Today, Tuesday August 10
Confident Expectations Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,”
It was fifty years ago, on February 21, 1971, that I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. It was only a few months later on a Sunday evening at the Landmark Baptist Temple in Cincinnati Ohio, that I heard Dr. Bob Hugh, a missionary to the Philippines, preach a message from Ezekiel 3 entitled, “I Sat Where They Sat”. That night I clearly heard the call of God to the Gospel Ministry and in obedience, I went forward when the invitation was given and presented my body and life as a living sacrifice to go wherever the Lord might lead me to proclaim His Gospel.
I had no idea that evening of the awesome journey the Lord would take me on! I immediately enrolled in a brand new Bible College, Lynchburg Baptist College that was opening that fall in Lynchburg Virginia. I quit my construction job, packed my car and moved to Lynchburg and became a part of one of the most exciting schools that has ever existed in the history of Christianity.
In one of the first chapels, Dr. Jerry Falwell mentioned that his life verse was Philippians 1:6. As a brand new believer, who was very much fearful of what the future might hold for me as a minister of the Gospel, I decided to also claim that verse as my life’s verse. Today, fifty years later, I stand amazed and in wonder as I look back and see the how the Lord truly has “performed a good work” in and through my life!
This past Sunday, August 8th, Rainbow Forest Baptist Church affirmed the man of God, that we believe the Lord has called to become the new lead pastor of our wonderful fellowship. When I announced my resignation last November 2020, we called the church to pray and ask for God’s leading and direction to appoint a search team to begin this transition. God’s people responded by praying and I can’t even begin to share all the ways the Lord directed in every step along the way.
Today, we can truly say, that the Lord “has done exceeding above all we could ask or think”! That’s the story of my fifty years of ministry and especially of these past few months at Rainbow. We are very excited to introduce you to Pastor John Richardson, his wife Michelle and their two daughters, Sophia and Ren. They have accepted the call to come, and on September 5th, Pastor John will be installed as the new senior pastor of our great church!
Please pray for Pastor John and his family as they make this transition and also for us as we enter into a new season of life and ministry! Edith and I are so blessed and thankful to have so many friends who have loved and prayed for us over the many years!
I’m convinced the Lord will also continue to “perform the good work He has begun” and we will continue to experience “great and mighty things” (Jeremiah 33:3), that will be “exceeding and abundantly above all we could ever ask or think”!
God bless!