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    Rejoice On The Rails
    Rejoice On The Rails
    Rejoice On The Rails
    Ebook124 pages2 hours

    Rejoice On The Rails

    By Bob Steinkamp

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    About this ebook

    For several years now, Bob Steinkamp's stories have encouraged readers to honor their God, their spouse, and their marriage. He has accomplished this admirably, using both fictional accounts and real-life testimonials. At times he has bared his soul, discussing his own journey from prodigal to returned husband. Recently, Bob began sharing with readers what God was revealing to him through the "everyday" occurrences experienced while traveling on one's own. In his first such book, Rejoice on the Road, Bob invited each of us to be his traveling companion as he toured the country by automobile, listening as God spoke to him about the covenant of marriage through those he encountered. At times these opportunities arose on street corners, at other times in shops, restaurants, or out in the country. Regardless of the locale, God was able to give Bob a deeper understanding and sensitivity as to what our Lord wants in our relationships with each other.

    Rejoice on the Rails is Bob's second "travel" book. This time we accompany Bob as he leaves the pavement behind and takes to the iron rails that still stretch across our great land. Triggered by the sights and sounds of train life, Bob shares his thoughts on marriage and relationships, and a full life in Christ. And of course, Bob comments on the many persons placed in his path who inspire a thought or memory that God uses to punctuate a particular point. The reader cannot help but come away with a desire to become more receptive to God's gentle whisperings in his or her own life. This is a marvelous book that will at times delight you with the author's humor, yet will always return your focus to the theme of love and reconciliation. Bob continues to keep us "on track," and demonstrates that through God all things are possible. And these possibilities include a restored, healthy, Christ-centered marriage. Bob and his lovely wife Charlyne are just one of God's proofs of this. To God be the glory!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.
    Release dateNov 28, 2012
    ISBN9781301871421
    Rejoice On The Rails

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      Book preview

      Rejoice On The Rails - Bob Steinkamp

      REJOICE ON THE RAILS

      The Journey Toward A Healed Home

      Go in peace. Your journey has the Lord's approval. Judges 18:6

      By Bob Steinkamp

      Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.

      Post Office Box 10548

      Pompano Beach, FL 33061 USA

      http://rejoiceministries.org/

      All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the publisher.

      Scripture Quotations are from the King James Version or the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

      Published by Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2001 by Rejoice Marriage Ministries, Inc.

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ~~~~

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Dedication

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 - Get On Board

      Chapter 2 - Taking the Trip

      Chapter 3 - Be Kind and Unwind

      Chapter 4 - Where Are We?

      Chapter 5 - Timetables and Turntables

      Chapter 6 - The Perfect Trip

      Chapter 7 - A Reservation to Restoration by Charlyne Steinkamp

      Chapter 8 - The End of the Line

      Chapter 9 - Yes, I Know

      Chapter 10 - He's With Me

      Chapter 11 - The Other Side of the Tracks

      Chapter 12 - Homeward Bound

      Chapter 13 - Better Than That

      Chapter 14 - On The Way

      Chapter 15 - Tomorrow Is The Day!

      Chapter 16 - Profiles

      Chapter 17 - Breakfast Now Being Served

      Chapter 18 - Signs

      Chapter 19 - Getting Close

      Chapter 20 - The Big Apple

      Chapter 21 - A Priority

      Chapter 22 - When Things Go Black

      Conclusion

      Meet The Steinkamps

      The Greatest News

      Ten Sources of Help

      Connect With Rejoice Ministries

      DEDICATION

      This book is dedicated to our three children. They witnessed a prodigal Dad living in the far country of life, but even greater, they witnessed a praying wife who would not give up on a husband who everyone was calling hopeless.

      Thank you, Tim, Lori, and Tom, for sharing Mom and Dad with other families, so that they might avoid what almost destroyed our family, namely divorce.

      Bob and Charlyne Steinkamp

      Back To Table Of Contents

      INTRODUCTION

      All abooaarrdd. That second drawn out word suddenly carried me back in time 45 years. Ten year old Bobby Steinkamp had stood on that same train platform in Fort Lauderdale, excited about having won a trip to Washington, D.C. with three of his fifth grade classmates.

      To me, the conductor in the white shirt who voiced those words last week looked exactly like the man who called them out almost half a century ago. The sounds of that train pulling into the station were the same. Train engines have a new look now, but there is no aroma therapy that can bring excitement like that of a massive train engine braking ten feet away. Even the engineer, who waved from his open engine window, looked like the man I remembered who carried us to Washington.

