Has God ever told you to do something you thought you’d never do?

That was my dad’s position in the winter of 1985 as he drove our family of five in our small car–I think it was an Oldsmobile–up the streets of Long Island, NY.

In my last post I shared the power of faith. Now I’d like to focus on obedience. You see, my dad had often said he’d never go to New York. He’d heard the stories about crime and crazy drivers (sorry New Yorkers!). So when we moved from Canada, we ended up in Ohio where he helped pastor a church.

But God moves in very mysterious ways and one day my dad got a call from a woman in New York who had heard one of his sermons. She and some others asked if he’d come up and hold a weekend revival.

Well, that weekend revival ended up being 25 years of ministry. It started out as 12 people in a home. Most had a history. Former drug addicts, broken lives–you know, the kind of brokenness that Jesus specializes in fixing.

We moved to New York on Christmas Day 1985. I remember my mom remarking how strange it was that all the lights on a particular road (I think it was Jericho Turnpike) were all green as we chugged forward. It was as though the Lord was urging us to keep going.

And we did.

The next 25 years would see hundreds of people exposed to the Gospel. Lives were changed. The supernatural power of God was manifested.

As a family we’d go through a lot of pain, disappointment and grief. But, though I saw many tears in my parents’ eyes as I grew from a child to a man, I never saw their faith waver.

Obedience truly is better than sacrifice. More than three decades later, the effects of the choice they made continues to be felt. And God continues to be glorified.

JPR