The Stranger

 

A tear came in the eye of the stranger as He looked at her.
“I used to come to this school a long time ago.
But then one day they said that they no longer wanted Me
And I would have to go.”

Surprised, the little girl looked up  and asked, “What did You do?
Didn’t You follow the rules?
You must have been very bad
To get kicked out of school.”

“No,” smiled the stranger. “You see,
I was a Teacher and I loved all who came.
But the ones in authority said My ideas were old,
And they wanted a change.”

You see, they don’t care too much about Me,
And now I’m not even allowed to come in.
But they seem to forget that I have a good memory
and I will remember everyone of their sins.

And on That Day they will be weeping, and they will ask Me,
‘Oh please Lord, why can’t we stay with You?’
And I will answer and say, because you see,
I had rules that you had to live by too.” *

That is what is so wonderful about children, and I am sure this is why Jesus said what He said in Matthew 19:14,

“…Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom

of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Little children are God’s Kingdom giants. Why? Children are such powerful and pure witnesses for Christ because of their innocence and honesty. No wonder that Jesus wants His Kingdom to be populated with little ones who make such a big impact for Him.

When children have something on their minds, it will more than likely come out of their mouths. They may not eat everything on their plates and want to eat dessert first. But they will plop out most everything they see or hear, as well as what they like and don’t like.

But when kids have Jesus Christ in their hearts, He has to come out of their mouths wrapped in all of the emotions that make their words and songs so very real. I have a nine year old grandson named Tyler who is so disarmingly full of God and spiritual awareness. Out of the blue he will quote Bible texts including chapter and verse. Bam! So there! Thus says the Lord! I have no doubt that kids in his school are being exposed to unsafe levels of Jesus.

The wonderful thing about children who love Jesus is this:

“WHILE CHRISTIAN ADULTS HAVE TO BE CONSTANTLY REMINDED OF THEIR DUTY TO

WITNESS FOR CHRIST, CHRISTIAN CHILDREN MUST BE COMMANDED

BY THE WORLD TO STOP.”

How deeply gripping the little weeping girl in Kenneth Barnes poem The Stranger is to our hearts! The last child I saw and heard crying, or should I say screaming, was in Wal-Mart when his mother would not buy for him the toy that he was demanding. You would think that he was the victim of parental torture. As I watched, the mother finally gave in, for it was obvious that she was too tired and embarrassed to persist any longer in her denial.

The Lord tells us to weep with those who weep, but in this case my first instinct was not tears. I won’t tell what it was, but I am sure you already know. Okay, I will admit it, I had the strongest urge to turn him over me knee right there.

But a little girl crying because she could not sing in school about the Jesus who loves her, how heart rending and yet inspiring is that? Rejection is horrible! And after all, shouldn’t all the other children love Jesus too like I do? We know how tender little hearts are, and how easily wounded with just a menacing look. The mildest rebuke can be the scourge of a bullwhip.

She brings all kinds of deep feelings and painful memories back to me from when I was a child. The hurt of being left standing and picked last by team leaders. Being asked a question in class for which I didn’t know the answer and kids sneered. But I was never rejected for Jesus’ sake, first because I attended Christian Schools. Second because Jesus became personally real to me much later in life. Now I understand!

Most of my rejections as a Christian strangely enough have come from church people, my own familiar friends, as Jesus says about Judas Iscariot through David in Psalm 41:9,

“Even my close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up

his heal against me.”

It used to be that the school hallways in America had monitors as standing reminders that rules had to be followed and misbehavior would not be tolerated, for they would report you to the principle. The monitors are still there though their job description has a new priority, that being to make sure that no student will be exposed to any illegal influence of Jesus. Just the mention of His name, except in cursing, is viewed as lethal religious radiation. Beware of strangers and especially don’t talk to or get near to that most dangerous stranger of all – Jesus Christ.

LAMBS IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES

When we send our children who love Jesus to the public schools of America, we are sending them as sheep, or depending on their age, as lambs in the midst of wolves. (Matthew 10:16) Wolves howl and whine which they are doing night and day at Christians and against Christianity these days. They travel in packs as well as snarl, bite and eat their victims. Christian sheep and lambs are among their favorite delicacies worldwide!

We must help our kids prepare for and understand the reality of the words of Jesus when He said in John 15:18,

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”

“If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not

of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

We must prayerfully, firmly and tenderly strengthen our children for this harsh reality, and explain to them from the words of Christ how and why they will make enemies because of their following Jesus and their love for God. (Romans 8:7) In fact, some of their buddies will prove to be wolves in friend’s clothing when they refuse to join them in doing naughty things.

All the while we must impress upon them the commands of Jesus that we are to love, forgive and pray for the wolves, even when they call us “Stupid” and “Idiots” and “Jesus Freaks.” If you will:

“IN THIS JUNGLE OUR CHILDREN MUST LEARN TO BE KIND-HEARTED CHRISTIANS

RATHER THAN CUNNING ANIMALS OF SURVIVAL.”

