Christian Living

A Direct Line

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
01/17/22
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

“I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:21-25)

For many years I spent raising Hell across the fruited plains of America in an eighteen-wheeler. I ran all forty-eight states and some of the Canadian Provinces. I saw a lot of the country and experienced the different cultures that make the American culture. It was a wonderful adventure, for which I am thankful today, almost as grateful for the adventure I am now participating in. My favorite ride was from Florida to California or anywhere on the west coast.

California is a unique experience, as all places are, but there is a particular difference there from anywhere else. California is the only state that I felt like a foreigner. I don’t mean they treated me as one who did not belong, as the difference was more than people. It’s the appearance of the land. I suppose I always wanted to go to California because all the folks talked about that in High School. California was where it was all at, and it was the place of the happening. Some of my acquaintances did go west, but I never heard from them and never saw any of them when I was there.

Even as I knew better, I was a hell-raiser in an adventurous way and not that I was evil. Then maybe I was, as if one is not good, then he is evil. It could be that I like a lot of others and put degrees on the bad. It is in opposition to the good I knew growing up as a child. That does not mean I was good, but only that I knew better. Over the years, I became tired of the fun I thought I was having. Maybe I realized the fun was not fun initially, as it always left me with some guilt in my conscience.

When I lived at home, my father expected his children to be in church every Sunday. After I left home, I did continue to go to church, but not every Sunday and then not at all. Now all these miles behind me weighed down with collective guilt upon me, so I thought the way back would be going to church. At first, this was a difficult task to accomplish. The priority was always to deliver the freight on time. Red Skelton said there is time enough for everything, and I wondered if he had ever driven a truck. I learned what Red was talking about is management. If I dropped one coffee stop along the way, just one, I would have enough time every Sunday to go to a church. Church is only an hour and a half of time, and I drink a long coffee when I stop. There is always that sugar talk.

The other thing is, where do I park the truck? Sixty feet of rigging is a lot to fit into a church lot on Sunday. I started to once, and a deacon told me I was not tearing up the asphalt in their lot with my truck. I always looked for a church with a large field to accommodate my rig as I traveled about. They are out there, believe it or not—many churches near a large parking lot like Walmart or a shopping center. Many churches have ballfields that give enough room to make a wide turn not to tear up the turf.

CCR came out with a song titled “Lodi.” Lodi was a good traveling song I listened to many times going down the road, and I was amazed when I found myself in Lodi, California, on a Sunday. There was a small church on the outskirts of Lodi called “The Word.” There were about twenty cars parked there, so I pulled my rig into the field. I knew it was a church, as I saw a cross on the door and went in. I was early for the service, which is unusual for me, so I looked around while the locals looked me down. I noticed a golden phone on the table in the foyer with a sign reading “Direct Line.” I had to know, so I asked to what? Maybe in his fifties, a considerate older man answered, “To God.”

I was thinking, Wow, really! So I asked if I could make a call, and he said I could, but it would be twenty-five dollars for ten minutes. I asked, “Why would a phone call to God be so expensive.” The older fellow answered, “Long Distance.” I thought of it as a fundraising amusement for the church and went on to hear the word. I ran onto churches along the west coast with the same golden phone, most in California and one in Oregon. I am from West Virginia and was born there in 1950. I spent my first four years in a little town called Hinton. I was amazed while in Salinas, Ca. I picked up a load of lettuce going to Hinton. I couldn’t turn that down, even as I thought a truck my size would never fit in that town.

I came into West Virginia on I-77 and got off at Princeton. There I picked up Highway 20, which went straight to Hinton. Well, not straight it just went directly. There is not a straight of flat place in West Virginia. I was hoping the Hinton Famers Market was on 20 outside of town. There is no street in Hinton wide enough for a truck my size, and even as I was very young, I do not remember seeing a big truck in Hinton. I also remember the bridge across the New River on the north side of town was very narrow and old. To my relief, 20 went to Bellepoint across the south bridge across the New and Greenbrier Rivers, and I thought the south side of town would be the right place for the Farmers Market. Luckily, the Farmers Market was just across from a Pizza Hunt in the old train yard.

I wasn’t due there until Monday, and I was hoping to deliver on Friday. I got there too late, and the folks were packing up to go home for the weekend. The ole boy couldn’t stay, and the best he would do was let me park in the market until Monday. I would be trapped with no facilities and just left my trailer there. I asked him if there were any churches nearby with a very large parking lot or a field close. He gave me the answer I expected, “no.” He did say there was a church in Talcott called the Good News at Greenbrier Church that had a large field. That was only about twelve miles, as I have often been to Talcott. I asked him what street it was on, and he said Back Talcott Road along the Greenbrier River.

I spent Saturday at the Dairy Queen and Sunday morning went to Talcott. I arrived and parked the truck, and went into the church. I was early in between Sunday school and Worship Service. I started to look around, and a fellow came up and asked if he could help me. I introduced myself, and he said he was Deacon Mose. As we walked and talked, I noticed a sign on a door that said, “Direct Line.” That was a surprise, and I had to ask, “what is in there”? Mose said, “in that closet is a direct line to God.” I answered, “yeah, and how must does it cost?” “Nothing,” Mose answered. “Can I see and open the door. It was as Mose said. Behind the door was a prayer closet with a bible and an altar. It fitted as I was in the Almost Heaven and found a true direct line to God.

The Good News at Greenbrier is the prayer closet. The prayer closet is Our Direct Line to God. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6) One cannot have a relationship with anyone without communication, and the prayer closet is where we commune with God. It is Paul’s advice to the church of the Thessalonians. “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) We are commanded to draw near to God in faith to receive His mercy and grace to carry us through. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

We must abide in Him to bring honor to His Kingdom, glory to His name producing fruit for the brotherhood of the Kingdom. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4). It is all about the unity of love between God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and us. Trust and obey the fruit of our love for God, our Savior. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:23)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, April 14, 2021