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How Much Do You Care?

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The following story is taken from a sermon preached by the famous evangelist Billy Sunday:

I will never forget one time in a town in Illinois when I was leaving the tent where we were holding meetings. Among those who went out last was a young man to whom I was especially attracted by his keen, bright appearance. I walked down the street with him, and we engaged in conversation. Presently I put to him the inevitable question, “Are you a Christian?”

“No, I am not.”

“Father and mother alive?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Father a Christian?”

“I don’t know; he is a steward in the [local] church.”

“Is your mother a Christian?”

“I don’t know; she is superintendent of the Sunday School in the same church.”

“Have you a brother or a sister?”

“I have a sister.”

“Is she a Christian?”

“I don’t know; she teaches in the primary department in the Sunday School.”

“Do you have family prayer in your home?”

“No, sir.”

“Ask the blessing at the table?”

“No, sir.”

“Has your father or your mother or your sister ever asked you to be a Christian?”

The tears trickled down his cheeks as he answered, “Mr. Sunday, as long as I can remember, neither my father, mother nor sister has ever asked me to be a Christian.”

Certainly that young man had a right to say, of his own flesh and blood, the mother whose breast he nursed, the father whose name he bore, and the sister he loved, that they didn’t care for his soul.”*

We say we care, but our actions speak louder than words. 

How much do you care that souls are going to Hell?

Reflect

Read what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 9:1-3.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

Sidney Lanier, the great Georgian poet, died at the age of thirty-nine. He said, “I have a thousand unwritten songs in my heart.” When we come to the end of the way, must we also say, “There are thousands of things which I should have done for Christ, but now I must leave them unfinished.”**

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*Curtis Hutson, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers), 1989.
**W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958) p. 329.

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The Difference One Moment Can Make

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Adapted from a sermon by Hyman J. Appelman:

I had a friend in seminary…One day as he and I drove to our churches in Oklahoma, he told me of his conversion. He told how he was almost driven away from home because of his drunkenness, how he was kicked out of a Christian school in Mississippi, how he became a traveling salesman, how he went from bad to worse.

Then he told me of a night in a hotel room in Vicksburg, Mississippi, recovering from an awful bout of delirium tremens after a terrible period of drunken debauchery. He made up his mind then and there that there was but one more thing for him to do—commit suicide. Starting towards the Vicksburg bridge across the Mississippi, he walked up on the bridge and stood leaning over the railing watching the swelling, dark, muddy waters of the father of rivers.

Reaching into his pocket and taking out his package of cigarettes, he put one in his mouth but couldn’t find a match. Perhaps he did not have any or was to hazy to find it.

A man came along. This young fellow of my story stopped him to ask, “Mister, do you have a match?”

“Yes,” said the stranger, and gave him a box of matches.

Scratching the match with trembling hands, he tried to light his cigarette. One after another, match after match went out. Finally he succeeded in lighting the cigarette.

The stranger was carefully watching him. After awhile he said to him, “You look kind of sick. Are you?”

“Well, I have been.”

“Let’s go have a cup of coffee.”

Something about the stranger appealed to the man in question. “All right, let’s go.” In his mind he said to himself, I can commit suicide anytime.

After the coffee, the stranger would not let this young fellow go. “Come with me.”

“Where?”

“Never mind, just come along. Come on. You can go home after we’re through.”

They went to church. A revival meeting was going on. The two of them sat in the very back. Somehow, to the befuddled brain of the man in question, there came the story once again of the love of God, of the death of Christ on the cross. Apparently he was impressed, but he made no move.

He went back to his room. He stayed a few more days in Vicksburg to straighten out; then he went home. His people did not seem too glad to receive him.

On Sunday he went to church without saying a word to them. When the preacher gave the invitation, this young fellow walked slowly down the aisle, made a public profession of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then followed the Son of God in baptism. Later the Lord called him to preach, he entered the ministry, became an outstanding religious leader in the United States, leading many people to Christ.

