CHAPTER 6
The lazy, hazy days of summer were upon Mike and Gene for the last time before they would head off to college. Mike was figuring everything out from what to take to college, to what he should be majoring in. His dream, since the day that he was saved, was to go to Bible College. Now, his dream was only three months away. Gene on the other hand was thinking more about girls and beer parties than the idea of getting a good education.
One day, while both boys were mowing their lawns, they stopped to talk and tell each other about the things that they had planned. “Well, Mike, I heard that you were going to a Bible College some place up in Oregon. Is that true?”
“Yes, it’s true. The name of the college is Multnoma School of the Bible. I have decided that I want to be a preacher and get as many people saved as I can before the rapture of the Church.”
“That doesn’t surprise me a bit. If there was anyone that I figured would go to a Bible College, it would be you. Mike, I’m not putting you down though. Being with you all through your life and listening to the things that you have said, I knew you would not like going to a state college.”
“I thought about WU and WSU, but the Lord was leading me to a Bible College, so I could be prepared when it came time for me to share the Gospel. Also, you may think it is stupid or something, but I have placed a Bible verse in my heart. I want that verse to direct me for the rest of my life. The verse is Proverbs 3:6 - "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." I know I could go down any path that I wish, but I want Him to direct my paths and direct me in the right direction. When we were little kids, I tried so very hard to talk you into accepting the Lord, but you just would not listen. It’s not too late for you right now. If you want to accept Him, you know you can talk to me anytime.”
“I know you’re concerned about my soul and where I will spend eternity. The thing is, I just don’t believe. I can’t help it. I cannot come to believe that one person can make that much difference in a person’s life. In your life, Christ does make a difference, but in mine, He means nothing to me.”
“Gene, if you accept, He will make a difference in your life. He will do the same thing for you that He is doing for me. He is guiding and directing everything that I do. Each morning, I don’t get up and say, “Well, I’m going to do what I want to do today.” What I do when I get up is to pray to the Lord to guide and direct everything that I would say, do, and think. And the funny thing is, before I do something, the Lord puts different thoughts in my mind and He gives me the power to rationalize things out before I do them. He can do the same for you, if you will just give Him the chance.”
“Mike, I would like to, but I can’t. Do you want to hear what my plans are?”
“Sure. I heard you were going to UCLA.”
“That’s right. The school of party after party, and girls, more girls than a guy can shake a stick at. I can’t wait to get there and start partying. I know you wouldn’t like all that partying, but I will study a lot on the week-days. I have decided to be like my dad, when it comes to drinking.
“On the week-days he may have one little drink each night. But he does not get drunk. He saves that for the week-end. I am going to do the same thing. Study hard and heavy on the week-days and on the week-ends, be drunk as a skunk. I think I can handle that for four years, don’t you?”
“Gene, I have to finish with the mowing. You don’t know this, but every day since we were little boys I have been praying for you to become a Christian. Now, I am going to be praying harder than ever and when I get to college, I am going to ask all of my friends and professors to pray for you. The type of life that you are telling me you are going to live is a life of destruction. If you don’t change, you will pay for it eternally.”
Both boys finished with their mowing and Gene was off to another party, while Mike went inside and was going over other details of his coming school year.
The following work week went the same for both boys and their summer jobs. Gene was a life guard at the local swimming pool. If you are thinking that he had his eye on all the girls, you are exactly right. The only difference this year was that all the girls knew of his reputation and they stayed clear of him from the first day the pool opened until it closed.
Mike, as you may have already figured out, worked at the Christian Book Store. The owner, Garrett Downs, was almost seventy years old. He opened his store after he retired. He said he needed something to keep him busy and the books that Christians write would be a good thing to get into.
Mike had worked for Mr. Downs for the last two summers, so Mr. Downs trusted Mike with everything. Mr. Downs also promised Mike a job every summer as long as he was alive. Mike looked at Mr. Downs and said, “You may live another ten or twenty years, it is all up to the Lord.”
“I know son, but sometimes I am just so tired I wish the Lord would take me to Heaven immediately.”
“Don’t feel bad thinking like that, Mr. Downs, I think that we all wish that from time to time.”
“Are you going over to see Mr. Bishop today, Mike?”
