Leading Others to Christ
One of the great evangelists and preachers of the late 1800s was Dwight L Moody or “D.L.” Moody as he was mostly known. He was a wonderful man of God, and much of what he said and wrote has been preserved for our benefit today. I read a short biography of this great man, which is written by A.P. Fitt. There were a couple of little gems in this book that I thought I'd share with you.
Moody's Life-Changing Encounter: From Doubt to Purpose
Moody’s life was changed when he led somebody to Christ. He said here on page 32: “I never lost sight of Jesus Christ since the first night I met him. But for years I really believed that I could not work for God. No one had ever asked me to do anything.” And then he tells about how one day a man who was ill asked him to take his Sunday school class (Sunday school for adults, that is) and so he tried to teach this group of young ladies, but got nowhere. They just laughed and mocked him the whole time and he decided he would never do that sort of thing again, until that teacher came back to him during the week and said, “I'm basically going to die soon, but I've never led any of those girls in my class to Christ. And so I'm going to go and speak to them each and I want you to come with me.”
Moody writes this: “It was one of the best journeys I ever had on earth. We went to the house of one of the girls, called for her and the teacher talked to her about her soul. There was no laughing then. Tears stood in her eyes before long. And after he'd explained the way of life he suggested that we have a prayer, and he asked me to pray. I'd never done such a thing as to pray to convert a young lady there and then, but we prayed and God answered our prayer. We went to other houses. He would go upstairs, be all out of breath, and he would tell the girls what he'd come for. It wasn't long before they broke down and sought salvation.
At the end of ten days of doing this, this man came to Moody's store and Moody says his face was literally shining. “’Mr. Moody,’ he said, ‘the last one of my class has yielded herself to Christ!’ I tell you,” Moody says. “We had a time of rejoicing!” and then he says this: “He had to leave the next night. So I called his class together that night for a prayer meeting, and there God kindled a fire in my soul that has never gone out. The height of my ambition had been to be a successful merchant businessman. If I had known that meeting was going to take that ambition out of me, I might not have gone. How many times I’ve thanked God since for that meeting.” And he ends this little section by saying, “Oh, the luxury of leading someone out of the darkness of this world into the glorious light and liberty of the gospel.”
Igniting the Fire Within: Moody's Transformation and the Call to Share the Faith
Now, friends, I read that whole section to you to show you that for Moody, he was a Christian. He'd never left God, he believed, but it was only when he started to lead others to Christ that a real fire for God began burning in his heart.
Do you need to do something similar? To kindle the new fire in your heart for God?
Do you remember Jesus’ last words to his disciples? He said, “Go and make disciples.” Go and tell others. It was not just for the preachers. It was for everybody.
I believe that when we start seeing other people turn to God, that's when our faith becomes vital and alive. If your faith has kind of fizzled out or if it's lukewarm, take the plunge and start trying to lead people to Christ. Ask God for opportunities. Ask Him to lead you to people who need to hear the good news. And when you do it, oh the fire that will start burning in your soul!
That happened for Moody and as you'll see, what a wonderful life he lived because of it. It can happen for you too.
