Jay was my neighbor across the street for over forty years.  He knew me longer than just about anyone else in Stockton, and he had seen me at my worst… like the time during the “seventeen years of wedded blight,” the way my wife, Linda, described our marriage, when I rode out of the driveway on the hood of our car with my wife trying to leave me after she had learned that I had been unfaithful to her.

Jay had known me when I “put the plug in the jug” and joined AA.  Jay had known me when I came to faith in Christ, but he didn’t know why because I hadn't shared it with him. Jay also knew that my marriage was back in tact and much better than ever.

Jay had been on my “Ten Most Wanted List” for several years when one day he accepted my invitation to “learn more about what the Bible says about eternal life.”  After all, he was now retired and had just had his second heart by-pass operation.

We, along with his best friend, a strong believer, started Operation Timothy.  We’d gotten to Book 2, Chapter 5, if I recall, where it says, “Now that you are His…”  At that point I said to Jay, “You’re not His, Jay, we can't go further”  As such, after prayer and discussion with Linda, we switched over to the Gospel of John, and after going through it in some degree of depth, we tackled the Book of Acts.  We met each Wednesday evening for an hour and a half, and finally, after over two and one-half years, I said to my wife, something like, “It’s just not working, I’m going to offer Jay one more opportunity to come to faith in Christ, and then I’m looking for another Timothy."

Jay still refused my offer.  Not in a way as to cause me to shake the dust off, but….

Several years later Jay’s daughter, a devout believer, called to tell me that Jay was in Hospice and wondered if I’d like to see him.  I said sure and met with him that afternoon.  He was on his death bed and had very little time left.  I again asked him to give his life to Christ while he still could.  He still refused. 

Linda and I went out of town for the weekend.  Jay died the evening before our return.  What could I say?  The next morning the door bell rang.  It was Jay’s daughter; very tearful, of course.  She reiterated that Jay had died the previous night, but before he had died he had told her to be "sure and tell Ric Masten that he had accepted Christ as His Savior and LORD."

Was the two and one-half years a waste of time?  You tell me. 

ow are you doing with your Timothy’s?  Hang in there. 

Solus Christus!

Ric Masten
Team Leader
CBMC of the Monterey Peninsula