Thankful for Fleas?

Link to picture: http://www.richsoil.com/flea-control.jsp

Last week I mentioned an Otto Koning message in which he spoke about

doing certain things that God requires of us through sheer faith, going against

all human reason, etc. What I didn't mention was that he was talking about

praising God in, you guessed it, all things!

  One story that he told was about the time that he was walking to a village in

Papua New Guinea. He was on a log path in the middle of the swamp when

he stumbled upon a hornet nest, got stung all over his neck, shoulders and

arms, and became separated from his native guides (while he was running

away). He was all swollen, he didn't know which way to go, and he prays to

God, "What do I do?!" Then God speaks to him, and he says, "Rejoice!"

Now, don't you just love that? Here he is, he's lost, about to die, and God says

rejoice! He then realized that he must obey whether he wants to or not, and so

he does! He thanks God for the hornets and the whole ding-dang thing.

Later, the natives came out of the jungle ahead of him, and he was able to give

himself a shot for snake bites, but he's still hurting! They start off to a nearby

village, and he gets one of his trained "preacher boys" to preach for him.

So, he's lying down over in the corner, the guy's trying to teach these people,

and all they're doing is staring at Otto, waiting for him to die!

  When the message is over, the people start saying, "Man, he's really hurting!
This message must be really important, because he got hurt bringing it to us!"

All of a sudden, it clicked. Otto sat up on his grass mat and said, "There is

One who hurt far more than me to bring this message!" He shared the gospel

with them, and they were then able to understand truly how much Jesus

suffered for them, because now they knew, He would have gone by the

hornets nest! That started the seed of the gospel in that village.

Another story I remember comes from "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten

Boom: Her and her sister, Betsie, were sent to Ravensbruck, a Nazi

concentration camp where the floor and the cots were swarming with

fleas! They wondered how they could live in such a place, but God gave

them the answer: give thanks! They started to find things to be thankful

for, such as being together, having a little Bible, and even the fleas!

Corrie wondered how they could be thankful for fleas, but Betsie reminded

her that the Bible says to give thanks in all things. So there they prayed, 

giving thanks for the fleas.

  During their imprisonment, they were able to lead many meetings of worship

and reading of God's word, eventually two times a day. The strange thing was,

though they were under guard surveillance all the time in the other buildings,

there in the main dormitory no guards ever came in, thus they were able to

worship so freely. They never understood this until one day, the barracks

supervisor was sent to settle a disputation in the knitting class about sock

sizes. But when she got there, she would not come in because of the fleas!

That reminds me...

         "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things

          that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human

          being might boast in the presence of God."

           - 1 Corinthians 1:28-29

There have been many times when I had to thank God for things that I just

plain hated! By His grace I was able to trust Him when He said,

         "And we know that for those who love God all things work together

          for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

           - Romans 8:28

We need to remember that God's the only one that sees the "big picture"!

I remember an analogy of Him sewing a picture on a big piece of cloth above

us, and all we can see is the underside of it, so we're complaining about how

ugly it looks, and yelling "Hey God, what are you doing?! That needle came

too close!!" All the while, He sees the top, where that ragged strip of cloth

is turning into a wonderful masterpiece, destined to hang in the hall of the

King himself! (I, of course, speak allegorically of our death in sin, resurrection

in Christ, and continual sanctification throughout our life, until the last day.)

  Anyway, the point of all this rambling is to emphasize: when circumstances

overwhelm you, remember that "All things work together for good, for those

who are called according to His purpose." Give praise to God in all things, and

he will do mighty things!

         "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for

          you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness."

           - James 1:2-3