Good Things Happen

I never get tired of hearing stories about what Christ does when He starts making his way through families drawing people to himself one at a time.

Sunday after my message a woman introduced herself to me. Her name is Betty Hasemeyer she grew up in Momence. Her maiden name was Keller. She was in town for the Keller family reunion. She was visiting the church with her sister Ruth Doud. I felt a tug on my heart to ask her to tell me the story of how she came to Christ.

“How did you come to know the Lord as your Savior?” I asked.

She said, “I was saved as a girl at a tabernacle meeting in Kankakee.”

When she was in about the fifth grade her uncle Charlie came to know the Lord and follow Him. Charlie was the oldest of a number of brothers in the Keller family. His brothers including her dad mocked and heckled Charlie about his religion. One foggy morning on the way rabbit hunting he was involved in an automobile accident and was killed.

His death spurred his brother Roy to receive eternal life. As a new Christian he was burdened about an offense that had come between he and his brother Lon. Roy heard that a revivalist was preaching at a tabernacle in Kankakee. He invited his brother hoping they could reconcile. They went to the revival together. Lon took his daughter Betty who was about eleven at the time. That night she began a lifetime of following Jesus.

Reconciliation is one of the very basic teachings of Jesus. One man obeyed that command and as a result his daughter came to faith in Christ. You never know all the good that can come from obedience to even the most basic command of Jesus. If you read the New Testament you will notice that good things happen when people do what Jesus says. It’s still that way. If he said do it, believe it and do it now matter how hard it seems. You might be delighted. Maybe people will talk about it generations from now with a little tear in the corner of their eye.

Ken Pierpont
918 Brook Place
Hinsdale, Illinois
August 7, 2007