CHAPTER 12
Gene and Mike were up early and both were so excited that they wanted time to fly by so they could go to church. Thelma heard Gene walking around and she also decided to get up and see what he was doing.
“Why are you up so early, Gene?”
“I just couldn’t sleep, Mom. I want to get to church so bad and hear everything they have to say, I was restless.”
“Well, sit down and let’s talk. When I was a little girl, I went to church all the time and I accepted Christ and I became a Christian.”
“You are saved? Why didn’t you tell me before now?”
“When your dad and I decided to get married, we talked and we both thought it might be better if I did not try to influence you or any of the other kids with what I believed.”
“But mom, if you love us, you should have told us about heaven and hell. If I had never heard that from old man Bishop or from Mike, I may have grown up and never accepted and when I died, I would be going to hell forever.”
“I know, and I am so glad you accepted. I am almost as excited as you are. From now on, I will not keep silent. We will go to church every Sunday morning and every Sunday night. If you or any of the other kids want to go to church on Wednesday, we will go then, also. How does that sound to you?”
“It sounds great to me, Mom! I think I’m going to really like being a Christian. I know that Jesus is going to do something special with me and I know He is going to do something special with Mike, also. You know, Mom, I love you. Could you also fix pancakes and bacon this morning for breakfast?”
“Sure, and, Gene, I love you, too.”
In less than an hour, the rest of the family was up and getting dressed for church and even Darrell seemed excited about something, for the first time in ages. The same thing was happening at Mike’s house. He was up moving around just about the same time that Gene was up. After hearing Mike moving around, Bobby put his clothes on and went to see what made Mike get up so early.
“Mike, are you sick?”
“No, Dad, I’m just wanting time to speed up so we can go to church. Today will be the first day that Gene will be with me in Sunday School as a saved person. I can hardly believe it’s true!”
“Mike, let me tell you a story about a little girl that reminds me of Gene. The only difference is, she was raised in a Christian home all her life. Her folks went to church twice on Sunday and they also went on Wednesday nights. When she was sixteen years old, she heard a sermon about salvation and she knew she wasn’t saved. During the invitation, she wanted to go forward, but because her dad was the chairman of the Deacons Board, he told her not to go forward and embarrass him in front of the entire church. He said she could get saved later. Year after year went by until, one day, she was involved in a real bad car wreck. At the hospital, the doctors told her dad and mom that she was not going to make it and her time was short.
"Once at her bedside, her dad and mom did everything they could to make her feel better, but she was only moments from eternity. She started to complain about the heat on her feet. She said the heat was going up her legs and she was getting hotter and hotter as each second passed by. It was at that time that her dad realized what was happening. That little girl that had never accepted was now a young lady that was lost. Her dad told her to accept before it was too late. But all she did was beg for ice cold water. The dad even started to cry because he knew he was wrong when he told her to wait and she could get saved at a later date. The Bible says, now is the day of salvation; now is the day to accept. That young girl never accepted and when she died, she went to the compartment of torment to await her judgment. That father had to live with that for the rest of his life. The reason I told you that story is because a person never knows when they are going to breathe their last. If they put accepting off until some other day, that day may never come. If Gene would have put that day off, he could have ended up just like that young girl.”
“Dad, I promise each and every time I have a chance to tell someone about Jesus dying on the cross for them, I will tell them.”
“That’s good, Mike, but sometimes that will be very hard. However, if you let the Holy Spirit guide you, you will be able to tell anyone about Christ”
As each minute went by more and more of the Fisher kids were getting up out of bed and getting dressed for church. Bonnie fixed eggs and bacon and after breakfast it would only be forty minutes before they would leave for church.
Mike and Gene both watched the clock, and when it was 9:35, they shouted out, “It’s time to leave!” Each family walked out the door and loaded into the cars and out the driveway they went. Mike said that old man Bishop would be waiting in front of his house and he was there right on time. The rest of the way to church, old man Bishop talked to Bobby and Bonnie like they were old friends.
