Keep Track of God’s Involvement in the Every Day—Part 15

READINGS – Part 4

Dr. Walter L. Wilson. Hundreds of thousands have been thrilled and challenged by the doctor’s experiences in soul winning, such as he has recounted in The Romance of a Doctor’s Visits. For example, in the account of “The Little Man in a Big City” he tells of his being alone in the great city of New York. Before he went out for a business appointment he had prayer in his hotel room, and requested: “My Lord, this is a large city of seven million people, and I am just a weak, unknown servant of Thine with no knowledge of the city and no acquaintance with the hungry hearts that may be there. Thou alone dost know whom Thou has been dealing with. Here is my body my feet and my lips. Wilt Thou take them today to some troubled heart and speak through me Thy Words of light and life? Thank You, Lord, I believe You will do it.”

As he walked eastward on Thirty-second Street he passed a stationery shop and noticed a small leather-covered notebook in the window. This brought to mind his need of a book in which to keep his prayer list. Upon entering the shop he inquired of the little German owner thereof about the notebook. The size and the price were satisfactory; and the shopkeeper began to wrap it up. Just then Dr. Wilson said. “Do you know what I expect to do with this little book?”

The storekeeper did not know, and was astonished to learn that it was to be used as a prayer book. Thereupon he began to unwrap the package saying, “I am sorry, my friend, but this is a blank book; it is not a prayer book.”

That was just the opening Dr. Wilson needed. He explained that he made his own prayer book, using the left-hand pages for petitions and the right-hand ones for the answers. Then he added his testimony of knowing the Lord Jesus as His Savior, and invited the shopkeeper to do the same.

The-reply was not surprising. “Mister, I have tried to find Gott for many years. I have gone around Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Bronx, night after night, attending many services, but failed always to find Gott. Can you tell me how to get Him?”

After explanation of the Scripture that the Lord Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Dr. Wilson led his new friend to the Savior. The quest of the years had come to an end, for now the shopkeeper knew the Lord Jesus for himself.

And for the soul-winner only twenty minutes had elapsed from the prayer in the hotel room to the winning of another soul to Christ, because the life and lips of the servant belonged to the Holy Spirit.

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They Found the Secret, V. Raymond Edman, Zondervan, pages 127-28.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Keep Track of God’s Involvement in the Every Day—Part 14

READINGS – Part 3

“Oh, yuck!”

My daughter Laura stepped back and pinched her nose as I broke the neck of a hefty catfish, spilling its entrails into a blood-splattered bucket. Small price to pay for inch-thick, fresh fillets.

Small price, too, for building a relationship with the third fisher on this expedition, Jeremy.

Yesterday, sitting in my office for the first time, he wore a just-try-to-figure-me-out expression on his face. A high school senior, he came, he said, “just to keep peace with my mother.” Two days before, Jeremy had been expelled for pulling a hunting knife on a classmate.

“So, why did you do it?” I asked.

Silence.

“What was going on in your thinker when you made your move?”

More silence.

“Look, I just want to be your friend,” I said, but the words felt hollow.

“Prove it,” his eyes said, then shifted to the wall on my right.

For more than an hour I tried to get through to him. But I felt like I was rowing around an island, getting a general view of things but not finding a place to land.

“I have a girlfriend at school,” he said. They talk some, but not too much—afraid to get too close.

“Ever been hurt badly by someone?” I asked.

He admitted that he had, but he wouldn’t talk about it with anyone, not even his mother. Lord, help me, I prayed.This guy doesn’t trust his own mother, much less a probing stranger.

There, he did it again. Something on the wall to my right caught his eye. Oh, of course, the calendar. Nice picture: a swarthy Indian displaying his catch. Walleyed pike. I think.

I turned away, and then it hit me. I played my hunch.

“You like to fish?”

“Love it.”

“Really?” Thank you, Lord. “Been fishing lately?”

