The Return of Judge Roy Moore (The Ten Commandments Judge)

Judge Roy Moore Returns!

      Roy Moore was ousted from his position of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court nine years ago for acknowledging God.  The people of Alabama voted again to make Judge Roy Moore the Chief Justice of their state in the last election.  
       Roy Moore was not unaccustomed to controversy.  A few years before the showdown with the granite Ten Commandments monument, he was a County Circuit Judge.  He was directed to take down a hand carved plaque with the commandments by an Alabama Circuit judge. He refused to do it and became a hero.  The governor of Alabama at that time, Fob James, made it clear that he stood solidly with Roy Moore and said with no uncertain terms, “Try to take the Ten Commandments out of this courtroom . . . and you’ll be staring down the barrel of a few dozen M-16s.”  The case was later dismissed on technical grounds.
  I still remember listening to the radio back nine years ago when all the controversy raged again over the Ten Commandments and Judge Roy Moore's refusal to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments at the Alabama Judicial Building.  My thoughts of the case were very different then.  I remember thinking,"What's the big deal with keeping that big rock there when this good guy could keep his job if he'd just listen to the higher court?"    It was obvious, barring a miracle, that Judge Moore's job was in jeopardy.  My reasoning was that it would be better to have the man keep his job and continue to serve justly in a hundred more ways than just keeping a big rock at the court.  My views on this have changed a lot since I've had a better opportunity to hear Roy Moore's reasoning.  I didn't have the privilege to know the whole issue from bits of information I heard from the media.
    What caused me confusion was that I knew a higher authority than Judge Moore had directed him to remove the commandments.  What Judge Moore knew was that there was a higher authority than the federal judge.  He knew that the Alabama constitution gave acknowledgement that our freedoms come from God.  He knew the first amendment was given to protect the church from the state, not to deny God rightful acknowledgement. He also knew that God is the final lawgiver and all laws that would seek to deny God his rightful acknowledgement are not true laws.  To disobey unlawful laws would not be a crime, but a duty.  There is a difference between the rule of law and judicial tyranny. This is what our founding fathers recognized, this is what the apostles knew, and there are still a few good men that are able to see this.

    
America the Beautiful? by Judge Roy Moore

America the Beautiful or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims' pride; I'm glad they'll never see
Babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty; your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly. Poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.

From sea to shining sea, our Nation turns away.
From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray.

We've kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown.
When earth is but His footstool, and Heaven is His throne.

We've voted in a government that's rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb.

You think that God's not angry, that our land's a moral slum?
How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God, from Whom we cannot hide?
What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children, will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face and mend our evil way:

Then God will hear from Heaven and forgive us of our sins,
He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within.

But, America the Beautiful, if you don't - then you will see,
A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from Thee.

~Judge Roy Moore      
                                 This video is a short biography of Roy Moore

 

References:

This article from the Vision Forum gives a great review of Judge Moore's legal battle for the Ten Commandments:  



http://www.visionforumministries.org/issues/news_and_reports/god_must_be_acknowledged_2.aspx

Peter and the apostles said without apology, "We ought to obey God rather than man." Acts 5:29:
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Act&c=5&t=KJV#29

Educational Freedom



 

 

"I don't want my children fed or clothed by the state, but if I had to choose, I would prefer that to their being educated by the state."  These thoughtful comments were made by a grain dealer in Iowa named Max Victor Belz.  What Max realized is that the mind of his children was something to guard zealously. 





     The ability to learn where you want and what you desire to learn is a freedom that has blessed our nation with many great discoveries and inventions.  The more this freedom is restricted the more we will find less of these benefits to society.  Education can be a result of our freedoms that helps preserve them, or it can be the medium that forms our chains. Education, like other forms of communication, works to indoctrinate. It is impossible for it to be otherwise. This is a very powerful thing, and must be entrusted to the right people.  It is a fundamental right for parents to assume this role of guarding the minds of their children.  

