Flanders Nickels and Jodi DeGroot, the woman he led to salvation last week, are on a rendezvous at Selfridge Park in Ripon, Wisconsin. She is dressed in a most elegant purple prom gown for this date. He finds out from her that she has also fifty other prom dresses to dress up in. He believes that these will hinder her spiritual growth as a new convert in Christ. As a believer himself, he tells her about the Biblical incorruptible crown in I Corinthians. Therein the Bible says that that crown will be given to the believers in Heaven who let Christ control their lives on Earth. But Jodi is letting her prom dresses control her life on Earth instead. Miss DeGroot must choose between the incorruptible crown and her menagerie.
THE INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN
Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
“Ah,” said Flanders beholding his new girlfriend Jodi in her prom dress, “my elegant lady in an elegant dress.”
“I can see that you like prom gowns from the old days just as I do, Flanders,” she said.
“Yes, Jodi,” he said. “Prom gowns from the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s.”
“People nowadays in the twenty-first century call these kinds of prom gowns ‘ugly dresses,’” said Jodi.
“They are not ugly to me,” he said. “And the one you have on now is surely most becoming.”
“It is my favorite,” she said. Her prom dress of the day on this date was all solid purple prima satin. Its little prom jacket covered her shoulders with padded shoulders, and it covered her arms with long sleeves, and it reached down her torso to her midriff. Its bodice portion had thick strings that climbed up to her shoulders and back down her back, and it descended along the top in a V-neck, and it ended at the bottom in a “V” of a Basque waistline. Its skirt portion had three flounces, whose bottom
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flounce reached halfway between her knees and her ankles. Its back had a long zipper, and it had a big fancy bow tie just above the rump. And this prom gown girl was barefoot. Jodi spun in place before her new boyfriend now, and she said, “Even though this prom gown is considered formal wear, it still feels good and comfortable for me to have on, Flanders.”
“Ah, my pretty brown-eyed girl,” he praised her comeliness.
“Yes!” she said.
“And my pretty brown-haired girl,” he praised her comeliness further. Her long brown tresses cascaded down the sides of her head in long, gentle curls.
“You mean, ‘brunette,’ Flanders,” she said in flirt. “Brown-haired girls are supposed to be called ‘brunettes.’”
“It is written, O fair Jodi Ann DeGroot, ‘Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.’ Proverbs 31:29-30,” he told her his Bible verse “about her.”
“Are you saying that I am both beautiful and godly?” she asked.
“Yes, Jodi!” he said. “I am.” Then he said, “To me, you are the ‘most-worthy’ of women, because you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you. Only born-again Christians have the Holy Spirit within themselves.”
“There must not be lots of pretty girls who are Christians out there for you, Flanders,” said Jodi
in thoughts out loud.
“You are the only one, Jodi,” he said.
“Well, you are for me a hunk of a guy yourself, Flanders,” she said. “And you have the Holy Spirit inside you, too. You are a gentleman of a Christian to me all of the time.” They then looked around and took in the outdoor aesthetics of this park in Ripon, Wisconsin. She said, “What a nice park this is for our rendezvous, Flanders.”
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“Last week, I led you to salvation here, Jodi,” he said.
“The best thing that ever happened to me,” said Miss DeGroot. “What did the sign say? Selfridge Park?”
“Yes. This is Selfridge Park,” he said.
“And what is the name of that river right over there next to the park?” she asked.
“It is not a river,” he said. “It is called ‘Gothic Mill Pond.’”
“Nice pond. Nice grassy bank. Nice park,” she said.
“Nice grills. Nice picnic tables. Nice hot dogs,” he said.
“Are they ready yet?” she asked. He shook his head; then he nodded his head. “Don’t hot dogs burn if they are grilled with a wood fire, Flanders?” she asked.
“I do believe that that is what my big brother told me when he gave me these little pieces of wood, Jodi,” he told her.
“He is quite the woodworker,” she said.
Pointing to the grill, Flanders proclaimed with a grin, “Indian Rosewood, Teak, Black Walnut, Coco-Bola, Brazilian Rosewood.” He then said, “That’s what Big Brother told me.”
“He quite knows his wood,” said Miss DeGroot.
And boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord sat down at a picnic table, thanked God for the food, and did eat. After they were filled up, Flanders said, “I brought the Bible today. Did you bring the horseshoes?”
“That I did, Flanders,” she said.
“Battle of the sexes in a game of horseshoes, woman!” teased Flanders.
“Like in the women against the men?” she asked.
“Yes. But in this case for us today, the woman against the man, Jodi,” he said.
They looked at the horseshoes now upon the bench of the picnic table. Miss DeGroot said, “I
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want the silver ones, because they are shiny.”
And Flanders Nickels said, “I want the black ones, because they are dull.”
“We are both happy that way,” she said.
“Let us play, girl!” he said in the spirit of merriment.
And the girl went first. She stood there, pondered for a moment, then drew back her arm and brought it forward in an underhand throw. Behold, her horseshoe traveled only halfway across the horseshoe field and landed with a thump upon the short green grass. She laughed. Flanders laughed. “Whoops!” said the young woman.
“What do you think happened there, O Miss DeGroot?” he teased her.
“Oh, I know what happened there,” she said. “I couldn’t help it. My prom gown got in the way of my throw.”
“Women!” he said in festive tantalization.
“I’ve still got my second horseshoe to throw,” she said. “I’m not done yet. Just you wait and see, Flanders.” She stood there, this time pondering for a long moment; then she tossed her second horseshoe of this first round. Lo, this time it went straight up into the air very high, and it landed only ten feet from where she stood. She put her hand to her head in surprise, and she said, “Oops!”
He said to her, “What do you think happened this time?”
She said, “It’s what happens to my throwing arm when I try to pitch a heavy horseshoe. It is too heavy for a little woman like myself, and I do not know exactly when to let it go from my hand. It is hard to let go, and it is hard not to let go. And it goes up far and goes forward not far. Mom has the same problem with horseshoes. I inherited that from her in my genes, I think,”
“This time my girlfriend blames heredity,” said Flanders.
“I still have not seen you throw a horseshoe, Flanders,” she said in mirth. “I don’t see you making any ringers yet.”
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“In the words of a smart woman, Miss DeGroot, ‘I’m not done yet. Just you wait and see,’” he did retort.
“Show me a real man, Flanders,” she said.
Flanders stood there, confident, pondered not at all long, and tossed his first horseshoe of this first round. Behold, the clinking of a leaner! “Two points! Two points! Two points!” chanted Flanders Nickels, doing a little jig where he stood in a great show.
“You are the luckiest man in the whole world, Flanders Arckery Nickels,” said Jodi in a catcall.
“I’m good!” he said. “Would you like to see me do one better?”
“A ringer?” she asked.
“Uh huh,” he said, nodding.
“If you get a ringer, I will curtsy in my prom gown before you and call you, ‘My lord,’” she said. “But if you do not get a ringer, you will bow in your blue jeans and shirt and vest before me and call me, ‘My lady.’”
“You’re on,” he said.
“Shake on it, Flanders,” she said. They shook hands on the bet.
He then prepared his second throw of the game, this time pondering for a most long while; then he tossed his horseshoe. And this one also clinked with the sound of iron on iron. But it was not the horseshoe hitting the stake in a ringer. Rather, it was the horseshoe hitting the leaner, and knocking that leaner away from the stake, and also that second horseshoe itself flying well away from the pit. And now both competitors saw the open pit that Flanders had made for himself with this second horseshoe.
“Woe! Woe! I am the unluckiest man in the whole world,” said Flanders. “I lost my leaner. I lost all of my points. I lost the bet.”
“Yes, Flanders. You lost the bet. Do your man thing now,” said the wily young lady.
And the gentleman bowed before the lady and he addressed her, “My lady.”
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“My fair lady,” she said in coquetry. “Say it.”
“My fire lidy,” he said in overt dialect.
“What’s that? Cockney?” she asked.
“Hackney?” he asked.
“Oh, Flanders, you’re too much,” she said.
“All’s fair in love and war, Miss DeGroot,” he said.
