With each day that passes since my father’s death, the magnitude of his life continues to overwhelm me. Even though I walked beside him, talking with him and observing his great heart of faith, I don’t think I truly understood the length and breadth of his incredible vision.
Without question, Liberty University is Dad’s legacy. But he was first and foremost a preacher of the gospel and the pastor of a great church. He loved people, and he knew their names. Wherever we went, Dad would call people by their first name, and somehow he knew about their families and their work. Many were people who had come to Christ under his ministry. My father was committed to the Gospel.
Even during the days of the Moral Majority, when his political influence was being felt around the nation, he hardly ever missed a Sunday at Thomas Road. When people brought their friends to church, they knew that somewhere in the message and almost always at the end of the message, the gospel would be presented in such a way that children could understand it. I am filled with pride as I think about him now, reconnecting with all the people who are in heaven because he told them about Christ.
The university and the church would have consumed the lives of most preachers, but there was yet another facet to the ministry of Jerry Falwell. Along with the Great Commission, he also obeyed the Great Commandment. He loved God with all of his heart, soul, and mind, and he loved his neighbor as himself.
When he saw a need, he did something about it. He founded the Elim Home Ministry as an outreach to help deliver those addicted to drugs an alcohol. Later, he started the ministry to unwed mothers called the Liberty Godparent Home as an alternative to the horrors of abortion. And of course, he always reached out to those who were hurting in our community and throughout the world to show them the love of Christ. My dad’s ministry life was about people, reaching them, teaching them, and then helping them make it through the difficult times they faced. He preached the Gospel, and he lived out the Gospel every day.
One of my father’s good friends was Dr. David Jeremiah, pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, Calif. Dad spoke in Dr. Jeremiah’s church many times, and Dr. Jeremiah’s oldest son, David, attended Liberty University.
On Oct. 2, a book authored by Dr. Jeremiah is being released into the marketplace. "Signs of Life," from Thomas Nelson Publishers, is a 40-chapter book, designed to lead individuals and churches to live out their faith by displaying the lifestyle of the Nazarene in the midst of a corrupt and darkened culture.
"Signs of Life" will lead you on a journey to a fuller understanding of the marks that identify you as a Christian — signs that will advertise your faith. Personal imprints that can impact souls for eternity and help you become a person of influence who radiates relevancy, authenticity, generosity, and compassion every day — just as Jesus did . . . and just as I witnessed my father do.
In a world where so many have lost their way and are looking for answers to life’s problems, this book will help us as Christians to “light a candle” to reach out to this world in darkness.
We are told in Luke 11:33, “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light.” This is the challenge that God as given to each of us in today’s culture. We must stand up and let our light, the light that comes from knowing Christ, shine throughout the world.
We must stand up in a culture where absolutes have been cast aside as irrelevant and proclaim the truth from the Bible as our standard for living.
This book is an excellent resource to help us do just that.
My father would have been excited about this book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to pastors and Christian leaders everywhere.
For more information about Dr. David Jeremiah and to order his powerful new book, "Signs of Life," visit SignsOfLife.org, or pick up your copy wherever fine books are sold after Oct. 2.
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