{"id":4595,"date":"2019-02-28T11:13:05","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T17:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nafwb.org\/?p=4595"},"modified":"2019-02-28T11:13:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T17:13:05","slug":"take-the-positive-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/take-the-positive-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Take the Positive Look"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jack Williams<\/strong><\/p>\n

A minister called and said a church in another state contacted him about being their pastor.\u00a0 They worked out a time for him to candidate and meet the church members.\u00a0 Apparently, the encounter went well.<\/p>\n

The minister chuckled, \u201cThe church called me as pastor.\u00a0 Seventy-four people voted, and I got 79 votes!\u00a0 That\u2019s the first time I ever got 105% of the vote.\u00a0 I\u2019m going.\u201d<\/p>\n

The preacher relocated and joined the vote-happy congregation.\u00a0 Who could blame him?<\/p>\n

Every decision we make\u00a0<\/strong>comes with its own set of unintended consequences.\u00a0 Bill Bryson relates one such surprise in his December 1989 Reader\u2019s Digest<\/em>article, \u201cLife\u2019s Little Gamble.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the story goes, in 1940 an American businessman named Wilson grew tired of the Great Depression, rising taxes and increasing crime.\u00a0 He sold his home and moved to an island in the Pacific where he expected to live out his days in tranquility.\u00a0 Balmy and ringed with beautiful beaches, the island seemed like paradise.<\/p>\n

The island\u2019s name?\u00a0 Iwo Jima.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a small<\/strong>, inconsequential act by one person can change the world for thousands of others.\u00a0 Does the name Leigh Richmond <\/em>get a twitch from your \u201cimportant people\u201d radar?\u00a0 It should.<\/p>\n

Leigh Richmond dropped a tract on the pavement in London and prayed that a bad man would pick it up.\u00a0 His prayer was answered; a bad man did pick it up.<\/p>\n

The bad man carried the tract with him to prison and was converted.\u00a0 He later wrote Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/em>which turned millions to Christ.\u00a0 For generations, the book was second only to the Bible in sales.\u00a0 The bad man who found Richmond\u2019s tract was John Bunyan.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t do something big, do something small.\u00a0 A tract, a timely phone call or a kind word at the right moment may give the world another John Bunyan.\u00a0 With God, little is much.<\/p>\n

Embrace the difficult.\u00a0<\/strong>A Nashville pastor related a conversation with a bright young layman who served on the church\u2019s budget committee.<\/p>\n

Said the pastor, \u201cWe had just passed a church budget, and I was pleased.\u00a0 Then I got this call from an unhappy layman.\u00a0 He was as disappointed in the church budget as I was pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n

The layman told his pastor, \u201cIt\u2019s not a bad budget, but it\u2019s a budget that we don\u2019t need God to meet it.\u00a0 Our people won\u2019t even have to tithe to meet this.\u00a0 I hope that one day we pass a budget God must meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expect God to open\u00a0<\/strong>unseen doors to witness when a closed culture and problematic circumstances conspire to keep them shut.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened in the late 1980s in Ivory Coast, West Africa.<\/p>\n

Former missionary Robert West was approached by a Muslim who offered him 50 cows for his 14-year-old daughter (Marie).\u00a0 Since six cows was the going rate for a wife, Robert knew this was a serious moment.\u00a0 The wrong word could anger and offend the Muslim, even stir bitterness toward the mission station.<\/p>\n

He paused and silently asked God for wisdom.\u00a0 Then he told the Muslim suitor, \u201cShe\u2019s already promised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPromised to whom?\u201d the Muslim asked.<\/p>\n

Robert carefully answered, \u201cShe is promised to whomever God chooses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The courteous response averted a potential crisis.\u00a0 Fifty-cow-Marie later enrolled at Free Will Baptist Bible College and married a preacher.<\/p>\n

Come what may<\/strong>, there\u2019s always something you can do in God\u2019s work.\u00a0 I wish every man stayed healthy and strong until his last day on earth.\u00a0 But the fact is some must finish their journey with broken limbs, amputated legs, eyes that refuse to see or bodies restricted by paralysis.<\/p>\n

Did you ever sing, \u201cTo God Be the Glory\u201d or \u201cPraise Him! Praise Him!\u201d or \u201cTell Me the Story of Jesus\u201d or \u201cPass Me Not, O Gentle Savior\u201d?\u00a0 Those songs were written by a blind woman.\u00a0 From her dark station in life, Fanny Crosby gave the church beautiful hymns.\u00a0 She chose to see more in<\/p>\n

than many do with two good eyes.<\/p>\n

The late Dr. Jonathan Thigpen, president of Evangelical Training Association, found courage to serve while battling ALS (Lou Gehrig\u2019s Disease) and completed his doctorate from a wheelchair.\u00a0 In his final sermon to students at FWBBC a few weeks before his death, Jonathan brought students and faculty to their feet with his signature challenge, \u201cSemper Fi\u201d (always faithful).<\/p>\n

Thornton Wilder said<\/strong>, \u201cIn love\u2019s service only the wounded can serve.\u201d\u00a0 Everybody is wounded in some way.\u00a0 Some wounds are there for the world to see; others hide behind a smile so bright we miss the tears.\u00a0 So to your duty post, friend.\u00a0 We\u2019re counting on you.<\/p>\n

I believe the Scandinavian adage: \u201cThe north wind made the Vikings.\u201d\u00a0 Some serve on the north side of God\u2019s work.\u00a0 If that\u2019s your place, go there eagerly, for that\u2019s where the strongest timber grows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jack Williams A minister called and said a church in another state contacted him about being their pastor.\u00a0 They worked out a time for him to candidate and meet the church members.\u00a0 Apparently, the encounter went well. The minister chuckled, \u201cThe church called me as pastor.\u00a0 Seventy-four people voted, and I got 79 votes!\u00a0 That\u2019s the first time I ever got 105% of the vote.\u00a0 I\u2019m going.\u201d The preacher relocated and joined the vote-happy congregation.\u00a0 Who could blame him? Every decision we make\u00a0comes with its own set of unintended consequences.\u00a0 Bill Bryson relates one such surprise in his December 1989 Reader\u2019s Digestarticle, \u201cLife\u2019s Little Gamble.\u201d As the story goes, in 1940 an American businessman named Wilson grew tired of the Great Depression, rising taxes and increasing crime.\u00a0 He sold his home and moved to an island in the Pacific where he expected to live out his days in tranquility.\u00a0 Balmy and ringed with beautiful beaches, the island seemed like paradise. The island\u2019s name?\u00a0 Iwo Jima. Sometimes a small, inconsequential act by one person can change the world for thousands of others.\u00a0 Does the name Leigh Richmond get a twitch from your \u201cimportant people\u201d radar?\u00a0 It should. Leigh Richmond dropped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pastors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4596,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions\/4596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}