PASSING ON THE BATON

If you're still questioning why I devoted the previous post to a list of names, let me answer by saying that, as Christians, we are exhorted to pass on what we've heard, namely the gospel, the good news.  We pass on other areas of life.  You may have taught someone how to walk, add, subtract, drive a car, use a computer, etc.  How much more then should we be teaching spiritual truths to those who follow.

The Christian leaders, whose names I listed, all passed on something about the Christian life to me.  I may have learned much from some, or little.  The point is, they shared.  A great example of sharing or passing lessons from the Bible on to others is illustrated well, beginning with Edward Kimball, a Sunday School teacher.  Kimball visited a young boy, who was attending his Sunday School class and led this boy to a personal relationship with the Lord.  That Sunday School boy was Dwight L. Moody.  Moody became an evangelist and J. Wilbur Chapman was converted to Christ under Moody's ministry.  Billy Sunday, a professional baseball player, received Christ in the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago.  Wilbur Chapman became Billy Sunday's mentor for a period of time before Sunday launched out on his own evangelistic ministry.  Mordecai Ham responded to the invitation which Billy Sunday gave in one of his meetings.  In 1934 Mordecai Ham, who also became an evangelist, was preaching in Charlotte, NC.  When he gave the invitation to receive Christ as Savior. a young teen went forward.  That young teen was Billy Graham.  Only eternity will reveal the thousands and thousands who have come to faith under Billy Graham's preaching.

Most of these, which I just mentioned in the previous paragraph, were evangelists, but the story began with a Sunday School teacher who simply visited one of his students.  I am reminded of a friend, who served as an elder in one of the churches where I served as pastor.  As a young boy, from a non-Christian home, he attended a Daily Vacation Bible School.  That church followed up on that boy and visited his home.  In time, that young boy's parents and siblings became Christians.  That boy grew to manhood, attended a Bible college, married, had a family and at least two of his children also attended a Bible college.  Today, as I write, one daughter is a pastor's wife in Pennsylvania and her sister, together with her husband, are overseas, serving as missionaries.  I had the privilege of dedicating this missionary daughter when she was an infant.  That story began with a church following up on a young lad who came from a non-Christian home and who attended a DVBS.  It is continuing today through the ministry of my friend's two daughters and their husbands.

I cannot stress the importance of following up on children who attend Sunday School, a summer camp or DVBS.  It is also important for pastors to connect with their parishioners.  Unfortunately, many of today's pastors seldom visit their people and there are fewer pastors that avail themselves following a Sunday service, to greet those in attendance.  Some of my previous posts have indicated that good contacts and decisions for Christ were the result of a home visit, or handshake after a service.

Four weeks ago, August 11, 12, 2018, our family spent the weekend together at our son Brian's place in Vernon.  We are not a large family, only a baker's dozen.  It's been years since we've all managed to get together at Christmas time, so the 13 of us celebrated Christmas in August.  We had our own Sunday morning service.  I shared a few thoughts with the family on the topic of Passing On The Baton.  My text was from Psalm 78.  

"Listen, O my people, to my instruction,  Incline your ears to the words of my mouth...I will utter...sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us...We will not conceal...but tell to the generations to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wondrous works that He has done...That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children, that they should put their confidence in God, and not forget the works of God."  Psalm 78:1-4, 6,7.

The baker's dozen, August 2018 

When our family was young, Leona and I shared as best we could with the three children entrusted to us.  My prayer for my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and the generations still to come may well be summed up in Steve Green's song, Find Us faithful

We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

CHORUS:
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful.