The Sting and the Victory
Donald Morris
Table of Contents
The Sting … and the Victory
Three young teenage boys learn that there is a greater sting than the sting of fire, but there is victory in even the worst trial.
"Don, the farming facts are simple...Whatever a man sows, that is exactly what he reaps."
Young Gail Brown had recently turned 15. He had "grown up" physically and His arms bulged with "farm boy" muscles. Still, in heart, he was just a boy.
Ned Brown, Gail's 13-year-old cousin, lived 3 or 4 miles away on another farm. Gail and his 12-year-old brother Mark were Ned's best friends. The three boys would often spend their Sunday afternoons together.
It was Easter Sunday. Ned's parnts had invited his cousins Gail and Mark over for Sunday afternoon. After dinner the boys dashed to the bam. There they played in the hay loft, leaping over and around the huge piles of hay and building forts with the hay bales.
Then they went into the shed with the animals, tossing them bits of food and watching them scramble. The little pigs were the funniest—they were hogs, for sure. Aunt Ruth found the boys there around 4:30 p.m. Back inside she told Uncle Bruce, "Well, they're out there feeding those little pigs." Surely, no harm could come from that!
Suddenly, the boys had a real brainstorm. They would kill some pigeons and build a fire to roast them. They stampeded for the house. But Aunt Ruth said, "No! You boys can 't build any fires—it's windy and things are dry. You just can't build any fires today." She didn't see Ned snitch a box of safety matches as they went out the door.
Outside the weather wasn't inviting. It was overcast and a light snow was blowing. The boys looked for a place to build a fire; they would be very careful.
As they wandered back behind the barn, someone thought of the dust collector which was down in a hollow some distance behind the bam. If they built a fire there, no one would be able to see them from the house.
The dust collector was part of an old hammer mill. It was a large coneshaped metal container six feet in diameter at the base and ten feet high. A 30 inch long, 18 inch diameter pipe extended up into it from the middle of the base. The boys had to crawl through this pipe to enter the dust collector. What a perfect hideout! Why hadn't they thought of it before?
The boys found a small metal bucket in the bam and filled it with fuel oil. They carried a few com cobs from the bam and gathered some additional sticks, enough for a nice little blaze.
Two ot them rocked the dust collector to a near verticle position while the third propped it up with a shingle to expose the bottom hole. Wriggling through the hole, they climbed up the 18 inch diameter pipe into the inner compartment. The last one in passed the fuel oil, com cobs and sticks to the others. The dust collector was tipped a little too far for comfort, so they kicked out the shingle and let it settle down over their entrance hole. The new-found club house was nicely sheltered from the wind and resembled an Indian teepee with a vent hole in the top.
Piling the com cobs and sticks at the bottom of the center cylinder, they poured on all the fuel oil and lit it up. As they sat around the outside of the cylinder on the floor, the flames leaped out of the top of the cylinder above them. The vent hole was working fme.
The boys felt safe enough. The flame cast a comfortable red reflection around the inside of their "teepee." Man, it was neat! They couldn't remember when they had had so much fun. Soon they were talking about cars and other things, in a warm, comfortable camaraderie.
The teepee warmed up pretty quickly. It felt nice and comfortable then it was a bit too hot. They stripped off their coats—that helped a bit. Then they realized that the center pipe was getting " oven hot."
"Let' s get out of here! " exclaimed Ned. He stood up quickly, only to find himself in unbearable heat. Ducking back below the top of the pipe, the boys escaped the worst of the heat.
At first the boys panicked. Their exit was efficiently blocked by a furiously buming fire. "Help me rock it over," called Gail. Standing up briefly, they tried to rock it, but the heat up above was too intense. They couldn't stay up long enough to get it over.
"Get that fire out! " was their next thought. They dropped the fuel oil bucket upside down on it, but that didn't seem to help; it just wasn't large enough. Then Gail tried to snuff it out with his coat. That only added more fuel to the fire.
Now the boys began to shout and bang on the side of the dust collector with their fists. Surely someone would hear them and would come to help. Time passed and their oven just got hotter. It became unbearable and hard to breathe even at the bottom.
There was one 6-inch hole near the bottom. Gail and Ned made Mark (the youngest) stay at that hole for air. Then Ned remembered his pocket knife. Maybe they could hack their way out through the sheet metal. All three boys soon had their knives at work. But, pocket knives were not made for sheet metal work and they broke quickly. Before the knives broke, though, the boys were able to make two more breathing holes.
Stooping down to their breathing holes, the boys began to think more rationally. Mark said, "Let' s pray!" Mark prayed eamestly that they would be able to get out of their fiery fumace.
Mark was the only one of the three boys that had trusted in the Lord Jesus to save him from his sins. Now he realized the need of the other boys. Lifting his head from the air hole for a moment, he asked them if they wanted to be saved.
Gail seemed to have the sense that " this was it!" In a few minutes all three of them might be dead. He admitted freely, " Well, I 'm not saved." Ned admitted that he was not saved either.
No doubt the memory of an evening a few weeks before flooded in upon Gail. He had been troubled on that Sunday evening. Mr. McCullough had given a stirring talk about God's love in giving His only Son to die for our sins. The message was simple: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting live." John 3:16.
That had been beautiful, but Mr.
McCullough had not stopped there. He also had spoken of the everlasting punishment reserved for those who reject Jesus, God's way of salvation. Now, Tom McCullough had a way of preaching that left no doubt of exactly what would happen to someone who died in their sins. The solemn reality of the "lake of fire" had been no laughing matter after that gospel meeting.
Dad had known Gail was really troubled when he had gotten out of bed to come into his parents' bedroom. He had talked with them for a long time that night. Gail had been sure he didn't want to die in his sins, and he had known he wasn't saved yet. But to give up his own will to come to Jesus had seemed like a big commitment.
Dad had explained that the Lord Jesus took away the sting of death. He bore the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross. Now those who trust in the Lord Jesus don't have to fear death. Then he had quoted that verse, "Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin... But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.
Finally Gail had gone back to bed. What a struggle! He just hadn't been able to make up his mind.
Now, in his oven prison, Gail was faced with the decision again—and face it he did! "I'm in eamest," Gail said to Mark. And indeed, very eamestly, Gail prayed to the Lord Jesus. There in a "hot box " he laid claim upon the Lord Jesus Christ as his own Savior.
Gail knew the gospel message very well. He acknowledged freely that he was a sinner in need of a Savior. God says, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is etemal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures... He was buried and... He rose again the third day." 1 Corinthians 15:3,4. "rhe blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7. "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." Acts 13:38.
Gail trusted the Lord to save him. What a peace came to him as he understood more fully that Bible verse, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Acts 16:31.
Now the Bible verse his father had quoted to him came back to his mind: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin.... But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:55-57. He quoted the verse out loud to the other boys.
The furnace did not stop! The heat was almost unbearable. Gail knew that something had to be done. He stood up and furiously rocked the dust collector back and forth, but with no success.
Back down for a quick breather at his air hole, Gail almost sobbed out his prayer, "Lord, if someone has to die, I want it to be me!"
Up again, Gail was rocking the dust collector furiously.
Still no success!
Back for a breather... up again... oh, it was so hot!... rock that thing!
"Gail, come down for some air!"
The minutes passed by; the heat took its toll on one fine young man! Gail couldn't stay up there, the heat was just too intense. But after each breathing spell he was up again.
Finally, as the fuel burned out, the fire began to die. It had been so hot that even the solder seams were melted.
A little more help from the other boys this time and the dust collector was over on its side. In a few moments the boys were out. The heat was over-the suffering was just beginning. But God had answered their prayers. They were out of their "hot box."
It was several hundred yards up a gentle slope to the farm house. The boys went as fast as they could, but Gail lagged behind. Finally he was on his hands and knees. My, it was a long way up that hill!
Aunt Ruth saw Ned and Mark coming toward the house. They were black! She greeted them with, "Have you boys been playing in the creek again?" She was annoyed—what a mess!
But Ned jerked a match book from his pocket and blurted out, "I'll never play with matches again!" He threw them down on the floor and started crying. "Mother, we have really gotten ourselves burnt bad!"
"Well, I can see your shirtis kind of scorched," said Aunt Ruth. "You'd better take your shirts off and go into the bathroom. We'll get you into a tub of water and see how bad you are."
When the shirt came off, the skin came with it! Aunt Ruth gasped, " Oh!" Ned's sister went into hysterics! Uncle Bruce came running!
" That' s pretty bad! " he exclaimed. "We had better call the emergency unit!"
"Where's Gail?"
"I don't know. He was coming ,
Uncle Bruce was out the back door fast. Gail had stopped half way up the hill. He was on his hands and knees. His head was hanging down and there was an "out-of-it" look on his face. Gail was a big boy, but Uncle Bruce's adrenalin was going now. He picked him up on his shoulder and staggered up the hill to the house.
