I used to respond with something like, “You’ve got a war going on within you right now.  Where did that come from – God or you?”  I was never overly concerned as to whether that would make me their enemy, knowing that if Jesus had them, I could expect them too as His representative.  After spending much time in prayer before I went out, I simply embraced the promise of God from Exodus 4:12 each day, knowing that if His words were good enough for Moses and Aaron, then they would be good enough for me.  To publicly proclaim Jesus’ gospel is a great way to be delivered from the opinions and thoughts of others about you.

The biblical answer for all people as to, “Why does God allow………?” can only ever be satisfactorily given from the Genesis account where we read of what is known as the Fall of Man.  The first man and women originally lived in peace and harmony with God and themselves, under His protection, guidance and direction in a God-given perfect world.  But they then made a choice to yield to the serpent’s (Satan’s) temptation by doubting the word of God.  Their doubt then progressed to disbelief and finally to disobedience.  Rebellion was the root cause.  

Originally they lived dependant upon God, now they became rebels who chose independance from God.  The Bible calls that sin.  The Bible also tells us that we are the offspring of those two people and that we have inherited their nature.  That means, we have inherited a nature of sin and rebellion too and have added much of our own to it.  The Bible then goes on to show us that independent living from God results in nothing but trouble at best and tragedy and disaster at worst.  That’s the way it is.  That’s the way it’s always been, with no better example than the one given at the beginning with Cain and Abel.

With sin, we are told that death came into the world.  The biblical meaning of death is separation.  The day God judged those two people, they were sent away from Him – separated from Him - spiritually, as well as physically.  That too is our inheritance – separated (cut off) from God as the result of a dead (dormant) spirit.  Not only that, but the Scripture tells us that we are at enmity with God Romans 8:7.  That means each human being inherits and carries a feeling or a condition of hostility, hatred, ill will, animosity; antagonism and opposition towards God and we can only be released from such by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus speaks to this condition of the human heart best in the seventh chapter of the gospel of Mark.  He tells us that it is what comes out of a person that defiles them - evil thoughts of lust, theft, murder, adultery, wanting what belongs to others, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, pride and all other folly.  What a list!  No wonder we have enmity with God.  He tells us all these vile things come from within and, these are what pollute us and make us unfit for God.  But that was the last thing these many people wanted to hear from me as they spewed out their accusations and bitterness.

Often I was abused when challenging them about their own war within.  More than once I had a door slammed in my face when I asked, “If God was to come back in half an hour’s time to rid the world of evil, would you still be here?”  The gospel of Jesus Christ is very confronting.  Unlike human beings, Jesus Christ does not play games with words.  He was hated and rejected by most of His own people for not playing that game and it’s no different for us today and it will be no different tomorrow.  A messenger of the gospel must chisel that truth in stone at the beginning, otherwise he or she will give up and walk away.

The Bible declares that we are living in the age of God’s grace.  That means we are living in a time whereby reconciliation with God can be a reality for all who will receive it - for all who will humble themselves and and make their peace with God.  He is not at war with us, we are at war with Him.  We don’t have to remain in that state of war.  But we can never be at peace with God, or ourselves or anybody else until we make our peace with God.  It is only when we make peace with God are we then able to experience the peace of God.  Once we experience the peace of God, we are then able to be at peace with everyone else.

Mrs James understood that truth.  She found it out late in life even though she’d been a faithful church member for many years.  When I met her she told me that her husband had died one year earlier, but she was just getting over it in recent times after experiencing a nervous breakdown.  She said that four years before his death he was run over by a train as he took a shortcut across rail tracks on the way home from watching the football.  This dear old lady in her seventies, told me he never got over that incident.  She did her best to nurse him back to health, but when he died her mental state gradually grew worse. 

