Don't Stay at Calvary

When I finished writing my fist book, which was my autobiography, With God As My Partner, and had submitted it to the publishers for printing, I thought I was done for a while. About two months after that, I was almost asleep one night when the thought came to me: Don't Stay at Calvary.

I was instantly awake and lay there for about a half hour trying to figure out what it meant. Getting nowhere, I committed it to the Lord and went to sleep. A couple days later, as I was praying, the verse in Matthew 16:24 came to mind where Jesus said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." It connected with the thought I had about Don't Stay at Calvary. This book is the result of those thoughts and the meditation that I spent on them.

I had no thought of writing another book so soon, but I felt impressed to try to address the question I had been asked so often. "Why is the church of today so different from the church of the first century?" I certainly have no "corner on the market" of knowledge or wisdom, especially when it concerns such a profound and involved question as that one.

I do, however, have over fifty years in the ministry of the Gospel, having answered the call to preach on the last Sunday of April 1969 and felt it may be beneficial to share what I believe God has laid on my heart about that subject. It is by no means the "final word," but I hope it will be a clear challenge for the church to follow Jesus in service rather than "stay at Calvary" in complacency.