Has any of us had the priveledge to meet any of these great preachers? Post your encounters.1. I had the honor of meeting Art Katz several times. On one occasion I led worship for his meeting. He is nothing less than compelling.2. I also met Don Currin last year, and I will probably see him again in a few months.I'll have to check the list to see if there are any more, I'll edit if there are more.
I have heard Neil Rhodes preach whil I was visiting New York City and I was able to meet Carter Conlon after the service.The college group I was with was invited up on the platform to talk to the youth pastor after the service. While we were filling into the choir seats I snuck away from the group and went up to stand behind the pulpit. It was pretty awesome. (Yeah I know it's just a platform, but it's still pretty awesome :-) )
That pulpit is awesome because its on a stage and raised more than most ,originally being a theater . One day as I approached the pulpit the Holy Spirit dropped into my heart that I was about to look into the Face of God, Jesus Christ.It changed the way I look at the assembly of God's people from the pulpit.Since then all pulpits seem awesome.God Bless you brother , especially as you complete your studies and stand at pulpits across our nation, always guard your heart.
Anyone else?
I saw the heading "who have you met" and I feared that it might be about meeting well known preachers. I hope everyone takes this in good spirits. I have been honored to have met some of the most well known and influential preachers of our day. But the more preachers that I meet, the more vain and empty I feel it is! Have I met well known and powerful preachers? Sure I have, but so what?? What does it matter?? The real question that we must all answer is this: Do I know God as I ought to? Do I know God as much as I can? It doesn't matter if I know kings! Do I know the King of Kings as much as I should? The greatness is not in the men, the greatest is in the God that they walk with. I used to care so much about who I knew and used to think it was so great when I met a preacher that was well known. They are just men. But they walk with an awesome God. The same God that we can walk with.
Do I disagree? Certainly not! Is it wrong to be curious about the meetings of these powerful men of God? I'm sure meeting the Apostle Paul would have been quite a story to tell.If you feel this thread should be ended then please close it. I see no harm in it either way.In Christ,-Eli
Yea I don't believe that it is wrong to be curious about meeting men of God. I enjoy meeting men of God and I enjoy sharing what I learned from that experience. But the more I met great men, the more empty it seems compared to meeting with God. I was talking to a friend who used to live in Keith Greens former house. People used to come up to him and be like "Can I come and see it?" And he would respond with "You could, but have you heard his music yet?" I just wanted to challenge us to know God as much as we can.
I apologize if I have hindered anyone from knowing God.
I don't think you hindered us from knowing God. I apologize if that was the impression I was giving. I am not against sharing stories of meeting great men. I would really love to hear what everyone has learned from meeting with Art Katz and others. I mean, I really want to know what you learned!! Please keep the stories coming.But let's just be sure that we know God as much as we can. There is still more of God to know, so I say let's be unsatisfied until we know as much of Him as is possible.
Agreed ;-)
Let's be careful who we step on in our zeal for God brothers. I say this in love. I agree that we can place mear men in the place of God and that's very wrong but from what I've read of Eli's other posts I'm persuaded this is not the case.Being that most of the preachers listed on SI have gone on to be with the Lord I would greatly want to hear stories from brothers and sisters who met them while they were still alive.I was fortunate enough to meet a lady named Opal Reddin while I attended college at CBC in Springfield Mo. What a mighty lady of God she is. She's a modern day Debra. But I was enthrolled by the story of how her and her family came into the faith. She met Smith Wigglesworth and he prayed for her mother and she was healed. That day they believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and became faithfull servants of the Lord from that point on.If anyone has any stories like that it would be great if they shared them.In Christ,Jeremy Hulsey
Easy to get out of balance and think you guy's have done very well in expressing that. Hope you will allow a little indulgence.Like Eli, I too was blessed to met Art Katz and even if there are some things I can only characterize as "I don't know", frankly, because I can't but wonder if everybody isn't off somewhere on how things will ultimately end, short of that Jesus is already at the Fathers right hand and the creation still groans, as far as his thoughts toward eschatology go, but the man himself is genuine.I came back from this encounter touched more by who he was in his being, his father like treatment toward me, that sense of 'knowing' in your spirit more than any words that were spoken, though nothing was lost in the translation there of.At the same time there others without 'name' so to speak that have touched me deeply in the same way. Frank, for instance. The dear brother who just got baptized in the park a couple of weeks ago. Even prior to that glorious moment, to look into his eye's and shake his hand. That peculiar paradoxical sense that it's not really peculiar at all.... it's just...brethren, family.Same with so many here. Would take far too long to name them all, but like finally meeting up with Greg in the flesh after all this time, it wasn't "nice to met you", but "good to see you", we met a long time ago on the spiritual plane of things.To go just one step further, those I would like to 'meet'?Would have loved to been able to weep with Ravenhill and prayed on my face with Tozer, followed Oswald Chambers all over the world, sat enthralled under T. Austin Sparks or trailed in the shadow of Hudson Taylor or Amy Carmichael.It's not being enamored so much with them as persons, but the God who lives in them.Fortunately, thanks to this place, we still get to 'know' them and people just like them, with that family resemblance.And one day 'face to face'What a day it will be!
