Welcome to the Whyte House Family Spoken Novels podcast: Holiday Edition episode #34. Today we are reading chapter 8 of the novel “Shaking The Gates of Hell” by Daniel Whyte III with Meriqua Whyte.
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On Monday, the week of Holyween, Pastor Grant settled down for a day of rest and relaxation with his wife and children. He had spent much of the previous evening after the Sunday services counseling two young couples and a single mother. He had also stopped by the home of a wayward church member who was struggling with a drug habit.
He tried once again to encourage Brother and Sister Mitchell to make it out for soul-winning during the last week of their evangelism campaign. Brother Mitchell was all for it, but his wife kept coming up with excuses.
“Won’t you at least come out with your sons and help us out on Holyween night?” he asked them. “We could use your two boys’ help with the games and in guiding our visitors through the hell house. Sister Mitchell, you could help the ladies out in serving the snacks or, if you’d prefer, you could help my wife out in the nursery.”
“We’ll think about it, Pastor,” Sister Mitchell answered. “We have a lot going on ourselves.”
Pastor Grant also spoke with Brother Biggins who had been despondent throughout the church service. “Brother Biggins, I see the struggle going on inside you. You want to do the right thing, but the devil is feeding your flesh and showing you all the benefits of continuing on with Sister Maudlin. But this is nothing new. Paul tells us that a Christian who desires to do right will have this struggle.”
Pastor Grant shared Romans 7:15 and 19 with him: “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I … For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
“Meditate on chapter seven of Romans throughout this evening and ask God to give you the strength to make the right decision,” Pastor Grant said.
Pastor Grant returned home around seven in the evening, to find his children acting up and his wife with an attitude.
“Marlene, just get some rest. Spend the rest of the evening either in bed or doing something relaxing. We have been under a lot of stress as a family, and it is going to get worse as we draw closer to Friday,” he told his wife. “I can’t have you falling apart.”
“Children, I do not want to hear any sounds coming from you for the rest of the night. Read a book, write a book, spend time on the computer, get ready for school tomorrow, and, above all, pray.”
After praying with his family, Pastor Grant dismissed them. He made a quick phone call to Pastor Johnson before stretching out on the couch and retiring for the night.
He planned to spend Monday getting caught up on his sleep, and praying and meditating on the Word in preparation for soul-winning that evening. After eating breakfast with the family, his wife left to drop the children off at school and to stop by the grocery store. He retired to his home office. Fifteen minutes had not gone by when his phone rang. It was one of his church members seeking some advice. Another call came in shortly after he got off the phone with the first caller. Calling his wife on her cell, he informed her that he would be at Sister Carter’s home to talk with her husband.
“From what Sister Carter told me she and her husband had been having it out almost all night. She said she slept on the couch with a threat to leave him. She was on her way to her job when she called me, but she wants me to go speak with her husband,” Pastor Grant told his wife. “She also says she might not even return home once she gets off this evening. She was asking would you mind keeping the children for her as she did not want to leave them there with her husband today with the way he’s been acting as he might neglect them. If she dropped them off at her mother’s, she would be late for work.”
“What did you tell her?” his wife asked in a monotone voice.
“I told her to go ahead and drop them off at her mother’s as you were at the grocery store and no telling when you would return. I also told her if there is a problem with her boss to have her boss to call me.”
His wife sighed.
“Look, I would wait to take you with me, as I may stop by Sister Greene while I am out, but I really do not want you along with the kind of attitude you have right now so I’ll just go alone. I would let you call Sister Carter on her job and encourage her, but you’re in no condition yourself to be an encouragement to her. You need to pray and ask God to help you to have a godly attitude throughout this week especially so that you can be a blessing and an encouragement to those ladies, who, believe it or not, are looking to you to be the example to them; they are looking to you to encourage them by standing tall against the devil and showing support for what we are doing for the Lord.”
“What am I supposed to do if she does call seeing you don’t want me to talk with her?”
“If she does call the house before I get back, hopefully you’ll have yourself together by then; either way, just do the mature Christian thing and try to be an encouragement to her. Can you do that?”
“I’ve done it before.”
“Well, try to do it again. Like I shared with you, you have to step up your prayer time and be more sober minded, vigilant, and watchful as the devil is seeking every doorway possible to enter in and cause havoc in our lives and between us as a family, because he is mad about what we are doing to his kingdom here at the church,” Pastor Grant said. “Let me pray with you.”
Pastor Grant spent almost two hours with Sister Carter’s husband. He shared with him how much of a blessing his wife had been to them there at the church, and how if she was allowed to continue attending church, she would increase in her knowledge of the Lord and learn more about how to be a better wife to him.
“That was their main problem,” Pastor Grant shared with Pastor Johnson later that evening before going out soul-winning. “Clay Carter shared with me that he was jealous of his wife constantly going out to the church to the point of refusing to do some of the things he wanted her to do with him; simple things like just staying home with him some Sundays or some Wednesday evenings. Simple things like having his breakfast ready before she jumped in the car going off to church; Simple things like keeping his clothes washed and ironed. When I got there, he was ironing his jeans. He works the evening shift so sometimes he’s asleep when she leaves to go to work, and when he returns sometimes she’s asleep. They are only about three years in their marriage, and she just got saved a year ago, so they have a lot to learn. He feels her first obligation is to him.”
“To a point he’s right about that. She is his wife, and if he wishes to keep on living with her even though he’s not saved and she’s now saved, then he is free to do so. And the command still stands for the wife to obey her husband whether he’s saved or not,” Pastor Johnson said. “Worshipping God is a thing of the heart and it’s a personal thing; she can worship God in her home; she can read her Bible away from the church; she can pray away from the church; she can call up some of the members over the phone and fellowship and pray with them. Some of the ladies could stop by her home and fellowship with her. So all is not lost. The Bible does say where two or three or more, so it does not take many people to worship. From my years of experience, I’ve found out that if she takes care of her husband’s needs and takes care of the children and the home, because that is her first ministry, God will open up doors for her to get her heart’s desires, even the desire to freely attend church.”
“I’ve shared that much with her, but she’s dead set on coming to church every Sunday and every time the church doors are open,” Pastor Grant said. ‘I believe things have been intensified between them what with this being the week of Holyween. By the way, please be praying for my wife and me as things are getting pretty tense between us as well.”
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Thank you for joining us for this episode of Whyte House Family stories. You may purchase a copy of this novel and any other Christian fiction books read on this podcast from Amazon.com.
Now, dear listener, please know that God—the divine Author of all things—wants to write a great story with your life as well. But first you must give Him the pen by trusting Him with the life He gave you and surrendering your heart to Jesus Christ as Savior. Here is how:
1. Accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7:20: “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Romans 3:23 reads: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
2. Accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…”
3. Accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The Bible says in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
4. Accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself! The Bible states in Ephesians 2: 8, 9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
5. Accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. Jesus Christ said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
6. With these facts in mind, please repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pray and ask Him to come into your heart and save you this very moment. The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9, 13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Dear friend, if you are willing to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, please pray with me this simple prayer: Heavenly Father, I realize that I am a sinner and that I have done some bad things in my life. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died for me, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life today. Amen.
If you believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross, was buried, and rose again, allow me to say, congratulations on doing the most important thing in life and that is accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour! For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to Gospel Light Society.com and read “What To Do After You Enter Through the Door”. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”
May God bless you until next time.
BCNN1 WP 