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No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to
those who try to deceive others. Show me the path where I should walk, O LORD;
point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. (Psalm
25:3-5 NLV). Sometimes
the most insignificant acts result in the most significant things. And, many
times we don’t know how significant that act might be until many years later.
It is like the toppling of dominos, one leads to another. The following is such
a story. Edward
Kimball was concerned about one of his young Sunday school students who worked
at a shoe store in town. One day Kimball visited him at the store, found the
student in the back stocking shoes, and led him to Christ then and there. Dwight
L. Moody eventually left the shoe store to become one of the greatest preachers
and evangelists of all time. Moody, whose international speaking took him to the
British Isles, preached in a little chapel pastored by a young man with the
imposing name of Frederic Brotherton Meyer. In his sermon Moody told an
emotionally charged story about a Sunday school teacher he had known in Chicago
who personally went to every student in his class and led every one of them to
Christ. That message changed Pastor Meyer's entire ministry, inspiring him to
become an evangelist like Moody. Over the years Meyer came to America several
times to preach. Once in Northfield, Massachusetts, confused young preacher
sitting in the back row heard Meyer say, "If you are not willing to give up
everything for Christ, are you willing to be made willing?" That remark led
J. Wilbur Chapman to respond to the call of God on his life. Chapman went on to
become one of the most effective evangelists of his time. A volunteer by the
name of Billy Sunday helped set up his crusades and learned how to preach by
watching Chapman. Sunday eventually took over Chapman's ministry, becoming one
of the most dynamic evangelists of the 20th century. In the great arenas of the
nation, Billy Sunday's preaching turned thousands of people to Christ. Inspired
by a 1924 Billy Sunday crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina, a committee of
Christians there dedicated themselves to reaching that city for Christ. The
committee invited the evangelist Mordecai Ham to hold a series of evangelistic
meetings in 1932. A lanky 16-year-old sat in the huge crowd one evening,
spellbound by the message of the white-haired preacher, who seemed to be
shouting and waving his lone finger at him. Night after night the teenager
attended and finally went forward to give his life to Christ. The teenager's
name? Billy Graham--the man who has undoubtedly communicated the gospel of Jesus
Christ to more people than any other man in history. |
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