More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP: Can I take Mimi's Spanking?
What happens when a simple act of childhood disobedience turns into a profound lesson in grace and mercy? Join me as I share the heartwarming story of my daughters, Miriam and Rebecca, at Rock Hill Baptist Church. Rebecca's unexpected offer to take her sister Miriam's punishment offers a touching reflection on mercy, sacrifice, and the complex balance of justice in a life of faith. Discover how a moment of compassion from a strong-willed sibling echoed the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, providing an opportunity to teach about personal accountability and the power of forgiveness.
In another moving segment, I recount my journey with Cleve, an inmate whose life was transformed through consistent kindness and the grace of God. From initial skepticism to a deep bond, our relationship blossomed, illustrating the remarkable potential for personal transformation and renewed hope. You'll hear how small gestures and unwavering faith helped Cleve reintegrate into society and reconnect with his estranged family after 17 years behind bars. This episode is a testament to the power of faith-driven relationships to heal and restore, encouraging you to trust in divine power to mend what seems irreparable.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Grab your Bibles, gather around and let us look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word, which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:I'm going to continue today in a series of lessons that involve lessons in life that I have learned from my children that have allowed me to gain biblical insights. The lesson today is entitled Can I Take Mimi's Spanking? Can I Take Mimi's Spanking? So I'm going to have to give you a little bit of background on this lesson. Some years back, I had four daughters Rachel, who was eight, rebecca, who was age six, miriam, age four and Hannah, who was age two.
Speaker 2:At the time we were attending Rock Hill Baptist Church, which was a rural Baptist church in the country outside of Inman, south Carolina. The church was a very friendly church. The koinonia the life in the body, was outstanding. I always tell my friends that you can tell and gauge the life of the body of any church by looking at their parking lot. When church lets out, if all the people and all the cars are gone in 15 minutes, the life of the body is severely lacking. But if an hour after church lets out, the people in the cars are still there and people are talking and hugging and praying in the parking lot, then the koinonia, the life of the body of that church is superlative. Well, back in the 80s and 90s the koinonia of Rock Hill Baptist Church was outstanding. Koinonia of Rock Hill Baptist Church was outstanding because even an hour or more after church let out, even in the wintertime when it was cold, there would be people standing around in the parking lot just talking and hugging, gathering in little circles and praying for one another. It was an amazing experience in the life of our family and really in the life of the entire church family. Well, in the wintertime we often gathered in the sanctuary after church on Sunday night and folks would just stand around and talk and fellowship.
Speaker 2:One of the rules that I had for my little family was that there was no running on the church podium. The small children would often run up and down the aisles and just chase each other, which was perfectly fine. But I told my children there was no running up on the podium. I considered that to be disrespectful of the sanctuary. Well, there were other parents' children who would run on the podium and that was a bad influence on my children.
Speaker 2:So one particular Sunday night there were children running on the podium and my daughter, miriam, who was four years old at the time, was caught running on the podium. And my daughter Miriam, who was four years old at the time, was caught running on the podium. So I called her down and I said Miriam, there's no running on the podium. I don't care if other people's children do that, you certainly may not. Well, about 10 or 15 minutes later I caught her you guessed it running on the podium again. So I called her down and I whispered in her ear Miriam, there's no running on the podium. I've already warned you. When you get home, there will be consequences. Well, one of the older ladies in the church looked at me and said you know what's going to have to happen when she gets home. And I said yes, ma'am, I know exactly what's going to happen. Well, my two older daughters heard that and their little eyes got as big as saucers Later, when we got all the children in the car to drive home. I looked at Miriam, my four-year-old, and I said Miriam, you disobeyed me in church tonight and you'll have to get a spanking when you get home. Well, the drive home was very silent.