Children love to eat ice cream and throw dirt at each other, first with their hands, and all too soon with their mouths! Christian children in today’s anti-Christian world have a big target stuck on their backs for the God haters to shoot at. There is no sense in trying to fool them or shield them from the harsh 21st century facts. We will not be doing them a favor, only harm. They must also be helped to understand:

“NOT ONLY THAT THEY ARE LAMBS AND SHEEP IN THE MIDST WOLVES, BUT THAT IT IS

IMPOSSIBLE TO TURN A WOLF INTO A SHEEP APART FROM THE POWER OF GOD.”

On a far broader level, the schools are only microcosms of society in general. Christians in America are now in the shrinking minority in a post-Christian nation. Apologetics Index reports: “Although the public sees a strong link between Christianity and the country’s national identity, a July 2006 poll indicates that most Americans think citizen preferences should outweigh the Bible as an influence on American law. When asked which should have more influence over the laws of the country – the Bible or the will of the people, even when it conflicts with the Bible – most Americans (63%) say that the people’s will should have more sway. A significant minority (32%), however, believes the Bible should be more important.”**

2006 is only a few years ago, and you can be sure that the percentages have widened in favor of the anti-Christ opposition. That opposition is multiplying and intensifying daily. I believe that we are seeing the beginning of Satan’s last gasps. Our children will find less and less comfort by looking around them. Their only source of help and comfort will come by their looking up.

HE SAID, “I WILL REMEMBER EVERY ONE OF THEIR SINS.”

Our children in today’s schools, where they spend most of their waking hours, will be surrounded by and immersed in a culture of dishonesty, immorality, the F-word, the S-word, and the A-word which is a vulgarity for a bodily orifice and which kids freely refer to each other as. Our schools are being populated with “Potty Mouths.”

All of them of course are “Somebody’s Children.” God tells in Exodus 20:5 that he visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. The rotten apple doesn’t fall very far the tree. Kids have ears like elephants and eyes like searchlights. What they hear and see they record, and they will play back those expletives for all to hear and see. Curse words are seldom original unless the child has the gift of cursing creatively. Mostly curse words are quotations!

Kids today stuff their overweight bodies with cheeseburgers and stuff their polluted minds with trashy books and violent video games. That is also how the wolves learn to snarl, hiss, cuss and even kill each other sometimes. This kind of filthy speech and unspeakable animal-like behavior has made its way even into the lower grades of America’s schools for a long time now.

Our children are being schooled in a culture that passively underreacts to rotten words and condemningly overreacts to religious words. “God Damn It” is defended as freedom of speech, while “Jesus Loves Me” is denounced as a crime against the separation of church and state. “God” is now the “Four Letter Word” in the public schools in the United States. This of course violates the rights of 120 million plus people who take their faith seriously, and who pay taxes to support the public schools.

In it all we must teach our young ones that those who practice evil and talk dirty will not have their names written in “Heaven’s Honor Role List” which in Revelation 21:27 is called, “The Lamb’s Book of Life.” We read these words about that awesome but very discriminating book,

“And nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination or lying, shall ever come into

it (the New Jerusalem), but only those whose names are written in Lamb’s book of life.”

Therefore, no one who writes or speaks unclean, that is dirty words, or who commits the abomination of making Christ an outlaw, or who teaches the lie of Evolution will have their names in the Lamb’s Book of Life which is the prerequisite for entering Heaven. Small wonder therefore that Jesus Christ says in Matthew 12:37,

“For by your words you shall be justified, and  by your words you will be condemned.”

But instead filthy talkers and liars shall have their names written in “Hell’s Dishonor Role” which is called in the Bible “The Books.” We read in Daniel 7:10,

 “…And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court sat, and the books were opened.”

In the final judgment, God will open “The Books” in which every secret and known sin in thought, word or deed of each unbelieving, ungodly sinner is recorded, and which God will read to them as they stand before Him. “Myriads upon Myriads” means an innumerably gigantic multitude of people standing before the God Who they cursed at and drove out of their schools.

In short, the prohibiting of the little girl’s favorite song “Jesus Loves Me” may have been known by few on earth and forgotten by most over the years. But on that day, it will be revealed to all who did not believe on and opposed the name of Jesus. Luke 12:2 tells us that there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. No one gets away with anything! And God will take no one’s word for it. It is all in “The Books.”

In the judgment, God will not grade on the curve. Nor will the final exam be general essay questions. Hear this:

“SINNERS WILL NOT BE JUDGED ANONYMOUSLY, NOR THEIR SINS

JUDGED GENERICALLY.”

So sweet little lover of Jesus, don’t weep for Him, for He will be just fine. And don’t weep for yourself, for you will be able to sing your love songs to Jesus in Heaven forever. And if they won’t allow you to sing about Jesus in school, you can sing to Him in your heart and He will hear every word and be pleased. Rather:

“WEEP FOR THE JESUS BANISHERS ON EARTH, FOR THEY SHALL BE BANISHED FROM HIM

IN HELL FOREVER WHERE ‘JESUS LOVES ME’ WILL NOT BE ALLOWED OR EVER HEARD .”

*The Stranger By Kenneth Barnes (Permission By “Father’s Press”)
** Apologetics Index, “The Pew Forum On Religion And Public
Life” (Religion And The Law, February 21, 2009)

For More Of Kenneth Barnes Poetry, You Can Write
To Him At:
Kenneth E. Barnes
4056 Adyeville Road
Bristol, Indiana 47515