10. The Righteous Shine in the
Kingdom of Their Father
“My kingdom grows imperceptibly like
a mustard seed. Over time
its many and ever-increasing branches bear
fruit that blesses more and more people.”
The door to the hospital room opened
quietly as a smiling face peeked in.
“Harry! You’re the last person
I ever thought I’d see at a time like this,”
blurted Frank, stretched out on his bed with tubes and wires
sprouting from his arms and chest. A monitor next to the bed
flickered as it kept track of his vital signs.
Harry reached out toward his old friend
with a grin, wrapping both hands around Frank’s hand.
“I’m here because you’re my friend, and
always will be!”
Tears welled up in Frank’s eyes.
“Harry, I betrayed you just like a Judas!(Matthew 26:25) When
you refused to falsify those specifications and Gene fired you,
I was on his side. [See Kingdom
Living Today story #5.] I even
made fun of you after your “religious experience”,
and chewed you out for not drinking with us guys any
more.” Suddenly he choked up. “How can you come to
me as a friend after what I’ve done to you?”
Harry pulled a chair up next to the bed and
spoke softly as he looked into Frank’s eyes. “I
have to confess that I was pretty hurt by how I was fired. It
took me a couple days until my God opened my eyes that it was
His will that I be let go.”
“God wanted you fired?” declared the
amazed man. “This I’ve got to hear!”
“Well, that’s why I wanted to
come to see you, Frank. Right after I got fired, I was almost
in shock. But as I was driving away from the company, I sensed
that God didn’t want me to get angry or hold a grudge or
panic over not having a job. He wanted me to use some time to
get to know Him more.” He shook his head at the memory as
Frank stared at him wide-eyed.
Harry continued, “What helped too was
Jan’s response. She wasn’t upset or worried —
in fact, she just about dragged me to our friends Brett and
Lacie so they could pray with us. So getting to know God in a
deeper way is what I did for several weeks.”
“Well, that’s pretty
interesting in a strange sort of way, I guess,” remarked
Frank slowly. “But why did you come here to see me?”
Harry chuckled softly. “Someone Brett
had met, an older man named Jack, encouraged Jan and me to go
to a website called Restorationministries.org to help us grow in our spiritual
development. Since we’d prayed earlier with Brett and
Lacie about discerning God’s will, I figured this was
part of His answer so I checked it out.”
Frank had spent a lot of time surfing the
web before his heart attack, so his ears perked up that his
friend would have found something besides entertainment in
cyberspace. “So, what did you find there?”
“Something that changed my life,
Frank. One day I was browsing through a book on the website, Restoring the Early Church. One sentence in particular almost jumped off the
page. The author had been told by a friend, “You can
never walk in the fullness of Jesus until you can wash the feet
of Jesus.” (See Restoring the
Early Church, Chapter 8, “Your
Relationship With Jesus”.) Those words dug into my heart
— I mean, I just kept reading them over and over! Then I
heard a voice inside me say, “Harry, you can never
walk in the fullness of Jesus until you can wash the feet of
Judas.”(John 13:5)
Frank’s jaw dropped. Finally he said,
“That’s powerful stuff! I can’t say I really
understand it though. Please, keep going!” He pushed the
button to prop the back of his bed up higher.
“Well, the more I read, the more I
was convicted in my heart that I needed to forgive you, and
Gene too. Let me see if I can describe it the way it was
presented in that chapter as they depicted the Last Supper.
This was a Passover meal, and Jesus was the Host.(Matthew 26:17-30) Even though He knew Judas was about to betray Him, He put the
guy at the place of honor at the table, right next to Him.(John 13:26) That’s what I call forgiveness!”
Frank nodded. “I recall some of that
from Sunday School when I was a kid, but it didn’t mean
much to me back then.”
Harry smiled. “I know what you mean.
But then I remembered the words of Jesus that I’d been
reading that same morning: ‘If
you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive
your sins.’(Matthew 6:15) That sealed it for me. I knew what I had to
do.”
“So because of this, you came here to
see me?” asked Frank, puzzled.
“Not quite,” laughed Harry.
