Why should I have a blog?  Why should anybody have a blog?  I raise these questions because I have learned that a blog can be…and is…used for many different purposes. My experience with some blogs is that the blogger does not understand the purpose of blogging.  I don’t see this great privilege and freedom as an opportunity to express any and every opinion I may have.  I have seen great harm come from this approach.

Why should I have a blog?  I will tell you why I want to exercise my opportunity to blog. This key board on which I now type is a doorway into the WWW…yes, the world wide web.

One of the best friends I ever had, and one of the greatest examples of life, ministry, humility, service to God and man and more was Dr. Robert G. Witty.  Dr. Witty, known as the founder of Luther Rice Seminary and the father of the doctor of ministry degree sought every opportunity to get the gospel to the world.  In seminary days, and in the years to follow, Dr. Witty admonished me to write.  Over and over again he urged me to write.  I can hear his voice now, write, write, write.

I have other friends now who urge me to write, write, write.  The written word can go further and last longer than any other part of our ministry.

Dr. Witty died at the age of 100 years and six months.  Listen to this, for years he manned two websites…one dot com and one dot org.  In the latter years of his life he sat at his computer in his assisted living apartment and wrote and wrote and wrote.  He would not have called it blogging.  He posted sermons, Bible studies, and more.  Why?  Because he had a passion to use every means and every opportunity to get the gospel to the world.  Admirable!!

Do you see on my webpage header the words Jesus Never Fails?  Well, that was Dr. Witty’s mantra.  He put on his letterhead, his business cards.  It was a trademark statement.  When I spoke at his memorial service I based some of my comments on Dr. Witty’s use of the phrase, Jesus Never Fails, and I said that I claimed that phrase as mine…and that it would be on my letterhead, cards, etc.  And it is!!

I could say many things to describe Dr. Witty…but the main one is ENCOURAGER!  He was a Barnabas …especially to young pastors…and hurting pastors.

God has blessed me to be on radio most of my ministry.  In the early years I called my radio programs Abundant Life. For the past fifteen years the program is under a different name.  The programs are now called ENCOURAGING WORD.

Now, my desire to blog is the same as my desire to minister through radio.  Both can go where I cannot go.  Both will fall upon ears of people I will never see or hear from. Both can be listened to or read again and again. I desire both ministries to be an Encouraging Word.

The Willmore blog will not be a place of argument or debate.  There are other bloggers who will cover those needs.  My desire is to post something that will lead a lost person to faith in Christ and a Christian to a deeper, more mature relationship with Christ.  My desire is to see Christians become more like Christ and to see healthier churches.

I pray that you have just read and encouraging word.

JESUS NEVER FAILS

RDW

I have just pulled from my library shelf my copy of Life on the Highest Plane, by Ruth Paxson.  The book was presented to me on August 16, 1975, by Ralph and Myra Hammond. Seeing their names inscribed on the fly leaf brings back many treasured memories. The book was presented to me several years after the truths it contained were shared with me by Ralph and Myra.  I was privileged, in the providence of God, to be a part of a small group of young Christians eager to learn the deeper things of God.  Ralph and Myra, who had discovered the deeper life teaching during a health crisis in Myra’s life, opened their home to share with others the way out of Egypt into the Promised Land of the Christian experience.

The writings of Ruth Paxson reflect the truths we were taught.  More about this in upcoming posts.

Ruth Paxson was born in Manchester, Iowa, and accepted Christ as her personal Savior when she was a child.  She graduated from the State University of Iowa, and afterward spent one year at Moody Bible Institute.  In February of 1911, Miss Paxson sailed for YMCA work in China.  Later she left that work to devote herself to evangelism and summer conference Bible teaching among missionaries in China.

Leaving China for health reasons, Miss Paxson went to Switzerland; then followed a period of Bible teaching on the European continent and at the Keswick Convention in England.

The impact of the testimony and the teaching ministry of Ruth Paxson has been felt around the world.  Life on the Highest Plane is a book that contains deep insights into the Victorious Christian life.

I have been in the Keswick circles long enough to know of the criticism that comes to the language used to describe the Christian life.  I understand it.  I think Dr. Stephen Olford had it right when he said, Call it what you will, ‘the deeper life’, ‘the higher life’, ‘the victorious life’, or ‘the abundant life’, we are talking about the normal Christian life.

I agree with Dr. Olford, forget the other descriptive titles.  What we need to understand is that the victorious Christian life should be the normal Christian life…and so on.

The following examples of Ruth Paxson’s teachings come from His Victorious Indwelling, a collection of quotes from noted Christians:

The spiritual history of every Christian could be written in two phrases, ‘Ye in me’ and ‘I in you.’

In God’s reckoning Christ and the Christian become one in such a way that Christ is both in the heavenlies and upon earth and the Christian is both on earth and in the heavenlies.  Christ in the heavenlies is the invisible part of the Christian. The Christian on earth is the visible part of Christ. This is a staggering thought. Its plain import is that you and I are to bring Christ down from heaven to earth that men may see who He is and what He can do in a human life.  It is to have Christ’s life lived out in us in such fullness that by seeing Him in us, people are drawn to Him in faith and love.

Isn’t this a great insight into the nature of the Christian Life?

I will conclude this post with one more Paxson quote.  More will come later.

God, in His infinite grace, always takes the initiative in bringing us into a fuller experience of our inheritance in Christ. So the Lord Jesus stands outside the door of every unyielded room in your life seeking entrance. If He enters, the door must be opened from the inside.

It is my prayer that these have been encouraging words to your heart and life.

RDW