The ambulance was there in minutes and they loaded in all three boys plus Aunt Ruth. "Water!" gasped Gail. "Give me water!" The boys stared at the intravenous bottle hanging from the ceiling of the ambulance. They were so thirsty. Couldn't they have water?
The ambulance sped to the hospital, and the boys were brought to the emergency room. They were so concerned about each other! Marks's body was covered with 10% burns, Ned's with 20% burns, but Gail was burned on 35% of his body. Soon they were wheeled out of emergency into separate rooms.
When Gail's mother arrived, Gail was awake, in agonizing pain. She knew he might not live, and what concerned her most was the question, Has he trusted in the Lord as his Savior? Leaning close to him, through tears, she pleaded, "Gail, trust the Lord!
In spite of all the pain, a look of peace and assurance flashed across his face. Immediately he nodded, "I know, Mother." That was all—his last words! A short time afterward Gail went into a coma. His scorched lungs began filling with fluid, drowning him. He died at 2:30 a.m. the next moming.
But how could Gail have such assurance when he was dying? He trusted in Jesus! True assurance can never come from trusting ourselves, because we often fail. But Jesus never fails! Trust in Jesus and you will have trusted in the one who never fails! You too can have this assurance in your greatest trial.
Gail died because of his attempt to save the lives of his brother and cousin. That is so much like the death of the Lord Jesus! Jesus died so that we might live.
"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have tumed every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:5,6.
" Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have etemal life." John 3:15.
Gail was saved in the eleventh hour of his life—the last moment—just in time! Nobody has a promise of life tomorrow. God solemnly offers salvation today.
"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1. "Prepare to meet thy God." Amos 4:12.
When the Lord Jesus died at Calvary, a thief hung on the cross beside Him. In his eleventh hour he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Jesus answered him immediately, "Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise." Luke 23:42,43. You do not know when you will die, but God says that "it is appointed unto men once to die." Hebrews 9:27. Trust in the Lord Jesus now and you will have the assurance that your appointment will be with Jesus in heaven.
Sequel
I listened soberly as Bruce and Ruth Brown finished telling the story of Gail and Mark and Ned. "What about Mark and Ned?" I Asked. "Whatever happened to them."
Well, Ned was the different one. He had prayed when they were caught in the fire, but his only interest in God was literally as a fire escape. Coming out of the fire, Ned would have preferred to have forgotten the whole thing. Fire leaves its scars, however, on both our bodies and our souls, and as the bums healed, the memory became a great bittemess to him. Why should Gail have died? He felt that God had not been fair.
Good old Don Elefritz had been the counseler in the christian camp that Ned went to that summer. Don had pressed Ned to come to the Lord. Whew! Ned had set him straight! In not any uncertain terms he told Don to "Bug off!—When I'm ready I'll come to you. Until then I don't want to hear another word of it."
Throughout his teen years Ned was rebellious. The standards by which his Christian parents lived just didn't fit Ned. Yet he realized that there was right and wrong. He was the proverbial "strong-vvilled child." He tried to put his life into perpective, only to find that a life lived according to our own will really doesn't have much perspective.
Ned felt his case was hopeless. He felt that God had failed him when Gail had died. Furthennore, every attempt to put his life in order without God just didn't seem to work. If you let go and got drunk or smoked pot you knew you were wrong and suffered from it. On the other hand, if you really lived straight, your conscience still informed you that you were a sinner. He finally decided that God might be all right for his parents but "not for me!"
Living in a cluistian home was a real trial for a boy who had decided that God wasn't for him. Years of defensive argument led to a superbly developed defensive mechanism. If God isn't for me, then God isn't! simple solution -Ned became an Agnostic!
The real problem with Ned's approach was that "God is!" And, God wasn't through with Ned yet.
Publicly and intellectually Ned was an agnostic. He argued that if there is such a thing as God, he certainly has nothing to do with us.
Not publicly and not intellectually Ned had a recurring conflict within himself. Something or someone he would see would suddenly raise doubts about his stand. Perhaps God really was interested in him. He would quickly squelch these thoughts, but inwardly he felt that there was a continual battle.
Ned longed intensely for fulfillment in his life. He met a lovely girl. They didn't speak much of God for he wanted most of all to forget about God. Eventually they married and had a beautiful baby girl.
As most normal young couples they had their financial problems. Ned told his wife, "Well, you'll just have to trust!" She looked at him strangely. "Trust what?" she asked. He was embarrassed. Just what did you trust in anyway if you couldn't trust in God.
