Tag: DL Moody

The Next Mosquito in the Room

“The early church didn’t have a Graham, a Finney, or a Moody. It didn’t have Promise Keepers, a Great Awakening, or user-friendly churches. Furthermore, it had no concise spiritual laws to share, no explosive method for talking to the unconverted. What it had seems quite paltry: it had unspectacular people with a hodgepodge of methods, so hodgepodge that they can hardly be called methods, and rarely a gathering of more than a handful of people. The paltry seems to have been enough, however, to make an emperor or two stop and take notice…nameless Christians [who brought] the name of Jesus Christ to the attention of pagans—not a phenomenon that filled stadiums; just enough to begin converting the whole known world.” —Mark Galli

Paltry indeed, but like the mosquito in the room, impossible to ignore. And like this paltry who simply lived Christ so long before us, we live, too. They stood, and we now stand; they led; now we lead. To the world, they had no names, but we remember them,—and we can’t think of them without thinking of Him. And that’s the whole idea. We’re the next mosquito in the room.

The world will definitely notice.

—j

A Most Stupendous Thing

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” the Apostle Paul asked. The question itself is the answer…

“God is for us. Paul here arrives at the mountain height of the Christian position! And that, so to speak, by way of experience. He does indeed, in the word “us” bring all the saints with him. There was first our state of awful guilt and Christ’s work for us, and justification thereby. Then came knowledge of indwelling sin, and the Spirit’s work within us, and deliverance from sin’s power thereby. Now Paul has arrived upon the immovable mountain-top… and sees God Himself FOR us! Not at all meaning here that God is merely on our side in out struggles, but God’s uncaused, unalterable attitude with respect to those in Christ. God is FOR them! Nothing in time or in eternity to come has anything to do with matters here. Our weak hearts, prone to legality and unbelief, must with great difficulty receive these mighty words: God is FOR us! Place the emphasis here where GOD places it: on this great word “for”. God is FOR His elect. They have failed, but He is FOR them. They are ignorant, but He is FOR them. They have not yet brought forth much fruit, but He is FOR them. If our hearts once surrender to this stupendous fact that we are those whom God will be eternally FOR…whose lives do not at all affect the fact that God is FOR them, then we shall be ready to magnify the God of all grace!” —William Newell (emphasis in the original)

There is an unassailable star gleaming in the night of the world—a hope shining beyond the reach of any looming shadow, be it personal, political or spiritual. It is there, though clouds obscure it, and it will remain when they are forever banished.

—j

You Are One

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do.” —D.L. Moody

There’s your day. Blessings.

—j

Thank You, Mr. Kimball

In 1858, a Sunday School teacher named Mr. Kimball led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Jesus Christ. The Clerk, Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist. In England of 1879, he awakened the evangelistic zeal in the heart of Fredrick B. Meyer, the pastor of a small church. F.B. Meyer, preaching at an American college campus, led to Christ a student named J. Wilbur Chapman. Chapman, engaged in YMCA work, employed a former baseball player named Billy Sunday to do evangelistic work. Billy Sunday held a revival in Charlotte, NC. A group of local men became so enthusiastic afterward that they planned another evangelistic campaign, bringing Mordecai Hamm to town to preach. During Hamm’s revival, a young man named Billy Graham heard the Gospel and gave his life to Christ. Only eternity will reveal the tremendous impact of the one Sunday school teacher, Mr. Kimball, who invested his life in the lives of others… —Author Unknown

Serve Jesus in all you do—you just never know.

—j