God’s sovereign goodness….in the form of a protester.

The following story took place on March 9, 2008 between 9:30am and 12:00pm.

For over 40 years the congregation of believers that meets in the building marked “Fellowship Baptist Church” have met to worship and learn about God in peace. But this particular Sunday the believers were met with something different as they pulled into the parking lot. A man stood by the street at the entrance to parking lot with a signs quietly holding a sign that screamed out “End Christian Fascism!” Now as each person pulled their car into the parking lot they somberly realized that in the eyes of at least one man, they no better than Hitler, and he was determined to let each passerby know his thoughts.

The body of believers responded. Almost as soon as the man appeared one Sunday school teacher grabbed a cup of coffee and crossed the lawn to offer it to the man and find out his name…Jim. Jim accepted the coffee and inquired as to receiving cream and sugar. The Junior High Sunday school class went out to ask him about his thoughts and beliefs. It was obvious he was passionate about his beliefs enough to spend a Sunday morning “protesting” but yet at every question he just deferred to the literature that he was handing out. During this time a parishioner of a nearby Catholic church stopped by to give Jim a piece of his mind, but that surely wouldn’t phase a man determined to protest. Later a theology professor went out and engaged Jim in conversation. After handing out his literature Jim stated that he was once a believer! In fact he had been a member of a Charismatic church that had all the “good” stuff including speaking in tongues. But Jim became disenfranchised the more he realized that his “tongues” were anything but miraculous or inspired. And since the theology he was taught said that it is up to man to be saved and salvation can’t be guaranteed, he rejected his “salvation” thinking of the church and Christianity as little more than a massive organization to control peoples lives through controlling all aspects of the government (as his literature quite clearly points out).

The theology professor returned to the worship service, while the associate pastor prepared to speak. Of all the days for the senior pastor to be doing missions work out of the country! The thought of a man slandering the body of Christ, and by extension Christ himself, almost controlled the thoughts of the young pastor. The example of Christian love shown by the church comforted and encouraged him. But something bigger struck to his heart as he prepared to preach. For the past few days he had been preparing a sermon on the next chapter in James…James 5:1-11. The primary thrust of the passage being James urging and encouraging the body of Christ to respond with patience to suffering and persecution! The impact of this sunk in to his thinking. God in His sovereignty prepared a little taste of suffering to drive home the message of His Word! Fellowship Baptist Church had been given a taste of suffering. A very little taste compared to the suffering believers in countries such as China and Middle Eastern countries, but still a taste. James held the key, the motive for enduring suffering! Looking to Christ’s return, following in the footsteps of saints (some refer to them as dead authors) before us, recognizing that the reward is worth the suffering and that God uses suffering to “raise the gaze” of a believer to God.

Jim was gone when the associate pastor glanced out the door following the sermon, but being persecuted for Christ’s sake would have a far greater, and different impact on his life than Jim would have expected or wanted. What Jim meant for evil, God meant for good.