What a Gift

I had a special gift from God for two days last week.  I was given the opportunity to serve in ministry with a precious saint of God.  In fact, he was a man of God.  As Paul Washer says, you are not a man of God until you are at least 60 years old.  Well, Robert fits that.  He is approaching 80 years of age.  He is a "retired" preacher after having spent more than 50 years preaching the Gospel.  Not only did he serve in local churches in various places, he was a church planter and street evangelist.  He told me, with joy in his eyes, of the days he would spend with another preacher holding street meetings and how they would take different corners of an intersection and pass out Gospel tracts to people passing by.  He lamented how most ministers know nothing of this sort of ministry.

I felt like I could have listened to him all day and still find myself longing to hear more.  It was thrilling to hear his love for Jesus, his commitment to the Word of God, and his desire to partner with pastors of other denominations so long as they were in agreement on the fundamentals.  To be honest, I did find myself feeling a little jealous for what he had the blessing of experiencing in his life.  I was truly said to say goodbye to him at the end of the second day.

I could say so much more about what I gained from these two days, but I would probably end up writing a book out of it.  The bottom line is, I am no longer finding myself turning to the newest trends and freshest voices.  I long for the old ways and the seasoned voices.  Give me the Leonard Ravenhills and the A.W. Tozers.  We are so busy trying to gain new insights, when what we need is to be mastered by the truths that have remained the same from the very beginning.

Thank you, Lord for this gift of learning from a man of God.