 

      Education will come from somewhere, but not all forms of it will be desirable.  Perhaps this why God gave parents the role of educating their children. Who else could determine better the gifts children possess than the parents?  No one would have better intentions to help children than their parents. Of course, there are exceptions to almost everything, but exceptions should not make the rule.   Not everyone would agree with giving parents this fundamental right.  When I was a child, a school official told my parents, "We know your child's needs better than you do."  This was one of many circumstances that led my parents to send me and my sister to a private school.  Even in a private school, parents will encounter teaching that they don't agree with, but an advantage to having private schools is that parents have more choices.  Just imagine how many choices we might have if all schools were private schools.  Think of the variety of schools we would have. 

 

     If you send children to a Catholic school, you can expect them to be taught Catholic teaching. If you send them to a Muslim school, you can expect them to learn Islam.  If you send them to a Christian school, they will hear about Christ.  If you send them to humanists, you can bet your money on it, they will teach the religion of humanism.  The teaching material in publicly funded schools is only allowed to present the religion of secular humanism.  This won't bother a humanist, but it should bother anyone who believes in something bigger than themselves.  The influence of this can not be overstated in a time of such serious stakes.  This is why Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union said, "Give me four years to teach the children and the seed that I have sown will never be uprooted."  Lenin serves as a reminder of not just the bad effects of humanism, but also the the problem of giving bureaucrats control of children's minds.

 

      The one size fits all structure doesn't work.  It may be convenient, but it costs way too much.  There needs to be freedom in education for a better tomorrow.  

 





  

 

A protest to the monopoly that the religion of humanism currently has in publicly funded schools.   

Turning the Hearts of the Fathers

It's kind of hard to see this picture, but it's a picture of Dad and me retrieving a bee swarm from a tree.

This is a day of the individual.  This is the opposite of the Biblical model.  The model that confronts us today is based on an atheistic belief  structure. This is a man-centered philosophy that  says it is the individual and the government that are the most important aspects of society.  It comes under the term "self-realization" and is antithetical to God's call to deny self and pursue things that are eternal.   In the Bible we can see a high value of the family and church.  These are the bedrock components of society.  This is why in the last book of the Old Testament, in the last chapter, and the last verse says, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."  This promise was the way the Bible was ended for four hundred years. For four hundred years God remained silent like He did before Moses delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt.  A new deliverer was about to enter the scene, but a man came before him that proclaimed this message.

     John the baptist, a single man that lived in the wilderness and subsisted on what he could find (which included honey), had a message to deliver to fathers.  It was not a message of being positive to make yourself happy.  It was a message of duty to God and fulfilling his word.  It was not a message of how to survive when raising toddlers or getting through the teenage years, but a command for the fathers to take up their duty to love their children.  He was telling the fathers to come home and not put the focus on themselves. The Hebrews were in a position where they were picking up the practices of the people around them.  The Romans had been picking up the practices of the Greeks that they conquered and the Hebrews were in this Greco-Roman influence.  Children were not as close to their parents as they had been in earlier generations.  Like our industrial age, they had an age that focused on getting ahead and fulfilling their own dreams in power and industry where people became just human resources, and children were getting in the way.  Some of the outworking of this included limiting family size, infanticide and sending the children to tutors other than the parents.  One factor that poised a real threat to the Roman Republic was the people were so self-consumed that they didn't have enough children to support the floundering empire. The Greco-Roman society they were in had lost its value for real relationships.

     Contrast this to the ancient Hebrews. The Hebrews were largely shepherds that lived off the land.  They gained this occupation from their fathers.  They needed large families to be successful in their farm life and recognized the value of working together as families.  Children were seen as being very valuable.  God had shown them the importance of family by working with them as one great family and reminding them of how He helped their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

      John first gave the command to the fathers as they hold great great responsibility, but then turned to the sons and reminded them of their responsibility to have a good relationship with their fathers.  He then let them know that without their hearts turning to each other that there would be a curse to be reckoned with.

