Chapter 3 A Touch of the Divine

Transcription

1 Chapter 3 A Touch of the Divine The campus for Concordia Senior College in Fort Wayne, Indiana was a series of small dormitories located around a lake. It was a beautiful campus with the educational buildings and the chapel located in the center of the campus, which also bordered the lake. As a senior I tried studying but it seemed all I could think about was Penny. When I left her I felt I had been ripped in two, with half of myself remaining with her in River Forest, Illinois. In addition to studying I knew I also had to find a part time job so I could have some money for long distance calls to Penny, regular visits to see her, and funds for my education. I learned that since the same company owned the cafeteria operations in Fort Wayne and River Forest, I could get my meals free at Penny s College if I washed dishes in the cafeteria in Fort Wayne. I took that job which would provide my meals when I visited Penny but I also knew the money I received won t help me much toward my college expenses. So when I heard Lutheran Hospital was hiring orderlies I immediately applied. Within a few days I was notified I had been accepted. As an orderly it meant I was to help the nurses clean bed pans, put in catheters, take bodies to the morgue and provide any other assistance that might be needed. I could also be called to the psychiatric ward to help restrain patients who were getting out of control or to other floors to help as needed. Often I would work all night in the emergency room with only enough time in the morning to shower and then try to stay awake in Hebrew class. It was at Lutheran Hospital that I met Jerry Officer. Jerry was an African American man who worked as a janitor at the Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The excitement he had for Jesus was truly contagious. As I worked at the hospital while attending classes at Concordia I came to appreciate the time I had with Jerry. I missed Penny so very much so it was a real blessing to have someone like Jerry that I could talk to and pray with. Jerry had a living vibrant faith that contrasted sharply with the theology of the ghost that I had been exposed to in many of my theology classes. By the theology of the ghost I meant a religion that claimed to care about the souls of men and women but didn t believe in miracles taking place in the present. The theology of the ghost also was a set of religious beliefs that wasn t willing to fight for the basic civil rights of minorities, the homeless, or the elderly. Such a religion worshipped a ghost of a Jesus of the past as it did not recognize the Christ of the present who revealed Himself through the least of these (Matt. 25). I was

2 beginning to see this theology as a dry, dead, do nothing religion that damned its followers to a lifestyle that was ineffective and unproductive. I knew I wanted my life to make a difference for good. I didn t want to spend the rest of it preaching an ineffective unproductive gospel far removed form the real needs people were experiencing on a daily basis. As a result I was drawn to Jerry who really believed in what he professed and as a result spoke with conviction. I remember that day when Jerry looked me in the eyes and declared, Larry, you need Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. His statement was a direct assault to my religious ego. Who did this guy think he really was? I had my Latin, Greek and Hebrew and he was only a high school graduate. Yet I knew in my heart he spoke the truth. I didn t need a ghost of the past. I needed the living Christ of the present. As the battle raged within, the Vietnam War was moving into our Fort Wayne backyard. National Guard Troops had descended onto near by Kent State campus in Ohio and had killed unarmed students protesting the war. One day after the murders at Kent State had taken place some one clubbed a half dozen ducks on the lake at Concordia College. It seemed almost everyone on the campus was in such an uproar over the ducks, that demonstrations over the deaths of the students were being ignored. I was glad to see so many ministerial students were concerned about the ducks but I felt their indifference to the deaths of students was unthinkable. When I expressed that view on the student opinion bulletin board one would have thought that I had been Luther opposing the Church of Rome. The rage was unexpected. One Psychology Professor even said, What about the lady who fed the ducks, you have to take her feelings into consideration. Wrestling with the struggles both within me as a person who was trying to find out who He was while clashing with an outside world of turmoil and indifference was tearing me up inside. I continued to be haunted by Jerry s statement about Jesus being a personal living Lord. I would ask myself, how well did I really know Christ? How committed was I to Jesus? Sure, I had been baptized as a baby, gone through confirmation, and was now studying for the ministry, but was Jesus really Lord of my life? I had to settle this issue once and for all. As a result I was determined that I was going to go to Calvary Temple that Sunday night and give my life to Jesus. But things didn t go the way I expected. I arrived late that night at church. After church I had to admit that I