But what if that anonymous stranger on the street had been too busy to notice him? What if he had condemned him for smoking instead of presenting the love of Christ? What if he had not been prepared to give of himself to another? Then this young man, whose name is Charlie, would have died without Christ and would have found himself forever separated from God in the torments of hell. It’s amazing the difference one life can make, the change that one moment on a bridge can bring. The stranger could have passed on by, but instead he stopped. You have the same choice: Are you ready to stop and speak of Christ or will you pass on your way without a second glance? *

Reflect

Read Colossians 4:5 from your Bible.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

How shall I feel at the day of judgment, if multitudes of missed opportunities pass before me in full review, and all my excuses prove to be disguises of my cowardice and pride?–W. E. Sangster**

*NOTE: Dr. Hyman Appelman, from whom the above story was adapted, was born in Russia and was reared and trained in the Jewish faith. After becoming a lawyer he accepted Christ at age 28 in 1925. His Jewish family, then living in Chicago, disowned him. His father said to him, “When your sides come together from hunger and you come crawling to my door, I will throw you a crust of bread as I would any other dog.” Nevertheless, this Jewish Christian made eight or nine trips around the world as an evangelist, authored 40 books, and preached so intensively that he spent only two weeks a year at home. His ministry lasted 53 years.***

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*Hyman J. Appelman, “Paralyzed People,” [July 1946], Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 128-129.
**Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1990), 68.
***Hyman J. Appelman, “Paralyzed People,” [July 1946], Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 128-129.

 

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The Hitchhiker

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On one occasion Dr. Bob Gray got so burdened about winning someone to Christ, he prayed early in the morning that the Lord would give him a soul that day. He had that on his heart as he drove to his early morning radio broadcast. As he got out on the expressway in Jacksonville and headed downtown, he saw a fellow sticking out his thumb. The Spirit of the Lord seemed to say, There’s your man. So Dr. Gray pulled over and said, “Jump in, fellow. Where are you going?”

“I’m going downtown.”

As Dr. Gray started back out on the expressway, he said to him, “I didn’t mean, ‘Where are you going today?’ but ‘Where are you going when you die?’”

The fellow said, “I haven’t thought much about that.”

Dr. Gray engaged him in conversation about it. The man listened intently. Then Dr. Gray asked, “Do you mind if I pull off the highway and explain this to you?”

“I’ll be glad for you to,” he answered.

They did so; and Dr. Gray took out his New Testament, showed him some verses and led right up to the point where he said, “Why don’t you bow your head and let’s both pray. Then you can receive Christ as your Savior.”

The fellow did it. Then as he wiped a little tear out of his eye, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a revolver, laid it on the seat and said, “Sir, as I hitchhiked I had determined that whoever picked me up, I would make him pull off the highway. Then I would kill him and steal his car, dump his body and go on my way to another state. So, if you hadn’t talked to me about this, you could have been a dead man by now!”*

Reflect

Read Romans 1:16 from your Bible.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

Live a life worth sharing; share a life worth living.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*Tom Wallace, “Jesus, the Soul Winner’s Example,” [1982] Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 201-2.

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Thank You

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Miss Blanche Groves was for many years a faithful missionary in China. One day in Soochow she stood on the curb of the street and watched three men being led to execution by the Japanese. One of them recognized her, broke away from his captors and ran up to her. He cried out, “Thank you for telling me about Jesus. I am not afraid to die now. I will die at sunset, but I will spend the night with Jesus.” Then he went all the way up and down the line pleading with people to go to church and to live for Christ.*

Reflect

Read Proverbs 11:30 from your Bible.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

Most of the greatest accomplishments of this life will never be seen until the next.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on Matthew, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1963), p. 47.

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Do You Care?

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A man who was a member of a church asked his pastor to visit his son, who was sick unto death. He met his pastor at the door and said, “Preacher, I am afraid that my son is dying. I wish you would talk to him about his salvation.” The preacher went into the bedroom and started talking to the boy but found him totally indifferent. Finally the preacher said, “Oh, son, your father is so interested in your being saved.” The boy looked up and said, “What did you say?” And the preacher repeated, “Son, your father is deeply interested in your salvation.” The boy said, “That is strange. I am twenty-one years of age. I have lived at home all my life. My father is a member of the church, but he never said one word to me about God and salvation.”*

What a shame it is that so many have waited so long to say so few words, those few words which can change a heart, cleanse a life, and set one on the road to heaven. We say we care, do we?

Reflect

Read what David wrote in Psalm 142:4 about no one caring for his soul.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

“The church has halted somewhere between Calvary and Pentecost.” -J.L. Brice**
 
Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958) p. 174.
**Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1990), p. 68.

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Knock Again

Week 35—Knock Again

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A fellow was giving out tracts. He would knock on a door; and when the people came to the door, he would smile, hand them a tract and say, “I would be very grateful if you would read this,” then knock on the next door and the next and the next.

He came to one house; when he knocked, nobody came to the door. He knocked again; nobody came. He knocked a third time; nobody home. So he put the tract in the screen door and walked away.

But something compelled him. It seemed that the Spirit of God said Don’t go off this porch! Go back up there and knock again. He felt silly, but he walked back and knocked again. Still no answer. As he started to walk away this time, the feeling came stronger. So he went back and knocked again.

This time the door suddenly opened, and there was a man standing there saying, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?!”

He was shaking when he handed the man the tract. “Sir, would you please read this?”

The man snatched it out of his hand and slammed the door.

He walked off the porch unnerved. It took him two or three houses before he got his composure back. Then he finished that block and another block and went home.

His name, address and phone number were on the bottom of each tract.

Late that evening the phone rang. “Sir, are you the man who was giving out the little papers over in a certain area today?”

“Yes, I was.”

“Is it possible for you to come by and talk with me?”

“Sure. Give me the address.”

He copied down the address and quickly made his way over there. It was the same house where he had knocked several times!

The fellow said, “Come in. I want to show you something.” He took him up in the attic. The man said, “ I was getting nervous for sure then!” There in the attic, on the rafters, hung a rope with a noose; and a basket was sitting right under the noose. He didn’t know what to think about it.

The fellow said, “This afternoon I heard your first knock. I was standing on that basket with that rope around my neck, planning to end it all. When I heard you knock a second time, I thought, I’ll wait just a moment; and when the man goes away, I’ll jump. You knocked a third time. Then it got quiet. I was ready to jump when I heard you knock again! I figured I had better go see who it was. After you gave me that tract, I sat down and read it in its entirety. I must have read it fifty times this afternoon before calling you. I need what that is talking about.”*

Reflect

Read 2 Peter 3:9 from your Bible.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

During the first decade of this century, Charles Borden left one of America’s greatest family fortunes to be a missionary in China. He only got as far as Egypt where, still in his twenties, he died of typhoid fever. Before his death he said, “No reserves, no retreats, no regrets!”**
 
Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*Tom Wallace, “Jesus, the Soul Winner’s Example,” [1982] Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 204-5.
**Billy Graham, Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, (Waco, Texas: Word Books), 1983, p. 94-95.

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A Call From Below

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Taken from a message preached by Jack Hyles:

My father was an alcoholic. He is buried tonight in a drunkard’s grave in Italy, Texas. My father heard me preach two sermons, one on Sunday morning and one on Sunday night, New Year’s Day, 1949.

New Year’s Eve I got burdened for my dad. So I got in my car in Marshall, Texas, and drove 150 miles to Dallas to the Hunt Saloon where my dad was a bartender and a drunk…My dad was sitting at the bar drinking beer. He was a big man, weighing 235 pound, and the strongest man I ever knew.

I said, “Dad, this is Saturday night, New Year’s Eve, 1949. I am going to take you back today to Marshall, Texas, to hear me preach tomorrow.”

My dad cursed me. “I’m not going to go and hear any preacher preach.”

“Dad, you weigh 235 pounds, and I weigh a little over half that. But we are going to have a brawl here in this bar, or you are going to go with me to Marshall, Texas.”

He realized that I meant business. I gave him enough coffee to sober him up a bit; then we got in the car and I took him to Marshall, Texas. On New Year’s Eve, 1949, my father went on our watch night service with us. We got on buses and rode around town and sang songs and had a wonderful time. We came back to church and prayed the old year out and the new year in.

Sunday was on New Year’s Day that year. I stood to preach, and my dad sat on the fourth row from the front. The invitation time came, and he clawed the pew in conviction. I pleaded for him to come, but he would not.

That afternoon we went for a walk out in the pasture. I put my arms around his shoulder and said, “Dad, I want to see you be a Christian more than I want anything in the world. Dad, will you not be saved?”

My dad opened the joybells of Heaven when he said, “Son, I am going to get saved. I am going to go back to Dallas and sell out. I am going to move to Marshall. I am going to buy me a little fruit stand or a small grocery store and set up a little business here. I am going to get saved in the spring and let you baptize me.”

