Interactions with God #46
Martha and I got married in April of 1989. Our first apartment was in Nashua, NH, but within 3 or 4 months, we moved to Manchester, NH. Before we got married, Martha had finished her management training program at the bank. After which, she was assigned to a bank branch in Concord, NH, as a personal banker. Manchester, being somewhat between Nashua and Concord, worked out well since our church home was in Nashua, along with most of our friends.
The apartment in Manchester was a renovated, really old, two family home. The owners, Charlie and Karen, lived on the first floor, while Martha and I lived on the top floor. As with most moves, one of the first things that happens is a visit from the Jehovah Witnesses. Martha has never been thrilled with these type of visits. Me, I just love them! I love to chat with people about God, even if they have a seriously errant view.
Yes, Jehovah Witnesses are wrong. Their version of the bible is called the New World Translation. Anyone, with just a little digging, can verify that this bible has been altered to fit their “theology”. The good news, is that the alteration wasn’t done very well. You see, though they did take out any scripture that shows Jesus is God in the New Testament, they forgot to go through the Old Testament. This makes for some interesting discussion when they show up at your door.
When the older woman and young man knocked on the door, I knew immediately they were either Jehovah Witnesses or Mormons. I invited them in to chat. As I was walking over to our living room to sit down, God spoke to my heart. He said, “Let them talk, do not disagree with them”. I can’t tell you how hard that was for me. Those who know me well, already know. But I did as God commanded. Of course, the obvious result was that they thought I was a possible convert. They had no idea what they were in store for. Though at the time, neither did I.
They came to visit once or twice a week and they didn’t come at the same time or even the same day of the week. The odd thing was, that every time they would come, I would “know” beforehand. On those days, I would come home from work and tell Martha, “The Jehovah Witnesses are coming today!” She would simply respond “great…”
The older lady always came, but the person she brought would be different each visit. Her “trainee” would generally be someone rather young. In each meeting, God said the same thing, “Do not disagree, ask questions, but let them talk”. I wasn’t being deceptive, no, I was doing as God asked and I did learn quite a bit more about their ideology.
After a few months of this, I got home from work again “knowing” that they were going to come that night. This time, however, God spoke to my heart, “I want you to talk this time. Tell them the truth about Jesus using their own book”.
This wasn’t really hard for me to do. I had a great book in my library that went into different cults and errant “Christian” groups. The book outlined the scriptures that the writers of the New World Translation altered as well as the ones they missed. I copied all of those passages from their old and new testaments to a piece of notebook paper. I was ready to “chat”.
When the woman showed up with a young girl, her new “trainee”, she started off our discussion by telling me that this was the last time she would be coming over. Apparently, she had come to the conclusion that I was not going to be a convert, so her visits were becoming pointless. God knew! He had told me ahead of time that it was my turn to talk. He KNEW they would not be coming back. He set the whole thing up and planned it out exactly as He wanted! Well, of course He did. He is God after all…
My response to her was, “Well Ok. That is fine. But, I have let you talk each time since your first visit, so now it is my turn.” Reluctantly, she agreed. I then walked her point by point, passage by passage through her own New World Translation bible, showing that even their book DID point to Jesus is God.
Once I finished, I said to her, “So you see, even your own book shows that Jesus is God.” She replied, surprisingly, “Yes, but what about the Holy Spirit?” I laughed and told her, “That discussion would have to wait for another time.” She reiterated that they would not be back and uncomfortably left.
At first, I was a wee bit disappointed with the result. I guess I expected, considering the way God showed me about their visits, that He would save the older woman or at least her trainee right there and then. When that didn’t happen, I shut the door and frowned. I must have done something wrong.
After a few days, I just realized that since God set the whole thing up, He definitely was doing something with it. Though I didn’t know what happened, I could only imagine how He used the situation. Maybe the older woman did get saved. I was at least positive that the young girl had a bunch of questions…considering her rather curious look as she left. I never heard any more from either of them. I will probably never know how He used it till we are all with Him after His return.
For me, it was really just another cool Interaction with God, which increased my faith and knowledge of God’s power and control over all things. It was a great pleasure just to be a small part of it.