3 didn t have any grand emotional experience and in fact I was left wondering, where in the world was God? He seemed so distant, so far away. The next day Jerry gave me a book that really seemed strange to me a Lutheran theological student. It talked about how God did miracles today and how He wanted believers to receive the gift of tongues. As I read the book I kept thinking I don t need that gift, after all it s the least of the gifts, and what I really want is the greatest of gifts which is love. As I debated this issue back and forth in my mind I came to the conclusion that I couldn t receive the greatest gift of love if I denied the least of the gifts? After all the love I desired to have, was it really the divine supernatural love of God I wanted or was it something I hoped to produce in myself? I knew the issue was one of control. Was I afraid of the gift of tongues because I felt I couldn t control or create it? Or was it that I really wanted to control my life and keep God in my self made box? In spite of all the excuses, the hunger for the divine drove me, a hospital orderly to my knees in a small bathroom on the eighth floor of the Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As I surrendered myself unconditionally to Jesus Christ I felt a desire to praise God with my total being. As I began to thank God for His goodness and grace words of praise came forth from my inner being. I then found myself raptured into a joy and peace I had never experienced. Suddenly a language came forth I had not heard before. Something deep inside of me was being released as the power and presence of God entered that small room. Finally when I could no longer contain myself I raced out of that bathroom and down the back steps. I had to find Jerry and tell him what had happened to me. Never before had I had such a direct encounter with the divine. I was ecstatic with joy. As I passed doctors I would cover my mouth lest they thought I had escaped from the psychiatric ward. When I reached the second floor of the hospital I suddenly saw Jerry. Before I could say anything Jerry declared, You ve got it, haven t you Larry! There we stood in a back hall way praising God as the word had become flesh and dwelt within me in a new and powerful way. The reality touched my inner being that God loved me. Yes, He really loved me and had a plan for my life.

4 I was so excited about Jesus and His work in my life that I had to tell everyone. Penny at first didn t know what had come over me but she was glad to see the new excitement I had for Jesus. Moving into the world of the supernatural was something totally different for me. I remember the night I went back to my dorm room and laid down in my bed. The room was on the second floor and I was totally alone because my room mate, Charlie Lindsey had been out that evening. As I lay in bed I sensed evil coming into the room and totally surrounding me. Then a force started picking me up and pulling me toward the window. When I started to panic the Holy Spirit reminded me that Satan may come like a roaring lion but he really had no control over me because greater is He (Jesus) who was in me, than he (Satan) who was in the world. Even though I could not speak at the moment, I shifted my mind from fear to faith knowing in my heart that Satan had no control over me. Just as quickly as the evil one had come even so it departed as I fell backward in my bed. Then the Lord spoke in a still small voice that everything would be alright and I was to share with my roommate what had just happened to me. Almost instantly after this message had entered my mind the door swung open and Charlie came in. After I shared with Charlie what had happened to me he just about jumped out the window himself. The direct intervention of the supernatural was something that our theology classes did not cover. Although most of my fellow students and professors didn t believe that the miracles of the Bible still happened, there was a small group at Concordia who believed and gathered regularly for prayer and Bible Study. They took passages literally like John 14:12-14 where Jesus said, Behold, I tell you the truth if you believe in me you can do the very works I do, yes even greater ones because I am going to my father in heaven. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. I was really enthusiastic about my new discovery but the Holy Spirit wanted to show me that enthusiasm was not enough. Spiritual disciplines were essential if I was truly going to grow into the man God was calling me to be. The spiritual discipline I needed to learn was to daily read the Bible until I had read through it once a year. This message was driven home to me one dark night when the winding road leading to my dorm room at Concordia Senior College was frozen over.

