Danny.....Be obedient!!!

I would like to tell another story about Mr. Barney's life. (see March 8, 2006 post entitled "Today, Yesterday, and Forever") This is a story that would make a great novel, but the disturbing thing is it is true. Mr. Barney worked in Minnesota when he was around my age. He worked at a gas station that was attatched to a restaurant. It was a good set up. One night, a man came to get gas who owned a trucking company. He was a wealthy man, and when he dropped his car off for servicing, he told Mr. Barney to come into the restaurant and have some coffee with him after he got done with the car.

So Mr. Barney went and had coffee with the man. We will call him Mr. Smith. While they were drinking coffee, Mr. Smith was complaining about how these ministers would always come by his house at the most inconvenient times and preach to him. Mr. Smith was not a believer, and did not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

A couple days later, Mr. Barney was working at the service station and felt like God was pressing upon his heart to go and talk to Mr. Smith about the Gospel. So Barney decided that he would. He locked up the station that night and drove home. He went into the house, washed his hands, ate dinner and decided to shower up. After he got dressed he paced around his house for about 4 hours milling over whether or not to go and talk to Smith. By this time it was about ten at night. He thought to himself, Smith is a wealthy man and it is late. He already doesn't like ministers talking to him and he likes me. I don't want him to not like me. So he decided that he would go talk to Smith tomorrow.

Barney could not sleep when he went to bed. He was very troubled. He finally got out of bed, very disturbed and went to work at about 5 a.m. Right as he was opening the door to the service station the phone started to ring. He got very nervous and did not want to pick up the phone. He did not know who it could be, the only person up this early would be the lady at the restaurant, getting ready for the morning. He knew something was not right. As he reached for the ringing phone, his hand was trembling fiercly. He answered the phone and it was the lady at the restaurant. She said, "Did you hear,... last night at about 10:30pm, Smith took a shotgun, put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger with his foot.

Mr. Barney struggled in torment for 2 years before accepting the grace of Jesus and being able to be forgiven in his mind. This story is a good reminder for me, that when I feel the Holy Spirit nudging me to open my mouth and having the oppourtunity to say something, to say it.

I am glad I opened my mouth about Jesus with my dad when I did a couple of years back, and did not wait for the next time I saw him. Who knew I would only have a couple more years with my dad at the time. Just to know that he had heard about the Good News and had the opportunity to pray for forgiveness, gives me peace. Was my Dad saved? Is he in heaven? I may not know that until I get there, but I know that God is faithful to the message I spoke and if my Dad put his faith in it, I know without a doubt that God was faithful in rescuing my Dad from the penalty of his Sin because of what Jesus did on the cross.

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of salvation for everyone, first for the Jew then for the Gentile" Romans 1:16

"And of this Gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day."
2 Timothy 1:11--12

"But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it." 2 Timothy 4:17