Recently, some have asked me why at eighty-eight I am still engaged in ministry, DREM and Abiding Fathers. My simple answer is that God placed a distinct calling on my life for both ministries. And as I have studied scripture over several decades I have yet to see the word, retirement. And more specifically, Paul said “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (I Cor. 11.1). That is a heavy challenge when one studies his life after meeting Christ headed to Damascus. The trials he faced were countless.
Paul is truly someone to imitate. He challenges me to ‘be like him’. His words to Timothy, and the church as a whole, are so encouraging. “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (II Tim. 4.6,7). For me, my race actually began in 1974 when the Spirit awakened me and showed me these verses. “And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Mt. 25.39,40).
These convicted me and very soon thereafter he had someone invite me to teach at Seagoville Prison and later at Hutchins State Jail. Fifty years of countless testimonies of fatherlessness, as well as simultaneously teaching in the Juvenile Detention Center and Union Gospel Mission, center for the homeless, is what God used for me to hear his voice clearly. And after the Spirit wrote the bookthrough me on fatherhood, From Faith to Faith, this gave birth to Abiding Fathers. To date, tens of thousands of fathers and Facilitators have been trained in churches, prisons, Cuba, other Latin American countries, India, Africa and now Germany. And the mission has just begun!
God has blessed me with good health, he has supported me and my family through good and bad times, all to his glory. He has also provided numerous wonderful people to carry these ministries forward. So, why would I abandon him, or them, just because of age? Which leads me to ask this question of all of you. What has God called you to; how has he gifted you to enhance his kingdom here on earth?
Jesus lays out the cost of discipleship when he addresses those who gave excuses after he called them to ‘Follow me’. ‘Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God”’ (Lk. 9.62). Let’s stay the course until he calls us home. We all want to hear him say, “Well done”. Paul challenges us to imitate him as he imitates Christ. Jesus finished his work, not walking away knowing what lay ahead for him on the cross and the grave. Why would we?
Have a blessed Easter. He is Risen, and so shall we!