      John the Baptist had a job to call the fathers and the sons to repentance that they would be prepared to hear  Jesus Christ.  Some of John's disciples became Christ's disciples and had become familiar with the message of reconciliation. 
    
      John  came in the spirit of Elijah and showed a selfish generation how to be reconciled to each other and then to God.  He let his disciples know that Jesus must increase, but he must decrease.  His message remains for every generation.

References:
Safely Home by Tom Eldredge

A short biography of John the Baptist:
http://www.thedecidedlife.com/Decided_Life_Bios/Biography.php?Biography_id=2

     

Hobby Lobby and Standing on Principle

 

My sister, Jenna, took this picture of the Hobby Lobby in Stillwater, OK

      Hobby Lobby started as small business from a garage in Oklahoma city with a $600.00 loan.  Today it is one of the largest arts and crafts stores in America.  Its founder, David Green, was raised in a poor family. His formal education consists of a high school diploma.  His family feared God and his siblings all get their sustenance from what most people see as ministry.  David believes his work is also ministry, and this has been recognized from both his friends and his critics.  This has especially been noticed in the way the store closes early.  David believes that family time is extremely important for families to remain strong and hasn't extended the hours.  He also has practiced his faith by keeping all Hobbie Lobby stores closed on Sundays which is a practice that is believed to cost him many millions of potential dollars.  David believes that by honoring God that God has honored him.  He believes that is why Hobby Lobby has done extremely well in this bad economy.  Yet he recognizes that God's values aren't measured by money.  This can be seen in some comments he shared with ChristiaNet: "Our organization wants to be remembered as one that knows the difference between the temporal and eternal."  He continued, "Our business is only a means to an end and our end is to try to affect lives for eternity.  If we haven't done that, then we are just merely a good person."

     Today there is a challenge as to whether a person can practice his beliefs in the workplace.  Because the Green family believes life begins at conception, they also believe that it would violate their conscience to encourage abortion by paying for abortion-inducing drugs through their insurance coverage.  The current Heath Care Mandate does not protect business owners or individuals with a conscience clause.  This encroachment on the right of conscience needs to be a concern for every American as a loss of freedom.  Because the Green family cannot follow this unjust and unconstitutional law in good conscience, they are facing fines of over a million dollars a day.

      In every generation there are those that God has appointed to carry on a message that is important for that age.  The freedom of conscience is not new.  Martin Luther faced this when it was demanded that he recant his beliefs.  He knew his life was in danger, but said that he could not and would not recant for it would go against conscience which is not safe.   In America, the law of the land respected freedom of conscience largely because of a man named Roger Williams.  Williams was banished from a colony for his beliefs, and created Rhode Island which became a refuge for people with various beliefs.  Roger believed everyone had the right to be wrong and that when there were differences that the only way to seek to change someones mind would be through civil debate.   A firm believer in God, he extended these rights to all men, even those he considered to be pagans and atheists.  This freedom is the direct opposite of socialism which manipulates people.
     Should Hobby Lobby have to close its doors it will be memorial to what socialism does to business and freedom.  Whether they close or not, the principles that made this counteraction to socialism will not be held  in vain because the liberty of conscience is bigger than money and bigger than the here and now.  Indeed, eternity is testified in the lives of those that hold on to it.


  Below David shares in his own words the plight his company is in because of the liberty of conscience:

My name is David Green, and I am the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. In case you are not familiar with our company, we are a national arts and crafts retailer with more than 500 stores in 41 states. We are headquartered in Oklahoma and employ more than 22,500 individuals nationwide.

I started Hobby Lobby as a miniature picture frame company, called Greco Products, in 1970. My family and I made miniature picture frames and sold them to various retailers. Because there was a high demand for this product at the time, we were able to take out a loan of $600 from the bank to open our first retail store, which consisted of 300 square feet of manufacturing space in the back, and 300 square feet of retail space in the front. That store became the first ever Hobby Lobby.