After trying doctors and medicines and the advice of the experts she said decided she would get real with Jesus Christ.  The moment she did so things began to change dramatically within her mind and body.  Mrs James could have remained in her nervous state, justifying such a condition because of the great tragedy she experienced.  Well could she have fired off a bitter, “If God is so all-loving, why did He allow….?”  There was nothing to separate her from the others who did so - except choice.  Mrs James chose to believe in God’s promise of peace upon being reconciled with Him.  Her face and speech gave witness to it.

Sarah is another one who could have bitterly thrown at me, “If God is so all-loving why did He allow……..?”  She told me she got married at seventeen years of age but was divorced one year later.  Some time afterwards she remarried and remained so for the next twenty-three years, until her husband died of cancer two years prior to our meeting.  As if that was not sad enough to cope with, she also had a twenty-seven year-old son to look after.  He was in a car crash at some stage in his life which left him completely incapacitated in both mind and body. 

She was never able to attend church services or do Biblical studies with a home group, but Sarah had developed a heart for God in the midst of her troubles and in return He honoured her humility towards Him.  Sarah told me that if it were not for her faith in the love, power and reality of Christ she would, “have given up long ago.”  Sarah also lived next door to an older lady and when it was possible for her to do so she did cleaning and other housekeeping acts of kindness to make life a little more comfortable for her neighbour.  

David gave witness to the, “all-loving, all-powerful God.”  He was in a war - the Korean war.  He knew better than to accuse God for the sinful, rebellious actions of man.  He came into our church fellowship with a desire to learn more about the God he’d surrendered his life to some months earlier.  We were doing a Bible study one night, talking about God’s promise to not only forgive all confessed sin, but His promise to forget all confessed sin.  David had trouble accepting this, especially the “forget” part.  He could not come to terms with that, even when we showed him from the Scriptures.

He said he was living with a sin that he was not able to speak to anybody about.  He once told his mother, but she was never able to understand or know how to help him.  He once told his wife too, but her response was much the same as his mother.  This thing David did, helped destroy their marriage, because the guilt of it was destroying him mentally and physically.  He thought that this was the one sin that maybe God could forgive, but never forget.  At first he was reluctant to share with us what it was, but we suggested to him that he was devaluing Jesus Christ and the blood He shed for all sin.

The Holy Spirit came upon him and with many tears and much brokenness, he opened his mouth to confess before God.  The moment he did so, David knew in an instant just who the God of the Bible is and that He keeps His promises.  When he was in Korea on patrol, he heard the snap of a tree branch behind him.  He turned around and immediately fired his rifle.  David did not kill an enemy soldier however, it was a twelve year-old boy.  He had lived with the pain and guilt of that act for thirty-seven years, right up until the night Christ met him in that room.  But from that night on, he lived with God’s almighty peace for the rest of his life, which was not long sadly enough.

Not long after that David developed prostate cancer.  But he used that to tell others on the street with me, about the peace and forgiveness he was experiencing with God.  Some people looked and listened in amazement.  He told them he was aware he may be facing death, but he had no fear whatsoever.  He suffered immensely in the last few months, but in it all, he was still able to thank God and give Him all the glory.  “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty…….”  1 Corinthians 1:26-27. 

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

As I shared the message of Christ she told me that she “believed and had faith” in the Lord, but in reality, it was her denomination that she had placed her faith in.  She’d been told from childhood that she was a member of the one true church and that all others were not true churches at all.  She gave the appearance of believing this as far as it was to concern me, but not so, as far as it was to concern herself.  She had anything but faith.  She had bitterness, hatred and unforgiveness, but certainly not faith.  The Bible had never meant anything to her personally, believing she was not qualified to interpret it.   

She hated her husband (out the back painting) because he used to get drunk and beat up on her.  It was now a marriage of convenience for both. Over the next few months I revisited but the same emotions controlled her.  The last visit was a sad occasion.  Alzheimer’s was added to the list of her diseases, although in a mild form at that point.  She was sitting up in bed trying to be sick into a piece of toilet roll with a bucket nearby.  I asked her if she’d like me to pray for her, believing God would give her some immediate relief.  She just shook her head and said, “b….y prayers, they don’t work!”  Then she said she didn’t want to talk anymore.

