Today's Scripture Reading (October 8, 2024): Genesis 27
Tony
Campolo tells a story about a man named Charlie Stoltzfus. I love Tony's
stories, and this is one of my favorites. According to Tony, he was asked to
speak at a small Pentecostal college near his home. He says he loves going to
this little school because the people there seem to be so in touch with the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Before
the chapel service, several of the faculty members took him into a side room to
pray with him. He got down on his knees, and the six of them put their hands on
his head and prayed for him, asking the Holy Spirit to fill him up and use him
effectively as he spoke to the students. Pentecostals seem to pray longer and
with more dynamism than Baptists, my tribe, do. These men prayed long, and the
longer they prayed, the more they leaned on his head. They prayed on and on and
leaned harder and harder. One of them kept whispering, "Do you feel the
Spirit? Do you feel the Spirit?" Tony says he felt something right at the
base of his neck, but he wasn't sure it was the Spirit.
One
of the faculty members prayed at length about a man named Charlie
Stolzfus. Tony says he was kind of
ticked off with him. He thought to himself, "If you're going to lean on my
head, the least you can do is pray for me." But this guy prayed on and on
for this guy who was about to abandon his wife and three children. He was
calling out, "Lord! Lord! Don't let this man leave his wife and children!
Send an angel to bring that man back to his family. Don't let that family be
destroyed! You know who I'm talking about, Lord. Charlie Stoltzfus. He lives
down the road about a mile on the right-hand side in a silver trailer.
I've
heard these prayers; I've prayed these prayers. But you know, in all honesty, I
think God knows where the guy lives. What are we thinking? God is up in heaven
with a pad and pencil saying, "Back up, could you give me that address again?"
Following
the chapel talk, Tony got into his car and headed home. As he got out on the
highway, he saw a young man hitchhiking, and Tony pulled over to give him a
ride. As he pulled back out onto the road, he said, "Hi, my name is Tony Campolo;
what's your name?"
He
said, "My name is Charlie Stoltzfus!"
Tony
says he didn't say a word. He just drove down the highway, got off at the next
exit, turned around, and started back. When he did that, Charlie looked at him
and said, "Hey, mister. Where are you taking me."
Tony
replied, "I'm taking you Home."
Charlie
asked, "Why?"
"Because
you just left your wife and your three children, right?
Charlie
was a little stunned. "Right! Right!" Charlie Stolzfus leaned against
the passenger side door the rest of the way. Tony drove off the highway onto a
side road, past the small Pentecostal college, right to a silver trailer, and
turned into the driveway.
And
Charlie looked at him with astonishment, "How'd you know I lived here?"
Tony
looked at him and said, "God told me." I am convinced that sometimes
God can have fun with these situations. Tony told Charlie, "You get into
that trailer because I want to talk to you and your wife." Charlie ran
into the trailer ahead of him. Tony says he doesn't know what Charlie told his
wife, but when Tony walked through the door, her eyes were as big as saucers.
He sat down and said, "I'm going to talk, and you'll listen." And did
they listen. Both of them accepted Jesus that night. But here is the hard
reality. Charlie's sin moved him out from where he was to a place where God
could use him. Tony reports that today, Charlie is a Pastor.
Similarly,
sin moved Jacob out of the place where he was and into a place where God could
use him. I don't want you to think this was the last time Jacob sinned and that
he lived happily ever after. Jacob's life doesn't have that kind of ending. But
God moved him to a place where he was uncomfortable so that he could be who God
had always intended Jacob to be.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Genesis 28
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