Interactions with God #67
What makes someone a Christian? Well, though there are many “interpretations” to answer that question, there is only one that really matters…the description that the Christ Himself says. Jesus said that those who are His will believe in Him and follow Him.
Being a Christian doesn’t make someone perfect in action, though their actions will of a necessity improve as they “follow”. It also doesn’t mean they will run around telling everyone “Jesus is Lord”, though they do need to confess it somewhere. So, how can you tell?
A life can show it much more than a simple profession of faith. The profession is important, but there are many who profess to be Christian, that are clearly not, as shown by their actions. Yet, all Christians can stumble and fall. This too sometimes makes it really hard to tell. What if some of these “hard to tell” people are those we love a great deal? That is a big problem, especially when their time on this earth suddenly comes to an end.
Martha’s dad, was one of my favorite people. His name was Bill Stone. He was just plain awesome. We would travel the 3 hours up to visit on a regular basis, more so after Brianne was born. From the Fourth of July to Christmas, Bill Stone always had something fun and crazy to do. Launching bottle rockets or a playing on golf course that he made out of the back 10, yea, he really was a great guy. However, I really wasn’t sure if he knew Jesus Christ.
On several occasions, I tried to talk to him about it, but he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t rude, no, I am not sure he ever was, but he was firm. It was just not something he would talk about.
For those of us who know Jesus Christ, and yes, we do KNOW, it is hard to see others who don’t understand and yet refuse to investigate. None of us need people to believe us completely, no, it would be enough for them to believe that it just might be true… just enough, for them to investigate Jesus for themselves. I absolutely believe that no one who looks up and asks Jesus to reveal Himself will get a dead air response. He will do something. It may be in seconds, minutes, days or even years, but He WILL do something. Look, no one is going to be able to stand before Him when this is all over and say, “I did reach out to you, but got crickets…” It’s not gonna happen! It is written after all, “those who seek him, find him if they seek him with all their heart.” There is no maybe or possibly written in that passage.
I loved Martha’s dad. I really wanted him to be saved. I really wanted to know that I will get to see him forever… and continue the fireworks, golf courses, jokes, and family reunions with absurd amounts of food. Yes, eternity, I wanted him to be there. But, from what I could tell…I just couldn’t tell. Well, not until they day after he passed.
In 1995, I had just gotten home from work at Sybase. It was the Friday before Christmas. I had the next two weeks off. If I remember right, I had just walked in. Martha got the call from her brother. It was a very unpleasant night. We were told that he had gone down into the woods on a snowmobile and was found hours later by her brother, Bob, unconscious. An ambulance took him to the hospital where he finally died.
His heart had been an issue for years. He had his first heart attack long before I met Martha. Cassie had been born that year, and several of our visits to bring the kids up were at a hospital for his various heart related issues. Doctors were talking of pacemakers and other options that might help. As always, Bill was cheery, cracked jokes and carried himself with a very positive outlook. That Friday night, sadly, we were told his heart just gave out.
We were both distraught. We had already made plans to head up to her parents’ house for the next two weeks. We just weren’t expecting to go to a funeral. Now we planned to leave a little earlier, so we got the kids to bed and then went ourselves.
I could not sleep. I lied there awake most of the night, calling out to God. I wanted to know! Did he make it? For hours the conversation went like this: “Lord, I want to know…no, I don’t…wait, yes I do…NO!... wait, YES!” Basically, I wanted to hear that Bill was with Him, and I most definitely didn’t want to hear that he wasn’t. Not that I wanted God to tell me an untruth. I just wasn’t sure I could handle it if the truth was not good. I didn’t want to lose Martha’s dad.
Look, this life is nothing. It is a speck, less than a speck compared to eternity. When we lose people here, it is nothing, unless there is nothing for us afterward. With an eternal perspective, a loss here that is a gain there. A forever place where there is no more sorrow, no more tears…our minds can’t even comprehend how good it will be! Yes, it is written that way. But real loss, is to love here but lose them…forever. That is not good, no, not at all.
After that long rough night, not getting any answers, I got up in the morning and went to take a shower. On the way into the bathroom, God did something. This one was really odd. It was a combination of a vision, a word of knowledge and a song-like phrase. Yea, it was strange, but really strong. It almost made me drop.
In the dream-like vision, I saw Bill pulling the snowmobile just off a trail and then get off. After he shut off the snowmobile, he turned to his left and saw Jesus standing there. While seeing this play out in my mind, I heard this word, “He went into the woods to visit an old friend. The old friend asked him if he wanted to leave and he said he would.” The additional knowledge was a “knowing” that the Lord showed Bill what would happen if he chose to stay longer. Much of his remaining time would have been spent in a hospital. The time would have been a painful struggle. He chose to leave, not because of what the struggle would cost him, but rather, because of the affect it would have on his family. We would have all hurt a great deal for him. So Bill Stone, chose to leave with Jesus, right there and then. I saw him lay down next to the snowmobile. The vision ended there.
I ran out to tell Martha. We also talked about it on the way up to Enfield, NH. There were several problems with this thing though. We were told, Bill passed at the hospital. Also, as far as Martha and I knew, her dad had not been a professing Christian, so the “old friend” thing didn’t make sense either. We decided to keep quiet about the whole thing as it was possible that I was just delirious because of a serious lack of sleep.
After being up there for a few days, the first thing that came to light was that Bill had not died in the hospital. No, Martha’s brother found him already gone, lying peacefully next to a turned off snowmobile, as if he did so intentionally. Excited as we were, that this vision was looking like it was from God, we still kept it to ourselves. Until Martha asked her mom about her dad’s religious past.
Martha’s mom shared a story about Bill having studied at one time to become a priest. Apparently, he was really serious about Jesus Christ at one time, but something happened within the Church. She didn’t know what it was and as far as she knew, no one did. “Old friend”, that was the final piece. Martha asked me to share the vision with her mom.
I don’t know if it helped her mom heal any. It was a really, really hard time for her. It did however, help me immensely. Because of it, I now had no doubt that Bill Stone is waiting for us all, along with Jesus Christ.
On top of that evidence, people from all walks of life came to visit the house for the next two weeks to share a story or two about things Bill did to bless them and/or their family. No one knew! No one! Visit after visit, story after story, we were stunned to hear of all the wonderful things he did for those who were hurting. He took no credit or honor in any of these actions.
Now, that is what a Christian looks like. I have long since prayed that when I finally get to be with my Lord, that I will have blessed even half the people that Bill Stone did.