As I recall the details of this true story, about 45 years ago, a 16-year old young man walked the aisle of a church at the close of an evangelist service, knelt in the altar and accepted Christ as his Savior and Lord. He then told his pastor, “God just saved me tonight, called me to preach and called me to be an evangelist.” I understand, not completely surprisingly, that the pastor took that bold announcement with a tiny “grain of salt.”
True to his word, the young man became an evangelist and, in the 1970’s when I was a teenager, this young evangelist moved to the Rosebud, AR, area and built the “Triple S Christian Ranch.” Over all these decades later, Dr. John Bishop has seen God save and call into the Lord’s service thousands of young (and older) people there at the Christian ranch God led him to establish. I was blessed to attend Triple S several times as a teenager myself. The ranch is alive and well today and still ministering to young people and adults every year.
John Bishop had everything in the right order. Finding God’s way meant first of all choosing God’s Way of salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, for Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me,” (John 14:6). He was then ready to follow God’s calling for his life. I praise the Lord for raising up Dr. John Bishop and how I thank Dr. Bishop (along with his wonderful wife, Mrs. Donna) for following the call of God that has changed and blessed so many people for so many decades and continues to do so today.
After one has become a child of God, God has a way for every season of our lives. We don’t always follow that way to our own detriment. When that happens, there is going to be what, down the road, we will describe as some unnecessary wasted years. The song by Adrian Smith describes this sad condition, “Wasted years! Wasted years! oh how foolish! As you walk on in darkness and fears. Turn around! Turn around! God is calling. He’s calling you from a life of wasted years.”
The truth is, God is calling each of us from a life of wasted years from the moment of our birth and I believe we can say “even before our birth” for we find in Jeremiah1:5 God’s message to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” God has a remedy for avoiding wasted years in our lives and it begins in childhood, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, ‘I have no pleasure in them,’” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
I have heard parents say, in taking up for their wayward child, “Oh, he (or she) has to sow his Or her) wild oats.” Oh, No! No! No! They do not, and God never intended for them to. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man (person) soweth, that shall he (or she) also reap,” (Galatians 6:7). Further warning is found Numbers 32:23, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” and Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” God holds young people, as well as adults, accountable for their sin, “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right,” (Proverbs 20:11). I fear we may not be expecting enough from our young people and that is why God admonishes parents to, “Bring up a child in the ‘way’ he (or she) should go,” that there be no sad, wasted years in that life.
“Thank You, God, for Your wonderful Way of salvation (Jesus) for eternity and for Your glorious abundant way of life for our here and now,” (John 10:10).
— Randy Zinn is pastor of Russell Missionary Baptist Church, Russell, Ark.; formerly of Okmulgee.
