A Little Red Sucker Fish, Part 1
We had seen the Biblical Jesus walk into our church. Christianity was no longer a three-point sermon. The Savior was no longer a flannel-graph, Sunday School Jesus. Now in the days ahead, even as God had stopped the sun in the days of Joshua, He was about to stop our hearts and increase the power of Spirit River that would be revealed to me as I had never seen or known. In His mercy, God puts a veil between us and what the future will bring. We would run away from it if we saw it all at once, both the highs and the lows that we have to go through to get to the highs.
The Holy Spirit had moved us to pastor a much younger and more aggressive church – evangelistically speaking. Now in another city, a new beginning, a fresh start. We accepted a pastorate on the edge of Kalamazoo, Michigan where we were about to experience Spirit River in power and glory never before imagined. Spirit River was now about to rush through a countryside church, and sweep us into a dramatic Holy Spirit flow in which all those traditional, tidy concepts of Christianity were about to be taken away. In short, we were about to be shanghaied to parts unknown!
USUAL FISH IN THE POND
things who have no ruler over them.”
Of course there were, as there always are, the aristocrats of the fish world – the trout. They are kind of like the Pharisees who, to paraphrase Luke 18:11, pray,
You know the kind, in their whole life they never smoked, never drank, never cursed, never cheated on their income taxes, and never even returned a library book late. So self-righteous that they really don’t need your ministry, but they have their ways of letting you know that you do need theirs. The type who would be no more able to steal a hotel towel than they would commit a triple ax murder!
Nothing out of the ordinary there for a pastor who soon finds that there are those fishes who give him such pleasure, but also those who cause him such pain. You know what I mean, like the title of a Tom Hanks movie – angels and demons. Sure, the great majority being so joyfully supportive an appreciative, and then that inescapable minority who are chronically disagreeable.
UNUSUAL FISH IN THE POND
Not too much time had gone by in our new pastorate when I began to notice a small but steady influx of new fishes in our ecclesiastical pond. They steadily trickled into our worship services – wonderful people, excited-about-the-Lord people, aggressive in their Christian witness, and very demonstrative in their expressions of praise and worship of God.
If that would have been all there was, it would have been challenging enough to the rest of the fish in the pond. But there were other rare species swimming in, like those who clapped their hands while they sang during hymn time. “I Will Sing of My Redeemer” had never been sung by clappers in my recollection. But there they were – “clapper fish.”
As time went on, I could see the church board’s police car with its arrest lights whirling and flashing, and I could hear the siren wailing. I could see and hear it by the looks on their faces. Their serene smiles had been more and more replaced by looks of dismay and even disgust. After all, who were these rude and coarse zealots intruding upon the pious in their respectable worship? It was the Psalmist David who wrote in Psalm 77:13 KJV,
That had now been replaced by an ode to intolerance which said instead,
AS THEY REALLY ARE, BUT WITH PREFERENCES WITH
WHICH WE ARE ALERADY PREPOSSESSED.”
BLOOD-SHOT EYES RED WITH INTOLERANCE AND ANGER.”
Never let us forget:
ONLY AS THAT THROUGH WHICH IT SEES THEM.”
My background was keynoted by the phrase:
Moderation was considered the virtue of all virtues. My, my, moderation, can anything look more benign and sound more soothing? But what is inferred, though never spoken explicitly, is this:
HIGH ON THE ONE SIDE, AND NOT LETTING IT FALL TOO
LOW ON THE OTHER SIDE.”
Whatever in the name of “Ritalin Religion” that means? You know, take two moderation pills in the morning for the next six days, and we will see you next Sunday in church drooling and cooing.
THE POE VALLEY SUCKER FISH
Anticipation ran high as my fishing-partner cousin Herm and I began our great fly-fishing expedition. The setting was stunning, with the mountains rising above us on each side of the strong trout stream/river. The rushing current, the early morning sun peaking through the foliage, and the sight of a rising trout causing momentary ripples brought our hearts to a flutter. We were actually there – kings of the fishing world!
It wasn’t long, and suddenly there was a fisherman’s dream on the end of my buddy’s line. Oh, how he fought that fish with his delicate line and super-flexible trout rod. And oh, how that fish fought back with the current working with and for him. All of the odds were in the fish’s favor, as Herm cautiously stepped from slippery rock to slippery rock on the stream’s bottom.
