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