Sixty-four year old Mr Duncan invited me inside, based on me telling him that I knew his uncle who lived in my street.  He immediately proceeded to tell me about his illnesses.  What a list!  He had angina and heart problems, haemorrhoids and bowel problems, plus arthritis in his neck, back and legs.  Mr Duncan was filled with bitterness, hatred and unforgiveness.  He saw himself as a victim in life.  He hated his eighty-nine year old father (who was in another room), saying that he’d been dominated by him all his life.  He was bitter towards his wife as well.  We sat and talked for an hour and a half.

It was very sad indeed to observe the physical state of this man who had clearly become a product of his negative thinking, emotions  and speech.  The Bible tells us that we live with the consequences of everything we say and, that what we say can preserve life, or it can destroy life Proverbs 18:21.  Here I was sitting opposite a man who was killing himself - destroying his life with his own speech.  I was most grateful for knowing what the Bible says about God’s word however – that it is “living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword.”  When I was given the opportunity to speak I gave him that living and powerful word.

As he spoke death into his being, the Holy Spirit used me to speak life into him.  He learned that if he was willing to allow God and His power to become a reality for himself, then he would find that there is an alternative way of thinking and speaking which could transform him, by bringing spiritual, mental and physical healing.  Mr Duncan gave me no indication that he would choose this alternative, but he gave no indication that he wouldn’t either.  This is always God’s work and He accomplishes what He wills, in His time.  I was blessed by that thought as I left him.  I didn’t see him again.    

I met an unstable fifty-three year old lady in an old people’s home.  She suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and had a prominent speech impediment.  When I mentioned the Lord Jesus she began to cry, telling me how much she loved Him.  She told me that she gave her heart to the Lord when she was thirteen.  She was married to a Christian man and they had two adult children.  She’d also had two miscarriages.  This dear lady was the product of a weak, Bible-compromising church.  In the days before the term “political correctness” was coined, that was the mentality of her church leadership and fellowship. 

For years she had sat under Godless, men-pleasing preachers, who’s speciality it was to tickle the ears of their members, telling them what they wanted to hear, not what they needed to hear.  This lady was now paying the price of that.  On my second visit with her, the crying continued as once again she told me how much she loved God.  I began to doubt her and said so.  It was then that she told me she’d been unfaithful to her husband at some point in their marriage.  Although she knew in her head that both her husband and God had forgiven her, it had not penetrated to her innermost being, because of years of failure to seriously embrace the Scriptures. 

She became an easy target for Satan the devil as he spewed out his condemnation upon her day and night.  I gave her books to read on deliverance from guilt and depression, which helped her somewhat, but I was not able to assist much beyond that, because real ministry only comes from the living words of God, as revealed in the Bible.  It seemed that she was reluctant to pray and fill her spirit with those words however.  Whatever opportunities this lady had to experience the grace of God in her troubles, she was blocking them all off because of unbelief. 

Unbelief in the word of God is always a choice, but it comes at a cost.  I could not count how many people I met who’s lives were self-destructing because of imprisonment to the emotions of chronic bitterness, hatred and unforgiveness.  Here they were running to and from doctors and hospitals seeking causes and solutions for their sicknesses, each one hanging off every word those people told them, but completely ignoring the one and only book that gives true causes, true diagnosis and true solutions - the Bible.  There are a number of reasons for this and one of them is that most people are followers more-so than thinkers.  

It has been said that some people think, other people think they think, but the vast majority of people would rather do anything but think!  I saw the truth of that statement on a regular basis – particularly the last part.  I was amazed at the number of people I met who operated their lives based on the untested teachings and opinions of others.  Jesus tells us that if the blind follow the blind, then both will fall into the ditch.  It is true.  I discovered that first, in my own life.  He also told us to seek out God’s viewpoint on every issue that we are faced with in life and that if we did so, then God Himself would provide the exact solution.