“Naw, not since we moved to town. But when I was a kid, we lived next to the Tensaw River, and I used to go every chance I got. It’s better to go when the water is high, where you can use a boat and set out a trout line overnight. Most of the time I caught catfish that way, and once I caught a fifteen pounder. But if the water is down, you wanna go for bream or bass that hang out around the stumps—course, you hafta know what you’re doing ’cause the water is hot and the fish are sluggish …”

On he went for ten minutes and wasn’t even winding down when I interrupted, “It’s been a while since I’ve hung a fish myself. I’ve got a good mind to fool some catfish in the morning. Would you go with me?”

“Are you serious?”

“Serious as a heart attack.”

“I’ll go. What time?”

“Let’s make it seven-thirty, •unless that’s too early?”

“Not for me. I’ll buy the wrigglers.”

The next day, we threw the little ones back and kept seven. The net scales tipped seventeen pounds. Jeremy was beaming.

“I’ll clean ’em for you,” he said.

He cleaned the first one, and I the next, tentatively curling my fingers around those dreadful spines.

“Sometime we should go hunting together,” he offered.

Who would have guessed—all this prompted by a picture on a wall calendar! And just two weeks earlier or later, that picture would not have been there.

I knew a Fisherman bigger than both of us was maneuvering the boat.

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Arlin Schrock, “Fishing in Holy Water,” Leadership 7 (Summer 1991): 38-39.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Keep Track of God’s Involvement in the Every Day—Part 13

READINGS – Part 2

Out of Billings the travel agent had me booked on a trunk airline flight north, and so I went to the desk to check in.

“Sorry, sir,” the agent said, “but that flight’s canceled for today.”

“When’s the next flight?” I asked.

“Not till seven tomorrow morning.”

“But I’ve got to get there. I have a speaking engagement tonight.”

“Sorry, sir.”

I stepped away from the counter and silently thanked God for this disappointment, asking Him to show me the reason for it.

Just then another man stepped up to the counter, a big, burly character who, when he learned of the canceled flight, let out with an air-blue-ing stream of profanity.

“Look,” he bellowed, “you get me on a flight! I’m gonna lose a lotta money if I don’t get up there!”

“I’m sorry,” the agent said meekly. “There’s nothing I can do.”

A third man came to check in for the flight. He too displayed his temper, though not so vociferously as the first.

I stepped up to the two men. “Since there are three of us,” I said, “why don’t we charter a plane?”

“Good idea!” the big fellow exclaimed. Turning to the agent he said, “Get us some information right away on charter flights!”

In a few minutes we were out beside a small plane. The big fellow sat up front with the pilot, we two smaller men in the back.

“My name is Malcom Randall,” my companion introduced himself.

“I’m Stanley Tam,” I said. “What’s your•business?”

“I work for the government. You?”

“I’m from Lima, Ohio. We reclaim and refine silver and also have a plastics sales organization.”

“You’re here on business?”

“I’m speaking at a church tonight, telling about my experiences as a Christian businessman.”

“That’s fascinating. I wish I could hear you; but I’ll be tied up with appointments.”

“Would you Jet me share some of my experiences with you now?”

“Sure, why not?”

So I began my story.

“Say,” he interrupted, “I’ve heard you speak! It was at a service club or something.”

His sudden outburst threw me off for a moment.

“Well, how about that?” I said.

“Yeah, I sure have.” He pointed to a pin on his lapel. “It was at a Lion’s Club meeting somewhere. I’m out of town a lot, but I always try to get to the local club wherever I happen to be. Isn’t that something?”

It so intrigued him to have run across me before, I had difficulty getting back on course.

But finally he said, “Go ahead. Finish the story.”

As I continued, he grew more intensely attentive. I could see evidence of spiritual concern creep across his countenance.

“You know,” he said when I had concluded my testimony, “almost every night I get down on my knees and try to pray. I confess my sins.”

“Do you have God’s peace in your heart?” I asked.

He shook his head. “That’s something I know nothing about,” he said.

“May I tell you how to find this peace?” I asked.

He nodded.

Moments later there on the plane God honored me with the privilege of bringing another man to a personal knowledge of His Son.

“You know something,” this man said to me, “it was no accident the plane was canceled out of Billings. It was an act of God. He knew I needed to meet you!”

_________________________________
God Owns My Business, Stanley Tam, Horizon House, pages 143-144.

———————————————

Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy