A wounded soldier comes home and after the treatment of his wound in the hospital he is rehabilitated. Before returning to Afghanistan, he leaves a perfectly framed picture of himself in full uniform for the hospital to exhibit the following words:

“Thank you for giving me another chance to serve my country” We too want only “Another chance to serve our God the Lord”.

The Church is our Hospital, the Pastors and people in leadership are our Doctors and the supporters and intercessors are the nurses who are nursing us back to health.

But the Lord, our Great Good Shepherd, before healing us physically, takes this opportunity to accomplish a spiritual work in us, through us and in spite of us.

Pockets of resistance must be completely surrendered. No selfrighteousness or iniquity of any kind should survive the selfexamination of the heart by the Holy Spirit.

How does the Lord accomplish this therapy you may ask?

Healing bones and cleaning the body of sickness is only one aspect of his work. There is more to it than what meets the eye and that is the greater healing and rest of the soul.

The one trait of his personality Jesus recommends above others is His Humility. So Jesus gives us the opportunity to either humble ourselves or we will be humiliated by God’s usual hunting dogs who like missionaries are sent to us, such as: The Cross, Sin, Sickness, Friends like Job’s, Betrayal, Criticism, Abandonment.

Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”

Before one finds rest for his soul he must add to his burdens another burden from God: “The yoke of Humility and Gentleness”

The yoke of humility is a burden because it does not come naturally. For if we are like the stalk of wheat with few grains still standing proudly erect, we will not have the blessing of a humble stalk of wheat full of grain bowing down in fruitfulness.

If we are to cross the rivers of Jordan that keeps us from crossing to our Promised Land, we need stability against the current of a burden on the shoulder for each step we take in the river.

Jesus is not teaching a skill or a trade that we should master by practice or performance. That, by nature, would fall in the category of works, therefore credited to us and useless for eternal gain.

There are many “nice people” who trust their “being nice” more than trusting in Jesus. They attract people to themselves rather than to Jesus. These are people who are remembered for being nice but not for what they thought about Jesus.

The recommendation of Jesus “to learn of me”, I would like to suggest to you we take as, “apprehend this truth of me”.

For two reasons:

First, the word apprehend gives you the idea of someone having control of another as a police officer would have a thief under control with handcuffs, taken to jail, locked up with no chance to escape.

Secondly: The Truth is not a concept to be learned, but a person to be known, namely Jesus. Jesús said, “I am the Truth”. Knowing Jesus must be as Adam knew Eve and became one with her. So must we know humility until we can say like Jesus “I am gentle and humble”-- not that I have learned to be humble. This would be performance and not a nature acquired as the result of the gracious transforming work of God himself.

Needless to say, no one is a finished product at this side of heaven. But thank God that only of a believer we can say, “The process and the end result are one and the same thing”. I think it adequate to mention the words of Paul Kooistra “There is nothing we can do today that can cause God to love me any more or any less that he already does.”

Pray not for the removal of his burden but for stronger and healthier bodies. Pray not for immunity from burden but for mercy. Pray against the bulls of Bashan who incarnate themselves in the weak. Pray we may be apprehended by the mind of Christ not till we learn things but till we become like our Blessed Redeemer “I Am Gentle and humble”.

Gerry Gutierrez

PS. Our Ruthie suffers some of the side effects of the chemotherapy but for the two days following it, she feels great. She is losing her hair fast. Over all she keeps a good spirit.