Following the teachings of religious people or/and the advice of medical people is not the same as following the teachings and advice of God Almighty until we know for sure, that He has directed us to either one of them.  When it comes to being imprisoned by bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness and biblical unbelief, there is not a church denomination, medicine or pill in all the world that can cure us from these things.  All they do is put a band-aid over them, which is about as effective as putting a band-aid over a cancer.  Jesus tell us it is the truth that sets us free.  He also tells us that He is the truth.

That means Truth is a Person.  Which also means that if we seek out God’s viewpoint on a matter, then He will tell us the truth about it and provide a solution to release us from it’s imprisonment.  The problem with followers, however, is that they are most reluctant to face up to the truth about themselves that Jesus Christ confronts them with.  That’s the way human nature has always been.  In the Old Testament the people specifically demanded that the prophets speak to them lies and deceits Isaiah 30:10-11.  And the New Testament tells us exactly the same thing in 2 Timothy 4:3-4.

It is natural for one to be a follower in life.  But it is supernatural to be a follower of the biblical Lord Jesus Christ.  We can only be such as we believe His revelation to us as truth and, that we would then humble ourselves before Him and invite Him to come into our lives and set us free.  Holding on to bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness and biblical unbelief is a choice.  Embracing and holding on to Christ and His word is a choice also.  He will not force our hand.  “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”  Deuteronomy 30:19.       

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

Mrs Bell shared that her son got hurt in a church as a young person and, “today he is totally anti-church and anti-christian.”  This was not the first time a parent had told me of such a sad reality – and it was not to be the last.  Countless people had already told me they had, “no problem with Jesus, but I have a lot of problems with the church.”  I was fast learning that as Christians it’s not what we say we are – but who we are in Christ and who He is in us.  Non-believers can spot the difference, we who believe otherwise are fooling ourselves.

The next time I called on Mrs Bell, tears came into her eyes again.  Why?  It was three years to the day since her husband died.  I did not orchestrate that, God Almighty did.  I had not a clue.  Neither of us needed to say, “God has sent you.”  This time she invited me inside and over a cup of coffee Mrs Bell asked me if I believed what the book of Revelation said about hell and Jesus coming back to earth.  I said I did believe this because it’s God who says so.

She agreed, telling me she liked to talk about these things.  Then she questioned me on what my views of Jesus were.  I responded by saying I didn’t have any that were contrary to the Bible.  I asked Mrs Bell if she knew why Jesus came into the world and she said she did.  I asked her if Jesus was her Lord and Saviour and she said He was.   We then got talking about His forgiveness for sin and she said, “I’ve got lots of bitterness and unforgiveness.”  So I asked if she wanted to talk about it and she replied, “Yes I do.” 

Here’s her story.  When Mrs Bell was twelve years old her mother died.  Later her father remarried a “nasty” woman who turned out to be a “nasty and wicked step-mother.”  She was one of four children, all of whom got separated.  Living in country Victoria, at the age of thirteen she was put on a train and sent to another town miles away, but not far from Melbourne.  She said she had never forgotten that event, telling me she cried the whole two to three hour journey, alone and scared, not knowing who she was going to – “I cried for days afterwards too.” 

When she got married Mrs Bell said she was not often allowed to visit her father - and never with her husband.  He used to drive the two to three hour journey, drop her off at the gate and wait while she walked up the long driveway to the farmhouse.  At the time of my visit with Mrs Bell, her step-mother was still alive at eighty-five years of age but her father died two years earlier.  Two of her brothers got the proceeds of their father’s will, she and another brother got nothing.  Consequently, there was no relationship or contact with one another in those two years.

Then she said, “I wake up early in the morning thinking of all these things and I get angry and bitter.  I don’t want to, but I do and I can’t get rid of it.”  Her marriage had been a happy one, but now that her husband was dead, “I dwell on these things all the time.”  It was now appropriate for me to explain to this dear lady the effects of such emotions and how they cut us off from God.  I told her such emotions are the works of the devil and, “his never-ending function is to keep you from Jesus, the only One who can deliver you from them and set you free.”

