Altar Call –
Opelika-Auburn News
Walter Albritton
February 9, 2020
Because the daffodils
are blooming again
Sarah’s daffodils are blooming again. The lovely yellow and white flowers
spring up every January to grace our lawn on into February. They remind me to
give thanks once again for Sarah, Dean’s mother. She planted our daffodils.
Sarah departed this life 20 years ago, but her little daffodils are still
blessing me. That dear woman loved to work in the yard. Giver her a rake and
she was in heaven. I wish she was still here. I don’t like rakes or yardwork.
But I do love her daffodils.
The lawnmower cuts the daffodils down. Grass grows over the green stems. You
don’t know the daffodils are there in the fall. But, though dormant, they are
still there, waiting until January to burst up out of the ground. I can almost
hear them shouting, “Take heart old man, we are here again!” They do so
encourage me. Their arrival stirs my confidence in the promises of God.
A phrase too glib for you? Well, let me explain. Consider just one of God’s
promises, this one from Ezekiel: “And I will send down the showers in
their season; they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field
shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall
be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord” (34:26-27).
The daffodils rise up and bloom because God says do it. Dormancy is part of
God’s plan. Spring arrives on His schedule. Trees yield their fruit because God
says, “Yield your fruit.” The seasons change because God says, “Change.” Things
happen when God speaks. Remember how Genesis puts it: “God said,
‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
So, because the daffodils are blooming again, I need not be discouraged as I
wait for the harvest God has promised. Yes, life is a struggle. Winter is hard.
But my labor, and your labor, will not be in vain. Spring will come. God will,
in His own good time, bring forth fruit from our labor. He is, after all, the
Lord of the harvest!
Are there times when I am bewildered by difficult circumstances? Are there
times when I do not understand what God is doing? Are there people for whom I
have been praying still living in darkness? Yes! But I need not despair for the
daffodils are blooming again! So, I will not yield to the demon of
discouragement. I will continue to trust and serve God no matter how difficult
the winter may be.
When I was 29, my life was radically changed by an encounter with E. Stanley
Jones. God used Jones to rescue me from the harsh winter that had come upon my
soul. As Christ spoke to me through Brother Stanley, a spiritual springtime set
my soul free. Joy and peace began blooming in my soul! I came alive to God in
ways I had never been alive.
Who was E. Stanley Jones? At the time I met him he was in the last decade of
his life. A missionary to India, he was known across the world for proclaiming
Jesus as The Way to God. His constant theme was “Jesus is Lord!” I was thrilled
to discover how he found The Way to life in Christ. His story involves a
preacher who knew what it meant to wait on God while being rebuffed by his
fellow Methodists, especially Methodist hierarchy.
That preacher was Henry Clay Morrison, president of Asbury College and founder
of Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. Known as one of the greatest pulpit
orators in America, Morrison was snubbed by some Methodist leaders who did not
like his emphasis on holiness. Booked on one occasion to preach at large
churches in Baltimore, Maryland, he arrived to discover that the presiding
elder had directed the pastors to cancel the meetings.
Morrison had no place to preach – until the pastor of a small congregation in
Baltimore dared to invite Morrison to preach in his church. Refusing to be
discouraged, Morrison accepted the invitation. That night, after preaching to a
small crowd, Morrison had only one person, a 14-year-old boy, to come forward
at the end of the service. That boy was E. Stanley Jones who accepted
Morrison’s invitation to give his life to Christ.
Henry Clay Morrison had no way of knowing that night that his faithfulness
would be rewarded with such a great harvest of souls through the ministry of E.
Stanley Jones. By God’s grace, Morrison lived to see that young man graduate
from Asbury and become a missionary and evangelist who inspired thousands upon
thousands across the world to accept Jesus as Lord of their lives.
Because the daffodils are blooming, I shall not lose heart. The chilly winds of
winter will give way to spring and its showers of blessing. The Lord of the
harvest, who faithfully keeps his promises, will reward the faithfulness of his
children. You can bet your life on that! + + +