“Actually, I didn’t even know you’d had a
heart attack. I went to the office to see you and Gene. In
fact, I’d just left his office after asking him
forgiveness for any wrong attitude I’d held. One of the
guys told me you were in the hospital. So I want to ask you the
same thing I asked Gene. Would you forgive me for any wrong
attitude I had against you?”
“YOU’RE asking me for
forgiveness....” stammered the surprised man. Tears again
emerged. “I need to be asking you to forgive
me.”
“I’m glad to forgive you,
Frank. Will you forgive me?”
Frank sniffled a reply as Harry gently
reached across the wires to hug his friend. When a couple
minutes passed, Frank cleared his throat and said, “Now
let me tell you how I ended up in the hospital. You may notice
that my wife isn’t here. She left me two weeks ago to
think things through.”
“Think things through?” asked
Harry. “What do you mean?”
“So Gene didn’t tell you
what’s been going on?” Frank looked surprised.
Harry shook his head. “No. It was all
he could do to say he forgave me for my attitude!”
Frank nodded grimly. “About three
weeks ago the FBI showed up at our office. Some of the
contracts we falsified data on were government contracts. Gene
is waiting to be indicted. I’m not sure what’ll
happen to me.” He sighed. “When Becky found out I
was involved in illegal stuff she went through the roof. I
guess that was the last straw. She was fed up with all the time
I spent on the Internet too. Anyway, she packed her bags and
told me she needed time to think about everything. She’s
at her mother’s.”
Harry could tell how painful this was for
his old friend and waited for him to go on.
“I managed to hang on for a few days,
but I could just feel the pressure building inside me. Then
yesterday I woke up with chest pains and was admitted here.
They told me it was a good thing I came when I did, as my blood
pressure is sky high and I really haven’t taken care of
myself these past few years.”
“Frank, I’m really sorry all
this has happened. I never even thought about the legal
ramifications of what the company was doing. I only focused on
what, in good conscience, I couldn’t be part of.”
“Well,” added Frank wryly,
“if no one’s told you, you did the right thing and you
left at the right time! I guess the FBI will find out why you were
fired and will want to talk to you.”
Harry responded soberly, “I can only
tell them the truth.”(Psalms
15:2)
His friend grimaced as he shifted his
position. “Do you know, until you showed up here today I
was afraid that your testimony might fry me. But now, I really
want you to tell them everything you know. This dark cloud will
never leave me until everything comes out in the
open.”
“I’m glad you said that,”
Harry responded with a slight smile. “I think God wants
me to tell you what I’ve learned these past few weeks to
give you hope.”
Frank was so grateful Harry had come.
“I’d like that, buddy.”
“It’s no small thing that
I’m here today of all days,” Harry noted with a
grin.
“You mean today wasn’t an
accident that you came in?” Frank wondered.
“Nope,” chortled Harry.
“Tomorrow Jan and I leave for three weeks vacation in
Huddinge, Sweden where we were going on vacation before I got
fired.” He beamed with thanks again in His heart to the
One Who’d made it happen.(Romans
8:28)
Frank cackled with disbelief. “So
how’d you land a job that starts you out with a
vacation?”
Harry was delighted to relate the amazing
details. “The company I’m working for called me
after they’d heard over the grapevine why I’d been
fired. They wanted me because, as they said, they were
‘looking for a person of integrity.’ When I
accepted the position, they told me they wanted me to visit
their European headquarters first. When they mentioned it was
in Huddinge, I began to cry — boy, were they
startled!”
Both men chuckled over that.
“Anyway,” Harry went on,
shaking his head at the memory, “I told them how Jan and
I had been planning to visit her family in Huddinge before
I’d been fired. On the spot they gave me three weeks
vacation there before I report to their
headquarters!”
Frank was silent as he took in what his
friend had just shared. “I’m so happy for you,
Harry. And so glad you’re still my friend. Though
I’m not sure you want a potential felon with a broken
marriage as your buddy.”
Harry gently jabbed his friend on the
shoulder. “Hey,” he laughed, “even more so
now.” He paused as his voice turned earnest. “I know the power of my
Father in heaven to take the worst circumstances and make
something beautiful out of them. Wait til you see what
He’s done in my marriage and family! And, I know He can make
yours even better if you’ll turn to Him the way He wants
for you.”(Romans 8:31,32)
Hope began to flicker in Frank’s
heart as Harry added, “If you give me Becky’s
number, Jan will call her tonight. I’ve brought some
things for you to read — since you’re just laying
around here doing nothing,” he grinned. “The most
important book to me is the Bible. That’s how our Father
makes Himself known and how we can be right with Him through
Jesus.”(Hebrews 4:12-16)
Frank nodded thoughtfully, knowing how much
he needed to find out more about this God Who had so changed
his longtime friend. Harry went on, “I also have a
workbook, Demolishing Strongholds, for you to go through. Jan will recommend it to
Becky when she talks to her. And I’ve brought an article, The Gospel of the Covenant is the
Pilgrimage to Salvation.’ You
need to see what my Lord Jesus can do on behalf of a repentant
heart!”
“I want to get into the Bible like
you and Jan have, Harry. I really hope Becky will want to come
back and do this with me too,” he said, his eyes wet once
again.”
Harry grasped Frank’s hands and
looked straight into his eyes. “Remember this, Frank,
when everything looks bad: God doesn’t close one door
without opening another. What my Lord has done for me, He can
for you.” With that Harry prayed for both Frank and for
his wife, committing everything into His hands.
Then Frank prayed, his heart aching to
leave behind his old ways.(Isaiah
57:15) He confessed to God the
wrongs he knew he’d done and the darkness and selfishness
of his own heart. He cried out to God, humbly wanting to turn
away from that self-serving way of life and to know and trust
Jesus as the Way to be right with God.(Acts 26:18)
Harry gently embraced his old friend,
assuring him of the forgiveness found at the Cross, and the new
life in the Spirit that is given to the one who repents and
trusts Jesus in grateful love, determined to walk as God wants
him to.
As he turned to leave, Harry smiled at
Frank. “Our flight for Sweden doesn’t leave until
5PM tomorrow. I’ll stop by as soon as Jan and I have
everything ready.” A BIG grin lit Frank’s face.
“Thanks, buddy, for everything! You’ll be seeing a
new man!”
+ + + + + + +
Just after noon the next day Harry and Jan
turned the corner to enter Frank’s room— and
stopped in their tracks. There was Becky, arms wrapped around
her husband. Through tears both of them were affirming how much
they loved each other. As soon as Becky saw Jan she broke loose
and ran to hug the woman who’d so recently opened her
eyes to the darkness that had held her in bondage all her life.
“Jan, how can I thank you? I
downloaded that workbook last night and didn’t sleep
until I went through pages 36 through 53 as you told me to. By
2 AM I could feel a host of angels all around me, and Lord
Jesus was real to me for the first time in my life. I’M
FREE AND I’M HIS!!!”
“Becky, I’m absolutely
ecstatic!” cried Jan. “You don’t know how
much this means to me right now. I love my family and
relatives, but I was really concerned about how Harry and I
were going to share our newfound faith with them. They’re
really “religious” but they’ll have no idea
what’s been happening in us through the Holy Spirit. Now
with you and Frank, I’ve seen how quickly God can move,
and I praise Him with all my heart!”
“I’m so happy for you, Jan.
Frank told me how Jesus has blessed you with this vacation, and
we’ll be praying for you. But we have another blessing to
share with you. Tell them, Frank!”
Harry and Jan were waiting eagerly.
“Well, an FBI agent came by to speak
with me today. He offered me immunity from prosecution if
I’d be a witness against Gene.”
“Wow! Did you accept his
offer?”
“No, I didn’t.” It was
Harry’s turn to look surprised. “But it’s
because I want to pay for what I did wrong. They’re going
to propose 2,000 hours of community service in exchange for my
testimony. That’s the deal.”
Four grateful people joined hands in that
hospital room praising God. What they didn’t see was the
host of angels joining them in worship.(Hebrews 12:22) But someday
they’ll join the great cloud of witnesses who root for
the saints of God.(Hebrews 12:1)
Just before Harry and Jan left the room,
they gave their new brother and sister Lord Jesus the phone
numbers of Jack and Dee as well as Brett and Lacie. These two
couples would delight in getting together with these new family
members in Christ.
The Kingdom is like a mustard seed.....