She understood perfectly, but told me she didn’t go to church very often now.  I said she could be released from these things in the bathroom if she wanted to, not a church.  As a child in her adopted home, the family were 7th Day Adventists.  Mrs Bell told me she had to attend sometimes up to as many as five different church meetings on a Saturday.  She was never allowed to go out to the theatre, movies or dances.  Again, ”I was never allowed to play with friends.  If I was not at a church meeting I had to sit at home in my pretty dress and read my Bible.”

Hearing her speak this cut deep into my spirit.  I said, ”Mrs Bell, Jesus is not like that - that is not what He wanted you to do, ever!”  I told her that such practice is not Christianity, it is religious legalism.  She readily new the truth of that, but was glad when I verbalised it anyway.  I then did a little drawing for her to illustrate how God communicates with us in prayer and Bible reading, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who fellow-ships with our spirit.  Next I illustrated for her how Satan the devil constantly seeks to play God with our mind, filling us with guilt as he misquotes the Scriptures and uses them out of context. 

After these illustrations she wanted me to help her pray a prayer of confession to the Lord, seeking His forgiveness for holding on to those emotions, “all these years.”  So I did so.  Next we prayed for God’s love, faith and power to enable her to forgive her father, step-mother, brothers, the family she lived with and the legalistic church leaders.  I explained to Mrs Bell that the Scriptures encourage us to confess with our mouth – to choose to forgive, doing so by faith in Christ who hears and responds, regardless of how we feel when praying.  It was important for her to hear that the Christian life is one of faith in Christ alone – not our feelings which are continually changing.  

I then gave her some appropriate Scriptures which would enable her to feed her spirit, saying that if she continued this practice it would only be a “matter of time” when she would experience the reality of Christ’s ministry of deliverance to her.  Further saying that it was God’s will that she be blessed continuously, both in her sleeping and waking hours.  I continued to visit Mrs Bell from time to time, and it was always a blessing to observe the changes Christ was bringing to her, but like so many people God sent me to, the visits only lasted a season.  “ If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”  John 8:36.

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

It was no time before she was telling me what seemed her life’s story – from Sunday school as a child, to her three grown children, her dead husband, her dislike of Catholics “and all others who say they are the one true church.”  Then she spoke about her fear of strangers, plus all her sicknesses – anxiety, arthritis, angina, thrombosis and blood clots.  She didn’t seem to be aware of her anger and bitterness in all this but it was showing up in her speech, which made me wonder if those emotions were among the root causes of her sicknesses. 

On listening to her story, I asked Dorothy if she knew anything about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She said could remember “little bits and pieces from Sunday school as a child.”  I offered to pray for her at that point and as such, she was pleased to invite me inside.  I did pray for her, taking authority over every demonic spirit I could sense and then asked the Lord to reveal Himself to her from this day forward in both practical and spiritual matters.  She thanked me warmly for such a prayer.

I was in her home talking for about forty minutes, then it was time to leave.  On the way out she told me a Jehovah’s Witness lady visits her once a month, but “only for a coffee, not their beliefs.”  The fact that they too teach that they are the one true church didn’t seem to register with her, but I kept those thoughts to myself.  Dorothy invited me back whenever I would be next in her street.

Two months later I was walking towards her home and she was at the front fence tending her shrubs when she saw me from quite a distance.  She stood and waved and invited me inside again.  This time we spoke for over an hour about the reality and power of Jesus Christ, with Dorothy asking lots of questions.  At one point she paused and then asked me if I happened to be  ”just walking in my street or did you intend visiting me?”  I told her it was my intention to visit, to which she said, “You were sent by God today.”  I agreed.

