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