Brief Encounter
This morning the Lord sent an unusual Driver and his wife into my path. As I sat at my table an older
woman came into McD’s from the Pilot
Truck-stop side and she looked as though she had been force-fed a few lemons,
her countenance was so sad, forlorn and discouraged. She sat down with the her
husband, an independent Driver who was a member of OOIDA, Owner Operator
Independent Drivers Association and to my surprise he did not own a vehicle but
drove vehicles for anyone who needed a vehicle moved from one place to another.
They were sitting in the booth in front of me and he had his back toward me.
But, the story began when my lawyer friend
Ken heard the Driver say something to his wife, but Ken, the lawyer, thought he
was speaking to him and the conversation eventually turned to me when the
Driver asked “Who are you a Chaplain for?” and I answered “To you, the Drivers
who come into this Truck-stop.” Well, long story short, we got into a somewhat
heated discussion which included what the difference is between Mexico and the
USA and all of the rest of such type of Trucker discussions.
When I told him that Mexico is Catholic
and the USA is Christian that took him and the lawyer for a loop until I
explained that the Roman Catholic Church NEVER preached “Ye must be born again” but instead believes that baptism is what
saves plus keeping the ordinances of the Church. The Catholics worship Mary and
think the Pope speaks for God, therefore they never had Bible Christianity as
the foundation of their culture like the USA, and never continues up ‘til
today!
This eventually moved our conversation to
me being an Independent Baptist and the Driver said “Yeah, the Baptists are
known for their Bible preaching, like the Church of Christ used to be” and that
gave me a signal as to what he believed. So, I said “But not now” and he said
“What are they known for?” and I immediately said “Baptismal regeneration”
adding that nobody is saved by “Getting dipped in the water, regardless,
sprinkling, pouring or immersing, that will not save the soul” and of course
now we were on fighting ground, which he called “Debating ground” and debate we
did, for about (15) minutes.
The thief on the Cross was my first
example, and he said “Jesus is God and He can bend the rules” I said “Because
Jesus is God if anybody could bend the rules it would not be Him, He shed His
Blood for my salvation, not for my baptism.” He then said “Baptism is a good
thing” I agreed saying “But it is not good enough to save the soul.” I should
have also said Paul came not to baptize but to preach the Gospel of Jesus
Christ!! But, the discussion ended on good terms as I gave him our prayer card
and asked him to pray for the ministry. It also has a thorough born-again
message on the back-side.
Whether or not he was saved is anybody’s
guess, but I’m sure he thinks he is and he could well be. He quoted a portion
of Acts 8 word for word when I brought up the Ethiopian eunuch’s desire to be
baptized AFTER he was saved, and told him that if baptism by sprinkling or
pouring was the N.T. method he would have had enough water on board to get that
done seeing he was travelling through hundreds of miles of desert on his way to
Ethiopia and would have had plenty of water on the chariot!
Ken, the lawyer, who also s not saved,
left before the discussion got intense, but he once again heard enough to be
saved as did Lowell, the Driver and his unhappy wife. Oh, yeah, when Lowell
came back to his table initially, he told her to “Cheer up” which is how our
discussion began in the first place! Pray for this unlikely “Brief Encounter”
to bear fruit in the lives of Ken, Lowell and his wife!
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