Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday September 27, 2010

Some dates linger longer in our memories than others, December 7, 1941, September 11, 2001, your wedding date etc. Does December 2, 1808 ring a bell? I didn't think so.

On December 2, 1808 a disillusioned, disappointed man began his journey from New York City where he had went to find fame as an actor, back home to what he thought would be a life of drudgery and obscurity. Along the way he rented a room in a village Inn. That night he did not sleep at all as a man in another room became very ill and made the sounds associated with his illness. The sick man was found dead in the morning. His name was Jacob Eames. The name doesn't mean anything to me either. His name meant much to our failed actor. Jacob and he had been in college together at Rhode Island and there they had both been active in denying Christ.

As our traveler wrestled with, "Dead, Lost! Lost!" He swiftly came under conviction, made his way to his pastor/father's home and there as his father talked and prayed with him, he was restored to fellowship and wrapped himself in the peaceful arms of Christ.

Failure, our own or the failure of a friend can often lead to disillusionment with Christ, yet Christ continues to care for us whether we care for Him or not.

Our failure, resigning himself to a mundane life back home, totally surrendered his future to Christ and from the ashes of a failed life, he marched into history known as Adoniram Judson the first United States Baptist Missionary to Burma.

Judson's first seven years in Burma were marked by more failure, rigor's which destroyed his wife's health, saw his little daughter ripped from this life, and he was imprisoned by the authorities in a prison compound not fit for habitation by animals. Yet he remained faithful and eventually made a gigantic impact for the cause of Christ. His story and legacy is the stuff of legend.

Melvin Branham wrote: "Your time of not only feeling like a failure, but actually being one, may be the time, the event, which God is using to launch you to a more fruitful life than you ever imagined."

The horrible suffering of Judson and his family is well documented and no preacher should ever be ordained having failed to read extensively on the life of this gigantic soldier of the cross. Concerning his suffering he wrote:

"If I had not felt certain, that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2010 Use with credit.

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