Speaker 2:Now let's back up a little bit. My six-year-old daughter, rebecca, was nicknamed Bruno because before she became a Christian, whenever Bruno came into the room, furniture would break and children would cry because Bruno was boss baby. Everything had to go her way and that beautiful blue-eyed baby doll babe that was my six-year-old daughter was the administrator, she was the boss, and if things didn't happen her way, well, furniture broke and all the other children cried, and that's just the way she was. Well, all of a sudden I'm looking in the back seat in the mirror and Rebecca is sitting in the middle of the back seat sucking her thumb and one ear is twiddling her earlobe, which was her habit, and those big blue eyes were as wide as saucers. And she's just staring in the mirror watching me and all of a sudden she takes her thumb out of her mouth and she looks at me and she says Daddy, can I take Mimi's spanking?
Speaker 2:Well, my wife and I looked at each other and our eyes met, we both burst into tears instantaneously. Well, I had to look at Bruno, I mean Rebecca and I had to say to her Darling, mimi has to pay the penalty for her own disobedience. No, darling, only Jesus can take our spankings. Only Jesus can pay our sin debt. God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all and by his stripes we are healed. And, of course, when we got home, miriam had to receive her own spanking.
Speaker 2:And you see, I learned an important lesson that night Rebecca, who had become a Christian by the age of six, god had begun to work in her life and even though she was the administrator and that is her spiritual gift, even until today God had begun to work in her heart, a gift of mercy as well. Yes, she is the administrator, but it's balanced by the gift of mercy and she has a heart of mercy and still does. And it was an amazing thing that day to see mercy welling up in her little six-year-old heart when she wanted to take her sisters, her younger sisters, spanking, and it just broke my heart. But you see, that's the heart of God, that's the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he was willing to step down from glory to the dusty soil of planet earth in order to take your and my spanking, to take our place, in order to purchase our redemption. Now let me read a scripture for you so that you and I can understand where that comes from.
Speaker 2:In Isaiah 53, in verse 4, the Bible tells us that surely our griefs he Himself bore and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him and by his scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed, iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered that? He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with the rich man in his death because he has done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. That was the prophet Isaiah, predicting and proclaiming in advance the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the substitutionary atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, as he purchased your and my redemption.
Speaker 2:I often ask my patients what can you do to erase your sin? What can you do to undo the damage caused by your sin? And when I ask that question, I have seen grown men openly weep as they confess that they can do nothing to undo the damage they have caused to their families by their sin, by their infidelity, by their drug abuse, by their alcohol abuse, by their adultery, by their divorce. But then I very quickly explained to them, like I explained to my daughter Rebecca, that God, in His mercy and love, has made a way, by laying all of our sin and shame on Jesus, to purchase our redemption and restore the years that the canker worm has devoured. I explain to them that God will forgive if they confess their sin and repent of their sin and receive Jesus as their only Savior and their only Lord, the Lord of their life. He doesn't undo the damage but begins by changing their heart from the inside out and restoring broken relationships.
Speaker 2:Now let me share a story with you. Many years ago I was reading in the Bible and I was reading where Jesus was talking and he talked about those who have never visited or helped, those who were hungry or thirsty or naked or in prison. And in the story he was telling those, there were those who said Lord, when did we give you something to drink or clothe you or you or visit you in prison? He said when you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me. And I pondered the scripture passage and I realized that I'd fed people who were hungry and I'd clothed people who were homeless, but in actuality I'd never visited anybody who was in prison. So I was praying through that scripture passage and I realized that I had an employee whose husband worked in a nearby prison. So I asked her. I said ask your husband if he has somebody in the prison that he knows who has never had a visitor. So he, very quickly, in just a few days, gave me the name of two men in the prison where he worked who hadn't had a visitor either one of them in 15 years, and I asked him. I said well, can you get me permission to visit those two men? Well, within a week I had permission to visit both of them. So I began to visit them every other week on my afternoon off and for two years I visited Rodney and Cleve.
