Would You Have Considered Stabbing a Preacher in the Face with a Pitchfork? (True Story)

A Tool of the Devil?

I was reminiscing yesterday about the time back in 1974 when I was working at a hardware store in Walhalla, SC while I was a Bible Major in college. The owner of the store would often hired people who were unable to pay their bill so they could work off their credit balance while keeping their goods.

One such person I worked with was a twenty year old man named Cecil ((now deceased) who had just lost his job and was working to pay off his debt) who had been once employed with the town of Walhalla.

Cecil (who wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box) told me he had lost his job with the town’s sanitation department due to a fight he had with a preacher (a man pastoring a small church unable to support a full time minister and his family) also employed with the town's sanitation department.

Cecil told me that, while collecting trash one day, he and the preacher got into an argument over who was going to drive the truck and who would load the trash.  When the disagreement became heated, Cecil said "the preacher pulled a knife" on him and threaten to kill him.  When I asked Cecil what he planned to do, Cecil told me he “was going to stab the preacher in the face with my pitchfork”.

In short, the neighbors called the police at which point both men were arrested and then fired.

The point of this real event is for the Christian community to solve: 

If you (as a Christian) were in Cecil’s position that day, how would you have dealt with this knife wheeling preacher (especially if the police had not showed up)?

       A. Remind him that God is watching and will judge him. That, especially as a preacher, he has a testimony to uphold before God and his church.  (Titus 1: 6-9)

      B. Tell the preacher you are a true Christian as you dropped your pitchfork and that you are willing to suffer for the cause of Christ.  (Matthew 5: 38 – 48)

      C. Tell the preacher you want to meet with the deacons of his church to resolve this fight as the Apostles Paul sternly warns Christians to stay out of the secular legal system. (1 Corinthians 6: 1-11)

       D. Held your ground, even if it meant stabbing this preacher (a man of God and brother in Christ) in the face with a pitchfork.  (Luke 22: 36)

     E. Or, do you have an entirely different way you would have dealt with your brother in Christ (the preacher) if you had been there. (Remember, as a Christian, you have both a testimony and high moral standards to uphold as the unsaved world is watching).