“And in horseshoes, too, Flanders,” she said. “You are so good, and I am so bad, and yet here we both are tied.”
And they continued their game in the park, and in the end, Flanders won in a shutout. Carrying their horseshoes back to the picnic table, they set them on one bench, and they sat down side-by-side on the other bench.
“Something is coming that I get to show you,” said the prom dress lady. “Oo, I cannot wait.”
“Neither can I,” he said, excited and mystified. “What is it, Jodi?”
“You’ll see. We’ll both see,” she said.
“You do not know what it is?” he asked.
“Oh, I know what it is. It is just that I get to see it again, this time with you, boyfriend,” she hinted.
“What might it be?” he asked, curious and anticipatory both at once.
“Oh, I cannot wait for it to come,” she said in subtlety and mystery.
Just then a brown U.P.S. truck pulled into this Selfridge Park, and a deliveryman brought out of his truck a big wooden treasure chest on a six-wheeled handcart, and he wheeled it up to where the two were sitting at the picnic table. Flanders almost asked the workman, “What’s in the box?” but he knew that deliverymen knew not such things as this regarding what they they delivered, and he said nothing.
Then Miss DeGroot signed a form, thanked the U.P.S. man, and the man left, driving away back down
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the road. This was indeed most odd. Flanders was mystified; Jodi was not mystified. Who ever heard of United Parcel Service delivering a parcel to a park? “Let’s open it and have a see,” said Miss DeGroot, knowing well its contents.
“What’s in the box?” asked Flanders.
“You repeat yourself,” said Jodi with a grin. And she opened up this big wooden treasure chest.
Behold, a menagerie of prom gowns of all colors and of all fabrics and of all styles within!
“Whoa!” said Flanders Nickels, awed and surprised.
“Rummage around in there, Flanders,” said the prom gown girl. “Touch them. Pick them up. Hold them.”
He did so as if spellbound by magic. He, too, ravished these prom gowns within as did their owner. There were red ones and black ones and blue ones and green ones and purple ones and yellow ones and white ones and orange ones—all of these prom dresses of one solid color.
“Guess how many I have in there, Flanders,” bragged Jodi DeGroot.
“There has to be a good fifty prom gowns in here, O Jodi!” he said.
“Yes, fifty, Flanders,” she said. “The one I have on now is prom dress number fifty-one.”
“They all shine with a sheen,” he said in delights.
“And they all swish as I walk,” she said. “Most of these prom dresses are made of a fabric called ‘acetate.’ I looked up that word, and the dictionary says this about acetate: that it is made with spun filaments of cellulose taken from wood pulp.”
“What are these other prom dresses made of—the ones that are not the acetate material, Jodi?” he asked.
“Oh, I memorized that, too, Flanders,” she said. “Some are made of organza; some, of satin; some, of crepe; some, of Georgette; some, of chiffon; some, of velvet; some, of silk; and some, of lace.”
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“What a collection!” he said, enamored of his elegant lady’s elegant dresses.
“Go ahead and look at the tags,” said Jodi DeGroot.
He did that and did read the first tag, saying out loud, “ILGWU—Int. Ladies’ Garment Workers Union—made in U.S.A.”
“All of my prom dresses have that exact same tag,” said Jodi. “What a union!”
“And all made in the good old U.S.A.,” said Flanders Nickels, reading more of these identical tags.
“Uh huh,” she said.
“What a crafty and tricky gal you are, having had this menagerie in a treasure chest delivered to this park from home on our rendezvous here,” he said.
“I am sneaky,” she said. Then she said, “And there is more to come.”
“More? What’s coming next?” he asked.
Just then a FedEx delivery truck came up to this park, and the driver got out, and he brought a medium-sized cardboard box out, and he wheeled it up to Jodi on a two-wheeled upright cart. Jodi signed for it, saying, “Thank you, sir,” and the deliveryman drove away.
“This box says, ‘Sauder Woodworking’ on it,’” said Flanders. “Is this also from home, Jodi?”
“No, this one is new for me this time, Flanders,” she said.
“I see a picture of a wardrobe on the front,” he said.
“It is a big clothes rack,” she said.
“And you have to assemble it?” he asked.
“Yes, I must put it together here at the park,” she said. “It is all of wood. Too bad your big brother isn’t here to help out.” Then she said. “Could you help me put it together?”
“I can help,” he said.
“Maybe we can share together how you led me to Christ on our first date here at the park just
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last week, Flanders,” said the prom dress gal in joy over her recent conversion.
“I can build the rack, and you can tell me how you got saved,” he said.
And he began his work, and she began the testimony of her salvation: “I was wearing my all white prom dress that day, the one with all that white lace. And you were this handsome fellow in your suit and tie. You were with your pastor, also in a suit and tie, and you two were walking around this park and telling everybody how to get saved. You two were giving out those special little booklets that said on the cover, ‘How to be saved and know it.’ They were red and white. And they had a prayer on the back that got a lost soul saved from its sins. When I saw you two church men come up to me, that man with you said to you, ‘Your turn, Brother Flanders.’ And you said to that other fellow, ‘My turn, Pastor.’ On my picnic table were two magazines that were perfect for a younger woman like myself—one a Teen magazine for the prom; and the other, a Seventeen magazine also for the prom. I was no longer in high school, but proms always were still in my heart. You came up to me, holding out that salvation tract.” She reached now into her purse and pulled it out. “Thank you for this, Flanders,” she said now in remembrances of last week. She continued, “And you said to me, “Miss, we are from Blessed Hope Baptist Church out spreading the Word of God and the love of Christ. This little booklet tells how a person can go to Heaven when he dies.’
I said then, ‘You are Baptists?’
You said, ‘Yes. Miss.’
I said, ‘I didn’t know Baptists did things like this.’
You said, ‘Pastor and I do.’
I said, ‘I’m glad that you are not Jehovah’s Witnesses. They like to argue.’
And you said, ‘We do not force the Gospel on people. We just tell them about the Saviour and hope that they accept Him into their heart.’
‘What is the Gospel?’ I asked.
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And you told me, ‘That the Lord Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day.’
‘I never heard that before,’ I said.
Then you popped the big question, ‘Miss, do you know where you’re going after you die?’
Surely I had never heard that before! Nobody asked that to me before. And suddenly I got to thinking about all the bad things I did do in my life. And I came to know all at once that I was going to Hell.
And I became afraid for my very soul, Flanders—because of what you just asked. And then I asked you, ‘How can a bad girl go to the good Heaven?’
And you said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.’ And then you said, ‘All
that you need to do to be saved from your sins and from eternity in Hell is to only believe and to only pray.’
‘Only believe; only pray?’ I asked.
‘Yes, miss. Only believe in Jesus. Only pray for salvation,’ you did say to me.
You then went ahead and preached to me wonderful words all about what I needed to believe about the Saviour Jesus Christ. And when you were done, I said, ‘I believe now.’ And then you told me that now I needed to accept Christ’s free gift of eternal life. And to do that, all that I had to do was to pray to God and ask Him for it. And I knew that I had to do that right then. And you led me through
that little prayer on the last page of that salvation tract you gave me. And I said in that prayer for my own salvation: ‘Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner, but I am sorry for my sins. I believe that the Lord Jesus died for me and rose again, and with all my heart I turn from my sin and receive Him as my Saviour right now. Thank You, Lord, for saving me! Amen.’ And, lo, when I was done praying that little prayer, I was saved and on my way to Heaven in my time to come. I became a born-again believer just like you and Pastor, Flanders, because of you and because of Jesus. Thank you for caring for my soul last week here at the park. What a way for us to begin our dating life as girlfriend-and-boyfriend-in-Christ.”
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“Amen to that, Jodi!” said Flanders.
“It looks to me that you’re done,” she said.
“The clothes rack is all put together now,” he said.
“Ah. Pretty soon I can hang up all of my prom gowns for you in the park, Flanders,” said Miss DeGroot.
“Jodi, you have the prom gowns, and you have the wooden wardrobe rack, but you have no hangers,” he said.
