Evangelism in Warrenton, VA

Recently, I have been thinking about one of the most familiar and beautiful of the Psalms—“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Again and again throughout the Bible, we see these thoughts expressed. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11) In Hebrews, we read that Jesus is “that great shepherd of the sheep.” (Hebrews 13:20) Peter refers to Him as the shepherd “of your souls” and the “chief shepherd.” (1 Pet. 2:25, 5:4) The Lord is our good, great, chief Shepherd of our souls—what an encouragement this should be to us. He longs to “feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” (Isaiah 40:11) “As an earthly shepherd knows his sheep, so does the divine Shepherd know His flock that are scattered throughout the world. Jesus knows us individually, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows us all by name. He knows the very house in which we live, the name of each occupant. He has at times given directions to His servants to go to a certain street in a certain city, to such a house, to find one of His sheep. Every soul is as fully known to Jesus as if he were the only one for whom the Savior died.” Desire of Ages, 479, 480. Our Divine Shepherd, Jesus, knows each one of us as if we were the only sheep of His flock—praise the Lord for His compassionate, tender leading!

One of the students sharing a health lecture

We have just finished an evangelistic series in Warrenton, Virginia, and I am so thankful to see the Lord leading and guiding His sheep as that faithful Shepherd. While I have been here, I have been teaching an evangelism class at Hartland College and doing an evangelistic series at the same time. With this dual approach of both teaching and demonstrating evangelism, a more solid work can be accomplished both for the church and for the students. There are some very serious young people who are earnest to be trained to work for the Master, and I look forward to how the Lord will work through them in the near future to win many more souls for our Lord. I am also excited about how the Lord has worked through this series of meetings. Every series is different, and every series has its own challenges and blessings. As we began the series of meetings, we were praying that the Lord would hold back any inclement weather and also bring the people to the church as we were unable to find a neutral location in which to begin the meetings. How thankful we were when throughout the meetings all we experienced were some minor snow flurries and that the Lord brought those who were honestly searching for truth to study the prophecies of God’s Word together. It was quite a joy to see church members bring their neighbors, coworkers and friends, along with additional people who came from the advertising brochures. When the testing truths were presented, as may be expected, some who were rejoicing in the truth fell by the wayside, but others came in to fill their places. One man shared that he had learned more in the past four weeks than he had for over fifty years of his life before! Not only are people amazed at the truths that they have learned, but they are also making decisions to follow the Lord Jesus fully in all areas of their life. We are continuing to study with the people through follow-up meetings and personal appointments and praise the Lord for His power to change lives! I am so thankful for the Lord’s faithful leading in my life and praise the Lord that He will continue to lead the students and new believers as they surrender their lives to Him. Please pray that the Lord will guide them through the trials of life that we all may safely arrive together at the heavenly fold!

Your brother in following our Shepherd,

“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for His name sake.”