“Blessed Are Ye That Sow Beside Still Waters” (Isa. 32:20)
By Arthur Glass [1947]
God has strange ways indeed of answering prayer; and the story that follows will certainly go to prove that.
It was a rainy day Tuesday morning, and it can rain in Chattanooga on the 31st of December. It was most assuredly no day in which to go out pleasure walking, but a very good day in which to go out visiting and witnessing for King Jesus. On a nice day the stores we visit generally have customers, which makes our task somewhat difficult; but if there are no customers when we come in, the devil sees to it that plenty of them do come in to make our already hard task more discouraging by greatly restrict- ing and reducing the possibilities of our witnessing.[1] However, on a rainy day we have better prospects.
As your missionary entered this Jewish grocery store in one of Chattanooga’s far-flung corners, he not only found the man he was looking for, but also three others were there idling and smoking: two Gentile women and one Gentile young man. Our Jewish friend greeted me quite friendly, but was somewhat sarcastic, trying to show off before his Gentile customers. This only gave me added opportunity and more bullets for my Gospel Gun, and so with greater pressure I began to apply the Gospel thumbscrews. [2]
It wasn’t long before everybody was drawn into the conversation, and that was exactly what I had desired. I was able to wit- ness to those apparently needy Gentiles as well as to show to my Jewish friend that the Gospel I was preaching made no difference about the race question. But as I was proclaiming the message, the elderly lady (who had by this time disposed of her cigarette) opened up her purse, whisked out an envelope, and from it extracted a letter and handed it to me, saying, “Read this, preacher.” It was a page-long P.S. on the back of the letter which was from a Christian daughter in Texas writing to her mother in Chattanooga, Tenn.
As near as I can remember, this is what the P.S. (a letter in itself) had to say: “Mother, you had all better get ready to meet the Lord, because Jesus is coming soon. The signs are multiplying, and the Jews, God’s Time Clock, are going back to their land. There will be great trouble, so get right with God.” The whole page was an earnest, desperate plea from a daughter whose heart yearned for her mother’s and brother’s salvation (for that young man was the brother of that lady from Texas and the younger woman was a sister, as I later learned).
When I read all this I certainly turned to that mother and preached to her in no uncertain terms. I asked her how she could continue in such crass and criminal indifference to her own soul when she has a daugh- ter like that. Upon that the young man chimed in, saying, “And sister has been praying very hard for the Lord to send someone to witness to mother.” Upon hearing this, I began to praise God for using me as the answer to that burdened daughter’s prayers, who, 1,300 miles away in far-off Texas, was praying for her lost mother, brother and sister in Tennessee.
But the marvelous thing was that God answered in such a marvelous manner: for the last place on earth for that family ever to expect to hear the Gospel preached to them would be in that Jewish store where beer is sold,[3] where the conversation is usually filthy and vile, where anything but Christian procedure is expected; and yet that is precisely where they heard the message in very forceful language; and what is more surprising was that they should have heard the Gospel “straight from the shoulder” from the lips of a Christian Jew, for this is exactly what the elderly lady said: “You are the first Christian Jew I have ever seen or heard.” Of course I presented the claims of Christ upon the souls of that woman, her son and her daughter.
Then this woman proceeded to show me a little tract the daughter had enclosed in the letter. It was entitled, “A WARNING TO ALL GENTILES WHO PERSECUTE THE JEWS.” This gave me a new lever and fulcrum to work away at the heart of my Jewish friend by showing him how real Christians think lovingly of the Jews. In all, God gave me a real victory. Once more Rom. 1:16 was being practiced to the letter:
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to EVERY ONE that believeth: to the Jew FIRST, and ALSO to the Gentile.”
I left the store nearly at midday, and it was still pouring outside; but I had the sunshine of God in my heart, and His joy was flooding my soul.
We recommend to our readers our Jewish friend Mr. R. for their earnest prayers that he will be convicted by the word he heard; but let us also remember that Gentile family—mother, daughter and son—for whom that daughter in Texas is so burdened. Let us remember that the “gospel is the POWER of God unto SALVATION to EVERY ONE that believeth: to the Jew FIRST, and ALSO to the Gentile.”
[From the February 1947 issue of The Star of Hope Magazine]
FOOTNOTES
[1] The idea that the devil is somehow able to interfere in Spiritual activities like this assumes several things: (1) that Spiritual activities like this are only occurring at one place on the entire planet at one time (since the devil can only be in one place at one time); (2) that the devil has nothing better to do than this; (3) that the devil greatly fears the success of this kind of activity (which doesn’t make sense, since a few Saints here and there won’t stop his determination to keep Messiah from saving Israel and returning as King); and (4) that the devil has such great powers and the right to freely use those powers against humans. Now, if by ‘devil’ what is meant is any demon at all, there are many demons; yet, the demons cannot gather human customers to come into a store to make purchases right when a person is speaking Truth to a shopkeeper. Demons have as much trouble getting humans to do what they want as Yehovah Himself has (since we are not considering force, but rather giving commandments). This will be the undoing of Satan during the Tribulation! He will find that even loyal followers of his will not believe him, and will do what they think is best even when Satan tries to warn followers in another direction! Those who fear Yehovah will truly hearken to Yehovah!
[2] He is referring to logic arguments and textual usage, and not to anything in any way verbally coercive or showing a lack of friendliness. I watched him do this, and I can assure you that the person to whom he was speaking was enjoying the verbal volley. Otherwise, he could have cut it off in a moment, and Sabba (my Grandfather) would have never even said anything rude.
[3] Looking badly at beer is strictly cultural. There are places on Earth where Believers in the Bible drink beer, but would never consider drinking coffee—a real drug! There is no Biblical command against beer or alcohol; the Bible does condemn being a drunkard (a practicing alcoholic whose decisions are driven by alcohol intake).
Recent additions or updates to the site
The Torah was given to the Jews to instruct them so that they will live
Years between Pharaoh’s Dream Interpreted and Years of Plenty
Israel, Gentiles, and the Millennium
And His Name Shall Be Called Wonderful
Original page April 6, 2007 | Updated May 30, 2021