Once they pulled into the church parking lot, Gene and the rest of the Pittman family were waiting. Mike jumped out of the car, and he ran over to Gene and started talking immediately. The rest of the kids paired off and headed inside so they could go to their respective Sunday School classes. Bobby told Darrell and Thelma that they could go with him and Bonnie and Mr. Bishop had one of two choices. He could go with them or there was a Sunday School class for men over fifty. Mr. Bishop decided he would go with his new friends and some other day he would see what the class for men over fifty would be like.
Inside the Adult Sunday School class, they took a seat and were having small talk when the associate pastor said it was time to start. Bobby introduced Darrell and Thelma to the class and he also introduced Mr. Bishop. When he introduced Mr. Bishop, everyone in the class, including the associate pastor, Scotty Blackman, could not believe it was “old man Bishop” from the haunted house. Like I said before, everyone knew of old man Bishop, but this was the first time in ages anyone had seen him.
Scotty told the class that this was the beginning of a new study. He said the new study would be on the theme of Christ, how we know that we are sinners, and how we can use science to prove the truth. “This class will take eight weeks and by the time we are finished, you should be able to tell anyone that would ask, why you are saved.”
“The first place we want to start is in the Garden of Eden. The first two people on earth were not born, they were created. This is the most important thing that you must remember. THEY WERE NOT BORN, THEY WERE CREATED. Genesis 2:7, 18, 21, 22, 23, 3:20 - 'And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.'
“Since Adam and Eve were created, they had no sin. Sin was not even a word that they knew. But sin was about to enter into their lives. The Lord said they could eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden with the exception of the tree of knowledge. Genesis 2:16, 17 - 'And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.'
“As each one in the class knows, Adam and Eve did eat of the tree of knowledge and they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. The Lord told them that Eve would have great pain when she gave birth and that Adam would sweat, because He was going to curse the ground. As each and every child comes into the world, he or she comes through the pain of their mother. And we all know that the ground is cursed. All you have to do is to look at all the weeds in everyone’s yard.
> “Each child that comes into the world is born into sin. They all have a sin nature that was given to them by their father. Since it is the father that passes the sin nature down to their children, it is the father that a doctor will take blood from to prove who the natural father is. Before or after birth, the doctor does not take the blood from the mother, because everyone knows who the mother is. The father is the one that may be in doubt. Anyway you look at it, it is always the father that passes the sin nature down to his children. Now, some people may say that women are not sinful. We know that is a lie. All women have a father, and like I said, it’s the father that passes the sin nature down. Also, let me say, in a court of law, the blood test will either convict a man of his guilt, or it will prove him innocent.”
As the class sat and listened to the things that Scotty was saying, Darrell had a keen interest in every word. He was weighing these things against the things that he knew and everything that Scotty was saying was the truth.
“Now, let me jump ahead to the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Way back in the Old Testament the prophets predicted the birth of Christ and they gave many details of his first coming and also of his death. I will give you just a few so you can see that the things I am saying are true. Isaiah 7:14 - 'Therefore the LORD himself shall give you a sign; Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.' Zechariah 9:9 - 'Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion shout O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.' Zechariah 11:12, 13 - 'And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter---a lordly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.' Luke 1:26 - 35 'And in the sixth month the angel, Gabriel, was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espouse to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou who art highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered in her mind what manner of greeting this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered, and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.' Matthew 1:18 - 25 'Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: When, as his mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, And knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son; and he called his name JESUS.'
“These are just a few of the verses that I could give you to show the birth and the things that would occur before Jesus’ death. The reason I wanted you to see the verses about the birth of Christ is because I said that sin comes through the father. Since sin comes through the father, who is the father of Jesus Christ?”
Before anyone could say a thing, Darrell said, “The father of Jesus is the Holy Spirit.”
“Correct. That is right. Now what type of sin does Jesus have?”
Darrell answered again. “If Jesus does not have an earthly father, He does not have any sin at all.”
Again, Scotty said, “That is correct. Since Jesus does not have sin, then He is sinless. Is there anyone else born in the world from Adam, who was born from a virgin?”
The whole class said, "NO!"
“Now that we know that Jesus has no sin, we must go to the most important question that must be asked. Do we all have sin?”
Again the class said, "YES!"
