"Share a time when you believe God gave you an 'opportunity for immortality.' What did you do with it? Did you seize the moment for Him...or back away? How did your decision make you feel? What were the results? What effect do you believe this experience will have on your behavior the next time you are given such an opportunity?"

Several months after my first book came out, I found myself in prayer one night. Since I was a first-time, unknown author, my Harvest House publicist told me that I should not expect any national attention would be paid to my book. Maybe, if it proved to be reasonably successful, she said, they would start noticing my work after my third or fourth book-- but not with my first. With 53,000 new books each year competing with one another, the big talk shows were looking for big names to help them reach big audiences.

But the book I had written was a call to unhappy married couples not to give up on each other so quickly. With all my heart, I felt it was a message straight from the heart of God to our nation. So in spite of my publicist's words of experience, I made up a prayer list of every national talk show listed in our local paper's television section. Every day I would pray through the list and ask God, if it was His will, to put me on one or more of those shows and use me in some small way, at least to help stem the raging divorce epidemic that was threatening to dismantle the stability of the family, which is the very foundation of our country.

On this particular night, as I prayed through the talk shows one-by-one, I got to the name, "Sally Jessy Raphael." I had never watched Sally's show. I wasn't even sure I was pronouncing her last name correctly. But for some reason, I parked there. "Lord," I prayed, "You're all-powerful. You can do anything. For example, You could put me on this Sally Jessy Raphael talk show in a heartbeat, if You really wanted to."

At that moment, something happened inside me. I went from "normal" prayer to what I can only describe as an inner "burst" of faith. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with a sense of the absolute power of God to do anything He chose to do. Coupled with the righteousness of my cause in behalf of marriages and a rock-solid certain sense that this was in His perfect will, I concluded with fiery passion: "So that's what I'm asking you to do, LORD. If it's your will to put me on the Sally Jessy Raphael show, then move heaven and earth, do whatever You have to do...but DO it!" When I finished, I was trembling, my heart was pounding, my breaths were coming deep and fast.

Next morning, I was leading an administrative staff meeting in our church conference room. One of our secretaries poked her head in and said, "There's a call for you in your office."

I replied, "Do you mind taking a message and telling them I'll call back?" I said.

"It's your publicist," she replied. "She says it's urgent."

Remembering my prayer from the night before, I felt the color drain from my face. There was a prickling sensation all over my body. "I'll take it," I said, excusing myself.

My office was only a few steps away, but even as I walked to the phone, I told myself to calm down. This wasn't necessarily related to my prayer the night before. It was probably something else entirely.

"Are you sitting down?" were the first words out my publicist's mouth.

I sat down. "Yes," I said.

"A producer with a major talk show just contacted me this morning about the possibility of your appearing on their program," she told me. Immediately I thought to myself, Sally Jessy Raphael? What are the odds of it being Sally Jessy Raphael? Maybe it's another show; that would be wonderful. It doesn't matter, after all. But dear God, if this is...

"Which program?" I managed.

"Sally Jessy Raphael," she replied. It was a few moments before I could speak. "O God," I said finally -- not blasphemously, but with utter reverence. "Just last night I prayed for Him to do this and now you're telling me..."

"Well, apparently He's the One who did it," she said. "That's the only explanation I can give. But it's not a done deal. They still want to talk with you by telephone, to decide if you can hold your own on national television, since they've never heard of you before. I've sent them a copy of your book. The rest is up to you."

No, I thought, the rest is up to God. If He's taken me this far, He's not about to drop me now.

After a series of telephone interviews with several producers, the decision was made. Sally wanted me to be her guest on a Sweeps Week show, which they were taping before a crowd of 4,000 at Sea World, in San Diego, California. This was our big break.

The Sally Show flew my wife Judy and me out to San Diego, put us up in a beautiful hotel, chauffeured us to Sea World in a long limousine. Needless to say, I was excited. Since mine was a pro-marriage book, I assumed Sally wanted to use her influence in a positive way, to help strengthen the marriages of America.

I was wrong. About an hour before the taping, the producer chased everyone out of the room, sat cross-legged on the floor in front of me and informed me that they were also going to have guests on the show who would try to refute everything I had planned to say. "We're not going to tell them you're a pastor," she informed me. "We're just going to mention that you have a Ph.D. in Psychology. Can you live with that?"

I told her that was all right, adding that I wouldn't change my message, regardless.

"Do you really mean that?" she asked. "Are you willing to stick to your guns no matter what? I mean, you believe all this stuff you wrote in your book, don't you?" she demanded.

"Yes, I do," I replied.

"Can you defend it without making any Biblical references?" she asked. "Because if you start quoting Scripture, we're dead. There's no defense anyone can make to a belief system and our whole show will collapse. What we want to know is, do you think this stuff makes sense? Is your position logically defensible, without resorting to Bible-waving?"

"Absolutely," I told her.

"Well, those are the ground rules," she said. "Don't use a single chapter and verse reference...or we'll have to go another direction." She made it clear that if I resorted to quoting the Bible to support my call to marital faithfulness, they'd jerk me off the stage during the next commercial break and finish the show without me, sticking solely with their divorce-on-demand guests.

