A Farmer's Legacy

Pastor Mark Welch of The Pointe Church in Antelope, CA once shared a story about an aged pastor in Michigan who was being honored as the original founder of a church there. At a community meal, that old pastor wound up seated across from young Mark. The man asked Mark general questions as to where he was from and who he was. Mark told him about his father and grandfather who were pastors. Finally the old man began to tell a story. When he was a young man, he felt the call to be an evangelist. In those days, what you did was rent a huge circus tent and set it up wherever you could. People just showed up and the event ran as long as it needed. One time the evangelist came to a farm to ask permission to use the land. The farmer agreed, but warned, "Don't expect me to show up." The evangelist said that was fine. One night the farmer did show up with several friends. They were rowdy and drunk and rude. They heckled the minister as he preached.

Suddenly, God spoke to the evangelist and said, "Go tell that young farmer that today is the day of his salvation." The evangelist was horrified. What if they beat him up or disrupt the whole meeting? But he knew the voice of God and went down the aisle. Halfway down the rowdies yelled at him and intimidated him so that he turned back. When he got to the pulpit, the voice came again, saying the same thing. So down went the evangelist and pointed at the young farmer. "God told me to tell you that today is the day of your salvation." The farmer's demeanor changed immediately. He began to shake and sober up. He answered that he just couldn't. The word was repeated with great authority and confidence. When the evangelist turned back to the pulpit, the young man followed. He gave his life to Christ and was gloriously saved.

Back to the meal with Mark, the old pastor leaned forward and said, "Mark Welch, that was your grandfather." Mark's mother was a little girl at the time. Mark was stunned. He had never heard the story, but a fact check later proved it to be true. Mark inherited the most important thing a family can pass down. Not only do we receive gifts and talents from our ancestors, we inherit a family spirit. It can be a blessing or a curse. God's blessing is more effective than a large monetary gift. Think what some people do to come to America and become a citizen. Generations beyond that farmer there are new citizens in God's kingdom. Each baby comes into the world with a head start, a benefit. The enemy of our souls does not hesitate to mess with our very young children. As a citizen of the Kingdom of God, each little child is a VIP, protected by their own personal body guard. Furthermore, a praying wife and mother is an ambassador of Christ to her family, covering them all with blessing and goodness.

Robert Monroe, who founded The Monroe Institute, taught people how to step out of their bodies. He describes a dangerous world full of a variety of entities, some of which are quite creepy. Eventually, it becomes clear that his adventures out of body are being managed by unseen forces. In his third book, the spirits assure Bob that there is no God, no Big Brother, and only false gods intervene in our human lives or history. That is certainly a contradiction, because Bob Monroe had plenty of intervention in his life from an early age. It wasn't a biblical intervention of course, but his 'guides' claim to have saved his life at least four times. 

Monroe's guides ignore the fact that a light and energy being from beyond space and time became a man named Jesus the Christ. He walked the earth with humans for 33 years in order to perfectly represent the true nature of God. He fulfilled a thousand years of Old Testament prophecy, raised the dead, healed the sick, died for all mankind, and was resurrected. Somehow, Monroe's guides didn't notice. Jesus was totally ignored in their universe. Not a word about Him, although so many others have seen Him. The persistent denial of all those spirits and of Bob himself, who kept asking about the existence of God, and who trusted their answers, tells me far more about Monroe's guides than about God. It tells me that they are lost, lost, lost, and Bob Monroe fell easily into their pit of deception.

The reason I know about this story is that Mark Welch was our pastor for quite a few years, and later his lovely wife and ministry partner helped us sell our house.

My husband Ted on the left, Mark on the right.