14. Moments with the Holy Spirit -- a Personal Memoir

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

This is episode fourteen of uh my version of an audiobook for the book that I wrote about uh moments with the Holy Spirit, my personal memoir. And uh this uh this first story is titled A Muslim Girl. The pastoral team was invited, the one that I was a part of, uh, to attend a pastor's breakfast at First Baptist Church of Houston. We were told that the guest speaker was a recently returned missionary. Here is what he spoke about. He told how he and his wife and children were sent to a Muslim country that was supposedly somewhat tolerant of Christians. He said that after some twelve years, he'd only been able to reach about a dozen people, mostly those in the community who were considered the dregs, a few old people, a few unemployed people, a few people others believed were lunatics, a few who were physically disabled, etc. Then one day some radical Muslims showed up in this community and killed this man's wife, figuring this would cause him to take his children and leave immediately. They were right. But as he was packing and making arrangements to return to the United States, the Imam of the local mosque came to see him. He apologized to this man for this terrible loss and said that neither he nor most of the people in that community agreed with what those radical Muslims had done to his wife. The Imam then asked this man if he would be willing to come and pray a blessing over the people of his mosque, for he acknowledged that there was an unusual amount of sickness, financial problems, and various unhealthy relationships among the people. This man, of course, wasn't feeling super spiritual due to the loss of his wife. Additionally, he told the Imam that he would only pray in the name of Jesus, thinking this would dissuade him. To his surprise, the Imam said that things were so bad that the people just wanted help from someone, including Jesus. A few days later, this man showed up at the mosque's service. The Imam told the people he had invited him to pray for them due to all the troubles so many were having. He then stepped aside, and this Marish and this missionary stepped up. His prayer was somewhat lethargic as he asked Jesus for help and healing for these Muslims and ending it in the name of Jesus. As he expected, nothing happened. He then turned and thanked the Imon for inviting him, and just as he was about to turn to leave, he saw a man coming forward from the very back of the room. This man was carrying something wrapped in a blanket. When he got to the front, he partially opened the blanket to reveal his young daughter, who was all disjointed with polio. He asked, Can Jesus do anything for my daughter? The missionary said, Jesus can do anything, however, I don't know if he will, and I cannot make him. This man nodded his head in understanding and began to return to the back of the room, but then turned back to the missionary, saying, My family and I truly want the blessings of Jesus. And having given voice to his honest desires, he then turned to go back to his spot at the back of the room. But then, suddenly, as this missionary described it, the young girl began to violently kick at the blanket to the point that her father could not hold her and he dropped her. When she hit the floor, she stood up perfectly normal. I love that. This missionary said that the entire mosque exploded with cries for Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Yeah, I'll bet they did. Preaching of the gospel ideally should have two basic components: proclamation and demonstration. We proclaim the invitation to repent, to trust oneself to Jesus, be baptized, and to receive the Holy Spirit to be born again. Demonstrations of power serve to validate this invitation. One of the things my dad did to try to rescue me from this Jesus cult that he believed I joined was to get some rabbis to persuade me of the falseness of Christianity. One such rabbi in Israel claimed to be an expert, and I'm quoting his pamphlet, quote, expert refuter of Christianity, his exact words. Ironically, he turned out to be a fraud. For example, he claimed to have been a Christian, even being a part of the Billy Graham ministries, and that he graduated from Oxford with a degree in Christian theology. When such places had no knowledge of this person, when I inquired, I sent my findings to a missionary I knew who was stationed in Cyprus and who had some good relationship with some rabbis in Israel. And once the rabbinical council looked at the information, they actually defrocked this guy, even announcing this in one of Israel's major newspapers. This not only embarrassed my dad when he realized this man was nothing of what he claimed to be while still taking my dad's money, but it frustrated him as well. So he called upon the new rabbi at the synagogue I grew up in to attempt to bring me back to Judaism. This rabbi and I had several conversations via nail mail. This is long before email. Then I made a trip to El Paso with the plan to talk with him in person. The conversation began cordially with him telling me some things that his, that in his view, negate Christianity. For example, he referred me to Matthew 10, 34, claiming that Jesus preached violence. I