(Editor’s Note: Please take a few minutes to read the following testimony that my friend John B. Aker—a retired pastor and former military chaplain and educator—shared with me. You will surely be blessed and inspired, as I was.)
“Once in a very great while, someone is blessed, as perhaps you may have been, in meeting another on whom a scripture passage or promise seems to have alighted and become alive. To know such a one, and to see a living illustration of some biblical truth, is truly inspiring…
In my life, I have been privileged to know a few such men. My friend Bob, for whom some of you prayed during his operation and post-op recovery, is truly an example to me. I have seen Bob up close and personal for more than fifteen years—and to me he pictures the kind of man of whom David once wrote, the kind of man I long to be:
How blessed is that man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in The Law of The Lord,
And on His Law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers…
Psalm 1:1-3
Another man, whose name and ministry might be familiar–one whom I was privileged to know personally–truly personified a most special passage. Canadian born, George spent most of his adult life in The States. During my tenure as vice-president of Trinity College/Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (now Trinity International University), George was a member of The Board. At the suggestion of then President Harry Evans, George agreed to sing at some of our informational (another word for fund-raising) banquets at which I was the speaker. And, George, who had traveled with one of the world’s most notable preachers, was ever and always encouraging, never condescending.
Decades earlier, while working for Mutual of New York in New York City, George lived in Cresskill, New Jersey at the home of Pastor Cronk (whose son Dr. Malcolm Cronk had been my advisor during my own student days at Trinity). In 1933, a year before marrying his childhood sweetheart, George earned an audition with the famed Lyn Murray Singers.
After his audition, and before learning its outcome, George returned to that little parsonage in Cresskill, but stopped first to pray in its small worship center. He sat at the piano and quietly, prayerfully, composed the music to Rhea Miller’s now world-renowned I’d Rather Have Jesus. He did not know as he brought that piece of music to life that he was also extinguishing his desire of ever singing before thousands. As he played and sang these words, he renounced his own desire to sing on a worldly stage:
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold, I’d rather be His than have riches untold
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or land, I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced Hand
Than to be the king of a vast domain, And be held in sin’s dread sway
I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today
I’d rather have Jesus than worldly applause, I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause,
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame, Yes, I’d rather be true to His holy Name
Than to be the king of a vast domain, And be held in sin’s dread sway
I’d rather have Jesus than anything This world affords today.
When the call came early that evening, George declined their offer. Little did George realize as he sat at the piano that God was in that chapel speaking to the young musician who, one day—and for many, many years—would sing before presidents, kings and queens, heads of states, and crowds of tens and tens of thousands simply because he purposed in his heart that
I’d rather have Jesus than worldly applause, I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause,
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame, Yes, I’d rather be true to His holy Name.
George was twenty four years old when he made that decision—and for almost eighty years after, George Beverly Shea would, before literally countless millions, tell The One Who spoke to him in that tiny church How Great Thou Art!
And so, in the late 1980’s, George was willing to sing while this unknown preacher spoke—and it never seemed to bother him. I often wondered why? Why was he willing to sing in little banquet halls in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, and Iowa with an unknown young preacher…
I know now. Do you? It was more than his humility. It was simply that no matter where, no matter how large or small the crowd or its applause—for George it was always about The Audience, and his Audience never changed. He sang not for presidents, politicians, nor earthly rulers and royalty—George Beverly Shea sang only and always for an Audience of One…The King of Kings!
Oh, the verse. I did not forget. As I think of this great man, who now sings with angels and saints before our Father’s throne, I see in him the personification of a verse that alighted on him and became alive in him, a pledge made by another man who also shared a platform before the kings and great men of his day–Daniel:
And Daniel purposed in his heart
that he would not compromise…
Daniel 1:8
What a testimony—faith in the flesh of Daniel…and George Beverly Shea! Whatever verse you or I might choose to be our own, one which we would want other men to recall as they consider our lives, we must first be willing to say and live, as did John The Baptizer:
He must increase but I must decrease…
John 3:30
To do that, we must be willing to never compromise…
Selah…and…Blessings!”
John 14:21
(Pastor Aker writes a weekly “Thought for the Week”—similar to what you have just read. To be included on his mailing list, contact him at jba@akerjba.com.)
YOU and GOD 