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
Isa 62:10-12 (11) “…Behold thy salvation cometh…”
While pastoring in Tennessee my wife and I both drove school buses to supplement our income. One morning my wife stopped at a rural intersection. She looked to the left at the distant hill, back to the level stretch on her right and then again to the left before entering the empty road. She continued for about 100 feet, turned on her left turn signal, looked in her mirrors and then began to make the left turn.
At this time a pickup traveling at a tremendous rate of speed struck her left fender. The impact was so great that it knocked the turning bus to the right shoulder of the road. The front end was knocked out from under the bus. The pickup continued into a field for some distance before finally stopping.
The driver later sued the County School District. We were somewhat apprehensive not being sure how the large law suit would affect us personally.
Finally the court date arrived. The preceedings progressed until at one point the prosecuting attorney looked out over the packed courtroom and made eye contact with me. I had met the man once in a minister’s meeting. He was a Christian lawyer.
Just a few moments later he spoke privately with the judge and asked for a recess to talk to the defense attorney and the clients. After awhile they returned and we found that a settlement for a much smaller dollar amount had been made out of court. We were relieved!
As we went down the steps of the Courthouse my wife and I were surprised to hear a man calling to us. We looked around in time to see the attorney coming. He shook my hand and told me it was good to see me again. I did not know the man personally. I had met him on one occasion. Yet God superintended the circumstances by having the couple who was suing the county choose this Christian lawyer who I had met on one occasion to argue their case. The case could have gone differently. But God intervened and we were delivered.
Dr. Gayle Woods