My family has been an integral part of this business since day one, and remains an important part of it today. My son, Steve Green, is president of Hobby Lobby. My son, Mart Green, is president of Mardel, which is a Christian bookstore that is an affiliated business with Hobby Lobby. My daughter Darsee Lett is a vice president of Hobby Lobby. Several of my grandchildren also work in our business.

        Another integral part of Hobby Lobby from day one has been our faith. My parents  were both pastors, and all of my siblings are involved in ministry. I felt like somewhat of an outsider going into retail, but I’ve found a way to minister through Hobby Lobby. We have always operated our company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles, including integrity and service to others. We believe wholeheartedly that it is by God’s grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has been successful. Therefore, we seek to honor him in all that we do.

As part of that faith, we care greatly for our employees and their families. That’s why, unlike most major retailers, we are only open 66 hours per week and are closed on Sundays to allow our employees to spend time with their families. For the past four years in a row, we have increased the minimum wage for our full-time employees, and it’s now 80 percent above the national minimum wage.

We also believe in sharing our faith, which is why we purchase full-page ads at Christmas and Easter in newspapers in all the major cities where we operate. We also contribute both time and funds to numerous Christian organizations across the nation and the world. Hobby Lobby has always been a tool for the Lord’s work. For me and my family, charity equals ministry, which equals the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We know that we have been blessed by God’s grace, and we believe it is because we have chosen to live our lives and to operate our business according to His word, and we are very grateful for that.

But now our faith is being challenged by the federal government. The Health and Human Services “preventative services” mandate forces businesses to provide the “morning-after” and the “week-after” pills in our health insurance plans. These abortion-causing drugs go against our faith, and our family is now being forced to choose between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families. We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.

References:

This is David Green's statement from his legal representive:

http://www.becketfund.org/davidgreenpressstatement/

An interview with David Green

http://christiannews.christianet.com/1096289115.htm
I shared a shorter version of this post to the local newspaper:
http://auburnpub.com/news/opinion/mailbag/businessman-stands-up-for-his-faith/article_4fbe2eaa-1f9c-56cd-a981-f3449377063a.html

B.C. & A.D.

This is a popular photo of a lamb and lion.  I wish I had my great aunt's painting to share.

I still remember a Christmas card my grandmother received years ago from her twin-sister that was very meaningful.  It had a painting that she made herself of a lion and a lamb together which is a  symbol of the restoration of all things.  She was a gifted artist.  Inside the card she wrote how time was split because of the birth of a baby.  Our history is written in the terms of B.C. (before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, which means "in the year of our Lord."  Each year that goes by bears this signature that Christ has come. 

      During  this time of year there was an old movie that was popular years ago called "It's A Wonderful Life."  The story taught a moral like a good story should.  The lesson it gave was that one person's life has a chain reaction that influences many lives to a degree that is impossible to calculate.  Taking a look at Jesus' life we can see that he influenced people to a greater degree than any other person in history.  In a writing that is popular with believers and non-believers alike, James Allan Francis in 1926 wrote the following short description of Jesus' life entitled, One Solitary Life:

"Let us turn now to the story. A child is born in an obscure village. He is brought up in another obscure village. He works in a carpenter shop until he is thirty, and then for three brief years is an itinerant preacher, proclaiming a message and living a life. He never writes a book. He never holds an office. He never raises an army. He never has a family of his own. He never owns a home. He never goes to college. He never travels two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He gathers a little group of friends about him and teaches them his way of life. While still a young man, the tide of popular feeling turns against him. One denies him; another betrays him. He is turned over to his enemies. He goes through the mockery of a trial; he is nailed to a cross between two thieves, and when dead is laid in a borrowed grave by the kindness of a friend.

Those are the facts of his human life. He rises from the dead. Today we look back across nineteen hundred years and ask, What kind of trail has he left across the centuries? When we try to sum up his influence, all the armies that ever marched, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned are absolutely picayune in their influence on mankind compared with that of this one solitary life…"

      The Bible says he came in "the fullness of time."  This is evidenced by the way he fulfilled prophecies that would not be fulfilled at any other time in history.  The Seventy Weeks of Daniel give the very time period that he had to live in order for the prophecy to be fulfilled.  After 70 A.D. the genealogies of individual Jewish families were destroyed and no other man would be able to prove the credentials of the promised Messiah like the detailed lists in the gospels.