Just then the mailman came driving up to where they were at this picnic table. “Why, here they come right now,” she said. “Right on time, Flanders.” The mailman brought out of his little mail truck
a light and big cardboard box. “Thank you,” said Jodi, and she took it and opened it and looked down upon a box full of black plastic hangers. The mailman then drove away, and Flanders was beguiled by this fascinating young lady once again. With a clever wink of her eyes, the prom dress girlfriend began to hang up her fifty prom dresses one-at-a-time upon her rack with her fifty hangers.
In this long while, as he watched, Flanders Nickels went on to tell this girl the testimony of his own salvation of just a few years ago: “I found Christ as personal Saviour, Jodi, at Roadhouse Pizza.”
“Great restaurant. Great pizza,” she said. “Just down the road from here.”
“And great Italian Hoagies—my favorite sandwich of sandwiches,” said Flanders. “That day I first found out about them was the day I first found out about the Saviour of the world that I so needed in my life.”
“Who was it who led you to the Lord, Flanders?” she asked.
“It was Mr. Regalroyal,” said Flanders.
“The history teacher?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“I know him,” she said. “He was my World History teacher in tenth grade.”
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“And he was my U.S. History College Prep teacher in eleventh grade,” said Flanders.
“Nobody likes him but born-again believers and now we, too, Flanders,” said Jodi DeGroot.
“He is an outspoken witness to Christ at our old high school,” said Flanders.
“And he is right about Christ, and they are all wrong about Christ,” said wise Jodi.
He continued his good and true tale of salvation: “I was in ninth grade when Mr, Regalroyal shared the Gospel with me. He taught freshmen Ninth Grade History class. In Freshman History class he taught us kids all about the six world empires mentioned in the Holy Bible—the Egyptian empire and the Assyrian Empire and the Babylonian Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire and the Greek Empire and the Roman Empire. It was a seventh hour class, the last class of the school day. And near the end of this Freshman course, in May, Mr. Regalroyal, teaching us about the Roman Empire, told us about Jesus Christ and the conflict that the Roman government had with God walking around on the Earth. Mr. Regalroyal said that the Jews saw Jesus as a political king Who could deliver them from the Roman tyranny over Israel. But Rome recognized no king but Caesar. But this Jesus came not to conquer the world, but to save the world. And Roman soldiers crucified this Jesus on a cross. And He rose from the grave three days later. And Christianity began to spread across the Roman Empire. After class that May afternoon, I asked Mr. Regalroyal about this Christ of Christianity, and he asked me if I wanted to hear more, and I said that I surely did. And he invited me to eat with him at Roadhouse Pizza right after school that day. And he treated me to my first Italian Hoagie and told me all about this Jesus the Saviour of the world, Jodi.”
Flanders Nickels continued his true story of personal salvation, “Mr. Regalroyal there at the restaurant went on to tell me, ‘Flanders, all of the secular textbooks of history all omit Jesus in their chapters, and Jesus is the most historical Person in all of history. There is no more famous Person in this world’s six thousand years of history than He. The high school history book writers refuse to tell of God when He walked this Earth. And the college history book writers refuse to acknowledge in
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their chapters this God-man to Whom we are all accountable. Historians hate Christ the Lord. And, further, good Flanders, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead—that is the greatest act of history of all of history. Have you ever read about how Christ arose in any history book out there?’ I shook my head, ‘No,’ in reply. Then he said, ‘It is written in John 1:10, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” Further it is written in John 1:11, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Lastly it is written in John 1:12, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”’
I then spoke up and said, ‘Mr. Regalroyal, I want to believe on His name!’
And right then I put down my Italian Hoagie sandwich, and Mr. Regalroyal led me through the sinners’ prayer wherein I got born again,” finished Flanders Nickels his testimony.
“Praise God for the good news of the Gospel that he told you about, Flanders!” said Miss DeGroot.
She finished hanging up a golden prom gown, and there looked to be no more room for any more prom dresses on her wooden rack, and she looked down into her box of hangers and saw no more, and she looked down into her treasure chest of prom dresses and saw no more. “You’re all done now, aren’t you, Jodi?” he asked.
“Well, boyfriend, what do you think about your girlfriend’s cherished menagerie here on display for you at Selfridge Park like this?” asked fair young Jodi.
“I never saw such a display of women’s clothes like this in any department store, Jodi,” he said.
“It is beautiful, like you.”
“It is what I am as a woman,” she said.
“Praise the God Who gave you all of these prom dresses, O Jodi,” said Flanders.
“Nay, Flanders. Praise all of these prom dresses,” said Jodi DeGroot. Flanders Nickels heard what she had just said to his spiritually discerning ears, and suddenly his Christian heart had a problem
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with her adored menagerie, and suddenly these prom gowns were no longer to him as elegant dresses but as an unhealthy fetish that came between her and her Saviour.
“What did you just say, Jodi?” he asked, to make sure.
“I said, ‘Glory’ to my prom dresses, Flanders,” she said. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Yes, You did say something wrong, Jodi. You should say ‘Praise You,’ only to God. And you should say, ‘Glory!’ only to Jesus,” he told her.
“You really think so, Flanders?” she asked. “Wearing all of these is the joy of my life in Christ.
I am happy in this!” And she ran her hands down the sides of her purple prom gown that she had on now in indication.
“But none of your prom gowns died for your sins as Christ did, Jodi,” he said.
“I know. I know,” she said. “Remember I prayed and got saved just last week.”
“Have you started a Bible-reading life since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked. She shook her head in negation. “Have you started a prayer life since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked. She again shook her head in a, “No.” “Have you started a church life since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked.
She shook her head again in denial. “Have you started telling others about Christ since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked her. And again she shook her head in a, “Nay.”
“Maybe it might be a good thing for you to get started doing,” he said.
“But I am too busy putting on and taking off my prom dresses to do all that that you are talking about, Flanders,” she said. “I am in love with all of them.”
He thought for a long while in prayer and reflection and waiting upon the Holy Spirit to tell him what he must say to her now.
She then asked, “What are you thinking about, Flanders. Maybe you should yell at me now for the way I turned out as your one whom you led to the Lord and whom you are dating.”
And Flanders Nickels got his answer from God. “I think I know how to help you, Jodi,” he
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said.
“Would I have to change my mind about my prom gowns, Flanders, if I accept your help?” she asked, hesitant.
“Yes,” he said. “God will become more important to you than is your menagerie if you let God teach you what you need to learn as a daughter of God, Jodi.”
“I am not sure that I am ready for something quite like that, Flanders,” she said.
“God can help you to change your mind,” he said.
“I love my prom gowns even more than I like you, Flanders,” she said. “And you are the first boyfriend I ever had. How can God do what you say He must do to me?”
“With God nothing is impossible,” he said.
“Would I be happy if God turned me against my prom dresses?” she asked.
“God is the giver of joy and rejoicing to His obedient children, Jodi,” he said.
“I can see now that I love my prom gowns too much,” she confessed.
“The Holy Spirit has told me about something in the Bible just a little while ago that He thinks that you will learn to love more than this you have on display here in the park for all to see,” said Flanders Nickels.
“What could such a thing be?” she asked incredulously.
And Flanders Nickels opened up his King James Bible, searched the Scriptures to where God had told him in His still small voice to share with the woman, and said to her, “Here, Jodi, it is written in I Corinthians 9:24-27. Would you read it with an open mind and open heart?”
“Out loud, Flanders?” she asked.
He nodded his head and said, “Yes, out loud, Jodi.”
And Jodi Ann DeGroot read this passage of Scripture out loud: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that
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striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
“Well, Jodi. What do you think about those Bible verses?” he asked her.
“A crown?” she asked out loud in musings. “A crown.”
“Would you like to have a crown in Heaven?” he asked.
“The incorruptible crown,” she said in serious consideration.
“Would you like to earn it, no matter what?” he asked.
“A young woman would look good with a crown on her head,” said Miss DeGroot. “What do I need to do to wear a crown Up in Heaven, Flanders—this one, the incorruptible crown?”
“Do you mean, ‘What does this Scripture say?’” he asked.
“Yes. What does it mean, Flanders?” she asked.
