Featured Writing a Book on John R. Rice

I think that other men deserve to be mentioned such as James S. Stewart (1896-1990) and Leonard Ravenhill (1907-1994). They both out-lived JRR and were highly regarded in that domain (though JSS was more academically inclined).

 

That was very interesting chapter. There is so much more complexity to those believers in the 50's-70's than we want to admit. I can remember my grandfather's racism but I also remember how that he was always a gentleman to blacks and would help a black man get his car started when he was broken down on the road. When the man started to get in the back seat, he made me get back there so this "gentleman" (his words) could sit there because it wasn't right for a boy to sit in the front seat and an adult in the back.

Your brother is a good writer.

 

I'd love to know your speculation on what he and the other great preachers/evangelists of his day would have made of the internet. I remember that Brother Roloff opposed teevee (after years of growing up around it-my memories start with the Brady Bunch era), and finally, some decades ago, reaching the same conclusions as he did, and teevee is even worse now than it dreamed of being in their day. I wonder, because though some of them opposed teevee, they saw radio as a useful tool for spreading the Gospel. So I wonder how they's have seen the internet, which is more interactive, for better or for worse. Just for one good thing, it's made access to the Bible, and to video, audio, and written sermons, much more available. I love being able to listen to the old sermons from their day, and even somewhat before their day.

 

I would include Lester Roloff. I can truly say that his influence on my life, for the good, was deep, and farther-reaching that I even knew for years. One of the last things for which I thanked my mother before she died last year, was her decision which put me in his orbit of influence.

 

Former pastor of LDBC (Gary Coleman) stated that he always had heard of the great prayer life of JRR. So, one evening he crept down to JRR's motel room and stood outside the door trying to hear him in prayer.

Rather, he stood listening to Gunsmoke.

 

Bro. JofJ,

Yesterday (11/02/2015) I spent some time (& over $400) at this place at 214 Bridge Avenue....Ever hear of that one? It's in the 'Boro, right across from that big school building.

I was there for several reasons:

1) To get a sub of this paper called "Sword of the Lord." I can't say that I'm 110+% in agreement with absolutely everything that's declared upon its pages, but that doesn't keep me from enjoying reading it.
(NOTE: I also subscribe to what could be called the antithesis of "The Sword of the Lord," namely "The Berea Baptist Banner" (UPS 546-470) that's published in Mantachie, MS.)

2) To purchase 6 sets of the two-volume BJU Press's This Day in Baptist History. I'm a history buff (MA in History from APSU in 1981), and firmly believe that many "average" Baptists have little/no idea of the price our spiritual forefathers paid to bequeath the heritage to us today.

3) To purchase some CDs by Ray Hart. I was "volunteered" to be the one to keep the stats for him back in the late 1970s-early 1980s at a TACS Regional Acad. & Fine Arts comp. where he was evaluating the solo vocalists at FRBC's FRCS. He had to wear crutches due to some injuries he'd suffered....Don't remember the details. I was about to give him some pointers on how he could improve his own vocal performances, but he said something to the effect that he all the sudden felt "called of the Lord" to "fellowship with some other 'Dear Brother 'I hadn't seen in a while.'" Oh well, it's like the Nashville Symphony Orchestra's Chorus master. He said he'd get back to me after he heard me sing the opening solo to Handel's Messiah, "Comfort Ye." He knows that we've only got just a couple weeks until the live performances start!!! Redface

Of course, I then proceeded to cross over the I-24 bridge & eat at the Waffle House near where John R. Rice Blvd. is. The Waffle House isn't exactly the same as Music City's Lowe's Vanderbilt Plaza's first floor Restaurant, but at least it's there in the Boro. [NOTE: If Waffle House would only buy into my very special brand of coffee---"Mechanic's Coffee Coffee" {"An exclusive blend of bearing grease and 'Liquid Wrench' that's (a) filtered though months'-old, non-laundered grease pit work socks, and (b) stirred with a rusty old tire iron, and (c) served in used 10W5 oil cans,--- I truly believe they'd draw more "something or other" than they do now. But YAW no that's jest prob-blee ain't gonna happen reel soon.]

Can YAW smell that thar "Mechanic's Coffee Coffee" that Ima a-brewing in your part? Frown