I agreed to her terms for two reasons. First, truth is still truth, whether you give the Bible reference or not. "You shall know the truth," said Jesus, "and the truth will make you free." He didn't say, "You shall know the Bible reference, and the Bible reference will make you free."

The other reason I agreed was that I had absolute confidence in the obvious wisdom of the Word of God. Over the years, I have observed time and again that God's way simply makes the most sense. Thinking of the dietary test the Bible's Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel were put through as captives in a foreign land (Daniel 1:5-20), I was confident that God's way would win out in this nationally-aired debate.

Minutes before the show started, the producer excused herself for a moment and I was left alone in the room. Suddenly, I wanted a cup of coffee. I decided to see if I could find a coffee pot somewhere out in the hall. I stepped out of the room, wandering around in search of that cup of coffee...and came upon a television monitor that showed the 4,000-strong crowd of people seated in the outdoor amphitheater. A man I had never seen before was pacing up and down in front of the crowd with a microphone, yelling at the audience.

Curious, I stopped to hear what he was saying. "In a few minutes," he said, we're going to bring out a man who believes that you should NEVER divorce your spouse, under any circumstances! Can you believe that?"

"Noooooo!" the crowd shouted back.

"Not only that," he continued," he believes that even if your husband is BEATING you and SEXUALLY ABUSING YOUR CHILDREN, you should just stay with him and take it!"

The crowd erupted with shouts of anger and outrage.

"So when he comes out here," the man shouted to them, "I want you to let this man and Sally and the WHOLE WORLD know what you think of him!"

The crowd exploded with a loud roar, letting him know they would.

I stood there, stunned. So that was it. This wasn't about helping marriages make it. It wasn't even about a fair debate. It was about two things: Sally's divorce agenda and high television ratings. They wanted a knock-down, drag-out fight between me and whomever they were going to bring out on stage to oppose me. And to make sure Sally's divorce agenda came out on top, they rigged the audience response by lying to the crowd about my position on divorce.

Again and again in the pre-interviews they conducted with me, they had quizzed me down about the circumstances under which I believed divorce was permissable - positions I had clearly also explained in my book - that there WERE Biblical bases for divorce - adultery (Matthew 19:9) and desertion by an unbelieving spouse (1 Corinthians 7:15-16). Furthermore, I made it clear in my book that if there was any physical abuse of any kind, the spouse had every right to get away and insist that his/her mate get help.

They knew I believed these things - knew it well - but it didn't suit their purposes. They didn't want a reasonable defense of marriage-saving on their show. They wanted a monster whose position on divorce was hardhearted and absurd. So they lied to the crowd, in order to create one.

I slowly walked back to the room they had put me in, intending for me to stay there like a good boy, until they brought me out, totally unsuspecting, to feed me to the lions. They had counted on my being totally unprepared for the crowd's hostility, thus hoping their venomous responses would rattle me and cause me to crumble under the pressure, ensuring a win for Sally's agenda. Failing that, perhaps they were hoping that in uncomprehending frustration, I would lash out, retaliating in anger, thus discrediting the message I believed God wanted me to convey to hurting married couples - one of hope, restoration and reconciliation.

But because I had suddenly had a desire for a cup of coffee during the only time there was no one in the room to get it for me -- something I attribute to the direct intervention of God -- I was now aware of what I was about to face. The trap had been baited and set. Unless I turned tail and ran, nothing could change the fact that I was about to step into what was waiting for me on that stage. But thanks to God, at least I was now prepared for the bite of their trap's vicious teeth.

As the emotional impact of what was about to take place swept over me, I shook my head at how rapidly my expectations of this "big break" in my writing career had changed. Far from wanting to help the sales of my book, they intended to bury my book, its message and me on the spot, and to create a ratings-coup spectacle out of the massacre, to boot.

Alone in the room, I spent the last moments in prayer before they called me out, asking God for His wisdom and His strength. How fitting, I thought. My Godly parents had named me "Stephen," after the first Christian martyr, whom an angry mob had stoned to death. I was about to go before an angry mob of my own -- a mob whipped up into such a frenzy that they could hardly wait to hurl their verbal brickbats my way.

"Even though I'm not allowed to mention your Name or Your Word," I begged God, "please help the television audience to see You in me. Even though the millions who are watching by television will have no idea why this crowd is so angry at me, please help them to hear and absorb the powerful truths of Your Word. LORD, Your Word is sharper than any double-edged sword. Cut through all the lies and send Your message straight to people's hearts."

Suddenly, the peace of God filled me to overflowing. It was going to be all right. None of this was a surprise to God. This was not some unexpected development. Satan had not pulled a fast one on God. Sally and/or her producers thought they were setting me up for failure...but in reality, God was setting me up with an exquisite opportunity to proclaim love, rather than hatred, to proclaim the truth that many of the marriages that were ending in divorce could not only be saved, but could become truly happy, fulfilling and rewarding -- if only those involved would not give up prematurely.

