"TOM'S CONVERSION"

"TOM'S CONVERSION" stoney moss

I walked into the small sign shop where I'd been doing some contract work in the evenings. I encountered Tom, the owner, setting on the couch. He had a bottle of Cutty Sark in one hand, a bottle of Sprite in the other. The coffee table was covered with magazines, old tv guides and an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts.
The tv was giving a blow by blow account of the gulf war and Tom was cheering them on.

Suddenly he turned off the TV, set his drinks on the table and turned towards me with a sincere look on his face. Pushing his straw hat back on his head of greasy, long, gray hair he began to speak. " I've accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my Lord and Saviour!" "Great, Tom" I said, "what does it mean? how has your life changed?" He started to light up a cigarette, then sheepishly threw it back down on the table and looked at me. "Well, for instance I stopped in Rosie's Bar last night for a cold beer and was sitting there drinking , minding my own business when in comes this big ol bruiser, covered with tattoos and just looked over at me and said,"I BET I CAN WHIP YOUR ASS!"
Yea, I said you probably could but what would it prove?. I'd rather buy you another beer and tell you about Jesus". "I don't want no drink from no sissy little religious coward". The bully moved threateningly towards Tom, Tom stuck out his chin and pointing to one side of his face said,"go ahead brother, take your best shot.
The Bible tells me to turn the other cheek, so this one's on Jesus, but if you touch my other cheek I'll carry you outside and mop up the damn sidewalk with you, there won't be nothing left for the ambulance driver to pick up.

The old drunk must have seen something in Tom's steel grey eyes that said he was'nt foolin. What he didn't know was that Tom had killed two men earlier in life, one he pushed off a destroyer in the navy, the other with a shotgun over a barking dog.
The big guy mumbled something and stumbled back into the night.

Now it had been awhile since I attended church school and I didn't remember that Bible verse exactly like that, but hey, praise God Tom, thanks for that testimony. Maybe we should sing something like " shall we gather at the river" or "they'll know we are christians by our Love"