After a long battle, tired and warn out, the trout gave up the fight as it yielded to the pressure of the line and the hook. When it came into the shallows, and became visible, it was the strangest trout I had ever seen. More than that, it was really not that big at all, in fact, it was kind of small. It just had looked and felt bigger in the heavy current. It had a round mouth underneath its head, weird looking lips moving in and out like a nursing, sucking baby. More than that it was red, in fact, it was just about as red as my very frustrated and deflated fishing-partner’s face. This was not a trout! I said to him, “That’s a sucker fish, a red sucker fish. Can you believe it?”
What humiliation for him! What fun and hilarity for me! I had the distinct sense that he was trying to hide that little sucker fish from me, but he couldn’t. It was also obvious that the come-down was hitting him like a ton of night crawlers in the face.
From time to time, more often than not, throughout our vacation, I would look at my fishing pal, and then shape my lips to mimic the mouth of his disgraceful catch. And then I would look up to the heavens and taunt him by saying, “Why God? When you created all of those stately trout, why did You have to create this peculiar-looking thing? After all, such a substandard fish in these elite and exclusive waters! And why God did you have my expert fishing partner catch it on our very first day? Why God?” Oh yes, I really worked it! I then howled in glee for the other campers to hear.
I would learn something that the Bible has been saying all along, and that in Ephesians 1:11,
“…according to His purpose Who works all things after the
All things, even a little red sucker fish! God accomplishes His purposes by His Word and His providence. And when God on purpose sets out to fulfill His purpose, we can be assured of this:
UNTIL THAT PURPOSE IS REALIZED IN US
ON PURPOSE.”
Do you know that it is happening at the time? Not generally, which means that God has a double advantage – sovereignty and secretiveness. What a set up! And God indeed knows how to set up His purposes.
HIS EXCELLENT GREATNESS
After our vacation, one Sunday evening before the worship service, I was reading a Psalm in preparation for the service, as well as for my own personal inspiration from God. What I was reading I had read innumerable times before. Have you ever had that as well? You are reading something from the Bible for the umpteenth time, and lo and behold something jumps off from the page at you as if you have never seen it before. It was one of those moments of Divine-suddenly revelation from God’s Word. Wham! Even as we read in Psalm 36:9,
Zap! Suddenly your soul is doubly lit up! You may have seen it before, but in was in a dimmer light. Then in one of those Holy Spirit – Word moments, God turns on the high beam in your soul, and there it is! Eureka! You are actually, after many readings, now reading it for the first time.
congregation of the godly ones.”
“Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to
His excellent greatness
.”Bwam! Boom! Bang! I was stopped in my reading with a real jolt. I could go no further. I was for the moment abruptly halted at the words:
I love the Word of God. I have tried to be a faithful workman rightly dividing the Word of truth. That is a divine imperative for every preacher of the Word. We read in II Timothy 2:15 Paul’s words to Pastor Timothy,
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman
who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately
Be a workman-preacher! I mean, studying the Word of God and preparing to feed His people is not fluff-ball stuff. It is hard, hard work! There is no harder work than continually digging for treasure in the mind of God. There is at the same time no reward more exhilarating.
I answered by sharing with him another story about a young, raw preacher who was talking to a much older and more experienced pastor. The rookie preacher said to the venerable old gentleman, “I just get up there behind the pulpit, and God speaks to me and tells me what He wants me to say. Have you ever had that?” The wise sage looked at him with a sly smile and said, “Yes, I tried that once, and when I got behind the pulpit, all that the Lord did say to me was, ‘Get down from there, you are unprepared.’” Listen now:
MORE THAN WE SOW.”
Think of it this way. How often have we said to our children, “Listen children, if you don’t eat your meat, potatoes and vegetables, you can forget the yummy chocolate cake.” Listen pastors,
JOB ON THE DINNER.”
HOW GREAT THOU ART
Not only did God right then and there give me and the congregation an “Excellent Dessert,” but he went on to unfold to me His GREATNESS. I had never understood His “Greatness” like I was about to understand it. You won’t want to miss it! The “Greatest Explosion” was about to come! And there we will find the true meaning of A LITTLE RED SUCKER FISH.
(A LITTLE RED SUCKER FISH Pt. 2 will be here soon)
October 7, 2020 @ 7:58 am
Funny but On time