Then the door opened. It was time.

They led me down the hall and toward the stage, where they showed me to my seat. As the familiar Sally theme music kicked in and the crowd applauded the beginning of the show, an inexpressible joy filled me from head to foot. This, I thought to myself, was exactly what I'd been put on this earth to do. There was no fear -- only an overwhelming gratitude that I was about to be given the opportunity to speak for God.

When the show started, they brought out my debate opponent -- a fiercely combative woman who, as a divorce counselor for hire, would help her female clients get the maximum financial settlement possible from the husband they were divorcing. I don't think I've ever seen such a bitter, incensed, outraged woman. I found myself wondering what lies about me they had told HER. She wasted no time tearing into me, saying she was appalled at my beliefs.

The crowd was overwhelmingly on her side. Every time I spoke, they attempted to drown me out, screaming threats and obscenities. Some of the people in the audience stood up and made threatening, obscene physical gestures while I endeavored to make my points.

My wife Judy was sitting in the crowd, seeing and hearing all of this. Afterwards, on the flight back, she told me how everyone around her was full of venom toward me, shouting what they would do to me, if they could get their hands on me.

"Well, you defended me, right?" I asked her. "I mean, you told them I was your husband and that I wasn't at all the person they had portrayed me to be...didn't you?"

"Are you kidding?" she said, laughing. "I wasn't about to let them know that I even knew you! Do you think I wanted them turning all that anger on me? There's no telling what they would have done to me!"

After the show, as we were headed for the limousine, I caught sight of the producer who had put the whole thing together. "Well," I asked, "did you get the get the knock-down, drag-out Sweeps Week show you wanted?"

Her eyes got big, then she looked at me strangely, no doubt trying to gauge my reaction to what they had just done to me. Finally she stammered, "Oh....yes, yes, we did get...a really, uh...a really - actually, the show was hot."

"Hot," I echoed.

"Yes," she replied. "Really hot."

"Good," I said, smiling. "I'm glad you got what you wanted." And I meant it.

What was the result? We won't fully know 'til heaven, of course. But I do know that the phone at our church began ringing with calls from all over the nation. People had called television stations and bookstores to get the name of my publisher, who told them how to get in touch with me at the church.

Person after person said, "I KNEW it! I just KNEW you were a Christian! The Spirit of God was all over you! Besides, everything you said was straight from the Bible. And the way you never let them rattle you -- no matter what they yelled, you just kept on smiling and never replied in kind." An avalanche of mail said much the same thing.

"What was wrong with that crowd?" people who watched the program asked me over and over again. "Your answers were so loving and made such good sense -- but for some reason, it was like the people in the audience had tuned you out -- they weren't listening to your answers at all!"

Isn't that amazing? The Sally strategy succeeded in achieving a hot Sweeps Week show. But it failed in discrediting the message God had given me -- not because of my brilliance...but because of the direct intervention and favor of God. Instead of allowing the audience's reaction against me to sway the far larger national television audience, it backfired. They were SO disrespectful toward me that it created an unexpected backlash of support for the guy who was under fire.

As he does so often, Satan overplayed his hand. He laid a trap for me, but all the while, what was really happening was that God was laying a trap for him. God let them put me in the lion's den, but just as He did for Daniel (although I'm unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence with that great saint), God kept the lions from devouring me.

I walked away humbled, stunned that God would stoop to use the likes of me to accomplish His purposes. It should have been a horrible, painful experience for me to be treated like that by 4,000 people on national television. But it wasn't. Not at all.

For the entire duration of the show, God placed me in a warm cocoon of love, peace and joy unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was as though the screams, taunts and threats they hurled toward me reached as far as the platform, only to hit an invisible shield of protection that God had placed all about me, causing their invective to bounce off without ever touching me and fall harmlessly to the stage.

When the hour-long special came to an end, God had so energized me and filled me with His Spirit that I was actually disappointed that it was over. There were so many more things I desperately wanted to say, to help people understand the healing power of God's love, even in situations that appear totally hopeless.

When Judy and I returned to Evansville and told our friends and family what had happened (the taped show had not yet aired), they were horrified. "This could destroy your book's ministry," they told us. And so it could have.

But God had other plans. After the show aired, major bookstore chains began carrying my book, as a direct result of the controversy. Coupled with the help of several hundred other radio and television interviews, including an appearance with Dr. Laura Schlesinger on Oprah (Dr. Laura and I were on the same side, on that show!), God caused my book to become a bestseller.

I don't share this with you as a testament to my courage or faithfulness. All I had planned to do was go on a talk show to promote my book. Instead, I share it in hopes that it will be an encouragement to you -- that even when you're "trapped" into standing for God...even when the environment is overwhelmingly hostile, God hasn't brought you to that moment to let you down. Instead, He will go through it with you - and transform it into His glory...for your benefit and for the benefit of potentially countless others.

Gratefully,

Steve

Stephen Schwambach
ZChurch Pastor

The ZChurch Web site

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