sink often; sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. “Remember the duck,” Sally would whisper when he objected. So weary of the chore, he decided that any punishment would be better than washing more dishes, so he confessed to killing duck. "I know, Johnny," his Grandma said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you.” He’d been pardoned, but he thought he was guilty. Why? He had listened to the words of his accuser. (In the Grip of Grace; Max Lucado)
When a person is learning to play guitar, the first thing he learns is that it can be a painful process. In the early stages, the fingers used to hold down the strings for creating chords take a great deal of grief. In fact, some young learners have actually had bloody fingers from practicing. Eventually, though, the pain is relieved by the development of calluses. The hardening of the skin takes away the tenderness and replaces it with hardness.
Our spiritual hearts can be like that. When our hearts are innocent they are tender like the skin of a baby. When we sin, Satan, the accuser, reminds us every day what we have done wrong. Guilt settles in and reminds us constantly of what terrible things we have done. If one is a follower of Christ, it is important to confess that sin right away and allow God to help him to experience the joy and freedom of forgiveness. However, people often hide the sin and the guilt inside. As Satan continues to accuse and the sinner continues to hide his sin, spiritual calluses begin to develop what Scripture refers to as “hardness of heart.” The more he accuses, the greater the effort to resist and conceal the sin, the harder the heart becomes. In order to maintain the cover-up, one must also become a slave to that guilt and cirrhosis serves as the handcuffs.
Until the sin is exposed by the light of God’s Word and confession results, the hardness just gets worse and worse. However, once that confession pours out of the sinner’s mouth, spiritual surgery results. God doesn’t apply some spiritual salve. He doesn’t massage the heart until it gets better. No, He reaches into your spiritual chest and yanks out the hard and useless organ and transplants it with a brand new, fully forgiven, heart!
When King David’s deep seeded sin of adultery, compounded by murder and secrecy was finally exposed by the proclamation of the Prophet Nathan, this is exactly what happened! David confessed his sin and pled for forgiveness, he cried out to God through the 51st Psalm; “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (verse 10).
In 2 Samuel 12, we find God forgiving his wayward servant. There were awful repercussions to be dealt with, but God forgave him and gave him that new heart. If you are hiding sin in your heart take to heart the words of John in the 9th verse of the first chapter of his first letter, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
You can have a new heart too and you can forget the duck!
Sunday we will look at the next message in our series, Kingdom Stories titled
Weeds in the Field and based on Matthew 13:24-30 & 36-43 I’ll look forward to seeing you and so will God.
Forgetting the duck,
Jon
Forget the Duck
Max Lucado tells the story of how young Johnny was shooting rocks with a slingshot. He could never hit his target. As he was in his Grandma’s backyard one day, he spied her pet duck. On impulse h took aim and let fly. The stone hit, and the duck was dead. “The boy panicked and hid the bird in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister watching. After lunch that day, Grandma told Sally to help with the dishes. Sally responded, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So, Johnny did the dishes. What choice did he have? For the next several weeks he was at the sink often; sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. “Remember the duck,” Sally would whisper when he objected. So weary of the chore, he decided that any punishment would be better than washing more dishes, so he confessed to killing duck. "I know, Johnny," his Grandma said, giving him a hug. "I was standing at the window and saw the whole thing. Because I love you, I forgave you. I wondered how long you would let Sally make a slave out of you.” He’d been pardoned, but he thought he was guilty. Why? He had listened to the words of his accuser. (In the Grip of Grace; Max Lucado)
When a person is learning to play guitar, the first thing he learns is that it can be a painful process. In the early stages, the fingers used to hold down the strings for creating chords take a great deal of grief. In fact, some young learners have actually had bloody fingers from practicing. Eventually, though, the pain is relieved by the development of calluses. The hardening of the skin takes away the tenderness and replaces it with hardness.
Our spiritual hearts can be like that. When our hearts are innocent they are tender like the skin of a baby. When we sin, Satan, the accuser, reminds us every day what we have done wrong. Guilt settles in and reminds us constantly of what terrible things we have done. If one is a follower of Christ, it is important to confess that sin right away and allow God to help him to experience the joy and freedom of forgiveness. However, people often hide the sin and the guilt inside. As Satan continues to accuse and the sinner continues to hide his sin, spiritual calluses begin to develop what Scripture refers to as “hardness of heart.” The more he accuses, the greater the effort to resist and conceal the sin, the harder the heart becomes. In order to maintain the cover-up, one must also become a slave to that guilt and cirrhosis serves as the handcuffs.
Until the sin is exposed by the light of God’s Word and confession results, the hardness just gets worse and worse. However, once that confession pours out of the sinner’s mouth, spiritual surgery results. God doesn’t apply some spiritual salve. He doesn’t massage the heart until it gets better. No, He reaches into your spiritual chest and yanks out the hard and useless organ and transplants it with a brand new, fully forgiven, heart!
When King David’s deep seeded sin of adultery, compounded by murder and secrecy was finally exposed by the proclamation of the Prophet Nathan, this is exactly what happened! David confessed his sin and pled for forgiveness, he cried out to God through the 51st Psalm; “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (verse 10).
In 2 Samuel 12, we find God forgiving his wayward servant. There were awful repercussions to be dealt with, but God forgave him and gave him that new heart. If you are hiding sin in your heart take to heart the words of John in the 9th verse of the first chapter of his first letter, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
You can have a new heart too and you can forget the duck!
Sunday we will look at the next message in our series, Kingdom Stories titled
Weeds in the Field and based on Matthew 13:24-30 & 36-43 I’ll look forward to seeing you and so will God.
Forgetting the duck,
Jon
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