I said, “Dad, that is wonderful! That is good enough for me.”

I wish I could relive that afternoon. I wish I had a chance to try again. I thought he had plenty of time. He was only 62. I clapped my hands. The last word my dad said when he got out of the car on Washington Street in Dallas, Texas, was, “Son, I am going to let you baptize me in the spring.”

Every time I baptized that winter, I heard him say, “Son, I am going to let you baptize me in the spring.”

On May 3, 1950, about ten o’clock in the morning, my telephone rang. The operator said, “Reverend Jack Hyles?”

“This is Brother Hyles.”

“Go ahead, sir.”

A man’s voice said, “My name is Smith. Reverend Hyles, I worked with your dad. We hung dry wall together. He was up on a sawhorse this morning hanging dry wall on the ceiling, and he just a few minutes ago dropped dead with a heart attack.”

I didn’t say anything. I just put the phone down.

“Son, I am going to let you baptize me in the spring.”

I got in my car and drove back to Dallas, Texas, to the O’Neil Funeral Home.

My dad was buried in Italy, Texas.

Several months passed. One Sunday night past midnight there came a knock on the door of my study. I went to the door, and my only sister was at the door weeping. “Earlyne, is it Mother?”

“No, Jack. Would you tell me how to be saved?”

“Sure I will.” And I told my only sister how to be saved, and she was saved in my study about one o’clock in the morning.

After she got saved I said, “Earlyne, why tonight? You could have been saved anytime through these years. Why did you choose tonight, and why did you come so late at night to get saved?”

She said, “Jack, you know that I was daddy’s pet.”

“That is right.”

“Daddy did not care much for you, Jack, but he loved me very much.”

“That is right, Sister.”

“Jack, when dad died, I thought I would die too. I couldn’t sleep at night. I lost weight. I cried almost every waking hour. I had a dream shortly after he died. I dreamed that I was taken into a big building, about like this, by a heavenly creature up to the second floor of that building. I was taken to a corner. There I saw a casket. I looked in. The corpse had a look of peace on its face. There was a casket next to that. In that casket was a corpse. That corpse had a look of peace on its face. And the next and the next and the next. The entire wall was lined with caskets, and in each was a corpse. And on each face a look of peace. The same thing across that wall and across this wall.”

She said, “Jack, we got to the last casket, and the heavenly creature said, “You can’t look in that one.”

“I said, ‘I must. I have to look at all of them.’ The creature said, ‘No, you can’t look in that one.’”

She said, “Jack, I saw two hands raise themselves above the casket. They were daddy’s hands. Jack, daddy was saying, ‘Sister! Sister! Sister!’

“I broke away from the creature and went over and looked in daddy’s face. Jack, his face was writhing in pain, and daddy was saying. ‘Sister! Sister! I—I—I—ju—j—bu—bu—I—I—Sister, Sister!’ I said, ‘Daddy, what is it? Tell me!” He said, ‘Sister, Sister!, I—I—I—eh—B—je—je—be—, Sister, Sister!”

She said, “Jack, the creature took me then, but I knew what daddy was saying. When I heard you preach tonight on the rich man in Hell who said to go tell my five brothers not to come here, I knew that daddy was telling me not to come to Hell where he was.”

And now for these twenty-four and a half years, the thing that has motivated my life and my ministry has been the fact that somewhere in the torments of the unprepared, my daddy says, “Jack, tell them all not to come here. Tell them all! Tell them all! Tell them all!”*

Reflect

Read Luke 16:19-31 from your Bible. 

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

A generation ago, Jim Elliot went from Wheaton College to become a missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador. Before he was killed, he wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”**

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*Hyles, Jack, “Four Calls for Soul Winning,” [1974], Hudson, Curtis, ed. . Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 54-57.
**Billy Graham, Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1983), pp. 94-95.

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If I Believed What You Say…

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Charlie Peace was a criminal. Laws of God or man curbed him not. Finally the law caught up with him and he was condemned to death. On the fatal morning in Armley Jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death-walk. Before him went the prison chaplain, routinely and sleepily reading some Bible verses. The criminal touched the preacher and asked what he was reading. “The Consolations of Religion,” was the reply. Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he professionally read about hell. Could a man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow-human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall? Could this preacher believe the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase without a tremor? Is a man human at all who can say with no tears, “You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings”? All this was too much for Charlie Peace. So he preached. Listen to his on-the-eve-of-hell sermon.

