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Cover Article
“2 Tanks of Gas, 3 Chats on the Sofa, 3 Stories of Struggle"
Once in a while you have a day that stands out from other
days in some aspect or aspects. The day written of here was a Friday, and visits
with four different people had striking connections, though they were dissimilar
in many was as well. The names used in telling their stories are not real, but
the people and the struggles are quite genuine. As you will discover, each of
these relates to family issues.
First there was George (Stan sat waiting outside the door to talk to me -
again), recently come to Virginia from another state where he had lived all his
life. A career as a municipal worker had been good to him, and he had married
just three years earlier. O, the sadness of a bad choice of mates! She urged him
to give up his job, “pull up stakes,” and carry her to Virginia. A meek and
apparently easily-led man, George had done just that. Once she got him here, got
her place and all new furnishings, as well as a car (all at George’s expense),
she “gave him the boot” in favor of an old boyfriend. I have seen few men as
broken in heart as this man was. My heart broke with his as he shared the story.
His “wife” called his cell phone as we were talking, and he said he had to meet
her outside. She was bringing him his clothes. After 17 years of faithful
working and saving, George had a car and a suitcase of clothing. I don’t know
what happened when he went out to meet her, but he stayed gone a long time - in
fact it was over three hours before I saw George again.
When it became evident that George wasn’t coming right back, Stan came in and
sat on the little guest sofa in my office. His countenance was quite a contrast
to that of his counterpart, George. Stan was all smiles, and it appeared that
the smile reflected a deeper joy than I had seen in him before. A week earlier,
Stan had sat and shared his familiar story. Married with two children and a
grandchild, Stan and his wife had hit a rough spot in their marriage. The lure
of the city, old friends, better job opportunities had overcome his weakening
desire to live the rural life with his family, and he had fled South Carolina
for his boyhood home, Newport News.
His wife and daughters had come to visit him a few weeks before, and he related
to me that seeing them drive off was extremely difficult. The “old friends” had
tired of him as a guest, leaving him to seek shelter with us at the Mission. The
week before I had advised Stan that the most important thing in his life after
his relationship with God was his wife and family. I had encouraged him to
return home (which they had said was their desire as well). On this day, the
smiles were prompted by his decision to return home. And so the “prodigal
father” was here to share the good news, as well as to take me up on my offer to
fill his tank with gas to get him home. John followed him to the gas station and
fulfilled my promise.
It was shortly after lunch when George came back. His face showed no signs of
joy - it rather betrayed a still-broken heart. He had spoken with his wife and
understood her non-intentions toward him. He had also spoken with a relative
back home who offered a place to stay while he recovered himself. He came in to
thank me for the counsel, and he also needed gas to get home (his car was in
front of the Mission, the gas tank completely empty). I called on John again,
who put a little gas in his tank from our lawnmower supply, then led him over to
the station and filled his tank with gas. George was home before nightfall.
At 1:00, the sofa still warm from these meetings, a young
married couple kept a counseling appointment. He had called a few days earlier,
begging for help for a fracturing relationship. He asked how much I charged, and
when I told him I didn’t, he said he didn’t have any money to pay anyway. We
spent about an hour and a quarter talking, reading a few scriptures, and praying
together. We have a second appointment scheduled, and I have hope for their
healing. I told them Stan’s story (he knew I had this session coming up and
asked me to give them a word from him). That word was that the grass is not
greener somewhere else. I am praying and will work with them to prevent another
George or Stan story if possible. I know God wants them together, and certainly
their three children need them to persevere through their struggles and stay
together for them.
All in all, I’d say it was a good day. George is headed for a
new start, and his heart will heal in time. Stan was planning to be home that
evening for his wife’s birthday dinner - to be her surprise! The young couple
now have some hope they lacked before, and they are working through a book I
shared that is designed to help struggling couples. A lady in Williamsburg gave
that sofa to the Mission twenty-plus years ago, and I am sure she had no idea
how much business God would do with people who sat on it. Nor did I.
