A Ride in the Night (Spiritually Unequal Marriage)

A Ride in the Night

February 18, 2018

Hello to all my SUMite friends: Martha Bush

I jolted straight up in bed out of a sound sleep. I looked at the clock - 2 A.M. I sat on the side of the bed, trembling, as my thoughts started screaming out to the Lord, "I cannot teach the Bible study course with Carol next week. None of the promises You have made me have come to pass; I have nothing to offer anyone!"

A few years ago, Carol, my friend and neighbor, had asked me to co-teach a class with her in her home. Carol and I were "Sidekicks," as we referred to one another, doting on the Word, and talking about the Lord for hours. We giggled like school girls with the thought, "We are going to have a New Testament Church in Carol's living room."

However, things were not quite as "spiritual," shall we say, at my home as they were at Carol's. From my kitchen window on Sunday mornings, I could see her ride off to church with her husband, Jim. He was even a member of the Sunday School class Carol taught. Jim had issued an invitation to my husband to join the group Carol and I would be teaching. After all, he insisted, "You can walk across the street without dressing up in your Sunday best." To put it mildly, my husband was NOT interested.

And so, at 2 A.M., the spiritual condition of my home and the thought of ministering to others came pounding down on me. I decided I had to get out of the house and get some things settled with the Lord.

I slipped out of bed quietly, so as to not wake up my husband, tip-toed to my car, and went for a ride in the night! Up and down the dark country roads I rode screaming out, "Where are you, Lord? What about your promises to me? None of them have come to pass! How do you expect me to help someone else?"

As daylight approached, I slipped back into my house. Thankfully, my husband was still asleep. (Whew) Once he left for work, I still felt the urge to get away, so I drove to a park where I had walked and prayed many times. I parked my car, walked out to a picnic table several feet into the woods, and sat down with my Bible. "Okay, Lord, we need to get some things straight BEFORE I help teach a class!"

All of a sudden, a man drove up in front of my car and started beckoning me to come to him. Fear gripped me. I couldn't run to my car - he had it blocked - nor could I run deeper in the woods for fear he might chase after me. I looked around and there were no other people in the park.

And so, my talk with the Lord changed its tune: "He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord; He is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust. He shall give His angels charge over me."

Over and over I recited Psalm 91 while keeping one eye on the man. What seemed like eternity, he drove away.

Once back home, I finally came to my senses. I could have wrecked my car driving on the dark country roads, crying big crocodile tears while screaming at the Lord, or gotten raped in the park if God had not dispatched a host of angels to protect me.

As I became quite, I begin to hear the Lord talk to me from Acts 1. "When I was ascending into heaven, the disciples asked me, 'When are You going to restore Israel?'" I replied to them, "Never mind when I am going to do what I have promised you; it's not for you to know the time. You are delaying the work I have called you to do! Get a move on!" (Paraphrased)

And so it was, several people testified of receiving healing from past hurts as my "Sidekick" and I taught the Word at our New Testament church on Rosewood Drive, Orange, Texas. And just for the record, I have never taken another ride in the night - one in a lifetime is enough!

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Is there anything delaying the work God has called you to do?