“As soon as I get off work, I am heading straight to the hospital to see how he is doing. I remember the first time I met old man Bishop. That’s what Gene Pittman and I used to call him.”
“You are friends with that Gene Pittman kid?”
“Yes, sir. We live right next door to each other.”
“How did you come out so good and he came out so bad?” Even Mr. Downs had heard of Gene and how he treated teenage girls.
“It all depends on if you accept Christ or not. I did and he did not.”
“Well, finish telling me about Mr. Bishop.”
“Gene and I used to sneak into his house and go all through his rooms. It was really scary for little boys. One night we decided to go up to the second floor and find some treasure. This one room we went into was full of magazines. One magazine was about Billy Sunday.
“We both were sitting there looking at the magazine when the door burst open and there stood Mr. Bishop! We both thought he was going to kill us. His hair was so long you wouldn’t believe it and I don’t think he’d had a bath for two or three years. He stunk. We broke the ice with him when we showed him the magazine about Billy Sunday. The next day, he went to church with us and he had not missed one Sunday until he had his heart attack.”
“So, you are the two boys he told me about. If it wasn’t for you two, Mr. Bishop may have never come out of that old house. Tell you what, Mike, why don’t you leave one hour early and go to the hospital and see Mr. Bishop. I will pay you for that hour, okay?”
“That sounds great, Mr. Downs.”
Mike walked through the swinging doors of the hospital and headed straight to room 104, where Mr. Bishop was. Before he could reach the room, Mr. Bishop’s doctor saw Mike and asked if he could have a small talk with him.
“Mr. Bishop only has a few days to live. He has no family and he said that you were his only beneficiary.”
“I am his what? You mean he is leaving me with everything he owns?”
“That is exactly right. I have been his doctor ever since he changed his life around and started going out of that old house of his. He said if it wasn’t for you, he would still be living like that now. Mr. Bishop is worth a lot of money, Mike, and he wants you to have it all.”
“Doc, thanks for telling me all of that, but I really would like to go and see Mr. Bishop now.”
“Go ahead. He has been asking for you.”
When the doctor made that statement, it seemed as if the Lord was speaking to Mike. To Mike’s remembrance came the words when Gene had been hit by the car. He remembered that Gene’s mother had said the same thing, “Gene has been asking for you.”
Right then, Mike knew what his calling from God was going to be. Not only would he get his degree and become a preacher, but his main ministry would be to those that were on their death beds. He knew
that when people are on the verge of dying, they are scared. Even Christians are scared sometimes. He thought, “When I get a church and become a pastor, I want to be next to that person that is on the portals of eternity. It may be that an unsaved person might accept within seconds of departing this world.”
The door was about half opened, when Mike walked into the room where Mr. Bishop lay.
“Mike, it is so good to see you.”
“Hi. How do you feel, Mr. Bishop?”
“I have felt better. You are here a little early today aren’t you?”
“Mr. Downs told me to leave early so I could come and be with you longer today. My mom and dad said they would be by around seven.”
“I am glad Mr. Downs let you come early. I have something I want you to do for me. I want you to go and get Gene and bring him here. I want to talk to him today.”
“Mr. Bishop, I don’t have any idea where Gene would be.”
“Go to his girl friend’s house. He is there.”
“How do you know that?”
“Just go and hurry. I don’t have much time left.”
Mike drove as fast as he could without getting a ticket. Once at Sandy’s house, Mike knocked at the door. Sandy opened the door and Mike asked if Gene was there.
Sandy hollered, “Gene, Mike wants to see you.”
Gene came to the door and the first words out of his mouth were, “What’s wrong?”
“Mr. Bishop is dying and he is asking for you. He wants to see you now.”
“Sandy, I have to leave. I will call you later.”
The boys hurried to the hospital with many thoughts on their minds. They were both remembering their times with Mr. Bishop. Arriving at the hospital, both boys walked in the room and over to Mr. Bishop.
Mr. Bishop handed Mike a five dollar bill and told him to go and get something to eat, while he talked with Gene. Mike left knowing exactly what Mr. Bishop had in mind. As he left, he prayed that Gene would accept this time.
“Gene, you have had many chances to accept, but each and every time you refused. I will be dead and in Heaven in less than three days, but before I go, I have a message for you from the Lord.”
“Mr. Bishop, you know I don’t believe in all that heaven stuff and in accepting. I think you are wasting your breath.”
“Yes, I probably am wasting my breath. However, I am supposed to give you this message. The Lord has given you chance after chance and you continue to reject. When you die, you will not believe where you are, because you don’t believe Hell is real. When you get there, you will believe, even though you don’t want to accept the fact that you are there. When you get there, you will plead and beg to get out and you will ask for a second chance. The Lord is saying that your second chance is right now. If you take that second chance right now, you can accept Him as your savior and when you die you will go to Heaven. What is your decision, Heaven or Hell?”
“Mr. Bishop, I promise I will listen and see if accepting is for me. I promise I will decide on Heaven or Hell, one of these days.”
“GENE WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT I AM GOING TO SAY?”
“Lord, I believe you are going to say You gave me my last chance to accept and I blew it.”
“NO, THAT IS NOT WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY. EVEN THOUGH YOU REFUSED, I CONTINUED TO GIVE YOU CHANCE AFTER CHANCE BECAUSE I AM LONG SUFFERING, BUT YOU NEVER ACCEPTED. THE REASON I GAVE MR. BISHOP THAT MESSAGE FOR YOU IS BECAUSE WITHIN THE NEXT TWENTY FOUR HOURS, THAT WOULD BE THE CLOSEST YOU WOULD EVER COME TO ACCEPTING. I HAD SOFTENED YOUR HEART UP WHEN YOU WERE TALKING TO MIKE THAT DAY YOU TWO WERE MOWING THE LAWN. ALSO, WHEN YOU LEFT THE HOSPITAL, YOU ASKED MIKE A QUESTION AND WHEN HE ANSWERED THAT QUESTION, YOU WONDERED IF HE WAS RIGHT OR WRONG.”
Mike walked back into the room and handed Mr. Bishop the change from the five. “Thanks, I was starving.” Just then, the nurse came in with a needle and some medicine for Mr. Bishop.
“It’s time for your shot and then you have to eat. Boys, I hate to say it, but you will have to leave for now.”
“But, can’t we stay just a little while longer?”
“Oh, I guess it would be okay, but who is going to be first?”
“First, for what?”
“The shot. Since you want to stay, you must receive a shot, just as a precaution.”
“Mr. Bishop, we will see you tomorrow.”
“Gene, think about what I said. It’s your soul I am concerned about.”
As the boys left the hospital, Gene asked, “What are your plans, Mike?”
“I think I’ll go home and pray for Mr. Bishop.”
“You know, I have never done that before, but would you mind if I prayed with you this time?”
“No, I don’t mind. Let’s go home.” Mike was very hopeful as they left together.
Once at home, Mike and Gene went into Mike’s bedroom and Mike began to pray for Mr. Bishop. When Mike was finished, Gene had a few words to say, and then he said amen. Mike knew that Gene did not know how to pray, but anything might help. While they were sitting there, Gene asked Mike a question. “The other day when we were mowing and we stopped and talked, you used a word I had never heard before.”
“What word was that, Gene?”
“The word was rapture. What does that mean?”
“It means that, one of these days, Jesus is going to come down and get every person that has accepted Him and take them to Heaven. In other words, there is one generation of believers that will never experience death. We will simply disappear.”
“Are you telling me, if the rapture were to occur right now, that you would vanish into thin air?”
“I wouldn’t put it quite like that, but I think you have the idea.”
“Wait a minute. I have heard a number of stories from the Bible, but this one takes the cake. Okay, what happens after all the Christians are gone?”
“After all the Christians are gone, there will be a man that will come on the scene and he will require everyone in the world to take his number or his mark, 666, on their right hand or on their forehead. Wait I am getting a little ahead of myself. First, this man that will be called the Antichrist will sign a seven year peace treaty with Israel and an Arab block of nations. At the mid-point of the seven year period, the Antichrist will break the treaty and go into the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and claim to be God. It is at that time that the Antichrist will require everyone to take his number, 666.”
“You want me to believe that there is someone that has the technology to number everyone in the world? Look around Mike, this is 1963 and we can’t even count the people in the United States correctly during the census. I thought you told me the Bible was reliable and I could depend on it. I know now that I cannot depend on the Bible, because the things that you are telling me are totally impossible. Those things could never happen. I’ve got to be going. You and Mr. Bishop, oh, man.”
Two days later, Mr. Bishop died. Bobby, Mike’s dad, took care of all of the funeral arrangements and the burial plot. When the estate was finalized with the lawyers, the total for Mike came to $123,000. In 1963, that was a lot of money. Mike took what was needed to pay for the funeral and then he put some in his dad’s checking account. The rest was put into savings to help pay for his two older brothers’ college expenses at Washington University.
Mike saw Gene only two other times the rest of the summer. Each time they met, Gene was not interested in any type of conversation. It seemed as if he had totally decided that the Bible and Christianity were all a myth that someone had planned out to deceive people into a false hope and a false sense of security.
Fall season meant college and football for Gene. He loved watching college football and he also loved watching the cheerleaders. At UCLA, Gene was just another face among thousands. He had his little group that he mingled with most of the time and he had one group that wanted to party and drink. Almost every week-end he was totally drunk, but duri
ng the week, he studied twice as hard as the other students. He wanted his degree more than anything in the world. Living a life where you are punching a time card, like his dad, and working in a factory was not his idea of the ideal lifestyle. Also, during that first year in college, he was starting to look at girls just a little bit differently. Instead of trying to get as many in the sack as he could, he was thinking a lot more of marriage. But a total commitment with one person was out of the question at this time. The degree was the most important thing.
At Multnoma School of the Bible, Mike was working just as hard for his degree. His love was the Bible and the things of God. His oldest brother, Ken, loved the Lord just as much as Mike did, but Ken’s grades were not as good as Mike’s. Ken wanted to go to a Bible college, also, but when the University of Washington offered him a football scholarship, he couldn’t turn it down. The same was true for Keith, Mike’s other older brother. Washington was very impressed with Ken and when they found out he had a younger brother, they offered him a scholarship, also.
When Mike received the money from Mr. Bishop, he let both brothers know that he was going to use the money to help them through college, and pay for anything that the scholarships did not cover.
When the first year of college was over for both Mike and Gene, Mike came back home and worked at his old job, at the Christian Book Store. Gene had decided to stay in Los Angeles and work at the University. The money he made was more than twice as much as he could get doing anything else at home.
The next two years went by so quickly, it was unbelievable that Mike’s two oldest brothers had graduated and he would be a senior the next year. Not only was that unbelievable, but two of his three younger sisters had decided to go to Multnoma, also. Jennifer, who was the baby of the family, was a senior in high school. Her plans were not set in concrete yet, but she was leaning toward Multnoma, also.
Gene stayed in Los Angeles with his job each summer. He would come home and visit when something special was happening. One such time was when Harold enlisted in the Marines and after basic training, he was told he was being shipped out to Vietnam. Gene was there that last day to see Harold off and he told him to do a lot of ducking. Next, Steven was to go to Vietnam. Gene always thought that one day he would receive the bad news that one of his older brothers had been killed. However, that time never did arrive.
One year to go and both Mike and Gene would be graduating from college. Mike had all of his plans in order. Gene, however, had only one thing on his mind that last year in college and it wasn’t drinking or girls. It was something new, marijuana. Gene was so burned out on drinking, that the sound of the word beer turned his stomach. His friends had told him of this new thing that was spreading like wild fire.
They told him, “It’s not as cheap as beer, but you don’t get ‘lamp post kissing drunk’ like you do with beer. Also, the feeling takes all your problems away to a far off land.”
Gene decided that was for him. He called and asked one of his friends about bringing him some of this new thing called marijuana. After trying it, he knew beer was totally out and this new drug was in. The rest of the year, Gene was spaced out most of the time and most of the time he didn’t even know where he was. His grades suffered to the extent that he barely passed his classes. One of his friends told him it was a miracle that he graduated. Gene turned and told him, “I don’t believe in miracles. That is religion and I don’t want anything to do with religion.”
After graduating from college, both Mike and Gene moved back to the Seattle area. Mike found a small church that needed a pastor and Gene started working for one of the largest companies in the city.
From time to time, Mike and Gene would meet and talk, but the closeness that they had shared as young boys would never come back again. Gene was on a path of destruction and Mike was on a path of glorifying the Lord. Their eternal rewards would be totally different.