P.S. After finishing this article (so I thought), I received a phone call from
the young husband. I had urged them to get in church right away, and they agreed
they should and would. The call was to tell me that his wife had trusted Christ
on Sunday morning - the story just keeps getting better!
Superintendent's
Corner
"Contrasting Scenes"
Mark 10 relates an episode in the final days before the
Cross that causes me almost to gasp. Jesus and the disciples “were on their way
up to Jerusalem” where Jesus would die for the sins of the world. In the shadow
of the Cross, in the presence of the Lamb, James and John are jockeying for the
best positions in the kingdom! Later James would be the first of the twelve to
be martyred, and John would suffer for his faith by being exiled on the Isle of
Patmos, so I don’t want to be too hard on them. But at the moment narrated by
Mark here, they are being petty and self-seeking. Of course, Jesus seized the
teaching moment and gave them the greatest lesson imaginable on humility and
self-sacrifice. Verse 45 records His words like this, “For even the Son of Man
did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many.”
A Friday morning in late February produced a scene at the Mission that somewhat
paralleled the Mark 10 event. A young man named Mario had found his way from New
York City to Newport News. I imagined the (real) hand of God’s providence
guiding him as it did Onesimus of old (the NT book of Philemon). Mario’s mother
died when he was seven, and later his grandmother (who was raising him) died as
well. Not yet 24 years of age, Mario had already suffered a great deal. Life in
New York became so difficult that he sought a change of address to “begin
again.” This, by the way, is a story that can be told over and over here at PRM.
So many who have lost and suffered so much find their way to our door, led by
God’s gracious hand.
On this particular morning, God’s Spirit was working so powerfully in Mario’s
life that he pressed me to share with him the way of life in Christ. I had given
him a Bible and some reading instructions, then asked him to come see me if He
felt the need to talk about his relationship with God. He would not leave my
office until we had that conversation! For the better part of the next hour,
Mario and I discussed, open Bible in hand, God’s plan for life through Christ’s
death for our sins. He clearly and certainly placed his trust in the Lord Jesus,
and left a while later (with his new Bible in his hand).
And now the down side - while that glory scene was unfolding with Mario, a
former resident was at the front window screaming and cursing about not finding
a bottle of “tattoo lotion” that he claimed he left in our building when he
exited the week before. O, the shame of it - God is doing eternal business in
one life, while Satan is getting a second fellow all worked up about something
so trivial. Man has not changed much over the years, have we? Let’s concern
ourselves more with things that matter.
A Note From Alan
"He Understood Very Clearly"
The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation
doesn't slumber, the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now
hot, ready to receive them, the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering
sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened her mouth under them.
So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of
hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God
is dreadfully provoked.... ...and they have no interest in any mediator, there
are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have
no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the
mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
These are just a few lines taken from Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon, Sinners
in the Hands of An Angry God. Few men write like this anymore, and few preachers
deliver sermons like this anymore. Our world seems to have lost its fear of
Hell. Men at the Mission are no different. It can be difficult to convince them
that they are lost; that they need rescuing.
A man sat in my office recently and described his childhood in this way: He
spent a great deal of time in church, surrounded by a family of ministers and
friends who were Christians. However, as we talked about what he was counting on
to get him to Heaven his answers concerned me. We turned to Romans 3:23 and
6:23a which declares all humans to be sinners – opposed to God and subjects of
His wrath. This gentleman became very frightened as he grasped his position
before God. At one point he was actually trembling. He understood very clearly,
the bad news.
We moved on to Romans 6:23b, which turns from the bad news to the Good News. He
was so relieved to learn that God made a way out!! Without my even asking he
almost shouted, “Yes, that’s what I need!!! I need to get saved!!!” We bowed, he
prayed, and he was rescued!!!
Thank you for allowing us to be here to meet with men like this!! We couldn’t do
it without you!!!
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