Cornerstone

2 Cor 11:22-33 (30)

Some days I could not remember no matter how hard I tried. I will never forget one particular day, however. I was a high school senior at Mt. Zion Bible School. Mary Kimbrough and I stood on the campus behind the boys dorm. I held the brand new book that she had written in my hands. It was titled, “His Way With Me.” I had just asked her to autograph the book and now I watched as she took the pen in knurled hands. The crooked fingers struggled to clutch the pen. As a missionary to India and later Jamaica, she suffered many physical afflictions. Even though this was the case she did not give up or give in. Her flesh may have been weak but her spirit was strong. As she wrote she cheerful and optimistically spoke of her work for the Lord as a missionary. She encouraged me to serve God faithfully. She didn’t say, “Serve even if you hurt,” but she was a living example of one who did not complain as she faithfully gave every ounce of her energy for the service of her Lord. “God, please teach me to follow examples like this in faithfulness! When I don’t feel good help me to ignore this and continue to do what is needed that others might be able to hear the message that Jesus saves.”

Dr. Gayle Woods

Matt 10:16-23 (22)

As I considered this topic my mind traveled many miles from Kansas City. In an instant I was in an cozy cottage in Cuba, AL on the campus of the Southern Annual Camp. There Rev. and Mrs. Troy Moore resided. For years he was a faithful warrior of the cross. He brought hope and happiness to many. The humorous stories from his experiences still bring laughter to those who remember how he told them with such meaning.

Creases stretching out from the corner of his eyes revealed that he was optimistic and full of faith. I remember when he and his wife visited the Mid-South Camp meeting that I chaired in Tennessee. You could hear him in his room in the afternoon while others were taking naps. It was not a snoring sound that drew your attention to his room but the pacing of feet moving around behind the closed door and his deep resonant voice quoting scripture after scripture. He was a man of faith and a man of the Word.

Even when Bro. Moore was diagnosed to have cancer it did not change his outlook on life. Did he complain? Did it altered his desire and efforts to serve the Lord? No . . . even through sickness and pain, difficulty and uncertainty Bro. Moore left an example for others of the faith.

Endure faithfully to the end.

Dr. Gayle Woods