      Everything was so much the same that a grown-up Bob Steinkamp almost wanted to check his pocket to make sure that he had his safety patrol belt for the big parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. The group photo made on the steps of the Capitol is long gone, but the memories are still as sharp as ever.

      Train memories seem to be that way. Even before I started school, I can recall the big whistle that could be heard all over my home town of Paducah, Kentucky. It originated at the shops of the Illinois Central Railroad, where my grandfather and my dad both worked as boiler makers. A long burst on the whistle signaled the start of a day. When I heard the afternoon whistle, I knew that my dad would soon be home.

      Marriage memories are also hard to forget. It was not a whistle, but a wedding that signaled the start of a new day of covenant marriage for you. Back in Paducah, the whistle also blew to signal lunch hour. None of those hard-working men called it a day when the noon whistle blew. They knew that it only signaled a break.

      For many of the people, with whom Charlyne and I work, the whistle of divorce has blown and a covenant mate has laid down the tools of love and walked off the job. It is your job, assigned by our Lord God, to keep the shops open with your prayers, until He blows the whistle and the one you love returns to complete your marriage, 'til death do us part, as you both promised God.

      I cannot long think about trains without remembering my Grandma Steinkamp. By the time our family moved to Florida, my grandfather had died. Each winter, Grandma would ride to Florida on her widow's train pass. It was always exciting to see the oscillating headlight of the train, slowly approaching from the north, bringing my grandma to see us. It seemed as if that train would never arrive, and then finally the conductor would open the bottom half of that exit door and my grandma was there!

      You may be waiting, praying, and watching, yet the spiritual train that will bring your spouse home is nowhere in sight, or may be only a small light so far down the track that it is only a dot on the horizon. Be confident that after God promises you that His trains run on His timetable and not on yours, that you can stop guessing when a restored marriage will arrive.

      There were scores of people waiting to board the train I saw last week and no one was pacing and fretting, afraid that the train would never arrive. I heard no one say; It's too hard waiting. I'll just give up and find another train (relationship). Once you have your ticket of faith in hand, you will be confident that the train will arrive that will carry your spouse back home.

      Anything over two small bags was required to be checked. Just before the train arrived, a baggage handler pulled the cart loaded with luggage to the north of the train station. When the train pulled in, the baggage car door stopped almost even with the luggage. Passengers boarded, confident that their luggage would safely make the trip.

      Isn't that the way the Lord does things? He does not want us stumbling along with the excess baggage of childhood hurts, fears, depression, or abandonment. We check those things with Him in prayer, and He takes them on God's baggage cart of love, out of our lives and into His custody, freeing us to board His train without hindrance.

      Sitting on that train platform on a hot, late July morning, the Lord birthed in my spirit a new book, Rejoice on the Rails. I sensed that He had a thousand and one illustrations on board that train, much as He had given me for Rejoice on the Road. The details are missing, but I am praying that the Lord might once again allow me to ride the Silver Meteor to Washington.

      This trip will be the same, but it will be different. There won't be any notes for the conductor to carry from my buddy Johnny and me in the boy's car to Marilyn in the girl's car. Nevertheless, I am certain to have Johnny on my heart for that entire trip. We went through school together, and then Johnny died, probably without knowing how to catch the train to heaven. I knew how, but never told him.

      Today you and I live in a world that is full of Johnnys and Marilyns. They do not know about God's train to eternal life, nor do not know how to connect with His train for marriage restoration. May you and I never lose our burden to tell others that trains still run today.

      All abooaarrdd.

      Back To Table Of Contents

      CHAPTER 1

      GET ON BOARD

      We don't go there, the man behind the ticket counter replied. During my recent visit to the train station in Fort Lauderdale, I had the idea to take a train ride, and had attempted to purchase a ticket to a city a hundred miles up the coast of Florida from us.

      The ticket agent offered no explanation of why trains did not go to that city. I know there were tracks there, and I had seen a train coming through, but I was not going there today, so I asked for a round trip ticket to West Palm Beach, thirty miles away.

      We can't sell you one, the ticket agent replied. Again he offered no explanation as to why he could not sell me a ticket. The man in line behind me volunteered that since our local commuter trains used the same tracks, they did not compete with one another. I then attempted to purchase a Tri-Rail commuter ticket from that same ticket agent. We don't sell them, he said.

      And we don't sell airplane tickets either, laughed a baggage handler who was standing nearby. Everyone who heard him chuckled, except for yours truly.

      My attempts to get on board that train might remind you of the first attempt you made to get on board God's Restoration Special for your marriage. Someone was always around to remind you that God did not go where

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