pointed out that verses 35 through 36 clarify that Jesus is talking about following him, and if when doing so upsets the person's family members, such as it did my dad. Mind you, I'm barely a year old in the Lord, but I learned that context matters. When it was my turn, I brought up Isaiah chapter 53, which is clearly a description of the Messiah. This chapter is so specific in its description that it has everything about Jesus of Nazareth except his name. The rabbi balked at this and said this chapter is about the nation of Israel. I pointed out that the entire passage is not only very detailed, but also clearly pointy to one specific person, the Messiah, and not the nation as a whole. As we exchanged various points with each other, I could see that the rabbi was getting frustrated by my refuting responses. Neither of us were raising our voices in argument, so his increasing frustration was due to the fact that my facts were clearly disproving his defense of Judaism and disagreement with Christianity. Finally, he raised his hand in a way that indicated he wanted me to stop talking. I waited a moment and said, Rabbi, uh, are you okay? What's wrong? He looked up at me and said, You don't understand. If I were to begin to accept the things you're saying, I would lose everything. My wife, my children, my home, my career, my friends, my reputation, everything. Thought about this for a moment and said, You mean like Paul lost everything because of his relationship with Jesus? Probably not the best thing to say at that moment. For the rabbi stood up from behind his desk, pointed at the door of his office, and said, Get out. I guess I won the theological battle for the truth of the Jesus, the Jewish bridegroom king, but I did not win this rabbi to this Jesus. Of course, in my defense, the Jesus said most people will reject him. Matthew 10, 22, John 15, 18 through 25, which Paul acknowledged. Acts 9, 22 through 23, 1 Corinthians 1, 18 through 25. Then in my first year at Houston Baptist University, I was two years old than the Lord, I became intrigued by Mormonism. And what intrigued me was that Mormons say the same thing to Christians that Christians say to Jews. There's another book. In other words, Jews don't believe the New Testament is Scripture, just like Christians don't accept the Book of Mormon is Scripture. This curiosity led me to look closely at Mormonism. And in doing it, this it was it wasn't difficult to see the falseness and thus the deception of Joseph Smith, the founder, and his demonic claims. He claims he there was an angel that appeared to him, and the angel's name was Moron. Or Moron, I'm sorry, Moroni, which sounds a lot like the word moron. You see, all false teachings, all cults have at least two qualities. First, they all change who Jesus is, thus negating the triune God. And secondly, because of their invention of a different God, which is idolatry, this results in sexual immorality. In other words, either sexual immorality leads to false understanding of the one true holy God, or accepting false versions of the one true holy God encourages sexual immorality. Sexual immorality and idolatry are like milk and cookies, eating butter and jelly. And so, in my research into Mormonism, I heard that they had a training manual for the missionaries. You may have seen their missionaries, for they're usually two young guys in white shirts, dark pants, and a tie riding bicycles. And as it turned out, there is or was a Mormon bookstore here in Houston. I called this bookstore and asked if they had copies of the missionary training manual. They said they did, but it was not for sale to the general public. This is classic Mormonism. Lots of things are very secretive and not open to outside scrutiny. Why the secrecy? So I went to a Mormon I knew, told him that the books, what the bookstore told me, and asked if there was some other way I could obtain a copy. He put me in touch with this elder, what Mormons called their local pastor. So I called this guy, who was a big-time lawyer in the woodlands. If you need to Google the woodlands here in the North Houston area, very wealthy part of Houston, and told him I was researching Mormonism and asked for an appointment. After a little chit-chat, I told him I'd been unable to obtain a copy of their missionary training manual. I even complained that it was suspicious that it wasn't available to the public. I even asked if this was if this if it was hiding something. He assured me there was nothing secretive and offered to loan me his copy for me to look at. I jumped at this opportunity. For when I left his office with his copy of the manual, I went straight to a copy place and made two copies of it. One for myself and one for a ministry I got to know in Utah that focuses on reaching Mormons. I then spent time reading through it. And in doing this, I found out why this was not made available to the public. For there were not only lots of out-of-context scriptures used, but these young missionaries were taught to be at the least unclear or even downright deceptive. When I returned the original copy to this Mormon elder, I began pointing out many of the biblical errors and most especially the deliberate deceptions, thus calling into question the lack of integrity of Mormons, which