“Sir,” addressing the preacher, “if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!”*

Reflect

Read Revelation 20:11-15 from your Bible.

Respond

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

“I still, from my armchair, preach in great revivals. I still vision hundreds walking the aisles to accept Christ. I still feel hot tears for the lost . . . . I want no Christmas without a burden for lost souls, a message for sinners, a heart to bring in the lost. May food be tasteless, music a discord, Christmas a farce if I forget the dying millions; if this fire in my bones does not still flame. Not till I die or not till Jesus comes will I ever be eased from this burden, these tears, this toil to save souls.” -John R. Rice, age  85

(Part of a 1980 Christmas letter dictated few days before his death)**

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*Leonard Ravenhill. Why Revival Tarries, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1959), p. 32.
**Curtis Hutson, ed., Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers), preface.

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Just One More

Vision – To inspire a passion for lost souls

The next eleven weeks will challenge you to deepen your desire to see lost people come to Christ. As you read this section, spend time examining your heart to see what the Lord desires to do in you and through you.


Read

From a sermon by R. A. Torrey:

I never think of our responsibility for being soul winners without thinking of an incident that occurred many years ago in Evanston, Illinois. There Northwestern University is located. Years ago, before it had attained to the dignity of a university, two strong, husky farmer boys came to the college to study—Ed and Will Spencer. Ed was a famous swimmer. Early one morning word came to the college that north of Evanston, between Evanston and Winnetka, there was a wreck a little way off the shore of Lake Michigan. Ed, with the other students and people of the town, hurried northward along the shore toward the wreck. As he ran along a low bluff, he saw a man clinging to the wreckage trying to make the shore. He threw off his superfluous garments, sprang into the lake and swam out, caught hold of the man and the wreckage and made toward shore. He was struck in the head by wreckage, and the blood from the wound filled his eyes so he could not see, but he succeeded in bringing the man to shore.

Going on a little further, he saw another man clinging to wreckage trying to make the shore. This time he took the precaution to tie a rope around his waist and throw the end to the fellow-students on the shore, and sprang into the lake and swam out, grasped the drowning man, gave the signal, and was pulled ashore. Again and again he sprang into the lake and swam out to rescue some who were drowning, until he had succeeded in bringing a fifth, a sixth, a seventh, an eighth, a ninth and a tenth safe to shore.

By now he was completely exhausted. His companions had made a fire of logs upon the shore, for the morning was cold and raw. He walked over to the fire, so weak that he could hardly stand and stood trying to get a little warmth into his shivering body.

After standing there a few moments he turned, looked out over the lake again and saw another man trying to make the shore. He cried to his companions, “Boys, I am going in again.” “No, no, Ed,” they cried, “Your strength is all gone. You cannot save him. You will only be throwing your own life away. It will be suicide.” “I will try, anyway,” he cried.

Again he sprang into the lake and swam out and grasped a drowning man and was pulled to shore. And again and again and again and again, until he had brought an eleventh, a twelfth, a thirteenth, a fourteenth and a fifteenth safe to shore.

Then his strength seemed entirely gone. He tottered across the beach to the fire and stood beside it so pale and haggard and emaciated that it seemed as if the hand of death was already upon him. After standing by the fire a few moments he turned and looked out over the lake. In the distance he saw a spar drifting toward a point. To drift around meant certain death. Looking again and seeing a man’s head above the spar, he cried, “There is a man trying to save his life!” He looked again and saw a woman’s head beside the man’s. “Boys,” he cried, “there is a man trying to save his wife. I’ll help him.” “No, no!” they cried; “your strength is all gone. It will be suicide. You cannot help him.” “I’ll try,” he cried.

He sprang again into Lake Michigan and swam out to the spar. Summoning all his fast-dying strength, he put his hands upon it and brought it around the right side of the point to safety.

Then they pulled him in through the breakers; tender hands lifted him from the shore, carried him to his room in the college, and laid him upon his bed apparently unconscious. A fire was built in the grate, and his brother sat in front of the grate to watch developments.

