I'll never forget Vance Havner saying, If we
serve such a dynamite God, How come so
many of us are living firecracker lives?
I think about his remark from time to
time, And I chew on it for a
while and confess my lack.
There have been too many seasons in my
own life Where I wanted to make a
big noise for God, But only a pop
of a firecracker was heard.
I've known some men of God that, when
you were with them, You knew you were
standing next to dynamite.
Two men come into my mind as I
think about them now.
Stephen Oldford and Adrian Rogers.
Both these men had influence with men, Because
they had power with God.
Now, why was that?
They both were gifted differently, Even though they
both were well-known preachers.
Adrian Rogers was walking dynamite.
When he entered a room, there was always
an explosion of interest.
The last time I saw him was at
the dedication of a library At the Oldford
Center in Memphis.
There was just four of us in a
room.
Ted Rendell, Henry Blackaby, Adrian Rogers, and myself.
Adrian turned his back to the other two
men And threw his arms around me in
a bear hug.
He was eaten up with cancer and looked
frail, But he mustered up all his strength
to almost pull me off my feet So
he could bring my face up to his.
He hugged me for a long time until
it became embarrassing.
I didn't know it at the time, But
that was his way of saying goodbye to
me, For he died a few weeks later.
But frail and weak as he was, I
still felt like I was standing next to
a keg of dynamite.
He had power with God and influence with
men.
One of the last times I saw Stephen
Oldford was at his hospital bed.
I dropped off some work I had done
for him, And as he lay there he
reached up his hand and said, Now, brother,
let's pray.
I waited for him to pray while I
held his hand, Because he had always been
the one I turned to when I needed
prayer.
But he was strangely silent.
Finally I realized he wanted me to pray
for him.
After all, he was the patient lying in
a hospital bed, While I held the hand
of an eighty-six-year-old man, And
muttered some forgettable words over him.
To God and prayer I felt a power
course through me, For I was hanging on
to dynamite.
The Shunammite woman said of Elisha, And she
said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive
that this is a holy man of God
Which passes by us continually.
When God calls up his prophets in the
land And doesn't replace them, It is a
dreadful sign that he is clearing the land
for destruction.
Maybe there is someone out there Who is
sick and tired of living a firecracker life,
And you want to do something significant for
God and your generation.
I believe, friend, if you grasp the following
principles, You will understand what it was that
made those two men sticks of dynamite.
They both fully understood the following.
God builds his servants through his divine process
Of reducing and decreasing.
Gold must be reduced to its purity In
the furnace of affliction.
A branch must be trimmed back with a
sharp knife And decreased before it can grow
more fruit.
A deeper usefulness to God is found in
a complete submission To both the refiner's fire
and the divine pruning knife.
We must be willing to be reduced to
nothing So he can be everything through us.
Jesus is the dynamite.
We can have that dunamis power if we
are willing to be the wick And stay
connected to the blasting cap in an abiding
of him.