The Old Man in the Back of the Sanctuary

A wealthy atheist businessman was in a supermarket when he saw a woman with an empty cart who seemed to be talking to herself, He edged a little closer and heard her praying, “Lord, I can’t afford the food I need. I’m going to trust you to provide.” Instead of offering her money for food, he followed her as she left the store empty handed. He followed her home, wrote down her address, then drove to his office. He wrote a very long list of food, then called in a male aid. instructing him to buy every item on the list, then take the car load of food to her address and tell her the food was especially for her. The aid asked, “Sir, may I ask why?” He told him, “I am making a statement. When she asks who sent her the food I want you to tell her it was the devil. That should shake up her belief system.” They both chuckled and the aid was on his way. He showed the woman the car full of food and helped her move it to her kitchen a few sacks at a time. Finally, as the woman pulled the last two sacks from the car, the aid asked, “Don’t you want to know who sent  this food?” She smiled and said, “No.” He pressed her, “You aren’t even a little curious?” She said, “Not really.” Getting frustrated, he tried again, “Don’t you want to know who to thank?” She said, “I already know that.” Then, still clutching the sacks, she looked up at the sky and said, “When God gives an order, even the devil has to obey.” This parable kind of reminds me of Genesis 50:20 when Joseph told his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

I think every Christian asks ourselves at times if family, friends or coworkers care about what we do for them or about what we are going through. There is one person who always cares. Each verse of one of my favorite old hymns begins, “Does Jesus care?” and each time the chorus answers, “Oh yes He cares. I know He cares.” As Christians, everything we do for others is also done for Him. With my present physical and financial limitations, the only help I can offer is encouragement or prayer. But I also make sure every friend and caregiver knows when they leave my home that I appreciate everything they did and that I care deeply about them.

Two posts  appeared on my Facebook time line today. “Someone who places everything in God’s hands will soon see God’s hand in everything.” “Just when it seems hopeless, God reaches down and says take my hand. We will get through this together.” When I look back at everything I have survived in my 72 years as a Christian, I can testify that it has been God’s power and not mine that got me here today. I have been near death four times when God saved me, not counting the times He protected me from danger I wasn’t even aware of. Just last week, a storm front with several tornadoes passed through. I was upset that my power was out for six hours until a friend showed me a picture on his phone of a huge tree that had been pulled out of the ground and was laying across the street. If that had touched down just 150 feet further north, I wouldn’t be writing this. That was God’s power. God hasn’t just protected me from danger or harm. He comforted me in my two greatest times of sorrow. First when my mother died when I was 14 and then when my wife slipped into heaven after 50 years of marriage. He assured me I will be with them again some day and then put wonderful Christians in my life to help me continue into the next chapter of my life with Him and on His power.

Yesterday, a severe storm came through my neighborhood uprooting trees and causing flooding. I did not suffer harm or damage, but at 11:00am, my power, phone, wifi and emergency alert system all went out. My morning caregiver was with me, but she had to leave at noon. For several hours after she left, I was completely isolated from the world. I fully understood what Corrie ten Boom meant when she said, “You may never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” He was with me until everything came back on at 5:00pm.

More than a few years ago, Condoleezza Rice spoke at a prayer breakfast in Washington D.C and it has stuck with me all this time. Her father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers, but she admitted that by the time she was in post graduate studies at U.S.C. she had drifted away from church and worship. Then, one Saturday morning, she . was in Ralph’s super market when a stranger came up to her and said, “You play the piano. don’t you?” Stunned, she replied, “Yes I do. Why do you ask?” He said, “I’m a Baptist pastor and our church needs someone to play the piano. Can you please help us?” She told him that she would. She said that there was just one problem. Sometimes, in the middle of his sermon, the preacher would start singing in some unknown key and expect her to join in. She called her mother for advice and her mom told her, “Darlin’, just play in the key of  C and they will come to you.” Then Condy Rice told the crowd. “You know. I think that’s what God does. He plays in the key of C and we come to Him. Even in the produce section of Ralph’s.”