He had been sitting there awhile, looking into the fire and thinking of his brother’s bravery, when suddenly he heard a footfall behind him and felt a touch upon his shoulder. Looking up, he saw his brother looking down wistfully into his eyes. “Will,” he said, “did I do my best?”

“Why, Ed,” Will replied, “you saved seventeen.”

He said, “I know it; I know it; but I was afraid I did not do my very best. Will, do you think that I did my very best?”

His brother took him back to bed. During the night he tossed in a semi-delirium. His thought was not about the seventeen whom he had saved, but on the many who went down that day to an early grave. For in spite of his bravery and that of others, many perished that day.

His brother Will, as he sat by the bed, held his hand and tried to calm him. He said, “Ed, you saved seventeen.”

“I know it; I know it,” he cried, “but, oh, if I could only have saved just one more!”

We all stand beside a stormy sea today—the sea of life. There are wrecks everywhere. Young men, young women, older men, older women are going down, not to a watery grave but to a hopeless eternity. They are going down all over America. They are going down all over England. They are going down in China and Japan and India. Oh, let us jump in again and again and again and rescue the perishing! And when at last every ounce of strength is gone and we sink utterly exhausted on the shore, let us cry in the earnestness of our desire to save the perishing, “Oh, if I could only have saved just one more!”*

Reflect

Read Matthew 28:18-20 from your Bible.

Respond

If you were to die today, what would you take to heaven with you? Money can’t go; social status can’t go; houses and cars can’t go, but the people you’ve led to Christ can. When was the last time you personally, one-on-one, led someone to Christ. Opportunities surround us if only we open our eyes and say, “I am willing.”

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

Charles T. Studd was a famous sportsman in England, captain of the Cambridge XI cricket team. A century ago he gave away his vast wealth to needy causes and led the “Cambridge Seven” to China. His slogan was, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” **

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*R.A. Torrey, “Why Every Christian Should Make Soul Winning His Life’s Business,” ], Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 70.
**Billy Graham, Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1983), p. 94-95.

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Optimism

Read:

In 1997 the journal of the American Heart Association reported on a remarkable study. Researchers found that people who experienced high levels of despair had a 20% greater occurrence of arterial sclerosis, the narrowing of the arteries, than did optimistic people. This is the same magnitude of increased risk that one sees in comparing a pack-a-day smoker to a non-smoker says researcher Steven Everson. In other words, despair can be as bad for you as smoking a pack a day. Hope is essential not only for physical health but far more important for spiritual health.*

Reflect
Read 1 Peter 5:7 from your Bible.

Respond

Optimism is related to faith. You have optimism not because of how much faith you have, but who your faith is in. God reminds us that He has a plan for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Plans to give us a future filled with hope. Realize that despair not only effects our minds but our hearts and, by the story above from the American Heart Association, despair even erodes our bodies physically. How can you be optimistic this week? If despair has come into your life, how can you cast these cares on God? Write a prayer below giving all your worries to Him.

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.**

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

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*A Children’s Leader Devotion, (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 28.
**Ibid.

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Accountability

Read:

During World War II, a plant of parachute packers achieved notoriety because their parachutes only opened 19 out of 20 times. That’s an average of 95%, and although that will get you an ‘A’ in school, when you’re jumping out of a plane, it’s just not good enough. The manager of the plant developed a strategy to increase reliability. He required the packer to test the parachutes themselves. It wasn’t long until quality rose to 100%. That’s the principle of accountability at work.*

Reflect

Read Joshua 24:21-22 from your Bible.

Respond

Parachute packers need accountability and so do the leaders of children. To whom are you accountable and why do you think it’s important?

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

The value of accountability is that it “pressures” us into right living. Try asking one or two of the following questions to those with whom you are serving this week.

Quiet Time

What are you reading this week in your daily time with God?

Scripture Memory

What verse have you been focusing on lately?

Prayer

How have you seen God work in your prayer-life recently?

Attending Worship Service

What did you get out of the worship service today?

Overall

What is God doing in your life right now?

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

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*A Children’s Leader Devotion, (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 31.

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Working Together

Read

Two men were riding a bicycle built for two when they came to a steep hill. It took a great deal of struggle for the men to complete what proved to be a very steep climb. When they got to the top the man in front said to the other, “Man, that was a hard climb!” The guy in back said, “Yes, it was. And if I hadn’t kept the brakes on all the way we would have rolled down backwards.”*

Reflect

Read Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12 from your Bible.

