There are many men in this world who are faithfully serving Jesus without applause, without a song, without a publication, without an award...without a friend in a lot of cases.
Men like this are the closest thing to Jesus that I can determine. Men like this have passed by and caused blind men to see, lame men to walk, and the deaf to hear, and then continue to face their own battles alone in many cases.
Randy Smith is one of these men. As I often tell people, I'm southern bred, but northern fed. I was raised in the south, but I act a lot like a Yankee because I was raised by two of them. So I wasn't very exposed to shouting, hanky waving, and lap running around the church. When people talked about shredding the bark off a pine tree or a preacher skinning someone's tater roll; I thought it sounded strange.
When I first met Randy Smith, it was at the Trinity Camp Meeting in Wilson, North Carolina. I was not a pastor yet; but God had special plans that I didn't know about. I'll never forget, they were singing a song about the blood of Jesus, and this wild man from the back comes running up, grabs the Christian flag and starts running around with it. After running to the back, and then to the front again; he then began to walk across the choir partition. And as we feared, Randy took a bad step and fell into the choir loft.
Having never seen such a thing, I couldn't help but think, Who IS this guy??? But through the week, I watched him, and realized that he was sincere; and he had an affect on me! I was moved by his zeal for Jesus, and later on, I would not be disappointed.
Randy is the Pastor of Ballard's Crossroads Baptist Church; and though it is a small church in the middle of a cotton field, God has used this man to touch the lives of many men.
Not only has God used Randy to pull the filthiest of sinners out of the gutter hole and clean them up with the washing of the water of the Word; but he has also been instrumental in seeing these men become involved in ministry.
And who would have ever imagined that one day, that crazy Christian flag waving preacher's daughter would one day attend the church I now pastor along with her husband and newborn baby! What an amazing road the Christian life has been.
But the best is yet to come. I think we will be pleasantly surprised to see scores of unsung heroes in heaven sung about.
So here's to Randy Smith! Thank you, brother, for Fanning the Flames of Christianity today!
There are many men in this world who are faithfully serving Jesus without applause, without a song, without a publication, without an award...without a friend in a lot of cases.
Men like this are the closest thing to Jesus that I can determine. Men like this have passed by and caused blind men to see, lame men to walk, and the deaf to hear, and then continue to face their own battles alone in many cases.
Randy Smith is one of these men. As I often tell people, I'm southern bred, but northern fed. I was raised in the south, but I act a lot like a Yankee because I was raised by two of them. So I wasn't very exposed to shouting, hanky waving, and lap running around the church. When people talked about shredding the bark off a pine tree or a preacher skinning someone's tater roll; I thought it sounded strange.
When I first met Randy Smith, it was at the Trinity Camp Meeting in Wilson, North Carolina. I was not a pastor yet; but God had special plans that I didn't know about. I'll never forget, they were singing a song about the blood of Jesus, and this wild man from the back comes running up, grabs the Christian flag and starts running around with it. After running to the back, and then to the front again; he then began to walk across the choir partition. And as we feared, Randy took a bad step and fell into the choir loft.
Having never seen such a thing, I couldn't help but think, Who IS this guy??? But through the week, I watched him, and realized that he was sincere; and he had an affect on me! I was moved by his zeal for Jesus, and later on, I would not be disappointed.
Randy is the Pastor of Ballard's Crossroads Baptist Church; and though it is a small church in the middle of a cotton field, God has used this man to touch the lives of many men.
Not only has God used Randy to pull the filthiest of sinners out of the gutter hole and clean them up with the washing of the water of the Word; but he has also been instrumental in seeing these men become involved in ministry.
And who would have ever imagined that one day, that crazy Christian flag waving preacher's daughter would one day attend the church I now pastor along with her husband and newborn baby! What an amazing road the Christian life has been.
But the best is yet to come. I think we will be pleasantly surprised to see scores of unsung heroes in heaven sung about.
So here's to Randy Smith! Thank you, brother, for Fanning the Flames of Christianity today!
THAT’S MY PASTOR 😉 I love that man!