Here is another modern parable I want to share with you. A farmer named Jed was at his produce stand when he saw his neighbor, Pete, walking up the road with a gunny sack in his hand and said, “Hi Pete. where are you off to?”   Pete replied, “Ed Jones, up the road a piece, wants to buy one of my male pigs to raise for breeding and I’m delivering the little fellow in this sack.” Jed said, “That’s great. If I’m not here when you come back, I’ll see you at church Sunday, Lord willing.” Pete spun around, “Why do you always say that? Do you think God cares about your comings and goings? I will see you Sunday period.,” as he marched off.  Later, as Jed was closing his stand, he saw Pete coming slowly back down the road. His hair was standing on end, his clothes were a mess and he was clutching the empty sack. Jed pulled up a chair and yelled, “Pete, come sit and rest a spell and tell me what happened to you.” Pete plopped down in the chair with a giant sigh and began, “I was almost to the Jones farm when it started to rain. i stepped under a big tree to keep from getting soaked. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning hit the tree. I thought for sure I was a goner. I dropped the sack and the frightened pig ran away. I was too stunned to chase after him.” Jed replied, “I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m so happy you survived it. Where are you going now?” Pete looked Jed straight in the eye and said, “I‘m going home, Lord willing.”  I hope and pray that it never takes a bolt of lightning to remind us that as a son or daughter of God through faith in Christ Jesus our entire new life is to be lived in the will of our Heavenly Father.

We first meet Rahab in Joshua where she is continually called Rahab the Prostitute. We don’t read about her again until the first chapter of Matthew where she is described as the wife of Salmon, mother of  Boaz, great grandmother of king David and a direct ancestor of Mary and Jesus. Could that be the same woman? Bible experts seem to agree that it is the same woman enjoying her new life believing in God. . Every true Christian knows what it is like when God opens a whole new life to us. I have heard it said, “Satan knows our name but calls us by our sin. Jesus knows our sin but calls us by our name to repent and follow Him.” There are people who will dig up our past to try to weaken our testimony. But they are like vandals breaking into and ransacking a house where we used to live. By the grace of God we don’t live there anymore.

We read about “Doubting Thomas” in chapter 20 of John. When Thomas finally saw the risen Lord and worshiped Him, Jesus said, “You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who believe without seeing.” You and I are blessed because of our faith. We present faith and God presents the rest. When I was 13, my parents and I attended a healing prayer rally, but I remember it like it was yesterday. The sports arena was full of people quietly and prayerfully waiting for the service to begin, as a choir sang, “Only believe. Only believe. All things are possible if you only believe.”

When I was 28, I ran across a paperback book titled “How to be a Christian without being religious”. It was a very simple illustrated version of John’s Gospel. By that time I had already been building a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ for 17 years. I must have read that book at least a dozen times. About 15 years later, I was a service manager and one of my workers turned in his resignation. He told me he and his wife were entering full time Christian ministry. I reached in my desk and gave him that well worn paperback as a present. He looked at the cover and asked, “You think I need this?” I smiled and said, “My brother, we all need it.”  Jesus reveals the difference between relationship and religion in the familiar sermon on the mount recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. He describes two groups standing before Him at judgment. The first group had a personal relationship with Him and did kind, loving things without thought simply because of Jesus’ love and mercy to them. Jesus welcomed them to heaven. The second group had put their faith in religious practices. They were not pagans or evil. They knew of Jesus and even claimed to be Christians doing wonderful works in His name, Jesus will say to them the scariest words in the Bible, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”  The Greek word translated as knew is not describing factual knowledge. It is used to describe a much more intimate knowledge.  So, what is the bottom line of all of this? Nothing I do, even in God’s name, could save me. But what He has done in me when I invited Him into my life has changed me into a new creature as an obedient child of God.

This website is finally back up and running! It was hacked again, but Josh, my brother in Christ, cleaned it up and got it inspected and approved as safe to visit again. God’s Spirit in us will rile the demon in some people, but they cannot stop our testimony.