The Cream of the Crop!
©
Written by Danny D. Bunn,B.A. (Born-Again believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ)
Chapter 22
Hunting for a Building
Well, the week-end has arrived and Joe gets up to go
checking some buildings downtown. He stops at a newspaper machine
and gets a paper. Skims through it till he gets to the classified
ads. He checks the area that has buildings for rent or lease.
One building caught his eye, it was an old skating rink. He jumps
back in his car and heads to the street address. He gets there
and drives around the building, looks at the area that it is in.
Then he stops, prays and gives it to the Lord, asking him to lead
in this. He calls the man's number in the paper. The guy
answers and tells Joe that he will be right out to let him look
it over. Joe hangs the phone up and turns back to his heavenly
Father. Joe fervently seeks the Lord on this, he so wants to
help others with their needs but he knows that the spiritual
needs must be number 1 priority. What good would it do to feed a
person everyday of his or her life and then they die and go to
hell. Jesus is the bread of life and only he can satisfy for all
eternity. The spiritual food must be the top priority.
The man pulls up as Joe is submitting this whole thing to
the Lord. He gets out of his car as Joe is getting out of his.
They shake hands and introduce themselves. "I'm Phil and you
said on the phone that you were Joe, right?" Joe says, "Yea!"
"Well, the place is a little run down and it could use some
improvements" as he is unlocking the front door. They step
inside and Phil turns the lights on. Phil shows him around a
little and then asks, "Joe, what are you planning on using it
for?" Joe says, "I want to open up a soup kitchen to help the
down and out!" Phil turns to Joe with a sort of surprised look!
"So, that is a noble idea! Are you a Christian?" Joe says,
"Well, yes I am. I was going to ask you about your relationship
with Jesus!" Phil nods, "Yes, I am a Christian, a Latter-Day
Saint, to be exact!" Joe is thinking, "Mormon!, Clyde told me a
little about Mormons, he told me that they were not Christians.
Well, I guess this is another subject that I need to study."
Phil mentions something out of one of his classes at the ward,
"Yea, our heavenly Father cares about them and we need to reach
out to our brothers and help them when we can! I'll tell you what
I will do, if you use it as a ministry to help the homeless then
I will let you lease it for half price. It is paid for and I am
not using it so if you think that it will serve your purposes
then it's yours." Joe is thinking, 'Well, that sure seems like
the hand of God is in that!" He thanks Phil and tells him that
he will seek the Lord on it and let him know in a few days. Phil
says, "Fine! I'll be expecting your call!" They turn to leave
and Joe leaves a tract with Phil. Phil thanks him and they are
gone.
Joe turns one more time to look at the building before he
drives off. He could see it in his thoughts, "The Heavenly
Inn!" Cool! He turns and heads home. Joe jumps out of his car and
runs inside and tells Cindy about his day. She is getting a
little bit of his excitement rubbing off on her. Joe says,
"After we have a bible fellowship with some of the gang tomorrow
then we will drive out to where it is at and I will show you."
Cindy says, "Sounds good, Joe!" Joe says, "Oh, yea! Cindy, Phil
said that he was a Mormon." Cindy nods her head. "Clyde told me
that it was a cult and he gave me some of their verses and Bible
scriptures that he typed out and told me to read them, even
memorize them if necessary. I haven't had the chance to read
them, they are in that blue folder on top of the bookcase,
Cindy!" Cindy sees them and goes over and picks it up. She
opens it up and starts reading a few of them. "Bruce R.
McConkie, Mormon apostle and authority, says in his book, Mormon
Doctrine on page 513: 'Mormonism is Christianity; Christianity is Mormonism;
they are one and the same, and they are not to be distinguished from
each other in the minutest detail.' Well, honey from this they
are saying that Mormonism and Christianity are one and the same."
Cindy looks back down at the folder. She then reads the next
verse to Joe. "John Taylor, in Journal of Discourses, Volume 6,
page 167, says: 'We talk about Christianity, but it is a perfect
pack of nonsense... It is a sounding brass and a tinkling symbol;
it is as corrupt as hell: and the devil could not invent a better
engine to spread his work than Christianity of the nineteenth
century.' Joe that doesn't sound very nice!" Joe nods in
agreement and wonders what has he gotten into now.
Cindy continues to read. "'Christianity of the nineteenth century
believed the same thing that it does today.' Clyde is telling us
that the Christians back then believe as they do today. Well,
that is good to know. I sure hope that we don't believe any
differently." Joe says, "Yea honey, for sure!" She reads
another one. "Orson Pratt in his book, 'The Seer' on page 225,
quoting: "'Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the
'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John
the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their
fornications and wickedness. And any person who shall be so
wicked as to receive a holy ordinance of the gospel from the
ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to
hell with them, unless they repent of the unholy and impious
act.'
"Listen to this! Clyde says that they got this one half
right. The Roman Catholic church is the whore of Babylon but
Protestants are the ones who opposed or protested a Roman
Catholic dictatorship.' Sad to say but today it doesn't seem that
way, does it Joe?" Joe says in a sad voice, "No Cindy, it seems
that so many Christians have fallen to sleep and they quit the
fight, they are not laying hold on eternal life. Sad, so very
sad!" Cindy stops reading and says, "Joe, let's pray!" They
both immediately go before the throne of grace once again and
they enjoy it more and more as the time goes on, not less and
less. They are so thankful that the Creator of all that exists loved
them so very much and he was willing to make his home within
them. They lift up the skating rink, Phil, the battles, the
fights, the things that they don't even know about yet, they
deliver the unknown for them into the Father's hand.