She told me that a few nights previously she went to bed feeling agitated and worried.  But while she was lying there she had a quick vision of either a “very peaceful Jesus or an angel – just a flash.”  Immediately after that, she said she too became very peaceful, so she rolled over and went straight off to sleep.  Dorothy said her usual practice was to lie awake for hours in bed trying to get to sleep.  I took the opportunity here to encourage her to continue to build up her faith, by reading the New Testament daily and allowing Jesus Christ to minister to her through it and also to continue daily in prayer with Him.

Dorothy accepted the truth that if she wanted to stay in tune with the Lord, then she needed to know what He has revealed to her through the Scriptures.  She asked me what the difference was between what we believed, in comparison to her Jehovah’s Witness friend.  In reality there are vast differences, but keeping it simple, I explained that basically it comes down to two things – they deny Jesus Christ as God Jehovah and they deny the existence of the Trinity of God.

Because Dorothy believed it was Jesus she saw in her vision, resulting in her experiencing immediate peace,  she said she had no problems in accepting Jesus for Who He says He is in the gospels.  And although like most of us who have difficulty in understanding and explaining the Trinity of God, she accepted the reality of such by faith, because Jesus revealed this in His teaching also.  I did visit this lady a couple of more times, but like so many people I met in this work, she came into my life for a season and then I saw her no more.

A week later I met a forty-eight year old man with an amazing story to tell.  He told me he once fell from a height of two hundred and fifty feet into timber and lots of mud.  The only damage was “a broken wrist and a sore leg.”  A few years later, he said he fell from forty feet into sand and broke his spine.  As a result of that fall he cannot now work.

Then he said he was commpensated with a lot of money which his wife “blew.”  According to him she simply spent and spent, but forgot all about the household bills, not the least of these being the house payments.  He told me the money ruined his marriage.

This man knew the reason for my visit so he asked a few questions about God, at the same time telling me he was ”not religious.”  I asked him if he’d ever given God a thought in all of these events, to which he replied that he had, “from time to time given Him a lot of thought.”  He told me that once he was supposed to go on a long car trip with his mates, but he slept in.  On that trip one of his mates was killed, the other one was badly injured.  So that was the major reason God came into his thoughts – why? why? – “why them and not me?”  I responded by saying that we will never know the answer to that question, but that perhaps it was God Himself who placed those thoughts within him. 

I further responded by telling him that he could know and experience the reality and power of Jesus Christ in his life today and, from this day forward he could experience a new beginning.  He allowed me to share the gospel of Christ with him and explain what this meant for him personally.   At the end of my sharing he asked me to pray for this reality of the Lord in his life.  So with the laying on of my hands to his head I prayed a prayer, also asking  him to pray to the Lord as well.  He did.  

I made arrangements to have a New Testament Bible and some appropriate Scripture helps sent to him, he thanked me very much, we shook hands and I never saw him again.  “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.”  Nahum 1:7

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.

Even those who appeared to be the nicest people at the start would turn in a second to become the nastiest.  I tried to make no judgements on the latter (sometimes I failed) because I knew that many (not all) people in life have bitter memories of hurts and experiences under Christian ministers, priests, parents and the church in general.

I too had a religious upbringing and whilst nobody ever did me any physical harm, the church doctrines I was taught did me a lot of mental and spiritual harm.  When I began to read and study the Bible many years later I found out that those doctrines were perverted and twisted by religious men – the result of all that being that I had developed faulty concepts of God.  My problem was, I used to be scared of God, but because of what’s happened to many others they now have downright hatred for Him.  

When I met someone who would share with me their concept of God, it was nice to be able to say to them that I hated that god too!  Those who allowed me to show them the true God as He reveals Himself to us in Jesus Christ through the Scriptures were then enabled to develop more accurate concepts of Him. 

Most of the meetings with people on the streets are very brief.  One day I shared Christ with a young lady in her twenties.  Immediately she told me she believed in evil spirits.  She felt one crawling on the floor a couple of years earlier and told it to go away in the name of Jesus Christ and it did.  She then informed me that her Christian friend told her to do exactly that if she ever encountered one.  Naturally she was feeling pleased with herself because it confirmed her friends’ chat with her that Jesus Christ was real and very powerful. 

