During our trip home from Long Island my wife and I talked about the things we had been reading in our paperback Bibles. I didn’t immediately believe it all. As a matter of fact, I had doubts about a lot of things.

After we got home I went back to working in my head shop, but when there were no customers in the store I read my Bible and tried to understand it. I couldn’t figure out whether God was angry with me for my sins and I was hopelessly condemned, or if He was merciful and kind like Jesus.

When the couple that had been praying for us earlier found out that I was trying to learn about God, the husband dropped by my shop. When he came in I was reading the Bible, so he asked if I understood what it was all about. I told him I wasn’t sure, so he went out to his car and got a copy of a local Jesus newspaper and turned to the back page where there was a concise outline of the Bible’s message, similar to the Four Spiritual Laws.

It suddenly became clear: God loves us. We have sinned and are separated from Him. Jesus took our punishment and died for our sins so we could be reconciled to God. If we believe and ask Him, we can actually have the Holy Spirit live in us and work through us.

I asked God to forgive me and told Him I wanted His Holy Spirit.

Afterward, my wife and I started looking for other Jesus people in our area, and we learned about a group who met in a log cabin on Saturday nights in Oakton, Virginia. At the time Oakton was “way out in the country” and the road to it was narrow and winding.

The Log Cabin "Church" Has Grown Substantially

It was dark the first time we headed to a meeting at the log cabin. On the way, we talked about what we had been reading in our Bibles. One of us had just read about Joshua, and the other had read about Elijah.

As we crested a hill and went around a curve on that dark country road, we almost hit a parked car. We stopped and asked the driver if he needed help and he told us he had run out of gas. So we took him back towards town and got some gas, and then brought him back to his car.

For a guy who had run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, he was in a very good mood. We really enjoyed talking to him. When we let him out of the car with his gas can, we asked what his name was, and he said “Joshua.” We thought that was funny. And then he said, “My middle name is Elijah,” and shut the car door.

We were stunned. Was he joking? How did he know we were talking about Joshua and Elijah before we picked him up? Later, when we read Hebrews 13:2, we knew we had “entertained angels without knowing it.”

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.