Nuggets 80: A Child Will Lead Them

  • B. Shelburne
  • Sep 2, 2007
  • Series: Nuggets

I heard this true story at a church centennial celebration.  I know the family well.

My brother served that church decades ago as a young summer intern.  One Sunday as he was preaching, he noticed an old man on the back pew who leaned on his cane, hands folded, and fixed his penetrating gaze on the preacher.  But at the end of the sermon, the old man came down the aisle and rededicated his life to Christ. 

It was not my brother's preaching that brought him back.  Later my brother learned the old man's story.  Years before, when this old man was much younger, the church was enlarging their building.  The men of the church were about to pour concrete to extend the floor slab.   The man cautioned about how the concrete should be joined if it was to turn out well.  Time proved that he was right.  But when the others refused his advice, the man walked away and was estranged from the church for years.

Various ministers served that church during those years.  None of them could reach the man's heart to restore him.  One day when the old man was out in his garden squashing tomato bugs with the tip of his cane, his little granddaughter came alongside him.  "Grandpa," she asked, "when are you going to get right with God?"  He didn't say anything, but he did show up on that back pew the day my brother preached. 

Isaiah 11:6;  Matthew 18:1-10;  John 3:3,5;  1 Corinthians 1:27-29;  Isaiah 55:8,9;  1 Samuel 3:1-20;  2 Kings 5:1-14;  Luke 2:39-52;  2 Timothy 3:15

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Copyright 2007 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

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