One of the more sobering and startling realities of life is the fact that every moment of our existence here on this earth is lived in the very Presence of God. This is one of the most interesting and attention getting studies offered in any college.
IN THE CLASSROOM OF LIFE
It was an extremely hard winter for animals to keep alive in that part of the world. With your hand continually on the throttle you would keep your ear tuned to the sound of the drum. The Quad Cities at that time was one of the largest industrial areas in the U.S.
Some of the young men were able to get work almost immediately when they arrived in the area.
EXPERIENCES TRAVELING HIGHWAYS, RAILWAYS, AIRWAYS
THREE MIRACLES IN ONE TRIP
He knew where there was a garage on one of the back streets that he was sure handled extra car parts. We had been to the General Assembly of The Church of the Nazarene which was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1944. We all got out of the car and sat on the curb there in the city.
On the end of the old wire was a gadget designed to eliminate static noise from the car radio. Morrison, an old-time holiness preacher, and gave himself zealously to the study of the ministry. We had been traveling for some time and stopped mainly to get out of the car awhile and get something cold to drink.
In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face, While the storm howls above me and there’s no hiding place. It was headed down the middle of the runway right into the face of that winter storm. Twice Wife and I would have been left behind if we had not been of the white race and from the U.S.A.
EXPERIENCES IN PASTORAL MINISTRY
I gave them my interpretation of the Bible about faithfulness to ALL the essential means of grace. Half of the basement was used as an auditorium and the other half for the parsonage. It was not long until we had to move out of the living quarters in the basement for two reasons: our family was growing and our church was growing.
I could not afford to have the church split over the matter of a parsonage, and I was their leader. By the end of the week it was very clear to me what I was to preach to my people on Sunday morning. SECURING BUILDING MATERIAL — A MIRACLE The time came for the church to build the basement part of the new parsonage.
If this basement was built, Wife and I could move out of the house the church was renting. It was not a huge sum of money and if worst came to worst any one of the three or four families in the church could have easily handled the note. No doubt it was one of the Catholic cardinals who was over one of the congregations in Rome that had that authority from the Pope and who finally gave the “go-ahead” permission.
SAID WOULD BE IT
I can’t tell you why but suddenly I got the urge to stand up and kick him in the “seat of the britches.” And I did that very thing. When we started out on this venture we knew that one of the front tires on the truck was not in the best shape and we wondered if it would make the trip. At the close of the message I had all the children march up to the front.
While the people sang I walked down one aisle slowly, crossed over in the back of the auditorium to the other aisle and started back to the platform. Without waiting to see her son she hung that picture on the wall in the midst of the pornographic ones he had put up and left to go back home with a heavy, burdened heart. Many of the questions that young people face are related to Bible standards of living.
It is true that some develop into the fullness of the stature of Christ more rapidly than others do. With two elders anxious to have a church to pastor, it was deemed the wise thing to start churches in two of the other cities in the area. One of the first things I did was to call for a meeting of the church board.
EXPERIENCES IN PREACHING
He, personally, was in desperate need of encouragement and spiritual help and told me that at that time he was going through one of the most severe battles of his life. In the middle of the revival I had to be gone from one of the services to represent the Bible school at a district conference then in session in an adjoining state. I dismissed the service and we went to our room wondering what had become of the revival.
ONE OF MY MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENTS It was the last Sunday of the Southwest District Camp Meeting of the Bible Missionary Church. The heat was terrible and I welcomed the air-conditioned room to stay in, but was very uneasy about having to preach the last Sunday morning service in one of the largest camps in the Bible Missionary Church. There were those, as I said, who felt that Brother Huffman was out of order in asking me to preach in his place, especially since it was the last Sunday morning service of the camp.
I was near one end of the platform and watching my chance I carefully slipped into the open door of the VW and off Brother Huffman and I went to the motel. That Sunday morning service was one of the most, if not the most victorious services of the entire camp. At the close of the service I was expecting the people to say to me (that is, if they said anything), “Pastor, you really helped me tonight.” Instead, one man said in a somewhat derogatory tone, “You preached only half the truth.
MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCES FROM DEATH WHEN THE DOCTOR SAID THERE
WAS NO HOPE
It was during this time in the hospital that God visited me with a clear call to the ministry. Our driver, suddenly blinded by the lights of the oncoming car and not realizing how near we were to the curve in the road, just let the car plunge straight ahead. There the driver lay amongst huge boulders close to the bank of the river, stretched out and the picture of death.
I knew I would have to get up that steep bank to the road to get help. But somehow I am sure God’s angel that lifted me out of the wreckage helped me make it up that steep bank to the road. When the word of the wreck and that three preachers were being brought in preceded us to the hospital one more dead than alive — the Lord put a heavy burden on her.
Upon examination (remember, I had in previous years been given up to die with pulmonary tuberculosis), the doctor was afraid and said I would have to go immediately to the hospital if I wanted to live. As a last resort the doctor ordered me either to go to the hospital or face death there at home. When the police came, not knowing exactly what was wrong, they took him to the hospital where he was immediately admitted.
DETERMINING THE WILL OF GOD
A lady in one of the churches I pastored publicly related the following experience in following a wrong impression. It was not long after, he returned to my office to tell me that he was still going to his girlfriend’s house every day and explained that he was doing it because of the strong impression he had from the Lord. He was not only in violation of the school rules he had agreed to keep when he enrolled, but God’s Word declares that one is to be obedient to those who are in authority unless they are clearly in violation of a moral principle or the Word of God.
It was the custom to have one of the General Moderators of the Bible Missionary Church speak at the commencement service. These two general officers of the Bible Missionary Church took turn about from year to year. The expected commencement speaker, Elbert Dodd, was on the other end of the line notifying Brother Loftin he would not be able to be there due to inclement weather.
I was then one of the general officers, being editor of the Bible Missionary Church’s official paper. I could not be certain at the time of the impression whether it was a true impression or a fancy of my mind. If his impression was of the Lord, God would indicate when and where the next move was to be.
A GODLY HERITAGE
It was while he was on one of these circuits in the northeast corner of the state of Oregon in the beautiful Blue Mountains where he lived then that my brother, John and I were born. Anxious to keep busy in the work of the Lord, he moved on west to Port Angeles, Washington where he was ordained into the First Baptist Church March 24, 1918. From 1918 until the latter part of 1922 Father worked with the American Sunday School Union preaching and establishing Sunday schools in the western and northern section of the State of Washington.
It was while we were living in these last two places that Father worked mostly in the Chelan-Okanogan area of the state in the interest of the American Sunday School Union. One day while living in Wenatchee Father announced that we would be moving to Grandview, Washington approximately in the middle of the state, and he would be pastoring The Church of the Nazarene in that town. Speaks of the Church of the Nazarene was superintending the Nazarene work in that part of the country.
While Father was pastoring the Church of the Nazarene in Emmett, Idaho Mother gave birth to her seventh child, a girl. Most of the books and documents have been scanned or typed from works that have entered the public domain. Some have been reproduced by special arrangement with the current publisher or holder of the copyright.
