Although I have been doing most of my travel alone while Sarah is teaching piano at Ambassador, both she and my younger two children are with me this week. The reason is that the church where we are holding meetings, Calvary Baptist Church in Urbana, Illinois, was one of the first churches in America to ever have a young evangelist in for a full week of meetings. I was the evangelist and the meeting was 20 years ago this year. Since that time, the Lord has given us many fruitful meetings at Calvary.
Little did I know when I first came to the church two decades ago, that there would be a man in the church who was a student at the University of Illinois attending the church. He was a new believer, and the Lord used my ministry in his life in a very special way. He went on to earn his PhD in physics from the university, a degree which would have allowed him to write his own ticket in both the scientific and academic worlds. Instead, as he served God through his local church, he began to sense the Lord's call into the ministry. After serving for a few years as the assistant pastor of the church, the congregation called him to be senior pastor.
His faithfulness over the years has been such a blessing. Also, his love for souls is refreshing. Yesterday, there was an unsaved teenage girl who was supposed to come with her mom to the service. For whatever reason, her mom decided not to come at the last minute, but the girl managed to find a ride to church anyway. Last night, she walked the aisle to trust Christ as Savior. She comes from a very rough background, but what a trophy of the grace of God!
This meeting goes through Wednesday of this week. From here we are on to a meeting in SC before we head to our annual meeting in the prairie of Colorado with Shannon Munday.
When I was in college, I was told that the longer I live, the more my friendships will be based upon faithfulness more than any other trait. Now that college is two decades in the rearview mirror, I can say that those men were correct in their predictions. My best friends today are not those interests seemed so well aligned with mine in college, but those who have remained faithful over the years to the truths that they were taught.
People we do not know are watching us and looking to see whether or not we will be faithful. May we all keep our eyes on Jesus and encourage others through our faithfulness.