likes Mormonism, which pride, I'm sorry, the integrity of Mormonism, which likes to pride itself on having high character. The elder tried to defend Mormonism, but no matter what he brought up, I responded with various facts I had learned. So at one point, this elder raised his hand in a way that indicated he wanted me to stop talking. I waited a moment and asked, Are you okay? What's wrong? He looked up at me and said, You don't understand. If I were to begin to accept the things you're saying about Mormonism, I would lose everything. My wife, my children, my home, my career, my friends, my reputation, everything. It was just like what the rabbi said to me. And just like with the rabbi, I said, You mean like Paul lost everything because of his relationship with Jesus? Again, probably not the best thing to say at that moment. But this elder stood up from behind his desk, pointed at the door to his office, and said, Get out. I guess I once again won the theological battle for the truth of the Jesus, but I did not win this elder to this Jesus. I learned very early the truth that Jesus will offend the mind. In other words, one's thinking and beliefs of a person to reveal the person's heart. For in both of these situations, I was not trying to hurt the person. However, as my older half-brother said when he tried to explain to me as a little boy what a surgeon is, saying that he cuts people to heal them, so was my intention. I wanted to heal them spiritually by introducing them to the real Jesus, even though my words were to them offensive and cutting. And speaking of cutting, we joined Amway, and this is where I met the person who had some part in leading me to Jesus. This is also where we met a couple with whom we became good friends, Tom and Jenny Erickson. Tom was one of those guys who was very boisterous and fun to be around. Almost a week after Jesus ended my life, we were at the weekly Amway meeting held at the Marriott at the northeast corner of Highway 290 and the 610 Loop. And as we stood around the lobby waiting for the meeting to start, Tom walked up to me, slapped me on the back, and said quite loudly and proudly, Hey, I heard you became a Christian this last week. This not only startled me, but also embarrassed me, for I didn't know yet that making one's relationship with the Jesus obvious and public is important. In other words, it should never be a secret. See Matthew 10, 32 through 33. In a moment, when I recovered from being startled and embarrassed, I became curious as to why Tom made such a point to make such a public statement. So I said quite innocently, Tom, are you a Christian? For I had never seen anything about him that would indicate he faithfully sought to follow Jesus. The look on Tom's face changed dramatically. Clearly, I touched something I didn't know nor intended to touch. The next week at the Anway meeting, Tom came to me and said, Oh, when you express the fact that you didn't know that I'm a Christian, your simple and honest question slice me in half. See Acts 237. I was instantly convicted that I have not been living in a way that it is clear to people that I belong to Jesus. In this case, when the Lord offended Tom's mind to reveal what was in his heart, it had a good result. Repentance. Music. Growing up in the 1960s, and even as a preteen, I began to really enjoy music, even buying 45 records or albums of guys like Herman's Hermits, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Elvis, Beatles, of course, Neil Diamond, etc. And when I got enough money for my part-time job at PJ's men's apparel, I bought an expensive turntable with a lightweight diamond needle because I wanted high-quality sound. Thus, I took very good care of my music library. Very good care. Obviously, this is back before digital stuff. I had quite the eclectic assortment of musicians, for besides the above list, I also had stuff by the Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Chicago, the Doobie Brothers, Deep Purple, The Who, The Dave Slark Five, Grand Funk Railroad, Steppenwolf, The Doors, Z Z Top, Johnny Rivers, Eric Clapton, and Cream, Iron Butterfly, and my most favorite band, of which I had all of their albums, Freedom's Clearwater Revival. Interesting. I was into revival before I knew what it was. In addition to albums, I also had lots of 45 single records by Canned Heat, War, Zagger and Evans, Don McLean, Them, Chuck Berry, Noman Greenbaum, Tommy James and the Sean Dennells, The Young Rascals, Van Morrison, The Turtles, Buddy Holiday, The Mavericks, the Safaris. Remember the song Wipeout? Many of my albums were first editions when that used to matter. All in all, I had more than 50 albums and well over a foot tall stack of 45s, all in pristine condition, including the album covers. So when I was about eight or nine months old in the Lord, I was having lunch with an older, pres older, presumably more mature follower of Jesus. I learned that it was helpful to glean from such people. And as we were talking for some reason, I brought up the fact that when I listened to my music, even the stuff I really liked, I didn't seem to be touched that it seemed to touch me like it used to for some reason. This man said, That sounds like the Holy Spirit to me. The Holy Spirit, I queried. What does he care about what music I listen to? He cares very much. Who do you think invented music? Who invented music? I pondered. He then reminded me of the story of the golden calf and how Moses and Joshua both knew from a lofty distance up the mountain that things were not going well in the camp based on the sound of the music they could hear coming up from the camp. So I said, Well, what should I do? Get rid of it, this man said. Get rid of it, I responded. You've got some classic stuff. I'm sure it's worth some pretty good money. This man noted that I shouldn't want others to be negatively impacted by my music, and thus I needed to simply toss it in the trash. I thought about this all afternoon. When I got home from work, began breaking the albums, carrying the album covers, snapping the forty fives in half, and putting all of it in trash bags for the dumpster. And as I did this, I told Jesus that I did not want anything that would have a negative impact on our relationship. At the time I didn't realize that the Spirit convicted me and I was simply responding to his conviction. I also didn't realize that what I was doing was what King what Jesus said in Matthew 11, 12, about being radical to lay hold of his kingdom. In other words, following Jesus requires making radical choices, especially about worldly things that impact us spiritually. I can look back at this event as an early crossroad in my relationship with Jesus, for he saw that I was willing to do whatever I needed to do to have more of him and his presence in my life. Here's an experiment. Find a music video on YouTube of one of your favorite musicians or bands. Now mute the sound and just watch. What do you see? You'll see people standing and swaying and singing to the music, maybe even clapping to the beat and raising their hands, etc. Next, find a solid Christian music video on YouTube and mute it. Just watch it. What do you see? You'll see people standing and swaying and singing to the music, maybe even clapping to the beat and raising their hands, etc. What is the music doing to these people? It is moving their hearts. But this is exactly what Jesus created music to do, to move the human heart. The question is, to what or to whom is one's heart being moved by the music? Then they'll go back and unmute the sound to the first video. You will hear people's hearts. You will hear people's hearts and even their minds are being moved. The things and ways of the world. And even if the song is about love, it will be about human love and worldly love, not Jesus' love. Also go back and unmute the second video. What are these people's hearts and minds being moved toward? Toward Jesus and his values. You have to decide which direction you want your heart and mind moved toward, the world or the kingdom. Remember, the tabernacle of Moses is about religion. The tent of David is about a relationship. And it was in the tent of David where so many of the psalms or songs were written, not in the tabernacle of Moses. And speaking of being convicted by the Spirit, not long after we joined Westbury Baptist Church, we heard there was an open night in the gym where people could play volleyball. We decided to check it out, and thus we put on some shorts, sneakers, and t-shirts. So for about an hour we had a good time playing several games as people rotated turns in playing. At the end, as we were about to leave, two men came to me. They asked me if we were members, and I told them we we were. Then they then said they were glad that we had come, but they asked me not to wear the t-shirt I was wearing if I came again. They said it wasn't appropriate for church. But as I drove home, the Spirit drew my attention to the message on the front of this t-shirt. Divers do it deeper. The it represented sex. At the time, there were these were popular slogans on clothes, bumper stickers, and even billboards. All sorts of people were doing it in various ways, such as truckers do it longer, or doctors do it till your heart stops, etc. I was convicted. These men were right. This was not the sort of thing for me to wear to church or anywhere for that matter. It was vulgar. When I got home, I tossed it in the trash. Psalm 101.3. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. I will have nothing to do with them. One evening during what we called ministry time, a couple brought one of their sons to me for me to pray for him concerning his asthma. When they did this, I could see in their eyes that they were looking at me as if I were some sort of God's man of power, which of course I am not. So I told them I would get a few others, since we did ministry in teams of two or three, and that I would get things started. But then I would let the others pray for their son as I checked on other teams. I assured them I would return to see how things were going with their son. I saw some disappointment in their faces. I got a few people together to pray for their son, initiated the praying for him, and then slipped away to check on other teams. As I promised, I returned to the team praying for their son. There had been some degree of healing for him. However, even though the Spirit did do something to help their son, they went away somewhat perturbed with me. Many years went by. I received a message on Facebook from this father asking if we could meet for coffee. Even though I didn't know him and his wife very well, and not even thinking about that last encounter I had with them related to their son, I agreed to meet. And when I arrived at the Starbucks location we planned to meet at, I got some coffee and sat down at a two-person table. In a little bit, this man showed up, got some coffee, and sat down across from me. His very first words were not a greeting as one would expect. Instead, he said, My wife and I have been mad at you for all these many years. I said, Whatever I did, I'm sorry, for I'm sure it was my fault. He said, Hang on, I want to explain. I thought, oh boy, whatever I did, he wants to stab me and twist the knife in me for it. He continued, You probably don't remember this. Instantly I knew exactly what he was going to bring up. But we brought our oldest son to you one evening during ministry time for you to pray for him. Instead, you got a few people, uh a few people as a team to pray for him. You told us you would uh get things started and then go check on some other teams and that you would return to check on how things were going with our son. You did all this, but we wanted you to pray for our son, not a team. Then he continued, as angry as we have been at you all these years for what you did, we have recently been convicted that our focus that night was not on Jesus, it was on you. That is not right. You are not the healer. Jesus is. We were guilty of having the wrong focus. Even more, we think you must have sensed this, and that is why you did what you did. I smiled and said, I do remember this. And yes, I saw in your eyes that you both had the wrong focus. I'm not God's man of power. I didn't want you guys to see me as such a person. I'm just a guy who the Spirit occasionally uses. He said, We know this today. We're sorry for being so angry at you as we have been. I understand, I said, no problem. And I'm glad that Jesus fixed this for you guys. He has, this man said, for we have learned not to look to a person for help or power, but to look to the Lord. That's a pretty good lesson. The next story. A mute-ish creature. Not long after we moved into a duplex, we rented about fifty that we rented about 50 yards off Highway 290 on the outskirts of Chapel Hill. I made a point to drive into Brenham, which is a larger community, to meet the pastor of First Baptist Church of Brenham and to introduce myself as the new pastor of Baptist Church in Chapel Hill. Then, when things fell apart at the Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, and we had to leave, we began attending First Baptist Church of Brenham. The pastor at FBCB was probably in his 60s, and as I was to learn, was not liked by the wealthiest person who owned the largest car dealership in Brenham. Eventually, this wealthy man got his way and pushed the old man out. He then brought in a much younger man to be the pastor who, when I met him at a Christmas party, was nothing more than a loudmouth showhoff who talked like a used car salesman. His whole demeanor was that of an arrogant know-it-all who didn't seem to know when to shut up. We soon moved to Cady, Texas, and I became the pastor of Mandy Creek Baptist Church, which was uh which was to be my second failure as a pastor. Several years went by, and I heard from a friend about some guy who could hardly speak above a whisper being suddenly and shockingly healed in a Sunday school class at First Baptist Church of Houston, the first mega church to be built in Houston. I wondered if the story was true. After all, it supposedly took place at FBCH, which seldom, if ever, had anything supernatural happen. Ironically, I ran into this guy at FBCH, where a friend and I went to play racquetball. I didn't recognize him, but he recognized me and began telling me what happened to him. He said that not long after he became the pastor of First Baptist Church of Brenham, he began having difficulty speaking. He said it actually became excruciatingly painful to speak even a few words in a low whisper. Consequently, he couldn't preach. Frankly, I thought this was probably a good thing, for who wants to listen to a used car salesman preach like he's trying to sell a piece of junk so he can make it make a buck. Thus he had to leave the ministry. But even worse, because he could hardly speak, he couldn't find any employment. Thus he and his family were struggling. Frankly, I wonder if Jesus was trying to get his attention on some things in his life. Then he told me that he got healed, and he handed me a cassette tape of what happened. I was definitely curious. So I listened to the tape on the way home. Here's what happened. He was asked to speak at an adult Sunday school class, and despite his difficulty, he accepted, for he was a person who loved the attention of others and was addicted to his own preaching. His lesson was on Isaiah 53, chapter 53. When he got to verse 5, which says, But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. He hammered the fact that this verse is not about physical healing. The full truth is that because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, he initiated the new covenant, in which there is not only healing for sin, but there are now also other healings from diseases and even