Chapter – 18 ‘The Sargent goes Home’
Ten days later Valentine and Rebekah were just landing on a Pennsylvania airstrip. It was a Thursday afternoon and the temperature was in the mid-seventies. He told her that his dad and mom would be picking them up and they would be going to the farm to settle in prior to making any plans. “I’m not sure if grandpa is at home or what,” he told her.
It was their first Sunday; church service had just concluded; it had been her first time to listen to the sermon from Valentines dad. The topic had been, ‘the mercy of our Lord’ and it had been good. Rebekah shook hands with her new father-in-law and spoke, “Good message, where did you learn word definitions from the Hebrew language?” He told her that he had a Jewish friend and they talked often. “I told him that I planned to speak on 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. It mentions the word mercies, which is plural, meaning many mercies. My friend mentioned Lamentations 3:23-24 as an additional reference.” HE provides inner comfort to our afflictions.
She replied to the Pastor, “It is our sin that requires a loving Lord to extend or offer HIS love, mercies, and atonement to us. If he didn’t, would there be a possibility of heaven for any of us?” She told him that her brother had taught her the meaning of God’s mercy a few years earlier. “Did you know he was a young Jewish Rabbi before he became a Christian?” The pastor told her that he had not known her brother was a messianic Christian pastor; then he said, “You do understand that only we who are born again, of the Holy Spirit, are adopted into the Family of God.” John 3:3. He told her that sadly it would appear that many fine upright men and women could end up in the place of torments, for all of eternity.
Then he commented, “Let’s talk some more a little later; you are coming to lunch today I believe.” Valentine put his hand on her shoulder as they walked away and told her that she was in for a long conversation. “Dad loves talking bible verses and their meanings. He is one of those Pastors who believes the Bible says what it means and means what it says.” She looked up into his eyes and told him that his dad was a gifted speaker. “Each sin that we trusting Christians commit is covered with HIS mercy,” as she pointed toward the sky. Valentine asked, “Do you believe that the Lord hears the prayers of the unsaved?” She said, “Define unsaved for me.” He told her they were people who had never been enlightened nor put their trust in Jesus; not bad people always but not godly. She responded, “I can buy that definition, but doesn’t the Lord hear all prayers and knows all that takes place here on the earth?” He replied, “No & Yes to your comment; a repentant persons prayers are heard.”
[ Does God listen to the prayer of the ungodly? John 9:31, attached below ]
Valentine told her that he had a chapter in the bible that he turned to when he felt that he had arrived at the plateau of being real spiritual. “Check out James chapter 4. What is the motive of a person’s prayer?” She told him she had read the book of James several times, he was the 2nd oldest son of Mary, the wife of Joseph. “My brother and I did a bible study on this book a few years ago in the original Greek. He squeezed her and kissed her on the forehead.
Her first lunch with the family was interesting. It was a pot roast with the trimmings that Mrs. Valentine had put in the oven prior to driving to church. She and the Pastor drove separately since he was there two and one-half hours prior to his sermon.
Before Valentine and Rebekah left for the old farm house, which they had set up as their home, she had a part time job as youth counselor for the ninth thru twelfth grade high school girls. Her schedule was Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. She was to present a devotional and then get acquainted individually with the girls; help them with teenager challenges.
As they drove home after lunch Valentine told her that working with the youth could be a mission in itself. Not quite like her months in Tel Aviv but a worthy ministry, for the local families, where they would be living and investing in their future.
Attached
2 Cor. 1:3-4, 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. [plural-many mercies]
Lam. 3:19-25, 19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. 20 Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. 21 This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. 22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.
John 3:3, 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [The 2nd birth is a spiritual birth-important to all of us]
James 4: titled as ‘Things to Avoid’ ……7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [Submit and draw near IF you want God to draw near to you]
John 9:31, 31 We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. [How many people have read this verse and understand it?] verses 9:30-39
[A question – Is there a difference in Listening to someone and Hearing someone? Have you ever heard someone ramble on and on; tune them out, but hear them talking like background noise? Would God do that to unbelievers?]
Mark 1:15, 15 ….. Jesus saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe [fully Trust] in the gospel.” Sinner, there is one prayer God hears; your repentant prayer.
DG