Mr. McFarland
speaker
52 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Oct 2024
last heard Oct 2024
Mr. McFarland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Master Peter put a cloth around the man's neck to keep the whiskers from falling down his shirt, lathered up the man's chin, and began to give the man a shave. The door opened and a new customer walked into his shop. Master Peter recognized the man immediately, for he was an outlaw.
Every night at dinner, Mr. McFarland gathered his family together for devotions. Mr. and Mrs. McFarland had six children, two boys and four girls. The children's names were Donovan, Riley, Molly, Erin Claire, Delaney, and Shannon. It was Mr. McFarland's practice to read a portion of Scripture every night and give a short explanation of it.
Then he would ask each of the children to recite memory verses from the Bible and to answer catechism questions. Finally, Mr. McFarland would lead the family in prayer. Each of the children would participate in the prayers in his or her own way. One night, just after devotions had ended with the singing of a favorite hymn, the McFarland's daughter, Delaney, spoke up.
"'Daddy,' she said, "'your prayers are beautiful. "'Sometimes I want to cry for joy when I listen to your prayers, "'but my prayers seem so simple and weak. "'I'm almost embarrassed and ashamed to pray out loud. "'Daddy, can you teach me how to pray "'in a way that will make Jesus happy "'and will make me feel more comfortable?' Mr. McFarland smiled. I understand how you feel, Delaney, he said.
When I was younger, I felt exactly the same way. I wasn't sure how to pray. About all I knew when I was your age was the table grace. God is great. God is good. And we thank Him for this food. Oh, yes, I also knew my nighttime prayer. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.
But other than those two simple prayers, about the only thing I could say in prayer was, Dear God, please bless Mommy and Daddy and my brother and sister and Uncle Joe and Aunt Sue. Then my grandfather told me a story that changed everything for me. Do you think you might like to hear the story? Delaney said, yes, I surely would.
The other children who had been listening to the conversation between Delaney and their father nodded eagerly too. So Mr. McFarland told his children this story. Once upon a time, in a village far across the sea, there lived a barber. Everyone in the town knew him. He not only cut men's hair and shaved their beards, but he could do all sorts of things that people needed to have done.
The villagers called him simply Master Peter. One morning, one of the village men came in for a shave. Master Peter put a cloth around the man's neck to keep the whiskers from falling down his shirt, lathered up the man's chin, got out his razor, and began to give the man a shave. While the barber was shaving the man, the door opened and a new customer walked into his shop.
Master Peter recognized the man immediately, for he was an outlaw. The emperor of the land had promised a large reward for anyone who could capture him dead or alive. And Master Peter knew that the authorities would take this man away if they could get their hands on him. When Master Peter finished shaving the first gentleman, he sent him on his way and motioned for the outlaw to have a seat.
Master Peter asked, what can I do for you today, sir? The outlaw said, I would like to have a haircut and a shave. Master Peter began to snip away at the man's hair, trimming it neatly. He then rubbed soap lather on his face to prepare him for a shave.
Peter took out his razor, and as he sharpened it on the strop beside the barber chair, his hands began to tremble as he thought about the importance of the man who was sitting in his chair. He calmed himself down and began to shave the man's face, moving down from his cheeks to his chin to his neck. Peter's razor was pressed very gently against the outlaw's neck.
All Peter had to do was press hard on the razor and he would cut the man's throat, killing him instantly. Then Peter could go to the emperor and say that he had taken care of the outlaw and he could claim the reward which would make him rich. But as his razor touched the man's neck, Master Peter thought to himself, there's not enough money in all the world to make me kill this man. He is my hero.
Master Peter knew the story of the man in his chair. The man had been a monk, then a knight, and now he was a world famous professor at the university in Peter's town. The world had been changed and the whole church was better because the reformer had been brave enough to stand up for the truth of the gospel of Jesus as no one had since the days of the apostles. No one had so much courage as he.
The name of the outlaw in the chair. was Martin Luther, the man whose protests had started the Protestant Reformation and recovered the gospel from darkness. But because his teachings had disturbed some of the authorities, including the emperor himself, those who were opposed to him had convinced the emperor to banish Professor Luther. Now they wanted to capture him and burn him at the stake.
But the people who had discovered the truth of the gospel of Jesus because of this man's teaching loved him so much that they would rather lay down their lives than see him captured and executed. Dr. Luther's barber, Master Peter, was one of those people. Peter would never betray his hero. Suddenly, Peter had an idea.
He had been struggling with his prayers, and Dr. Luther was famous for his prayer life. He decided to ask Dr. Luther for his advice while he was sitting in the barber chair. Peter said, Dr. Luther, I know who you are. It is a privilege for me to have you in my barber shop today. I wonder whether I may ask you a question. Dr. Luther said, of course you may. How can I help you?
Peter said, I have a problem. I try to pray every night, but sometimes I feel that my prayers never go any further than the ceiling. I know that you pray for hours every day. There's probably no one who knows how to pray better than you do. Dr. Luther, do you think you could help me learn to pray better? Dr. Luther said, that's a wonderful question, my friend.
My students ask me very deep questions all the time about God and the Bible and church life, but rarely do they ask me about how to grow as a Christian. Nothing makes me happier than to learn that you want to pray in a deeper way. Let me go back to my study and think about it, and perhaps I can write down a few ideas that will help you pray more effectively. Thank you, Dr. Luther, Peter said.
Then he quickly finished Dr. Luther's shave. When Dr. Luther got back to his study, he picked up his pen and began to write instructions for Master Peter. Dr. Luther wrote more than 50 books during his lifetime, but perhaps the smallest and shortest book he ever wrote was the one he wrote especially for his barber, Master Peter. In this book, Dr. Luther explained his method for prayer.
He called the little book, A Simple Way to Pray. When the book was finished, Dr. Luther went back to the barbershop and gave the first copy to Master Peter. Peter couldn't believe that the great Martin Luther had taken time to write a book just for him so that he could learn how to pray. Dr. Luther said to begin with, you must learn three things by memory. The first is the Lord's Prayer.
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