The Call To Preach

God's calling me to preach was a very special experience.   As I have shared in giving my testimony in times past, the calling was so clear and conclusive that it seemed at the moment I recognised and surrendered to it that He laid a clear life path before me that left me no doubt nor choice but to obey His will!  

It was a dark night after a service and I was sitting with the evangelist who had preached a revival at New Friendship Baptist Church in Benton, Arkansas.  We were sitting on the back-steps of the church overlooking the cemetery.  He was trying to help me determine what had been convicting me all week during the services.  Since I was saved and I knew it and had confidence in my security in Jesus Christ, he was exploring possibilities.  In doing so he just casually said,  "Do you think the Lord might be calling you to preach."   The next thing I knew it was just as if a light flooded my soul and I was sprawled on my face on the ground thanking the Lord for calling me to preach!   Until that moment I had not even entertained such a possibility;  especially since I could not see how a shy country boy like me could be called into the ministry.  After this,  we immediately sought out my Pastor, Gilbert Heflin,  who had been waiting on us on the front steps of the church.  We had a great time of rejoicing and praising God.  

Mom had not attended the services that night.  She was home with the children. Although it was  getting close to midnight the two preachers followed me home to share the good news with Mom,  When she opened the door to let us in Pastor Heflin said,  "Do you know what happened tonight?"  She replied without hesitation:  "My husband surrendered to preach!"  She then said that she had felt this was happening for quite sometime but did not want to mention it to me for fear of influencing me one way or the other.

But this was what might be termed a general calling.  Each step along the way since has been a specific calling to go to a particular place and do a particular work:  the calling to Australia being the greatest challenge.   As far as being called as a missionary is concerned, this has been a matter of specific and special guidance along the way.  I believe we have a permissive will of God as well as a directive will of God for our lives.   I do believe I have always been blessed to be in the directive will of God  but that if I had taken different steps God still could have allowed me to serve Him in a different place.   For instance,  I was tempted to stay at the church we successfully planted in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Avalon Baptist Church,  and try to build a larger soul winning church for the Lord there.  I believe He would have blessed such an effort.  But He called me specifically to Australia.   For instance,  I served at Sherwood Hills Baptist Church in Campbelltown as a Missionary Pastor,  and then got off the mission field and stopped my support from overseas and was an Australian Pastor and Christian School Principal from 1980 to 1989.  Then I felt God's specific leadership to come to the Gold Coast and plant our fourth church for the Lord. Which we successfully did, establishing Hinterland Baptist Church.   My testimony is that the centre of God's will is the safest, most blessed and productive place for any child of God.  God called preachers especially!

The Reason Why

I think it was in 1962. I was in my early thirties. We had four very young children. I was taken to the hospital with a very severe bleeding stomach ulcer. The loss of blood was tremendous and I was given transfusion after transfusion. It was touch and go for a few days. They could not easily stop the bleeding and I well remember one night when the night nurse checked me. It seems my blood pressure was dangerously low and my pulse was scarcely detectable. I faintly remember her cry for emergency assistance. Then the doctor standing over me, surrounded by other medical staff, and my wife standing behind them. The doctor giving me an injection and saying something to effect, "If he doesn't respond in ninety seconds, he is gone".  I also remember the peace I had with God. But I recall as well my concern for my lovely wife and children. I did not want to leave them. Although I was ready to meet the Lord, I asked Him to spare me if it was His will. Praise Him, He did.

A couple of nights later a purpose for it all became crystal clear. God blessed my witnessing to the young nurse. I recall as if it were yesterday that beautiful young night nurse kneeling by my bedside in the wee hours of the night and pouring her heart out to the Lord in true repentance and faith, then rising to her feet, with her face shining and a new song in her heart. I have often wondered about her life since then. I do expect to see her over there and we can rejoice together and fully understand the reason why! - John White

Happiness Is To Know Christ

Many in our world are hungering for many things. Some hunger for riches, and upon accumulating them, find the need to accumulate more an all consuming passion. They finally conclude that there are not enough riches in the whole universe to satisfy man’s overwhelming desire for more affluence. At the end of the way they inevitably find the acquisition of riches is a vanity of all vanities. They find the words of our Savior about the temporal nature of riches all too apt. No matter how much a man may accumulate, when he leaves this world he leaves it all behind. Those seeking fortune always find it cannot buy the simplest joy or real happiness.

Some hunger for fame, and upon achieving it, find the fleeting fragility of fame and fortune. Just a surface survey of the recent history of popular politicians, entertainers and entrepreneurs, easily confirms the illusory nature of imagined fulfilment through fame. How many spend their last days amid the ashes of decaying memories of fleeting moments spent in the fading spotlight of public popularity?

Some hunger for power as the ultimate high of human experience. Only those who have experienced power over the lives of others can really know how seducing this temptress can be. As it is said, "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely." But one only has to consider the end of some of the most powerful men of history to realise the futility of such hungering.

Jesus said that only those who hunger for and find His righteousness will find happiness.  Only those who realize the vanity and emptiness of a life without Christ, can be happy in this world and the world to come. The basis of eternal happiness is the forgiveness of sin, the removal of guilt, the restoration of a right relationship with the Creator and the appropriation of the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith in Him. The only truly happy place in this world is at the foot of the cross where Jesus died for our sins and paid the price that we might wear the eternal robes of His perfect righteousness forever. Only when we stand upon this sure foundation can we have a real hunger for the holiness and happiness God has for us.- Pastor John White