We were headed home from about an hour away, where we had been ministering to people all day long. (That is a neat story in and of itself!)
It was almost midnight when we saw a young man standing next to a small pick-up truck which seemed to be broken down, but we were on a highway with nowhere to turn around and go back to help him, so we kept driving and prayed that God would send him the help that he needed. We were still praying when we spotted another young man who was hitchhiking, so we stopped and asked him if we could help him. He told us that his truck had run out of gas a ways back, and that he had left his little brother to stay with the truck, while he went to find help.
We believed him because we had just seen the younger man standing beside the truck, so we offered to do what we could for him.
He climbed into the back seat of our van and told us that there was a gas station right down the road, so we agreed to take him there. (We didn’t know the area at all, but he did.)
It turned out to actually be about 20 minutes one way!
But we didn’t mind the drive; it afforded us the opportunity to witness to him about Jesus the entire way.
When we arrived at the gas station/store, he got out of the van, went inside the little convenience store, bought a gallon of water, dumped it out on the ground, and filled the empty container with gas.
He never asked us for any money, in fact, he offered us money for helping him- but we would not take it. We explained to him that we helped those in need- that was what our little ministry was all about. (And STILL is!)
He got into the van with the container of gas in hand and we headed back to his truck- and continued to talk to him about Jesus. He was obviously ignoring us, so we finally asked him why.
And he told us, “If I accept Jesus as my Savior I will be a hypocrite.”
We immediately replied, “Paul was on his way to murder more of God’s children when the Lord saved him. So what have you done that is worse than that? God can forgive you for anything.”
To which he quite matter- of- factly replied, “I am a pagan priest. I head up a huge coven in this area. We meet right over there in the woods. That is where I was headed to when my truck ran out of gas. I took my little brother to the movies tonight. I was on my way to take him home, and then I was coming back here. But the truck ran out of gas right after we left the movie theater.”
WOW! Talk about an awkward moment!
But not to be undone, we quickly asked him, “So what do you believe about Jesus, salvation, Heaven and Hell?”
He informed us that his coven did not believe in any of those things. They simply believe that you live your life of fun and then when you die you are just dead. Period!
So we told him that was not true according to Jesus Christ Himself.
He then told us that he had been raised as a Southern Baptist and had seen enough hypocrisy in the organized, religious church in his 27 years to know that he did not want anything more to do with it, so he left!
His also said that he and his Baptist wife, whom he was now divorcing, had recently moved back home to help out his mom- following his young dad’s untimely death.
Then he said something that was shocking!
He told us that the Christians do a lot of things that the pagans do, but under the guise of Christianity. He said, “Why should I live with all of their rules, when they act like we do? I would just rather BE pagan and enjoy my life and not have to abide by a lot of religious rules.”
We didn’t know what he was referring to, but by that time we were back at his truck, and before we could ask him, he jumped out of our van FAST, thanked us for the ride and took off quickly on foot to put the gas in his truck! (And to get away from us as fast as he could!)
His younger brother then came over to us, and while the older brother put the gas in their truck, the younger brother told us the same story that the older brother had. He also asked us to please pray for his older brother to come back to Jesus.
We assured him that we would, and we pray for him to this day!
Turn the clock ahead a few years. We had the opportunity to talk to another VERY religious pagan while working with her. (By this time, we had also talked to someone who had been into Satanism and witchcraft for about 40 years, but who had become a Christian at age 50- and she had told us that most of our modern day holiday celebrations ARE patterned after pagan rituals and festivals!)
It was in mid-December when we were working with the second pagan, and she asked us why we had not wished her a “Merry Christmas.” So we very nicely replied that Christmas has NOTHING to do with Jesus, and EVERYTHING to do with the Festival of Yule and the Roman Saturnalia, and the birth of Mithra, the sun god. We also told her, “The phrase ‘Merry Christmas’ literally means- I am happy that Jesus is dead. But HE is not dead at all, but rather, very much alive!”
She looked VERY surprised and told us that that was the EXACT truth, but that she had NEVER met ANY Christians who knew it. She asked us how we found that out, and we told her that we had started studying on our own after talking to the pagan priest and the former witch! And we had learned a lot of things that we had been taught wrong by our “pastor”!
We had a long talk with her and she told us first hand that most of the rituals surrounding the world’s largest holidays are patterned after pagan holy days- hence the word holidays!
We told her about the pagan priest whom we had met years earlier, and she told us that she likewise had been raised in the ‘church’- Pentecostal – and she saw them doing everything that her pagan college friends did. The people in her ‘church’ listened to rock music, but called it Contemporary Christian music; they went to the same movies as those in the world, like the Twilight Trilogy; read the same books; and even frequented Disney World- although all of his movies have New Age and witchcraft themes!
So she converted to paganism.
She said that she wanted nothing more to do with the church. “Why should I adhere to all of their rules, when they actually celebrate ALL of our pagan holy days? But they do it in the name of their Jesus. YUK! I can now enjoy my life without all of the churches rules, restrictions and utter hypocrisy.”
We could not disagree with her, because everything that she had just told us was the truth! And we told her that that is why we have nothing to do with the religious assembly called church either. (We have our own little house church, and have had for many years!)
She then told us that we were the ‘coolest Christians” that she had ever met, because we knew the truth and were not hypocritical like all of the other ones that she knew.
We -Eddie and Gail- have lost a lot over the years because of the stand that we take for the truth.
We have lost friends and family members who will now have nothing to do with us.
We have also lost a LOT of financial support because we go against what people’s lukewarm “pastors” are teaching them, but we don’t mind at all.
We know that God will continue to provide for us as long as we continue to tell the truth.
And we agree with Paul in:
Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Paul stated here that nothing meant more to him than to live for Jesus Christ- and we agree!