WHEN DID YOU TAKE YOUR FIRST STEP OF OBEDIENCE TO GOD?

Today's promise: Obeying God brings great joy

When did you take your first step of obedience to God?

Then said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven."

Matthew 18:3 NLT

The momentous step

Oswald J. Smith grew up in Embro, Ontario. In the winter of 1906 when Oswald was sixteen, the Toronto newspapers told of a great evangelistic crusade being conducted by Dr. R. A. Torrey.

Oswald and his younger brother Ernie asked their mother if they could go the ninety-four miles to Toronto to attend the meetings. Smith tells what happened:

The second to the last meeting came. We had made up our minds to accept Christ that afternoon. We did not know that our mother had written to Dr. Torrey asking him to pray that her sons might be converted.

At the close of his message he gave the invitation. To my amazement I was turned into a chunk of lead. Presently my brother quietly nudged me, and that broke the spell. I sprang out of my seat and took the momentous step.

Christ had entered and I was a new creature. That was January 28, 1906.

Oswald went on to found and pastor Canada's largest church, the People's Church of Toronto. Throughout his ministry, he wrote twelve hundred hymns, published thirty-five books in 128 languages, raised twenty-three million dollars for missions, and helped send out hundreds of missionaries.

From that first step in Toronto, Oswald J. Smith walked with the Lord for three days short of eighty more years.

Adapted from The One Year® Book of Christian History by E. Michael and Sharon Rusten, Tyndale House Publishers (2003), pp 56-7

.

Content is derived from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and other publications of Tyndale Publishing House