My parents came from diverse
religious backgrounds in their families. They did not begin serving the Lord
until I was about 7; after that, it was the most integral part of our family
life. Some of my earliest memories were from home prayer meetings that were held
in a remote mountain community where we lived that had no church. A traveling
pastor would host the meetings. I could best describe them as "Independent" when
it came to organized religion, and "Dependant" only on the Lord. Later, they
were associated with people from many church backgrounds and often involved in
ecumenical prayer groups. The core of their beliefs were simple and put into
practice: they believed in Jesus Christ, Him crucified, and risen from the
dead--born of a virgin and the Son of God. He freely gave himself to save us
from our sins and give us life everlasting. They believed that He was the same
yesterday, today and forever. They believed that he healed and walked on water
and cast out demons. They believed that the Bible was the real and literal
testament of God. They believed in the leading of the Holy Spirit. They walked
in faith. They were quick to help those who were even less fortunate than
themselves--some who were truly "un-lovely". They believed in the Fruits of the
Spirit and that the greatest of these WAS love.
Some of the people in churches we were associated with (they never joined a
church) would often have views that were a little more narrow than the one my
parents had (ie. people not baptized in their church were going to hell, people
who smoked were not welcome to attend, women should never wear make-up or
trousers, one should not associate--AT ALL--with people who were not Christians,
etc.). When I questioned the differences, my mother would only shake her head
and say "Well, we just have to pray that God opens their eyes, honey. We would
all be lost if He didn't have mercy on us." She reminded me that congregations
who didn't believe exactly like we did, were still God's children and just at a
different point in the road than we were. She also reminded me that we had to be
very careful of criticism, and that God still used people who were different
than we were, according to His walk with them. She said that even in the New
Testament, we see evidence of some of the disagreements that existed between
churches who were all still Members of the Body of Christ. She explained that
the religious leaders of Jesus day, accused Jesus of hanging out with what would
be now considered "street people" and the dregs of society, and it is written
they would say worse about those who followed Him.
I would question my parents about "unbelievers" as well. Wasn't it evil to
associate with them? My father --a man of few words--would say "We are IN the
world, not OF the world. Sometimes, my dear, YOU will be the only Bible someone
else ever reads. How can you witness to them if they never are allowed to see
the Jesus that is in you?"
Later, I saw how clearly this was put into practice by one of my parent's
dearest friends--an old Baptist pastor that we called Papa Don. In one of our
conversations, when I was older, I was shocked to find that he had been asked to
perform a wedding in a "Go-Go" club and that he had accepted! "What happened?" I
asked. "Why did you go?".
"Well," he said, "one night when I was preaching a girl and her fiancé came into
the service. She was dressed a bit differently than the ladies in the
congregation, and there was some whispering and head turning when the couple sat
down. During the sermon, they were moved and attended several more times. They
came to me one night after the service and said they were bothered by just
'living together' -- they wanted the commitment of being man and wife. The girl,
ashamedly, said that she would not be welcomed in the church as many people in
town knew her and that she was a topless dancer. She asked if I could come to
the club and perform the ceremony there. I was convinced of the young couple's
sincerity and conviction on the matter, and said I would pray about it. I put it
before the church, and they said, emphatically, "No, absolutely NOT!" After much
more prayer, God told me something else--He said I should go and do it. So I
obeyed! When I arrived at the club, all the bridesmaids were in scanty costumes,
but I just kept my focus on God and the young couple and during the ceremony, I
began to preach! Halfway through, the bridesmaids began to cry. The ceremony was
halted while they asked for jackets and sweaters to cover themselves up. The
bride and groom were also moved to tears and the conclusion was joyful! They
said they wanted to turn their lives over to God. At the end, two of the
bridesmaids knelt down and asked me to pray with them for salvation!"
"And the church??" I asked, amazed.
"Oh---they asked me to resign." He said and smiled quietly.
"Even after the outcome?"
"Yes. There was quite a bruh-ha-ha."
"Was it worth losing your position to do this thing?" I asked, still shocked.
"Oh, every bit of it!" He replied. "The people in the church were already
saved!"
Papa Don went on preaching revivals in tents and small churches across the
country , touching many lives, that of our family included.
Another true tale of opportunity.
Myself and my parents were all baptized --in a river--by the traveling preacher
who came to the home meetings in Oregon. Lincoln Brown was a huge man who had
been a boxer in early days, and had gone on to work in the lumber mills. He had
also spent most of his life loving and serving the Lord, ministering to peoples
needs in remote places. He was a working man, and often doubled as a skilled
carpenter.
For a while, he was called to Alaska on a carpentry job in a fledgling outpost
where men were working on the pipeline. Strangely enough, he was paid to work on
building a tavern. The owners Lincoln was under contract to, saw excellent
opportunity to profit from men who were lonely, tired, and away from home with
no place nearby to spend their money. But God saw a window of opportunity too!
Some of the people we knew were again shocked at this. One old lady said, "How
could you do the Devil's work ... building a tavern? Did you lose your
mind?????"
"Not at all...." he replied. "God told me to go ahead and
take the job ... it was a long one, nearly 7 months. You know, I preached more
sermons in that tavern building-- even sitting on kegs of beer at the last--
than I did in a church up there. There were more men to listen, and some of them
accepted Jesus as their Savior, Praise God!"
How many opportunities have we missed, feeling that it might put our reputation
on the line? We might pride ourselves that we don't care that the world might
ridicule our faith ... but how often have we weighed the opinions of other
so-called Believers over the opportunities put before us by God?
"What do you think a man does who has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost?
He will leave the other ninety-nine grazing on the hillside and go look for the
lost sheep! When he finds it, I tell you, he feels far happier over this one
sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not get lost! In just the same way,
your Father in Heaven does not want any of these little ones to be lost."
(Matthew 18: 12-14)
Sunia Vinci sunyetsan1701@hotmail.com
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