Column: Man’s journey with Christ begins with the radio

By DR. MARK ROSS/Columnist

He was 102-years-old and wanted me to baptize him. Health troubles prohibited immersion, but that did not rule out baptism. I planned to sprinkle a small amount of water on his head, hoping that John the Baptist was not looking. Yet, before baptism, I wanted to talk to him about God. I wanted to know his story.
“Do you know Christ?” I asked this frail little man.
When he nodded, I asked him how.
“I know him by the radio,” was his answer.
“What do you mean that you know Christ by the radio?” I asked curiously.
“About 50 years ago, I got real sick. We were flat broke and I had just started a new job. Nobody had insurance back then; a least folks like me did not. Anyway, I knew this was serious. I was bleeding and everything. I also knew that missing work would be the end of my family and me. One night, I was listening to the radio and Oral Roberts came on. He played some music and talked about God and about Jesus Christ a while. I had not been to church much and hardly understood anything he said. Then he mentioned that he was going to pray for everyone that was sick. Oral Roberts then told me to lay my hand on the radio and close my eyes and Christ would heal me. Something happened that night. I cannot explain it, but three days later I stopped bleeding and I never had the problem again. That is how I know Christ by the radio. He healed me.”
I did not know what to say. What I could not do was confess what I was thinking. Like many, I have had doubts about radio or television preachers. While generalizations are generally inaccurate, TV and radio preachers often sound like predators looking for people with a lot of faith and a little money. Sometimes those same people lose both.
I can remember making fun of the whole idea of laying one’s hand on a TV or radio; feel the static. “Keep those cards and letters coming,” I have said more than once, mocking their pleas for money. I used to say under my breath, “Oral Roberts will not be making a hospital visit or go by a home where there has been a death.”
I have said all of those things and more. However, I could not confess any of that to the man who had come to me for baptism. As he described the experience, his hands shook and his voice broke. There were tears in his eyes. He knew Christ by the radio.
In the book of Acts, Paul came across disciples in Ephesus who seemed to be half-Christian. All they knew was John the Baptist. They knew nothing of the Holy Spirit and maybe nothing of Jesus. Yet, Paul baptized them and laid his hands upon them.
Any Sunday morning in Smyth County, one can find a vast assortment of churches to attend. They are like the people that fill them, unique. Some are loud. Some are quiet. Some of the ministers wear robes. Some dress intentionally formal, while others are intentionally informal. There is music that is soft and slow and music that is fast and loud. Some of the churches use candles; some use spotlights. Some have pews; some have benches and others theatre seats. There is formality and there is spontaneity.
Sometimes I am tempted to judge these differences as better or worse, right or wrong. What I fail to see is that in each of these churches, strange as it may seem, someone comes to know God. I may not understand it, but it happens. It does not happen because of the music, the minister, the building or the liturgy. It happens because of Him.
As I sprinkled the water on the old man, he closed his eyes, just as he did 50 years ago when he laid his hand on his radio. It was all the same, a man, a prayer and a miracle.

Dr. Mark Ross is the pastor of Marion Baptist Church. To learn more about MBC, visit http://www.marionbaptistchurchva.com/