Living For Jesus

My new book Living For Jesus will soon be available at the church book store. You can order your copy from Diane smith on Sunday morning. My prayer is that this book will be a great aid to all who read it in enabling them to live for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The following lines are from the chapter on loving the Word of God. This will give you a brief sample of what this book is like. God bless you all as you live for our great King!

In his book The Wonders of the Word of God, evangelist Robert L. Sumner tells about a man who was severely injured in a terrible explosion. The man’s face was badly disfigured and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He had recently become a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read Braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in Braille. Much to his dis­may, however, he discovered that the explosion had also destroyed the nerve endings in his lips. But one day, as he brought one of the Braille pages to his lips, his tongue hap­pened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. In a flash he thought, I can read the Bible using my tongue. At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times.

My father-in-law, an old southern evangelist, Dr. Del Fehsenfeld, used to say:

“Read the Bible through.
Pray the Bible in.
Live the Bible out.
Pass the Bible on.
And you’ll not have any trouble standing on your feet.”

That the Bible will have a powerful impact on our Christian lives and transform us by its amazing message is a fact that none can deny. I suggest that there can be no Christian living without hav­ing the Bible as a fundamental part of one’s worldview. Dr. D. James Kennedy records the impact that the Bible had on a man who was a professed and arrogant atheist.

Henry Stanley said that in the 1880’s, when he entered the interior of Africa, he was the most swaggering atheist in the world. In the depths of the jungles of central Africa he came upon David Livingston — a man so mild, so meek, and yet so firm and so definite in his purpose and desire to proclaim the gospel. Stanley lived in that man’s tent for months and listened to Livingston read from his little Bible day by day. As a result, the most swaggering atheist in the world was transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ and was brought to the Savior.

There is a poem about the Bible that I have written on the inside cover of my personal Bible that I use when I preach. This poem encourages, inspires, and challenges me.



The Bible

Though the cover is worn, and pages are torn,
And places bear traces of tears,
Yet more precious than gold, is this book worn and old,
That can shatter and scatter my fears.
When I prayerfully look, in this precious old book,
As my eyes scan the pages I see,
Many tokens of love from the Father above,
Who is nearest and dearest to me.
This old book is my guide, ’tis a friend by my side,
It will lighten and brighten my way.
And each promise I find soothes and gladdens my mind.
As I read it and heed it today.