Rev. D. F. Ferguson, a senior pastor in Riverside, California, was an excellent preacher with a real understanding of Calvary and of grace. At a district conference of his denomination, a fellow pastor was testifying of how he had left a job as a successful attorney making a six-figure salary to follow the call of the Lord into the ministry.
Following him, another pastor stood and said, “I was making two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year in Kansas grain when I gave it all up to serve the Lord.”
After two more pastors followed this theme of what they had given up to follow Jesus, Ferguson could take no more. He jumped to his feet and ran to the front. He seized the microphone and in broken voice said, “When God called me into the ministry I was standing behind two mules plowin’ a field in Arkansas. It was 105+ degrees and I had on one tennis shoe and one of dad’s boots. I threw down the reins of them two mules and said, ‘God, I’m ready – anything beats this’, and I’ve been in the ministry ever since!”
The conference roared in laughter and came to a standing ovation. God has a unique way of calling each of us. Some sacrifice greatly in following Christ, but for many others, following Christ was nothing but a step up. Which was it for you: a step up or a step down?
Tags: call, sacrifice, testimony
A woman named Nancy put this ad in her local newspaper: “If you are lonely or have a problem, call me. I am in a wheelchair and seldom get out. We can share our problems with each other. Just call. I’d love to talk.” The response to that ad has been tremendous – 30 calls or more every week.
What motivated this woman to reach out from her wheelchair to help others in need? Nancy explained that before her paralysis she had been perfectly healthy but in deep despair. She tried to commit suicide by jumping from her apartment window, but instead she became paralyzed from the waist down.
In the hospital, utterly frustrated, she sensed Jesus saying to her, “Nancy, you’ve had a healthy body but a crippled soul. From now on you will have a crippled body but a healthy soul.” As a result of that experience, she surrendered her life to Christ. When she was finally allowed to go home, she prayed for a way to share God’s grace with others, and the idea of the newspaper ad occurred to her.
Is there a way God could be using bad stuff in your life to lead you down the path He has set for you? Ask Him.
Tags: call, crippled, newspaper, service