Called Of God

Romans 11:29

I can remember when I was all of eight years old and we lived on a farm in West central Missouri. I went to a country school and told someone I was going to return to the area someday to either teach school or to preach. At the time I knew nothing about either subject nor did anyone in our immediate family even go to church. The only time I can remember being in church before that was when I was about seven years old and we had gone to a revival meeting one night at a church near our home. The night we went someone broke into our smokehouse and stole a half of a hog we were curing. My dad said he would never go to church again and it was several years before he relented.

We had lived near neighbors to a family who made their livlihood by stealing. By near I mean they were our closest neighbors even though they lived nearly half a mile from us. But that is how it was in the country when I was growing up there in Missouri. Anyway, they had moved from the community, either to keep from getting run out or something. We later moved to the town where they had moved. Some would call it coincidence but Psalm 37:23 says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord". Now I don't know that anyone would have called my dad a good man but he certainly wasn't a "bad" man. In any case, even then, God had a call on me though I was not aware of it. By this time I was a teenager and had forgotten all about what I had said about teaching school or preaching. I had not the least inclination of even going to church even after my parents had seen the Couple who had been thieves. They met them in town when they went to buy groceries and Mr. and Mrs. B had become Bro. and Sis. B. They invited my parents to attend church with them at the Assemblies of God church. My dad was so impressed by the change in them (see 2 Cor. 5:17) that they agreed to attend. I didn't go to church as I thought that was for feeble-minded folk and children. I would ride up to the church with my parents and go on up town to hang about until time for church to be over. Then I would be back for the ride home or else I would walk home.

This went on for some weeks until, one day I had no money to warrant going up town so I decided to go with them to church. To my surprise there were several young people I knew from school there. We would sit and talk while the preacher preached but God was working behind the lines. One night the former lady thief came back and asked me if I didn't want to go to the altar and get saved. I didn't know what she was talking about but something (The Holy Spirit) seemed to make me get up out of my seat and make my way to the altar. When I got up from the altar I knew I was saved. The next day I could hardly wait to tell my best friend about it but he didn't know what I was talking about. A short time later, Sis. B. came back to me again and told me she thought my dad would get saved if I went to him and asked him. I didn't know how to ask so I just asked him the same way she had asked me. Without a word, but with tears streaming down his face, my dad made a beeline for the altar. Before long my mother and kid sister were saved also. It wasn't long before I learned I needed the baptism in the Holy Ghost and started seeking. About that time I received the call to the ministry and it scared the bejabers out of me. I was one of the most bashful and shy boys you would ever expect to meet at the time. However, I did bring a sermonette for youth meeting one night. I think it took me about five minutes to say what I had to say. I argued with God about His calling me, and eventually backslid, because I was scared of the idea of preaching. But, even then, He was still working. I would go to church and just have to go to the altar. Then He would renew the call and I would run again. I even went into the Air Force trying to escape from Him but He followed. I was overseas in New Foundland and had taken to drinking a little bit. One night after being in a bar I caught the bus for the ride back out to the base and a young man in uniform got on at another stop and sat down right across from me. He had a Bible in his hand and I said something about him being in church. He replied in the affirmative and when I asked him where he had went to church he replied, "The Assemblies of God church". I was floored, as I did not know there was one within a thousand miles of where I was stationed. See, God was still keeping track of me.

I returned to the states and received my discharge and went back home. My parents had moved to Richmond, Missouri a year or two before I went into the service so we no longer lived in the same town where I had gotten saved but they were still attending a local Assemblies of God church. I tried to go to church but God would not let me attend without reminding me of His call upon my life. I finally went back into the Air Force and then married. After giving me two sons my wife was killed in a car wreck and I got scared because I had not taken her to church. Then, in a dream, He let me know she was with Him. I remained in the service for nearly a year after her death then took a discharge and re-married. I married a young Assemblies of God girl and attended church regularly with her. It seemed as if God might have forgotten about my call but, no! He reminded me very forcefully one day.

I had gone to a mission church to hear a young man I had met while stationed at Grandview, Missouri. He was preaching a revival at The Lighthouse Mission in Kansas City, Missouri and I went there early to visit with him before church time. When the man in charge of services introduced him as the evangelist that night someone stepped up behind my right shoulder and said, "Son, that's where you belong". It was so real I turned to see who had spoken but saw no one. I knew it was God and answered, "No, God, not me. I don't want to preach". Again He said, "Son that's where YOU belong", emphasizing the you. Once again, I replied, "No God, not me. Get someone else. I don't want to preach". The third time He spoke He said, "Son, you will either obey my voice and heed my call to preach the gospel or you will die in your sins and go to Hell". There is only one way to answer that and I answered it by saying, "OK, God, anything you want". When I had said that all the fear of preaching left me and I could have preached to thousands of people right then. I never did get to hear that fellow preach. It took all the time he was preaching to have that conversation with God.

Many years later I did go back to the area I had grown up in and pastored an independent Full Gospel church for a while.