{"id":31846,"date":"2024-07-03T23:35:15","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T06:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2024-laughter-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-07-03T23:51:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T06:51:20","slug":"2024-careful","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2024-careful\/","title":{"rendered":"Be careful how you live"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex_column av_one_full  flex_column_div av-zero-column-padding first  avia-builder-el-0  avia-builder-el-no-sibling  \" style='border-radius:0px; '><section class=\"av_textblock_section \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/CreativeWork\" ><div class='avia_textblock  '   itemprop=\"text\" ><p style=\"text-align: right;\">~Jude Seddon~<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wrensworld.com\/deacontop.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a<br \/>\nT-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes.<br \/>\nThis was literally his wardrobe for his entire<br \/>\nfour years of college. He is brilliant. Kind<br \/>\nof esoteric and very, very bright. He became<br \/>\na Christian while attending college.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wrensworld.com\/boysits.gif\" alt=\"The College Boy.\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Across the street from the campus is a well<br \/>\ndressed, very conservative church. They want<br \/>\nto develop a ministry to the students, but<br \/>\nare not sure how to go about it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wrensworld.com\/deaconchurch.jpg\" alt=\"The Church.\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">One day Scott decides to go there. He walks<br \/>\nin with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and<br \/>\nwild hair. The service has already started<br \/>\nand so Scott starts down the aisle looking<br \/>\nfor a seat. The church is completely packed<br \/>\nand he can&#8217;t find a seat. By now, people<br \/>\nare really looking a bit uncomfortable,<br \/>\nbut no one says anything. Scott gets closer<br \/>\nand closer and closer to the pulpit, and<br \/>\nwhen he realizes there are no seats, he just<br \/>\nsquats down right on the carpet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">By now the people are really uptight,<br \/>\nand the tension in the air is thick.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">About this time, the minister realizes that<br \/>\nfrom way at the back of the church, a deacon<br \/>\nis slowly making his way toward Scott. A godly man,<br \/>\nvery elegant, very dignified, and very courtly.<br \/>\nHe walks with a cane and, as he starts walking<br \/>\ntoward this boy, everyone is saying to<br \/>\nthemselves that you can&#8217;t blame him for what<br \/>\nhe&#8217;s going to do. How can you expect a man of<br \/>\nhis age and of his background to understand<br \/>\nsome college kid on the floor?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wrensworld.com\/oldgentclr.gif\" alt=\"The Deacon.\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">It takes a long time for the man to reach the<br \/>\nboy. The church is utterly silent except for<br \/>\nthe clicking of the man&#8217;s cane. All eyes are<br \/>\nfocused on him. You can&#8217;t even hear anyone<br \/>\nbreathing. The minister can&#8217;t even preach the<br \/>\nsermon until the deacon does what he has to do.<br \/>\nAnd now they see this elderly man drop his cane<br \/>\non the floor. With great difficulty, he lowers<br \/>\nhimself and sits down next to Scott and worships<br \/>\nwith him so he won&#8217;t be alone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Everyone chokes up with emotion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">When the minister gains control, he says,<br \/>\n&#8220;What I&#8217;m about to preach, you will never remember.<br \/>\nWhat you have just seen, you will never forget.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Be careful how you live. You may be the only &#8216;Bible&#8217; some people will ever read.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-31847 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/read.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/read.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/read-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":31847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-31846","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/31846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/31846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31848,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/31846\/revisions\/31848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31846"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=31846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}