The Harsh Landlord

   For many years, I worked as a remodeling contractor. My work consisted of small to large construction jobs, along with installations of various appliances. On one occasion, a customer contracted me to install a new dishwasher. I ordered the dishwasher, and scheduled the installation. Upon arriving at the customer's home, I realized that he was not there,  so I waited for about an hour to see if he would show up. Riding with me that day was a young man named Woody, whom I was mentoring as both a worker and spiritual disciple. 

   As we waited, we noticed a man next door to the residence standing on his porch, waving "hello" to us. We walked over and began a conversation with him, and his wife came out, as we began to talk. It became abundantly clear that the man was very drunk, but very easy to talk to, and seemed oddly coherent. After a few minutes, the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask him if he died this day, would he know if he's going to Heaven. He replied. "Well, probably not; I am not a good person."

I asked him if he would like me to show him from God's Word how to know for sure he could be saved, and know he's going to Heaven. He said. "Yes, I would like that very much" 

   Before I could get my hands on my Bible, his wife suddenly produced one from inside their home. I began to share John 3:16, Romans 3:23, basically the entire Romans road to salvation. He had told me that because of his drunken life that God didn't want anything to do with him. Once I made him realize that we are all sinners, and that in our state of darkness, Jesus sacrificed Himself to blot that out. 

   His wife expressed to us how burdened she was for her husband to be saved. So I asked him if he wanted to be saved this day. He said, "Yes!" After a bit more discussion. We all got down on our knees and prayed. I led him through the sinners prayer, but not before explaining that words are cheap; if he didn't mean it from his heart that our prayers wouldn't go any higher than the ceiling. He seemed to understand that, and cried out to God as he asked Jesus to come into his heart.

It was a Glorious time, and when that man stood up, miraculously, he was as sober as a judge! He was a happy man, and along with his wife, we all celebrated his salvation. But there is a strange caveat to this story.

  The Rest of the Story

   Let's back up a bit. While we were there on our knees praying, I heard a voice in a very harsh tone adking,"What's going on here? What are you doing?"

I opened my eyes to look up at a rather tall man staring in apparent anger at all of us. 

I boldly replied, "Sir, I don't know who you are, but we are praying with this man, so you'll have to wait if you want talk to me!"

So as we finished our prayers, we rose up, and the new convert was rejoicing and hugging and kissing his wife. It was a very happy occasion to see that. We gave him encouragement, and showed him some areas of God's Word to study, and a brief conversation of how to grow in the Faith.

   As we exited the home, the man who interrupted our prayers was standing in the front yard with a scowl on his face.

" Exactly what did you think you were doing in there!" he demanded

I answered," That man wanted to accept Christ as his Savior, and we were helping him with that, who are you, anyway, and what is your problem?"

He shot back," I am the man who you are supposed to be working for next door here. You're supposed to be installing my dishwasher, and I am gonna report you to your boss for doing religious stuff on company time!"

So I said, " Well, you just reported me, because I am the boss, and for the record, you were supposed to be here over an hour ago. So, tell me...we are here; do you want the dishwasher or not? My time is just as valuable as yours, sir."

At that, he unlocked his house, and invited us to come in to install the dishwasher.

   We had to do some plumbing modifications to accommodate the dishwasher, so the job took about 2 hours. During that time, we were actually able to get to know the harsh man, as he revealed his reasons for his anger. It turns out that he was a prominent leader in a local Kingdom Hall. Their religion teaches many things that I believe are contrary to God's Word, like denying the Diety of Christ, and that the only way to get to Heaven is by working in their ministry. He explained his immense frustration in that for many years, he had been trying to convince the next door neighbor to come to his belief system; all in vain. And so when I roll up, a perfect stranger, and end up leading the man in a prayer of salvation...it made him extremely angry.

   I did not apologize for my actions, but explained to him that many of my family members, including my grandmother, had been trapped in his religion, which I considered to be a cult. 

   While I was installing his dishwasher, the man explained that he owned the house next door, and was their landlord. He tried to befriend me, and began discussing the differences between my beliefs and his. Again, I made no apologies for my beliefs, and stood my ground concerning Jesus being the Creator of all things. He just couldn't wrap his head around that, and said," So y'all believe in some 3-headed God that can be all things, right?"

   I calmly said, " No, we believe in one omniscient and omnipotent God who has three distinct traits, and can be all things, do all things, omnipresent, who was and is, eternally." 

   At that, our work was completed; after an ops check of the dishwasher, we shook hands, and we were on our way.

   But before we left, we stopped to visit the newly saved man once more, and his wife to give them encouragement and a brief discipleship lesson. They both had big smiles on their faces, and promised that they would seek out a good Bible believing church, and would be undeterred by the landlord's intimidation.

   For me, it was a good day. Angels rejoiced along with us that another soul was snatched from the fires of hell.