His persistence in faithfulness

 Jeremiah 25:1-7

The Lord has blessed me in many ways, but one person that stands out is a man named Carroll Ray Jr.  My first encounter with Carroll was at Burleson First Baptist Church, and my role was leading a group of lay people in what we referred to as a Lay Witness weekend.  If I recall from Carroll’s testimony, he had planned to miss the weekend because he had important things to do.  In that, he was a V.P. at the Tandy Corp., and some customers wanted to take him golfing. But God had other plans and put a lay couple in their home for the weekend.  I believe the only day he showed up was Sunday morning and as I shared my story of salvation, the Lord began to deal with this V.P and Baptist deacon.  He came to an understanding of this fact, he knew a lot about Jesus, but he did not have a personal relationship with Him.

Carroll shared with me the three-page letter he sent his dad who was a Baptist pastor, and he shared how over the years he had developed a preacher filter.  But that morning he did not have a filter for a layman, and this very smart and talented man listened to a man who butchered the English language, and the Holy Spirit brought conviction of his need to know Jesus Christ, and he was obedient.

His letter began a friendship, and I watched God use this man as a teacher and mentor, my mentor, and we had the privilege of traveling to many places with him and his wife.  Our first trip was England and in that Carroll and Joyce had lived in England they wanted to make sure we experienced London.  One day while downtown at noon, Carroll pointed out all the men in suits coming from all directions going into this church.  Carroll informed me that at noon on Tuesday that church is filled with men coming to a Bible study.  But the rest of the story is; only one or two men came for the first seven years of the Bible study.  Now here is a “But God” example, the young pastor had been given instruction by the Holy Spirit to begin a Bible study on Tuesday for men working in downtown London.  Few and sometimes none came for seven years, and then they came, and they came, and God began to move in their lives, and others saw what God was doing, and they wanted what they had seen.

I told you this story of the pastor, and we are blown away by this young pastors persistence to be faithful for seven years to the call of the Holy Spirit.  And yet that seem somewhat trivial to Jeremiah who remained faithful for 23 years when no one listened to the message the Lord had given him for Judah.  Picking up the story in verses 4-7, “You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ Yet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.”

I’m still sickened when I hear someone that goes by the title of Christian blaming God for the choices of sinful man.  I keep sending you back to John 10:10, for it is there we find the answer to who is the enemy of our souls. 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice