A New Life, A New Direction
A month or two later, after returning north to N. Y. State and while attending the Presbyterian church in Esperance where Clayton Crooks was pastor, the following occurred one Sunday evening.
It was during the closing prayer that Pastor Crooks quoted the verse Romans 10:13, “And whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” After church, the two returned home and Howard was greatly distressed in his heart by his pressing need for God’s merciful help. . . As he expressed his anguish to the Lord, he said something to this effect. “Lord, I want to call upon the Lord and be saved. But how can I call? I don’t know how to call on You to be saved.”
It seemed that the Lord quickened his spirit to understand, “In my anguish now, what am I doing but calling upon the Name of the Lord? I am calling and indeed, He is saving me!” Howard became a new person, and he and Mary Elizabeth were eternally bonded, not just with earthly wedding vows but with God’s great bonds of love in Christ their Lord and Savior.
It was after that 1940 summer that I heard that an Evangelist named Doug Roe (I think) was to speak in the first Baptist Church of Oneonta (20 miles from Cooperstown). So I invited Ziggy Poreda to go with me, hoping that God might do something for him. He kindly accepted my invitation. We sat in the back row of the church. I was impressed by the message and hoped Ziggy would respond to the invitation. He did not respond. But the evangelist extended the invitation by asking if any believer present needed deliverance from something in his life that was not pleasing to his Lord. I knew that this applied to me, so when asked for hands to be raised, I lifted mine quickly. The Evangelist recognized it along with others who did likewise. As the congregation was dismissed, the speaker requested that all who had raised their hand for whatever reason should stop momentarily in the small room off the vestibule for a further more intimate word. I confess with shame that I started to walk out with Ziggy when he turned to me and said, “Don, didn’t you raise your hand?” I replied, “Yes, I did”, and I joined the perhaps fifteen others in the inquiry room. The evangelist shared Romans 10:13 with us, which I already knew and they gave me a small booklet to take home to read. That night, upon arriving back in that same room where I had first met Christ months before, I read through the booklet which pointed out the “reasonable response” to Christ’s sacrifice for us, as expressed in Romans 12:1,2: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” I understood and agreed. Then there was the space for me to sign my name to signify my personal commitment. For a moment I halted as I listened to a thought saying, “I don’t need to sign it. I agree to it. That’s good enough. I don’t believe in signing. Is not my word enough?”
Thank God for His mercy, there was this response, “Just why are you not willing to sign your name in the presence of your Savior?” I signed it and I’m so glad – eternally glad for His abounding grace for that moment. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20b). The immediate result was that there were no more dates with the girl friend but rather shame that I had been such a languid lukewarm follower and that I had so grievously offended my Lord and others in my lustful pursuits.
After my spiritual eyes had opened I began to seek God’s guidance regarding my own future course. War clouds were gathering about the world. The U.S. had begun the military draft, and I was rated as an A-1 candidate for the draft, being physically O.K. and having no restrictions as to family or occupation. At the official drawing I received a relatively high number (something over 8000) which meant that it would be several months before I would be “called up.” While in college I once attended a meeting of “pacifists” because at that time I was completely ignorant of the movement. Now I wondered if that should not be the direction I should take since now I was a child of God and did not want to sin by killing people. I mentioned this to my brother John who had become my spiritual mentor. Though he was not subject to the draft because of his responsible occupation in the national economy, he also was exercised concerning the matter. He had prayed and done some study in that regard. He counseled me to pray and study the Word before coming to any conclusion. He also gave me a current copy of Moody Monthly magazine in which there was an extended Bible Study article on the whole matter of pacifism and conscientious objection. I followed John’s advice, and it was not long before I concluded that I had the responsibility under God to serve my country because of my love to God and therefore my desire to obey Him. I was to serve God and not hate anyone but sin and the devil. I thank God for His Spirit’s enlightening John to give me such godly counsel, essential preparation in the light of what was coming. Indeed, it was the foundation for standing for God in my present place of daily contact with the people in the conscientious objectors’ work camp who were my helpers in forestry work.
I drove to Syracuse to visit my brother Dick on that Sunday, December 7th, 1941. We spent the evening reminiscing together and it was about time for me to get in my car and drive back to Cooperstown. Dick turned on his radio to catch the news and we were shocked to hear that Pearl Harbor had that morning been attacked by Japanese Air and Sea Forces causing thousands of casualties and great loss of American ships. We did not have much to say. It so surprised us. I knew that my military draft number would soon be called and I would be in uniform. The remaining question was, which uniform? I checked with the Marines, the Navy and the Army. I believe the Lord moved me to decide on the Army. I went to the U.S. Army Recruiting Office in Amsterdam and enlisted in the U.S. Army Engineers. I was given the date of January 15, 1942 to report there for induction.
INTERFACE
I am calling this brief insertion “Interface” because it seems an appropriate location in the account to include a bit of explanation, which I hope may be helpful.
As I have written thus far, I have come to think that perhaps I should make some explanation concerning the way in which I am intending to write. I have had the thought vaguely in mind that I desire to write the autobiographical incidents as much as possible with the mind-set that I had at the time when I experienced them. This would explain why I did not explain the happenings, as I now understand them, since now I have a different level of spiritual discernment than I had then. Everything that occurred before I was born again at the age of twenty four happened when I possessed zero amount of spiritual discernment because I was without the Holy Spirit’s presence in my life. I was confronted by much knowledge and truth at home, school, by family, friends,teachers, pastors, and in reading some books including the Bible. But I had no discernment concerning the grace of God until I was saved. And at the time of that Cooperstown boarding house revelation concerning Ephesians 2:8-9, did I instantly receive full spiritual discernment? No, but I did receive God the Holy Spirit into my life and instantly experienced new life of which I previously knew absolutely nothing. So, from then on I began to understand experiences from a spiritual perspective. Since then, the level of understanding increased or decreased, depending upon many factors, mainly, as I now see it, upon my response to God’s gracious dealings primarily through His Word, and Satan’s deceptive attacks through his strategies using my flesh (self life) and the world as his allies. It gives me awful grief to realize a little of how my spiritual coldness and immaturity have hindered God’s purpose that I should continually “…grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3:18. But it also gives me hope and joy to know that God is mercifully patient and that I still have days remaining to trust and obey, “For that is the way to be happy in Jesus, simply trust and obey.” (Dr. Robert McQuilkin’s suggested improvement on the chorus of that hymn, “Trust and Obey.”)
