“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Romans 1:16 NKJV
Because God is the Creator of everything, neither distance nor time limit Him.
God expects His followers who have made the eternal decision to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” to “think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them …” Romans 12:3-6 NKJV
Robert Raikes began the first Sunday school in England in 1780. In 1785, the first Sunday schools in the United States were founded in Virginia.
The American Sunday School Union, founded in 1824, was planning and implementing the Mississippi Valley Enterprise, to establish Sunday schools from the Alleghenies to the Rockies and from Michigan to Louisiana. From 1830 through 1880, at least 50,000 people professed faith in Jesus Christ as a result of that Sunday school outreach.
When Dwight L. Moody, as a new Christian, moved from Boston to Chicago, he soon started Sunday schools there. The devastating Chicago fire wiped out most of his assets, but he determined to follow God’s guidance to keep reaching boys and girls for Jesus.
In 1873, Moody and his wife encouraged Emma Dryer to leave her position as a secular college professor to start a home missions training and ministry program. As Dryer was beginning the program, Moody and Ira Sankey left Chicago for evangelism ministry in England.
Emma Dryer and a group of ladies began praying every Saturday morning that Mr. Moody would return to Chicago and oversee the construction of a building for a wide-ranging home missions training school.
Moody delayed his return, but in the summer of 1887, he promised: “I will come back to Chicago soon.” While the ladies were praying, C.T. Studd received a large inheritance from his father and promised to send 25% to Mr. Moody in Chicago to help fund the Chicago Evangelization Society, the forerunner of the Chicago Bible Institute.
The Board of Directors was harmonious and established a separate nine-member board of managers to oversee the day-to-day operations with two men and seven women, including Emma Dryer.
The Bible Work Institute later became Chicago Bible Institute, and following Mr. Moody‘s death in 1899, was renamed Moody Bible Institute by 1900.
Back in 1892, D.L. Moody was looking down on Jerusalem while praying on the Mount of Olives, and he received a vision from the Lord to reach people coming to Chicago in 1893 from every North American state and territory, and every nation on earth. Leaving Israel, he went back to Britain before returning to America and recruited evangelistic preachers and workers to help with the forthcoming World’s Colombian exposition, known as the Chicago World’s Fair.
Back in America, Moody recruited R.A. Torrey and Jay Wilbur Chapman to help navigate one of the greatest evangelistic crusades in Christian history. Mr. Moody and his hundreds of associates used the Bible Institute as headquarters. They organized speakers and singers, then dispatched them to churches, halls, auditoriums, and tents all over downtown Chicago to preach and sing the gospel. Moody and his co-workers advertised widely.
Breakthroughs such as the movable type printing press in about 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg, which accelerated printing immensely; and Samuel F.B. Morse’s telegraph in 1844 – “What hath God wrought” – paved the way for radio.
God uses His people to intertwine ideas and substances to further His glorious Gospel.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 NKJV
Many times, people trained in scripture, especially Bible memorization, will come back and serve Jesus.
New American and Christian flags are now flying over TTT, and were dedicated Saturday, July 4.
Fair Share began Monday, July 6, and is to continue through August 14, taking the gospel to nine Tri-state county fairs and street festivals. We give God the glory for those who have heard the Gospel, and for those who have responded to personally “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
A very special happening through Fair Share is to reconnect with and be updated by TTT alumni.
The Bible continues to be used every day as “the power of God to salvation,” and is shared worldwide. The power of the Gospel of Christ convicts, converts, and enables “Christ through you to change the world!”