Respond

Have you ever felt like that guy on the front of the bike? Pedaling your way to the top, huffing and puffing, exerting energy and giving it your all to later learn that the person behind you was keeping the brakes on the entire time? What do you think about the above verse that says “Two people are better than one?” What are the benefits of serving on a team? What are some ways you can encourage those who serve alongside you?

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

God has given us each other for a purpose.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

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*A Children’s Leader Devotion, (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 29.

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Opportunities

Read:

Sometimes an idea has to slap you in the face; it’s the only way providence can get your undivided attention. “It was a beautiful Lake Michigan day–puffy white clouds, light breeze, not too hot,” recalls 23-year-old Joanne Marlowe. “I was pretty depressed about my business, and decided to walk across the street to the beach, something I had never had time for. I laid out my towel. To pamper myself, I spent a lot of time putting on suntan oil. Just as I stretched out, a gust of wind picked up the towel and covered me in sand. I hit the roof. “A friend said, ‘Joanne, instead of getting angry, why don’t you figure out a fix?’ So instead of relaxing on the beach, I spent the day coming up with prototypes in my mind.” Eight weeks later she introduced a line of weighted beach towels and sold 4.5 million dollars worth of them, out of her house, within the first year.*

Reflect

Read James 1:2 from your Bible.

Respond

What do you do when life throws you a lemon? Why not make lemonade? What do you do when winds of trouble blow your towel away? Make a weighted towel. Have you had any wind or lemons in your life lately? How can this week’s verse make a difference in your life? When discipline problems arise in your class, how do you view them? Is it a burden or is it an opportunity? Discipline problems are never just “problems” to be overcome or set aside but opportunities to meet a child’s need individually and to make a difference in his life.

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

When the ice cream melts, make a malt.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*If It Ain’t Broke, Break It, page 157, quoted in A Children’s Leader Devotion (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 23.

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Be Prepared

Read

There was a blurb in the Los Angeles Times several years ago which related a story about a guy who returned to the house where he grew up as a young man. He had been away for 20 years before returning to his former home. He found his way up into the attic and found a jacket that had not gone with him in the move. It had been had left there for 20 years. He put it on and put his hands in the pockets. He felt a piece of paper and he pulled it out. It was a receipt for a pair of shoes that he had taken in to be repaired some 20 years ago and had forgotten to pick up. So on a whim he went to the shoe repair shop that used to be in his neighborhood and sure enough, it was still there with the same guy still working behind the counter that worked there 20 years ago. So he reaches into his jacket, pulls out the receipt and hands it to the man behind the counter. The man goes back to the work area, returns to the counter and says to the guy in the jacket, they’ll be ready Friday.*

Reflect

Read 1 Peter 3:15 from your Bible.

Respond

How important is it to be prepared? It’s not that critical in the eternity of things if your shoes aren’t done on time, but it is essential that you are prepared spiritually for the kids and parents to whom you minister each week. What steps can you take this week to be better prepared spiritually for those to whom you minister?

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

Everything that has happened in your life thus far works in you to prepare you to share Christ with those who surround you.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*A Children’s Leader Devotion, (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 15.

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Sharpen Your Axe

Read:

One man challenged another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Every time I cheched, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did.” “But you didn’t notice,” said the winning woodsman. “that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest.”*

Reflect

Read Ecclesiastes 10:10 from your Bible.

Respond

Are you being efficient and effective in your ministry? I would hope the answer is yes to both, but first we need to understand what each word means. Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness comes by doing right things. When it comes to reaching and teaching the children of our community, how efficient and effective do you feel? Are you taking time to stop during the week to spend time with God and let Him sharpen your axe? Do you feel like your axe is sharp or dull? What can you do this week to sharpen your axe for the ministry to which God has called you? What are your thoughts about the verse for this week?

Prayerfully consider what you have read today. Then take a few moments to pray for yourself, your students, and others with whom you serve in ministry.

Remember

Don’t work harder; work smarter.

Get all 52 Children’s Leader Devotions HERE

Find more children’s ministry resources and training at:
 www.330resources.org/children.

If these resources bless you, consider supporting this ministry:




*Brett Blair, Sermon Illustration, 1999, quoted in A Children’s Leader Devotion (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 35.

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