5 I was driving down that road when suddenly my car started to spin out of control. The more I tried to straighten it out the closer I came to the edge of the road and the drop off that laid beyond that edge. Suddenly I screamed, Dear God if you deliver me from this and save my car from crashing, I will read your word every day. Just as quickly as my car lost control it suddenly stabilized. It was like a dozen angels had grabbed the car and stopped it from spinning as I brought it to a stop. Even though I knew a miracle had occurred it would still take twenty eight years until I fulfilled that pledge on a daily basis. I saw God provide another muscle when Penny said yes when I asked her if she would marry me. I was so thankful to be engaged to this wonderful woman. Then in the summer of 1970 I saw additional prayers answered when God provided Penny a place to stay as a live in baby sitter in Fort Wayne as well as a job as a cosmetic sales woman for Vanda. That summer as I worked full time at Lutheran Hospital Penny would go door to door selling cosmetics. When we weren t working we would go to prayer meetings, church or watch the children for the family that she was living with. As the days of summer passed Penny became one of Vonda s top sales people. As a result she was awarded a large amount of Tupperware that we would be able to use in our apartment when we were married the following year. Penny worked diligently not only on selling cosmetics that summer but also writing papers for the college correspondence course she was taking. I had shared an apartment that summer with Steve as I worked at the hospital full time but it was Penny who I wanted to spend as much time with as possible. I knew our summer would be quickly coming to an end and she would be returning to River Forest for college and in less than a year she would be my wife. In two weeks my last year at Concordia Senior College would begin. I knew that in spite of the money I had saved from working at the hospital I still needed additional funds for my next year of college. As I prayed earnestly for this need I saw God miraculously provided for by having the college make me assistant admission counselor and my home congregation send me an unexpected grant. When the fall semester arrived I found myself increasingly concerned about the needs of those in the inner city. Inspired by a book entitled, The Cross and the

6 Switchblade and as Social Concerns Chairman for the Senior College I started praying for an outreach center in the inner city. God once again miraculously answered that prayer by providing myself and other students who wanted to help those in the inner city with an abandoned church building. At that location we started programs for the children. We called our new outreach center, Soul Found. Many of the children were appreciative angels while others were regular devils. They not only were disruptive but on one occasion even stole my lunch. This outreach center was teaching me patience as well as the need to pray continuously. By the time the church decided it wanted to get it s building back I had seen so many physical and spiritual needs, I knew I couldn t just allow this ministry to be shut down. I prayed that the Lord would not only provide a house to be rented, but the money to pay for it. Not only did God answer that prayer but He also raised up a fellow student named Herb Rothenbush to assist in this outreach. We weren t long at our new location before God brought Clara, a hard core homeless heroin addict into our lives. As we shared the love of Jesus with Clara she experienced a touch of the divine and had a total transformation through the new birth Jesus provides. As time passed Clara not only grew in her faith but became one of the leaders of this ministry along with Herb who later married her. Evangelism was becoming an increasing central focus in my life. I encouraged Charlie, my roommate and those who played guitar with him to create a band whereby they would sing Jesus music and I would preach. When Penny came to Fort Wayne she would join them by singing with the band. On Saturday, April 10, the day before Easter, Penny received the gift of tongues. She was so excited. Then on Easter Sunday we had a rally in the park that over 200 people attended. The band played, Penny sang and I preached. How we praised God for those who came forward and received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The next day Penny wrote in her diary. Late last night we had a prayer meeting and the Lord helped me to pray with Larry. At last I can pray with others in tongues. Then I helped Jeanne and she received the Baptism too! We were all so excited and screaming that the neighbor called the cops. In less than sixty days Penny and I would be husband and wife. As Penny returned to college in River Forest there was still so much to be done. There were invitations to be sent out, finals to be taken and preparations for a future together to be made.

7 I did not know what the future held but I had learned during the past two years from the touch of the divine I had experienced that Jesus held the future and I could trust Him. What a joy it was to know Jesus personally and to know that He had everything under control and could meet every need.