“It says that every born-again believer needs to give his body to God. You have to let the Lord control your body. You do not pray with the lips of your body, nor do you read the Bible with the eyes of your body, nor do you go to church with the feet of your body, nor do you give out tracts with the hands of your body. Instead you adorn your woman’s body with prom dresses that fit and are comfortable and make you look desirable in the eyes of men,” he said.
“I dress up my body, and I do not dress up my Spirit,” she said. “Is it kind of like that, Flanders?”
“’In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness
and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.’ I Timothy 2:9-10,” he recited Scripture by memory.
“A little less prom gowns for me, and a little more good works for me,” she sought to translate
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these two Bible verses.
“Make not prom gowns your god, Jodi; but rather make Jesus your God,” he did translate for her these two verses.
She thought for a long and silent while, then said, “I really, really like this incorruptible crown you told me about, Flanders. Will I get to wear it for forever Up in Heaven? Part of me wants to give it to God after a while Up There. It must be a beautiful crown.”
He told her, “Jodi, when you get to Heaven, and our Good Lord gives you that crown, you will give it back to Him on His throne in praise of Him Who helped you to earn it in your life down here.”
“I won’t wear it long?” she asked.
“I do not think so,” he said.
“I do want to give my Lord something Up There for my life down here,” she said. “What better thing to give to my blessed Saviour than an incorruptible crown?”
“Are you willing to trade your fifty-one prom gowns for the one crown, Jodi?” he asked.
“I must give up my fifty-one prom gowns for my incorruptible crown,” she said in the feelings of her woman’s heart. “What a most desirable incorruptible crown, O God.”
“Jodi, your face. I never saw you look so serious as you do now,” he said.
“Your prom dress girlfriend-in-Christ needs right now to repent, Flanders Nickels,” she said.
She grabbed a hold of the rack of prom dresses with the strength as of a man. “What are you going to do?” asked Flanders.
“I’m dumping all of these into the great big pond,” she said. “And I’m doing it for the God Who died for my sins.”
And at once Jodi DeGroot began to run, pushing this menagerie on wheels, right toward the banks of the pond of this park. Flanders had to run just to keep up with her.
Behold, a young man standing there, between her and Gothic Mill Pond, a man who was not
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there just a moment before. Miss DeGroot, fiercely resolute, if not rude, said to this young man, “Out of my way, sir!” And she continued running her menagerie ever nearer to the pond. Silent, he stood his ground and would not get out of her way. “I’ll run you over, sir!” she exclaimed, her woman’s heart
sincere in her actions. This young man, still silent, stood there as a messenger from Heaven, and he put out his hand toward her to bid her to stop. “I warned you!” yelled Jodi. And she, for her cause for God, did quite run the wooden rack right into him to knock him into the water so as to dump her prom gowns down into the water right after. But the young man did not budge where he was stricken. The menagerie did not fall into the pond. And the woman fell hard upon her bottom, her breath knocked out of her as she sat there in a daze. The young man reached out his hand to her, and she took it, and he helped her back up to her feet.
And then this young man spoke, “Young lady, great is your love for the Good Lord. I can see that you are willing to give all up for the cause of Christ. By this deed of this day, Jesus can see that you have this day given your body wholly to Him. Young woman, you have this moment earned your incorruptible crown. And it hereby awaits you when your time comes to leave this Earth. Well done, thou good and faithful handmaiden. To God be the glory. Amen. And again, amen.”
“But what must I do with my prom dresses, good sir?” she asked.
“God wills you to keep your prom dresses, good and faithful servant,” the young man told her.
“But my incorruptible crown, O sir?” she called forth, not understanding this young man’s message.
“Good woman, prom dresses are not evil; prom dresses are good. As long as a lady glorifies God in them,” the young man told her.
“Do you mean that God lets me keep these?” she asked.
“Yes, fine lady. God wills you to keep your prom dresses,” said the young man. “A young Christian woman like yourself can worship Jesus in a prom gown just as faithfully as she can in any
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other woman’s garment.” He then went on to say, “Pretty woman, when you get up in the morning, put on your prom dress, worship God in the spirit of holiness throughout the day and throughout the evening, and then take off your prom dress in the night and go to bed. Do this every day, and you will have the incorruptible crown in Heaven in the life to come.”
“Why, that I can do. I can do that, O sir. I can do that!” She went on to say in prayer, “God, I can pray dressed in this. I can read my Bible dressed in this. I can go to church dressed in this. And I can give out tracts dressed in this. I can worship Jesus all day and all night dressed in this. Who knows, I could even give my crown back to You in Heaven, myself dressed in this.” She grabbed her prom dress jacket along its bottom edges in front and pulled down in avid endearment for her prom gown and for Christ, and she said, “Thank You, God.” Then she put her hands to her head to make believe to feel the incorruptible crown, and she said, “Thank You, Lord.”
“The will of God is done this day,” declared the mysterious young man.
“What is your name, O good man of God?” asked Jodi DeGroot.
And the young man of God answered her, “Why do you ask my name? It is secret.”
“From where have you come?” asked Miss DeGroot.
“Your boyfriend-in-Christ knows, young lady. Ask him,” said the young man.
Jodi then turned to Flanders and asked him, “Where did he come from?”
Flanders turned to her, then to the young man, then to her again. She looked to the young man, and now he was not there anymore. “Flanders?” she asked, turning back to her boyfriend, who was still there. “Who was he?”
And Flanders Nickels said, “It is written, Jodi, ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’ Hebrews 13:2.” And the prom dress lady knew now.
Then Flanders said, “Well, Jodi, I think that it is time that we wheeled this nice collection back away from the pond. It is too close to the edge of the bank. Let us wheel it back to our picnic table.”
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“Yes! Let’s!” concurred Jodi DeGroot. And together they wheeled it back to the other side of the park and back to their picnic table.
“You ran fast for a girl,” he teased her.
“I got myself carried away,” she confessed. “I’m glad he stopped me.”
“I am, too, now,” said Flanders. “I was just as wrong as you were.”
“I am so happy now, Flanders, that I wish that I could sing a hymn. But I do not know any hymns yet in my new life with Christ this past week,” she said.
“I’ve got a hymn in my heart that I have been singing at home all about you, pretty Jodi,” he said.
“You sings hymns about me?” she asked. “After only seven days of us as boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“Yes, Jodi. You are a fine woman of God, and I have a crush on you real bad,” he said.
“What’s the hymn called?” she asked.
“It is called, ‘What Will You Do with Jesus?’” he told her.
“What’s it about?” she asked.
“It is about a young Christian woman who has not yet sought quiet time with the Lord every day and every night,” he said. “But now my prayers have been answered, and my hymn has come true, O comely Jodi.”
“How does it go?” she asked.
And he sang the chorus for her, “What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be; Someday your heart will be asking, ‘What will He do with me?’”
“I think that I can sing that with you,” she said.
“I brought my hymnbook on our date in case you wanted to sing with me on our special little rendezvous here today, Jodi,” he said.
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“Oh good! I can sing the whole song with you this way, Flanders,” she said.
“And my new girlfriend can sing a hymn with me, herself dressed in her boyfriend’s favorite prom gown of hers,” declared Flanders.
“I can sing hymns just as well in my prom dress as I can in any thing else of women’s attire, Flanders,” she said.
“But probably even better, girl,” he said.
“Yes, in my prom gown I sing better, Flanders,” she said.
“Jodi, you have such a pretty voice, that, even when you just talk, it sounds like a girl singing,” he did tell her. “But to hear your pretty voice to sing a hymn, it shall be for me as if I am hearing the hosts of Heaven singing before the throne of God.”
“May my hymn singing inspire you as my prom gown wearing, O Flanders Nickels,” said Jodi DeGroot.
And he opened up his hymnbook to hymn number 111, and man and woman of God sang to God here at Selfridge Park in Ripon:
“1. Jesus is standing in Pilate’s hall–
Friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all:
Hearken! What meaneth the sudden call!
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?
- Jesus is standing on trial still–
You can be false to Him if you will,
You can be faithful thru good or ill:
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’
- Will you evade Him as Pilate tried?
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Or will you choose Him, whate’er betide?
Vainly you struggle from Him to hide:
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’
- Will you, like Peter, your Lord deny?