The baby became a youngster and his wife decided that every child should learn about God. Without consulting Ned she took the child to a nearby Church Sunday School. Whew, did Ned blow up! "Don't take her to that church!" he insisted. "They are about the farthest out of any I know." She responded, "But what difference does it make if you don't believe in God anyway. A church is a church." Still she yielded for the sake of peace. But, Ned felt confused and challenged.
Ned's sister Rita had been his only family ally. Then she became a "turncoat" and "got saved." Ned told her he didn't want to talk about it. "Ned, you have to deal with this," she pleaded. "You can't go on like this forever." He didn't want to think about it, but he couldn't get away from it.
One day Dad called up. "Son," he said, "I know you have your own life to live, and I don't want to interfere; but wouldn't you like to talk about the Lord." But Ned just couldn't confront the issue. It seemed like there was no solution, and no use talking about it either.
In trying to bring order and meaning into his life, Ned worked harder at his job. He became the manager of a thriving local gas station. He wanted to provide well for his family to be successful.
An old friend dropped by the station occassionally, filled up with gas and stopped for a few moments of talk. It was Don Elefritz, the old summer camp counseler. He never pushed things anymore. Usually he just gave a gentle invitation, sometimes to a family winter camp, or a couples sing. Ned never attended, but neither did he fail to recognize the warm, good-humored peacefulness of old Don. He really seemed to have something to live for.
Fall hunting season breathed its "call of the wild" to Ned. He made his seasonal weekend hunting trips out to the old stamping grounds in western Iowa. After a brisk day in the woods he would settle down in the old farm kitchen with Uncle Freeman, Gail's father. They would spend an hour of two over a coffee cup, talking about old times. Uncle Freeman's love and peace were beautiful he seemed to be living for something higher than this life. Amazingly there seemed to be no bitterness in Him about Gail's death. He was so accepting and warm, never pushy but always concerned about others.
Sometimes Ned would visit with his grandmother. Now there was love personified, and of course always accompanied by toast and apricots. That was Grandma warmth and peace always living for something outside herself.
Even nature seemed to witness to Ned. One beautiful clear winter evening the stars seemed so magnificent. Ned was awedby his creator God. That night he came in from the service station after his wife was already in bed. He watched Johnny Carson for a bit, but then he headed for bed. Somehow he felt strangely moved inside. Everything he had ever tried had left him so empty, so unfulfilled. Now here was a God so great, so magnificent! "God," he said, "I don't know where else I can go. Ifyou will have me, here I am." It was that simple. He did not feel a great elation, but he did feel peace, and he settled down for a delightful, restful sleep.
The next morning he awoke with a strange feeling of peace. He pulled open the curtains for a quick peek. A beautiful tree stood there like a special witness from nature. "Well," he smiled, "Of course there's a God."
The next few weeks were confusing. Sometimes the old doubts would roll in upon him. He found that personally he wasn't greatly changed. Sometimes he wondered, "Am I really saved?"
Back at home Dad Brown frowned at Mom Brown. "What's going, on at Ned's," he asked. "I keep hearing little remarks about God. I think I'd better see if he would like to talk about it."
"Why sure," was Ned's surprising answer, so the next evening Dad and John Montgomery were in Ned's living room, enjoying a cup of hot coffee.
"I don't seem to be meeting the standard," said Ned. He felt like one big f ailure. John was so helpful. "Don't you know, Ned, we never really meet God's standard—God's standard is perfection. It was Jesus who met God's Standard.
Jesus was perfect, and as a perfect sacrifice He can remove every stain of sin from us. God Himself brings us up to the level of His own standard through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
It all seemed to dawn suddenly on Ned. It was all because of the Lord Jesus and His death on the cross. "Jesus met the standard I couldn't meet," he exclaimed. The doubts were gone. Now he was resting on the Lord Jesus Christ, not on himself.
"You know," Ned said, "I realized that God loved me; I just didn't realize how much He loved me!" He just shook his head in wonder. "God is more gracious than any of us. He will pursue us when we have given up on ourselves. He pursues us when everyone else has given up on us. NO ONE IS BEYOND HOPE!!!"
"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." John 3:16.
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." Isaiah 1:18.
"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." Psalm 34:8
EDITOR'S NOTE: If you need additional help concerning your soul's salvation or concerning your pathway in following the Lord Jesus Christ after you are saved, you may call the editor in the evening at: (216) 322-6002 or write to: The Editor P.O. Box 1874 Elyria, Ohio 44036
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