Hi brethren! LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall swell in thy holy hill?………………….. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord…” Psalms 15 1,4I understand that one quality the Lord approves is honoring them that fear the Lord as long as we distinguish between them and the one who is glorified on them! It is on the faces of his children that the glory of Christ is seen! When I say their faces, its not the outward but you immediately come to contact with the inner man! You may not know about the great men of God on the other far side of the world (Africa) for they are in obscure and noting is written about them! Eventhough I have never met the famous heroes of faith whom I admire and like to imitate in the western world, I know a man in my country by the name Daniel whom God used so mightily during the severe persecuting communist regime whom under his ministry the blind see, the Lame walk, the deaf hear…right before the eyes of the persecuting communist atheists! Whom the Lord made his forehead as a flint under the communist threatening by actually killing, imprisoning and torturing his co-laborers! If you see his face when you meet him, he doesn’t need to say a word his face speaks! You feel the Love of God, you don’t feel repelled! You feel attracted! Even unbelievers witness it! He is so full of Christ that Christ overflows!Your Sis. Mekdes
In thinking about this thread, I would like to say in Jesse's favor that I'm glad that if we ever do get to a place where we idolize God'servants instead of worshipping God we have brothers who will stand up to what is going on.Psa 141:5 Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. In Christ,Jeremy Hulsey
She met Smith Wigglesworth and he prayed for her mother and she was healed.Oh man... when I was in Tennessee, the friends I visited read me just the first chapter out of Wigglesworth's book and oh my goodness! A guy who had no feet received feet from the Lord when in faith, and after praying with Wigglesworth, he went to go buy some shoes. I will need to find that book and read the whole thing myself. I'm sure it would be quite a faith booster, helping me believe, like what one of our pastors has been saying, God is the God of thee impossible!I'm not too familiar with all the "classic" preachers on here. It's quite a new thing for me. I've grown up in the fruits of the Calvary Chapel movement which started in the mid 1960's. So to me it's been a blessing to hear Pastor Chuck Smith speak and visit the church where it all started; Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. I think he's in his 70's now, and besides Billy Graham, those are the oldest, godly men I have had the privilege to hear.I've been personally wondering though... how much should we look into the past? Yes, there's godly men and women to admire... but doesn't the Holy Spirit want to do a new work? Recently I've been so blessed reading through the Kings and Chronicles. Some of the most godly men the people of Israel knew back at that time were Moses, Joshua and David. But even after those guys were long gone, and the people did much evil in the Lord's site, God chose to move on the hearts of men and some amazing revivals happened through King Hezekiah and King Josiah (2 Chronicles 29-32, 34-35). God has done some amazing, gracious miracles, revivals, and works through many men and women of old. But He is looking for anyone with a willing heart, anyone seeking after Him whole heartedly who would say, "Here I am Lord. Send me."
Hi Yodi,I've been personally wondering though... how much should we look into the past?I think it's imperative that we seek out the faith of the lives of these men. The "new work" that God wants to do is not new in the sense that it's different from a generation ago but new in that we become a new creation. It's still the same work that He's done for thousands of years. I don't think that we should all have an attitude of sitting around the campfire and telling each other stories about the past without letting those stories of faith also live in us.I once had the feeling as I was intensly seeking God that I was walking the same footsteps as men who had gone before me who were also seeking God.The verse that comes to mind is this:Jer 6:16 Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' In Christ,Jeremy Hulsey
Yes, that is an excellent verse.
Do I disagree? Certainly not! Is it wrong to be curious about the meetings of these powerful men of God? I'm sure meeting the Apostle Paul would have been quite a story to tell.Brother Eli, I think there is nothing wrong with talking about the experiences of meeting men that are being used by God. I think Jesse's worry is that we would rely in that and not be that man of God that He wants us to be. I think of the times that I have met men that were used of God powerfully and it has really blessed me more then almost any other time in my life. I was able to spend a few days with Glyn Owen who is quite old now but he knew many of the speakers on SI and also was in wales for awhile when it was still stirred from the welsh revival. He took over Martyn Lloyd Jones church for awhile and yes he did have a spirit and many stories to impart to me that I have not forgotten yet! I think the overall sense of his expierience of God was what rubbed off on me the most. Our lifes are to be an example to other believers!!yes the Apostle Paul would have a few good stories to tell, I wouldn't mind sitting up all night listening to him!
I think it's imperative that we seek out the faith of the lives of these men.We can have this same faith they had if we just go to the same source, our heavenly Father!I'm totally inspired by men and women of old! It gives me hope that God can do, like you said Hulsey, the same work time and time again if we yield ourselves completely to Him.My only concern is that we look so much to these men and women that we despair in these present times, living by sight, and not by faith, thinking that God can't move today. We should look to the same God that these men and women did! They should be an example to us that yes indeed, godliness, holiness, righteousness, purity, love... all these good things from above can be lived out in the lives of humans TODAY!Along the lines of learning from former generations, I like this verse I read in Job a couple nights ago; "Just ask the former generation. Pay attention to the experience of our ancestors. For we were born but yesterday and know so little. Our days on earth are as transient as a shadow. But those who came before us will teach you. They will teach you from wisdom of former generations" (Job 8:8-10).
Hi Jeremy,I too was privileged to sit under Sister Opal Reddin's Ministry starting with my first semester at Central Bible College in 1987 the book of ACTS. The number of lives this dear Saint has touched would be to numerous to count. As well, the many foreign missionaries at the Friday night Campus Missions Fellowship services.Per chance, do you have any of her audio sermons from the Chapel services?In Christ,tony
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