Spiritual Heroes

Recently while catching a quick meal in Dallas before catching a plane to come back to Seminole I enjoyed some childhood memories. We ate at a sports restaurant with sports memorabilia especially from sports stars who played in the State of Texas. I saw pictures of Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Nolan Ryan, and Emmitt Smith. One picture meant more to me than all the rest. It was a picture of my favorite NFL player as a child, Earl Campbell.

I watched every move he made playing, read every article I could about him, and collected posters and pictures of him in my room. I was a huge Houston Oilers fan. His thighs were so big that looking at them motivated me to do more squats in the weight room along with other exercises to build up my leg muscles. He was my hero.

Over time my heroes have changed. By in large I traded my fascination with sports stars for those who lived for the glory of Christ and lived to impact the world they lived in. The list is long and fairly often I include the names of some of those heroes in my writings and preaching. Through the pages of books I feel I have met many of these heroes. Page after page I have devoured learning about people like Amy Carmichael, Andrew Murray, John Calvin, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, David Brainerd, John Wesley, Robert Murray McCheyne, George Whitfield, Hudson Taylor, Martyn Llody Jones, Watchman Nee, Charles Finney, C.S. Lewis, William and Catherine Booth, and David Brainerd to name a few. There are others. The lives of these people inspire me. There is so much to read and just this one simple lifetime to get it done.

Nobody worked harder at studying scripture than John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards and Martin Luther. Nobody was more effective in prayer than George Mueller, Reese Howells, and John Hyde. Nobody was more zealous for winning souls that D.L. Moody, John Wesley, and George Whitfield. Nobody was more effective preaching than Charles Spurgeon.

The one who has captured my fascination for years is Jonathan Edwards. I just finished a book about his life this past weekend and have started another biography this morning. He lived a purposeful life. He wore the harness of discipline with ease spending up to thirteen hours a day in study. He was a prolific author whose body of work has never gone out of print in three centuries. He preached with a depth and insight that have rarely if ever been equaled in the modern age. He often is most famous for his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of a Angry God,” and his seventy resolutions by which he sought to live by. He lived to have passionate affections for Christ. I have learned so much from Him, one of them being that I am not Jonathan Edwards.

He inspires me but he also had feet of clay. What I mean by that is that Edwards was a sinner like you and me. He studied too much, visited too little, and often made poor judgments when it came to leading his congregation. He was eventually fired after twenty-three years of faithful service and being used in two spiritual awakenings.

Tragically Edwards’ life was cut short after falling ill when he was fifty-four years old. He left behind a wife and nine children. I am left to wonder what he would have accomplished had he lived another twenty or thirty years.

The purpose of this article is three fold. First, I hope to inspire you to read about the great saints of the past. We have much to learn that could help us not to loiter on our way to eternity. I read these books to not only see how these heroes lived but to see how they died as well. We need to learn how to die courageously and with trust in the Lord all the way to the last breath. Few have ever died more valiantly than the twenty-nine year old David Brainerd who died in Jonathan Edwards home.

My second reason for writing this is remind us to get our noses out of this modern era every so often and look to the lessons of the past. There is much gold in the pages of autobiographies and biographies if we are willing to dig. Let us purpose to walk past the best selling books and authors from time to time to find some books written by saints of old that have stood the test of time. Let us sit at the feet of these spiritual masters who lived to point others to the true Master.

Lastly, who knows whether we have been touted to be someone’s hero. If we ever are it will not be because we are perfect. It could be son or daughter, a grandson or granddaughter, or someone we go to church with who watches us with an admiring eye. This scene was played out for me last summer while on a mission trip in Saskatchewan, Canada. We had a young lady named Lacie giving a devotional for the entire group when she suddenly began affirming another lady on the trip named Leisha. Leisha had a great impact on Lacie. The tears flowed freely and in essence Leisha had without knowing it been a sort of role model for Lacie. We never know who is watching us. What kind of legacy are we leaving?

Turn the television off tonight or this weekend. Find a good book about someone who lived for God and curl up with it. Let the God of their life inspire us to live for His glory. Let our God move and stir our hearts through the pages of history. Even writing this is making me want to get back into my book. I still have study to do for our Wednesday evening study. Before my head hits the pillow I will crack open my book on Jonathan Edwards and let this hero urge me to live more fully devoted to Jesus.