Mrs. Church


Nearly fifty years ago I was a brand new born-again Christian.  My wife and I were invited to attend a home fellowship group in the home of a couple named Dick and Connie.

Dick and Connie started a Christian bookstore in our town in a very small location on Main Street.  They soon outgrew their small store location, and found that a larger location had recently become available due to the death of Mr. Church, the shoe repairman in our town.  (Remember this is fifty years ago!).  I had casually known Mr. & Mrs. Church because they attended the church that my family attended.

So they contacted Mrs. Church, and arranged to rent her Main Street building for their bookstore.

I had the privilege of helping Dick and Connie to prepare this new location, installing book cases, etc.  The first day I was at that location with Dick and Connie Mrs. Church came storming into the store, walked up to Dick and declared rather loudly, 'I understand that this is going to be a Christian bookstore!  I will not allow you to sell Christian books in my store!"

Dick replied, "We just want to tell people about Jesus."

Mrs. Church's anger increased, and she said, "I also understand that you plan to teach people and pray for people in the back room."

Dick replied, "We just want to help people to know Jesus better."

Mrs. Church's face turned a nasty shade of purple, and she said, "If you say that Name again I might just have a heart attack and die right here and now!"

Dick replied, "It would be okay if you knew Jesus."

Mrs. Church immediately turned around and stormed out of the store, and they never again saw her in person.


Recently I saw a video on YouTube.com entitled, "I am a Christian, why am I in hell?"  It is a two hour long testimony of a woman who, with her husband, were both born-again Christians, both very eager to pass the knowledge of Jesus on to others, and were very committed to the church they attended.  Then the church started a building program, and they got even more involved in the process of helping the pastor and elders build a bigger church house.  Then one night as she and her husband were sleeping her spirit left her body and she was taken to hell and experienced the fires of hell.  All she could do is to cry out to Jesus for mercy.  Eventually Jesus appeared to her in hell and told her that she was not yet consigned to hell, but she was on her way there because she had gradually been led astray from Him to serve the pastor and the church elders in their church building project.  At that point in the video she made the statement that the Holy Spirit had been gradually squeezed out of her life, and a religious spirit had taken His place with lots of activities but no spiritual fruit.  She was no longer abiding in Jesus, The True Vine, but had unwittingly been led astray from Him by a seducing spirit of religion.

So, having watched this woman's testimony video, the thought came to me that Mrs. Church was probably channeling a religious spirit which was very hostile to Jesus and His Name!

Thankfully the Name of Jesus was powerful enough to drive Mrs. Church and the spirit she appeared to be channeling out of the Christian bookstore!

Dear reader, please feel free to give me your thoughts about this page.

Cordially yours,

Rob 5/8/26