Today's promise: Obeying God brings
great joy
When did you take your
first step of obedience to God?
Then said, "I
assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you
will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven."
Matthew 18:3 NLT
The momentous step
Oswald J. Smith grew up
in Embro, Ontario. In the winter of 1906 when Oswald was sixteen, the Toronto
newspapers told of a great evangelistic crusade being conducted by Dr. R. A.
Torrey.
Oswald and his younger
brother Ernie asked their mother if they could go the ninety-four miles to
Toronto to attend the meetings. Smith tells what happened:
The second to the last
meeting came. We had made up our minds to accept Christ that afternoon. We did
not know that our mother had written to Dr. Torrey asking him to pray that her
sons might be converted.
At the close of his
message he gave the invitation. To my amazement I was turned into a chunk of
lead. Presently my brother quietly nudged me, and that broke the spell. I
sprang out of my seat and took the momentous step.
Christ had entered and I
was a new creature. That was January 28, 1906.
Oswald went on to found
and pastor Canada's largest church, the People's Church of Toronto. Throughout
his ministry, he wrote twelve hundred hymns, published thirty-five books in 128
languages, raised twenty-three million dollars for missions, and helped send out
hundreds of missionaries.
From that first step in
Toronto, Oswald J. Smith walked with the Lord for three days short of eighty
more years.
Adapted from The One Year® Book of Christian History by E.
Michael and Sharon Rusten, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), pp 56-7
.
Content is derived
from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale
Publishing House
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