God's Children Step Forth

By Peter Walton

Part 1: To never say the words "thrown to the lions" in a humorous, mundane, casual way. Part 2: There are ten chapters designed to motivate individuals to grow in their direct relationship with God. Eight and a half use fictitious names for real-life Christians in modern-day situations. The chapter "Kalifornia Is Burning from Within" is a summary of the local government decisions that have turned their "renewable energy" program into the exact opposite. The chapter "Freedom of Speech, California 2019" is fiction: it uses fictitious names with nonfictitious data and gives details on the history of the magnificent state of Israel and brings to light the darkness of the rising anti-Semitism in the world today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098053000

Book preview

PART 2

1965: A Christmas Celebration Country-Style

She was on a Greyhound having left Nashville just before dinner. It was December 23. They were three hours out with about twelve more hours to go heading to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She had left home for Nashville in January. She was sad about leaving her parents and her five younger siblings but knew from years of prayers that God’s plans for her revolved around Nashville and music.

She remembered the song she kept repeating to herself on her bus ride to Nashville early January 1965 dealing with her fear: Carrie Underwood’s Jesus, Take the Wheel.⁵ In her heart, she felt she had never ignored God. She was not sorry for the way she had lived her life, but she loved the passion of the song and prayed that she would do the same in her songs. And she prayed that Jesus would always be at the wheel for her, for her family, for her neighbors, for the people she met at the diner where she worked, for the people she passed in the aisles of the A&P.

She loved the line Going home to see her mama and her daddy.

She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati on a snow-white Christmas Eve

Going home to see her mama and her daddy with the baby in the back seat

Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline

It’d been a long hard year

She had a lot on her mind and she didn’t pay attention

She was going way too fast

Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass

She saw both their lives flash before her eyes

She didn’t even have time to cry

She was so scared

She threw her hands up in the air

Jesus, take the wheel

Take it from my hands

’Cause I can’t do this on my own

I’m letting go

Give me one more chance

And save me from this road I’m on

Jesus, take the wheel

This was her first trip back. She was a waitress to pay her rent. She had a room in a wonderful Christian lady’s home. They mutually supported and encouraged each other. The drunken advances from some of the customers at the diner were tiring, but being an attractive young woman with a curvaceous body, it was something she had to deal with. And she had a very positive self-image. She was proud to be a child of God. She also looked for a chance to praise God and his son, Jesus Christ, in any conversation.

She would then specifically mention the Living Faith Baptist Church she attended. She loved seeing people taking her direction and attending a service. Of course many of the men who came were hoping they could connect to her. Men love women and get that special look in their eyes. Weak in the presence of beauty,⁶ she thought. She was so busy working, singing in country bands at night, and committing herself to church it wasn’t an issue.

She sang with the choir at the church. She loved the classic songs and their connection to the Scriptures; their connection to the Bible was her comforter, the director, the educator of her life. She especially loved Amazing Grace. As they passed Lebanon, Tennessee, she sang to herself the six verses that she knew of the song:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost but now am found

Was blind but now I see

She must have been only two or three years old when her mother would tuck her in at night singing this first verse. As she got older, she would ask her mother to sing more verses. At about four, her mother would sing two verses, adding the following:

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear

And grace my fears