“In order for us to get to heaven, we must deal with our sin question. The Bible gives only one way to deal with sin and that is to let someone else take our sin. That person must be willing to take our sin. They, also, must be capable of taking our sin and they must be qualified to take our sin. When Jesus died on the cross, he was willing to take all of the sins of the world, past, present, and future and have them placed on Himself. Because he was born to a virgin and because He did not have the sinful blood passed down to him by an earthly father, He was capable of taking all of the sins of the world to the cross. The only person that was capable of taking all of our sins was a person that was sinless. When we look at the genealogy, both in Matthew and in Luke, we see that He comes from King David and even farther back than that. The Bible gives all of the predictions of his birth and of his death. By fulfilling all of those predictions, He is qualified to be the Savior of the world and to take your sins and pay the ransom that was required.
“By looking at all of the verses we covered this morning and knowing that the Bible is true and we can depend on it, the last question I am going to ask before the bell rings is this: Since Jesus can take our sin and place it on Himself, He is either who the Bible says He is, or He is a fake and we cannot believe a word in the Bible. If He is the Son of God and He is able to cleanse us from our sin, what must we do with Christ?”
Thelma said in a shaky voice, “We must accept Him as our Lord and Savior.” The room was totally silent; no one else said a word. Those words of Thelma were starting to work on the three in the class that were not saved, and one was Darrell.
At that time, the bell rang and Scotty closed the class in a word of prayer. After the prayer, Scotty asked everyone to remain in their seats and search their hearts. “If you want to accept Christ at this very moment, I will say a short prayer and you can repeat the words to yourself and you will be saved.” As Scotty said the small prayer, three more souls were added to the Lamb’s Book of Life. After the prayer, Scotty stated, “If anyone in the class accepted Christ, you need to go forward when the invitation is given during the morning service. If you go forward, you will be telling the world that you have become a Christian.”
In the hall, Darrell thanked Bobby and Bonnie for inviting them to church. Darrell made the comment that Scotty was really good at presenting all the facts about the life of Christ. He even said that he was planning on coming back next week, only if Thelma would like to go, too. Thelma’s face started to glow like the moon. For the first time in her marriage, she was starting to feel like a Christian mother and wife.
Darrell and Bobby stopped by to wash their hands before they went into the church service. Darrell wanted to know where they usually sat in the auditorium.
“Oh, we sit about half way. Sometimes, we have so many people going forward to get saved, I have to help.”
“Bobby, don’t say a word to Thelma, but when the pastor asks for those to come forward and accept Christ, I am going forward, becau
se I accepted when Scotty prayed that prayer a while ago. Everything I heard this morning proved to me that I needed someone to take my sin and place it on them.”
“That is fantastic! We have been praying for you and the rest of the family for years.”
“From now on, we are going to be in church. I want to learn as much as possible about the Bible and about the life of Christ.”
After everyone was seated, the pastor started his sermon about Christ dying on the cross. However, before he reached that part, he covered the trial and the beating that Christ went through. He stated that the soldiers beat Him and they pulled His beard out and at last, they put a crown of thorns on His head. The pastor said that the thorns were probably about three inches long and once they forced them into His head, the thorns may have went into the scalp about an inch. Each and every detail was very graphic, including Christ carrying His own cross until the weight was too much and He stumbled and fell. But the one thing that made some of the people in the auditorium start crying was when the pastor told about the scourging of Jesus. The pastor stated that the whip may have been one type that was used commonly back in those days. “There were three pieces of leather attached to a rod. At the end of the three pieces of leather would be sharp pieces of bone or sharp pieces of metal. When the person would strike the back of the victim, they would jerk the rod, which caused the bone or metal to dig into the skin of the victim. Once in the skin, the person that was doing the whipping would pull the rod back very hard and quick and chunks of the person’s flesh would come out.” He stated that some people died before they could be crucified. “If that does not tell you how much He loved each and every-one of you, then nothing does.” He then told about the crucifixion and how a person’s joints come out of the sockets from hanging on a cross(Psalms 22:14 - 'I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted within me).'
The sermon was the best sermon Darrell had ever heard. Well, it was the first sermon he had ever heard, but he loved it. The pastor told everyone that Christ loved them so much that He was willing to go to the cross for them and all that He asked in return is that a person would accept Him as their personal Savior.