Speaker 2:Now, as you can imagine, in the beginning they were very suspicious. They wanted to know what's this redneck country doctor doing coming to visit us. He doesn't know us and we don't know him. But over time their suspicions kind of disappeared and every other Thursday I carried them a Wendy's hamburger and french fries and I just went to visit them and we talked and we became friends. We became fast friends and I would talk to them about their families and I would share with them about my family and we got real comfortable and we became really good friends and I would take them stationery and pencils and clean underwear and you know things that the inmates needed and we just would visit and we talked and of course over time I shared my testimony and I would talk to them about the Bible and about Jesus and of course in the beginning of all that they would kind of standoffish. But over time you know what's in you is what comes out of you. If you squeeze a spirit-filled believer, what do you get? Well, you get Jesus and you know that's just who I am. So I talked to them about the Bible, I talked to them about Jesus and I talked to them about my family and I talked to them about my medical practice and about deer hunting and turkey hunting and all the things. It's just who I am. That's what we talked about.
Speaker 2:Well, after two years, cleve's time was up. He was in for 17 years and he got out a little bit early for good behavior, and so when he got out, I helped him find a place to live, I helped him get a job and a driver's license and he started coming to church with me and after about a month he made a commitment to the Lord. I think it was because of the kindness of the people in my church and the kindness of me and my wife, and I think all of that totally overwhelmed him. But he made a commitment to the Lord, he saved every bit of money he had and after about a month he looks at me and he said I need to call my wife. I said well, cleve, you told me your wife would quit talking to you a long time ago. He said, I know he said but, doc, the Lord's telling me that I need to make things right with my wife, which is not surprising because you know, the last chapter of Malachi in the old Testament says that in the end times that that the Lord will turn the hearts of the husbands to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. And I was not surprised at all and I said well, what do you want me to do? He said I want you to call her. I want you to call her and tell her what's happening in my life and try to smooth things over between me and her. And I said, cleve, I'd be delighted.
Speaker 2:Well, I'd bought him an old 1972 Monte Carlo. It was awful and ugly and covered in oak tree stains, and once he got a little job, he cleaned that car and shined it up and he was so proud to have a car that would actually work. So I he was driving it back and forth to work, and so I called him, called his wife, and I told her everything that happened. I explained to her who I was and what had been happening in his life and she was shocked, first that he was out of prison and second that he was going to church and that he had a friend who was helping him out. And he was standing there eagerly wanting to get the phone and talk to her. So I handed him the phone and immediately the both of them started crying. I mean they couldn't talk for crying and they were bawling on the phone for like 30 minutes. They'd talk a little bit and then they'd start crying. I mean it wasn't a little bit of crying, it was just bawling out loud. So after 30 minutes they hang up and he looked at me and smiled and he said she said it's okay for me to come home, she wants me to come home. I said when he said I'm leaving tomorrow morning. So the next morning was a Sunday morning and I drove down there and I put gas in his car and I bought him, gave him some grocery money and some gas money and he took off all the way to Wilmington, north Carolina, six-hour drive and, like a dummy, I didn't get her phone number and I didn't give him my phone number. So that was the last I ever saw of Cleve going home to his wife.
Speaker 2:And here's the thing God gave Cleve a new heart, god gave him a new start, god gave him an almost new car and God was beginning to restore all the years that the canker worm devoured in his life. God began to restore the broken relationships in his life and it, to me, is just a beautiful story, and I wish I knew how things went with Cleve. But he never called me back. He probably didn't even know how to get in touch with me. But you see, there are people out there listening to me right now and you need a new heart. You need to let God lay on Jesus all of your sin, all of your iniquity. You need Jesus to give you a new heart and a new start. I don't know if you need a new car, but you probably need a new heart and a new start and you need to allow Jesus to restore the broken relationships in your life.
Speaker 2:And some of you listening to me know somebody in your life your family, your friends that need Jesus to give them a new heart and a new start. And, just like Cleve, god will allow you to start all over and will begin to restore the broken relationships in your life. That's Jesus' specialty and he can do that for you, just like he did it for Cleve. And no, you can't take the spanking for any of your friends. You can't undo the sin, you can't undo the broken relationships, but God can restore the years that the canker worm has devoured. Let me give you hope that God can restore the broken relationships. Do not doubt God's power to do those things. He is a miracle, working God. You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa and I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
