“Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” Psalm 33:8 NKJV
A young man arrived home late one night and found a poem his mother had placed on the piano. As he read it, he began to compose music for the lyrics:
“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold, I’d rather be His than have riches untold. I’d rather have Jesus then houses or lands, I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand, than to be the king of a vast domain, and be held by sin’s dread sway.”
He kept singing: “I’d rather have Jesus, than anything this world affords today.”
Joyce Blackburn, our former pastor’s daughter and family friend, was asked to read scriptures on a radio broadcast on a secular Chicago station. The person who had put music to “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” George Beverly Shea, was the vocal soloist on the broadcast. Out of range of the Chicago station in my hometown of Mt. Carmel, we drove to the highest hill to receive the signal.
As a member of the Mt. Carmel High School National Club, each participant was to present a musical package. It was my privilege to sing “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” a great way to share my faith with a select group of classmates.
A couple of years earlier, I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus when God hit me in the heart with two verses of scripture I didn’t even realize I knew:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:1-2 NKJV
Meanwhile, to encourage participation at Mt. Carmel Youth for Christ monthly Saturday night rallies, each Sunday evening a local congregation sponsored “Singspiration,” and I sang Sunday after Sunday.
Our church aired a Saturday morning live radio broadcast. I was privileged to sing “I’d Rather Have Jesus.”
When I was a student at Bob Jones University, the Billy Graham team was using “Unusual Studios” to produce a TV program. While the team was in town, Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. was evangelist for meetings at Bible Presbyterian Church; Cliff Barrows led the music and George Beverly Shea was soloist. It was there that I first met Mr. Shea personally, and asked him to autograph my Bible.
Whoever you are, wherever you are as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, keep your antenna high and be ready to connect and reconnect with the people God places in your path.
You may not be familiar with Billy Graham, George Beverly Shea, or Cliff Barrows, but they started serving the Lord together in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1947.
September 15, 1950, at age 31, Billy Graham became the president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, launching “The Hour of Decision” national radio broadcast with Cliff Barrows in November 1950.
And I did not know about Charlie Kirk before his assassination, but my daughter Tami, a graduate of liberty University, was familiar with him and his ministry. Tami and Jonathan Falwell, now the chancellor of Liberty University and pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, have been friends since their student days together.
Addressing the Thomas Road congregation the Sunday after Charlie Kirk’s death, Jonathan Falwell said: “We need a generation of people today – young people and old people and everything in between – who recognize and understand that God is a God who loves us. God is a God who sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us. He was buried and He rose again the third day. And He has sent us out to tell the world about Jesus. And we need a generation of leaders today who will proudly and boldly stand up and simply say: ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’ That is what this world needs.”
Getting to know “giants of the Christian faith” has been an ongoing privilege and challenge to serve the Lord together to invite every possible person to follow God’s ABCs: Admit you’ve sinned; Believe on Christ; Confess Christ publicly.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV
As souls are saved, lives are changed, and futures are rearranged, I stand in awe of the Lord. Will you keep praying, sharing, and expecting the Lord to reach people?