Or will you scorn from His foes to fly,
Daring for Jesus to live or die?
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’
- ‘Jesus, I give Thee my heart today!
Jesus, I’ll follow Thee all the way,
Gladly obeying Thee!’ will you say,
‘This will I do with Jesus!’
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’”
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THE INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN
Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
“Ah,” said Flanders beholding his new girlfriend Jodi in her prom dress, “my elegant lady in an elegant dress.”
“I can see that you like prom gowns from the old days just as I do, Flanders,” she said.
“Yes, Jodi,” he said. “Prom gowns from the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s.”
“People nowadays in the twenty-first century call these kinds of prom gowns ‘ugly dresses,’” said Jodi.
“They are not ugly to me,” he said. “And the one you have on now is surely most becoming.”
“It is my favorite,” she said. Her prom dress of the day on this date was all solid purple prima satin. Its little prom jacket covered her shoulders with padded shoulders, and it covered her arms with long sleeves, and it reached down her torso to her midriff. Its bodice portion had thick strings that climbed up to her shoulders and back down her back, and it descended along the top in a V-neck, and it ended at the bottom in a “V” of a Basque waistline. Its skirt portion had three flounces, whose bottom
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flounce reached halfway between her knees and her ankles. Its back had a long zipper, and it had a big fancy bow tie just above the rump. And this prom gown girl was barefoot. Jodi spun in place before her new boyfriend now, and she said, “Even though this prom gown is considered formal wear, it still feels good and comfortable for me to have on, Flanders.”
“Ah, my pretty brown-eyed girl,” he praised her comeliness.
“Yes!” she said.
“And my pretty brown-haired girl,” he praised her comeliness further. Her long brown tresses cascaded down the sides of her head in long, gentle curls.
“You mean, ‘brunette,’ Flanders,” she said in flirt. “Brown-haired girls are supposed to be called ‘brunettes.’”
“It is written, O fair Jodi Ann DeGroot, ‘Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.’ Proverbs 31:29-30,” he told her his Bible verse “about her.”
“Are you saying that I am both beautiful and godly?” she asked.
“Yes, Jodi!” he said. “I am.” Then he said, “To me, you are the ‘most-worthy’ of women, because you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you. Only born-again Christians have the Holy Spirit within themselves.”
“There must not be lots of pretty girls who are Christians out there for you, Flanders,” said Jodi
in thoughts out loud.
“You are the only one, Jodi,” he said.
“Well, you are for me a hunk of a guy yourself, Flanders,” she said. “And you have the Holy Spirit inside you, too. You are a gentleman of a Christian to me all of the time.” They then looked around and took in the outdoor aesthetics of this park in Ripon, Wisconsin. She said, “What a nice park this is for our rendezvous, Flanders.”
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“Last week, I led you to salvation here, Jodi,” he said.
“The best thing that ever happened to me,” said Miss DeGroot. “What did the sign say? Selfridge Park?”
“Yes. This is Selfridge Park,” he said.
“And what is the name of that river right over there next to the park?” she asked.
“It is not a river,” he said. “It is called ‘Gothic Mill Pond.’”
“Nice pond. Nice grassy bank. Nice park,” she said.
“Nice grills. Nice picnic tables. Nice hot dogs,” he said.
“Are they ready yet?” she asked. He shook his head; then he nodded his head. “Don’t hot dogs burn if they are grilled with a wood fire, Flanders?” she asked.
“I do believe that that is what my big brother told me when he gave me these little pieces of wood, Jodi,” he told her.
“He is quite the woodworker,” she said.
Pointing to the grill, Flanders proclaimed with a grin, “Indian Rosewood, Teak, Black Walnut, Coco-Bola, Brazilian Rosewood.” He then said, “That’s what Big Brother told me.”
“He quite knows his wood,” said Miss DeGroot.
And boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-the-Lord sat down at a picnic table, thanked God for the food, and did eat. After they were filled up, Flanders said, “I brought the Bible today. Did you bring the horseshoes?”
“That I did, Flanders,” she said.
“Battle of the sexes in a game of horseshoes, woman!” teased Flanders.
“Like in the women against the men?” she asked.
“Yes. But in this case for us today, the woman against the man, Jodi,” he said.
They looked at the horseshoes now upon the bench of the picnic table. Miss DeGroot said, “I
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want the silver ones, because they are shiny.”
And Flanders Nickels said, “I want the black ones, because they are dull.”
“We are both happy that way,” she said.
“Let us play, girl!” he said in the spirit of merriment.
And the girl went first. She stood there, pondered for a moment, then drew back her arm and brought it forward in an underhand throw. Behold, her horseshoe traveled only halfway across the horseshoe field and landed with a thump upon the short green grass. She laughed. Flanders laughed. “Whoops!” said the young woman.
“What do you think happened there, O Miss DeGroot?” he teased her.
“Oh, I know what happened there,” she said. “I couldn’t help it. My prom gown got in the way of my throw.”
“Women!” he said in festive tantalization.
“I’ve still got my second horseshoe to throw,” she said. “I’m not done yet. Just you wait and see, Flanders.” She stood there, this time pondering for a long moment; then she tossed her second horseshoe of this first round. Lo, this time it went straight up into the air very high, and it landed only ten feet from where she stood. She put her hand to her head in surprise, and she said, “Oops!”
He said to her, “What do you think happened this time?”
She said, “It’s what happens to my throwing arm when I try to pitch a heavy horseshoe. It is too heavy for a little woman like myself, and I do not know exactly when to let it go from my hand. It is hard to let go, and it is hard not to let go. And it goes up far and goes forward not far. Mom has the same problem with horseshoes. I inherited that from her in my genes, I think,”
“This time my girlfriend blames heredity,” said Flanders.
“I still have not seen you throw a horseshoe, Flanders,” she said in mirth. “I don’t see you making any ringers yet.”
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“In the words of a smart woman, Miss DeGroot, ‘I’m not done yet. Just you wait and see,’” he did retort.
“Show me a real man, Flanders,” she said.
Flanders stood there, confident, pondered not at all long, and tossed his first horseshoe of this first round. Behold, the clinking of a leaner! “Two points! Two points! Two points!” chanted Flanders Nickels, doing a little jig where he stood in a great show.
“You are the luckiest man in the whole world, Flanders Arckery Nickels,” said Jodi in a catcall.
“I’m good!” he said. “Would you like to see me do one better?”
“A ringer?” she asked.
“Uh huh,” he said, nodding.
“If you get a ringer, I will curtsy in my prom gown before you and call you, ‘My lord,’” she said. “But if you do not get a ringer, you will bow in your blue jeans and shirt and vest before me and call me, ‘My lady.’”
“You’re on,” he said.
“Shake on it, Flanders,” she said. They shook hands on the bet.
He then prepared his second throw of the game, this time pondering for a most long while; then he tossed his horseshoe. And this one also clinked with the sound of iron on iron. But it was not the horseshoe hitting the stake in a ringer. Rather, it was the horseshoe hitting the leaner, and knocking that leaner away from the stake, and also that second horseshoe itself flying well away from the pit. And now both competitors saw the open pit that Flanders had made for himself with this second horseshoe.
“Woe! Woe! I am the unluckiest man in the whole world,” said Flanders. “I lost my leaner. I lost all of my points. I lost the bet.”
“Yes, Flanders. You lost the bet. Do your man thing now,” said the wily young lady.
And the gentleman bowed before the lady and he addressed her, “My lady.”
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“My fair lady,” she said in coquetry. “Say it.”
“My fire lidy,” he said in overt dialect.
“What’s that? Cockney?” she asked.
“Hackney?” he asked.
“Oh, Flanders, you’re too much,” she said.
“All’s fair in love and war, Miss DeGroot,” he said.
“And in horseshoes, too, Flanders,” she said. “You are so good, and I am so bad, and yet here we both are tied.”
And they continued their game in the park, and in the end, Flanders won in a shutout. Carrying their horseshoes back to the picnic table, they set them on one bench, and they sat down side-by-side on the other bench.
“Something is coming that I get to show you,” said the prom dress lady. “Oo, I cannot wait.”
“Neither can I,” he said, excited and mystified. “What is it, Jodi?”
