The years passed and there continued to be constant steady growth in Central Assembly. The message that daddy shared from his pulpit were messages of God's love and forgiveness.
People began to stream into his office for counseling. From the alcoholic to the person with nervous problems, God endued my father with divine wisdom in sharing the help that was available to them in Jesus Christ. Couples with marital problems began to find new hope for their marriages. The message concerning the things that are important to God that he had received during his illness was so burned into his heart that it was reflected in every part of his ministry.
Men and women from all walks of life began to worship regularly at Central Assembly. People dressed in expensive fur coats sat next to people from the wrong side of town, loving each other and the Lord. Visitors would walk into the church and exclaim at the presence of the Lord they could feel in that place and the essence of love filling the entire building.
Because of daddy's sensitivity to people, and God's touch on his life, he was able to ride out problems that could have caused a lot of hurt and division.
Not everyone understood the message that my father had to share. Some people thought he was preaching too much love, and not enough of God's judgment.
Finally the men on the church board were approached about having to vote of confidence taken at the next business meeting. One of the men on the board took daddy out to lunch. Then, out by the river in one of Boise's parks, he shared with him what the comments were. My father's heart was broken. All he had been sharing was the God that he knew. A God of love. A God who gave heaven's best, Jesus, so that a lost world could be reconciled to the Father. As the two men sat together in the quietness of Julia Davis Park on the bank of the Boise River, the sunlight glistened on the tears that streamed down my father's face. Those tears came from the depths of a loving heart.
The sweetness of Jesus radiated from dad as he called that crucial business meeting to order. He quietly led in prayer before the vote was to be taken. Suddenly the power of God flooded that business meeting. The board members had heard that there was going to be a landslide vote of "No Confidence," but to their amazement, when the votes were counted, the votes of confidence in daddy's ministry were overwhelming, with only three or four out of the whole membership against! Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan for my father's life, and nothing and no one could stop the unfolding of His divine purposes.
God confirmed daddy's ministry then, and again years later when God sent the following message to him through the angel, Gabriel. Gabriel gave Dad a reference from God's Word to confirm the truths he taught (Jer. 9:23, 24). Here, in dad's own words is the message preached to the congregation on, The Orb of Truth."
"God is stating that He wants the world to know Him as He is! He said, "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understand and knoweth me, as a God full of loving kindness, a God of mercy, a God of righteousness, a God of Justice, in these things I delight saith the Lord."
"One thing that God spoke to my heart in this connection is that the world as a whole has the truth about what God is like, but they have the truth upside down. God wants the world to know that He cares for them. The world of theology has had a picture of God. They've had the orb of truth that God is a God of compassion and He's a God of wrath, both sides, but God through an angel said, 'They have the order reversed. They have the gospel inverted.' Their message, to a large extent, is that we must see Him first of all as a God of wrath who must be appeased through various ways and efforts. If somehow you can appease the wrath of God by what you do, by what you're able to achieve or how you perform, you may drop through this area of His wrath, and enter into His love. Therefore, the message of His love has always been one that was bound and wrapped in a package of conditions. If we do, He will do. But the truth is, God's love is unconditional!
"When He spoke to Moses, you remember how Moses cried out, 'God let me see you, I want to see you as you really are.' God said, 'You can't see me.' But Moses said, 'I want to see you face to face, I want to talk with you.'
God said, 'I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll put you in this little cleft of the rock, and I'm going to put my big hand over the top, and then I'm going to pass by, and let you get a little feel of the glory, and then I'm going to give you a personal picture of how I want to be seen, what I'm really like.' So you read it in Exodus 34:6 and 7 where the Lord passed by, and He spoke to Moses out of the glory cloud, and He said, 'The Lord God, full of loving kindness, graciousness, full of compassion and mercy.' Then He went on so Moses would have the full picture, and He said, 'To those who refuse and reject, they'll know the wrath of God.' So this message today has turned the orb of truth over, and God is saying, 'Let men and women know that if they'll plunge into my love, and accept it, they need never experience my wrath!'
"But if they only know about wrath first, then they're seldom able to accept His love because there's always that fear. All this love is wonderful. But they are so conditioned to His wrath, it's difficult to enter into His love. God has ways of cleansing and causing those memories of the past to lose their power to hurt. He says, 'Go out and carry this message of My love.' The world is so anxious to hear this message that a week ago when my wife and I were out ministering, and it has been the same thing every place we've gone, the buildings were filled long before service time."
Daddy never chastised the people who had wanted to have him voted out, he just loved them. Soon they, too, responded to the beautiful nature of our heavenly Father as it streamed out from the life of His obedient servant.
God had given dad a glimpse of himself that he had to share with a world that was lost. People already knew they were condemned and lost. Daddy shared with them Jesus who could give them a new life. Many people found Christ, and my father continued to have reconciliation as his highest priority.
Next: Plugged into God's Heart