      Christ came at the fullness of time and changed time for all time.  Have a blessed Christmas!

Reference:

The fullness of time.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Gal&c=4&t=KJV#4

 

QC5P67DB2CWJ

 

Christian Websites Directory



Where Does the Blame Lie?

I've held on to this sketch for a long time.  I'd like to thank  the artist.   It portrays well what we do when we make ourselves the center of everything.

Two brothers were walking out in the field together.  They had great parents and they had everything they needed.  Their parents were well educated and the boys were given the best education available.  This walk in the field was different from others, and it became all the more obvious when one brother returned alone.  He had blood on his hands.  I'm referring to the first murder of human history found in the Bible by the very first brothers. 
I share this story to shed some light on the recent school shooting in Connecticut and other heinous crimes that have happened recently. 
The blame has been going in all the wrong places.  The sad fact is that things like this are used as opportunities to give people that are power hungry more control.  It is the concept that the government will take care of us.  They want to tell us they will prevent these things in the future.  How? Look at the 9-11 tragedy.  They started a new government department and took away Constitutional rights of citizen's privacy in airports.  Look at the hurricane disasters.  "We'll stop that from happening again!" More power and money granted.  The point is that there are many things beyond the scope of the government's help  and it's wrong for them to pretend that they prevent certain things. 
     When Cain killed his brother it wasn't because he was off his medication (though who would say he was in his right mind?)  He recognised after the fact that his life would be in danger and his reputation was done.  You couldn't say he didn't get a good education as his parents were the wisest people living at the time.  You couldn't say he grew up in a bad environment as his righteous brother was brought up in the same environment.  It certainly wasn't the club or weapon he used that was the problem.  The problem was his love of self.  God had already confronted him about how he needed to change, but God left him with a free will; and with that free will he did the unthinkable and the unknown until that time.
   
     I watched a video of a father of one of the victims in the Connecticut shooting explain that he knew that this happened as a result of free will and that free will is great gift though it can be used so wrongly.  For that reason God continues to seek to reason with men just like he did with Cain saying,  "Come and let us reason together..."

      There is an email that "went viral" back a few years ago that was the testimony of Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Joy Scott, a victim of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado.  He gave it on May 27, 1999 before the Subcommittee on Crime of the House Judiciary Committee. These are his words:

"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers." "The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field.
The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart. "In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA.
I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent."
"I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy-it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room.
Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. "I wrote a poem that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:"

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You've stripped away our heritage,
You've outlawed simple prayer.Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question "Why?"
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!

"Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, soul, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and reek havoc. Spiritual influences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact.
What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties.
We do not need more restrictive laws." Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.
Political posturing and restrictive legislation are not the answers. The young people of our nation hold the key. There is a spiritual awakening taking place that will not be squelched! We do not need more religion. We do not need more gaudy television evangelists spewing out verbal religious garbage. We do not need more million dollar church buildings built while people with basic needs are being ignored.
We do need a change of heart and a humble acknowledgment that this nation was founded on the principle of simple trust in God!" "As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, He did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right!
I challenge every young person in America, and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA- I give to you a sincere challenge.
Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone! My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!"
References:
God asking men to reason with him.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Isa&c=1&t=KJV#18
Cain kills his brother.
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Gen&c=4&t=KJV#8
Darrell Scotts testimony
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bldarrellscott.htm

 

The Doctor's Condition Diagnosed By God's Word

     

This is a true story as related by Brother Norman telling how a doctor was brought to freedom by the testimony of a dying workman and his cherished Bible.

      William P. Mckay grew up in a Christian home, but at an early age he rebelled against the faith of his parents.  He didn't need God!  He would do his own thing!  He would be glad when he could leave home and do as he pleased -- call his own shots-- make his own way -- pursue his own career.

