Of the many hundreds of people that I met doing this work out on the streets, there were only a few that I had the on-going pleasure to visit on a regular basis. Regardless of whether they accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ or not, I was made welcome in their homes for tea or coffee and a chat. These people had a clear understanding of Who and what I stood for, they knew me to be one who would not compromise that stand, but they also knew me as one who did not visit and revisit to manipulate, intimidate and Bible-bash them.
As a result we were able to build meaningful relationships. Mr and Mrs Wells were a great example of this. See my post: He gets angry and he kicks ’em out! Even though I may have visited only three times in a year, it was a relationship that lasted over seven years. I had left that particular church fellowship by then and was no longer doing street ministry, but I was still made welcome in their home. Their troubles with sickness and sadness did not cease with that first visit. They lost their second son to cancer not long after we first met and it was not to stop there.
Mrs Wells could not get over how well her husband Larry got on with me, given that he was so anti-religious. She said he told Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses in no uncertain terms where to go when they knocked on the door, even when it was she who usually answered that door – “but you’re invited anytime.” We got on well because the Holy Spirit of God is genuinely and sincerely interested in people for their own sake. That means He is not threatened by a persons’ rejection of His message. The rejection grieves Him, but it doesn’t threaten Him.
That’s the way it is with His Spirit filled/led messengers too. Under His anointing, we cannot be anything other than genuinely and sincerely interested in a person for their own sake either. It has to be the work of God, otherwise it’s not too long before it will show up as phony. The people know it and so does the messenger. That is why so many Christians start out well in ministry, but they don’t finish well. They give up and say, ” ah well, perhaps God wasn’t in this in the first place.” Personally, it is my belief that we had better find out if God is “in it,” because too often it is God who is made to look silly when we run away.
Mrs Wells told me one time that she had given up on prayer because she knew of six people who had died that year, “and it’s only September!” My encouragement to her was to keep at it even if she was the last person standing, because Christ is always in control anyway. She was greatly helped by that and I think Larry was too. Such help comes from genuine interest, not preaching. One day I called to be told another son was going to the hospital with a growth on his throat. Less than nine months later he died. This was the third son they had lost to this disease.
Not long after his death, practical and financial help was urgently needed for his widow and child. She was charged nearly two hundred dollars for not cleaning the Housing Commission dwelling they were living in prior to his death. No amount of protest to the contrary, would the powers that be listen to. I prayed to God on her behalf. Contact was then made with the Tenants Union and Association to take up her cause while we helped her move to another home in the meantime. Within a few days she got her money back. God hates exploitation and injustice of any kind, but especially that put upon widows, the fatherless and defenceless.
Twenty-one months after that, Mrs Wells went into hospital to have two cancers cut from her bowel. The operation was successful but she lived with worry and tiredness for a long time after. She was more open to Christ than her husband and would often take up prayer for herself when encouraged to do so. In her heart I believe she experienced the Lord’s reality many times based on some of her speech, but with Larry around she kept a lot of it to herself. Sometimes that’s the wisest thing to do.
One day a daughter of Larry phoned to inform me that he had died. He was eighty-six when I met him and now he had not long turned ninety-three. She asked me if I would conduct his funeral service because, “it was what he wanted.” I didn’t hesitate to respond in the positive. I considered it an honour to be asked to do so with people I had grown to know and love. Larry was such a person. As is so often the case, I learned more about my old friend in death than I did in life. He was a strong, committed and hard working man who never missed one day of work regardless of illness.
In the days before motor cars were affordable he rode his pushbike all over town, carrying the necessary building tools, somehow strapped to the bike, as well as over his shoulder. It was his job for many years to dig the foundations for each building. He had an extremely high work ethic and that influence was embraced by his family of five boys and five girls. Larry retired from work when he was seventy-three years of age. He and his wife were married for nearly seventy-three years.
As is stated in my earlier post, this old man had no time for religion as he understood it. In my discussions with him it was clear he had no respect for the one who hid behind his robes, powers and authorities impressing upon one and all that he was a cut above the rest. Apparently he had experienced this type of person numerous times in his long life. The same applied to many ordinary church-goers. Angels on Sundays, devils on Monday to Saturday was how he thought of them. I didn’t disagree with that but I did say that if it was not for the daily reality of Christ in my life, then in all probability I would be among them.
Larry always gave me an attentive ear when I mentioned the Lord. Often I encouraged him not to think bad of Christ because of what some hypocrite did or said in His name. He was not envious, but he was appalled by the overwhelming wealth and assets of the churches and he saw the whole thing as a sham. Again, I could not disagree and I told him so, saying also, that not all that people do in God’s name is approved or sanctioned by God. We spoke about the day of judgement and the fact that an account will be given and that God, in His justice, will pass the appropriate sentence upon every one of them.
Some Christians focus lots of their time on God’s justice. But I prefer to focus on God’s mercy and that was always the impression I left with Larry and his wife after our meetings. There is justice in God. It is justice and not mercy that will be demonstrated at the great white throne judgement, at the time of the world’s end Revelation 20:11-15. But in the meantime, it is mercy and not justice that God wants everyone of us to know about and receive from Him through Christ His Son. If we receive His mercy here now, we do not face judgement and justice then. Like most people however, Larry and his wife struggled with that concept.
Why do people struggle with the concept of a merciful God? There are countless reasons, but in the case of this old couple, they were a product of a “Christian” theology that denied the Biblical declaration that salvation is a free gift, received through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, plus nothing else. Not only were they the products of such, they were also the victims of such. The Bible gives plenty of warnings about this, but if one does not know that, or has spent a lifetime not wanting to know, then struggle will be the name of the game. It can’t be anything else.
I don’t know if Larry received the Lord Jesus Christ before he died. But I do know clear distinctions were given so that he need no longer remain confused by Him and those who claim to represent and follow Him. I also know that God will go to extremes to call all to Himself. Therefore, no excuse for rejecting Him will be accepted on the day we stand before Him. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him.” Psalm 103:12-13.