"Two are better than
one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion." (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)
The Scripture verse above from the Book of Ecclesiastes is a fitting description of the kind of friendship I had with my dear friend, John.
I first met John when I was working for a tech company here in southern Idaho. I managed a small shipping and receiving department where the components for large computer servers arrived. The engineers came through to get the components for their projects. I usually had the local Christian radio station playing on my work counter. One day two guys were walking through my area and one of the guys who looked kind of like Serpico, a character from a 1973 Al Pacino movie smiled and said, "Hey, nice radio station!"
He came back a couple of days later and walked right up to me and asked, "Do you know what the exact center of the Bible is?" I said, "No, what do you mean?" He said, "Psalm 118:8. It has 594 chapters before it, and 594 chapters after it. And the passage says":
"It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man."
And that was the start of a wonderful friendship in Christ.
Throughout my walk with Christ God has brought key people into my life at just the right time, for His purposes, and my good. John was most definitely one of those key people.
At the time I was going through a very difficult season with my wife. If something didn't change soon we were headed for another separation, or worse. The Lord had recently told me to get out of a small whack-o church we were attending but my wife refused to leave as she "had friends there." These so-called friends were all trying to convince her to divorce me. Not very godly counsel. The Lord showed me this church was a "shipwreck" and would not last. He was right—it didn't.
John invited me to attend his church, which was a Calvary Chapel. It was very refreshing; solid teaching of the Word of God and no mumbo-jumbo. From the first time I sat in that place I knew I was 'home'.
It was a new thing for me to have a faithful brother in Christ who I could confide in, pray with, and talk about the Bible. It gave me a lot of encouragement to be in regular prayer with John for the healing of my marriage. We prayed a couple times every week for my marriage. I was very hopeful. Then something would happen that caused a set back—usually me screwing something up. I would get discouraged and John would say, "We just need to keep praying, Mark! She'll come around."
One night after inviting my wife for the hundredth time to come to church with me, she really shot me down and said some very hurtful things, I felt like things might be over. Maybe it was time to finally toss in the towel. John was saying, "You gotta have faith! Mark, I can see you guys sitting right over there!" Which was odd, because I always sat in the middle section of the church, never on the far right side. But that's exactly where he was pointing, over to the far right. I mourned, "No, she'll never come." John said, "Trust me Mark, she will! I know it!"
And a couple of months later, for whatever reason, my wife did start coming to church with me. And Our marriage has been healed ever since.
Oh sure, we've had our share of tough seasons over the last 20 years. But our breakthrough was born from those many hours of persevering in prayer with John. God heard those many faithful prayers.
I'll be eternally grateful.
To me John was a true hero of the faith. He had his own trials and tribulations he was going through. But he never gave up. Some of the things he endured I don't think I could have done so. He was a great example to me that when times are tough you draw nearer to God and trust in Him. Stay in His Word. I had other times when I felt like giving up. But John always counseled me from The Word. Stay the course.
Over the years we enjoyed many great lunches together and times of fellowship, often times with another great brother in the Lord. We attended some pivotal men's retreats together. Life changing times.
Over the last year or so we kind of lost touch. A few weeks ago I sent John a text saying I was thankful to the Lord for giving me a friend and brother in Christ like him. I never heard back.
His wife texted me a couple of days ago from his phone that John was no longer with them—he died of Covid on July 2, 2021.
I had no idea he was sick.
I was instantly reminded, "Absent from the body, present with the Lord." (2 Corinthians 5:8)
John and I had talked about that verse dozens of times. We spent many hours discussing the Rapture, Tribulation, End Times prophecies, and the return of Christ.
I listened to a message on radio yesterday reminding us that those like John who have died in Christ shall rise first at the Rapture, and then whoever is alive and remains at that time will rise and meet them together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)
This put a huge smile in my heart.
I envisioned John walking on the streets of gold, basking in the light of God, in a place where there is no more pain, sickness, death or sorrow—knowing I will be with him there in due time.
Thank you John, for being a faithful friend and brother to me in a time when I needed it most.
Love you Bro!
—God is Love and Love Never Fails.
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