My Childhood Friend

 

My Childhood Friend

 

My reply!

 

Tommy thanks for the reply, It always amazes me how God speaks to us, and I believe He does it in many different ways.  One of the darkest times in my life, God spoke to me through a guy who was living a more sinful life than I.  I am not even sure he believed in God.  But I was sure that what he told me came from God.  When I told you I prayed for you, in no way do I believe that I am less needy than you.  But I learned that when someone's name comes into my mind it is good to ask God to bless and show how much he loves and cares for that person.

 

I have grown to love the Scripture, and I do look at them as the Manufacturer's handbook on life.  I see them as a love letter to each of us.  A friend of mine compared it to a soldier that was taken captive and would only have one letter he could write to his wife and young child.  He could only write one letter and he had no way of knowing when or if he would ever see his wife and small child again.  So, he took his time, and when he wrote he was very clear on what to do about the finances and raising of their small child, who they could go to for help, who they could trust, and so on.  He put everything in that letter that he thought she would ever need.  But each time he finished a statement he would weave in the words, "I love you", and that is what God has done in his letter to us.

 

Yesterday I was reading a book and came across this story: "When my wife and I lived in South Carolina; she worked for a lady whose life began falling apart.  This woman went to talk to a friend of mine, who led her to Christ.  One day I took a pamphlet by Norman Grubb, The Key to Everything, over to her and said, "If the Lord leads you, read this booklet.  If there's anything you want to talk about, call me."  She and I talked.  During the course of the conversation, I told her, "You already have it all.  You trusted Christ the other night, and there's not another thing God's going to be able to do for you.  He hasn't got anything else to give you.  He's given you Himself."

 

She started to ask, "If I decide to become religious. .  ."  I said, "Oh, please, don't become religious.  For God's sake, don't become religious."  I wanted to spare her from that.  Let's talk about life, not religion."  For most of us, living the Christian life is as difficult as finding Christ was.  Often it's more difficult.  Why?  Now that we have Christ in us, shouldn't life go much easier?  The truth is that we ourselves make it difficult.  We complicate it by trying to do what seems perfectly natural once we become Christian.  We try to keep God's law.  But trying through our own effort to keep God's law prevents us from experiencing Christ's abundant life, because contrary to most popular teaching, it is the opposite of what God designed us to do."  Now that is deep, and I believe what I understand the author is saying.

 

Tom, I am one of the most simple of men, I am not educated but I am blessed.  I do not believe I've got many answers, but I have always seemed to have many questions.  I also believe you are a very special man, and I value you.

 

You remember Bob the Barber, one day he asked me to go with him to a Bible study.  I almost fell out of his chair.  I ask this question; "you go to Bible studies?"  He told me that he did each Wednesday, and that he knew I was a Christian, but that I seemed to have left God out of my life.  I went to that Bible study because of Bob, not because I wanted to study the Bible.  I will never forget the setting, a Holiday Inn on Hwy. 9, and we were standing in a buffet line.  Bob introduced me to four other men, boy did they stand out in that line, each had what seemed like to me, a family Bible under their arms.  I must tell you, I had not prayed for years, but I needed help, so I ask God to get me into a private room where no one and especially no one I worked with would see me.  That prayer was answered, not because God heard my prayer, but because they met in a private room each week.

 

Once in the room, I put on my Church face and played the game, the only game I knew, the religious game.  That day I promised myself I would never go back to that Bible study and I might just change Barbers.  But for the next six months, I was at that Bible study.  Those men knew the Jesus that I only knew about.  For six months I tried to make deals with God and it was like he was not listening, then one night in Victoria, Texas, I opened the Bible in that hotel room and read, Romans 10:9-10, "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.   For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved."  That night I bowed my knee to God and said, "I agree and I am tired of being a poser, will you forgive me for trying to be my own god and come into my life."  And by faith, I believe He did.  Yes, it was simple, but it was not easy, I had to give up on myself and believe that He would do all that He promised.  It has been many years and I still have questions, very few answers, but I know God has been faithful to all His promises.

 

Tom, sometimes I get lost in my thoughts too!   It sounds like Brother Wages was a very special man; you were blessed to have him.  Yes, I do know that Jesus loves me, and that is so great to know that the one who spoke all things into being loves you.  In His Love Letter, he told us to study to show ourselves approved by God, to renew our

minds in His Word, and that we would have troubles and a real enemy.  In the book of Ephesians 6:10-11, it is stated; "Last of all I want to remind you that your strength must come from the Lord's mighty power within you.  Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand safe against all strategies and tricks of Satan."  Tom, I believe that part of the Bible as much as I believe the part about Jesus loving me.  It is all about how to live life on earth, very little of it is about eternity.

 

 

Your Friend,

 

 

 

 

Will you join me in asking the Lord to open the Tommy's eyes and heart, who are in your life  He is right about it not being complicated, but he is so wrong about living the good life to earn Jesus.  If that were true why was it’s the Father will for His Son, His only Son to die on a cross for the sins of all people?

 

 

Love,

 

Bob