Firecracker Lives

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.