My Vision of Christ by Charles Premoe

My Vision of Christ by Charles Premoe


For many years I can remember having a special feeling in my heart for my Native American brothers.

Sometimes I would dream, or try and imagine what life would be like if I were taken from my family by a bunch of Indians to be raised in the Native American traditions. I guess way down inside I had a desire to learn the "old ways." Because of my great love of the outdoors, God's creation, I somehow felt that there was a mystery to be learned that I could not learn any other way than to associate myself with the Indian people of the country. And so began my search to unlock the mystery that surrounds an almost unknown and nearly forgotten group of people whom we call the Indians.

A couple of years ago I was privileged to be able to take a trip to Pinon, Arizona, upon the Navaho reservation. There were several of us who had gone out there to hold a baptismal service for thirteen of our Native American brothers and sisters. All the while we were out there visiting some of the homes of the people and holding church services, I kept asking the Lord if he would give me something in the way of a testimony that I could bring back to our people in the centerplace. I wanted something that I could tell our people that would help show them just how important this work was that we were doing out here. Each day I would ask the Lord to please give me anything that would be a good enough reason for traveling such a great distance to such a remote area of the country. In away, I suppose I was trying to justify in my own mind that I was doing the right thing. Finally, the last day had arrived. We had all gathered at a very beautiful lake that morning to conduct the baptismal service that we had planned for that particular weekend. God's spirit was there with us that morning. I had not received any response from the Lord up to that time, so I thought I would ask one more time to see if the Lord would give me a testimony of just why I was out there. I walked out away from the crowd of people just prior to the baptism to ask one last time. As I knelt upon the earth and began to ask the Lord for the testimony, He spoke to my mind and said; "This is for them, and not for you." What he meant by that was that as one who held priesthood, I had gone there for the soul purpose of bringing the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not to be ministered to! I felt ashamed because I had asked for something, which was more for personal reasons than for the welfare of the very people that we had gone out to bring ministry to. Needless to say, I admitted that my intentions were a bit selfish. I asked for his forgiveness and as I turned to view the first individual that was about to be baptized, for a very brief moment, I watched Christ slowly appear above the baptismal scene. With outstretched arms I saw him smile and I knew that he was pleased with what was taking place.

I would have you know that the miracle that took place that morning was not seeing Christ appear above the crowd. The miracle that took place that morning was that Christ had wrought a change in the hearts of thirteen people that bright and shiny day; and in spite of myself, the Lord was able to reveal his truth as to why we had traveled such a great distance to such a remote area of the country. That was as his holy priesthood, we were to bring ministry and not to be ministered unto.

May God bless you as you seek to do his will in all things.