Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 26

"Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me" ~ John 21:22

Peter was afraid John would get something he missed. He doubted the love of Jesus for a moment, as he learns from the Master Himself about his own (Peter's) death, and wants to be sure John gets no less. Jesus' "diamond-sharp" answer is our "stone" for contemplation this time. "If I will that he (John) tarry till I come, what is that to thee (Peter)? Follow thou me." Peter's predicament is so human and understandable, Jesus understood it, too. What's why He went straight to the only point that would help Peter: Complete and uncomplaining obedience to Himself. How often have you attempted to inquire of the Lord about some Christian brother or sister whose lot seems to be better than yours? How often have we carefully told the Lord everything that is wrong in the attitudes and conducts of our brothers and sisters? And how often have we heard the Lord Jesus gently, but firmly reply, as He did to Peter: "What is that to thee? Follow thou me." Once in particular did He prompt me [Eugenia Price, the author] with this verse. In my prayer, I was explaining in colorful terms, the shortcomings of a Christian brother. Then came the Word: "What is that to thee? Follow thou me!" And more yet: "If you see his failings, it is only because I have given you the insight to see them. Your part is to turn your criticism into true intercession." There was still more to come: "And even after you have prayed in love for this brother, he may still go on behaving in the same way. But your only concern is to see to it that you increase your own value to me to help make up for his defects!" The Lord Jesus is not being hard here. He is showing His need for us, and He is showing His love.

"If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee? Follow thou me ... The fields ... are white already to harvest ... but the labourers are few."

Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 25

"Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all" ~ John 18:38

Perhaps you are not convinced, as you "share my pleasant stones," that Jesus Christ is the only Son of God. That the only way to the Father is by faith in this same Jesus. No doubt, most who read this will be His ... but some of you have written to me [Eugenia Price, the author] after reading one or more of my other books, and I know you are still searching. You stimulate me and force me to learn more of what He is really like, and I do thank you from my heart. Believe me, I don't condemn you for not believing. I am the last one who should do that. My heart aches over your indecision because I can feel it with you. This "stone" is surely for non-believers. But those of you who are His own, may well examine it too. We are guilty of doing as Pilate when we disobey. Many persons quite sincerely ask, as did Pilate, "What is truth?" But before they are willing to enter into a personal relationship with the One who is Truth, they "go out again" and say in effect: "Well I looked into Christianity, and I found Jesus a very admirable person, but I am not convinced that He is God." "Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he said this, (with no more knowledge of Jesus) he went out ... and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all." Many persons inquire, find no fault in Him, but go out again still searching. Unless we take His word for it that he is "the way the truth and the life," we not only go out again unfulfilled; we fall into Pilate's fatal trap, as the years go on. We listen to the crowd roar, and fearing what they will say about us, we follow Pilate. The "clear stone" cuts deeply in the first verse of the next chapter: (John 19:1).

"Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him."

Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 24

"That all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" ~ John 17:21

No "clear stone" in our collection has struck into my [Eugenia Price, the author's] mind and heart with more sharpness than this one. I am further "cut" by it when I remember that it came from the lips of the Saviour just a few hours before they killed Him. It was spoken by His human lips, but it sprang from His heart which was the heart of God. Jesus praying that night for us to be one! Jesus praying like that about us because He knew us so well. Knew how marginal differences would divide us. The very Son of God prayed and then repeated His prayer to the Father that we might be one as they were one. His Saviour heart wanted us to be together. His shepherd heart wanted us to be together. He knew He prayed in the Father's will because the Father heart wanted us to be together. And the sharp edge goes into our hearts right here: One of the very issues which have so divided us was the reason Jesus gave for His prayer that we would be united in love. "... that the world may believe that thou hast sent me ..." We fight over the Divinity of Christ ... whether or not the Father sent Him, and He pleaded that we would not do this very thing. If I did not believe Jesus Christ was sent by the Father, that He and He alone is the one divine Son of God, I would not be a Christian at all. This was what convinced me. I wanted God to turn out to be Jesus Christ. And He did. But Jesus, knowing us, anticipated our taking this central and most blessed truth and making it a battlefield to divide us. Oh, the amazing wisdom of God to us-ward! Jesus saw that our unity with each other would prove His divinity to the world.

"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in ONE; ... that the world may BELIEVE that thou hast sent me ..."

Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 23

"There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink" ~ John 4:7

Jesus was not always gentle with those who were still locked up in the prison of themselves; He actually had true empathy with them. Webster defines the noun empathy as the "imaginative projection of one's own consciousness into another being." My [Eugenia Price, the author's] favorite newspaper columnist, Mr. Sidney J. Harris of the Chicato Daily News, defines it even more clearly: "Sympathy is feeling 'for' someone else; empathy is feeling 'with' him." Jesus Christ is the master of empathy. He made complete identification iwth us, and no-one can doubt that He felt "with" those He met, when He was on earth. No-one who knows Him now doubts that He still feels and suffers with us. He didn't just sympathize with man in his lost condition, he became Man. He was still God, but perfectly human too! One striking illustration of His ability to feel "with" someone else was His behavior at the well with the immoral, socially inferior Samaritan woman. Jesus was very tired. He had gone there to rest. But He was never too tired, even while carrying a Chross up a hill, to feel "with" those around Him. and to prove that He knew exactly how that outcast, guilty woman felt, He, the Son of God, put Himself in the position of helping her hold up her head a little. He used the same word "woman" in addressing her as He used in speaking to His own mother from the Cross! Jesus was human as well as divine, and He knew from His own experience that it does something for us to have someone say, "Thank you." We want to feel needed. Jesus won this woman to Himself because he was the Messiah, but also because he was willing to ask her to do Him a favor.

"Woman ... give me to drink ..."

Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 22

" ... Woman, where are those thine accusers? ... " ~ John 8:10b

Jesus warns us carefully that His presence in our lives will oftentimes bring a sword between us and our loved ones who do not yet know Him. But the little sharp "clear stone" we look at now flashes to my mind as I [Eugenia Price, the author] think on what Jesus must have meant when He said we were to be willing to take up our crosses and follow Him. In the same spirit in which He carried His cross in the midst of persecution and jeers and ridicule. Perhaps your mother or father or your brother or sister or friend or husband is not a follower of Jesus Christ. Perhaps you are an exuberant new follower. Perhaps you have known Him for a long, long time and are still living among those who do not. Perhaps they give you a "rough time", as we say. Jesus warned us about this, but He also showed us by His personal behavior, even on His way to the Cross, that we are not to fight back. We are not to adjust our "martyr's crowns" and act superior. We are not to argue. We are not to accuse. We are not to lecture. We are not to condemn. Let this truth shine to the depths of our beings: The Lord Jesus treads softly when He is near the hearts of those who do not yet know Him! He drove the religiosos from the temple, and He spoke harshly to the Pharisees of His day, but He didn't even look at the sinful woman the religious people wanted to stone, for fear of embarrassing her. He is always gentle with sinners. He Himself experienced the pain of sin when He took our sins into His own heart on Calvary. He is always gentle and tender with those still in darkness. Not soft, but gentle. He never compromises His holiness, but He remembers the pain of sin. He who was sinless, bore the pain of the sin of the entire world in His own heart on Calvary, and He will never forget it. Therefore it would be impossible for the Lord Jesus to be harsh with sinners still in darkness.

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ... ... Woman, neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."

Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 21

"And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me" ~ Matthew 10:38

I [Eugenia Price, the author]have known many new Christians who immediately get set up to "do battle" with their friends and family who may not approve of their new walk with Christ. I was guilty of some of this myself in the early days of my Christian life. It is quite natural. That's just what it is in fact. It is "natural". It is in part, at least, our flaming egos wanting to be proven right. I do not say it is all this. Much of it is because we are so dazzled by the new light we have, we can't wait for our loved ones to see it too. We haven't found out yet that only the Holy Spirit can convince people that Christ died for their sins. We sincerely want them to see what we see, but it is still our flaming "natural" egos which cause us to obey Christ's instructions often in the wrong spirit. "... I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother ..." But He didn't say we were to throw scenes and be sarcastic and use harsh words. We are merely to be willing to be misunderstood by them, if need be, and refuse to compromise. But we are to do it in the same spirit in which Christ carried His Cross. "... he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." If we follow after Him, we follow in His footsteps. And the Lord Jesus treads softly when He is near the hearts of those who do not yet know Him.

"... he that taketh not his OWN cross, and followeth after ME, is not worthy of me."

Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: February 20

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword" ~ Matthew 10:34

What a strange thing for the Prince of Peace to declare! But tap this "clear stone" lightly under the direction of the Holy Spirit and we find that He did not come to send peace, He came as peace. He came declaring that He is our peace, and that outside of Him there is none. No peace anywhere. For anyone. "Think not that I come to send peace on earth ..." "... On earth, peace, good will toward men." These do not contradict themselves except to the heart still shut away in darkness. "I came not to send peace, but a sword." And then Jesus goes on to explain that He will set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother. But this is the scalpel act which must come before true peace can come. If Christ came merely saying: "Now, dear children, let us all get along with each other and act peaceful, no matter how much selfishness and sin remain in our hearts ... let's spoil our mothers and pamper our fathers and lavish gifts upon our children to show we are good sports, even if we disagree about God and His claims upon our lives ..." --- if Christ came sending this kind of "psychological" peace, he would be a fiend. Being God, He knows that there is no eternal peace outside of obedience to God. And so He came, not to get us all to agree with each other by agreeing with us Himself. He came to declare the heart of God and the claims of God and to show true caring and true compassion toward us by making it very clear that there can be no compromise between us and Himself for the sake of the family. If we remain true to Him, then we can trust Him to handle the family. He did not come to reconcile us to each other, or Himself to us.

"... God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself ..."