 So I mentioned to her that if she was to invite Christ into her life and allow Him be Saviour and Lord, then she would get to experience a lot more of Him, all of which would make for a very productive, creative life for her.  She was all smiles and thanked me very much, we shook hands and I never saw her again. 

Standing at his letterbox at the gate was an old man who nodded and he stopped me for a chat, when it’s usually the other way round.  He told me his name, he said he was 86 years old and a world war two veteran.  He also informed me that he was an ex-prisoner of war in Singapore.  I had known that these men suffered most inhumanly under the Japanese so I asked him if he had ever experienced the reality of God during that time.  He said that he had not.  He told me he’d never prayed himself but he watched the Catholic boys pray and, according to him, they never got any answers so they gave up and died. 

He then said he was willing to be convinced that there was a God.  I asked him if he thought it was coincidence that we were speaking about such matters here and now or did he think that perhaps God was revealing Himself to him in this conversation.  He said he’d never thought of it like that before but would now go inside and do so.  He thanked me for talking with him.         

I met a very talkative 75 year old visitor from England, an ex Army Colonel.  He was a very religious man, he spoke about his Church of England prayer books and hymnals, he said he was a regular church-goer and because he was staying just down the road from the Catholic church, he attended there rather than have to drive to the C of E, further away.   He had a lot to say about God, but he also asked me why I was doing this work, remarking that he’d not seen such for years even in his own country. 

I simply told him a little of what my first personal encounter with the Lord had been, that He’d instantly physically healed me a couple of times, that He’d taken away my desire for swearing and drunkenness etc, and the Colonel was fascinated.  I told him that as a young person, I too used to go to church but never had I experienced the reality of God – for me it was just a religious duty.  I explained to him that a personal relationship with Jesus Christ makes all the difference, then shared the gospel with him and encouraged him trust in Christ’s promises as revealed in the Scriptures.  He genuinely thanked me for my time and told me He was very glad I called in to talk.

Some of the rudest and nastiest people I encounter in my  work are church-goers.  This the account of one of them.  One day I knocked on the door and an old lady answered.  She looked to be a gentle person with a smiling, welcoming expression on her face and I told her I was from the local church up the road.  The next moment a car pulled up outside her home.  The lady told me it was her daughter.  She looked to be in her 50′s as she came striding up the path and she asked me what the purpose of my visit was.  I explained her it was to pray for people and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  She told me she had her own church that she attends. 

As I spoke on, I could see she was very irrate (that’s the reality and power of Christ) but was doing her best to cover that up.  I could also see that this message was setting her up for a bad day so I thanked them both for their time and then left.  Moments later as I was making my way to another home, a white panel van pulled along side – a police white panel van.  The policeman in the passenger seat beckoned me over and asked me what I was doing in the street so I told him.  He asked me for my name and address and some identification.  He looked to be satisfied with everything and was about to send me on my way, but I asked him if he’d mind turning their radio down, which he did.  

I then said to both him and the driver that we’d all agree that the job they do is a very dangerous one and that police often die in the line of duty.  I asked, if that should happen to be them today, what would they tell Jesus Christ when they stood before Him.  The passenger policeman said that they’d be ok because that wasn’t going to happen.  Simultaneously, he turned the radio back up, wound the window up, the driver slipped it into gear, planted his foot on the accelerator and got away from there as quickly as he could! 

The police (rightly so) asked me about my physical activity, God (I believe rightly so) used me to ask them about their spiritual activity.  That too was a demonstration of the reality and power of Jesus Christ.  Later on one of the pastors got a call from the daughter informing him that a very rude man from his church had called to her mother’s house and upset her mother.  “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved……..”  Joel 2:32.     

© 2009 – 2010, Roger Williams. All rights reserved.