Darrell said to himself, “I know I made the right decision earlier.”
The pastor then asked if there was anyone that wanted to receive Christ into their hearts to please come forward. He also stated that there may be some people that had accepted Christ in their Sunday School Class, and, “If you accepted in your Sunday School Class, we want you to come forward, also.”
The first person out of the pew was Darrell. He went forward and told the pastor that he was a sinner and that he had accepted Christ earlier in Sunday School. The pastor asked Jim, the local evangelist, to take Darrell into the other room and show him in the Bible that by accepting, he has eternal life through Jesus Christ. He also led Darrell in a prayer to rejoice about him accepting. One person after another came forward to accept and there were others that knew they needed to come back to that life they had once lived, before they stumbled. They rededicated their lives to Christ.
When Darrell walked out of the pew and went down front, the rest of the Pittman children couldn’t believe what they were seeing. However, Gene had prayed very hard the night before for his dad and for the rest of the family. He knew that his prayers would be answered; it was just a matter of when. He reasoned, “Just look at me, yesterday morning, I was unsaved and before the day was over I had accepted. The very same thing can happen to the rest of my family. In one day they could all get saved.”
“GENE, LOOK AT EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE YOU BECAME A CHRISTIAN. MR. BISHOP WILL LEAD THOUSANDS TO ME AND BECAUSE OF YOUR PRAYERS LAST NIGHT, I SOFTENED THE HEART OF YOUR FATHER, DARRELL. BECAUSE OF YOU, YOUR MOTHER WILL NEVER MISS CHURCH UNTIL THE DAY THAT HER MINISTRY ON EARTH IS OVER. YOU HAVE MADE ALL OF THE RIGHT DECISIONS, AND BECAUSE YOU ACCEPTED, EVERYONE THAT YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH WILL BE CHANGED. THEY WILL SEE YOU FOR WHAT YOU TRULY SHOULD HAVE BEEN; THAT BEING, A CHRISTIAN THAT WANTED TO GET AS MANY PEOPLE SAVED AS POSSIBLE. WITHIN THE NEXT 30 DAYS, THE REST OF YOUR FAMILY WILL GET SAVED AND THEY WILL BE MODEL CHRISTIANS. YOUR FAMILY WILL LEAD SO MANY PEOPLE TO ME, YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE NUMBER IF I TOLD YOU.”
“Lord, I want to thank You for answering my prayers and for me becoming a Christian. I can’t believe how my life has changed from the way I used to be. It is just amazing how a person changes once they accept.”
“YES, GENE, PEOPLE DO CHANGE WHEN THEY ACCEPT. YOU WILL HEAR PREACHER AFTER PREACHER SAY, ONCE YOU ACCEPT YOU MAKE A 180 DEGREE TURN FROM THE DIRECTION THAT YOU WERE GOING. THE REASON YOU MAKE THAT TURN IS BECAUSE I AM THE ONE THAT IS GUIDING AND DIRECTING YOUR EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. THE PROBLEM I HAVE WITH SOME BELIEVERS IS, THEY WANT TO DO EVERYTHING THEIR OWN WAY INSTEAD OF LETTING ME LEAD THEM, THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT. JUST REMEMBER, YOU ARE NOT A ROBOT. YOU MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS, BUT IF YOU GO TO THE WORD AND LET THE WORD GUIDE AND DIRECT YOU, YOU WILL KNOW WHAT DECISIONS TO MAKE. GO TO JOHN 14:26 - 'BUT THE COMFORTER, WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHOM THE FATHER WILL SEND IN MY NAME, HE SHALL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, AND BRING ALL THINGS TO YOUR REMEMBRANCE, WHATEVER I HAVE SAID UNTO YOU. JUST REMEMBER, ALWAYS GO TO THE WORD.”
“I will, I promise I will always go to the Word for my direction. I also promise I will not keep quiet. I will tell everyone I come in contact with about Your Son dying on the cross for the sins of the world. One other thing, Lord, if I start to sin or if something comes into my life that should not be there, please, give me a swift kick in the-------------------well, You know, back side.