“You’ll see. We’ll both see,” she said.
“You do not know what it is?” he asked.
“Oh, I know what it is. It is just that I get to see it again, this time with you, boyfriend,” she hinted.
“What might it be?” he asked, curious and anticipatory both at once.
“Oh, I cannot wait for it to come,” she said in subtlety and mystery.
Just then a brown U.P.S. truck pulled into this Selfridge Park, and a deliveryman brought out of his truck a big wooden treasure chest on a six-wheeled handcart, and he wheeled it up to where the two were sitting at the picnic table. Flanders almost asked the workman, “What’s in the box?” but he knew that deliverymen knew not such things as this regarding what they they delivered, and he said nothing.
Then Miss DeGroot signed a form, thanked the U.P.S. man, and the man left, driving away back down
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the road. This was indeed most odd. Flanders was mystified; Jodi was not mystified. Who ever heard of United Parcel Service delivering a parcel to a park? “Let’s open it and have a see,” said Miss DeGroot, knowing well its contents.
“What’s in the box?” asked Flanders.
“You repeat yourself,” said Jodi with a grin. And she opened up this big wooden treasure chest.
Behold, a menagerie of prom gowns of all colors and of all fabrics and of all styles within!
“Whoa!” said Flanders Nickels, awed and surprised.
“Rummage around in there, Flanders,” said the prom gown girl. “Touch them. Pick them up. Hold them.”
He did so as if spellbound by magic. He, too, ravished these prom gowns within as did their owner. There were red ones and black ones and blue ones and green ones and purple ones and yellow ones and white ones and orange ones—all of these prom dresses of one solid color.
“Guess how many I have in there, Flanders,” bragged Jodi DeGroot.
“There has to be a good fifty prom gowns in here, O Jodi!” he said.
“Yes, fifty, Flanders,” she said. “The one I have on now is prom dress number fifty-one.”
“They all shine with a sheen,” he said in delights.
“And they all swish as I walk,” she said. “Most of these prom dresses are made of a fabric called ‘acetate.’ I looked up that word, and the dictionary says this about acetate: that it is made with spun filaments of cellulose taken from wood pulp.”
“What are these other prom dresses made of—the ones that are not the acetate material, Jodi?” he asked.
“Oh, I memorized that, too, Flanders,” she said. “Some are made of organza; some, of satin; some, of crepe; some, of Georgette; some, of chiffon; some, of velvet; some, of silk; and some, of lace.”
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“What a collection!” he said, enamored of his elegant lady’s elegant dresses.
“Go ahead and look at the tags,” said Jodi DeGroot.
He did that and did read the first tag, saying out loud, “ILGWU—Int. Ladies’ Garment Workers Union—made in U.S.A.”
“All of my prom dresses have that exact same tag,” said Jodi. “What a union!”
“And all made in the good old U.S.A.,” said Flanders Nickels, reading more of these identical tags.
“Uh huh,” she said.
“What a crafty and tricky gal you are, having had this menagerie in a treasure chest delivered to this park from home on our rendezvous here,” he said.
“I am sneaky,” she said. Then she said, “And there is more to come.”
“More? What’s coming next?” he asked.
Just then a FedEx delivery truck came up to this park, and the driver got out, and he brought a medium-sized cardboard box out, and he wheeled it up to Jodi on a two-wheeled upright cart. Jodi signed for it, saying, “Thank you, sir,” and the deliveryman drove away.
“This box says, ‘Sauder Woodworking’ on it,’” said Flanders. “Is this also from home, Jodi?”
“No, this one is new for me this time, Flanders,” she said.
“I see a picture of a wardrobe on the front,” he said.
“It is a big clothes rack,” she said.
“And you have to assemble it?” he asked.
“Yes, I must put it together here at the park,” she said. “It is all of wood. Too bad your big brother isn’t here to help out.” Then she said. “Could you help me put it together?”
“I can help,” he said.
“Maybe we can share together how you led me to Christ on our first date here at the park just
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last week, Flanders,” said the prom dress gal in joy over her recent conversion.
“I can build the rack, and you can tell me how you got saved,” he said.
And he began his work, and she began the testimony of her salvation: “I was wearing my all white prom dress that day, the one with all that white lace. And you were this handsome fellow in your suit and tie. You were with your pastor, also in a suit and tie, and you two were walking around this park and telling everybody how to get saved. You two were giving out those special little booklets that said on the cover, ‘How to be saved and know it.’ They were red and white. And they had a prayer on the back that got a lost soul saved from its sins. When I saw you two church men come up to me, that man with you said to you, ‘Your turn, Brother Flanders.’ And you said to that other fellow, ‘My turn, Pastor.’ On my picnic table were two magazines that were perfect for a younger woman like myself—one a Teen magazine for the prom; and the other, a Seventeen magazine also for the prom. I was no longer in high school, but proms always were still in my heart. You came up to me, holding out that salvation tract.” She reached now into her purse and pulled it out. “Thank you for this, Flanders,” she said now in remembrances of last week. She continued, “And you said to me, “Miss, we are from Blessed Hope Baptist Church out spreading the Word of God and the love of Christ. This little booklet tells how a person can go to Heaven when he dies.’
I said then, ‘You are Baptists?’
You said, ‘Yes. Miss.’
I said, ‘I didn’t know Baptists did things like this.’
You said, ‘Pastor and I do.’
I said, ‘I’m glad that you are not Jehovah’s Witnesses. They like to argue.’
And you said, ‘We do not force the Gospel on people. We just tell them about the Saviour and hope that they accept Him into their heart.’
‘What is the Gospel?’ I asked.
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And you told me, ‘That the Lord Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day.’
‘I never heard that before,’ I said.
Then you popped the big question, ‘Miss, do you know where you’re going after you die?’
Surely I had never heard that before! Nobody asked that to me before. And suddenly I got to thinking about all the bad things I did do in my life. And I came to know all at once that I was going to Hell.
And I became afraid for my very soul, Flanders—because of what you just asked. And then I asked you, ‘How can a bad girl go to the good Heaven?’
And you said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.’ And then you said, ‘All
that you need to do to be saved from your sins and from eternity in Hell is to only believe and to only pray.’
‘Only believe; only pray?’ I asked.
‘Yes, miss. Only believe in Jesus. Only pray for salvation,’ you did say to me.
You then went ahead and preached to me wonderful words all about what I needed to believe about the Saviour Jesus Christ. And when you were done, I said, ‘I believe now.’ And then you told me that now I needed to accept Christ’s free gift of eternal life. And to do that, all that I had to do was to pray to God and ask Him for it. And I knew that I had to do that right then. And you led me through
that little prayer on the last page of that salvation tract you gave me. And I said in that prayer for my own salvation: ‘Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner, but I am sorry for my sins. I believe that the Lord Jesus died for me and rose again, and with all my heart I turn from my sin and receive Him as my Saviour right now. Thank You, Lord, for saving me! Amen.’ And, lo, when I was done praying that little prayer, I was saved and on my way to Heaven in my time to come. I became a born-again believer just like you and Pastor, Flanders, because of you and because of Jesus. Thank you for caring for my soul last week here at the park. What a way for us to begin our dating life as girlfriend-and-boyfriend-in-Christ.”
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“Amen to that, Jodi!” said Flanders.
“It looks to me that you’re done,” she said.
“The clothes rack is all put together now,” he said.
“Ah. Pretty soon I can hang up all of my prom gowns for you in the park, Flanders,” said Miss DeGroot.
“Jodi, you have the prom gowns, and you have the wooden wardrobe rack, but you have no hangers,” he said.
Just then the mailman came driving up to where they were at this picnic table. “Why, here they come right now,” she said. “Right on time, Flanders.” The mailman brought out of his little mail truck
a light and big cardboard box. “Thank you,” said Jodi, and she took it and opened it and looked down upon a box full of black plastic hangers. The mailman then drove away, and Flanders was beguiled by this fascinating young lady once again. With a clever wink of her eyes, the prom dress girlfriend began to hang up her fifty prom dresses one-at-a-time upon her rack with her fifty hangers.