      At last the day came when he was leaving home to enroll in a university for the study of medicine.  As he was packing up for his departure, his mother gave him a new Bible.  She had written a loving note on the flyleaf encouraging him to read God's word and assuring him of her love and untiring prayers for him.  He had indifferently stuffed it into his bags and set off for college. 

    He never opened the Bible his mother had so tenderly given him and never gave it another thought.  Then one day, short of money, and needing some incidental item at school, he sold the Bible for a few coins at a pawn shop.

     Years went by.  McKay got his degree, graduated from medical school a full-fledged doctor and set up a practice in a bustling Scottish city. 

     More years went by.  One day a poor workman who had fallen from a high scaffold was hastily carried into Dr. Mckay's clinic in great pain.  Upon examining him,  the doctor sadly looked into the young man's face and said, "Son,  I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but there is nothing I can do for you.  You have suffered massive internal injuries.  You cannot live more than a few more hours--- a few days at most."

     The workman blinked a few times and then, giving McKay a weak smile through his pain, said, "Well, that's alright, Doctor. I guess that just means I'll get to see the Lord Jesus sooner than I ever thought.  He is my Savior, and if I die---well, then, I'll get to go to Heaven and be with Him."

      Somewhat startled by this reaction, McKay sympathetically asked, "Do you have any relatives that we can contact for you?"

     The young man answered, "No, my parents have both died and I am all alone in the world.  But I wish you would send for my landlady where I am rooming.  I owe her a little bit and I have enough in my pockets to pay her.  Ask her when she comes to please bring me the book."

     "What book is it that you want?"  the doctor asked.

      "Oh, just tell here to bring the book," the man replied, "She'll know which book."

     When the landlady came she brought the injured man a well-worn Bible, which he read almost constantly as long as he had strength to hold it.

     The young man held onto life for four days, then slipped away.  Often the nurses mentioned to Dr. McKay how cheerful he was in spite of his pain and how courteous and easy to care for he was.  They also shared bits of conversation he had with them about how Christ had changed his life and of what he was looking forward to in Heaven.  In spite of himself, the doctor was reminded of the Christian home he had grownup in. 

     A little while after the undertakers had come fr he young workman's body, a nurse brought an armful of items in to the doctor and said, "Dr. McKay, these are the belongings of the young man who just died.  What shall I do with them?"

     "What are they?" asked the doctor, hardly looking up.

     "Oh, just his coat and boots and wallet--- and of course, that old Bible that he was always reading as long as he could hold it up."

     "I'll just lay it all here on my desk for now," said McKay, reaching them from the nurse.

     As he laid the things down, he held onto the Bible for a bit, then, impressed by how much use it had obviously had, he opened it near the back and slowly let the pages fan through his fingers.  The pages were smudged with much turning.  Many passages had been underlined and some notes had been written in the margins.  He read a few of these and thought of how much this Bible had meant to this young man and how he must have loved it.  At length he came to the flyleaf just inside the front cover.  Suddenly his hands trembled so that he nearly dropped the book.  There was the inscription his own mother had lovingly written to him so many years ago.  The very Bible he had neglected and later sold for a trifle had transformed the life of this poor workman and led him to  faith that enabled him to smile at death.

      Well, you can guess the rest of the story.  The worn old Bible wasn't done in its work of  redemption.  It was also the means of leading the one for whom it was originally intended back to the God of his parents. 

     Perhaps you have met Dr. McKay before.  Have you ever sung in church that grand old Gospel song, Revive us Again?  In your hymn book, where it gives the authors of the songs, you will find the name, William P. McKay above this one.  This is the same William McKay who long ago had carelessly stuffed his praying mother's gift Bible into his luggage and set out for college.  He later became a dynamic preacher of the faith that he once tried to ignore. 

     Here are the words of his well known revival hymn:
http://www.scriptureandmusic.com/Music/Text_Files/Revive_Us_Again.html


Go here for Willaim McKay's own words describing this story:
http://www.hymnalaccompanist.com/Story/story-c3.html