demons. However, in this man's attempt to prove that Isaiah was speaking solely about the need for healing from sin, he was minimizing, even downplaying the other types of healing Jesus also does that this man and the people at First Baptist Church Houston seldom, if ever, saw. And right at this moment, one can hear a hiccup or a very slight pause on the tape where the spirit touched this man. I mean, you have to really listen, but you can hear it. And as a result, with every word he speaks, little by little, his very low, scratchy voice becomes perfectly normal. Not only is this man overcome with emotion as he realizes that he just got healed because of what Jesus did on the cross that established the new covenant in which there is not only forgiveness for sin, but also there is power for physical healing and demonic deliverance. But one can hear the people in the room also becoming emotional over what they just witnessed. Sometime after this happened, First Baptist Church asked him to preach and to tell the story of how he was healed. Sadly, the old used car salesman, know-it-all preachy preacher, was back. It doesn't matter, it doesn't seem, I'm sorry, that he was humbled, nor does it seem that he learned anything from what happened to him. One can get a CD of this sermon with the embedded clip in the few of the few minutes leading up to his healing, the healing moment, and a little of what happened after the healing from First Baptist Church Houston. Just ask for a copy of a sermon by Dwayne Miller. Just so you know, you can bypass all the preachy, use car salesman stuff by fast-forwarding to just over 39 minutes into a sermon where he plays the recording for what happened to him. Let's see, this is the last story titled A Crazy Preacher. Some months after we left First Baptist Chapel Hill, one of my professors at Houston Baptist University gave my name to someone at Meaty Creek Baptist Church in Katy, Texas. This person then contacted me and asked me to come preach, for the congregation had recently fired the previous pastor. This probably should have been a sign to me that something was amiss. But when I arrived there was an actual rented mobile sign that was in the front grassy area that said, Under new management, God. This sign was a sign that something truly was amiss. When I entered the front doors, which ironically are at the back of the building, a much older man in a suit approached me, smiling broadly, and extended his hand. He said, Welcome, brings you here this morning. I told him I'd been invited to preach. At this, his entire demeanor changed from overly friendly to overly shocked. He told me he had been invited to come from Arkansas to preach a revival, which he'd been doing all week, and I was to find, and as I was to find out by the person who invited me, with very poor attendance. At that moment, the person who invited me walked up, as well as the person who invited the evangelist. They said there there had been a miscommunication between them. I wondered what they meant by miscommunication. Although I was willing to step aside for the evangelists and return home, he tried to show some leadership. He suggested he and I go into a room and pray in order to find out what Jesus wanted us to do. When we did this, he did most of the praying. When he was done, he said, The Lord wants us both to preach, but I'm to go first. I didn't think the Spirit said any such thing, for I was pretty sure that if the Spirit had said I was to preach first, this guy would think that was surely the devil. Feeling like I needed to be polite, even though I was fine with leaving, especially after he told me he believed the people were going to ask him to become their pastor, I decided to go with his plan. There weren't very many people in attendance, and after I witnessed his performance, I understood why as I sat on the front row of pews and watched him do his deal. It began rather normally, but soon he was pacing back and forth, up and down on the platform with a lot of energy and emotion. This caused him to get hot and sweaty, so he took off his jacket, loosened his tie, rolled up his sleeves. At one point he was maneuvering across the platform on his knees. It was quite the Pentecostal performance. Finally, and thankfully, after more than an hour, he closed. He rolled up, rolled, unrolled his sleeves, re tucked in his shirt that had become untucked, and straightened his tie and put his jacket back on. Then he said to the people, In a surgery, the older, well experienced surgeon does the needed surgery. But then it is to his younger, inexperienced assistant to close up the wound. I thought, wound is right. This was his way of introducing me. I stood upright where I had been sitting, so I'm on the floor and not on the platform, shared a few things about the importance of loving Jesus and obeying him. I spoke for maybe ten minutes. And with that, the service was mercifully over. The next week I was called to return to preach again, but also they wanted me to become their pastor. One might think I was the winner here. It's another long story, but I was not the winner because, as it turned out, God was not the new manager of this place or these people. Even Marvin Zindler of ABC Eyewitness News was a part of the chaos. I'll stop there.