I Washed My Steps with Butter

In the book of Job, in chapter 29, we find Job in his sufferings as he becomes reflective and he remembers a time before his troubles and he laments, oh that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness as I was in the days of my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle when the Almighty was yet with me when my children were about me when I washed my steps with butter I will stop there friends To never have something is one thing to have it and lose it is quite another when I was a little boy I was out one summer day playing and I looked at a fence and there on that fence was the most magnificent spider's web I had ever seen it was a banana spider's web and they are known for their big zigzag pattern webs and this web spanned several feet its intricacies were truly remarkable that banana spider had taken a great deal of time and effort and labor to spin that web and being a young boy growing up on the mean streets of Chicago what did I do I picked up a brick and I threw it as hard as I could at that web and I smashed it and tore it all to pieces and I found out that's what life can do to you that's what happened to Job and that's what happened to me everything is looking fine you were building and working and making something special with your life and career and suddenly and without warning it is all smashed and torn up to pieces I remember when I washed my steps with butter I was a very successful stockbroker a vice president with a major wall street firm and I had a beautiful wife and we lived in a mini mansion on a acre and a half of land in the county and we had a vacation home on a golf course in Florida and I drove a brand new Mercedes and I wore a Rolex watch and Brooke Brothers suits and everything else that a lot of money can buy it was nothing for me to make $40,000 just in one morning and I'd go play golf at my country club the rest of the day like Midas it seemed like everything I touched turned to gold then like that spider's web a big brick came out of nowhere and tore my life all apart and shredded it to pieces and in Joe Black's swiftness in a series of tragic unfortunate events unfolded that turned my whole life upside down I lost my wife through suicide I lost my business I lost my homes and personal possessions to where me and my young teenage daughter were homeless for a time there were years my net worth was never more than a hundred dollars and I had no more than five dollars in my pocket I drove an old beat-up car with no door handle because I had no money to fix it so I had to get used to opening up my car door on the passenger side and crawling over the gear shift to plop down behind the steering wheel and to add insult to injury I was now an old man with a pacemaker and a bad heart now some of you if that happened to you if you lost everything you you had all your money all your belongings if you were forced out of your home you couldn't handle it some of you would go insane and end up in an asylum some of you if you lost it all you'd commit suicide you wouldn't want to go on living whoever gave you a guarantee a tomorrow friend do you think that could never happen to you because you were God's favorite the apostle Paul said when I am weak I am strong see my situation friends can be traced back to a day when I had a extraordinary encounter with God under the preaching of Stephen Olford and I realized that my life up to that point was just a vain pursuit of pleasure and selfish gain and I began to get serious with God and do you know what friends God gets serious with those who get serious with him and I started to get serious with him because his word says so he says return to me and I will return to you well after some deep personal reflection I wrote a little poem on the fly leaf of my Bible and I'm looking at it now as I hold this Bible in my hand I wrote these words back then and I meant them with all my heart before God I wrote referring to Matthew 16 25 where Jesus says for whoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it and I wrote the following words at a time when I was still washing my steps with butter I wrote what is my life that I should keep it selfishly for me I choose to lose it so completely and have it found in thee well God answered that prayer friends and he is my faithful friend who has never let me down nor will ever let me go and in the midst of my trials he has been more real to me than any human friend or family relation in the book of Isaiah in chapter 28 and verses 28 and 29 we read in God's word bread corn is bruised because he will not ever be threshing it nor break it with the wheel of his cart nor bruise it with his horsemen but this also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working well what does that text mean friends often God as the tiller of the soul does his best work when bread corn is most bruised the greater the bruising the greater the uselessness I will leave you with the following story about Jonathan Edwards after seeing God move in several seasons of glorious revival the last 14 years of Edwards life were filled with trouble trial grief opposition termination and hardship he had witnessed the early death of his young friend David Brainerd who died in Edwards home in Northampton Massachusetts at the age of 29 four months later he suffered the personal loss of the sudden death of his 18 year old darling daughter Jerisha who lies buried beside Brainerd in Bridge Street Cemetery he was then thrust into a scene of great controversy and opposition in his own church which resulted in his removal he and his large family was suddenly thrust into privation and cast upon the world without any financial support and Edwards and his family ended up in the wilderness of Stockbridge Massachusetts with a ministry of preaching to a mere handful of Indians while laboring there in inclement weather he came down with a severe fever that made him an invalid for a period of seven months which greatly weakened his already strained constitution from there he had a brief promotion to the presidency of the College of New Jersey only to die before assuming his labors at the age of 54 from a fatal reaction to a new vaccine he died with the weight of the world upon him as he entered a better world where pain suffering struggle and disease were no more by the way friends did I mention that the last 14 years of Edwards life were his greatest period of productivity it was during that time he wrote the bulk of his written legacy to the church at large by the way I still don't have a door handle on my old beat-up car but I have 30 published books on Christian biography and revival that I've written and every day Jesus is more clearer and nearer and dearer than ever before