I mentioned Reginald Gordon. Why do I remember this man after 47 years. It was what he taught me. It was not by chance we spent a lot of time together. Every morning he would come pick me up from the home I was staying and we would go get breakfast and he would drive me around. One day we went to this quaint café overlooking a bay with lobster boats floating in the bay. Reginald would point out this specific place or this particular home. He would tell me, that brother there is a believer, he is away from God right now but he will come back. Over and over he would say things like that, extremely positive. Finally, I said, "Reginald, how do you know that person will come back to the Lord?" He said because the Bible says so." Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." One of the many lessons Reginald taught me: Have faith in God and believe His Word." This I do so even to this day. I pray that I may do so with more faith.
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I am now in Maine in April. The week of Easter. I begin to preach on Palm Sunday. I learn that the pastor is really struggling at this time. We meet daily for prayer and visitation. A man in the church picks me up every day, his name was Reginald Gordon. He was an antique dealer. He know everyone in the towns around there and I mean he know them. He knew their names and spiritual conditions. Often we would stop in front of the house and offer a prayer for them. As the week went on and I preached six or seven times, now this is a miracles because I had only one prepared sermon. Every day I would pray and ask God what do you want me to preach. There were a few nights I didn't know until I step foot in the pulpit but God was more than faithful. The church begin to fill up, people responding to the invitation. I could not stay for Easter Sunday but the pastor called me and said that the church was overflowing that day. "To God be the glory". Tomorrow, I want to tell you about Reginald Gordon.
Why am I recalling some of these experiences. In Revelation 2, Jesus in addressing the church at Ephesus he said to them " Remember from where you have fallen..." "Remember" this what I am doing, remembering. There was a Seminary project every Spring in which students would go to pioneer areas and spend a week working and preaching to help strengthen the work there. Dr. Fish was the director of this and he shared in class about this project. The Lord convicted me that I should go. I hesitated and finally went by Dr.. Fish office. When I went in he said he had just gotten off the phone with a pastor in Maine and he was looking for someone to come. I said I would go. I had to look on a map to see where I was going. How was I going to get there was the big question? I talked with the pastor of my home church and told him what I had done. In a few days, he called me and said that the church would pay for a plane ticket to Maine for me. The "hand of the Lord was upon us."
God was moving in many areas during these days. He was moving on our campus. Students from Asbury College where revival had broken out came and God moved. But one of the most moving experiences came in a class led by Dr. Roy Fish. He showed a film on bus ministry. It was touching but when the film was over Dr. Fish was weeping and he said," Men, we need to pray." We all got down on our knees beside our desks for for the next 45 minutes weeping and prayers of confession poured out of our hearts and our mouths. The winds of the Spirit were blowing everywhere and you could feel them and see evidences of them. O for a mighty wind of God to blow again.
The" good hand of the Lord was upon us." I re-enrolled in Seminary. Sandra and Tammi were back in Port Neches waiting for me. We had been living in a small mobile home behind the house of my aunt. I had to room for a while in the dorm because of no other place. We needed jobs, we needed a place for our mobile home. I applied for a space in the Seminary trailer park. The lady in-charge said I was seven or eight on the waiting list. Then one day as I was passing that office she waved me in and said can you get your mobile home to the park by the weekend? I said, I can and by the weekend we were moved in. Then we need jobs. Within a few days after Sandra got into Ft.Worth, she had a teaching job, and I had two part-time jobs. We were able to find a lady to keep Tammi and we were off to the races. The "good hand of the Lord was upon us."
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Daily devotional written by Pastor Lynn Sasser. Archives
May 2020
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