Precious Memories - Page 23
The question was asked, why did the Lord show George my dad instead of his brother in the vision? I feel sure the reason was that God knew George had to drive from Arizona to Tennessee, and this would have been a terrible weight on him, but by showing it as my dad, George didn’t tell me to keep me from being troubled, but was going to bring me home to see him before something happened. God used this to bring him home and waited until he got almost to Memphis before He led him to stop by his parents’ home.
I saw the greatness of God and His mercy manifested, and I still thank the Lord for bringing us home so George could spend some time with his brother and talk with him and hear him confess Christ. This was a real consolation, because had we not come, it would have been a crushing thing to receive news of his brother’s death so unexpectedly.
I have found in serving the Lord Jesus Christ that He has never failed us one time, but His Word is sure and we can depend on every word of it. It has truly been a light to our pathway and a lamp unto our feet.
In one of our previous articles, I mentioned an old Ford that we were driving which carried us thousands of miles doing our little bit for Jesus. We were on our way from Canada, down through Maryland, and on south to Del Rio, Texas bordering old Mexico.
As we drove into the little town of Del Rio, our car tore up. We had seventeen dollars left and didn’t know anyone, but Jesus was with us, and though we were all tired and weary, we found a furnished apartment that rented for fifteen dollars a week. This was back in 1963 when things weren’t quite as high as they are today! We got settled in and George lay down across the bed to rest a little while before he tried to fix the car. All of a sudden, he got up and told me he would be back in a few minutes. The Lord had impressed him to go out and start walking.
He was checking at used car places to see what he could do. The owner of one of the used car lots came out and they began to talk. He was a minister too, so they began to get acquainted. This man finally said, “Brother Pike, I would like to give you a car since you are in the ministry.” He wanted George to pick out a car. George looked around and finally found an old white station wagon in the back of the lot. He told the man this was the car he wanted. The man told him this car had to have new rings in it before it could be driven, and insisted that he pick out another car in good condition.
George felt this white station wagon was the one the Lord wanted him to have, so the man gave it to him, even though he was puzzled over why he wanted that particular car that needed to be worked on when he could have chosen one ready to go and much nicer. But when you follow the Lord, He wants obedience because He has a plan for certain things, and we found out later what His plans were for this car.
The Lord began to open doors for George to minister and Satan began to rage. He had a real strong hold on this town and didn’t want anyone preaching the truth.
The Lord proved Himself in so many ways that we won a great victory over Satan and his powers, and left a great testimony by the help of Christ.