Bro. John:
I was going through some papers Sunday night and found something that I had typed from one of the GCC Old Meeting CDs – 1974. It seemed to go right along with some things that were said this past weekend. I loved the soberness I felt as I read it. Preacher Clark left a world of Godly wisdom for us. I am so thankful to have known him and, because of his faithfulness to Jesus, his life continues to bless us. Whew! This is so good, I just had to share it. Here is the excerpt from that CD:
I hope that everyone here will make up your mind that you’re going to do something for God besides just go to the meeting and sit down, because you are going to be stripped of the ‘one talent’ you do have, if you do that. That’s how you ‘bury your talent’. If you want to know how a person buries his talent, [as Jesus described in his parable], if you want to know how you ‘bury it in the earth’, as the parable says – – know that YOU are the earth. You bury it in your body, and your own flesh, by keeping what you know to yourself, by keeping your testimony to yourself, and by keeping your talent to yourself, saying within yourself, ‘Let the other people do it.”
“Some say, ‘I pay the preacher to do my preaching,’ or ‘I pay the choir to do my singing,’ or ‘I let others do the testifying.’ But let me tell you something. God, not you, is going to pay them for doing their part, and some of what He pays them with will be what He has taken away from you who have done nothing with what you had.”
Preacher Clark’s words stirred my heart and, as you said this weekend, we are all going to reap what we sow. Your message and your father’s sobering words above, should cause us to examine our hearts and make up our minds to live a life that will bring honor to Jesus. He is more than worthy. After all, He has been so very good to us all, and as a sister recently said, “He is our Friend.”
I really enjoyed the Oral Roberts video. It brought back the childhood memory of when Jesus healed my eye in that tent meeting in New Bern. Sweet memories!
Sandy 🙂