In this long while, as he watched, Flanders Nickels went on to tell this girl the testimony of his own salvation of just a few years ago: “I found Christ as personal Saviour, Jodi, at Roadhouse Pizza.”
“Great restaurant. Great pizza,” she said. “Just down the road from here.”
“And great Italian Hoagies—my favorite sandwich of sandwiches,” said Flanders. “That day I first found out about them was the day I first found out about the Saviour of the world that I so needed in my life.”
“Who was it who led you to the Lord, Flanders?” she asked.
“It was Mr. Regalroyal,” said Flanders.
“The history teacher?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“I know him,” she said. “He was my World History teacher in tenth grade.”
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“And he was my U.S. History College Prep teacher in eleventh grade,” said Flanders.
“Nobody likes him but born-again believers and now we, too, Flanders,” said Jodi DeGroot.
“He is an outspoken witness to Christ at our old high school,” said Flanders.
“And he is right about Christ, and they are all wrong about Christ,” said wise Jodi.
He continued his good and true tale of salvation: “I was in ninth grade when Mr, Regalroyal shared the Gospel with me. He taught freshmen Ninth Grade History class. In Freshman History class he taught us kids all about the six world empires mentioned in the Holy Bible—the Egyptian empire and the Assyrian Empire and the Babylonian Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire and the Greek Empire and the Roman Empire. It was a seventh hour class, the last class of the school day. And near the end of this Freshman course, in May, Mr. Regalroyal, teaching us about the Roman Empire, told us about Jesus Christ and the conflict that the Roman government had with God walking around on the Earth. Mr. Regalroyal said that the Jews saw Jesus as a political king Who could deliver them from the Roman tyranny over Israel. But Rome recognized no king but Caesar. But this Jesus came not to conquer the world, but to save the world. And Roman soldiers crucified this Jesus on a cross. And He rose from the grave three days later. And Christianity began to spread across the Roman Empire. After class that May afternoon, I asked Mr. Regalroyal about this Christ of Christianity, and he asked me if I wanted to hear more, and I said that I surely did. And he invited me to eat with him at Roadhouse Pizza right after school that day. And he treated me to my first Italian Hoagie and told me all about this Jesus the Saviour of the world, Jodi.”
Flanders Nickels continued his true story of personal salvation, “Mr. Regalroyal there at the restaurant went on to tell me, ‘Flanders, all of the secular textbooks of history all omit Jesus in their chapters, and Jesus is the most historical Person in all of history. There is no more famous Person in this world’s six thousand years of history than He. The high school history book writers refuse to tell of God when He walked this Earth. And the college history book writers refuse to acknowledge in
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their chapters this God-man to Whom we are all accountable. Historians hate Christ the Lord. And, further, good Flanders, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead—that is the greatest act of history of all of history. Have you ever read about how Christ arose in any history book out there?’ I shook my head, ‘No,’ in reply. Then he said, ‘It is written in John 1:10, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” Further it is written in John 1:11, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Lastly it is written in John 1:12, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”’
I then spoke up and said, ‘Mr. Regalroyal, I want to believe on His name!’
And right then I put down my Italian Hoagie sandwich, and Mr. Regalroyal led me through the sinners’ prayer wherein I got born again,” finished Flanders Nickels his testimony.
“Praise God for the good news of the Gospel that he told you about, Flanders!” said Miss DeGroot.
She finished hanging up a golden prom gown, and there looked to be no more room for any more prom dresses on her wooden rack, and she looked down into her box of hangers and saw no more, and she looked down into her treasure chest of prom dresses and saw no more. “You’re all done now, aren’t you, Jodi?” he asked.
“Well, boyfriend, what do you think about your girlfriend’s cherished menagerie here on display for you at Selfridge Park like this?” asked fair young Jodi.
“I never saw such a display of women’s clothes like this in any department store, Jodi,” he said.
“It is beautiful, like you.”
“It is what I am as a woman,” she said.
“Praise the God Who gave you all of these prom dresses, O Jodi,” said Flanders.
“Nay, Flanders. Praise all of these prom dresses,” said Jodi DeGroot. Flanders Nickels heard what she had just said to his spiritually discerning ears, and suddenly his Christian heart had a problem
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with her adored menagerie, and suddenly these prom gowns were no longer to him as elegant dresses but as an unhealthy fetish that came between her and her Saviour.
“What did you just say, Jodi?” he asked, to make sure.
“I said, ‘Glory’ to my prom dresses, Flanders,” she said. “Did I say something wrong?”
“Yes, You did say something wrong, Jodi. You should say ‘Praise You,’ only to God. And you should say, ‘Glory!’ only to Jesus,” he told her.
“You really think so, Flanders?” she asked. “Wearing all of these is the joy of my life in Christ.
I am happy in this!” And she ran her hands down the sides of her purple prom gown that she had on now in indication.
“But none of your prom gowns died for your sins as Christ did, Jodi,” he said.
“I know. I know,” she said. “Remember I prayed and got saved just last week.”
“Have you started a Bible-reading life since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked. She shook her head in negation. “Have you started a prayer life since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked. She again shook her head in a, “No.” “Have you started a church life since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked.
She shook her head again in denial. “Have you started telling others about Christ since you got saved, Jodi?” he asked her. And again she shook her head in a, “Nay.”
“Maybe it might be a good thing for you to get started doing,” he said.
“But I am too busy putting on and taking off my prom dresses to do all that that you are talking about, Flanders,” she said. “I am in love with all of them.”
He thought for a long while in prayer and reflection and waiting upon the Holy Spirit to tell him what he must say to her now.
She then asked, “What are you thinking about, Flanders. Maybe you should yell at me now for the way I turned out as your one whom you led to the Lord and whom you are dating.”
And Flanders Nickels got his answer from God. “I think I know how to help you, Jodi,” he
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said.
“Would I have to change my mind about my prom gowns, Flanders, if I accept your help?” she asked, hesitant.
“Yes,” he said. “God will become more important to you than is your menagerie if you let God teach you what you need to learn as a daughter of God, Jodi.”
“I am not sure that I am ready for something quite like that, Flanders,” she said.
“God can help you to change your mind,” he said.
“I love my prom gowns even more than I like you, Flanders,” she said. “And you are the first boyfriend I ever had. How can God do what you say He must do to me?”
“With God nothing is impossible,” he said.
“Would I be happy if God turned me against my prom dresses?” she asked.
“God is the giver of joy and rejoicing to His obedient children, Jodi,” he said.
“I can see now that I love my prom gowns too much,” she confessed.
“The Holy Spirit has told me about something in the Bible just a little while ago that He thinks that you will learn to love more than this you have on display here in the park for all to see,” said Flanders Nickels.
“What could such a thing be?” she asked incredulously.
And Flanders Nickels opened up his King James Bible, searched the Scriptures to where God had told him in His still small voice to share with the woman, and said to her, “Here, Jodi, it is written in I Corinthians 9:24-27. Would you read it with an open mind and open heart?”
“Out loud, Flanders?” she asked.
He nodded his head and said, “Yes, out loud, Jodi.”
And Jodi Ann DeGroot read this passage of Scripture out loud: “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that
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striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
“Well, Jodi. What do you think about those Bible verses?” he asked her.
“A crown?” she asked out loud in musings. “A crown.”
“Would you like to have a crown in Heaven?” he asked.
“The incorruptible crown,” she said in serious consideration.
“Would you like to earn it, no matter what?” he asked.
“A young woman would look good with a crown on her head,” said Miss DeGroot. “What do I need to do to wear a crown Up in Heaven, Flanders—this one, the incorruptible crown?”
“Do you mean, ‘What does this Scripture say?’” he asked.
“Yes. What does it mean, Flanders?” she asked.
“It says that every born-again believer needs to give his body to God. You have to let the Lord control your body. You do not pray with the lips of your body, nor do you read the Bible with the eyes of your body, nor do you go to church with the feet of your body, nor do you give out tracts with the hands of your body. Instead you adorn your woman’s body with prom dresses that fit and are comfortable and make you look desirable in the eyes of men,” he said.
“I dress up my body, and I do not dress up my Spirit,” she said. “Is it kind of like that, Flanders?”
“’In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness
and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.’ I Timothy 2:9-10,” he recited Scripture by memory.
“A little less prom gowns for me, and a little more good works for me,” she sought to translate
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these two Bible verses.
“Make not prom gowns your god, Jodi; but rather make Jesus your God,” he did translate for her these two verses.
She thought for a long and silent while, then said, “I really, really like this incorruptible crown you told me about, Flanders. Will I get to wear it for forever Up in Heaven? Part of me wants to give it to God after a while Up There. It must be a beautiful crown.”
He told her, “Jodi, when you get to Heaven, and our Good Lord gives you that crown, you will give it back to Him on His throne in praise of Him Who helped you to earn it in your life down here.”
“I won’t wear it long?” she asked.
“I do not think so,” he said.
“I do want to give my Lord something Up There for my life down here,” she said. “What better thing to give to my blessed Saviour than an incorruptible crown?”
“Are you willing to trade your fifty-one prom gowns for the one crown, Jodi?” he asked.
“I must give up my fifty-one prom gowns for my incorruptible crown,” she said in the feelings of her woman’s heart. “What a most desirable incorruptible crown, O God.”
“Jodi, your face. I never saw you look so serious as you do now,” he said.
“Your prom dress girlfriend-in-Christ needs right now to repent, Flanders Nickels,” she said.
She grabbed a hold of the rack of prom dresses with the strength as of a man. “What are you going to do?” asked Flanders.
“I’m dumping all of these into the great big pond,” she said. “And I’m doing it for the God Who died for my sins.”
And at once Jodi DeGroot began to run, pushing this menagerie on wheels, right toward the banks of the pond of this park. Flanders had to run just to keep up with her.
Behold, a young man standing there, between her and Gothic Mill Pond, a man who was not
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there just a moment before. Miss DeGroot, fiercely resolute, if not rude, said to this young man, “Out of my way, sir!” And she continued running her menagerie ever nearer to the pond. Silent, he stood his ground and would not get out of her way. “I’ll run you over, sir!” she exclaimed, her woman’s heart
sincere in her actions. This young man, still silent, stood there as a messenger from Heaven, and he put out his hand toward her to bid her to stop. “I warned you!” yelled Jodi. And she, for her cause for God, did quite run the wooden rack right into him to knock him into the water so as to dump her prom gowns down into the water right after. But the young man did not budge where he was stricken. The menagerie did not fall into the pond. And the woman fell hard upon her bottom, her breath knocked out of her as she sat there in a daze. The young man reached out his hand to her, and she took it, and he helped her back up to her feet.
And then this young man spoke, “Young lady, great is your love for the Good Lord. I can see that you are willing to give all up for the cause of Christ. By this deed of this day, Jesus can see that you have this day given your body wholly to Him. Young woman, you have this moment earned your incorruptible crown. And it hereby awaits you when your time comes to leave this Earth. Well done, thou good and faithful handmaiden. To God be the glory. Amen. And again, amen.”
“But what must I do with my prom dresses, good sir?” she asked.
“God wills you to keep your prom dresses, good and faithful servant,” the young man told her.
“But my incorruptible crown, O sir?” she called forth, not understanding this young man’s message.
“Good woman, prom dresses are not evil; prom dresses are good. As long as a lady glorifies God in them,” the young man told her.
“Do you mean that God lets me keep these?” she asked.
“Yes, fine lady. God wills you to keep your prom dresses,” said the young man. “A young Christian woman like yourself can worship Jesus in a prom gown just as faithfully as she can in any
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other woman’s garment.” He then went on to say, “Pretty woman, when you get up in the morning, put on your prom dress, worship God in the spirit of holiness throughout the day and throughout the evening, and then take off your prom dress in the night and go to bed. Do this every day, and you will have the incorruptible crown in Heaven in the life to come.”
“Why, that I can do. I can do that, O sir. I can do that!” She went on to say in prayer, “God, I can pray dressed in this. I can read my Bible dressed in this. I can go to church dressed in this. And I can give out tracts dressed in this. I can worship Jesus all day and all night dressed in this. Who knows, I could even give my crown back to You in Heaven, myself dressed in this.” She grabbed her prom dress jacket along its bottom edges in front and pulled down in avid endearment for her prom gown and for Christ, and she said, “Thank You, God.” Then she put her hands to her head to make believe to feel the incorruptible crown, and she said, “Thank You, Lord.”
“The will of God is done this day,” declared the mysterious young man.
“What is your name, O good man of God?” asked Jodi DeGroot.
And the young man of God answered her, “Why do you ask my name? It is secret.”
“From where have you come?” asked Miss DeGroot.
“Your boyfriend-in-Christ knows, young lady. Ask him,” said the young man.
Jodi then turned to Flanders and asked him, “Where did he come from?”
Flanders turned to her, then to the young man, then to her again. She looked to the young man, and now he was not there anymore. “Flanders?” she asked, turning back to her boyfriend, who was still there. “Who was he?”
And Flanders Nickels said, “It is written, Jodi, ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’ Hebrews 13:2.” And the prom dress lady knew now.
Then Flanders said, “Well, Jodi, I think that it is time that we wheeled this nice collection back away from the pond. It is too close to the edge of the bank. Let us wheel it back to our picnic table.”
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“Yes! Let’s!” concurred Jodi DeGroot. And together they wheeled it back to the other side of the park and back to their picnic table.
“You ran fast for a girl,” he teased her.
“I got myself carried away,” she confessed. “I’m glad he stopped me.”
“I am, too, now,” said Flanders. “I was just as wrong as you were.”
“I am so happy now, Flanders, that I wish that I could sing a hymn. But I do not know any hymns yet in my new life with Christ this past week,” she said.
“I’ve got a hymn in my heart that I have been singing at home all about you, pretty Jodi,” he said.
“You sings hymns about me?” she asked. “After only seven days of us as boyfriend and girlfriend?”
“Yes, Jodi. You are a fine woman of God, and I have a crush on you real bad,” he said.
“What’s the hymn called?” she asked.
“It is called, ‘What Will You Do with Jesus?’” he told her.
“What’s it about?” she asked.
“It is about a young Christian woman who has not yet sought quiet time with the Lord every day and every night,” he said. “But now my prayers have been answered, and my hymn has come true, O comely Jodi.”
“How does it go?” she asked.
And he sang the chorus for her, “What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be; Someday your heart will be asking, ‘What will He do with me?’”
“I think that I can sing that with you,” she said.
“I brought my hymnbook on our date in case you wanted to sing with me on our special little rendezvous here today, Jodi,” he said.
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“Oh good! I can sing the whole song with you this way, Flanders,” she said.
“And my new girlfriend can sing a hymn with me, herself dressed in her boyfriend’s favorite prom gown of hers,” declared Flanders.
“I can sing hymns just as well in my prom dress as I can in any thing else of women’s attire, Flanders,” she said.
“But probably even better, girl,” he said.
“Yes, in my prom gown I sing better, Flanders,” she said.
“Jodi, you have such a pretty voice, that, even when you just talk, it sounds like a girl singing,” he did tell her. “But to hear your pretty voice to sing a hymn, it shall be for me as if I am hearing the hosts of Heaven singing before the throne of God.”
“May my hymn singing inspire you as my prom gown wearing, O Flanders Nickels,” said Jodi DeGroot.
And he opened up his hymnbook to hymn number 111, and man and woman of God sang to God here at Selfridge Park in Ripon:
“1. Jesus is standing in Pilate’s hall–
Friendless, forsaken, betrayed by all:
Hearken! What meaneth the sudden call!
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?
- Jesus is standing on trial still–
You can be false to Him if you will,
You can be faithful thru good or ill:
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’
- Will you evade Him as Pilate tried?
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Or will you choose Him, whate’er betide?
Vainly you struggle from Him to hide:
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’
- Will you, like Peter, your Lord deny?
Or will you scorn from His foes to fly,
Daring for Jesus to live or die?
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’
- ‘Jesus, I give Thee my heart today!
Jesus, I’ll follow Thee all the way,
Gladly obeying Thee!’ will you say,
‘This will I do with Jesus!’
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be;
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?’”
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